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AirMSPI verison 6 terrain-projected georegistered radiance product acquired during the NASA ACEPOL flight campaign Oct-Nov 2017

AirMSPI_ACEPOL_Terrain-projected_Georegistered_Radiance_Data are AirMSPI terrain-projected georegistered radiance products acquired during the Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and Lidar (ACEPOL) flight campaign. AirMSPI Level 1B2 products contain radiometric and polarimetric images of clouds, aerosols, and the surface of the Earth. In particular, products contain map-projected data at 8 wavelengths: 355, 380, 445, 470, 555, 660, 865, and 935 nm. The data products include radiance, time, solar zenith, solar azimuth, view zenith, and view azimuth for all spectral bands. Wavelengths for which polarization information is available (470, 660, and 865 nm) also include the Stokes parameters Q and U, as well as degree of linear polarization (DOLP) and angle of linear polarization (AOLP). Q, U, and AOLP are reported relative to both the scattering and view meridian planes. Files are distributed in HDF-EOS-5 format.This release of AirMSPI data contains all targets acquired during the Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and Lidar (ACEPOL) flight campaign. ACEPOL was based out of Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, CA, and focused on assessing the capabilities of proposed future instruments by the ACE pre-formulation study to answer fundamental science questions associated with aerosols, clouds, air quality and global ocean ecosystems. AirMSPI data were acquired from October 19 through November 9, 2017.

Smart Coatings for Launch Site Corrosion Protection Project

Corrosion is a serious problem that has enormous costs for the nation (4.2% GDP in 2007) and worldwide. Kennedy Space Center is located in one of the most naturally corrosive areas in the world. Acidic exhaust from the solid rocket boosters aggravates these natural conditions. New space vehicles are likely to use the same solid rocket fuel used to launch the Space Shuttle. Launching facilities and ground support equipment will continue to need corrosion protection.Current research is focused on&nbsp;encapsulating environmentally friendly&nbsp;corrosion inhibitors and incorporating them&nbsp;into commercially available coatings to test&nbsp;their effectiveness. Accelerated corrosion&nbsp;tests have shown that corrosion-activated release&nbsp;microcapsules and particles can&nbsp;be used as inhibitor delivery systems to&nbsp;improve the corrosion protection of several&nbsp;commercially available coatings. This work is&nbsp;being conducted in collaboration with several&nbsp;industry partners who are interested in the&nbsp;NASA-developed smart coating technology.

Plume Mitigation for Mars Terminal Landing: Soil Stabilization Project

A sustained human presence on the Moon,&nbsp;Mars, or other celestial bodies, will require&nbsp;numerous disciplines to create technologies,&nbsp;solve current known problems, and anticipate&nbsp;new ones. One problem identified during the&nbsp;Apollo missions is plume ejecta: the expulsion of&nbsp;dust, regolith, or other loose material from&nbsp;the force of launch or landing.&nbsp; Rocket plume effects on Mars will be&nbsp;different from those on the Moon. Because Mars has an atmosphere, ejected particles will&nbsp;not travel as far, meaning that infrastructure&nbsp;could be placed at a safe distance from the&nbsp;launch pad and not receive blast effects.&nbsp;However, the presence of an atmosphere will&nbsp;cause the rocket exhaust to collimate, which&nbsp;will probably produce much deeper craters&nbsp;than the Apollo missions produced on the&nbsp;Moon.&nbsp;Plume ejecta was observed and&nbsp;photographed during the recent landing of&nbsp;the Mars rover, Curiosity. Even though the&nbsp;sky crane landing system was designed to&nbsp;minimize plume effects on the Mars surface,&nbsp;areas of surface erosion were observed after&nbsp;landing. Curiosity is the largest&nbsp;vehicle that has landed on Mars. A human-sized&nbsp;lander will be considerably larger, will&nbsp;have more powerful rockets, and therefore,&nbsp;will probably disturb the surface soil much&nbsp;more. Deploying a landing pad or stabilizing&nbsp;the soil can mitigate this problem.The goal of this project was to develop technology for building a landing pad through the following tasks:<ol><li>Demonstrate microwave sintering under Mars like conditions.</li><li>Investigate surface stabilization methods used for terrestrial applications and develop recommendations for a Mars landing pad based on these methods.</li><li>Develop a plan for implementing a microwave sintering system on a mobile rover.</li></ol>The project was completed successfully, achieving the first ever sintering of a Mars simulant under Mars like conditions.&nbsp; In addition, a design for a rover mounted sintering system was created.&nbsp; Recommendations for initial soil measurements were developed based of off terrestrial experience.

Subnanosecond scintillation detector for high energy cosmic rays Project

The task objective is to develop a gamma ray scintillator technology with subnanosecond temporal resolution and the capability to withstand unprecedented rates and doses of high energy gamma radiation. This is a joint project with Caltech Prof. Dave Hitlin to detect BaF2 fast scintillation (&tau;&nbsp;~&nbsp;0.9ns at &lambda;&nbsp;~&nbsp;220nm) while rejecting slow scintillation (&tau;&nbsp;~&nbsp;650ns at &lambda;&nbsp;~&nbsp;330nm). We will also develop solar blind coatings using ALD technology for DUV bandpass filter.

AirMSPI verison 6 terrain-projected georegistered radiance product acquired during the SPEX-PR flight campaign

AirMSPI_SPEX-PR_Terrain-projected_Georegistered_Radiance_Data is an AirMSPI terrain-projected georegistered radiance product acquired during the SPEX engineering flights + Porter Ranch gas leak overflights (SPEX-PR) flight campaign.AirMSPI Level 1B2 products contain radiometric and polarimetric images of clouds, aerosols, and the surface of the Earth. In particular, products contain map-projected data at 8 wavelengths: 355, 380, 445, 470, 555, 660, 865, and 935 nm. The data products include radiance, time, solar zenith, solar azimuth, view zenith, and view azimuth for all spectral bands. Wavelengths for which polarization information is available (470, 660, and 865 nm) also include the Stokes parameters Q and U, as well as degree of linear polarization (DOLP) and angle of linear polarization (AOLP). Q, U, and AOLP are reported relative to both the scattering and view meridian planes. Files are distributed in HDF-EOS-5 format.This release of AirMSPI data contains all targets acquired during the SPEX engineering flights + Porter Ranch gas leak overflights (SPEX-PR) flight campaign, which was based out of Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, CA. The SPEX engineering flights conducted on February 2 through February 5, 2016 focused on the checkout of another polarimeter, SPEX airborne, built by SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, with AirMSPI providing validation. On February 9, the ER-2 overflew the Porter Ranch, California natural gas leak with AirMSPI and the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) collecting data.

Nano Dust Analyzer Project

We propose to develop a new highly sensitive instrument to confirm the existence of the so-called nano-dust particles, characterize their impact parameters, and measure their chemical composition. Simultaneous theoretical studies will be used to derive the expected&nbsp; mass and velocity ranges of these putative particles to formulate science and measurement requirements for the future deployment of&nbsp; the proposed Nano-Dust Analyzer (NDA)&nbsp; Early dust instruments onboard Pioneer 8 and 9 and Helios spacecraft detected a flow of submicron sized dust particles coming from the direction of the Sun. These particles originate in the inner solar system from mutual collisions among meteoroids and move on&nbsp; hyperbolic orbits that leave the Solar System under the prevailing radiation pressure force. Later dust instruments with higher&nbsp; sensitivity had to avoid looking toward the Sun because of interference from the solar wind and UV radiation and thus contributed&nbsp; little to the characterization of the dust stream. The one exception is the Ulysses dust detector that observed escaping dust particles&nbsp; high above the solar poles, which confirm the suspicion that charged nanometer sized dust grains are carried to high heliographic&nbsp; latitudes by electromagnetic interactions with the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF). Recently, the STEREO WAVES instruments&nbsp; recorded a large number of intense electric field signals, which were interpreted as impacts from nanometer sized particles striking the&nbsp; spacecraft with velocities of about the solar wind speed. This high flux and strong spatial and/or temporal variations of nanometer&nbsp; sized dust grains at low latitude appears to be uncorrelated with the solar wind properties. This is a mystery as it would require that&nbsp; the total collisional meteoroid debris inside 1 AU is cast in nanometer sized fragments. The observed fluxes of inner-source pickup ions&nbsp; also point to the existence of a much enhanced dust population in the nanometer size range.&nbsp; This new heliospherical phenomenon of nano-dust streams may have consequences throughout the planetary system, but as of yet no dust instrument exists that could be used to shed light on their properties. &nbsp;We propose to develop a dust analyzer capable to detect and&nbsp; analyze these mysterious dust particles coming from the solar direction and to embark upon complementary theoretical studies to&nbsp; understand their characteristics. The instrument is based on the Cassini Dust Analyzer (CDA) that has analyzed the composition of&nbsp; nanometer sized dust particles emanating from the Jovian and Saturnian systems but could not be pointed towards the Sun. By&nbsp; applying technologies implemented in solar wind instruments and coronagraphs a highly sensitive dust analyzer will be developed and&nbsp; tested in the laboratory. The dust analyzer shall be able to characterize impact properties (impact charge and energy distribution of&nbsp; ions from which mass and speed of the impacting grains may be derived) and chemical composition of individual nanometer sized&nbsp; particles while exposed to solar wind and UV radiation. The measurements will enable us to identify the source of the dust by&nbsp; comparing their elemental composition with that of larger micrometeoroid particles of cometary and asteroid origin and will reveal&nbsp; interaction of nano-dust with the interplanetary medium by investigating the relation of the dust flux with solar wind and IMF&nbsp; properties.&nbsp; Complementary theoretically studies will be performed to understand the characteristics of nano-dust particles at 1 AU to answer the&nbsp; following questions:&nbsp; - What is the speed range at which nanometer sized particles impact

Exoplanet Direct Imaging Project

"We propose to develop high contrast coronagraphic techniques for segmented telescopes, providing an integrated solution for wavefront control and starlight suppression on complex aperture geometries. Developing this technology will enable direct imaging of exoplanets from space with significant cost savings relative to monolithic mirrors. Searching for nearby habitable worlds with direct imaging is one of the top scientific priorities established by the Astro2010 Decadal Survey. Achieving this ambitious goal will require 1010 contrast on a telescope large enough to provide angular resolution and sensitivity to planets around a significant sample of nearby stars. Lightweight segmented mirror technology allows larger diameter optics to fit in any given launch vehicle as compared to monolithic mirrors, making it a compelling option for future space telescopes. But until recently, it was believed that internal coronagraphs were incapable of yielding very high contrast on segmented telescopes. Recent developments now show that there is in fact a clear path to high contrast coronagraphy on segmented apertures. The key advances are (1) the demonstration of precision wavefront shaping with amplitude control using multiple deformable mirrors, and (2) improvements in coronagraph mask design that dramatically reduce transmission of segment-gap-scattered light. We propose a plan that will mature these technologies for coronagraphy with on-axis segmented mirror telescopes to TRL 4 by mid-decade with the following elements: 1. Numerical studies for coronagraph optimization and wavefront shaping to yield high-contrast point spread function dark zones. 2. Precision segment phasing concepts and algorithms that will improve the state of the art by one order of magnitude, and will be applicable to any segmented telescope. 3. A system-level demonstration integrating segment precision phasing, wavefront control and shaping, together with advanced coronagraphy. Success

Gulf of Guinea climate and ocean circulation study (EGEE) project - Gulf of Guinea off of west-central Africa

Measurements made in the Gulf of Guinea off of west-central Africa in 2006 as part of the third cruise in the EGEE project (Gulf of Guinea climate and ocean circulation study, which is the oceanographic strand of the AMMA -African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses program).

Sounding rocket payload systems for in-situ measurements of ionosphere-thermosphere structure at small spatial scales Project

The methodology developed under this grant is primarily an effort to develop new sub-payload technologies and an inexpensive method of testing them. The three technical goals are: (1) to improve and test the existing spring sub-payload ejection system and rocket propelled ejection system, (2) to test the performance of ampule-deployed radar chaff (rather than TMA) to track high altitude winds, and (3) to develop and test sensor and telemetry packages to monitor the attitude stability and position of deployed sub-payloads.&nbsp; The proposed effort will also demonstrate very low cost, low altitude rockets as an inexpensive flight test of payloads prior to expensive sounding rocket deployments. The payloads tested on 5 to 7 low-cost rockets will be (1) foil chaff designed for radar tracking of mesospheric winds, (2) plasma instruments composed of GPS monitors, magnetometers, and accelerometers, and (3) android phones for the investigation of off-the-shell instrumentation and telemetry.&nbsp; Finally, a campaign of 2 to 4 sounding rocket deployments on &lsquo;as-available&rsquo; flights from Poker Flats will be used to test spring ejection without spin up, spring ejection with spin up for sub-payload attitude control, and rocket ejection

Dynamics of coastal buoyancy jets (CoJet) Naval Research Lab (NRL) project

Measurements made as a part of the NRL-sponsored study of the dynamics of coastal buoyancy jets (CoJet) in the Gulf of Mexico during 2001 and 2002.

Bering Ecosystem STudy (BEST) project

The HLY0803 cruise of the USCG cutter Healy was an NSF funded cruise for the Bering Ecosystem Study (BEST) project that was focused on the impact of sea ice on the marine ecology of the region. In particular it focused on pathways of nutrients and organic matter that lead to the abundant upper trophic levels and valuable fisheries on the Bering Sea continental shelf. The cruise covered most of the eastern Bering Sea shelf from the Aleutian Islands to St. Lawrence Island with 177 unique stations that included CTD casts, bio-optics casts, MOCNESS tows, CALVet tows, bongo tows, multicore drops and sediment trap deployments.

Yukon Arctic Carbon Cycle Project

The project conducted field sampling in the Yukon River, delta and plume waters for two transects in spring/summer of 2022 and 2023 and acquisition of additional transect samples during similar flow regimes through our collaborators. Field measurements included a number of water quality parameters relevant to Arctic biogeochemical function and NASA products, including dissolved organic matter (DOM), particulate organic matter (POM), suspended particulate matter (SPM), chlorophyll-a, radiometry, in situ inherent optical properties, discrete dissolved and particle absorption, fluorescent DOM (FDOM), lignin phenols, HPLC pigments, bioavailability of dissolved organic carbon (DOC).

ProcEss studies at the Air-sEa Interface after dust deposition in the MEditerranean sea project (PEACETIME)

Measurements from the PEACETIME (ProcEss studies at the Air-sEa Interface after dust deposition in the MEditerranean sea) project in the Mediterranean Sea to characterize biogeochemical processes in the atmosphere, at the air-sea boundary layer, and in the water.

High-contrast Nulling Interferometry Techniques Project

"We are developing rotating-baseline nulling-interferometry techniques and algorithms on the single-aperture Hale and Keck telescopes at near-infrared wavelengths, aimed at the detection of faint emission close to bright stars. Our experiments are aimed at developing simple and robust nulling interferometer systems, that will be useful in the short term for unique observations of faint exozodiacal emission and exoplanets very close to nearby stars, and in the long term for refining and simplifying potential nulling-interferometer-based space missions. Here we propose significant sensitivity, stability, dispersion-reduction and statistical-analysis upgrades to our nulling interferometer systems so as to take our nulling work from the earlier ""basic physics demonstration"" phase to the ""ultimate limiting performance"" stage. Several planned upgrades to our nulling systems will enable forefront nulling capabilities at very low cost. First, we plan to improve the sensitivity of our Palomar Fiber Nuller by two orders of magnitude by replacing our current very modest detector with a much more sensitive IR camera inherited from the Palomar Testbed Interferometer. Second, we plan to improve our fringe stability through a series of upgrades. We will make use of the P3K extreme adaptive optics capability to come on line at Palomar mid-2011 to enable ~ 70 -100 nm stability between subapertures, and also extremely good fiber-coupling stability, together allowing very deep nulls to be measured. We will also upgrade our own post-adaptive optics fringe tracker and implement a novel fluctuation-tolerant fringe tracker algorithm. Third, we will further develop and test novel data reduction algorithms based on the statistics of the null-depth fluctuations to measure accurate astrophysical nulls to levels much deeper than our stabilization level would otherwise allow. Finally, we will also implement a number of dispersion reduction techniques to improve broadband operation an

Infrared Interferometry of Auroral Ionosphere-Thermosphere Energetics Project

&nbsp;The FWMI prototype development is underway at USU/SDL. To develop the FWMI, USU/SDL is leveraging the successful implementation of a rocket-borne Michelson interferometer/spectrometer system that was designed by USU/SDL in the early 1980s and flown multiple times on sounding rockets. This sensor was designated the Rocket-Borne Field-Widened Interferometer-II (RBFWI-2). Utilizing modern designs, technologies, and components, the new prototype FWMI will significantly enhance the original RBFWI-2 to meet three technical goals: (1) extended spectral coverage, (2) higher spectral resolution, and (3) extended dynamical range. USU/SDL also intends to achieve large reductions in mass, volume, and power. The resultant prototype FWMI will then be a pathfinder for future missions that focus on addressing key scientific objectives and critical supporting science questions in auroral ionosphere-thermosphere energetics. The successful flight of RBFWI-2 established a solid foundation for the development of the prototype FWMI. Based on that heritage, the current effort focuses on the development of a new optical detector system, a new sensor signal-conditioning system based on modern electronics, as well as extending the displacement of the optics to increase spectral resolution. These new techniques and other modern technologies will be added to the proven RBFWI-2 legacy design to allow the prototype FWMI to serve as the foundation for a flight FWMI version capable of meeting the targeted instrument specifications that are summarized below: <o:p></o:p> 1. Spectral bandpass of 1300-8100 cm-1 <o:p></o:p> 2. Spectral resolution of &le; 1.0 cm-1 <o:p></o:p> 3. Dynamic range characterized by a 10-13 W cm-2 sr-1(cm-1)-1 NER. <o:p></o:p>

Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1): Land and Geographic Unit Area Grids

The Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1): Land and Geographic Unit Area Grids measure land areas in square kilometers and the mean Unit size (population-weighted) in square kilometers. The land area grid permits the summation of areas (net of permanent ice and water) at the same resolution as the population density, count, and urban-rural grids. The mean Unit size grids provide a quantitative surface that indicates the size of the input Unit(s) from which population count and density grids are derived. Additional global grids are created from the 30 arc-second grid at 1/4, 1/2, and 1 degree resolutions. This data set is produced by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), The World Bank, and Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT).

AirMSPI version 5 terrain-projected georegistered radiance product acquired during the NASA PODEX flight campaign Jan-Feb 2013

AirMSPI_PODEX_Terrain-projected_Georegistered_Radiance_Data are AirMSPI terrain-projected georegistered radiance product acquired during the NASA Polarimeter Definition Experiment (PODEX) flight campaign.AirMSPI Level 1B2 products contain radiometric and polarimetric images of clouds, aerosols, and the surface of the Earth. In particular, products contain map-projected data at 8 wavelengths: 355, 380, 445, 470, 555, 660, 865, and 935 nm. The data products include radiance, time, solar zenith, solar azimuth, view zenith, and view azimuth for all spectral bands. Wavelengths for which polarization information is available (470, 660, and 865 nm) also include the Stokes parameters Q and U, as well as degree of linear polarization (DOLP) and angle of linear polarization (AOLP). Q, U, and AOLP are reported relative to both the scattering and view meridian planes. Files are distributed in HDF-EOS-5 format.This release of AirMSPI data contains all targets acquired during the Polarimeter Definition Experiment (PODEX) flight campaign. PODEX was based out of NASA’s Armstrong (formerly Dryden) Flight Research Center in Palmdale, CA, and focused on clouds and aerosols in and around California. AirMSPI data were acquired from January 14 through February 6, 2013.

Last of the Wild Project, Version 2, 2005 (LWP-2): Last of the Wild Dataset (IGHP)

The Last of the Wild Dataset of the Last of the Wild Project, Version 2, 2005 (LWP-2) is derived from the LWP-2 Human Footprint Dataset. The gridded data are classified according to their raster value (wild = 0-10; not wild >10). The ten largest polygons of more than 5 square kilometers within each biome by realm are selected and identified. The dataset in Interrupted Goode Homolosine Projection (IGHP) is produced by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).

Global One-Eighth Degree Urban Land Extent Projection and Base Year Grids by SSP Scenarios, 2000-2100

The Global One-Eighth Degree Urban Land Extent Projection and Base Year Grids by SSP Scenarios, 2000-2100 consists of global SSP-consistent spatial urban land fraction data for the base year 2000 and projections at ten-year intervals for 2010-2100 at a resolution of one-eighth degree (7.5 arc-minutes). Spatial urban land projections are key inputs for the analysis of land use, energy use, and emissions, as well as for the assessment of climate change vulnerability, impacts and adaptation. This data set presents a set of global, spatially explicit urban land scenarios that are consistent with the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) to produce an empirically-grounded set of urban land spatial distributions over the 21st century. A data-science approach is used exploiting 15 diverse data sets, including a newly available 40-year global time series of fine-spatial-resolution remote sensing observations from the Landsat satellite series. The SSPs are developed to support future climate and global change research, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), along with Special Reports.

Leading Edge Aeronautics Research for NASA Project

The LEARN Project explores the creation of novel concepts and processes with the potential to create new capabilities in aeronautics research through awards to the external community including university and industry teams. The LEARN Project incorporates a competitive review process of the external teams&rsquo; proposals to develop integrated solutions for complex technical problems captured in the ARMD strategic thrusts, followed by short duration activities for feasibility assessment. Follow-on phases of the most promising ideas are also funded. LEARN also utilizes challenges and prizes to the external community.&nbsp; With these processes, NASA funds also help catalyze investments from the aerospace and non-aerospace communities toward solving problems aligned with NASA interests.The NASA Aeronautics Research Institute (NARI) has been established to achieve the LEARN Project&rsquo;s goals.&nbsp; NARI will complement other ARMD efforts in seeking early-stage innovative concepts applicable to a broad spectrum of aeronautical challenges in the nation&rsquo;s air transportation system by sponsoring research solicitations and by hosting future competitive challenges. The Institute will coordinate these efforts and communicate the outcome of the research conducted to interested parties both internal and external to NASA. ARMD&rsquo;s goal is to mature the new concepts in order to infuse them into current ARMD research programs, to enable new avenues of aeronautics research that are not currently supported by ARMD program and project funds, or to achieve practical application by the aeronautics community.