An Introduction to the E3SM Special Collection: Goals, Science Drivers, Development, and Analysis
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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
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Concurrent Optimization of Capital Cost and Expected O&M
Concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies can utilize heat from concentrated sunlight from a field of tracking mirrors to generate electricity, reform fuel, provide process heat, or augment fossil plant heat sources. Electricity-generating power tower systems focus light from thousands of independent heliostats onto a thermal receiver, which uses the focused light to warm a heat transfer fluid (HTF), typically, a molten nitrate salt. The HTF is then sent to a power generation cycle or diverted into thermal energy storage (TES) for later use. Thermal storage is – in principle – a straightforward proposition. However, optimal utilization of a TES resource is complex and multi-faceted: thermal energy may be dispatched to produce electricity immediately upon first availability, or thermal energy may be reserved for next-day peak periods at risk of filling storage and dumping energy, or a portion of the thermal energy can be reserved to maintain equipment temperatures, reducing power cycle startup time, etc. Many possible dispatch permutations variously emphasize producing peak power, operating through transients, expediting daily startup, etc. The best operation strategy can change day-to-day throughout the year, depending on the weather and market pricing forecasts. The project we describe in this report develops a software package that allows users to explore design optimization, operations decisions, and performance characterization of concentrating solar power tower plants. Users interface with the tool through a scripting language, and results are reported in time series tables, plots, runtime logs, and design outputs. Users choose from a list of variables such as tower height, solar multiple, design-point irradiance, thermal storage size, etc., and specify information about the system using a list of parameters. The software can then optimize the specified variables to reduce the cost of energy produced by the system while meeting certain production requirements, accounting for uncertain weather and electricity price forecasts, and correcting for equipment failures or repair time. The software we develop is the first comprehensive design tool of its kind to incorporate all of these aspects while being deployed as open source.
14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
2020 Exascale Computing Project Annual Meeting (Executive Summary Report)
The Exascale Computing Project (ECP) delivers specific applications, software products, and outcomes on DOE computing facilities. Integration across these elements for specific hardware technologies for exascale system instantiations is fundamental to ECP success. The outcome of the ECP is the delivery of a capable exascale computing ecosystem to provide breakthrough solutions addressing our most critical challenges in scientific discovery, energy assurance, economic competitiveness, and national security. This outcome is not a matter of ensuring more powerful computing systems. The ECP is designed to create more valuable and rapid insights from a wide variety of applications (“capable”), which requires a much higher level of inherent efficacy in all methods, software tools, and ECP-enabled computing technologies to be acquired by DOE laboratories (“ecosystem”). The ECP annual meeting provides a unique opportunity for the core technical expertise in the United States focused on achieving this next plateau of computational science and computing performance to engage in direct discussions on project execution. Face-to-face gatherings in technical communities like this are common and needed for the exchange of scientific ideas and technical performance. The ECP annual meeting stands apart from other technical conferences and meetings in the computing community as it is uniquely and solely focused on the execution of the ECP and the integration of technical activities leading to the creation of the exascale computing ecosystem for the future. The direct interaction of key critical technical staff, who are leaders in their respective fields, and the resulting give-and-take between software, applications, and hardware and the technical co-design therein, is unique and essential to the effective execution of the ECP. The first annual meeting was held in Knoxville, Tennessee, January 31 – February 2, 2017 and brought together, for the first time, a diverse collection of researchers from 16 DOE national laboratories as well as university computer and computational science researchers to discuss shared problems and joint solutions for the development of a capable exascale computing ecosystem. These interactions resulted in focused technical plans and an energized community centered on advances for ECP. The second annual meeting was held in Knoxville, Tennessee, February 5–9, 2018. It included 643 individual thought leaders and performers in application development, software research and deployment, and hardware research and integrators, all of whom are part of the multifaceted, billion dollar HPC community. This meeting provided a platform to discuss and disseminate numerous examples where researchers with common goals and synergistic solutions came together for the first time to deliver tangible results. Additionally, at the 2018 meeting, ECP researchers had the opportunity to digest all US HPC vendor R&D product roadmaps pointing to exascale – not only to learn how their research can play a role, but, more importantly, to influence those roadmaps to ensure successful delivery on DOE applications that will contribute to (if not solve) problems of national interest in national security, science, energy, and health, as well as growing security threats. The third annual meeting was held in Houston, Texas, January 14–17, 2019. With a 19% increase in the number of registrations (768 people), and the change in location, the third annual meeting was considered the most impactful of the three at the time. The new website provided a better platform for the dissemination of the content, the new venue as a meeting hotel instead of a conference center facilitated interactions and discussions after event hours, and the addition of an award-winning mobile event conference app (Whova) transformed dramatically the attendee experience at the event. This fourth annual meeting was held in Houston, Texas, February 3-7, 2020. This meeting had an increase in the number of attendees for a total of 824 people registered (782 attendees) and included numerous enhancements based on feedback and lessons learned from previous meetings, some of which are listed here: Improved quality of the sessions, their material and the whole program.; Had more industry participation and addition of external collaborators from overseas.; Published the full agenda earlier to better accommodate attendance and travel plans based on schedule.; Centralized all sessions in one venue.; Provided additional hotels and room blocks for the attendees.; Improved communication with the audience (links, material, directions, notifications, etc.) to go paperless.; Enhanced side meeting scheduling, management and user experience.; Made available additional space and tables for impromptu meetings and side discussions.; Improved IT and A/V solutions for speakers. In addition, our final survey captured the following points as opportunities for improvement in future meetings: consider a different meeting location that is more pedestrian friendly, reduce talks during working meals to allow more collaboration and informal time, adapt the agenda to acknowledge attendees from different timezones, consider recording some of the tutorials and/or sessions to share broadly with the HPC community, have a larger poster room, provide additional power strips, and improve the WiFi.
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
Modeling FLEX Human Actions Using the EMRALD Dynamic Risk Assessment Tool
Most current efforts have modified and applied existing human reliability analysis (HRA) methods to treat human actions related to beyond-design-basis external events in which diverse and flexible coping strategies (FLEX) equipment would be deployed. However, many questions remain regarding the suitability of legacy HRA methods to address FLEX human actions, sparking the need for a new method of reasonably evaluating them. In this context, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) researched a relatively new approach to treating FLEX human actions via Event Modeling Risk Assessment Using Linked Diagrams (EMRALD) software. EMRALD was developed to support the increasing need for dynamic probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) models that can respond to evolving plant conditions during simulations. A couple benefits were identified when analyzing FLEX human actions through this software. In general, it is especially useful for evaluating a strategy’s feasibility, including FLEX human actions that require a relatively long time to perform. In this paper, we suggest how FLEX human actions can be modeled using the EMRALD software. Two different HRA modeling approaches using EMRALD are introduced: (1) procedure-based modeling and (2) PRA/HRA-based modeling. The former approach was introduced in the authors’ previous paper, whereas this paper mainly discusses how the latter approach works for an extended loss of AC power (ELAP) scenario with relevant procedures and PRA models. A hybrid method combining the two modeling approaches is introduced at the paper’s conclusion.
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
Verification of the DIF3D Software to Support Fast Reactor Analysis (Rev. 3)
Ongoing design activities at Argonne National Laboratory are requiring a thorough verification of the Argonne Reactor Computation codes be performed. DIF3D is central to this system. The driver for this effort requires the 3D Cartesian, triangular-Z, and hexagonal-Z core geometry options of DIF3D be verified. Previous work identified the DIF3D features required to be verified to support current design activities, features of which are generally applicable to hexagonal-Z fast reactor designs. The scope of this verification effort includes verifying DIF3D’s ability to correctly translate the user’s model in to DIF3D’s preferred format, verifying that options planned for use have the desired effect, and verifying the correctness of the eigenvalue, fixed-source, forward, and adjoint solvers in DIF3D-FD and DIF3D-VARIANT. This manuscript provides the verification tasks and their results with respect to the features needed for current design activities. Since analytic solutions of the neutron diffusion and transport equations are either limited in scope or not possible, multiple tiers of problems unique to each solver and geometry type were implemented. Each of these tiers tests features independent and complementary arguments for why the separate testing of functionalities is acceptable. Finally, this separate testing was also supplemented with a high-level integral check of each the diffusion and transport capabilities and applicable geometries. To accommodate cases which an analytic solution is not feasible, MCNP6.2 was relied upon to provide a higher-order reference solution. This therefore required that the capabilities within MCNP6.2 which were relied upon for this work are also verified in this work. No MCNP discrepancies were noted in this effort. Note that the MCNP6.2 verification included in this work does not stand as a full verification of MCNP6.2, but merely verifies the features used in verifying DIF3D. The verification effort identified no issues that are debilitating or otherwise impactful to design usage of DIF3D, and thus DIF3D version 11.0, release 3012 is considered verified. As some additional changes have been made to the ARC software since this point all versions between release 3012 and 3266 can be considered verified as version 3253 was used for all updates in this revision. The types of issues that were identified were predominantly in the areas of: unclear documentation, software bugs which were inconsequential to final results, editing options which were ignored in favor of printing more information than requested, bugs in the outputs of intermediate results, or secondary output binary file information which was not present. While not a bug, this verification report also identified that the algorithm used to evaluate the peak fast flux in a nodal transport solution can be quite unreliable due to the methodology used and the location of the peak within the mesh. The authors of the report therefore recommend the usage of the EvaluateFlux software (distributed with ARC) as a more robust alternative noting that DIF3D will properly notify the user when the peaking values it is providing are potentially incorrect.
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
Toolpath considerations for hybrid additive manufacturing
Hybrid additive manufacturing combines both additive and subtractive manufacturing processes to fabricate geometrically complex, dimensionally accurate parts that are difficult to make using either additive or subtractive manufacturing alone. Industrial applications for hybrid additive manufacturing include direct manufacturing (building whole parts), feature addition (adding onto existing parts), and remanufacturing or repair operations. To coordinate the additive and subtractive processes, computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software must generate distinct toolpaths for each process. Each application requires different considerations and inputs when generating the toolpaths. For example, when building a part with an internal cavity that would otherwise be unmanufacturable due to reach or access limitations, a CAM must determine which layer(s) of deposition are appropriate to machine to create the internal cavity. This chapter explores the area of toolpath generation for hybrid manufacturing by discussing the necessary considerations that are unique to a hybrid process.
Feldhausen, Thomas↗
Emulation Framework for Distributed Large-Scale Systems Integration
Recent trends in systems engineering include integration of very large-scale systems, which entails significant challenges when they are geographically dispersed. In these scenarios, intelligent integration of distributed large-scale systems requires significant coordination among hardware elements as well as all software components. The approach of integrated systems (both computing platform and experimental equipment) for end-to-end orchestration is called federation. Virtual frameworks can aid in the testing, assessment, and implementation of a functional system of interconnected resources. We present an emulation framework that replicates the software environments of multi-site federations of computing systems and instruments. Our emulation framework allows systems engineers to reduce developmentcost and avoid disruptions to production infrastructure. Our framework was effectively used to develop and test software modules for various tasks including container orchestration and instrument access. For performance assessment, however, the emulated framework is severely limited in providing accurate network and IO measurements at 10 Gbps and higher data rates. The data transfer performance profiles estimated using these emulated measurements are usually inaccurate for high bandwidth and high latency connections, since emulation does not accurately reflect the critical network transport dynamics.We utilize measurements from a physical testbed with hardware network emulators to obtain data transfer profiles that closely match the expected profiles for the emulated federations. We show the effectiveness of our approach by an illustrative example of integrated (federated) multi-site ultra large-scale systems that are connected via high speed wide area networks.
Imam, Neena↗
Determining Levels of Detail for Simulators of Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems via Automated Calibration
There are two sources of inaccuracy when simulating parallel and distributed computing systems: (i) a simulator implemented at an insufficient level of detail; and (ii) incorrectly calibrated simulation parameter values. Increasing the simulator’s level of detail can improve accuracy, but at the cost of higher space, time, and/or software complexity. Furthermore, evaluating the intrinsic accuracy of a simulator requires that its parameters be well-calibrated. Making decisions regarding the level of detail is thus challenging. We propose a methodology for instantiating the simulation calibration process and a framework for automating this process, which makes it possible to pick appropriate levels of detail for any simulator. We demonstrate the usefulness of our approach via two case studies for two different domains.
McDonald, Jessie [University of Hawaii at Manoa, H↗
BlendPATH (Blending Pipeline Analysis Tool for Hydrogen) [SWR-24-10]
BlendPATH provides case-by-case techno-economic analysis for potential projects where hydrogen is blended into a natural gas transmission pipeline. BlendPATH estimates 1) the transmission pipeline modifications and operating conditions necessary to blend hydrogen to a user specified volume faction of hydrogen in pipeline gas and 2) the incremental capital and operating expenses to prepare said transmission pipeline for hydrogen blending. BlendPATH is developed in Python and requires SAInt, a underlying commercial natural gas pipeline network modeling software, to run. Pipeline modification and operation condition estimation is guided by ASME B31.12. The intent of this software is to target application for projects in the initial project assessment stage and provide the user with the capability of assess promising opportunities before the use proceeds with further detailed pipeline evaluation based on a probable economic outcome.
Kee, Jamie↗
Moving toward automated µFTIR spectra matching for microplastic identification: addressing false identifications and improving accuracy
Abstract Infrared spectroscopy is a widely used tool for studying microplastics and identifying microparticles. Researchers rely on spectral libraries to differentiate between synthetic and natural materials. Unfortunately, spectral library matching is not perfect, and best practices require researchers to use time consuming, manual peak matching to assess spectral matches. Moving toward automated matching requires increased confidence in the matching process. Using spectra matching software may increase the efficiency of particle identification, however some matching strategies may confuse natural materials such as cotton, silk, and plant matter with common classes of synthetics such as polyesters and polyamides. In this experiment, we prepared 22 pristine sample materials from natural and synthetic sources and measured micro-Fourier transform infrared (µFTIR) spectra in transmission mode for each sample using a Thermo Nicolet iN10 MX instrument. The collected spectra were then input into two spectral library matching systems (Omnic Picta and Open Specy), using a total of five identification routines. Next, we placed a subset of four pristine microplastic materials in a biologically active river system for two weeks to simulate environmental samples. These simulated environmental samples were processed using 10% hydrogen peroxide for 24 h to remove organic contamination and then identified using the strongest performing library. We found that libraries with fewer sample spectra produced lower correlation matches and that using derivative correction greatly reduced the number of inaccuracies in identifying materials as either natural or synthetic. We also found that environmental fouling reduced the correlation value of library matches when compared to pristine particles, however the effect was not consistent across the four materials tested. Overall, we found that the accuracy of automated library matching in the tested systems and processing routines varied from 64.1 to 98.0% for distinguishing between natural and synthetic materials, and that a high Hit Quality Index (HQI) did not always correlate with accuracy. These results are important for the microplastic field, demonstrating a need to rigorously test spectral libraries and processing routines with known materials to ensure identification accuracy.
Kozloski, Rachel↗
Soil Incubation, Methane Pool Dilution, Edgewater, MD, USA, July 2022 v1.0.1
Isotopic pool dilution is a powerful approach to quantify gross biogeochemical transformation rates, but remains seldom used despite its potential. To facilitate broader implementation of pool dilution methods, we developed a user-friendly R package that optimizes gross production and consumption rates (and optionally fractionation constants as well) based on standard pool dilution time series data. This data package is the soil methane pool dilution data and code for building and using this software, including source code (R) and raw data (.csv). This package features extensive documentation and example analyses, and is easily integrated into analytical pipelines as R software is free and open source. Operation of this package requires R version 2.10 or newer, and we recommend its use in conjunction with packages testthat (3.0.0), knitr, rmarkdown, ggploto2, tibble, and tidyr.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
UTrain Manual for Training Administrators
This Institutional Training Administrative Procedure provides the business rules that must be followed when working in UTrain. As commercial off-the-shelf software with customizations, UTrain cannot address all the implementation business requirements, and thus, administrative business rules and processes were defined and documented. Many business rules were incorporated into the UTrain training materials. UTrain is the Laboratory’s official learning management system. UTrain is the system of record for all Laboratory training, qualification, certification, and worker authorization. All training at LANL must be documented in UTrain. The detailed steps of how to operate UTrain are contained in the UTrain courses and training manuals and in the UTrain job aids, not in this document.
96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗
Ordovician-Cambrian Units: Hierarchical Evaluation of Geologic Carbon Storage Resource Estimates
The Indiana Geological and Water Survey (IGWS) led subtask 1.1 to assess the regional distribution and estimate the storage capacity of Ordovician-Cambrian stratigraphic units located within the partnership region. A comprehensive data set of wireline logs and petrophysical information was used to generate these interpretations. These data include core analysis for porosity and permeability, mercury injection capillary pressure (MICP), and existing well data including location and stratigraphic information. This report includes storage resource estimates (SREs) for three potential storage reservoirs(limestone and dolostone from the Upper Ordovician Trenton Limestone/Black River Group and equivalent units, the Middle Ordovician St. Peter Sandstone, and primary target reservoir rocks of the Lower Ordovician and Upper Cambrian Knox Supergroup and equivalent units) calculated using six methodologies: (1) a fixed value of porosity of 10 percent in all units evaluated; (2) a unique average porosity (per well) from wireline-derived porosity (neutron, sonic, and/or density porosity for each unit); (3) porosity values from core analysis; (4) a depth-dependent porosity model (Knox Supergroup only); (5) porosity based on a model based on petrophysical facies; and (6) SREs using National Energy Technology Laboratory’s CO2 Storage prospeCtive Resource Estimation Excel aNalysis (CO2-SCREEN beta V2). All methods used the same values for thickness for each unit. However, the areal extent of each assessment was limited by the data available for each method. Estimated volumes were calculated in 1-by-1 kilometer grid cells and summarized as county and total stratigraphic unit volumes. The resultant SREs mass are displayed using boxplots, which allow for comparing data statistics (mean values and variability) between methods. Differences observed in SRE results from the six methods are mainly attributable to differences in the data and conceptual models used to interpret or estimate porosity in each method. Based on this systematic variability between methods, it is inferred that methods 1, 4, and 6 are best used for regional-scale reconnaissance estimates of storage capacity while methods 2, 3, and 5 are more appropriate for local scales where more data is required. All estimates are data-density dependent and different methods require different amounts of data for reasonable assessments. ArcMap 10.5.1 software was used to portray SREs to help visualize spatial variance of estimates for each methodology, and more importantly, to highlight those areas having the greatest total storage potential estimates.
01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
Status of Error Correction Studies in Support of FFA@CEBAF
In this work, we examine the beam correction requirements for the FFA@CEBAF energy upgrade. Both hardware and software diagnostic and corrector components are under investigation; in particular the relationship between hardware and software optimization will be developed. To generate a representative sample of errors---from the machine lattice and other beam properties---we construct a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampler which considers different probability distributions for different types of errors. This sample is used to investigate the statistical sensitivity of the beam to various diagnostic and corrective schema. Once statistics are acquired, we plan to use a variety of optimization techniques to minimize correction time for the electron beam in the FFA arcs designed for the CEBAF upgrade.
Benesch, J.↗
A Targeted Sequencing Assay for Serotyping Escherichia coli Using AgriSeq Technology
The gold standard method for serotyping Escherichia coli has relied on antisera-based typing of the O- and H-antigens, which is labor intensive and often unreliable. In the post-genomic era, sequence-based assays are potentially faster to provide results, could combine O-serogrouping and H-typing in a single test, and could simultaneously screen for the presence of other genetic markers of interest such as virulence factors. Whole genome sequencing is one approach; however, this method has limited multiplexing capabilities, and only a small fraction of the sequence is informative for subtyping or identifying virulence potential. A targeted, sequence-based assay and accompanying software for data analysis would be a great improvement over the currently available methods for serotyping. The purpose of this study was to develop a high-throughput, molecular method for serotyping E. coli by sequencing the genes that are required for production of O- and H-antigens, as well as to develop software for data analysis and serotype identification. To expand the utility of the assay, targets for the virulence factors, Shiga toxins ( stx 1 , and stx 2 ) and intimin ( eae ) were included. To validate the assay, genomic DNA was extracted from O-serogroup and H-type standard strains and from Shiga toxin-producing E. coli , the targeted regions were amplified, and then sequencing libraries were prepared from the amplified products followed by sequencing of the libraries on the Ion S5™ sequencer. The resulting sequence files were analyzed via the SeroType Caller™ software for identification of O-serogroup, H-type, and presence of stx 1 , stx 2 , and eae . We successfully identified 169 O-serogroups and 41 H-types. The assay also routinely detected the presence of stx 1a,c,d (3 of 3 strains), stx 2c−e,g (8 of 8 strains), stx 2f (1 strain), and eae (6 of 6 strains). Taken together, the high-throughput, sequence-based method presented here is a reliable alternative to antisera-based serotyping methods for E. coli .
Elder, Jacob R.↗
Moore Machine Motion Controls Refurbishment Statement of Work and Specification
Diamond Turning Machines known as “Moore” machines are used in the production of Potassium diHydrogen Phosphate (KDP) optics required for the National Ignition Facility (NIF). These machines are owned by the Department of Energy, as provided by Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC (LLNS). Moore Machines 1 and 2 are located at the Gooch & Housego (G&H) facility in Highland Heights, OH. The existing Aerotech motion controllers, motor drivers/amplifiers, input/output (I/O) hardware, control computer, software user interface, human machine interface (HMI), cabling, and encoders are beyond service life and require replacement. This Statement of Work (SoW) defines the motion control system refurbishment requirements for the Moore diamond turning machines designated Moore 1 and Moore 2. The motion controls system design shall include a motion control computer, control software, motor drive amplifiers and controllers, linear scale encoders, rotary encoders, HMI, power distribution, emergency stop (E-Stop) and interlocks, cabling, switches, solenoids, transducers, sensors, actuators, ancillary system interfaces, and related components necessary for a complete machine tool control system. The Subcontractor shall include effort to standardize systems between the two machines if reasonably possible.
42 ENGINEERING↗
A Comprehensive Open-Source R Software For Statistical Metrology Calculations: From Uncertainty Evaluation To Risk Analysis
Whether calibrating equipment or inspecting products on the factory floor, metrology requires many complicated statistical calculations to achieve a full understanding and evaluation of measurement uncertainty and quality. In order to assist its workforce in performing these calculations in a consistent and rigorous way, the Primary Standards Lab at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has developed a free and open-source software package for computing various metrology calculations from uncertainty propagation to risk analysis. In addition to propagating uncertainty through a measurement model using the well-known Guide to Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement or Monte Carlo approaches, evaluating the individual Type A and Type B uncertainty components that go into the measurement model often requires other statistical methods such as analysis of variance or determining uncertainty in a fitted curve. Once the uncertainty in a measurement has been calculated, it is usually evaluated from a risk perspective to ensure the measurement is suitable for making a particular conformance decision. Finally, SNL’s software can perform all these calculations in a single application via an easy-to-use graphical interface, where the different functions are integrated so the results of one calculation can be used as inputs to another calculation.
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
Geospatial Data from the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment (ATWE) on Niwot Ridge, Colorado, USA
This is a collection of all GPS- and computer-generated geospatial data specific to the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment (ATWE), located on Niwot Ridge, Colorado, USA. The experiment ran between 2008 and 2016, and consisted of three sites spread across an elevation gradient. Geospatial data for all three experimental sites and cone/seed collection locations are included in this package. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Geospatial files include cone collection, experimental site, seed trap, and other GPS location/terrain data. File types include ESRI shapefiles, ESRI grid files or Arc/Info binary grids, TIFFs (.tif), and keyhole markup language (.kml) files. Trimble-imported data include plain text files (.txt), Trimble COR (CorelDRAW) files, and Trimble SSF (Standard Storage Format) files. Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) and comma-separated values (.csv) files corresponding to the attribute tables of many files within this package are also included. A complete list of files can be found in this document in the “Data File Organization” section in the included Data User's Guide. Maps are also included in this data package for reference and use. These maps are separated into two categories, 2021 maps and legacy maps, which were made in 2010. Each 2021 map has one copy in portable network graphics (.png) format, and the other in .pdf format. All legacy maps are in .pdf format. .png image files can be opened with any compatible programs, such as Preview (Mac OS) and Photos (Windows). All GIS files were imported into geopackages (.gpkg) using QGIS, and double-checked for compatibility and data/attribute integrity using ESRI ArcGIS Pro. Note that files packaged within geopackages will open in ArcGIS Pro with “main.” preceding each file name, and an extra column named “geom” defining geometry type in the attribute table. The contents of each geospatial file remain intact, unless otherwise stated in “niwot_geospatial_data_list_07012021.pdf/.xlsx”. This list of files can be found as an .xlsx and a .pdf in this archive.As an open-source file format, files within gpkgs (TIFF, shapefiles, ESRI grid or “Arc/Info Binary”) can be read using both QGIS and ArcGIS Pro, and any other geospatial softwares. Text and .csv files can be read using TextEdit/Notepad/any simple text-editing software; .csv’s can also be opened using Microsoft Excel and R. .kml files can be opened using Google Maps or Google Earth, and Trimble files are most compatible with Trimble’s GPS Pathfinder Office software. .xlsx files can be opened using Microsoft Excel. PDFs can be opened using Adobe Acrobat Reader, and any other compatible programs. A selection of original shapefiles within this archive were generated using ArcMap with associated FGDC-standardized metadata (xml file format). We are including these original files because they contain metadata only accessible using ESRI programs at this time, and so that the relationship between shapefiles and xml files is maintained. Individual xml files can be opened (without a GIS-specific program) using TextEdit or Notepad. Since ESRI’s compatibility with FGDC metadata has changed since the generation of these files, many shapefiles will require upgrading to be compatible with ESRI’s latest versions of geospatial software. These details are also noted in the “niwot_geospatial_data_list_07012021” file.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗