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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
NASA NTRS2010

Electric Field Measurements During the Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) Field Program

During the Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) field program, a system of 6 electric field mills was flown on one of NASA's Global Hawk aircraft. We placed several mills on the aircraft to enable us to measure the vector electric field. We created a distributed, ethernet-connected system so that each sensor has its own embedded Linux system, complete with web server. This makes our current generation system fully "sensor web enabled." The Global Hawk has several unique qualities, but relevant to quality storm electric field measurements are high altitude (20 km) and long duration (20-30 hours) flights. There are several aircraft participating in the GRIP program, and coordinated measurements are happening. Lightning and electric field measurements will be used to study the relationships between lightning and other storm characteristics. It has been long understood that lightning can be used as a marker for strong convective activity. Past research and field programs suggest that lightning flash rate may serve as an indicator and precursor for rapid intensification change in tropical cyclones and hurricanes. We have the opportunity to sample hurricanes for many hours at a time and observe intensification (or de-intensification) periods. The electrical properties of hurricanes during such periods are not well known. American

Bateman, Monte G.↗
NASA NTRS2013

NASA's Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) Field Experiment

In August–September 2010, NASA, NOAA, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) conducted separate but closely coordinated hurricane field campaigns, bringing to bear a combined seven aircraft with both new and mature observing technologies. NASA's Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) experiment, the subject of this article, along with NOAA's Intensity Forecasting Experiment (IFEX) and NSF's Pre-Depression Investigation of Cloud-Systems in the Tropics (PREDICT) experiment, obtained unprecedented observations of the formation and intensification of tropical cyclones. The major goal of GRIP was to better understand the physical processes that control hurricane formation and intensity change, specifically the relative roles of environmental and inner-core processes. A key focus of GRIP was the application of new technologies to address this important scientific goal, including the first ever use of the unmanned Global Hawk aircraft for hurricane science operations. NASA and NOAA conducted coordinated flights to thoroughly sample the rapid intensification (RI) of Hurricanes Earl and Karl. The tri-agency aircraft teamed up to perform coordinated flights for the genesis of Hurricane Karl and Tropical Storm Matthew and the non-redevelopment of the remnants of Tropical Storm Gaston. The combined GRIP–IFEX–PREDICT datasets, along with remote sensing data from a variety of satellite platforms [Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), Aqua, Terra, CloudSat, and Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO)], will contribute to advancing understanding of hurricane formation and intensification. This article summarizes the GRIP experiment, the missions flown, and some preliminary findings.

hurricane↗
NASA NTRS1973

Satellite observations during the rapid intensification of hurricane Camille

Medium resolution infrared radiometer observations at the 6.7 micrometer and the 11 micrometer regions by satellite during the maximum intensification phase of hurricane Camille show increasing black body temperatures near the center. This is attributed to increased upward vertical motion in the interior of the cyclone, which is an indication of rapid intensification.

Shenk, W. E.↗
NASA NTRS2012

JPL Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) Portal

Satellite observations can play a very important role in airborne field campaigns, since they provide a comprehensive description of the environment that is essential for the experiment design, flight planning, and post-experiment scientific data analysis. In the past, it has been difficult to fully utilize data from multiple NASA satellites due to the large data volume, the complexity of accessing NASA s data in near-real-time (NRT), as well as the lack of software tools to interact with multi-sensor information. The JPL GRIP Portal is a Web portal that serves a comprehensive set of NRT observation data sets from NASA and NOAA satellites describing the atmospheric and oceanic environments related to the genesis and intensification of the tropical storms in the North Atlantic Ocean. Together with the model forecast data from four major global atmospheric models, this portal provides a useful tool for the scientists and forecasters in planning and monitoring the NASA GRIP field campaign during the 2010 Atlantic Ocean hurricane season. This portal uses the Google Earth plug-in to visualize various types of data sets, such as 2D maps, wind vectors, streamlines, 3D data sets presented at series of vertical cross-sections or pointwise vertical profiles, and hurricane best tracks and forecast tracks. Additionally, it allows users to overlap multiple data sets, change the opacity of each image layer, generate animations on the fly with selected data sets, and compare the observation data with the model forecast using two independent calendars. The portal also provides the capability to identify the geographic location of any point of interest. In addition to supporting the airborne mission planning, the NRT data and portal will serve as a very rich source of information during the post-field campaign analysis stage of the airborne experiment. By including a diverse set of satellite observations and model forecasts, it provides a good spatial and temporal context for the high-resolution, but limited in space and time, airborne observations.

Knosp, Brian W.↗
NASA NTRS2022

Rapid Intensification of the Emerging Southwestern North American Megadrought in 2020–2021

A previous reconstruction back to 800 ce indicated that the 2000–2018 soil moisture deficit in southwestern North America was exceeded during one megadrought in the late-1500s. Here, we show that after exceptional drought severity in 2021, ~19% of which is attributable to anthropogenic climate trends, 2000–2021 was the driest 22-yr period since at least 800. This drought will very likely persist through 2022, matching the duration of the late-1500s megadrought.

Hydrology↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Objectively Identifying Transverse Cirrus Bands in Tropical Cyclones using a Convolutional Neural Network

Transverse cirrus bands (TCBs) are a phenomenon that occurs in many mesoscale and synoptic weather systems, including tropical cyclones. TCBs are defined as "Bands of clouds oriented perpendicular to the flow in which they are embedded" (NOAA) and can be associated with low static stability and high environmental vertical wind shear in the upper levels (Kawashima 2021). TCBs in tropical cyclones are of particular interest due to their apparent occurrence and potential linkage to the tropical cyclone diurnal cycle, stronger tropical cyclones, and rapid intensification, where rapid intensification is an intensification rate of 30 knots or more in 24 hours (NHC).

John Mark Mayhall↗
NASA NTRS2013

The High Altitude MMIC Sounding Radiometer on the GLOBAL HAWK: From Technology Development to Science Discovery

This paper presents results from the High Altitude MMIC Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR) during three recent field campaigns on the Global Hawk Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAV), focusing on the enabling technology that led to unprecedented observations of significant weather phenomenon, such as thermodynamic evolution of the tropical cyclone core during rapid intensification and the high resolution three dimensional mapping of several atmospheric river events. HAMSR is a 25 channel cross-track scanning microwave sounder with channels near the 60 and 118 GHz oxygen lines and the 183 GHz water vapor line. HAMSR was originally designed and built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a technology demonstrator in 1998. Subsequent to this, HAMSR participated in three NASA hurricane field campaigns, CAMEX-4, TCSP and NAMMA. Beginning in 2008, HAMSR was extensively upgraded to deploy on the NASA Global Hawk (GH) platform and serve as an asset to the NASA sub-orbital program. HAMSR has participated on the Global Hawk during the 2010 Genesis and Rapid Intensification (GRIP) campaign, the 2011 Winter Storms and Atmospheric Rivers (WISPAR) campaign and is currently participating in the NASA Ventures Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) campaign (2011-2015).

NASA sub-orbital program↗
NASA NTRS2024

Convective Characteristics and GOES GLM Optical Energy in Hurricane Ian (2022)

Tropical cyclone (TC) track forecasts have improved greatly in recent decades, while intensity forecasts have struggled to improve at the same rate. As a result, there has been a focus in literature to attempt to better understand the processes that lead to TC intensification and especially TC rapid intensification (RI). Lightning has been studied as a tool to determine changes in TC intensity, but studied thus far have had conflicting results.

Hurricane↗
NASA NTRS1993

Upper-level eddy angular momentum fluxes and tropical cyclone intensity change

The eddy flux convergence of relative angular momentum (EFC) at 200 mb was calculated for the named tropical cyclones during the 1989-1991 Atlantic hurricane seasons. A period of enhanced EFC within 1500 km of the storm center occurred about every five days due to the interaction with upper-level troughs in the midlatitude westerlies or upper-level, cold lows in low latitudes. Twenty-six of the 32 storms had at least one period of enhanced EFC. In about one-third of the cases, the storm intensified just after the period of enhanced EFC. In most of the cases in which the storm did not intensify the vertical shear increased, the storm moved over cold water, or the storm became extratropical just after the period of enhanced EFC. A statistically significant relationship was found between the EFC within 600 km of the storm center and the intensity change during the next 48 h. The EFC was also examined for the ten storms from the 1989-1991 sample that had the largest intensification rates. Six of the ten periods of rapid intensification were associated with enhanced EFC. In the remaining four cases the storms were intensifying rapidly in a low shear environment without any obvious interaction with upper-level troughs.

Demaria, Mark↗
NASA NTRS2022

Flash Drought Onset and Development Mechanisms Captured With Soil Moisture and Vegetation Data Assimilation

Flash droughts evolve and intensify rapidly under the influence of anomalous atmospheric conditions. In this study, we investigate the role of assimilating remotely sensed soil moisture (SM) and vegetation properties in capturing the evolution and impacts of two flash droughts in the Northern Great Plains. We find that during 2016 drought triggered by anomalously high temperatures and excessive evaporative demands, multivariate data assimilation (DA) of MODIS-derived leaf area index (LAI) and Soil Moisture Active Passive SM within Noah-Multiparameterization model helps capture elevated transpiration at onset. Assimilation of LAI particularly helped model the resulting rapid decline in SM during onset with as high as 10.0% steeper rate of decline compared to the simulation without any assimilation. Modeled-SM anomalies exhibit a 7.5% and 11.7% increase in similarity with Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) data and U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) maps, respectively. In contrast, during 2017 flash drought driven by record-low precipitation during summers, SM assimilation resulted in largest rates of decline in rootzone SM, as large as 48.4% compared to results from no assimilation. Multivariate DA of SM and LAI results in 6.7% and 14.3% higher spatial similarity with ESI and USDM, respectively, and is necessary to model rapid intensification caused by anomalous precipitation deficits. This study elucidates the need to incorporate multiple observational constraints from remote sensing to effectively capture rapid onset rates, intensification, and severity of flash drought following different propagation mechanisms. This is fundamental for drought early detection to provide a wider window of response and implement efficient mitigation strategies.

Shahryar K. Ahmad↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Changes in Lightning Flash Size and Energy during the Intensification of Hurricanes Florence (2018) and Laura (2020)

Lightning is a useful tool in forecasting and understanding the behavior of tropical cyclones (TCs). The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) aboard the GOES-16 geostationary satellite measures a multitude of lightning parameters, such as flash extent density (FED), average flash area (AFA) and optical energy for most of North America, South America, and the Pacific Ocean. GLM has brought about an era of spaceborne measurements to track storms many miles off the coasts and has allowed for the study of lightning throughout a TCs entire lifespan. FED has been found to be indicative of strength and intensification in TCs, but optical energy is a relatively new parameter that has not been studied intensively. This presentation analyzes the relationship between rapid intensification (RI) and GLM optical energy, AFA, and FED in Hurricanes Florence (2018) and Laura (2020). Using a 24-hour time interval in which each storm underwent RI, optical energy was analyzed from the innermost 100 kilometers of the eye and then was averaged for each minute to determine if there was a relationship between optical energy, AFA, FED, and intensification. Optical energy, FED, and AFA spiked just before RI began and then fell as the storms intensified more rapidly. These parameters increased again as intensification slowed slightly, while the optical energy peaks much lower in Hurricane Laura and much higher in Hurricane Florence. While these results show a pattern in lightning in these two TCs, further investigation of parameters like updraft strength and charge separation from microwave imagery during these secondary peaks in which optical energy behaves differently than the first peak may provide further insight as to the behavior of these TCs during RI.

Kiahna Mollette↗