Posts tagged Air Force
CU Boulder’s sun-gazing SORCE satellite, designed to last 5 years, turns 10
Jan 22nd
A decade later, the four instruments onboard the Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment, or SORCE, have given scientists an unprecedented look at some of the most intense solar eruptions ever witnessed — including the notorious Halloween storms in October and November 2003 — as well as the anomalously quiet solar minimum that hushed the sun’s surface beginning in 2008 and, now, a new solar maximum that appears to be the least active in a century.
“We were there to see it transform from a fairly normal solar cycle to a very low-activity solar cycle,” said Tom Woods, associate director of CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, known as LASP, and principal investigator for SORCE. “Of course we couldn’t predict or know that, but it’s very exciting.”
The data generated by SORCE’s instruments, which were originally designed to operate for just five years, are downloaded twice a day with the help of CU-Boulder undergraduates working at LASP mission control. Scientists are now using that data to better understand how energy from the sun affects Earth’s climate. While human-produced greenhouse gases have been the dominant driver of climate change over the last several decades, the activity of the sun can either enhance or offset the resulting global warming.
“About 10 to 15 percent of the climate warming since 1970 is due to the sun,” Woods said. “That’s going to change now. Now that solar activity is low, the global warming trend could slow down some, but not nearly enough to offset the anthropogenic effects on global warming.”
The current, lackluster solar maximum is being compared to periods when astronomers observed very few sunspots in the early 19th century known as the Dalton Minimum and in the last half of the 17th century known as the Maunder Minimum. During the Maunder Minimum, which coincided with an era known as the Little Ice Age, temperatures in Europe were especially cool, with rivers and canals freezing during the winter across the continent and rapidly advancing glaciers destroying villages in the Swiss Alps.
The SORCE mission is also a critical contributor to the long-term record of total solar irradiance — the magnitude of the sun’s energy when it reaches the top of the Earth’s atmosphere — which stretches back to 1978, when the Nimbus-7 satellite was launched. The Total Irradiance Monitor, or TIM, instrument onboard SORCE is taking the most accurate and most precise measurements of total solar irradiance ever collected.
“The total solar irradiance provides nearly all the energy powering the Earth’s climate system, exceeding all other energy sources combined by 2,500 times,” said Greg Kopp, LASP senior research scientist and co-investigator responsible for the TIM instrument. “Any change in total irradiance can thus have large effects on our climate.”
Data from the SORCE mission have also begun a new record for measurements of visible and near-infrared light emitted from the sun. The solar spectral irradiance measurements are being made for the first time by the Spectral Irradiance Monitor, or SIM. Combined with other instruments onboard SORCE, scientists can now see all the wavelengths, including those in the ultraviolet range, emitted by the sun at once. This new way of seeing the sun has led to interesting discoveries, including that the energy emitted in some wavelengths of light vary out of phase with the sun’s overall activity, actually increasing as the number of sunspots decreases.
Now that SORCE has doubled its original life expectancy, LASP scientists are building new instruments to take over when SORCE gives out. A new TIM built at LASP launched on NASA’s Glory mission in 2011, but the satellite failed to make orbit. After the loss of Glory, CU-Boulder scientists, determined to avoid a gap in the record of total solar irradiance measurements, came up with a creative solution, repurposing a ground-based TIM to quickly make it space-worthy and then integrating it onto a U.S. Air Force satellite built by Ball Aerospace that is set to launch in August of this year.
“It’s important to have continuous measurements of solar irradiance since we’re looking for small changes in the sun’s output over decades and even centuries,” said Kopp. “Detecting such small changes using measurements disconnected in time would make this even more difficult.”
A new SIM instrument, also built at LASP, is scheduled to launch in 2016 on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite. But while SORCE is expected to continue functioning for at least another year, allowing for overlapping measurements with the TIM instrument launching in August, it’s uncertain if SORCE’s SIM instrument will still be running when its successor makes it to space in 2016.
“We’re definitely hoping and planning that SORCE lasts through this year,” Woods said. “But 2016 — I don’t think SORCE’s battery is going to last that long.”
During SORCE’s 10-year foray in space, the satellite also witnessed two rare transits of the planet Venus in front of the sun and another two less-infrequent transits by Mercury. When Venus, the larger of the two planets and the closer to Earth, blocked out part of the sun’s light, SORCE’s TIM instrument measured a corresponding drop in the amount of total solar irradiance. The measurements are now useful reference tools for astronomers hoping to discover planets around other stars by measuring a dip in a star’s light from a planetary transit.
In all, CU-Boulder has received about $120 million from NASA for the construction and operation of SORCE. But in 2008, LASP took the unusual step of returning $3 million in cost savings from the SORCE mission to NASA that resulted from the program’s efficient operations.
Researchers at LASP are planning to celebrate SORCE’s 10th birthday with cake, a science seminar and a write-up of the satellite’s top-10 accomplishments in NASA’s The Earth Observer magazine.
But while the decade mark is typically an important milestone for celebration here on Earth, the more appropriate milestone for SORCE may come in 2014 at the 11-year mark, the average length of a complete solar cycle
“Eleven years is special to us,” Woods said. “Instead of having a big science conference this year, we’re planning it for next January.”
For more information, visit LASP’s SORCE website at http://lasp.colorado.edu/sorce/index.htm.
A video of CU-Boulder researchers discussing the SORCE mission is available at http://www.colorado.edu/news/multimedia/cu-boulders-sun-gazing-satellite-turns-10-0.
CU-Boulder team develops swarm of pingpong ball-sized robots
Dec 14th
Correll and his computer science research team, including research associate Dustin Reishus and professional research assistant Nick Farrow, have developed a basic robotic building block, which he hopes to reproduce in large quantities to develop increasingly complex systems.
Recently the team created a swarm of 20 robots, each the size of a pingpong ball, which they call “droplets.” When the droplets swarm together, Correll said, they form a “liquid that thinks.”
To accelerate the pace of innovation, he has created a lab where students can explore and develop new applications of robotics with basic, inexpensive tools.
Similar to the fictional “nanomorphs” depicted in the “Terminator” films, large swarms of intelligent robotic devices could be used for a range of tasks. Swarms of robots could be unleashed to contain an oil spill or to self-assemble into a piece of hardware after being launched separately into space, Correll said.
Correll plans to use the droplets to demonstrate self-assembly and swarm-intelligent behaviors such as pattern recognition, sensor-based motion and adaptive shape change. These behaviors could then be transferred to large swarms for water- or air-based tasks.
Correll hopes to create a design methodology for aggregating the droplets into more complex behaviors such as assembling parts of a large space telescope or an aircraft.
In the fall, Correll received the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development award known as “CAREER.” In addition, he has received support from NSF’s Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research program, as well as NASA and the U.S. Air Force.
He also is continuing work on robotic garden technology he developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009. Correll has been working with Joseph Tanner in CU-Boulder’s aerospace engineering sciences department to further develop the technology, involving autonomous sensors and robots that can tend gardens, in conjunction with a model of a long-term space habitat being built by students.
Correll says there is virtually no limit to what might be created through distributed intelligence systems.
“Every living organism is made from a swarm of collaborating cells,” he said. “Perhaps some day, our swarms will colonize space where they will assemble habitats and lush gardens for future space explorers.”
For a short video of Correll’s team developing swarm droplets visit http://www.colorado.edu/news/multimedia/researchers-creating-team-tiny-robots. For more information about CU-Boulder’s computer science department visit http://www.colorado.edu/engineering/academics/degree/computer-science.
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Buffs Ice Down Falcons, Remain Unbeaten
Nov 26th
BOULDER – Here’s the way Tad Boyle sees a night against an opponent as hot as Air Force was in Sunday’s first half: “If they’re going to make jump shots, shoot threes, over our hands for 40 minutes, then after the game we’ll shake hands and congratulate them.”
At game’s end at the Coors Events Center, Boyle’s Colorado Buffaloes did indeed wind up shaking hands with the Falcons at mid-court – but it wasn’t because the visitors’ long-range marksmanship continued.
Air Force cooled off and CU rolled on. Impressively. The No. 23 Buffs remained unbeaten by zooming past the previously unbeaten Falcons 89-74 for their first 5-0 start since the 1989-90 season.
“I think people understand now about Air Force and why we were nervous after the first half,” Boyle said. “They’re well-disciplined, well-coached . . . we did a great job of taking away their layups, but it’s pick your poison against Air Force.”
AFA (5-1) shot 57.1 percent (8-of-14) from beyond the arc in the first half, but still trailed 41-39. In the second half, with the Buffs putting more defensive emphasis on getting around/through flair screens and ball screens – and believing the visiting shooters couldn’t stay that torrid – the Falcons cooled to a more earthly 25 percent (4-of-16) from three-point range.
The Falcons finished the game at 40.6 percent (13-of-32) from long range, with the Buffs at 7-of-13 (53.8 percent) for the night. But CU had more of everything: the Buffs made the board battle a joke, winning it 46-19; they dominated in the paint, 40-18; they had 18 second-chance points to the Falcons’ four; and they sank 22-of-28 free throws. That last stat came after players shot 100 free throws each for a couple of practices preceding the Falcons’ trip north.
Freshman post Josh Scott posted his first 20-point night at CU, junior forward Andre Roberson got back in his double-double groove (18 points, 13 rebounds) and the sophomore backcourt of Spencer Dinwiddie and Askia Booker contributed 15 points each.
“This team, when we’re balanced, we have lot of different weapons,” Boyle said. Of the 6-10 Scott’s performance, he added, “He’s a great post player; he showed signs of why he was so highly regarded . . . his shot is not always the prettiest, but it goes in. Our guys believe in Josh.”
Scott said the Buffs’ standard plan is to work inside out “to me, Dre (Roberson) or ‘X’ (Xavier Johnson) . . . that’s always a constant thing.”
Just a guess, but CU Boyle’s message at halftime probably centered on making life a little more difficult for the Falcons’ marksmen.
They came to Boulder averaging 10.2 treys a game, and by intermission they were just about there, hitting eight of 14 (57 percent).
Still, CU led 41-39, matching AFA’s percentage from behind the arc but just not attempting or hitting as many (four of seven). Instead, the Buffs got their points in a variety of ways from a variety of players. Boyle used 10 players in the first 20 minutes, and nine of them scored.
Before the Falcons’ barrage of threes – they made six in the first half’s final 10 minutes – the Buffs had taken an eight-point lead (19-11) and appeared to have the visitors on their heels. Not so.
Air Force came soaring back behind Todd Fletcher, who scored nine consecutive points to bring his team to within three (23-20). Then, a DeLovell Earls three-pointer tied the score with 10:41 remaining before intermission. From there, CU managed to go up by as many as five (36-31), but AFA stayed hot from behind the arc in the final 4:30, hitting its last two treys to trail by only two at the break.
The second half’s most immediate questions: Would the Air Force cool off, or could CU make that happen? Yes and yes.
Said Scott: “I thought they were definitely going to get tired and were not going to make those shots in the second half. We were contesting them.”
Added Roberson: “They came out hot . . . but they wouldn’t be able to do it for all 40 minutes.”
Halfway through the final 20 minutes, the Falcons had added three more treys to their total – but they weren’t sizzling. And the Buffs had rolled to their largest advantage of the night (67-58) to that point. They used a 9-2 run highlighted by an Eli Stalzer trey against the AFA zone and a Roberson steal/stuff that juiced up the crowd of 10,607.
At the 7:47 mark, CU had gone ahead by 10 (71-61) on a pair of Dinwiddie free throws. Another pair from Scott and a nifty layup by Booker with 5:19 to play opened a 14-point CU advantage (75-61).
To catch up, the Falcons would have to go on another three-point binge, but it didn’t happen. The Buffs steadily pulled away.
CU plays Texas Southern Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.
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