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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 NTRS2020

The NASA MODIS-VIIRS Continuity Cloud Optical Properties Products

The NASA Aqua MODIS and Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (SNPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) climate data record continuity cloud properties products (CLDPROP) were publicly released in April 2019 with an update later that year (Version 1.1). These cloud products, having heritage with the NASA Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MOD06 cloud optical properties product and the NOAA GOES-R Algorithm Working Group (AWG) Cloud Height Algorithm (ACHA), represent an effort to bridge the multispectral imager records of NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS) and NOAA’s current generation of operational weather satellites to achieve a continuous, multi-decadal climate data record for clouds that can extend well into the 2030s. CLDPROP offers a “continuity of approach,” applying common algorithms and ancillary datasets to both MODIS and VIIRS, including utilizing only a subset of spectral channels available on both sensors to help mitigate instrument differences. The initial release of the CLDPROP_MODIS and CLDPROP_VIIRS data records spans the SNPP observational record (2012-present). Here, we present an overview of the algorithms and an evaluation of the intersensor continuity of the core CLDPROP_MODIS and CLDPROP_VIIRS cloud optical property datasets, i.e., cloud thermodynamic phase, optical thickness, effective particle size, and derived water path. The evaluation includes analyses of pixel-level MODIS/VIIRS co-locations as well as spatial and temporal aggregated statistics, with a focus on identifying and understanding the root causes of individual dataset discontinuities. The results of this evaluation will inform future updates to the CLDPROP products and help scientific users determine the appropriate use of the product datasets for their specific needs.

satellite remote sensing↗
NASA NTRS2021

How fire patterns reveal uneven stabilization at the end of conflict: examining Syria's unusual fire year in 2019

In 2019, Syria experienced its largest outbreak of fires since 2003, when fire occurrence began to be monitored via the MODIS satellite instruments. Here, we combine remotely sensed data on fire, local climatic conditions, and vegetation with spatial data on violence, territorial control, and return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to explore the underlying causes of Syria's fires at the sub-district, or ADM-3, level. We find evidence for a nuanced story: precipitation and stabilization in Kurdish-controlled territory fueled a bountiful wheat-growing year in 2019. This agricultural resurgence coincided with high fire activity, possibly revealing that people were attempting to jump-start agricultural livelihoods that were lost during the civil war. Restoration of labor forces from IDP returns was not a significant factor in this agricultural recovery. Meanwhile, most sub-districts outside Kurdish-controlled territory were free of fires, which explains the absence of a relationship between vegetation and fire. Thus, Syrian fire patterns in 2019 may be a signal of uneven stabilization, rather than destabilization.

Fire patterns↗
NASA NTRS2020

Satellite Monitoring of Global Surface Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics Using the SMAP Level 4 Carbon Product

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is an important metric of soil health and the terrestrial carbon balance. Short‐term climate variations affect SOC through changes in temperature and moisture, which control vegetation growth and soil decomposition. We evaluated a satellite data‐driven carbon model, operating under the NASA Soil Moisture Active‐Passive (SMAP) mission, as a means of monitoring global surface SOC dynamics. The SMAP Level 4 Carbon (L4C) product estimates a daily global carbon budget including surface (0‐ to 5‐cm depth) SOC. We found that the L4C mean latitudinal SOC distribution is generally consistent with alternative assessments from static soil inventory records and dynamic global vegetation models (r ≥ 0.89). Within forest systems, based on inventory data, L4C SOC is most similar in magnitude to litterfall but is correlated with coarse woody debris ( urn:x-wiley:jgrg:media:jgrg21790:jgrg21790-math-0001) and total SOC ( urn:x-wiley:jgrg:media:jgrg21790:jgrg21790-math-0002). L4C SOC is sensitive to seasonal and annual climate variability, with mean residence times that range from 1.5 years in the wet tropics to 17 years in the cold tundra. Incorporating soil moisture retrievals from the SMAP L‐band (1.4 GHz) microwave radiometer within the L4C algorithm provides enhanced soil moisture sensitivity under low‐to‐moderate vegetation cover (<5 kg/sq.m vegetation water content). The L‐band soil moisture had the greatest impact on the L4C carbon budget in semiarid regions, which span almost 60% of the globe and account for substantial variability in the terrestrial carbon sink. The L4C operational product enables prognostic investigations into effects of recent climate trends and anomalies (e.g., droughts and pluvials) on shallow soil carbon dynamics.

K. Arthur Endsley↗
NASA NTRS2008

Measurement of Atmospheric Composition from Geostationary Platforms

Satellite instruments flown since 1970 have had great success in elucidating the processes that control stratospheric ozone. In contrast, space-based data for tropospheric constituents that affect air quality and climate have only recently become available. While these datasets highlight the rapidly advancing capabilities of spacebased tropospheric sensors, they are also pointing to the limitations of sun-synchronous, low-earth orbiting (SSO/LEO) satellite platforms for making such measurements. In our talk we will highlight the science requirements for new missions and the technological and algorithmic approaches that we are developing to meet these requirements. From these studies a clear need for advanced atmospheric composition sensors has emerged that can be put on geostationary (GEO) platforms to provide 5 km horizontal resolution with 15-60 minutes repeat cycle. Such measurements have been high priority in the recently released Decadal Survey report by the US National Research Council. The need for GEO is driven not only by the science requirements to track rapidly changing pollution events but also by the need to provide altitude-resolved information about tropospheric constituents. Currently, with the exception of aerosols, it is not possible to derive profile information about lower tropospheric constituents from satellite measurements. New algorithmic approaches are being developed to obtain this information by combining UV and IR data, by monitoring the spatial and temporal structures of the constituents, and by using low-level clouds to separate boundary layer constituents from free troposphere. All these approaches require better spatial and temporal resolution than that provided by LEO sensors.

Bhartia, P. K.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Groundwater Drought: Environmental Controls and Monitoring

Arising from a long-term deficit of precipitation, groundwater drought often lags meteorological drought by months to years, depending on climate and subsurface hydrogeological conditions. Due to the paucity of in situ groundwater data in many parts of the world, global monitoring of groundwater storage variations and drought may be best achieved using satellite observations and/or groundwater time series simulated by hydrological models. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow On (GRACE-FO) missions have greatly benefitted the modeling and monitoring of groundwater storage changes and drought at the global scale. In this chapter, we first review environmental controls on the temporal variability of groundwater using in situ data. We then describe an approach that infuses GRACE and GRACE-FO observations into a land surface model for assessing groundwater storage changes and drought globally. We also discuss characteristics of simulated groundwater drought and the limitations of current groundwater drought monitoring approaches.

Bailing Li↗
NASA NTRS1995

ORBCOMM: Initial operations

ORBCOMM, a subsidiary of Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC), has designed a system to provide low-cost mobile two-way data communications for worldwide commercial markets. The primary application areas are data communications and messaging. The ORBCOMM System has been designed so a user can compose, transmit, and receive messages; control and monitor assets; and collect data on hand-held subscriber communicators (SC's). With a constellation of 36 LEO satellites and terrestrial facilities, users in the temperature climate zones around the world will have a satellite in view over 98% of the time, and will have to wait less than two minutes the rest of the time to directly access a satellite. A message transmitted from a SC and received by the satellite is relayed down to a regional gateway earth station (GES). The GES then transmits the message via fiber land-lines to the network control center (NCC). The NCC then determines the location of the recipient of the message and routes the message accordingly. The NCC can receive and transmit messages from terrestrial networks via X.400 and X.25 gateways. The NCC can translate messages from widely used e-mail systems such as Internet, cc:Mail, and Microsoft Mail into X.400 messages for transmission to and from ORBCOMM SC's.

Schoen, David↗
NASA NTRS2023

Top‐Down Regulation by a Reindeer Herding System Limits Climate‐Driven Arctic Vegetation Change at a Regional Scale

Warming-driven growth of tall woody vegetation in the Arctic has the potential to accelerate climate change through multiple positive feedbacks. Local-scale evidence suggests that large herbivores limit this vegetation shift, but there is uncertainty at larger, regional scales whether current herbivory pressure is a major top-down control on ecosystem structure and functioning. Across a 67,000 km2 region of the Yamal Peninsula in West Siberia, we integrated satellite remote sensing with a novel data set mapping the migrations of herds comprising 151,000 domesticated reindeer. Where reindeer numbers varied over space, higher reindeer herbivory pressure was consistently linked with lower coverage of tall woody vegetation. Within areas dominated by this vegetation type, productivity and climate were increasingly decoupled where reindeer density was higher. Our spaceborne fingerprint detection suggests that large herbivores, at current population densities, counteract Arctic vegetation responses to climate change over large spatial scales.

Reindeer Herding System↗
NASA NTRS2008

Multi-Decadal Variation of Aerosols: Sources, Transport, and Climate Effects

We present a global model study of multi-decadal changes of atmospheric aerosols and their climate effects using a global chemistry transport model along with the near-term to longterm data records. We focus on a 27-year time period of satellite era from 1980 to 2006, during which a suite of aerosol data from satellite observations, ground-based measurements, and intensive field experiments have become available. We will use the Goddard Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport (GOCART) model, which involves a time-varying, comprehensive global emission dataset that we put together in our previous investigations and will be improved/extended in this project. This global emission dataset includes emissions of aerosols and their precursors from fuel combustion, biomass burning, volcanic eruptions, and other sources from 1980 to the present. Using the model and satellite data, we will analyze (1) the long-term global and regional aerosol trends and their relationship to the changes of aerosol and precursor emissions from anthropogenic and natural sources, (2) the intercontinental source-receptor relationships controlled by emission, transport pathway, and climate variability.

Chin, Mian↗
NASA NTRS2022

Trends in sulfur dioxide over the Indian subcontinent during 2003–2019

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) and its oxidation products profoundly impact the air quality and climate. In recent decades, contrasting SO2 trends have been observed over different regions of the globe due to urbanization, energy generation and control measures. In this study, we have investigated the SO2 trends over the rapidly developing Indian subcontinent using model reanalysis, satellite data, and emission inventories during 2003–2019 period. Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) reanalysis shows rapid SO2 growth up to 0.4 ppbv/yr during 2003–2009, particularly significant over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) and eastern India. However, the growth becomes slower after 2010 and is followed by a stabilization or slight reduction. The CAMS results agree with the satellite-based observations, however, the model underestimates enhancements over eastern India. The analysis of inventory datasets also suggests slower growths in SO2 emissions and coal-fired electricity generation in recent years. Besides the changes in regional emissions, the enhancements in water vapor and OH radical coinciding with SO2 stabilization indicate strengthening of the sink processes. Model simulation (Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications version 2―MERRA-2) with constant emissions shows reduction in SO2 which confirms the stronger chemical losses. Overall, the SO2 trends over the Indian subcontinent are found to be a manifestation of the combined effects of the regional emission change and chemistry. Our findings highlight the need for studies to assess the impacts of changing SO2 trends in India on the regional and global climate.

Lakhima Chutia↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

TPSAS-NF1676L-22888-DND

The climate of the thermosphere is controlled in part by cooling to space driven by infrared radiation from carbon dioxide (CO2, 15μm), nitric oxide (NO, 5.3μm), and atomic oxygen (O, 63μm). The Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument on the NASA Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite has been measuring infrared cooling from CO2 and NO in the thermosphere since January 2002. These data provide integral constraints on the energy budget and climate of the atmosphere above 100 km. Physically, changes in NO emission are due to changes in temperature, atomic oxygen, and the NO density. These physical changes, however, are driven by changes in solar irradiance and changes in geomagnetic conditions.

Linda Hunt↗
NASA NTRS2012

Satellite-based Assessment of Climate Controls on US Burned Area

Climate regulates fire activity through the buildup and drying of fuels and the conditions for fire ignition and spread. Understanding the dynamics of contemporary climate-fire relationships at national and sub-national scales is critical to assess the likelihood of changes in future fire activity and the potential options for mitigation and adaptation. Here, we conducted the first national assessment of climate controls on US fire activity using two satellite-based estimates of monthly burned area (BA), the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED, 1997 2010) and Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS, 1984 2009) BA products. For each US National Climate Assessment (NCA) region, we analyzed the relationships between monthly BA and potential evaporation (PE) derived from reanalysis climate data at 0.5 resolution. US fire activity increased over the past 25 yr, with statistically significant increases in MTBS BA for entire US and the Southeast and Southwest NCA regions. Monthly PE was strongly correlated with US fire activity, yet the climate driver of PE varied regionally. Fire season temperature and shortwave radiation were the primary controls on PE and fire activity in the Alaska, while water deficit (precipitation PE) was strongly correlated with fire activity in the Plains regions and Northwest US. BA and precipitation anomalies were negatively correlated in all regions, although fuel-limited ecosystems in the Southern Plains and Southwest exhibited positive correlations with longer lead times (6 12 months). Fire season PE in creased from the 1980s 2000s, enhancing climate-driven fire risk in the southern and western US where PE-BA correlations were strongest. Spatial and temporal patterns of increasing fire season PE and BA during the 1990s 2000s highlight the potential sensitivity of US fire activity to climate change in coming decades. However, climatefire relationships at the national scale are complex, based on the diversity of fire types, ecosystems, and ignition sources within each NCA region. Changes in the seasonality or magnitude of climate anomalies are therefore unlikely to result in uniform changes in US fire activity.

Morton, D. C.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Variation of a Lightning NOx Indicator for National Climate Assessment

Lightning nitrogen oxides (LNOx) indirectly influences our climate since these molecules are important in controlling the concentration of ozone (O3) and hydroxyl radicals (OH) in the atmosphere [Huntrieser et al., 1998]. In support of the National Climate Assessment (NCA) program, satellite Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS; Christian et al. [1999]; Cecil et al. [2014]) data is used to estimate LNOx production over the southern portion of the conterminous US for the 16 year period 1998-2013.

Koshak, William↗
NASA NTRS2003

The Aura Mission and Its Application to Climate and Air Quality

NASA's Aura satellite is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2004 into a polar orbit. The Aura mission is designed to collect data to address three high priority environmental science questions: (1) Is the ozone layer recovering as expected? (2) What are the sources and processes that control tropospheric pollutants? And (3) what is the quantitative impact of constituents on climate change? Aura will answer these questions by globally measuring a comprehensive set of trace gases and aerosols in the troposphere and stratosphere. Aura data will also have applications for monitoring and predicting climate and air quality parameters. Aura s observations will continue the TOMS ozone trend record and provide an assessment as to whether the Montreal Protocol is achieving its objective. Aura will measure gases and aerosols in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere that contribute to climate forcing. These data will be of sufficient coverage, vertical resolution, and accuracy to help constrain climate models. In addition, Aura observations of tropospheric ozone and its precursors will have regional as well as intercontinental coverage, which could improve emission inventories. Near real time data will tested for local air quality forecasts in collaboration with the US's Environmental Protection UV-B forecasts from Aura ozone and cloud cover data. An overview of Aura s instruments, data products, validation, and examples of data applications will be presented.

Hilsenrath, Ernest↗
NASA NTRS2018

TPSAS-NF1676L-32008-DND

Thermosphere climate is controlled in part by cooling to space driven by infrared radiation, primarily from nitric oxide (NO, 5.3μm) and carbon dioxide (CO2, 15μm). The Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument on the Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite has been measuring the vertical distribution of infrared radiation emitted by these species (and others) for nearly 17 years-–more than 6000 days. This data set spans much of Solar Cycle (SC) 23 and all of SC 24 to date. A thermosphere climate index (TCI) has been derived by noting the correlation between 60-day running averages of NO cooling power and three long-term solar and geomagnetic indexes: F10.7 cm solar radio flux, the Ap index of geoeffective solar activity, and the disturbance storm time (Dst) index. A multiple linear regression (MLR) fit of these three parameters to the NO cooling rate over the SABER mission has a better than 0.98 correlation. Applying the MLR constant and coefficients from that fit provides a good estimate of thermospheric cooling back to 1947, the extent of the data available for all three indexes. We examined the percentile distribution of the TCI in quintiles over the five complete solar cycles, and assigned.

Linda Hunt↗
NASA NTRS1999

TRMM On Orbit Attitude Control System Performance

This paper presents an overview of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Attitude Control System (ACS) along with detailed in-flight performance results for each operational mode. The TRMM spacecraft is an Earth-pointed, zero momentum bias satellite launched on November 27, 1997 from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall and the associated release of energy. Launched to provide a validation for poorly known rainfall data sets generated by global climate models, TRMM has demonstrated its utility by reducing uncertainties in global rainfall measurements by a factor of two. The ACS is comprised of Attitude Control Electronics (ACE), an Earth Sensor Assembly (ESA), Digital Sun Sensors (DSS), Inertial Reference Units (IRU), Three Axis Magnetometers (TAM), Coarse Sun Sensors (CSS), Magnetic Torquer Bars (MTB), Reaction Wheel Assemblies (RWA), Engine Valve Drivers (EVD) and thrusters. While in Mission Mode, the ESA provides roll and pitch axis attitude error measurements and the DSS provide yaw updates twice per orbit. In addition, the TAM in combination with the IRU and DSS can be used to provide pointing in a contingency attitude determination mode which does not rely on the ESA. Although the ACS performance to date has been highly successful, lessons were learned during checkout and initial on-orbit operation. This paper describes the design, on-orbit checkout, performance and lessons learned for the TRMM ACS.

Robertson, Brent↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Toward an Integrated Product of Higher Accuracy and Longer Time Span: Improvement of the Upcoming NASA GEWEX SRB Data Release 4 over Release 3 Based on Validation Against Surface-Based Measurements

The NASA Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) is moving toward its next generation, the Release 4 Integrated Product (Rel. 4-IP), and its shortwave algorithm preliminary results as of this writing span 34 years continuously from July 1983 to June 2017 on a quasi-equal-area grid system with 44,016 gridboxes ranging from 1 longitude times 1 latitude around the Equator to 120 longitude times 1 latitude. The data are in the form of 3-hourly, 3-hourly-monthly, daily and monthly means. The Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) is a project of the Data and Assessments Panel from the GEWEX under the umbrella of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). Currently in the archive there are data from 67 sites located in all seven continents spanning from 1992 to the very present. The original BSRN records are at 1-, 2-, 3- or 5-minute intervals, and sophisticated quality-control procedures have been developed to eliminate erroneous records before hourly, daily and monthly means are computed. The Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) arrays of buoys in the tropical oceans, TAO/TRITON (Pacific Ocean), RAMA (Indian Ocean) and PITARA (Atlantic Ocean), measure shortwave downward fluxes using pyranometers. These buoys transmit measured data to shore in real-time via the Argos satellite system. And these buoys are major components of the CLIVAR climate analysis project and the GOOS, GCOS, and GEOSS observing systems. So far there are data from 64 buoys and the earliest data start from 2000. We have extensively validated the Rel. 4-IP preliminary results against the BSRN and PMEL 3-hourly, daily and monthly means. In this paper, we will show that the new results not only temporally span 10 years longer than its predecessor, Release 3, but agree significantly better with the BSRN data over the land and PMEL data over the ocean.

Taiping Zhang↗
NASA NTRS2016

New Satellite Project Aerosol-UA: Remote Sensing of Aerosols in the Terrestrial Atmosphere

We discuss the development of the Ukrainian space project Aerosol-UA which has the following three main objectives: (1) to monitor the spatial distribution of key characteristics of terrestrial tropospheric and stratospheric aerosols; (2) to provide a comprehensive observational database enabling accurate quantitative estimates of the aerosol contribution to the energy budget of the climate system; and (3) quantify the contribution of anthropogenic aerosols to climate and ecological processes. The remote sensing concept of the project is based on precise orbital measurements of the intensity and polarization of sunlight scattered by the atmosphere and the surface with a scanning polarimeter accompanied by a wide-angle multispectral imager-polarimeter. Preparations have already been made for the development of the instrument suite for the Aerosol-UA project, in particular, of the multi-channel scanning polarimeter (ScanPol) designed for remote sensing studies of the global distribution of aerosol and cloud properties (such as particle size, morphology, and composition) in the terrestrial atmosphere by polarimetric and spectrophotometric measurements of the scattered sunlight in a wide range of wavelengths and viewing directions from which a scene location is observed. ScanPol is accompanied by multispectral wide-angle imager-polarimeter (MSIP) that serves to collect information on cloud conditions and Earths surface image. Various components of the polarimeter ScanPol have been prototyped, including the opto-mechanical and electronic assemblies and the scanning mirror controller. Preliminary synthetic data simulations for the retrieval of aerosol parameters over land surfaces have been performed using the Generalized Retrieval of Aerosol and Surface Properties (GRASP) algorithm. Methods for the validation of satellite data using ground-based observations of aerosol properties are also discussed. We assume that designing, building, and launching into orbit a multi-functional high-precision scanning polarimeter and an imager-polarimeter should make a significant contribution to the study of natural and anthropogenic aerosols and their climatic and ecological effects.

remote sensing↗
NASA NTRS2015

Evaluation of a Model-Based Groundwater Drought Indicator in the Conterminous U.S.

Monitoring groundwater drought using land surface models is a valuable alternative given the current lack of systematic in situ measurements at continental and global scales and the low resolution of current remote sensing based groundwater data. However, uncertainties inherent to land surface models may impede drought detection, and thus should be assessed using independent data sources. In this study, we evaluated a groundwater drought index (GWI) derived from monthly groundwater storage output from the Catchment Land Surface Model (CLSM) using a GWI similarly derived from in situ groundwater observations. Groundwater observations were obtained from unconfined or semi-confined aquifers in eight regions of the central and northeastern U.S. Regional average GWI derived from CLSM exhibited strong correlation with that from observation wells, with correlation coefficients between 0.43 and 0.92. GWI from both in situ data and CLSM was generally better correlated with the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) at 12 and 24 month timescales than at shorter timescales, but it varied depending on climate conditions. The correlation between CLSM derived GWI and SPI generally decreases with increasing depth to the water table, which in turn depends on both bedrock depth (a CLSM parameter) and mean annual precipitation. The persistence of CLSM derived GWI is spatially varied and again shows a strong influence of depth to groundwater. CLSM derived GWI generally persists longer than GWI derived from in situ data, due at least in part to the inability of coarse model inputs to capture high frequency meteorological variability at local scales. The study also showed that groundwater can have a significant impact on soil moisture persistence where the water table is shallow. Soil moisture persistence was estimated to be longer in the eastern U.S. than in the west, in contrast to previous findings that were based on models that did not represent groundwater. Assimilation of terrestrial water storage data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission improved the correlation between CLSM based regional average GWI and that based on in situ data in six of the eight regions. Practical issues regarding the application of GRACE assimilated groundwater storage for drought detection are discussed. An important conclusion of this study is that model parameters that control the depth to the water table, including bedrock depth, strongly influence the evolution and persistence of simulated groundwater and require careful configuration for drought monitoring.

Evaluation↗