Vegetation health: Nature's climate monitor

Observational data to effectively evaluate weather effects, which accumulate into current climate status, are available for affluent nations but often are inadequate elsewhere. Data acquired by satellite sensors in the visible-near infrared portion of the reflected solar energy spectrum have been accumulated daily since 1965 and for the earth's emitted radiance in the 11000 nm window since 1972. With the advent of the TIROS-N satellite in 1978, the solar reflected energy has been sensed in two separate channels and beginning with NOAA-6, the second vehicle of the TIROS-N family, these two channels became complementary rather than overlapping. This feature makes vegetative monitoring possible and now is being exploited to provide daily experimental products. These global vegetative index (GVI) arrays have been used to observe and map the effects of droughts, floods, adverse winds and thermal stresses on the global arable lands. These data and the related sea surface temperatures, both derived from satellite data, provide realistic measures of the global climate and can assist climatic forecasting.     

A Survey of Software Quality Assurance

This summarizes the authors' research into the state-of-the-practice of software quality assurance (SQA) in software organizations throughout the Department of Defense (DoD). Information was obtained through personal visits to a limited number of software facilities and by utilizing a SQA questionnaire that was mailed to 27 DoD software organizations. Twenty questionnaires were returned from Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force organizations involved in the Life Cycle Software Support (LCSS) process. The survey developed information regarding such topics as: staffing; personnel qualifications; quality standards used; SQA responsibilities; error data collection; adequacy of existing documentation; staff composition; distribution of SQA effort; and workforce mix. In addition, a list of SQA ``Lessons Learned' was developed from comments made by DoD quality managers. The results of this study indicate a wide variance in the application of SQA within the DoD.     

Space education policy — a global imperative

The discoveries and knowledge gained from space exploration and technology development are valuable scientific education tools which are not being adequately used in the classroom. Moreover, the increasing application of space technology to everyday life and industry requires a work force educated to be able to work productively in this field and to take advantage of all it has to offer. This article provides a survey of what is presently being done in the field of space education in Europe and the USA. Although encouraging, it is not nearly enough to meet the needs of 21st century society, principally because current efforts lack government or industry support. The author argues that this state of affairs must change, and proposed an international symposium as a first step towards this goal.     

The characterization of atmospheric spread functions affecting satellite remote sensing of the earth's surface

A Monte Carlo simulation program has been used to compute the signal contribution of surface elements outside the field of view of a satellite borne sensor in both the visible and infrared spectra for realistic atmospheric models. For azimuthally symmetric reflection the effect of an arbitrary surface albedo pattern can be represented by two spread functions, namely, 1) the ground-satellite spread function, and 2) the ground-ground spread function. Examples of computed spread functions are shown together with their Fourier correspondents, the modulation transfer functions. It has been shown that the central portions of the line spread functions behave as the inverse distance while the point spread functions always possess a region behaving as the inverse square of the radial distance. The median distance is shown to relate to the weighted molecular and aerosol scale height, and for large distances the spread functions become independent of the aerosol loading.     

An ultra stable optical bench for the magnetic survey satellite

An optical bench has been designed and built that must hold the alignment of five optical elements to deflections of 1–2 arc s during orbital operation. In addition, it must suffer no alignment changes during the launch and prestabilization phase of the mission. Severe weight constraints, in conjunction with the thermal and structural requirements, led to the choice of graphite fiber reinforced epoxy egg crate core and face sheets for the bench construction. Active temperature control was necessary to meet thermal deflection objectives, and novel kinematic mountings were required to prevent spacecraft bending from deflecting the bench. The structural and thermal analyses both show that the mission objectives can be met with margin by the present design. No adverse effects from launch are expected, and the maximum thermal bending is expected to be less than 2 arc s.     

Heliospheric Physics: Linking the Sun to the Magnetosphere

Research into the heliospheric structure and its relation to the solar boundary is at an impasse. After successful predictions by Parker about the zeroth-order behavior of the heliospheric magnetic field and the solar wind, the heliospheric community struggles to make substantive progress toward a predictive model describing the connections between the Sun and its space environment, between the closed corona and the open corona extending to the planets. This is caused by our lack of understanding of the basic processes heating the corona and transporting open magnetic field. We detail the models used to describe this connectivity, from potential field source surface models to full MHD techniques. We discuss the current limitations of both approaches. Finally, we address a recent attempt to advance our understanding beyond these limitations. At this point in time the proposed theory remains controversial in the community, but it addresses important shortcomings of current approaches outlined above.     

Monitoring spatio-temporal variations in aerosols and aerosol–cloud interactions over Pakistan using MODIS data

Clouds are important elements in climatic processes and interactions between aerosols and clouds are therefore a hot topic for scientific research. Aerosols show both spatial and temporal variations, which can lead to variations in the microphysics of clouds. In this research, we have examined the spatial and temporal variations in aerosol particles over Pakistan and the impact of these variations on various optical properties of clouds, using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from the Terra satellite. We used the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model for trajectory analysis to reveal the origins of air masses, with the aim of understanding these spatial and temporal variabilities in aerosol concentrations. We also documented seasonal variations in patterns of aerosol optical depth (AOD) over Pakistan, for which the highest values occur during the monsoon season (June–August). We then analyzed the relationships between AOD and four other cloud parameters, namely water vapour (WV), cloud fraction (CF), cloud top temperature (CTT) and cloud top pressure (CTP). Regional correlation maps and time series plots for aerosol (AOD) and cloud parameters were produced to provide a better understanding of aerosol–cloud interaction. The analyses showed strong positive correlations between AOD and WV for all of the eight cities investigated. The correlation between AOD and CF was positive for those cities where the air masses were predominantly humid, but negative for those cities where the air masses were relatively dry and carried a low aerosol abundance. These correlations were clearly dependent on the meteorological conditions for all of the eight cities investigated. Because of the observed AOD–CF relationship, the co-variation of AOD with CTP and CTT may be attributable to large-scale meteorological variations: AOD showed a positive correlation with CTP and CTT in northern regions of Pakistan and a negative correlation in southern regions.     

A Bayesian approach for integrating multilevel priors and data for aerospace system reliability assessment

This paper investigates Bayesian methods for aerospace system reliability analysis using various sources of test data and expert knowledge at both subsystem and system levels. Four scenarios based on available information for the priors and test data of a system and/or subsystems are studied using specific Bayesian inference techniques. This paper proposes the Bayesian melding method for integrating subsystem-level priors with system-level priors for both system- and subsystem-level reliability analysis. System and subsystem reliability outcomes are compared under different scenarios. Computational challenges for posterior inferences using the sophisticated Bayesian melding method are addressed using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and adaptive Sampling Importance Re-sampling (SIR) methods. A case study with simulation results illustrates the applications of the proposed methods and provides insights for aerospace system reliability analysis using available multilevel information.     

The Structure and Dynamics of the Corona—Heliosphere Connection

Determining how the heliospheric magnetic field and plasma connect to the Sun’s corona and photosphere is, perhaps, the central problem in solar and heliospheric physics. For much of the heliosphere, this connection appears to be well understood. It is now generally accepted that so-called coronal holes, which appear dark in X-rays and are predominantly unipolar at the photosphere, are the sources of quasi-steady wind that is generally fast, >500?km/s, but can sometimes be slow. However, the connection to the Sun of the slow, non-steady wind is far from understood and remains a major mystery. We review the existing theories for the sources of the non-steady wind and demonstrate that they have difficulty accounting for both the observed composition of the wind and its large angular extent. A?new theory is described in which this wind originates from the continuous opening and closing of narrow open field corridors in the corona, which give rise to a web of separatrices (the S-Web) in the heliosphere. Note that in this theory the corona—heliosphere connection is intrinsically dynamic, at least for this type of wind. Support for the S-Web model is derived from MHD solutions for the corona and wind during the time of the August 1, 2008 eclipse. Additionally, we perform fully dynamic numerical simulations of the corona and heliosphere in order to test the S-Web model as well as the interchange model proposed by Fisk and co-workers. We discuss the implications of our simulations for the competing theories and for understanding the corona—heliosphere connection, in general.     

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Instrument Overview

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Wide Angle Camera (WAC) and Narrow Angle Cameras (NACs) are on the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The WAC is a 7-color push-frame camera (100 and 400 m/pixel visible and UV, respectively), while the two NACs are monochrome narrow-angle linescan imagers (0.5 m/pixel). The primary mission of LRO is to obtain measurements of the Moon that will enable future lunar human exploration. The overarching goals of the LROC investigation include landing site identification and certification, mapping of permanently polar shadowed and sunlit regions, meter-scale mapping of polar regions, global multispectral imaging, a global morphology base map, characterization of regolith properties, and determination of current impact hazards.