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At least 415 records · Page 23

Extended Duration: The SIRIUS 21 Crew Perspective

The SIRIUS (Scientific International Research In a Unique terrestrial Station) missions represent a collaborative effort between NASA and Russia’s Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) to conduct a series of long duration isolation and confinement spaceflight analog missions. Three missions of 17-day, 4-month, and 8-month duration (SIRIUS 17, 19, and 21) have been completed at IBMP’s Ground-Based Experimental Complex / Nazemnyy eksperimental'nyy kompleks (NEK) in Moscow, Russia. The international SIRIUS 21 crew comprising representatives from the United States, United Arab Emirates and Russia recently completed the 8-month analog lunar mission. The extended duration mission included simulated lunar transit, orbital, and surface operations with corresponding deep space communication delay, during which the crew participated in nearly 70 studies, eight of which were sponsored by NASA’s Human Research Program. The studies examined the effect of isolation and confinement on the behavioral health of research subjects, and investigated medical countermeasures, team performance, crew dynamics, crew autonomy, food system risks, consequences of confinement and associated physiological stressors. SIRIUS 21 crewmembers also participated in operational tasks such as Rover and CubeSat assembly, simulated lunar sample assessment, VR activities, robotic arm training, environmental systems monitoring, exercise, greenhouse maintenance and 3D printing. Communication with Mission Control was limited to 30-minute periods every two hours. Since access to the internet and email was restricted, simulated ground support provided the Crew’s primary source of daily news and mission information. This panel discussion will include presentations from the US SIRIUS 21 crewmembers – William Brown and Ashley Kowalski – about their experience participating in the mission and science. A facilitated question and answer session will follow with attendees encouraged to ask questions and join in discussion with the SIRIUS 21 crewmembers about their experiences. William Brown came to SIRIUS 21 with experience spread across multiple industries, including the military, defense contracting, healthcare consulting, software engineering, and logistics. He has lived in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Russia. A former Boren Scholar, Brown is fluent in Russian. He holds a Master of International Business degree from the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business. Prior to that, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Russian language, literature, and culture from the University of South Carolina. There, he also completed additional undergraduate coursework in computer science. Ashley Kowalski is a Project Leader in The Aerospace Corporation’s International Partnerships Department, where she works with, represents, and provides technical support to the the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command International Affairs (SSC/IA) office. Through her numerous national and international assignments (Russia, China, and Germany), she has worked on topics related to international space systems, national security space systems, civil systems (including human spaceflight and civil launch projects), space policy, satellite industry analysis, and satellite manufacturing start-ups. She is proficient in Russian and German, and fluent in Polish. Kowalski received her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering from George Washington University in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

S. E. Whiting↗

NWChem: Past, present, and future

Specialized computational chemistry packages have permanently reshaped the landscape of chemical sciences by providing tools to support and guide the experimental effort and for prediction of chemical and materials properties. In this regard, a special role has been played by electronic structure packages where complex chemical and materials processes can be modeled using first-principle-driven methodologies. Over the last few decades, the rapid development of computing technologies and a tremendous increase in computational power has offered a unique chance to study complex chemical transformations using sophisticated and predictive many-body techniques to describe correlated behavior of electrons in molecular and condensed phase systems at different levels of theory. In enabling these simulations, a critical role has been played by novel parallel algorithms capable of taking advantage of computational resources to address polynomial scaling of electronic structure methods. NWChem was among the first electronic structure codes that focused on delivering scalable performance for electronic structure simulations. Herein, we briefly review the NWChem suite of computational codes including its history, design principles, parallel tools, current capabilities, outreach and outlook.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Ecohydrological decoupling under changing disturbances and climate

Terrestrial disturbances are increasing in frequency and severity, perturbing the hydrologic cycle by altering vegetation-mediated water use and microclimate. Changes in the hydrological cycle alter vegetation succession, which is additionally influenced by changing climate and atmospheric CO 2 . Here, the interacting drivers and feedbacks between disturbances, climate, and vegetation cause uncertainty regarding the sustainable provision of freshwater through streamflow. Here we synthesize the literature on post-disturbance ecohydrological coupling, in particular, including the mechanistic relationship between vegetation and streamflow, under changing disturbance regimes, atmospheric CO 2 , and climate. Disturbance can cause decoupling between transpiration and streamflow by altering the connectivity, size, availability, and spatial distribution of their source pools. Decoupling increases when soil moisture is low due to reduced connectivity, and when soil moisture is high and Q and T are independent. Successional trajectories regulate the physiological and physical features influencing influence the dynamics of source water partitioning. Changing climate and disturbance regimes can alter succession and prolong decoupling, with potential moderation by CO 2 . Increasing rates, severity, and spread of disturbances along with warming could promote greater decoupling globally. From this review emerges a framework of testable hypotheses that identify the critical processes regulating ecohydrological coupling and provides a roadmap for future research. Accurate prediction of post-disturbance coupling and subsequent water availability for human consumption requires understanding the degree of hydraulic connectivity between source water pools for transpiration and streamflow and their response to succession under changing disturbance and climate regimes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Improved dryland carbon flux predictions with explicit consideration of water-carbon coupling

Dryland ecosystems are dominant influences on both the trend and interannual variability of the terrestrial carbon sink. Despite their importance, dryland carbon dynamics are not well-characterized by current models. Here, we present DryFlux, an upscaled product built on a dense network of eddy covariance sites in the North American Southwest. To estimate dryland gross primary productivity, we fuse in situ fluxes with remote sensing and meteorological observations using machine learning. DryFlux explicitly accounts for intra-annual variation in water availability, and accurately predicts interannual and seasonal variability in carbon uptake. Applying DryFlux globally indicates existing products may underestimate impacts of large-scale climate patterns on the interannual variability of dryland carbon uptake. We anticipate DryFlux will be an improved benchmark for earth system models in drylands, and prompt a more sensitive accounting of water limitation on the carbon cycle.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Coronal Loop Evolution Observed with AIA and Hi-C

Despite much progress toward understanding the dynamics of the solar corona, the physical properties of coronal loops are not yet fully understood. Recent investigations and observations from different instruments have yielded contradictory results about the true physical properties of coronal loops. In the past, the evolution of loops has been used to infer the loop substructure. With the recent launch of High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C), this inference can be validated. In this poster we discuss the first results of loop analysis comparing AIA and Hi-C data. We find signatures of cooling in a pixel selected along a loop structure in the AIA multi-filter observations. However, unlike previous studies, we find that the cooling time is much longer than the draining time. This is inconsistent with previous cooling models.

Mulu-Moore, Fana↗

The polar cap environment of outflowing O(+)

The properties of the core (0-50 eV) and 'energetic' (0-1 keV) ions, plasma waves, and auroral images obtained from Dynamics Explorer 1 (DE-1) and those of electrons, obtained from DE-2, are examined in the context of the polar cap environment. Results indicate the presence of two populations: high-speed (10-30 eV, or higher, streaming energies) polar beams and low-speed (generally less than 10-eV streaming energies) streams. The high-speed polar beams show an auroral connection (i.e., they are observed on or near the field lines threading auroral arcs), while the low-speed streams are on or near the field lines threading the dark polar cap and may be converted from the cleft ion fountain. Compared to the high-speed streams, the low-speed streams are significantly more stable with respect to energy and flux.

Horwitz, J. L.↗

Parallel measurement of transcriptomes and proteomes from same single cells using nanodroplet splitting

Single-cell multiomics provides comprehensive insights into gene regulatory networks, cellular diversity, and temporal dynamics. While tools for co-profiling single-cell genomes, transcriptomes, and epigenomes are available, accessing proteomes in parallel is more challenging. We developed nanoSPLITS (nanodroplet SPlitting for Linked-multimodal Investigations of Trace Samples), an integrated platform that enables global profiling of the transcriptome and proteome from same single cells using RNA sequencing and mass spectrometry-based proteomics, respectively. nanoSPLITS can precisely quantify over 5000 genes, 2000 proteins, and 140 phosphopeptides per single cell and identify candidate cell markers from these modalities. By exploring Cdk1-mediated cell cycle arrest, we demonstrate how nanoSPLITS single-cell multiomics can provide comprehensive cellular characterization with insights into covarying protein/gene clusters, unique phosphorylation events, and mitotic pathways.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

The O(+) Density Trough at 5000 km Altitude in the Polar Cap

At altitudes near 5000 km over the southern polar cap region of the terrestrial magnetosphere/ionosphere, the Thermal Ion Dynamics Experiment (TIDE) on board the Polar satellite has observed O(+) ion density trough regions, in which the densities were at least one order of magnitude lower than the surrounding O(+) densities. In the 0" density trough regions, the estimated O+ densities were generally lower than 0.01 per cc. The boundaries between normal density level regions and the trough density regions were usually abrupt transitions. From 1 December 1997 to 30 November 1998, polar cap O(+) troughs in Polar/TIDE observations occurred at a frequency of about 48%. Statistical examination of the Polar perigee observations from 1 December 1997 to 30 November 1998 shows that the Polar perigee passes evenly covered the southern polar cap region, while the O(+) density trough was always located on the nightside portion of the polar cap magnetosphere/ionosphere, and that invariant latitude spans of such troughs could be as large as 23 deg. in extent. The trough occurrence displayed a strong seasonal dependence; in the winter season (e.g., for July in the Southern Hemisphere) the O(+) ion density trough occurrence frequency ranged up to 92%, while in the summer season (e.g., for January in the Southern Hemisphere) it decreased to as low as 15%. Our statistical results show that the trough occurrence was generally anticorrelated with solar wind dynamic pressure in the solar wind dynamic pressure range 0.8 - 2.6 nanopascal. The O(+) ion density trough occurrence appeared relatively independent of the geomagnetic Kp index, IMF Bz, and By conditions. However, as suggested by the seasonal dependence, the O(+) ion density trough occurrence was strongly related to the solar zenith angle (SZA). In the SZA range 50 deg. to 125 deg., the trough occurrence increased monotonically with SZA. In addition, we sought to determine consistent density and velocity signatures at lower altitudes associated the O(+) ion density trough at 5000 km by examining the near-simultaneous O(+) densities and vertical velocities observed by the DMSP satellite group orbiting at 840 km altitude. However, consistent correlations between the dual altitudes were not reliably established from the present examinations.

Zeng, W.↗

The Two-Fluid Dynamics and Energetics of the Asymmetric Magnetic Reconnection in Laboratory and Space Plasmas

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process in magnetized plasma where magnetic energy is converted to plasma energy. Despite huge differences in the physical size of the reconnection layer, remarkably similar characteristics are observed in both laboratory and magnetosphere plasmas. Here we present the comparative study of the dynamics and physical mechanisms governing the energy conversion in the laboratory and space plasma in the context of two-fluid physics, aided by numerical simulations. In strongly asymmetric reconnection layers with negligible guide field, the energy deposition to electrons is found to primarily occur in the electron diffusion region where electrons are demagnetized and diffuse. A large potential well is observed within the reconnection plane and ions are accelerated by the electric field toward the exhaust region. The present comparative study identifies the robust two-fluid mechanism operating in systems over six orders of magnitude in spatial scales and over a wide range of collisionality.

Yamada, M.↗

Response of soil nutrient pools and microbiomes to recurrent wildfire disturbance and varying burn severities in a mixed conifer forest

Wildfire is a pervasive disturbance in mixed-conifer forests, yet the relative influence of fire recurrence versus burn severity on soil biogeochemistry and microbial communities remains poorly quantified. We examined a natural gradient of fire history (0–3 prior fires) and burn severity (low–high) spanning 50 yr in a mixed-conifer ecosystem to assess how repeated fire shapes soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools, their isotopic signatures, mineral and particulate fractions, microbial community composition, carbon-use, CO₂ fluxes, and vegetation cover. Successive fires produced progressively higher bare-ground percentages and lower tree cover, which were tightly linked to declines in microbial diversity and reductions bulk %C, and %N. δ 13 C increased with fire frequency, indicating preferential loss of labile C through combustion or enhanced microbial oxidation, thereby explaining the observed net soil-C decline. Conversely, δ 15 N decreased and pH increased as tree density declined, reflecting altered N cycling and reduced acidification in post-fire soils. Fire recurrence, more than severity, corresponded with a marked shift in the bacterial community: for example, Xanthobacteraceae—key N-fixers and C-cyclers—diminished, while N-fixing Bacillaceae increased, underscoring the tightly coupled nature of soil nutrient dynamics and microbiome composition after repeated burns. Our results demonstrate that fire recurrence appears to be a stronger driver of post-fire soil ecosystem responses in this mixed-conifer forest, influencing both abiotic nutrient pools and the functional potential of the soil microbiome. These findings provide a more enhanced assessment and understanding to date of the biogeochemical consequences of repeated wildfire disturbance that can be used to inform management strategies aimed at preserving soil health in fire-prone landscapes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Reducing Communication Overhead in Federated Learning for Network Anomaly Detection with Adaptive Client Selection

Communication overhead in federated learning (FL) poses a significant challenge for network anomaly detection systems, where the myriad of client configurations and network conditions can severely impact system efficiency and detection accuracy. While existing approaches attempt to address this through individual optimization techniques, they often fail to maintain the delicate balance between reduced overhead and detection performance. This paper presents an adaptive FL framework that dynamically combines batch size optimization, client selection, and asynchronous updates to achieve efficient anomaly detection. Through extensive profiling and experimental analysis on two distinct datasets-UNSW-NBIS for general network traffic and ROAD for automotive networks-our framework reduces communication overhead by 97.6%; (from 700.0s to 16.8s) compared to synchronous baseline approaches while maintaining comparable detection accuracy (95.10%; vs. 95.12%;). Statistical validation using Mann-Whitney U test confirms significant improvements (p < 0.05) over existing FL approaches across both datasets, demonstrating the framework's adaptability to different network security contexts. Detailed profiling analysis reveals the efficiency gains through dramatic reductions in GPU operations and memory transfers while maintaining robust detection performance under varying client conditions.

Marfo, William [University of Texas at El Paso]↗

Dynamic Agents of Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling

VISIONS sounding rocket mission (VISualizing Ion Outflow via Neutral atom imaging during a Substorm) has been awarded to NASA/GSFC (PI Rowland) in order to provide the first combined remote sensing and in situ measurements of the regions where ion acceleration to above 5 e V is occurring, and of the sources of free energy and acceleration mechanisms that accelerate the ions. The key science question of VISIONS is how, when, and where, are ions accelerated to escape velocities in the auroral zone below 1000 km, following substorm onset? Sources of free energy that power this ion acceleration process include (but not limited) electron precipitation, field-aligned currents, velocity shears, and Alfvenic Poynting flux. The combine effect of all these processes on ionospheric ion outflows will be investigated in a framework of the kinetic model that has been developed by Khazanov et al. in order to study the polar wind transport in the presence of photoelectrons.

Khazanov, George V.↗

A new technique for deconvolution of data from instruments that make integral measurements, e.g. RIMS on DE-1

A general method for deconvolving an unknown function from integral measurements is described and applied to data from the instrument Retarding Ion Mass Spectrometer (RIMS) aboard the spacecraft Dynamics Explorer 1 (DE-1). The principal features of the method are: (1) it uses objective criteria based upon fundamental statistical principles, i.e. Bayesian statistics; (2) it provides for insertion of prior knowledge in a non-prejudicial, explicit manner through the choice of breakpoints that determine the bicubic spline expansion functions; (3) it prevents random fluctuations from controlling the fit to the data through the use of singular value decomposition and the elimination of small singular values; and (4) it guards agianst the introduction of spurious features into the result by including a penalty function and using the principle of generalized cross validation. Illustrative examples from RIMS data for H(+) and O(+) show that the method provides enhanced accuracy and detail in deconvolving the ion phase space density.

Perez, J. D.↗

Onset of a Solar Filament Eruption Without a Slow-Rise Phase

We observe a filament eruption of 23 Jan 2012 using Atmospheric Imaging Array (AIA) data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite. Relatively cool emissions (193 Ang. channel) show a filament with a rise-toward-eruption trajectory that is relatively smooth, without a distinct, linearly-increasing "slow rise" followed by an abrupt "fast rise," as is often seen in other events. Detailed investigations of some of those two-phase events suggested that they were triggered by magnetic flux cancellation. Here however, observations of hotter emissions (335 Ang. channel) show an adjacent eruption, invisible in 193 Ang., occurred just prior to the filament's eruption start. We surmise that the hotter eruption destabilized the 193 Ang. filament, triggering its eruption onset. In this way, the filament's smooth eruption trajectory is indicative of a non-tether-cutting eruption-onset mechanism for the filament.

Knox, J. M.↗

Miniature X-Ray Solar Spectrometer: A Science-Oriented, University 3U CubeSat

The miniature x-ray solar spectrometer is a three-unit CubeSat developed at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Over 40 students contributed to the project with professional mentorship and technical contributions from professors in the Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department at University of Colorado, Boulder and from Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics scientists and engineers. The scientific objective of the miniature x-ray solar spectrometer is to study processes in the dynamic sun, from quiet sun to solar flares, and to further understand how these changes in the sun influence the Earth's atmosphere by providing unique spectral measurements of solar soft x-rays. The enabling technology providing the advanced solar soft x-ray spectral measurements is the Amptek X123, a commercial off-the-shelf silicon drift detector. The Amptek X123 has a low mass (approx. 324 g after modification), modest power consumption (approx. 2.50 W), and small volume (6.86 x 9.91 x 2.54 cm), making it ideal for a CubeSat. This paper provides an overview of the miniature x-ray solar spectrometer mission: the science objectives, project history, subsystems, and lessons learned, which can be useful for the small-satellite community.

Mason, James P.↗

Superspin renormalization and slow relaxation in random spin systems

We develop an excited-state real-space renormalization group (RSRG-X) formalism to describe the dynamics of conserved densities in randomly interacting spin-12 systems. Our formalism is suitable for systems with U(1) and Z2 symmetries, and we apply it to chains of randomly positioned spins with dipolar XX+YY interactions, as arise in Rydberg quantum simulators and other platforms. The formalism generates a sequence of effective Hamiltonians that provide approximate descriptions for dynamics on successively smaller energy scales. These effective Hamiltonians involve “superspins”: two-level collective degrees of freedom constructed from (anti)aligned microscopic spins. Conserved densities can then be understood as relaxing via coherent collective spin flips. For the well-studied simpler case of randomly interacting nearest-neighbor XX+YY chains, the superspins reduce to single spins. Our formalism also leads to a numerical method capable of simulating the dynamics up to an otherwise inaccessible combination of large system size and late time. Focusing on disorder-averaged infinite-temperature autocorrelation functions, in particular the spin survival probability Sp¯(t), we demonstrate quantitative agreement between our algorithm and exact diagonalization (ED) at low but nonzero frequencies. Such agreement holds for chains with nearest-neighbor, next-nearest-neighbor, and long-range dipolar interactions. Our results indicate decay of Sp¯(t) slower than any power law and feature no significant deviation from the ∼1/ln2(t) asymptote expected from the infinite-randomness fixed-point of the nearest-neighbor model. We also apply the RSRG-X formalism to two-dimensional long-range systems of moderate size and find slow late-time decay of Sp¯(t).

Zhao, Yi J↗

Evidence for ion heat flux in the light ion polar wind

Cold flowing hydrogen and helium ions have been observed using the retarding ion mass spectrometer on board the Dynamics Explorer 1 spacecraft in the dayside magnetosphere at subauroral latitudes. The ions show a marked flux asymmetry with respect to the relative wind direction. The observed data are fitted by a model of drifting Maxwellian distributions perturbed by a first order-Spritzer-Haerm heat flux distribution function. It is shown that both ion species are supersonic just equatorward of the auroral zone at L = 14, and the shape of asymmetry and direction of the asymmetry are consistent with the presence of an upward heat flux. At L = 6, both species evolve smoothly into warmer subsonic upward flows with downward heat fluxes. In the case of subsonic flows the downward heat flux implies a significant heat source at higher altitudes. Spin curves of the spectrometer count rate versus the spin phase angle are provided.

Biddle, A. P.↗

A CME-Producing Solar Eruption from the Interior of a Twisted, Emerging Bipole

In a negative-polarity coronal hole, magnetic flux emergence, seen by the Solar Dynamics Observatory's (SDO) Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI), begins at approximately 19:00 UT on March 3, 2016. The emerged magnetic field produced sunspots with penumbrae by 3:00 UT on March 4, which are a part of NOAA 12514. The emerging magnetic field is largely bipolar with the opposite-polarity fluxes spreading apart overall, but there is simultaneously some convergence and cancellation of opposite-polarity flux at the polarity inversion line (PIL) inside the emerging bipole. The emerging bipole shows obvious overall left-handed shear and/or twist in its magnetic field and corresponding clockwise rotation of the two poles of the bipole about each other as the bipole emerges. The eruption comes from inside the emerging bipole and blows it open to produce a CME observed by SOHO/LASCO. That eruption is preceded by flux cancellation at the emerging bipole's interior PIL, cancellation that plausibly builds a sheared and twisted flux rope above the interior PIL and fnally triggers the blow-out eruption of the flux rope via photospheric-convection-driven, slow tether-cutting reconnection of the legs of the sheared core field, low above the interior PIL, as proposed by van Ballegooijen and Martens (1989, ApJ, 343, 971) and Moore and Roumeliotis (1992, in Eruptive Solar Flares, ed. Z. Svestka, B.V. Jackson, and M.E. Machado [Berlin:Springer], 69). The production of this eruption is a (perhaps rare) counterexample to solar eruptions that result from external collisional shearing between opposite polarities from two distinct emerging and/or emerged bipoles (Chintzoglou et al., 2019, ApJ, 871:67).

Adams, Mitzi L.↗