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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 NTRS2008

Surface Meteorology and Solar Energy (SSE) Data Release 5.1

The Surface meteorology and Solar Energy (SSE) data set contains over 200 parameters formulated for assessing and designing renewable energy systems.The SSE data set is formulated from NASA satellite- and reanalysis-derived insolation and meteorological data for the 10-year period July 1983 through June 1993. Results are provided for 1 degree latitude by 1 degree longitude grid cells over the globe. Average daily and monthly measurements for 1195 World Radiation Data Centre ground sites are also available. [Location=GLOBAL] [Temporal_Coverage: Start_Date=1983-07-01; Stop_Date=1993-06-30] [Spatial_Coverage: Southernmost_Latitude=-90; Northernmost_Latitude=90; Westernmost_Longitude=-180; Easternmost_Longitude=180] [Data_Resolution: Latitude_Resolution=1 degree; Longitude_Resolution=1 degree].

Arctic heating↗
NASA NTRS2007

Solutions Network Formulation Report. Visible/Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer Data Products for National Drought Monitor Decision Support

Drought effects are either direct or indirect depending on location, population, and regional economic vitality. Common direct effects of drought are reduced crop, rangeland, and forest productivity; increased fire hazard; reduced water levels; increased livestock and wildlife mortality rates; and damage to wildlife and fish habitat. Indirect impacts follow on the heels of direct impacts. For example, a reduction in crop, rangeland, and forest productivity may result in reduced income for farmers and agribusiness, increased prices for food and timber, unemployment, reduced tax revenues, increased crime, foreclosures on bank loans to farmers and businesses, migration, and disaster relief programs. In the United States alone, drought is estimated to result in annual losses of between $6 - 8 billion. Recent sustained drought in the United States has made decision-makers aware of the impacts of climate change on society and environment. The eight major droughts that occurred in the United States between 1980 and 1999 accounted for the largest percentage of weather-related monetary losses. Monitoring drought and its impact that occurs at a variety of scales is an important government activity -- not only nationally but internationally as well. The NDMC (National Drought Mitigation Center) and the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) RMA (Risk Management Agency) have partnered together to develop a DM-DSS (Drought Monitoring Decision Support System). This monitoring system will be an interactive portal that will provide users the ability to visualize and assess drought at all levels. This candidate solution incorporates atmospherically corrected VIIRS data products, such as NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and Ocean SST (sea surface temperature), and AMSR-E soil moisture data products into two NDMC vegetation indices -- VegDRI (Vegetation Drought Response Index) and VegOUT (Vegetation Outlook) -- which are then input into the DM-DSS.

Estep, Leland↗
NASA NTRS2014

The Tethered Moon

Cosmic collisions between terrestrial planets resemble somewhat the life cycle of the phoenix: worlds collide, are consumed in flame, and after the debris has cleared, shiny new worlds emerge aglow with possibilities. And glow they do, for they are molten. How brightly they glow, and for how long, is determined by their atmospheres and their moons. A reasonable initial condition on Earth after the Moon-forming impact is that it begins as a hot global magma ocean. We therefore begin our study with the mantle as a liquid ocean with a surface temperature on the order of 3000-4000 K at a time some 100-1000 years after the impact, by which point we can hope that early transients have settled down.

the existence of the Moon↗
NASA NTRS2015

Watching the Blue Planet from Space over Recent Decades: What's up for Science and Society?

Since the first photographs of “Earth Rise” taken by the Apollo astronauts in the 1960s galvanized the environmental movement, imaging of our planet from low Earth orbit has grown more sophisticated and diverse. Satellite and astronaut observations and imagery of the changing ocean still have the power to galvanize oceanographers and society. So what are some of the key ideas for oceanography and society that come out of out recent decades of ocean observation from space? Satellite oceanography has made fundamental contributions to our understanding and estimation of changing sea level, winds and storminess over the oceans, primary productivity of the seas, the role of the ocean in the water cycle, and the changes in the ocean known as ocean acidification. Some of these phenomena interact in complex ways and Mother Nature hides the future well. However, some things are clear. Sea level rise has been monitored from space for more than 20 years and now we have a more nuanced understanding of regional variation in sea level rise and the contributions of ocean thermal expansion and the melting of glaciers and ice sheets. Wind vectors at the ocean surface have been measured for more than 2 decades and provide evidence for shifts in wind patterns that help, for example, explain some of the regional variations in sea level rise. Chlorophyll-a has been estimated in a multi-decadal record of observations and is being used to describe the shifts and trends in ocean primary productivity. Sea surface temperature estimation from space has records going back to the 1970s and provides critical information for the interaction of the ocean with the atmosphere. Sea surface salinity has been measured from space only within the last decade and provides a novel new view of regional, seasonal, and inter-annual changes in the ocean related to precipitation, river run-off, and eddy transport. Potential changes in the Earth’s water cycle have a huge societal impact.

Blue Planet from Space↗
NASA NTRS2015

Strategic Map for Exploring the Ocean-World Enceladus

Among the many "ocean worlds" of our solar system, Enceladus appears unique in its combination of astrobiologically relevant, exploration-worthy attributes: extensive liquid-water ocean with high-temperature hydrothermal activity, containing salts and organics expressed predictably into space. The Enceladus south polar plume allows direct access to telltale molecules, ions, isotopes, and potential cytofragments in space. Plume mass spectroscopy and sample return, in situ investigation of surface fallback deposits, direct vent exploration, and eventually oceanographic exploration can all be envisioned. However, building consensus to fund such ambitious exploration hinges on acquiring key new data. A roadmap is essential. It could start with cost-capped onramps: 1) flythrough analysis of the plume, following up on Cassini measurements with modern instruments; 2) sample return of plume material for analysis on Earth. A methodical mission sequence in which each step depends on emergent results from prior missions would push in situ oceanographic exploration into the second half of this century. Even for this scenario, prioritization by the next planetary Decadal Survey would be pivotal.

Cassini↗
NASA NTRS2016

Managing and Servicing Physical Oceanographic Data at a NASA Distributed Active Archive Center

The NASA Earth Science Data Information Systems Project funds and operates 12 Distributed Active Archive Center(s) (DAAC) throughout the United States. Of these 12 centers, the Physical Oceanography DAAC (PO.DAAC) is committed to providing long term archival, distribution and stewardship for NASA physical oceanographic data, primarily derived from space-born satellite systems, but also including a growing set of recent and future in situ observations from the SPURS-1 and SPURS-2 campaigns. Notable NASA missions supported include: Seasat, TOPEX/Poseidon, NSCAT, QuikSCAT, ISS-RapidScat, Jason-1, Jason-2/OSTM, GRACE, Aquarius, GHRSST, and MODIS. The following interagency and international missions are also supported by PO.DAAC: AVHRR, Coriolis, DMSP, MetOp-A, MetOp-B, Oceansat-2. The PO.DAAC currently holds 525 datasets in public distribution, spanning the following observational parameters: sea surface temperature, sea surface salinity, ocean color, ocean surface currents, ocean surface wind speed, ocean surface wind direction, sea surface height, significant wave height, ocean water mass/thickness, and sea ice age. A hundred of these datasets are available in near-real-time. Datasets are distributed through a variety of open-source access protocols including FTP, OPeNDAP, and THREDDS. FTP will soon be phased out in favor of a recently introduced HTTPS PO.DAAC Drive interface that supports WebDAV and interoperable machine-to-machine communication. OPeNDAP supports remote data/metadata query, subset, and download. THREDDS provides the features of OPeNDAP with the additional feature of temporal aggregation. PO.DAAC also offers proprietary tools and services to further enhance the data discovery, visualization and analysis experience, including but not limited to: State of the Ocean, Web Services (data/metadata discovery and extraction), HiTIDE Level-2 subsetter, Live Access Server (LAS), Webification (w10nsci), and Rich Site Summary (RSS) Datacasting. To assist with provenance of datasets, PO.DAAC has implemented DOIs for the data it distributes so that they can be properly cited. There is a user forum and helpdesk that contains data recipes and via which users can get guidance. In summary, this presentation aims to provide a general overview of PO.DAAC’s web portal and data holdings along with a set of illustrative examples leading prospective data users into the practical utility of its tools and services.

Moroni, David F.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Progress Toward Implementation of Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere in Unified Forward Operator (UFO)

The (Sea-Ice Ocean and Coupled Assimilation) SOCA project focuses on meshing atmospheric and marine data assimilation efforts to create innovative data assimilation systems. One of the main goals ofSOCA is to make use of surface-sensitive radiances to constrain sea-ice and upper ocean fields (e.g., salinity, temperature, sea-ice fraction, sea-ice temperature, etc.). the focus of this research is to build first elements toward an ocean/sea-ice/atmosphere coupled data assimilation capability, with a focus on supporting and developing the assimilation of observations sensitive to multiple sub-domains. We Setup the existing Joint Effort for Data assimilation Integration (JEDI) coupled UFO (CRTM related) for surface sensitive microwave radiances (SST and SSS) focusing on Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Imager (GMI) and Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP).

Ebrahimi, Hamideh↗
NASA NTRS2015

Completing the Feedback Loop: The Impact of Chlorophyll Data Assimilation on the Ocean State

In anticipation of the integration of a full biochemical model into the next generation GMAO coupled system, an intermediate solution has been implemented to estimate the penetration depth (1Kd_PAR) of ocean radiation based on the chlorophyll concentration. The chlorophyll is modeled as a tracer with sources-sinks coming from the assimilation of MODIS chlorophyll data. Two experiments were conducted with the coupled ocean-atmosphere model. In the first, climatological values of Kpar were used. In the second, retrieved daily chlorophyll concentrations were assimilated and Kd_PAR was derived according to Morel et al (2007). No other data was assimilated to isolate the effects of the time-evolving chlorophyll field. The daily MODIS Kd_PAR product was used to validate the skill of the penetration depth estimation and the MERRA-OCEAN re-analysis was used as a benchmark to study the sensitivity of the upper ocean heat content and vertical temperature distribution to the chlorophyll input. In the experiment with daily chlorophyll data assimilation, the penetration depth was estimated more accurately, especially in the tropics. As a result, the temperature bias of the model was reduced. A notably robust albeit small (2-5 percent) improvement was found across the equatorial Pacific ocean, which is a critical region for seasonal to inter-annual prediction.

MERRA-OCEAN↗
NASA NTRS1988

A model of the tropical Pacific sea surface temperature climatology

A model for the climatological mean sea surface temperature (SST) of the tropical Pacific Ocean is developed. The upper ocean response is computed using a time dependent, linear, reduced gravity model, with the addition of a constant depth frictional surface layer. The full three-dimensional temperature equation and a surface heat flux parameterization that requires specification of only wind speed and total cloud cover are used to evaluate the SST. Specification of atmospheric parameters, such as air temperature and humidity, over which the ocean has direct influence, is avoided. The model simulates the major features of the observed tropical Pacific SST. The seasonal evolution of these features is generally captured by the model. Analysis of the results demonstrates the control the ocean has over the surface heat flux from ocean to atmosphere and the crucial role that dynamics play in determining the mean SST in the equatorial Pacific. The sensitivity of the model to perturbations in the surface heat flux, cloud cover specification, diffusivity, and mixed layer depth is discussed.

Seager, Richard↗
NASA NTRS1994

Satellite Observation of Surface Forcing Over the Warm Pool

Daily variations of wind and solar forcing derived from satellite data were compared with sea surface temperature and temperature tendency during the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere - Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment.

sea surface temperature wind speed thermal respons↗
NASA NTRS1985

A theory for El Nino and the Southern Oscillation

A coupled atmosphere-ocean model is presented for El Nino and the Southern Oscillation that reproduces its major features, including its recurrence at irregular intervals. The interannual El Nino-Southern Oscillation cycle is maintained by deterministic interactions in the tropical Pacific region. Ocean dynamics alter sea-surface temperature, changing the atmospheric heating; the resulting changes in surface wind alter the ocean dynamics. Annually varying mean conditions largely determine the spatial pattern and temporal evolution of El Nino events.

Cane, M. A.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Equatorial oceanography

United States progress in equatorial oceanography is reviewed, focusing on the low frequency response of upper equatorial oceans to forcing by the wind. Variations of thermocline depth, midocean currents, and boundary currents are discussed. The factors which determine sea surface temperature (SST) variability in equatorial oceans are reviewed, and the status of understanding of the most spectacular manifestation of SST variability, the El Nino-Southern Oscillation phenomenon, is discussed. The problem of observing surface winds, regarded as a fundamental factor limiting understanding of the equatorial oceans, is addressed. Finally, an attempt is made to identify those current trends which are expected to bear fruit in the near and distant future.

Cane, M. A.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Satellite Altimetry for a Global Ocean Observing System

Space-age technologies have made satellite remote sensing a powerful new tool to study the Earth on a global scale. However, the opacity of the ocean to electromagnetic sensing has limited spaceborne measurements to the properties of the surface layer of the ocean (such as sea surface temperature and color). The radar altimetric measurement of the height of the sea surface relative to the geoid, the dynamic topography of the ocean, is a very useful quantity for studying the circulation of the ocean. The ability of measuring dynamic topography from space makes satellite altimetry a uniquely useful remote sensing technique because dynamic topography reflects oceanic processes not only at the surface but at depths as well. A simple analysis shows that a one centimeter tilt in the dynamic topography is associated with a mass transport of 1-7 Sv (1Sv= 1 million tons per second) in the open ocean depending on the vertical distribution of current velocity. Such a magnitude is an appreciable fraction of the transport of the Florida Current (circa 30 Sv), for instance. TOPEX/POSEIDON has demonstrated the capability of measuring the time variation of sea level with accuracy approaching to 2 cm when the data are averaged over boxes with several hundred kilometers on each side. The data set has been used for studying ocean circulation phenomena with a wide range of scales, ranging from fast-changing barotropic variability to seasonal and interannual variability such as El Nino and La Nina. The long record of precise measurement of global sea level has also showed great promise for monitoring the variation of mean sea level, an effective indicator of global climate change. Continuation of satellite altimetry missions with capability matching or better than that of TOPEX/POSEIDON should be included as a key component of a Global Ocean Observing System. NASA and CNES have committed to continuing the measurement of TOPEX/POSEIDON with a series of follow-on missions called Jason. The first of the series, Jason-1, is scheduled for launch in May, 2000. Such a series of missions will provide a key data stream for both research and practical applications and benefit the objectives of global programs such as CLIVAR and GODAE.

Fu, Lee-Lueng↗
NASA NTRS2001

A Hydrothermal Origin for the Sulfate-rich Ocean of Europa

Thermodynamic calculations show that formation of a sulfate-rich ocean on Europa might require high-temperature alkaline hydrothermal processes in the oxidized silicate mantle. The ocean on Europa could be thought of as a cooled hydrothermal fluid. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Zolotov, M. Yu.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Comparison of tropical pacific temperature and current simulations with two vertical mixing schemes embedded in an ocean general circulation model and reference to observations

The Pacanowski-Philander (PP) and Mellor-Yamada (MY) parameterization models of vertical mixing by turbulent processes were embedded in the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory high-resolution ocean general circulation model of the tropical Pacific Ocean. All other facets of the numerical simulations were the same. Simulations were made for the 1987-1988 period. At the equator the MY simulation produced near-surface temperatures more uniform with depth, a deeper thermocline, a deeper core speed of the Equatorial Undercurrent, and a South Equatorial Current with greater vertical thickness compared with that computed with the PP method. Along 140 deg W, between 5 deg N and 10 deg N, both simulations were the same. Moored buoy current and temperature observations had been recorded by the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory at three sites (165 deg E, 140 deg W, 110 deg W) along the equator and at three sites (5 deg N, 7 deg N, 9 deg N) along 140 deg W. Simulated temperatures were lower than those observed in the near-surface layer and higher than those observed in the thermocline. Temperature simulations were in better agreement with observations compared to current simulations. At the equator, PP current and temperature simulations were more representative of the observations than MY simulations.

Halpern, David↗
NASA NTRS1999

Winter to Spring Transition in Europe 48-45 degrees N: From Temperature Control by Advection to Control by Insolation

As established in previous studies, and analyzed further herein for the years 1988-1998, warm advection from the North Atlantic is the predominant control of the surface-air temperature in northern-latitude Europe in late winter. This thesis is supported by the substantial correlation Cti between the speed of the southwesterly surface winds over the eastern North Atlantic, as quantified by a specific Index Ina, and the 2-meter level temperature Ts over central Europe (48-54 deg N; 5-25 deg E), for January, February and early March. In mid-March and subsequently, the correlation Cti drops drastically (quite often it is negative). The change in the relationship between Ts and Ina marks a transition in the control of the surface-air temperature. As (a) the sun rises higher in the sky, (b) the snows melt (the surface absorptivity can increase by a factor of 3.0), (c) the ocean-surface winds weaken, and (d) the temperature difference between land and ocean (which we analyze) becomes small, absorption of insolation replaces the warm advection as the dominant control of the continental temperature. We define the onset of spring by this transition, which evaluated for the period of our study occurs at pentad 16 (Julian Date 76, that is, March 16). The control by insolation means that the surface is cooler under cloudy conditions than under clear skies. This control produces a much smaller interannual variability of the surface temperature and of the lapse rate than prevailing in winter, when the control is by advection. Regional climatic data would be of greatest value for agriculture and forestry if compiled for well-defined seasons. For continental northern latitudes, analysis presented here of factors controlling the surface temperature appears an appropriate tool for this task.

Otterman, J.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Vertical Moist Thermodynamic Structure and Spatial-Temporal Evolution of the MJO in AIRS Observations

The atmospheric moisture and temperature profiles from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)/Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit on the NASA Aqua mission, in combination with the precipitation from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), are employed to study the vertical moist thermodynamic structure and spatial-temporal evolution of the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO). The AIRS data indicate that, in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific, the temperature anomaly exhibits a trimodal vertical structure: a warm (cold) anomaly in the free troposphere (800-250 hPa) and a cold (warm) anomaly near the tropopause (above 250 hPa) and in the lower troposphere (below 800 hPa) associated with enhanced (suppressed) convection. The AIRS moisture anomaly also shows markedly different vertical structures as a function of longitude and the strength of convection anomaly. Most significantly, the AIRS data demonstrate that, over the Indian Ocean and western Pacific, the enhanced (suppressed) convection is generally preceded in both time and space by a low-level warm and moist (cold and dry) anomaly and followed by a low-level cold and dry (warm and moist) anomaly. The MJO vertical moist thermodynamic structure from the AIRS data is in general agreement, particularly in the free troposphere, with previous studies based on global reanalysis and limited radiosonde data. However, major differences in the lower-troposphere moisture and temperature structure between the AIRS observations and the NCEP reanalysis are found over the Indian and Pacific Oceans, where there are very few conventional data to constrain the reanalysis. Specifically, the anomalous lower-troposphere temperature structure is much less well defined in NCEP than in AIRS for the western Pacific, and even has the opposite sign anomalies compared to AIRS relative to the wet/dry phase of the MJO in the Indian Ocean. Moreover, there are well-defined eastward-tilting variations of moisture with height in AIRS over the central and eastern Pacific that are less well defined, and in some cases absent, in NCEP. In addition, the correlation between MJO-related mid-tropospheric water vapor anomalies and TRMM precipitation anomalies is considerably more robust in AIRS than in NCEP, especially over the Indian Ocean. Overall, the AIRS results are quite consistent with those predicted by the frictional Kelvin-Rossby wave/conditional instability of the second kind (CISK) theory for the MJO.

troposhere↗