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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Integrated System and Application Continuous Performance Monitoring and Analysis Capability

Scientific applications run on high-performance computing (HPC) systems are critical for many national security missions within Sandia and the NNSA complex. However, these applications often face performance degradation and even failures that are challenging to diagnose. To provide unprecedented insight into these issues, the HPC Development, HPC Systems, Computational Science, and Plasma Theory & Simulation departments at Sandia crafted and completed their FY21 ASC Level 2 milestone entitled "Integrated System and Application Continuous Performance Monitoring and Analysis Capability." The milestone created a novel integrated HPC system and application monitoring and analysis capability by extending Sandia's Kokkos application portability framework, Lightweight Distributed Metric Service (LDMS) monitoring tool, and scalable storage, analysis, and visualization pipeline. The extensions to Kokkos and LDMS enable collection and storage of application data during run time, as it is generated, with negligible overhead. This data is combined with HPC system data within the extended analysis pipeline to present relevant visualizations of derived system and application metrics that can be viewed at run time or post run. This new capability was evaluated using several week-long, 290-node runs of Sandia's ElectroMagnetic Plasma In Realistic Environments ( EMPIRE ) modeling and design tool and resulted in 1TB of application data and 50TB of system data. EMPIRE developers remarked this capability was incredibly helpful for quickly assessing application health and performance alongside system state. In short, this milestone work built the foundation for expansive HPC system and application data collection, storage, analysis, visualization, and feedback framework that will increase total scientific output of Sandia's HPC users.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Cross-Cutting Software Solutions in Support of Experimental Analysis Challenges at National Scattering Facilities

Rapid improvements in instrumentation at neutron and light source combined with new capabilities in computing, data analytics, and machine learning offer unprecedented scientific capabilities to address fundamental and applied science questions in a wide area of subjects from quantum materials to biological systems. In order to make these capabilities accessible to the broader scientific community, significant developments are needed related to workflow spanning from experimental control to advanced materials simulations as well as the underpinning scientific software. In this chapter, we explore these needs and recent developments at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A central part of the workflow at the SNS is the data reduction framework Mantid which is developed as a partnership between European and US neutron-scattering facilities.

Proffen, Thomas↗
DOE OSTI2020

5G Enabled Energy Innovation: Advanced Wireless Networks for Science

Digital wireless communication has become a foundational technology for the nation. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE-SC) is the Nation’s largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences discovering new materials, designing advanced microelectronics, and understanding the physics of radio frequency signaling. The expanding national rollout of a new fifth-generation (5G) mobile network, coupled with the torrent of scientific data generated by next-generation devices such as battery-powered Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, has created an urgent need to enhance cutting-edge wireless technology. Breakthroughs in the deployment, integration, security, and operational range of wireless networking can provide new scientific capabilities for the next decade - from autonomous mobile instruments for scientific user facilities to intelligent sensors networks distributed over thousands of kilometers to study environmental processes. To realize this promise, however, we must continue to drive innovations in computing, artificial intelligence (AI), advanced materials, high-speed networking, and microelectronics. In March 2020, the DOE-SC convened a workshop to identify the potential opportunities and explore the scientific challenges of advanced wireless technologies.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Epithermal and Fast Neutron Radiography Facility HFIR Futures – Enhanced Capabilities Series (Vol. 8)

The Sustaining and Enhancing Nuclear Science Initiative at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was created to explore potential enhancements to scientific capabilities in the High Flux Isotope Reactor as part of a reactor pressure vessel replacement project. One proposed scientific enhancement included creation of an epithermal and fast neutron radiography station on the HB-3 beam tube with the capability to image highly radioactive specimens such as irradiated nuclear fuel rods, isotope production targets, or spallation neutron target materials. This document summarizes findings and recommendations from a working group of ORNL staff tasked with conceptualizing such a facility and includes a background of similar instruments at other research facilities, technical specifications, and an estimate of procurement cost and schedule.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2022

The NASA Carbon Monitoring System Phase 2 synthesis: scope, findings, gaps and recommended next steps

Abstract Underlying policy efforts to address global climate change is the scientific need to develop the methods to accurately measure and model carbon stocks and fluxes across the wide range of spatial and temporal scales in the Earth system. Initiated in 2010, the NASA Carbon Monitoring System is one of the most ambitious relevant science initiatives to date, exploiting the satellite remote sensing resources, computational capabilities, scientific knowledge, airborne science capabilities, and end-to-end system expertise that are major strengths of the NASA Earth Science program. Here we provide a synthesis of ‘Phase 2’ activities (2011–2019), encompassing 79 projects, 482 publications, and 136 data products. Our synthesis addresses four key questions: What has been attempted? What major results have been obtained? What major gaps and uncertainties remain? and What are the recommended next steps? Through this review, we take stock of what has been accomplished and identify future priorities toward meeting the nation’s needs for carbon monitoring reporting and verification.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Reining in an Agentic Harness for High Energy Physics

Agentic systems now address tasks across theoretical, phenomenological, and experimental high energy physics (HEP), but their scientific capabilities remain difficult to reuse across different large language models, providers, and harnesses. We argue that stable parts of these workflows should be promoted into versioned scientific operations and exposed through common protocols. Existing general-purpose harnesses can then be specialized for HEP through task-specific sets of tools and skills, while community-maintained registries would make these capabilities discoverable and citable. We identify mismatches in conventions, assumptions, and domains of validity among independently developed operations as a potential obstacle to their composition, and discuss machine-readable scientific contracts as one possible solution. These design principles and evaluation guidelines provide a near-term path toward a portable and community-maintained agentic harness for HEP.

Menzo, Tony [Alabama U.; Fermilab] (ORCID:00000002↗
DOE OSTI2024

CALMS: CONTEXT-AWARE LANGUAGE MODEL FOR SCIENCE

Context-Aware Language Model for Science (CALMS) is designed to assist scientists with instrument operations and complex experimentation. CALMS consists of a large-language model (LLM) augmented with context and tool use abilities. With the ability to retrieve relevant information from facility documentation, CALMS can answer simple questions on scientific capabilities and other operational procedures. With the ability to interface with software tools and experimental hardware, CALMS can operate scientific instruments in a conversational manner.

CHERUKARA, MATTHEW↗
DOE OSTI2025

The Spectroscopic Stage-5 Experiment

The existence, properties, and dynamics of the dark sectors of our universe pose fundamental challenges to our current model of physics, and large-scale astronomical surveys may be our only hope to unravel these long-standing mysteries. In this white paper, we describe the science motivation, instrumentation, and survey plan for the next-generation spectroscopic observatory, the Stage-5 Spectroscopic Experiment (Spec-S5). Spec-S5 is a new all-sky spectroscopic instrument optimized to efficiently carry out cosmological surveys of unprecedented scale and precision. The baseline plan for Spec-S5 involves upgrading two existing 4-m telescopes to new 6-m wide-field facilities, each with a highly multiplexed spectroscopic instrument capable of simultaneously measuring the spectra of 13,000 astronomical targets. Spec-S5, which builds and improves on the hardware used for previous cosmology experiments, represents a cost-effective and rapid approach to realizing a more than 10$\times$ gain in spectroscopic capability compared to the current state-of-the-art represented by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument project (DESI). Spec-S5 will provide a critical scientific capability in the post-Rubin and post-DESI era for advancing cosmology, fundamental physics, and astrophysics in the 2030s.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Strengthening the US Department of Energy’s Recruitment Pipeline: The DOE/NNSA Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program (PSAAP) Experience

The US Department of Energy (DOE) oversees a system of 17 national laboratories responsible for developing unique scientific capabilities beyond the scope of academic and industrial institutions. These labs strive to keep America at the forefront of discovery and are home to some of the Nation’s best minds and the world’s best scientific and research facilities. Collaborations between national laboratories and academic institutions are critical to develop and recruit talent for the DOE workforce. Academia’s cooperative education model poses challenges for DOE recruitment pipelines centered around traditional internships. This paper discusses a promising DOE recruitment pipeline, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program (PSAAP) initiative. As a part of this, experiences capturing the successes and challenges faced by the University of Utah’s Carbon Capture Multidisciplinary Simulation Center (CCMSC) through their participation in the PSAAP-II initiative are shared. These experiences demonstrate the success of Utah’s PSAAP center as a recruitment pipeline with approximately 43% of CCMSC students going to a national laboratory after graduation. Potential opportunities to strengthen the DOE’s recruitment pipeline are also discussed.

Holmen, John↗
DOE OSTI2025

Investigating Quantum Materials with Half-Polarized Diffraction and magnetic PDF analysis at the HB-2A Neutron Powder Diffractometer

Local magnetic ordering and anisotropy is often central to the emergent behavior and subsequent functional properties in quantum materials and beyond. Neutron powder diffraction provides a straightforward yet extremely powerful technique for quantitative measurements of microscopic magnetic properties. The HB-2A powder diffractometer located at the High Flux Isotope Reactor in ORNL is traditionally utilized for long-range magnetic structure determination. Recently these capabilities have been extended to include methods aimed at accessing local magnetism: Half- polarized neutron powder diffraction (pNPD) and magnetic pair distribution function (mPDF) analysis. These two distinct techniques are possible on HB-2A due to the versatility of the instrument’s reciprocal space coverage, resolution and novel ultra-low temperature multi-sample changers that operate down to dilution refrigerator temperatures. This provides unique capabilities not found on any powder diffraction instrument and is particularly well suited to investigations of magnetic quantum materials. The development and implementation of these techniques will be discussed with a series of science case examples ranging from geometric frustrated magnets to magnetic metal-organic frameworks. Data reduction and analysis tools will be presented that enable the extraction of the local site susceptibility tensor and local spin-spin correlations in real space. Finally, potential combinations of these techniques in the form of half-polarized magnetic pair distribution function (pmPDF) analysis will be considered. Looking forward, HB-2A is undergoing a detector upgrade that will be in the user program by 2026. This will offer an order of magnitude increase in count rates to further aid the development of these often low signal measurements and provide new scientific capabilities.

Neutron Scattering↗
DOE OSTI2024

Accelerator Physics at NSLS-II: Research Accomplishments in 2024

NSLS-II accelerator physicists advanced the operational performance and scientific capabilities of NSLS-II, providing regular lattice characterization and correction, injec tion optimization, vertical emittance control, and beam dynamics reports with corre lation analysis. We further developed advanced lattice characterization techniques and studies on impedance, beam-induced heating, and higher-harmonic RF cavity effects to support NSLS-II and its high-brightness upgrade. The assessment of free-electron laser options for the NSLS-II upgrade has been completed. We carried out comprehensive studies focused on complex bend magnets and novel efficient injection schemes for next-generation low-emittance synchrotrons. We contributed to the Electron-Ion Collider project, including Electron Storage Ring lattice design, beam diagnostics, and injector studies. The physicists participated in international collaborations, including the development of Python-based Middle Layer software, and participated in key accel erator physics workshops and scientific meetings. The main research accomplishments achieved in 2024 are summarized in this report.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Laser–plasma amplification of an ultrabroadband laser pulse to 0.3 TW

Producing on-target laser intensities much greater than 10 23 W cm −2 with current laser technologies is a roadblock to accessing new regimes of physics such as strong-field quantum electrodynamics. Laser–plasma amplifiers show promise to realize these intensities by augmenting the final amplifier and compressor in traditional chirped-pulse-amplification architectures with a plasma-based amplification and compression stage that operates at a much higher damage threshold. Here we demonstrate amplification of an ultrabroadband (>60 nm) pulse in a laser–plasma Raman amplifier. We directly amplified seed intensities up to 3.7 × 10 15 W cm −2 and measured efficiencies up to 8.7%. Single-shot SPIDER measurements show a factor-of-2 reduction in the amplified pulse duration with final powers up to 0.3 TW, a 10× improvement over previous results. Final pulse durations of 64 fs are measured. Energy transfers greater than 220 mJ from the picosecond pump into the seed result in a 30× energy amplification of a 7.6 mJ seed. These results set the stage for a compact plasma afterburner based on Raman amplification that could extend the scientific capability of existing petawatt-class laser facilities to enable experiments at the intensity frontier.

Shaw, J. L. [Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States↗
DOE OSTI2022

Wavefront Preservation in Soft X-Ray Beamlines for the Advanced Light Source Upgrade

In the 4th generation of X-ray light sources, including Free-Electron Lasers (FEL) and Diffraction-Limited Storage Rings (DLSR), the emittance of the electron beam is small or negligible compared to the emittance of the photon beam produced by insertion devices, thus generating coherent beams of light. Over the next few years, several lightsource facilities will be built or upgraded to produce X-ray beams of unprecedented coherent flux. Delivering these exceptional beams to the sample chambers requires beamline optical systems that are designed to preserve the wavefront properties. Our goal in the Advanced Light Source upgrade project (ALS-U) is to create a new class of beamlines that reach diffraction-limited X-ray optical quality through tightly integrated, efficient optical systems, diagnostics, and adaptive mirrors, thus providing users with new scientific capabilities offered by coherent X-ray light interactions with matter. Herein we describe aspects of the beamlines’ design as they enter the project’s final design phase.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

A search for cosmogenic neutrinos with the ARIANNA test bed using 4.5 years of data

The primary mission of the ARIANNA ultra-high energy neutrino telescope is to uncover astrophysical sources of neutrinos with energies greater than 10 16 eV. A pilot array, consisting of seven ARIANNA stations located on the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, was commissioned in November 2014. We report on the search for astrophysical neutrinos using data collected between November 2014 and February 2019. A straight-forward template matching analysis yielded no neutrino candidates, with a signal efficiency of 79%. We find a 90% confidence upper limit on the diffuse neutrino flux of E 2 Φ=1.7× 10 -6 GeV cm -2 s -1 sr -1 for a decade wide logarithmic bin centered at a neutrino energy of 1018,eV, which is an order of magnitude improvement compared to the previous limit reported by the ARIANNA collaboration. The ARIANNA stations, including purpose built cosmic-ray stations at the Moore's Bay site and demonstrator stations at the South Pole, have operated reliably. Sustained operation at two distinct sites confirms that the flexible and adaptable architecture can be deployed in any deep ice, radio quiet environment. We show that the scientific capabilities, technical innovations, and logistical requirements of ARIANNA are sufficiently well understood to serve as the basis for large area radio-based neutrino telescope with a wide field-of-view.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Neutrino event selection in the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber using Wire-Cell 3D imaging, clustering, and charge-light matching

An accurate and efficient event reconstruction is required to realize the full scientific capability of liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs). The current and future neutrino experiments that rely on massive LArTPCs create a need for new ideas and reconstruction approaches. Wire-Cell, proposed in recent years, is a novel tomographic event reconstruction method for LArTPCs. The Wire-Cell 3D imaging approach capitalizes on charge, sparsity, time, and geometry information to reconstruct a topology-agnostic 3D image of the ionization electrons prior to pattern recognition. A second novel method, the many-to-many charge-light matching, then pairs the TPC charge activity to the detected scintillation light signal, thus enabling a powerful rejection of cosmic-ray muons in the MicroBooNE detector. A robust processing of the scintillation light signal and an appropriate clustering of the reconstructed 3D image are fundamental to this technique. In this paper, we describe the principles and algorithms of these techniques and their successful application in the MicroBooNE experiment. A quantitative evaluation of the performance of these techniques is presented. Using these techniques, a 95% efficient pre-selection of neutrino charged-current events is achieved with a 30-fold reduction of non-beam-coincident cosmic-ray muons, and about 80% of the selected neutrino charged-current events are reconstructed with at least 70% completeness and 80% purity.

3D imaging↗
DOE OSTI2021

The Making of a Metric: Co-Producing Decision-Relevant Climate Science

Developing decision-relevant science for adaptation requires the identification of climatic parameters that are both actionable for practitioners as well as tractable for modelers. In many sectors, these decision-relevant climatic metrics and the approaches that enable their identification remain largely unknown. “Co-production” of science with scientists and decision-makers is one potential way to identify these metrics, but there is little research describing specific and successful co-production approaches. This paper examines the negotiations and outcomes from Project Hyperion, wherein scientists and water managers jointly developed decision-relevant climatic metrics for adaptive water management. We identify successful co-production strategies by analyzing the project’s numerous back-and-forth engagements and tracing the evolution of the science during these engagements. We found that effective mediation between scientists and managers needed dedicated “boundary spanners” with significant modeling expertise. Translating practitioners’ information needs into tractable climatic metrics required direct and indirect methods of eliciting knowledge. We identified four indirect methods that were particularly salient for extracting tacitly held knowledge and enabling shared learning: developing a hierarchical framework linking management issues with metrics, starting discussions from the planning challenges, collaboratively exploring the planning relevance of new scientific capabilities, and using analogies of other “good” metrics. The decision-relevant metrics we developed provide insights into advancing adaptation-relevant climate science in the water sector. The co-production strategies we identified can be used to design and implement productive scientist–decision-maker interactions. Overall, the approaches and metrics we developed can help climate science to expand in new and more use-inspired directions.

Planning↗
DOE OSTI2021

A New Experimental Station for Liquid Interface X-Ray Scattering At NSLS-II Beamline 12-ID

Open Platform and Liquids Scattering (OPLS) is a new experimental station recently built and currently being commissioned at the Soft Matter Interfaces (SMI) beamline 12-ID at NSLS-II. The new instrument expands SMI’s beamline scientific capabilities via the addition of X-ray scattering techniques from liquid surfaces and interfaces. The design of this new instrument, located inside the 12-ID beamline shielding enclosure (hutch B), is based on a single Ge (111) crystal deflector, which bounces the incident x-ray beam downward towards a liquid sample which must be maintained in a horizontal orientation (gravity-driven consideration). The OPLS instrument has a variable deflector-to-sample distance ranging from 0.6 m to 1.5 m. X-ray detectors are mounted on a 2-theta scattering arm located downstream of the sample location. The 2-theta arm is designed to hold up to three X-ray detectors, with fixed 2-theta angular offsets, each dedicated to a different X-ray technique such as X-ray reflectivity, grazing-incidence X-ray scattering, and small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering. Currently, the OPLS experimental station intercepts the SMI beam that otherwise propagates to the experimental endstation located in hutch C and can be retracted to a ’parking’ position laterally out of this beam to allow installation of a removable beam pipe that is needed to support operations in hutch C. The design of OPLS is flexible enough to quickly adapt to a planned future configuration of the SMI beamline in which a OPLS is illuminated separately from the main SMI branch via a second, canted undulator source and a separate photon delivery system. In this future configuration, both branches will be able to operate independently and simultaneously.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

ORNL Second Target Station Project: Biological & Environmental Science Workshop

Recent advances in neutron sources and instrumentation have opened up many new opportunities for the application of neutron scattering techniques in the biological and environmental sciences. Neutrons enable studies of the structure and dynamics of biological and environmental samples with a particular sensitivity to light elements, such as hydrogen, which is a key component of biological and environmental samples. Studies using neutrons are complementary to X-rays and have the unique advantage of being non-destructive and highly-penetrating. Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s upcoming Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) Second Target Station (STS) will provide high brightness cold neutron sources that significantly advance the scientific capabilities of neutron scattering instruments. The STS will advance our understanding of biological and environmental processes across spatial and temporal scales. The capabilities will enhance our ability to discover, design, and develop new materials essential for advanced sustainable technologies to address society’s most pressing needs. This report summarizes the discussions and recommendations from a joint workshop held by the STS Project and the Biological and Environmental Systems Science Directorate (BESSD) in June 2022. The purpose of the workshop was to explore science opportunities and capabilities related to biological and environmental systems that could be incorporated into both current and future STS instrument designs, as well as additional instruments at the SNS First Target Station (FTS) and High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR). With six breakout sessions, each with two invited plenary speakers from other institutions, the participants discussed a wide range of topics relevant to biological and environmental research. Based on the input from participants, a number of recommendations on instrumentation, sample environments, complementary multi-modal methods, data processing and analysis and sample deuteration are provided in the report. The participants also identified science opportunities that are emerging from the planned instrument capabilities at STS. Selected recommendations and science opportunities are listed in the Executive Summary.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗