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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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NASA NTRS1998

[MODIS Investigation]

The objective of the last six months were: (1) Continue analysis of Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) bio-optical mooring data, and Southern Ocean bio-optical drifter data; (2) Complete development of documentation of MOCEAN algorithms and software for use by MOCEAN team and GLI team; (3) Deploy instrumentation during JGOFS cruises in the Southern Ocean; (4) Participate in test cruise for Fast Repetition Rate (FRR) fluorometer; (5) Continue chemostat experiments on the relationship of fluorescence quantum yield to environmental factors; and (6) Continue to develop and expand browser-based information system for in situ bio-optical data. We are continuing to analyze bio-optical data collected at the Hawaii Ocean Time Series mooring as well as data from bio-optical drifters that were deployed in the Southern Ocean. A draft manuscript has now been prepared and is being revised. A second manuscript is also in preparation that explores the vector wind fields derived from NSCAT measurements. The HOT bio-optical mooring was recovered in December 1997. After retrieving the data, the sensor package was serviced and redeployed. We have begun preliminary analysis of these data, but we have only had the data for 3 weeks. However, all of the data were recovered, and there were no obvious anomalies. We will add second sensor package to the mooring when it is serviced next spring. In addition, Ricardo Letelier is funded as part of the SeaWiFS calibration/validation effort (through a subcontract from the University of Hawaii, Dr. John Porter), and he will be collecting bio-optical and fluorescence data as part of the HOT activity. This will provide additional in situ measurements for MODIS validation. As noted in the previous quarterly report, we have been analyzing data from three bio-optical drifters that were deployed in the Southern Ocean in September 1996. We presented results on chlorophyll and drifter speed. For the 1998 Ocean Sciences meeting, a paper will be presented on this data set, focusing on the diel variations in fluorescence quantum yield. Briefly, there are systematic patterns in the apparent quantum yield of fluorescence (defined as the slope of the line relating fluorescence/chlorophyll and incoming solar radiation). These systematic variations appear to be related to changes in the circulation of the Antarctic Polar Front which force nutrients into the upper ocean. A more complete analysis will be provided in the next Quarterly report.

Abbott, Mark R.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Optical Rain Gauge Performance: Second Workshop on Optical Rain Gauge Measurements

The primary focus of the workshop was on the performance and reliability of STi mini-Optical Rain Gauges in a number of environments, including deployments on ships and buoys in the western equatorial Pacific Ocean during the TOGA/COARE field experiment, deployments on buoys in U.S. coastal waters, and comparisons with other types of rain gauges on the Virginia coast and in Florida. The workshop was attended by 20 investigators, representing 10 different institutions, who gathered to present new results obtained since the first workshop (April 1993), to discuss problems, to consider solutions, and to chart future directions. Post-TOGA/COARE calibration studies were also presented.

Short, David A.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Convection and Easterly Waves Observed in the Eastern Pacific ITCZ During EPIC2001

During the last three weeks of September 2001, the East Pacific Investigation of Climate Processes in the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere System (EPIC2001) intensive field campaign focused on studies of deep convection in the ITCZ-cold tongue complex over the Mexican warm-pool region (10 deg. N 95 deg. W) of the eastern Pacific Ocean. Major observational platforms deployed during this phase of EPIC2001 included two ships, the NOAA R/V Ronald H. Brown and the NSF R/V Horizon, and two research aircraft including a NOAA P-3 and the NCAR C-130. This study utilizes new C-band Doppler radar and sounding observations collected aboard the R/V Ronald Brown to describe the 4-D structure of ITCZ convection as a function of the environmental forcing and phase of 3-5 day easterly wave passages. Three distinct easterly wave passages occurred during EPIC2001. Each wave originated in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and after moving over Central America and into the eastern Pacific, were easily identified in time-height profiles of wind and thermodynamic data collected at the position of the R/V Brown. In all cases, the wave trough axes (as defined by changes in the meridional and zonal wind direction and changes in pressure altitude) exhibited relatively weak shear at low to mid-levels and tilted westward with height. The humidity profile in each wave did not exhibit as great a tilt in the vertical as the trough axes. Consistent with previous studies of westward tilting waves over the western Pacific Ocean, peaks in radar diagnosed rainfall tended to lead the passage of the surface wave trough by 0-2 days.

Petersen, Walter A.↗
NASA NTRS2022

Going to Extremes: Architecting Holographic Microscopes for Extreme Environments

Bacterial life exists on earth in extreme environments. These are environments described by large temperature excur- sions, large pressure excursions, and large radiation excursions from the nominal conditions near sea level which are largely populated by humans. These extreme locales represent such places as the ocean ice, the briny pools of Death Valley and deep mines, the acidic hot springs of the High Sierra or Yellowstone, or even the clouds of our upper atmosphere. The preponderance of bacterial life in these extreme environments here on earth suggests that bacterial life might likely exist in the extreme environments of our own solar system, such as the icy moons of Europa or Enceladus. Thus, architecting instruments for detect- ing life in these extreme environments on earth builds confidence that we can architect such instruments for flight missions. In this paper, we discuss our experience with designing digital holo- graphic microscope instruments to enable detection of bacteria in several extreme environments. In particular we discuss three different instruments. The first is our field instrument which is a small, portable instrument for examination of remote sites. The second is submersible instrument which enables exploration of deep aquatic environments and is deployed on a ocean-going drone. The third is a balloon-borne instrument to examine the bacterial content of the upper atmosphere. We will provide a review of each instrument and discuss aspects of instrument engineering for each particular application.

Ramirez, Alex↗
NASA NTRS1981

Observations and models of inertial waves in the deep ocean

A study of the structure of the inertial peak in deep ocean kinetic energy is presented, based on records taken from Polymode arrays deployed in the western North Atlantic Ocean. Results are interpreted in terms of both local sources and turning point effects on internal waves generated at lower latitudes, and it is found that three classes of environment and their corresponding spectra emerge from peak height variations: (1) the 1500-m level near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, with the greatest peak height of 18 dB; (2) the upper and deep ocean over rough topography and the deep ocean underneath the Gulf Stream, with the intermediate peak height of 11.5 dB; and (3) the deep ocean over smooth topography, with the lowest peak height of 7.5 dB. Using the globally valid wave functions obtained by Munk and Phillips (1968), frequency spectra near f are calculated numerically. The model is latitudinally dependent, with the frequency shift and bandwidth of the inertial peak decreasing with latitude.

Fu, L.-L.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Variations in radiative heating of humid biomass burning aerosols in the southeast Atlantic from airborne observations and reanalysis

The atmosphere over the southeast Atlantic Ocean (SEA) experiences consistent springtime biomass burning (BB) smoke from widespread agricultural fires on the African continent. This smoke layer is initially lofted high in a continental mixed layer (~5-6km) and is then transported westward into the free troposphere where it overlies and ultimately mixes into a stratocumulus-topped oceanic boundary layer. Coincident with this smoke is an elevated humidity signal which is present from the time a given airmass is over the continental source region. ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) was a NASA Earth Venture Suborbital mission with the goal of measuring aerosol, cloud, and atmospheric properties over this region over three deployments in September 2016, August 2017, and October 2018. Measurements included in situ profile measurements of aerosol physical and optical properties, trace gas concentrations, and cloud properties, as well as column measurements of aerosol optical depth and trace gas concentrations from an airborne sun photometer. Here we present results from each of the ORACLES deployments over the southeast Atlantic Ocean. Despite the differing locations and season of each deployment, we show that there is good agreement between the airborne ORACLES dataset and large-scale reanalyses, specifically the ECMWF ERA5 reanalyses (and, to a degree, the CAMS product) as compared to other available products. This agreement allows us to examine multi-year seasonal patterns and trends beyond the three months with available aircraft data. In both the data and reanalysis, we find distinct variations between each deployment in terms of vertical smoke distribution and correlation to atmospheric specific humidity, due to changing conditions over the BB season. We trace the origin and the history of these smoky airmasses and finally, we briefly discuss the broader radiative and dynamical implications of these results for conditions of aerosols overlying stratocumulus clouds.

K. Pistone↗
NASA NTRS2018

A13H-2546: Intercomparison of biomass burning aerosol properties from in-situ and remote-sensing instruments in ORACLES-2016

The magnitude of the cumulative effects of aerosols, both directly and on cloud properties, remains the biggest source of uncertainty in our understanding of anthropogenic radiative forcing on the climate. The magnitude of aerosol effects in any given region will depend on not just the aerosol concentration, but also on the characteristics of the aerosol under consideration. The NASA ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) campaign was conducted in 2016-2018 over three deployments in the Southeast Atlantic Ocean (SEA), with the goal of making observations of seasonal biomass burning (BB) smoke plumes overlying persistent stratocumulus cloud decks. During the first ORACLES deployment (September 2016), two NASA aircraft (a P-3 and an ER-2) were flown with a suite of aerosol, cloud, radiation, and meteorological instruments for remote-sensing and in-situ observations. In ORACLES, data collected by eight different instrument teams are used to derive aerosol properties over this region by independent methods. Here we present a comparison of results from the different instrument retrievals with a focus on the measures of aerosol absorption. We focus on specific cases with near-coincident measurements from in-situ (PSAP or PTI for aerosol absorption combined with a nephelometer for aerosol scattering) and remote sensing (4STAR, AirMSPI, RSP, and SSFR) instruments from coordinated flights between the two aircraft. We use the single scattering albedo (SSA), a measure of the relative absorption versus total extinction by aerosols, as the main comparable property between the various remote sensing and in-situ methods. For the remote sensing instruments, we see general good agreement in the total aerosol loading (aerosol optical depth, AOD), though see some differences in the absorbing component (AAOD). We report values for the retrieved aerosol parameters measured in the ORACLES flights and comment upon the observed variability between different instruments. Finally, we discuss these ORACLES results in the context of previous measurements of BB aerosol over the SEA.

Kristina Pistone↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Rideshare Tensegrity Rover Concept to Explore Titan's Lands and Oceans

The Tension Adjustable Network for Deploying Entry Membrane (TANDEM) tensegrity robot is redesigned for a mission to Titan. Focus is on the design of the aeroshell and the use of tensegrity algorithm to optimize the configuration and loading of the tensegrity structure within the aeroshell.

N Deitrich↗
NASA NTRS2022

A Rideshare Tensegrity Rover Concept to Explore Titan’s Lands and Oceans

The Tension Adjustable Network for Deploying Entry Membrane (TANDEM) concept is a phase II NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) project. One of the goals for this project was to extend the application of tensegrity-based rovers to a rideshare concept for a Titan mission. This report provides preliminary details of the TANDEM concept for Titan. System analyses of the entry vehicle were performed and compared to data from the Huygens mission to Titan. The entry aeroshell was based on Huygens and Stardust aeroshells. Modeling, simulation and design of the tensegrity deployment were performed using a nonlinear optimization form-finding algorithm. Lastly, a neuroevolution-based machine learning control strategy was applied, which produced efficient rolling locomotion gaits.

tensegrity↗
NASA NTRS1995

Ocean observations with EOS/MODIS: Algorithm development and post launch studies

Several significant accomplishments were made during the present reporting period. (1) Initial simulations to understand the applicability of the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) 1380 nm band for removing the effects of stratospheric aerosols and thin cirrus clouds were completed using a model for an aged volcanic aerosol. The results suggest that very simple procedures requiring no a priori knowledge of the optical properties of the stratospheric aerosol may be as effective as complex procedures requiring full knowledge of the aerosol properties, except the concentration which is estimated from the reflectance at 1380 nm. The limitations of this conclusion will be examined in the next reporting period; (2) The lookup tables employed in the implementation of the atmospheric correction algorithm have been modified in several ways intended to improve the accuracy and/or speed of processing. These have been delivered to R. Evans for implementation into the MODIS prototype processing algorithm for testing; (3) A method was developed for removal of the effects of the O2 'A' absorption band from SeaWiFS band 7 (745-785 nm). This is important in that SeaWiFS imagery will be used as a test data set for the MODIS atmospheric correction algorithm over the oceans; and (4) Construction of a radiometer, and associated deployment boom, for studying the spectral reflectance of oceanic whitecaps at sea was completed. The system was successfully tested on a cruise off Hawaii on which whitecaps were plentiful during October-November. This data set is now under analysis.

Gordon, Howard R.↗
NASA NTRS2004

The Chesapeake Lighthouse and Aircraft Measurements for Satellites (CLAMS) Experiment

NASA has developed an Earth Observing System (EOS) consisting of a series of satellites designed to study global change from space. The EOS flagship is the EOS TERRA satellite, launched in December 1999, equipped with five unique sensors to monitor and study the Earth s heat budget and many of the key controlling variables governing the Earth's climate system. CLAMS, the Chesapeake Lighthouse and Aircraft Measurements for Satellites field campaign was conducted from NASA Wallops Flight Facility and successfully executed over the middle Atlantic eastern seaboard from July 10 August 2, 2001. CLAMS is primarily a shortwave closure experiment designed to validate and improve EOS TERRA satellite data products being derived from three sensors: CERES (Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System), MISR (Multi-angle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer) and MODIS (MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer). CLAMS is jointly sponsored by the CERES, MISR and MODIS instrument teams and the NASA GEWEX Global Aerosol Climatology Project (GACP). CLAMS primary objectives are to validate satellite-based retrievals of aerosol properties and vertical profiles of radiative flux, temperature and water vapor. Central to CLAMS measurement strategy is the Chesapeake Lighthouse, a stable sea platform located in the Atlantic Ocean, 13 miles east of Virginia Beach near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and the site of an ongoing CERES Ocean Validation Experiment (COVE). Six research aircraft were deployed to make detailed measurements of the atmosphere and ocean surface in the vicinity of COVE, over the surrounding ocean, over nearby NOAA buoys and over a few land sites. The measurements are used to validate and provide ground truth for simultaneous products being derived from TERRA data, a key step toward an improved understanding and ability to predict changes in the Earth's climate. One of the two CERES instruments on-board TERRA was programmed for Rotating Azimuth Plane Scans (RAPS) during CLAMS, increasing the CERES coverage over COVE by a factor of 10. Nine coordinated aircraft missions and numerous additional sorties were flown under a variety of atmospheric conditions and aerosol loadings. On one golden day, July 17, all six aircraft flew coordinated patterns, vertically stacked between 100 ft and 65,000 ft over the COVE site as the TERRA satellite orbited overhead. A summary of CLAMS measurement campaign and a description of the platforms and measurements is given.

Smith, William L., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Maritime Aerosol Network as a Component of AERONET - First Results and Comparison with Global Aerosol Models and Satellite Retrievals

The Maritime Aerosol Network (MAN) has been collecting data over the oceans since November 2006. Over 80 cruises were completed through early 2010 with deployments continuing. Measurement areas included various parts of the Atlantic Ocean, the Northern and Southern Pacific Ocean, the South Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean, the Arctic Ocean and inland seas. MAN deploys Microtops handheld sunphotometers and utilizes a calibration procedure and data processing traceable to AERONET. Data collection included areas that previously had no aerosol optical depth (AOD) coverage at all, particularly vast areas of the Southern Ocean. The MAN data archive provides a valuable resource for aerosol studies in maritime environments. In the current paper we present results of AOD measurements over the oceans, and make a comparison with satellite AOD retrievals and model simulations.

Smirnov, A.↗
NASA NTRS2022

Alignment of Optical Backscatter Measurements from the EXPORTS Northeast Pacific Field Deployment

Backscattering of light is commonly measured by ocean observing systems, including ships and autonomous platforms, and is used as a proxy for the concentration of water column constituents such as phytoplankton and particulate carbon. Multiple on-going projects involve large numbers of independent measurements of backscatter, as well as other biologically relevant parameters, to understand how biology is changing in time and space throughout the global ocean. Rarely are there sufficient measurements to test how well these instruments are inter-calibrated in real-world deployment conditions. This paper develops a procedure to align multiple independently calibrated backscatter instruments to each other using nearby profiling casts and applies this method to nine instruments deployed during a recent field campaign in the North Pacific during August–September of 2018. This process revealed several incorrect calibrations; post-alignment, all nine instruments aligned extremely well with each other. We also tested an alignment to a deep-water reference and found that this method is generally sufficient but has significant limitations; this procedure lacks the ability to correct instruments measuring only shallow profiles and can only account for additive offsets, not multiplicative changes. These findings highlight the utility of process studies involving several independent measurements of similar parameters in the same area.

North Pacific↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Variation and evolution of atmospheric structure over the SEA BB season as seen from aircraft and reanalysis

The presence of absorbing aerosols and atmospheric water vapor will impact clouds both radiatively and dynamically. The atmosphere over the southeast Atlantic Ocean (SEA) experiences consistent springtime biomass burning (BB) smoke from widespread agricultural fires on the African continent. This smoke layer is initially lofted high in a continental mixed layer (~5-6km) and is then transported westward into the free troposphere where it overlies and ultimately mixes into the underlying stratocumulus-topped oceanic boundary layer. Coincident with this smoke is an elevated humidity signal which is present from the time a given airmass is over the continental source region. ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) was a NASA Earth Venture Suborbital mission with the goal of measuring aerosol, cloud, and atmospheric properties over this region over three deployments in September 2016, August 2017, and October 2018. Measurements included in situ profile measurements of aerosol physical and optical properties, trace gas concentrations, and cloud properties, as well as column measurements of aerosol optical depth and trace gas concentrations from an airborne sun photometer, allowing for calculation of radiative heating at different altitudes. Here we present results from the three ORACLES deployments over the southeast Atlantic Ocean. The airborne observations capture both seasonal patterns (August through October) and spatial patterns (north/south and east/west) in the vertical smoke distribution and its correlation to atmospheric specific humidity over the SEA basin. We describe the observed variations and show that the variability in both meteorological and emissions is largely captured in the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasting Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (ECMWF CAMS) reanalysis, which allows for a more systematic examination of the relative frequency of observed conditions and their radiative impact over the region. Finally, we discuss the broader radiative and dynamical implications of these results for conditions of biomass burning aerosols overlying stratocumulus clouds.

Kristina Marie Myers Pistone↗
NASA NTRS1985

Determination of Electromagnetic Properties of Mesh Material Using Advanced Radiometer Techniques

The need for a large diameter deployable antenna to map soil moisture with a 10 kilometer or better resolution using a microwave radiometer is discussed. A 6 meter deployable antenna is also needed to map sea surface temperature on the Navy Remote Ocean Sensor System (NROSS). Both of these deployable antennas require a mesh membrane material as the reflecting surface. The determination of the electromagnetic properties of mesh materials is a difficult problem. The Antenna and Microwave Research Branch (AMRB) of Langley Research Center was asked to measure the material to be used on MROSS by NRL. A cooperative program was initiated to measure this mesh material using two advanced radiometer techniques.

Arrington, R. F.↗
NASA NTRS1999

A View from Space: Evolution of the 1997-98 El Nino and La Nina

After the last extreme El Nino in 1982-1983, an extensive in situ observing system was deployed in the tropical Pacific Ocean in support of monitoring and predicting El Nino. Within the past ten years a series of ocean and atmosphere remote sensing satellites have been launched that serve to supplement and enhance the observations being taken at the surface, and at depth, in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The 1997-1998 "El Nino Event of the Century" has been the best monitored El Nino on record. The 1997-1998 El Nino will be the first time a major El Nino event and subsequent La Nina will have been observed from start to finish from a combination of remotely-sensed measurements of sea surface temperature, sea surface topography, sea surface winds, ocean color, and precipitation. Among some of the lessons learned to date from the 1997-1998 event have been the need for global observations in addition to just those in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. In this presentation the evolution of the 1997-1998 El Nino will be depicted from the unique vantage point provided by these space-based observations as analyzed separately, and together as a representation of the coupled system. Comparisons and contrasts with the evolution 1982-1983 El Nino and how the in situ and space-based observations complement each other will be discussed.

Busalacchi, Antonio J.↗
NASA NTRS1997

A View from Space: Evolution of the 1997-1998 El Nino and La Nina

After the last extreme El Nino in 1982-1983, an extensive in situ observing system was deployed in the tropical Pacific Ocean in support of monitoring and predicting El Nino. Within the past ten years a series of ocean and atmosphere remote sensing satellites have been launched that serve to supplement and enhance the observations being taken at the surface, and at depth, in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The 1997-1998 "El Nino Event of the Century" has been the best monitored El Nino on record. The 1997-1998 El Nino will be the first time a major El Nino event and subsequent La Nina will have been observed from start to finish from a combination of remotely-sensed measurements of sea surface temperature, sea surface topography, sea surface winds, ocean color, and precipitation. Among some of the lessons learned to date from the 1997-1998 event have been the need for global observations in addition to just those in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. In this presentation the evolution of the 1997-1998 El Nino will be depicted from the unique vantage point provided by these space-based observations as analyzed separately, and together as a representation of the coupled system. Comparisons and contrasts with the evolution 1982-1983 El Nino and how the in situ and space-based observations complement each other will be discussed.

Busalacchi, Antonio J.↗
NASA NTRS1999

A View From Space: Evolution of the 1997-1998 El Nino and La Nina

After the last extreme El Nino in 1982-1983, an extensive in situ observing system was deployed in the tropical Pacific Ocean in support of monitoring and predicting El Nino. Within the past ten years a series of ocean and atmosphere remote sensing satellites have been launched that serve to supplement and enhance the observations being taken at the surface, and at depth, in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The 1997-1998 "El Nino Event of the Century" has been the best monitored El Nino on record. The 1997-1998 El Nino will be the first time a major El Nino event and subsequent La Nina will have been observed from start to finish from a combination of remotely-sensed measurements of sea surface temperature, sea surface topography, sea surface wind, ocean color, and precipitation, Among some of the lessons learned to date from the 1997-1998 event have been the need for global observation in addition to just those in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. In this presentation the evolution of the 1997-1998 El Nino will be depicted from the unique vantage point provided by these space-based observations as analyzed separately, and together as a representation of the coupled system. Comparisons and contrasts with the evolution 1982-1983 El Nino and how the in situ and space-based observations complement each other will be discussed.

Busalacchi, Antonio↗