ALBERT

Description: Reexploring convection and its various transitions to chaotic behavior were the central themes of GFD 1981. Our principal lecturer, Dr. Edward A. Spiegel, provided both a rich historical picture and stimulating hours at the current frontiers of this topic. Before the summer was out his research lecture on "A Tale of Two Methods" elegantly merged Pierre Coullet's canonical formalism for studying dynamical systems in a central manifold and the more traditional two-timing amplitude expansions near critical points. Other lecture sequences on convection and its relation to simpler dynamical systems ranged from the fine presentations of John Guckenheimer on bifurcation theory to Fritz Busse's survey of his immense contributions to our understanding of nonlinear convection. The list of other lectures found on the following pages attests to our summer-long exposure to convection in the ocean, the atmosphere, the earth's core and mantle, and in the sun. August brought lectures on new observations of convection in the laboratories of physicists. Albert Libchaber's precise experiments on the many routes convection can take to turbulence, with parallel laboratory and numerical experiments described by J. Gollub and E. Siggia, added much to our language of inquiry.

Description: Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-81-G-0089.

Description: Earth observations are playing an increasingly significant role in informing decision making in the energy sector. In renewable energy applications, space-based observations now routinely augment sparse ground-based observations used as input for renewable energy resource assessment applications. As one of the nine Group on Earth Observations (GEO) societal benefit areas, the enhancement of management and policy decision making in the energy sector is receiving attention in activities conducted by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). CEOS has become the "space arm" for the implementation of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) vision. It is directly supporting the space-based, near-term tasks articulated in the GEO three-year work plan. This paper describes a coordinated program of demonstration projects conducted by CEOS member agencies and partners to utilize Earth observations to enhance energy management end-user decision support systems. I discuss the importance of engagement with stakeholders and understanding their decision support needs in successfully increasing the uptake of Earth observation products for societal benefit. Several case studies are presented, demonstrating the importance of providing data sets in formats and units familiar and immediately usable by decision makers. These projects show the utility of Earth observations to enhance renewable energy resource assessment in the developing world, forecast space-weather impacts on the power grid, and improve energy efficiency in the built environment.

Description: NASA Laboratory Astrophysics Workshop 2006, is the fourth in a series of workshops held at four year intervals, to assess the laboratory needs of NASA's astrophysics missions - past, current and future. Investigators who need laboratory data to interpret their observations from space missions, theorists and modelers, experimentalists who produce the data, and scientists who compile databases have an opportunity to exchange ideas and understand each other's needs and limitations. The multi-wavelength character of these workshops allows cross-fertilization of ideas, raises awareness in the scientific community of the rapid advances in other fields, and the challenges it faces in prioritizing its laboratory needs in a tight budget environment. Currently, we are in the golden age of Space Astronomy, with three of NASA s Great Observatories, Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO), and Spitzer Space Telescope (SST), in operation and providing astronomers and opportunity to perform synergistic observations. In addition, the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE), XMM-Newton, HETE-2, Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), INTEGRAL and Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), are operating in an extended phase, while Swift and Suzaku are in their prime phase of operations. The wealth of data from these missions is stretching the Laboratory Astrophysics program to its limits. Missions in the future, which also need such data include the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Space Interferometry Mission (SIM), Constellation-X (Con-X), Herschel, and Planck. The interpretation of spectroscopic data from these missions requires knowledge of atomic and molecular parameters such as transition probabilities, f-values, oscillator strengths, excitation cross sections, collision strengths, which have either to be measured in the laboratory by simulating space plasma and interactions therein, or by theoretical calculations and modeling. Once the laboratory data are obtained, a key step to making them available to the observer is the creation and maintenance of critically compiled databases. Other areas of study, that are important for understanding planet formation, and for detection of molecules that are indicators of life, are also supported by the Laboratory Astrophysics program. Some examples are: studies of ices and dust grains in a space environment; nature and evolution of interstellar carbon-rich dust; and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In addition, the program provides an opportunity for the investigation of novel ideas, such as simulating radiative shock instabilities in plasmas, in order to understand jets observed in space. A snapshot of the currently funded program, mission needs, and relevance of laboratory data to interpreting observations, will be obtained at this workshop through invited and contributed talks and poster papers. These will form the basis for discussions in splinter groups. The Science Organization Committee will integrate the results of the discussions into a coherent White Paper, which will provide guidance to NASA in structuring the Laboratory Astrophysics program in subsequent years, and also to the scientific community in submitting research proposals to NASA for funding.

Description: The LGP successfully demonstrated that grid technology could be used to create a collaboration among research scientists, their science development machines, and distributed data to create a science production system in a nationally distributed environment. Grid technology provides a low cost and effective method of enabling production of science products by the science community. To demonstrate this, the LGP partnered with NASA GSFC scientists and used their existing science algorithms to generate virtual Landsat-like data products using distributed data resources. LGP created 48 output composite scenes with 4 input scenes each for a total of 192 scienes processed in parallel. The demonstration took 12 hours, which beat the requirement by almost 50 percent, well within the LDCM requirement to process 250 scenes per day. The LGP project also showed the successful use of workflow tools to automate the processing. Investing in this technology has led to funding for a ROSES ACCESS proposal. The proposal intends to enable an expert science user to produce products from a number of similar distributed instrument data sets using the Land Cover Change Community-based Processing and Analysis System (LC-ComPS) Toolbox. The LC-ComPS Toolbox is a collection of science algorithms that enable the generation of data with ground resolution on the order of Landsat-class instruments.

Description: A dual-photoelastic-modulator- (PEM-) based spectropolarimetric camera concept is presented as an approach for global aerosol monitoring from space. The most challenging performance objective is to measure degree of linear polarization (DOLP) with an uncertainty of less than 0.5% in multiple spectral bands, at moderately high spatial resolution, over a wide field of view, and for the duration of a multiyear mission. To achieve this, the tandem PEMs are operated as an electro-optic circular retardance modulator within a high-performance reflective imaging system. Operating the PEMs at slightly different resonant frequencies generates a beat signal that modulates the polarized component of the incident light at a much lower heterodyne frequency. The Stokes parameter ratio q = Q/I is obtained from measurements acquired from each pixel during a single frame, providing insensitivity to pixel responsivity drift and minimizing polarization artifacts that conventionally arise when this quantity is derived from differences in the signals from separate detectors. Similarly, u = U/I is obtained from a different pixel; q and u are then combined to form the DOLP. A detailed accuracy and tolerance analysis for this polarimeter is presented.

Description: This slide presentation begins with a listing of the papers that were submitted to the Journal of Geophysical Research -- Special Section on AIRS Validation, and those whose submission were still in progress. Included in the presentation are graphs showing differences by total water and cloud amount.

Description: The local environment where we live within the Earth's biosphere is often taken for granted. This environment can vary depending on whether the land cover is a forest, grassland, wetland, water body, bare soil, pastureland, agricultural field, village, residential suburb, or an urban complex with concrete, asphalt, and large buildings. In general, the type and characteristics of land cover influence surface temperatures, sunlight exposure and duration, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, soil moisture amount, plant life, birds, and other wildlife in our backyards. The physical and biological properties (biophysical characteristics) of land cover help to determine our surface environment because they directly affect surface radiation, heat, and soil moisture processes, and also feedback to regional weather and climate. Depending on the spatial scale and land use intensity, land cover changes can have profound impacts on our local and regional environment. Over the past 350 years, the eastern half of the United States, an area extending from the grassland prairies of the Great Plains to the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, has experienced extensive land cover and land use changes that began with land clearing in the 1600s, led to extensive deforestation and intensive land use practices by 1920, and then evolved to the present-day landscape. Determining the consequences of such land cover changes on regional and global climate is a major research issue. Such research requires detailed historical land cover data and modeling experiments simulating historical climates. Given the need to understand the effects of historical land cover changes in the eastern United States, some questions include: - What were the most important land cover transformations and how did they alter biophysical characteristics of the land cover at key points in time since the mid-1600s? - How have land cover and land use changes over the past 350 years affected the land surface environment including surface weather, hydrologic, and climatic variability? - How do the potential effects of regional human-induced land cover change on the environment compare to similar changes that are caused by the natural variations of the Earth's climate system? To help answer these questions, we reconstructed a fractional land cover and biophysical parameter dataset for the eastern United States at 1650, 1850, 1920, and 1992 time-slices. Each land cover fraction is associated with a biophysical parameter class, a suite of parameters defining the biophysical characteristics of that kind of land cover. This new dataset is designed for use in computer models of land-atmosphere interactions, to understand and quantify the effects of historical land cover changes on the water, energy, and carbon cycles

Description: The Earth Science Division supports research projects that exploit the observations and measurements acquired by NASA Earth Observing missions and Applied Sciences projects that extend NASA research to the broader user community and address societal needs.

Description: Our universe is most luminous at far-infrared and submillimeter wavelengths (100 GHz - 10 THz) after the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. This region of the electromagnetic spectrum provides critical tracers for the study of a wide range of astrophysical and planetary phenomena. This spectral range contains information on the origin of the planets, stars, galaxies, and clusters; the geometry and matter/energy content of the Universe, atmospheric constituents and dynamics of the planets and comets and tracers for global monitoring and the ultimate health of the Earth. Sensors at far-infrared and submillimeter wavelengths provide unprecedented sensitivity for astrophysical, planetary, and earth observing instruments. Very often, for a spaced based platform where the instruments are not limited by atmospheric losses and absorption, the overall instrument sensitivity is dictated by the sensitivity of the sensors themselves. Moreover, some of the cryogenic sensors at submillimeter wavelengths provide almost quantum-limited sensitivity. This paper provides an overview of the submillimeter-wave sensors and their performance and capabilities for space applications.

Description: NASA's award-winning Earth Resources Laboratory Applications Software (ELAS) package was developed at Stennis Space Center. Since 1978, ELAS has been used worldwide for processing satellite and airborne sensor imagery data of the Earth's surface into readable and usable information. DATASTAR Inc., of Picayune, Mississippi, has used ELAS software in the DATASTAR Image Processing Exploitation (DIPEx) desktop and Internet image processing, analysis, and manipulation software. The new DIPEx Version III includes significant upgrades and improvements compared to its esteemed predecessor. A true World Wide Web application, this product evolved with worldwide geospatial dimensionality and numerous other improvements that seamlessly support the World Wide Web version.