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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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41 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2003

Biomass-burning Aerosols in South East-Asia: Smoke Impact Assessment (BASE-ASIA)

Biomass burning has been a regular practice for land clearing and land conversion in many countries, especially those in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia. However, the unique climatology of Southeast Asia is very different than that of Africa and South America, such that large-scale biomass burning causes smoke to interact extensively with clouds during the peak-burning season of March to April. Significant global sources of greenhouse gases (e.g., CO2, CH4), chemically active gases (e.g., NO, CO, HC, CH3Br), and atmospheric aerosols are produced by biomass burning processes. These gases influence the Earth-atmosphere system, impacting both global climate and tropospheric chemistry. Some aerosols can serve as cloud condensation nuclei, which play an important role in determining cloud lifetime and precipitation, hence, altering the earth's radiation and water budget. Biomass burning also affects the biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen and carbon compounds from the soil to the atmosphere; the hydrological cycle (i.e., run off and evaporation); land surface reflectivity and emissivity; as well as ecosystem biodiversity and stability. Analyses from satellite measurements reveal that smoke is frequently present solar (emitted thermal) radiation from clouds due to smoke aerosols can be reduced (enhanced) by as much as 100 (20) W/sq m over the month of March 2000. In addition, the reduction in cloud spectral reflectance at 670 run is large enough to lead to significant errors in retrieving cloud properties (e.g., optical thickness and effective radius) from satellite measurements. The fresh water distribution in this region is highly dependent on monsoon rainfall; in fact, the predictability of the tropical climate system is much reduced during the boreal spring. Estimating the burning fuel (e.g., bark, branches, and wood), an important part of studying regional carbon cycle, may rely on utilizing a wide range of distinctive spectral features in the shortwave and longwave regions. Therefore, to accurately assess the impact of smoke aerosols in this region requires continuous observations from satellites, aircraft, networks of ground-based instruments and dedicated field experiments. A new initiative will be proposed and discussed.

Tsay, Si-Chee↗
NASA NTRS2011

Atmospheric Chemistry Over Southern Africa

During the southern African dry season, regional haze from mixed industrial pollution, biomass burning aerosol and gases from domestic and grassland fires, and biogenic sources from plants and soils is worsened by a semi-permanent atmosphere gyre over the subcontinent. These factors were a driver of several major international field campaigns in the 1990s and early 2000s, and attracted many scientists to the region. Some researchers were interested in understanding fundamental processes governing chemistry of the atmosphere and interaction with climate change. Others found favorable conditions for evaluating satellite-derived measurements of atmospheric properties and a changing land surface. With that background in mind a workshop on atmospheric chemistry was held in South Africa. Sponsored by the International Commission for Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution (ICACGP; http://www.icacgp.org/), the workshop received generous support from the South African power utility, Eskom, and the Climatology Research Group of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. The purpose of the workshop was to review some earlier findings as well as more recent findings on southern African climate vulnerability, chemical changes due to urbanization, land-use modification, and how these factors interact. Originally proposed by John Burrows, president of ICACGP, the workshop was the first ICACGP regional workshop to study the interaction of air pollution with global chemical and climate change. Organized locally by the University of the Witwatersrand, the workshop attracted more than 60 delegates from South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe, France, Germany, Canada, and the United States. More than 30 presentations were given, exploring both retrospective and prospective aspects of the science. In several talks, attention was focused on southern African chemistry, atmospheric pollution monitoring, and climate processes as they were studied in the field campaigns such as Transport and Atmospheric Chemistry Near the Equator-Atlantic (TRACE-A), Southern African Fire-Atmosphere Research Initiative (SAFARI-92), and Southern African Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000). Since those large international efforts, satellites have matured enough to enable quantifiable measurements of regional land surface, atmosphere, and ocean. In addition, global and chemical transport models have also been advanced to incorporate various data. Thus, the timing of the workshop was right for a full-fledged re-assessment of the chemistry, physics, and socio-economical impacts caused by pollution in the region, including a characterization of sources, deposition, and feedbacks with climate change.

Gatebe, Charles K.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Ground-based SMART-COMMIT Measurements for Studying Aerosol and Cloud Properties

From radiometric principles, it is expected that the retrieved properties of extensive aerosols and clouds from reflected/emitted measurements by satellite (and/or aircraft) should be consistent with those retrieved from transmitted/emitted radiance observed at the surface. Although space-borne remote sensing observations cover large spatial domain, they are often plagued by contamination of surface signatures. Thus, ground-based in-situ and remote-sensing measurements, where signals come directly from atmospheric constituents, the sun, and/or the Earth-atmosphere interactions, provide additional information content for comparisons that confirm quantitatively the usefulness of the integrated surface, aircraft, and satellite data sets. The development and deployment of SMARTCOMMIT (Surface-sensing Measurements for Atmospheric Radiative Transfer - Chemical, Optical & Microphysical Measurements of In-situ Troposphere) mobile facilities are aimed for the optimal utilization of collocated ground-based observations as constraints to yield higher fidelity satellite retrievals and to determine any sampling bias due to target conditions. To quantify the energetics of the surface-atmosphere system and the atmospheric processes, SMART-COMMIT instruments fall into three categories: flux radiometer, radiance sensor and in-situ probe. In this paper, we will demonstrate the capability of SMART-COMMIT in recent field campaigns (e.g., CRYSTAL-FACE, UAE 2, BASEASIA, NAMMA) that were designed and executed to study the compelling variability in temporal scale of both anthropogenic and natural aerosols (e.g., biomass-burning smoke, airborne dust) and cirrus clouds. We envision robust approaches in which well-collocated ground-based measurements and space-borne observations will greatly advance our knowledge of extensive aerosols and clouds.

Tsay, Si-Chee↗
NASA NTRS2021

An overview of the ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) project: aerosol–cloud–radiation interactions in the southeast Atlantic basin

Southern Africa produces almost a third of the Earth’s biomass burning (BB) aerosol particles, yet the fate of these particles and their influence on regional and global climate is poorly understood. ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) is a 5-year NASA EVS-2 (Earth Venture Suborbital-2) investigation with three intensive observation periods designed to study key atmospheric processes that determine the climate impacts of these aerosols. During the Southern Hemisphere winter and spring (June–October), aerosol particles reaching 3–5 km in altitude are transported westward over the southeast Atlantic, where they interact with one of the largest subtropical stratocumulus (Sc) cloud decks in the world. The representation of these interactions in climate models remains highly uncertain in part due to a scarcity of observational constraints on aerosol and cloud properties, as well as due to the parameterized treatment of physical processes. Three ORACLES deployments by the NASA P-3 aircraft in September 2016, August 2017, and October 2018 (totaling ~ 350 science flight hours), augmented by the deployment of the NASA ER-2 aircraft for remote sensing in September 2016 (totaling ~ 100 science flight hours), were intended to help fill this observational gap. ORACLES focuses on three fundamental science themes centered on the climate effects of African BB aerosols: (a) direct aerosol radiative effects, (b) effects of aerosol absorption on atmospheric circulation and clouds, and (c) aerosol–cloud microphysical interactions. This paper summarizes the ORACLES science objectives, describes the project implementation, provides an overview of the flights and measurements in each deployment, and highlights the integrative modeling efforts from cloud to global scales to address science objectives. Significant new findings on the vertical structure of BB aerosol physical and chemical properties, chemical aging, cloud condensation nuclei, rain and precipitation statistics, and aerosol indirect effects are emphasized, but their detailed descriptions are the subject of separate publications. The main purpose of this paper is to familiarize the broader scientific community with the ORACLES project and the dataset it produced.

Jens Redemann↗
NASA NTRS2005

Influence of Hydroponically Grown Hoyt Soybeans and Radiation Encountered on Mars Missions on the Yield and Quality of Soymilk and Tofu

Soybeans were chosen for hmar and planetary missions due to their nutritive value and ability to produce oil and protein for further food applications. However, soybeans must be processed into foods prior to crew consumption. Wilson et al. (2003) raised questions about (1) the influence of radiation (on germination and functional properties) that the soybeans would be exposed to during bulk storage for a Mars mission, and (2) the impact of using hydroponically grown versus field grown soybeans on the yield and quality of soyfoods. The influence of radiation can be broken down into two components: (A) affect of surface pasteurization to ensure the astronauts safety from food-borne illnesses (a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point), and (B) affect of the amount of radiation the soybeans receive during a Mars mission. Decreases in the amount of natural antioxidants and free radical formation and oxidation induced changes in the soybean (lipid, protein, etc.) will influence the nutritional value, texture, quality, and safety of soyfoods made from them. The objectives of this project are to (1) evaluate the influence of gamma and electron beam radiation on bulk soybeans (HACCP, CCP) on the microbial load, germination, ease of processing, and quality of soymilk and tofu; (2) provide scale up and mass balance data for Advanced Life Support subsystems including Biomass, Solid Waste Processing, and Water Recovery Systems; and (3) to compare Hoyt field grown to hydroponically grown Hoyt soybeans for soymilk and tofu production. The soybean cultivar Hoyt, a small standing, high protein cultivar that could grow hydroponically in the AIMS facility on Mars) was evaluated for the production of soymilk and tofu. The quality and yield of the soymilk and tofu from hydroponic Hoyt, was compared to Vinton 81 (a soyfood industry standard), field Hoyt, IA 2032LS (lipoxygenase-free), and Proto (high protein and antioxidant potential). Soymilk and tofu were produced using the Japanese method. The soymilk was coagulated with calcium sulfate dihydrate. Soybeans and tofu were evaluated using chemical, microbial, and instrumental sensory methods. The surface radiation of whole dry soybeans using electron beam or gamma rays at 10 or 30 kGy did provide microbial safety for the astronauts. However, these doses caused oxidative changes that resulted in tofu with rancid aroma, darkening of the tofu, lower tofu yields, more solid waste, and loss of the ability of the seeds to germinate. While lower doses may reduce these problems, we lose the ability to insure microbial safety (cross-contamination) of bulk soybeans for the astronauts. Counter measures could include vacuum packaging, radiating under freezing conditions. A No Effect Dose for food quality, below 10 kGy needs to be determined. Better estimates of the radiation that the food will be exposed to need to determined and shared. Appropriate shielding for the food as well as the astronauts needs to be developed. The Hoyt soybean did not provide a high yielding, high quality tofu. A new small scale system for evaluating soybeans was developed using 50 g quantities of soybeans.

Wilson, Lester A.↗