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At least 1,585 records · Page 88

Glaciers and Global Climate: Field and Remote-Sensing Studies of the Arctic

Glaciers are important indicators of global climate. Glacier recession, as observed from space and in the field, has been occurring for about 100 years. The present extent of glaciers and glaciers in the last Ice Age will be discussed. I will show slides of field work on glaciers and show instruments used to measure ice and snow. I will discuss reasons for studying glaciers and why remote sensing is important for glacier studies.

Hall, D. K.↗

The Spitzer-IRAC/MIPS Extragalactic survey (SIMES) IN the south ecliptic pole field

We present the Spitzer-IRAC/MIPS Extragalactic survey (SIMES) in the South Ecliptic Pole field. The large area covered (7.7 deg{sup 2}), together with one of the lowest Galactic cirrus emissions in the entire sky and a very extensive coverage by Spitzer, Herschel, Akari, and GALEX, make the SIMES field ideal for extragalactic studies. The elongated geometry of the SIMES area (≈4:1), allowing for significant cosmic variance reduction, further improves the quality of statistical studies in this field. Here we present the reduction and photometric measurements of the Spitzer/IRAC data. The survey reaches depths of 1.93 and 1.75 μJy (1σ) at 3.6 and 4.5 μm, respectively. We discuss the multiwavelength IRAC-based catalog, completed with optical, mid-, and far-IR observations. We detect 341,000 sources with F{sub 3.6μm}⩾3σ. Of these, 10% have an associated 24 μm counterpart, while 2.7% have an associated SPIRE source. We release the catalog through the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive. Two scientific applications of these IRAC data are presented in this paper. First, we compute integral number counts at 3.6 μm. Second, we use the [3.6]–[4.5] color index to identify galaxy clusters at z > 1.3. We select 27 clusters in the full area, a result consistent with previous studies at similar depth.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The optical field angle distortion calibration feasibility study for the Hubble Space Telescope fine guidance sensors

The results of an analytical study to investigate the feasibility of calibrating the Hubble Space Telescope's (HST's) fine guidance sensors (FGSs) within HST mission accuracy limits are presented. The study has two purposes: (1) to determine the mathematical feasibility of the optical field angle distortion (OFAD) calibration algorithm and (2) to confirm that the OFAD, plate scale, and FGS-to-FGS alignment calibration algorithms produced a calibration of the FGSs that satisfied mission requirements. The study concluded that the mathematical specification of the OFAD algorithm is adequate and permits a determination of the FGS calibration parameters (accurate to better than 0.003 arc-second) sufficient to meet the mission requirements. The algorithms implemented, the characteristics of the simulated data and procedures for data analysis, and the study's results are discussed. In addition, several useful techniques for improving the stability and accuracy of the OFAD solution are outlined.

Luchetti, K.↗

The null magnetic field as reference for the study of geomagnetic directional effects in animals and man.

Techniques for producing very low and zero magnetic fields are considered, giving attention to the compensation of the geomagnetic field by a Helmholtz coil system, approaches utilizing the shielding power of highly permeable alloys, and the complete exclusion of the geomagnetic field with the aid of a superconductive shield. Animal experiments in low magnetic fields are discussed, together with the exposure of man to 'null' magnetic fields and the Josephson junction as a possible biosensor of magnetic fields. It is found that neither the functions nor the behavior of man changes significantly during a two-week exposure to magnetic fields below 50 gammas.

Beischer, D. E.↗

Electroluminescence pulse shape and electron diffusion in liquid argon measured in a dual-phase TPC

Here, we report the measurement of the longitudinal diffusion constant in liquid argon with the DarkSide-50 dual-phase time projection chamber. The measurement is performed at drift electric fields of 100 V/cm, 150 V/cm, and 200 V/cm using high statistics $^{39}$Ar decays from atmospheric argon. We derive an expression to describe the pulse shape of the electroluminescence signal (S2) in dual-phase TPCs. The derived S2 pulse shape is fit to events from the uppermost portion of the TPC in order to characterize the radial dependence of the signal. The results are provided as inputs to the measurement of the longitudinal diffusion constant DL, which we find to be (4.12 $\pm$ 0.04) cm$^2$/s for a selection of 140keV electron recoil events in 200V/cm drift field and 2.8kV/cm extraction field. To study the systematics of our measurement we examine datasets of varying event energy, field strength, and detector volume yielding a weighted average value for the diffusion constant of (4.09 $\pm$ 0.09) cm$^2$ /s. The measured longitudinal diffusion constant is observed to have an energy dependence, and within the studied energy range the result is systematically lower than other results in the literature.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Corrosion Behavior of Sm{sub y}(Fe{sub x}Ni{sub 1−x}){sub 4}Sb{sub 12} (0.40 ≤ x ≤ 0.80) in NaCl Solutions Studied by Electron Microscopy and ICP-AES

Filled skutterudites are currently studied as thermoelectric materials to be used in the automotive and nautical field; the study of their resistance to a saline environment is therefore mandatory. To this purpose, the corrosion behavior of several compositions belonging to the Sm{sub y}(Fe{sub x}Ni{sub 1−x}){sub 4}Sb{sub 12} skutterudites system was investigated by immersing samples in differently concentrated (0.1 and 0.5 M) NaCl solutions. The effect of the treatment was analyzed both by SEM–EDS on the sample surface and at fixed times by ICP-AES on the solution. The formation of an oxide layer was observed on the surface of all the samples: the film results uniformly grown on specimens treated in NaCl at the lower concentration, while it is cracked and not spread over the whole surface in the other samples. Relying on the oxide layer thickness, the oxidation resistance results to increase with increasing the Fe content; correspondingly, the Sb concentration in the more diluted solution decreases at each time considered with increasing the Fe amount, pointing at a strict correlation between the cationic release and the oxide formation, and suggesting a possible mechanism for the growth of the protective film.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Reversible long-range domain wall motion in an improper ferroelectric

Reversible ferroelectric domain wall movements beyond the 10 nm range associated with Rayleigh behavior are usually restricted to specific defect-engineered systems. Here, we demonstrate that such long-range movements naturally occur in the improper ferroelectric ErMnO 3 during electric-field-cycling. We study the electric-field-driven motion of domain walls, showing that they readily return to their initial position after having traveled distances exceeding 250 nm. By applying switching spectroscopy band-excitation piezoresponse force microscopy, we track the domain wall movement with nanometric spatial precision and analyze the local switching behavior. Phase field simulations show that the reversible long-range motion is intrinsic to the hexagonal manganites, linking it to their improper ferroelectricity and topologically protected structural vortex lines, which serve as anchor point for the ferroelectric domain walls. Our results give new insight into the local dynamics of domain walls in improper ferroelectrics and demonstrate the possibility to reversibly displace domain walls over much larger distances than commonly expected for ferroelectric systems in their pristine state, ensuring predictable device behavior for applications such as tunable capacitors or sensors.

Zahn, Manuel [Norwegian Univ. of Science and Techn↗

Dynamics of reconfigurable artificial spin ice: Toward magnonic functional materials

Over the past few years, the study of magnetization dynamics in artificial spin ices has become a vibrant field of study. Artificial spin ices are ensembles of geometrically arranged, interacting magnetic nanoislands, which display frustration by design. These were initially created to mimic the behavior in rare earth pyrochlore materials and to study emergent behavior and frustration using two-dimensional magnetic measurement techniques. Recently, it has become clear that it is possible to create artificial spin ices, which can potentially be used as functional materials. In this perspective, we review the resonant behavior of spin ices in the GHz frequency range, focusing on their potential application as magnonic crystals. In magnonic crystals, spin waves are functionalized for logic applications by means of band structure engineering. While it has been established that artificial spin ices can possess rich mode spectra, the applicability of spin ices to create magnonic crystals hinges upon their reconfigurability. Consequently, we describe recent work aiming to develop techniques and create geometries allowing full reconfigurability of the spin ice magnetic state. We also discuss experimental, theoretical, and numerical methods for determining the spectral response of artificial spin ices and give an outlook on new directions for reconfigurable spin ices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Analysis of field errors for LARP Nb 3 Sn HQ03 quadrupole magnet

The U.S. LHC Accelerator Research Program, in close collaboration with CERN, has developed three generations of high-gradient quadrupole (HQ) Nb 3 Sn model magnets, to support the development of the 150 mm aperture Nb 3 Sn quadrupole magnets for the High-Luminosity LHC. The latest generation, HQ03, featured coils with better uniformity of coil dimensions and properties than the earlier generations. We tested the HQ03 magnet at FNAL, including the field quality study. The profiles of low-order harmonics along the magnet aperture observed at 15 kA, 1.9 K can be traced back to the assembled coil pack before the magnet assembly. Based on the measured harmonics in the magnet center region, the coil block positioning tolerance was analyzed and compared with earlier HQ01 and HQ02 magnets to correlate with coil and magnet fabrication. Our study the capability of correcting the low-order non-allowed field errors, magnetic shims were installed in HQ03. Furthermore, the expected shim contribution agreed well with the calculation. For the persistent-current effect, the measured a4 can be related to 4% higher in the strand magnetization of one coil with respect to the other three coils. Lastly, we compare the field errors due to the inter-strand coupling currents between HQ03 and HQ02.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Multiscale Airborne Infectious Disease Transmission

Airborne disease transmission is central to many scientific disciplines, including agriculture, veterinary biosafety, medicine, and public health. Legal and regulatory standards are in place to prevent agricultural, nosocomial, and community airborne disease transmission. However, the overall importance of the airborne pathway is underappreciated; e.g., the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s Medical Subjects Headings (MESH) thesaurus lacks an airborne disease transmission indexing term. This has practical consequences, as airborne precautions to control epidemic disease spread may not be taken when airborne transmission is important but unrecognized. Publishing clearer practical methodological guidelines for surveillance studies and disease outbreak evaluations could help address this situation. To inform future work, this paper highlights selected, well-established airborne transmission events, largely cases replicated in multiple, independently conducted scientific studies. Methodologies include field experiments, modeling, epidemiology studies, disease outbreak investigations, and mitigation studies. Collectively, this literature demonstrates that airborne viruses, bacteria, and fungal pathogens have the ability to cause disease in plants, animals, and humans over multiple distances, from near range (<5 m) to continental (>500 km) in scale. The plausibility and implications of undetected airborne disease transmission are discussed, including the notable underreporting of disease burdens for several airborne-transmitted diseases.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Forced Synchronization of Electroconvective Roll Oscillations in Nematic Liquid Crystals

The forced phase locking in a system of the oscillating electroconvective rolls that form in a nematic liquid crystal layer in a dc electric field is studied. As a result of the action of an additive ac electric field with a small amplitude, the system of oscillators is found to be divided into clusters, where oscillations are fully phase locked. The electroconvective rolls in neighboring clusters oscillate in antiphase and the clusters are separated by Ising walls. The phase locking is shown to be maximal at the forcing frequency that is close to the double frequency of the natural oscillations of rolls. A model is proposed to describe spatially distributed phase oscillators, and it takes into account the symmetries of a system of electroconvective rolls and external forcing. The results of numerical simulations agree well with the experimental data.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Studies of surface adsorbate electronic structure and femtochemistry at the fundamental length and time scales. Final report

The electronic structure and ultrafast (10-15 s-femtosecond timescale) electron dynamics were investigated for clean and atom/molecule covered metal surfaces. The studies were performed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to measure the structure of adsorbed atoms and molecules on metal surfaces, and to investigate their electronic properties. The electronic structure of the observed molecular networks was calculated by electronic structure theory in collaboration with Prof. Jin Zhao, who is a long-time collaborator, a Professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, and holds an Adjunct Professorship at the University of Pittsburgh. We also investigated the electronic properties of C60 molecules when they are templated by corrugated black phosphorous surfaces. We found unexpected charge delocalization that is enabled by the templating. This research was done in collaboration with Professor Min Feng at the Wuhan University, and who also holds an Adjunct Professorship at the University of Pittsburgh. Moreover, the electronic structure and electron dynamics in metal surfaces were investigated by time-resolved photoemission electron spectroscopy. The focus of ultrafast spectroscopy has been on the plasmonic response of silver surfaces. One direction has been to develop multidimensional (energy, momentum, and time) photoelectron spectroscopy of the coherent response of solid surfaces. This method was applied to study the collective electron excitations known generally as plasmons, which screen optical fields from penetration into metals. Although this collective response has been known for more than 60 years and is used extensively to deposit optical energy into metals, how this happens is poorly known. We investigated the plasmonic response of silver at the point where the dielectric response passes through zero and bulk plasmon is excited by light. We discovered that the plasmon excitation decays by exciting electrons from the Fermi level of a metal, which is contrary to what is believed in the plasmonic science community. This research has been performed in collaboration with Dr. Marcel Reutzel, who was a postdoctoral fellow working on this research at the University of Pittsburgh, and now has a faculty position at the University of Göttingen in Germany. Prof. Branko Gumhalter from the Institute of Physics in Zagreb contributed on the theory of plasmonic decay processes. Furthermore, we investigated the Floquet engineering of electronic bands in metals leading to multiphoton photoemission and above threshold photoemission. Finally, we demonstrated that it is possible to change the electronic structure of metals by application of optical fields. Our studies indicated that this happens on subfemtosecond time scale and could potentially be used in ultrafast information processing and quantum computation. Related document information

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Radar Studies of Convective Dynamics (CONVECT) Field Campaign Report

The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility’s third ARM Mobile Facility (AMF3)-Bankhead National Forest (BNF) field deployment site and surrounding region offer a significant advantage for convective cloud studies. The higher mid-tropospheric humidity promotes frequent clouds, and when coupled with seasonal variability in convective environments, promotes isolated convection and severe thunderstorms, organized convection in the summertime, and strongly sheared convection during transitional seasons. The CONVECT field experiment was designed to provide unique, high-spatiotemporal-resolution microphysical and dynamical observations of severe weather events. The CONVECT scientific objectives align well with the AMF3-BNF site science plan.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Causes of forbush decreases and other cosmic ray variations

The relationship between neutron monitor variations and the intensity variations of the interplanetary magnetic field is studied, using Deep River data and IMP-series satellite data. In over 80% of the cases studied, identifiable depressions of the cosmic ray intensity are associated with magnetic field enhancements of several hours duration and intensity above 10 gamma. Conversely, each magnetic field enhancement has an identifiable effect (though not necessarily a marked depression) on the cosmic ray intensity. Long lasting Forbush decreases are found to be the consequence of the successive action of several such features. An explanation is presented and discussed.

Barouch, E.↗

Global Systems Science: A New World View

Global systems science is a new field of study about the interactions between Earth's natural systems and human activities. The people who study global systems science draw on methods and theories of many different fields from chemistry and biology to economics and politics-in order to predict how today's actions are likely to affect the world of tomorrow - our world and our children's world.

Sneider, Cary↗

Plasma Oscillation Characterization of NASA's HERMeS Hall Thruster via High Speed Imaging

The performance and facility effect characterization tests of NASA's 12.5-kW Hall Effect Rocket with Magnetic Shielding had been completed. As a part of these tests, three plasma oscillation characterization studies were performed to help determine operation settings and quantify margins. The studies included the magnetic field strength variation study, background pressure effect study, and cathode flow fraction study. Separate high-speed videos of the thruster including the cathode and of only the cathode were recorded. Breathing mode at 10-15 kHz and cathode gradient-driven mode at 60-75 kHz were observed. An additional high frequency (40-70 kHz) global oscillation mode with sinusoidal probability distribution function was identified.

Ground Tests↗

How Well Satellite Remote Sensing Can Inform Surface Level Ozone Production Sensitivity to Precursor Trace Gas Emissions?

Surface-level ozone (O3) pollution mitigation strategies rely on a clear understanding of the atmospheric chemical processes involving O3, NOx (nitric oxide (NO) + nitrogen dioxide (NO2)) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). A robust spatiotemporal classification of O3 photochemical regimes with relative chemical sensitivity of local O3 formation to emission reductions of NOx (NOx-limited regime) versus VOCs (radical-limited regime) is required to design anthropogenic emission reduction policies in order to improve surface air quality. Numerous studies found that the ratio of satellite-retrieved Vertical Column Densities (VCDs) of formaldehyde (HCHO) to NO2 can diagnose O3 production sensitivity. However, uncertainty still remains about the accuracy of such estimates using satellite-based retrievals. This study conducts an investigation to identify how well satellite data can inform surface-level O3 sensitivity by validating satellite-based estimates against aircraft-based retrievals taken during the Long Island Sound Tropospheric Ozone Study (LISTOS-2018) and Ozone Water-Land Environmental Transition Study (OWLETS-2) field campaigns. For this study, we use HCHO and NO2 retrievals from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) onboard the Aura satellite, and high spatiotemporal resolution TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) satellite. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modelling system is used to provide trace gas vertical profiles to recalculate air mass factor for deriving consistent satellite-based VCDs. To demonstrate the ability of satellites to diagnose O3 production regimes, we validate satellite-derived O3 sensitivity regimes, along with the OMI and TROPOMI products applied, using HCHO and NO2 retrievals from the aircraft-based instruments: Geostationary Trace gas and Aerosol Sensor Optimization (GeoTASO) spectrometer and Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events Airborne Simulator (GCAS) instruments deployed during the LISTOS-2018 and OWLETS-2 campaigns. The results of this work will advance our fundamental knowledge of the spatiotemporal evolution of the complex O3-NOx-VOC chemistry, and will advance our understanding about the quality of remote-sensing, suborbital, and satellite data for accurately observing surface-level O3 production sensitivity.

Satellite↗