About These Blogs: The JPL Science & Technology Blogs are a way for our researchers and technical staff to give first-hand accounts of the activities that are going on at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A cross-section of our staff contribute posts about the tasks they are currently involved in for NASA and JPL. These blog posts are meant to discuss technical topics. Selected comments that are on-topic are published and are moderated.
Prof. Bin Wang from the University of Hawaii visited JPL on Wednesday, August 5. He is a renowned expert on hurricane research and atmospheric dynamics. He led a proposal to NASA Hurricane Science Research Program (ROSES08) last year, in which Brian Kahn and I are JPL Co-Is. The proposal has been selected. His visit thus marked the official start of our collaborations. Bin presented very impressive WRF simulations of concentric eyewall replacement to form annular hurricane, which is a type of “monster” ...
I was at the CloudSat/CALIPSO Science Team Meeting last week in Madison, Wisconsin. There were a lot of interesting presentations. The two active sensors have provided us very rich information of the structure of clouds and aerosols. The vertical resolution and global coverage are unprecedented. Combined with other A-train satellite instruments, scientists have gained a lot of new knowledge of cloud processes (including microphysical and macrophysical processes), aerosol effects on clouds (many ...
By
Jeffrey Norris
Group Supervisor, Planning Software Systems
Last week my team had the last-minute opportunity to participate in the field trial of an interesting project, the Telesupervised Adaptive Ocean Sensor Fleet (TAOSF), a NOAA-funded effort to develop semiautonomous boats to monitor harmful algal blooms, which are simple ocean organisms that grow very quickly and release toxins that can harm marine life and cause illnesses in humans as well. The robotic boats and their instrumentation are developed in a partnership between Carnegie Mellon University, ...
Often times in addition to regular project work, surprises emerge that require immediate attention. Recently, a sudden issue came up with one of my tasks regarding a bonding issue. Essentially, the bond between a thermal spreader plate and a panel did not cure to specifications. The original bond was supposed to be a uniformly distributed 15 mil layer between the plates. However, upon inspection post curing, there were sections of the thermal spreader that could be depressed (essentially bubbling ...
I spend most of my time writing the proposal to ROSES09 A18 (CloudSat/CALIPSO science team recompete) last week and need to prepare for two talks this week: one at the MLS regular group meeting on Thursday and one for the CloudSat meeting next week in Wisconsin. I am sorry that I don't have much time to write on the blog. Talk to you next week... ...
In my first blog entry I wrote a bit about some of the characteristics of the measurements we will be making for the Dark Energy Observatory mission concept I am working on. (See “Detecting Darkness”) Recently, I have been paying special attention to a specific characteristic of the Infrared detectors we plan to use called Persistence. The detector, in this case an Infrared detector with three filters extending from 960nm – 2500nm, collects light from distant galaxies and closer stars for an established ...
I attended the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) in Radiation and Climate last week in New London, New Hampshire. It was my first Gordon conference and I found it very rewarding. This year's speakers and discussion leaders are all world-class scientists in climate research. Their talks covered the frontiers of climate research, some of which are far from being understood and probably will continue to be challenging for many years, for example, aerosols and clouds. Our progress in cloud modeling has ...
By
Jeffrey Norris
Group Supervisor, Planning Software Systems
My team develops operations software that’s used to control robots. We work with robots on the ground, in the air, in space, on other planets, and we’re even getting involved with a task that uses robotic boats to measure ocean quality. However, lately we’ve been getting excited about yet another domain for robotic operations: cyberspace.
Yes, there are robots in cyberspace, but people may not think of them that way. Robots in cyberspace are software agents, but like the more familiar kinds ...
The Cassini spacecraft operates on sequences of commands that control every function the spacecraft executes. These commands are a combination of science and engineering requests designed to follow through on the mission. The engineering commands are in support of the science commands and they ensure the spacecraft operates correctly, stays on orbit, and is protected from any hazard.
One set of commands that I am in charge of as a member of the Thermal/Devices team are the Main Engine Assembly ...
I arrived at JPL about 7 months ago, and since then I have learned to speak the engineering language of Requirements, a foreign language to me as I studied physics at college. Here at JPL, most of our missions are designed to accomplish science goals. In other words the objective of most missions is to contribute to scientific communities and the public by providing one-of-a-kind data sets achievable only by having a one-of-a-kind satellite or rover (for example). In my section, Mission System ...
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