Extreme 2010 Russian Fires and Pakistan Floods Linked Meteorologically

Two of the most destructive natural disasters of 2010 were closely linked by a single meteorological event, even though they occurred 1,500 miles (2,414 km) apart and were of completely different natures, a new NASA study suggests.

The research finds that the same large-scale meteorological event — an abnormal Rossby wave — sparked extreme heat and persistent wildfires in Russia as well as unusual downstream wind patterns that shifted rainfall in the Indian monsoon region and fueled heavy flooding in Pakistan. Although the heat wave started before the floods, both events attained maximum strength at approximately the same time, the researchers found by analyzing satellite data generated by NASA instruments capable of measuring the land surface temperature, precipitation intensity and wildfire activity.

William Lau and Kyu-Myong Kim, atmospheric scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., authored the study, which the Journal of Hydrometeorology published in August

A Rossby Connection

The atmosphere, gaseous and transparent, may not seem like a fluid, but that’s precisely how the thin layer of air encasing the planet behaves. As Earth spins on its axis, huge rivers of air — scientists call them Rossby waves — meander around the globe in a westerly direction. Currents in the center of these waves form the jet streams, fast-moving columns of air that push weather systems from west to east.

Rossby waves aren’t uniform. They tend to undulate and have troughs and ridges. Areas of low-pressure typically develop in the troughs of the waves, while high-pressure areas form in their ridges. Parcels of warm air from the tropics and cool air from the poles swirl around the low- and high-pressure parts of the waves creating a complex tapestry of warm and cool fronts that meet and interact constantly. Collisions between warm and cool fronts produce storms and precipitation.

Under normal summertime conditions, the jet stream pushes weather fronts through Eurasia in four or five days, but something unusual happened in July of 2010. A large-scale, stagnant weather pattern — known as an Omega blocking event — developed over a high-pressure ridge above western Russia. This blocking event, which divided the jet stream, had the effect of slowing the Rossby wave and prevented the normal progression of weather systems from west to east.

As a result, a large region of high pressure formed over Russia and trapped a hot, dry air mass. As the high lingered, the land surface dried and the normal transfer of moisture from the soil to the atmosphere slowed. Precipitation ceased, vegetation dried out, and the region became a taiga tinderbox.

Meanwhile, the blocking pattern created unusual downstream wind patterns over Pakistan. Areas of low pressure on the leading edge of the Rossby wave formed in response to the high that pulled cold, dry Siberian air into lower latitudes.

"From NASA satellite data and wind analysis, we can clearly see the connection between the two events," Lau said. "Think of the atmosphere like a loose membrane. If you push one part up, something else has to come down somewhere else. If you produce a high in one region, you produce a corresponding low in another."

This cold air from Siberia clashed with warm, moist air arriving over Pakistan from the Bay of Bengal. There’s nothing unusual about moisture moving north over India toward the Himalayas. It’s a normal part of the monsoon. However, in this case, the unusual wind patterns associated with the blocking high brought upper level air disturbances farther south than is typical, which helped shift the entire monsoon rainfall system north and west. The shift brought heavy monsoon rains squarely over the northern part of Pakistan.

Future Directions

While the new study highlights the degree of interconnection that can exist between two seemingly unrelated weather events, Lau cautions that many questions remain. For example, why did such a powerful blocking high form in the first place? And did some particular process occurring on the land or in the atmosphere sustain and strengthen it?

Lau’s analysis of data from the Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) – an atmospheric model focused on hydrology that blends data from satellites and the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5) – suggests that certain interactions between the land and atmosphere may have amplified the heat wave as it dragged on creating what climatologists call a positive feedback cycle.

Clouds, for example, typically provide shade and precipitation, but Lau’s research shows they were suppressed in the vicinity of the blocking high because prolonged drought dried the soil and slowed the rate of evaporation. The modeling and satellite data suggest that over time the reduced cloud cover would have resulted in an even greater dose of heat reaching the surface, which, in turn, would have dried the soil out even more and amplified the effect.

What’s more, Lau thinks that graphite-like dark particles in wildfire smoke – a type of aerosol called black carbon – may have helped burn clouds away, making the surface even drier and more fire prone. "We need more research to say for sure whether land and aerosol feedback sustained the high, but this study suggests it’s possible," said Ralph Kahn, an atmospheric scientist at Goddard who wasn’t involved in the study.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/asia-fire.html

Socializing Science With Smartphones in Space

One may think that participation with the International Space Station would be restricted to an exclusive club of high ranking officials and agencies. In actuality, students, teachers and commercial companies have also been taking advantage of the station's unique environment for years. One of those commercial companies, Houston-based Odyssey Space Research, plans to bring the experience to the rest of us via our mobile devices!

International Space Station National Laboratory partner NanoRacks LLC has a collaboration with Odyssey and Apple. This relationship enabled Odyssey to send two iPhone 4's to the space station as part of the STS-135 mission on July 8, 2011. These phones are just like the ones you can find at the store, but with certain alterations to meet NASA flight certification standards. It took less than a year to make the necessary changes and launch the devices to the station.

The iPhone 4 was selected for its mix of features, according to Odyssey CEO Brian Rishikof. "It had a three-axis gyro, and accelerometer, a high resolution camera and screen, and the means to manipulate the image. We had done some projects in the past that used all those features, but of course it was big, dedicated equipment and suddenly here it is in this small little package," said Rishikof.

The smartphones use the same software as their Earth counterparts and Odyssey used standard tools to develop a new app called SpaceLab for iOS, which will enable the planned research aboard the station. The app is also available for people to download to their own devices.

These devices are part of an investigation called NanoRacks Smartphone, which looks at how the phones will operate in space. The hope is to use the compact hardware in future research studies and to augment crew performance and productivity in operational activities. Currently there are four separate experiments that will run on the smartphones via SpaceLab for iOS.

The first study is Limb Tracker, a navigation experiment using photos of the Earth and image overlay manipulation to match the horizon to an arc to give an estimate of altitude and off-axis angles. Next is the Sensor Calibration or Sensor Cal experiment, which uses reference photos and the three-axis gyro and accelerometer for calibration to improve measurement accuracy. The State Acquisition or State Acq experiment also uses photos, but this time to estimate spacecraft orbital parameters. After the first three investigations are complete, the Lifecycle Flight Instrumentation or LFI experiment will operate to track the impact of radiation on the phones. To do this, the devices will monitor radiation-induced single bit upsets, which are unintended changes in memory location values.

One of the other goals in sending the phones to the space station is to engage the public. The SpaceLab for iOS app for users on the ground is identical to the software that was downloaded onto the space devices prior to launch. According to Rishikof, there is a setting in the application that indicates if the equipment is in microgravity or not. The software operates differently to accommodate the presence of gravity. "There are 200 million devices that run the operating system and could potentially run the application," said Rishikof. "Which means there are 200 million users out there that could get a sense of what it does; a sense of what an experiment in space might look like; a sense of participation."

The investigation is planned to run on the space station in the fall of 2011. The phones are not intended to have the same leisure appeal as they do on Earth, however, given the lack of iTunes, games and Internet or roaming connectivity. "People have asked me if we were loading games on the phones for the crew. No, we did not want them to be distracted, though certainly it would have been fun!" said Rishikof.

Once the investigation completes, the smartphones will return to Earth at the next opportunity. Scientists will then analyze the stored data to better understand how the devices can be used for future research on the space station and how the phones react to the space environment.

Rishikof hopes to be able to share some of the space data with SpaceLab for iOS app users, as well. "We do not have a monopoly on good ideas and hope users will suggest new and compelling things to add," commented Rishikof. "It is not a game, there's no leveling or challenges, the objective is to get data. It really just provides a way to see what's going on and while we don’t expect tons of downloads, we do expect a lot of interest. This would create an unusual opportunity for the entire world to get a look at some space data and explore it on their handheld device."

The NanoRacks Smartphone investigation is not the only phone-related study to launch to the space station with STS-135. The Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites or SPHERES, which has been aboard station since 2006, will also use smartphones to enhance the satellites' capabilities. While the two studies use different hardware, the overall capabilities of these smartphones offer bigger returns for research using a smaller package.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/SmartPhones_Space.html

Book a Disney Villa for your Disney Vacation

The world bestows to the travel addicts a number of destinations with each having its unique specialty. There are some locations where you can view nature, have fun, party and be adventurous. One such location is Orlando, Florida. The theme park Disneyworld has come popular all over the world and is luring tourists with its various attractions and rides. This theme park has been loved over the years and has always been a must visit on the list of every tourist to Orlando, Florida.

Enjoy the ultimate Disney vacation by booking your theme park tickets in advance and be sure to cover all the attractions. To make your Disney vacations complete, it’s ideal that you choose one of the Disney villas which are just a stone’s throw away from Disneyworld.  One such villa is sunrise over Disney, the villa can accommodate 12 people. The villa has 5 bedrooms with 2 king size beds, 1 queens size bed, 4 single beds and a full size sofa bed . The villa has numerous features like big screen TV, high speed internet, security alarm system and more. The community offers you a swimming pool where you can relax yourself. There are a number of golf courses in the vicinity. Such a villa will give you a true Disney experience with cool stuff like Mickey TV & play station.   Disneyworld is just a ten minute drive away from the villa and you can enjoy watching sunrise over Disney from your front porch and the sunset from your private pool. Planning a Disney vacation? Do book yourself one of the amazing Florida villa Or Orlando villas near Disneyworld. Book a Florida villa near Disney now.

Peering Inside the Flame: Fusion Imaging of the Final Space Shuttle Launch

Louise Walker and J.T. Heineck of the Experimental Aero-Physics Branch at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., are learning how to see shape and detail in blindingly bright plumes of rocket fire. The two researchers were funded by the Space Shuttle Program to document the final shuttle launch, STS-135, with their distinctive images.

They first tested the technique as a challenge from a co-worker. "We were approached by an acoustics guy here at Ames who had a hobby rocket video," explained Walker. "He showed us the video and said, 'Can you take a better shot than this?'. It had the typical view of a launch you see on film -- white blown-out flame on a dark background. Basically the flame is over-exposed. We knew that we needed image fusion to really see what was going on."

Image fusion is a technique which begins with image files taken simultaneously at nearly identical angles and positions, each with different filters. The images are processed through minute alignment and warping to match camera angles precisely and account for the inches between each camera's position. The files are then transferred to software that combines each set of now identically framed images to highlight the different levels of detail captured in each. The processing software digitally removes saturated pure black or pure white pixels from one image and replaces them with the most detailed pixels in the set. The resulting image is sometimes called a high dynamic range image, referring to the different dynamic ranges, or exposure and brightness, in each image.

Realizing this technique could be developed and applied to much larger rockets, Walker and Heineck began improving how such images might be taken. The researchers looked within Ames' labs for materials.

"I found some cameras that matched and some scrap aluminum, and built the frame," explains Walker. "Each camera sits on a brick-sized mount that rotates and slides, and the whole thing is sitting on top of a sturdy tripod we already had. It was the Apollo 13 game -- this is what we have, this is what we need to do, how do we make it work?"

After hearing about their initial results, researchers started asking them to image static rocket firing tests and launch abort motor tests and finally a colleague from NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Center, Huntsville, Ala. contacted them. Walker recalls, "Darrell Gaddy, a thermal analysis engineer, came to us and said, 'Hey you guys should be doing a shuttle launch,' and we perked up and said, 'Yes, we agree!'"

Walker and Heineck arranged to image the STS-133 launch to support the shuttle debris tracking team, but the delays for that launch meant they had to leave before shooting it. For STS-134, they successfully shot the images that would create the first shuttle launch fusion video.

On June 27, 2011, Walker and Heineck trekked from California to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla., and set up their wall of cameras, affectionately called "Walle." At 1,250 feet from Atlantis on the launch pad, the team set up the equipment, aligned the cameras visually, then connected the control computer through system of fiber optic networks provided by Kennedy's Experimental Imaging Lab and Photo Operations.

"All five visible cameras record to internal memory and we communicate to them through Ethernet connections," said Heineck. "Each camera goes to a network hub, and we talk to the hub from miles away through the fiber optic connection."

The STS-135 launch imaging has a couple of notable differences from the STS-134 images, including wider framing to capture more of the launch, and an added layer of non-visible data.

"For this last one, we worked with Darrell Gaddy to add a thermal infrared camera. This allows us to see detail in the plume that we can't see with cameras set up in the visible spectrum," said Walker. "Darrell has been fielding thermal imaging of launches for a while now, and we just jumped on his shoulders in adding these extra details."

"With the combined multiple layers, human eyes and brains can process what's going on and take it all in," Heineck said. "That's not possible using just your eyes while it's happening, or on a single camera's photograph or video."

The technique can have many other technical uses, including validating computer models of very bright events. With the layers of real data to compare against computer-generated information, researchers can better understand the structure of the plume when rockets fire, the motion of the flames flowing out of the rocket motor, and how to design optimal future motors.

"We're exploring options working with the arc jets at Ames, are looking at working with other labs, and have been working with a group making new hybrid sounding rockets," said Heineck. "With any high dynamic events -- welding, wildfires, industrial machining – you can process much more data on detail and structure by using this technique than with a single setting in a camera."

The technique could have significant benefits for future space transportation systems, through imaging new rocket motor development and the Ames arc jets, which test aerothermodynamic heating a spacecraft endures throughout atmospheric re-entry and tests of thermal protection systems and materials.

"It was the intent all along to expand the image fusion techniques to include cameras with other parts of the spectrum -- X-ray, deep ultraviolet, and various other imaging methods can also be incorporated," said Heineck. "There are lots of applications we're anxious to try."

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/shuttle_station/features/sts-135_launch_fused_imagery.html

Calling the Caribbean from the International Space Station

Close to 300 students in the Caribbean got a very long distance call from the International Space Station on Monday, Aug. 8, 2011. Crew members aboard the station used the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, or ARISS, to make contact with their eager audience on the ground. The goal was to inspire students and educators via an interactive space experience. This was the first ARISS communication for the Caribbean region.

The ARISS conversations usually last about 10 minutes. During that time, chosen students on the ground ask questions, which the crew answers from the space station. Questions during the Caribbean contact ranged from how space travel affects human health and how the space station was powered and maneuvered to concerns about space debris. Students also wanted to know what it was like to be an astronaut, asking about the most difficult aspects of the job.

Students prepared by learning about the space station, radio waves and how amateur radio works, as well as proposing questions to ask the crew. Ken Ransom, project coordinator with the International Space Station Ham Radio Program, points out the educational benefits of the approximately 50 conversations that take place every year. "The ARISS program is all about inspiring and encouraging by reaching the community and providing a chance for schools to interact with local technical experts. It also brings the space program to their front door."

In order for ARISS to work, the station must pass over the Earth-bound communicators during amateur radio transmissions to relay signals between the station's ham radio and ground receivers. Other issues, such as weather and crew availability, factor into the timing. During each pass, astronauts answer an average of 18 questions, depending on their complexity. To date, space station residents have participated in more than 600 ARISS communications with students around the world.

The downlink audio from ARISS talks can be heard by anyone in range with basic receiving equipment; transmissions broadcast on 145.800 MHz. Interested parties can also catch a broadcast via EchoLink and IRLP amateur radio networks or on the Internet, when available, according to Ransom.

Camille Alleyne, assistant program scientist with the International Space Station Program Science Office at Johnson Space Center, attended the ARISS communication session while representing NASA at the Caribbean Youth Science Forum held in Trinidad and Tobago. Participating nations included Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Dominica. "These island nations have never been involved in any space-related activities before. This was likely a life changing for innumerable students," commented Alleyne.

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For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/ARISS_Trinidad.html

Hurricane Irene a Little Stronger, Eye Now Over Crooked Island, Bahamas

When a satellite can see a hurricane's eye clearly from space, that's an indication of a strong tropical cyclone and the GOES-13 satellite saw just that in Hurricane Irene this morning as she became a major hurricane. An animation of GOES-13 satellite imagery released from NASA today shows Irene's transition into a powerhouse and pinpointed when her eye became visible from space.

Hurricane Irene reached Category 3 status this morning, the threshold for a major hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale that measures hurricane intensity.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite called GOES-13 provides continuous visible and infrared imagery of the eastern U.S. and Atlantic Ocean basin from its position in space. GOES satellites are operated by NOAA, and the NASA GOES Project located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. creates images and compiled them into the video of the storm as it developed from June 27 to June 28.

The animation includes sped up infrared and visible frames of data from the GOES-13 satellite and is squeezed down to 36 seconds. The movie shows satellite imagery that was captured in 15 minute intervals from August 22 at 8:40 a.m. EDT (1240 UTC) until August 24 at 8:40 a.m. EDT shows Irene moving over Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and toward the southeastern Bahamas. Irene's eye becomes visible on August 24 at 0055 UTC (Aug. 23 at 8:55 p.m. EDT).

Irene became a major hurricane at 8 a.m. EDT today, August 24, 2011 as it headed toward the Crooked and Acklins Islands in the Bahamas. Irene's maximum sustained winds had increased to 115 mph (186 kmh) making Category three status. Additional strengthening is forecast by the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Category three hurricanes can cause "devastating damage" according to the NHC's webpage: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/sshws.shtml.

Irene is located about 55 miles southeast of Acklins Island, Bahamas, near 21.9 North and 73.3 West. It was moving to the west-northwest at 9 mph (15 kmh) and had a minimum central pressure near 957 millibars.

A hurricane warning is in effect for the southeastern, central and northwestern Bahamas, and a tropical storm warning is in effect for the Turks and Caicos Islands. An unofficial reporting station at Pine Cay, located in the Caicos Islands reported a wind gust to 65 mph (105 kmh) earlier today.

Rainfall amount across Hispaniola and Puerto Rico will be between 1 and 3 inches as Irene pushes away. However, isolated maximum storm total amounts of 15 inches are possible with flash floods and mud slides in areas of steep terrain. In the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos islands high rainfall totals are forecast by NHC of between 6 to 12 inches are expected.

The NHC warns that "an extremely dangerous storm surge will raise water levels by as much as 7 to 11 feet above normal tide levels over the central and northwestern Bahamas and by as much as 5 to 8 feet above normal tide levels over the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos islands."

Hurricane Irene is a large storm that has continued to grow over the last several days as it has strengthened. Tropical storm-force winds extend out to 205 miles from its center, making Irene about 410 miles in diameter! Hurricane force-winds extend out to 40 miles, or 80 miles in diameter.

The NHC's current forecast track for Hurricane Irene takes the storm to a landfall in eastern North Carolina as a major hurricane on Saturday, August 27. The NASA GOES Project will continue to provide imagery and animations from the GOES-13 satellite daily as Irene nears the U.S.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/archives/2011/h2011_Irene.html

NPP Runs the Gauntlet of Environmental Testing

The NPP satellite sits surrounded by 144 rock concert speakers. They're stacked in a circle 16 feet high in a testing room at Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado.

As engineers set up for the environmental test, Pink Floyd's song "Money" plays gently in the background. The music stops. The room clears. Then the sound engineer wearing earplugs and headphones in the control room next door flips a switch.

Slowly, the noise of thousands of pounds of exploding rocket fuel builds louder and louder until it blasts the satellite at a deafening 143.6 decibels -- loud enough to cause serious damage and pain to unprotected ears. "I was outside the building when they did the full level acoustics," says Glenn Iona, NPP Chief Engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "and I could feel the ground shaking."

The acoustic test is one of a gauntlet of environmental tests a satellite must pass to prove that it can survive launch and life in space. For Large Class Observatory mission NPP, this process took years to plan, 15 months to execute and was fraught with as many engineering challenges as building the satellite itself.

The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) is the prototype for the next generation of Earth-observing satellites that will monitor daily weather and long-term ozone levels and climate change.

NPP's five instruments will continue data collection now done by an aging fleet of satellites. NASA's oldest Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites are more than 10 years old, with instrument designs and technology dating back to the early 1990s. NPP is the bridge between the original EOS missions and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). JPSS, previously called the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), will be developed by NASA for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Testing to evaluate whether a satellite is ready for space occurs at several levels. Some individual parts and each individual instrument from the satellite go through three types of testing: dynamic, electromagnetic compatibility, and thermal vacuum.

Then the parts are integrated onto the main satellite bus, a wedge-shaped block the size of a four-door sedan. The bus has propulsion systems, a flight computer, a data processing computer, data storage and a solar panel wing that powers it all. Engineers then put the spacecraft and instruments through their paces to get a performance baseline before the whole satellite is run through the suite of environmental tests again.

The challenge, according to Goddard's Glenn Iona, who oversaw environmental testing for NPP, which took place in 2010 and 2011, is testing the satellite while taking into account all the different instruments' requirements and restrictions: Will the electromagnetic field generated by one instrument’s electronics interfere with the instrument sitting next to it? Will the jitter caused by the spacecraft or other instruments affect the sensitive Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS)?

Iona says they weren’t sure about the shaking, so just in case, they designed a way to isolate CrIS’s platform from vibrations using frangi-bolts that will break in a controlled manner when heated on command, allowing the instrument to "float" on shock absorbers.

Keeping out Dust Bunnies

Engineers also must figure out how to run the tests without damaging or contaminating the instruments.

Most of the tests happen in specially ventilated clean rooms -- no dust allowed. Engineers work in white coveralls, called bunny suits, which prevent contamination from clothes, skin and hair. But even those precautions weren’t enough for the super-sensitive Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS). It detects solid particles and molecular gases in the atmosphere, and is sensitive to contamination from the tiniest amount of dust. During testing, frequent inspections and a plastic bag protected it. While that worked for OMPS, Iona says that solution wouldn’t work on other instruments.

"CrIS has paint you can’t touch," he says. The specialized paint reflects the sun's heat because part of the instrument’s design is to have a stable operating temperature. Anything touching it may fleck the paint away. Iona says the challenge was, "How do you keep it clean from contamination if you can't put a bag over it?" The answer: special hard covers or, during dynamics testing, a tented drape that avoided the paint.

In the dynamics testing room, the whole satellite wears protective bagging and sits on a giant shaker table where it's rattled up and down and side-to-side to simulate its rocket ride. In another chamber, testers bombard the satellite with the types of electromagnetic radiation it will encounter in space -- and then test for how much radiation it emits that might affect neighboring satellites.

The ‘Iron Maiden’

But the most complicated and challenging test is thermal vacuum (TVAC) where the satellite goes through four cycles of extreme cold to extreme heat in a vacuum chamber. The test simulates the temperature changes NPP will encounter on the day and night sides of the Earth, as well as worst case scenarios of whether the instruments can come back to life in case of a shut down that exposes them to even colder temperatures.

According to Scott Compton, Integration and Test Manager at Ball Aerospace, Boulder, Colorado, preparing for the thermal vacuum test took a year and a half and involved building a scaffold that engineers fitted to the satellite like a dress. It was an engineering "project within a project," says Compton.

Called the "Iron Maiden" after the medieval torture device, the scaffold held heaters and coolers less than an inch away from each instrument to meet their individual hot and cold temperature requirements. Liquid nitrogen was used to cool OMPS, the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) and the Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) while CrIS and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) were subjected to even colder liquid helium, to reach temperatures ranging from 30-120 Kelvins. VIIRS and CrIS complicated matters because they are both designed to be thermally stable -- they resisted cooling down and heating up.

During the test, the temperature changes were carefully monitored because too quick of a change would damage the instruments. Coordinating the many heaters and coolers "was a ballet for the thermal engineers," says Compton, who adds that NPP's thermal vacuum test was the most complex he's been involved with.

Seventy five people, from the testing team to each instrument's engineering and data analysis teams, camped out on site for the 24-hour testing that lasted 49 days in March and April, 2011. And the scientists who will be using NPP's data were on standby across the country to evaluate the instruments' performance.

Air Hockey, Anyone?

Last, but perhaps most important, the testing team unfolded NPP's three solar panels. Looking like a set of blackboards on wheels, the team simulated weightlessness by using what acts like the world’s largest air hockey table. Hoses attached to temporary support legs for the solar panels pushed air underneath hockey pucks on the feet. This created a localized 30 thousandths of an inch air cushion. With reduced friction, the pucks then slid across a slick dance floor made of polymer roofing material, and the three panels locked themselves into place perfectly.

After resolving the 107 test anomalies they found during months of vibration, noise, electromagnetic radiation and controlled swings in temperature, the satellite's onboard computers and instruments passed their final performance tests. NPP is ready for space. Glenn Iona's says his favorite part of the process was that, even with all the complications and problems that cropped up, the environmental testing team passed every stage on or ahead of schedule. "Seeing the environmental testing come together and leading the team, TVAC in particular, was really satisfying on so many levels," he says.

NPP is scheduled to launch into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California on October 25, 2011.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NPP/news/npp-testing.html

NASA Lands in the Heart of New York City

NEW YORK -- Among the everyday sounds of traffic and the chaotic rush of the city, a piece of Manhattan's Chelsea District grew still and focused at 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.

Hundreds of eyes in Eventi's "Big Screen Plaza" redirected from soaring architectural silhouettes, including that of the Empire State Building, to a stage where the four-person STS-135 astronaut crew emerged to kick off "What's Your Favorite Space?" presented by NASA and Eventi.

Between 29th and 30th streets, and parallel to Avenue of the Americas, Sesame Street's Elmo joined them on the stage with giggles, wit and questions for the crew.

Elmo and the Atlantis crew were meeting for the first time, although Elmo witnessed their launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on July 8. He asked how they slept, how long it took them to train, even how they brushed their teeth.

"Are you sad that the shuttle program has ended?" Elmo asked.

"It was sad. The space shuttle may be gone, but its mission is complete," said Cmdr. Chris Ferguson. "Sometimes you have to stop building rockets for today to build one for tomorrow."

Though NASA closed a chapter in America's history in space with the end of the shuttle program, the agency is already working on the next installment of the story of exploration. That was part of the story Wednesday in New York.

It was told at dozens of interactive spaces that outlined the plaza from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., while NASA video played on a 35-foot (10.7 m) high-definition LED screen.

Samuel and Hannah Foster from Hacketts Town, N.J., tried on space gloves and attempted tooling tasks that astronauts do in space.

Their older brother, Benjamin, was there with his FIRST robotics team. He later was one of many to demonstrate a robot on stage. His father, Bryan, was pleased to be at the event with his children, who have all taken a special interest in science.

Many children discovered their "favorite space" in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) exhibit. There, the engineering challenge involved picking up a potato and dressing it with bubble wrap, rubber bands, aluminum foil and strings to secure it from damage. A tool was dropped onto the potato inside a bucket, and an unharmed potato earned them a cape, a bag and a solar-powered safety light.

Students from the City College of New York ASME student chapter hosted a "balloon blaster" challenge. Rowan, a third-grader, and Grier, an upcoming kindergartner, discovered this to be a "favorite space."

A scientist from New Jersey, Jefferson Tilley, talked about the Hubble Space Telescope. Earlier in the day, the STS-135 crew explained that NASA's shuttle program had serviced that telescope five times since the program's inception in 1981.

Diane Powell, from NASA headquarters, showed off agency-inspired artwork. Nearby, children built airplanes, rovers and shuttles from Legos or had their photos taken in "space" as a souvenir.

In Moonbase Alpha, visitors assumed the role of an astronaut working to further human expansion. A walking gallery of NASA spinoff displays showcased commercial products used every day that incorporate NASA technology.

Many discovered that their "favorite space" came with the colors of their choice for the Space Shuttle Mosaic Activity, in which children colored numbered pieces to a puzzle that was pieced together during the day to complete a "What's Your Favorite Space?" wall.

Many found "favorite spaces" in the "Journey to Tomorrow" trailer, an interactive environment packed with hands-on activities and digital learning stations. Others remotely drove an exploration rover across a lunar terrain right from Eventi's plaza.

Evan, a rising kindergarten student, found himself nose-to-nose with Elmo after earlier receiving a mission patch from the astronaut crew.

From the plaza, an estimated 4,000 people found their "favorite space" in the heart of New York City. The event reached numbers of visitors that no one had predicted.

One month earlier, the STS-135 crew had been at the International Space Station, approximately 240 miles from Earth.

On Wednesday at 8:25 p.m., the International Space Station could be seen from New York. As it streaked past on its daily routine of 16 Earth rotations, some who watched could remember that they had just met a crew that had been a part of it.

And they had also met NASA's future, and possibly their own on a day when the sights and sounds of NASA had stood out among the din of New York.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/nasalife/features/favorite-space.html

NASA's Asteroid Photographer Beams Back Science Data

The Dawn spacecraft has completed a graceful spiral into the first of four planned science orbits during the spacecraft's yearlong visit to Vesta. The spacecraft started taking detailed observations on Aug. 11 at 9:13 a.m. PDT (12:13 a.m. EDT), which marks the official start of the first science-collecting orbit phase at Vesta, also known as the survey orbit.

Survey orbit is the initial and highest orbit, at roughly 1700 miles (2700 kilometers) above the surface, which will provide an overview or "big picture" perspective of the giant asteroid.

The primary objective of survey orbit is to image the surface with near-global coverage in visible and infrared wavelengths with the mapping spectrometer, also known as VIR. Dawn also will be using its framing camera to collect image mosaics that complement the VIR spectral data to produce geologic and compositional maps of Vesta's surface. Ultrasensitive measurements of the spacecraft's motion using radio signals will allow improved understanding of the giant asteroid's gravity field. Dawn's gamma ray and neutron detector will continue to collect background data.

The survey phase is planned to last 20 days. Each orbit takes almost three days, which will provide the spacecraft seven trips around Vesta. After survey orbit, Dawn will resume thrusting, taking about a month to spiral down gently to its next science orbit for an even closer view. That orbit, known as High Altitude Mapping Orbit, or HAMO, begins in late September. Dawn will spend about a month in HAMO, circling around Vesta in half a day, rather than three. Dawn will orbit more than 60 times during HAMO, allowing the camera to fully map the illuminated portion of Vesta at even higher resolution, and enable the science team to generate stereo images.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/news/dawn20110811.html

NASA's GRAIL Moon Twins are Joined to Their Booster

NASA's lunar-bound GRAIL twins were mated to their Delta II launch vehicle at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 17 at 8:45 a.m. EDT (5:45 a.m. PDT) today. The 15-mile (25-kilometer) trip from Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., is the last move for GRAIL before it begins its journey to the moon. NASA's dynamic duo will orbit the moon to determine the structure of the lunar interior from crust to core and to advance understanding of the thermal evolution of the moon.

"We are about to finish one chapter in the GRAIL story and open another," said Maria Zuber, GRAIL's principal investigator, based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "Let me assure you this one is a real page-turner. GRAIL will rewrite the book on the formation of the moon and the beginning of us."

Now that the GRAIL spacecraft are atop their rocket, a final flurry of checks and tests can begin to confirm that all is go for launch. The final series of checks begins tomorrow, Aug. 19, with an on-pad functional test. The test is designed to confirm that the spacecraft is healthy after the fueling and transport operations. Next week, among all the upcoming final tests, reviews and closeout operations leading up to liftoff, the GRAIL team will install the launch vehicle fairing around the spacecraft.

GRAIL's launch period opens Sept. 8 and extends through Oct. 19. On each day, there are two separate instantaneous launch opportunities separated in time by approximately 39 minutes. On Sept. 8, the first launch opportunity is at 8:37 a.m. EDT (5:37 a.m. PDT). The second launch opportunity is 9:16 a.m. EDT (6:16 a.m. PDT). 

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/grail/news/grail20110818.html

Teams Practice Lifting Shuttles at Airports

It will take two large cranes, a specially built sling, four masts and about 45 people to perform the complex maneuvers to safely lift a space shuttle off the back of a modified 747. Because it hasn't been done in more than 20 years, teams rehearsed the lift on the Shuttle Landing Facility's ramp at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

It is a scene coming soon to Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and New York as NASA's shuttles are handed over to museums for public display. Each of those cities will receive one of the shuttles, including Enterprise, the prototype shuttle used to prove the design could glide safely to a landing after returning from orbit. One of the shuttles, Atlantis, will be displayed at Kennedy.

"People have different emotions about it, but I'm kind of honored to put them in their final display location," said Casey Wood of United Space Alliance's Integrated Landing Operations. He is part of the team that will oversee the work.

During the more than 30 years the space shuttles were in development and launching, they have been lifted onto and off of 747s numerous times, most often when the shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Those moves were performed by specially designed structures at Kennedy and in California called "mate-demate devices." The MDDs, as they are called, are shaped to let the 747, called the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, wheel in beneath a sling that lifts and holds the shuttle.

Only once did a shuttle not land in either location, and that was back in 1983 at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. Had the shuttle made an emergency landing overseas or at a different runway, the mobile system would have been taken there to load the shuttle to the SCA.

The mobile lift system was used in 1985 when Enterprise moved to Washington, D.C.

"This system has been stored in cargo containers for more than 20 years, and that's why we wanted to do the test," Wood said. "We were just missing the plane and the orbiter."

The shuttle will weigh about 175,000 pounds -- more than 87 tons -- when it is readied for public viewing. That's a heavy enough load to cause a crane's boom to flex slightly.

"The actual lift is probably the biggest challenge," Wood said. "With our lift, we can only go directly up or directly down. It's strictly vertical, there's no lateral movement."

To get it right, the team trucked all the gear out of storage over to the Shuttle Landing Facility and set it up.

The sling is almost identical to the ones used at the MDDs, used to hoist the shuttle and mate or demate to the SCA. This sling was used in Palmdale, Calif., where the shuttles were built, and used to lift the shuttle there.

The setup includes four masts that connect to the sling.

"That gives us our steadiness and wind restraint," Wood said.

They had to drill about 200 holes in the ramp to anchor the different elements firmly. With everything in place, they can perform the work in winds up to about 20 mph.

With this test accomplished, Wood said the team is reworking a few procedures to adapt them to the different locations. Discovery is scheduled to be the first shuttle to go through the operation for real, when it is ferried up to Washington, D.C., for display at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in the spring of 2012.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/behindscenes/shuttleflyawaytesst.html

Retired NASA Astronaut & Pilot Fred Haise Honored

Retired NASA astronaut and research pilot Fred Haise returned to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center Aug. 11 to share recollections of his time as a research pilot at the center in the 1960s and to participate in ceremonies honoring him at the Lancaster Jethawks baseball team's annual Aerospace Appreciation Night in nearby Lancaster, Calif., on Aug. 13.

Haise, best known for his harrowing experience with fellow astronauts James Lovell and Jack Swigert after an oxygen tank exploded on the service module during the abortive Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970, is slated to be joined by retired fellow astronaut Gordon Fullerton and research pilots Fitzhugh Fulton and Tom McMurtry during pre-game ceremonies Saturday evening at the Lancaster Municipal Stadium, also known as the Hangar.

Haise and Fullerton flew three of the five approach and landing flight tests of the prototype space shuttle orbiter Enterprise at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base in 1977, and Fulton and McMurtry were the pilots of the modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft that carried Enterprise aloft for the tests.

The pre-game ceremonies at the stadium will include a video tribute to Haise and a flyover by a NASA F/A-18 aircraft, as well as distribution of bobblehead figures of Haise standing in an Apollo capsule to the first several hundred fans who attend the game. Haise is also scheduled to throw the first pitch prior to the Jethawks game with the San Jose Giants of the Class A California League.

Haise, who was employed by NASA from 1959 through 1979 after a stint as an Air Force fighter pilot, spent three of those years as a research pilot at the Flight Research Center. He recalled those years during an historical colloquium Thursday afternoon, Aug. 11, before an appreciative audience of Dryden employees. His "Remembrances of my best flying days at FRC" focused on Haise' three years as a research pilot at NASA Dryden from 1963 through 1966, prior to being accepted for NASA astronaut training.

"It was the most fun day-to-day time I've had in my life," he said.

Prior to his presentation, Haise toured many of today's flight research projects and aircraft at NASA Dryden, along with getting re-acquainted with the restored prototype lightweight M2-F1 lifting body that he flew in tethered flight in the mid-1960s. On Friday, he toured NASA Dryden's Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, where the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy and most of NASA Dryden's fleet of science aircraft are based.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/Features/Fred_Haise_Honored.html

Villa Vacation in Costa Rica

Manuel Antonio is the country's well-known national park. It can be described as one equal half of the beachfront and other equal parts of the rainforest, and that’s the reason why people choose a Manuel Antonio Villa for their trip to this gorgeous country.

Costa Rica Villa is the most popular formats in terms of accommodation and supple style. Vacation renters offers you large and opulent homes that sit straight on the beaches, come with private bungalows or beach front services, and which give you everything from daily housekeeping to a private chef. You can also find the right differing situation and find a cozy villa situated up in the hills with a breathtaking view of the sea and yet the calm of the forest at night. There are also a small private house or villas that are maintained by locals who live in the building too.

This is particularly right when heading to some place as amazing as Manuel Antonio. This is the kind of place where you might enjoy a tour of the "canopy" in order to spot rare birds and rainforest mortals. You could also head down to shady riverfront locations put into the forests as well and see the various kinds of mangrove trees and the many unusual plants and animals that live in this environment too. You can also find some accommodations that give you direct right of entry to the incredibly beautiful land and waters of the Manuel Antonio park as well. The primary thing to keep in mind about any Costa Rican vacation is the easy fact that it is one of the supplest and diverse chances available and it all begins with choosing your perfect holiday villa for your getaway.

Hubble Offers a Dazzling 'Necklace'

A giant cosmic necklace glows brightly in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image.

The object, aptly named the Necklace Nebula, is a recently discovered planetary nebula, the glowing remains of an ordinary, Sun-like star. The nebula consists of a bright ring, measuring 12 trillion miles wide, dotted with dense, bright knots of gas that resemble diamonds in a necklace.

A pair of stars orbiting close together produced the nebula, also called PN G054.2-03.4. About 10,000 years ago one of the aging stars ballooned to the point where it engulfed its companion star. The smaller star continued orbiting inside its larger companion, increasing the giant’s rotation rate.

The bloated companion star spun so fast that a large part of its gaseous envelope expanded into space. Due to centrifugal force, most of the gas escaped along the star’s equator, producing a ring. The embedded bright knots are dense gas clumps in the ring.

The pair is so close, only a few million miles apart, they appear as one bright dot in the center. The stars are furiously whirling around each other, completing an orbit in a little more than a day.

The Necklace Nebula is located 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagitta. In this composite image, taken on July 2, Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 captured the glow of hydrogen (blue), oxygen (green), and nitrogen (red).

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/necklace-nebula.html

Dryden F-104 Flight-Tested Shuttle TPS Materials

During the formative years of the space shuttle program, NASA Dryden F-15 and F-104 jets were used to flight-test various advanced Thermal Protection System (TPS) materials for the shuttles.

These tests included TPS materials from different locations on shuttle orbiters, and they were tested for everything from rain impact integrity, to air-loads strength and surface bonding.

During one such effort, NASA Dryden engineers conducted flight-testing of the orbiter’s advanced, flexible Felt Reusable Surface Insulation (FRSI) and Advanced Flexible Reusable Surface Insulation (AFRSI) TPS materials. These were the soft, sewn blanket-like materials that covered most of the upper surfaces of the orbiters, while black silicon tiles covered the underside, and reinforced carbon-carbon materials protected the nose and leading edges of the wings.

Up until the space shuttle, only disposable, one-use-only ablative materials were used as TPS materials on spacecraft. Ablative materials are layered and are designed to burn off, carrying heat with them in order to keep the heat away from the spacecraft. The idea of using reusable materials was radical, especially lightweight and flexible materials, to withstand the super-hot friction heating that spacecraft encounter while returning through Earth’s atmosphere.

The objectives of the FRSI and AFRSI tests were to evaluate the performance of the materials at simulated shuttle launch aerodynamic loads, and also to provide a database for future advanced TPS flight tests.

These flights were flown mostly on Dryden’s F-104 test bed aircraft in the 1980s, with the TPS materials attached to a fin-like structure called the Flight Test Fixture (FTF) underneath the F-104.

During this series of tests, the material samples were exposed to 40 percent higher aerodynamic loads than they were designed to withstand. The test articles required tailoring of the airflow over them to accurately simulate shuttle conditions over the FTF.

To accomplish this tailoring, an elliptically shaped nose was designed for the FTF to produce a high-pressure shockwave at the location of the TPS material samples attached on the sides of the FTF.

Data-wise, it was extremely important that the required flight conditions be maintained. This was accomplished by using a flight trajectory guidance system called the Uplink Guidance System (UGS). The UGS used an analog cockpit display to alert the pilot, in real-time, of any deviations from the desired flight conditions. For example, one parameter displayed on the UGS was sideslip, which is the flight condition in which an airplane is no longer flying straight along the path of its longitudinal axis.

During the FRSI and AFRSI flights, the pilots could keep precisely on track by keeping an eye on the UGS indicator.

The FRSI and AFRSI flight-test projects were a success, both in terms of accomplishing their test objectives and that the TPS materials passed these tests with no material failures noted during post-flight inspections.

NASA Dryden’s expertise in such work continues today, as the center uses F-15 aircraft to flight-test the next generation of aerospace sensors and materials.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/flyout/F-104_TPS.html