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Mining Old Data From NASA’s Voyager 2 Solves Several Uranus Mysteries
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
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Designers at NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio work alongside researchers and scientists to create high-quality, engaging animations and visualizations of data. This animation shows global carbon dioxide emissions forming and circling the planet.Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio Captivating images and videos can bring data to life. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) produces visualizations, animations, and images to help scientists tell stories of their research and make science more approachable and engaging.
Using the Discover supercomputer at the Center for Climate Simulation at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, visualizers use datasets generated by supercomputer models to create highly detailed, accurate, and stunning visualizations with Hollywood filmmaking tools like 3D modeling and animation.
Using supercomputing models, SVS visualizers created this data-driven animation of carbon dioxide emissions moving around the planet. The visualization is driven by massive climate data sets and highly detailed emissions maps created by NASA researchers and external partners. The resulting visualization shows the impact of power plants, fires, and cities, and how their emissions are spread across the planet by weather patterns and airflow.
“Both policymakers and scientists try to account for where carbon comes from and how that impacts the planet,” said NASA Goddard climate scientist Lesley Ott, whose research was used to generate the final visualization. “You see here how everything is interconnected by the different weather patterns.”
By combining visual storytelling with supercomputing power, the SVS team continues their work to captivate and connect with audiences while educating them on NASA’s scientific research and efforts.
The NASA Center for Climate Simulation is part of the NASA High-End Computing Program, which also includes the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Facility at Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.
NASA is showcasing 29 of the agency’s computational achievements at SC24, the international supercomputing conference, Nov. 18-22, 2024, in Atlanta. For more technical information, visit:
https://www.nas.nasa.gov/sc24
For news media:
Members of the news media interested in covering this topic should reach out to the NASA Ames newsroom.
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Tara Friesen
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Last Updated Nov 18, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Coastal locations, such as Drakes Bay on the Point Reyes peninsula in Northern California, are increasingly vulnerable to sea level rise.NOAA/NMFS/WCR/CCO The information will help people who live in coastal areas prepare for impacts caused by rising sea levels.
Earth’s ocean is rising, disrupting livelihoods and infrastructure in coastal communities around the world. Agencies and organizations are working to prepare people as their world changes around them, and NASA information is helping these efforts.
The agency’s global data is now available in the sea level section of the Earth Information Center. NASA developed the global sea level change website in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense, the World Bank, the U.S. Department of State, and the United Nations Development Programme.
The site includes information on projected sea level rise through the year 2150 for coastlines around the world, as well as estimates of how much flooding a coastal community or region can expect to see in the next 30 years. The projections come from data collected by NASA and its partners and from computer models of ice sheets and the ocean, as well as the latest sea level assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and other sources.
“NASA innovates for the benefit of humanity. Our cutting-edge instruments and data-driven information tools help communities and organizations respond to natural hazards and extreme weather, and inform critical coastal infrastructure planning decisions,” said Karen St. Germain, director of the Earth science division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Information to Action
International organizations such as the World Bank will use the data from the global sea level change site for tasks including the creation of Climate Risk Profiles for countries especially vulnerable to sea level rise.
The Defense Department will continue to incorporate sea level rise data into its plans to anticipate and respond to hazards posed to its facilities by the effects of rising oceans. Similarly, the State Department uses the information for activities ranging from disaster preparedness to long-term adaptation planning to supporting partners around the world in related efforts.
“We are at a moment of truth in our fight against the climate crisis. The science is unequivocal and must serve as the bedrock upon which decision-making is built. With many communities around the world already facing severe impacts from sea-level rise, this new resource provides a vital tool to help them protect lives and livelihoods. It also illustrates what is at stake between a 1.5-degree-Celsius world and a current-policies trajectory for all coastal communities worldwide,” said Assistant Secretary-General Selwin Hart, special adviser to the United Nations secretary-general on climate action and just transition.
Rising Faster
NASA-led data analyses have revealed that between 1970 and 2023, 96% of countries with coastlines have experienced sea level rise. The rate of that global rise has also accelerated, more than doubling from 0.08 inches (0.21 centimeters) per year in 1993 to about 0.18 inches (0.45 centimeters) per year in 2023.
As the rate of sea level rise increases, millions of people could face the related effects sooner than previously projected, including larger storm surges, more saltwater intrusion into groundwater, and additional high-tide flood days — also known as nuisance floods or sunny day floods.
“This new platform shows the timing of future floods and the magnitude of rising waters in all coastal countries worldwide, connecting science and physics to impacts on people’s livelihoods and safety,” said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, director of the ocean physics program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Data released earlier this year found that Pacific Island nations will experience at least 6 inches (15 centimeters) of sea level rise in the next 30 years. The number of high-tide flood days will increase by an order of magnitude for nearly all Pacific Island nations by the 2050s.
“The data is clear: Sea levels are rising around the world, and they’re rising faster and faster,” said Ben Hamlington, a sea level researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and head of the agency’s sea level change science team. “Having the best information to make decisions about how to plan for rising seas is more crucial than ever.”
To explore the global sea level change site:
https://earth.gov/sealevel
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Karen Fox / Elizabeth Vlock
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.vlock@nasa.gov
Jane J. Lee / Andrew Wang
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0307 / 626-379-6874
jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov
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Last Updated Nov 13, 2024 Related Terms
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Article 17 hours ago 6 min read Inia Soto Ramos, From the Mountains of Puerto Rico to Mountains of NASA Earth Data
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By NASA
Name: Dr. Inia Soto Ramos
Title and Formal Job Classification: Associate Research Scientist
Organization: Ocean Ecology Laboratory (Code 616) via Morgan State University and GESTAR II cooperative agreement
Dr. Inia Soto Ramos is an associate research scientist with NASA’s PACE — the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem mission — at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.Photo courtesy of Inia Soto Ramos What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard?
I am currently co-leading the validation efforts for PACE, NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem mission. I am also part of NASA’s SeaBASS (SeaWiFS Bio-optical Archive and Storage System) team, which is responsible for archiving, distributing, and managing field data used for validation and development of satellite ocean color data products. It has been exciting to be a part of a satellite mission, to see it being built, tested and launched. And now, be able to validate the data and in the near future, use the data to do science.
What is your educational background?
I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology from The University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus, and I have a master’s and Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the University of South Florida.
How did you get your foot in the door at NASA?
While I was a student at the University of Puerto Rico, I saw a flyer for a program called PaSCoR (Partnership for Spatial and Computational Research). It was a partnership between universities, NASA and other institutions with the intent to train students in remote sensing and Geographical Information Systems. Although, this program was targeted mainly for engineers, I decided to apply. That took me to the first remote sensing classes I had taken. That’s how I started learning that you can study the ocean from space. I had no idea that could be done. That program planted the curiosity about satellite oceanography and gave me the tools to go into graduate school in that field.
How did you first gain exposure to oceanography and diving?
I am from Puerto Rico and grew up all the way in the mountains. There wasn’t much of a connection to the ocean for me, only a few trips to the beach. I remember my dad taking me to a small beach called La Poza del Obispo in Arecibo and he held me while I used a small snorkel underwater. That was the first connection I had with marine life. I started diving sometime when I was about 18 years old, and I remember saying, “This is the most amazing thing ever,” and that’s when I decided I needed to pursue a life in that field.
What interested you in phytoplankton as a specialty?
Initially, I was curious about harmful algal blooms in the West Florida Shelf, which I studied when I moved to Florida to do my grad studies. I learned that the blooms can produce neurotoxins, and those can affect humans in different ways. So, if you have asthma, they can make you feel worse. I remember developing asthma that night after going to the beach and having go to the ER. I didn’t see the connection at the time until I learned about these events and how toxins can get in the air. It felt like something important that I could study to help people or do something that’s meaningful. It’s amazing that we can see something so tiny from space and study them.
How does your identity, being a Latina, show up at NASA?
This is kind of a dream come true. It is so amazing to be able to fulfill that dream. I came from a small town. There appeared to me no chances to come all the way to NASA. So, having this opportunity is exciting, and bringing it back to my community and saying, “Hey, anyone can actually do it.” One of the advantages is that you speak a different language, so you can make connections with different countries.
What do you look forward to in the future? What are some of your goals?
I would love to keep growing in my field. As a mother, sometimes is hard to visualize where I want to be in the future, so I find it best to focus on the present. My priority right now is my family, however in the future I would love to engage in a job in which I can transfer my knowledge and love to the oceans to future generations; and be more involved in the community.
When you think of your village and growing up in Puerto Rico, what is a memory you have that makes you smile?
I still remember going to collect coffee with my mom and dad. My dad had a small basket for me that I would fill with only the most beautiful red grains of coffee. I was around 5 years old, and I remember the toys that my mom would take, and they’d settle me under the coffee trees. I still go to Puerto Rico, and I am fascinated when I see the coffee trees; it reminds me of my childhood.
What advice would you give to other little girls who might not think NASA is a dream they can achieve?
I was the little girl with the dream of being a scientist at NASA, and then I was a teenager, an adult, and a mother, all with the same dream! It took me several decades and many life stages to get here. Many times, along my path, I thought of giving up. Others, I thought I was completely off track and I would never fulfill my dream. I had limited resources while growing up. There were no fancy swimming or piano classes, but I had amazing teachers and mentors who guided me along the way. So, no matter how young or old you are, you can still fulfill that dream. The key to success is to know where you want to go, surround yourself with people that believe in you, and if you fall, just shake it off and try again!
By Alexa Figueroa
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.
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Last Updated Nov 12, 2024 EditorRob GarnerContactRob Garnerrob.garner@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
People of Goddard Earth Goddard Space Flight Center PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem) People of NASA SeaWiFS (Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor) View the full article
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By NASA
This archival photo shows engineers working on NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft on March 23, 1977. NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Voyager mission launched in the 1970s. Today, it’s making history as it conducts new science. But how are two spacecraft from the ’70s not just surviving, but thriving farther out in space than any other spacecraft has been before?
A Little Mission Background
Voyager is a NASA mission made up of two different spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2, which launched to space on Sept. 5, 1977, and Aug. 20, 1977, respectively. In the decades following launch, the pair took a grand tour of our solar system, studying Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — one of NASA’s earliest efforts to explore the secrets of the universe. These twin probes later became the first spacecraft to operate in interstellar space — space outside the heliosphere, the bubble of solar wind and magnetic fields emanating from the Sun. Voyager 1 was the first to enter interstellar space in 2012, followed by Voyager 2 in 2018.
Today, Voyager continues not just because it can, but because it still has work to do studying interstellar space, the heliosphere, and how the two interact. “We wouldn’t be doing Voyager if it wasn’t taking science data,” said Suzanne Dodd, the mission’s current project manager and the director for the Interplanetary Network at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
But across billions of miles and decades of groundbreaking scientific exploration, this trailblazing interstellar journey has not been without its trials. So, what’s the Voyager secret to success?
In short: preparation and creativity.
As NASA’s two Voyager spacecraft travel out into deep space, they carry a small American flag and a Golden Record packed with pictures and sounds — mementos of our home planet. This picture shows John Casani, Voyager project manager in 1977, holding a small Dacron flag that was folded and sewed into the thermal blankets of the Voyager spacecraft before they launched 36 years ago. Below him lie the Golden Record (left) and its cover (right). In the background stands Voyager 2 before it headed to the launch pad. The picture was taken at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Aug. 4, 1977. NASA/JPL-Caltech We Designed Them Not to Fail
According to John Casani, Voyager project manager from 1975 to launch in 1977, “we didn’t design them to last 30 years or 40 years, we designed them not to fail.”
One key driver of the mission’s longevity is redundancy. Voyager’s components weren’t just engineered with care, they were also made in duplicate.
According to Dodd, Voyager “was designed with nearly everything redundant. Having two spacecraft — right there is a redundancy.”
“We didn’t design them to last 30 years or 40 years, we designed them not to fail.”
John Casani
Voyager Project Manager, 1975-1977
A Cutting-Edge Power Source
The twin Voyager spacecraft can also credit their longevity to their long-lasting power source.
Each spacecraft is equipped with three radioisotope thermoelectric generators. These nuclear “batteries” were developed originally by the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the Atoms for Peace program enacted by President Eisenhower in 1955. Compared to other power options at the time — like solar power, which doesn’t have the reach to work beyond Jupiter — these generators have allowed Voyager to go much farther into space.
Each of NASA’s Voyager probes are equipped with three radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), including the one shown here at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The RTGs provide power for the spacecraft by converting the heat generated by the decay of plutonium-238 into electricity. Launched in 1977, the Voyager mission is managed for NASA by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California.
NASA/JPL-Caltech Voyager’s generators continue to take the mission farther than any before, but they also continue to generate less power each year, with instruments needing to be shut off over time to conserve power.
Creative Solutions
As a mission that has operated at the farthest edges of the heliosphere and beyond, Voyager has endured its fair share of challenges. With the spacecraft now in interstellar space running on software and hardware from the 1970s, Voyager’s problems require creative solutions.
Retired mission personnel who worked on Voyager in its earliest days have even come back out of retirement to collaborate with new mission personnel to not just fix big problems but to pass on important mission know-how to the next generation of scientists and engineers.
“From where I sit as a project manager, it’s really very exciting to see young engineers be excited to work on Voyager. To take on the challenges of an old mission and to work side by side with some of the masters, the people that built the spacecraft,” Dodd said. “They want to learn from each other.”
After receiving data about the health and status of Voyager 1 for the first time in five months, members of the Voyager flight team celebrate in a conference room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on April 20. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA/JPL-Caltech Within just the last couple of years, Voyager has tested the mission team’s creativity with a number of complex issues. Most recently, the thrusters on Voyager 1’s thrusters, which control the spacecraft’s orientation and direction, became clogged. The thrusters allow the spacecraft to point their antennae and are critical to maintaining communications with Earth. Through careful coordination, the mission team was able to remotely switch the spacecraft to a different set of thrusters.
These kinds of repairs are extra challenging as a radio signal takes about 22 ½ hours to reach Voyager 1 from Earth and another 22 ½ hours to return. Signals to and from Voyager 2 take about 19 hours each way.
Voyager’s Interstellar Future
This brief peek behind the curtain highlights some of Voyager’s history and its secrets to success.
The Voyager probes may continue to operate into the late 2020s. As time goes on, continued operations will become more challenging as the mission’s power diminishes by 4 watts every year, and the two spacecraft will cool down as this power decreases. Additionally, unexpected anomalies could impact the mission’s functionality and longevity as they grow older.
As the mission presses on, the Voyager team grows this legacy of creative problem solving and collaboration while these twin interstellar travelers continue to expand our understanding of the vast and mysterious cosmos we inhabit.
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Francisco Rodriguez (aircraft mechanic) services liquid oxygen or LOX on the ER-2 during the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx) research project. Experts like Rodriguez sustain a high standard of safety on airborne science aircraft like the ER-2 and science missions like GEMx. The ER-2 is based out of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.NASA/Steve Freeman Operating at altitudes above 99% of the Earth’s atmosphere, NASA’s ER-2 aircraft is the agency’s highest-flying airborne science platform. With its unique ability to observe from as high as 65,000 feet, the ER-2 aircraft is often a platform for Earth science that facilitates new and crucial information about our planet, especially when the plane is part of collaborative and multidisciplinary projects.
“We’re deploying instruments and people everywhere from dry lakebeds in the desert to coastal oceans and from the stratosphere to marine layer clouds just above the surface,” said Kirk Knobelspiesse, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “We live on a changing planet, and it is through collaborative projects that we can observe and understand those changes.”
One mission that recently benefitted from the ER-2’s unique capabilities is the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX) project. The PACE-PAX mission uses the ER-2’s capabilities to confirm data collected from the PACE satellite, which launched in February 2024.
The PACE observatory is making novel measurements of the ocean, atmosphere, and land surfaces, noted Knobelspiesse, the mission scientist for PACE-PAX. This mission is all about checking the accuracy of those new satellite measurements.
Sam Habbal (quality inspector), Darick Alvarez (aircraft mechanic), and Juan Alvarez (crew chief) work on the network “canoe” on top of the ER-2 aircraft, which provides network communication with the pilot onboard. Experts like these sustain a high standard of safety while outfitting instruments onboard science aircraft like the ER-2 and science missions like the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX) mission. The ER-2 is based out of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.NASA/Genaro Vavuris “The ER-2 is the ideal platform for PACE-PAX because it’s about the closest we can get to putting instruments in orbit without actually doing so,” Knobelspiesse said.
The collaborative project includes a diverse team of researchers from across NASA, plus the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON), the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the Naval Postgraduate School, and other institutions.
Similarly, the Geological Earth Mapping eXperiment (GEMx) science mission is using the ER-2 over multiple years to collect observations of critical mineral resources across the Western United States.
“Flying at this altitude means the GEMx mission can acquire wide swaths of data with every overflight,” said Kevin Reath, NASA’s associate project manager for the GEMx mission, a collaboration between the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA.
The ER-2 conducted over 80 flight hours in service of the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX) mission. The ER-2 is uniquely qualified to conduct the high-altitude scientific flights that this project required, and is based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.NASA/Genaro Vavuris The GEMx team collects visible, shortwave infrared, and thermal infrared data using instruments installed onboard the ER-2. Combining these instruments with the aircraft’s capability to fly at high altitudes bears promising results.
“The dataset being produced is the largest airborne surface mineralogy dataset captured in a single NASA campaign,” Reath said. “These data could help inform federal, tribal, state, and community leaders to make decisions that protect or develop our environment.”
Learn more about the ER-2 aircraft.
Learn more about the PACE-PAX mission.
Learn more about the GEMx mission.
Learn more about NASA’s Airborne Science Program.
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Last Updated Oct 24, 2024 EditorDede DiniusContactErica HeimLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms
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