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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

Statistical Projections for Multi-resolution, Multi-dimensional Visual Data Exploration and Analysis

An ongoing challenge in visual exploration and analysis of large, multi-dimensional datasets is how to present useful, concise information to a user for some specific visualization tasks. Typical approaches to this problem have proposed either reduced-resolution versions of data, or projections of data, or both. These approaches still have some limitations such as consuming high computation or suffering from errors. In this work, we explore the use of a statistical metric as the basis for both projections and reduced-resolution versions of data, with a particular focus on preserving one key trait in data, namely variation. We use two different case studies to explore this idea, one that uses a synthetic dataset, and another that uses a large ensemble collection produced by an atmospheric modeling code to study long-term changes in global precipitation. The primary findings of our work are that in terms of preserving the variation signal inherent in data, that using a statistical measure more faithfully preserves this key characteristic across both multi-dimensional projections and multi-resolution representations than a methodology based upon averaging.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Atmospheric Data-Driven Visualization of Air Quality Variation in Megacities

The growth and spread of human settlements and increasing urban density are important processes in global change. Urbanization has accelerated with population growth, and more densely populated urban areas have major effects on the local and regional environments. Air quality in megacities has been a concern for decades. Data for anthropogenic emissions, pollutants, and particulate matter can inform research on the interactions between urban landscapes and the atmosphere, assist policy makers in developing sustainable, healthy environments, and inform the general public. To better assist researchers, students, the public, and policymakers in understanding the annual and seasonal variation of aerosol and gas intensity in megacities, the Science Outreach Team at NASA Langley Research Center’s Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) demonstrate data products at the ASDC that can be used to visualize these parameters. The presentation uses data from the ASDC-supported NASA missions Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT), Cloud-Aerosol and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO), Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES), and Multi-angle Imaging Spectro Radiometer (MISR)

Air Quality↗

Discovering the Whole by the Coarse: A topological paradigm for data analysis

The increasing interest in big data applications is ushering in a large effort in seeking new, efficient, and adapted data models to reduce complexity, while preserving maximal intrinsic information. Graph-based models have recently been getting a lot of attention on account of their intuitive and direct connection to the data. The cost of these models, however, is to some extent giving up geometric insight as well as algebraic flexibility. Topology, as an intermediate analysis medium, focuses on coarse structures of an object/signal in general. It affords a formalism of transitioning from a local to a global description of an object, while providing significant information, which respects the local structure of measurements. It may also support a global visualization (e.g., data variation trends) and enhances the understanding of the underlying phenomenon. Throughout this article, measurements may be considered proximal in various ways, depending on the specific application, and the selected proximity metrics are subsequently used in the construction of a graph structure, thus highlighting various groups of neighboring data. As described later, these groups, often based on proximity criteria, are represented by n-simplices, where n + 1 corresponds to the number of points in an associated group. Collectively, they form what is (and will be throughout) referred to as a simplicial complex, a special representation of a topological space. We find the key advantage of computational topology is its inherently algebraic structure on the basic elements of the resulting graph-like structure.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A Comparative Study of the Perceptual Sensitivity of Topological Visualizations to Feature Variations

Color maps are a commonly used visualization technique in which data are mapped to optical properties, e.g., color or opacity. Color maps, however, do not explicitly convey structures (e.g., positions and scale of features) within data. Topology-based visualizations reveal and explicitly communicate structures underlying data. Although our understanding of what types of features are captured by topological visualizations is good, our understanding of people's perception of those features is not. Further, this paper evaluates the sensitivity of topology-based isocontour, Reeb graph, and persistence diagram visualizations compared to a reference color map visualization for synthetically generated scalar fields on 2-manifold triangular meshes embedded in 3D. In particular, we built and ran a human-subject study that evaluated the perception of data features characterized by Gaussian signals and measured how effectively each visualization technique portrays variations of data features arising from the position and amplitude variation of a mixture of Gaussians. For positional feature variations, the results showed that only the Reeb graph visualization had high sensitivity. For amplitude feature variations, persistence diagrams and color maps demonstrated the highest sensitivity, whereas isocontours showed only weak sensitivity. These results take an important step toward understanding which topology-based tools are best for various data and task scenarios and their effectiveness in conveying topological variations as compared to conventional color mapping.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Statistical projections for multi-dimensional visual data exploration

When working with large, multidimensional and multivariate data, science users are frequently interested in understanding variation in data, as opposed to the actual data values. Our work focuses on exploring how a simple statistical metric, the Coefficient of Variation (or Cv), can be used in several different ways to facilitate understanding variation in large data. As a statistical measure, it offers a key advantage over more widely accepted measures like standard deviation, namely to its ability to capture local variation properties. As a multidimensional projection operator, Cv is an effective way of reducing data size while preserving the key variational signal. Visualizations produced from Cv that target conveying variation in data are highly informative, especially compared to those produced with more widely known methods. We demonstrate these ideas within the context of a two-part application case study focusing on understanding long-Term trends in the the changes in precipitation and winds in large-scale climate model ensemble output.

Nguyen, H↗

Effects of simulator variations on the fidelity of a UH-60 Black Hawk simulation

The validity of the vertical motion simulator used to simulate the UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter is evaluated. Aircraft simulation of bob-up, hover turn, and dash/quick stop manuevers are compared to actual flight data. The effects of variations in the simulator's visual and motion characteristics on the simulation data are investigated. Data obtained with the nonintrusive parameter identification procedure and optimal control measures are applied to the helicopter math model used for real-time aircraft simulation. Analysis of the model reveals that the simulated aircraft is underdamped, and the changes in the visual reference have the greatest effect on the ability of the pilot to perform the maneuvers.

Cleveland, W. B.↗

Ozone in the upper troposphere from Gasp measurements

Several aspects of tropospheric ozone variations are examined by using ozone measurements made from commercial airliners (Gasp data). Through visual inspection of the autocorrelation function it is shown that the east-west variations of ozone have a predominant wavelength near 2400 km, while temperature and wind have predominant wavelengths near 3300 km. Distance-lagged correlation functions of ozone with temperature and wind show a definite periodicity with wavelengths near 2400 km. Attention is given to the tropical tropospheric ozone values above 100 parts per billion by volume, which appear to be associated with meridional transport from middle latitudes, and in some cases, relatively large tropical ozone values are coincident with clouds.

Nastrom, G. D.↗

Nimbus-7 coastal zone color scanner - System description and initial imagery

Initial imagery from the Nimbus-7 Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) shows subtle variations in water color. Organisms, especially phytoplankton, play a major influence on the variations in water color. Processing of the visual data is described, and in particular, the use of an algorithm to remove aerosol from the image is discussed. Data on the six spectral bands (433-12,500 nm) are presented and comparisons are made between the CZCS and the Landsat-1 multispectral scanner. The implications for management of fisheries is noted.

Hovis, W. A.↗

Explainable AI for Multivariate Time Series Pattern Exploration: Latent Space Visual Analytics With Temporal Fusion Transformer and Variational Autoencoders in Power Grid Event Diagnosis

Detecting and analyzing complex patterns in multivariate time-series data is crucial for decision-making in urban and environmental system operations. However, challenges arise from the high dimensionality, intricate complexity, and interconnected nature of complex patterns, which hinder the understanding of their underlying physical processes. Existing AI methods often face limitations in interpretability, computational efficiency, and scalability, reducing their applicability in real-world scenarios. This paper proposes a novel visual analytics framework that integrates two generative AI models, Temporal Fusion Transformer (TFT) and Variational Autoencoders (VAEs), to reduce complex patterns into lower-dimensional latent spaces and visualize them in 2D using dimensionality reduction techniques such as PCA, t-SNE, and UMAP with DBSCAN. These visualizations, presented through coordinated and interactive views and tailored glyphs, enable intuitive exploration of complex multivariate temporal patterns, identifying patterns’ similarities and uncover their potential correlations for a better interpretability of the AI outputs. The framework is demonstrated through a case study on power grid signal data, where it identifies multi-label grid event signatures, including faults and anomalies with diverse root causes. Additionally, novel metrics and visualizations are introduced to validate the models and assess the performance, efficiency, and consistency of latent maps generated by VAE, which have been utilized in prior studies for latent space cartography and used as a benchmark in this study, and the emerging TFT architecture under various configurations. These analyses provide actionable insights for model parameter tuning and reliability improvements. Comparative results highlight that TFT achieves shorter run times and superior scalability to diverse time-series data shapes compared to VAE. This work advances fault diagnosis in multivariate time series, fostering explainable AI to support critical system operations.

Explainable AI↗

Exploring Climatology and Long-Term Variations of Aerosols from NASA Reanalysis MERRA-2 with Giovanni

Dust plays important roles in energy cycle and climate variations. The dust deposition is the major source of iron in the open ocean, which is an essential micronutrient for phytoplankton growth and therefore may influence the ocean uptake of atmospheric CO2. Mineral dust can also act as fertilizer for forests over long time periods. Over 35 years of simulated global aerosol products from NASA atmospheric reanalysis, second Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA-2) are available from NASA Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). The MERRA-2 covers the period 1980-present, continuing as an ongoing climate analysis. Aerosol assimilation is included throughout the period, using MODIS, MISR, AERONET, and AVHRR (in the pre-EOS period). The aerosols are assimilated by using MERRA-2 aerosol model, which interact directly with the radiation parameterization, and radiatively coupled with atmospheric model dynamics in the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5). Dust deposition data along with other major aerosol compositions (e.g. black carbon, sea salt, and sulfate, etc.) are simulated as dry and wet deposition, respectively. The hourly and monthly data are available at spatial resolution of 0.5ox0.625o (latitude x longitude). Quick data exploration of climatology and interannual variations of MERRA-2 aerosol can be done through the online visualization and analysis tool, Giovanni. This presentation, using dust deposition as an example, demonstrates a number of MERRA-2 data services at GES DISC. Global distributions of dust depositions, and their seasonal and inter-annual variations are investigated from MERRA-2 monthly aerosol products.

data services↗

Analysis and visualization of single-trial event-related potentials

In this study, a linear decomposition technique, independent component analysis (ICA), is applied to single-trial multichannel EEG data from event-related potential (ERP) experiments. Spatial filters derived by ICA blindly separate the input data into a sum of temporally independent and spatially fixed components arising from distinct or overlapping brain or extra-brain sources. Both the data and their decomposition are displayed using a new visualization tool, the "ERP image," that can clearly characterize single-trial variations in the amplitudes and latencies of evoked responses, particularly when sorted by a relevant behavioral or physiological variable. These tools were used to analyze data from a visual selective attention experiment on 28 control subjects plus 22 neurological patients whose EEG records were heavily contaminated with blink and other eye-movement artifacts. Results show that ICA can separate artifactual, stimulus-locked, response-locked, and non-event-related background EEG activities into separate components, a taxonomy not obtained from conventional signal averaging approaches. This method allows: (1) removal of pervasive artifacts of all types from single-trial EEG records, (2) identification and segregation of stimulus- and response-locked EEG components, (3) examination of differences in single-trial responses, and (4) separation of temporally distinct but spatially overlapping EEG oscillatory activities with distinct relationships to task events. The proposed methods also allow the interaction between ERPs and the ongoing EEG to be investigated directly. We studied the between-subject component stability of ICA decomposition of single-trial EEG epochs by clustering components with similar scalp maps and activation power spectra. Components accounting for blinks, eye movements, temporal muscle activity, event-related potentials, and event-modulated alpha activities were largely replicated across subjects. Applying ICA and ERP image visualization to the analysis of sets of single trials from event-related EEG (or MEG) experiments can increase the information available from ERP (or ERF) data. Copyright 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Non-NASA Center↗

Flight evaluation of the STOL flare and landing during night operations

Simulated instrument approaches were made to Category 1 minimums followed by a visual landing on a 100 x 1700 ft STOL runway. Data were obtained for variations in the aircraft's flare response characteristics and control techniques and for different combinations of aircraft and runway lighting and a visual approach slope indication. With the complete aircraft and runway lighting and visual guidance no degradation in flying qualities or landing performance was observed compared to daylight operations. elimination of the touchdown zone floodlights or the aircraft landing lights led to somewhat greater pilot workload; however, the landing could still be accomplished successfully. Loss of both touchdown zone and aircraft landing lights led to a high workload situation and only a marginally adequate to inadequate landing capability.

Franklin, J. A.↗

Exploring and Analyzing Climate Variations Online by Using NASA MERRA-2 Data at GES DISC

NASA Giovanni (Goddard Interactive Online Visualization ANd aNalysis Infrastructure) (http:giovanni.sci.gsfc.nasa.govgiovanni) is a web-based data visualization and analysis system developed by the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). Current data analysis functions include Lat-Lon map, time series, scatter plot, correlation map, difference, cross-section, vertical profile, and animation etc. The system enables basic statistical analysis and comparisons of multiple variables. This web-based tool facilitates data discovery, exploration and analysis of large amount of global and regional remote sensing and model data sets from a number of NASA data centers. Long term global assimilated atmospheric, land, and ocean data have been integrated into the system that enables quick exploration and analysis of climate data without downloading, preprocessing, and learning data. Example data include climate reanalysis data from NASA Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) which provides data beginning in 1980 to present; land data from NASA Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS), which assimilates data from 1948 to 2012; as well as ocean biological data from NASA Ocean Biogeochemical Model (NOBM), which provides data from 1998 to 2012. This presentation, using surface air temperature, precipitation, ozone, and aerosol, etc. from MERRA-2, demonstrates climate variation analysis with Giovanni at selected regions.

knowledge base↗

A Graphical Model for Fusing Diverse Microbiome Data

This paper develops a Bayesian graphical model for fusing disparate types of count data. The motivating application is the study of bacterial communities from diverse high-dimensional features, in this case, transcripts, collected from different treatments. In such datasets, there are no explicit correspondences between the communities and each corresponds to different factors, making data fusion challenging. We introduce a flexible multinomial-Gaussian generative model for jointly modeling such count data. This latent variable model jointly characterizes the observed data through a common multivariate Gaussian latent space that parameterizes the set of multinomial probabilities of the transcriptome counts. The covariance matrix of the latent variables induces a covariance matrix of co-dependencies between all the transcripts, effectively fusing multiple data sources. We present a computationally scalable variational Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm for inferring the latent variables and the parameters of the model. Here, the inferred latent variables provide a common dimensionality reduction for visualizing the data and the inferred parameters provide a predictive posterior distribution. In addition to simulation studies that demonstrate the variational EM procedure, we apply our model to a bacterial microbiome dataset.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Lightcurve of comet Austin(1989c1) and its dust mantle development

Brightness variations of comet Austin(1989c1) were investigated in terms of the variations of water production rate. We translated the visual brightness data into water production rates using Newburn's semi-empirical law. The curve of the water production rates as a function of heliocentric distance was compared with the model calculations that assumed energy balance between the solar incident and vaporization of water. Thermal flow in a dust mantle at a surface of the nucleus is also included in the model. The model calculations including the dust mantle are more favorable for the observed rate than non-dust mantle cases. The extinction after the perihelion passage suggests that the dust mantle developed gradually.

Hasegawa, Hitoshi↗

Automated X-Ray Diffraction of Irradiated Materials

Synchrotron-based X-ray diffraction (XRD) and small-angle Xray scattering (SAXS) characterization techniques used on unirradiated and irradiated reactor pressure vessel steels yield large amounts of data. Machine learning techniques, including PCA, offer a novel method of analyzing and visualizing these large data sets in order to determine the effects of chemistry and irradiation conditions on the formation of radiation induced precipitates. In order to run analysis on these data sets, preprocessing must be carried out to convert the data to a usable format and mask the 2-D detector images to account for experimental variations. Once the data has been preprocessed, it can be organized and visualized using principal component analysis (PCA), multi-dimensional scaling, and k-means clustering. In conclusion, from these techniques, it is shown that sample chemistry has a notable effect on the formation of the radiation induced precipitates in reactor pressure vessel steels.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Use of Sonification for Analysis and Detection of Plasma Bubbles at 21 MHz

This research explores sonification as a useful tool for space science data exploration. Our interest lies in basic scientific analysis of plasmas of the ionosphere, of interplanetary space and of the interstellar medium. These plasmas all contain irregularities. Propagation of electromagnetic waves, like optical or radio waves, through a medium with random fluctuations in refractive index results in amplitude and phase fluctuations (Scheuer 1968). These variations may be displayed via sonification, using changes in sounds to represent the data variations. This is particularly useful extending science to the visually-impaired. The xSonify Java-based tool was developed to explore sonification techniques and its value for general science analysis and also assistive technology.

Wanda, Diaz↗