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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
DOE OSTI2025

Scientific Open-Source Software Is Less Likely to Become Abandoned Than One Might Think! Lessons from Curating a Catalog of Maintained Scientific Software

Scientific software is essential to scientific innovation and in many ways it is distinct from other types of software. Abandoned (or unmaintained), buggy, and hard to use software, a perception often associated with scientific software can hinder scientific progress, yet, in contrast to other types of software, its longevity is poorly understood. Existing data curation efforts are fragmented by science domain and/or are small in scale and lack key attributes. We use large language models to classify public software repositories in World of Code into distinct scientific domains and layers of the software stack, curating a large and diverse collection of over 18,000 scientific software projects. Using this data, we estimate survival models to understand how the domain, infrastructural layer, and other attributes of scientific software affect its longevity. We further obtain a matched sample of non-scientific software repositories and investigate the differences. We find that infrastructural layers, downstream dependencies, mentions of publications, and participants from government are associated with a longer lifespan, while newer projects with participants from academia had shorter lifespan. Against common expectations, scientific projects have a longer lifetime than matched non-scientific open-source software projects. We expect our curated attribute-rich collection to support future research on scientific software and provide insights that may help extend longevity of both scientific and other projects.

Malviya Thakur, Addi [ORNL] (ORCID:000000022681999↗
NASA NTRS2008

Current Scientific Progress and Future Scientific Prospects Enabled by Spaceborne Precipitation Radar Measurements

First, we examine current scientific progress and understanding that have been possible through use of spaceborne precipitation radar measurements being provided by the TRMM and CloudSat satellites. Second, we look across a future 20-year time frame to assess how and why anticipated improvements in space radar systems will further advance scientific progress into topic areas once considered beyond the realm of space-based remote sensing. JAXA's 13.8 GHz Ku-band cross-track scanning Precipitation Radar (PR) developed for flight on NASA's non-sun-synchronous, diurnally-precessing TRMM satellite, was the first Earth radar flown in space that was designed specifically for precipitation measurement. Its proven accuracy in measuring global rainfall in the tropics and sub-tropics and its unanticipated longevity in continuing these measurements beyond a full decade have established the standards against which all follow-up and future space radars will be evaluated. In regards to the current PR measurement time series, we will discuss a selection of major scientific discoveries and impacts which have set the stage for future radar measuring systems. In fact, the 2nd contemporary space radar applicable for terrestrial precipitation measurement, i.e., JPL-CSA's 94 GHz nadir-staring Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) flown on NASA's sun-synchronous CloudSat satellite, although designed primarily for measurement of non-precipitating cloud hydrometeors and aerosols, has also unquestionably advanced precipitation measurement because CPR's higher frequency and greatly increased sensitivity (approximately 30 dBZ) has enabled global observations of light rain rate spectrum processes (i.e., rain rates below 0.05 mm per hourand of precipitation processes in the high troposphere (particularly ice phase processes). These processes are beyond reach of the TRMM radar because the PR sensitivity limit is approximately 17 dBZ which means its lower rain rate cutoff is around 0.3 mm per hour and its vertical profiling acuity is greatly limited above the melting layer. Thus, the newer CPR measurements have become important for a variety of scientific reasons that will be highlighted and assessed. In considering scientific progress likely to stem from future precipitation radar systems, we will specifically examine possible scientific impacts from three anticipated missions for which NASA and various of its space agency partners are expected to lead the way. These three missions are: (1) the nearterm Global Precipitation Measuring (GPM) Mission; (2) the decadal timeline Aerosol and Cloud Experiment (ACE) Mission; and the post-decadal timeline NEXRAD in Space (NIS) Mission. The observational capabilities of the planned radar systems for each of these three satellite missions are distinct from each other and each provides progressive improvements in precipitation measuring and scientific research capabilities relative to where we are now -- insofar as TRMM PR and the CloudSat CPR capabilities. The potential innovations in scientific research will be discussed in a framework of likely synergisms between next-generation radar capabilities and accessible dynamical and microphysical properties that have heretofore evaded detection.

Smith, Eric A.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Interpretable Models for Workflow Differentiation in High-Performance Scientific Networks

Scientific workflows in high-performance networks spawn hundreds of interdependent flows that must be managed collectively—yet existing network classifiers treat each flow in isolation, leading to fragmented QoS decisions and missed interflow patterns. We present a novel traffic classification solution that operates at the workflow level, distinguishing entire filetransfer operations from streaming analytics by capturing how concurrent flows interact and burst together. We introduce a workflow identification window (WIW) that ingests raw packet headers from parallel flows into unified tensors, preserving the spatial-temporal patterns that differentiate scientific workflows. This approach achieves 98.7% accuracy using CNN, LSTM, and hybrid architectures, while maintaining 84% accuracy on production traffic collected a week later—demonstrating robustness to temporal drift. By integrating SHAP and GradCAM explainability, we reveal that early-packet timing patterns and cross-flow correlations drive classification decisions, providing operators with interpretable insights. Our system enables coherent workflow-level QoS enforcement and dynamic bandwidth allocation in scientific networks, eliminating manual per-flow configuration while maintaining classification latency at millisecond level.

Giannakou, Anna [LBL, Berkeley]↗
DOE OSTI2024

Privacy Preserving Federated Learning for Advanced Scientific Ecosystems

We present a framework to provide privacy preserving (PP) federating learning (FL) across multiple computational and experimental facilities. This work joins the compute capabilities of National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Research Cloud (ORC) with simulated experimental data, such as those produced at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). We describe the software infrastructure developed to provide privacy for computational and experimental networks. We developed algorithmic privacy across the federated system by embedding database security, computation, and communication into the federation architecture, utilizing scientific tools developed by the experimental community.

Archibald, Rick [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000245389780)↗
NASA NTRS1993

Sources Sought for Innovative Scientific Instrumentation for Scientific Lunar Rovers

Lunar rovers should be designed as integrated scientific measurement systems that address scientific goals as their main objective. Scientific goals for lunar rovers are presented. Teleoperated robotic field geologists will allow the science team to make discoveries using a wide range of sensory data collected by electronic 'eyes' and sophisticated scientific instrumentation. rovers need to operate in geologically interesting terrain (rock outcrops) and to identify and closely examine interesting rock samples. Enough flight-ready instruments are available to fly on the first mission, but additional instrument development based on emerging technology is desirable. Various instruments that need to be developed for later missions are described.

Meyer, C.↗
NASA NTRS1995

The spacelab scientific missions: A comprehensive bibliography of scientific publications

November 1993 represented the 10-year anniversary of the flight of Spacelab 1 mission, with the first precursor mission (OSTA-1) being launched 2 years earlier. Since that time, a total of 27 Shuttle missions has been flown, using the Spacelab system as a facility for conducting scientific research in space. The missions flown to date have allowed a total of approximately 500 Principle Investigator class investigations to be conducted in orbit. These investigations have constituted major scientific efforts in astronomy/astrophysics, atmospheric science, Earth observation, life sciences, microgravity science, and space plasma physics. An initial survey of the scientific products gleaned from Spacelab missions already flown was sent to the Principle Investigators. In that survey, information was gathered from the investigators on the scientific highlights of their investigations and statistical measurements of overall success -- such as papers published. This document is a compilation of the papers that have been published to date in referred literature.

Torr, Marsha↗
NASA NTRS2017

The NASA Ames Research Center Institutional Scientific Collection: History, Best Practices and Scientific Opportunities

The NASA Ames Life Sciences Institutional Scientific Collection (ISC), which is composed of the Ames Life Sciences Data Archive (ALSDA) and the Biospecimen Storage Facility (BSF), is managed by the Space Biosciences Division and has been operational since 1993. The ALSDA is responsible for archiving information and animal biospecimens collected from life science spaceflight experiments and matching ground control experiments. Both fixed and frozen spaceflight and ground tissues are stored in the BSF within the ISC. The ALSDA also manages a Biospecimen Sharing Program, performs curation and long-term storage operations, and makes biospecimens available to the scientific community for research purposes via the Life Science Data Archive public website (https:lsda.jsc.nasa.gov). As part of our best practices, a viability testing plan has been developed for the ISC, which will assess the quality of archived samples. We expect that results from the viability testing will catalyze sample use, enable broader science community interest, and improve operational efficiency of the ISC. The current viability test plan focuses on generating disposition recommendations and is based on using ribonucleic acid (RNA) integrity number (RIN) scores as a criteria for measurement of biospecimen viablity for downstream functional analysis. The plan includes (1) sorting and identification of candidate samples, (2) conducting a statiscally-based power analysis to generate representaive cohorts from the population of stored biospecimens, (3) completion of RIN analysis on select samples, and (4) development of disposition recommendations based on the RIN scores. Results of this work will also support NASA open science initiatives and guides development of the NASA Scientific Collections Directive (a policy on best practices for curation of biological collections). Our RIN-based methodology for characterizing the quality of tissues stored in the ISC since the 1980s also creates unique scientific opportunities for temporal assessment across historical missions. Support from the NASA Space Biology Program and the NASA Human Research Program is gratefully acknowledged.

ALSDA↗
NASA NTRS1987

Transportable educational programs for scientific and technical professionals: More effective utilization of automated scientific and technical data base systems

This grant final report executive summary documents a major, long-term program addressing innovative educational issues associated with the development, administration, evaluation, and widespread distribution of transportable educational programs for scientists and engineers to increase their knowledge of, and facilitate their utilization of automated scientific and technical information storage and retrieval systems. This educational program is of very broad scope, being targeted at Colleges of Engineering and Colleges of Physical sciences at a large number of colleges and universities throughout the United States. The educational program is designed to incorporate extensive hands-on, interactive usage of the NASA RECON system and is supported by a number of microcomputer-based software systems to facilitate the delivery and usage of the educational course materials developed as part of the program.

Dominick, Wayne D.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Recent scientific advances in the use of radar in scientific hydrology

The data needs in scientific hydrology involve measurements of system states and fluxes. The microwave region is particularly well suited for measuring the system states of soil moisture and snow and the major flux into the earth as rainfall. This paper discusses the unique data needs of hydrology and presents some recent examples from AIRSAR experiments.

Engman, Edwin T.↗
DOE OSTI2024

DUNE Phase II: scientific opportunities, detector concepts, technological solutions

The international collaboration designing and constructing the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) at the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) has developed a two-phase strategy toward the implementation of this leading-edge, large-scale science project. The 2023 report of the US Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5) reaffirmed this vision and strongly endorsed DUNE Phase I and Phase II, as did the European Strategy for Particle Physics. While the construction of the DUNE Phase I is well underway, this White Paper focuses on DUNE Phase II planning. DUNE Phase-II consists of a third and fourth far detector (FD) module, an upgraded near detector complex, and an enhanced 2.1 MW beam. The fourth FD module is conceived as a “Module of Opportunity”, aimed at expanding the physics opportunities, in addition to supporting the core DUNE science program, with more advanced technologies. This document highlights the increased science opportunities offered by the DUNE Phase II near and far detectors, including long-baseline neutrino oscillation physics, neutrino astrophysics, and physics beyond the standard model. It describes the DUNE Phase II near and far detector technologies and detector design concepts that are currently under consideration. A summary of key R&D goals and prototyping phases needed to realize the Phase II detector technical designs is also provided. DUNE's Phase II detectors, along with the increased beam power, will complete the full scope of DUNE, enabling a multi-decadal program of groundbreaking science with neutrinos.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS1982

The OSTA-1 scientific payload - Scientific results from the second flight of the Shuttle

The qualification, operation, and results from the first Office of Science and Technology Assessment payload, flown on board the second Shuttle mission, are detailed. Among the experiments were a Shuttle Imaging Radar-A, which recorded 1000 m of 70 mm film of 50 km swaths of the earth's land and ocean surface. The multispectral IR radiometer permitted the acquisistion of 400,000 ten-channel spectral over the wavelength interval 0.5-2.35 microns, including rock and soil identifications which are correlated with economically significant geologic materials. The ocean color experiment involved an eight channel optical mechanical scanner to detect ocean water color changes due to the presence of phytoplankton. Air pollution was measured by radiometer in the 4.50-4.83 micron regions, and an asymmetry in CO concentration was found between the northern and sourthern hemispheres. Only five seconds of surface and meteorological data were collected by the FILE package, while the one successfully used film cassette on a lightning recording experiment revealed discharges among convective storm systems. A rerunning of unsuccessful experiments and new instrumentation for future Shuttle missions are indicated.

Taranik, J. V.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Gamma Ray Astronomy; E2 Symposium of COSPAR Scientific Commission E, COSPAR Scientific Assembly, 30th, Hamburg, Germany, July 11-21, 1994

This issue on gamma ray astronomy presents many results from observations made with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) and other spaceborne experiments and includes studies of Seyfert galaxies, X-ray binaries, neutron stars, diffuse cosmic background radiation, pulsars, blazars, gamma ray bursts, the galactic center, and the distribution of Aluminum-26 in the galaxy. The issue begins with a survey of Compton Telescope (COMPTEL) results and concludes with future prospects for the field.

Gehrels, N.↗