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At least 145 records · Page 8

Toward digital design at the exascale: An overview of project ICECap

High performance computing has entered the Exascale Age. Capable of performing over 1018 floating point operations per second, exascale computers, such as El Capitan, the National Nuclear Security Administration's first, have the potential to revolutionize the detailed in-depth study of highly complex science and engineering systems. However, in addition to these kind of whole machine “hero” simulations, exascale systems could also enable new paradigms in digital design by making petascale hero runs routine. Currently, untenable problems in complex system design, optimization, model exploration, and scientific discovery could all become possible. Motivated by the challenge of uncovering the next generation of robust high-yield inertial confinement fusion (ICF) designs, project ICECap (Inertial Confinement on El Capitan) attempts to integrate multiple advances in machine learning (ML), scientific workflows, high performance computing, GPU-acceleration, and numerical optimization to prototype such a future. Built on a general framework, ICECap is exploring how these technologies could broadly accelerate scientific discovery on El Capitan. In addition to our requirements, system-level design, and challenges, we describe some of the key technologies in ICECap, including ML replacements for multiphysics packages, tools for human-machine teaming, and algorithms for multifidelity design optimization under uncertainty. As a test of our prototype pre-El Capitan system, we advance the state-of-the art for ICF hohlraum design by demonstrating the optimization of a 17-parameter National Ignition Facility experiment and show that our ML-assisted workflow makes design choices that are consistent with physics intuition, but in an automated, efficient, and mathematically rigorous fashion.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Construction of generalized quasilinear diffusion coefficient using neural networks with physical restrictions

The quasilinear diffusion coefficient (D QL ) derived from our machine learning framework shows comparable trends with the ground truth D QL obtained from GENRAY-CQL3D simulations. Additionally, for the strong absorption cases, the radial current drive profiles generated using the D QL from our model exhibit consistent behavior with those obtained from the original simulation. These findings indicate the potential of our surrogate modeling approach with physical restrictions to replicate key wave–plasma interaction characteristics while reducing computational costs. Traditionally, calculating D QL for wave–particle interactions relies on computationally intensive wave simulations coupled with Fokker–Planck solvers. To address this challenge, we developed a machine learning-based surrogate model with physical restrictions derived from cold plasma theory and bounce-averaged damping effects. First, we establish the propagation domain of Lower Hybrid Waves in the (N∥, ρ) space by identifying the accessibility limit and determining the upper and lower bounds of N∥ using the Potential Power Deposition (PPD) method. Subsequently, leveraging a database constructed using Latin hypercube sampling alongside the underlying physical restrictions (e.g. PPD), machine learning methods including U-Net and Recurrent Neural Networks are employed to design a physics-restricted machine learning framework capable of reconstructing D QL .

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Assessment and Simulation of Particulate Transport for Delivery of Solid Amendments into the Subsurface: FY25 Status Report

For particulate-based amendments to be viable for field-scale remediation at the Hanford Site (e.g., the 200 DV-1 Operable Unit), amendment particles need to be delivered a reasonable distance away from an injection well to provide cost effective in situ treatment. Field-scale particle transport models can estimate spatial deposition of amendment particles in the subsurface, which is critical for developing an overall remediation strategy. However, field-scale particle simulations are currently limited due to insufficient simulation capability and a lack of experimental data to validate and parameterize particle transport models. During this fiscal year, the following progress has been made toward a field-scale particle transport modeling evaluation: (1) in addition to the two particle transport models implemented last FY, four additional particle transport models have been implemented within PFLOTRAN; (2) a Python-based pre-screening tool was finalized, enabling users to quickly estimate the particle radius of influence (ROI) for any given particle-amendment system; and (3) an initial compatibility assessment was completed using both particle transport simulations deployed through the pre-screening tool, in conjunction with general guidelines to (a) identify the most suitable amendment particle sizes for various Hanford sediments and (b) evaluate amendment-delivery fluid compatibility. The preliminary compatibility assessment revealed that for amendment delivery success to the various Hanford target formations, amendment particle sizes will likely need to be smaller than the amendment sizes tested in the DV-1 treatability study. It is recommended that amendment particles be decreased in size, or alternative smaller size amendments be obtained from the manufacture, prior to any further experimental testing. Also, preliminary testing suggests that xanthan gum may be the most broadly compatible delivery fluid. Planned laboratory experiments will be instrumental in validating and refining the PFLOTRAN particulate transport model formulations, ultimately enabling predictive capabilities to facilitate the design of field-scale amendment delivery systems. This work consists of acquiring new theoretical or experimental knowledge. The information associated with this report should not be used as design input or operating parameters without additional qualification.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Data-based filtered dissipation rate modelling for multi-modal turbulent combustion: evaluating a priori model generalizability

Manifold-based models offer a computationally efficient alternative to directly transporting the thermochemical state in computational simulations of turbulent reacting flows, projecting the high-dimensional thermochemical state-space onto a low-dimensional manifold. Recent efforts have yielded a manifold-based model applicable to multi-modal combustion, enabling reconstruction of the thermochemical state from solutions to two-dimensional manifold equations in mixture fraction and generalized progress variable that are parameterised by three scalar dissipation rates. In coarse-grained simulations such as Large Eddy Simulation (LES), closure of the multi-modal manifold equations and subfilter variances/covariance requires closure of three filtered scalar dissipation rates. Here, the present work adopts a data-based approach, providing closure for the three filtered scalar dissipation rates via deep neural networks (DNNs). High-fidelity datasets corresponding to an autoigniting n-dodecane jet flame and a bluff body swirl-stabilized confined lifted spray flame of two aviation fuels (Jet-A and C1) with different ignition propensities are leveraged to generate training data that spans a diverse range of thermodynamic conditions and combustion modes, including low- and high-temperature ignition regimes in addition to premixed and nonpremixed behaviour. A final DNN model is trained to enforce inherent physical constraints by learning nonlinear functional transformations of the three filtered scalar dissipation rates. The generalizability of this constrained DNN model is demonstrated a priori via conditional statistics evaluated on the lifted spray flame with C1–a configuration that had not been included in the training data. Excellent DNN agreement with conditional DNS statistics is observed, and integrated gradients are computed to identify the most sensitive input variables. The similarity of the marginal PDFs of the most informative input variables and outputs across configurations are quantified via the Wasserstein metric, demonstrating that data-based models may successfully generalize to unseen parametric conditions so long as the most informative input variables share similar distributions across training and testing datasets.

Data-based modelling↗

Predictive turbulence-driven flux model of scrape-off layer widths across confinement regimes in tokamaks

Reliable scrape-off layer (SOL) profile decay lengths predictions are needed to design and operate future tokamaks. The present manuscript describes a new model based on turbulent transport that is able to predict SOL widths for both L-mode and H-mode plasmas. The model is based upon the sheared-spectral filament paradigm (Peret et al (WEST Team) 2022 Phys. Plasmas 29 072306), however, incorporating the effects of thermal transport in order to calculate the parallel heat fluxes. The effects of magnetic shear and ExB shear on the cross-field transport are crucial to explain the shorter SOL decay lengths found in H-mode. The model is validated against a database of thousands of DIII-D L-mode and H-mode SOL profiles. We also calculate SOL decay length predictions in terms of plasma and engineer control parameters, which are in agreement with the multi-machine empirical H-mode scaling (Eich et al (ASDEX Upgrade Team and JET EFDA Contributors) 2013 Nucl. Fusion 53 093031), however, with an additional device geometry dependence. ITER SOL width predictions by the model are 3 times higher than the empirical scaling.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

STITCHES: a Python package to amalgamate existing Earth system model output into new scenario realizations

Understanding the interaction between humans and the Earth system is a computationally daunting task, with many possible approaches depending on resources available and questions of interest. For example, state-of-the-art impact models require decade-long time series of relatively high frequency, spatially resolved and often multiple variables representing climatic impact-drivers (Ruane et al., 2022). Most commonly these are derived from the outputs of detailed, computationally expensive Earth System Models (ESMs) run according to a standard, limited set of future scenarios, the latest being the SSP-RCPs run under CMIP6/ScenarioMIP (Eyring et al., 2016; O’Neill et al., 2016). At the time of writing, O’Neill et al. (2016) has been cited more than 1750 times and Eyring et al. (2016) more than 5000 times, highlighting the broad, general applications of this data. Often, however, impact modeling seeks to explore new scenarios that were not part of the ScenarioMIP protocol, and/or needs a larger set of initial condition ensemble members than are typically available to quantify the effects of ESM internal variability. In addition, the recognition that the human and Earth systems are fundamentally intertwined, and may feature potentially significant feedback loops, is making integrated, simultaneous modeling of the coupled human-Earth system increasingly necessary, if computationally challenging with most existing tools (Thornton et al., 2017). For impact modelers, climate model emulators can be the answer to meet both the needs of: 1) creating realizations for novel scenarios and 2) achieving a simplified, computationally tractable representation of ESM behavior in a coupled human-Earth system modeling framework. We proposed a new, comprehensive approach to such emulation of gridded, multivariate ESM outputs for novel scenarios without the computational cost of a full ESM, STITCHES (Tebaldi et al., 2022). The approach outlined in Tebaldi et al. (2022) should be extensible to future CMIP eras, although the STITCHES software at present is strictly focused on CMIP6/ScenarioMIP data hosted on Pangeo (https://gallery.pangeo.io/repos/pangeo-gallery/cmip6/). The corresponding STITCHES Python package uses existing archives of ESMs’ scenario experiments from CMIP6/ScenarioMIP to construct gridded, multivariate realizations of new scenarios provided by reduced complexity climate models (Hartin et al., 2015; Meinshausen et al., 2011; Smith et al., 2018), or to enrich existing initial condition ensembles. Its output provides the same characteristics as the emulated ESM output: multivariate (spanning potentially all variables that the ESM has saved), spatially resolved (down to the native grid of the ESM), and preserving the same high frequency as the original data. A new realization of multiple variables can be generated on the order of minutes with STITCHES, rather than the hours or sometimes days that ESMs require.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Nuclear Astrophysics through simulations of neutron star mergers using Monte‐Carlo neutrino radiation transport (DE-SC0020435 Final Technical Report)

Neutron star mergers are an important source of information for nuclear physics. Except for black holes, neutron stars are the densest macroscopic objects known to exist in the Universe. They provide us with a remarkable laboratory to study the poorly understood high-density states of matter, complementing the study of heavy nuclei performed by nuclear physics experiments on Earth. Collisions of neutron stars are of particular interest. They are among the most energetic events observable in the Universe, powering a broad range of signals across the electromagnetic spectrum as well as gravitational wave signals. These signals contain important information about the properties of extremely dense matter. Colliding neutron stars additionally eject large amounts of neutron-rich material into the surrounding interstellar medium -- material that then undergoes rapid neutron-capture (r-process) nucleosynthesis, the mechanism thought to be responsible for the production of about half of the heavy nuclei. In order to understand current and future observations of neutron star mergers, we need reliable models for the signals that they power. An important component in the construction of such models are numerical simulations of colliding neutron stars. These simulations are costly, running for multiple months on supercomputers, and require the inclusion of complex physics (general relativity, magnetohydrodynamics, neutrino physics, nuclear reactions). In this document, we describe the development of new methods for the treatment of neutrinos in merger simulations, as well as the first simulations capable of evolving the equations of neutrino radiation transport directly and their impact on our understanding of neutron star mergers and more broadly in nuclear astrophysics. We also discuss additional work performed in the study of nucleosynthesis and neutrino physics in neutron star mergers as part of Early Career Award DE-SC0020435.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Simulating nationwide coupled disease and fear spread in an agent-based model

Human cognitive responses, behavioral responses, and disease dynamics co-evolve over the course of any disease outbreak, and can result in complex feedbacks. We present a dynamic agent-based model that explicitly couples the spread of disease with the spread of fear surrounding the disease, implemented within the EpiCast simulation framework. EpiCast models transmission within a realistic synthetic population, capturing individual-level interactions. In our model, fear propagates through both in-person contact and broadcast media, prompting individuals to adopt protective behaviors that reduce disease spread. In order to better understand these coupled dynamics, we create and compare a range of compartmental models to ensure that introducing additional disease states does not prevent the emergence of multiple waves in these simpler models. Additionally, we compare a range of behavioral scenarios within EpiCast, varying the level and intensity of fear and behavior change. Our results show that the addition of asymptomatic, exposed, and pre-symptomatic disease states can impact both the rate at which an outbreak progresses and its overall trajectory in compartmental models. In EpiCast, the combination of non-local fear spread via broadcasters and strong behavioral responses by fearful individuals generally leads to multiple epidemic waves, an outcome that occurs only within a narrow parameter range when fear spreads purely through local contact. Accounting for the coupled spread of fear and disease is critical for understanding disease dynamics and designing timely, targeted responses to emerging infectious threats.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

The protein structurome of Orthornavirae and its dark matter

Metatranscriptomics is uncovering more and more diverse families of viruses with RNA genomes comprising the viral kingdom Orthornavirae in the realm Riboviria. Thorough protein annotation and comparison are essential to get insights into the functions of viral proteins and virus evolution. In addition to sequence- and hmm profile-based methods, protein structure comparison adds a powerful tool to uncover protein functions and relationships. We constructed an Orthornavirae “structurome” consisting of already annotated as well as unannotated (“dark matter”) proteins and domains encoded in viral genomes. We used protein structure modeling and similarity searches to illuminate the remaining dark matter in hundreds of thousands of orthornavirus genomes. The vast majority of the dark matter domains showed either “generic” folds, such as single α-helices, or no high confidence structure predictions. Nevertheless, a variety of lineage-specific globular domains that were new either to orthornaviruses in general or to particular virus families were identified within the proteomic dark matter of orthornaviruses, including several predicted nucleic acid-binding domains and nucleases. In addition, we identified a case of exaptation of a cellular nucleoside monophosphate kinase as an RNA-binding protein in several virus families. Notwithstanding the continuing discovery of numerous orthornaviruses, it appears that all the protein domains conserved in large groups of viruses have already been identified. The rest of the viral proteome seems to be dominated by poorly structured domains including intrinsically disordered ones that likely mediate specific virus-host interactions.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Mesoscale Convective Systems Tracking Method Intercomparison (MCSMIP): Application to DYAMOND Global km‐Scale Simulations

Abstract Global kilometer‐scale models represent the future of Earth system modeling, enabling explicit simulation of organized convective storms and their associated extreme weather. Here, we comprehensively evaluate tropical mesoscale convective system (MCS) characteristics in the DYAMOND (DYnamics of the atmospheric general circulation modeled on non‐hydrostatic domains) simulations for both summer and winter phases. Using 10 different feature trackers applied to simulations and satellite observations, we assess MCS frequency, precipitation, and other key characteristics. Substantial differences (a factor of 2–3) arise among trackers in observed MCS frequency and their precipitation contribution, but model‐observation differences in MCS statistics are more consistent across trackers. DYAMOND models are generally skillful in simulating tropical mean MCS frequency, with multi‐model mean biases ranging from −2%–8% over land and −8%–8% over ocean (summer vs. winter). However, most DYAMOND models underestimate MCS precipitation amount (23%) and their contribution to total precipitation (17%). Biases in precipitation contributions are generally smaller over land (13%) than over ocean (21%), with moderate inter‐model variability. While models better simulate MCS diurnal cycles and cloud shield characteristics, they overestimate MCS precipitation intensity and underestimate stratiform rain contributions (up to a factor of 2), particularly over land, albeit observational uncertainties exist. Additionally, models exhibit a wide range of precipitable water in the tropics compared to reanalysis and satellite observations, with many models showing exaggerated sensitivity of MCS precipitation intensity to precipitable water. The MCS metrics developed here provide process‐oriented diagnostics to guide future model development.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Implementation and Evaluation of Emission‐Driven Land‐Atmosphere Coupled Simulation in E3SMv2.1

Emissions-driven (prognostic CO 2 ) simulations are essential for representing two-way carbon-climate feedback in Earth System Models. We present an emissions-driven land–atmosphere coupled biogeochemistry (BGC) configuration (BGCLNDATM_progCO2) in version 2.1 of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SMv2.1). This is the first E3SM configuration that performs land-atmosphere emission-hindcasts. Here, we document its implementation, evaluate the model's performance against observations and other models, and propose a structured evaluation protocol for such emissions-driven simulations. We conducted transient historical simulations (1850–2014) with BGCLNDATM_progCO2 and compare them to reference simulations—a land-atmosphere coupled simulation without BGC and a standalone land simulation with BGC, both using prescribed CO 2 concentrations—and to observations. BGCLNDATM_progCO2 overestimates atmospheric CO 2 concentrations by 11–23 ppm yet stays within the 40-ppm spread CMIP6 emission-driven models and retains physical climate properties comparable to the reference runs. The CO 2 biases are partly attributed to underrepresented oceanic CO 2 uptake and inadequate representations of some terrestrial processes. In general, introducing prognostic CO 2 did not change physical climate metrics at the global scale but had larger regional effects, particularly over land where spatially heterogeneous CO 2 and prognostic leaf area index influenced surface energy balance. Finally, we propose a general evaluation protocol including spin-up assessment, atmospheric CO 2 benchmarking, physical climate evaluation, and land biogeochemical analysis to support scientific rigor and facilitate inter-model comparisons. The new configuration lays the groundwork for future enhancements, including improved terrestrial biogeochemical processes, integrated marine biogeochemistry, and additional human–Earth system interactions. These developments advance E3SM toward fully coupled emissions-driven simulations, enabling more accurate carbon–climate feedback projections and informing mitigation policy by providing physically consistent carbon-budget metrics for mitigation scenarios.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Three-dimensional analysis of microbunched electron cooling

Microbunched electron cooling (MBEC, Ratner, ), a special category of coherent electron cooling, has been under consideration as a candidate method for the strong hadron cooling component of the Electron Ion Collider (EIC) at BNL. Most of the theoretical treatments of this scheme so far have been based on simplified models for the key space charge effect in which electrons and/or hadrons are approximated by charged disks. Although such disk-based models provide a flexible tool that captures a good part of the underlying physics, they lack the fidelity and robustness of a rigorous analysis that explicitly treats the hadron and cooler electron beams as collections of point charges. In this paper, we present such a rigorous, three-dimensional (3D) model, both from a theory-based and a simulation perspective. Specifically, we calculate the generalized wakefield (or Green’s function) of the cooling system—a crucial quantity that determines the overall performance—paying special attention to the dependence of the wake on the hadron transverse positions. Additionally, our treatment takes into account previously neglected 3D effects that can cause damping of the plasma oscillations in the amplification section of the cooler, such as focusing and the angular spread of the electron beam. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Reduced-Order Modeling of Hydrogen Releases from Vent Stacks and with Wind Effects

Here, the physical release behavior of hydrogen is important to understand from a safety and design perspective. The consequences of unignited pressurized gaseous hydrogen plumes exiting vent stacks were considered by extending and modifying existing general hydrogen plume models. Entrainment, vent stack backpressure, and the flow regime of hydrogen exiting the vent were found to be significant factors affecting plume shape and size, but further investigation and validation with unchoked, low-Froude-number flows is recommended to improve the model’s robustness. Additionally, models for the effects of wind on unignited plume momentum and entrainment were added to explore this behavior. Wind was assumed to increase mixing of hydrogen with the ambient air, and to affect the momentum of the released jet. Introducing wind into the plume model led to a shorter plume for all wind and jet directions. A high counter-flowing wind led to non-physical results and challenges in interpreting the visualization. The proposed jet plume wind sub-models (specifically entrainment coefficients) were fit and compared to experimental data of different releases of hydrogen into a wind tunnel, but the quantity of data available and experimental conditions were limited. Thus, collection of more empirical data and for a wider range of conditions is recommended for improvement of the proposed computational models. Developing reduced-order models for these physical phenomena can improve accessibility to predicted physical behavior and the rate at which hydrogen systems can be safely designed and deployed.

entrainment↗

Laser absorption measurements of temperature, pressure, CO, and CO 2 at near-MHz rates in post-detonation fireballs with comparison to synthetic measurements

A laser absorption spectroscopy (LAS) diagnostic was used to obtain measurements of temperature, pressure, CO, and CO 2 at 500 kHz or 1 MHz in post-detonation fireballs produced by hemispherical samples of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). A quantum-cascade laser was scanned over multiple CO absorption transitions near 2008.5 cm −1 at 1 MHz, while an interband-cascade laser was scanned over a CO 2 absorption transition near 2394.8 cm −1 at 500 kHz. Light from each laser was combined onto a single path and passed through a detonation chamber approximately 83 mm above the 12-mm diameter hemispherical PETN charge. The CO and CO 2 absorption signals were post-processed to obtain time histories of temperature, pressure, species column pressures (P CO L, P CO2 L), and species column mole fractions (X CO L, X CO2 L). Additionally, schlieren imaging was performed simultaneously at 500 kHz to aid interpretation of the LAS measurements. Experimental and synthetic (i.e., CFD based) LAS measurements were compared to evaluate the accuracy of the CFD model and its ability to model the turbulent afterburning of the detonation products in air. In general, the experimental measurements exhibit reasonable agreement with the synthetic measurements at early times; thereby supporting the accuracy of the CFD model. Periods of disagreement between experimental and synthetic measurements at later times are most likely due to a reflected shock and detonator cavity jetting, which are not accounted for in the CFD model.

Schwartz, Charles J. [Purdue Univ., West Lafayette↗

Super Resolving Unrolled Neural Networks for Remote Sensing

In remote sensing systems, the capabilities of the system are constrained by the complex interactions between size, weight, and power (SWAP) of potential designs. In electro-optical (EO) systems, examples of these critical parameters include the system’s sensitivity and resolution. Those parameters can be increased by ever larger optical apertures and focal planes but at the cost of more SWAP. Multi-image super resolution (MISR) techniques allow resolution to be enhanced via computation rather than more sophisticated optical hardware. These algorithms combine multiple images together into a single, higher resolution image, trading temporal resolution and computation for spatial resolution. Fielded MISR techniques, such as Drizzle, can require several hundred images to create a single super resolved image, implying reduced temporal resolution, increased data acquisition load, and limiting mission applications. Iterative techniques, such as model-based image reconstruction and compressive sensing, have been shown to create super resolved images using fewer images than Drizzle. They do this by posing an optimization problem that balances accuracy between a highly accurate physical model and an image model. In the case of super resolution, the physical model is defined by the relation between low resolution input images and the desired high resolution output image. The image model encodes some assumptions about the super resolved image. These assumptions are meant to suppress reconstruction artifacts that arise due to deterministic physical model error, stochastic measurement noise, and potential undersampling. In practice, the performance of iterative methods are limited by imaging models compatible with optimization. Deep learning-based methods can effectively learn image models of arbitrary complexity, but lack the theoretical explainability and robustness of iterative techniques. Consensus equilibrium (CE) generalizes the iterative techniques beyond optimization, enabling blackbox algorithms such as traditional and neural image denoisers to be used as the image model. CE-based approaches retain much of the explainability and robustness of iterative techniques while allowing the expressiveness of machine learning image models to be used. Additionally, by unrolling iterations of CE with an embedded image denoiser, the image denoiser can be further trained and specialized to the specific application with potentially higher quality reconstructions. Under this project, we demonstrated the feasibility of training an unrolled neural network based upon CE. While we didn’t train one, we showed that the CE process is differentiable and its gradient can be tractably computed. We also explored the usage of a variants of CE akin to generative neural works. Most importantly, we applied the CE framework to a number of problems including non-blind deconvolution, upsampling, single-image super resolution, MISR, event-based sensing, and saturated deconvolution. Our MISR prototype creates high quality reconstructions with an order of magnitude fewer images than previous approaches and, critically, produces these reconstructions fast enough for practical usage.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Characteristics and effects of aerosols during blowing snow events in the central Arctic

Sea salt aerosol (SSaer) significantly impacts aerosol-radiation and aerosol-cloud interactions, and sublimated blowing snow is hypothesized to be an important SSaer source in polar regions. Understanding blowing snow and other wind-sourced aerosols’ climate relevant properties is needed, especially during winter when Arctic amplification is greatest. However, most of our understanding of blowing snow SSaer comes from modeling studies, and direct observations are sparse. Additionally, SSaer can originate from multiple sources, making it difficult to disentangle emission processes. Here, we present comprehensive observations of wind-sourced aerosol during blowing snow events from the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition in the central Arctic. High wind speed strongly enhances total aerosol number, submicron sodium chloride mass, cloud condensation nuclei concentrations, and scattering coefficients. Generally, the relative response of aerosol properties to wind speed enhancement is strongest in fall when Arctic aerosol concentrations are lowest. Blowing snow events showed similar aerosol and environmental properties across events, apart from occasions with high snow age (>6 days since last snowfall). Coarse-mode number concentrations (>1 μm) are better explained by variability in wind speed averaged over 12-h air mass back trajectories arriving at the MOSAiC site compared to local, instantaneous wind speed, suggesting the importance of regional transport and consideration of air mass history for wind-driven aerosol production. These MOSAiC observations provide new insights into wind-driven aerosol in the central Arctic and may help validate modeling studies and improve model parameterizations particularly for aerosol direct and indirect radiative forcing.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Estimating the Electric Fields Driving Lightning Dart Leader Development With BIMAP‐3D Observations

Abstract In this paper, a numerical dart leader model has been implemented to understand the leader's development and the corresponding electric field changes observed by the 3D broadband mapping and polarization (BIMAP‐3D) system. The model assumes the extending leader channel is equipotential and has a linear charge distribution induced by an ambient electric field. The charge distribution induced by the ambient field can be used to model the electric field change at the ground. We then find the ambient electric field which best fits the field change measurements at the two BIMAP stations. The estimated ambient electric field decreases in the direction of dart leader propagation. Our observations and modeling results are consistent with our earlier hypothesis that dart leader speed is proportional to the electric field at the leader tip. The model also supports our earlier analysis that leader speed variations near branch junctions were due to previous charge deposits near the junctions. The modeled tip electric field is generally lower than the breakdown field unless the pre‐dart‐leader channel has a significant temperature of 3,000 K. This is consistent with the fact that dart leaders typically do not form new branches into the virgin air. Furthermore, the tip field is generally close to the negative streamer stability field at ambient temperatures, explaining the nature of the narrow and well‐defined channel structure. In addition to the charge distribution and the ambient and tip electric field, the development of the channel potential and current distribution are also presented.

3D lightning mapping↗

Deep-learning based artificial intelligence tool for melt pools and defect segmentation

Accelerating fabrication of additively manufactured components with precise microstructures is important for quality and qualification of built parts, as well as for a fundamental understanding of process improvement. Accomplishing this requires fast and robust characterization of melt pool geometries and structural defects in images. This paper proposes a pragmatic approach based on implementation of deep learning models and self-consistent workflow that enable systematic segmentation of defects and melt pools in optical images. Deep learning is based on an image-to-image translation–conditional generative adversarial neural network architecture. An artificial intelligence (AI) tool based on this deep learning model enables fast and incrementally more accurate predictions of the prevalent geometric features, including melt pool boundaries and printing-induced structural defects. We present statistical analysis of geometric features that is enabled by the AI tool, showing strong spatial correlation of defects and the melt pool boundaries. The correlations of widths and heights of melt pools with dataset processing parameters show the highest sensitivity to thermal influences resulting from laser passes in adjacent and subsequent layer passes. The presented models and tools are demonstrated on the aluminum alloy and datasets produced with different sets of processing parameters. However, they have universal quality and could easily be adapted to different material compositions. The method can be easily generalized to microstructural characterizations other than optical microscopy.

additive manufacturing↗