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DOE OSTI2026

Planetary Boundary-Layer Height (PBLHT) Value-Added Product: Remote-Sensing Retrievals

The planetary boundary layer (PBL) is fundamental to numerous atmospheric processes, including aerosol mixing and transport, cloud evolution, and precipitation formation. A critical parameter in these studies is the PBL height (PBLHT). This vertical depth is essential for characterizing PBL structures in numerical simulations and serves as a primary metric for estimating flux exchanges between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere. Radiosonde (SONDE) observations provide high-vertical-resolution measurements of temperature and moisture profiles and are widely used to estimate PBLHT (Liu and Liang 2010, Seidel et al. 2010). The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility’s PBLHT value-added product (VAP) for radiosonde measurements, known as PBLHTSONDE, applies three commonly used methods—the Heffter (1980) method, the Liu and Liang (2010) method, and the bulk Richardson number approach (Seibert et al. 2000)—to derive PBLHT. The PBLHTSONDE VAP operates routinely at ARM observatories and mobile facilities, with data available from the ARM Data Center shortly after sounding observations are collected (Sivaraman et al. 2013). However, radiosonde observations are limited by their low temporal resolution. Most stations launch soundings only twice daily, which constrains the ability to investigate and characterize the temporal evolution of the PBL using radiosonde data alone. The use of continuous remote-sensing observations provides high temporal resolution of PBLHT estimates. These observations include aerosol lidars (Dang et al. 2019, Su et al. 2020), Doppler lidar (DL; Tucker et al. 2009, Krishnamurthy et al. 2021), and water vapor and/or temperature lidars and radiometers (Turner et al. 2014). These observations provide valuable data on the PBL’s thermodynamic properties (e.g., water vapor and/or temperature lidars and radiometers), dynamic properties (e.g., DL), and distribution of tracer substances (e.g., aerosol lidars), all of which can be used to estimate PBLHT. ARM developed PBLHT estimates from the micropulse lidar (MPL; PBLHTMPL), Doppler lidar (PBLHTDL), and combined Raman lidar (RL)/atmospheric emitted radiance interferometer (AERI) thermodynamic profiles (PBLHTTHERMO). Each estimate captures different physical characteristics of the boundary layer—aerosol tracers, vertical velocity turbulence, and thermodynamic structure—and exhibits distinct strengths and limitations depending on the PBL regime and time of day. In addition, the ARM ceilometer (CEIL) provides three potential PBLHT candidates derived from the vendor's built-in algorithm. Building on these individual retrievals, ARM developed the PBLHTBEML VAP, which combines the four remote-sensing-based estimates with ancillary meteorological variables using the machine learning approach of Zhang et al. (2025) to produce a best-estimate PBLHT at 10-minute resolution.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2026

Initial Feasibility Assessment and Broader Strategy Development for Fiber Integration via Advanced Manufacturing

Structural health monitoring is critical for ensuring the operational safety and cost-competitiveness of the developing advanced reactor designs. The extreme operational envelopes of these advanced architectures, having operating temperatures ranging 400°C–1,000°C and heightened displacement damage doses, render conventional commercially available piezoelectric transducers and resistive strain gauges unviable. Optical fiber sensors present an attractive solution for advanced radiation-hardened instrumentation due to their high thermal stability and distributed sensing capabilities. However, their deployment in embedded applications can be hindered by the severe thermomechanical strain driven by the coefficient of thermal expansion mismatch between fused silica glass and structural metal alloys like stainless steel (e.g., SS316L).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

NASA NTRS1969

Remote atmospheric probing by ground to ground line of sight optical methods

The optical effects arising from refractive-index variations in the clear air are qualitatively described, and the possibilities are discussed of using those effects for remotely sensing the physical properties of the atmosphere. The effects include scintillations, path length fluctuations, spreading of a laser beam, deflection of the beam, and depolarization. The physical properties that may be measured include the average temperature along the path, the vertical temperature gradient, and the distribution along the path of the strength of turbulence and the transverse wind velocity. Line-of-sight laser beam methods are clearly effective in measuring the average properties, but less effective in measuring distributions along the path. Fundamental limitations to the resolution are pointed out and experiments are recommended to investigate the practicality of the methods.

Lawrence, R. S.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Thermal Deformation and RF Performance Analyses for the SWOT Large Deployable Ka-Band Reflectarray

A large deployable antenna technology for the NASA Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) Mission is currently being developed by JPL in response to NRC Earth Science Tier 2 Decadal Survey recommendations. This technology is required to enable the SWOT mission due to the fact that no currently available antenna is capable of meeting SWOT's demanding Ka-Band remote sensing requirements. One of the key aspects of this antenna development is to minimize the effect of the on-orbit thermal distortion to the antenna RF performance. An analysis process which includes: 1) the on-orbit thermal analysis to obtain the temperature distribution; 2) structural deformation analysis to get the geometry of the antenna surface; and 3) the RF performance with the given deformed antenna surface has been developed to accommodate the development of this antenna technology. The detailed analysis process and some analysis results will be presented and discussed by this paper.

thermal distorsion↗

NASA NTRS2012

Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Clouds Observed by MODIS Onboard the Terra and Aqua Satellites

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) was developed by NASA and launched aboard the Terra spacecraft on December 18, 1999 and Aqua spacecraft on May 4, 2002. A comprehensive set of remote sensing algorithms for the retrieval of cloud physical and optical properties have enabled over twelve years of continuous observations of cloud properties from Terra and over nine years from Aqua. The archived products from these algorithms include 1 km pixel-level (Level-2) and global gridded Level-3 products. In addition to an extensive cloud mask, products include cloud-top properties (temperature, pressure, effective emissivity), cloud thermodynamic phase, cloud optical and microphysical parameters (optical thickness, effective particle radius, water path), as well as derived statistics. Results include the latitudinal distribution of cloud optical and radiative properties for both liquid water and ice clouds, as well as latitudinal distributions of cloud top pressure and cloud top temperature. MODIS finds the cloud fraction, as derived by the cloud mask, is nearly identical during the day and night, with only modest diurnal variation. Globally, the cloud fraction derived by the MODIS cloud mask is approx.67%, with somewhat more clouds over land during the afternoon and less clouds over ocean in the afternoon, with very little difference in global cloud cover between Terra and Aqua. Overall, cloud fraction over land is approx.55%, with a distinctive seasonal cycle, whereas the ocean cloudiness is much higher, around 72%, with much reduced seasonal variation. Cloud top pressure and temperature have distinct spatial and temporal patterns, and clearly reflect our understanding of the global cloud distribution. High clouds are especially prevalent over the northern hemisphere continents between 30 and 50 . Aqua and Terra have comparable zonal cloud top pressures, with Aqua having somewhat higher clouds (cloud top pressures lower by 100 hPa) over land due to afternoon deep convection. The coldest cloud tops (colder than 230 K) generally occur over Antarctica and the high clouds in the tropics (ITCZ and the deep convective clouds over the western tropical Pacific and Indian sub-continent).

King, Michael D.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Highly cascaded first-order sapphire optical fiber Bragg gratings fabricated by a femtosecond laser

This Letter reports an innovative technique for fabricating large-scale, highly cascaded first-order sapphire optical fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) using a femtosecond laser-assisted point-by-point inscription method. For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, this study successfully demonstrates a distributed array of 10 FBGs within highly multimode sapphire crystal fiber, made possible by employing a high-power laser technique to generate larger reflectors with a Gaussian intensity profile. These first-order FBGs offer advantages such as enhanced reflectivity, shorter fabrication time, and simplified spectral characteristics, making them easier to interpret compared with high-order FBGs. The FBGs’ resilience and effectiveness are analyzed by subjecting them to temperature tests, proving their capacity for accurate temperature monitoring up to 1500°C—a testament to their suitability for harsh environments. This novel approach broadens the scope for sensing and communication applications in sapphire fibers, particularly under challenging conditions. The novelty of our work lies in successfully overcoming the limitations of previous designs by integrating a cascade of 10 FBGs in sapphire fibers, thereby enhancing multiplexing capabilities, minimizing overlapping of FBG peaks, and ensuring reliable temperature monitoring in industries and applications with thermal gradients.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

NASA NTRS1998

Applications of AVHRR-Derived Ice Motions for the Arctic and Antarctic

Characterization and diagnosis of sea ice/atmosphere/ocean interactions require a synthesis of observations and modeling to identify the key mechanisms controlling the ice/climate system. In this project, we combined product generation, observational analyses, and modeling to define and interpret variability in ice motion in conjunction with thermodynamic factors such as surface temperature and albedo. The goals of this work were twofold: (1) to develop and test procedures to produce an integrated set of polar products from remotely-sensed and supporting data; and (2) to apply these data to understand processes at work in controlling sea ice distribution.

Maslanik, James↗

NASA NTRS2004

An Analytical Calibration Approach for the Polarimetric Airborne C Band Radiometer

Passive microwave remote sensing is sensitive to the quantity and distribution of water in soil and vegetation. During summer 2000, the Microwave Geophysics Group at the University of Michigan conducted the 7th Radiobrightness Energy Balance Experiment (REBEX-7) over a corn canopy in Michigan. Long time series of brightness temperatures, soil moisture and micrometeorology on the plot scale were taken. This paper addresses the calibration of the NASA GSFC polarimetric airborne C band microwave radiometer (ACMR) that participated in REBEX-7. Passive polarimeters are typically calibrated using an end-to-end approach based upon a standard artificial target or a well-known geophysical target. Analyzing the major internal functional subsystems offers a different perspective. The primary goal of this approach is to provide a transfer function that not only describes the system in its entirety but also accounts for the contributions of each subsystem toward the final modified Stokes parameters. This approach also serves as a realistic instrument simulator, a useful tool for future designs. The ACMR architecture can be partitioned into several functional subsystems. Each subsystem was extensively measured and the estimated parameters were imported into the overall system model. We will present the results of polarimetric antenna measurements, the instrument model as well as four Stokes observations from REBEX-7 using a first order inversion.

Pham, Hanh↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Preliminary Assessment of the Impact on the V-Band Oxygen Channels From Satellite Communication Uplinks

We calculate the percentage of time that an ATMS-like instrument [1] will be illuminated by the uplink beam of one of the proposed V-band communication system and estimate the damage resulting from such exposure. Using a combination of openly available information and educated guesses about the location and characteristics of the up/down link terminals, we constructed the ground segment of a hypothetical high-speed communication network. The space segment of the network was constructed from the orbital data of the existing Starlink constellation [2] of 6223 communication satellites (comsats) which is used as strawman to represent any other possible constellation of communication satellites. It is shown that without a very delicate balance of frequency allocations (science vs telecommunications), coupled with extremely steep and deep bandpass-defining filters, and strict adherence to the agreed limits (i.e. no out-of-band transmissions) the deployment of the telecommunication network leads to almost-complete loss of some important geophysical data. For the analysis we use the spectral characteristics of the ATMS instrument with the ephemeris for the NOAA-21 satellite [3]. The analysis is conducted for the USA and the simulation covers 8 consecutive days in July 2024. Effective and accurate microwave remote sensing of the atmosphere depends on the availability of interference-free spectrum windows at frequencies which are prescribed by physical processes [e.g. 4]. The family of resonant lines of the oxygen molecule near 60 GHz provides a unique opportunity to sample the vertical distribution of temperature and density from space, and it has been exploited for weather and climate studies from polar-orbiting satellites since 1978 (MSU on TIROS-N [5]). It remains a staple in the payloads operated by Russia, China, USA, Japan, France, India, UK, Ukraine [6] which are built around a common blueprint: a few wide-band (hundreds of MHz) channels around 50 GHz to sample the atmosphere and the surface while several more channels with high spectral resolution (few MHz) sample the individual resonant lines. Accurate retrieval of the environmental parameters depends upon the data provided by both sets of channels, and the their location in frequency space is not arbitrary and cannot be altered at will [7, 8]. The introduction of 5G technology in 2019 has driven telecommunication companies to request more bandwidth to be dedicated to their devices. This additional bandwidth is only available in spectral regions traditionally reserved for environmental and astrophysical research, such as the V-band between 50 and 60 GHz for up/downlink between satellites in low-earth orbits and terminals connected to fiberoptics network for distribution to high-speed local internet services. The power broadcast by the uplink communication leg is many orders of magnitude greater than the natural thermal signal emitted from the Earth scene. If the ground antenna were to perfectly align with the passive instrument’s antenna, the spaceborne receiver would suffer permanent, irreparable damage. While a direct boresight-to-boresight conjunction is extremely unlikely (even with a large constellation of satellites the fraction of the celestial sphere occupied by the satellites remains minuscule) the finite size of the ground station’s antenna beam in the sky suggests that the ATMS will be in the near background (as seen from the ground station) of one of the communication satellites and will be illuminated by either the main lobe or the near sidelobes of the uplink antenna more often than it is desirable. For our analysis we first calculate the position of the ATMS with respect to each of the ground stations at a resolution of 0.2 sec, then calculate the position of each of the comsats which are at least 25 deg above the station’s local horizon; finally we calculate the angle between the line-of-sight of the ATMS and the line-of-sight of the comsat. We assume that the gain pattern of the ground station is circularly symmetric; the angle-off-station-boresight then provides an attenuation of the uplink power which we use to assess the likely effect upon the passive instrument’s operations. We assume that each ground station can communicate with all the comsats in its field of view; this implies that, on average, a ground station can engage with 46 comsats simultaneously. The analysis is repeated for the case when the uplink broadcast within the ATMS passive channels (in-band scenario) and for the case when the uplink is limited to frequencies adjacent to the ATMS channels (out-of-band scenario). The antenna of the ground station is modelled as having a HPBW (Half-Power Beam Width) of 0.16 deg and EIRP (Equivalent Isotropic Radiated Power) of 70 dBW. We account for the geometric dissipation of the signal caused by the satellite orbital altitude, the attenuation induced by atmospheric gasses at 51 GHz and the mismatch between the circular polarization of the ground-based transmitting antenna and the linear polarization of the satellite-borne receiving antenna. The damages on ATMS are estimated from bench-level measurement conducted at the ATMS’ manufacturer facilities [unpublished].

passive microwave↗

NASA NTRS2004

An Analytical Calibration Approach for the Polarimetric Airborne C Band Radiometer

Passive microwave remote sensing is sensitive to the quantity and distribution of water in soil and vegetation. During summer 2000, the Microwave Geophysics Group a t the University of Michigan conducted the seventh Radiobrighness Energy Balance Experiment (REBEX-7) over a corn canopy in Michigan. Long time series of brightness temperatures, soil moisture and micrometeorology on the plot were taken. This paper addresses the calibration of the NASA GSFC polarimetric airborne C band microwave radiometer (ACMR) that participated in REBEX-7. These passive polarimeters are typically calibrated using an end-to-end approach based upon a standard artificial target or a well-known geophysical target. Analyzing the major internal functional subsystems offers a different perspective. The primary goal of this approach is to provide a transfer function that not only describes the system in its entire5 but also accounts for the contributions of each subsystem toward the final modified Stokes parameters. This approach does not assume that the radiometric system is linear as it does not take polarization isolation for granted, and it also serves as a realistic instrument simulator, a useful tool for future designs. The ACMR architecture can be partitioned into functional subsystems. The characteristics of each subsystem was extensively measured and the estimated parameters were imported into the overall dosed form system model. Inversion of the model yields a calibration for the modeled Stokes parameters with uncertainties of 0.2 K for the V and H polarizations and 2.4 K for the 3rd and 4th parameters. Application to the full Stokes parameters over a senescent cornfield is presented.

Pham, Hanh↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Ice-Over-Water Cloud Properties in an Artificial Neural Network Approach

Clouds are a crucial component of the atmospheric energy system, particularly the radiative balance within, above, and below the troposphere. The vertical distribution of cloud mass and phase determines layer heating rates, the loss of radiation to space, and the amount of radiative heating at the surface. Thus, it is important to know how clouds are distributed both vertically and horizontally at all times of day. Satellite remote sensing is the only approach available to monitor clouds day and night around the globe. In this paper several artificial neural network (ANN) algorithms, employing several Aqua MODIS infrared channels, profiles of relative humidity and temperature from GMAO numerical weather analyses, and the retrieved total cloud visible optical depth, are trained to detect multilayer ice-over-water cloud systems and to retrieve some of their properties as identified by a year of 2008 Aqua MODIS data matched with CloudSat and CALIPSO (CC) cloud profiles. The CC lidar and radar profiles provide the vertical structure that serves as output truth for the multilayer algorithm. The neural networks were trained using one year (2008) of cloud top height data from the CC dataset, with correlation around 0.94 (0.95) and MAE as low as 0.82 (0.81) km for nonpolar regions during the day (night). Applying the trained ANN to independent year 2009 MODIS data resulted in a combined ML and single layer hit rate of 86.4% (85.1%) for nonpolar regions during the day (night). Since the ANN is trained using near-nadir MODIS pixels, infrared radiance corrections were developed as a function of view zenith angle from MODIS and applied to off-nadir pixels when processing MODIS swath data. The multilayer amount derived with the ANN is relatively invariant with increasing view zenith angle compared to the multilayer amount without the corrections.

MODIS↗

NASA NTRS2012

A Spacecraft Housekeeping System-on-Chip in a Radiation Hardened Structured ASIC

Housekeeping systems are essential to health monitoring of spacecraft and instruments. Typically, sensors are distributed across various sub-systems and data is collected using components such as analog-to-digital converters, analog multiplexers and amplifiers. In most cases programmable devices are used to implement the data acquisition control and storage, and the interface to higher level systems. Such discrete implementations require additional size, weight, power and interconnect complexity versus an integrated circuit solution, as well as the qualification of multiple parts. Although commercial devices are readily available, they are not suitable for space applications due the radiation tolerance and qualification requirements. The Housekeeping System-o n-A-Chip (HKSOC) is a low power, radiation hardened integrated solution suitable for spacecraft and instrument control and data collection. A prototype has been designed and includes a wide variety of functions including a 16-channel analog front-end for driving and reading sensors, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, on-chip temperature sensor, power supply current sense circuits, general purpose comparators and amplifiers, a 32-bit processor, digital I/O, pulse-width modulation (PWM) generators, timers and I2C master and slave serial interfaces. In addition, the device can operate in a bypass mode where the processor is disabled and external logic is used to control the analog and mixed signal functions. The device is suitable for stand-alone or distributed systems where multiple chips can be deployed across different sub-systems as intelligent nodes with computing and processing capabilities.

Suarez, George↗

NASA NTRS1968

Nonlinear interactions of electromagnetic waves with a thermally generated cesium plasma.

The interaction of a large‐amplitude disturbing wave with a thermally generated, highly ionized cesium plasma has been investigated using a small‐amplitude sensing wave as a probe. The subsequent interaction between the disturbing and sensing waves is related to the plasma electron temperature. The plasma was contained in a magnetic field of 500–1000 G and had an electron plasma frequency near 10 GHz and an electron gyromagnetic frequency around 2 GHz. The sensing wave was a 10 GHz plane wave of approximately 1.5 mW input power and the disturbing wave was 7.5 GHz plane wave of about 1.2 W peak power. Measurements of the sensing‐wave transmitted power were made using standard microwave techniques. A notch filter in the sensing‐wave receiving circuit reduced the scattered disturbing‐wave interference to an immeasurably low level. Langmuir probes were used to detect disturbing‐wave modulation and to measure plasma temperatures and densities. Measurements of the interaction were correlated with a solution of the Boltzmann transport equation for a perturbed Maxwellian distribution function with binary Coulomb collisions.

Jack G Hewitt, Jr↗

NASA NTRS1973

A radiation model for calculating atmospheric corrections to remotely sensed infrared measurements, version 2

A numerical model is developed which calculates the atmospheric corrections to infrared radiometric measurements due to absorption and emission by water vapor, carbon dioxide, and ozone. The corrections due to aerosols are not accounted for. The transmissions functions for water vapor, carbon dioxide, and water are given. The model requires as input the vertical distribution of temperature and water vapor as determined by a standard radiosonde. The vertical distribution of carbon dioxide is assumed to be constant. The vertical distribution of ozone is an average of observed values. The model also requires as input the spectral response function of the radiometer and the nadir angle at which the measurements were made. A listing of the FORTRAN program is given with details for its use and examples of input and output listings. Calculations for four model atmospheres are presented.

Boudreau, R. D.↗

NASA NTRS1989

A fluid flow analysis for convective thermal control of flight experiments

A method for thermally analyzing convectively cooled flight experiments is presented. A three-dimensional fluid flow analysis code is used to optimize air circulation patterns and to predict air velocities in thermally critical areas. The analysis results are compared with the performance characteristics of a typical isothermal free jet, and good agreement is found between velocity profiles and radial distributions for downstream flow mixing. Predicted air velocities from the fluid analysis are used to calculate forced convection coefficients for the flight experiment, and the coefficients are used in a finite difference thermal analysis code to describe the response of air temperature and heat loss for the Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment during transient flight profiles. Recommendations are made for the future design of convectively cooled flight experiments.

Killough, Brian D.↗

NASA NTRS1969

Passive remote sensing at microwave wavelength

The ways in which radio signals are affected by meteorological parameters are described, as are methods for interpreting the signals, the state-of-the-art in instrumentation, the current state of development of the field, and some problems and prospects for the future. It is shown that the temperature profile of the atmosphere, water vapor and ozone distribution, cloud water content, and certain surface properties can be measured with sufficient accuracy to provide useful meteorological information.

Staelin, D. H.↗

DOE OSTI2020

Physical and behavioral adaptations to prevent overheating of the living wings of butterflies

The wings of Lepidoptera contain a matrix of living cells whose function requires appropriate temperatures. However, given their small thermal capacity, wings can overheat rapidly in the sun. Here we analyze butterfly wings across a wide range of simulated environmental conditions, and find that regions containing living cells are maintained at cooler temperatures. Diverse scale nanostructures and non-uniform cuticle thicknesses create a heterogeneous distribution of radiative cooling that selectively reduces the temperature of structures such as wing veins and androconial organs. These tissues are supplied by circulatory, neural and tracheal systems throughout the adult lifetime, indicating that the insect wing is a dynamic, living structure. Behavioral assays show that butterflies use wings to sense visible and infrared radiation, responding with specialized behaviors to prevent overheating of their wings. Our work highlights the physiological importance of wing temperature and how it is exquisitely regulated by structural and behavioral adaptations.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS2003

Modeling and Visualizing Uncertainty in Continuous Variables Predicted using Remotely Sensed Data

The use of remotely sensed images to map continuous biophysical variables, such as those related to terrestrial vegetation amount, sea surface temperature, and many other targets of NASA s Earth Observing System (EOS), includes variable, parametric, positional, spatial support and structural sources of uncertainty. A complete description of uncertainty will lead to a probability distribution at each location, allowing the exploration of the spatial dimension of uncertainty, that is, where the field is not well quantified. To achieve this purpose, convenient visualization tools are required. We have produced such a tool, called PDFVis, that facilitates the display of probability density functions (pdfs) on a per-grid-cell basis. The density estimate from Monte-Carlo generated realizations is interactively displayed as well as parametric and non-parametric summaries of the pdf field (such as mean, median, quartiles, standard deviation, number of modes, and locations of modes). Shaded surface renderings of pdfs along a transect can also be projected onto a plane. This tool will become more useful as richer descriptions of spatial uncertainty become available.

Dungan, Jennifer L.↗