Two UM Technologies Win R&D 100 Awards

	NIST Lyman alpha neutron detector is shown with a US dollar coin for scale.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- A new optical method for detecting individual neutrons developed by the University of Maryland and the National Institute for Standards and Technology and a Wildfire tracking and management software tool developed by the University of Maryland and NASA have each been recognized by R&D Magazine as among the "100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace" over the past year.

LAND Neutron Detector

"Our ultra-sensitive, wide bandwidth neutron detector, known as LAND, can detect individual neutrons and record them over a range of intensities at least 100 times greater than existing detectors," said Michael Coplan, Professor and Director of the Chemical Physics Program in the University of Maryland's Institute for Physical Science & Technology.

"LAND's ability to improve existing neutron measurements enables the testing of new phenomena beyond the Standard Model [the basic framework of particle physics]," Coplan said.

The LAND development team recognized by the R&D 100 Award consists of: Coplan, Alan Thompson and Muhammad Arif of the NIST Center for Neutron Research and Charles Clark and Robert Vest of the NIST Electron and Optical Physics Division. Clark is also an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland and a Fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute of the university and NIST.

Much of the design and construction of the LAND was done in College Park at the University of Maryland. The experimental work was carried out at the NIST Center for Neutron Research with critical support by the NIST Ultraviolet Radiation Facility.

Current neutron detector technology is based on proportional counters, in which high-voltage electrical discharges are initiated by neutron absorption in a gas cell. The LAND, which stands for Lyman alpha neutron detector, detects neutrons by sensing radiation in the far ultraviolet region of the optical spectrum, at a wavelength of 122 nm (Lyman alpha). Excitations result when neutrons react with helium-3 gas and the reaction products collide with the background gas. The subsequent decays yield the 122 nm radiation.

A provisional patent application has already been filed and a final application is near completion.

Fighting Wildfires with Sensor Web 2.0

The main application of Sensor Web 2.0 that has been demonstrated and already is in robust use in wildfire detection, mapping, and characterization. From August to October 2007, the Sensor Web 2.0 team from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and University of Maryland worked alongside researchers with the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), NASA Ames and the Forest Service to conduct five missions demonstrating how the Sensor Web 2.0 architecture can be used to detect, map, and help mitigate damage from wildfires in southern California.

In this real-time demonstration with real consequences and lives at stake, Sensor Web 2.0 data from multiple sources (including two Earth-imaging satellites) gathered at different times were integrated to provide investigators with a more detailed situtational awareness of the fire's progression. Thermal-infrared imagery was automatically sent back to scientists and displayed via standard Web services using the Google Earth map service (see image).

According to Everett Hinkley, Liaison and Special Projects Program Leader for the USDA Forest Service, the sensor web concept is a remarkable way to share complex geospatial data from a network of sensors linked by software and the Internet to a wide audience in a user-friendly fashion. "This system of systems supports the need to access satellite and airborne imagery for post-disaster management [floods, wildfires, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc.]. The Forest Service has already tapped into this system during the southern California wildfires in October 2007, and we will continue to expand our use of this utility in the future," Hinkley said.

The system is currently operating to image summer fires occurring in northern and southern California during 2008.

Funding for the Sensor Web 2.0 project was provided by the NASA Earth Science Technology Offices Advanced Information Systems Technology program. Funding for cooperators conducting the UAS activities was provided by the NASA Applications program, with MODIS fire detections funded by the NASA Earth Observing System.

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