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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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A Deep Neural Network for Achieving Spectrally Consistent and Seamless Infrared Radiance Measurements Across Geostationary Satellite Domains

The NASA Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) project provides the scientific community with observed top-of-atmosphere (TOA) shortwave and longwave fluxes for climate monitoring and climate model validation. To achieve this goal, CERES relies on TOA broadband fluxes derived from geostationary satellite (GEO) imagery to account for the diurnal flux variations between the CERES observation intervals. Consistent global flux derivation depends on accurate and consistent cloud retrievals. Scene-dependent spectral measurement inconsistency of the instruments that make up the contiguous ring of GEO observations (GEO-Ring), as well as limb darkening effects, can cause discontinuities in derived cloud properties and radiative fluxes at the boundaries of adjacent imager domains. Although the algorithms utilize radiative transfer models to account for instrument-band-dependent atmospheric correction and viewing zenith angle (VZA) dependency, small discontinuities may persist due to uncertainties inherent to the multiple imager-specific algorithms. Furthermore, while hyperspectral-instrument-based spectral band adjustment factors may effectively account for spectrally induced bias, they are less effective at reducing variance owed to the specific composition of the viewed scene, which is challenging to robustly characterize. As such, this article highlights the use of a deep neural network (DNN) to resolve spectral-and VZA-induced biases between GEO-Ring imagers. The DNN uses available infrared (IR) channels from the GEO instruments, along with viewing and solar illumination geometry, to estimate homogenized, VIIRS-like IR radiances for use in the GEO cloud algorithm. This approach is effective at mitigating scene-dependent spectral variance and VZA dependency, resulting in consistent radiance measurements across the GEO-Ring, thereby leading toward a more seamless global cloud assessment.

deep learning↗
DOE OSTI2021

Scaling Equitable Finance

Driven by dramatic declines in up-front cost, the U.S. solar photovoltaics (PV) industry has taken off over the past decade, growing from 1 gigawatt of installed capacity in 2009 to 89 gigawatts in 2020—or enough capacity to power roughly 19 million homes. The industry is expected to double in size over just the next 5 years.1 Much of the growth has been driven by large, utility-scale projects that can produce 5 mega- watts or more of power—enough to power at least 1,000 homes. The cost of electricity produced by these projects has decreased by more than 70 percent since 2010. As of Q3 2020, development costs of large, util- ity-scale solar PV power plants were under $1 per watt, down by more than 70 percent from 2010.2 A robust array of investors has come forward to efficiently deliver capital to these kinds of utility-scale projects including large banks, insurance companies, pension funds, and others. But low- and moderate-income communities, including communities of color, are at risk of being left behind in the transition to clean energy. Mission- driven solar project developers and financial institu- tions have been working alongside energy justice advocates to open up solar access for these communi- ties, using strategies ranging from community solar, to solar installations on affordable multifamily housing, to distributed solar and storage programs, and more. Their goals go beyond simply generating more green energy to advancing social equity by: • empowering communities to control their energy future • stabilizing energy prices, saving money, and build- ing wealth for low-income families • creating quality jobs • improving health by reducing pollution • providing energy resilience for vulnerable communities Mission-driven actors are successfully deploying a wide variety of strategies to meet these goals, from helping low-income homeowners get solar—and some- times battery storage, to developing solar projects serv- ing affordable rental housing and community facilities, to building larger “shared solar” projects to which households from across the community can subscribe. However, the financing ecosystem does not work nearly as well for these “mission driven” solar proj- ects as it does for utility-scale projects. For home rooftop solar, even if low-income consumers have a home and suitable roof, they may fail to qualify for federal tax incentives, lack adequate credit to qualify for a loan—or the mission-driven lenders seeking to serve them may not be adequately capitalized to make long-term loans. For mission-driven commercial or community-scale projects, assembling nearly every component of the project capital stack—whether bridging early-stage costs, attracting tax credit equity investors, securing long-term debt, or coming up with sponsor equity and filling gaps—can present challenges. A variety of obstacles contribute to the scarcity of financing for low-income solar, including small project sizes, lack of developer balance sheet capacity, both real and perceived issues with credit risk, elevated technical assistance needs, and greater subsidy requirements to pursue goals such as deep energy affordability, climate resilience, or job creation. Still other obstacles are regulatory: for example, not all states allow community solar projects or Power Purchase Agreements, common strategies used for providing low-income solar—and the potential for regulations to shift over time creates risks that mission-driven projects can ill afford. This report synthesizes information garnered from 47 key informant interviews, four focus group discus- sions involving 60 stakeholders, and a review of the substantial existing literature on low-income solar finance to assess the current landscape of mission- driven solar development in the United States, examine the roles that community-based financial institutions could play, and recommend public invest- ments and policy changes that could help to scale the provision of equitable solar finance. Key recommen- dations for policymakers and funders in the renew- able energy and community development fields that emerge from this process include the following: • Help to capitalize and support community-based lenders to provide flexible, low-cost, and long- term financing to mission-driven solar projects— including providing guarantees or other forms of credit enhancement. • Provide federal support for equitable solar, including a grant-in-lieu-of-credits option for the Investment Tax Credit to improve access to this critical government subsidy. • Develop pools of government and philanthropic support that can complement financing from community-based lenders to complete the capi- tal stack for mission-driven projects, as well as to support education and technical assistance to both consumers and potential project sponsors. • Create a national Renewable Energy Credits pro- gram that includes social equity targets to provide a baseline of support for clean energy generation. • Change utility regulations to remove barriers to low-income solar projects; lower permitting costs; provide greater certainty for developers, consumers and owners; and measure progress toward equity in renewable energy policy implementation.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Role of non-CO 2 greenhouse gas emissions in limiting global warming

Unfortunately, current climate pledges are insufficient to achieve the aspirational goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Here, we discuss the critical role that non-CO 2 greenhouse gas emissions might play in global climate change stabilization and challenges and opportunities to pivot research and policy focus toward accelerated reductions of non-CO 2 gases.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Climate-Driven Limits to Future Carbon Storage in California's Wildland Ecosystems

Enhanced ecosystem carbon storage is a key component of many climate mitigation pathways. The State of California has set an ambitious goal of carbon neutrality by 2045, relying in part on enhanced carbon sequestration in natural and working lands. We used statistical modeling, including random forest and climate analog approaches, to explore the climate-driven challenges and uncertainties associated with the goal of long-term carbon sequestration in forests and shrublands. We found that seasonal patterns of temperature and precipitation are strong controllers of the spatial distribution of aboveground live carbon. RCP8.5 projections of temperature and precipitation are estimated to drive decreases of 16.1% ± 7.5% in aboveground live carbon by the end of the century, with coastal areas of central and northern California and low/mid-elevation mountain areas being most vulnerable. With RCP4.5 projections, declines are less severe, with 8.8% ± 5.3% carbon loss. In either scenario, increases in temperature systematically cause biomass declines, and the spread of projected precipitation across 32 CMIP5 models contributes to substantial uncertainty in the magnitude of that decline. Projected changes in the environmental niche for the 20 most biomass-dominant tree species revealed widespread replacement of conifers by oak species in low elevation regions of central and northern California, with a corresponding decline in carbon storage depending on expected migration rates. The spatial patterns of vulnerability we identify may allow policymakers to assess where carbon sequestration in aboveground biomass is an appropriate part of a climate mitigation portfolio, and where future climate-driven carbon losses may be a liability.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Xcel Energy’s electric carbon emissions reduction trajectories in the context of 1.5°C and 2°C warming pathways

In 2015 the Paris Agreement established the goals of limiting global average warming to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit warming to below 1.5°C. A large and growing number of scenarios have been developed by the climate research community that explore global energy and emissions pathways that would achieve those goals. We draw on the most recent database of such scenarios to update a previous analysis of Xcel Energy’s emissions reduction goals in light of evolving climate science. We assess the outlook for the role of the US electricity sector in current economy-wide and global emissions pathways and compare it to Xcel Energy’s near-term resource plans to 2030. We find that global scenarios that achieve the 1.5°C goal span a range of US/North America electricity sector emissions reductions by 2030 of about 65-85%. Xcel Energy’s emissions reductions to date have exceeded those of the US electricity sector as a whole, and its projected trajectory to 2030 under current approved resource plans falls within this range. Scenarios achieving the 2°C goal have a wider range of reductions (about 40-85%). In scenarios achieving either goal, electricity sector emissions fall faster than economy-wide emissions, a robust feature of mitigation scenarios, which typically rely on low carbon electricity to achieve climate targets.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
NASA NTRS1998

Modeling Climate-Biosphere Interactions in the Boreal Forest

The overall goal of this BOREAS Program was to develop, test, and apply a model of the carbon balance of boreal forest sites with a significant groundcover component (moss or lichen). The basic question addressed with this model was: What is the sensitivity of the boreal forest carbon balance to weather variability? More specifically: What are the differences in the sensitivities of carbon gains (photosynthesis) and carbon losses (respiration) of the various components of the ecosystem? Are there different seasonalities to their sensitivities (e.g., warmer springs will have one effect, warmer summers a different effect)? What are the effects of different patterns of successive weather years (wet/dry, warm/cool)? What, for example, would be the difference in effects of two "warmer than normal" months-one with each day warmer than normal, and the other with three normal weeks and one very hot week? Due to weather variability, how "noisy" will any carbon flux or carbon pool signal be that we might use to try to detect change? The project resulted in the development of a new boreal forest ecosystem model. This model was the first model in the BOREAS project to look closely at the role of mosses in the ecosystem carbon balance, and also was the first model in the BOREAS project to look closely at interannual variability in carbon fluxes. Along with the work of many other groups, TE-19 modeling analysis pointed to the need for a second, longer field season in 1996, with particular focus on the spring and fall transitions and on ground vegetation. BOREAS groups TE-19 (Frolking), TGB-1 (Crill) & TGB-3 (Moore & Roulet) analyzed BOREAS data and other published and unpublished data to develop a relationship between peatland ecosystem productivity and incoming radiation, which is quite distinct from the upland ecosystem relationships observed in other studies.

Frolking, Steve↗
NASA NTRS2015

CrIS/ATMS Retrievals Using the Latest AIRS/AMSU Retrieval Methodology

This research is being done under the NPP Science Team Proposal: Analysis of CrISATMS Using an AIRS Version 6-like Retrieval Algorithm Objective: Generate a long term CrISATMS level-3 data set that is consistent with that of AIRSAMSU Approach: Adapt the currently operational AIRS Science Team Version-6 Retrieval Algorithm, or an improved version of it, for use with CrISATMS data. Metric: Generate monthly mean level-3 CrISATMS climate data sets and evaluate the results by comparison of monthly mean AIRSAMSU and CrISATMS products, and more significantly, their inter-annual differences and, eventually, anomaly time series. The goal is consistency between the AIRSAMSU and CrISATMS climate data sets.

Retrieval Methodology↗
DOE OSTI2020

Accelerated Climate Model for Energy (ACME): Ocean and Sea-Ice Processes

The primary goal of this project was to understand the role of the ocean and sea-ice components in the evolution of the climate in both a high-resolution fully-coupled 1850 preindustrial control and present day transient climate simulations run using the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM), formerly known as the Accelerated Climate Model for Energy (ACME). Two distinct approaches to the initialization of the present day transients were tested: in the first, an ensemble of three transients used atmospheric reanalysis forced 0.1-degree ocean/sea-ice states, while a fourth transient was branched off the preindustrial control. Biases from the control were inherited by its successor transient, in particular, sea surface temperatures (SSTs) at high latitudes were too warm and too much northward meridional heat transport occurred in the North Atlantic Ocean. SSTs in the Northern Hemisphere and Atlantic meridional heat transport increased in the transients initialized from the ocean/sea-ice simulation over a 40-50 year period to largely resemble the transient branched off the control simulation. Excessive absorbed solar radiation (ASR) is considered to be responsible for the SST biases as well as the formation of mode waters in lighter density classes than in reality both in the Southern Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean subtropical gyre. These mode waters ventilate the thermocline waters to the north of their formation sites explaining the excessive Atlantic meridional heat transport and some of the warming in the high-latitude North Atlantic Ocean after multiple decades.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2014

Investigating the Origin and Evolution of Venus with In Situ Mass Spectrometry

The exploration of Venus continues to be a top priority of planetary science. The Planetary Decadal Survey goals for inner-planet exploration seek to discern the origin and diversity of terrestrial planets, understand how the evolution of terrestrial planets relates to the evolution of life, and explore the processes that control climate on Earth-like planets [1]. These goals can only be realized through continued and extensive exploration of Venus, the most mysterious of the terrestrial planets, remarkably different from the Earth despite the gross similarities between these twin planets. It is unknown if this apparent divergence was intrinsic, programmed during accretion from distinct nebular reservoirs, or a consequence of either measured or catastrophic processes during planetary evolution. Even if the atmosphere of Venus is a more recent development, its relationship to the resurfacing of the planets enigmatic surface is not well understood. Resolving such uncertainties directly addresses the hypothesis of a more clement, possibly water-rich era in Venus past as well as whether Earth could become more Venus-like in the future.

earth-like planets↗
NASA NTRS2019

Past and Future Operations Concepts of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System

NASA committed to support the collection and distribution of Earth science data to study global change in the 1990's. A series of Earth science remote sensing satellites, the Earth Observing System (EOS), was to be the centerpiece. The concept for the science data system, the EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS), created new challenges in the data processing of multiple satellite instrument observations for climate research and in the distribution of global-coverage remote sensor products to a large and growing science research community. EOSDIS was conceived to facilitate easy access to EOS science data for a wide heterogeneous national and international community of users. EOSDIS was to provide a spectrum of services designed for research scientists working on NASA focus areas but open to the general public and international science community. EOSDIS would give researchers tools and assistance in searching, selecting and acquiring data, allowing them to focus on Earth science climate research rather than complex product generation. Goals were to promote exchange of data and research results and expedite development of new geophysical algorithms. The system architecture had to accommodate a diversity of data types, data acquisition and product generation operations, data access requirements and different centers of science discipline expertise. Steps were taken early to make EOSDIS flexible by distributing responsibility for basic services. Many of the system operations concept decisions made in the 90s continued to this day. Once implemented, concepts such as the EOSDIS data model played a critical role developing effective data services, now a hallmark of EOSDIS. In other cases, EOSDIS architecture has evolved to enable more efficient operations, taking advantage of new technology and thereby shifting more resources on data services and less on operating and maintaining infrastructure. In looking to the future, EOSDIS may be able to take advantage of commercial compute environments for infrastructure and further enable large scale climate research. In this presentation, we will discuss key EOSDIS operations concepts from the 1990's, how they were implemented and evolved in the architecture, and look at concepts and architectural challenges for EOSDIS operations utilizing commercial cloud services.

Moses, John F.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Development and Implementation of a Comprehensive Radiometric Validation Protocol for the CERES Earth Radiation Budget Climate Record Sensors

The CERES Flight Models 1 through 4 instruments were launched aboard NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra and Aqua Spacecraft into 705 Km sun-synchronous orbits with 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. equatorial crossing times. These instruments supplement measurements made by the CERES Proto Flight Model (PFM) instrument launched aboard NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) into a 350 Km, 38-degree mid-inclined orbit. CERES Climate Data Records consist of geolocated and calibrated instantaneous filtered and unfiltered radiances through temporally and spatially averaged TOA, Surface and Atmospheric fluxes. CERES filtered radiance measurements cover three spectral bands including shortwave (0.3 to 5 microns), total (0.3 to 100 microns) and an atmospheric window channel (8 to 12 microns). The CERES Earth Radiation Budget measurements represent a new era in radiation climate data, realizing a factor of 2 to 4 improvement in calibration accuracy and stability over the previous ERBE climate records, while striving for the next goal of 0.3-percent per decade absolute stability. The current improvement is derived from two sources: the incorporation of lessons learned from the ERBE mission in the design of the CERES instruments and the development of a rigorous and comprehensive radiometric validation protocol consisting of individual studies covering different spatial, spectral and temporal time scales on data collected both pre and post launch. Once this ensemble of individual perspectives is collected and organized, a cohesive and highly rigorous picture of the overall end-to-end performance of the CERES instrument's and data processing algorithms may be clearly established. This approach has resulted in unprecedented levels of accuracy for radiation budget instruments and data products with calibration stability of better than 0.2-percent and calibration traceability from ground to flight of 0.25-percent. The current work summarizes the development, philosophy and implementation of the protocol designed to rigorously quantify the quality of the data products as well as the level of agreement between the CERES TRMM, Terra and Aqua climate data records.

Priestley, K. J.↗
NASA NTRS2000

The Athena Pancam and Color Microscopic Imager (CMI)

The Athena Mars rover payload includes two primary science-grade imagers: Pancam, a multispectral, stereo, panoramic camera system, and the Color Microscopic Imager (CMI), a multispectral and variable depth-of-field microscope. Both of these instruments will help to achieve the primary Athena science goals by providing information on the geology, mineralogy, and climate history of the landing site. In addition, Pancam provides important support for rover navigation and target selection for Athena in situ investigations. Here we describe the science goals, instrument designs, and instrument performance of the Pancam and CMI investigations.

Bell, J. F., III↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Role of Deep Convection and Large-scale Circulation in Driving Model Spread in Low Cloud Feedback and Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity

This project aims to advance the understanding of the processes that drive the large uncertainties in climate change projections, use observations to constrain model physics and reduce the inter-model spread in equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS). There are three major goals: 1) Characterize the representation of the physical pathways that link deep convection, large-scale circulation and low cloud feedback in CMIP6 model simulations and determine the relative contribution of each pathway to the CMIP6 model spread in low cloud feedback and ECS; 2) Use process-oriented diagnostics and multiple observations to evaluate CMIP6 model performance in capturing the observed cloud-circulation relation and deep convection characteristics including convective transition statistics and the bulk properties of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs). Error decomposition in CMIP6 models will be performed. 3) Conduct E3SM short-range hindcasts following the DOE Cloud-Associated Parameterizations Testbed (CAPT) protocol to pinpoint specific model parameters/processes that are crucial to the representation of deep convection, circulation, clouds and the pathways that connect them. We will modify convective parameters in E3SM and analyze the perturbed physics experiments (PPEs) to isolate model parameters that are critical to the uncertainty of ECS.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2001

Science Education Supporting Weather Broadcasters On-Air and in the Classroom with NASA "Mini-Education Supplements"

NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center has initiated a new project designed to expand on existing news services and add value to classrooms through the development and distribution of two-minute 'mini-supplements' which give context and teach about current weather and Earth research phenomena. The innovative mini-supplements provide raw materials for weather forecasters to build news stories around NASA related missions without having to edit the more traditional and cumbersome long-form video format. The supplements cover different weather and climate topics and include NASA data, animations, video footage, and interviews with scientists. The supplements also include a curriculum package with educational lessons, educator guide, and hand-on activities. One goal is to give on-air broadcasters who are the primary science educators for the general public what they need to 'teach' about the science related to NASA research behind weather and climate news. This goal achieves increasing public literacy and assures higher accuracy and quality science reporting by the media. The other goal is to enable on-air broadcasters to serve as distributors of high quality, standards-based educational curricula and supplemental material when they visit 8-12 grade classrooms. The focus of 'pilot effort' centers around the success of NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) but is likely expandable to other NASA earth or space science missions.

Shepherd, J. Marshall↗
DOE OSTI2025

Seventh Oregon Climate Assessment

Consistent with its charge under Oregon House Bill 3543, the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute (OCCRI) conducts a biennial assessment of the state of climate change science, including biological, physical, and social science, as it relates to Oregon and the likely effects of climate change on Oregon. This seventh Oregon Climate Assessment, which builds on the previous assessments, is structured with the goal of supporting the state's mitigation planning for natural hazards and implementation of the Oregon Climate Change Adaptation Framework.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Stakeholder-driven carbon neutral pathways for Thailand and Bangkok: integrated assessment modeling to inform multilevel climate governance

Thailand has established a target of carbon neutrality by 2050. Reaching this goal will require coordination and collaboration between stakeholders spanning sectors and scales, including energy system decision makers, land managers, and city planners. Robust decarbonization scenarios incorporating current plans and targets, additional measures needed, and trade-offs between strategies can help stakeholders make informed decisions in the face of uncertainty. Through iterative engagement with decision makers at the city and national levels, we develop and analyze carbon neutral scenarios for Thailand that incorporate Bangkok’s role using a global integrated assessment model. We find that Thailand can reach carbon neutrality through power sector decarbonization, energy efficiency improvements, widespread electrification, and advanced technologies including carbon capture and storage and hydrogen. Negative emissions technologies will also be needed to offset Thailand and Bangkok’s hardest-to-abate CO 2 emissions. Bangkok, as a major population and economic center, contributes significantly to Thailand’s energy demand and emissions and can therefore play an important role in climate change mitigation. Accordingly, our results underscore the importance of subnational climate action in meeting Thailand’s carbon neutral goal. Our analysis also indicates that without sustained land-based carbon sequestration, much more mitigation effort will be needed in Thailand’s energy sector, including at the subnational scale, to reach carbon neutrality. These insights can help stakeholders identify priorities, consider tradeoffs, and make decisions that will impact Bangkok and Thailand’s long-term climate change mitigation potential. This analysis demonstrates how stakeholder engagement in integrated assessment modeling can facilitate and inform multilevel climate governance.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Developing and Testing a Novel Stochastic Ice Microphysics Parameterization for Cloud and Climate Models Using ARM Field Campaign Data (Final Progress Report)

The major goals of this project were: 1) to use field campaign measurements from DOE’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program to characterize variability of important parameters describing properties of ice particles in the atmosphere; 2) based on this observational analysis, to develop a parameterization scheme for weather and climate models that stochastically varies these parameters, and implement the new scheme into a weather model called the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF); 3) to use WRF coupled with the new stochastic scheme to simulate ARM field campaign thunderstorm cases and analyze how accounting for this parameter variability affects the model simulations. This work was performed jointly between the National Center for Atmospheric Research, University of Oklahoma, and University of Utah. To accomplish these goals, we extended an approach previously developed to characterize the variability in the size distribution of ice particles to parameters that are explicitly represented in models (i.e., relationships between ice particle mass and size, and between particle fall velocity and size). Our project was, to our knowledge, the first to apply observationally-constrained estimates of this parameter variability describing mass-size and fall velocity-size in a modeling framework. Our results showed efficacy of the approach, evaluated using ARM observations. Similarly, to our knowledge, work in this project was the first to propose and evaluate in detail a stochastic approach for unresolved turbulent mixing in high-resolution model simulations against detailed, benchmark large eddy simulations and ARM observations. Results showed some promising behavior, particularly with increased mixing and dilution of air in thunderstorm cores with surrounding environmental air, bringing the stochastic simulations closer to the benchmark large eddy simulations; however, results were somewhat degraded using stochastic mixing compared to observations from the AMIE/DYNAMO field campaign. This project also further refined and applied a modeling methodology called “piggybacking” that can robustly separate dynamical and thermodynamic impacts of model changes, and comparison studies of different models based on cases developed from ARM observations. Finally, this project directly supported three graduate students who completed their PhDs as well as a postdoctoral research fellow.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2019

The 2008 Mars Phoenix Lander Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) Dataset: Placing Easily Interpretable Evolved Gas Data on the Planetary Data System (PDS)

The Phoenix Scout Lander mission investigated the north polar region of Mars in 2008 with the goal to study the history of water, assess the past/present Martian climate, search for organics, and evaluate the potential for past/present microbial habit-ability on Mars. To accomplish this goal, the Phoenix Lander’s Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) instrument assessed the gas composition of the Martian atmosphere and evaluated the mineralogy of the Martian regolith. The TEGA instrument consisted of eight small ovens connected to a 4 channel magnetic sector mass spectrometer. The ovens heated soil samples from ambient to 1000°C where the gases (e.g., H2O, CO2, etc.) evolved from thermal decomposition of mineral phases were analyzed by the mass spectrometer. Minerals thermally decomposed at characteristic temperatures and the evolving gases indicated the presence of perchlorate, carbonate, and hydrated phases in the Phoenix landing site soils.

Garcia, A. H.↗