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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 OSTI2023

Supply and Demand Drivers of Global Hydrogen Deployment in the Transition toward a Decarbonized Energy System

The role of hydrogen in energy system decarbonization is being actively examined by the research and policy communities. We evaluate the potential ‘hydrogen economy’ in global climate change mitigation scenarios using the Global Change Analysis Model (GCAM). We consider major hydrogen production methods in conjunction with delivery options to understand how hydrogen infrastructure affects its deployment. We also consider a rich set of hydrogen end-use technologies and vary their costs to understand how demand technologies affect deployment. We find that the availability of hydrogen transmission and distribution infrastructure primarily affects the hydrogen production mix, particularly the share produced centrally versus onsite, whereas assumptions about end-use technology primarily affect the scale of hydrogen deployment. In effect, hydrogen can be a distributed energy vector, enabled by onsite renewable electrolysis and, to a lesser extent, by onsite industrial production using natural gas with carbon capture and storage (CCS). While the share of hydrogen in final energy is small relative to the share of other major energy carriers in our scenarios, hydrogen enables decarbonization in difficult-to-electrify end uses such as industrial high-temperature heat. Its contribution to greenhouse gas mitigation increases as the climate objective is tightened.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2024

Teachers’ Use and Adaptation of A Model-Based Climate Curriculum: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study

Foregrounding climate education in formal science learning environments provides students with opportunities to develop critical climate-related knowledge and skills. However, research has shown many challenges to teaching and learning about Earth’s climate and global climate change (GCC). This longitudinal study aims to establish how secondary science teachers, over time, implement model-based climate curricula in support of students’ climate and GCC education by utilizing EzGCM. The model (EzGCM) is a data-driven, computer-based climate modeling tool use to explore global climate data. Multiple sources of data collection, including teacher interviews, classroom observations, and daily reflections, were employed to address the research question: “How did two teachers’ implementation strategies evolve over the three-year study while utilizing a model-based, climate-focused curriculum?” This study provides insight into how and why these resources [model-based climate education curricula] are utilized in science learning environments, thereby informing ongoing efforts to enhance climate education and, in doing so, preparing the next generation of climate-literate adults prepared to confront this most critical global challenge of our age. The findings showed while both teachers engaged in increasingly model-centric instructional practices, these changes were modest. Furthermore, both teacher’s observed classroom practices were less model-centric than the designed curriculum. Ultimately emphasizing the transition from existing practices to improved ones, rather than seeking the perfect approach, the study offers practical insights that can honestly assist secondary educators in real-world settings by highlighting state of climate education in secondary science classrooms.

Secondary science teaching↗
NASA NTRS2011

The Conundrum of Impacts of Climate Change on Urbanization and the Urban Heat Island Effect

The twenty-first century is the first urban century according to the United Nations Development Program. The focus on cities reflects awareness of the growing percentage of the world's population that lives in urban areas. In 2000, approximately 3 billion people representing about 40% of the global population resided in urban areas. The United Nations estimates that by 2025, 60% of the world s population will live in urban areas. As a consequence, the number of megacities (those cities with populations of 10 million inhabitants or more) will increase by 100 by 2025. Thus, there is a critical need to understand the spatial growth of urban areas and what the impacts are on the environment. Moreover, there is a critical need to assess how under global climate change, cities will affect the local, regional, and even global climate. As urban areas increase in size, it is anticipated there will be a concomitant growth of the Urban Heat Island effect (UHI), and the attributes that are related to its spatial and temporal dynamics. Therefore, how climate change, including the dynamics of the UHI, will affect the urban environment, must be explored to help mitigate potential impacts on the environment (e.g., air quality, heat stress, vectorborne disease) and on human health and well being, to develop adaptation schemes to cope with these impacts.

Quattrochi, Dale A.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Global change technology architecture trade study

Described here is an architecture trade study conducted by the Langley Research Center to develop a representative mix of advanced space science instrumentation, spacecraft, and mission orbits to assist in the technology selection processes. The analyses concentrated on the highest priority classes of global change measurements which are the global climate changes. Issues addressed in the tradeoffs includes assessments of the economics of scale of large platforms with multiple instruments relative to smaller spacecraft; the influences of current and possible future launch vehicles on payload sizes, and on-orbit assembly decisions; and the respective roles of low-Earth versus geostationary Earth orbiting systems.

Garrett, L. Bernard↗
NASA NTRS1991

Source gases: Concentrations, emissions, and trends

Source gases are defined as those gases that influence levels of stratospheric ozone (O3) by transporting species containing halogen, hydrogen, and nitrogen to the stratosphere. Examples are the CFC's, methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). Other source gases that also come under consideration in an atmospheric O3 context are those that are involved in the O3 or hydroxyl (OH) radical chemistry of the troposphere. Examples are CH4, carbon monoxide (CO), and nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHC's). Most of the source gases, along with carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O), are climatically significant and thus affect stratospheric O3 levels by their influence on stratospheric temperatures. Carbonyl sulphide (COS) could affect stratospheric O3 through maintenance of the stratospheric sulphate aerosol layer, which may be involved in heterogeneous chlorine-catalyzed O3 destruction. The previous reviews of trends and emissions of source gases, either from the context of their influence on atmospheric O3 or global climate change, are updated. The current global abundances and concentration trends of the trace gases are given in tabular format.

Fraser, Paul J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Discrimination among semi-arid landscape endmembers using the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) algorithm

Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data were acquired during three consecutive seasons of the year (26 Sep. 1989, 22 Mar. 1990, and 7 Aug. 1990) over an area of the High Plains east of Greeley, Colorado. This region contains extensive eolian deposits in the form of stabilized dune complexes (small scale parabolic dunes superimposed on large scale longitudinal and parabolic dunes). Due to the dunes' large scale (2-10 km) and low relief (1-5 m), the scaling relationships that contribute to the evolution of this landscape are nearly impossible to understand without the use of remote sensing. Additionally, climate models indicate that the High Plains could be one of the first areas to experience changes in climate caused by either global warming or cooling. During the past 10,000 years there were at least three periods of extensive sand activity, followed by periods of landscape stability, as shown in the stratigraphic record of this area. Therefore, if the past is an indication of the future, the monitoring of this landscape and its sensitive ecosystem is important for early detection of regional and global climate change.

Yuhas, Roberta H.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Climate Change and Vector Borne Diseases on NASA Langley Research Center

Increasing global temperature, weather patterns with above average storm intensities, and higher sea levels have been identified as phenomena associated with global climate change. As a causal system, climate change could contribute to vector borne diseases in humans. Vectors of concern originate from the vicinity of Langley Research Center include mosquitos and ticks that transmit disease that originate regionally, nationwide, or from outside the US. Recognizing changing conditions, vector borne diseases propagate under climate change conditions, and understanding the conditions in which they may exist or propagate, presents opportunities for monitoring their progress and mitigating their potential impacts through communication, continued monitoring, and adaptation. Personnel comprise a direct and fundamental support to NASA mission success, continuous and improved understanding of climatic conditions, and the resulting consequence of disease from these conditions, helps to reduce risk in terrestrial space technologies, ground operations, and space research. This research addresses conditions which are attributed to climatic conditions which promote environmental conditions conducive to the increase of disease vectors. This investigation includes evaluation of local mosquito population count and rainfall data for statistical correlation and identification of planning recommendations unique to LaRC, other NASA Centers to assess adaptation approaches, Center-level planning strategies.

Cole, Stuart K.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Tracking fungal species-level responses in soil environments exposed to long-term warming and associated drying

Climate change is affecting fungal communities and their function in terrestrial ecosystems. Despite making progress in the understanding of how the fungal community responds to global change drivers in natural ecosystems, little is known on how fungi respond at the species level. Understanding how fungal species respond to global change drivers, such as warming, is critical, as it could reveal adaptation pathways to help us to better understand ecosystem functioning in response to global change. Here, we present a model study to track species-level responses of fungi to warming—and associated drying—in a decade-long global change field experiment; we focused on two free-living saprotrophic fungi which were found in high abundance in our site, Mortierella and Penicillium. Using microbiological isolation techniques, combined with whole genome sequencing of fungal isolates, and community level metatranscriptomics, we investigated transcription-level differences of functional categories and specific genes involved in catabolic processes, cell homeostasis, cell morphogenesis, DNA regulation and organization, and protein biosynthesis. We found that transcription-level responses were mostly species-specific but that under warming, both fungi consistently invested in the transcription of critical genes involved in catabolic processes, cell morphogenesis, and protein biosynthesis, likely allowing them to withstand a decade of chronic stress. Overall, our work supports the idea that fungi that invest in maintaining their catabolic rates and processes while growing and protecting their cells may survive under global climate change.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Aerosol-Surface Interaction eXperiment (ARCSIX)

The Arctic climate system is amidst a transition. Over the last 40 years, the Arctic sea ice pack has transformed from a predominantly thick, multi-year sea ice to a predominantly thin, seasonal sea ice, termed the “New Arctic”. The observed rapid changes in the Arctic sea ice pack are an integral part of the Arctic Amplification phenomenon and represent a response to and a feedback on global climate change. As a result, the role of the Arctic within the global climate system is changing. Substantial uncertainty exists in our understanding of the atmosphere-surface interactions within the Arctic system, limiting our knowledge of the Arctic’s role in the future climate. Advancing our understanding of the Arctic climate system requires (1) measurements of the coupling between radiative processes and sea ice surface properties during summer sea ice melt; (2) measurements of the processes controlling the predominant Arctic cloud regimes and their properties (Fig. 1); and (3) improvements in the ability to monitor Arctic cloud, radiation, and sea ice processes from space. A key challenge is that thin, low clouds that are radiatively important to the Arctic surface energy budget can go undetected (Fig. 1). The Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Aerosol-Surface-Interaction eXperiment (ARCSIX) is an airborne campaign based at the Pituffik Space Base in Greenland from May-August 2024 sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to address these needs. ARCSIX consists of two airborne measurement campaigns taking place in two 3-week intervals during the early and late sea ice melt season: late May through early June and late July through early August, respectively. ARCSIX science is guided by three broad science questions that encapsulate the key influences of radiation-cloud-aerosol-sea ice coupling and a remote sensing and modeling objective: Science Question 1 (Radiation): What is the impact of the predominant summer Arctic cloud types on the radiative surface energy budget? Science Question 2 (Cloud Life Cycle): What processes control the evolution and maintenance of the predominant cloud regimes in the summertime Arctic? Science Question 3 (Sea Ice): How do the two-way interactions between surface properties and atmospheric forcings affect the sea ice evolution? Remote Sensing and Modeling Objective: Enhance our long-term space-based monitoring and predictive capabilities of Arctic sea ice, clouds, and aerosols.

Patrick Taylor↗
NASA NTRS2016

The Teaching of Anthropogenic Climate Change and Earth Science via Technology-Enabled Inquiry Education

A gap has existed between the tools and processes of scientists working on anthropogenic global climate change (AGCC) and the technologies and curricula available to educators teaching the subject through student inquiry. Designing realistic scientific inquiry into AGCC poses a challenge because research on it relies on complex computer models, globally distributed data sets, and complex laboratory and data collection procedures. Here we examine efforts by the scientific community and educational researchers to design new curricula and technology that close this gap and impart robust AGCC and Earth Science understanding. We find technology-based teaching shows promise in promoting robust AGCC understandings if associated curricula address mitigating factors such as time constraints in incorporating technology and the need to support teachers implementing AGCC and Earth Science inquiry. We recommend the scientific community continue to collaborate with educational researchers to focus on developing those inquiry technologies and curricula that use realistic scientific processes from AGCC research and/or the methods for determining how human society should respond to global change.

technology↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA’s Role in Putting Earth Science Information to Use in Decision-Making

The demand for decision-relevant climate information is continually growing, both because of the severity and intensity of climate change impacts and because of the growing recognition that people can take actions today that will mitigate the risk from future climate impacts. Agencies across the federal government are responding to this need by working together to support the Nation in becoming more resilient to climate change. NASA Earth Science has been a key engine of understanding global climate change and how it impacts people around the world. Additionally, for over two decades, the Agency has worked, via partnerships, to connect NASA Earth Science knowledge with decision support needs, often taking a service-oriented approach by working with boundary organizations and climate service providers. In this presentation, we describe NASA’s unique role in enabling new and practical uses of Earth science information, and how the Agency supports public and private sector partners. We highlight several key examples of NASA projects and activities that support local to regional climate resilience efforts. In addition, we discuss how NASA’s new Earth Information Center, a partnership among several federal agencies, enables in-person and virtual visitors to see how our planet is changing in ways that affect their lives and livelihoods. Lastly, we discuss plans for how NASA Earth Science will continue to help build a more climate resilient future.

earth science↗
NASA NTRS2000

Coupling Satellite and Ground-Based Instruments to Map Climate Forcing by Anthropogenic Aerosol

Climate forcing by anthropogenic aerosols is a significant but highly uncertain factor in global climate change. Only satellites can offer the global coverage essential to reducing this uncertainty; however, satellite measurements must be coupled with correlative, in situ measurements both to constrain the aerosol optical properties required in satellite retrieval algorithms and to provide chemical identification of aerosol sources. This grant funded the third year of a three-year project which seeks to develop methodologies for combining spaceborne lidar with in-situ aerosol data sets to improve estimates of direct aerosol climate forcing. Progress under this one-year grant consisted in analysis and publication of field studies using a new in-situ capability for measuring aerosol 180 deg backscatter and the extinction-to-backscatter ratio. This new measurement capacity allows definitive lidar/in-situ comparisons and improves our ability to interpret lidar data in terms of climatically relevant quantities such as the extinction coefficient and optical depth. Analyzed data consisted of measurements made along the coast of Washington State, in Central Illinois, over the Indian Ocean, and in the Central Pacific. Thus, this research, combined with previous measurements by others, is rapidly building toward a global data set of extinction-to-backscatter ratio for key aerosol types. Such information will be critical to interpreting lidar data from the upcoming PICASSO-CENA, or P-C, satellite mission. Another aspect of this project is to investigate innovative ways to couple the lidar-satellite signal with target in-situ measurements toward a direct determination of aerosol forcing. This aspect is progressing in collaboration with NASA Langley's P-C lidar simulator.

Charlson, Robert J.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Coupling Satellite and Ground-Based Instruments to Map Climate Forcing by Anthropogenic Aerosols

Climate forcing by anthropogenic aerosols is a significant but highly uncertain factor in global climate change. Only satellites can offer the global coverage essential to reducing this uncertainty; however, satellite measurements must be coupled with correlative, in situ measurements both to constrain the aerosol optical properties required in satellite retrieval algorithms and to provide chemical identification of aerosol sources. This grant funded the first two years of a three-year project which seeks to develop methodologies for combining spaceborne lidar with in-situ aerosol data sets to improve estimates of direct aerosol climate forcing. Progress under this two-year grant consisted in the development and deployment of a new in-situ capability for measuring aerosol 180' backscatter and the extinction-to-backscatter ratio. This new measurement capacity allows definitive lidar/in-situ comparisons and improves our ability to interpret lidar data in terms of climatically relevant quantities such as the extinction coefficient and optical depth. Measurements were made along the coast of Washington State, in Central Illinois, over the Indian Ocean, and in the Central Pacific. Thus, this research, combined with previous measurements by others, is rapidly building toward a global data set of extinction-to-backscatter ratio for key aerosol types. Such information will be critical to interpreting lidar data from the upcoming PICASSO-CENA, or P-C, satellite mission. Another aspect of this project is to investigate innovative ways to couple the lidar-satellite signal with targeted in-situ measurements toward a direct determination of aerosol forcing. This aspect is progressing in collaboration with NASA Langley's P-C lidar simulator and radiative transfer modeling by the University of Lille, France.

Charlson, Robert J.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Critical Literature Review of Low Global Warming Potential (GWP) Refrigerants and their Environmental Impact

Refrigeration and air conditioning currently account for ~20% of the total electricity consumption in buildings around the world. Over the next three decades as global temperatures are projected to increase, urbanization and economic growth will lead to an increased demand for refrigeration and cooling. Most commonly used refrigerants belong to the five following classes: (i) chlorofluorocarbons, (ii) hydrochlorofluorocarbons, (iii) hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), (iv) hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs), and (v) natural refrigerants. Over the past century, there have been shifts in which compounds were used for refrigeration to improve safety and durability, allow for ozone protection, and, most recently, to reduce global warming potential (GWP). Although technological advances have led to increased cooling capacity and safer refrigerants, emissions from refrigeration systems can affect the environment by contributing to greenhouse gas emissions or by depleting the ozone layer, depending on the gas emitted. The focus is increasingly on adopting compounds that are both efficient at cooling and effective for reducing emissions and other adverse environmental impacts. Because of policy and regulatory changes to avert ozone depletion and global climate change, much discussion has centered on the environmental impacts of next-generation refrigerants. Of particular interest are the fluorinated refrigerants, HFCs and HFOs, most of which are defined as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and their breakdown products (especially trifluoroacetic acid). The US Environmental Protection Agency in 2021 drafted a Strategic Roadmap for PFAS, which has already resulted in an increase in investment in research on these compounds and has restricted the release of PFAS into the environment through the implementation of monitoring and reporting requirements. A critical evaluation of fluorinated refrigerants and their breakdown products with respect to persistence, biodegradation and toxicity, and global warming potential is needed to guide environmental regulations. This document aims to perform a critical review of the relevant scientific data on the most common refrigerants currently used, their degradation products, and their alternatives. Where available, estimates of precursor production quantities and existing environmental regulatory information are reviewed. Key data of interest for the evaluation include physicochemical properties, environmental fate parameters, ecological or human health toxicity/risk information, and GWP for compounds of interest.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Critical Literature Review of Low Global Warming Potential (GWP) Refrigerants and their Environmental Impact

Refrigeration and air conditioning currently account for ~20% of the total electricity consumption in buildings around the world. Over the next three decades as global temperatures are projected to increase, urbanization and economic growth will lead to an increased demand for refrigeration and cooling. Most commonly used refrigerants belong to the five following classes: (i) chlorofluorocarbons, (ii) hydrochlorofluorocarbons, (iii) hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), (iv) hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs), and (v) natural refrigerants. Over the past century, there have been shifts in which compounds were used for refrigeration to improve safety and durability, allow for ozone protection, and, most recently, to reduce global warming potential (GWP). Although technological advances have led to increased cooling capacity and safer refrigerants, emissions from refrigeration systems can affect the environment by contributing to greenhouse gas emissions or by depleting the ozone layer, depending on the gas emitted. The focus is increasingly on adopting compounds that are both efficient at cooling and effective for reducing emissions and other adverse environmental impacts. Because of policy and regulatory changes to avert ozone depletion and global climate change, much discussion has centered on the environmental impacts of next-generation refrigerants. Of particular interest are the fluorinated refrigerants, HFCs and HFOs, most of which are defined as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and their breakdown products (especially trifluoroacetic acid). The US Environmental Protection Agency in 2021 drafted a Strategic Roadmap for PFAS, which has already resulted in an increase in investment in research on these compounds and has restricted the release of PFAS into the environment through the implementation of monitoring and reporting requirements. A critical evaluation of fluorinated refrigerants and their breakdown products with respect to persistence, biodegradation and toxicity, and global warming potential is needed to guide environmental regulations. This document aims to perform a critical review of the relevant scientific data on the most common refrigerants currently used, their degradation products, and their alternatives. Where available, estimates of precursor production quantities and existing environmental regulatory information are reviewed. Key data of interest for the evaluation include physicochemical properties, environmental fate parameters, ecological or human health toxicity/risk information, and GWP for compounds of interest.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

The Significance of Aggregation Methods in Functional Group Modeling

The growth of forests and the feedbacks between forests and environmental changes are central issues in the planetary carbon cycle, global climate change, and basic plant ecology. A challenge to understanding both growth and feedbacks from local to global scales is that many critical metabolic processes vary among species. An innovation in solving this challenge is the recognition that species can be lumped into “functional groups” based on metabolic similarity, and these functional groups can then be studied in computational models that simulate ecosystem function. Despite the vast resources devoted to functional group studies and the progress made by them, an important logical and biological question has not been formally addressed, “How do the groupings alter the results of modeling studies?” To what extent do modeling results depend on the choices made in aggregating taxa into functional groups. Here, we consider the effects of using different aggregation strategies in simulating the carbon dynamics of a deciduous forest. Understanding the impacts that aggregation strategy has on efforts to simulate regional-to-global-scale forest dynamics offers insights into both ecosystem regulation and model function and addresses this central problem in the study of carbon dynamics.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Toward a life cycle approach for classifying the toxicity of refrigerants

Refrigeration and air conditioning currently account for ~20% of the total electricity consumption in buildings around the world (IEA, 2018). Over the next three decades, as global temperatures are projected to increase, urbanization and economic growth will lead to an increased demand for refrigeration and cooling. While technological advances have led to increased cooling capacity and safer refrigerants over the years, emissions from refrigeration systems can affect the environment by contributing to greenhouse gas emissions or by depleting the ozone layer, depending on the gas emitted. Further, because of ongoing and pending policy and regulatory changes to avert ozone depletion and global climate change, there is an increasing focus on adopting compounds that are efficient at cooling while also reducing emissions and other adverse environmental impacts.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1983

Determinability of inter-annual global and regional climatic changes of the earth radiation budget

The degradation characteristics of Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) experiments are examined with reference to the results of recent investigations into the calibration adjustments of the Wide Field of View channels on board the Nimbus 6 and 7 ERB experiments. The mechanisms of degradation are discussed, and changes in the transmissive and reflective properties of radiometers affecting their sensitivities and calibrations are estimated. It is emphasized that in order to observe interannual climate change on a global or a regional scale, calibration adjustments are a necessity.

Ardanuy, P. E.↗