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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 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Sensitivity of Simulated Polar Climate to Improved Partitioning of Spectral Solar Irradiance Between Visible and Near‐Infrared Bands

The solar radiative processes that contribute to Earth's surface and atmospheric energy budgets are strongly dependent on wavelength. For example, snow and water vapor become more absorptive as incident radiation shifts from visible (VIS) to near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths. Some earth system models (ESMs) aggregate solar radiation into just two bands (VIS and NIR) partitioned at 0.7 μm for transmission between the atmospheric and surface components. In the widely used radiative transfer model RRTMG_SW this partition is near the center of the overlap spectral band spanning 0.625–0.778 μm, whose flux is often approximated as being evenly divided between the VIS and NIR surface bands. Using a hyperspectral radiative transfer model, we show that the fractional downwelling surface flux within the overlap band is usually distributed about 55.5%:44.5% VIS:NIR. This improved approximation shifts as much as 4.27 W m −2 from the NIR to the VIS band, leading to an instantaneous decrease in surface absorption of up to 0.91 W m −2 over snow-covered surfaces. Century-long fully coupled ESM simulations show surface absorption over snow decreases by over 1.6 W m −2 . The coupled response in sea ice regions amplifies the initial forcing ten-fold, and increases seasonal sea ice area by up to 4.9%. These results highlight the importance of accurately representing the spectral distribution of solar radiation in the cryosphere.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Ocean cavity regime shift reversed West Antarctic grounding line retreat in the late Holocene

Recent geologic and modeled evidence suggests that the grounding line of the Siple Coast of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) retreated hundreds of kilometers beyond its present position in the middle to late Holocene and readvanced within the past 1.7 ka. This grounding line reversal has been attributed to both changing rates of isostatic rebound and regional climate change. Here, we test these two hypotheses using a proxy-informed ensemble of ice sheet model simulations with varying ocean thermal forcing, global glacioisostatic adjustment (GIA) model simulations, and coupled ice sheet-GIA simulations that consider the interactions between these processes. Our results indicate that a warm to cold ocean cavity regime shift is the most likely cause of this grounding line reversal, but that GIA influences the rate of ice sheet response to oceanic changes. This implies that the grounding line here is sensitive to future changes in sub-ice shelf ocean circulation.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Estimation of wintertime cloud radiative effects in the Western Arctic, a function of cloud-moisture-coupling and sea ice conditions

Cloud radiative effects are estimated using up- and downward ground-based observations of broadband thermal infrared sensors in cloudy conditions which are provided by the ARM data repository. The ARM Surface Radiation measurement is analyzed. To study the cloud radiative effects, the observed thermal infrared measurements under cloudy conditions are analyzed together with microphysical cloud properties like liquid and ice water path obtained from the CloudNet algorithms applied to the remote-sensing instrumentation suite at the ARM site in Utqiagvik. Cloud observations have been sorted depending on the coupling of the cloud with upwind water vapor transport events that can interact with sea ice upwind. Statistics of surface net thermal fluxes and cloud water/ice properties show a distinguished distribution for coupled and decoupled clouds. It was found that coupled clouds contain more liquid water and are more efficient reduce the cooling of surface LW radiation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Multiscale maps of Active Layer Depth for Teller site Mile Marker 27 and Kougarok Mile Marker 80, Seward Peninsula, AK

Remote sensing maps of active layer depth derived from Unmanned Areal System (UAS) data. The UAS datasets were stepwise scaled until matching the AVIRIS-NG (Airborne Visible / Infrared Imaging Spectrometer - Next Generation) and Sentinel-2 spatial resolutions. Using the field observed Active Layer Depth (ALD) measurement in combination with spectral and topographic predictors derivatives from DJI UAS imagery, we used a spatially explicit RF regression model to predict and map ALD across our study landscapes. This package includes maps for Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiment Arctic (NGEE Arctic)’s Teller Mile Marker (MM) 27, and Kougarok MM80 (aka Mile 80) watersheds. The field, map data, and metadata are provided as geoTIF and text (*.csv) formats. These datasets are provided in support of Hantson et al., 2024 (accepted) “Scaling Arctic landscape and permafrost features improves active layer depth modeling”

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Supercooled Liquid Water Detection Capabilities from Ka-Band Doppler Profiling Radars: Moment-Based Algorithm Formulation and Assessment

The occurrence of supercooled liquid water in mixed-phase cloud (MPC) affects their cloud microphysical and radiative properties. The prevalence of MPCs in the mid- and high latitudes translates these effects to significant contributions to Earth’s radiative balance and hydrological cycle. The current study develops and assesses a radar-only, moment-based phase partition technique for the demarcation of supercooled liquid water volumes in arctic, MPC conditions. The study utilizes observations from the Ka band profiling radar, the collocated high spectral resolution lidar, and ambient temperature profiles from radio sounding deployments following a statistical analysis of 5.5 years of data (January 2014–May 2019) from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement observatory at the North Slope of Alaska. The ice/liquid phase partition occurs via a per-pixel, neighborhood-dependent algorithm based on the premise that the partitioning can be deduced by examining the mean values of locally sampled probability distributions of radar-based observables and then compare those against the means of climatologically derived, per-phase probability distributions. Analyzed radar observables include linear depolarization ratio (LDR), spectral width, and vertical gradients of reflectivity factor and radial velocity corrected for vertical air motion. Results highlight that the optimal supercooled liquid water detection skill levels are realized for the radar variable combination of spectral width and reflectivity vertical gradient, suggesting that radar-based polarimetry, in the absence of full LDR spectra, is not as critical as Doppler capabilities. The cloud phase masking technique is proven particularly reliable when applied to cloud tops with an Equitable Threat Score (ETS) of 65%; the detection of embedded supercooled layers remains much more uncertain (ETS = 27%).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Co-located temperature and electrical resistivity measurements for permafrost mapping, Teller 27, Teller 47 and Kougarok 64, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, late summers of 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022

This data set contains co-located shallow soil (0.8m below ground level) and electrical resistivity at various depth extracted from Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) measurements. Data were acquired at three watersheds on the southern Seward Peninsula during the late summers of 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022. The three watersheds are located along the Nome-Teller Highway at mile markers 27 and 47, and along Kougarok Road mile marker 64. The co-located temperature and electrical resistivity data were used to (1) map the spatial extend of near surface permafrost, and (2) for supervised classification of permafrost bodies. This dataset contains .csv, .txt, .srv files and flmd reporting format with data dictionary. Find information about the .srv files at "https://e4d-userguide.pnnl.gov/e4d_guide/elec/e4d_e4d-survey.html". 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↗
NASA NTRS2004

The NASA Cold Land Processes Pathfinder Mission (CLPP)

The Cold Land Processes Pathfinder (CLPP) mission concept has been developed to measure hydrologic properties of the Cryosphere. The science driver for the mission is to understand the variability of global water cycling and its consequences for local water resources and climate. The CLPP mission is designed to reduce uncertainty of cold-region precipitation, storage, controls, and feedbacks to the land, atmosphere, and ocean, which in turn will improve prediction of future changes in water cycle dynamics. It will provide the first high-resolution global measurements of Earth's changing snow conditions to: 1) quantify the variability of processes in cold regions, 2) improve understanding of past changes, and 3) enable breakthroughs in prediction of future water resources, weather, and climate. The CLPP concept consists of active (C- and Ku-band) and passive (K- and Ka-band) microwave sensors (with high and moderate spatial resolution respectively) to observe snow water equivalent and snow wetness at local process scales. The CLPP global sampling framework provides necessary capability to relate observed local scale snow characteristics to atmospheric forcings, improve predictive models operating at multiple scales, and to tie the short-term CLPP record to the long-term low-resolution remote sensing climate record of global snow properties.

Cline, D.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Oceanic Transport of Surface Meltwater from the Southern Greenland Ice Sheet

The Greenland ice sheet has undergone accelerating mass losses during recent decades. Freshwater runoff from ice melt can influence fjord circulation and dynamic1 and the delivery of bioavailable micronutrients to the ocean. It can also have climate implications, because stratification in the adjacent Labrador Sea may influence deep convection and the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. Yet, the fate of the meltwater in the ocean remains unclear. Here, we use a high-resolution ocean model to show that only 1-15% of the surface meltwater runoff originating from southwest Greenland is transported westwards. In contrast, up to 50-60% of the meltwater runoff originating from southeast Greenland is transported westwards into the northern Labrador Sea, leading to significant salinity and stratification anomalies far from the coast. Doubling meltwater runoff, as predicted in future climate scenarios, results in a more-than-double increase in anomalies offshore that persists further into the winter. Interannual variability in offshore export of meltwater is tightly related to variability in wind forcing. The new insight that meltwaters originating from the west and east coasts have different fates indicates that future changes in mass loss rates and surface runoff will probably impact the ocean differently, depending on their Greenland origins.

Physical oceanography↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

MAGIC Mission Science and Applications Related to Cryosphere, Solid Earth and Neutral Atmosphere

The GRACE and GFO missions have revolutionised our understanding of mass movement at and below the surface of the Earth but they, nonetheless, have restrictions related to spatial and temporal resolution and instrument sensitivity that limits our ability to resolve certain processes. In this presentation we focus on the advances and capabilities that the proposed Mass change And Geosciences International Constellation (MAGIC) mission will deliver for cryosphere and solid Earth applications and will also consider the potential it will have for studying the neutral atmosphere. The time-varying gravity missions to date have had an effective spatial resolution of ~300 km, which is larger than the scale of any glacier or ice caps and larger than most catchments on the Greenland Ice Sheet. Even over Antarctica, the limited spatial resolution is a major limitation for regions such as the Antarctic Peninsula. Tectonic process, such as Earthquakes, volcanic activity and even viscous mantle flow can take place on scales smaller than can be resolved currently. The target resolution and accuracy for MAGIC over ice is 170 km at 2.6 mm/yr EWH over the long term and 250 km at 5.5 mm EWH at monthly resolution plus lower accuracy daily to weekly capabilities. We consider here what this means for understanding and observing ice mass exchange with the oceans and improving our ability to measure the manometric contribution to sea level rise. Based on similar targets, we also explore the improvements this offers for monitoring different types of solid Earth processes including geohazards, crustal evolution and deep interior properties and dynamics. We also consider what contributions MAGIC will be able to make to observations of thermosphere neutral density and related atmospheric parameters.

Jonathan Bamber↗
NASA NTRS2022

Response of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet to Past and Future Climate Change

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) contains the vast majority of Earth’s glacier ice (~52 metres sea-level equivalent), but is often viewed as less vulnerable to global warming than the West Antarctic or Greenland ice sheets. However, some regions of the EAIS have lost mass over recent decades, prompting the need to re-evaluate its sensitivity to climate change. Here we review the EAIS’s response to past warm periods, synthesise current observations of change, and evaluate future projections. Some marine-based catchments that underwent significant mass loss during past warm periods are currently losing mass, but most projections indicate increased accumulation across the EAIS over the 21st Century, keeping the ice sheet broadly in balance. Beyond 2100, high emissions scenarios generate increased ice discharge and potentially several metres of sea-level rise within just a few centuries, but substantial mass loss could be averted if the Paris Agreement to limit warming below 2°C is satisfied.

East Antarctic Ice Sheet↗
NASA NTRS2019

Industrial-Era Decline in Subarctic Atlantic Productivity

Marine phytoplankton play a critical role in modulating marine-based food webs, fishery yields, and the global drawdown of atmospheric CO2. Due to sparse measurements prior to 21st century satellite monitoring, however, little is known of the long-term response of planktonic stocks to climate forcing. Here we produce the first continuous, multi-century record of subarctic Atlantic marine productivity, showing a marked 10 ± 7% decline has occurred across this highly-productive ocean basin over the last two centuries. We support this conclusion through the application of a novel marine-productivity proxy, established using a unique signal of planktonic-derived aerosol commonly identified across an array of Greenlandic ice cores. Utilizing contemporaneous satellite-era observations, we demonstrate this signal’s use as a robust and high-resolution proxy for spatially-integrated marine productivity variations. We show that the initiation of declining subarctic Atlantic productivity broadly coincides with the onset of Arctic surface warming, and that productivity strongly covaries with regional sea-surface temperatures and basin-wide gyre circulation strength over recent decades. Taken together, our results suggest the industrial era productivity decline may be evidence of the predicted5 collapse of northern Atlantic planktonic stocks in response to a weakened Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Continued AMOC weakening, as projected for the 21st century, may therefore result in further productivity declines across this globally-relevant region.

Climate change↗
NASA NTRS2022

Helheim Glacier Ice Velocity Variability Responds to Runoff and Terminus Position, but at Different Timescales

The Greenland Ice Sheet discharges ice to the ocean through hundreds of outlet glaciers. Recent acceleration of Greenland outlet glaciers has been linked to both oceanic and atmospheric drivers. Here, we leverage temporally dense observations, regional climate model output, and newly developed time series analysis tools to assess the most important forcings causing ice flow variability at one of the largest Greenland outlet glaciers, Helheim Glacier, from 2009 to 2017. We find that ice speed correlates most strongly with catchment-integrated runoff at seasonal to interannual scales, while multi-annual flow variability correlates most strongly with multi-annual terminus variability. The disparate time scales and the influence of subglacial topography on Helheim Glacier’s dynamics highlight different regimes that can inform modeling and forecasting of its future. Notably, our results suggest that the recent terminus history observed at Helheim is a response to, rather than the cause of, upstream changes.

Cryospheric science↗
NASA NTRS2023

Summer Atmospheric Circulation Over Greenland in Response to Arctic Amplification and Diminished Spring Snow Cover

The exceptional atmospheric conditions that have accelerated Greenland Ice Sheet mass loss in recent decades have been repeatedly recognized as a possible dynamical response to Arctic amplification. Here, we present evidence of two potentially synergistic mechanisms linking high-latitude warming to the observed increase in Greenland blocking. Consistent with a prominent hypothesis associating Arctic amplification and persistent weather extremes, we show that the summer atmospheric circulation over the North Atlantic has become wavier and link this wavier flow to more prevalent Greenland blocking. While a concomitant decline in terrestrial snow cover has likely contributed to this mechanism by further amplifying warming at high latitudes, we also show that there is a direct stationary Rossby wave response to low spring North American snow cover that enforces an anomalous anticyclone over Greenland, thus helping to anchor the ridge over Greenland in this wavier atmospheric state.

Atmospheric dynamics↗
NASA NTRS2021

Development of Ice-Shelf Estuaries Promotes Fractures and Calving

As the global climate warms, increased surface meltwater production on ice shelves may trigger ice-shelf collapse and enhance global sea-level rise. The formation of surface rivers could help prevent ice-shelf collapse if they can efficiently evacuate meltwater. Here we present observations of the evolution of a surface river into an ice-shelf estuary atop the Petermann Ice Shelf in northwest Greenland and identify a second estuary at the nearby Ryder Ice Shelf. This surface-hydrology process can foster fracturing and enhance calving. At the Petermann estuary, sea ice was observed converging at the river mouth upstream, indicating a flow reversal. Seawater persists in the estuary after the surrounding icescape is frozen. Along the base of Petermann estuary, linear fractures were initiated at the calving front and propagated upstream along the channel. Similar fractures along estuary channels shaped past large rectilinear calving events at the Petermann and Ryder ice shelves. Increased surface melting in a warming world will enhance fluvial incision, promoting estuary development and longitudinal fracturing orthogonal to ice-shelf fronts, and increase rectilinear calving. Estuaries could develop in Antarctica within the next half-century, resulting in increased calving and accelerating both ice loss and global sea-level rise.

Cryospheric science↗
NASA NTRS2023

Seasonal Temperatures in West Antarctica During the Holocene

The recovery of long-term climate proxy records with seasonal resolution is rare because of natural smoothing processes, discontinuities, and limitations in measurement resolution. Yet insolation forcing, a primary driver of multi-millennial-scale climate change, acts through seasonal variations with direct impacts on seasonal climate. Whether the sensitivity of seasonal climate to insolation matches theoretical predictions has not been assessed over long timescales. Here, we analyze a continuous record of water-isotope ratios from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide ice core to reveal summer and winter temperature changes through the last 11,000 years. Summer temperatures in West Antarctica increased through the early-to-mid Holocene, reached a peak at 4.1 ka, and then decreased to the present. Climate model simulations show that these variations primarily reflect changes in maximum summer insolation, confirming the general connection between seasonal insolation and warming, and demonstrating the importance of insolation intensity rather than seasonally integrated insolation or season duration. Winter temperatures varied less overall, consistent with predictions from insolation forcing, but also fluctuated in the early Holocene, likely owing to changes in meridional heat transport. The magnitudes of summer and winter temperature changes constrain the lowering of the WAIS surface since the early Holocene to less than 162 m, and most likely less than 58 m, consistent with geological constraints elsewhere in West Antarctica.

Cryospheric science↗
DOE OSTI2024

Active Layer and Moisture Measurements for Intensive Site 0 and 1, Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska

Thaw depth, relative dielectric permittivity, and soil temperature were collected along three transects within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska. Measurements were acquired along the transect at 3 m intervals on 2011-09-25, 2011-09-26, 2012-07-18, 2012-09-30, 2014-07-02, 2014-08-15, and 2014-09-14 for the L2 transect (intensive site 0), which is about 470 m long. Similarly, measurements were collected every 3 m on 2012-09-30, 2013-09-30, 2014-07-02, 2014-08-14, and 2014-09-23, and every 1 m on 2013-09-30 along the AB transect (intensive site 1) which is about 500 m long. File types in the package are all csv spreadsheets, following the ESS-DIVE csv guidelines (ESS-DIVE CSV v1), organized by transect name, with accompanying data dictionary files containing the filename suffix "_dd" (also csv format). Data collection details can be found in the Methods description of the metadata record. 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↗
NASA NTRS2019

NASA's Earth Observing Data and Information System (EOSDIS)

NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) has been a central component of the NASA Earth observation program since the 1990's. The data collected by NASA represent a significant public investment in research. Consequently, NASA developed a free, open and non-discriminatory policy consistent with existing international policies to maximize access to data. EOSDIS manages data covering a wide range of Earth science disciplines including cryosphere, land cover change, polar processes, field campaigns, ocean surface, geodesy, atmosphere dynamics and composition, and inter-disciplinary research, and many others.

Remote Sensing↗
NASA NTRS2018

NASA's Earth Observing Data and Information System - Near-Term Challenges

NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) has been a central component of the NASA Earth observation program since the 1990's. EOSDIS manages data covering a wide range of Earth science disciplines including cryosphere, land cover change, polar processes, field campaigns, ocean surface, digital elevation, atmosphere dynamics and composition, and inter-disciplinary research, and many others. One of the key components of EOSDIS is a set of twelve discipline-based Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) distributed across the United States. Managed by NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project at Goddard Space Flight Center, these DAACs serve over 3 million users globally. The ESDIS Project provides the infrastructure support for EOSDIS, which includes other components such as the Science Investigator-led Processing systems (SIPS), common metadata and metrics management systems, specialized network systems, standards management, and centralized support for use of commercial cloud capabilities. Given the long-term requirements, and the rapid pace of information technology and changing expectations of the user community, EOSDIS has evolved continually over the past three decades. However, many challenges remain. Challenges addressed in this paper include: growing volume and variety, achieving consistency across a diverse set of data producers, managing information about a large number of datasets, migration to a cloud computing environment, optimizing data discovery and access, incorporating user feedback from a diverse community, keeping metadata updated as data collections grow and age, and ensuring that all the content needed for understanding datasets by future users is identified and preserved.

Remote Sensing↗