Space Science Center Research Articles

Solar Variability and Its Effects on Climate

A new AGU book, Solar Variability and Its Effects on Climate, edited by Judit M. Pap and Peter Fox, presents a description of the most recent results on solar variability and its possible influence on the Earth's climate and atmosphere. The book explores the challenges facing researchers studying solar‐terrestrial physics in their interdisciplinary work to understand and predict the global effects from the Sun's influence. Sections in the monograph focus on the energy transport from the Sun's interior to Earth's atmosphere, the influences that can lead to varying solar signals and how they affect long‐term global climate change, and a summary of strategies and requirements for future research.In this issue, Eos talks with lead editor Judit M. Pap. Pap is senior research scientist at the Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Center at the University of Maryland‐Baltimore County and NASA Goddard Space Science Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Evaluation of a cadmium–zinc–telluride focal plane detector for hard X-ray astronomy

Because the Earth has a protective atmosphere that is opaque to many wavelengths, X-ray astronomy cannot be performed from the ground. It was not until the 1960s that astronomers had the technological capability to put their experiments at high enough altitudes to directly observe cosmic X-rays (Giacconi et al., 1962). Since that time a multitude of high-altitude balloons, rockets, and satellites have been launched to study the Universe in this wavelength region. Of the 108 missions flown, the majority of them concentrate on studying the Universe below 20 keV (Slavis, 2001). As a result, the hard X-ray region (20–100 keV) is still relatively unexplored. One instrument that will study the Universe in the hard X-ray region is the high energy replicated optics (HERO) balloon borne telescope being developed at Marshall Space Flight Center and the National Space Science and Technology Center. The HERO telescope consists of nested grazing incidence optics and several focal plane detectors. The full balloon payload will consist of 16 mirror modules each containing 15 nested shells (Ramsey et al., 2004). Each focal plane detector must exhibit a high photopeak quantum efficiency, good energy resolution, and good spatial resolution (B200mm). To sample the full mirror response the focal plane detector must have 128 128 pixels (Ramsey, 2001), although the sensitive portion of the mirrors’ response can be covered by 64 64 pixels. These focal plane requirements can be optimally met with a many-pixel cadmium–zinc–telluride (CdZnTe) array.

High Resolution Optics & Detector Systems for Hard X-rays

We describe the development of hard X-ray focusing optics telescopes at the National Space Science and Technology Center.

Large operational user of visualization

article Large operational user of visualization Share on Author: Bill Hibbard Space Science and Engineering Center, Madison, WI Space Science and Engineering Center, Madison, WIView Profile Authors Info & Claims ACM SIGGRAPH Computer GraphicsVolume 37Issue 3August 2003 pp 5–9https://doi.org/10.1145/941572.941576Online:01 August 2003Publication History 4citation100DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations4Total Downloads100Last 12 Months0Last 6 weeks0 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteGet Access

VisBio

article Share on VisBio: a biological tool for visualization and analysis Author: Bill Hibbard Space Science and Engineering Center, Madison, WI Space Science and Engineering Center, Madison, WIView Profile Authors Info & Claims ACM SIGGRAPH Computer GraphicsVolume 37Issue 2May 2003 pp 5–7https://doi.org/10.1145/941552.941556Online:01 May 2003Publication History 5citation148DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations5Total Downloads148Last 12 Months1Last 6 weeks0 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteGet Access

Catching lightning

Before 1995, researchers working with ground‐based lightning detectors had an approximate understanding of global lightning patterns. But with two recent satellite‐based optical sensors, NASA scientists are learning more about exactly where lightning strikes.“For the first time, we have been able to map the global distribution of lightning, noting its variation as a function of latitude, longitude, and time of year,” said Hugh Christian, a scientist with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and project leader for the lightning team at the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) in Huntsville.

Outstanding student paper awards

The Biogeosciences Section presented three outstanding student paper awards at the 2000 AGU Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C., last June.Udaysankar S. Nair presented a paper titled Climatic Impact of Lowland Deforestation on Cloud Forests in Costa Rica. Udaysankar graduated with a B. Tech. in mechanical engineering from the University of Kerala, India in 1988. He obtained his M.S. in meteorology from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 1991. Udaysankar is completing his Ph.D. through Colorado State University under the direction of Ronald M. Welch and Roger A. Pielke, Sr, and is currently at the National Space Science and Technology Center, University of Alabama in Huntsville. His research interests include mesoscale modeling, the influence of land use on regional climate, the detection of clouds in satellite imagery, and image processing.

U.K. Lottery Profits of Finance Space Center

Space science has hit the jackpot: Profits from the British lottery, thanks to a special grants committee, are going to help pay for construction of a National Space Science Center (NSSC) in Leicester, United Kingdom. The lottery-funded Millennium Commission announced early this week that it would spend 23 million pounds ($37.6 million) on the NSSC, which will feature a planetarium, exhibits, and access to scientists working on satellites and other instruments.

Verner Suomi (1915–1995)

Verner Edward Suomi passed away in Madison, Wisconsin, on Sunday, July 30, after a long battle with heart disease. Internationally recognized as the father of satellite meteorology, Suomi invented many satellite instruments that led to a better understanding of the Earth and its atmosphere. He succeeded in conducting the first American meteorological experiment ever from a satellite platform in 1959, in which he measured the Earth radiation budget with white and black heat sensing radiometers. This was followed by planetary investigations with similar instruments for Venus and Jupiter space probes. Suomi's most influential invention was the spin‐scan camera, which enabled geostationary weather observations. This technology is still used worldwide today. He also founded the Space Science and Engineering Center, where many of his inventions were created and systems were established to process the data into information. In a eulogy, University of Wisconsin Provost John Wiley commented, “Verner Suomi was a giant of modern science. His inventions were simple and elegant, and their consequences are ubiquitous. Anyone looking at a satellite image of Earth on the evening weather is looking at the product of a rare mind.”

Interactive visualization of Earth and space science computations

Scientists often view computer algorithms as risk-filled black boxes. The barrier between scientists and their computations can be bridged by techniques that make the internal workings of algorithms visible and that allow scientists to experiment with their computations. We describe two interactive systems developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) that provide these capabilities to Earth and space scientists. These visualization packages help scientists see the internal workings of their algorithms and thus understand their computations. >

Application of the 4-D McIDAS to a Model Diagnostic Study of the Presidents' Day Cyclone

Abstract The four-dimensional (4-D) McIDAS system is applied to a numerical simulation of the rapid development phase of the Presidents' Day cyclone. Selected frames from a videotape of the model simulation are presented to illustrate the evolution of the upper-and lower-tropospheric potential vorticity maxima prior to and during rapid cyclogenesis. The 4-D structure of various airstreams converging toward the cyclone center are also displayed. Our experience with 4-D displays of model output indicates that these systems offer a tremendous opportunity to manage and dissect the information content inherent in numerical simulations. The production of the visualizations of the Presidents' Day cyclone also confirmed a need for an interactive system capable of producing various perspectives in real time, a requirement being addressed with the development of a new workstation at the University of Wisconsin Space Science and Engineering Center.

A Dynamical Method for Building Continuity into the Deep-Layer Mean Wind

Abstract Deep-layer mean winds over the tropical Atlantic are routinely derived during the hurricane season at the Space Science and Engineering Center, Madison, Wisconsin, using imagery and soundings from the VISSR Atmospheric Sounder (VAS) aboard GOES. These analyses are 6–12 h apart and a method has been developed to build continuity into these winds. First, a static analysis is made at each time which vertically blends gradient wind shear derived from VAS temperatures with winds derived from tracking the visible and infrared imagery. The deep layer mean (DLM) winds that come from the static analyses are subsequently adjusted in time using the conservation of absolute vorticity as a constraint. This methodology is used to derive the large-scale circulation that accompanied Hurricane Debby (1982) in the Atlantic Ocean. Dropwindsonde data collected around Debby and the National Meteorological Center's analyses are used to qualitatively verify the analyses. Results indicate dial the vertical blending proc...

Computer-Generated Imagery for 4-D Meteorological Data

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center is developing animated stereo display terminals for use with McIDAS (Man-computer Interactive Data Access System). This paper describes image-generation techniques which have been developed to take maximum advantage of these terminals, integrating large quantities of four-dimensional meteorological data from balloon and satellite soundings, satellite images, Doppler and volumetric radar, and conventional surface observations. The images have been designed to use perspective, shading, hidden-surface removal, and transparency to augment the animation and stereo-display geometry. They create an illusion of a moving three-dimensional model of the atmosphere. This paper describes the design of these images and a number of rules of thumb for generating four-dimensional meteorological displays.

Radiance imaging and rainfall

Upwelling radiation from the earth's surface has been found to be a successful indicator of the rate of rainfall, according to new analyses of data obtained by the Nimbus 7 and Seasat satellites. In a recent report describing the functions of the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) on these satellites, R. W. Spencer, D. W. Martin, B. B. Hinton, and J . A. Weinman of the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin demonstrated that microwave emissions at the frequencies 37, 21, 18, 10.7, and 6.6 GHz are sensitive to changes in the rain rate (Nature, July 14, 1983). The results are significant because other satellite methods for the measurement of precipitation, which operate in the visible and infrared frequency ranges, infer precipitation from cloud observations.The results of Spencer et al. are a comparison of SMMR U.S. data with rain rates derived from local weather radar observations. The comparison was done by digitizing radar plan position indicator photographs which are taken routinely by the U.S. National Weather Service. These rates and microwave brightness temperatures were entered in the University of Wisconsin Man‐computer Interactive Data Access System. The output was displayed as television images and the radar brightness rain scale was contrasted with the SMMR images.

McIDAS III: A Modern Interactive Data Access and Analysis System

A powerful facility for meteorological analysis called the Man Computer Interactive Data Access System (McIDAS) was designed and implemented in the early 1970's at the Space Science and Engineering Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hardware and software experience gained via extensive use of that facility and its derivatives have led to a newer implementation of McIDAS on a larger computer with significant enhancements to the supporting McIDAS software. McIDAS allows remote and local access to a wide range of data from satellites and conventional observations, time lapse displays of imagery data, overlaid graphics, and current and past meteorological data. Available software allows one to perform analysis of a wide range of digital images as well as temperature and moisture sounding data obtained from satellites. McIDAS can generate multicolor composites of conventional and satellite weather data, radar and forecast data in a wide variety of two- and three-dimensional displays as well as time lapse movies of these analyses. These and other capabilities are described in this paper.

Monitoring Tropical Cyclone Evolution with NOAA Satellite Microwave Observations

NOAA satellite microwave soundings, which penetrate high clouds, delineate the development and dissipation of the upper tropospheric warm core associated with a tropical cyclone. The storm's 'core may be detected from microwave imagery. Vertical cross sections reveal the intensification of the upper tropospheric warm core as the storm develops, and the downward propagation of the warm core as the storm dissipates. Excellent correlation is found between the horizontal Laplacian of an upper tropospheric temperature field and the intensity of the storm, as categorized by its surface central pressure and maximum sustained wind speed at the eye wall. The microwave monitoring of tropical cyclones is achieved in real time at the University of Wisconsin's Space Science and Engineering Center through high-speed teleconnections to direct readout receiving systems at Wallops Island, Virginia and Redwood City, California.

Summary Report of the 11th International Laser Radar Conference 21–25 June 1982, Madison, Wis.

1 Space Science and Engineering Center and Department of Meteorology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. 53706.

An operational system for mapping insolation from goes satellite data

A system for mapping the mesoscale distribution of insolation from GOES satellite data has become operational at the University of Wisconsin Space Science and Engineering Center. An energy balance model of the earth-atmosphere system is used in conjunction with radiometrically calibrated GOES measurements to estimate surface insolation from satellite images taken at hourly intervals. Integration of these hourly estimates into daily insolation totals has produced results within 9 per cent (standard error of the mean) of pyranometer measurements on a much finer space scale than is available from the surface pyranometer network. The model has been applied, using satellite data display facilities and software designed for large satellite data sets, to produce monthly maps of insolation over large geographical areas at a resolution of approx. 12 × 12 km. Although the density of the surface pyranometer network is inadequate to directly verify the mapping results, the quality of the daily insolation estimates compared with the measurements of single pyranometers suggests that the insolation maps will have a similar accuracy.

Application of satellite data to study of ocean surface energetics

A workshop on ‘The Application of Existing Satellite Data to the Study of the Ocean Surface Energetics’ was held November 19–21, 1980, at the University of Wisconsin‐Madison. It was sponsored jointly by the Space Science and Engineering Center at University of Wisconsin‐Madison and by NASA.The major goal of the workshop was to define specific tractable problems by using the existing satellite data set. To this end the present state of research in the area of ocean surface energetics was discussed, with particular emphasis on six topics: heat fluxes at the interface, net radiative budget, currents and topography, wind and wind stress, precipitation, and sea surface temperature.

Vertical mass and moisture structure from TIROS-N

During the First Global GARP Experiment (FGGE), global determinations of mass and moisture were made from TIROS-N (and NOAA-6) infrared and microwave sounding radiance measurements. At NESS in Washington, the meteorological data were produced operationally with a horizontal resolution of 250 km for inclusion in the FGGE level II-b data sets intended for application to large scale numerical analysis and prediction models. High horizontal resolution (50 km) sounding data sets are being produced by NESS and the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin and at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center for special case studies of the “Special Observing Periods” of FGGE. Results are presented to display the characteristics of the sounding data at different resolutions. For the low horizontal resolution data, an evaluation is shown by comparisons of global analyses made only from satellite soundings over land and sea, and those made operationally by the National Meteorological Center, which excluded satellite sounding data over continental areas, but included all conventional data sources. For the high horizontal resolution sounding data, results are presented to demonstrate the delineation of small scale temperature and moisture features which are consistent with the meteorological processes involved.