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At least 541 records · Page 30

DSCOVR/EPIC-derived global hourly and daily downward shortwave and photosynthetically active radiation data at 0.1° × 0.1° resolution

Downward shortwave radiation (SW) and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) play crucial roles in Earth system dynamics. Spaceborne remote sensing techniques provide a unique means for mapping accurate spatiotemporally continuous SW–PAR, globally. However, any individual polar-orbiting or geostationary satellite cannot satisfy the desired high temporal resolution (sub-daily) and global coverage simultaneously, while integrating and fusing multisource data from complementary satellites/sensors is challenging because of co-registration, intercalibration, near real-time data delivery and the effects of discrepancies in orbital geometry. The Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on board the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), launched in February 2015, offers an unprecedented possibility to bridge the gap between high temporal resolution and global coverage and characterize the diurnal cycles of SW–PAR globally. In this study, we adopted a suite of well-validated data-driven machine-learning models to generate the first global land products of SW–PAR, from June 2015 to June 2019, based on DSCOVR/EPIC data. The derived products have high temporal resolution (hourly) and medium spatial resolution (0.1°×0.1°), and they include estimates of the direct and diffuse components of SW–PAR. We used independently widely distributed ground station data from the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN), the Surface Radiation Budget Network (SURFRAD), NOAA's Global Monitoring Division and the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program to evaluate the performance of our products, and we further analyzed and compared the spatiotemporal characteristics of the derived products with the benchmarking Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System Synoptic (CERES) data. We found both the hourly and daily products to be consistent with ground-based observations (e.g., hourly and daily total SWs have low biases of -3.96 and -0.71 W m -2 and root-mean-square errors (RMSEs) of 103.50 and 35.40 W m -2 , respectively). The developed products capture the complex spatiotemporal patterns well and accurately track substantial diurnal, monthly, and seasonal variations in SW–PAR when compared to CERES data. They provide a reliable and valuable alternative for solar photovoltaic applications worldwide and can be used to improve our understanding of the diurnal and seasonal variabilities of the terrestrial water, carbon and energy fluxes at various spatial scales.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Warm boundary-layer cloud properties and cloud susceptibilities product at the ARM ENA observatory

Cloud liquid water path, albedo, and cloud fraction susceptibilities for marine warm boundary-layer clouds are quantified using the Meteosat retrieved cloud microphysical properties at the ARM Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) observatory in the Azores. The Meteosat cloud retrievals are based on the methods applied by the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) project, which are specifically tailored to support the ARM user facility over the ARM ground-based observation sites (enavisstpx2dm11minnisX1.c1). Cloud susceptibility is quantified as the slope between cloud properties and Nd within a 1-degree-by-1-degree grid box at each satellite time step using a least-square regression. To reduce uncertainties associated with the adiabatic assumption in the Nd retrieval, for each cloud object, we exclude cloudy pixels at the cloud edge, defined as those adjacent to cloud-free pixels. To minimize influence of cloud heterogeneity and co-variability on the retrieved cloud susceptibility, cloud properties are averaged to 0.25-degree resolution using the 3-km pixel-level retrieval, and the 1-degree cloud susceptibilities are estimated using the smoothed data. Cloud type classification is applied to distinct cloud object, labeling all contiguous cloudy pixels. Marine warm boundary-layer clouds are defined as clouds with 90% of cloud tops below 3km, and Meteosat retrieved cloud phase as liquid.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence/eddy covariance measurements at NGEE Arctic Council site, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, 2022

Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is emitted from the chlorophyll antenna complexes during the light harvesting and photophysical reactions of photosynthesis. It is directly coupled with and therefore can be used to estimate photosynthetic electron transport and CO2 assimilation. SIF, when observed at the ecosystem level, provides information about ecosystem functions that complements the net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO2, CH4, water vapor, and sensible heat. NEE observations have been conducted with the eddy covariance (EC) approach at the NGEE Arctic Council, Alaska site for years. However, concurrent SIF observations have not been available. In June 2022, we installed the fluorescence automated measurement equipment (FAME) at the NGEE Arctic Council site. The zip file contains 3,187 *.dat files that can be opened with a text editor or in *.csv.The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a research effort to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research. The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska. Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Fractured Earth Laboratory

Researchers at Los Alamos apply extensive knowledge and expertise through the Los Alamos Fractured Earth Laboratory to measure elusive rock fracture, chemical, cementing, and flow properties with purposebuilt systems that apply new and emerging measurement approaches. Unlike traditional rock mechanics laboratories, this unique laboratory capability allows researchers to accurately measure and observe fracture growth and transient flow in rock samples with microtomography at subsurface conditions. This provides critical information to solve complex and challenging subsurface fracture and flow process problems. Los Alamos is seeking to offer the Fractured Earth Laboratory’s measurement capabilities and expertise to researchers and developers in the oil and gas; geothermal; and the carbon capture, sequestration, and utilization industries. By utilizing the Fractured Earth Laboratory’s capabilities, researchers in these industries will have access to tools diagnose problems and develop solutions to subsurface issues.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Hidden Processes During Seasonal Isolation of a High-Altitude Watershed

Biogeochemical processes capable of altering global carbon systems occur frequently in Earth’s Critical Zone–the area spanning from vegetation canopy to saturated bedrock–yet many of these phenomena are difficult to detect. Observation of these processes is limited by the seasonal inaccessibility of remote ecosystems, such as those in mountainous, snow- and ice-dominated areas. This isolation leads to a distinct gap in biogeochemical knowledge that ultimately affects the accuracy and confidence with which these ecosystems can be computationally modeled for the purpose of projecting change under different climate scenarios. To examine a high-altitude, headwater ecosystem’s role in methanogenesis, sulfate reduction, and groundwater-surface water exchange, water samples were continuously collected from the river and hyporheic zones (HZ) during winter isolation in the East River (ER), CO watershed. Measurements of continuously collected ER surface water revealed up to 50 μM levels of dissolved methane in July through September, while samples from 12 cm deep in the hyporheic zone at the same location showed a spring to early summer peak in methane with a strong biogenic signature (<65 μM, δ13C-CH4, -60.76‰) before declining. Continuously collected δ 18 O-H 2 O and δ 2 H-H 2 O isotopes from the water column exhibited similar patterns to discrete measurements, while samples 12 cm deep in the hyporheic zone experienced distinct fluctuations in δ 18 O-H 2 O, alluding to significant groundwater interactions. Continuously collected microbial communities in the river in the late fall and early winter revealed diverse populations that reflect the taxonomic composition of ecologically similar river systems, including taxa indicative of methane cycling in this system. These measurements captured several biogeochemical components of the high-altitude watershed in response to seasonality, strengthening our understanding of these systems during the winter months.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Vertically Resolved Analysis of the Madden-Julian Oscillation Highlights the Role of Convective Transport of Moist Static Energy

We simulate the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO) over an aquaplanet with uniform surface temperature using the multiscale modeling framework (MMF) configuration of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM-MMF). The model produces MJO-like features that have a similar spatial structure and propagation behavior to the observed MJO. To explore the processes involved in the propagation and maintenance of these MJO-like features, we perform a vertically resolved moist static energy (MSE) analysis for the MJO (Yao et al., 2022, https://doi.org/10.1175/jas-d-20-0254.1). Unlike the column-integrated MSE analysis, our method emphasizes the local production of MSE variance and quantifies how individual physical processes amplify and propagate the MJO's characteristic vertical structure. We find that radiation, convection, and boundary layer (BL) processes all contribute to maintaining the MJO, balanced by the large-scale MSE transport. Furthermore, large-scale dynamics, convection, and BL processes all contribute to the propagation of the MJO, while radiation slows the propagation. Additionally, we perform mechanism-denial experiments to examine the role of radiation and associated feedbacks in simulating the MJO. We find that the MJO can still self-emerge and maintain its characteristic structures without radiative feedbacks. This study highlights the role of convective MSE transport in the MJO dynamics, which was overlooked in the column-integrated MSE analysis.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Climate Intervention Assessment and Attribution

Focal Area(s): To ensure the US is positioned to scientifically attribute noncooperative climate interventions, we propose developing a foundational analytical framework for increased confidence in the assessment and attribution of observed changes in the climate. This framework will enable probabilistic attribution of prospective climate interventions. The target is to glean insight from complex Earth system data (Focal Area 3) by using AI to develop a prediction system comprised of a hierarchy of models (Focal Area 2).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Machine-Learning-Assisted Hybrid Earth System Modelling

We propose a novel hybrid modeling approach that combines a physics-based, numerical model of the Earth system with a machine learning model. We also envision to integrate the hybrid model training with a data assimilation cycle, so that new observations update both the state estimate used as initial conditions and the machine learning model parameters.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Southern Ocean latitudinal gradients of cloud condensation nuclei

Abstract. The Southern Ocean region is one of the most pristine in the world and serves as an important proxy for the pre-industrial atmosphere. Improving our understanding of the natural processes in this region is likely to result in the largest reductions in the uncertainty of climate and earth system models. While remoteness from anthropogenic and continental sources is responsible for its clean atmosphere, this also results in the dearth of atmospheric observations in the region. Here we present a statistical summary of the latitudinal gradient of aerosol (condensation nuclei larger than 10 nm, CN10) and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN at various supersaturations) concentrations obtained from five voyages spanning the Southern Ocean between Australia and Antarctica from late spring to early autumn (October to March) of the 2017/18 austral seasons. Three main regions of influence were identified: the northern sector (40–45∘ S), where continental and anthropogenic sources coexisted with background marine aerosol populations; the mid-latitude sector (45–65∘ S), where the aerosol populations reflected a mixture of biogenic and sea-salt aerosol; and the southern sector (65–70∘ S), south of the atmospheric polar front, where sea-salt aerosol concentrations were greatly reduced and aerosol populations were primarily biologically derived sulfur species with a significant history in the Antarctic free troposphere. The northern sector showed the highest number concentrations with median (25th to 75th percentiles) CN10 and CCN0.5 concentrations of 681 (388–839) cm−3 and 322 (105–443) cm−3, respectively. Concentrations in the mid-latitudes were typically around 350 cm−3 and 160 cm−3 for CN10 and CCN0.5, respectively. In the southern sector, concentrations rose markedly, reaching 447 (298–446) cm−3 and 232 (186–271) cm−3 for CN10 and CCN0.5, respectively. The aerosol composition in this sector was marked by a distinct drop in sea salt and increase in both sulfate fraction and absolute concentrations, resulting in a substantially higher CCN0.5/CN10 activation ratio of 0.8 compared to around 0.4 for mid-latitudes. Long-term measurements at land-based research stations surrounding the Southern Ocean were found to be good representations at their respective latitudes; however this study highlighted the need for more long-term measurements in the region. CCN observations at Cape Grim (40∘39′ S) corresponded with CCN measurements from northern and mid-latitude sectors, while CN10 observations only corresponded with observations from the northern sector. Measurements from a simultaneous 2-year campaign at Macquarie Island (54∘30′ S) were found to represent all aerosol species well. The southernmost latitudes differed significantly from both of these stations, and previous work suggests that Antarctic stations on the East Antarctic coastline do not represent the East Antarctic sea-ice latitudes well. Further measurements are needed to capture the long-term, seasonal and longitudinal variability in aerosol processes across the Southern Ocean.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DisasterAWARE – A Global Alerting Platform for Flood Events

The rising number of flooding events combined with increased urbanization is contributing to significant economic losses due to damages to structures and infrastructures. From a risk reduction and resilience perspective, it is not only essential to forecast flood risk and potential impacts, but also to disseminate the information to stakeholders on the ground for rapid implementation of mitigation and response measures. This paper provides (i) an introduction to DisasterAWARE®, a global alerting system, that is used to disseminate flood risk information to stakeholders across the globe, and (ii) a discussion of the models implemented using earth observation data (Synthetic Aperture Radar and optical imagery) for near real-time assessment of flood severity and potential flood impacts to infrastructures. While the models are still in their nascent stage, a case study implementation of the models for the 2020 flooding event in Africa is presented to showcase the model integration with DisasterAWARE®.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Stomatal response of three Arctic plant species, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, 2022

Stomatal response to changing irradiance measurements on three common tussock tundra shrub species. Data were collected in 2022 from two sites on the Seward Peninsula, Kougarok Mile 64 and Teller Mile 27. Measurements were made with LI-COR LI-6800 gas exchange systems using a slow curve light response method. Light curve observations enable the estimation of stomatal slope and intercept parameters, g1 and g0. The data package files include a data file, metadata files and the complete instrument output for all measurements in .csv format, and a pdf describing the experimental protocol. See the related data package NGA315 for foliar trait data (leaf mass per area, leaf nitrogen concentration) and NGA209 for co-located thaw depth and soil moisture. The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a research effort to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research.The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska.Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

A Planetary Defense System For Responsive Space Missions

As King et al succinctly write, “Collision between the Earth and small objects in the solar system are known to occur regularly, and can result in extinction-level events at their most energetic or more commonly widespread loss of life or economic destruction even for relatively low-energy impacts.” Currently, the JPL Sentry System and the NASA NEO Surveyor mission track, identify, and monitor potential asteroid threats. The JPL Sentry System4 is an automated collision monitoring system which scans the current asteroid catalog for potential impact trajectories with Earth. A 2017 study led by P. Tricarico titled “The near-Earth asteroid population from two decades of observations” analyzes the combined observations of nine leading asteroid surveys. The NASA NEO Surveyor mission seeks to identify 90% of near-Earth objects (NEO) with diameters greater than 140 meters (460 feet) within 10 years. The NEO Surveyor combines data from two infrared imaging detectors to measure NEO size, composition, shape, rotational state, and orbits. Recently, the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission successfully altered the orbit of asteroid moon Dimorphos in 2022. This demonstrated that orbit alteration is possible. Thus, collisions between the Earth and asteroids are both likely and demonstrate potential for great harm. There is ongoing work to identify, catalog, and track potential threats. However, when a threat is identified there is not yet a system in place to target the threatening asteroid and defend the planet from potentially existential threats. Building on the DART Mission, we explore a planetary defense system to mitigate asteroid threats.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Large–scale asymmetry in galaxy spin directions: Analysis of galaxies with spectra in DES, SDSS, and DESI Legacy Survey

Multiple previous studies using several different probes have shown considerable evidence for the existence of cosmological–scale anisotropy and a Hubble–scale axis. One of the probes that show such evidence is the distribution of the directions toward which galaxies spin. The advantage of the analysis of the distribution of galaxy spin directions compared to the cosmic microwave background anisotropy is that the ratio of galaxy spin directions is a relative measurement, and therefore less sensitive to background contamination such as Milky Way obstruction. Another advantage is that many spiral galaxies have spectra, and therefore allow to analyze the location of such axis relative to Earth. This paper shows an analysis of the distribution of the spin directions of over 90K galaxies with spectra. That analysis is also compared to previous analyses using the Earth–based Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Legacy Survey, as well as space–based data collected by Hubble Space Telescope. Finally, the results show very good agreement between the distribution patterns observed with the different telescopes. The dipole or quadrupole axes formed by the spin directions of the galaxies with spectra do not necessarily go directly through Earth.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Estimating soil thermal inertia profiles from the passive equilibration of a temperature probe: Supporting data and code

This dataset contains measurements of soil thermal properties and organic layer thickness at three field sites on the Seward Peninsula near Nome, Alaska, USA. Code is also provided for estimation of soil thermal properties from temperature data, including a forward heat transfer mode, a library of simulated temperature data, and an inversion scheme to retrieve thermal properties from temperature measurements (Lamb et al., 2025). This dataset and code is published in support of the manuscript “Estimating Soil Thermal Inertia Profiles from the Passive Equilibration of a Temperature Probe” by Lamb et al., 2025, in which an experimental thermal measurements technique is developed. The dataset contains measurements of soil thermal properties and organic layer thickness obtained with an industry standard thermal properties analyzer and direct observations, as well as data generated using the experimental technique to estimate thermal properties and soil structure from temperature observations. All data is reported in .csv format, and all code is written in Python 3.7 using standard packages. This research was performed as a part of the NGEE Arctic project, which aims to advance model predictions of arctic carbon cycle responses to a changing climate over the 21st Century.The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a research effort to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research. The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska. Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Correction and calibration of atmospheric impact observations in GOES GLM data

The Earth's atmosphere is impacted daily by both meteoroids and artificial objects. Calibrated observations of the emitted light at sufficiently high sampling rates can enable or improve the estimation of impactor attributes such as size, cohesion, trajectory, and composition, but are difficult to obtain owing to the unpredictability, brevity, and high dynamic (brightness) range of impacts. Ground-based camera systems have successfully monitored small regions of the atmosphere at video frame rates and with limited radiometric capabilities, but most impacts occur over the 70% of the Earth's surface covered by water and are therefore missed by these networks. The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instruments aboard Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites 16 and 17 provide near-hemispherical coverage at 500 frames per second. These data have been shown to contain the signatures of many independently confirmed impacts, often from both viewing angles simultaneously, and constitute an observational resource that is currently unparalleled in the public domain. NASA's Asteroid Threat Assessment Project has implemented an automated impact detection pipeline that processes data from GLM daily. Given a detected impact, the GLM data contain a wealth of information for use in quantitative follow-up analyses. However, impact events differ from lightning in ways that violate key assumptions built into GLM's design. The result is that GLM's onboard processing introduces errors into pixel observations of impact events and the calibrated energies near the periphery of the detector may be substantially overestimated. We present methods for mitigating these and other issues to produce a data product more suitable for impact analyses than the existing GLM lightning product.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Evaluation of precipitation indices in suites of dynamically and statistically downscaled regional climate models over Florida

Abstract The present work evaluates historical precipitation and its indices defined by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI) in suites of dynamically and statistically downscaled regional climate models (RCMs) against NOAA’s Global Historical Climatology Network Daily (GHCN-Daily) dataset over Florida. The models examined here are: (1) nested RCMs involved in the North American CORDEX (NA-CORDEX) program, (2) variable resolution Community Earth System Models (VR-CESM), (3) Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) models statistically downscaled using localized constructed analogs (LOCA) technique. To quantify observational uncertainty, three in situ-based (PRISM, Livneh, CPC) and three reanalysis (ERA5, MERRA2, NARR) datasets are also evaluated against the station data. The reanalyses and dynamically downscaled RCMs generally underestimate the magnitude of the monthly precipitation and the frequency of the extreme rainfall in summer. The models forced with CanESM2 miss the phase of the seasonality of extreme precipitation. All models and reanalyses severely underestimate both the mean and interannual variability of mean wet-day precipitation (SDII), consecutive dry days (CDD), and overestimate consecutive wet days (CWD). Metric analysis suggests large uncertainty across NA-CORDEX models. Both the LOCA and VR-CESM models perform better than the majority of models. Overall, RegCM4 and WRF models perform poorer than the median model performance. The performance uncertainty across models is comparable to that in the reanalyses. Specifically, NARR performs poorer than the median model performance in simulating the mean indices and MERRA2 performs worse than the majority of models in capturing the interannual variability of the indices.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Ecological Insights from Transferable Plant Biomass Mapping across the Arctic using High-resolution Structure-from-Motion and LiDAR Data

Warmer temperatures, permafrost thaw, and increased wildfire activity are driving rapid ecological change across the Arctic, significantly altering plant productivity and aboveground biomass (AGB). These rapid changes highlight the urgent need to improve monitoring of vegetation dynamics in the Earth’s northern ecosystems, where high spatiotemporal heterogeneity occurs at scales finer than those captured by traditional satellite observations. The growing use of Unoccupied Aerial Systems (UASs) presents an opportunity to overcome this limitation. Yet, the diversity of UAS platforms, sensors, and data collection and processing workflows presents challenges for developing standardized, generalizable approaches. To address this challenge, we compiled 672 AGB plots co-located with 183 UAS-based Structure-from-Motion (SfM) or Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) surveys collected across the Arctic. Here, we: (1) evaluated the generalizability of UAS-derived canopy structure derived from high-resolution SfM and LiDAR for estimating AGB, (2) assessed scaling errors and their sources in two recent satellite-based AGB products derived from Landsat and MODIS, and (3) demonstrated the use of high-resolution AGB maps to quantify biomass variation across tundra plant functional types (PFTs) and to monitor post-fire recovery. Our results show that both SfM and LiDAR accurately captured AGB and its variability across tundra PFTs using a Random Forest (RF) model (overall RMSE: 0.336 kg/m2), with mapping performance varying slightly by region and data source. Using UAS-derived AGB maps as a benchmark, we identified systematic biases in satellite-derived AGB products, largely attributable to the magnitude of AGB and structural heterogeneity within coarse-resolution pixels. Applying our model to repeat UAS surveys following a tundra fire on Seward Peninsula, we observed rapid AGB recovery in non-shrub patches, with biomass recovering to pre-fire levels within 2 years. In contrast, shrub patches recovered more slowly, with AGB gains continuing over 2–4 years through both in-patch growth and lateral expansion (via dispersal) into remaining burned areas. Overall, these findings demonstrate the generalizability of UAS-based SfM and LiDAR data for estimating tundra AGB and highlight the potential of our approach to be broadly applied to generate high-quality AGB data for ecological monitoring and model benchmarking across the Arctic.

Yang, Daryl [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000317057823)↗

Magnetic interactions of 4 f electrons in the topological insulator chalcogenide Bi 2 Se 3

Here, the gap opening mechanism of a topological insulator, the quantum anomalous Hall effect and the axion physics are still pressing open questions and a microscopic viewpoint to further understand the role of magnetism in topology is highly desirable. In this work we have performed a micro scopic investigation, by means of electron spin resonance (ESR) along with complementary bulk measurements, on the chalcogenide (Bi 1-x Gd x ) 2 Se 3 (x = 0, 0.001, 0.002 and 0.006). Our analysis of the Gd 3+ spin dynamics reveal no significant change of the Fermi surface as a function of Gd 3+ concentration, which indicates that the 4f magnetism is different from the non-local effects induced by transition metals (d electrons) substitutions. Additionally, we observe an unusual evolution of the Gd 3+ ESR spectra as a function of the applied magnetic field, which we discuss considering the magnetic interaction between Gd 3+ 4f electrons and impurity centers such as Se vacancies. This interaction would give rise to a local weak antilocalization effect surrounding the Gd 3+ ions. Such mechanism is observable due to particular details of the Gd 3+ 4f electrons magnetism in this system compared to d electrons. Our work points out that rare earth substitutions in this model topological insulator is a promising path to explore the axion insulating systems.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗