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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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DOE OSTI2024

HWO Pupil Chopping Wavefront Sensing and Control FY24 Mini-Project Writeup

This document is a summary of work completed in June through July 2024 to assess the feasibility of implementing non-coronagraphic pupil chopping (PC) for Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) primary mirror segment stabilization with an on- and/or off-axis Natural Guide Star (NGS) or Laser Guide Star (LGS). This work considers three different PC configurations: (1) a non-common path (NCP) continuous low-order Deformable Mirror (DM), (2) using the telescope’s primary mirror (M1) segment(s), and (3) using a NCP low-order segmented DM. We show that option 2 likely needs a LGS for guiding, while options 1 and 3 may be able to guide on NGSs. We also separately evaluate spectral bandwidth limitations in the absence of photon noise, showing that the technique is limited to Δλ/λ ≲ 25% in a standard imaging configuration but Δλ/λ ≲ 150% when using a NCP Wynne corrector.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Multisystem feedbacks from a changing climate: Do altered hydrological dynamics control vadose zone carbon nutrient cycling and storage in shallow aquifer systems?

The vadose zone, which extends from upper soils to the subsurface water table, consists of many distinct habitats (including the critical zone), each with its own physical characteristics. Upper soils are typically richer in organic carbon chemical diversity and concentration, while deeper portions near the water table have less labile carbon and a greater percentage of humic acids and other long-lived organics. The availability of carbon and oxygen constrain the habitability of these zones. Typically, microorganisms (bacteria, archaea, and fungi) extend throughout the vadose zone and potentially deeper into the bedrock, while higher eukaryotes (i.e., arthropods and plants) are limited to the surficial soils. An exception to this is deep taproots of some tree species that can extend tens of meters into the subsurface. In subsurface systems, microbial metabolisms are constrained by the availability of carbon (organic and inorganic) and electron acceptors.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Computational Review of Privacy-Preserving Mechanisms for the Smart Grid

Smart grid technologies have rapidly become one of the largest and most comprehensive sources of data for the modern utility. For the most part, data streams are seen as an essential tool that enable utilities to carry their day-to-day business operations, but they also create the need for efficient and secure data management strategies. In the context of the smart grid, ensuring data privacy is becoming an increasing concern due to a combination of factors that range from shifts in operational paradigms and rapid technology evolution to changes in legislation. Furthermore, researchers have highlighted the risks associated with improperly protected energy records. For example, energy consumption data from homes could be used to infer the behaviors and habits of home occupants through activity recognition or user profiling (Fan, 2017), which may lead to unfair service pricing, targeted advertising, or other personal security violations. Similarly, Electric Vehicles’ (EVs) charging metadata could be used to reveal private information about the owner such as their payment methods, preferred charging stations, and other locational and timing information that could be used to reconstruct the vehicle owner’s behaviors. The privacy of user data, even when used for statistical analysis or machine learning training processes, also needs to be carefully considered, as an individual’s private traits may still be vulnerable if their inclusion/exclusion greatly impacts the result or could be linked to a public dataset through cross-reference. The breach of user privacy also has severe impacts for organizations that store, transmit, or work on the data in the form of diminishing the public’s trust in them while potentially incurring legal consequences (e.g., fines and suspensions under the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, etc.). Because of these risks, several privacy-preserving mechanisms are available to help organizations comply with privacy legislations and prevent the unauthorized and malicious use of user data. In light of these concerns, this report focuses on performing a computational review of privacy-preserving mechanisms that have received a significant amount of interest in literature. It specifically focuses on 1) homomorphic encryption, 2) zero-knowledge proofs, 3) differential privacy, and 4) federated learning. It is worth noting that although many of the methods presented in this document rely on cryptographic primitives, their intent is not to provide perfect secrecy, but rather to enable users to maintain privacy, and thus they shall not be compared or equated to other constructs that are aimed to address cybersecurity constructs.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2026

The FastrSHWFS Project Development Motivation, Analysis, & Test Results

The recent 2020 Decadal Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics listed habitable exoplanet imaging with future extreme adaptive optics (AO) on 30m-class telescopes as a key priority in the coming decade. However, there is a current 100x contrast gap between the best systems today and what is needed to enable this goal. Astronomical AO is a required approach to enable ground-based diffraction-limited imaging of exoplanets on future extremely large telescopes. Time lag between the end of an exposure and the application of deformable mirror commands is a major contributor to the error budget in many AO systems, and detector read time is often a large component of this lag. We present two designs for a modified Shack Hartmann wavefront sensor (SHWFS), named Focal plane Actualized Shifted Technique Realized for a SHWFS (fastrSHWFS), to reduce the time lag component. This design steers the spot pattern at the focal plane into a rectangular or linear array with a custom aspect ratio, reducing readout time. The mask with focus yields aberrated results while the mask with tip/tilt only yields some defined spots. This essay outlines the current SHWFS concept, our fastrSHWFS theoretical solution to addressing time lag, reflection and quality analysis of printed mask designs, and results from testing both masks on the High Contrast Testbed at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. This work follows the test of a previous fastrSHWFS design.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Scaling Global Warming Impacts on Ocean Ecosystems: Lessons From a Suite of Earth System Models

An important technique used by climate modelers to isolate the impacts of increasing greenhouse gasses on Earth System processes is to simulate the impact of an abrupt increase in carbon dioxide. The spatial pattern of change provides a “fingerprint” that is generally much larger than natural variability. Insofar as the response to radiative forcing is linear (the impact of quadrupling CO 2 is twice the impact of doubling CO 2 ) this fingerprint can then be used to estimate the impact of historical greenhouse gas forcing. However, the degree to which biogeochemical cycles respond linearly to radiative forcing has rarely been tested. In this paper, we evaluate which ocean biogeochemical fields are likely to respond linearly to changing radiative forcing, which ones do not, and where linearity breaks down. We also demonstrate that the representation of lateral mixing by mesoscale eddies, which varies significantly across climate models, plays an important role in modulating the breakdown of linearity. Globally integrated surface rates of biogeochemical cycling (primary productivity, particulate export) respond in a relatively linear fashion and are only moderately sensitive to mixing. By contrast, the habitability of the interior ocean (as determined by hypoxia and calcite supersaturation) behaves non-linearly and is very sensitive to mixing. This is because the deep ocean, as well as certain regions in the surface ocean, are very sensitive to the magnitude of deep wintertime convection. The cessation of convection under global warming is strongly modulated by the representation of eddy mixing.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Downregulation of barley ferulate 5-hydroxylase dramatically alters straw lignin structure without impact on mechanical properties

Barley is a major cereal crop for temperate climates, and a diploid genetic model for polyploid wheat. Cereal straw biomass is an attractive source of feedstock for green technologies but lignin, a key determinant of feedstock recalcitrance, complicates bio-conversion processes. However, manipulating lignin content to improve the conversion process could negatively affect agronomic traits. An alternative approach is to manipulate lignin composition which influences the physical and chemical properties of straw. This study validates the function of a barley ferulate 5-hydroxylase gene and demonstrates that its downregulation using the RNA-interference approach substantially impacts lignin composition. We identified five barley genes having putative ferulate 5-hydroxylase activity. Downregulation of HvF5H1 substantially reduced the lignin syringyl/guaiacyl (S/G) ratio in straw while the lignin content, straw mechanical properties, plant growth habit, and grain characteristics all remained unaffected. Metabolic profiling revealed significant changes in the abundance of 173 features in the HvF5H1-RNAi lines. The drastic changes in the lignin polymer of transgenic lines highlight the plasticity of barley lignification processes and the associated potential for manipulating and improving lignocellulosic biomass as a feedstock for green technologies. On the other hand, our results highlight some differences between the lignin biosynthetic pathway in barley, a temperate climate grass, and the warm climate grass, rice, and underscore potential diversity in the lignin biosynthetic pathways in grasses.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Functional Diversification of Populus FLOWERING LOCUS D-LIKE3 Transcription Factor and Two Paralogs in Shoot Ontogeny, Flowering, and Vegetative Phenology

Both the evolution of tree taxa and whole-genome duplication (WGD) have occurred many times during angiosperm evolution. Transcription factors are preferentially retained following WGD suggesting that functional divergence of duplicates could contribute to traits distinctive to the tree growth habit. We used gain- and loss-of-function transgenics, photoperiod treatments, and circannual expression studies in adult trees to study the diversification of three Populus FLOWERING LOCUS D-LIKE (FDL) genes encoding bZIP transcription factors. Expression patterns and transgenic studies indicate that FDL2.2 promotes flowering and that FDL1 and FDL3 function in different vegetative phenophases. Study of dominant repressor FDL versions indicates that the FDL proteins are partially equivalent in their ability to alter shoot growth. Like its paralogs, FDL3 overexpression delays short day-induced growth cessation, but also induces distinct heterochronic shifts in shoot development—more rapid phytomer initiation and coordinated delay in both leaf expansion and the transition to secondary growth in long days, but not in short days. Our results indicate that both regulatory and protein coding sequence variation contributed to diversification of FDL paralogs that has led to a degree of specialization in multiple developmental processes important for trees and their local adaptation.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Plasma Imaging, LOcal Measurement, and Tomographic Experiment (PILOT): A Mission Concept for Transformational Multi-Scale Observations of Mass and Energy Flow Dynamics in Earth’s Magnetosphere

We currently do not understand the fundamental physical processes that govern mass and energy flow through the Earth’s magnetosphere. Knowledge of these processes is critical to understanding the mass loss rate of Earth’s atmosphere, as well as for determining the role that a planetary magnetic field plays in atmospheric retention, and therefore habitability, for Earth-like planets beyond the solar system. Mass and energy flow processes are challenging to determine at Earth in part because Earth’s planetary magnetic field creates a complex “system of systems” composed of interdependent plasma populations and overlapping spatial regions that perpetually exchange mass and energy across a broad range of temporal and spatial scales. Further, the primary mass carrier in the magnetosphere is cold plasma (as cold as ~0.1 eV), which is invisible to many space-borne instruments that operate in the inner magnetosphere. The Plasma Imaging LOcal and Tomographic experiment (PILOT) mission concept, described here, provides the transformational multi-scale observations required to answer fundamental open questions about mass and energy flow dynamics in the Earth’s magnetosphere. PILOT uses a constellation of spacecraft to make radio tomographic, remote sensing, and in-situ measurements simultaneously, fully capturing cold plasma mass dynamics and its impact on magnetospheric systems over an unprecedented range of spatial and temporal scales. This article details the scientific motivation for the PILOT mission concept as well as a potential mission implementation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Star-exoplanet interactions: A growing interdisciplinary field in heliophysics

Traditionally, heliophysics is characterized as the study of the near-Earth space environment, where plasmas and neutral gases originating from the Earth, the Sun, and other solar system bodies interact in ways that are detectable only through in-situ or close-range (usually within ~10 AU) remote sensing. As a result, heliophysics has data from the space environment around a handful of solar system objects, in particular the Sun and Earth. Comparatively, astrophysics has data from an extensive array of objects, but is more limited in temporal, spatial, and wavelength information from any individual object. Thus, our understanding of planetary space environments as a complex, multi-dimensional network of specific interacting systems may in the past have seemed to have little to do with the highly diverse space environments detected through astrophysical methods. Recent technological advances have begun to bridge this divide. Exoplanetary studies are opening up avenues to study planetary environments beyond our solar system, with missions like Kepler, TESS, and JWST, along with increasing capabilities of ground-based observations. At the same time, heliophysics studies are pushing beyond the boundaries of our heliosphere with Voyager, IBEX, and the future IMAP mission. The interdisciplinary field of star-exoplanet interactions is a critical, growing area of study that enriches heliophysics. A multidisciplinary approach to heliophysics enables us to better understand universal processes that operate in diverse environments, as well as the evolution of our solar system and extreme space weather. The expertise, data, theory, and modeling tools developed by heliophysicists are crucial in understanding the space environments of exoplanets, their host stars, and their potential habitability. The mutual benefit that heliophysics and exoplanetary studies offer each other depends on strong, continuing solar system-focused and Earth-focused heliophysics studies. The heliophysics discipline requires new targeted funding to support inter-divisional opportunities, including small multi-disciplinary research projects, large collaborative research teams, and observations targeting the heliophysics of planetary and exoplanet systems. Here we discuss areas of heliophysics-relevant exoplanetary research, observational opportunities and challenges, and ways to promote the inclusion of heliophysics within the wider exoplanetary community.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Multiscale astrobiology with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) presents an unprecedented opportunity to advance the search for astrobiologically relevant data across diverse astronomical environments. Through its extensive imaging capabilities, LSST will enhance our inventory of Solar System objects and assess their potential astrobiological conditions. Beyond the Solar System, LSST will survey billions of stars, contributing to the detection of exoplanets, characterizing planetary atmospheres at a zeroth-order level, identifying transient phenomena, and exploring conditions within habitable zones. In this paper, we highlight LSST’s unique contribution to astrobiology, complementing other missions and expanding the search for life beyond Earth in the coming decades.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

What Polarimetric Weather Radars Offer to Cloud Modelers: Forward Radar Operators and Microphysical/Thermodynamic Retrievals

The utilization of polarimetric weather radars for optimizing cloud models is a next frontier of research. It is widely understood that inadequacies in microphysical parameterization schemes in numerical weather prediction (NWP) models is a primary cause of forecast uncertainties. Due to its ability to distinguish between hydrometeors with different microphysical habits and to identify “polarimetric fingerprints” of various microphysical processes, polarimetric radar emerges as a primary source of needed information. There are two approaches to leverage this information for NWP models: (1) radar microphysical and thermodynamic retrievals and (2) forward radar operators for converting the model outputs into the fields of polarimetric radar variables. In this paper, we will provide an overview of both. Polarimetric measurements can be combined with cloud models of varying complexity, including ones with bulk and spectral bin microphysics, as well as simplified Lagrangian models focused on a particular microphysical process. Combining polarimetric measurements with cloud modeling can reveal the impact of important microphysical agents such as aerosols or supercooled cloud water invisible to the radar on cloud and precipitation formation. Some pertinent results obtained from models with spectral bin microphysics, including the Hebrew University cloud model (HUCM) and 1D models of melting hail and snow coupled with the NSSL forward radar operator, are illustrated in the paper.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Vehicular Re-Identification from Uncontrolled Multiple Views

Vehicle re-identification (re-ID) across disparate sensing modalities remains a fundamental challenge for transportation research. In this work, we introduce a deep multi-view vehicle re-ID framework that leverages Siamese networks to compare pairs of vehicle images and produce matching scores, enabling robust association across drastically different viewpoints such as those from UAVs, surveillance cameras, and ground sensors. The model exploits convolutional neural networks to learn features that remain discriminative under changes in angle, distance, and illumination, supporting more generalizable re-ID performance. As part of this effort, we also developed an automated pipeline to synchronize roadside and UAV video streams, producing a multi-perspective dataset that complements preexisting real collections and a synthetic dataset generated in this study. Together, these contributions advance the capability to re-identify vehicles across wide viewing baselines; establish a foundation for scalable, reproducible research in vehicle re-ID; and open pathways for future applications, such as inferring routine behaviors, movement patterns, and daily habits of the individual associated with the vehicle.

convolutional neural networks↗
DOE OSTI2023

Functional Meta-Analysis of the Proteomic Responses of Arabidopsis Seedlings to the Spaceflight Environment Reveals Multi-Dimensional Sources of Variability across Spaceflight Experiments

The human quest for sustainable habitation of extraterrestrial environments necessitates a robust understanding of life’s adaptability to the unique conditions of spaceflight. This study provides a comprehensive proteomic dissection of the Arabidopsis plant’s responses to the spaceflight environment through a meta-analysis of proteomics data from four separate spaceflight experiments conducted on the International Space Station (ISS) in different hardware configurations. Raw proteomics LC/MS spectra were analyzed for differential expression in MaxQuant and Perseus software. The analysis of dissimilarities among the datasets reveals the multidimensional nature of plant proteomic responses to spaceflight, impacted by variables such as spaceflight hardware, seedling age, lighting conditions, and proteomic quantification techniques. By contrasting datasets that varied in light exposure, we elucidated proteins involved in photomorphogenesis and skotomorphogenesis in plant spaceflight responses. Additionally, with data from an onboard 1 g control experiment, we isolated proteins that specifically respond to the microgravity environment and those that respond to other spaceflight conditions. This study identified proteins and associated metabolic pathways that are consistently impacted across the datasets. Notably, these shared proteins were associated with critical metabolic functions, including carbon metabolism, glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, and amino acid biosynthesis, underscoring their potential significance in Arabidopsis’ spaceflight adaptation mechanisms and informing strategies for successful space farming.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Origin of Life on Mars: Suitability and Opportunities

Although the habitability of early Mars is now well established, its suitability for conditions favorable to an independent origin of life (OoL) has been less certain. With continued exploration, evidence has mounted for a widespread diversity of physical and chemical conditions on Mars that mimic those variously hypothesized as settings in which life first arose on Earth. Mars has also provided water, energy sources, CHNOPS elements, critical catalytic transition metal elements, as well as B, Mg, Ca, Na and K, all of which are elements associated with life as we know it. With its highly favorable sulfur abundance and land/ocean ratio, early wet Mars remains a prime candidate for its own OoL, in many respects superior to Earth. The relatively well-preserved ancient surface of planet Mars helps inform the range of possible analogous conditions during the now-obliterated history of early Earth. Continued exploration of Mars also contributes to the understanding of the opportunities for settings enabling an OoL on exoplanets. Favoring geochemical sediment samples for eventual return to Earth will enhance assessments of the likelihood of a Martian OoL.

transition elements↗
DOE OSTI2026

Future Projections of Lifecycle Cost and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Light-Duty Vehicles

Vehicles with electrified powertrains carry the promise of significant reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from a lifecycle analysis (LCA) standpoint compared to conventional internal combustion engine (CICE) vehicles. However, trade-offs exist between different types of electrified powertrains in terms of cost, consumer acceptance, and GHG reduction efficacy for different operating conditions. The open-source tool CarGHG was developed with an aim to enable the exploration of a plethora of parametric study scenarios, including the cost of electrification technologies, different driving patterns and charging habits, and the cost and carbon intensity of electricity and fuel blends. This paper introduces the framework of CarGHG, then showcases total cost of ownership (TCO) and LCA GHG results for select models of light-duty vehicles. Another capability of CarGHG, which is the ability to estimate the performance of “virtual” vehicle models (perceived vehicle design specifications not yet on the market), is utilized to explore future scenarios of electrification and low-carbon fuel blends for Small Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs), a popular light-duty vehicle segment in North America. With opportunities, but also uncertainties, in future scenarios, it is likely wise to continue pursuing multiple ways towards the reduction of LCA GHG.

Hamza, Karim↗
DOE OSTI2020

Kepler-1661 b: A Neptune-sized Kepler Transiting Circumbinary Planet around a Grazing Eclipsing Binary

We report the discovery of a Neptune-sized (R{sub p}=3.87±0.06R{sub ⊕}) transiting circumbinary planet, Kepler-1661 b, found in the Kepler photometry. The planet has a period of ∼175 days and its orbit precesses with a period of only 35 yr. The precession causes the alignment of the orbital planes to vary, and the planet is in a transiting configuration only ∼7% of the time as seen from Earth. As with several other Kepler circumbinary planets, Kepler-1661 b orbits close to the stability radius, and is near the (hot) edge of the habitable zone. The planet orbits a single-lined, grazing eclipsing binary, containing a 0.84 M{sub ⊙} and 0.26 M{sub ⊙} pair of stars in a mildly eccentric (e = 0.11), 28.2 day orbit. The system is fairly young, with an estimated age of ∼1–3 Gyr, and exhibits significant starspot modulations. The grazing eclipse configuration means the system is very sensitive to changes in the binary inclination, which manifests itself as a change in the eclipse depth. The starspots contaminate the eclipse photometry, but not in the usual way of inducing spurious eclipse timing variations. Rather, the starspots alter the normalization of the light curve, and hence the eclipse depths. This can lead to spurious eclipse depth variations, which are then incorrectly ascribed to binary orbital precession.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

The HOSTS Survey for Exozodiacal Dust: Observational Results from the Complete Survey

The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI) enables nulling interferometric observations across the N band (8 to 13 μm) to suppress a star’s bright light and probe for faint circumstellar emission. We present and statistically analyze the results from the LBTI/Hunt for Observable Signatures of Terrestrial Systems survey for exozodiacal dust. By comparing our measurements to model predictions based on the solar zodiacal dust in the N band, we estimate a 1σ median sensitivity of 23 zodis times the solar system dust surface density in its habitable zone (HZ; 23 zodis) for early-type stars and 48 zodis for Sun-like stars, where 1 zodi is the surface density of HZ dust in the solar system. Of the 38 stars observed, 10 show significant excess. A clear correlation of our detections with the presence of cold dust in the systems was found, but none with the stellar spectral type or age. The majority of Sun-like stars have relatively low HZ dust levels (best-fit median: 3 zodis, 1σ upper limit: 9 zodis, 95% confidence: 27 zodis based on our N band measurements), while ~20% are significantly more dusty. The solar system’s HZ dust content is consistent with being typical. Our median HZ dust level would not be a major limitation to the direct imaging search for Earth-like exoplanets, but more precise constraints are still required, in particular to evaluate the impact of exozodiacal dust for the spectroscopic characterization of imaged exo-Earth candidates.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

The Dark Planets of the WASP-47 Planetary System

Exoplanet discoveries have demonstrated a vast range of planetary system architectures. The demographic of compact planetary systems are especially interesting from the perspective of planetary formation and the evolution of orbital dynamics. Another interesting demographic is that of giant planets in eccentric orbits, since these planets have likely had a dynamical history involving planet–planet scattering events. The WASP-47 system is particularly fascinating since it combines these two demographics, having both compact planetary orbits and a giant planet on an eccentric orbit within the system the habitable zone. Here we provide an analysis of the WASP-47 system from the perspective of atmospheric detection and characterization. We discuss the system architecture and the potential for additional long-period planets. We simulate expected phase variations as a function of planet orbital phase for the system due to the combined effect of the planets. We present an analysis of precision photometry of WASP-47 from the K2 mission, phased on each of the planets. The analysis rules out the detection of phase signatures for the two inner-most planets, enabling constraints upon their albedos and atmospheric properties. Our study concludes that WASP-47b is an example of a “dark” planet with a tentative geometric albedo of 0.016 and a 1σ upper limit of 0.17. The WASP-47e data are consistent with a broad range of albedos, but also show early evidence of having a relatively low albedo. The growing number of dark, short-period giant planets provide the framework of an ideal sample for studying low albedo dependence on atmospheric composition.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗