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At least 379 records · Page 21

Description of the Three-Dimensional Large-Scale Forcing Data from the 3D Constrained Variational Analysis (VARANAL3D)

This technical report introduces a Three-Dimensional Constrained Variational Analysis (3DCVA) (Tang and Zhang 2015) and its product of three-dimensional large-scale forcing data to drive single-column models (SCM), cloud-resolving models (CRM), and large-eddy simulation (LES) models, and to evaluate model results. The 3DCVA algorithm is an extension of the original 1D constrained variational analysis (1DCVA) (Zhang and Lin 1997, Zhang et al. 2001). The three-dimensional structure of the forcing data allows studies of spatial variation of the large-scale forcing fields and tests of physical parameterizations across scales. In the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility, the 3D forcing data are assigned the datastream name varanal3d. In this technical report, 3DCVA will be used to refer to the algorithm, while VARANAL3D will be used to refer to the data product.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor (ACSM) Composition-Dependent Collection Efficiency (CDCE) Value-Added Product Report

Aerosol particles influence the Earth’s radiation balance directly by absorbing and scattering light and indirectly by influencing cloud formation, properties, and lifetimes. Measurements of aerosol particle optical properties, mass loading, size distributions, microphysical properties, cloud formation properties, and chemical composition are important for understanding the aerosol life cycle and for validating earth system models that predict these quantities. The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s Aerosol Observing System (AOS) is a highly instrumented platform that measures many of these aerosol properties in situ. The Aerodyne aerosol chemical speciation monitor (ACSM) is a baseline instrument deployed in the AOS. The ACSM provides a quantitative measurement of aerosol particle chemical composition for non-refractory (operationally defined as components that evaporate on the 600ºC vaporizer) aerosol components in real time. Standard output is the mass concentration of particulate organics, nitrate, sulfate, chloride, and ammonium. One well-known limitation to the accuracy of the ACSM data is in evaluating the fraction of the ambient aerosol particles that are detected by the instrument. This quantity is referred to as the collection efficiency (CE) and is often less than unity. This is attributed to particles rebounding after impaction onto the heated vaporizer rather than being trapped, volatilized rapidly, and detected. Other factors, such as divergence of the aerosol particle beam, may also impact CE, but the particle rebound effect is the dominant factor. Scientists will sometimes assume CE = 0.5 (i.e., one half of sampled particles are detected) for ambient particles collected during field missions. However, parameterizations have been developed that express CE as a function of the measured chemical composition, referred to as the composition-dependent collection efficiency (CDCE). The physical explanation for a CDCE, supported by laboratory studies, is that rebound from the vaporizer is a function of the particle phase, with liquid-like particles “sticking” to the vaporizer and solid-like or crystalline particles “bouncing” from the vaporizer. Thus, particles with compositions are liquids-like under the measurement conditions (e.g., certain organics, acidic particles, particles enriched in nitrate) have CE close to unity while crystalline or solid particles (e.g., deliquesced ammonium sulfate) have lower CE. This value-added product (VAP) implements the procedure described by Middlebrook et al. (2012) to correct the ACSM data for the composition-dependent collection efficiency. Applying this parameterization improves the accuracy of the ACSM data and brings them into better agreement with other co-located aerosol measurements.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Rapid Simulation of Irradiation Damage in PWR Internals (NSUF 2019 Milestone Report)

This document summarizes the progress made by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in collaboration with the University of Michigan on “Rapid Simulation of Irradiation Damage in PWR Internals,” a research project led by the University of Michigan and supported by US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy Nuclear Science User Facilities Consolidated Innovative Nuclear Research program. In this reporting period, samples that were exposed to combined neutron and ion irradiation were prepared and shipped to the University of Michigan for further analysis. This report summarizes the specimen preparation performed at ORNL’s Low Activation Materials Development and Analysis facility. The benchmarking work of microstructural characterization on reactor-irradiated samples with different dose levels was completed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Cloud Droplet Measurement System for the ARM Tethered Balloon System (TBS) Field Campaign Report

The Mesa Photonics' cloud droplet measurement system (CDMS) performs in situ measurement of droplet size distribution and droplet number density in clouds. These characteristics are important cloud microphysical properties that are critical input parameters for atmospheric models and are also useful for proper calibration and validation of performance of other atmospheric measurement instrumentation. This small campaign was the first project (out of two) that involved integration of the CDMS into the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s tethered balloon system (TBS) and its initial testing at the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) atmospheric observatory. The follow-up campaign (AFC07016) involved testing of the CDMS under relevant conditions at the third ARM Mobile Facility (AMF3) at Oliktok Point, Alaska and making in situ measurements in clouds. The goal of this small field campaign was to deploy the CDMS on the ARM TBS, demonstrate its integrity and compatibility with the TBS, and test the wireless telecommunication system in preparation for subsequent in-cloud measurements at ARM’s North Slope of Alaska (NSA) observatory at Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow). The specific technical objectives included: (1) Integration of the Mesa Photonics' CDMS into the ARM TBS, (2) testing of the wireless telecommunication system of the CDMS, (3) evaluating the data acquisition software and image processing algorithms especially under high-background-illumination conditions, and (4) testing the ruggedness of the instrument's optical alignment and other performance characteristics. All objectives have been successfully met. The mounting hardware was designed and built mostly at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), which allowed reliable mounting of the CDMS on the TBS and co-locating the CDMS with other instruments. The field tests were performed by the principal investigator (PI) in collaboration with the TBS operational crew led by D. Dexheimer. The field testing demonstrated good compatibility of the CDMS with the TBS. During the TBS flights, the crew did not experience any operational issues with the CDMS. The instrument demonstrated reliable operational characteristics, including sufficient battery life and good thermal management. The wireless telecommunication system has been successfully tested at TBS flight altitudes of up to 1000 m. During all flights, the CDMS raw data were wirelessly transmitted to the ground station and processed in real time. The ruggedness of the instrument's optical alignment was evaluated by performing calibration of the CDMS (using Mesa Photonics' fixed-size monodisperse droplet generator) before and after the campaign. The calibration was stable within the instrument's measurement precision. In summary, the campaign demonstrated good compatibility of the Mesa Photonics' CDMS with the ARM TBS. The flight tests confirmed the mechanical integrity of the CDMS and stability of its optical layout, as well as reliability of the wireless telecommunication system. Successful completion of this campaign provided a solid basis for the next campaign (AFC07016, November 2020), that involved testing of the CDMS during in-cloud TBS flights at AMF3 at Oliktok Point.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Cloud Condensation Nuclei Hygroscopicity Value-Added Product Report

The purpose of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s cloud condensation nuclei hygroscopicity parameter (AOSCCNSMPSKAPPA) value-added product (VAP) is to calculate the hygroscopicity parameter, kappa, to quantify the ability of aerosols to activate into cloud water droplets. The hygroscopicity parameter is often used to model the cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity of atmospheric aerosols of different sizes and compositions, providing additional insight on the influence of aerosols on climate. Laboratory experiments show that the kappa values for highly hygroscopic aerosols, such as salts and sulfates, vary from 0.5 to 1.4 (Petters and Kreidenweis 2007). For organic compounds they are observed to vary between 0.01 and 0.5. For non-hygroscopic aerosols, such as soot, kappa values are very close to zero. Ambient aerosols are complex mixtures of organic and inorganic compounds and previous observations indicate that kappa values typically vary from 0.05 to 0.9 (Petters and Kreidenweis 2007).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Next-Generation Video Ice Particle Sampler Field Campaign Report

The next-generation video ice particle sampler (ngVIPS) was operated on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s tethered balloon system (TBS) during the IFFExO (Ice Fog Field Experiment at Oliktok Point) project in November, 2020. The purpose of the project was to study ice fog microphysics and the environmental conditions during ice fog to enable better predictions during low-visibility conditions. This project was conducted at the site of the third ARM Mobile Facility (AMF3) at Oliktok Point, Alaska. Among a suite of other instruments, the ngVIPS was operated to observe atmospheric ice particles.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Analysis of Three Types of Collocated Disdrometer Measurements at the ARM Southern Great Plains Observatory

To better provide U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s disdrometer deployment strategy and support ARM precipitation-related projects, this study analyzes 18 months of drop size distribution (DSD) observations from six collocated disdrometers deployed at the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. Emphasis is placed on quantifying the uncertainties related to DSD and rainfall properties using different types of disdrometers and different pairing concepts. The instrument sampling errors are also discussed, which improves our understanding of instrument-specific impacts on rainfall measurements. The key findings are as follows: 1) All the disdrometers show consistent behaviors overall regarding accumulated precipitation, mean rainfall rate, DSD parameters, and radar reflectivity values; and 2) Strong agreement is shown between three disdrometer types in terms of their DSDs for mid-size drop range (D = 1 mm-4 mm). The two-dimensional video disdrometer performance meets expectations as the most accurate unit among all. The paired disdrometer shows a reduced statistical sampling error in terms of drop counts and other DSD properties. A concept of deploying two or more collocated disdrometers side by side is recommended for future ARM field campaigns.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Examining the Ice Nucleating Particles from Southern Great Plains Part II (ExINP-SGP). Field Campaign Report

Knowledge of airborne particulate matter (PM), especially the particles that have supermicron diameters, is key for understanding ice-nucleating particles (INPs). Supported by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility, recent INP measurements at the Southern Great Plains observatory (SGP; 36'' 36' 18→ N, 97° 29' 6'' W) during multiple campaigns, such as SINCE-2014 (DeMott et al. 2015), Examining the Ice-Nucleating Particles from SGP (ExINP-2019; Hiranuma and Vepuri 2020), and Aerosol-Ice Formation Closure Pilot Study (AEROICESTUDY; Knopf et al. 2021a), strongly suggested the contribution of supermicron aerosol particles to observed INP abundance at SGP. However, verification of this hypothesis was hampered since additional offline laboratory analyses require sufficient amounts of collected airborne PM, which was lacking. Therefore, the principal investigators (PIs) conducted a field campaign, named ExINP-SGP II, to collect airborne PM at SGP for complementary laboratory characterization of the particles’ physicochemical properties (including ice nucleation properties). We used a passive particle sampler, which is a 4’ x 4’ x 2” (L x W x D) aluminum pan inside the 12”-high wooden windshield wall at the rooftop deck of the ARM Aerosol Observing System (AOS) trailer to collect dry PM deposits from January to April 2021. Figure 1 shows images of our experimental setup at the site. Additionally, we also collected surface soil near the ARM AOS trailer on 20 November 2020 (Figure 1b) to examine the ground soil dust particles (< 63 µm sieved) for their propensities to initiate immersion freezing compared to collected ambient PM. Surface soil and airborne samples were stored in the chemically inert container separately and kept in a dry, cool place until analyzed.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

The Science of Scientific Software Development and Use

Increasingly powerful and affordable computing has revolutionized scientific and scholarly discovery across a broad range of fields. Computing relies on software, which has been rapidly growing in scope, diversity, and complexity. At the same time, the methods, processes, and tools used to produce and utilize this essential software are often ad hoc, and the study and improvement of them is often done without the benefit of direct funding or prioritization. Consequently, concerns are growing about the productivity of the developers and users of scientific software, its sustainability, and the trustworthiness of the results that it produces. The US Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) is at the forefront of modern software-enabled scientific discovery across numerous areas of computational, experimental, and observational science, including major investments in national user facilities that support these activities. In December 2021, the DOE-SC Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) convened a workshop on basic research needs for the Science of Scientific Software Development and Use (SSSDU). Through keynote presentations, lightning talks, and breakout groups, participants discussed the current practice of software development, maintenance, evolution, and use, and considered how the scientific method could be used to examine these practices and develop more evidence-based approaches to enhance the impact of software and computing on all areas of science. Workshop participants identified three priority research directions (PRDs) and three important crosscutting themes that center on the following overarching insight: software has become an essential part of modern science that impacts new discovery, policy, and technological development. To have full confidence in science delivered via software, we must improve the processes and tools that help us create and use it, and this enhancement requires a deep understanding of the diverse array of teams and individuals doing the work. The full workshop report will be available at https://doi.org/10.2172/1846009.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Basic Research Needs in The Science of Scientific Software Development and Use: Investment in Software is Investment in Science

Increasingly powerful and affordable computing has revolutionized scientific and scholarly discovery across a broad range of fields. Computing relies on software, which has been rapidly growing in scope, diversity, and complexity. At the same time, the methods, processes, and tools used to produce and utilize this essential software are often ad hoc, and the study and improvement of them are often done without the benefit of direct funding or prioritization. Consequently, concerns are growing about the productivity of the developers and users of scientific software, its sustainability, and the trustworthiness of the results that it produces. Increased investment, especially in the characterization and improvement of how scientific software is developed and used, is important for sustaining and improving the impact of software as the scope and complexity of scientific efforts expand. Without this investment, we face the risk of diminishing returns on our software investments because the demands for increased functionality, usability, reliability, and more will not be sufficiently met. The US Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE/SC) is at the forefront of modern software-enabled scientific discovery across numerous areas of computational, experimental, and observational science, including major investments in national user facilities that support these activities. For many years, DOE/SC software investments have provided tremendous value to the scientific community. We want to continue and further improve the value of DOE/SC software efforts by using a scientific approach to understanding and improving how scientific software is developed and used. In December 2021, the DOE/SC Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) convened a workshop on basic research needs for the Science of Scientific-Software Development and Use (SSSDU). Through keynote presentations, lightning talks, and breakout groups, which built on insights from 124 pre-workshop position papers, participants discussed the current practice of software development, maintenance, evolution, and use, and considered how the scientific method could be used to examine these practices and develop more evidence-based approaches to enhance the impact of software and computing on all areas of science. Workshop participants identified three priority research directions (PRDs) and three important crosscutting themes that center on the following overarching insight: Software has become an essential part of modern science, impacting discoveries, policy, and technological development. To maintain and improve confidence in science delivered via software, we must improve the processes and tools that help us create and use software, and this enhancement requires a deep understanding of the diverse array of teams and individuals doing the work.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Examining the Ice-Nucleating Particles from the Eastern North Atlantic (ExINP-ENA) (Field Campaign Report)

The Examining the Ice-Nucleating Particles from the Eastern North Atlantic (ExINP-ENA) field campaign was conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) observatory on Graciosa Island, Azores (39.0916° N, 28.0257° W). The ExINP-ENA campaign began on October 1, 2020, and collected data until March 28, 2021, for a total of 179 days of data generated, with a 45-day intensive operational period (IOP) from October 10 to November 24. This campaign was funded by the DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program through grant DE-SC001879. This grant contains funding for three field campaigns. The previous field campaign at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site in Oklahoma, ExINP-SGP, was completed in 2020 (36.6073° N, 97.4876° W), and the upcoming field campaign at the North Slope of Alaska (NSA), ExINP-NSA, will take place from October 2021 at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Barrow Atmospheric Baseline Observatory (71.3230° N, 156.6114° W).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Ka-Band ARM Zenith Radar (KAZR) Active Remote Sensing of Clouds (ARSCL) CloudSat Calibration (KAZRARSCL-CLOUDSAT) (Value-Added Product Report)

The Ka-band ARM Zenith Radar Active Remote Sensing of CLouds CloudSat-aligned (KAZRARSCL-CLOUDSAT) Value-Added Product (VAP) applies satellite-based reflectivity calibrations to KAZRARSCL data sets. The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility has primarily used radar subsystem calibration monitoring to track cloud radar reflectivity drift over time, since reliable external calibration sources or other absolute references (such as corner reflectors) have historically been unavailable or impracticable. A study by Kollias et al. (2019) examined cloud reflectivity profiles observed with a well-characterized spaceborne downward-pointing millimeter cloud radar, operating as part of NASA’s CloudSat satellite mission (Tanelli et al. 2008). The Kollias team derived monthly statistical reflectivity offsets between CloudSat and the various generations of ARM cloud radars (millimeter wavelength cloud radar [MMCR], W-Band ARM Cloud Radar [WACR[, and Ka-band ARM Zenith Radar [KAZR]) for many, but not all, months at most fixed and mobile ARM sites over the period 2007-2017. These offsets, when available, are applied to the existing KAZRARSCL VAP products using the KAZRARSCL-CLOUDSAT VAP.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy on nonequilibrium systems (Final Report)

The goal of the project has been to theoretically investigate a wide variety of problems related to the use of X-ray spectroscopy in materials science to enhance the impact of the science done at DOE’s user facilities. The focus has generally been on obtaining a deeper understand of new types of X-ray spectroscopy and to provide support for experimentalist working in these fields.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

In Situ Thermodynamics and Kinetics of Mixed-Valence Inorganic Crystal Formation

We have found that the established methods to discover and produce earth-abundant iron-containing active layers are very inefficient. The prospective new material iron silicon sulfide, Fe 2 SiS 4 , was previously only synthesized by slow reactions of metallic iron, silicon, and sulfur powders, resulting in poor yield. We found that using an ordered iron-silicon alloy as a feedstock results in a much faster reaction at a lower temperature. We could track this reaction using our unique in-situ X-ray diffractometer, which allows us to heat our encapsulated material up to 1000°C while providing a simultaneous picture of how the atoms in the structure rearrange. We are using this powerful new technique to search for new active layers and optimize their formation by creative use of more complex reagents. Our key accomplishments are mechanisms for improving synthesis, and new materials that result from them. We have demonstrated the utility of high-throughput, DOE-developed infrastructure, such as the Materials Project, to accelerate materials discovery and synthesis. We have pioneered new capabilities of user facilities, such as beamlines 6-BM, 17-BM, and 11-BM at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) and POWGEN and NOMAD at the Spallation Neutron Source.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Aerosol Inlets for a Mid-Sized Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS)

The purpose of this technical report is to document the efforts to design and test two inlet systems for aerosol sampling suitable for deployment on a medium-sized fixed-wing Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS). This work, which was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility, was conducted at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for the ARM Aircraft Facility (AAF) starting in November 2017. The current work is a part of AAF efforts to instrument the ArcticShark (a mid-sized UAS owned and operated by the AAF) for atmospheric research and develop a scientific payload for deployment on a similar-sized UAS with minimal adaptation and integration. An aerosol inlet system is necessary to sample and transport ambient air sample to the scientific instrumentation with minimal distortions to the aerosols. Two isokinetic aerosol inlets were designed: the first is a simple passive system for a single instrument suitable to be installed in a wing pylon; the second is a system with active control designed to sample and distribute air among several heterogeneous instruments and to provide basic humidity control of the air sample so that the measured aerosol parameters should correspond to “dry” conditions (a common requirement). Both systems could be easily adapted for deployment on another platform and/or with a different set of instrumentation. Several conducted flight tests showed that the inlets’ performance met our design goals.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Post-irradiation Examination Plan for the ORNL and University of California Santa Barbara Assessment of the UCSB ATR-2 Irradiation Experiment and a Reference Document for the Irradiated Archival RPV Materials Stored in the NSUF Nuclear Fuels and Materials Library

The Reactor Pressure Vessel task of the LWRS Program works with various organizations to obtain archival surveillance materials from commercial nuclear power plants to allow for comparisons of the irradiation-induced microstructural features from reactor surveillance materials with those from similar materials irradiated under high flux conditions in test reactors, such as the UCSB ATR-2 experiment. This report, originally submitted as a Level 3 Milestone M3LW-14OR0402012 – “Complete report on post-irradiation examination plan for ORNL and University of California Santa Barbara assessment of ATR-2 capsules,” has been expanded to providing a reference to access and / or perform characterization of irradiated archival RPV materials that were transferred to the Nuclear Science User Facility (NSUF), Nuclear Fuels and Materials Library (NFML).

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Small field campaign: aerosol – ice formation closure pilot study. Final Report

Prediction of atmospheric ice formation from aerosol particles by heterogeneous nucleation represents one of the grand challenges in atmospheric science. Our insufficient predictive understanding of primary ice formation is the reason that climate models typically do not include heterogeneous ice nucleation with subsequent effects on climate uncertainty. Mixed-phase clouds, where supercooled water droplets and ice crystals coexist play globally an important role regulating climate. This is especially the case for the Arctic region that experiences the greatest warming due to climate change compared to other regions in the world. Immersion freezing initiated by ice-nucleating particles (INPs) in supercooled water droplets is recognized as the dominant primary ice formation pathway in mixed-phase cloud regimes. For this reason, it is crucial to evaluate our capability to predict immersion freezing for a given ambient aerosol population. The goal of this project is conducting a field-based pilot study at the U.S. DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility at Southern Great Plains (SGP) to evaluate our capability to predict the number concentration of aerosol particles that serve as INPs in the immersion freezing mode. Successful prediction of INP number concentrations is also termed “closure”. This field-observational approach represents a first-of-its kind attempt of an aerosol–ice formation closure study (AEROICESTUDY). Very few closure studies related to INPs have been conducted, and to our knowledge, none using robust size-resolved ambient aerosol composition measurements as a starting point. Achievement of aerosol–ice formation closure relies on our ability to characterize the ambient aerosol population with respect to particles size and composition and to determine INP number concentrations for specified freezing temperatures. This requires numerous online and offline instrumentation resulting in this pilot field campaign being a multi-institutional and community-collaborative effort. We chose the ARM SGP megasite for this first aerosol-ice formation closure pilot study due to its significant measurement capabilities available to obtain detailed physical characterization of the local aerosol population including size distribution, mass loading, and chemical composition of non-refractory aerosol particles. The overall objective of this project is to identify ice nucleation parameterizations that produce the most robust predictions of INP numbers and thus are best suited to be included in cloud and climate models. This objective includes the following goals for this field and laboratory-based project: i) What are the crucial aerosol physicochemical property measurements needed to accurately guide ice nucleation representations in models and long-term INP measurements? ii) What level of parameter details needs to be known to achieve aerosol–ice formation closure? iii) What are the leading causes for climate model bias in INP predictions? We found that the advances in our understanding of immersion freezing garnered over the last 20 years allowed us to yield partial and full closures of atmospheric immersion freezing from ambient aerosol particles. When the aerosol population is physicochemically complex and parameterizations for representative INP types are not yet available, we still struggle to accurately predict INP number concentrations. This project clearly demonstrates that with more laboratory and field measurements that are accompanied by particle composition analysis, the necessary datasets to achieve aerosol–ice formation closure for various locations will emerge, thus providing a robust foundation for guiding the representation of INPs in cloud and climate models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Matter in Extreme Conditions Upgrade (Conceptual Design Report)

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) is an open-access user facility that delivers ultrashort X-ray pulses that are nine orders of magnitude brighter than any prior source, able to probe the characteristics of matter with unprecedented spatial and temporal precision. The Matter in Extreme Conditions (MEC) instrument at LCLS combines the XFEL with high-power, short-pulse lasers to produce and study high energy density (HED) plasmas to develop the fundamental understanding of plasmas and matter in extreme environments. This has driven a remarkably rich array of high-profile scientific results with applications in fusion energy, isotope production, advanced materials, and medical and nuclear technology. The Matter in Extreme Conditions Upgrade (MEC-U) Project proposes a major upgrade to MEC that would significantly increase the power and repetition rate of the high intensity laser system to the petawatt level (PW, 10 15 Watts) at 10 Hz, increase the energy of the shock-driver laser to the kilojoule level (kJ), and expand the capabilities of the MEC instrument to support groundbreaking experiments enabled by the combination of high-power lasers with the world’s brightest X-ray source.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗