Student Abstracts: General Sciences at PNNL

Viscometric Screening of Deicing Fluids for Military Aircraft Application. KIMBERLY JOHNSON (Montana State University-Billings, Billings, MT 59101-0298) KEVIN SIMMONS (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352) .
The US Air Force funded a proposal investigating biofriendly deicing fluids for military aircraft. Ethylene glycol and propylene glycol are the currents choices for deicing. The current deicing fluids are harmful to the environment because of their mammalian toxicity and high biological oxygen demand. The project investigated the chemical and physical properties of six different solutions. Various testing was completed on these solutions to find the optimal solution. The solutions "C" and "E" were chosen for further offsite testing due to their meeting freezing point and viscosity requirements. This additional testing will look at the corrosiveness, thermal stability and adhesion to aircraft wings under airflow.

Registration of satellite images. MICHAEL LOW (Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno, NV 89436) GEORGE HE (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352) .
Registration of imagery is critical to national missions; i.e., national security and resource exploration. The process of registration is used to spatially line up satellite images with one another. Registration of different sensors with different scales is a new challenge. Here we examine the manual registration process to understand the factors involved and to facilitate automatic image registration.

Summer Experience at PNNL. DANELIA BARRAGAN (Columbia Basin College, Pasco , WA 99301) THOMAS FERRYMAN (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352) .
This summer I had the opportunity to work with Thomas Ferryman, for the Statistics Department of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Tom is a very busy and motivated man and one of the projects he leads is the Aviation Safety Project. NASA funds this project and researchers include Brett Amidan, Chad Scherrer, and Sandra Thompson. Most statisticians have an undergraduate degree in Math, and a Masters and Ph.D. in Statistics. My project was to become familiar with a data visualization program called GGOBI that would be helpful in observing data. With GGOBI I was able to find distinct separation between clusters and find possible abnormalities in aviation data. Most work is done in front of a computer, as clustering, regression analysis, principal components, coding and programming information, but meetings and discussions are vital for the AvSP. Statisticians analyze and present data but cannot form conclusions without the help of aviation experts, who can agree or disagree about an abnormality and return feedback to modify some of the procedures used. The reason for this study is with flights expected to double within a few years, the number of aviation hazards is also likely to increase. The Federal Aviation Administration regulates and "polices" air travel but is such a powerful organization that many airlines are often hesitant to give their aviation data for fear of reprimand. To better aviation safety, the airlines have joined with NASA to conduct a survey that looks at flights from departure to landing. The results of this long process will only be used to find ways of improving aviation quality for the consumer.