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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1994

Using Commercial Off-the-Shelf Software Tools for Space Shuttle Scientific Software

In October 1993, the Astronaut Science Advisor (ASA) was on board the STS-58 flight of the space shuttle. ASA is an interactive system providing data acquisition and analysis, experiment step re-scheduling, and various other forms of reasoning. As fielded, the system runs on a single Macintosh PowerBook 170, which hosts the six ASA modules. There is one other piece of hardware, an external (GW Instruments, Sommerville, Massachusetts) analog-to-digital converter connected to the PowerBook's SCSI port. Three main software tools were used: LabVIEW, CLIPS, and HyperCard: First, a module written in LabVIEW (National Instruments, Austin, Texas) controls the A/D conversion and stores the resulting data in appropriate arrays. This module also analyzes the numerical data to produce a small set of characteristic numbers or symbols describing the results of an experiment trial. Second, a forward-chaining inference system written in CLIPS (NASA) uses the symbolic information provided by the first stage with a static rule base to infer decisions about the experiment. This expert system shell is used by the system for diagnosis. The third component of the system is the user interface, written in HyperCard (Claris Inc. and Apple Inc., both in Cupertino, California).

Groleau, Nicolas↗
NASA NTRS2019

Testing Scientific Software: Challenges and Remedies

Over the past two decades, the emergence of highly effective software testing frameworks has greatly simplified the development and use of unit tests and has led to new software development paradigms such as test driven development (TDD). However, scientific computing introduces a number of unique testing challenges, including numerical algorithms, distributed parallelism, and exascale environments. This presentation will begin with a brief introduction to unit testing, testing frameworks, and some simple examples using pFUnit, a unit testing framework for Fortran + MPI. I will then take a closer look at several of the obstacles one faces when testing technical software and suggest methodologies that can mitigate these difficulties.

Clune, Tom↗
NASA NTRS1995

Scientific Software

The Interactive Data Language (IDL), developed by Research Systems, Inc., is a tool for scientists to investigate their data without having to write a custom program for each study. IDL is based on the Mariners Mars spectral Editor (MMED) developed for studies from NASA's Mars spacecraft flights. The company has also developed Environment for Visualizing Images (ENVI), an image processing system for easily analyzing remotely sensed data written in IDL. The Visible Human CD, another Research Systems product, is the first complete digital reference of photographic images for exploring human anatomy.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2013

Software Engineering Tools for Scientific Models

Software tools were constructed to address issues the NASA Fortran development community faces, and they were tested on real models currently in use at NASA. These proof-of-concept tools address the High-End Computing Program and the Modeling, Analysis, and Prediction Program. Two examples are the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5) atmospheric model in Cell Fortran on the Cell Broadband Engine, and the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) coupled atmosphere- ocean model called ModelE, written in fixed format Fortran.

Abrams, Marc↗
NASA NTRS1992

Automating the design of scientific computing software

SINAPSE is a domain-specific software design system that generates code from specifications of equations and algorithm methods. This paper describes the system's design techniques (planning in a space of knowledge-based refinement and optimization rules), user interaction style (user has option to control decision making), and representation of knowledge (rules and objects). It also summarizes how the system knowledge has evolved over time and suggests some issues in building software design systems to facilitate reuse.

Kant, Elaine↗
NASA NTRS1990

Scientific data visualization software - Trends and directions

Scientific data visualization has finally come of age as an important and accepted discipline. While scientists have been using computer graphics to visualize experimental data and computational results for at least 30 years, recent improvements in cost/performance of graphics workstations, more readily available software, and a new-found identity based on the report "Visualization in Scientific Computing" (McCormick, DeFanti, and Brown, 1987) have solidified the discipline. The thesis here is that scientists are forced to work too hard to create these visualizations, but that the evolving set of visualization tools can greatly reduce the requisite effort. The architecture of a new class of software can lead to a more widespread availability of interactive visualization tools, which can make the process of creating a visualization as simple as doing interactive chart and graph layout.

Foley, James D.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Computational Simulations and the Scientific Method

As scientific simulation software becomes more complicated, the scientific-software implementor's need for component tests from new model developers becomes more crucial. The community's ability to follow the basic premise of the Scientific Method requires independently repeatable experiments, and model innovators are in the best position to create these test fixtures. Scientific software developers also need to quickly judge the value of the new model, i.e., its cost-to-benefit ratio in terms of gains provided by the new model and implementation risks such as cost, time, and quality. This paper asks two questions. The first is whether other scientific software developers would find published component tests useful, and the second is whether model innovators think publishing test fixtures is a feasible approach.

Kleb, Bil↗
NASA NTRS2001

Satellite-Based Stratospheric and Tropospheric Measurements: Determination of Global Ozone and other Trace Species

This report summarizes research done under NASA Grant NAG5-3461 from November 1, 1996 through December 31, 2000. The research performed during this reporting period includes development and maintenance of scientific software for the GOME retrieval algorithms, consultation on operational software development for GOME, sensitivity and instrument studies to help finalize the definition of the SCIAMACHY instrument, leading the development of the SCIAMACHY Scientific Requirements Document for Data and Algorithm Development, consultation and development for SCIAMACHY near-real-time (NRT) and off-line (OL) data products, radiative transfer model development for utilization in GOME, SCIAMACHY and other programs, development of infrared line-by-line atmospheric modeling and retrieval capability for SCIAMACHY, and participation in GOME and SCIAMACHY validation studies. The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment was successfully launched on the ERS-2 satellite on April 20, 1995, and remains working in normal fashion. SCIAMACHY is currently planned for launch in late 2001 on the ESA Envisat satellite. Three GOME-2 instruments are now scheduled to fly on the Metop series of operational meteorological satellites (Eumetsat). K. Chance is a member of the reconstituted GOME Scientific Advisory Group, which will guide the GOME-2 program as well as the continuing ERS-2 GOME program.

Chance, K. V.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Software Testing and Verification in Climate Model Development

Over the past 30 years most climate models have grown from relatively simple representations of a few atmospheric processes to a complex multi-disciplinary system. Computer infrastructure over that period has gone from punch card mainframes to modem parallel clusters. Model implementations have become complex, brittle, and increasingly difficult to extend and maintain. Existing verification processes for model implementations rely almost exclusively upon some combination of detailed analysis of output from full climate simulations and system-level regression tests. In additional to being quite costly in terms of developer time and computing resources, these testing methodologies are limited in terms of the types of defects that can be detected, isolated and diagnosed. Mitigating these weaknesses of coarse-grained testing with finer-grained "unit" tests has been perceived as cumbersome and counter-productive. In the commercial software sector, recent advances in tools and methodology have led to a renaissance for systematic fine-grained testing. We discuss the availability of analogous tools for scientific software and examine benefits that similar testing methodologies could bring to climate modeling software. We describe the unique challenges faced when testing complex numerical algorithms and suggest techniques to minimize and/or eliminate the difficulties.

Clune, Thomas L.↗
NASA NTRS1994

A high-speed linear algebra library with automatic parallelism

Parallel or distributed processing is key to getting highest performance workstations. However, designing and implementing efficient parallel algorithms is difficult and error-prone. It is even more difficult to write code that is both portable to and efficient on many different computers. Finally, it is harder still to satisfy the above requirements and include the reliability and ease of use required of commercial software intended for use in a production environment. As a result, the application of parallel processing technology to commercial software has been extremely small even though there are numerous computationally demanding programs that would significantly benefit from application of parallel processing. This paper describes DSSLIB, which is a library of subroutines that perform many of the time-consuming computations in engineering and scientific software. DSSLIB combines the high efficiency and speed of parallel computation with a serial programming model that eliminates many undesirable side-effects of typical parallel code. The result is a simple way to incorporate the power of parallel processing into commercial software without compromising maintainability, reliability, or ease of use. This gives significant advantages over less powerful non-parallel entries in the market.

Boucher, Michael L.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Satellite-Based Stratospheric and Tropospheric Measurements: Determination of Global Ozone and Other Trace Species

This grant is an extension to our previous NASA Grant NAG5-3461, providing incremental funding to continue GOME (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment) and SCIAMACHY (SCanning Imaging Absorption SpectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY) studies. This report summarizes research done under these grants through December 31, 2002. The research performed during this reporting period includes development and maintenance of scientific software for the GOME retrieval algorithms, consultation on operational software development for GOME, consultation and development for SCIAMACHY near-real-time (NRT) and off-line (OL) data products, and participation in initial SCIAMACHY validation studies. The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment was successfully launched on the ERS-2 satellite on April 20, 1995, and remains working in normal fashion. SCIAMACHY was launched March 1, 2002 on the ESA Envisat satellite. Three GOME-2 instruments are now scheduled to fly on the Metop series of operational meteorological satellites (Eumetsat). K. Chance is a member of the reconstituted GOME Scientific Advisory Group, which will guide the GOME-2 program as well as the continuing ERS-2 GOME program.

Chance, Kelly↗
NASA NTRS1990

A status report on the analysis of the NOAA-9 SBUV/2 sweep mode solar irradiance data

Monitoring of the near ultraviolet (UV) solar irradiance is important because the solar UV radiation is the primary energy source in the upper atmosphere. The solar irradiance at wavelengths shortward of roughly 300 nm heats the stratosphere via photodissociation of ozone in the Hartley bands. Shortward of 242 nm the solar UV flux photodissociates O2, which is then available for ozone formation. Upper stratosphere ozone variations coincident with UV solar rotational modulation have been previously reported (Gille et al., 1984). Clearly, short and long term solar irradiance observations are necessary to separate solar-forced ozone variations from anthropogenic changes. The SBUV/2 instrument onboard the NOAA-9 spacecraft has made daily measurements of the solar spectral irradiance at approximately 0.15 nm intervals in the wavelength region 160-405 nm at 1 nm resolution since March 1985. These data are not needed to determine the terrestrial ozone overburden or altitude profile, and hence are not utilized in the NOAA Operational Ozone Product System (OOPS). Therefore, assisted by the ST System Corporation, NASA has developed a scientific software system to process the solar sweep mode data from the NOAA-9 instrument. This software will also be used to process the sweep mode solar irradiance data from the NOAA-11 and later SBUV/2 instruments. An overview of the software system and a brief discussion of analysis findings to date are provided. Several outstanding concerns/problems are also presented.

Cebula, R. P.↗
NASA NTRS1996

US Participation in the GOME and SCIAMACHY Projects

The research performed during this reporting period includes development and maintenance of scientific software for the GOME retrieval algorithms, consultation on operational software development for GOME, further sensitivity and instrument studies to help finalize the definition of the SCIAMACHY instrument, and consultation on optical and detector issues for both GOME and SCIAMACHY. The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment was successfully launched on the ERS-2 satellite on April 20, 1995, during this reporting period, and is working in the expected fashion. The European Space Agency has made their selections from responses to the Announcement of Opportunity for GOME validation and science studies, part of the overall ERS AO. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) proposal has been selected. These proposals are primarily for access to the data; ESA does not provide research funding for the selected investigations. The SAO activities that are carried out as a result of selection by ESA are funded by the present grant, to the limit that can be accomplished at the present level of funding. SCIAMACHY is currently in Phase C/D. Instrument design is almost finalized and selection of infrared detectors from the initial production run has been made.

Chance, K. V.↗
NASA NTRS1996

U.S. Participation in the GOME and SCIAMACHY Projects

This report summarizes research done under NASA Grant NAGW-2541 from April 1, 1996 through March 31, 1997. The research performed during this reporting period includes development and maintenance of scientific software for the GOME retrieval algorithms, consultation on operational software development for GOME, consultation and development for SCIAMACHY near-real-time (NRT) and off-line (OL) data products, and development of infrared line-by-line atmospheric modeling and retrieval capability for SCIAMACHY. SAO also continues to participate in GOME validation studies, to the limit that can be accomplished at the present level of funding. The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment was successfully launched on the ERS-2 satellite on April 20, 1995, and remains working in normal fashion. SCIAMACHY is currently in instrument characterization. The first two European ozone monitoring instruments (OMI), to fly on the Metop series of operational meteorological satellites being planned by Eumetsat, have been selected to be GOME-type instruments (the first, in fact, will be the refurbished GOME flight spare). K. Chance is the U.S. member of the OMI Users Advisory Group.

Chance, K. V.↗
NASA NTRS1998

US Participation in the GOME and SCIAMACHY Projects

This report summarizes research done under NASA Grant NAGW-2541 through September 30, 1997. The research performed under this grant includes development and maintenance of scientific software for the GOME retrieval algorithms, consultation on operational software development for GOME, sensitivity and instrument studies to define GOME and SCIAMACHY instruments, consultation on optical and detector issues for both GOME and SCIAMACHY, consultation and development for SCIAMACHY near-real-time (NRT) and off-line (OL) data products, and development of infrared line-by-line atmospheric modeling and retrieval capability for SCIAMACHY. The European Space Agency selected the SAO to participate in GOME validation and science studies, part of the overall ERS AO. This provided access to all GOME data; The SAO activities that are carried out as a result of selection by ESA were funded by the present grant. The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment was successfully launched on the ERS- 2 satellite on April 20, 1995, and remains working in normal fashion. SCIAMACHY is currently scheduled for launch in early 2000. The first two European ozone monitoring instruments (OMI), to fly on the q series of operational meteorological satellites being planned by Eumetsat, have been selected to be GOME-type instruments (the first, in fact, will be the refurbished GOME flight spare). K. Chance is the U.S. member of the OMI Users Advisory Group.

Chance, K. V.↗