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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 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2017

Climate-Induced Northerly Expansion of Siberian Silkmoth Range

Siberian silkmoth (Dendrolimus sibiricus Tschetv.) is a dangerous pest that has affected nearly 2.5 x 10(exp 6) ha of “dark taiga” stands (composed of Abies sibirica, Pinus sibirica and Picea obovata) within the latitude range of 52°–59° N. Here we describe a current silkmoth outbreak that is occurring about half degree northward of its formerly documented outbreak range. This outbreak has covered an area of about 800 thousand ha with mortality of conifer stands within an area of about 300 thousand ha. The primary outbreak originated in the year 2014 within stands located on gentle relatively dry southwest slopes at elevations up to 200 m above sea level (a.s.l.) Then the outbreak spread to the mesic areas including northern slopes and the low-elevation forest belts along the Yenisei ridge. Within the outbreak area, the northern Siberian silkmoth population has reduced generation length from two to one year. Our study showed that the outbreak was promoted by droughts in prior years, an increase of the sum of daily temperatures (t > +10 °C), and a decrease in ground cover moisture. Within the outbreak area, secondary pests were also active, including the aggressive Polygraphus proximus bark borer beetle. The outbreak considered here is part of the wide-spread (panzonal) Siberian silkmoth outbreak that originated during 2014–2015 with a range of up to 1000 km in southern Siberia. Our work concludes that observed climate warming opens opportunities for Siberian silkmoth migration into historically outbreak free northern “dark taiga” stands.

Siberian taiga↗
DOE OSTI2022

Decoding the dynamics of poleward shifting climate zones using aqua-planet model simulations

Growing evidence indicates that the atmospheric and oceanic circulation experiences a systematic poleward shift in a warming climate. However, the complexity of the climate system, including the coupling between the ocean and the atmosphere, natural climate variability and land-sea distribution, tends to obfuscate the causal mechanism underlying the circulation shift. Here, using an idealised coupled aqua-planet model, we explore the mechanism of the shifting circulation, by isolating the contributing factors from the direct CO 2 forcing, the indirect ocean surface warming, and the wind-stress feedback from the ocean dynamics. We find that, in contrast to the direct CO 2 forcing, ocean surface warming, in particular an enhanced subtropical ocean warming, plays an important role in driving the circulation shift. This enhanced subtropical ocean warming emerges from the background Ekman convergence of surface anomalous heat in the absence of the ocean dynamical change. Additionally, it expands the tropical warm water zone, causes a poleward shift of the mid-latitude temperature gradient, hence forces a corresponding shift in the atmospheric circulation and the associated wind pattern. The shift in wind, in turn drives a shift in the ocean circulation. Our simulations, despite being idealised, capture the main features of the observed climate changes, for example, the enhanced subtropical ocean warming, poleward shift of the patterns of near-surface wind, sea level pressure, storm tracks, precipitation and large-scale ocean circulation, implying that increase in greenhouse gas concentrations not only raises the temperature, but can also systematically shift the climate zones poleward.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2008

Mechanical Description of the Mars Climate Sounder Instrument

This paper introduces the Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) Instrument of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft. The instrument scans the Martian atmosphere almost continuously to systematically acquire weather and climate observations over time. Its primary components are an optical bench that houses dual telescopes with a total of nine channels for visible and infrared sensing, and a two axis gimbal that provides pointing capabilities. Both rotating joints consist of an integrated actuator with a hybrid planetary/harmonic transmission and a twist cap section that enables the electrical wiring to pass through the rotating joint. Micro stepping is used to reduce spacecraft disturbance torques to acceptable levels while driving the stepper motors. To ensure survivability over its four year life span, suitable mechanical components, lubrication, and an active temperature control system were incorporated. Some life test results and lessons learned are provided to serve as design guidelines for actuator parts and flex cables.

rotating joints↗
DOE OSTI2024

Elastic Changepoint Detection for Globally-indexed Functional Time Series Data with Climate Applications

Changepoint detection is a vital tool in the application of climate data analysis. Numerous types of climate observation data are most properly represented by functional time series, implying a need for accurate changepoint detection methods applicable to functional time series data. Such data taken at a global scale often contain both spatial heterogeneity and dependence as well as phase (time) misalignment. In this report, we present methods which can detect spatially-dependent changepoints while allowing different estimates of change time and change strength depending on location. Additionally, we provide extensions to this spatially-predicted model which controls for phase variability among observations. Our methods provide the ability to detect a single change, or control for epidemic changes (where a “return-to-normal” change is more likely to be detected than the initial change). We showcase results analyzing the June 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, where our methods demonstrate the ability to accurately detect both single and epidemic changepoints even in the presence of strong seasonal variability. We find that our spatially-predicted model improves the detection of relevant changepoints versus methods which do not take spatial information into account, and we find that controlling for phase variability helps to control the false discovery rate during the detection process.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Accuracy of Vaisala RS41 and RS92 Upper Tropospheric Humidity Compared to Satellite Hyperspectral Infrared Measurements

Radiosondes are important for calibrating satellite sensors and assessing sounding retrievals. Vaisala RS41 radiosondes have mostly replaced RS92 in the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Reference Upper Air Network (GRUAN) and the conventional network. This study assesses RS41 and RS92 upper tropospheric humidity (UTH) accuracy by comparing with Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) upper tropospheric water vapor absorption spectrum measurements. Using single RS41 and RS92 soundings at three GRUAN and DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) sites and dual RS92/RS41 launches at three additional GRUAN sites, collocated with cloud-free IASI radiances (OBS), we compute Line-by-Line Radiative Transfer Model radiances for radiosonde profiles (CAL). We analyze OBS-CAL differences from 2015 to 2020, for daytime, nighttime, and dusk/dawn separately if data is available, for standard (STD) RS92 and RS41 processing, and RS92 GRUAN Data Processing (GDP; RS41 GDP is in development). We find that daytime RS41 (even without GDP) has ~1% smaller UTH errors than GDP RS92. RS41 may still have a dry bias of 1–1.5% for both daytime and nighttime, and a similar error for nighttime RS92 GDP, while standard RS92 may have a dry bias of 3–4%. These sonde humidity biases are probably upper limits since “cloud-free” scenes could still be cloud contaminated. Radiances computed from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) analyses match better than radiosondes with IASI measurements, perhaps because ECMWF assimilates IASI measurements. Relative differences between RS41 STD and RS92 GDP, or between radiosondes and ECMWF humidity profiles obtained from the radiance analysis, are consistent with their differences obtained directly from the RH measurements.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Present-day correlations are insufficient to predict cloud albedo change by anthropogenic aerosols in E3SM v2

Cloud albedo susceptibility to droplet number perturbation remains a source of uncertainty in understanding aerosol–cloud interactions and thus both past and present climate states. Through the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) v2 experiments, we probe the effects of competing processes on cloud albedo susceptibility of low-lying marine stratocumulus in the northeast Pacific. In present-day conditions, we find that increasing precipitation suppression by aerosols increases cloud albedo susceptibility, whereas increasing cloud sedimentation decreases it. By constructing a hypothetical model configuration exhibiting negative susceptibility under all conditions, we conclude that cloud albedo change due to aerosol perturbation cannot be predicted by present-day co-variabilities in E3SM v2. As such, our null result herein challenges the assumption that present-day climate observations are sufficient to constrain past states, at least in the context of cloud albedo changes to aerosol perturbation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1981

Aircraft remote sensing of soil moisture and hydrologic parameters, Taylor Creek, Florida, and Little River, Georgia, 1979 data report

Experiments were conducted to evaluate aircraft remote sensing techniques for hydrology in a wide range of physiographic and climatic regions using several sensor platforms. The data were collected in late 1978 and during 1979 in two humid areas--Taylor Creek, Fla., and Little River, Ga. Soil moisture measurements and climatic observations are presented as well as the remote sensing data collected using thermal infrared, passive microwave, and active microwave systems.

Jackson, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS1996

The Aggregate Representation of Terrestrial Land Covers Within Global Climate Models (GCM)

This project had four initial objectives: (1) to create a realistic coupled surface-atmosphere model to investigate the aggregate description of heterogeneous surfaces; (2) to develop a simple heuristic model of surface-atmosphere interactions; (3) using the above models, to test aggregation rules for a variety of realistic cover and meteorological conditions; and (4) to reconcile biosphere-atmosphere transfer scheme (BATS) land covers with those that can be recognized from space; Our progress in meeting these objectives can be summarized as follows. Objective 1: The first objective was achieved in the first year of the project by coupling the Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS) with a proven two-dimensional model of the atmospheric boundary layer. The resulting model, BATS-ABL, is described in detail in a Masters thesis and reported in a paper in the Journal of Hydrology Objective 2: The potential value of the heuristic model was re-evaluated early in the project and a decision was made to focus subsequent research around modeling studies with the BATS-ABL model. The value of using such coupled surface-atmosphere models in this research area was further confirmed by the success of the Tucson Aggregation Workshop. Objective 3: There was excellent progress in using the BATS-ABL model to test aggregation rules for a variety of realistic covers. The foci of attention have been the site of the First International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project Field Experiment (FIFE) in Kansas and one of the study sites of the Anglo-Brazilian Amazonian Climate Observational Study (ABRACOS) near the city of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. These two sites were selected because of the ready availability of relevant field data to validate and initiate the BATS-ABL model. The results of these tests are given in a Masters thesis, and reported in two papers. Objective 4: Progress far exceeded original expectations not only in reconciling BATS land covers with those that can be recognized from space, but also in then applying remotely-sensed land cover data to map aggregate values of BATS parameters for heterogeneous covers and interpreting these parameters in terms of surface-atmosphere exchanges.

Shuttleworth, W. James↗
NASA NTRS1994

Two-Layer Variable Infiltration Capacity Land Surface Representation for General Circulation Models

A simple two-layer variable infiltration capacity (VIC-2L) land surface model suitable for incorporation in general circulation models (GCMs) is described. The model consists of a two-layer characterization of the soil within a GCM grid cell, and uses an aerodynamic representation of latent and sensible heat fluxes at the land surface. The effects of GCM spatial subgrid variability of soil moisture and a hydrologically realistic runoff mechanism are represented in the soil layers. The model was tested using long-term hydrologic and climatalogical data for Kings Creek, Kansas to estimate and validate the hydrological parameters. Surface flux data from three First International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project Field Experiments (FIFE) intensive field compaigns in the summer and fall of 1987 in central Kansas, and from the Anglo-Brazilian Amazonian Climate Observation Study (ABRACOS) in Brazil were used to validate the mode-simulated surface energy fluxes and surface temperature.

GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS↗
NASA NTRS1999

Prospects of Measuring Atmospheric Winds with a 2-Micron Coherent Doppler Lidar from the International Space Station

The measurement of global winds in the troposphere is often cited as the most important single missing element of our present weather and climate observing system. The most promising technique for filling this gap is with space-based coherent Doppler lidar. A Space Shuttle mission (SPAce Readiness Coherent Lidar Experiment, SPARCLE) is being developed at NASA/MSFC (Huntsville, AL) that will provide the first space-based test of the technique, validating the ability to maintain the severe requirements on optical alignments during launch and space operations, and removing the Doppler shift of the spacecraft velocity and Earth's rotation. Continued development will include a scientific research mission in the mid-2000's, and an operational instrument around 2010. It is anticipated that the International Space Station will be a good candidate as a platform for the scientific research mission (as an attached payload). The need for and value of wind observations, the status and objectives of the SPARCLE mission, and detailed plans for the follow-on missions, including technology development, will be discussed.

Miller, Timothy L.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Evidence of Urban-Induced Precipitation Variability in Arid Climate Regimes

Water is essential to life in the Earth system. The water cycle components that sustain life are becoming more scarce and polluted. The most recent (1999-2004) drought experienced in the southwestern United States is the seventh worst in the approximately 500-year proxy tree-ring record. As a result, many regions contemplated drought emergencies in which severe water restrictions are implemented. Though larger weather and climate processes likely control drought processes, there is increasing evidence that anthropogenic or human-related activities can significantly alter precipitation processes. Urbanization is an example of anthropogenic forcing. Recent studies continue to provide evidence that urban environments can modify or induce precipitation under a specific set of conditions. Arid and semi-arid regions of the southwestern United States and other parts of the world are rapidly developing and placing greater demands on the environmental system. In the past fifty years, Phoenix has expanded from a predominantly agricultural center to an urbanized region with extent 700 percent larger than its size in the middle of the twentieth century. Riyadh's population grew from about a half million people in 1972 to almost two million by 2000. Saudi Arabia experienced urbanization later than many other countries; in the early 1970s its urban-rural ratio was still about 1:3. By 1990 the ratio had reversed to about 3:l. In the mid-1970s Riyadh's population was increasing by about 10 percent a year. Irrigation also significantly increased between 1972 and 1990 southeast of Riyadh. The study employs a 108-year precipitation historical data record, global climate observing network observations and satellite data to identify possible anomalies in rainfall in and around two major arid urban areas, Phoenix, Arizona and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It provides statistically sound evidence that rainfall distribution and magnitude is statistically different in post-urban than in pre-urban (1900-1950) Phoenix. The study hypothesis that a complex interaction between the city landscape, irrigated lands, and nearby mountains have created preferred regions for rainfall development. The study also provides early evidence that rapidly urbanizing parts of the arid Middle East may also be experiencing different precipitation regimes in response to urbanization and irrigation.

Shepherd, J. Marshall↗
NASA NTRS2008

Atmospheric Parameter Climatologies from AIRS: Monitoring Short-, and Longer-Term Climate Variabilities and 'Trends'

The AIRS instrument is currently the best space-based tool to simultaneously monitor the vertical distribution of key climatically important atmospheric parameters as well as surface properties, and has provided high quality data for more than 5 years. AIRS analysis results produced at the GODDARD/DAAC, based on Versions 4 & 5 of the AIRS retrieval algorithm, are currently available for public use. Here, first we present an assessment of interrelationships of anomalies (proxies of climate variability based on 5 full years, since Sept. 2002) of various climate parameters at different spatial scales. We also present AIRS-retrievals-based global, regional and 1x1 degree grid-scale "trend"-analyses of important atmospheric parameters for this 5-year period. Note that here "trend" simply means the linear fit to the anomaly (relative the mean seasonal cycle) time series of various parameters at the above-mentioned spatial scales, and we present these to illustrate the usefulness of continuing AIRS-based climate observations. Preliminary validation efforts, in terms of intercomparisons of interannual variabilities with other available satellite data analysis results, will also be addressed. For example, we show that the outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) interannual spatial variabilities from the available state-of-the-art CERES measurements and from the AIRS computations are in remarkably good agreement. Version 6 of the AIRS retrieval scheme (currently under development) promises to further improve bias agreements for the absolute values by implementing a more accurate radiative transfer model for the OLR computations and by improving surface emissivity retrievals.

Molnar, Gyula↗
NASA NTRS2012

Free Flyer Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS) and Climate Services Mission

NOAA's planned Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor (TSIS) mission will fly along with the NOAA user service payloads Advanced Data Collection System (ADCS) and Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking (SARSAT). In ' order to guarantee continuity in the 33-year solar irradiance climate data record, TSIS must be launched in time to overlap with current on-orbit solar irradiance instruments. Currently TSIS is moving towards a launch rcadin~ss date of January 2015. TSIS provides for continuation of the Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) and the Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM) ,currently onboard NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) platform, launched in January 2003. The difficulty of ensuring continuity has increased due to the launch failure of NASA's Glory mission with its improved TIM. Achieving the needed overlap must now rely on extending SORCE. and maintaining the TSIS schedule. TSIS is one component of a NASA-NOAA joint program (JPSS) planned to transition certain climate observations to operational mode. We summarize issues of continuity, improvements being made to the TIM and 81M sensors, and plans to provide for traceability of total and spectral irradiance measurements to ground-based cryogenic standards.

Cahalan, R.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Ionospheric Corrections to Tropospheric Retrievals

Ionosphere affects radio occultations significantly, particularly at stratospheric altitudes. Variations with solar and diurnal cycle are major concerns for observing climate trends. Large scale and small scale ionospheric structure have different impacts. The International Radio Occultation Working Group (CGMS) will benefit from greater participation of the ionospheric community.

radio occultation↗
NASA NTRS2015

Finding Atmospheric Composition (AC) Metadata

The Atmospheric Composition Portal (ACP) is an aggregator and curator of information related to remotely sensed atmospheric composition data and analysis. It uses existing tools and technologies and, where needed, enhances those capabilities to provide interoperable access, tools, and contextual guidance for scientists and value-adding organizations using remotely sensed atmospheric composition data. The initial focus is on Essential Climate Variables identified by the Global Climate Observing System CH4, CO, CO2, NO2, O3, SO2 and aerosols. This poster addresses our efforts in building the ACP Data Table, an interface to help discover and understand remotely sensed data that are related to atmospheric composition science and applications. We harvested GCMD, CWIC, GEOSS metadata catalogs using machine to machine technologies - OpenSearch, Web Services. We also manually investigated the plethora of CEOS data providers portals and other catalogs where that data might be aggregated. This poster is our experience of the excellence, variety, and challenges we encountered.Conclusions:1.The significant benefits that the major catalogs provide are their machine to machine tools like OpenSearch and Web Services rather than any GUI usability improvements due to the large amount of data in their catalog.2.There is a trend at the large catalogs towards simulating small data provider portals through advanced services. 3.Populating metadata catalogs using ISO19115 is too complex for users to do in a consistent way, difficult to parse visually or with XML libraries, and too complex for Java XML binders like CASTOR.4.The ability to search for Ids first and then for data (GCMD and ECHO) is better for machine to machine operations rather than the timeouts experienced when returning the entire metadata entry at once. 5.Metadata harvest and export activities between the major catalogs has led to a significant amount of duplication. (This is currently being addressed) 6.Most (if not all) Earth science atmospheric composition data providers store a reference to their data at GCMD.

metadata search↗
NASA NTRS2015

Laser Remote Sensing From ISS: CATS Cloud and Aerosol Level 2 Data Products (Heritage Edition)

The Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) instrument was developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and deployed to the International Space Station (ISS) on 10 January 2015. CATS is mounted on the Japanese Experiment Module's Exposed Facility (JEM_EF) and will provide near-continuous, altitude-resolved measurements of clouds and aerosols in the Earth's atmosphere. The CATS ISS orbit path provides a unique opportunity to capture the full diurnal cycle of cloud and aerosol development and transport, allowing for studies that are not possible with the lidar aboard the CALIPSO platform, which flies in the sun-synchronous A-Train orbit." " One of the primary science objectives of CATS is to continue the CALIPSO aerosol and cloud profile data record to provide continuity of lidar climate observations during the transition from CALIPSO to EarthCARE. To accomplish this, the CATS project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and the CALIPSO project at NASA's Langley Research Center (LaRC) are closely collaborating to develop and deliver a full suite of CALIPSO-like level 2 data products that will be produced using the newly acquired CATS level 1B data whenever CATS is operating in science modes 1. The CALIPSO mission is now well into its ninth year of on-orbit operations, and has developed a robust set of mature and well-validated science algorithms to retrieve the spatial and optical properties of clouds and aerosols from multi-wavelength lidar backscatter signals. By leveraging both new and existing NASA technical resources, this joint effort by the CATS and CALIPSO teams will deliver validated lidar data sets to the user community at the earliest possible opportunity. The science community will have access to two sets of CATS Level 2 data products. The "Operational" data products will be produced by the GSFC CATS team utilizing the new instrument capabilities (e.g., multiple FOVs and 1064 nm depolarization), while the "Heritage" data products created using the existing CALIPSO algorithms and the CATS 532 nm channels and the total 1064 nm channel. " Below is the development of the CATS "Heritage" level 2 software and data along with some initial results with operational data."

Rodier, Sharon↗
NASA NTRS2016

Large Gain in Air Quality Compared to an Alternative Anthropogenic Emissions Scenario

During the last 30 years, significant effort has been made to improve air quality through legislation for emissions reduction. Global three-dimensional chemistrytransport simulations of atmospheric composition over the past 3 decades have been performed to estimate what the air quality levels would have been under a scenario of stagnation of anthropogenic emissions per capita as in 1980, accounting for the population increase (BA1980) or using the standard practice of neglecting it (AE1980), and how they compare to the historical changes in air quality levels. The simulations are based on assimilated meteorology to account for the yearto- year observed climate variability and on different scenarios of anthropogenic emissions of pollutants. The ACCMIP historical emissions dataset is used as the starting point. Our sensitivity simulations provide clear indications that air quality legislation and technology developments have limited the rapid increase of air pollutants. The achieved reductions in concentrations of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, black carbon, and sulfate aerosols are found to be significant when comparing to both BA1980 and AE1980 simulations that neglect any measures applied for the protection of the environment. We also show the potentially large tropospheric air quality benefit from the development of cleaner technology used by the growing global population. These 30-year hindcast sensitivity simulations demonstrate that the actual benefit in air quality due to air pollution legislation and technological advances is higher than the gain calculated by a simple comparison against a constant anthropogenic emissions simulation, as is usually done. Our results also indicate that over China and India the beneficial technological advances for the air quality may have been masked by the explosive increase in local population and the disproportional increase in energy demand partially due to the globalization of the economy.

Law (Jurisprudence)↗