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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

The SERENDIP piggyback SETI project

The SERENDIP project is an ongoing program of monitoring and processing broadband radio signals acquired by existing radio astronomy observatories. SERENDIP operates in a piggyback mode: it makes use of whatever observing plan (sequence of frequencies, sky coordinates, and polarizations) is under way at its host observatory. Moreover, the SERENDIP data acquisition system, once installed, operates autonomously. This approach makes it possible to obtain large amounts of high quality observing time in a manner that is economical and that does not adversely affect ongoing radio astronomy survey work. The SERENDIP II system has been installed at the NRAO 300-foot telescope at Green Bank, West Virginia, and has operated there for several thousand hours. In this report, we summarize our findings from these observations and describe the present status of the project. Two key elements of SERENDIP are the automated data acquisition system that uses adaptive thresholds and logs only statistically significant peaks in the real-time power spectra, and the subsequent off-line analysis programs that identify and reject a variety of interference signals. Several specific correlations have been identified that offer promise. At present, the development and testing of these interference rejection algorithms is the main thrust of our work.

NASA Discipline Number 52-60↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

TPSAS-NF1676L-19005-DND

Science is an economic investment by the public. We will be managing Earth’s climate until civilization moves elsewhere. We currently have no national or international climate observing system, nor a plan to create one. Should we invest in one? Is it worth it? What is the economic value of an advanced climate observing system? How would you estimate it? We have a few traceable estimates of the economic value of weather prediction for severe storms, hurricanes, floods and droughts. Climate scientists often say that the results from their research “will inform societal decisions with trillion dollar impacts”. But is this statement verified and traceable in any way? How could we quantify an economic value to climate science? Recall that climate change science value exists decades into the future. Its value has to be treated as a risk/benefit economic analysis. A rigorous analysis must take into account the uncertainties in climate science, economic impacts, and policy (see Figure 1 below).

Bruce A Wielicki↗
NASA NTRS2016

Impact of the 2008 Global Recession on Air Quality over the United States: Implications for Surface Ozone Levels from Changes in NOx Emissions

Satellite and ground observations detected large variability in nitrogen oxides (NOx) during the 2008 economic recession, but the impact of the recession on air quality has not been quantified. This study combines observed NOx trends and a regional chemical transport model to quantify the impact of the recession on surface ozone (O3) levels over the continental United States. The impact is quantified by simulating O3 concentrations under two emission scenarios: business-as-usual (BAU) and recession. In the BAU case, the emission projection from the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule is used to estimate the would-be NOx emission level in 2011. In the recession case, the actual NO2 trends observed from Air Quality System ground monitors and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on the Aura satellite are used to obtain realistic changes in NOx emissions. The model prediction with the recession effect agrees better with ground O3 observations over time and space than the prediction with the BAU emission. The results show that the recession caused a 12ppbv decrease in surface O3 concentration over the eastern United States, a slight increase (0.51ppbv) over the Rocky Mountain region, and mixed changes in the Pacific West. The gain in air quality benefits during the recession, however, could be quickly offset by the much slower emission reduction rate during the post-recession period.

NOx emissions↗
NASA NTRS1990

International program for Earth observations

During the 1990 summer session of the International Space University, graduate students of many different countries and with various academic backgrounds carried out a design project that focused on how to meet the most pressing environmental information requirements of the 1990's. The International Program for Earth Observations (IPEO) is the result of the students labor. The IPEO report examines the legal and institutional, scientific, engineering and systems, financial and economic, and market development approaches needed to improve international earth observations and information systems to deal with environmental issues of global importance. The IPEO scenario is based on the production of a group of lightweight satellites to be used in global remote sensing programs. The design and function of the satellite is described in detail.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2026

Effect of spacer grids on high-burnup fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal

Increasing the fuel burnup limit in light-water reactors to improve fuel cycle economics requires a strong technical foundation. Experimental observations from the Halden and Studsvik programs have revealed severe fuel fragmentation during loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) conditions, highlighting the need for additional technical evaluation. Consequently, further LOCA test data are needed to complement existing findings and improve the understanding of fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal (FFRD) behavior. Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Severe Accident Test Station has played a significant role in advancing the understanding of high-burnup fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal phenomena. One remaining gap in the available experimental database is the effect of fuel assembly structural features on cladding deformation behavior during a LOCA, and more specifically, their impact on the fuel’s ability to fragment, relocate, and disperse. Recent analyses using the BISON fuel performance code suggest that cladding deformation near grid spacers will remain below the 3% threshold that has been reported in the NRC Research Information Letter, indicating that the cladding could remain mechanically constrained during the LOCA event. This paper builds upon the BISON analyses to design and conduct a series of out-of-cell tests aimed at further evaluating cladding deformation in and around grid spacers. In addition, these tests were used to assess local cladding temperature conditions and compare them against analytical predictions in order to better replicate expected in-reactor behavior. Finally, an in-cell high-burnup LOCA test was designed and performed to evaluate the effects of a grid spacer, or cladding restraint, on fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal susceptibility. The high-burnup test results differed from those of historical LOCA experiments, with a recorded rupture temperature of 861°C. Two ballooned regions and corresponding rupture openings were observed, with rupture widths of approximately 0.64 mm for both ruptures and rupture lengths of 4.8 mm and 5.6 mm, respectively.

Capps, Nathan [ORNL]↗
DOE OSTI2025

Circularity Futures Workshop Series: Summary Report

The aim of this report is to synthesize key feedback received from the three-part Circularity Futures workshop series held in Spring 2024. The workshop series was conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on behalf of U.S. Department of Energy, Office Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), and was broken into three workshops: Workshop 1 - Circularity Analysis Needs and Priorities; Workshop 2 - Circularity Metrics and Indicators; and Workshop 3 - Circularity Data. Together, the workshops focused on identifying the existing priorities and gaps in the circularity modeling space, understanding different stakeholders' use and interpretation of circularity metrics and indicators, identifying common data gaps and data quality challenges, and assessing the robustness of available solutions. The workshop series brought a diverse group of stakeholders - including representatives from U.S. government offices, national labs, nonprofit organizations, industry, and academia - to collect first-hand feedback on needs, priorities, challenges and opportunities in the circularity modeling and analysis space. The workshop discussions highlighted numerous common needs, priorities and challenges among the interviewed groups. Several topics were frequently discussed, including: 1) Circularity as a pathway for sustainable economic growth: While circularity is generally defined in terms of resource conservation and reducing wasteful disposal of materials, participants agreed that circular strategies should serve broader economic, environmental, and social goals. It is therefore crucial for circularity analysis to look beyond waste reduction and instead evaluate a variety of impact metrics such as cost savings, job creation, air quality, and pollutant emissions. Mutli-criteria decision-making frameworks may be useful for making sense of disparate metrics and evaluating tradeoffs between impact categories.; 2) Economic and social factors are not well understood: Underdevelopment of existing end-of-life (EOL) management infrastructure, inconsistent standardization codes and policy space in reusing recycled content, and suboptimal collection and sorting strategies collectively contribute to uncertainty about the economic potential of circular pathways. The latter observation is consistent among all technologies but more emphasized for renewable energy systems. Social impacts of circularity practices are less understood and less researched than other sustainability aspects.; 3) Inconsistent methods for assessing emerging technologies: LCA and TEA results vary widely depending on the assumptions made with regards to market adoption of new technologies. Emerging technologies suffer limited availability of data needed to conduct a robust circularity analysis. Yet, understanding projected impacts of proposed nascent technology is a key need for different stakeholder groups.; and 4) Lack of temporally and geospatially explicit data: There is a need for open data that represents variations in circularity technologies over time and location. The lack thereof leads to aggregated and potentially misrepresented results in circularity analysis. Sensitivity analyses should be included to verify whether options perceived as more sustainable align with real-world practices.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Advanced Processing of Coal and Coal Waste to Produce Graphite for Fast-Charging Lithium-Ion Battery Anode

The University of North Dakota (UND) Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC), in collaboration with the UND Center for Process Engineering Research (CPER), conducted a project to validate two technologies capable of converting North Dakota lignite and lignite coal waste to high-quality graphite for fast-charging lithium-ion battery (LIB) anode. The project was conducted over about 3 years from April 7, 2022, to July 6, 2025. The two technological paths pursued in this project include path A – direct conversion of coal or coal waste to graphite by the upgraded carbon ores to products (UCOP) process being developed at the EERC and path B – lignite-derived coal tar pitch (CTP) conversion to graphite (CTP2G) process being developed at CPER. The results from this project validate the two technological approaches and are expected to be an integral part of a portfolio of emerging technologies for making high-quality graphite not only from North Dakota lignite, but from all ranks of U.S. domestic coal and coal waste resources. The quality of the graphite produced by these technologies is high enough for various applications, including batteries for the fast-growing electric vehicle industry, energy storage applications, electric arc furnace electrodes for steel production, and graphene production, among others. Although the two technologies can produce high-quality graphite, they are fundamentally different in that the UCOP technology provides a direct path to transform coal to graphite, while the CTP2G technology needs to go through a CTP intermediate and a coking process for the intermediate, which requires a special facility to accomplish. For application in the industry, the UCOP process is designed to be more flexible, with feedstock to include potentially any carbonaceous material such as all coal ranks and biochar, while the CTP2G process is designed to utilize CTP as the starting precursor. The key project accomplishments include the following: • Successful preparation of high-quality synthetic graphite from North Dakota lignite coal/coal wastes and lignite-derived CTP. • Patent application has been filed for the UCOP process and an internal invention disclosure has been filed for the CTP2G process. • The produced graphite performs better than a commercial battery-grade sample in LIB coin cells, especially fast-charging capability, stability, and long-duration cycling. • Coin-type Li-ion half-cells with CTP2G graphite showed excellent performance, with >370 mAh/g capacity, >90% initial coulombic efficiency, and 93%/67% retention at 1C/2C rate, which outperforms commercial graphite in charging speed, stability, and cycling. • Results of fabricated 18650 cells were consistent with the observations in coin cells. • Preliminary techno-economic analysis (TEA) estimates for the UCOP technology indicate a manufacturing cost of about $\$$39/kg based on 50-metric ton/year capacity. • Preliminary TEA estimates for the CTP2G technology indicate a market price of about $\$$7107/ton ($\$$7/kg) based on 22,000-ton/year production capacity.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
NASA NTRS2016

A Satellite Data-Driven, Client-Server Decision Support Application for Agricultural Water Resources Management

Water cycle extremes such as droughts and floods present a challenge for water managers and for policy makers responsible for the administration of water supplies in agricultural regions. In addition to the inherent uncertainties associated with forecasting extreme weather events, water planners need to anticipate water demands and water user behavior in a typical circumstances. This requires the use decision support systems capable of simulating agricultural water demand with the latest available data. Unfortunately, managers from local and regional agencies often use different datasets of variable quality, which complicates coordinated action. In previous work we have demonstrated novel methodologies to use satellite-based observational technologies, in conjunction with hydro-economic models and state of the art data assimilation methods, to enable robust regional assessment and prediction of drought impacts on agricultural production, water resources, and land allocation. These methods create an opportunity for new, cost-effective analysis tools to support policy and decision-making over large spatial extents. The methods can be driven with information from existing satellite-derived operational products, such as the Satellite Irrigation Management Support system (SIMS) operational over California, the Cropland Data Layer (CDL), and using a modified light-use efficiency algorithm to retrieve crop yield from the synergistic use of MODIS and Landsat imagery. Here we present an integration of this modeling framework in a client-server architecture based on the Hydra platform. Assimilation and processing of resource intensive remote sensing data, as well as hydrologic and other ancillary information occur on the server side. This information is processed and summarized as attributes in water demand nodes that are part of a vector description of the water distribution network. With this architecture, our decision support system becomes a light weight 'app' that connects to the server to retrieve the latest information regarding water demands, land use, yields and hydrologic information required to run different management scenarios. Furthermore, this architecture ensures all agencies and teams involved in water management use the same, up-to-date information in their simulations.

Agricultural↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Assessing Drought and Fire Conditions, Trends, and Susceptibility to Inform State Mitigation Efforts and Bolster Monitoring Protocol in North Central Idaho

Escalating severity and frequency of drought and wildfire call for effective and cost-efficient mitigation planning and monitoring protocols. The Palouse ecoregion, an agricultural epicenter in North-central Idaho, is of particular concern as both drought and wildfire present substantial economic threats. The DEVELOP team implemented Earth observation data to assist the Idaho Office of Emergency Management, Idaho Department of Water Resources, and Idaho Department of Lands in updating the state’s Hazard Mitigation Plan by enhancing their drought and fire monitoring capabilities. The team utilized Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), and Aqua and Terra’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), along with ancillary datasets, to assess drought indicators and map hazard susceptibility. The team upgraded the state’s current fire hazard model by updating existing data layers and adding drought indicator data to support partners’ continued assessment of fire hazard conditions. The team observed Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI) spikes during the highest fire occurrence and burned area years in the study period: 2015 and 2021. Models from dry, high fire occurrence and burned area year 2015 outperformed models from mesic, low fire occurrence and burned area year 2016. The increased understanding of drought conditions and fire susceptibility in this ecosystem will assist partners in improving land management practices.

Ford Freyberg↗
DOE OSTI2026

Adaptive Control for Load-Following of Boiling Water Reactors Part I: Linear Systems and Fully-Observable Dynamics

Automation control is a key strategy to improve the economic competitiveness of nuclear power plants. Not only does it help reduce operational costs, but it also extends the value proposition of these plants to nontraditional markets, including unattended operations in remote villages and space. However, the dynamics of the operating environments of nuclear reactors are subject to changes over time, and there are no widely adopted methods to ensure that the automation strategy will remain effective over the extended durations required for these applications. Adaptive control is a discipline that offers the possibility to accommodate such changes online. However, it relies on mathematical assumptions that must be respected to ensure robustness and reliability. In this work, we derive an adaptive control formulation for linear systems in which all states are observable and apply it to an instance of load-follow operation for Boiling Water Reactors. We assumed uncertainty in two factors: the temperature coefficient and the control rod worth, both of which are affected over time by the evolution of the nuclear reactor core environment. With an arbitrary penalty factor of 5, we found that the mean absolute and integral time absolute errors can be reduced by more than 90%, underscoring the strength of adaptive control. To extend the application to more challenges, different uncertainties and load-follow trajectories, as well as new formulations that include non-linearity and partial observability, are currently being developed.

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

TPSAS-NF1676L-20735-DND

Higher than normal accuracy is required to rigorously observe decadal climate change. But what level is needed? How can this be quantified? This presentation will summarize a new more rigorous and quantitative approach to determining the required accuracy for climate change observations (Wielicki et al., 2013, BAMS). Most current global satellite observations cannot meet this accuracy level. A proposed new satellite mission to resolve this challenge is CLARREO (Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory). CLARREO is designed to achieve advances of a factor of 10 for reflected solar spectra and a factor of 3 to 5 for thermal infrared spectra (Wielicki et al., Oct. 2013 BAMS). The CLARREO spectrometers are designed to serve as SI traceable benchmarks for the Global Satellite Intercalibration System (GSICS) and to greatly improve the utility of a wide range of LEO and GEO infrared and reflected solar passive satellite sensors for climate change observations (e.g. CERES, MODIS, VIIIRS, CrIS, IASI, Landsat, SPOT, etc). Providing more accurate decadal change trends can in turn lead to more rapid narrowing of key climate science uncertainties such as cloud feedback and climate sensitivity. A study has been carried out to quantify the economic benefits of such an advance as part of a rigorous and complete climate observing system. The study concludes that the economic value is ~ $12 Trillion U.S. dollars in Net Present Value for a nominal discount rate of 3% (Cooke et al. 2013, J. Env. Sys. Dec.). A brief summary of these two studies and their implications for the future of climate science will be presented.

Bruce Wielicki↗
NASA NTRS2011

NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Mission Formulation

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Mission is one of the first Earth observation satellites being formulated by NASA in response to the 2007 National Research Council s Earth Science Decadal Survey [1]. SMAP s measurement objectives are high-resolution global measurements of near-surface soil moisture and its freeze-thaw state. These measurements would allow significantly improved estimates of water, energy and carbon transfers between the land and atmosphere. The soil moisture control of these fluxes is a key factor in the performance of atmospheric models used for weather forecasts and climate projections. Soil moisture measurements are also of great importance in assessing flooding and monitoring drought. Knowledge gained from SMAP s planned observations can help mitigate these natural hazards, resulting in potentially great economic and societal benefits. SMAP measurements would also yield high resolution spatial and temporal mapping of the frozen or thawed condition of the surface soil and vegetation. Observations of soil moisture and freeze/thaw timing over the boreal latitudes will contribute to reducing a major uncertainty in quantifying the global carbon balance and help resolve an apparent missing carbon sink over land. The SMAP mission would utilize an L-band radar and radiometer sharing a rotating 6-meter mesh reflector antenna (see Figure 1) [2]. The radar and radiometer instruments would be carried onboard a 3-axis stabilized spacecraft in a 680 km polar orbit with an 8-day repeating ground track. The instruments are planned to provide high-resolution and high-accuracy global maps of soil moisture at 10 km resolution and freeze/thaw at 3 km resolution, every two to three days (see Table 1 for a list of science data products). The mission is adopting a number of approaches to identify and mitigate potential terrestrial radio frequency interference (RFI). These approaches are being incorporated into the radiometer and radar flight hardware and ground processing designs.

Entekhabi, Dara↗
DOE OSTI2025

Space‐Time Causal Discovery in Earth System Science: A Local Stencil Learning Approach

Causal discovery tools enable scientists to infer meaningful relationships from observational data, spurring advances in fields as diverse as biology, economics, and climate science. Despite these successes, the application of causal discovery to space-time systems remains immensely challenging due to the high-dimensional nature of the data. For example, in climate sciences, modern observational temperature records over the past few decades regularly measure thousands of locations around the globe. To address these challenges, we introduce Causal Space-Time Stencil Learning (CaStLe), a novel meta-algorithm for discovering causal structures in complex space-time systems. CaStLe leverages regularities in local space-time dependencies to learn governing global dynamics. This local perspective eliminates spurious confounding and drastically reduces sample complexity, making space-time causal discovery practical and effective. For causal discovery, CaStLe flexibly accepts any appropriately adapted time series causal discovery algorithm to recover local causal structures. These advances enable causal discovery of geophysical phenomena that were previously unapproachable, including non-periodic, transient phenomena such as volcanic eruption plumes. Regularities in local space-time dependencies are transformed into informative spatial replicates, which actually improve CaStLe's performance when applied to ever-larger spatial grids. We successfully apply CaStLe to discover the atmospheric dynamics governing the climate response to the 1991 Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption. We provide validation experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of CaStLe over existing causal-discovery frameworks on a range of geophysics-inspired benchmarks while identifying the method's limitations and domains where its assumptions may not hold.

Nichol, J. Jake [Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque,↗
DOE OSTI2020

Integral LOCA fragmentation test on high-burnup fuel

Increasing the fuel burnup limit in light water reactors is sought to enhance fuel cycle economics and requires establishing a technical basis. Experimental observations of severe fuel fragmentation under loss-of-coolant-accident conditions at Halden and Studsvik had raised the need for additional considerations during the development of this technical basis. These test data suggested that the burnup threshold for high burnup fuel fragmentation may be influenced by pre-transient power. Additional loss-of-coolant-accident test data is therefore valuable to complement these tests and enhance the current state of understating. Oak Ridge National Lab has developed the Severe Accident Test Station capable of examining the oxidation kinetics and accident response of irradiated fuel and cladding materials for design basis accident and beyond design basis accident scenarios. Severe Accident Test Station provides various temperature profiles, steam, and the thermal shock conditions necessary for integral loss of coolant accident testing, defueled oxidation quench testing, and high-temperature beyond design basis accident testing. Severe Accident Test Station has been successfully installed and demonstrated in the Irradiated Fuels Examination Laboratory at Oak Ridge National Lab. Furthermore, descriptions of the in-cell re-fabrication capabilities and assembly of the loss-of-coolant-accident test train are provided. Installation of the Severe Accident Test Station system and in-cell re-fabrication restores United States capability to examine postulated and extended loss-of-coolant-accident conditions on spent fuel and cladding and provides a platform for evaluating advanced fuel and accident-tolerant fuel cladding concepts. Lastly, three in-cell integral loss-of-coolant-accident test were performed in the Severe Accident Test Station and compared to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sponsored loss-of-coolant-accident test as well as the original loss-of-coolant-accident test performed at Argonne National Lab. Finally, the results of these tests as well as all publicly available integral loss-of-coolant-accident test were used to validate a threshold for high burnup fuel fragmentation.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS1985

Research in the design of high-performance reconfigurable systems

Computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing have the potential for greatly reducing the cost and lead time in the development of VLSI components. This potential paves the way for the design and fabrication of a wide variety of economically feasible high level functional units. It was observed that current computer systems have only a limited capacity to absorb new VLSI component types other than memory, microprocessors, and a relatively small number of other parts. The first purpose is to explore a system design which is capable of effectively incorporating a considerable number of VLSI part types and will both increase the speed of computation and reduce the attendant programming effort. A second purpose is to explore design techniques for VLSI parts which when incorporated by such a system will result in speeds and costs which are optimal. The proposed work may lay the groundwork for future efforts in the extensive simulation and measurements of the system's cost effectiveness and lead to prototype development.

Mcewan, S. D.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Space industrialization opportunities

The current status of efforts to develop commercial space projects is surveyed, with a focus on US programs, in reviews and reports presented at the Second Symposium on Space Industrialization held in Huntsville in February 1984. Areas explored include policy, legal, and economic aspects; communications; materials processing; earth-resources observation; and the role of space carriers and a space station. Also included in the volume are 132 brief descriptions of the NASA Microgravity Science and Applications Program Tasks as of December 1984. These tasks cover the fields electronics materials; solidification of metals, alloys, and composites; fields and transport phenomena; biotechnology; glass and ceramics; combustion science; and experimental technology.

Jernigan, C. M.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Cooperative satellite-based flood detection, mapping, and river monitoring in near real time

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the Pacific-North American (PNA) teleconnection pattern, and the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) combine to influence the planetary wave structure over the northern hemisphere. Floods and droughts are associated around the world with ENSO through such teleconnections, and improved flood prediction relies on understanding them better. The scientific study of floods, and consistent measurements thereof, are needed in order to allow 'Greenhouse warming' predictions about flooding to be tested, and the hydrologic effects of other phenomena such as ENSO to be evaluated. The needed tasks are: 1) detection/warning of flooding, 2) flood magnitude assessment, 3) flood inundation mapping, and 4) preservation of the record of flooding. Accomplishing these same tasks provides direct local societal benefits as well: they can save lives and reduce economic loss. We emphasize that the basic science observations need not be divorced from the immediate practical applications: both can occur together, and just as is the case for meteorological remote sensing.

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)↗