Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “WATER POLLUTION MONITORS”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 163 records · Page 9

Public health applications of remote sensing of the environment, an evaluation

The available techniques were examined in the field of remote sensing (including aerial photography, infrared detection, radar, etc.) and applications to a number of problems in the wide field of public health determined. The specific areas of public health examined included: air pollution, water pollution, communicable disease, and the combined problems of urban growth and the effect of disasters on human communities. The assessment of the possible applications of remote sensing to these problems was made primarily by examination of the available literature in each field, and by interviews with health authorities, physicists, biologists, and other interested workers. Three types of programs employing remote sensors were outlined in the air pollution field: (1) proving ability of sensors to monitor pollutants at three levels of interest - point source, ambient levels in cities, and global patterns; (2) detection of effects of pollutants on the environment at local and global levels; and (3) routine monitoring.

Source record↗

Oil-pollution detection and monitoring from space using ERTS-1

The author has identified the following significant results. Three reported spills were investigated using four digital computer, compatible techniques on ERTS - 1 data. A spill on the Atlantic Ocean (off Virginia) was studied to develop spectral signatures. Another spill, in Oakland Bay, was studied by ratioing spectral channels (to try to eliminate turbidity effects) and by summing different spectral channels to look for anomolus values caused by oil. The final spill, off Southern California, was investigated by looking for anomolus values in each channel separately. Results indicate that any of these methods might be usable if the spill is large enough to be seen by satellite, if the spill occurs more than a few kilometers off shore, and if the sky and water are relatively clear. In the case of the Atlantic spill, identification of material was not possible; and in the other two cases, the spills could not be detected at all. ERTS-1 was not considered feasible for this type of work because of its 18 day overpass frequency, the few spectral channels, the extended bandwidths, and the long, information retrieval time.

Horvath, R.↗

Water Treatment Systems Make a Big Splash

In the 1960s, NASA's Manned Space Center (now known as Johnson Space Center) and the Garrett Corporation, Air Research Division, conducted a research program to develop a small, lightweight water purifier for the Apollo spacecraft that would require minimal power and would not need to be monitored around-the-clock by astronauts in orbit. The 9-ounce purifier, slightly larger than a cigarette pack and completely chlorine-free, dispensed silver ions into the spacecraft s water supply to successfully kill off bacteria. A NASA Technical Brief released around the time of the research reported that the silver ions did not impart an unpleasant taste to the water. NASA s ingenuity to control microbial contamination in space caught on quickly, opening the doors for safer methods of controlling water pollutants on Earth.

Source record↗

The airborne Laser Absorption Spectrometer - A new instrument of remote measurement of atmospheric trace gases

The Laser Absorption Spectrometer is a portable instrument developed by JPL for remote measurement of trace gases from an aircraft platform. It contains two carbon dioxide lasers, two optical heterodyne receivers, appropriate optics to aim the lasers at the ground and detect the backscattered energy, and signal processing and recording electronics. Operating in the differential-absorption mode, it is possible to monitor one atmospheric gas at a time and record the data in real time. The system can presently measure ozone, ethylene, water vapor, and chlorofluoromethanes with high sensitivity. Airborne measurements were made in early 1977 from the NASA/JPL twin-engine Beechcraft and in May 1977 from the NASA Convair 990 during the ASSESS-II Shuttle Simulation Study. These flights resulted in measurements of ozone concentrations in the lower troposphere which were compared with ground-based values provided by the Air Pollution Control District. This paper describes the details of the instrument and results of the airborne measurements.

Shumate, M. S.↗

Satellite monitoring of sea surface pollution

The author has identified the following significant results. Image processing techniques developed are well adapted to the exploration and isolation of local areas which exhibit small temperature differences between themselves and their surroundings. In the worst case of imagery of small areal extent of sea surface having no coastal boundary in the area, there is yet no method of distinguishing unambiguously an oil spill from fog, cloud, the effect produced by shallow sediments, or the effects of naturally occuring thermal fronts. In the case of uniform slicks of liquid North Sea oil in still air, laboratory simulation experiments show that, for oil thicknesses in excess of 1 or 2 mm, there is, under equilibrium conditions, little dependence of oil surface temperature on the thickness of the oil layer. The surface temperature of oil is consistently higher than that of water, the difference being about 1 K at low values of relative humidity, but tending to increase as the relative humidity increases.

Fielder, G.↗

NASA’s Student Airborne Science Activation for Minority Serving Institutions: Inaugural Program, Educational Outcomes, and Lessons Learned

The NASA Student Airborne Science Activation (SaSa) for Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) held its inaugural summer research program for early career undergraduates interested in the Geosciences. SaSa is a NASA Science Activation funded 8-week summer internship program. Twenty-four first- and second-year undergraduates from MSIs across the U.S. participated in the summer program - June 6 to July 29, 2022. Students had the opportunity to gain hands-on research experience in all components of an airborne science campaign including flying on-board a NASA research aircraft to collect atmospheric measurements. Students conducted independent research projects related to the atmosphere, ocean, and geosciences that feed into NASA’s broader Earth Science Division’s and Decadal Survey goals using air quality, meteorological, and oceanic measurements from surface, airborne, and satellite-based observations. The program split its time between partner institution, University of Maryland Baltimore County and NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. Students also made site visits at partner institutions, including: Hampton University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Morgan State University, Howard University, and Coppin State University and attended lectures from visiting faculty and NASA Subject Matter Experts. Students were guided on their research projects by near-peer graduate mentors, SaSa program leadership, co-Is at partner institutions, and NASA scientists to address two major research themes: 1) how human-caused air pollution has human and environmental implications, and 2) how large-scale meteorological factors influence local weather conditions. Students sorted into research groups, based on sub-discipline areas in the Geosciences, including: “Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation”, “Meteorology and Planetary Boundary Layer”, “Air Quality: Particle Pollution and Trace Gases”, and “Air-Water-Land Interface”. Their research was presented as 3-minute lightning talks and in-person poster presentations at a close-out event at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The students’ inter- and trans-disciplinary research experiences centered in the use of multiple ground, airborne, and satellite remote sensing NASA Earth Science Division assets. Providing a unique experience aligned to recognize the societal benefits that NASA contributes in the areas of resource management, air quality monitoring and policy decisions, energy and weather predictions, and research on the Earth’s climate. The SaSa program aims to increase the number of students from MSIs that identify as underrepresented or underserved individuals in the Geosciences discipline, Earth System Science graduate programs, and the NASA workforce. A summary of the summer research program, educational, scientific, and programmatic outcomes, as well as lessons learned will be presented.

NASA↗

Leveraging Environmental Monitoring Results from Department of Energy Sites for Research on the Food-Energy-Water Nexus

The Annual Site Environmental Report (ASER) from a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Site summarizes environmental data; environmental management performance; compliance with applicable DOE, federal, state, and local regulations; and restoration and surveillance monitoring programs. The Savannah River Site (SRS) produces ASERs that include results of monitoring mercury levels in fish samples obtained in the vicinity of SRS. Mercury is a toxic trace metal and the methylated organic form is a neurotoxin that bioaccumulates in the food web, endangering humans and other organisms. In United States, power plants are the largest source of mercury emissions. Research Objective: To determine the patterns of mercury levels in fish samples reported in the SRS environmental monitoring reports. We developed box plot visualizations to make sense of the data as well as identify fish species, dates and location with outlier mercury content. The integration and visual representation of multi-year datasets can support decision making processes on environmental compliance and environmental sustainability conducted at U.S. DOE Sites. We are constructing datasets from textual, image and multivariable data sources in the multi-year ASERs of the U.S. DOE Savannah River Site (SRS https://www.srs.gov/general/pubs/ERsum/index.html). The Fish Surveillance for mercury presents a case study for the intersection of food, energy and water systems. The dataset of 864 records (2008 and 2009) of mercury levels includes water location of fish, fish species, collection date and mercury content of fish sample. The patterns of mercury levels in the fish species as well as locations provide knowledge for further investigations. A research area for future studies is the composition of microbial communities in fish guts of varying levels of mercury.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Extensive urban air pollution footprint evidenced by submicron organic aerosols molecular composition

Transport and transformation of urban air pollutants are among the major factors driving the changes in the atmospheric composition in the downwind rural/remote areas of a megacity. Here, we assess the impacts of urban air pollution in a subtropical forest through characterization of the organic markers in submicron aerosol particles. The aerosol samples were collected and analyzed using TD-PTR-ToF-MS, where 163 ions were detected. The concentration of these extracted ions accounts for 83% of the mass of submicron organic aerosols, which are accordingly characterized by a median formula of C 7 H 10 O 2 . Molecular speciation indicates that urban and biomass burning pollution contributed substantially to the budget of organic aerosols, which were enhanced particularly by the liquid water content and acidity of the aerosols. Our results evidence that the footprint of urban air pollution was extended to its downwind forested areas and caused changes in the concentration and composition of submicron aerosols.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Characterizing Spatio-Temporal Ozone Gradients Along Coastal Boundaries: Sondes and Mobile Measurements from OWLETS-2

One of the major difficulties for the modeling and satellite communities is the validation of O3 levels in sharp coastal transition regions within metropolitan areas. Land-water gradients of ozone as well as its precursors can be significant due to differences in emissions, land use, surface deposition, boundary layer height, and mesoscale wind patterns. The Ozone Water-Land Environmental Transition Study (OWLETS-2) was a follow-on field campaign spearheaded by NASA GSFC and LaRC's Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Network (TOLnet) conducted in the summer of 2018 within the Upper Chesapeake region to better characterize spatial and vertical distribution of various pollutants across the coastal boundary. Supporting this campaign, 40 ozonesondes were simultaneously launched directly in the marine environment on Hart Miller Island (HMI) and on two land sites: both the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and Howard University-Beltsville (HUBV). In addition, Personal Ozone Monitors (POMs) - small sensors - were deployed in a variety of environments - car, boat, and drone, to name a few - to quantify ozone across fine spatial and temporal thresholds. The purpose of these measurements is multifaceted: to provide both ozone pollution information to coastal metropolitan communities and validation to satellite, modeling, and forecasting communities, especially in current and future satellite endeavors such as TROPOMI and TEMPO.

coastal pollution↗

Structuring Nutrient Yields throughout Mississippi/Atchafalaya River Basin Using Machine Learning Approaches

To minimize the eutrophication pressure along the Gulf of Mexico or reduce the size of the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico, it is important to understand the underlying temporal and spatial variations and correlations in excess nutrient loads, which are strongly associated with the formation of hypoxia. This study’s objective was to reveal and visualize structures in high-dimensional datasets of nutrient yield distributions throughout the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB). For this purpose, the annual mean nutrient concentrations were collected from thirty-three US Geological Survey (USGS) water stations scattered in the upper and lower MARB from 1996 to 2020. Eight surface water quality indicators were selected to make comparisons among water stations along the MARB over the past two decades. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to comprehensively evaluate the nutrient yields across thirty-three USGS monitoring stations and identify the major contributing nutrient loads. The results showed that all samples could be analyzed using two main components, which accounted for 81.6% of the total variance. The PCA results showed that yields of orthophosphate (OP), silica (SI), nitrate–nitrites (NO 3 -NO 2 ), and total suspended sediment (TSS) are major contributors to nutrient yields. It also showed that land-planted crops, density of population, domestic and industrial discharges, and precipitation are fundamental causes of excess nutrient loads in MARB. These factors are of great significance for the excess nutrient load management and pollution control of the Mississippi River. It was found that the average nutrient yields were stable within the sub-MARB area, but the large nitrogen yields in the upper MARB and the large phosphorus yields in the lower MARB were of great concern. t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) revealed interesting nonlinear and local structures in nutrient yield distributions. Clustering analysis (CA) showed the detailed development of similarities in the nutrient yield distribution. Moreover, PCA, t-SNE, and CA showed consistent clustering results. This study demonstrated that the integration of dimension reduction techniques, PCA, and t-SNE with CA techniques in machine learning are effective tools for the visualization of the structures of the correlations in high-dimensional datasets of nutrient yields and provide a comprehensive understanding of the correlations in the distributions of nutrient loads across the MARB.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Development of a Real-Time Environmental Monitoring System, Life Cycle Assessment Systems, and Pollution Prevention Programs

Pollution prevention (P2) opportunities and Greening the Government (GtG) activities, including the development of the Real-Time Environmental Monitoring System (RTEMS), are currently under development at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The RTEMS project entails the ongoing development of a monitoring system which includes sensors, instruments, computer hardware and software, plus a data telemetry system.Professor Kocher has been directing the RTEMS project for more than 3 years, and the implementation of the prototype system at GRC will be a major portion of his summer effort. This prototype will provide mulitmedia environmental monitoring and control capabilities, although water quality and air emissions will be the immediate issues addressed this summer. Applications beyond those currently identified for environmental purposes will also be explored.

Kocher, Walter M.↗

Water Quality Monitor

In the photo above, the cylindrical container being lowered into the water is a water quality probe developed by NASA's Langley Research Center for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in an applications engineering project. It is part of a system- which also includes recording equipment in the helicopter-for on-the-spot analysis of water samples. It gives EPA immediate and more accurate information than the earlier method, in which samples are transported to a lab for analysis. Designed primarily for rapid assessment of hazardous spills in coastal and inland waters, the system provides a wide range of biological and chemical information relative to water pollution.

Source record↗

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission: Monitoring the Global Tropics for 3 Years and Beyond

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) was launched in November 1997 as a joint U.S.-Japanese mission to advance understanding of the global energy and water cycle by providing distributions of rainfall and latent heating over the global tropics. As a part of NASA's Earth System Enterprise, TRMM seeks to understand the mechanisms through which changes in tropical rainfall influence global circulation. Additionally, a goal is to improve the ability to model these processes in order to predict global circulations and rainfall variability at monthly and longer time scales. Such understanding has implications for assessing climate processes related to El Nino/La Nina and Global Warming. TRMM has also provided unexpected and exciting new knowledge and applications in areas related to hurricane monitoring, lightning, pollution, hydrology, and other areas. This CD-ROM includes a self-contained PowerPoint presentation that provides an overview of TRMM and significant science results; a set of data movies or animation; and listings of current TRMM-related publications in the literature.

Shepherd, Marshall↗

Satellites as Shared Resources for Caribbean Climate and Health Studies

Remotely-sensed data and observations are providing powerful new tools for addressing climate and environment-related human health problems through increased capabilities for monitoring, risk mapping, and surveillance of parameters useful to such problems as vector-borne and infectious diseases, air and water quality, harmful algal blooms, UV (ultraviolet) radiation, contaminant and pathogen transport in air and water, and thermal stress. Remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS), improved computational capabilities, and interdisciplinary research between the Earth and health science communities are being combined in rich collaborative efforts resulting in more rapid problem-solving, early warning, and prevention in global health issues. Collaborative efforts among scientists from health and Earth sciences together with local decision-makers are enabling increased understanding of the relationships between changes in temperature, rainfall, wind, soil moisture, solar radiation, vegetation, and the patterns of extreme weather events and the occurrence and patterns of diseases (especially, infectious and vector-borne diseases) and other health problems. This increased understanding through improved information and data sharing, in turn, empowers local health and environmental officials to better predict health problems, take preventive measure, and improve response actions. This paper summarizes the remote sensing systems most useful for climate, environment and health studies of the Caribbean region and provides several examples of interdisciplinary research projects in the Caribbean currently using remote sensing technologies. These summaries include the use of remote sensing of algal blooms, pollution transport, coral reef monitoring, vectorborne disease studies, and potential health effects of African dust on Trinidad and Barbados.

Maynard, Nancy G.↗

Environmental risks and opportunities of orphaned oil and gas wells in the United States

Abstract Hundreds of thousands of documented and undocumented orphaned oil and gas wells exist in the United States (U.S.). These wells have the potential to contaminate water supplies, degrade ecosystems, and emit methane and other air pollutants. Thus, orphaned wells present risks to climate stability and to environmental and human health, which can be reduced by plugging. To quantify environmental risks and opportunities of well plugging at the national level, we analyze data on 81 857 documented orphaned wells across the U.S. We find that > 4.6 million people live within 1 km of a documented orphaned well. 35% of the documented orphaned wells are located within 1 km of a domestic groundwater well, yet only 8% of the wells have groundwater quality data within a 1 km radius. Methane emissions from the documented orphaned wells represent approximately 3%–6% of total U.S. methane emissions from abandoned oil and gas wells, but this estimate is based on measurements at < 0.03% of U.S. abandoned wells. 91% of the documented orphaned wells overlie formations favorable for geologic storage of carbon dioxide and hydrogen, meaning that orphaned well plugging can reduce leakage risks from future storage projects. Finally, we estimate plugging costs for documented orphaned wells to exceed the $4.7 billion federal funding by 30%–80%, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing federal spending on wells with large remediation benefits. Overall, environmental monitoring data are not extensive enough to quantify risks, especially those related to air and water quality and human health. Plugging orphaned wells can provide opportunities for geologic storage of carbon dioxide and hydrogen and geothermal energy development, thereby facilitating efforts to transition to net-zero energy systems. Our analysis on environmental risks and opportunities of orphaned wells provides a framework that can be used to manage the millions of documented and undocumented orphaned wells in the U.S. and abroad.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Skylab and ERTS-1 investigations of coastal land use and water properties

The author has identified the following significant results. ERTS-1 multispectral scanner and Skylab's S190A, S190B, and S192 data products were evaluated for their utility in studying current circulation, suspended sediment concentrations and pollution dispersal in Delaware Bay and in mapping coastal vegetation and land use. Imagery from the ERTS-1 MSS, S190A and S190B cameras shows considerable detail in water structure, circulation, suspended sediment distribution and within waste disposal plumes in shelf waters. These data products were also used in differentiating and mapping twelve coastal vegetation and land use classes. The spatial resolution of the S190A multispectral facility appears to be about 30 to 70 meters while that of the S190B earth terrain camera is about 10 to 30 meters. Such resolution, along with good cartographic quality, indicates a considerable potential for mapping coastal land use and monitoring water properties in estuaries and on the continental shelf. The ERTS-1 MSS has a resolution of about 70-100 meters. Moreover, its regular 18-day cycle permits observation of important changes, including the environmental impact of coastal zone development on coastal vegetation and ecology.

Klemas, V.↗

International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment, 17th, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, May 9-13, 1983, Proceedings. Volumes 1, 2 & 3

The collection, processing, and analysis of remote-sensing data from ground-based, airborne, and spaceborne instruments for application to the monitoring and management of the earth and environment and resources are examined in reviews and reports, some in summary form. Subject areas covered include US policy and directions on remote sensing (RS); the future of terrestrial RS from space; RS of land, oceans, and atmosphere from a global perspective; RS in hydrological modeling; microprocessing technology; array processors; geobased information systems; artificial intelligence; the Shuttle imaging radar; and current results from Landsat-4. Among the specific topics discussed are RS application to hydrocarbon exploration, airborne gamma-radiation assessment of snow water equivalent, surface-vegetation-biomass modeling from AVHRR and Landsat data, Landsat imagery of Mediterranean pollution, fast two-dimensional filtering of thermal-scanner data, RS of severe convective storms, registration of rotated images by invariant moments, and the geometric accuracy of Landsat-4 Thematic-Mapper P-tapes.

Source record↗

Fluorescence-Based Aqueous Phosphate Sensing Using Eu(cpboda)(DMF) 2

Fluorescence-based phosphate sensing using phosphate-sensitive phosphors is a promising approach for in situ monitoring of phosphate pollution in waterways and reservoirs. To date, the most sensitive phosphor developed for this purpose is Tb(cpboda)(DMF) 2 , where cpboda = (3,3'-((5-Carboxy-1,3-phenylene)bis(oxy))dibenzoic acid). In this study, we further improve this sensitivity by replacing the Tb 3+ ions with Eu 3+ ions to make Eu(cpboda)(DMF) 2 and find concentration-independent phosphate-sensitivity of 1570 ± 120, which is ≈8× more sensitive than the Tb-version. This improvement is attributed to Eu 3+ having a hypersensitive transition, while Tb 3+ does not. Additionally, we characterize the phosphor’s optical properties, photodegradation, and water solubility. We find that the phosphor presents challenges with regards to both photodegradation and solubility, as it is found to be poorly soluble in water and is quickly photodegraded under UV radiation <360 nm. However, these obstacles can, in theory, be overcome with the use of direct excitation of the Eu 3+ ions at 394 nm and careful design of an analysis instrument to reduce concentration variations.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗