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At least 307 records · Page 17
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2021

The Inland Maintenance and Reintensification of Tropical Storm Bill (2015). Part II: Precipitation Microphysics

Tropical Storm Bill produced over 400 mmof rainfall to portions of southern Oklahoma from 16-20 June 2015, adding to the catastrophic urban and river flooding that occurred throughout the region in the month prior to landfall. The unprecedented excessive precipitation event that occurred across Oklahoma and Texas during May and June 2015 resulted in anomalously high soil moisture and latent heat fluxes over the region, acting to increase the available boundary layer moisture. Tropical Storm Bill progressed inland over the region of anomalous soil moisture and latent heat fluxes which helped maintain polarimetric radar signatures associated with tropical, warm rain events. Vertical profiles of polarimetric radar variables such as Z(H), Z(DR), K(DP), and ρ(hv) were analyzed in time and space over Texas and Oklahoma. The profiles suggest that Tropical Storm Bill maintained warm rain signatures and collision-coalescence processes as it tracked hundreds of kilometers inland away from the landfall point consistent with tropical cyclone precipitation characteristics. Dual-frequency precipitation radar observations from the NASA GPM DPR were also analyzed post-landfall and showed similar signatures of collision-coalescence while Bill moved over north Texas, southern Oklahoma, eastern Missouri, and western Kentucky.

Noah S. Brauer↗
NASA NTRS1987

In situ measurements and radar observations of a severe storm - Electricity, kinematics, and precipitation

Electric field measurements made inside a multicell severe storm in Oklahoma in 1983 with a balloon-borne instrument are presented. The properties of the electric charge regions, such as altitude, thickness, and charge concentrations, are studied. These measurements are analzyed with meteorological measurements of temperature and humidity, and balloon tracking and radar observations. The relation between the electric charge structure and the precipitation and kinematic features of the storm is examined. The data reveal that the cell exhibits a bipolar charge structure with negative charge below positive charge. The average charge concentrations of the two regions are estimated as -1.2 and 0.15 nC/cu m, respectively; the upper positive charge is about 6 km in vertical extent, and the lower negative charge is less than 1 km in vertical extent.

Byrne, G. J.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Forecasting tropical cyclone recurvature with upper tropospheric winds

Data from 17 tropical cyclones during the 1974 through 1979 hurricane seasons are used to investigate whether the high level winds far to the northwest, north and northeast of the hurricane center can be used to predict hurricane track recurvature. When the man 200-mb winds 1500 to 2000 km northwest and north of the storm center equal or exceed 20 m/s, 80 per cent of the storms recurved before traveling as much as 12 degrees of longitude farther west. The high winds were also used to predict change in direction of forward motion during the next 72 hours. The regression equations developed explain up to 41 per cent of the variance in future direction. In addition to the geostrophic winds used, winds were also obtained by tracking clouds with successive satellite imagery. The u-components of the satellite winds are highly correlated with the geostrophic winds at 200-mb and could probably be used instead of them when available. The v-components are less highly correlated.

Gentry, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Lightning Jump Algorithm and Relation to Thunderstorm Cell Tracking, GLM Proxy and Other Meteorological Measurements

The lightning jump algorithm has a robust history in correlating upward trends in lightning to severe and hazardous weather occurrence. The algorithm uses the correlation between the physical principles that govern an updraft's ability to produce microphysical and kinematic conditions conducive for electrification and its role in the development of severe weather conditions. Recent work has demonstrated that the lightning jump algorithm concept holds significant promise in the operational realm, aiding in the identification of thunderstorms that have potential to produce severe or hazardous weather. However, a large amount of work still needs to be completed in spite of these positive results. The total lightning jump algorithm is not a stand-alone concept that can be used independent of other meteorological measurements, parameters, and techniques. For example, the algorithm is highly dependent upon thunderstorm tracking to build lightning histories on convective cells. Current tracking methods show that thunderstorm cell tracking is most reliable and cell histories are most accurate when radar information is incorporated with lightning data. In the absence of radar data, the cell tracking is a bit less reliable but the value added by the lightning information is much greater. For optimal application, the algorithm should be integrated with other measurements that assess storm scale properties (e.g., satellite, radar). Therefore, the recent focus of this research effort has been assessing the lightning jump's relation to thunderstorm tracking, meteorological parameters, and its potential uses in operational meteorology. Furthermore, the algorithm must be tailored for the optically-based GOES-R Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), as what has been observed using Very High Frequency Lightning Mapping Array (VHF LMA) measurements will not exactly translate to what will be observed by GLM due to resolution and other instrument differences. Herein, we present some of the promising aspects and challenges encountered in utilizing objective tracking and GLM proxy data, as well as recent results that demonstrate the value added information gained by combining the lightning jump concept with traditional meteorological measurements.

Schultz, Christopher J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Reduction of Marine Magnetic Data for Modeling the Main Field of the Earth

The marine data set archived at the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) consists of shipborne surveys conducted by various institutes worldwide. This data set spans four decades (1953, 1958, 1960-1987), and contains almost 13 million total intensity observations. These are often less than 1 km apart. These typically measure seafloor spreading anomalies with amplitudes of several hundred nanotesla (nT) which, since they originate in the crust, interfere with main field modeling. The source for these short wavelength features are confined within the magnetic crust (i.e., sources above the Curie isotherm). The main field, on the other hand, is of much longer wavelengths and originates within the earth's core. It is desirable to extract the long wavelength information from the marine data set for use in modeling the main field. This can be accomplished by averaging the data along the track. In addition, those data which are measured during periods of magnetic disturbance can be identified and eliminated. Thus, it should be possible to create a data set which has worldwide data distribution, spans several decades, is not contaminated with short wavelengths of the crustal field or with magnetic storm noise, and which is limited enough in size to be manageable for the main field modeling. The along track filtering described above has proved to be an effective means of condensing large numbers of shipborne magnetic data into a manageable and meaningful data set for main field modeling. Its simplicity and ability to adequately handle varying spatial and sampling constraints has outweighed consideration of more sophisticated approaches. This filtering technique also provides the benefits of smoothing out short wavelength crustal anomalies, discarding data recorded during magnetically noisy periods, and assigning reasonable error estimates to be used in the least square modeling. A useful data set now exists which spans 1953-1987.

Baldwin, R. T.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Observed Variability in Convective Cell Characteristics and Near-Storm Environments across the Sea- and Bay-Breeze Fronts in Southeast Texas

Abstract During the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions Experiment (TRACER) IOP spanning June–September 2022, two fixed ARM sites and a mobile team concurrently sampled the airmass heterogeneity across sea- and bay-breeze fronts around the greater Houston metropolitan region. Here, we quantify the spatiotemporal variability between maritime (coastal/bay side of breeze fronts) and continental (inland side of breeze fronts) air masses over 15 IOP days characterized by strong sea-breeze forcing. We analyze environmental profile data from 177 radiosondes and use S- and C-band radar data to track and quantify the variability in attributes of more than 2300 shallow and transitioning cells across different air masses. The composite analysis of environmental profiles indicates that during the early afternoon, the sea-breeze maritime air mass exhibits lower convective available potential energy (CAPE) than the bay-breeze maritime air mass. As the sea breeze advances inland with time, CAPE within the maritime air mass exceeds that of the continental air mass to the north of the breeze fronts. In general, maritime cells have a larger mean composite reflectivity and cell widths than continental cells; however, the response varies between shallow and transitioning cells. Mean composite 20-dB Z echo-top heights, however, are similar across air masses for both shallow and transitioning cells. The continental and maritime inflow air mass for transitioning cells has significantly different mean values for mixed-layer entrainment CAPE, lifted condensation level, level of free condensation, boundary layer depth, and diluted equilibrium level. For shallow cells, only total precipitable water shows a significant difference. Significance Statement The greater Houston metropolitan area is a natural laboratory for understanding the individual impacts of background meteorology and aerosols on convective clouds. Due to its proximity to the Gulf Coast and Galveston Bay, the Houston region experiences a diurnal precipitation cycle in the summer, driven by convection triggered from sea- and bay-breeze fronts. These fronts act as a boundary between air masses with distinct thermodynamic and environmental characteristics. Convergence along these fronts and interactions between storm outflow and the fronts facilitate convection initiation in different mesoscale air masses. This study quantifies the heterogeneity among these air masses while investigating their influence on cloud microphysics. We find that the effect of airmass heterogeneity is more pronounced for the bulk microphysical properties in shallow clouds.

Sharma, Milind↗
NASA NTRS2012

Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission: Overview and Status

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission is an international satellite mission specifically designed to unify and advance precipitation measurements from a constellation of research and operational microwave sensors. NASA and JAXA will deploy a Core Observatory in 2014 to serve as a reference satellite to unify precipitation measurements from the constellation of sensors. The GPM Core Observatory will carry a Ku/Ka-band Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) and a conical-scanning multi-channel (10-183 GHz) GPM Microwave Radiometer (GMI). The DPR will be the first dual-frequency radar in space to provide not only measurements of 3-D precipitation structures but also quantitative information on microphysical properties of precipitating particles. The DPR and GMI measurements will together provide a database that relates vertical hydrometeor profiles to multi-frequency microwave radiances over a variety of environmental conditions across the globe. This combined database will be used as a common transfer standard for improving the accuracy and consistency of precipitation retrievals from all constellation radiometers. For global coverage, GPM relies on existing satellite programs and new mission opportunities from a consortium of partners through bilateral agreements with either NASA or JAXA. Each constellation member may have its unique scientific or operational objectives but contributes microwave observations to GPM for the generation and dissemination of unified global precipitation data products. In addition to the DPR and GMI on the Core Observatory, the baseline GPM constellation consists of the following sensors: (1) Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) instruments on the U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites, (2) the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 (AMSR-2) on the GCOM-W1 satellite of JAXA, (3) the Multi-Frequency Microwave Scanning Radiometer (MADRAS) and the multi-channel microwave humidity sounder (SAPHIR) on the French-Indian MeghaTropiques satellite, (4) the Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-19, (5) MHS instruments on MetOp satellites launched by the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), (6) the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) on the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP), and (7) ATMS instruments on the NOAA-NASA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites. Data from Chinese and Russian microwave radiometers may also become available through international collaboration under the auspices of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and Group on Earth Observations (GEO). The current generation of global rainfall products combines observations from a network of uncoordinated satellite missions using a variety of merging techniques. GPM will provide "next-generation" precipitation products characterized by: (1) more accurate instantaneous precipitation estimate (especially for light rain and cold-season solid precipitation), (2) intercalibrated microwave brightness temperatures from constellation radiometers within a consistent framework, and (3) unified precipitation retrievals from constellation radiometers using a common a priori hydrometeor database constrained by combined radar/radiometer measurements provided by the GPM Core Observatory. GPM is a science mission with integrated applications goals. GPM will provide a key measurement to improve understanding of global water cycle variability and freshwater availability in a changing climate. The DPR and GMI measurements will offer insights into 3-dimensional structures of hurricanes and midlatitude storms, microphysical properties of precipitating particles, and latent heat associated with precipitation processes. The GPM mission will also make data available in near realtime (within 3 hours of observations) forocietal applications ranging from position fixes of storm centers, numerical weather prediction, flood forecasting, freshwater management, landslide warning, crop prediction, to tracking of water-borne diseases. An overview of the GPM mission design, retrieval strategy, ground validation activities, and international science collaboration will be presented.

Hou, Arthur Y.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Tropical Convection Through the Lens of the INCUS Mission

The overarching goal of the recently selected NASA INvestigation of Convective UpdraftS (INCUS) mission is to enhance our understanding of why, when and where tropical convective storms form, and why only some of these storms produce extreme weather. Convective storms provide an important pathway for the transport of air and water between Earth’s surface and the upper troposphere. This vertical transport of air and water, often referred to as convective mass flux (CMF), plays a critical role in Earth’s weather and climate system through its impacts on microphysical and precipitation rates, detrainment and upper tropospheric moistening, high cloud feedbacks, and the large-scale circulation. Potential changes to the CMF as a function of the local environment or with changing climates may also have significant implications for severe weather such as flood-producing rainfall, damaging hail and lightning. In spite of the critical role of this vertical transport of water and air, representation of CMF remains a major source of error in weather and climate models, thereby limiting our ability to accurately predict convective storms and their impacts. The tropics-wide observations from INCUS will enhance our understanding of tropical convective storm processes and will provide guidance for representing these processes in numerical models across scales. INCUS is comprised of three SmallSat platforms each carrying a RainCube-heritage Ka-band 7-beam scanning radar. The satellite platforms will be 30 and 90 seconds apart, thus providing three time intervals (30, 90 and 120 seconds) over which observations will be made. INCUS will investigate CMF using a novel time-differenced radar reflectivity profile approach. In addition to the Ka-band radar, a single TEMPEST-D-heritage cross-track-scanning passive microwave radiometer will be housed on the middle SmallSat. The radiometer will provide extensive storm context for the radar observations, as well as observations of the convective anvils. The combination of the radars and radiometer on INCUS will deliver unprecedented three-dimensional views of tropical convective storms. INCUS is the first systematic investigation of the rapidly evolving CMF within tropical convective storms, the observations of which are expected to significantly enhance both our understanding and prediction of storm structure, their dynamics and microphysical processes, and the ways in which these evolve over storm lifetimes. This presentation will highlight the observational capabilities and scientific approach of the INCUS mission.

Susan C. van den Heever↗
NASA NTRS1989

Cockpit display of ground-based weather data during thunderstorm research flights

This paper describes an integrated system for providing ground-based cockpit display, transmitting to an aircraft, upon request via VHF radio, important ground-based thunderstorm data such as radar precipitation reflectivity contours, aircraft ground track, and cloud-to-ground lightning locations. Examples of the airborne X-band weather radar display and the ground-based display are presented for two different missions during the NASA Storm Hazards Program. In spite of some limitation, the system was found to be helpful in the selection of the route of flight, the general ground track to be used, and, occasionally, in clarifying the location of a specific cell of interest.

Fisher, Bruce D.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) for the Earth Observing System

Not only are scientific objectives and instrument characteristics given of a calibrated optical LIS for the EOS but also for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) which was designed to acquire and study the distribution and variability of total lightning on a global basis. The LIS can be traced to a lightning mapper sensor planned for flight on the GOES meteorological satellites. The LIS consists of a staring imager optimized to detect and locate lightning. The LIS will detect and locate lightning with storm scale resolution (i.e., 5 to 10 km) over a large region of the Earth's surface along the orbital track of the satellite, mark the time of occurrence of the lightning, and measure the radiant energy. The LIS will have a nearly uniform 90 pct. detection efficiency within the area viewed by the sensor, and will detect intracloud and cloud-to-ground discharges during day and night conditions. Also, the LIS will monitor individual storms and storm systems long enough to obtain a measure of the lightning flashing rate when they are within the field of view of the LIS. The LIS attributes include low cost, low weight and power, low data rate, and important science. The LIS will study the hydrological cycle, general circulation and sea surface temperature variations, along with examinations of the electrical coupling of thunderstorms with the ionosphere and magnetosphere, and observations and modeling of the global electric circuit.

Christian, Hugh J.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Role of MODIS Vegetation Phenology Products in the ForWarn System for Monitoring of Forest Disturbances in the Conterminous United States

This presentation discusses MODIS vegetation phenology products used in the ForWarn Early Warning System (EWS) tool for near real time regional forest disturbance detection and surveillance at regional to national scales. The ForWarn EWS is being developed by the USDA Forest Service NASA, ORNL, and USGS to aid federal and state forest health management activities. ForWarn employs multiple historical land surface phenology products that are derived from MODIS MOD13 Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data. The latter is temporally processed into phenology products with the Time Series Product Tool (TSPT) and the Phenological Parameter Estimation Tool (PPET) software produced at NASA Stennis Space Center. TSPT is used to effectively noise reduce, fuse, and void interpolate MODIS NDVI data. PPET employs TSPT-processed NDVI time series data as an input, outputting multiple vegetation phenology products at a 232 meter resolution for 2000 to 2011, including NDVI magnitude and day of year products for seven key points along the growing season (peak of growing season and the minima, 20%, and 80% of the peak NDVI for both the left and right side of growing season), cumulative NDVI integral products for the most active part of the growing season and sequentially across the growing season at 8 day intervals, and maximum value NDVI products composited at 24 day intervals in which each product date has 8 days of overlap between the previous and following product dates. MODIS NDVI phenology products are also used to compute nationwide NRT forest change products refreshed every 8 days. These include percent change in forest NDVI products that compare the current NDVI from USGS eMODIS products to historical MODIS MOD13 NDVI. For each date, three forest change products are produced using three different maximum value NDVI baselines (from the previous year, three previous years, and all previous years). All change products are output with a rainbow color table in which forests with the most severe NDVI decreases are assigned hot colors (yellow to red) and forests with prominent NDVI increases are assigned cold colors (blue tones). All mentioned products have been integrated as data layers into ForWarn s geospatial data viewer known as the U.S. Forest Change Assessment Viewer (FCAV). The latter is used to view and assess the context of the mentioned forest change products with respect to ancillary data layers, such as land cover, elevation, hydrologic features, climatic data, storm data, aerial disturbance surveys, fire data, and land ownership. The FCAV also includes a temporal NDVI profiler for viewing phenological change in multi-year NDVI associated with known or suspected regionally apparent forest disturbances (e.g., from fire and insects). ForWarn forest change products have been used to detect, track, and assess several biotic and abiotic regional forest disturbance events across the country, including ephemeral and longer lasting damage from storms, drought, and insects. Such change products are most effective for viewing severe disturbances affecting multiple MODIS pixels. MODIS vegetation phenology products contribute vital current information on forest conditions to the ForWarn system and this role is expected to grow as these products are refined and derivative products are added.

Spruce, Joseph P.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Adapt: A Weather Radar Data Analysis and Nowcasting Platform for Informed Adaptive Scanning

SF-26-021 Adapt is a data processing platform for real-time data analysis, short term prediction of targets convective cells and tracking for archived data. It provides tools for downloading, processing, segmenting, projecting, analyzing, and visualizing storm cell data from weather radar. The pipeline includes cell detection, motion estimation using optical flow, cell property extraction, and persistence to NetCDF and SQLite/Parquet for guiding adaptive scanning.

Raut, Bhupendra Ashokrao [Argonne National Laborat↗
NASA NTRS1994

Four years of global cirrus cloud statistics using HIRS

Trends in global upper-tropospheric transmissive cirrus cloud cover are beginning to emerge from a four-year cloud climatology using NOAA polar-orbiting High-Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) multispectral data. Cloud occurrence, height, and effective emissivity are determined with the CO2 slicing technique on the four years of data (June 1989-May 1993). There is a global preponderance of transmissive high clouds, 42% on the average; about three-fourths of these are above 500 hPa and presumed to be cirrus. In the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), a high frequency of cirrus (greater than 50%) is found at all times; a modest seasonal movement tracks the sun. Large seasonal changes in cloud cover occur over the oceans in the storm belts at midlatitudes; the concentrations of these clouds migrate north and south with the seasons following the progressions of the subtropical highs (anticyclones). More cirrus is found in the summer than in the winter in each hemisphere. A significant change in cirrus cloud cover occurs in 1991, the third year of the study. Cirrus observations increase from 35% to 43% of the data, a change of eight percentage points. Other cloud forms, opaque to terrestrial radiation, decerase by nearly the same amount. Most of the increase is thinner cirrus with infrared optical depths below 0.7. The increase in cirrus happens at the same time as the 1991-92 El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. The cirrus changes occur at the start of the ENSO and persist into 1993 in contrast to other climatic indicators that return to near pre-ENSO and volcanic levels in 1993.

Wylie, Donald P.↗
NASA NTRS1969

Biosatellite II mission

Biosatellite B was launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, on a two-stage DELTA launch vehicle at 6:04 p.m. on 7 September, 1967. Approximately nine minutes later the 435 kg spacecraft biological laboratory was placed into a satisfactory 315 km near-circular earth orbit, successfully separated from the launch vehicle's second stage and was designated Biosatellite II. The scientific payload consisting of thirteen selected general biology and radiation experiments were subjected to planned, carefully controlled environmental conditions during 45 hours of earth-orbital flight. The decision was made to abbreviate the scheduled 3-day mission by approximately one day because of a threatening tropical storm in the recovery area, and a problem of communication with the spacecraft from the tracking stations. Highest priority was placed on recovery which was essential to obtain the scientific results on all the experiments. The operational phase of the mission came to a successful conclusion with the deorbit of the recovery capsule, deployment of the parachute system and air recovery by the United States Air Force. The 127 kg recovery capsule was returned to biology laboratories at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, for disassembly and immediate inspection and analysis of the biological materials by the experimenters. It was evident immediately that the quality of the biology was excellent and this fact gave promise of a high return of scientific data. The environmental conditions provided to the experimental material in the spacecraft, provisions for experimental controls, and operational considerations are presented as they relate to interpretation of the experimental results.

Biosatellite 2 Project↗
NASA NTRS2014

A Comparison of the Red Green Blue Air Mass Imagery and Hyperspectral Infrared Retrieved Profiles

The Red Green Blue (RGB) Air Mass imagery is derived from multiple channels or paired channel differences. Multiple channel products typically provide additional information than a single channel can provide alone. The RGB Air Mass imagery simplifies the interpretation of temperature and moisture characteristics of air masses surrounding synoptic and mesoscale features. Despite the ease of interpretation of multiple channel products, the combination of channels and channel differences means the resulting product does not represent a quantity or physical parameter such as brightness temperature in conventional single channel satellite imagery. Without a specific quantity to reference, forecasters are often confused as to what RGB products represent. Hyperspectral infrared retrieved profiles of temperature, moisture, and ozone can provide insight about the air mass represented on the RGB Air Mass product and provide confidence in the product and representation of air masses despite the lack of a quantity to reference for interpretation. This study focuses on RGB Air Mass analysis of Hurricane Sandy as it moved north along the U.S. East Coast, while transitioning to a hybrid extratropical storm. Soundings and total column ozone retrievals were analyzed using data from the Cross-track Infrared and Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder Suite (CrIMSS) on the Suomi National Polar Orbiting Partnership satellite and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Aqua satellite along with dropsondes that were collected from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Air Force research aircraft. By comparing these datasets to the RGB Air Mass, it is possible to capture quantitative information that could help in analyzing the synoptic environment enough to diagnose the onset of extratropical transition. This was done by identifying any stratospheric air intrusions (SAIs) that existed in the vicinity of Sandy as the wind field expanded and the cloud pattern evolved into an atypical pattern.

Berndt, E. B.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Scintillation-Hardened GPS Receiver

CommLargo, Inc., has developed a scintillation-hardened Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver that improves reliability for low-orbit missions and complies with NASA's Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) architecture standards. A software-defined radio (SDR) implementation allows a single hardware element to function as either a conventional radio or as a GPS receiver, providing backup and redundancy for platforms such as the International Space Station (ISS) and high-value remote sensing platforms. The innovation's flexible SDR implementation reduces cost, weight, and power requirements. Scintillation hardening improves mission reliability and variability. In Phase I, CommLargo refactored an open-source GPS software package with Kalman filter-based tracking loops to improve performance during scintillation and also demonstrated improved navigation during a geomagnetic storm. In Phase II, the company generated a new field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based GPS waveform to demonstrate on NASA's Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) test bed.

Stephens, Donald R.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Studying the 2019 Australian Bushfires Disaster using NASA Data: A Data-Driven Storytelling Approach

The 2019-2020 Australian fire season was particularly devastating, with millions of acres of land burned and impacts affecting Australian ecology, local populations and air quality, and the atmosphere. Australia saw unprecedented heat waves, with temperatures reaching 120 F (49.1 C) in January across central and eastern Australia. The fires gave rise to a host of atmospheric phenomenon, including smoke transport and lofting generated by storm-induced by fires, known as pyrocumulonimbus, reaching the stratosphere. NASA’s satellites not only tracked the event in real time, but also gathered data to further inform forecasting and response methods in the future. To better assist the public in understanding the lead up, impacts, and aftermath effects of these fires, the Science Outreach Team at NASA Langley Research Center’s Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) used Esri’s storymap tool to guide users through understanding relevant phenomenon, contributing factors, the effects this event has had on global atmospheric composition, and the science behind researching the tie between disasters and public health. The storymap uses data from the ASDC-supported NASA missions Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT), Cloud-Aerosol and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO), Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES), the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE III), and Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR). By using data-driven storytelling to communicate impacts of a large fire event, we hope to provide an accessible, engaging science outreach tool format.

Sanjana Paul↗
DOE OSTI2020

Projected Future Changes in Tropical Cyclones Using the CMIP6 HighResMIP Multimodel Ensemble

Future changes in tropical cyclone properties are an important component of climate change impacts and risk for many tropical and midlatitude countries. In this study we assess the performance of a multimodel ensemble of climate models, at resolutions ranging from 250 to 25 km. We use a common experimental design including both atmosphere-only and coupled simulations run over the period 1950–2050, with two tracking algorithms applied uniformly across the models. There are overall improvements in tropical cyclone frequency, spatial distribution, and intensity in models at 25 km resolution, with several of them able to represent very intense storms. Projected tropical cyclone activity by 2050 generally declines in the South Indian Ocean, while changes in other ocean basins are more uncertain and sensitive to both tracking algorithm and imposed forcings. Coupled models with smaller biases suggest a slight increase in average TC 10 m wind speeds by 2050.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗