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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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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

TPSAS-NF1676L-16580-DND

NASA has embarked on a multi-year program to explore ways to minimize the impact of aviation on the environment. Known as the Environmentally Responsible Aviation program, its goal is to explore vehicle concepts and technologies that have potential to reduce the noise, emissions, and fossil fuel usage typically associated with aviation. To support the evaluation of aircraft performance and noise characteristics, numerous upgrades to the 14x22 were developed and constructed over a 10 month period. This presentation will detail the challenges associated with managing the activities of the 14x22 during this extended period during which no testing was performed.

Donald Smith↗
NASA NTRS2020

Current and future global climate impacts resulting from COVID-19

The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a sudden reduction of both GHG emissions and air pollutants. Here, using national mobility data, we estimate global emission reductions for ten species during the period February to June 2020. We estimate that global NOx emissions declined by as much as 30% in April, contributing a short-term cooling since the start of the year. This cooling trend is offset by ~20% reduction in global SO2 emissions that weakens the aerosol cooling effect, causing short-term warming. As a result, we estimate that the direct effect of the pandemic-driven response will be negligible, with a cooling of around 0.01 ± 0.005 °C by 2030 compared to a baseline scenario that follows current national policies. In contrast, with an economic recovery tilted towards green stimulus and reductions in fossil fuel investments, it is possible to avoid future warming of 0.3 °C by 2050.

Piers M. Forster↗
NASA NTRS2018

Measuring Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide from the NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2)

Fossil fuel combustion, deforestation, and other human activities are now adding almost 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere each year. These emissions are superimposed on an active natural carbon cycle that adds about 20 times as much CO2 to the atmosphere annually, and then reabsorbs a comparable amount, along with over half of the CO2 contributed by human activities. Interestingly, the identity and location of the natural “sinks” in the land biosphere and ocean that are responsible for absorbing this anthropogenic CO2 are still poorly understood. Because of this, it is impossible to accurately predict how these sinks will respond to a warming climate. Space based remote sensing provides new tools for studying the sources and sinks of CO2. The NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) was launched in July 2014 and was inserted at the head of the 705-km Afternoon Constellation (A-Train) a month later.

Crisp, David↗
NASA NTRS2021

Observations of Greenhouse Gases as Climate Indicators

Humans have significantly altered the energy balance of the Earth’s climate system mainly not only by extracting and burning fossil fuels but also by altering the biosphere and using halocarbons. The 3rd US National Climate Assessment pointed to a need for a system of indicators of climate and global change based on long-term data that could be used to support assessments and this led to the development of the National Climate Indicators System (NCIS). Here we identify a representative set of key atmospheric indicators of changes in atmospheric radiative forcing due to greenhouse gases (GHGs), and we evaluate atmospheric composition measurements, including non-CO2GHGs for use as climate change indicators in support of the US National Climate Assessment. GHG abundances and their changes over time can provide valuable information on the success of climate mitigation policies, as well as insights into possible carbon-climate feedback processes that may ultimately affect the success of those policies. To ensure that reliable information for assessing GHG emission changes can be provided on policy-relevant scales, expanded observational efforts are needed. Furthermore, the ability to detect trends resulting from changing emissions requires a commitment to supporting long-term observations. Long-term measurements of greenhouse gases, aerosols, and clouds and related climate indicators used with a dimming/brightening index could provide a foundation for quantifying forcing and its attribution and reducing error in existing indicators that do not account for complicated cloud processes.

greenhouse gases↗
NASA NTRS2020

Harmonization of global land use change and management for the period 850–2100 (LUH2) for CMIP6

Human land use activities have resulted in large changes to the biogeochemical and biophysical properties of the Earth's surface, with consequences for climate and other ecosystem services. In the future, land use activities are likely to expand and/or intensify further to meet growing demands for food, fiber, and energy. As part of the World Climate Research Program Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), the international community has developed the next generation of advanced Earth system models (ESMs) to estimate the combined effects of human activities (e.g., land use and fossil fuel emissions) on the carbon–climate system. A new set of historical data based on the History of the Global Environment database (HYDE), and multiple alternative scenarios of the future (2015–2100) from Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) teams, is required as input for these models. With most ESM simulations for CMIP6 now completed, it is important to document the land use patterns used by those simulations. Here we present results from the Land-Use Harmonization 2 (LUH2) project, which smoothly connects updated historical reconstructions of land use with eight new future projections in the format required for ESMs. The harmonization strategy estimates the fractional land use patterns, underlying land use transitions, key agricultural management information, and resulting secondary lands annually, while minimizing the differences between the end of the historical reconstruction and IAM initial conditions and preserving changes depicted by the IAMs in the future. The new approach builds on a similar effort from CMIP5 and is now provided at higher resolution (0.25°×0.25°) over a longer time domain (850–2100, with extensions to 2300) with more detail (including multiple crop and pasture types and associated management practices) using more input datasets (including Landsat remote sensing data) and updated algorithms (wood harvest and shifting cultivation); it is assessed via a new diagnostic package. The new LUH2 products contain > 50 times the information content of the datasets used in CMIP5 and are designed to enable new and improved estimates of the combined effects of land use on the global carbon–climate system.

land use land cover change↗
NASA NTRS2020

Land management and climate change determine second‐generation bioenergy potential of the US Northern Great Plains

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) has been proposed as a potential climate mitigation strategy raising concerns over trade‐offs with existing ecosystem services. We evaluate the feasibility of BECCS in the Upper Missouri River Basin (UMRB), a landscape with diverse land use, ownership, and bioenergy potential. We develop land‐use change scenarios and a switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) crop functional type to use in a land‐surface model to simulate second‐generation bioenergy production. By the end of this century, average annual switchgrass production over the UMRB ranges from 60 to 210 Tg dry mass/year and is dependent on the Representative Concentration Pathway for greenhouse gas emissions and on land‐use change assumptions. Under our simple phase‐in assumptions this results in a cumulative total production of 2,000–6,000 Tg C over the study period with the upper estimates only possible in the absence of climate change. Switchgrass yields decreased as average CO2 concentrations and temperatures increased, suggesting the effect of elevated atmospheric CO2 was small because of its C4 photosynthetic pathway. By the end of the 21st century, the potential energy stored annually in harvested switchgrass averaged between 1 and 4 EJ/year assuming perfect conversion efficiency, or an annual electrical generation capacity of 7,000–28,000 MW assuming current bioenergy efficiency rates. Trade‐offs between bioenergy and ecosystem services were identified, including cumulative direct losses of 1,000–2,600 Tg C stored in natural ecosystems from land‐use change by 2090. Total cumulative losses of ecosystem carbon stocks were higher than the potential ~300 Tg C in fossil fuel emissions from the single largest power plant in the region over the same time period, and equivalent to potential carbon removal from the atmosphere from using biofuels grown in the same region. Numerous trade‐offs from BECCS expansion in the UMRB must be balanced against the potential benefits of a carbon‐negative energy system.

climate change↗
NASA NTRS2018

High‐Resolution Mapping of Nitrogen Dioxide With TROPOMI: First Results and Validation Over the Canadian Oil Sands

TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), on-board the Sentinel-5 Precursersatellite, is a nadir-viewing spectrometer measuring reflected sunlight in the ultraviolet, visible,near-infrared, and shortwave infrared. From these spectra several important air quality and climate-relatedatmospheric constituents are retrieved, including nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at unprecedented spatialresolution from a satellite platform. We present the first retrievals of TROPOMI NO2over the Canadian OilSands, contrasting them with observations from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument satellite instrument,and demonstrate TROPOMI's ability to resolve individual plumes and highlight its potential for derivingemissions from individual mining facilities. Further, the first TROPOMI NO2validation is presented,consisting of aircraft and surface in situ NO2observations, and ground-based remote-sensingmeasurements between March and May 2018. Our comparisons show that the TROPOMI NO2verticalcolumn densities are highly correlated with the aircraft and surface in situ NO2observations, and theground-based remote-sensing measurements with a low bias (15–30 %); this bias can be reduced byimproved air mass factors. Plain Language Summary: Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a pollutant that is linked to respiratoryhealth issues and has negative environmental impacts such as soil and water acidification. Near thesurface the most significant sources of NO2are fossil fuel combustion and biomass burning. With a recentlylaunched satellite instrument (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument [TROPOMI]), NO2can be measuredwith an unprecedented combination of accuracy, spatial coverage, and resolution. This work presents thefirst TROPOMI NO2measurements near the Canadian Oil Sands and shows that these measurements havean outstanding ability to detect NO2on a very high horizontal resolution that is unprecedented for satelliteNO2observations. Further, these satellite measurements are in excellent agreement with aircraft andground-based measurements.

TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI)↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Green Aviation: Review, Aspirations, and Operational Improvements

Air traffic affects the environment locally, regionally and globally. Estimates show that aviation is responsible for 13% of transportation-related fossil fuel consumption and 2% of all anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Although there is considerable decline in air traffic due to COVID pandemic, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expects domestic air traffic to grow at an annual rate of 2.0 % over the next 20 years. Global air traffic is expected to grow more rapidly than domestic air traffic at an annual rate of 4.8% from 2011 to 2030. The desire to accommodate growing air traffic needs while limiting the impact of aviation on the environment has led to research in green aviation with the goals of better scientific understanding, utilization of alternative fuels, introduction of new aircraft technology, and rapid operational changes. Greenhouse gases, nitrogen oxides, and contrails generated by air traffic affect the climate in different and uncertain ways. Understanding the changes requires a hierarchy of models to deal with multiple disciplines, time scales ranging from few minutes to few hundred years and uncertainties in modeling parameters affecting both science and policy. This talk reviews earlier work at Ames on the modeling approach and an integrated capability to design aircraft operations based on a trade-off between fuel consumption, environmental goals and stakeholder values.

Green Aviation↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Ocean’s Breath: How Autonomous Robotic Vehicles at Sea and Super Computers are Helping us Understand the Carbon Cycle in the Ocean

Carbon dioxide due to human activities such as fossil fuel burning has well-known and concerning implications for global temperatures as well as terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Hence, an important objective of NASA Earth science is to observe and understand the variations in the global carbon cycle and the associated climate and ecosystem impacts in the context of past and projected anthropogenic emissions. In my presentation, I will tell the story of how some of my collaborators and I are using autonomous robotic vehicles and super computers to try to untangle the mysteries of the carbon cycle in the ocean, which depends in fascinating ways on atmospheric and ocean physics, marine ecosystem dynamics, as well as the chemistry of the seawater.

Ocean's breath↗
NASA NTRS2022

Delaware Basin Health and Air Quality: Spatiotemporal Analysis of Air Pollutants Collected from Ground and Space Instruments Around the Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns National Parks

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a precursor for secondary air pollutants, which are associated with decreased visibility, and decreased ecosystem and respiratory health. NO2 is a growing threat to national parks within the Delaware Basin where nearby oil and gas activity contributes to deteriorating park conditions, implying adverse effects on the local tourism economy and public health. To demonstrate spatial and temporal patterns of air pollution in the parks, we examined average monthly, seasonal, and annual tropospheric column concentrations of NO2 in Carlsbad Caverns (CAVE) and Guadalupe Mountain (GUMO) National Parks. We used both the NASA Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and the European Space Agency (ESA) Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) to map NO2 tropospheric column densities. Using ground-based emissions values from the Environmental Protection Agency National Emissions Inventory (NEI) for two nearby natural gas processing plants (Indian Basin Gas Plant, South Carlsbad Plant), we extrapolated monthly trends from these point sources and compared seasonal emissions levels with the measurements recorded by OMI and TROPOMI. The NEI data show an 8% increase in flaring from 2013–2021. OMI measured a 38.3% NO2 increase over the Delaware Basin, 15.29% increase over CAVE, and 4.26% decrease over GUMO from 2011–2018. TROPOMI measured a -1% NO2 change over the Delaware Basin, 3% over CAVE, and 7% over GUMO from 2018–2020. The analysis indicates a positive correlation between emissions from fossil fuel exploration and NO2 concentrations above CAVE and GUMO. This information will inform National Park Service air quality monitoring and policy efforts to ensure compliance with the Clean Air Act.

Sean Cusick↗
NASA NTRS2022

Scientist-Stakeholder Relationships Drive Carbon Data Product Transfer Effectiveness within NASA Program

Carbon cycle science is at the heart of research on global climate change and its long-term impacts, as it examines the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere, oceans, land, and the impact of fossil fuel emissions on this cycling. Given the urgency of the climate challenge, NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) requires all funded investigators to identify and work with stakeholder organizations at project inception to accelerate the transfer of the products developed by funded research into decision making systems. In this study, we contribute to the literature through the implementation of a quantitative analysis of 908 unique survey responses from funded investigators to explore the maturity of the scientist-stakeholder engagement. The paper employs multiple correspondence analysis to provide evidence to support policy options to increase stakeholder integration into research programs. Despite limitations of the dataset used, we demonstrated that multiple funding rounds, long-standing relationships between the stakeholder and scientist, and the scientific productivity of the PI, including the ability to produce datasets and research papers on these datasets, all contribute to carbon products moving from research to operational use. The maturity of relationships between scientists and stakeholders was shown to result improved stakeholder engagement. The use of carbon products should be identified in every stage of the program, and that capacity building is needed to support both existing and newly identified stakeholders better understand and use CMS products. As Federal, State, and local policy on climate adaptation and mitigation matures, the need for information on carbon will expand. Building of stakeholder-scientist relationships in CMS results in an effective generation and use of datasets to support this need and prototype ways that improved information needed for decision making can be created.

Monitoring↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Comparing Satellite Measurements of Volcanic SO2 Mass from OMI, OMPS and TROPOMI

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is a major air pollutant that contributes to acid rain and aerosol formation (e.g., sulfates), adversely affects the environment and human health, and explosive volcanic SO2 emissions can impact climate. The majority of SO2 emissions are related to anthropogenic processes (e.g., fossil fuel burning, metal ore smelting operations), although natural processes such as volcanic eruptions and degassing also play an important role as anthropogenic SO2 emissions continue to decline. Generally, the most interest in volcanoes occurs during major eruptions. We will focus on comparing volcanic SO2 outgassing that occurs on an almost daily basis from lesser known volcanoes using satellite data. At NASA’s Global Sulfur Dioxide Monitoring Home page (https://so2.gsfc.nasa.gov/), we have been posting daily SO2 maps from 40 volcanic and industrial regions around the world using measurements from three satellite instruments; the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) onboard NASA’s Earth Observing System Aura satellite, the Ozone Monitoring and Profiler Suite (OMPS) onboard the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite, and the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the ESA/Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite. These instruments in low Earth sun-synchronous polar orbits with 1:30-2:00 pm equator crossing local time provide daily SO2 maps at different spatial resolutions: 13 x 24 km2, 50 x 50 km2 and 5.5 x 3.5 km2 for OMI, OMPS and TROPOMI respectively. Data from OMI are available since October 2004 (partial coverage since 2008), from OMPS since 2012 and from TROPOMI since 2018. We will present comparative SO2 mass time-series (see Hunga-Tonga plot) and statistical analyses of recent eruptions that have data from all the instruments.

SO2↗
NASA NTRS2022

Scientist-Stakeholder Relationships Drive Carbon Data Product Transfer Effectiveness within NASA Program

Carbon cycle science is at the heart of research on global climate change and its long-term impacts, as it examines the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere, oceans, land, and the impact of fossil fuel emissions on this cycling. Given the urgency of the climate challenge, NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) requires all funded investigators to identify and work with stakeholder organizations at project inception to accelerate the transfer of the products developed by funded research into decision making systems. In this study, we contribute to the literature through the implementation of a quantitative analysis of 908 unique survey responses from funded investigators to explore the maturity of the scientist-stakeholder engagement. The paper employs multiple correspondence analysis to provide evidence to support policy options to increase stakeholder integration into research programs. Despite limitations of the dataset used, we demonstrated that multiple funding rounds, long-standing relationships between the stakeholder and scientist, and the scientific productivity of the Principal Investigator, including the ability to produce datasets and research papers on these datasets, all contribute to carbon products moving from research to operational use. The maturity of relationships between scientists and stakeholders was shown to result improved stakeholder engagement. The use of carbon products should be identified in every stage of the program, and that capacity building is needed to support both existing and newly identified stakeholders better understand and use CMS products. As federal, state, and local policy on climate adaptation and mitigation matures, the need for information on carbon will expand. Building of stakeholder-scientist relationships in CMS results in an effective generation and use of datasets to support this need and prototype ways that improved information needed for decision making can be created.

Molly E Brown↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Detectability of anthropogenic impacts on terrestrial carbon storage through space-based greenhouse gas observations

While changes in human activity and their impact on the terrestrial biosphere may be apparent in inventory and land-surface satellite data, reliably matching these changes to signals in atmospheric greenhouse gases remains challenging. The dominant signals in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) are those of the seasonal and diurnal variability of the terrestrial biosphere. As a result, the historically large short-term change in anthropogenic fossil fuel emissions due to COVID-19 produced an atmospheric CO2 signal near the threshold of detectability of the current space-based observing system. Impacts of anthropogenic activity on terrestrial carbon storage are likewise expected to be difficult, if not impossible, to detect and validate with atmospheric observations. For example, many forest management projects involve reduction of wood removals that would otherwise be taken off site and decompose years later and are thus not reflected in immediate onsite carbon fluxes. Nevertheless, changes implemented over a jurisdictional scale, as opposed to individual projects, may be detectable. This presentation will analyze to what extent NASA’s Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS)/Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) assimilated column CO2 (XCO2) product is able to detect anthropogenic changes to terrestrial carbon storage and the results of several simulation experiments meant to represent potential forest management scenarios. As examples, we consider past and future changes due to conversion in the Tropics to agricultural land use from slash-and-burn, e.g., from Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+) efforts. This has the potential to inform what practices may be observable with current and future technology, e.g., Europe’s upcoming CO2 monitoring mission (CO2M), and where improvement is needed.

Brad Weir↗
NASA NTRS2023

The Nature of Quaternary Climate Change

Dynamic interactions between atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere, driven by solar energy and modulated by atmospheric greenhouse gasses, volcanism, and plate tectonics produce substantial variations in Earth's climate over geologic time. Major Quaternary drivers of climate change include variations in Earth's orbital cycles, global temperature, natural atmospheric greenhouse gasses, and continental ice mass. Multiple abrupt climate perturbations with onsets of a century to decades have also occurred. Since the 1970s, geologically unprecedented rising levels of anthropogenic greenhouse gasses from fossil fuel combustion, industry, and agriculture have become the dominant contributors to rising global temperature, glacier and ice sheet losses, and sea level rise.

Solar variability↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Has NO(2) in Metropolitan Areas Returned to Pre-COVID-19 Levels as Measured by OMI Satellite Data?

Nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) are primarily emitted through the combustion of fossil fuels, such as automobiles and power plants. NOx can contribute to chemical reactions that produce ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution. Using tropospheric vertical column density (TVCD) NO2 data from satellite hyperspectral instruments, such as the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board NASA’s EOS Aura satellite, one can monitor changes in NO2 pollution during “black-swan” events, such as mobility restrictions during COVID-19 lockdowns. Our OMI team has created the Global Nitrogen Dioxide Monitoring Home Page (https://so2.gsfc.nasa.gov/no2/no2_index.html ) where we display NO2 TVCD time series, animated maps, and COVID-specific NO2 anomalies comparing to a pre-COVID five-year average for 317 cities and regions around the world. During the pandemic as a result of the widespread lockdowns, many areas saw low NO2 anomalies superimposed on the natural weather related NO2 changes, such as seasonal NO2 cycle. Has NO2 levels returned to pre-Covid-19 levels in large metropolitan areas? We analyze NO2 time series from March through September for the years 2020-2023 using as a reference the average NO2 from 2015-2019 for those months. We will present data from selected cities that represent all countries.

Keith D Evans↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Feasibility Study of an All-Electric 150 Passenger Aircraft

Among the potential future technologies for low-carbon transport aircraft, all-electric concepts stand out environmentally, yet their feasibility and cost-effectiveness at scale remain uncertain. This paper examines the conceptual design of an all-electric 150-passenger aircraft with a range of 840 NM based on assumed future battery cell-level specific energy of1620Wh/kg. The tube and wing design is propelled by open rotors driven by four electric motors per nacelle and utilizes advanced structural materials for weight reduction. Powertrain technology gaps are identified. The conceptual design shows that all-electric aviation could supplant about 30% of current fossil fuel use by transport aircraft and potentially more with air-traffic-control modifications.

electric aircraft↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Aircraft Design Implications for Urban Air Mobility Vehicles Performing Public Good Missions

NASA has previously designed and described set of concept aircraft to serve as reference vehicles for Urban Air Mobility (UAM), to encourage public discussion and research. These vehicles are used in this paper to quantify how suitable UAM aircraft might be for missions other than their primary commercial design missions. A set of representative public good missions are described, along with design requirements and equipage. For two of these missions, the additional weight, power, and cost to facilitate a basic vehicle which may be built or configured with the ability to perform these missions is quantified. Special layout and other considerations which may impact vehicle design are described. For aircraft designed to the NASA UAM reference mission, the addition of some meaningful public good missions causes less than 10% growth in weight and power for fossil-fueled aircraft; advanced batteryelectric powered aircraft grow by a significantly larger amount and may only be possible with relaxed requirements. Meaningful public good missions with UAM vehicles are feasible, provided that public good mission requirements are considered and incorporated in the conceptual design stage of development.

Aircraft↗