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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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94 records · Page 6

GCM Simulations of the Aerosol Indirect Effect: Sensitivity to Cloud Parameterization and Aerosol Burden

We describe the coupling of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) general circulation model (GCM) to an online sulfur chemistry model and source models for organic matter and sea-salt that is used to estimate the aerosol indirect effect. The cloud droplet number concentration is diagnosed empirically from field experiment datasets over land and ocean that observe droplet number and all three aerosol types simultaneously; corrections are made for implied variations in cloud turbulence levels. The resulting cloud droplet number is used to calculate variations in droplet effective radius, which in turn allows us to predict aerosol effects on cloud optical thickness and microphysical process rates. We calculate the aerosol indirect effect by differencing the top-of-the-atmosphere net cloud radiative forcing for simulations with present-day vs. pre-industrial emissions. Both the first (radiative) and second (microphysical) indirect effects are explored. We test the sensitivity of our results to cloud parameterization assumptions that control the vertical distribution of cloud occurrence, the autoconversion rate, and the aerosol scavenging rate, each of which feeds back significantly on the model aerosol burden. The global mean aerosol indirect effect for all three aerosol types ranges from -1.55 to -4.36 W/sq m in our simulations. The results are quite sensitive to the pre-industrial background aerosol burden, with low pre-industrial burdens giving strong indirect effects, and to a lesser extent to the anthropogenic aerosol burden, with large burdens giving somewhat larger indirect effects. Because of this dependence on the background aerosol, model diagnostics such as albedo-particle size correlations and column cloud susceptibility, for which satellite validation products are available, are not good predictors of the resulting indirect effect.

Menon, Surabi↗

GCM Simulations of the Aerosol Indirect Effect: Sensitivity to Cloud Parameterization and Aerosol Burden

We describe the coupling of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) general circulation model (GCM) to an online sulfur chemistry model and source models for organic matter and sea-salt that is used to estimate the aerosol indirect effect. The cloud droplet number concentration is diagnosed empirically from field experiment datasets over land and ocean that observe droplet number and all three aerosol types simultaneously; corrections are made for implied variations in cloud turbulence levels. The resulting cloud droplet number is used to calculate variations in droplet effective radius, which in turn allows us to predict aerosol effects on cloud optical thickness and microphysical process rates. We calculate the aerosol indirect effect by differencing the top-of-the-atmosphere net cloud radiative forcing for simulations with present-day vs. pre-industrial emissions. Both the first (radiative) and second (microphysical) indirect effects are explored. We test the sensitivity of our results to cloud parameterization assumptions that control the vertical distribution of cloud occurrence, the autoconversion rate, and the aerosol scavenging rate, each of which feeds back significantly on the model aerosol burden. The global mean aerosol indirect effect for all three aerosol types ranges from -1.55 to -4.36 W m(exp -2) in our simulations. The results are quite sensitive to the pre-industrial background aerosol burden, with low pre-industrial burdens giving strong indirect effects, and to a lesser extent to the anthropogenic aerosol burden, with large burdens giving somewhat larger indirect effects. Because of this dependence on the background aerosol, model diagnostics such as albedo-particle size correlations and column cloud susceptibility, for which satellite validation products are available, are not good predictors of the resulting indirect effect.

Menon, Surabi↗

X-ray absorption spectroscopy study of Mn reference compounds for Mn speciation in terrestrial surface environments

Abstract X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) offers great potential to identify and quantify Mn species in surface environments by means of linear combination fit (LCF), fingerprint, and shell-fit analyses of bulk Mn XAS spectra. However, these approaches are complicated by the lack of a comprehensive and accessible spectrum library. Additionally, molecular-level information on Mn coordination in some potentially important Mn species occurring in soils and sediments is missing. Therefore, we investigated a suite of 32 natural and synthetic Mn reference compounds, including Mn oxide, oxyhydroxide, carbonate, phosphate, and silicate minerals, as well as organic and adsorbed Mn species, by Mn K-edge X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy. The ability of XAS to infer the average oxidation state (AOS) of Mn was assessed by comparing XANES-derived AOS with the AOS obtained from redox titrations. All reference compounds were studied for their local (<5 Å) Mn coordination environment using EXAFS shell-fit analysis. Statistical analyses were employed to clarify how well and to what extent individual Mn species (groups) can be distinguished by XAS based on spectral uniqueness. Our results show that LCF analysis of normalized XANES spectra can reliably quantify the Mn AOS within ~0.1 v.u. in the range +2 to +4. These spectra are diagnostic for most Mn species investigated, but unsuitable to identify and quantify members of the manganate and Mn(III)-oxyhydroxide groups. First-derivative XANES fingerprinting allows the unique identification of pyrolusite, ramsdellite, and potentially lithiophorite within the manganate group. However, XANES spectra of individual Mn compounds can vary significantly depending on chemical composition and/or crystallinity, which limits the accuracy of XANES-based speciation analyses. In contrast, EXAFS spectra provide a much better discriminatory power to identify and quantify Mn species. Principal component and cluster analyses of k2-weighted EXAFS spectra of Mn reference compounds implied that EXAFS LCF analysis of environmental samples can identify and quantify at least the following primary Mn species groups: (1) Phyllo- and tectomanganates with large tunnel sizes (2 × 2 and larger; hollandite sensu stricto, romanèchite, todorokite); (2) tectomanganates with small tunnel sizes (2 × 2 and smaller; cryptomelane, pyrolusite, ramsdellite); (3) Mn(III)-dominated species (nesosilicates, oxyhydroxides, organic compounds, spinels); (4) Mn(II) species (carbonate, phosphate, and phyllosilicate minerals, adsorbed and organic species); and (5) manganosite. All Mn compounds, except for members of the manganate group (excluding pyrolusite) and adsorbed Mn(II) species, exhibit unique EXAFS spectra that would allow their identification and quantification in mixtures. Therefore, our results highlight the potential of Mn K-edge EXAFS spectroscopy to assess bulk Mn speciation in soils and sediments. A complete XAS-based speciation analysis of bulk Mn in environmental samples should preferably include the determination of Mn valences following the “Combo” method of Manceau et al. (2012), EXAFS LCF analyses based on principal component and target transformation results, as well as EXAFS shell-fit analyses for the validation of LCF results. For this purpose, all 32 XAS reference spectra are provided in the Online Materials1 for further use by the scientific community.

Geochemistry & Geophysics↗

Harnessing land-atmosphere interactions to enhance subseasonal-to-seasonal predictability

2025 Advancing Understanding of Land-Atmosphere Interactions and Processes on S2S Predictability Workshop What: 227 registered workshop participants gathered in person (43%) and online (57%) to discuss state-of-the-art scientific understanding and modeling of land-atmosphere interactions and related processes in the context of subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) predictability. Topics covered sources of S2S predictability, land model initialization methods, model diagnosis and evaluation metrics, AI/ML analysis and applications, and coordination of future community multi-model S2S forecast focused experiments. To advance the science, this community workshop, organized by NSF NCAR, NOAA, NASA, and DOE, aimed to 1) identify process- and application-oriented metrics for assessing S2S prediction skill and 2) develop experimental protocols for coordinated experiments to isolate, quantify, and understand the role of land-atmosphere interactions in S2S predictability. When: June 16-18, 2025 Where: Boulder, CO, USA, and online.

Land-Atmosphere Interaction↗