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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 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Evaluation of a land-atmosphere coupling metric computed from a ground-based infrared interferometer

Land-atmosphere feedbacks are a critical component of the hydrologic cycle. Vertical profiles of boundary layer temperature and moisture, together with information about the land surface, are used to compute land-atmosphere coupling metrics. Ground based remote sensing platforms, such as the Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI), can provide high temporal resolution vertical profiles of temperature and moisture. When co-located with soil moisture, surface flux, and surface meteorological observations, such as at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) site, it is possible to observe both the terrestrial and atmospheric legs of land-atmosphere feedbacks. In this study, we compare a commonly used coupling metric computed from radiosonde-based data to that obtained from the AERI to characterize the accuracy and uncertainty in the metric derived from the two distinct platforms. This approach demonstrates the AERI’s utility where radiosonde observations are absent in time and/or space. Radiosonde and AERI based observations of the Convective Triggering Potential and Low-Level Humidity Index (CTP-HI low ) were computed during the 1200 UTC observation time and displayed good agreement during both 2017 and 2019 warm seasons. Furthermore, radiosonde and AERI derived metrics diagnosed the same atmospheric preconditioning based upon the CTP-HI low framework a majority of the time. When retrieval uncertainty was considered, even greater agreement was found between radiosonde and AERI derived classification. The AERI’s ability to represent this coupling metric well enabled novel exploration of temporal variability within the overnight period in CTP and HI low . Observations of CTP-HI low computed within a few hours of 1200 UTC were essentially equivalent, however with greater differences in time arose greater differences in CTP and HI low .

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Seasonal and CO 2 -Induced Shifts of the ITCZ: Testing Energetic Controls in Idealized Simulations with Comprehensive Models

The Tropical Rain Belts with an Annual Cycle and Continent Model Intercomparison Project (TRACMIP) ensemble—a multimodel ensemble of slab-ocean simulations in idealized configurations—provides a test of the relationship between the zonal mean ITCZ and the cross-equatorial atmospheric energy transports (AHT eq ). In a gross sense, the ITCZ position is linearly related to AHT eq , as expected from the energetic framework. Yet, in many aspects, the TRACMIP model simulations do not conform to the framework. Throughout the annual cycle there are large excursions in the ITCZ position unrelated to changes in the AHT eq and, conversely, substantial variations in the magnitude of the AHT eq while the ITCZ is stationary at its northernmost position. Variations both in the net vertical energy input at the ITCZ location and in the vertical profile of ascent play a role in setting the model behavior apart from the conceptual framework. Nevertheless, a linear fit to the ITCZ–AHT eq relationship captures a substantial fraction of the seasonal variations in these quantities as well as the intermodel or across-climate variations in their annual mean values. The slope of the ITCZ–AHT eq linear fit for annual mean changes across simulations with different forcings and configurations varies in magnitude and even sign from model to model and we identify variations in the vertical profile of ascent as a key factor. A simple sea surface temperature–based index avoids the complication of changes in the vertical structure of the atmospheric circulation and provides a more reliable diagnostic for the ITCZ position.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

A new aerial approach for quantifying and attributing methane emissions: implementation and validation

Methane (CH 4 ) is a powerful greenhouse gas that is produced by a diverse set of natural and anthropogenic emission sources. Biogenic methane sources generally involve anaerobic decay processes such as those occurring in wetlands, melting permafrost, or the digestion of organic matter in the guts of ruminant animals. Thermogenic CH 4 sources originate from the breakdown of organic material at high temperatures and pressure within the Earth's crust, a process which also produces more complex trace hydrocarbons such as ethane (C 2 H 6 ). Here, we present the development and deployment of an uncrewed aerial system (UAS) that employs a fast (1 Hz) and sensitive (1–0.5 ppb s -1 ) CH 4 and C 2 H 6 sensor and ultrasonic anemometer. The UAS platform is a vertical-takeoff, hexarotor drone (DJI Matrice 600 Pro, M600P) capable of vertical profiling to 120 m altitude and plume sampling across scales up to 1 km. Simultaneous measurements of CH 4 and C 2 H 6 concentrations, vector winds, and positional data allow for source classification (biogenic versus thermogenic), differentiation, and emission rates without the need for modeling or a priori assumptions about winds, vertical mixing, or other environmental conditions. The system has been used for direct quantification of methane point sources, such as orphan wells, and distributed emitters, such as landfills and wastewater treatment facilities. With detectable source rates as low as 0.04 and up to ~1500 kg h -1 , this UAS offers a direct and repeatable method of horizontal and vertical profiling of emission plumes at scales that are complementary to regional aerial surveys and localized ground-based monitoring.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Using optimal estimation to retrieve winds from velocity-azimuth display (VAD) scans by a Doppler lidar

Abstract. Low-powered commercially available coherent Doppler lidar (CDL) wind profilers provide continuous measurement of vertical profiles of wind in the lower troposphere, usually close to or up to the top of the planetary boundary layer. The vertical extent of these wind profiles is limited by the availability of scatterers and thus varies substantially throughout the day and from one day to the next. This makes it challenging to develop continuous products that rely on CDL-observed wind profiles. In order to overcome this problem, we have developed a new method for wind profile retrievals from CDL that combines the traditional velocity-azimuth display (VAD) technique with optimal estimation (OE) to provide continuous wind profiles up to 3 km. The new method exploits the level-to-level covariance present in the wind profile to fill in the gaps where the signal-to-noise ratio of the CDL return is too low to provide reliable results using the traditional VAD method. Another advantage of the new method is that it provides the full error covariance matrix of the solution and profiles of information content, which more easily facilitates the assimilation of the observed wind profiles into numerical weather prediction models. This method was tested using yearlong CDL measurements at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) Central Facility in 2019. Comparison with the ARM operational CDL wind profile product and collocated radiosonde wind measurements shows excellent agreement (R2>0.99) with no degradation in results where the traditional VAD provided a valid solution. In the region where traditional VAD does not provide results, the OE wind speed and wind vector have uncertainties of 3.44 and 4.33 m s−1, respectively. As a result, the new method provides additional information over the standard technique and increases the effective range of existing CDL systems without the need for additional hardware.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Vertical Aerosol Profiling during SAIL (VAPS) Field Campaign Report

To more fully address the science goals of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory (SAIL) campaign, particularly the key science question of “How strongly do aerosols affect the surface energy and water balance by altering clouds, precipitation, and surface albedo, and how do these impacts vary seasonally?”, our campaign added instrumentation to planned tethered balloon system (TBS) flights in May and July of 2022. A key aspect of aerosol-cloud interactions is understanding cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and ice nucleating particle (INP) populations, and how they vary seasonally and spatially. Because the interactions between aerosols and clouds is the target of this work, vertical distributions are particularly important to evaluate. Measurements of aerosol at ground level, below-cloud, and in-cloud will allow a better understanding of the airmasses that are feeding cloud-active particles into low- and mid-level clouds. Measurements of INP and aerosol populations often differ between the ground and aloft, with relationships that likely depend on regional and seasonal. Because of this, collocated measurements of aerosol, CCN, and INP, across different seasons, are crucial to reducing uncertainties in relationships between ground-level and cloud-base aerosol populations. Our campaign added online measurements of CCN using a compact CCN counter and offline filter collections for measurement of INP populations to the SAIL campaign TBS flights in May and July of 2022. The CCN instrument, the CloudPuck, flew and successfully collected data for a total of eight flights across both campaign periods. The IcePuck flew for most flights during the same period. Both instruments have continued to be used for other campaign requests in the SAIL domain. Analysis of this data was proposed through a concurrent DOE Atmospheric System Research (ASR) project submission, which was not funded in 2022. A similar proposal, which would involve analysis of the samples and data collected from this campaign, has been resubmitted in 2023 but a funding decision has not yet been made. If the proposal is again declined, we will seek other resources to ensure that this data can be analyzed.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Regional-scale, sector-specific evaluation of global CO2 inversion models using aircraft data from the ACT-America project

We use vertical profiles of airborne measurements of CO2 from frontal cases during the summer 2016 Atmospheric Carbon and Transport – America (ACT-America) campaign to evaluate the skill of a set of ten global CO2 inversion models participating in the Orbiting Carbon Observatory – 2 (OCO-2) Model Intercomparison Project (MIP). Model errors and biases (model minus observation) were categorized by region (Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and South), frontal sector (warm or cold), and transport model (predominantly Tracer Model 5 (TM5) and Goddard Earth Observing System – Chemistry (GEOS-Chem)). Overall, the inversions reproduce the general structures of the observed vertical profiles and the enhanced / depleted low-level CO2 in warm / cold sectors, but tend to underestimate the magnitude of the sector difference in each region. In the Midwest and South warm sectors, inversion biases were about 1 ppm above 1500 m AGL, though model spread (quantified by interquartile range) was often even smaller; below 1500 m AGL, model biases were negative and about -2 ppm near the surface. For the Midwest and South cold sectors, models had +2-3 ppm biases below 1500 m AGL, but with comparable model spread. Uniquely, in the Mid-Atlantic there was a consistent difference between TM5 and GEOS-Chem mole fractions for both sectors up to 3000 m AGL (TM5 lower by 2 ppm), on the order of the observation-relative biases. In the MidAtlantic TM5 inversions had negative biases in warm sectors, while GEOS-Chem inversions had positive biases in cold sectors. Possible reasons for the regional variability are discussed.

Gaudet, Brian J.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Quantifying the Thermodynamic Impacts on the Atmospheric Boundary Layer due to the Sea Breeze in the Coastal Houston Region

The atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is unique in coastal regions because of kinematic and thermodynamic influences from continental and marine environments. Sea-breeze (SB) circulations act to equilibrate the land–sea temperature gradient through advecting marine air onshore. The strength of the SB varies in terms of stability, temperature, and moisture advection and influences air quality and weather forecasts. The Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions Experiment (TRACER) collected a wealth of data on coastal boundary layer evolution, including observations from uncrewed aerial systems (UASs). Vertical profiles of temperature, humidity, and winds were collected by the OU CopterSonde UAS from June to September in the coastal region of Houston. These profiles offer 5-m vertical resolution, on average, every 30 min through diurnal transitions, SB events, and nearby deep convection. During the campaign, CopterSonde observations were gathered through 17 SB events, six of which led to convection initiation. The UAS data can resolve the thermodynamic evolution and interactions between the SB and the preexisting convective boundary layer. Results show large variability across observed SBs and their impacts on temperature and moisture. The intensity of thermodynamic changes depends on the time of sea-breeze passage and influence from the Galveston Bay Breeze, a secondary marine circulation commonly observed in this region. In quantifying the spectrum of SB impacts, equivalent potential temperature θ e is used to contextualize its role in convection initiation and evolution. In conclusion, while all SBs tend to increase θ e from moisture advection, the rate and timing of the θ e rise can distinguish convective from nonconvective cases.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Time-Lapse Vertical Seismic Profiling (VSP) for CO 2 Storage in a Depleted Oil Field in Northern Michigan

The goal of the Dover 33 VSP study was to test the effectiveness of time-lapse VSP for detecting and delineating a plume of more than 271,000 tonnes of CO 2 injected into the Brown Niagaran and A-1 Carbonate formations within the Dover 33 reef between March 2013 and September 2016. Five 2D walkaway VSP (WVSP) source lines were acquired by SIGMA3 in September 2016 to investigate the possible time-lapse response in both P-wave and PS-wave seismic data. The data was compared to the same survey geometry acquired in March 2013 by SR2020.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

A1 LLNL Profiling Lidar #773

This dataset contains vertical profiling lidar data from AWAKEN site A1. This is the ZephIR300 #773 lidar system. The .csv files are monthly data files with 10-min average data. The .zip files are daily high frequency data and zipped by month.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Jupiter in the Ultraviolet: Acetylene and Ethane Abundances in the Stratosphere of Jupiter from Cassini Observations between 0.15 and 0.19 μm

At wavelengths between 0.15 and 0.19 μm, the far-ultraviolet spectrum of Jupiter is dominated by the scattered solar spectrum, attenuated by molecular absorptions primarily by acetylene and ethane, and to a lesser extent ammonia and phosphine. We describe the development of our radiative transfer code that enables the retrieval of abundances of these molecular species from ultraviolet reflectance spectra. As a proof-of-concept we present an analysis of Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) observations of the disk of Jupiter during the 2000/2001 flyby. The ultraviolet-retrieved acetylene abundances in the upper stratosphere are lower than those predicted by models based solely on infrared thermal emission from the mid-stratosphere observed by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), requiring an adjustment to the vertical profiles above 1 mbar. We produce a vertical acetylene abundance profile that is compatible with both CIRS and UVIS, with reduced abundances at pressures <1 mbar: the 0.1 mbar abundances are 1.21 ± 0.07 ppm for acetylene and 20.8 ± 5.1 ppm for ethane. Finally, we perform a sensitivity study for the JUICE ultraviolet spectrograph, which has extended wavelength coverage out to 0.21 μm, enabling the retrieval of ammonia and phosphine abundances, in addition to acetylene and ethane.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Improving the Physical Basis for Updraft Dynamics in Deep Convection Parameterizations

This article presents a new deep convective parameterization that determines cloud characteristics based on a specified cloud size distribution. The vertical profiles of cloud properties are determined by analytic equations, which formulate entrainment with an inverse relationship to cloud width. In line with recent studies of large eddy simulations (LES), cloud widths are assumed to be constant with height and vertical mass flux (M) characteristics of the clouds are therefore regulated by the vertical velocity profile. The parameterization is configured to work with existing cloud base M closure formulations, with the closure predicting the total cloud area rather than the cloud base M directly. Analytic formula are also used to connect the vertical wind shear magnitude to the cloud size distribution, wherein larger shear magnitudes result in more numerous large updrafts than weaker shear magnitudes, which is in line with recent research results. The parameterization is compared against 10 deep convective LES with varying thermodynamic and vertical wind shear profiles. Results show dramatic improvements in the prediction of normalized M, detrainment, and the properties of detrained air over the existing Zhang and McFarlane (1995) scheme. In particular, the new model is able to correctly portray the transition from a bottom-heavy M profile in weakly sheared environments, to a top-heavy M profile in strongly sheared environments.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Methods to Evaluate Subcolumn Profiles Based on Two-Point Diagnostics

In atmospheric models, stochastic generation of subgrid-scale profiles or “subcolumns” has been used for a variety of purposes. Such subcolumns can be generated from subgrid probability density functions (PDFs) at different vertical levels, when such PDFs are available. To do so, the generator needs to decide how strongly points should be correlated in the vertical, that is, how much the values should be overlapped. This is sometimes called “PDF overlap.” To assess vertical correlation in a simplified, observable setting, here the vertical correlation of vertical velocity in subcloud layers is examined. Doppler lidar is used to evaluate the vertical profiles of vertical velocity produced by a large-eddy simulation (LES) model and the Subgrid Importance Latin Hypercube Sampler (SILHS) subcolumn generator. In order to diagnose unrealistic features in subcolumn profiles, various statistical diagnostics are examined here, including the bivariate PDF of vertical velocity at two separated points (i.e., altitudes), the two-point velocity correlation, the integral correlation length, the PDF of two-point velocity differences, and the skewness and kurtosis of two-point velocity differences. The profiles produced by LES match lidar well, except that they are too smooth at small scales. The profiles produced by SILHS exhibit sharp jumps from updraft to downdraft that are not observed in the lidar data. To reduce the generation of these unrealistically sharp jumps, the SILHS sampling method is revised. The diagnostics confirm that the revised sampling method reduces the overprediction of sharp jumps.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

TRACER UAS CopterSonde Profiles

This dataset comes from a rotary-wing, weather-sensing uncrewed aerial system called the CopterSonde. Temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed, and direction are gathered during vertical profiles. The vertical resolution is 5 m up to 609 m above ground level and the temporal resolution is on average 30 minutes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Changing Characteristics of Tropical Extreme Precipitation–Cloud Regimes in Warmer Climates

In this study, we investigated the changing characteristics of climatic scale (monthly) tropical extreme precipitation in warming climates using the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM). The results are from Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP)-type simulations driven by (a) a control experiment with the present-day sea surface temperature (SST) and CO 2 concentration, (b) P4K, the same as in (a) but with a uniform increase of 4K in the SST globally, and (c) the same as in (a), but with an imposed SST and CO 2 concentration from the outputs of the coupled E3SM forced by a 4xCO 2 concentration. We found that as the surface warmed under P4K and 4xCO 2 , both convective and stratiform rain increased. Importantly, there was an increasing fractional contribution of stratiform rain as a function of the precipitation intensity, with the most extreme but rare events occurring preferentially over land more than the ocean, and more so under 4xCO 2 than P4K. Extreme precipitation was facilitated by increased precipitation efficiency, reflecting accelerated rates of recycling of precipitation cloud water (both liquid and ice phases) in regions with colder anvil cloud tops. Changes in the vertical profiles of clouds, condensation heating, and vertical motions indicate increasing precipitation–cloud–circulation organization from the control and P4K to 4xCO 2 . The results suggest that large-scale ocean warming, that is, P4K, was the primary cause contributing to an organization structure resembling the well-known mesoscale convective system (MCS), with increased extreme precipitation on shorter (hourly to daily) time scales. Additional 4xCO 2 atmospheric radiative heating and dynamically consistent anomalous SST further amplified the MCS organization under P4K. Analyses of the surface moist static energy distribution show that increases in the surface moisture (temperature) under P4K and 4xCO 2 was the key driver leading to enhanced convective instability over tropical ocean (land). However, a fast and large increase in the land surface temperature and lack of available local moisture resulted in a strong reduction in the land surface relative humidity, reflecting severe drying and enhanced convective inhibition (CIN). It is argued that very extreme and rare “record-breaking” precipitation events found over land under P4K, and more so under 4xCO 2 , are likely due to the delayed onset of deep convection, that is, the longer the suppression of deep convection by CIN, the more severe the extreme precipitation when it eventually occurs, due to the release of a large amount of stored surplus convective available potential energy in the lower troposphere during prolonged CIN.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

AWAKEN Site A1 - LLNL Profiling Lidar (ZX300 #1381) / Raw Data

This dataset contains vertical profiling lidar data from AWAKEN site A1. This is the ZX300 unit #1381 lidar system. The .csv files are monthly data files with 10-min average data. The .zip files are daily high frequency data and zipped by month.

17 WIND ENERGY↗