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NASA NTRS2003

An Examination of Issues Related to a Europa Subsurface Component for the JIMO Mission

The Galileo Europa data set served to revolutionize our view of Europa. In particular the strong evidence of a large, cold, salty Ocean beneath 5-30 km of ice has profoundly altered the significance of Europa in our thinking, especially of context of habitability in the solar system. While much remains to be learned from spacecraft observations of several sorts, there are significant questions answerable only by in-situ techniques; these relate to the formation of Europa, the nature of its ocean, and the prospects for life in its ocean, sediments, and ice. We feel that wide-ranging discussion of an in-situ subsurface mission to Europa, as part of JIMO, should proceed. The science objective of the mission is to characterize the icy shell of Europa to resolve its provenance, estimate the composition of brine of the Europa ocean, and search for evidence of Earth-like life. Probably anyone would agree that an in-situ mission to Europa would be of great value, but he or she would also immediately take the position that such a mission is utterly impractical. We take the position here of defining the least complex mission that can nonetheless justify its cost and to argue that such a mission is realistic enough that it should be seriously considered. Our mission thinking has been: 1) Soft landing. A soft lander is required on a site sufficiently flat to offer a stable platform; no further site selectivity is required. 2) Subsurface exploration. The Europa subsurface must be examined. Surficial processes on Europa arguably have exposed the upper 200 m of shell to chemical effects from the Jovian radiation belts as well as cometary infall, etc; to examine native ice we must descend below that point to, for discussion, 300 m. At that depth we argue that the ice is characteristic of ice at depth and possibly is effectively sea ice. 3) Science data. A few simple measurements at various depths and at 300 m constitute a scientifically successful mission. Measurements would include analysis of meltwater for a few inorganic ions and amino acids and an optical examination of the borehole wall. 4) Communication. Transmission of data to an orbiter is essential, but we will constrain the landed mission to a daily communication over a few days. 5) Subsurface access. Drilling to 300 m is a significant challenge; it can be addressed by several means: Thermal Probe (Cryobot) which permits water to refreeze above the vehicle. This is our tentative choice with plutonium as the fuel to generate thermal energy for drilling and electrical power for operations. Open Hole Drill, a thermal system in which the meltwater is removed for greater thermal efficiency. Meltwater removal on Europa is both a complexity and a risk, but analysis is improved. Mechanical Drilling in which cutting or grinding generates ice chips which are removed. This is too complex at Europa temperatures. The measurement objectives for the mission will be: Obj. 1: Determine the concentration of simple inorganic salts in the Europa Ice Shell and, by extrapolation, of the ocean. These data will also validate spaceborne sensors. Obj. 2: Determine the nature and abundance of amino acids in the ice such that cometary infall material in the upper ice can be compared to material at depth. Obj. 3: Optically examine the ice to resolve inclusion structure, particulate content, and stratification. Access to 300 m depth is a significant if not audacious plan; we are aware that this has not been done on any planetary body. Our approach is the use of a plutonium heat source; to overcome Europa's surface temperature and to melt ice a significant amount of plutonium is needed, and significant shielding and other protective steps will be required. The quantity of plutonium is a key concern. The mission will require subsurface collection and processing of samples for in situ analysis, calling for a miniature, high pressure micro-sampling system designed to meet needs of instruments that require low presses for operation. The inlet system itself collects a micro-sample in the external high pressure environment, then transfers it into a protected low pressure environment for analysis.

Carsey, F. D.↗

DOE OSTI2025

Characterizing Greater Houston's Aerosol by Air Mass During TRACER

During the TRacking Aerosol and Convection interaction ExpeRiment (TRACER), a suite of aerosol and cloud measurements were made using the Texas A&M Rapid Onsite Atmospheric Measurement Van (ROAM-V) mobile instrument platform. Joint ROAM-V/radiosonde deployments focused on sampling polluted marine and continental air masses to understand summertime convection along and across the sea-breeze front as it propagated through Houston. The polluted marine air mass at Seawolf Park, Galveston, TX was defined by two characteristic aerosol populations. Although the background total particle concentrations averaged 2,500 cm −3 , the air mass was also influenced by frequent but irregular periods of ship emission with significantly higher aerosol concentrations at times exceeding 34,000 cm −3 . Ship emission influenced periods, typically lasting <10 min, contained smaller, less hygroscopic particles resulting in a 69% relative decline in cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activated fraction at 1% supersaturation compared to background periods. Measurements in continental air masses northwest of Houston revealed an average aerosol concentration of 5,208 cm −3 with a κ value near 0.1 reasonably describing the CCN population, independent of particle size. In continental air masses, substantial differences in particle size and CCN activation over small distances (<42 miles between sites) suggest considerable site-to-site variability in addition to the expected day-to-day differences. This small-scale variability makes it difficult to generalize continental air mass aerosol properties. Both coastal and inland locations had effective ice nucleating particles, but inland deployments observed the warmest nucleation temperature at −15.6°C compared to −17.8°C close to the coast. These measurements can reduce uncertainties in regional convection allowing models to improve understanding of aerosol-cloud interactions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1999

Arctic Summer Ice Processes

The primary objective of this study is to estimate the flux of heat and freshwater resulting from sea ice melt in the polar seas. The approach taken is to examine the decay of sea ice in the summer months primarily through the use of spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery. The improved understanding of the dynamics of the melt process can be usefully combined with ice thermodynamic and upper ocean models to form more complete models of ice melt. Models indicate that more heat is absorbed in the upper ocean when the ice cover is composed of smaller rather than larger floes and when there is more open water. Over the course of the summer, floes disintegrate by physical forcing and heating, melting into smaller and smaller sizes. By measuring the change in distribution of floes together with open water over a summer period, we can make estimates of the amount of heating by region and time. In a climatic sense, these studies are intended to improve the understanding of the Arctic heat budget which can then be eventually incorporated into improved global climate models. This work has two focus areas. The first is examining the detailed effect of storms on floe size and open water. A strong Arctic low pressure storm has been shown to loosen up the pack ice, increase the open water concentration well into the pack ice, and change the distribution of floes toward fewer and smaller floes. This suggests episodic melting and the increased importance of horizontal (lateral) melt during storms. The second focus area is related to an extensive ship-based experiment that recently took place in the Arctic called Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA). An icebreaker was placed purposely into the older pack ice north of Alaska in September 1997. The ship served as the base for experimenters who deployed extensive instrumentation to measure the atmosphere, ocean, and ice during a one-year period. My experiment will be to derive similar measurements (floe size, open water, temporal change) using spaceborne SAR data obtained during the summer of 1998, and compare these results with an ocean and ice model of summer melt. Additional information is contained in the original.

Holt, Benjamin↗

NASA NTRS1984

Changes in the High-latitude Ocean as Possible Causes of Atmospheric CO2 Variations

Measurements on air enclosed in old polar ice have indicated that the atmospheric CO2 concentration was ca. 50 to 70 ppm lower in late glacial times than during the Holocene. Similar measurements performed on samples from a Greenland ice core, dating ca. 30,000 to 40,000 B.P., and have yielded evidence of several CO2 oscillations with an amplitude of ca. 50 ppm. Each change lasted on the order of a few centuries. A mechanism by which circulation changes in the high-latitude ocean could lead to rapid variations in atmospheric CO2 is proposed. In the Antarctic Ocean a slowing down of the vertical mixing would imply a smaller upward flux of sigma CO2 and nutrients. Assuming constant productivity, sigma CO2 and nutrients would be more completely used which would imply lower CO2 in these high-latitude surface waters. In areas with a warm surface, a slowing down of the circulation would not have a direct impact on CO2 because productivity would automatically decrease by the same factor as the upwelling rate of nutrients. Studies with a simple box model of the ocean-atmosphere system suggest that a suddent decrease by a factor of 2 of the water exchange between the surface and deep sea in high latitudes could lead to a CO2 decrease of ca. 40 to 50 ppm with a time constant of ca. 200 years. Deep-sea sediment studies indicate rapid changes in the high-latitude surface conditions of the North Atlantic and the Antarctic Oceans at the end of the last glaciation. Studies of carbon isotope ratios should help ascertain whether this proposed mechanism was indeed responsible for the CO2 variation.

Siegenthaler, U.↗

NASA NTRS2001

The Aquarius Mission: Sea Surface Salinity from Space

Aquarius is a new satellite mission concept to study the impact of the global water cycle on the ocean, including the response of the ocean to buoyancy forcing and the subsequent feedback of the ocean on the climate. The measurement objective of Aquarius is sea surface salinity, which reflects the concentration of freshwater at the ocean surface. Salinity affects the dielectric constant of sea water and, consequently, the radiometric emission of the sea surface to space. Rudimentary space observations with an L-band radiometer were first made from Skylab in the mid-70s and numerous aircraft missions of increasing quality and improved technology have been conducted since then. Technology is now available to carry out a global mission, which includes both an accurate L band (1.413 Ghz) radiometer and radar system in space and a global array of in situ observations for calibration and validation, in order to address key NASA Earth Science Enterprise questions about the global cycling of water and the response of the ocean circulation to climate change. The key scientific objectives of Aquarius examine the cycling of water at the ocean's surface, the response of the ocean circulation to buoyancy forcing, and the impact of buoyancy forcing on the ocean's thermal feedback to the climate. Global surface salinity will also improve our ability to model the surface solubility chemistry needed to estimate the air-sea exchange of CO2. In order to meet these science objectives, the NASA Salinity Sea Ice Working Group over the past three years has concluded that the mission measurement goals should be better than 0.2 practical salinity units (psu) accuracy, 100 km resolution, and weekly to revisits. The Aquarius mission proposes to meet these measurement requirements through a real aperture dual-polarized L band radiometer and radar system. This system can achieve the less than 0.1 K radiometric temperature measurement accuracy that is required. A 3 m antenna at approx. 600km altitude in a sun-synchronous orbit and 300 km swath can provide the desired 100 km resolution global coverage every week. Within this decade, it may be possible to combine satellite sea surface salinity measurements with ongoing satellite observations of temperature, surface height, air-sea fluxes; vertical profiles of temperature and salinity from the Argo program; and modern ocean/atmosphere modeling and data assimilation tools, in order to finally address the complex influence of buoyancy on the ocean circulation and climate.

Koblinsky, Chester↗

NASA NTRS2012

Overview of US AID-World Bank-NASA Collaboration to Address Water Management Issues in the MENA Region

The World Bank, USAID and NASA have recently established a joint project to study multiple issues pertaining to water related applications in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region. The main concentration of the project is on utilization of remote sensing data and hydrological models to address crop irrigation and mapping, flood mapping and forecasting, evapotranspiration and drought problems prevalent in this large geographic area. Additional emphases are placed on understanding the climate impact on these areas as well. Per IPCC 2007 report, by the end of this century MENA region is projected to experience an increase of 3 C to 5 C rise in mean temperatures and a 20% decline in precipitation. This poses a serious problem for this geographic zone especially when majority of the hydrological consumption is for the agriculture sector and the remaining amount is for domestic consumption. The remote sensing data from space is one of the best ways to study such complex issues and further feed into the decision support systems. NASA's fleet of Earth Observing satellites offer a great vantage point from space to look at the globe and provide vital signs necessary to maintain healthy and sustainable ecosystem. These observations generate multiple products such as soil moisture, global precipitation, aerosols, cloud cover, normalized difference vegetation index, land cover/use, ocean altimetry, ocean salinity, sea surface winds, sea surface temperature, ozone and atmospheric gases, ice and snow measurements, and many more. All of the data products, models and research results are distributed-via the Internet freely through out the world. This project will utilize several NASA models such as global Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS) to generate hydrological states and fluxes in near real time. These LDAS products will then be further compared with other NASA satellite observations (MODIS, VIIRS, TRMM, etc.) and other discrete models to compare and optimize evapotranspiration, soil moisture and crop irrigation, droUght assessment and water balance. The floods being a critical disaster in many of the MENA countries, NASA's global flood mapping and modeling framework (CREST) will be customized for country specific needs and delivered to the remote sensing organizations for their future use. Finally, capacity building is a critical part of this project and NASA will assist in this effort as well.

Habib, Shahid↗

NASA NTRS2015

New York City Panel on Climate Change 2015 Report: Climate Observations and Projections - Chapter 1

During 2013 and 2014, numerous international (IPCC, 2013) and national (Melillo et al., 2014; Gordon, 2014) reports have concluded that human activities are changing the climate, leading to increased vulnerability and risk. Since the industrial revolution, fossil fuel burning, industrial activity, and land use changes have led to a 40% increase in heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2), and an approximately 150% increase in methane (CH4), another powerful greenhouse gas (GHG), has been observed. Global temperatures have increased by close to 1 C since 1880 as the upper oceans have warmed and polar ice has retreated. These and other climate changes are projected to accelerate as greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise. In the coming decades, climate change is extremely likely to bring warmer temperatures in the New York metropolitan region (see Box. 1.1 and Fig.1.1 for key definitions and terms). Heat waves are very likely to increase; total annual precipitation will likely increase and brief, intense rainstorms are very likely to increase. Because of incomplete knowledge about exactly how much climate change will occur, choosing among policies for reducing future damages requires prudent risk management (Yohe and Leichenko, 2010; Kunreuther et al., 2013). Given differing risk tolerances among stakeholders, a risk management approach allows for a range of possible climate change outcomes to be examined with associated uncertainties surrounding their likelihoods. The New York City Panel on Climate Change 2 (NPCC2) projections can be used to inform planning across multiple governmental scales (e.g., city, county, state) in the New York metropolitan region. Such coordinated efforts can serve as test cases for successful local, state, and federal coordination for integrated climate adaptation initiatives. This chapter describes the global climate system, and presents observed temperature and precipitation trends and projections for the region. Chapter 2 (NPCC, 2015) focuses on sea level rise and possible changes in coastal storms. Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 (NPCC, 2015) describe efforts to better understand the region's vulnerability to coastal flooding during coastal storms. The treatment of likelihood related to the NPCC projections is similar to that developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth and Fifth Assessment Reports (IPCC, 2007; 2013), with six likelihood categories (Box 1.1 and Fig. 1.1). The assignment of climate hazards to these categories is based on observed data, global climate model simulations, published literature, and expert judgment.

climate change↗

DOE OSTI2023

Antarctic permafrost processes and antiphase dynamics of cold-based glaciers in the McMurdo Dry Valleys inferred from 10 Be and 26 Al cosmogenic nuclides

Abstract. Soil and sediment mixing and associated permafrost processes are not widely studied or understood in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. In this study, we investigate the stability and depositional history of near-surface permafrost sediments to ∼ 3 m depth in the Pearse and lower Wright valleys using measured cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al depth profiles. In Pearse Valley, we estimate a minimum depositional age of ∼ 74 ka for the active layer and paleoactive-layer sediments (< 0.65 m). Combined depth profile modelling of 10Be and 26Al gives a depositional age for near-surface (< 1.65 m) permafrost in Pearse Valley of 180 +20/-40 ka, implying that the deposition of permafrost sediments predates MIS 5 advances of Taylor Glacier. Deeper permafrost sediments (> 2.09 m) in Pearse Valley are thus inferred to have a depositional age of > 180 ka. At a coastal, lower-elevation site in neighbouring lower Wright Valley, 10Be and 26Al depth profiles from a second permafrost core exhibit near-constant concentrations with depth and indicate the sediments are either vertically mixed after deposition or sufficiently young so that post-depositional nuclide production is negligible relative to inheritance. 26Al/10Be concentration ratios for both depth profiles range between 4.0 and 5.2 and are all lower than the nominal surface production rate ratio of 6.75, indicating that prior to deposition, these sediments experienced complex, yet similar, exposure–burial histories. Assuming a single-cycle exposure–burial scenario, the observed 26Al/10Be ratios are equivalent to a total minimum exposure–burial history of ∼ 1.2 Myr. In proximity to the depth profile core site, we measured cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al in three granite cobbles from thin, patchy drift (Taylor 2 Drift) in Pearse Valley to constrain the timing of retreat of Taylor Glacier. Assuming simple continuous exposure, our minimum, zero-erosion exposure ages suggest Taylor Glacier partially retreated from Pearse Valley no later than 65–74 ka. The timing of retreat after 65 ka and until the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) when Taylor Glacier was at a minimum position remains unresolved. The surface cobble ages and permafrost processes reveal Taylor Glacier advances during MIS 5 were non-erosive or mildly erosive, preserving the underlying permafrost sediments and peppering boulders and cobbles upon an older, relict surface. Our results are consistent with U/Th ages from central Taylor Valley and suggest changes in moisture delivery over Taylor Dome during MIS 5e, 5c, and 5a appear to be associated with the extent of the Ross Ice Shelf and sea ice in the Ross Sea. These data provide further evidence of antiphase behaviour through retreat of a peripheral lobe of Taylor Glacier in Pearse Valley, a region that was glaciated during MIS 5. We suggest a causal relationship of cold-based glacier advance and retreat that is controlled by an increase in moisture availability during retreat of sea ice and perhaps the Ross Ice Shelf, as well as, conversely, a decrease during times of sea ice and Ross Ice Shelf expansion in the Ross Sea.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS2020

The Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project Phase 2: Large-scale Climate Features and Climate Sensitivity

The Pliocene epoch has great potential to improve our understanding of the long-term climatic and environmental consequences of an atmospheric CO2 concentration near ∼400 parts per million by volume. Here we present the large-scale features of Pliocene climate as simulated by a new ensemble of climate models of varying complexity and spatial resolution based on new reconstructions of boundary conditions (the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project Phase 2; PlioMIP2). As a global annual average, modelled surface air temperatures increase by between 1.7 and 5.2 ∘C relative to the pre-industrial era with a multi-model mean value of 3.2 ∘C. Annual mean total precipitation rates increase by 7 % (range: 2 %–13 %). On average, surface air temperature (SAT) increases by 4.3 ∘C over land and 2.8 ∘C over the oceans. There is a clear pattern of polar amplification with warming polewards of 60∘ N and 60∘ S exceeding the global mean warming by a factor of 2.3. In the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, meridional temperature gradients are reduced, while tropical zonal gradients remain largely unchanged. There is a statistically significant relationship between a model's climate response associated with a doubling in CO2 (equilibrium climate sensitivity; ECS) and its simulated Pliocene surface temperature response. The mean ensemble Earth system response to a doubling of CO2 (including ice sheet feedbacks) is 67 % greater than ECS; this is larger than the increase of 47 % obtained from the PlioMIP1 ensemble. Proxy-derived estimates of Pliocene sea surface temperatures are used to assess model estimates of ECS and give an ECS range of 2.6–4.8 ∘C. This result is in general accord with the ECS range presented by previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports.

Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project↗

NASA NTRS1994

Feasibility of sea ice typing with synthetic aperture radar (SAR): Merging of Landsat thematic mapper and ERS 1 SAR satellite imagery

Earth Remote-Sensing Satellite (ERS) 1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and Landsat thematic mapper (TM) images were acquired for the same area in the Beaufort Sea, April 16 and 18, 1992. The two image pairs were colocated to the same grid (25-m resolution), and a supervised ice type classification was performed on the TM images in order to classify ice free, nilas, gray ice, gray-white ice, thin first-year ice, medium and thick first-year ice, and old ice. Comparison of the collocated SAR pixels showed that ice-free areas can only be classified under calm wind conditions (less than 3 m/s) and for surface winds greater than 10 m/s based on the backscattering coefficient alone. This is true for pack ice regions during the cold months of the year where ice-free areas are spatially limited and where the capillary waves that cause SAR backscatter are dampened by entrained ice crystals. For nilas, two distinct backscatter classes were found at -17 dB and at -10 dB. The higher backscattering coefficient is attributed to the presence of frost flowers on light nilas. Gray and gray-white ice have a backscatter signature similar to first-year ice and therefore cannot be distinguished by SAR alone. First-year and old ice can be clearly separated based on their backscattering coefficient. The performance of the Geophysical Processor System ice classifier was tested against the Landsat derived ice products. It was found that smooth first-year ice and rough first-year ice were not significantly different in the backscatter domain. Ice concentration estimates based on ERS 1 C band SAR showed an error range of 5 to 8% for high ice concentration regions, mainly due to misclassified ice-free and smooth first-year ice areas. This error is expected to increase for areas of lower ice concentration. The combination of C band SAR and TM channels 2, 4, and 6 resulted in ice typing performance with an estimated accuracy of 90% for all seven ice classes.

Steffen, Konrad↗

NASA NTRS2008

NASA Tech Briefs, November 2008

Topics covered include: Digital Phase Meter for a Laser Heterodyne Interferometer; Vision System Measures Motions of Robot and External Objects; Advanced Precipitation Radar Antenna to Measure Rainfall From Space; Wide-Band Radar for Measuring Thickness of Sea Ice; Vertical Isolation for Photodiodes in CMOS Imagers; Wide-Band Microwave Receivers Using Photonic Processing; L-Band Transmit/Receive Module for Phase-Stable Array Antennas; Microwave Power Combiner/Switch Utilizing a Faraday Rotator; Compact Low-Loss Planar Magic-T; Using Pipelined XNOR Logic to Reduce SEU Risks in State Machines; Quasi-Optical Transmission Line for 94-GHz Radar; Next Generation Flight Controller Trainer System; Converting from DDOR SASF to APF; Converting from CVF to AAF; Documenting AUTOGEN and APGEN Model Files; Sequence History Update Tool; Extraction and Analysis of Display Data; MRO DKF Post-Processing Tool; Rig Diagnostic Tools; MRO Sequence Checking Tool; Science Activity Planner for the MER Mission; UAVSAR Flight-Planning System; Templates for Deposition of Microscopic Pointed Structures; Adjustable Membrane Mirrors Incorporating G-Elastomers; Hall-Effect Thruster Utilizing Bismuth as Propellant; High-Temperature Crystal-Growth Cartridge Tubes Made by VPS; Quench Crucibles Reinforced with Metal; Deep-Sea Hydrothermal-Vent Sampler; Mars Rocket Propulsion System; Two-Stage Passive Vibration Isolator; Improved Thermal Design of a Compression Mold; Enhanced Pseudo-Waypoint Guidance for Spacecraft Maneuvers; Altimetry Using GPS-Reflection/Occultation Interferometry; Thermally Driven Josephson Effect; Perturbation Effects on a Supercritical C7H16/N2 Mixing Layer; Gold Nanoparticle Labels Amplify Ellipsometric Signals; Phase Matching of Diverse Modes in a WGM Resonator; WGM Resonators for Terahertz-to-Optical Frequency Conversion; Determining Concentration of Nanoparticles from Ellipsometry; Microwave-to-Optical Conversion in WGM Resonators; Four-Pass Coupler for Laser-Diode-Pumped Solid-State Laser; Low-Resolution Raman-Spectroscopy Combustion Thermometry; Temperature Sensors Based on WGM Optical Resonators; Varying the Divergence of Multiple Parallel Laser Beams; Efficient Algorithm for Rectangular Spiral Search; Algorithm-Based Fault Tolerance Integrated with Replication; Targeting and Localization for Mars Rover Operations; Terrain-Adaptive Navigation Architecture; Self-Adjusting Hash Tables for Embedded Flight Applications; Schema for Spacecraft-Command Dictionary; Combined GMSK Communications and PN Ranging; System-Level Integration of Mass Memory; Network-Attached Solid-State Recorder Architecture; Method of Cross-Linking Aerogels Using a One-Pot Reaction Scheme; An Efficient Reachability Analysis Algorithm.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1994

Passive microwave observations of the Wedell Sea during austral winter and early spring

The results of multispectral passive microwave observations (6.7 to 90-GHz) are presented from the cruises of the FS Polarstern in the Weddell Sea from July to December 1986. This paper includes primarily the analysis of radiometric observations taken at ice station sites. Averaged emissivity spectra for first-year (FY) ice were relatively constant throughout the experiment and were not statistically different from FY ice signatures in the Arctic. Detailed ice characterization was carried out at each site to compare the microwave signatures of the ice with the physical properties. Absorption optical depths of FY ice were found to be sufficiently high that only the structure in the upper portions of the ice contributed significantly to interstation emissivity variations. The emissivities at 90-GHz, e(90), had the greatest variance. Both e(90) at vertical polarization and GR(sub e)(90, 18.7)(defined as (e(sub V)(90)-e(sub V)(18.7))/e(sub V)(90 + e(sub V)(18.7)) depended on the scattering optical depth which is a function of the snow grain diameter and layer thickness. The variance showed a latitude dependence and is probably due to an increase in the strength of snow metamorphism nearer the northern edge of the ice pack. The contribution of variations of near-surface brine volume to the emissivity was not significant over the range of values encountered at the station sites. Emissivity spectra are presented for a range of thin ice types. Unsupervised principal component analysis produced three significant eigenvectors and showed a separation among four different surface types: open water, thin ice, FY ice, and FY ice with a thick snow cover. A comparison with SMMR satellite data showed that average ice concentrations derived from the ship's ice watch log were consistent with the satellite concentrations. The surface based emissivities for FY ice were also compared with emissivities calculated from scanning multichannel microwave radiometer (SMMR) satellite radiances. Best agreement was found at 6.7 and 10-GHz, while at 18 and 37-GHz, SMMR emissivities were slightly lower than surface based results. For the three lower frequencies agreement was found within a confidence limit of 95% and for 37-GHz within about 90%.

Grenfell, T. C.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Possible Influences of Air Pollution, Dust and Sandstorms on the Indian Monsoon

In Asian monsoon countries, such as China and India, human health and safety problems caused by air pollution are becoming increasingly serious, due to the increased loading of atmospheric pollutants from waste gas emissions and from rising energy demand associated with the rapid pace of industrialization and modernization. Meanwhile, uneven distribution of monsoon rain associated with flash floods or prolonged drought, has caused major loss of human life and damage to crops and.property with devastating societal impacts. Historically, air-pollution and monsoons research are treated as separate problems. However recent studies have suggested that the two problems may be intrinsically linked and need to be studied jointly. Fundamentally, aerosols can affect precipitation through radiative effects cif suspended particles in the atmosphere (direct effect) and/or by interfering and changing: the cloud and precipitation formation processes (indirect effect). Based on their optical properties, aerosols can be classified into two types.: those that absorb solar radiation, and those that do not. Both types of aerosols scatter sunlight and reduce the amount of solar radiation from reaching the Earth's surface, causing it to cool. The surface cooling increases atmospheric stability and reduces convection potential, Absorbing aerosols, however, in addition to cooling the surface, can heat the atmosphere. The heating of the atmosphere may reduce the amount of low clouds by increased evaporation in cloud drops. The heating, however, may induce rising motion, enhance low-level moisture, convergence and, hence, increases rainfall, The latent heating from enhanced rainfall may excite feedback processes in the large-scale circulation, further amplify.the initial response to aerosol heating and producing more rain. Additionally, aerosols can increase the concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), increase cloud amount and decrease coalescence and collision rates, leading to reduced precipitation. However, in the presence of increasing moist and warm air, the reduced coalescence/collision may lead to supercooled drops at higher altitudes where ice precipitation falls and melts. The latent heat release from freezing aloft and melting below implies greater upward heat transport in polluted clouds and invigorate deep convection. In this way, aerosols may lead to increased local convection. Hence, depending on the ambient large-scale conditions and dynamical feedback processes, aerosols' effect on precipitation can be positive, negative or mixed. In the Asian monsoon and adjacent regions, the aerosol forcing and responses of the water cycle are even more complex, Both direct and indirect effects may take place locally and simultaneously, interacting with each other. in addition to local effects, monsoon rainfall may be affected by aerosols transported from other regions and intensified through large-scale circulation and moisture feedback. Thus, dust transported by the large-scale circulation from the adjacent deserts to northern India may affect rainfall over the Bay of Bengal; sulphate and black carbon front industrial pollution in central, southern China and northern India may affect the rainfall regime over the Korean peninsula and Japan; organic and black carbon front biomass burning from Indo-China may modulate the pre-monsoon rainfall regime over southern China and coastal regions, contributing to variability in differential heating and cooling of the atmosphere and to the land-sea thermal contrast. During the pre-monsoon season and monsoon breaks, it has been suggested that radiative forcing by absorbing aerosols have nearly the same order of magnitude as the forcing due to latent heating from convection and surface fluxes. The magnitude of the total aerosol radiative cooling due to sulphates and soot is of the order of 20-40 W/m2 over the Asian monsoon land region in the pre-monsoon season, compared to about 1-2 W/m2 for global warng. However, the combined forcing at the surface and in the atmosphere, including all species. if aerosols, and details of aerosol mixing, and impacts on the energy and water cycles in the monsoon land regions, are not well known.

Lau, William K. M.↗

NASA NTRS2021

Present and future aerosol impacts on Arctic climate change in the GISS-E2.1 Earth system model

The Arctic is warming 2 to 3 times faster than the global average, partly due to changes in short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs) including aerosols. In order to study the effects of atmospheric aerosols in this warming, recent past (1990–2014) and future (2015–2050) simulations have been carried out using the GISS-E2.1 Earth system model to study the aerosol burdens and their radiative and climate impacts over the Arctic (>60°N), using anthropogenic emissions from the Eclipse V6b and the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) databases, while global annual mean greenhouse gas concentrations were prescribed and kept fixed in all simulations. Results showed that the simulations have underestimated observed surface aerosol levels, in particular black carbon (BC) and sulfate (SO2−4), by more than 50 %, with the smallest biases calculated for the atmosphere-only simulations, where winds are nudged to reanalysis data. CMIP6 simulations performed slightly better in reproducing the observed surface aerosol concentrations and climate parameters, compared to the Eclipse simulations. In addition, simulations where atmosphere and ocean are fully coupled had slightly smaller biases in aerosol levels compared to atmosphere-only simulations without nudging. Arctic BC, organic aerosol (OA), and SO2−4 burdens decrease significantly in all simulations by 10 %–60 % following the reductions of 7 %–78 % in emission projections, with the Eclipse ensemble showing larger reductions in Arctic aerosol burdens compared to the CMIP6 ensemble. For the 2030–2050 period, the Eclipse ensemble simulated a radiative forcing due to aerosol–radiation interactions (RFARI) of −0.39 ± 0.01 W/sq. m, which is −0.08 W/sq. m larger than the 1990–2010 mean forcing (−0.32 W/sq. m), of which −0.24 ± 0.01 W/sq. m was attributed to the anthropogenic aerosols. The CMIP6 ensemble simulated a RFARI of −0.35 to −0.40 W/sq. m for the same period, which is −0.01 to −0.06 W/sq. m larger than the 1990–2010 mean forcing of −0.35 W/sq. m. The scenarios with little to no mitigation (worst-case scenarios) led to very small changes in the RFARI, while scenarios with medium to large emission mitigations led to increases in the negative RFARI, mainly due to the decrease in the positive BC forcing and the decrease in the negative SO2−4 forcing. The anthropogenic aerosols accounted for −0.24 to −0.26 W/sq. m of the net RFARI in 2030–2050 period, in Eclipse and CMIP6 ensembles, respectively. Finally, all simulations showed an increase in the Arctic surface air temperatures throughout the simulation period. By 2050, surface air temperatures are projected to increase by 2.4 to 2.6 °C in the Eclipse ensemble and 1.9 to 2.6 °C in the CMIP6 ensemble, compared to the 1990–2010 mean. Overall, results show that even the scenarios with largest emission reductions leads to similar impact on the future Arctic surface air temperatures and sea-ice extent compared to scenarios with smaller emission reductions, implying reductions of greenhouse emissions are still necessary to mitigate climate change.

Aerosols↗

NASA NTRS1992

Bolide impacts and the oxidation state of carbon in the Earth's early atmosphere

A one-dimensional photochemical model was used to examine the effect of bolide impacts on the oxidation state of Earth's primitive atmosphere. The impact rate should have been high prior to 3.8 Ga before present, based on evidence derived from the Moon. Impacts of comets or carbonaceous asteroids should have enhanced the atmospheric CO/CO2 ratio by bringing in CO ice and/or organic carbon that can be oxidized to CO in the impact plume. Ordinary chondritic impactors would contain elemental iron that could have reacted with ambient CO2 to give CO. Nitric oxide (NO) should also have been produced by reaction between ambient CO2 and N2 in the hot impact plumes. High NO concentrations increase the atmospheric CO/CO2 ratio by increasing the rainout rate of oxidized gases. According to the model, atmospheric CO/CO2 ratios of unity or greater are possible during the first several hundred million years of Earth's history, provided that dissolved CO was not rapidly oxidized to bicarbonate in the ocean. Specifically, high atmospheric CO/CO2 ratios are possible if either: (1) the climate was cool (like today's climate), so that hydration of dissolved CO to formate was slow, or (2) the formate formed from CO was efficiently converted into volatile, reduced carbon compounds, such as methane. A high atmospheric CO/CO2 ratio may have helped to facilitate prebiotic synthesis by enhancing the production rates of hydrogen cyanide and formaldehyde. Formaldehyde may have been produced even more efficiently by photochemical reduction of bicarbonate and formate in Fe(++)-rich surface waters.

Non-NASA Center↗

NASA NTRS2004

Winds, Water Budgets and Stable Isotopes in Tropical Cyclones using TRMM and QUICKSCAT

Water vapor is the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Changes in its concentration and distribution are controlled by the hydrologic cycle. Because of its capacity to absorb and emit long wave radiation, release latent heat during condensation in storms and reflect short wave radiation when clouds form it has a major impact on Global climate change. The stable isotope ratios of water are H20 H2l6O and H0 H2l6O. These ratios change whenever water undergoes a phase change. They also change in both rain and water vapor whenever an air parcel is exposed to rain. In addition the relative changes in the two ratios differ as a &nction of the relative humidity. In short, the stable isotope ratios in water vapor in the atmosphere contain an integrated history of the processes affecting the concentration and distribution of water vapor in the atmosphere. Therefore the measurement and interpretation of changes in these stable isotope ratios are a powerful tool matched by no other method in tracing the transport history of water in the atmosphere. Our initial studies under this grant focused on the changes of the stable isotope ratios of precipitation and water vapor in tropical cyclones. The changes in time and space were found to be very large and to trace the transport of water in the storms reflecting changes in basic structural features. Because the stable isotope ratios of rains from tropical cyclones are so low flooding associated with land falling tropical cyclones introduces a negative isotopic spike into the coastal surface waters. In addition the stable isotope ratios of water vapor in the vicinity of tropical cyclones is anomalously low. This suggests that carbonate shelled organisms such as ostracoda living in coastal waters have the potential to record the isotopic spike and thereby provide a long term record of tropical storm activity in sediment cores containing fossil shells. Likewise, tree rings in coastal environments offer a similar potential. We have analyzed the oxygen isotopic composition of ostrcoda shells formed in the floodwaters of Tropical Storm Allison (2001) and discovered the negative isotopic 1 16 spike. Because we had learned that storm activity has a major impact on the stable isotope ratios of water vapor in the tropics and sub-tropics we decided to analyze the isotopic compositions of water vapor in different locations in the tropics. We did this in Puerto Escondido, Mexico in July 1998, near Kwajalein Island in the Pacific in 1999 as part of a TRMM summer field program and in 2001 in Key West, Florida as part of the CAMEX 4 summer field program. Our isotopic studies along with our earlier tropical cyclone studies showed that the low isotopic ratios in water vapor induced by exposure to rains the storms persisted for 48 hours often far away from the original storm site. We also noted that positive isotopic spikes were introduced into atmospheric water vapor if winds were high and extensive sea spray was present. These findings have a significant impact on the interpretation of the stable isotope studies of tropical ice cores found in the high mountain regions of the tropics. The assumption made in interpreting the ice core record is that the source water vapor evaporated from the sea surface is in near isotopic equilibrium with the seawater and undergoes a decrease during its transport that reflects the change in temperature from the sea surface to the site of the ice core. Because an additional isotopic depletion occurs at the sea surface source area that depends on the intensity, duration and size of the tropical rain system the isotopic variations found in the ice cores must take into account changes in past storm activity in the tropics. These systems must be an important source of water vapor to the ice cores because they charge the troposphere with water vapor to a far greater vertical height than evaporation in quiescent regions. Finally, an interest in increased heat transfer in thnterior of tropical cyclones resulting from greater amounts of sea spray is a topic of considerable interest to the research community. Increases in sea spray may be related to rapid changes in the intensity of hurricanes, a feature of hurricanes that currently is very poorly forecast. Project CBLAST of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA is an active program that uses P3 research aircraft to evaluate this problem. An instrument has been designed and built at the University of Houston that will be placed on the P3 research aircraft during the 2004 hurricane season. It continuously measures the salt content of rain in hurricanes. Changes in the salt content of the rains should reflect the abundance of sea spray at the sea surface. In this way maps of sea spray intensity in hurricanes may be forthcoming. This should help computer modelers who simulate hurricanes to better understand the potential of changes in sea spray to change the intensity of hurricanes. The cost of designing, building and installing this instrument was borne largely by funding from this NASA grant. A list of presentations at national meetings and publications that were as the result of funding from this NASA grant are found in the report.

Lawrence, James R.↗