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NASA NTRS1988

Biospheric traumas caused by large impacts and predicted relics in the sedimentary record

When a large asteroid or comet impacts the Earth the supersonic plume ejected on impact causes severe shock heating and chemical reprocessing of the proximal atmosphere. The resultant NO is converted rapidly to NO2, foliage damage due to exposure to NO2 and HNO3, toxicosis resulting from massive mobilization of soil trace metals, and faunal asphyxiation due to exposure to NO2. One class of relic evidence for the above effects arises because extinction of species caused by these chemically induced traumas would be selective. A second class of relic evidence arises because the acid rain will cause massive weathering of continental rocks and soils characterized by large ratios of the relatively insoluble metals, to the more soluble metals. This weathering would be best recorded in fossils in unperturbed deltaic, neritic, or limnetic sediments and for metals with very long oceanic residence times in deep ocean sediments as well. This evidence is discussed.

Prinn, R. G.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Comets, Asteroids, and the Origin of the Biosphere

During the past few decades, the role of comets in the delivery of water, organics, and prebiotic chemicals to the Biosphere of Earth during the Hadean (4.5-3.8 Ga) period of heavy bombardment has become more widely accepted. However comets are still largely regarded as frigid, pristine bodies of protosolar nebula material that are entirely devoid of liquid water and consequently unsuitable for life in any form. Complex organic compounds have been observed comets and on the water rich asteroid 1998 KY26, which has color and radar reflectivity similar to the carbonaceous meteorites. Near infrared observations have indicated the presence of crystalline water ice and ammonia hydrate on the large Kuiper Belt object (50000) Quaoar with resurfacing that may indicate cryovolcanic outgassing and the Cassini spacecraft has detected water-ice geysers on Saturn s moon Enceladus. Spacecraft observations of the chemical compositions and characteristics of the nuclei of several comets (Halley, Borrelly, Wild 2, and Tempel 1) have now firmly established that comets contain a suite of complex organic chemicals; water is the predominant volatile; and that extremely high temperatures (approx.350-400 K) can be reached on the surface of the very black (albedo-0.03) nuclei when the comets are with 1.5 AU from the Sun. Impact craters and pinnacles observed on comet Wild 2 suggest a thick crust and episodic outbursts and jets observed on the nuclei of several comets are interpreted as indications that localized regimes of liquid water and water vapor can periodically exist beneath the crust of some comets. The Deep Impact observations indicate that the temperature on the nucleus of of comet Tempel 1 at 1.5 AU varied from 330K on the sunlit side to a minimum of 280+/-8 K. It is interesting that even the coldest region of the comet surface was slightly above the ice/liquid water phase transition temperature. These results suggest that pools and films of liquid water can exist in a wide range of temperatures in cavities and voids at different depths just beneath the crust of a comet. The possibility that liquid water may exist over a wide range of temperatures on comets significantly enhances the possibility that these bodies may harbor niches suitable for microbial communities and ecosystems. Such niches would by ideal for the growth of psychrophilic, mesophilic, and possibly even thermophilic chemolithotrophs and photoautotrophs such as the motile filamentous cyanobacteria (e.g., Calothrix, Oscillatoria, Phormidium, and Spirulina) that can grow in geothermal springs and geysers at temperatures ranging from 320K to 345K and in cold polar desert soils. This paper reviews the observational data in support of the hypothesis that liquid water can exist in permafrost-like active regions just beneath the surface of comets when near perihelion and provides additional arguments in support of the hypothesis that comets, carbonaceous meteorites, and asteroids may have played a significant role in the origin and evolution of the Biosphere and in the distribution of microbial life throughout the Solar System.

Hoover, Richard B.↗

NASA NTRS2015

Spin-Up and Tuning of the Global Carbon Cycle Model Inside the GISS ModelE2 GCM

Planetary carbon cycle involves multiple phenomena, acting at variety of temporal and spacial scales. The typical times range from minutes for leaf stomata physiology to centuries for passive soil carbon pools and deep ocean layers. So, finding a satisfactory equilibrium state becomes a challenging and computationally expensive task. Here we present the spin-up processes for different configurations of the GISS Carbon Cycle model from the model forced with MODIS observed Leaf Area Index (LAI) and prescribed ocean to the prognostic LAI and to the model fully coupled to the dynamic ocean and ocean biology. We investigate the time it takes the model to reach the equilibrium and discuss the ways to speed up this process. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies General Circulation Model (GISS ModelE2) is currently equipped with all major algorithms necessary for the simulation of the Global Carbon Cycle. The terrestrial part is presented by Ent Terrestrial Biosphere Model (Ent TBM), which includes leaf biophysics, prognostic phenology and soil biogeochemistry module (based on Carnegie-Ames-Stanford model). The ocean part is based on the NASA Ocean Biogeochemistry Model (NOBM). The transport of atmospheric CO2 is performed by the atmospheric part of ModelE2, which employs quadratic upstream algorithm for this purpose.

Climate model↗

NASA NTRS2011

The 2010 AOP Workshop Summary Report

The rationale behind the current workshop, which was hosted by Biospherical Instruments Inc. (BSI), was to update the community and get community input with respect to the following: topics not addressed during the first workshop, specifically the processing of above-water apparent optical property (AOP data) within the Processing of Radiometric Observations of Seawater using Information Technologies (PROSIT) architecture; PROSIT data processing issues that have developed or tasks that have been completed, since the first workshop; and NASA instrumentation developments, both above- and in-water, that are relevant to both workshops and next generation mission planning. The workshop emphasized presentations on new AOP instrumentation, desired and required features for processing above-water measurements of the AOPs of seawater, working group discussions, and a community update for the in-water data processing already present in PROSIT. The six working groups were organized as follows: a) data ingest and data products; b) required and desired features for optically shallow and optically deep waters; c) contamination rejection (clouds), corrections, and data filtering; d) sun photometry and polarimetry; e) instrumentation networks; and f) hyperspectral versus fixed-wavelength sensors. The instrumentation networks working group was intended to provide more detailed information about desired and required features of autonomous sampling systems. Plenary discussions produced a number of recommendations for evolving and documenting PROSIT.

Hooker, Stanford B.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Doppler RAdar Observations of Convection from the NASA/TOGA C-band Radar During TRMM-LBA in Rondonia, Brazil

The Tropcial RAinfall Measuring Mission-Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere experiment in Amazonia (TRMM-LBA) was conducted near Ji Parana, Rondonia, Brazil during the 1999 Amazonian wet season (Jan-Feb). TRMM-LBA provided detailed observations of precipitating systems from surface and aircraft instrumentation which may be compared to measurements from the TRMM satellite. The surface-based platforms included two scanning Doppler radars (the NASA TOGA C-band radar and the NCAR SPOL S-band dual polarization radar) which collected continuous dual-Doppler measurements of precipitating convection.This paper focuses on data from the TOGA radar to provide a preliminary overview of general properties of convective organization observed during TRMM-LBA. These include squall line evolution and morphology, diurnal variation of precipitation, and the vertical intensity of convection. Mesoscale squall lines were most commonly observed in the afternoon, with associated regions of stratiform precipitation persisting into the evening. Nocturnal widespread stratiform rain often formed before sunrise, with no apparent source region of deep convection and very weak radar bright band. Reflectivity values in deep convective cells typically decreased rapidly above the melting level, reminiscent of tropical oceanic convection, and consistent with the relative scarcity of lightning (with respect to other tropical continental regions). Vertically developed electrified convection, though infrequent, did occur regularly.

Rickenbach, T. M.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Ecosystem Modeling of Biological Processes to Global Budgets

From an ecological perspective, the search for life on distant planets begins from several key assumptions. The first of these is that, viewed from a remote location in space, the signature of life on a distant planet will be the result of net gas exchange of organisms with their environment. On the basis of extensive biogeochemical measurements and biogenic trace gas fluxes in modem Earth environments, it is probable that certain groups of organisms both produce and consume the same trace gas(es) within a single bioprofile of Solid (porous) substrate or surface water. The net gas exchange rate with the atmosphere measured at the living surface is frequently the result of competing metabolic reactions, which may carried out by different functional groups of organisms located at dissimilar 'climatic' or chemical microsites within the same bioprofile. Biogenic gases produced at one (deep) level of a bioprofile may be consumed by another functional group of organisms located closer to the level of surface exchange with the atmosphere. A second key assumption is that the net biogenic fluxes of atmospheric gases on Earth can be used to infer relative abundance and functional composition of the major organisms on a distant planet. Examples of this principle include the presence of methanogenic microorganisms abundant today in freshwater ecosystems worldwide, which are major source of atmospheric methane and its seasonal variability in Earth's atmosphere. A third assumption is that scaling up biogenic gas fluxes from a single biological community to the planetary level requires flux measurements at the whole ecosystem level. This implies that measurements of biogenic gas exchange with the global atmosphere cannot be easily inferred from measurements of gas production rates of single organisms, which may have been isolated in some manner from the setting of their native ecosystem. Hence, the unit of biological organization used in modern Earth Science for scaling up to biosphere effects on atmospheric composition is the ecosystem level. These assumptions are the foundation for developing modern emission budgets for biogenic gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide, isoprene, nitrous and nitric oxide, and ammonia. Such emission budgets commonly include information on seasonal flux patterns, typical diurnal profiles, and spatial resolution of at least one degree latitude/longitude for the globe. On the basis of these budgets, it is possible to compute 'base emission rates' for the major biogenic trace gases from both terrestrial and ocean sources, which may be useful benchmarks for defining the gas production rates of organisms, especially those from early Earth history, which are required to generate a detectable signal on a global atmosphere. This type of analysis is also the starting point for evaluation of the 'biological processes to global gas budget' extrapolation procedure described above for early Earth ecosystems.

Christopher, Potter S.↗