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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 685 records · Page 38

Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) Aerosol Supplementary Site (S1) Data Analysis Report

We present strategies to identify time periods when local aerosol sources impact the data collected at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility in the Eastern North Atlantic (ENA). Data from the aerosol observing system (AOS) at the Central Facility and a temporary aerosol Supplementary Site (S1) were evaluated. S1 instrumentation was deployed within 0.75 km of the ENA Central Facility (C1) for approximately one year. Two time periods, one during the summer and one during the winter, were examined in support of the Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) intensive operating periods (IOPs) in 2017 and 2018.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Science Drivers and Proposed Modeling Approaches for Future LASSO Scenarios

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility held a workshop on May 2, 2019 to gather information on different weather scenarios that could be pursued for expanding the range of atmospheric processes that could be studied by the Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) ARM Symbiotic Simulation and Observation (LASSO) data product. To date, LASSO has focused on the use of LES modeling to supplement ARM’s suite of observations at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) atmospheric observatory for days that have shallow convective clouds. Input for the workshop was obtained from the community in the form of white papers that outlined additional meteorological phenomena that LASSO could pursue. Four white papers were submitted covering a wide range of phenomena of scientific interest to the DOE atmospheric modeling community and across the ARM spectrum of observation sites: maritime clouds, deep convection, clear-air turbulence, and arctic clouds. Topic experts were invited to the workshop to discuss each scenario in terms of the science drivers, feasibility of implementation (e.g., model configuration and needed observations), timing considerations, and any open issues related to the scenario that would need further investigation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Oklahoma Mesonet Soil Moisture (OKMSOIL) Value-Added Product Report

Land surface and subsurface state characteristics (e.g., soil moisture) are critical measurements for ongoing weather and climate analyses of land-atmospheric interactions and processes. Knowledge of the variation in soil moisture across the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) observatory domain is anticipated as a key quantity for assessing the potential impact of these interactions. This Oklahoma Mesonet Soil Moisture (OKMSOIL) value-added product (VAP) has been developed in response to growing demand for delivering a long-term measurement record of soil moisture (over an extended area) for such land-atmospheric studies. The Oklahoma Mesonet (OKM) started as a joint project between Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma (Brock 1995). The OKM currently operates over 100 surface Mesonet stations across the state of Oklahoma, with an operational data record that extends into the early 1990s. This dense network of atmospheric and surface state instrumentation enables representation of land surface/subsurface conditions over this region and extended record. Algorithms introduced by previous Oklahoma Mesonet activities (e.g., Scott et al. 2013) are implemented in this documented OKMSOIL VAP to derive a key soil moisture quantity, the volumetric water content (volume of water per volume of soil in units, cm 3 /cm 3 ), from measurements of soil matric potential. These algorithms use a soil hydraulic parameter database (Meso-Soil Database) provided by the Oklahoma Mesonet scientists to estimate this quantity and several additional Mesonet station/sample details.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Tracking Aerosol Convection interactions ExpeRiment

Deep convective clouds, which often pack lightning and pour rain, occur nearly everywhere in the world. They are an important feature of the atmosphere, especially in storm systems that dominate the tropics and midlatitudes, but are difficult to represent in models. Researchers need more information about the processes that drive the life cycle of these clouds. For example, how do aerosols (tiny particles in the air) influence the physics of convective clouds? The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility plans to support a field campaign aimed at finding out what happens inside deep convective clouds. The Tracking Aerosol Convection interactions ExpeRiment (TRACER) is scheduled to run from April 2021 to April 2022 in and around Houston, Texas. The area is unique because it commonly experiences numerous isolated convective systems and a spectrum of aerosol conditions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Water Vapor Isotopic Composition from the Azores Field Campaign Report

This study used one year of in situ water vapor isotopologue measurements collected at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility observatory located on Graciosa Island, Azores. Low clouds have an especially strong feedback over the ocean and previous studies have primarily focused on low clouds in the subtropics. This means that the Azores location in the transition between subtropical and mid-latitude oceanic areas represents an opportunity to study the connection between water vapor isotopologues and mixing processes that determine low-cloud feedback in an underrepresented setting with different seasonal dynamics. The DOE ARM facility on Graciosa Island presents the opportunity to complement water vapor isotopologue measurements with a suite of instruments capable of measuring changing atmospheric conditions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA) Metadata Harvest for Oliktok Point Observations Field Campaign Report

The International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA) was initiated as an International Polar Year (IPY) project (Uttal et al. 2015, on-line release) to address key atmospheric science questions through coordinating the considerable atmospheric observing assets at 10 pan-arctic observatories (http://iasoa.org). The mission of IASOA is to advance cross-site research objectives from independent arctic atmospheric observatories through: (1) strategically developing comprehensive observational capacity; (2) facilitating data access and usability through a single gateway; and (3) mobilizing contributions to synergistic science and socially relevant services derived from IASOA assets and expertise. In April 2015 the IASOA science steering committee invited the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s Oliktok Point observatory to contribute to consortium activities. The IASOA steering committee identified enhanced, cross-site data sharing through an IASOA-specific data access portal as a focus for ongoing consortium activities. The design intent of the portal has been to display the data inventories of all IASOA observatories in a succinct summary (Data-at-a-Glance) and provide the most proximal access links available to those data sets. The IASOA data access portal is not intended to replace the functions of existing archives. This succinct summary of data availability supports cross-site and interdisciplinary synthesis science activities. Efforts to enhance the legacy IASOA data access portal functionality have focused on two areas: developing a comprehensive and coherent data vocabulary for IASOA data and implementing an interoperable metadata standard for all IASOA data. The technical goal of this proposal is to work with ARM data managers to operationalize the export of metadata for observational data sets for Oliktok Point from the ARM metadata database. IASOA harvests data in the commonly used International Organization for Standardization (ISO) format. ARM has successfully generated metatdata matching this format in the past to provide metadata from its North Slope of Alaska (NSA) Barrow observatory.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

National Weather Service Radiosonde Evaluation Field Campaign Report

The purpose of the campaign was to perform a full evaluation of participating vendor’s radiosondes to qualify for potential use in the National Weather Service (NWS) upper air field operations. The NWS has specific requirements that vendors systems were evaluated against to determine if the vendor’s radiosonde performs within specifications. For this evaluation, the NWS was pursuing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) ground/tracking systems in the 403 MHz frequency band over the previously used Telemetry Receiving System (TRS) and house-built software using the 1680 MHz frequency. The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) observatory served as the warm and dry test region. The radiosondes were assessed for precision of the radiosonde (unit under test versus itself) and accuracy of the radiosonde’s humidity measurements (unit under test versus a cryogenic frostpoint hygrometer [CFH]).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Micropulse Differential Absorption Lidar (MPD) Network Demonstration Field Campaign Report

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Montana State University (MSU) are nearing completion of a National Science Foundation (NSF) major research instrumentation grant to build five micropulse differential absorption lidars (MPDs) for water vapor profiling. The first demonstration of the MPD configured as a five-unit network occurred at the Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility Southern Great Plains (SGP) field sites near Lamont, Oklahoma from 17 April–21 July 2019 for a total of 96 days of operation. The field deployment was funded in part by DOE (which provided support for the MPD installation, power at the field sites, personnel to launch 3-hourly radiosondes from the Central Facility, and the cost of the radiosondes themselves), internal NCAR funds (to support the MPD shipping costs and NCAR staff travel expenses), and NSF/Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) funds (to support the MSU travel expenses to participate in the instrument setup).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Two-Dimensional Stereo (2D-S) Probe Instrument Handbook

The two-dimensional stereo (2D-S) probe (Figure 1) is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility instrument for measuring the concentration and size of cloud droplet and ice crystals. It is an open-path instrument with two laser beams mounted perpendicular to each other. Each laser beam throws a shadowgraph image of the hydrometeor (cloud droplets or ice crystals) in the sample volume on a photodiode array. As the hydrometeor moves through the sample volume, this optical array records the moving shape and a two-dimensional picture can be recorded. If the hydrometeor is in the cross-section of the two beams, both optical arrays record the object and a stereo image can be detected. If the hydrometeor is outside the cross-section and only shadows one beam, the image will also be recorded. Therefore, the 2D-S records images for two channels, labeled “horizontal” and “vertical,” which can be analyzed for size distributions, number concentrations, and further cloud properties detailed below. Hydrometeors in the range of 25-1280 μm can be fully recorded at a 10 μm resolution; larger particles of up to 3000 μm can only be sized along the direction of flight.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Fast Cloud Droplet Probe (FCDP) Instrument Handbook

The fast cloud droplet probe (FCDP) is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility instrument for measuring the concentration and size of cloud droplets in the diameter size range 1.5-50 μm. It is an open-path instrument mounted on the outside of the aircraft (typically below the wing). When a droplet passes through the sample volume, light from a laser source is scattered, which is used to detect and size the droplet. The sample volume is a focused area of the laser beam that is continuously monitored along the flight path. If a droplet crosses the laser beam but is outside the sample volume, a separate detector will reject the droplet. Only single droplets at a time will be detected and sizes measured over one second have to be averaged to obtain a size distribution. When measuring ice clouds, the FCDP will not yield useful information, since the measurement method, which assumes spherical particles to obtain size and scattering, is very different for ice crystals.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

High-Volume Precipitation Spectrometer (HVPS) Instrument Handbook

The high-volume precipitation spectrometer (HVPS) is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility instrument for measuring hydrometeors larger than 150 μm. It is an open-path instrument located on the outside of the aircraft, typically below the wing. A laser sheet throws a shadowgraph image of the hydrometeor (cloud droplets or ice crystals) in the sample volume on a photodiode array. As the hydrometeor moves through the sample volume, this optical array records the moving shape and a two-dimensional picture can be recorded. At an air speed of 100 m/s, the sample volume is 310 l/s. The recorded images can be analyzed for size distributions, number concentrations, and further cloud properties detailed below. Hydrometeors in the range of 0.3-19.2 mm can be fully recorded at a 150 μm resolution; larger particles can only be sized along the direction of flight.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Cloud Particle Imager (CPI) and 3-View Cloud Particle Imager (3V-CPI) Instrument Handbook

The cloud particle imager (CPI) is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility instrument for measuring the concentration and size of cloud droplet and ice crystals. Hydrometeors entering the tube will be detected by a system of two continuous wave lasers that are perpendicular to each other, monitoring the sample volume. When a hydrometeor obscures both laser beams it is inside the sample volume and a third laser is triggered to illuminate the hydrometeor and a camera records a two-dimensional image. The CPI records images with a resolution of 2.3 μm. Since the camera has 1024 x 1024 pixels, the maximum detectable size is 2.3 mm x 2.3 mm.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Atmosphere-Biosphere Interaction Study (Field Campaign Report)

The objective of this campaign was to collect hyperspectral reflectance measurements and complementary optical and infrared data of land surface (i.e., vegetation and soil) throughout the growing season (i.e., from March to September) at high temporal frequency (e.g., < 30 minutes). To collect the measurements, the EcoSpec system, a tower-based sensor system housing seven optical and infrared sensors that was developed at Argonne National Laboratory, was deployed to the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility Southern Great Plains (SGP) atmospheric observatory (within the crop, south of the eddy correlation flux measurement system [ECOR] tower). The EcoSpec system consists of a spectroradiometer having 2,151 channels (350–2,500 nm), red-greenblue (RGB) camera, diffuse radiometer, thermal infrared (TIR) sensors, albedometers, Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI) sensors, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) sensors, and wetness sensor. The system is designed to collect an array of land surface measurements, including hyperspectral reflectance of plants and soils, RGB photos capturing contextual information of land surface, radiant temperature of sky and land surface, incoming and reflected shortwave radiation, and incoming radiation components (direct and diffuse) as frequent as every minute from up to 12 discrete positions around the tower. This would allow us to capture inherent heterogeneity of the terrestrial ecosystem and to obtain representative spectral signatures of the plant and soil surfaces via averaging those measurements. The SGP site provides advanced atmospheric and other physical measurements that are essential for our investigation of ecosystem functions using hyperspectral reflectance measurements of land surfaces. Located in the mid-latitudes, the SGP site exhibits dynamic seasonality and a wide range of meteorological variability and flux properties that make it ideal for studying interactions between near-surface atmosphere and biosphere across a range of environmental conditions. The atmosphere, plants, and soil control terrestrial carbon and water cycles. To make more accurate climate forecasts, researchers need to understand ecosystem dynamics at the biosphere–atmosphere interface. Even though our ability to forecast ecosystem dynamics and climate at both the regional and global scales has advanced significantly, we still do not know how local phenomena affecting water and carbon fluxes—such as diurnal variations—interrelate with large-scale atmospheric/climate phenomena, and vice versa. The lack of a more thorough understanding of ecosystem dynamics and climate interactions is a key knowledge gap for the improvement of earth system models (ESMs).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Macquarie Island Cloud and Radiation Experiment (MICRE) Field Campaign Report

The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility, the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) collaborated in deploying a variety of ground instrumentation to Macquarie Island between March 2016 and March 2018. Macquarie Island is located at 54.5° S, 158.9° E and is well situated for studying clouds over the Southern Ocean. The primary objective of the March 2016 to March 2018 deployment, hereafter the Macquarie Island Cloud and Radiation Experiment (MICRE), was to collect observations of surface radiation, cloud, precipitation, and aerosol properties. This report describes the instruments deployed and data sets collected, along with a summary of key data quality issues and information on some value-added products that are being developed to assist scientists in using the data.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

TRACER Overview 200220 [Slides]

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science asset to be used by scientists to further our scientific knowledge about the atmosphere. The DOE ARM program has maintained facilities for use by the scientific community for 25 years. Data is freely available at www.arm.gov. The ARM science objective is to provide a detailed and accurate description of the Earth’s atmosphere to resolve uncertainties in earth system models. This report provides information on TRACER: TRacking Aerosol Convection Interations Experiment.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

5G Enabled Energy Innovation: Advanced Wireless Networks for Science

Digital wireless communication has become a foundational technology for the nation. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE-SC) is the Nation’s largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences discovering new materials, designing advanced microelectronics, and understanding the physics of radio frequency signaling. The expanding national rollout of a new fifth-generation (5G) mobile network, coupled with the torrent of scientific data generated by next-generation devices such as battery-powered Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, has created an urgent need to enhance cutting-edge wireless technology. Breakthroughs in the deployment, integration, security, and operational range of wireless networking can provide new scientific capabilities for the next decade - from autonomous mobile instruments for scientific user facilities to intelligent sensors networks distributed over thousands of kilometers to study environmental processes. To realize this promise, however, we must continue to drive innovations in computing, artificial intelligence (AI), advanced materials, high-speed networking, and microelectronics. In March 2020, the DOE-SC convened a workshop to identify the potential opportunities and explore the scientific challenges of advanced wireless technologies.

42 ENGINEERING↗

LANSCE Capabilities

For more than 40 years the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) has provided the scientific underpinnings in nuclear physics and material science needed to ensure the safety and surety of the nuclear stockpile into the future. In addition to national security research, the LANSCE User Facility has a vibrant research program in fundamental science, providing the scientific community with intense sources of neutrons and protons to perform experiments supporting civilian research and the production of medical and research isotopes.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗