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Jensen, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Jensen, M..

Interpolated Sounding and Gridded Sounding Value-Added Products

Standard Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility sounding files provide atmospheric state data in one dimension of increasing time and height per sonde launch. Many applications require a quick estimate of the atmospheric state at higher time resolution. The INTERPOLATEDSONDE (i.e., Interpolated Sounding) Value-Added Product (VAP) transforms sounding data into continuous daily files on a fixed time-height grid, at 1-minute time resolution, on 332 levels, from the surface up to a limit of approximately 40 km. The grid extends that high so the full height of soundings can be captured; however, most soundings terminate at an altitude between 25 and 30 km, above which no data is provided. Between soundings, the VAP linearly interpolates atmospheric state variables in time for each height level. In addition, INTERPOLATEDSONDE provides relative humidity scaled to microwave radiometer (MWR) observations.The INTERPOLATEDSONDE VAP, a continuous time-height grid of relative humidity-corrected sounding data, is intended to provide input to higher-order products, such as the Merged Soundings (MERGESONDE; Troyan 2012) VAP, which extends INTERPOLATEDSONDE by incorporating model data. The INTERPOLATEDSONDE VAP also is used to correct gaseous attenuation of radar reflectivity in products such as the KAZRCOR VAP.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Tracking Aerosol Convective Interactions Experiment (TRACER) Science Plan

Convective clouds play an important role in the Earth's climate system as a driver of large-scale circulations and a primary mechanism for the transport of heat, moisture, aerosols, and momentum throughout the troposphere. Despite their climatic importance, multi-scale models continue to have persistent biases produced by insufficient representation of convective clouds. This is the result of an incomplete understanding of key processes such as convective initiation, updraft and downdraft dynamics, cloud and precipitation microphysics, and aerosol-convection interactions.The Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation-Climate Initiative, an international research group dedicated to advancing understanding of aerosol impacts on clouds relevant to climate, has identified the Houston, Texas region as an optimal location for targeted studies of aerosol-convection interactions within frequently developing isolated deep convection. Houston lies within a humid subtropical climate regime, where onshore flow and sea-breeze convection interact with a range of aerosol conditions associated with Houston's urban and industrial emissions. Pilot studies have suggested that convective clouds in this region are potentially significantly impacted by the varying aerosol conditions.

Jensen, M.↗

High definition large area mapping of geological samples using a Maia detector array in the Nuclear Microprobe

A Maia detector array has been utilized and installed on the CSIRO-MARC Nuclear Microprobe. Maia uses an annular array of 384 silicon detectors to provide a solid-angle of 1.3 sr to improve the collection of X-rays induced by Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) using a micron focussed MeV proton beam. It features event-by-event data acquisition with dead-time correction and pileup rejection and a total count-rate capacity above 10 M/s, versatile stage and beam scanning modes (coupled to the DAQ-36 system described previously) to cater for a variety of sample configuration and experimental needs, precise measurement of transit time and integration of beam fluence per pixel, and spectral deconvolution of event data in real-time using the Dynamic Analysis method to provide element images during data collection. In this work we demonstrate the system on thin sections made from geological samples extracted from active seafloor hydrothermal vents in the PACMANUS hydrothermal field in Papua New Guinea.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Maia Mapper: high definition XRF imaging in the lab

Here, Maia Mapper is a laboratory μXRF mapping system for efficient elemental imaging of drill core sections serving minerals research and industrial applications. It targets intermediate spatial scales, with imaging of up to ~80 M pixels over a 500×150 mm 2 sample area. It brings together (i) the Maia detector and imaging system, with its large solid-angle, event-mode operation, millisecond pixel transit times in fly-scan mode and real-time spectral deconvolution and imaging, (ii) the high brightness MetalJet D2 liquid metal micro-focus X-ray source from Excillum, and (iii) an efficient XOS polycapillary lens with a flux gain ~15,900 at 21 keV into a ~32 μm focus, and (iv) a sample scanning stage engineered for standard drill-core sections. Count-rates up to ~3 M/s are observed on drill core samples with low dead-time up to ~1.5%. Automated scans are executed in sequence with display of deconvoluted element component images accumulated in real-time in the Maia detector. Application images on drill core and polished rock slabs illustrate Maia Mapper capabilities as part of the analytical workflow of the Advanced Resource Characterisation Facility, which spans spatial dimensions from ore deposit to atomic scales.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

The Green Ocean Amazon Experiment (GoAmazon2014/5) Observes Pollution Affecting Gases, Aerosols, Clouds, and Rainfall over the Rain Forest

The Observations and Modeling of the Green Ocean Amazon 2014–2015 (GoAmazon2014/5) experiment took place around the urban region of Manaus in central Amazonia across 2 years. The urban pollution plume was used to study the susceptibility of gases, aerosols, clouds, and rainfall to human activities in a tropical environment. Many aspects of air quality, weather, terrestrial ecosystems, and climate work differently in the tropics than in the more thoroughly studied temperate regions of Earth. GoAmazon2014/5, a cooperative project of Brazil, Germany, and the United States, employed an unparalleled suite of measurements at nine ground sites and on board two aircraft to investigate the flow of background air into Manaus, the emissions into the air over the city, and the advection of the pollution downwind of the city. Here in this paper, to visualize this train of processes and its effects, observations aboard a low-flying aircraft are presented. Comparative measurements within and adjacent to the plume followed the emissions of biogenic volatile organic carbon compounds (BVOCs) from the tropical forest, their transformations by the atmospheric oxidant cycle, alterations of this cycle by the influence of the pollutants, transformations of the chemical products into aerosol particles, the relationship of these particles to cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity, and the differences in cloud properties and rainfall for background compared to polluted conditions. The observations of the GoAmazon2014/5 experiment illustrate how the hydrologic cycle, radiation balance, and carbon recycling may be affected by present-day as well as future economic development and pollution over the Amazonian tropical forest.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Atmospheric System Research Marine Low Clouds Workshop Report, January 27-29,2016

Marine low clouds are a major determinant of the Earth?s albedo and are a major source of uncertainty in how the climate responds to changing greenhouse gas levels and anthropogenic aerosol. Marine low clouds are particularly difficult to simulate accurately in climate models, and their remote locations present a significant observational challenge. A complex set of interacting controlling processes determine the coverage, condensate loading, and microphysical and radiative properties of marine low clouds. Marine low clouds are sensitive to atmospheric aerosol in several ways. Interactions at microphysical scales involve changes in the concentration of cloud droplets and precipitation, which induce cloud dynamical impacts including changes in entrainment and mesoscale organization. Marine low clouds are also impacted by atmospheric heating changes due to absorbing aerosols. The response of marine low clouds to aerosol perturbations depends strongly upon the unperturbed aerosol-cloud state, which necessitates greater understanding of processes controlling the budget of aerosol in the marine boundary layer. Entrainment and precipitation mediate the response of low clouds to aerosols but these processes also play leading roles in controlling the aerosol budget. The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility and Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program are making major recent investments in observational data sets from fixed and mobile sites dominated by marine low clouds. This report provides specific action items for how these measurements can be used together with process modeling to make progress on understanding and quantifying the key cloud and aerosol controlling processes in the next 5-10 years. Measurements of aerosol composition and its variation with particle size are needed to advance a quantitative, process-level understanding of marine boundary-layer aerosol budget. Quantitative precipitation estimates that combine radar and lidar measurements are becoming available, and these could be used to test process models, quantify precipitation responses to aerosol, and constrain climate models. Models and observations can be used to constrain how clouds respond dynamically to changing precipitation. New measurements of turbulence from ground-based remote sensing could be used to attempt to relate entrainment to the vertical and horizontal structure of turbulence in the boundary layer. Cloud-top entrainment plays a major role in modulating how low clouds respond to both aerosols and to greenhouse gases, so investment in promising new observational estimates would be beneficial. Precipitation formation and radiative cooling both help marine low clouds to organize on the mesoscale. More work is needed to develop metrics to characterize mesoscale organization, to elucidate mechanisms that determine the type and spatial scale of mesoscale cellular convection, and to understand the role of mesoscale structures in the stratocumulus-to-cumulus transition.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

915-MHz Wind Profiler for Cloud Forecasting at Brookhaven National Laboratory

When considering the amount of shortwave radiation incident on a photovoltaic solar array and, therefore, the amount and stability of the energy output from the system, clouds represent the greatest source of short-term (i.e., scale of minutes to hours) variability through scattering and reflection of incoming solar radiation. Providing estimates of this short-term variability is important for determining and regulating the output from large solar arrays as they connect with the larger power infrastructure. In support of the installation of a 37-MW solar array on the grounds of Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), a study of the impacts of clouds on the output of the solar array has been undertaken. The study emphasis is on predicting the change in surface solar radiation resulting from the observed/forecast cloud field on a 5-minute time scale. At these time scales, advection of cloud elements over the solar array is of particular importance. As part of the BNL Aerosol Life Cycle Intensive Operational Period (IOP), a 915-MHz Radar Wind Profiler (RWP) was deployed to determine the profile of low-level horizontal winds and the depth of the planetary boundary layer. The initial deployment mission of the 915-MHz RWP for cloud forecasting has been expanded the deployment to provide horizontal wind measurements for estimating and constraining cloud advection speeds. A secondary focus is on the observation of dynamics and microphysics of precipitation during cold season/winter storms on Long Island. In total, the profiler was deployed at BNL for 1 year from May 2011 through May 2012.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

915-Mhz Wind Profiler for Cloud Forecasting at Brookhaven National Laboratory

When considering the amount of shortwave radiation incident on a photovoltaic solar array and, therefore, the amount and stability of the energy output from the system, clouds represent the greatest source of short-term (i.e., scale of minutes to hours) variability through scattering and reflection of incoming solar radiation. Providing estimates of this short-term variability is important for determining and regulating the output from large solar arrays as they connect with the larger power infrastructure. In support of the installation of a 37-MW solar array on the grounds of Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), a study of the impacts of clouds on the output of the solar array has been undertaken. The study emphasis is on predicting the change in surface solar radiation resulting from the observed/forecast cloud field on a 5-minute time scale. At these time scales, advection of cloud elements over the solar array is of particular importance. As part of the BNL Aerosol Life Cycle Intensive Operational Period (IOP), a 915-MHz Radar Wind Profiler (RWP) was deployed to determine the profile of low-level horizontal winds and the depth of the planetary boundary layer. The initial deployment mission of the 915-MHz RWP for cloud forecasting has been expanded the deployment to provide horizontal wind measurements for estimating and constraining cloud advection speeds. A secondary focus is on the observation of dynamics and microphysics of precipitation during cold season/winter storms on Long Island. In total, the profiler was deployed at BNL for 1 year from May 2011 through May 2012.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Management of tritium European Spallation Source

The European Spallation Source (ESS) will produce tritium via spallation and activation processes during operational activities. Within the location of ESS facility in Lund, Sweden site it is mandatory to demonstrate that the management strategy of the produced tritium ensures the compliance with the country regulation criteria. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the different aspects of the tritium management in ESS facility. Besides the design parameter study of the helium coolant purification system of the target the consequences of the tritium releasing into the environment were also analyzed. Calculations show that the annual release of tritium during the normal operations represents a small fraction from the estimated total dose. However, more refined calculations of migration of activated-groundwater should be performed for higher hydraulic conductivities, with the availability of the results on soil examinations. With the assumption of 100% release of tritium to the atmosphere during the occurring of the extreme accidents, it was found as well that the total dose complies with the constraint. (authors)

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

ARM Research in the Equatorial Western Pacific: A Decade and Counting

The tropical western Pacific (TWP) is an important climatic region. Strong solar heating, warm sea surface temperatures and the annual progression of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) across this region generate abundant convective systems, which through their effects on the heat and water budgets have a profound impact on global climate and precipitation. To accurately represent tropical cloud systems in models, measurements of tropical clouds, the environment in which they reside, and their impact on the radiation and water budgets are needed. Because of the remote location, ground-based datasets of cloud, atmosphere, and radiation properties from the TWP region have traditionally come primarily from short-term field experiments. While providing extremely useful information on physical processes, these datasets are limited in statistical and climatological information because of their short duration. To provide long-term measurements of the surface radiation budget in the tropics, and the atmospheric properties that affect it, the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program established a measurement site on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea in 1996 and on the island republic of Nauru in late 1998. These sites provide unique datasets available from more than 10 years of operation in the equatorial western Pacific on Manus and Nauru. We present examples of the scientific use of these datasets including characterization of cloud properties, analysis of cloud radiative forcing, model studies of tropical clouds and processes, and validation of satellite algorithms. We also note new instrumentation recently installed at the Manus site that will expand opportunities for tropical atmospheric science.

ARM↗

ARM Research in the Equatorial Western Pacific: A Decade and Counting

The tropical western Pacific (TWP) is an important climatic region. Strong solar heating, warm sea surface temperatures, and the annual progression of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) across this region generate abundant convective systems, which through their effects on the heat and water budgets have a profound impact on global climate and precipitation. In order to accurately evaluate tropical cloud systems in models, measurements of tropical clouds, the environment in which they reside, and their impact on the radiation and water budgets are needed. Because of the remote location, ground-based datasets of cloud, atmosphere, and radiation properties from the TWP region have come primarily from short-term field experiments. While providing extremely useful information on physical processes, these short-term datasets are limited in statistical and climatological information. To provide longterm measurements of the surface radiation budget in the tropics and the atmospheric properties that affect it, the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program established a measurement site on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, in 1996 and on the island republic of Nauru in late 1998. These sites provide unique datasets now available for more than 10 years on Manus and Nauru. This article presents examples of the scientific use of these datasets including characterization of cloud properties, analysis of cloud radiative forcing, model studies of tropical clouds and processes, and validation of satellite algorithms. New instrumentation recently installed at the Manus site will provide expanded opportunities for tropical atmospheric science.

tropical regions↗

ARM Standards Policy Committee Report

Data and metadata standards promote the consistent recording of information and are necessary to ensure the stability and high quality of Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility data products for scientific users. Standards also enable automated routines to be developed to examine data, which leads to more efficient operations and assessment of data quality. Although ARM Infrastructure agrees on the utility of data and metadata standards, there is significant confusion over the existing standards and the process for allowing the release of new data products with exceptions to the standards. The ARM Standards Policy Committee was initiated in March 2012 to develop a set of policies and best practices for ARM data and metadata standards.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

High temperature be panel development

Beryllium materials have been used for many aerospace applications over the years. Most of these applications have been fairly ambient environments. The possibility of fabricating beryllium panels for high temperature applications up to 1200 F is investigated. Joining alloys were reviewed, tested and evaluated for high temperature applications.

Hardesty, R.↗

Prewhirl Jet Model

Simple accurate model of centrifugal or rocket engine pumps provides information necessary to design inducer backflow deflector, backflow eliminator and prewhirl jet in jet mixing zones. Jet design based on this model shows improvement in inducer suction performance and reduced cavitation damage.

Meng, S. Y.↗