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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 OSTI2025

Case Study: Seattle Waterfront Networked Microgrid Evaluation - Case Study for Port Electrification Handbook

Many ports and waterfronts are evaluating alternative electrification efforts, including electrification of passenger and vehicle ferries. In Seattle, the Washington State Department of Transportation, in conjunction with Seattle City Light (the local utility) and the Port of Seattle, are working to deploy a hybrid electric ferry and provide charging at Seattle’s Colman dock. As part of this ferry electrification effort, Seattle City Light is considering including a large battery energy storage system (BESS) to help “buffer” the ferry charging. The “buffer” provides energy arbitrage and spreads out the large amount of power needed to recharge the ferry to times when the ferry is out of the dock – rather than one very large peak for 15 minutes, the battery storage allows it to be a smaller power value over a longer duration. This initial BESS concept served as the jumping off point to explore an expanded microgrid concept via a notional test system that incorporates additional distributed energy resources (DER) and infrastructure upgrades to the local distribution infrastructure at the Seattle Waterfront and neighboring Port of Seattle properties. This case study examined the potential for secondary use of the BESS within a networked microgrid during the scenario of a large-scale power outage, such as a natural disaster.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2026

Did Seattle go silent during the Superbowl?

Large-scale cultural events such as sports games and music concerts are known to cause localised seismic excitation. In this paper we investigate whether a comparable far-field 'quietening' could be observed during Superbowl LX (February 8, 2026) in the city of Seattle, hometown of the Seattle Seahawks, as people stayed indoors to watch the game. We find that a number of stations in metropolitan Seattle and other urban or semi-urban areas of Washington state experienced their quietest Sunday afternoon in the last year in some or all of the 1-40 Hz frequency band which we examined. Comparable behaviour is not identified at stations in uninhabited areas of Washington. These results support the hypothesis that at least parts of Seattle and the wider state were comparatively 'silent' during Superbowl LX.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2000

Fault Scarp Detection Beneath Dense Vegetation Cover: Airborne Lidar Mapping of the Seattle Fault Zone, Bainbridge Island, Washington State

The emergence of a commercial airborne laser mapping industry is paying major dividends in an assessment of earthquake hazards in the Puget Lowland of Washington State. Geophysical observations and historical seismicity indicate the presence of active upper-crustal faults in the Puget Lowland, placing the major population centers of Seattle and Tacoma at significant risk. However, until recently the surface trace of these faults had never been identified, neither on the ground nor from remote sensing, due to cover by the dense vegetation of the Pacific Northwest temperate rainforests and extremely thick Pleistocene glacial deposits. A pilot lidar mapping project of Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound, contracted by the Kitsap Public Utility District (KPUD) and conducted by Airborne Laser Mapping in late 1996, spectacularly revealed geomorphic features associated with fault strands within the Seattle fault zone. The features include a previously unrecognized fault scarp, an uplifted marine wave-cut platform, and tilted sedimentary strata. The United States Geologic Survey (USGS) is now conducting trenching studies across the fault scarp to establish ages, displacements, and recurrence intervals of recent earthquakes on this active fault. The success of this pilot study has inspired the formation of a consortium of federal and local organizations to extend this work to a 2350 square kilometer (580,000 acre) region of the Puget Lowland, covering nearly the entire extent (approx. 85 km) of the Seattle fault. The consortium includes NASA, the USGS, and four local groups consisting of KPUD, Kitsap County, the City of Seattle, and the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC). The consortium has selected Terrapoint, a commercial lidar mapping vendor, to acquire the data.

Harding, David J.↗
NASA NTRS2006

M(sub W) = 7.2-7.4 Estimated for A.D. 900 Seattle Fault Earthquake by Modeling the Uplift of a Lidar-Mapped Marine Terrace

Inverse modeling of slip on the Seattle fault system, constrained by elevations of uplifted marine terraces, provides a well-constrained estimate of the magnitude of the largest known upper-crust earthquake in the Puget Sound region within the past 2500 years. The terrace elevations that constrain the slip inversion are extracted from elevation and slope images generated from LIDAR surveys of the Puget Sound collected in 1996-2002. The images reveal a single uplifted terrace, dated to 1000 cal yr B.P. near Restoration Point, which is morphologically continuous along the southern shoreline of Bainbridge Island and is visible at comparable elevations within a 25 km by 12 km region encompassing coastlines of West Seattle, Bremerton, East Bremerton, Port Orchard, and Waterman Point. Considering sea level changes since A.D. 900, the maximum uplift magnitudes of shoreline inner edges approach 9 m and are located at the southernmost coastline of Bainbridge Island and the northern tip of Waterman Point, while tilt magnitudes are modest - approaching 0.1 degrees. For each of several different Seattle fault geometry interpretations, we use a linear inversion code to solve for distributed slip on the fault surfaces. Moment magnitudes of 7.2 to 7.4 are calculated directly from the different slip solutions. In general, the greatest slip of the A.D. 900 event was confined to the frontal thrust of the Seattle fault system and was centered beneath Puget Sound between Restoration Point and Alki Point.

Jordan R. Muller↗
DOE OSTI2024

Household Energy Burden in Beacon Hill, Seattle, WA [Slides]

This technical assistance is part of the Communities Local Energy Action Program (CLEAP) for the Beacon Hill, Seattle, Washington community coalition consisting of El Centro de la Raza, Beacon Hill Council and Bethany United Church of Christ with supportive partners, Seattle City Light and the Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment. This report uses the Low-Income Energy Affordability Data (LEAD) Tool to identify the most energy burdened households by income group, building type, building age and fuel type.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

2011 Seattle Tolling Impact Survey

The 2011 Tolling Impact Survey measured the impact of tolling on travel behavior in Seattle, Washington. The Volpe Center conducted the survey on behalf of the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Urban Partnership Agreement. The population surveyed included drivers, public transportation users, carpoolers, and vanpoolers using the SR-520 corridor in Seattle. The survey was conducted in two phases—before and after toll implementation—to evaluate related attitude changes. The survey assessed route changes, trip timing, trip purpose, and travel mode (i.e., single-occupancy vehicle, carpool, or public transportation).

1Hz data↗
DOE OSTI2026

1990 Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 2

The Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 2, conducted in 1990, was the second wave in a 10-part longitudinal panel survey of the travel patterns of households in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. The survey series was initiated in 1989 by the Puget Sound Regional Council. Data collection for the second wave took place in the fall of 1990, which included full interviews and travel diaries, as well as some panel refreshment. Demographic and work trip data updates, but no travel diaries, were gathered for 2,023 households in four counties in the Seattle area. The survey relied on the willingness of study area residents to 1) provide demographic information about their household, its members, and its vehicles; 2) document all travel for each household member, aged 15 years or older, for an assigned two-day period; and 3) agree to participate in additional survey waves. After an initial telephone screening, survey participants received mailed travel diaries to aid in documenting travel information for the two-day assessment period. Respondents were instructed to record their mode of transportation, trip purpose, number of passengers, departure and arrival times, ride fare, and parking costs. Demographic information for this study includes age, gender, education, employment status, and household income.

1Hz data↗
DOE OSTI2025

Quantifying health benefits of sustainable aviation fuels: Modeling decreased ultrafine particle emissions and associated impacts on communities near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

Exposure to ultrafine particles (UFP, ≤100 nm) is an emerging health concern linked to premature mortality, with jet fuel combustion identified as a significant source of UFPs near airports. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) adoption has the potential to reduce aviation-related UFPs and may particularly benefit populations who reside nearby. However, assessing aviation-specific impacts on health remains challenging due to the lack of tools capable of addressing: fine-scale exposure evaluation, novel ambient pollutants, and groups with increased exposure or susceptibility. We develop and apply a method to estimate reductions in mortality associated with aviation-related UFP reductions at the Seattle-Tacoma (SEA-TAC) International Airport under SAF adoption scenarios, with a focus on near-airport communities. Using UFP exposure surfaces generated from AERMOD modeling, flight count data, and UFP measurements, we evaluated UFP reductions under various control scenarios. We estimated mortality reductions by combining this with population data, baseline mortality, and a hazard ratio of 1.012 (95 % confidence interval: 1.010, 1.015) per interquartile range increment of 2723 particles/cm 3 . Our analysis included 412 census tracts representing almost 1.5 million adults. Baseline aviation-related UFP exposures averaged 1145 (SD: 277) particles/cm 3 . The highest baseline concentrations and subsequent reductions under SAF scenarios were near SEA-TAC. Mortality case reductions averaged between 3.1 (95 % range: 2.5–3.7) for a 5 % UFP reduction to 31.0 (24.6–37.4) for a 50 % reduction, with corresponding mortality rate reductions of 0.2 (0.2–0.3) to 2.1 (1.7–2.5) cases per 100,000 people per year. Mortality rate reductions were larger among populations residing closer to SEA-TAC, including those that were Hispanic or Latino, below-poverty, and did not identify as White. Reducing aviation-related UFPs through SAF adoption could lead to lower mortality, particularly in near-airport communities. This reproducible approach can be adapted to other settings to evaluate health benefits from aviation-related UFP reductions.

Aviation-related air pollution↗
DOE OSTI2026

ReachNow EV Driving Data From Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, and New York, NY

ReachNow provided Idaho National Laboratory (INL) with a dataset describing approximately 49,000 trips taken by customers and employees in approximately 100 BMW i3 EVs operating in ReachNow's free-floating car-sharing fleets in Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, and New York, NY between May 2016 and February 2017. Data fields include vehicle rental period start and end timestamps, the location where vehicles were parked at the start and end of rental periods, and distance driven during rental periods. A field categorizing the user during each rental period is also included. This field makes it possible to identify when vehicles were rented by customers and when vehicles were driven by fleet management team employees to reposition, charge, or service the vehicles.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2026

1989 Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 1

The Puget Sound Transportation Panel was initiated in the fall of 1989. The Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 1, conducted in 1989, was the first wave in a ten-part longitudinal panel survey initiated by the Puget Sound Regional Council to assess the travel patterns of households in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. The panel intended to serve three basic objectives: 1) to be a metropolitan “current population survey” to track changes in employment, work characteristics, household composition, and vehicle availability; 2) to monitor changes in travel behavior and responses to changes in the transportation environment; and 3) to examine changes in attitudes and values as they affect mode choice and travel behavior. This collection contains the first set of panel data for households in King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. A total of 1,687 households successfully completed a phone survey and returned completed travel diaries for household members age 15 and older. Respondents were instructed to record their mode of transportation, trip purpose, number of vehicle passengers, departure and arrival times, ride fare, and parking costs in a two-day trip diary. Demographic information for this study includes age, gender, education, employment status, and household income.

1Hz data↗
DOE OSTI2026

1992 Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 3

The Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 3, conducted in 1992, was the third wave in a ten-part longitudinal panel survey initiated by the Puget Sound Regional Council to assess the travel patterns of households in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. This collection contains the third set of panel data for approximately 1,700 households in King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. Due to various sources of attrition, approximately 20% of households needed to be replaced for each survey wave. The survey relied on the willingness of study area residents to 1) provide demographic information about their household, its members, and its vehicles; 2) document all travel for each household member, aged 15 years or older, for an assigned two-day period; and 3) agree to participate in additional survey waves. After an initial telephone screening, survey participants received mailed travel diaries to aid in documenting travel information for the two-day assessment period. Respondents were instructed to record their mode of transportation, trip purpose, number of vehicle passengers, departure and arrival times, ride fare, and parking costs. Demographic information for this study includes age, gender, education, employment status, and household income.

1Hz data↗
DOE OSTI2026

1994 Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 5

The Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 5, conducted in 1994, was the fifth wave in a ten-part longitudinal panel survey of the travel patterns of households in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. The survey series was initiated in 1989 by the Puget Sound Regional Council. This collection contains the fifth set of panel data for approximately 2,000 households in King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. The survey relied on the willingness of study area residents to 1) provide demographic information about their household, its members, and its vehicles; 2) document all travel for each household member, aged 15 years or older, for an assigned two-day period; and 3) agree to participate in additional survey waves. After an initial telephone screening, survey participants received mailed travel diaries to aid in documenting travel information for the two-day assessment period. Respondents were instructed to record their mode of transportation, trip purpose, number of passengers, departure and arrival times, ride fare, and parking costs. Demographic information for this study includes age, gender, education, employment status, and household income.

1Hz data↗
DOE OSTI2026

1996 Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 6

The Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 6, conducted in the second and third quarters of 1996, was the sixth wave in a ten-part longitudinal panel survey of the travel patterns of households in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. The survey series was initiated in 1989 by the Puget Sound Regional Council. This collection contains the sixth set of panel data for approximately 2,000 households in King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. Due to various sources of attrition, approximately 20% of households needed to be replaced for each survey wave. The survey relied on the willingness of study area residents to 1) provide demographic information about their household, its members, and its vehicles; 2) document all travel for each household member, aged 15 years or older, for an assigned two-day period; and 3) agree to participate in additional survey waves. After an initial telephone screening, survey participants received mailed travel diaries to aid in documenting travel information for the two-day assessment period. Respondents were instructed to record their mode of transportation, trip purpose, number of vehicle passengers, departure and arrival times, ride fare, and parking costs. Demographic information for this study includes age, gender, education, employment status, and household income.

1Hz data↗
DOE OSTI2026

1997 Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 7

The Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 7, conducted in 1997, was the seventh wave in a ten-part longitudinal panel survey initiated by the Puget Sound Regional Council to assess the travel patterns of households in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. This collection contains the seventh set of panel data for approximately 1,700 households in King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. The survey relied on the willingness of study area residents to 1) provide demographic information about their household, its members, and its vehicles; 2) document all travel for each household member, aged 15 years or older, for an assigned two-day period; and 3) agree to participate in additional survey waves. After an initial telephone screening, survey participants received mailed travel diaries to aid in documenting travel information for the two-day assessment period. Respondents were instructed to record their mode of transportation, trip purpose, number of vehicle passengers, departure and arrival times, ride fare, and parking costs. Demographic information for this study includes age, gender, education, employment status, and household income.

1Hz data↗
DOE OSTI2026

2000 Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 9

The Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 9, conducted in 2000, was the ninth wave in a ten-part longitudinal panel survey of the travel patterns of households in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. The survey series was initiated in 1989 by the Puget Sound Regional Council. This collection contains the ninth set of panel data for approximately 2,000 households in King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. Due to various sources of attrition, approximately 20% of households needed to be replaced for each survey wave. The survey relied on the willingness of study area residents to 1) provide demographic information about their household, its members, and its vehicles; 2) document all travel for each household member, aged 15 years or older, for an assigned two-day period; and 3) agree to participate in additional survey waves. After an initial telephone screening, survey participants received mailed travel diaries to aid in documenting travel information for the two-day assessment period. Respondents were instructed to record their mode of transportation, trip purpose, number of passengers, departure and arrival times, ride fare, and parking costs. Demographic information for this study includes age, gender, education, employment status, and household income.

1Hz data↗
DOE OSTI2026

2002 Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 10

The Seattle Household Travel Survey Wave 10, conducted in 2002, was the tenth wave in a ten-part longitudinal panel survey of the travel patterns of households in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. The survey series was initiated in 1989 by the Puget Sound Regional Council. This collection contains the tenth set of panel data for approximately 2,000 households in King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. The survey relied on the willingness of study area residents to 1) provide demographic information about their household, its members, and its vehicles; 2) document all travel for each household member, aged 15 years or older, for an assigned two-day period; and 3) agree to participate in additional survey waves. After an initial telephone screening, survey participants received mailed travel diaries to aid in documenting travel information for the two-day assessment period. Respondents were instructed to record their mode of transportation, trip purpose, number of passengers, departure and arrival times, ride fare, and parking costs. Demographic information for this study includes age, gender, education, employment status, and household income.

1Hz data↗
DOE OSTI2026

Planning for Seattle at the Convergence of Resilience and Energy

Grid reliability metrics obscure important temporal, spatial, and categorical considerations for increasing energy resilience. Systemwide or feeder-level outage metrics do not identify which kinds of services are affected by outages, where, and for how long. These outage metrics indicate the impacts of outages but cannot measure the consequences to customers that could result from those outages. The consequences of power outages for surrounding community members are caused by disruptions to electricity-dependent critical services, rather than to electricity itself. Power outages can decrease a community's access to healthcare, fuel, safe indoor temperatures, and provisions like food and water. This project developed critical service access, a new consequence-focused resilience metric that quantifies the relative access to critical services provided to households by distribution infrastructure during normal conditions and major disruptions. We use a spatially granular grid analysis that facilitates targeted resilience interventions; dividing feeders into isolatable sections and combining those sections with the critical service access metric allows us to identify where energy improvements like solar-plus-storage microgrids could create the most benefits for community members by protecting access to food, fuel, health, shelter, and public safety services. We identify locations in a South Seattle study area that could be high priorities for resilience investment and summarize their potential neighborhood-scale resilience benefits. This analysis was complemented by direct feedback from study area residents collect through a survey and focus groups. Results can help utilities understand how and where long power outages can create real consequences for customers, set strategic targets based on that understanding, and measure the potential benefits of energy resilience upgrades for more informed decisions.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Future marine biofuels in the port of Seattle region

Marine transportation, a vital global sector, emits 3% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions, which are predicted to increase in the future. Marine biofuels derived from biomass or waste sources like wood residue, waste oil and municipal solid waste can be used for decarbonization. However, limited studies have explored if sufficient marine biofuels could be produced and supplied to major regional ports given feedstock, supply chain and technological constraints. We fill this gap by evaluating the feasibility of supplying marine biofuels to the Port of Seattle. The Regional Bio-Economy Model (RBEM) and the Freight and Fuel Transportation Optimization Tool (FTOT) are used to build scenarios for simulating marine biofuel production in the Port region. We harmonized technoeconomic assumptions for RBEM and FTOT, input FTOT feedstock utilization and routing outputs into RBEM, and modelled conversion, feedstock, and policy scenario variations in RBEM. In RBEM, overall biofuel production was constrained primarily by the biofuel cost, and then by feedstock availability. Providing policy incentives and reducing permitting time frames alleviated these constraints and spurred the buildout of a robust industry through industrial learning dynamics in the initial years. With these measures in place, the RBEM results show that 100% of fuel demand at the Port can be supplied by biofuels with policy incentives and suitable technoeconomic conditions, but the addition of transportation cost considerations using FTOT led to 27.8% of demand being able to be met by biofuels at reasonable fuel delivery cost.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗