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Zhang, Kai

Publications and source records attributed to Zhang, Kai.

70 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Cloudy-sky contributions to the direct aerosol effect

The radiative forcing of the aerosol–radiation interaction can be decomposed into clear-sky and cloudy-sky portions. Two sets of multi-model simulations within Aerosol Comparisons between Observations and Models (AeroCom), combined with observational methods, and the time evolution of aerosol emissions over the industrial era show that the contribution from cloudy-sky regions is likely weak. A mean of the simulations considered is 0.01±0.1 W m-2. Multivariate data analysis of results from AeroCom Phase II shows that many factors influence the strength of the cloudy-sky contribution to the forcing of the aerosol–radiation interaction. Overall, single-scattering albedo of anthropogenic aerosols and the interaction of aerosols with the short-wave cloud radiative effects are found to be important factors. A more dedicated focus on the contribution from the cloud-free and cloud-covered sky fraction, respectively, to the aerosol–radiation interaction will benefit the quantification of the radiative forcing and its uncertainty range.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

Toward Understanding the Simulated Phase Partitioning of Arctic Single-Layer Mixed-Phase Clouds in E3SM

21 Mixed-phase clouds are widespread in the Arctic and have substantial impacts on the 22 surface energy budget, sea ice extent, and regional climate. Significant changes are found in the 23 modeled phase partitioning of Arctic mixed-phase clouds in the newly developed U.S. 24 Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) Atmosphere Model 25 version 1 (EAMv1) compared to its predecessor (CAM5/EAMv0). The mixed-phase clouds 26 simulated by EAMv1 is overly dominated by super-cool liquid which is often underestimated by 27 CAM5. Compared to CAM5, EAMv1 has made several important changes in its cloud physical 28 parameterizations, including using CLUBB to unify shallow convection, PBL turbulence, and 29 cloud macrophysics, as well as updating the MG two-moment cloud microphysics scheme and 30 using the CNT heterogeneous ice nucleation scheme to replace the Meyers scheme for mixed- 31 phase clouds. To understand which of the newly-implemented physical parameterizations is 32 responsible for the change of modeled mixed-phase cloud phase partitioning in EAMv1, 33 sensitivity tests are conducted by utilizing the short-term hindcast approach and results are 34 compared to the observations from the ARM Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE) 35 field campaign. 36 It is found that although each scheme contributes to the decrease of cloud ice water 37 content (IWC) and increase of cloud liquid water content (LWC), only the combined effect of 38 CLUBB and CNT can explain the significant underestimation of IWC. By examining the budgets 39 of cloud microphysical processes, CLUBB is found to play a dominant role due to the fact that 40 CLUBB does not diagnoses cloud ice phase water in its assumed joint PDF method and thus may 41 not provide sufficient cloud ice to initialize ice phase microphysical processes such as the growth 42 of ice crystals through vapor deposition. Although a more effective heterogeneous ice nucleation 43 may alleviate the underestimation of IWC, the ice phase process in CLUBB requires urgent 44 attention in the future model development.

Zhang, Meng↗
DOE OSTI2020

Coordinated Market Design for Peer-to-Peer Energy Trade and Ancillary Services in Distribution Grids

A novel peer-to-peer (P2P) market design is proposed in this work for the distribution grid level. Envisioning that the grid constraints violations are the major challenge for P2P energy sharing, we propose they are handled through the ancillary service (AS) market. By calculating the decomposable distribution locational marginal prices (DLMPs), the essential price signals of procuring AS can be recovered to determine the grid usage prices (GUPs) to each P2P transaction. Hence, the GUPs, due to their decomposable properties, act as incentive signals for the P2P market to support the grid operation in terms of loss reduction, voltage support and congestion management. The proposed market design comprises: i) an interactive market design of P2P trade & AS and, ii) a fully decentralized peer-centric market clearing model for P2P energy trade. The duality analysis provides the composition of market equilibrium prices of P2P trading and their interpretations. The case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed P2P trade to support grid operational objectives.

Zhang, Kai↗
DOE OSTI2020

Upper boundaries of active galactic nucleus regions in optical diagnostic diagrams

The distribution of galaxies in optical diagnostic diagrams can provide information about their physical parameters when compared with ionization models under proper assumptions. By using a sample of central emitting regions from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory survey (MaNGA), we find evidence of the existence of upper boundaries for narrow-line regions (NLRs) of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in optical Baldwin, Phillips & Terlevich (BPT) diagrams, especially in diagrams involving [Sii]λλ6716, 6731/Hα. Photoionization models can reproduce the boundaries well, as a consequence of the decrease of [Sii]λλ6716, 6731/Hα and [Oiii]λ5007/Hβ ratios at very high metallicity. Whilst the exact location of the upper boundary in the [Sii] BPT diagram depends only weakly on the electron density of the ionized cloud and the secondary nitrogen prescription, its dependence on the shapes of the input spectral energy distributions (SEDs) is much stronger. This allows us to constrain the power-law index of the AGN SED between 1 Ryd and ~100 Ryd to be less than or equal to -1.40 ± 0.05. The coverage of photoionization models in the [Nii] BPT diagram has a stronger dependence on the electron density and the secondary nitrogen prescription. With the density constrained by the [Sii] doublet ratio and the input SED constrained by the [Sii] BPT diagram, we find that the extent of the data in the [Nii] BPT diagram favours those prescriptions with high N/O ratios. Furthermore, although shock-ionized clouds can produce line ratios similar to those from photoionization, the resulting shapes of the upper boundaries, if they exist, would likely be different from those of photoionizing origin.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Integration of phage and yeast display platforms: A reliable and cost effective approach for binning of peptides as displayed on-phage

Hundreds of target specific peptides are routinely discovered by peptide display platforms. However, due to the high cost of peptide synthesis only a limited number of peptides are chemically made for further analysis. Here we describe an accurate and cost effective method to bin peptides on-phage based on binding region(s), without any requirement for peptide or protein synthesis. This approach, which integrates phage and yeast display platforms, requires display of target and its alanine variants on yeast. Flow cytometry was used to detect binding of peptides on-phage to the target on yeast. Once hits were identified, they were synthesized to confirm their binding region(s) by HDX (Hydrogen deuterium exchange) and crystallography. Moreover, we have successfully shown that this approach can be implemented as part of a panning process to deplete non-functional peptides. This technique can be applied to any target that can be successfully displayed on yeast; it narrows down the number of peptides requiring synthesis; and its utilization during selection results in enrichment of peptide population against defined binding regions on the target.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Pressure tuning of the charge density wave and superconductivity in 2 H -TaS 2

Both the vibrational and electrical transport properties of 2 H -TaS 2 have been investigated at high pressures and low temperatures. In this work, the collapse of the charge-density-wave order at pressures above 7.3 GPa has been verified by Raman scattering, resistivity, and Hall coefficient measurements. For pressures above the critical pressure of 7.3 GPa, the superconducting transition temperature continues to increase and reaches its maximum value at 11.5 GPa, suggesting that it is not a simple competition between the charge-density-wave order and superconductivity. Through the standard resistivity fit in the normal state, the decline of the superconducting transition temperature with increasing pressure up to 47.0 GPa is due to the decrease of interaction strength and the increase of the impurity scattering. These results are very important in understanding the superconducting mechanism of transition-metal dichalcogenides.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

LyaCoLoRe : synthetic datasets for current and future Lyman-α forest BAO surveys

The statistical power of Lyman-α forest Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) measurements is set to increase significantly in the coming years as new instruments such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument deliver progressively more constraining data. Generating mock datasets for such measurements will be important for validating analysis pipelines and evaluating the effects of systematics. With such studies in mind, here we present LyaCoLoRe: a package for producing synthetic Lyman-α forest survey datasets for BAO analyses. LyaCoLoRe transforms initial Gaussian random field skewers into skewers of transmitted flux fraction via a number of fast approximations. In this work we explain the methods of producing mock datasets used in LyaCoLoRe, and then measure correlation functions on a suite of realisations of such data. We demonstrate that we are able to recover the correct BAO signal, as well as large-scale bias parameters similar to literature values. Finally, we briefly describe methods to add further astrophysical effects to our skewers — high column density systems and metal absorbers — which act as potential complications for BAO analyses.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Impacts of Wildfire Aerosols on Global Energy Budget and Climate: The Role of Climate Feedbacks

Aerosols emitted from wildfires could significantly affect global climate through perturbing global radiation balance. In this study, the Community Earth System Model with prescribed daily fire aerosol emissions is used to investigate fire aerosols’ impacts on global climate with emphasis on the role of climate feedbacks. The total global fire aerosol radiative effect (RE) is estimated to be -0.78 ± 0.29 W m -2 , which is mostly from shortwave RE due to aerosol–cloud interactions (REaci; -0.70 ± 0.20 W m -2 ). The associated global annual-mean surface air temperature (SAT) change ΔT is -0.64 ± 0.16 K with the largest reduction in the Arctic regions where the shortwave REaci is strong. Associated with the cooling, the Arctic sea ice is increased, which acts to reamplify the Arctic cooling through a positive ice-albedo feedback. The fast response (irrelevant to ΔT) tends to decrease surface latent heat flux into atmosphere in the tropics to balance strong atmospheric fire black carbon absorption, which reduces the precipitation in the tropical land regions (southern Africa and South America). The climate feedback processes (associated with ΔT) lead to a significant surface latent heat flux reduction over global ocean areas, which could explain most (~80%) of the global precipitation reduction. The precipitation significantly decreases in deep tropical regions (5°N) but increases in the Southern Hemisphere tropical ocean, which is associated with the southward shift of the intertropical convergence zone and the weakening of Southern Hemisphere Hadley cell. Such changes could partly compensate the interhemispheric temperature asymmetry induced by boreal forest fire aerosol indirect effects, through intensifying the cross-equator atmospheric heat transport.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Tuning to more compressible phase in TiZrHfNb high entropy alloy by pressure

In this work, the starting nominal Ti 25 Zr 25 Hf 25 Nb 25 high entropy alloy (HEA) has two body centered cubic (BCC) phases with a volume percentage about 100:1, with the primary phase having a much larger bulk modulus (incompressible) than the uniform single-phase HEA. We found that these two phases merged into one single BCC phase at pressures beyond 36 GPa, whose bulk modulus dropped to that of the normal homogeneous HEA. After decompressing, the new phase can be sustained to ambient conditions. We note this abnormal pressure-induced softening was largely related to the lattice distortion evolution and interfacial energy during compression.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS2017

Aerosols at the Poles: An Aerocom Phase II Multi-Model Evaluation

Atmospheric aerosols from anthropogenic and natural sources reach the polar regions through long-range transport and affect the local radiation balance. Such transport is, however, poorly constrained in present-day global climate models, and few multi-model evaluations of polar anthropogenic aerosol radiative forcing exist. Here we compare the aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 550 nm from simulations with 16 global aerosol models from the AeroCom Phase II model intercomparison project with available observations at both poles. We show that the annual mean multi-model median is representative of the observations in Arctic, but that the intermodel spread is large. We also document the geographical distribution and seasonal cycle of the AOD for the individual aerosol species: black carbon (BC) from fossil fuel and biomass burning, sulfate, organic aerosols (OAs), dust, and sea-salt. For a subset of models that represent nitrate and secondary organic aerosols (SOAs), we document the role of these aerosols at high latitudes. The seasonal dependence of natural and anthropogenic aerosols differs with natural aerosols peaking in winter (seasalt) and spring (dust), whereas AOD from anthropogenic aerosols peaks in late spring and summer. The models produce a median annual mean AOD of 0.07 in the Arctic (defined here as north of 60 degrees N). The models also predict a noteworthy aerosol transport to the Antarctic (south of 70 degrees S) with a resulting AOD varying between 0.01 and 0.02. The models have estimated the shortwave anthropogenic radiative forcing contributions to the direct aerosol effect (DAE) associated with BC and OA from fossil fuel and biofuel (FF), sulfate, SOAs, nitrate, and biomass burning from BC and OA emissions combined. The Arctic modelled annual mean DAE is slightly negative (-0.12 W m(exp. -2), dominated by a positive BC FF DAE in spring and a negative sulfate DAE in summer. The Antarctic DAE is governed by BC FF. We perform sensitivity experiments with one of the AeroCom models (GISS modelE) to investigate how regional emissions of BC and sulfate and the lifetime of BC influence the Arctic and Antarctic AOD. A doubling of emissions in eastern Asia results in a 33 percent increase in Arctic AOD of BC. A doubling of the BC lifetime results in a 39 percent increase in Arctic AOD of BC. However, these radical changes still fall within the AeroCom model range.

Sand, Maria↗
NASA NTRS2013

A Simple Model of Global Aerosol Indirect Effects

Most estimates of the global mean indirect effect of anthropogenic aerosol on the Earth's energy balance are from simulations by global models of the aerosol lifecycle coupled with global models of clouds and the hydrologic cycle. Extremely simple models have been developed for integrated assessment models, but lack the flexibility to distinguish between primary and secondary sources of aerosol. Here a simple but more physically based model expresses the aerosol indirect effect (AIE) using analytic representations of cloud and aerosol distributions and processes. Although the simple model is able to produce estimates of AIEs that are comparable to those from some global aerosol models using the same global mean aerosol properties, the estimates by the simple model are sensitive to preindustrial cloud condensation nuclei concentration, preindustrial accumulation mode radius, width of the accumulation mode, size of primary particles, cloud thickness, primary and secondary anthropogenic emissions, the fraction of the secondary anthropogenic emissions that accumulates on the coarse mode, the fraction of the secondary mass that forms new particles, and the sensitivity of liquid water path to droplet number concentration. Estimates of present-day AIEs as low as 5 W/sq m and as high as 0.3 W/sq m are obtained for plausible sets of parameter values. Estimates are surprisingly linear in emissions. The estimates depend on parameter values in ways that are consistent with results from detailed global aerosol-climate simulation models, which adds to understanding of the dependence on AIE uncertainty on uncertainty in parameter values.

Clouds↗
NASA NTRS2012

Sensitivity Studies of Dust Ice Nuclei Effect on Cirrus Clouds with the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5

In this study the effect of dust aerosol on upper tropospheric cirrus clouds through heterogeneous ice nucleation is investigated in the Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5) with two ice nucleation parameterizations. Both parameterizations consider homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation and the competition between the two mechanisms in cirrus clouds, but differ significantly in the number concentration of heterogeneous ice nuclei (IN) from dust. Heterogeneous nucleation on dust aerosol reduces the occurrence frequency of homogeneous nucleation and thus the ice crystal number concentration in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) cirrus clouds compared to simulations with pure homogeneous nucleation. Global and annual mean shortwave and longwave cloud forcing are reduced by up to 2.0+/-0.1Wm (sup−2) (1 uncertainty) and 2.4+/-0.1Wm (sup−2), respectively due to the presence of dust IN, with the net cloud forcing change of −0.40+/-0.20W m(sup−2). Comparison of model simulations with in situ aircraft data obtained in NH mid-latitudes suggests that homogeneous ice nucleation may play an important role in the ice nucleation at these regions with temperatures of 205-230 K. However, simulations overestimate observed ice crystal number concentrations in the tropical tropopause regions with temperatures of 190- 205 K, and overestimate the frequency of occurrence of high ice crystal number concentration (greater than 200 L(sup-1) and underestimate the frequency of low ice crystal number concentration (less than 30 L(sup-1) at NH mid-latitudes. These results highlight the importance of quantifying the number concentrations and properties of heterogeneous IN (including dust aerosol) in the upper troposphere from the global perspective.

Liu, Xiaohong↗
NASA NTRS2012

Direct Radiative Effect of Mineral Dust on the Development of African Easterly Wave in Late Summer, 2003-2007

Episodic events of both Saharan dust outbreaks and African Easterly Waves (AEWs) are observed to move westward over the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean. The relationship between the warm, dry, and dusty Saharan Air Layer (SAL) on the nearby storms has been the subject of considerable debate. In this study, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to investigate the radiative effect of dust on the development of AEWs during August and September, the months of maximum tropical cyclone activity, in years 2003-2007. The simulations show that dust radiative forcing enhances the convective instability of the environment. As a result, most AEWs intensify in the presence of a dust layer. The Lorenz energy cycle analysis reveals that the dust radiative forcing enhances the condensational heating, which elevates the zonal and eddy available potential energy. In turn, available potential energy is effectively converted to eddy kinetic energy, in which local convective overturning plays the primary role. The magnitude of the intensification effect depends on the initial environmental conditions, including moisture, baroclinity, and the depth of the boundary layer. We conclude that dust radiative forcing, albeit small, serves as a catalyst to promote local convection that facilitates AEW development.

Ma, Po-Lun↗
NASA NTRS2009

Design and Analysis of Molded Elastomer Seals

Modeling Materials: a) Hyperelastic model used for room temperature and higher, but has limitations at predicting response at different compressive rates and at low temperatures. b) Viscoelastic model is rarely used, and needs more research and application. Test and Characterization of Materials: a) Better material characterization using biaxial tension vs simple compression testing modes is debatable. b) Testing at high and low temperature is challenging.

Yetter, Paul↗