Safety

Icing and ice detection

Stories

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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Ice build-up on aircraft and wind turbines can impact the safety and efficiency of their systems. Microwave sensors were developed that can identify in real time these accumulations while calculating the rate of melting. This is crucial data for aviation.
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5 Ws: Materials
A team of researchers at University of Houston have developed a deicing spray in which detachment can be accurately controlled and accelerated.
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Q&A: Energy
An inexpensive, clear coating has reduced snow and ice accumulation on solar panels, enabling them to generate up to 85% more energy in early testing.
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Briefs: Aerospace
The technique controls rather than combats ice formation.
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Briefs: Aerospace
This new design could conserve energy used for defrosting airplanes, appliances, and more.
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
The sensor makes it easier to detect and manage ice accumulation on aircraft wings.
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Briefs: Data Acquisition
Innovators at NASA’s Glenn Research Center have developed a new means of avoiding and mitigating icing events for aircraft flying above 14,000 feet, dramatically improving aviation safety...
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Briefs: Materials
Techniques to prevent frost and ice formation on surfaces rely heavily on heating or on liquid chemicals that need to be repeatedly reapplied because they easily wash away. Even advanced...
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Briefs: Energy
From airplane wings, to overhead power lines, to the giant blades of wind turbines, a buildup of ice can cause problems ranging from impaired performance all the way to catastrophic...
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Briefs: Aerospace
NASA's Langley Research Center has developed an in-flight global nonlinear aerodynamics modeling and simulation system. The technology replaces the normal labor-intensive iterative...
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NASA Spinoff: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Spinoff is NASA's annual publication featuring successfully commercialized NASA technology. This commercialization has contributed to the development of products and services in the fields...
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has developed a novel ruggedized housing for an electrical or fluid umbilical connector that prevents intrusion of dust, sand, dirt, mud, and moisture during field use under harsh...
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Briefs: Materials
In order to understand whether the ablation laser would cause chemical reactions within the trapped organic molecules during resonant laser ablation of water ice containing organic molecules, a...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Planetary Ice Mining by Down-Hole Energy Injection
Ice has been discovered on Mars and is present in the permanently shadowed craters on the Moon and on many asteroids. The ice is usually buried beneath an overburden of regolith. Evidence indicates this overburden may be a meter deep in some locations for the Moon; for Mars, it varies with latitude...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Fiber-Optic Sensor for Aircraft and Structure Lightning Measurement
An optical-fiber sensor based on Faraday Effect was developed for measuring total lightning current. Designed for aircraft installation, it is lightweight, non-conducting, structure conforming, and is immune to electromagnetic interference, hysteresis, and saturation. It can also...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Illuminating Permanently Shadowed Lunar Regions Using a Solar Sail
Sunlight can be reflected into permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) using S/C solar sails in order to detect and confirm the presence and distribution of water ice cold-trapped in PSRs in lunar polar craters. This reflected light is then viewed with an optical spectrometer.
Briefs: Aerospace
Integrated Pitot Health Monitoring System
The health and integrity of aircraft sensors and instruments play a critical role in aviation safety. Inaccurate or false readings due to icing of airspeed sensors in flight can lead to improper decision-making, resulting in serious consequences. Icing or blockages of pitot airspeed sensors provide very...
Application Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Atmospheric Icing Sensors Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/home NASA’s Glenn Research Center scientists are sending up weather balloons to read weather data and validate...
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Application Briefs: Transportation
ROMER Absolute Arm with integrated laser scanner Hexagon Metrology North Kingstown, RI 800-274-9433 www.hexagonmetrology.us While air travel is considered the safest form of...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Quad First Stage Processor: A Four-Channel Digitizer and Digital Beam-Forming Processor
A 4-channel digitizer was designed, built, and tested. The very large, complex board enables SweepSAR. The proposed Deformation, Eco-Systems, and Dynamics of Ice Radar (DESDynl-R) Lband SAR instrument employs multiple digital channels to optimize resolution...
Application Briefs: Aerospace
Michigan Aerospace Corporation (MAC) has begun work on a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with NASA’s Langley Research Center. The contract, “RIDES: Raman Icing Detection...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Aircraft performance can be compromised when ice forms on aircraft surfaces such as the wings, nacelles, sensors, and control systems. This can cause safety issues due to significant changes in...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Automated Planning of Science Products Based on Nadir Overflights and Alerts for Onboard and Ground Processing
A set of automated planning algorithms is the current operations baseline approach for the Intelligent Payload Module (IPM) of the proposed Hyper spectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) mission. For this operations concept, there are only local...
Briefs: Information Technology
Glaciers and ice sheets modulate global sea level by storing water deposited as snow on the surface, and discharging water back into the ocean through melting. Their physical state can...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Real-Time Flight Envelope Monitoring System
The objective of this effort was to show that real-time aircraft control-surface hinge-moment information could be used to provide a robust and reliable prediction of vehicle performance and control authority degradation. For a given airfoil section with a control surface — be it a wing with an aileron,...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Wheel-based sensors for detection of ice on roads and approximate measurement of the thickness of the ice are under development. These sensors could be used to alert drivers to hazardous local icing...
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Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Laser Systems Will Enable NASA Satellite to Measure Sea Ice
Flight lasers and test laserFibertekHerndon, VA703-471-7671www.fibertek.com Managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) mission is scheduled to launch in 2016. The satellite will replace the original ICESat...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A system has been developed to acquire and handle samples from a suspended remote platform. The system includes a penetrator, a penetrator deployment mechanism, and a sample handler....
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Briefs: Information Technology
Comparison of Aircraft Icing Growth Assessment Software
A research project is underway to produce computer software that can accurately predict ice growth under any meteorological conditions for any aircraft surface. An extensive comparison of the results in a quantifiable manner against the database of ice shapes that have been generated in the...

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