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At least 73 records · Page 4

Mitigating Cascading Outages in Severe Weather Using Simulation-Based Optimization

Severe weather events can trigger cascading power outages and lead to significant losses. In this work, we investigate cascading outage mitigation under severe weather conditions. Given day-ahead weather forecasts and component failure models, we aim to identify a set of power lines that can be hardened to minimize the expected impact of potential cascading outages. Since the expected load shedding cannot be expressed as an explicit function of line hardening decisions and system states, we developed a cascading outage simulator to estimate the expected value of load shedding under various initial weather-related disruption scenarios generated using a weather forecast. To avoid massive enumeration of all possible combinations of line hardening decisions and reduce the simulation efforts, we employed an efficient simulation-based optimization approach that quickly identifies the (near) optimal line hardening decisions in the presence of both large simulation noises due to the highly variable initial disturbances and system states, and significant randomness in the subsequent cascades. Furthermore, the algorithm is also able to utilize parallel computing to dramatically reduce computation time to support decision making in preparation for severe weather conditions. We performed a case study on the Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) 140-bus system model to demonstrate that our approach can significantly improve power grid resilience to adverse weather events.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Initial Analysis of and Predictive Model Development for Weather Reroute Advisory Use

In response to severe weather conditions, traffic management coordinators (TMCs) reroute air traffic around regions of airspace affected by the severe weather. Presently, acceptable reroutes are specified by issuing reroute advisories. Advisories, based on reroutes published in the National Severe Weather Playbook, consist of several routes describing routing options. These reroutes are selected by TMCs based on their understanding of weather conditions and their previous experience dealing with similar weather conditions. Providing recommendations and analysis of available reroute options could assist the TMCs in making rerouting decisions. While reroute advisories have historically been based on Playbook plays, plays are frequently modified or combined to generate an advisory. Thus, it is natural to present rerouting suggestions to TMCs as modified Playbook plays. The challenge here is to compare advisory subroutes and play subroutes in a meaningful way in order to map advisories back to the Playbook plays upon which they may have been based. In this work, several subroute comparison metrics are presented and discussed. One of these metrics is then used to match advisories to Playbook plays. With the development and implementation of NextGen technologies, there is currently a trend of moving away from the pre-defined Playbook plays (and related advisories) in favor of a more precise specification of trajectories using GPS based navigation tools, such as area navigation (RNAV). Moving towards ubiquitous use of RNAV routes, the objective of rerouting flights will be met with more precisely specified and accurately flown RNAV routes. In the final version of this paper, significant RNAV routes will be identified by finding RNAV routes that are flown frequently. This will require a trajectory comparison technique to compare actually flown flight tracks to specified RNAV routes. The metrics developed here will be used or modified for this task.

weather required reroutes↗

Hourly dynamic line ratings for existing transmission across the contiguous United States (preliminary results) [Slides]

The thermal rating of a transmission line depends on the rate at which heat generated by current flow through the line can be dissipated into the environment by convective and radiative cooling, keeping the conductor below a maximum operating temperature. Static or seasonal line ratings assume nearly-worst-case weather conditions (high ambient air temperature, high solar irradiance, and low wind speed), resulting in a low risk of "overrating" a line (i.e., allowing more current to flow than the line is designed for) but a high fraction of time when the line is "underrated" (i.e., able to flow more current while staying below the maximum temperature). Dynamic transmission line ratings (DLR) use real-time measurements of weather conditions, line sag, or line temperature to determine the thermal rating of transmission lines at hourly or higher time resolution, allowing for increased ratings during some (cold, windy, and/or dark) periods and correcting for overrating during other (hot, calm, and/or sunny) periods. Many studies have explored the benefits of DLR, but typically for small collections of transmission lines under a limited sample of weather conditions, leaving open the question of how widely applicable the benefits of DLR might be over diverse geographies and weather conditions. Here, we combine geospatial data on tens of thousands of transmission line routes across the contiguous United States with high-resolution hourly historical weather data for 2007-2013 to estimate the impact of DLR and other weather-adjusted rating systems. We compare static and dynamic line ratings to intermediate ratings adjusted by ambient temperature, day/night irradiance, clear-sky irradiance, and/or measured irradiance, illustrating the benefits of incorporating progressively more detailed weather data into the calculated line ratings. Moving from nighttime-adjusted ratings to clear-sky-adjusted ratings provides more benefit than moving from clear-sky-adjusted ratings to measured-irradiance-adjusted ratings. Depending on the assumed static windspeed for irradiance-adjusted-ratings, DLR either corrects for overrated hours or provides substantially increased ratings in the majority of hours on the majority of lines.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Improving Microalgal Biomass Productivity Using Weather-Forecast-Informed Operations

The operation of microalgal cultivation systems, such as culture dilution associated with harvests, affects biomass productivity. However, the constantly changing incident light and ambient temperature in the outdoor environment make it difficult to determine the operational parameters that result in optimal biomass growth. To address this problem, we present a pond operation optimization tool that predicts biomass growth based on future weather conditions to identify the optimal dilution rate that maximizes biomass productivity. The concept was tested by comparing the biomass productivities of three dilution scenarios: standard batch cultivation (no dilution), fixed-rate dilution (harvest 60% of the culture every three days), and weather-forecast-informed dilution. In the weather-forecast-informed case, the culture was diluted daily, and the dilution ratio was optimized by the operation optimization tool according to the future 24 h weather condition. The results show that the weather-forecast-informed dilution improved the biomass productivity by 47% over the standard batch cultivation and 20% over the fixed-rate dilution case. These results demonstrate that the pond operation optimization tool could help pond operators to make decisions that maximize biomass growth in the field under ever-changing weather conditions.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Aircraft Weather Mitigation for the Next Generation Air Transportation System

Atmospheric effects on aviation are described by Mahapatra (1999) as including (1) atmospheric phenomena involving air motion - wind shear and turbulence; (2) hydrometeorological phenomena - rain, snow and hail; (3) aircraft icing; (4) low visibility; and (5) atmospheric electrical phenomena. Aircraft Weather Mitigation includes aircraft systems (e.g. airframe, propulsion, avionics, controls) that can be enacted (by a pilot, automation or hybrid systems) to suppress and/or prepare for the effects of encountered or unavoidable weather or to facilitate a crew operational decision-making process relative to weather. Aircraft weather mitigation can be thought of as a continuum (Figure 1) with the need to avoid all adverse weather at one extreme and the ability to safely operate in all weather conditions at the other extreme. Realistic aircraft capabilities fall somewhere between these two extremes. The capabilities of small general aviation aircraft would be expected to fall closer to the "Avoid All Adverse Weather" point, and the capabilities of large commercial jet transports would fall closer to the "Operate in All Weather Conditions" point. The ability to safely operate in adverse weather conditions is dependent upon the pilot s capabilities (training, total experience and recent experience), the airspace in which the operation is taking place (terrain, navigational aids, traffic separation), the capabilities of the airport (approach guidance, runway and taxiway lighting, availability of air traffic control), as well as the capabilities of the airplane. The level of mitigation may vary depending upon the type of adverse weather. For example, a small general aviation airplane may be equipped to operate "in the clouds" without outside visual references, but not be equipped to prevent airframe ice that could be accreted in those clouds.

Stough, H. Paul, III↗

Climate Impact on CO2 Capture Efficiency and Levelized Cost of Liquid solvent-based DAC (Direct Air Capture) System

The transition towards net-zero emission poses economic, technical, and political challenges for the commercial-scale deployment of CO2 removal technologies by 2050. The opportunities for large-scale deployment will largely depend on the distinctive conditions found in the different locations of the world such as energy cost, carbon intensity of energy source, construction, transportation, and weather conditions. In this work, we focus on one of the promising negative emission technology, DAC (Direct Air Capture), and its response to different weather conditions. This work presents two potential operation scenarios: (i) natural gas standalone, (ii) grid electricity connected DAC plant. For the first time, we investigated the influence of temperature and RH (relative humidity) of the air on liquid-based DAC system and its response to carbon capture efficiency and levelized cost of carbon capture with operational sensitivity analysis. It is observed that the overall energy demand decreases from 11.1 to 8.3 GJ/ton-CO2 as the CO2 capture rate increases from 40 to 85%. We observed that a CO2 capture rate of 75% is only possible above 17°C even at 90% RH and this drops tremendously at lower temperatures. It is also observed that water evaporation in the air contactor is highest at dry and low RH as expected. The sensitivity analysis showed that weather conditions are insensitive to CO2 capture efficiency for the liquid-solvent based DAC plant for both scenarios. In addition, higher CO2 capture efficiency is achievable from lower upstream methane emissions and carbon intensity of grid electricity (for grid-connected scenario). Lastly, the levelized cost of natural gas standalone scenario varies from 239.7 to 408.8 $/t-CO2 is sensitive to temperature conditions more than relative humidity and compared to electricity grid-connected scenario, from 265.3 to 440.1 $/t-CO2.

An, Keju↗

An experimental study on round-trip efficiency of a preheating control with a medium office building

The interactions between building energy efficiency and demand response (DR) with buildings may complicate their impacts on the electricity grid and buildings, yet those interactions are not well understood. This work fills this gap by presenting an experimental study that quantifies the effects of DR on building energy efficiency. Unlike existing studies, this work 1) investigates the uncertainty levels when assessing the effects of DR; 2) studies the impact of rooftop heat pumps with direct expansion refrigerant-to-air coils on the round-trip efficiency. Specifically, we considered a medium office building (~1860 m 2 ), which is served by rooftop units, located in eastern Washington State. We performed preheating control tests during typical heating days in the year 2022 and compared the building’s energy consumption during the testing days to that during normal operation days under similar weather conditions. To understand how well those normal operation days represent the baseline for the assessment, the relationship between the energy performance of this building and weather conditions was also studied. Experimental results reveal that the round-trip efficiency (i.e., the ratio of discharging energy output from the building to charging energy input into the building) was between 0.16 and 0.92. The results show that significant energy loss may occur during the preheating process. Finally, it also suggests a significant correlation between the energy efficiency of the studied building under the preheating control and the outdoor temperature; and a highly nonlinear relationship between the zone temperature changing rate and the weather condition.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Optimal Sizing and Dispatch of Solar Power with Storage

Designers of utility-scale solar plants with storage, seeking to maximize some aspect of plant performance, face multiple challenges. In many geographic locations, there is significant penetration of photovoltaic generation, which depresses energy prices during the hours of solar availability. An energy storage system affords the opportunity to dispatch during higher-priced time periods, but complicates plant design and dispatch decisions. Solar resource variability compounds these challenges, because determining optimal system sizes requires simultaneously considering how the plant will be operated under the imposed market and weather conditions. We develop an approach to analyze the economic performance of hybrid and single-technology solar power plants, which incorporates optimal dispatch, and considers the expected electricity market and weather conditions. We utilize the System Advisor Model software package to simulate the operation of multiple renewable generation and energy storage technologies, in conjunction with hourly-fidelity generation decisions determined by a revenue-maximizing, mixed-integer linear program. We show that, under our assumed market and weather conditions, the lifetime benefit-to-cost ratio can be improved by 6 to 19 percent, relative to a baseline design without optimizing, and that a concentrating solar power with thermal energy storage design produces significantly more energy per year, but is less profitable under our cost assumptions.

black-box optimization↗

Comparison of atmospheric radionuclide dispersion models for a risk-informed consequence-driven advanced reactor licensing framework

Current nuclear facility emergency planning zones (EPZs) are based on outdated distance-based criteria, predating comprehensive dose and risk-informed frameworks. Recent advancements in simulation tools have permitted the development of site-specific, dose, and risk-based consequence-driven assessment frameworks. This study investigated the computation of advanced reactor (AR) EPZs using two atmospheric dispersion models: a straight-line Gaussian plume model (GPM) and a semi-Lagrangian Particle in Cell (PIC). Two case studies were conducted: (1) benchmarking the NRC SOARCA study for the Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station and (2) analyzing an advanced INL Heat Pipe Design A microreactor's end-of-cycle inventory. The dose criteria for both cases were 10 mSv at mean weather conditions and 50 mSv at 95th percentile weather conditions at 96 h post-release. Results demonstrated that GPM and PIC estimated similar mean peak dose levels for large boiling water reactors in the farfield case, placing EPZ limits beyond current regulations. For ARs with source terms remaining in the nearfield, PIC modeling without specific nearfield considerations could result in excessively high doses and inaccurate EPZ designations. PIC dispersion demonstrated an order of magnitude higher estimate of nearfield inhalation dose contribution when compared to GPM results. Furthermore, both models significantly reduced EPZ sizing within the nearfield. Thus, reductions in the AR source term may eliminate the need for a separate EPZ.

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTAN↗

Predicting Airport Runway Configurations for Decision-Support Using Supervised Learning

One of the most challenging tasks for air traffic controllers is runway configuration management (RCM). It deals with the optimal selection of runways to operate on (for arrivals and departures) based on traffic, surface wind speed, wind direction, other environmental variables, noise constraints, and several other airport-specific factors. It affects the efficiency of the National Airspace System (NAS) and both surface and airspace operations can benefit from better understanding future runway configurations. In this paper, we present a comprehensive implementation of predictive models for runway configuration estimation from large volumes of historical data. Specifically, operational data from two full years (2018 and 2019) is collected, analyzed, and fused together to build the data product used in this work. The data set differs from prior work in the field in terms of its scope, resolution, and variety of factors collected and considered. Meteorological data is collected from two different sources – current weather conditions from METAR (Meteorological Terminal Aviation Routine Weather Report) and forecast weather conditions from Localized Aviation MOS Program (LAMP). Operational data from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aviation System Performance Metrics (ASPM) related to scheduled and actual number of arrivals and departures, average taxi times, etc. are collected. NASA’s Sherlock Data Warehouse is used to identify critical information such as go-arounds, and other events that might impact RCM decision-making. All data is collected and aggregated over 15-minute intervals throughout the two years. This provides a resolution like the timescales that might be necessary for runway configuration management decision-making. A variety of supervised learning algorithms are tested including Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, etc. including tuning of the model hyperparameters. The modeling process is applied and presented on two representative U.S. airports – Charlotte Douglas International Airport (KCLT) and Denver International Airport (KDEN). The two airports present different levels of complexity in terms of the total number of configurations used and provide a balanced perspective on the generalizability of the developed approach to other airports in the NAS. Initial results are promising (F1 score of 0.91 at KCLT and 0.83 at KDEN) for data in the test set. The final paper will contain a comprehensive comparison between different models and model building strategies as well as further refined results. Most important predictors for each airport will be identified along with a discussion and recommendations on adapting the framework to other scenarios.

Tejas G Puranik↗

Analysis of rapidly developing fog at the Kennedy Space Center

Space Shuttle landings at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) are of special concern to NASA's landing community because of Florida's rapidly changing weather conditions. Since a large number of Shuttle landing attempts occur in the morning hours (just after sunrise) fog and stratus development are a problem. The deorbit burn decision for a landing at KSC is typically made 90 minutes before Shuttle touchdown. In that 90 minutes weather conditions can change very rapidly. Fog to the west of KSC an advect in and reduce visibility to less than 7 miles. The most important difference between Shuttle and normal aircraft landings is that the Shuttle has no go-around capability requiring a forecast with little room for error. To help guard against rapidly changing weather conditions, flight rules have been developed as guidelines for all landings. This paper concerns fog development that would affect less than 7-statue mile visibility rule which is in effect for End-Of-Mission (EOM) Shuttle landings at KSC (Rule 4-64(A)). Data used for this analysis included hourly surface observations at the X68 Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) and upper-air observations form the CCAFS (Cape Canaveral Air Force Station-72794) rawinsonde site for the five year period, 1986 to 1990. This investigation focused on rapidly developing fog or stratus that developed between decision time and landing.

Wheeler, Mark M.↗

Design of an Aircraft Vortex Spacing System for Airport Capacity Improvement

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is addressing airport capacity enhancements through the Terminal Area Productivity (TAP) program. Within TAP, the Reduced Spacing Operations element at the NASA Langley Research Center is developing an Aircraft VOrtex Spacing System (AVOSS). AVOSS will integrate the output of several systems to produce weather dependent, dynamic wake vortex spacing criteria. These systems provide current and predicted weather conditions, models of wake vortex transport and decay in these weather conditions, and real-time feedback of wake vortex behavior from sensors. The goal of the NASA program is to provide the research and development to demonstrate an engineering model AVOSS, in real-time operation, at a major airport. A wake vortex system test facility was established at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in 1997 and tested in 1998. Results from operation of the initial AVOSS system, plus advances in wake vortex prediction and near-term weather forecast models, "nowcast", have been integrated into a second-generation system. This AVOSS version is undergoing final checkout in preparation for a system demonstration in 2000. This paper describes the revised AVOSS system architecture, subsystem enhancements, and initial results with AVOSS version 2 from a deployment at DFW in the fall of 1999.

Hinton, David A.↗

Vibro-Acoustic Response of Buildings Due to Sonic Boom Exposure: July 2007 Field Test

During the month of July 2007, a series of structural response measurements were made on a house on Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB) property that was exposed to sonic booms of various amplitudes. The purpose of this report is to document the measurements that were made, the structure on which they were made, the conditions under which they were made, the sensors and other hardware that were used, and the data that were collected. To that end, Chapter 2 documents the house, its location, the physical layout of the house, the surrounding area, and summarizes the transducers placed in and around the house. Chapter 3 details the sensors and other hardware that were placed in the house during the experiment. In addition, day-to-day variations of hardware configurations and transducer calibrations are documented in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 documents the boom generation process, flight conditions, and ambient weather conditions during the test days. Chapter 5 includes information about sub-experiments that were performed to characterize the vibro-acoustic response of the structure, the acoustic environment inside the house, and the acoustic environment outside the house. Chapter 6 documents the data format and presents examples of reduced data that were collected during the test days.

Klos, Jacob↗

Fire in the Arctic: Current Trends and Future Pathways

Wildland fires in the Arctic are expected to become more frequent and more severe. In recent years, extreme fire seasons have been documented across the Pan-Arctic and boreal in five of the last seven years – including large wildfires in Greenland in 2017 and 2019 over tundra and high carbon soil landscapes and an earlier start of extreme fire seasons in 2023. Future Arctic and boreal fire regimes will experience increased fire risk though the end of this century (McCarty et al., 2021, Senande-Rivera et al., 2022). The main factors affecting the severity and frequency of wildland fires are fuels (vegetated biomass and type of biomass) and fuel condition (dryness), fire weather conditions (relative humidity, drought, precipitation), and ignition (human-caused, lightning). Climate change directly influences all of these drivers, and indirectly also some human-caused ignitions.

Fire↗

Machine-Learning-Driven, Site-Specific Weather Forecasting for Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings: Preprint

Emerging grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) have great potential to provide much-needed demand flexibility to electric grids while fulfilling their own control targets by co-optimizing smart appliances, solar photovoltaics, electric vehicles, and energy storage at buildings. To enable the optimal operation of GEBs, site-specific weather information—such as temperature, solar irradiance, relative humidity, and wind speed—is crucial; however, this information is generally unavailable or expensive to obtain. This paper develops advanced machine learning methods to provide precise weather forecasts for individual building sites using readily available weather station data. Support vector regression and artificial neural networks have been employed to learn the spatiotemporal correlations between the weather conditions at nearby weather stations and the individual building site. The proposed site-specific weather forecasting methods have been validated using 1-year actual weather measurement data collected in the Denver metro area. Results show that the developed machine-learning-driven methods can accurately forecast the temperature at the target building site 1 hour ahead with mean absolute error less than 0.72°C and a 48% improvement over the persistence method. Site-specific weather forecasts will improve the understanding of the microclimate effect and its impact on building energy consumption. This information will drive efficiency upgrades and adjustments of building control strategies to improve energy savings and increase flexibility in building loads.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

A report on the upper-level wind conditions preceding and during the Shuttle Challenger (STS 51L) explosion

The prelaunch, launch, and postlaunch synoptic-scale weather conditions on January 28, 1986 are described. Particular consideration is given to upper-level jet streams, vertical wind shear, and the possible effect of shear-induced turbulence on Cape Canaveral at the time of the Shuttle launch. General data revealing the relations between wind shear and turbulence and jet streams are discussed. The NWS operational and surface radiosonde data, visible and IR GOES imagery, and total ozone data obtained from TOMS on Nimbus-7 are analyzed. Numerical simulations of the weather conditions were conducted. The simulations and observational data are compared, and the data reveal the juxtaposition of two distinct jet-stream systems (a polar front jet and a subtropical jet) over north-central Florida the morning of the launch. Recommendations for improving the observing system at Cape Canaveral are discussed.

Uccellini, Louis W.↗

Coherent Pulsed Lidar Sensing of Wake Vortex Position and Strength, Winds and Turbulence in the Terminal Area

NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) has field tested a 2.0 gm, 100 Hertz, pulsed coherent lidar to detect and characterize wake vortices and to measure atmospheric winds and turbulence. The quantification of aircraft wake-vortex hazards is being addressed by the Wake Vortex Lidar (WVL) Project as part of Aircraft Vortex Spacing System (AVOSS), which is under the Reduced Spacing Operations Element of the Terminal Area Productivity (TAP) Program. These hazards currently set the minimum, fixed separation distance between two aircraft and affect the number of takeoff and landing operations on a single runway under Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC). The AVOSS concept seeks to safely reduce aircraft separation distances, when weather conditions permit, to increase the operational capacity of major airports. The current NASA wake-vortex research efforts focus on developing and validating wake vortex encounter models, wake decay and advection models, and wake sensing technologies. These technologies will be incorporated into an automated AVOSS that can properly select safe separation distances for different weather conditions, based on the aircraft pair and predicted/measured vortex behavior. The sensor subsystem efforts focus on developing and validating wake sensing technologies. The lidar system has been field-tested to provide real-time wake vortex trajectory and strength data to AVOSS for wake prediction verification. Wake vortices, atmospheric winds, and turbulence products have been generated from processing the lidar data collected during deployments to Norfolk (ORF), John F. Kennedy (JFK), and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) International Airports.

Brockman, Philip↗

Surface Landing Site Weather Analysis for Constellation Program

Weather information is an important asset for NASA's Constellation Program in developing the next generation space transportation system to fly to the International Space Station, the Moon and, eventually, to Mars. Weather conditions can affect vehicle safety and performance during multiple mission phases ranging from pre-launch ground processing to landing and recovery operations, including all potential abort scenarios. Meteorological analysis is an important contributor, not only to the development and verification of system design requirements but also to mission planning and active ground operations. Of particular interest are the surface atmospheric conditions at both nominal and abort landing sites for the manned Orion capsule. Weather parameters such as wind, rain, and fog all play critical roles in the safe landing of the vehicle and subsequent crew and vehicle recovery. The Marshall Space Flight Center Natural Environments Branch has been tasked by the Constellation Program with defining the natural environments at potential landing zones. Climatological time series of operational surface weather observations are used to calculate probabilities of occurrence of various sets of hypothetical vehicle constraint thresholds, Data are available for numerous geographical locations such that statistical analysis can be performed for single sites as well as multiple-site network configurations. Results provide statistical descriptions of how often certain weather conditions are observed at the site(s) and the percentage that specified criteria thresholds are matched or exceeded. Outputs are tabulated by month and hour of day to show both seasonal and diurnal variation. This paper will describe the methodology used for data collection and quality control, detail the types of analyses performed, and provide a sample of the results that can be obtained,

Altino, Karen M.↗