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At least 379 records · Page 21
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

CONSTRAINING STELLAR FEEDBACK: SHOCK-IONIZED GAS IN NEARBY STARBURST GALAXIES

We investigate the properties of feedback-driven shocks in eight nearby starburst galaxies using narrow-band imaging data from the Hubble Space Telescope. We identify the shock-ionized component via the line diagnostic diagram [O III] (λ5007)/Hβ versus [S II] (λλ6716, 6731) (or [N II] (λ6583))/Hα, applied to resolved regions 3-15 pc in size. We divide our sample into three sub-samples: sub-solar, solar, and super-solar, for consistent shock measurements. For the sub-solar sub-sample, we derive three scaling relations: (1) L{sub shock}∝SFR{sup 0.62}, (2) L{sub shock}∝Σ{sub SFR,{sub HL}} {sup 0.92}, and (3) L{sub shock}/L{sub tot}∝(L{sub H} /L{sub ☉,{sub H}}){sup –0.65}, where L{sub shock} is the Hα luminosity from shock-ionized gas, Σ{sub SFR,{sub HL}} the star formation rate (SFR) per unit half-light area, L{sub tot} the total Hα luminosity, and L{sub H} /L{sub ☉,{sub H}} the absolute H-band luminosity from the Two Micron All Sky Survey normalized to solar luminosity. The other two sub-samples do not have enough number statistics, but appear to follow the first scaling relation. The energy recovered indicates that the shocks from stellar feedback in our sample galaxies are fully radiative. If the scaling relations are applicable in general to stellar feedback, our results are similar to those by Hopkins et al. for galactic superwinds. This similarity should, however, be taken with caution at this point, as the underlying physics that enables the transition from radiative shocks to gas outflows in galaxies is still poorly understood.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

A VERY DEEP CHANDRA OBSERVATION OF THE GALAXY GROUP NGC 5813: AGN SHOCKS, FEEDBACK, AND OUTBURST HISTORY

We present results from a very deep (650 ks) Chandra X-ray observation of the galaxy group NGC 5813, the deepest Chandra observation of a galaxy group to date. This system uniquely shows three pairs of collinear cavities, with each pair associated with an unambiguous active galactic nucleus (AGN) outburst shock front. The implied mean kinetic power is roughly the same for each outburst, demonstrating that the average AGN kinetic luminosity can remain stable over long timescales (∼50 Myr). The two older outbursts have larger, roughly equal total energies as compared with the youngest outburst, implying that the youngest outburst is ongoing. We find that the gas radiative cooling rate and mean shock heating rate are well balanced at each shock front, suggesting that shock heating alone is sufficient to offset cooling and establish AGN/intracluster medium (ICM) feedback within at least the central 30 kpc. This heating takes place roughly isotropically and most strongly at small radii, as is required for feedback to operate. We suggest that shock heating may play a significant role in AGN feedback at smaller radii in other systems, where weak shocks are more difficult to detect. We find non-zero shock front widths that are too large to be explained by particle diffusion. Instead, all measured widths are consistent with shock broadening due to propagation through a turbulent ICM with a mean turbulent speed of ∼70 km s{sup −1}. Finally, we place lower limits on the temperature of any volume-filling thermal gas within the cavities that would balance the internal cavity pressure with the external ICM.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

THREE-DIMENSIONAL MHD MAGNETIC RECONNECTION SIMULATIONS WITH A FINITE GUIDE FIELD: PROPOSAL OF THE SHOCK-EVOKING POSITIVE-FEEDBACK MODEL

Using a three-dimensional (3D) magnetohydrodynamic model, we simulate the magnetic reconnection in a single current sheet. We assume a finite guide field, a random perturbation on the velocity field, and uniform resistivity. Our model enhances the reconnection rate relative to the classical Sweet–Parker model in the same configuration. The efficiency of magnetic energy conversion is increased by interactions between the multiple tearing layers coexisting in the global current sheet. This interaction, which forms a positive-feedback system, arises from coupling of the inflow and outflow regions in different layers across the current sheet. The coupling accelerates the elementary reconnection events, thereby enhancing the global reconnection rate. The reconnection establishes flux tubes along each tearing layer. Slow-mode shocks gradually form along the outer boundaries of these tubes, further accelerating the magnetic energy conversion. Such a positive-feedback system is absent in two-dimensional simulations, 3D reconnection without a guide field, and reconnection under a single perturbation mode. We refer to our model as the “shock-evoking positive-feedback” model.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

BLACK HOLE FORAGING: FEEDBACK DRIVES FEEDING

We suggest a new picture of supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth in galaxy centers. Momentum-driven feedback from an accreting hole gives significant orbital energy, but little angular momentum to the surrounding gas. Once central accretion drops, the feedback weakens and swept-up gas falls back toward the SMBH on near-parabolic orbits. These intersect near the black hole with partially opposed specific angular momenta, causing further infall and ultimately the formation of a small-scale accretion disk. The feeding rates into the disk typically exceed Eddington by factors of a few, growing the hole on the Salpeter timescale and stimulating further feedback. Natural consequences of this picture include (1) the formation and maintenance of a roughly toroidal distribution of obscuring matter near the hole; (2) random orientations of successive accretion disk episodes; (3) the possibility of rapid SMBH growth; (4) tidal disruption of stars and close binaries formed from infalling gas, resulting in visible flares and ejection of hypervelocity stars; (5) super-solar abundances of the matter accreting on to the SMBH; and (6) a lower central dark-matter density, and hence annihilation signal, than adiabatic SMBH growth implies. We also suggest a simple subgrid recipe for implementing this process in numerical simulations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Computation-Efficient Algorithm for Distributed Feedback Optimization of Distribution Grids

Feedback-based optimization algorithms use real-time measurements to update the optimal control for the underlying system which may not be fully identified. Recently, we have developed a distributed feedback-based algorithm [1] that avoids the requirement of fast communication between central computing and local actuator/sensor agents. This paper extends the work by greatly reducing the number of copies of variables involved in the distributed feedback-based algorithm, which results in faster convergence and lower communication requirement. The main idea is to leverage the specific structural properties of the admittance matrix for distribution systems with tree network topology. We also show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in simulations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Microbially mediated climate feedbacks from wetland ecosystems

Wetlands are crucial nodes in the carbon cycle, emitting approximately 20% of global CH4 while also sequestering 20%–30% of all soil carbon. Both greenhouse gas fluxes and carbon storage are driven by microbial communities in wetland soils. However, these key players are often overlooked or overly simplified in current global climate models. Here, we first integrate microbial metabolisms with biological, chemical, and physical processes occurring at scales from individual microbial cells to ecosystems. This conceptual scale-bridging framework guides the development of feedback loops describing how wetland-specific climate impacts (i.e., sea level rise in estuarine wetlands, droughts and floods in inland wetlands) will affect future climate trajectories. Furthermore, these feedback loops highlight knowledge gaps that need to be addressed to develop predictive models of future climates capturing microbial contributions. We propose a roadmap connecting environmental scientific disciplines to address these knowledge gaps and improve the representation of microbial processes in climate models. Together, this paves the way to understand how microbially mediated climate feedbacks from wetlands will impact future climate change.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

SU-E-J-196: Implementation of An In-House Visual Feedback System for Motion Management During Radiation Therapy

Purpose: To describe an in-house video goggle feedback system for motion management during simulation and treatment of radiation therapy patients. Methods: This video goggle system works by splitting and amplifying the video output signal directly from the Varian Real-Time Position Management (RPM) workstation or TrueBeam imaging workstation into two signals using a Distribution Amplifier. The first signal S[1] gets reconnected back to the monitor. The second signal S[2] gets connected to the input of a Video Scaler. The S[2] signal can be scaled, cropped and panned in real time to display only the relevant information to the patient. The output signal from the Video Scaler gets connected to an HDMI Extender Transmitter via a DVI-D to HDMI converter cable. The S[2] signal can be transported from the HDMI Extender Transmitter to the HDMI Extender Receiver located inside the treatment room via a Cat5e/6 cable. Inside the treatment room, the HDMI Extender Receiver is permanently mounted on the wall near the conduit where the Cat5e/6 cable is located. An HDMI cable is used to connect from the output of the HDMI Receiver to the video goggles. Results: This video goggle feedback system is currently being used at two institutions. At one institution, the system was just recently implemented for simulation and treatments on two breath-hold gated patients with 8+ total fractions over a two month period. At the other institution, the system was used to treat 100+ breath-hold gated patients on three Varian TrueBeam linacs and has been operational for twelve months. The average time to prepare the video goggle system for treatment is less than 1 minute. Conclusion: The video goggle system provides an efficient and reliable method to set up a video feedback signal for radiotherapy patients with motion management.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Feasibility of a feedback control of atomic self-organization in an optical cavity

Many interesting nonlinear effects are based on the strong interaction of motional degrees of freedom of atoms with an optical cavity field. Among them is the spatial self-organization of atoms in a pattern where the atoms group in either odd or even sites of the cavity-induced optical potential. An experimental observation of this effect can be simplified by using, along with the original cavity-induced feedback, an additional electronic feedback based on the detection of light leaking the cavity and the control of the optical potential for the atoms. Following our previous study, we show that this approach is more efficient from the laser power perspective than the original scheme without the electronic feedback.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Barotropic and Baroclinic Eddy Feedbacks in the Midlatitude Jet Variability and Responses to Climate Change–Like Thermal Forcings

Abstract Studies have suggested that the persistence in the meridional vacillation of the midlatitude jet (i.e., annular mode time scale) in comprehensive climate models is related to the model biases in climatological jet latitude, with important implications for projections of future climates and midlatitude weather events. Through the use of the recently developed finite-amplitude wave activity formalism and feedback quantifying techniques, this paper has quantified the role of barotropic and baroclinic eddy feedbacks in annular mode time scales using an idealized dry atmospheric model. The eddy–mean flow interaction that characterizes the persistent anomalous state of the midlatitude jet depends on processes associated with the lower-tropospheric source of vertically propagating Rossby waves, baroclinic mechanisms, and processes associated with upper-tropospheric wave propagation and breaking, barotropic mechanisms. A variety of climate change–like thermal forcings are used to generate a range of meridional shifts in the midlatitude eddy-driven jet. The idealized model shows a reduction in annular mode time scale associated with an increase in jet latitude, similar to comprehensive climate models. This decrease in time scale can be attributed to a similar decrease in the strength of the barotropic eddy feedback, which, in the positive phase of the annular mode, is characterized by anomalous potential vorticity (PV) mixing on the equatorward flank of the climatological jet. The decrease in subtropical PV mixing is, in turn, associated with a stronger subtropical jet as the eddy-driven jet is more distant from the subtropics. These results highlight the importance of subtropical eddy–mean flow interactions for the persistence of an eddy-driven jet.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Extratropical Cloud Feedback Constrained by Cloud Sources and Sinks in Cyclones

Constraining cloud feedback in global climate models (GCMs) using observations is important for establishing accurate predictions of future climate. Uncertainty in shortwave cloud feedback (SW FB ) dominates uncertainty in total cloud feedback. Recent studies show a shift toward more positive extratropical SW FB in the latest generations of GCMs leading to the emergence of very high equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS). In this study, we use precipitation efficiency and albedo susceptibility to constrain liquid water path (LWP) response to warming and SW FB in the Southern Ocean (SO; 50°–80°S). We analyze precipitation in extratropical cyclones (ECs) to learn about extratropical condensed water sink processes, combined with observations of clouds and moisture convergence, and use the analysis to better understand and constrain SW FB . We utilize a perturbed parameter ensemble (PPE) hosted in the Community Atmosphere Model, version 6 (CAM6), to provide a constraint on SW FB based on observations from Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) and Multisensor Advanced Climatology of LWP (MAC-LWP). We apply Gaussian process regression to emulate the model response to all parameters perturbed in the PPE. Confronting the emulator output with observations provides a new estimated response of Earth to global warming. Furthermore, our new estimates of SO LWP reduce the PPE range by 66%–72%, which results in a shortwave cloud radiative effect estimated range that is 27%–34% less than the PPE range. Observations suggest a more positive SO SW FB than the Community Earth System Model, version 2 (CESM2), and consequently do not reject the high climate sensitivity GCMs emerging from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6).

Atmosphere↗
DOE OSTI2020

Predicting Plant-Soil Feedback in the Field: Meta-Analysis Reveals That Competition and Environmental Stress Differentially Influence PSF

Past research on plant-soil feedbacks (PSF), largely undertaken in highly controlled greenhouse conditions, has established that plant species differentially alter abiotic and biotic soil conditions that in turn affect growth of other conspecific and heterospecific individuals in that soil. Yet, whether feedbacks under controlled greenhouse conditions reflect feedbacks in natural environments where plants are exposed to a range of abiotic and biotic pressures is still unresolved. To address how environmental context affects PSF, we conducted a meta-analysis of previously published studies that examined plant growth responses to multiple forms of competition, stress, and disturbance across various PSF methodology. We asked the following questions: (1) Can competition, stress, and disturbance alter the direction and/or strength of PSF? (2) Do particular types of competition, stress, or disturbance affect the direction and/or strength of PSF more than others? and (3) Do methods of conducting PSF research (i.e., greenhouse vs. field experiments and whether the source of soil inoculum conditioning is from the field vs. greenhouse) affect plant growth responses to PSF or competition, stress, and disturbance, or their interactions? We discovered four patterns that may be predictive of what future PSF studies conducted under more realistic conditions might reveal. First, relatively little is known about how PSF responds to environmental stress and disturbance compared to plant-plant competition. Second, specific types of competition enhanced negative effects of soil microbes on plant growth, and specific environmental stressors enhanced positive effects of soil microbes on plant growth. Third, whether PSF experiments are conducted in the field or greenhouse can change plant growth responses. And, fourth, how the soil conditioning phase is conducted can change plant growth responses. With more detail than previously shown, these results confirm that environmental context writ large can change plant growth responses in PSF experiments. These data should aid theory and predictions for conservation and restoration applications by showing the relative importance of competition, stress, and disturbance in PSF studies over time. Lastly, these data demonstrate how variation in experimental methods can alter interpretation and conclusions of PSF studies.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

AN EXPLORATION OF THE STATISTICAL SIGNATURES OF STELLAR FEEDBACK

All molecular clouds are observed to be turbulent, but the origin, means of sustenance, and evolution of the turbulence remain debated. One possibility is that stellar feedback injects enough energy into the cloud to drive observed motions on parsec scales. Recent numerical studies of molecular clouds have found that feedback from stars, such as protostellar outflows and winds, injects energy and impacts turbulence. We expand upon these studies by analyzing magnetohydrodynamic simulations of molecular clouds, including stellar winds, with a range of stellar mass-loss rates and magnetic field strengths. We generate synthetic {sup 12}CO(1–0) maps assuming that the simulations are at the distance of the nearby Perseus molecular cloud. By comparing the outputs from different initial conditions and evolutionary times, we identify differences in the synthetic observations and characterize these using common astrostatistics. We quantify the different statistical responses using a variety of metrics proposed in the literature. We find that multiple astrostatistics, including the principal component analysis, the spectral correlation function, and the velocity coordinate spectrum (VCS), are sensitive to changes in stellar mass-loss rates and/or time evolution. A few statistics, including the Cramer statistic and VCS, are sensitive to the magnetic field strength. These findings demonstrate that stellar feedback influences molecular cloud turbulence and can be identified and quantified observationally using such statistics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

When the Jeans Do Not Fit: How Stellar Feedback Drives Stellar Kinematics and Complicates Dynamical Modeling in Low-mass Galaxies

In low-mass galaxies, stellar feedback can drive gas outflows that generate non-equilibrium fluctuations in the gravitational potential. Using cosmological zoom-in baryonic simulations from the Feedback in Realistic Environments project, we investigate how these fluctuations affect stellar kinematics and the reliability of Jeans dynamical modeling in low-mass galaxies. We find that stellar velocity dispersion and anisotropy profiles fluctuate significantly over the course of galaxies’ starburst cycles. We therefore predict an observable correlation between star formation rate and stellar kinematics: dwarf galaxies with higher recent star formation rates should have systemically higher stellar velocity dispersions. This prediction provides an observational test of the role of stellar feedback in regulating both stellar and dark-matter densities in dwarf galaxies. We find that Jeans modeling, which treats galaxies as virialized systems in dynamical equilibrium, overestimates a galaxy’s dynamical mass during periods of post-starburst gas outflow and underestimates it during periods of net inflow. Short-timescale potential fluctuations lead to typical errors of ∼20% in dynamical mass estimates, even if full three-dimensional stellar kinematics—including the orbital anisotropy—are known exactly. When orbital anisotropy is not known a priori, typical mass errors arising from non-equilibrium fluctuations in the potential are larger than those arising from the mass-anisotropy degeneracy. However, Jeans modeling alone cannot reliably constrain the orbital anisotropy, and problematically, it often favors anisotropy models that do not reflect the true profile. If galaxies completely lose their gas and cease forming stars, fluctuations in the potential subside, and Jeans modeling becomes much more reliable.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Radiative Heating in the Kinetic Mode of AGN Feedback

AGN feedback is now widely believed to play a crucial role in the co-evolution between the central black hole and its host galaxy. Two feedback modes have been identified, namely the radiative and kinetic modes, which correspond to the luminous AGNs and low-luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs), respectively. In this paper, we investigate the radiative heating in the kinetic mode. This process is potentially important because (1) the radiation power of LLAGNs is higher than the jet power over a wide parameter range, (2) the spectral energy distribution of LLAGNs is such that the radiative heating is more effective compared to that of luminous AGNs with the same luminosity, and (3) most of the time in the lifecycle of an AGN is spent in the LLAGNs phase. In this paper, adopting the characteristic broadband spectral energy distributions of LLAGNs, we calculate the value of “Compton temperature” (T{sub C}), which determines the radiative heating by Compton scattering. We find that T{sub C}∼(5--15)×10{sup 7} K, depending on the spectrum of individual LLAGNs and at which distance from the black hole we evaluate the heating. We also compare this heating process with other radiative heating and cooling processes such as photoionization/recombination. Our result can be used for an accurate calculation of the radiative heating in the study of AGN feedback.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2022

Cloud-radiation Interactions and Cloud-climate Feedbacks from an Active-sensor Satellite Perspective

Clouds are ubiquitous in the troposphere. Their interactions with radiation may result in either a warming or a cooling of the Earth system and generate diverse climate feedbacks. The vertical structure of the radiative effects of clouds as well as the response of clouds to global warming (i.e., the cloud feedbacks) are inadequately constrained within the diversity of current climate models, which limits our ability to project the magnitude of future warming. In this chapter we show how relatively recent active-sensor spaceborne observations have narrowed constraints on cloud feedbacks. The value added beyond what can be retrieved from passive sensors is only just beginning to be exploited.

Cloud radiation↗
DOE OSTI2018

Land-Atmosphere Feedback Experiment Field Campaign Report

The Land-Atmosphere Feedback Experiment (LAFE; pronounced “la-fey”) deployed several state-of-the-art scanning lidar and remote-sensing systems to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. These instruments augmented the ARM instrument suite and collected a data set for studying feedback processes between the land surface and the atmosphere. The novel synergy of remote-sensing systems was applied for simultaneous measurements of land surface fluxes and horizontal and vertical transport processes in the atmospheric convective boundary layer (CBL) (Wulfmeyer et al. 2018). The impact of spatial inhomogeneities of the soil-vegetation continuum on land-atmosphere (L-A) feedback was studied using the scanning capability of the instrumentation. The time period of the observations was August 2017, as large differences in surface fluxes between different fields and bare soil were expected, e.g., pastures versus fields where the wheat has already been harvested. The LAFE strategy involved sampling the surface fluxes over different types of surfaces, and thus the in situ energy balance closure (EBC) stations were placed in fields with different plant covers (e.g., soy bean plants, native grasses, etc.).

Southern Great Plains, convective boundary layer, ↗
DOE OSTI2016

New observational evidence for a positive cloud feedback that amplifies the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation

Abstract The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) affects climate variability in the North Atlantic basin and adjacent continents with potential societal impacts. Previous studies based on model simulations and short‐term satellite retrievals hypothesized an important role for cloud radiative forcing in modulating the persistence of the AMO in the tropics, but this mechanism remains to be tested with long‐term observational records. Here we analyze data sets that span multiple decades and present new observational evidence for a positive feedback between total cloud amount, sea surface temperature (SST), and atmospheric circulation that can strengthen the persistence and amplitude of the tropical branch of the AMO. In addition, we estimate cloud amount feedback from observations and quantify its impact on SST with idealized modeling experiments. From these experiments we conclude that cloud feedbacks can account for 10% to 31% of the observed SST anomalies associated with the AMO over the tropics.

Bellomo, Katinka↗
DOE OSTI2016

Gregarious convection and radiative feedbacks in idealized worlds

Abstract What role does convection play in cloud feedbacks? What role does convective aggregation play in climate? A flurry of recent studies explores “self‐aggregation” of moist convection in diverse simulations using explicit convection and interactive radiation. The implications involve upper level dry areas acting as infrared windows—the climate system's “radiator fins.” A positive feedback maintains these: dry columns undergo radiative cooling which drives descent and further drying. If the resulting clumpiness of vapor and cloud fields depends systematically on global temperature, then convective organization could be a climate system feedback. How reconcilable and how relevant are these interesting but idealized studies?

Mapes, B. E.↗