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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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At least 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Composition and persistence of soil organic matter along eroding and depositional transects in buried vs. modern soil layers: A case of the Brady paleosol at Wauneta, Nebraska

Paleosols form when soils are buried through deposition by aeolian, colluvial, alluvial or other processes. Burial of former topsoil isolates soil organic matter (SOM) from surface conditions, allowing carbon to accumulate and potentially remain stable for millennia. In this study, SOM composition, distribution, and persistence were analyzed in the Brady Soil of Nebraska, USA to compare SOM spatial variability in modern and buried soils, as well as the impact of erosional exposure on SOM stability. The Brady Soil, formed as a surface soil during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition and now a paleosol buried up to 6 m deep (or more) by loess deposition during the Holocene, was sampled along burial (up to 5.8 m depth) and erosional (up to 1.8 m depth) transects to compare SOM dynamics in different geomorphic settings. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Fourier Transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) were used to analyze SOM composition, while δ 13 C isotope analyses identified SOM sources and radiocarbon values were used to estimate turnover rates. Results confirmed a vegetation shift from C3 to C4 plants after Brady Soil formation, reflecting warming climatic conditions. Increasing SOM age and decreasing δ 13 C and δ 15 N values with depth indicated slowing of decomposition rate in buried soils. Higher pH in the Brady Soil suggested greater base cation content, supporting SOM stabilization through organo-mineral associations and aggregate formation. However, exposure of the Brady Soil due to surface erosion caused faster SOM turnover. This result suggested susceptibility of buried SOM to losses via decomposition upon erosional exposure, possibly accelerated by priming in response to modern SOM inputs. These findings highlight the potential loss of carbon stocks in buried soils under future climate change, as shifts in soil physicochemical properties may destabilize long-preserved SOM.

Environmental sciences↗
DOE OSTI2025

Applying Gaussian Process Machine Learning and Modern Probabilistic Programming to Satellite Data to Infer CO 2 Emissions

Satellite data provides essential insights into the spatiotemporal distribution of CO 2 concentrations. However, many atmospheric inverse models fail to adequately incorporate the spatial and temporal correlations inherent in satellite observations and often lack rigorous methods for estimating parameters like spatial length scales. We introduce an inference model that processes the spatiotemporal covariance in satellite data and estimates hyperparameters such as covariance length scales. Our approach uses the Gaussian process (GP) machine learning (ML) and modern probabilistic programming languages (PPLs) to perform atmospheric inversions of emissions from satellite data. We develop a GP ML inversion system based on modern PPLs and the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model, simulating atmospheric CO 2 concentrations corresponding to the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2/3 (OCO-2/3) data for July 2020. In our supervised learning framework, we treat the GEOS-Chem simulated data set as the target, with predictors derived by scaling the target with sector-specific factors hidden from the GP machine. Our results show that the GP model, combined with GPU-enabled PPLs, effectively retrieves true emission scaling factors and infers noise levels concealed within the data. This suggests that our method could be applied over larger areas with more complex covariance structures, enabling comprehensive analysis of the spatiotemporal patterns observed in OCO-2/3 and similar satellite data sets.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Modern version of the uncited 1938 experiment that first observed DT fusion

Experiments are described, and results are provided, for the duplication of the first-ever triton-deuterium (colloquially referred to as DT) fusion experiment accidentally performed by A.J. Ruhlig in 1938, but forgotten in the published scientific literature. Here, we find that Ruhlig overestimated the ratio of the triton-deuterium over deuteron-deuterium neutron yields in his secondary reaction (Reaction-in-Flight) experiment compared to modern theoretical calculations and our duplication of his experiment using modern neutron detection methods. Nevertheless, Ruhlig’s observation provided the motivation for the application of DT fusion after World War II and its more recent importance in peaceful energy production at DT fusion facilities around the world. Additionally, the experimental technique used in the present work provides a novel approach for checking on low-energy triton stopping powers in deuterium containing compounds.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Exploring Architectural-Aware Affinity Policies in Modern HPC Runtimes

Modern commodity and High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems are evolving with complex CPU architectures. These architectures now feature higher core and NUMA domain counts and implement features such as hyperthreading. When considering significant differences in hardware configurations, library availability, and hardware-tailored system/software stacks, which could substantially vary from one system to another, performance portability is hard to achieve. Throughout the years, this trend resulted in an increasingly high burden on application developers to fine-tune their workloads for each architecture. This work explores how hardware-dependent aspects such as locality/process/thread affinity affect performance in modern CPU architectures. We focus our study on the Global Memory and Threading (GMT) distributed runtime system as a representative of Partitioned Global Address Space (PGAS) software stacks commonly adopted for productivity. In particular, to appreciate performance implications, we evaluate GMT’s thread affinity policies, and, introduce two new ones which exploit architectural awareness. Finally, we explore alternative NUMA configurations via different process bindings and perform a scalability study on three HPC clusters with varying CPU architectures and NUMA layouts. Our analysis indicates that more complex architectures are more affected by affinity and binding policies and highlights the importance of setting proper runtime configurations to achieve superior performance.

Di Dio Lavore, Ian↗
DOE OSTI2025

Economic Evaluation of Modernization Expenditures for Electric Utility Distribution Systems: A Guide for Utility Regulators

Cost-effectiveness evaluation of potential grid modernization solutions is integral to integrated distribution system planning (IDSP). This report synthesizes and updates prior cost-effectiveness approaches identified by the U.S. Department of Energy for grid modernization investments, incorporating multi-objective decision-making. The structure of the report follows the IDSP process, from identifying objectives and priorities to prioritizing grid solutions. The report details two methods for conducting initial cost-effectiveness screening of individual and interdependent grid components: (1) Lowest Reasonable Cost and (2) Benefit-Cost Analysis. Drawing on solutions that passed the initial cost-effectiveness screen, the utility prioritizes grid solutions based on policy objectives and priorities, regulatory compliance, operational efficiencies, and other factors to develop a portfolio of distribution solutions. The utility uses multi-objective decision-making to assess each proposed expenditure against each objective and respective metric. The utility applies a weighting factor, reflecting the priority ranking of the objective, to the total numerical “score” based on the contribution of the proposed solution to addressing each objective. Ultimately, the utility ranks each expenditure from highest to lowest priority using the final score for each solution as well as its cost. The report includes examples of emerging best practices for states and utilities and a cost-effectiveness process checklist.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Validation of Modern Nuclear Data Processing in SCALE

The nuclear data (ND) community is continuously developing more accurate, diversified, and comprehensive data for radiation transport modeling to support the nuclear science community. As these community efforts progress, it is crucial that ND processing tools like AMPX (used for SCALE [1] ND) also be developed in parallel to incorporate these new data into transport codes and actually deliver those data to end users. AMPX is a mature, well-tested code that was developed by many people at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) over the course of the past few decades. A large portion of the AMPX codebase, however, was outdated, difficult to maintain, and incompatible with modern code development tools. Some of the most important parts of the AMPX code have now been replaced with modern C++ code that can be maintained more cost-effectively and can be tested more rigorously.

AMPX↗
DOE OSTI2025

Instrumentation and Control Digital Modernization Research Plan for Long-Term Sustainability in the Nuclear Industry

This report, developed by Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), outlines a comprehensive research plan to support the digital modernization of safety-related instrumentation and control (I&C) systems in the U.S. nuclear industry. The modernization effort is critical to ensuring the long-term safety, reliability, and economic viability of both existing and future nuclear power plants (NPPs), particularly as aging analog systems become increasingly obsolete and difficult to maintain.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2026

LAC Attachments Modernization

This document details the proposed plan to modernize the existing set of cutting attachments in use with the Liquid Abrasive Cutter (LAC). This effort will leverage the replacement of the LAC power generating unit (PGU), which is to be completed by the end of FY25. The PGU modernization will transition away from a diesel direct drive of a high pressure pump to the use of a variable frequency drive, which will be powered by electricity from the existing generator in use by our DOD customers. The existing PGU and a model of the planned replacement is shown below in Figure 1.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2026

MAMBA: A Prototype Modern Modular Bubble Chamber for Precision Measurement of Neutrino Nucleus Cross Sections

High precision measurements of neutrino interactions are essential for the success of future neutrino oscillation experiments. Understanding the interaction rate and precise energy spectrum requires understanding of neutrino interactions and nuclear effects. Measuring interactions in a light nuclear target , such as Hydrogen or deuterium, would provide highly valuable input to reduce reduce the uncertainties associated with neutrino-nucleus cross sections, relevant for upcoming experiments like the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) and Hyper-Kamiokande (Hyper-K). A bubble chamber presents an opportunity to study a light nuclear target using hydrogen in the liquid phase as a working fluid. However historical hydrogen bubble chamber designs if placed in modern neutrino beams would miss a significant fraction of the total number of available interactions. We present a bubble chamber prototype, MAMBA, which will be used to investigate strategies for inexpensively enabling continuous cycling through improved cooling at scale and expanding the active time of historic bubble chambers. MAMBA aims to demonstrate the feasibility of precision neutrino–nucleon measurements at conditions comparable to modern beams.

Martínez Casales, María [Fermilab] (ORCID:00000003↗
DOE OSTI2026

Modernizing GlideinWMS Factory Monitoring with Prometheus & Grafana

Large-scale scientific experiments like CMS and DUNE rely on the distributed workload management system GlideinWMS to efficiently utilize computing resources across heterogeneous computing environments. GlideinWMS currently records Factory statistics using Round Robin Databases (RRDBs), XML, and JSON files, and these statistics are displayed via custom monitoring Web pages, thereby limiting integration with modern observability platforms. This project investigates the use of Prometheus-based instrumentation to expose Factory metrics using OpenTelemetry principles. Factory statistics related to Glidein submission and job execution are exported as Prometheus metrics through the Prometheus Python Client Library and are served via an HTTP metrics endpoint. The collected metrics are inspected using the Prometheus web-based interface and are visualized through Grafana dashboards within the Landscape monitoring infrastructure at Fermilab. This project significantly streamlines the integration of modern monitoring technologies into GlideinWMS and establishes a framework for extending observability across additional system components.

Appiah, Gideon [Grambling State U.]↗
NASA NTRS1973

Application of ERTS-1 imagery to detecting and mapping modern erosion features, and to monitoring erosional changes, in southern Arizona

The author has identified the following significant results. The red MSS band 5 gives the sharpest definition of modern arroyos. On the best images, modern arroy0s can be distinguished as narrow as 150 to 200 feet in reaches where their contrast with adjacent areas is only moderate, and as narrow as 60 to 75 feet where their contrast is high. Both the red and infrared bands show differences is soils and vegetation. In the late fall and winter imagery, band 7 generally is the most useful for mapping the areas of the more erodible soils. A map at 1:1,000,000 scale has been prepared that shows all the arroyos within the 17,000 square mile study area that have been identified from ERTS-1 images. Also, from U-2 color infrared airphotos, a 1:125,000 scale map has been made of a 50 mile reach along San Simon Wash, in southeastern Arizona. This map shows not only the arroyo channels and narrow flood plains that have developed since 1890, but also areas within a few miles of the wash that are severely guilled, severely sheet-eroded, and moderately sheet-eroded. Two important effects of the third largest recorded flood of the upper Gila River also have been determined from the ERTS-1 images. The inundated area is best displayed on band 7, and the areas of severe sand/gravel erosion/deposition show best on band 5.

Morrison, R. B.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Feasibility study of modern airships, phase 1, volume 1

The history of the airship is examined from a technical and operational/mission point of view. The impact on a modern airship design by present technology is defined in some selected, representative areas through a comparison between 1930 and 1975 state-of-the-art. A survey of missions with a potential for the airship was made and some viable applications are established. Several concepts of modern airships were taken through a parametric design analysis in the missions previously established, evolving in a new configuration of a hybrid airship - the Helipsoid -, combining static lift and dynamic lift from tilting propeller/rotors and the planform. Cruise speeds in the 150-200 kt (77-103 m/s) will be possible with this configuration with reasonable engine power. The Helipsoid offers at the same time a realistic and practicable solution to the ballast problem, which is inherent in a vehicle generating its lift (fully or partially) from a medium lighter than air.

Joner, B.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Determination of the cosmological rate of change of G and the tidal accelerations of earth and moon from ancient and modern astronomical data

The theory and numerical analysis of ancient astronomical observations (1374 to 1715) are combined with modern data in a simultaneous solution for: the tidal acceleration of the lunar longitude; the observed apparent acceleration of the earth's rotation; the true nontidal geophysical part of this acceleration; and the rate of change in the gravitational constant. Provided are three independent determinations of a rate of change of G consistent with the Hubble Constant and a near zero nontidal rotational acceleration of the earth. The tidal accelerations are shown to have remained constant during the historical period within uncertainties. Ancient and modern solar system data, and extragalactic observations provided a completely consistent astronomical and cosmological scheme.

Muller, P. M.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Feasibility study of modern airships. Phase 2: Executive summary

A feasibility study of modern airships has been completed. Three promising modern airship systems' concepts and their associated missions were studied; (1) a heavy-lift airship, employing a non-rigid hull and a significant amount of rotor lift, used for short-range transport and positioning of heavy military and civil payloads, (2) a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing), metalclad, partially buoyant airship used as a short-haul commercial transport; and (3) a class of fully-buoyant airships used for long-endurance Navy missions. The heavy-lift airship concept offers a substantial increase in vertical lift capability over existing systems and is projected to have lower total operating costs per ton-mile. The VTOL airship transport concept appears to be economically competitive with other VTOL aircraft concepts but can attain significantly lower noise levels. The fully-buoyant airship concept can provide an airborne platform with long endurance that satisfies many Navy mission requirements.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1983

Terminal area automatic navigation, guidance and control research using the Microwave Landing System (MLS). Part 5: Design and development of a Digital Integrated Automatic Landing System (DIALS) for steep final approach using modern control techniques

The design and development of a 3-D Digital Integrated Automatic Landing System (DIALS) for the Terminal Configured Vehicle (TCV) Research Aircraft, a B-737-100 is described. The system was designed using sampled data Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LOG) methods, resulting in a direct digital design with a modern control structure which consists of a Kalman filter followed by a control gain matrix, all operating at 10 Hz. DIALS uses Microwave Landing System (MLS) position, body-mounted accelerometers, as well as on-board sensors usually available on commercial aircraft, but does not use inertial platforms. The phases of the final approach considered are the localizer and glideslope capture which may be performed simultaneously, localizer and steep glideslope track or hold, crab/decrab and flare to touchdown. DIALS captures, tracks and flares from steep glideslopes ranging from 2.5 deg to 5.5 deg, selected prior to glideslope capture. Digital Integrated Automatic Landing System is the first modern control design automatic landing system successfully flight tested. The results of an initial nonlinear simulation are presented here.

Halyo, N.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Flight test results for the Digital Integrated Automatic Landing Systems (DIALS): A modern control full-state feedback design

The Digital Integrated Automatic Landing System (DIALS) is discussed. The DIALS is a modern control theory design performing all the maneuver modes associated with current autoland systems: localizer capture and track, glideslope capture and track, decrab, and flare. The DIALS is an integrated full-state feedback system which was designed using direct-digital methods. The DIALS uses standard aircraft sensors and the digital Microwave Landing System (MLS) signals as measurements. It consists of separately designed longitudinal and lateral channels although some cross-coupling variables are fed between channels for improved state estimates and trajectory commands. The DIALS was implemented within the 16-bit fixed-point flight computers of the ATOPS research aircraft, a small twin jet commercial transport outfitted with a second research cockpit and a fly-by-wire system. The DIALS became the first modern control theory design to be successfully flight tested on a commercial-type aircraft. Flight tests were conducted in late 1981 using a wide coverage MLS on Runway 22 at Wallops Flight Center. All the modes were exercised including the capture and track of steep glidescopes up to 5 degrees.

Hueschen, R. M.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Natural laminar flow experiments on modern airplane surfaces

Flight and wind-tunnel natural laminar flow experiments have been conducted on various lifting and nonlifting surfaces of several airplanes at unit Reynolds numbers between 0.63 x 10 to the 6th power/ft and 3.08 x 10 to the 6th power/ft, at Mach numbers from 0.1 to 0.7, and at lifting surface leading-edge sweep angles from 0 deg to 63 deg. The airplanes tested were selected to provide relatively stiff skin conditions, free from significant roughness and waviness, on smooth modern production-type airframes. The observed transition locations typically occurred downstream of the measured or calculated pressure peak locations for the test conditions involved. No discernible effects on transition due to surface waviness were observed on any of the surfaces tested. None of the measured heights of surface waviness exceeded the empirically predicted allowable surface waviness. Experimental results consistent with spanwise contamination criteria were observed. Large changes in flight-measured performance and stability and control resulted from loss of laminar flow by forced transition. Rain effects on the laminar boundary layer caused stick-fixed nose-down pitch-trim changes in two of the airplanes tested. No effect on transition was observed for flight through low-altitude liquid-phase clouds. These observations indicate the importance of fixed-transition tests as a standard flight testing procedure for modern smooth airframes.

Holmes, B. J.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Missions and Vehicle Concepts for Modern, Propelled, Lighter-Than-Air Vehicles

The results of studies conducted over the last 15 years to assess missions and vehicle concepts for modern, propelled, lighter-than-air vehicles (airships) were surveyed. Rigid and non-rigid airship concepts are considered. The use of airships for ocean patrol and surveillance is discussed along with vertical heavy lift airships. Military and civilian needs for high altitude platforms are addressed. Around 1970 a resurgence of interest about lighter-than-air vehicles (airships) occurred in both the public at large and in certain isolated elements of the aerospace industry. Such renewals of airship enthusiasm are not new and have, in fact, occurred regularly since the days of the Hindenburg and other large rigid airships. However, the interest that developed in the early 1970's has been particularly strong and self-sustaining for a number of good reasons. The first is the rapid increase in fuel prices over the last decade and the common belief (usually true) that airships are the most fuel efficient means of air transportation. Second, a number of new mission needs have arisen, particularly in surveillance and patrol and in vertical heavy-lift, which would seem to be well-suited to airship capabilities. The third reason is the recent proposal of many new and innovative airship concepts. Finally, there is the prospect of adapting to airships the tremendous amount of new aeronautical technology which has been developed in the past few decades thereby obtaining dramatic new airship capabilities. The primary purpose of this volume is to survey the results of studies, conducted over the last 15 years, to assess missions and vehicle concepts for modern propelled lighter-than-air vehicles.

Ardema, M. D.↗