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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 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2000

Lightweight Lidar Telescopes for Space Applications

NASA is intent on exploiting the unique perspective of space-based remote optical instruments to observe and study large-scale environmental processes. Emphasis on smaller and more affordable missions continues to force the remote sensing instruments to find innovative ways to reduce the size, weight, and cost of the sensor package. This is a challenge because many of the proposed instruments incorporate a high quality meter-class telescope that can be a significant driver of total instrument costs. While various methods for telescope weight reduction have been achieved, many of the current approaches rely on exotic materials and specialized manufacturing techniques that limit availability or substantially increase costs. A competitive lightweight telescope technology that is especially well suited to space-based coherent Doppler wind lidar has been developed through a collaborative effort involving NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) through the Global Hydrology and Climate Center (GHCC) and the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) at the Center for Applied Optics (CAO). The new lightweight optics using metal alloy shells and surfaces (LOMASS) fabrication approach is suitable for high quality metal mirrors and meter-class telescopes. Compared to alternative materials and fabrication methods the new approach promises to reduce the areal density of a meter-class telescope to less than 15-kg/sq m; deliver a minimum VIO-RMS surface optical quality; while using commercial materials and equipment to lower procurement costs. The final optical figure and finish is put into the mirrors through conventional diamond turning and polishing techniques. This approach is especially advantageous for a coherent lidar instrument because the reduced telescope weight permits the rotation of the telescope to scan the beam without requiring heavy wedges or additional large mirrors. Ongoing investigations and preliminary results show promise for the LOMASS approach to be successful in demonstrating a novel alternative approach to fabricating lightweight mirrors with performance parameters comparable with the Space Readiness Coherent Lidar Experiment (SPARCLE). Development and process characterization is continuing with the design and fabrication of mirrors for a 25-cm telescope suitable for a lidar instrument.

Peters, Bruce R.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Regional Model Nesting Within GFS Daily Forecasts Over West Africa

The study uses the RM3, the regional climate model at the Center for Climate Systems Research of Columbia University and the NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies (CCSR/GISS). The paper evaluates 30 48-hour RM3 weather forecasts over West Africa during September 2006 made on a 0.5 grid nested within 1 Global Forecast System (GFS) global forecasts. September 2006 was the Special Observing Period #3 of the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA). Archived GFS initial conditions and lateral boundary conditions for the simulations from the US National Weather Service, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration were interpolated four times daily. Results for precipitation forecasts are validated against Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) satellite estimates and data from the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS), which includes rain gauge measurements, and forecasts of circulation are compared to reanalysis 2. Performance statistics for the precipitation forecasts include bias, root-mean-square errors and spatial correlation coefficients. The nested regional model forecasts are compared to GFS forecasts to gauge whether nesting provides additional realistic information. They are also compared to RM3 simulations driven by reanalysis 2, representing high potential skill forecasts, to gauge the sensitivity of results to lateral boundary conditions. Nested RM3/GFS forecasts generate excessive moisture advection toward West Africa, which in turn causes prodigious amounts of model precipitation. This problem is corrected by empirical adjustments in the preparation of lateral boundary conditions and initial conditions. The resulting modified simulations improve on the GFS precipitation forecasts, achieving time-space correlations with TRMM of 0.77 on the first day and 0.63 on the second day. One realtime RM3/GFS precipitation forecast made at and posted by the African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development (ACMAD) in Niamey, Niger is shown.

Druyan, Leonard M.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Plant Single-Cell Solutions for Energy and the Environment (Second Workshop Report)

Plants are important sources of energy and materials, and they collectively represent a critical component of Earth’s ecosystem. With increasing environmental stresses due to climate change and intensive agricultural practices, the need for resilient plants is greater than ever before. To secure plant resources for bioenergy, biomaterials, food, and ecosystem adaptation, a deeper understanding of the fundamental biology of plants at a cellular level is urgently needed. Plants contain a multitude of specialized cell types that compose tissues and organs. Pathogens often target specific cell types within plants, and the response of one cell to a particular stimulus is likely to be distinct from its neighbor because of underlying molecular and contextual differences. Understanding how these responses are distributed among cells, the main goal of single-cell approaches, will substantially enhance our ability to use targeted engineering for improving plant productivity and resilience. Furthermore, single-cell approaches are necessary to understand the interactions between plants and other ecosystem members such as fungi, bacteria, and archaea. Unlocking these gene-response mechanisms at a cellular level can improve our ability to adapt plants to environmental stresses, increasing their utility as feedstocks for biomaterials and bioenergy. Recent advances in high-throughput sequencing, mass spectrometry, microfluidics and miniaturization, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and bioinformatics have greatly improved our ability to detect and understand processes at a cellular level. In mammalian systems, single-cell transcriptomics has already led to many advances, such as newly identified cell types and cell-targeted treatment of diseases, and mass spectrometry-based single-cell proteomics has recently been demonstrated as a promising emerging technology. However, plant single-cell omics has lagged behind mammalian approaches due to the high cost of the technologies relative to available resources and to the innate biological features of plants, including the complexity of the cell wall and polyploidy. To better understand how single-cell methods could enable plant science, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) hosted a workshop on April 29, 2021, that brought together a diverse group of leaders in plant and/or single-cell biology. Attendees represented federal research programs and domestic and international academic institutions. During the workshop, three presenters described the current state of research in both experimental and computational approaches. While the focus of the workshop was on factors preventing plant biology researchers from fully adopting single-cell methodologies, workshop participants agreed that most barriers could be overcome with focused, strategic investment and coordinated efforts among institutions leading to significant scientific discoveries that would be difficult to obtain using more conventional technologies.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1994

Europe's space photovoltaics programme

The current space PV (photovoltaic) technology development program of ESA is described. The program is closely coupled to the European space mission scenario for the next 10 year period and has as its main objective to make the most effective use of the limited resources available for technology in the present economical climate. This requires a well-balanced approach between concentration on very few options and keeping the competition alive if more than one promising technology exists. The paper describes ESA's main activities in the areas of solar array technology, solar cell technology, solar cell assembly technology, and special test and verification activities including the in-orbit demonstration of new technologies.

Bogus, Klaus P.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Local adaptation of switchgrass drives trait relations to yield and differential responses to climate and soil environments

Abstract Switchgrass, a potential biofuel crop, is a genetically diverse species with phenotypic plasticity enabling it to grow in a range of environments. Two primary divergent ecotypes, uplands and lowlands, exhibit trait combinations representative of acquisitive and conservative growth allocation strategies, respectively. Whether these ecotypes respond differently to various types of environmental drivers remains unclear but is crucial to understanding how switchgrass varieties will respond to climate change. We grew two upland, two lowland, and two intermediate/hybrid cultivars of switchgrass at three sites along a latitudinal gradient in the central United States. Over a 4‐year period, we measured plant functional traits and biomass yields and evaluated genotype‐by‐environment (G × E) interaction effects by analyzing switchgrass responses to soil and climate variables. We found substantial evidence of G × E interactions on biomass yield, primarily due to deviations in the response of the southern lowland cultivar Alamo, which produced more biomass in hotter and drier environments relative to other cultivars. While lowland cultivars had the highest potential for yield, their yields were more variable year‐to‐year compared to other cultivars, suggesting greater sensitivity to environmental perturbations. Models comparing soil and climate principal components as explanatory variables revealed soil properties, especially nutrients, to be most effective at predicting switchgrass biomass yield. Also, positive correlations between biomass yield and conservative plant traits, such as high stem mass and tiller height, became stronger at lower latitudes where the climate is hotter and drier, regardless of ecotype. Lowland cultivars, however, showed a greater predisposition to exhibit these conservative traits. These results suggest switchgrass trait allocation trade‐offs that prioritize aboveground biomass production are more tightly associated in hot, dry environments and that lowland cultivars may exhibit a more specialized strategy relative to other cultivars. Altogether, this research provides essential knowledge for improving the viability of switchgrass as a biofuel crop.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Editorial for Special Issue “Environmentally Sound In Situ Recovery Mining of Uranium”

This Special Issue features seven articles that cover a range of topics pertaining to the environmentally sound in situ recovery mining of uranium (U ISR). The topics include: (1) methods for assessing the potential environmental impacts of future U ISR operations using historical operational records and available geohydrologic, geochemical and climate data in a specific regional setting; (2) laboratory column studies to parameterize a uranium surface complexation model that can be used to predict uranium fate and transport in groundwater; and (3) a field evaluation of both a chemical reductant and a biostimulant to promote reducing geochemical conditions after oxidative mining at a U ISR facility.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Modeling and observations of North Atlantic cyclones: Implications for U.S. Offshore wind energy

To meet the Biden-Harris administration's goal of deploying 30 GW of offshore wind power by 2030 and 110 GW by 2050, expansion of wind energy into U.S. territorial waters prone to tropical cyclones (TCs) and extratropical cyclones (ETCs) is essential. This requires a deeper understanding of cyclone-related risks and the development of robust, resilient offshore wind energy systems. Here, this paper provides a comprehensive review of state-of-the-science measurement and modeling capabilities for studying TCs and ETCs, and their impacts across various spatial and temporal scales. We explore measurement capabilities for environments influenced by TCs and ETCs, including near-surface and vertical profiles of critical variables that characterize these cyclones. The capabilities and limitations of Earth system and mesoscale models are assessed for their effectiveness in capturing atmosphere–ocean–wave interactions that influence TC/ETC-induced risks under a changing climate. Additionally, we discuss microscale modeling capabilities designed to bridge scale gaps from the weather scale (a few kilometers) to the turbine scale (dozens to a few meters). We also review machine learning (ML)-based, data-driven models for simulating TC/ETC events at both weather and wind turbine scales. Special attention is given to extreme metocean conditions like extreme wind gusts, rapid wind direction changes, and high waves, which pose threats to offshore wind energy infrastructure. Finally, the paper outlines the research challenges and future directions needed to enhance the resilience and design of next-generation offshore wind turbines against extreme weather conditions.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Modeled estimates of permafrost hydrology and related fields for pan-Arctic region over the period 1980-2100

This dataset contains gridded estimates of total runoff (mm/day); subsurface runoff (mm/day); snow water equivalent (SWE, mm/day); vertical upward water flux of combined surface evaporation, evapotranspiration, and snow sublimation (mm/day); and soil temperature (C) across the pan-Arctic basin from simulations of the Permafrost Water Balance Model (PWBM v4). These data were generated to allow researchers to advance understanding of the changes unfolding in the Arctic's terrestrial water cycle under the influences of climate warming, hydrological cycle intensification, and permafrost thaw. The dataset will enable researchers to address important questions spanning multiple disciplines. For example, how will rising river flows exported to the coast impact critical zone ecosystems, near-shore ice dynamics, and ocean biogeochemical processes. Spatial resolution is 25x25 km with N=39926 grid cells spanning the domain. Three forcing datasets were used to drive simulations at an implicit daily time step over the period 1980-2100. Daily air temperature, precipitation, and wind speed data from the WATCH Forcing Data methodology applied to ERA5 reanalysis (W5E5) were used for meteorological forcings over the period 1980-2019. Simulations for the period 1980-2100 used meteorological data from two global climate models; IPSL-CM6A-LR and MPI-ESM1-2-HR. The PWBM hydrological outputs are organized by grid and month in gzipped ASCII text files within each archived tar file. Soil temperature is organized by grid cell and day of year from DOY 205 to DOY 260. No special software is required to work with these data. The package contains spatial domain and river basin information files. These data are most useful for analyses of the spatial and temporal variations in terrestrial hydrology and soil thermal dynamics. A manuscript describing the model simulations and associated analysis has been accepted for publication in The Cryosphere (Rawlins and Karmalkar, 2024).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1997

Snowmelt on the Greenland Ice Sheet as Derived From Passive Microwave Satellite Data

The melt extent of the snow on the Greenland ice sheet is of considerable importance to the ice sheet's mass and energy balance, as well as Arctic and global climates. By comparing passive microwave satellite data to field observations, variations in melt extent have been detected by establishing melt thresholds in the cross-polarized gradient ratio (XPGR). The XPGR, defined as the normalized difference between the 19-GHz horizontal channel and the 37-GHz vertical channel of the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), exploits the different effects of snow wetness on different frequencies and polarizations and establishes a distinct melt signal. Using this XPGR melt signal, seasonal and interannual variations in snowmelt extent of the ice sheet are studied. The melt is found to be most extensive on the western side of the ice sheet and peaks in late July. Moreover, there is a notable increasing trend in melt area between the years 1979 and 1991 of 4.4% per year, which came to an abrupt halt in 1992 after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. A similar trend is observed in the temperatures at six coastal stations. The relationship between the warming trend and increasing melt trend between 1979 and 1991 suggests that a 1 C temperature rise corresponds to an increase in melt area of 73000 sq km, which in general exceeds one standard deviation of the natural melt area variability.

Abdalati, Waleed↗
DOE OSTI2021

Scaling plant responses to high temperature from cell to ecosystem

Plant survival and productivity decrease with exposure to less favourable environments. The negative effects of environmental factors such as water-deficit and salinity stress on vegetation are relatively well studied, primarily due to the large losses in crop yield and forest biomass caused by these stresses. Although the impact of combined heat and drought on plants has received considerable interest in recent years due to climate change, there has been less focus on ascertaining the impact of heat stress alone at a range of temporal and spatial scales. The steady increase in global mean temperatures and (more importantly) variability in extreme temperatures is translating into more frequent and extreme heat stress episodes, which in turn reduce plant productivity. Further, projected increases in both day and night temperatures and the predicted impact of these changes on agricultural and forest productivity have drawn attention to the need to better address the direct effects of heat on plants. In particular, there has been tremendous interest in understanding the short- and long-term effects of heat at the cellular and whole-plant levels, including work on crops of agricultural importance and species from less managed ecosystems. Hence, we made a concerted effort in this Special Issue to capture recent progress in our ability to quantify the impact of heat stress, and identify new tools and approaches that have been developed and implemented to capture a wide range of responses in plants. The series of reviews and research articles presented here captures our current understanding of plant physiological and molecular responses to heat stress, as well as covering phenotyping methods, genetic diversity and potential routes through which plants can acclimate and adapt to warming climates.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2001

A 7.5-Year Dataset of SSM/I-Derived Surface Turbulent Fluxes Over Global Oceans

The surface turbulent fluxes of momentum, latent heat, and sensible heat over global oceans are essential to weather, climate and ocean problems. Wind stress is the major forcing for driving the oceanic circulation, while Evaporation is a key component of hydrological cycle and surface heat budget. We have produced a 7.5-year (July 1987-December 1994) dataset of daily, individual monthly-mean and climatological (1988-94) monthly-mean surface turbulent fluxes over the global oceans from measurements of the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) on board the US Defense Meteorological Satellite Program F8, F10, and F11 satellites. It has a spatial resolution of 2.0x2.5 latitude-longitude. Daily turbulent fluxes are derived from daily data of SSM/I surface winds and specific humidity, National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) sea surface temperatures, and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) air-sea temperature differences, using a stability-dependent bulk scheme. The retrieved instantaneous surface air humidity (with a 25-km resolution) IS found to be generally accurate as compared to the collocated radiosonde observations over global oceans. The surface wind speed and specific humidity (latent heat flux) derived from the F10 SSM/I are found to be -encrally smaller (larger) than those retrieved from the F11 SSM/I. The F11 SSM/I appears to have slightly better retrieval accuracy for surface wind speed and humidity as compared to the F10 SSM/I. This difference may be due to the orbital drift of the F10 satellite. The daily wind stresses and latent heat fluxes retrieved from F10 and F11 SSM/Is show useful accuracy as verified against the research quality in si -neasurerrients (IMET buoy, RV Moana Wave, and RV Wecoma) in the western Pacific warm pool during the TOGA COARE Intensive observing period (November 1992-February 1993). The 1988-94 seasonal-mean turbulent fluxes and input variables derived from FS and F11 SSM/Is show reasonable patterns related to seasonal variations of atmospheric general circulation. This dataset of SSM/I-derived turbulent fluxes is useful for climate studies, forcing of ocean models, and validation of coupled ocean-atmosphere global models and can be accessed through the NASA/GSFC Distributed Active Archive Center.

Chou, Shu-Hsien↗
NASA NTRS1989

SSM/I radiances correlated with 15 minute rain gauge data

The relationship between rain rate and the 85.5 and 37 GHz brightness temperature (BT) observations of the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) is examined to develop a BT-rain rate relationship for quantitative mapping of global precipitation using SSM/I data. SSM/I observations of a long-lived rain event over the south-central U.S. in 1987 are compared with digitized rain gage data from the National Climate Data Center. The results show that, for the squall line system studied, the rain gage amounts were well correlated with SSM/I polarization corrected 85.5 GHz BT.

Spencer, Roy W.↗
NASA NTRS2008

The NASA MSFC Earth Global Reference Atmospheric Model-2007 Version

Reference or standard atmospheric models have long been used for design and mission planning of various aerospace systems. The NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Global Reference Atmospheric Model (GRAM) was developed in response to the need for a design reference atmosphere that provides complete global geographical variability, and complete altitude coverage (surface to orbital altitudes) as well as complete seasonal and monthly variability of the thermodynamic variables and wind components. A unique feature of GRAM is that, addition to providing the geographical, height, and monthly variation of the mean atmospheric state, it includes the ability to simulate spatial and temporal perturbations in these atmospheric parameters (e.g. fluctuations due to turbulence and other atmospheric perturbation phenomena). A summary comparing GRAM features to characteristics and features of other reference or standard atmospheric models, can be found Guide to Reference and Standard Atmosphere Models. The original GRAM has undergone a series of improvements over the years with recent additions and changes. The software program is called Earth-GRAM2007 to distinguish it from similar programs for other bodies (e.g. Mars, Venus, Neptune, and Titan). However, in order to make this Technical Memorandum (TM) more readable, the software will be referred to simply as GRAM07 or GRAM unless additional clarity is needed. Section 1 provides an overview of the basic features of GRAM07 including the newly added features. Section 2 provides a more detailed description of GRAM07 and how the model output generated. Section 3 presents sample results. Appendices A and B describe the Global Upper Air Climatic Atlas (GUACA) data and the Global Gridded Air Statistics (GGUAS) database. Appendix C provides instructions for compiling and running GRAM07. Appendix D gives a description of the required NAMELIST format input. Appendix E gives sample output. Appendix F provides a list of available parameters to enable the user to generate special output. Appendix G gives an example and guidance on incorporating GRAM07 as a subroutine in other programs such as trajectory codes or orbital propagation routines.

Leslie, F.W.↗
NASA NTRS2022

3-D Atmospheric Modeling of the Global Budget of N2O and its Isotopologues for 1980-2019: The Impact of Anthropogenic Emissions

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is the third most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) and a major ozone-depleting substance (ODS). Its main sources include anthropogenic activities (mostly agriculture) and natural emissions from ocean and soils. However, emission estimates for individual sources are highly variable due to uncertainties in N2O lifetime estimates and partitioning among sources. We derive annual global N2O emissions for 1990-2019 using NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML) surface N2O observations and the N2O lifetime calculated in the NASA GEOS-5 chemistry climate model (CCM). The inferred global mean N2O emissions has gradually increased from ~15.8 TgN/yr in the early 1990s to ~17.8 TgN/yr in the 2010s. This implies that anthropogenic N2O emissions have grown rapidly from ~6.7 TgN/yr in the 1990s to about ~8.7 TgN/yr in the 2010s, a ~30% increase. With specially designed N2O isotopic tracers in 3-D GEOSCCM, we estimate that, on global average, stratospheric enrichment contributes about +7.7‰/yr, +7.6‰/yr, +8.0‰/yr to tropospheric N(sup α)-δ(sup 15), N(sup β)-δ(sup 15), and O-δ(sup 18) budget, respectively. To balance the global mean isotopic signature for pre-industrial terrestrial sources of N(sup α)-δ(sup 15) ~ 6.7‰, N(sup β)-δ(sup 15) ~ -12.6‰, O-δ(sup 18) ~ 35.4‰, our 3-D isotopic budget simulation using the GEOSCCM suggests global mean anthropogenic isotopic signatures in the recent decades are N(sup α)-δ(sup 15) ~ -18‰, N(sup β)-δ(sup 15) ~ -20‰, O-δ(sup 18) ~ 19‰. These anthropogenic isotopic estimates are significantly lighter than results from one-box atmospheric model-based estimates with the largest difference seen for N(sup β)-δ(sup 15). More surface isotopic measurements are needed to better quantify the N2O isotopic signatures.

Nitrous oxide↗
NASA NTRS1994

The Global Precipitation Climatology Project: First Algorithm Intercomparison Project

The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) was established by the World Climate Research Program to produce global analyses of the area- and time-averaged precipitation for use in climate research. To achieve the required spatial coverage, the GPCP uses simple rainfall estimates derived from IR and microwave satellite observations. In this paper, we describe the GPCP and its first Algorithm Intercomparison Project (AIP/1), which compared a variety of rainfall estimates derived from Geostationary Meteorological Satellite visible and IR observations and Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) microwave observations with rainfall derived from a combination of radar and raingage data over the Japanese islands and the adjacent ocean regions during the June and mid-July through mid-August periods of 1989. To investigate potential improvements in the use of satellite IR data for the estimation of large-scale rainfall for the GPCP, the relationship between rainfall and the fractional coverage of cold clouds in the AIP/1 dataset is examined. Linear regressions between fractional coverage and rainfall are analyzed for a number of latitude-longitude areas and for a range of averaging times. The results show distinct differences in the character of the relationship for different portions of the area. These results suggest that the simple IR-based estimation technique currently used in the GPCP can be used to estimate rainfall for global tropical and subtropical areas, provided that a method for adjusting the proportional coefficient for varying areas and seasons can be determined.

Arkin, Phillip A.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Dynamic Emulation of NASA Missions for IVandV: A Case Study of JWST and SLS

Software-Only-Simulations are an emerging but quickly developing field of study throughout NASA. The NASA Independent Verification Validation (IVV) Independent Test Capability (ITC) team has been rapidly building a collection of simulators for a wide range of NASA missions. ITC specializes in full end-to-end simulations that enable developers, VV personnel, and operators to test-as-you-fly. In four years, the team has delivered a wide variety of spacecraft simulations ranging from low complexity science missions such as the Global Precipitation Management (GPM) satellite and the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), to the extremely complex missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Space Launch System (SLS).

Emulation↗
NASA NTRS1981

On the effect of temporal sampling on the observation of mean rainfall

Rainfall characteristics using data from dense recording raingage networks is reviewed. Data from such networks have quantified temporal and spatial rainfall distributions, and have supplied specialized information about local and orographic effects. The natural variability, temporally and spatially, for annual, seasonal, monthly, and individual events is treated. Especially important are the spatial variations of precipitation as a function of synoptic type, precipitation type, amount, and duration. Results from dense raingage networks in Illinois, and some data from other climatic regions is also treated.

Laughlin, C. R.↗
NASA NTRS2004

New Earth Science Data and Access Methods

NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, working with its domestic and international partners, provides scientific data and analysis to improve life here on Earth. NASA provides science data products that cover a wide range of physical, geophysical, biochemical and other parameters, as well as services for interdisciplinary Earth science studies. Management and distribution of these products is administered through the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs), which all hold data within a different Earth science discipline. This paper will highlight selected EOS datasets and will focus on how these observations contribute to the improvement of essential services such as weather forecasting, climate prediction, air quality, and agricultural efficiency. Emphasis will be placed on new data products derived from instruments on board Terra, Aqua and ICESat as well as new regional data products and field campaigns. A variety of data tools and services are available to the user community. This paper will introduce primary and specialized DAAC-specific methods for finding, ordering and using these data products. Special sections will focus on orienting users unfamiliar with DAAC resources, HDF-EOS formatted data and the use of desktop research and application tools.

Moses, John F.↗