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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 397 records · Page 22
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Data Driven Commercial Building Energy Code Compliance and Technology Inventory for New York City

Building Performance Standards (BPS) are gaining national traction. A BPS will require new processes in the design, construction, and operation of buildings that take the occupants into account and enable predictive analysis to ensure compliance with current and future GHG emissions caps. In New York City, most buildings over 25,000 square feet will be regulated by a BPS starting in 2024, regardless of whether it is new construction permitted under current energy codes or an existing building. This research is one of the first to begin the evaluation of a long-term series of building policies in the context of an open data ecosystem, in cooperation with city agencies. Existing building policies enacted in NYC have ranged from building energy benchmarking and labeling to energy audits to the regulation of GHG emission in buildings. Through the development of a dataset related to building technologies and energy consumption, this project can help to evaluate if meaningful conclusions can be drawn for the data that has been largely self-reported in compliance with city regulations. This project will also provide lessons learned from a deep dive into these types of datasets to provide best practices for municipalities or states seeking to embark on policies like those enacted in NYC. In addition, a Building Automation System (BAS) Stretch Standard of Care (SSOC) for owners, designers, and building operators will enable the measurement and predictive analysis of energy consumption and GHG emissions at the plant, system, or component level, in anticipation of regulated GHG limits on buildings based on energy use. The SSOC is expected to be suitable for use on a national level. The primary feature of an SSOC is a standardized format for a set of BAS points that can be used to control and to gather data from individual plants, systems, or components that are related to building energy consumption. This project examined how measurements compare to prescriptive or simulation-based energy code targets, finding little correlation between predictive 8760-hour energy modeling and actual energy consumption for a small sample (n=27) of buildings constructed after 2015. Other analysis found that, while large multifamily housing (MFH) buildings showed a general trend similar to predicted reductions in energy use from the implementation of model commercial energy codes, this trend was not evident in the office, K-12 school, and hotel use groups in NYC. No upward or downward trends in energy consumption were found when buildings were grouped by size. Energy audit data were analyzed and it appears that there is bias by audit company on measures recommended to clients. Further research should be performed to cross-analyze this with other attributes, such as building size, vintage, and number of stories. Analysis found that for 281 buildings that were permitted and completed after 2015 and had submitted benchmarking data in 2022, between 81% and 96% (by use group) were found to be in compliance with the 2024 to 2029 NYC BPS emission caps, and between 55% and 89% were in compliance with the 2030-2034 caps. This work is beneficial to the public in helping policymakers and building stakeholders better understand the wide-ranging implications of a BPS.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
NASA NTRS2002

Environment-Conscious Ceramics (Ecoceramics) Technology Received 2001 R&D 100 Award

Since the dawn of human civilization, there has been a delicate balance between the use of resources as human frontiers expanded and the need to have a minimum influence on the ecosystem. The first 200 years of the industrial revolution essentially solved the problem of production. However, the massive production of goods also generated tremendous amounts of byproducts and wastes. In the new millennium, to sustain a healthy life in harmony with nature, it will be extremely important for us to develop various materials, products, and processes that minimize any harmful influence on the environment. Environment-conscious ceramics (ecoceramics) are a new class of materials that can be fabricated with renewable resources (wood) and wood waste material (wood sawdust). Wood is a "lignocellulosic" material formed by the photosynthetic reaction within the needles or leaves of trees. The photosynthesis process uses sunlight to take carbon dioxide from air and convert it into oxygen and organic materials. Wood has been known to be one of the best and most intricate engineering materials created by nature and known to mankind. In addition, natural woods of various types are available throughout the world. On the other hand, wood sawdusts are generated in abundant quantities by sawmills. Environment-conscious ceramic materials, fabricated via the pyrolysis and infiltration of natural wood-derived preforms, have tailorable properties with numerous potential applications. The experimental studies conducted to date on the development of materials based on biologically derived structures indicate that these materials behave like ceramic materials manufactured by conventional approaches. These structures have been shown to be quite useful in producing porous or dense materials having various microstructures and compositions.

Singh, Mrityunjay↗
DOE OSTI2026

A U.S. scientific community review of carbon cycle science gaps and opportunities to better support earth system science and carbon management

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continue to grow, while natural carbon reservoirs are becoming increasingly vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures, climate extremes, and disturbance. These changes are impacting humans, ecosystems, and natural resources worldwide. Tracking and mitigating GHG emissions require a pivot to operational monitoring of regional carbon flux and stock changes. The current GHG observing system is addressing needs at two distinct scales: 1) Local scale (< 1 km), related to anthropogenic point source emissions, and 2) global scales (> 1000 km), related to land and ocean carbon sinks. More focus on intermediate (10–1000 km) scales is needed to more effectively monitor progress in reducing carbon emissions, enhancing removals, and maintaining sinks. Representatives from carbon cycle biomass and flux communities across United States government agencies and academic institutions met in September 2024 to discuss the rationale and scientific context for more effectively implementing an operational system for GHG monitoring in support of urban and national carbon management needs. To guide development of this system, we propose a multi-tiered global spaceborne observing framework for carbon flux and stock, prioritizing: 1) frequent GHG partial columns for carbon emissions and removals; 2) continuous time series and data fusion of biomass from Lidar and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) for carbon stocks, and 3) expanded coverage of tropical, high latitude, and oceanic regions to monitor carbon cycle tipping points and feedbacks. This system should be complemented by expanded surface and airborne networks for oceanic and terrestrial/aquatic ecosystems for calibration, ground truthing, and study of under-sampled regions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Ocean colour signature of climate change

Monitoring changes in marine phytoplankton is important as they form the foundation of the marine food web and are crucial in the carbon cycle. Often Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) is used to track changes in phytoplankton, since there are global, regular satellite-derived estimates. However, satellite sensors do not measure Chl-a directly. Instead, Chl-a is estimated from remote sensing reflectance (RRS): the ratio of upwelling radiance to the downwelling irradiance at the ocean’s surface. Using a model, we show that RRS in the blue-green spectrum is likely to have a stronger and earlier climate-change-driven signal than Chl-a. This is because RRS has lower natural variability and integrates not only changes to in-water Chl-a, but also alterations in other optically important constituents. Phytoplankton community structure, which strongly affects ocean optics, is likely to show one of the clearest and most rapid signatures of changes to the base of the marine ecosystem.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Global meta-analysis shows pervasive phosphorus limitation of aboveground plant production in natural terrestrial ecosystems

Phosphorus (P) limitation of aboveground plant production is usually assumed to occur in tropical regions but rarely elsewhere. Here we report that such P limitation is more widespread and much stronger than previously estimated. In our global meta-analysis, almost half (46.2%) of 652 P-addition field experiments reveal a significant P limitation on aboveground plant production. Globally, P additions increase aboveground plant production by 34.9% in natural terrestrial ecosystems, which is 7.0–15.9% higher than previously suggested. In croplands, by contrast, P additions increase aboveground plant production by only 13.9%, probably because of historical fertilizations. The magnitude of P limitation also differs among climate zones and regions, and is driven by climate, ecosystem properties, and fertilization regimes. In addition to confirming that P limitation is widespread in tropical regions, our study demonstrates that P limitation often occurs in other regions. This suggests that previous studies have underestimated the importance of altered P supply on aboveground plant production in natural terrestrial ecosystems.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
DOE OSTI2019

Synergies between mycorrhizal fungi and soil microbial communities increase plant nitrogen acquisition

Nitrogen availability often restricts primary productivity in terrestrial ecosystems. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are ubiquitous symbionts of terrestrial plants and can improve plant nitrogen acquisition, but have a limited ability to access organic nitrogen. Although other soil biota mineralize organic nitrogen into bioavailable forms, they may simultaneously compete for nitrogen, with unknown consequences for plant nutrition. Here, we show that synergies between the mycorrhizal fungus Rhizophagus irregularis and soil microbial communities have a highly non-additive effect on nitrogen acquisition by the model grass Brachypodium distachyon . These multipartite microbial synergies result in a doubling of the nitrogen that mycorrhizal plants acquire from organic matter and a tenfold increase in nitrogen acquisition compared to non-mycorrhizal plants grown in the absence of soil microbial communities. This previously unquantified multipartite relationship may contribute to more than 70 Tg of annually assimilated plant nitrogen, thereby playing a critical role in global nutrient cycling and ecosystem function.

Life Sciences & Biomedicine - Other Topics↗
DOE OSTI2022

Application of DLT cybersecurity stack to TES applications for a scalable, cybersecure, and interoperable future

Transactive Energy Systems (TES) are expected to improve upon existing grid operations and capabilities by enabling the integration of traditional grid resources with distributed energy resources (DER). Distributed Ledger Technology or DLT (e.g., blockchain) presents itself as a viable instrument to support decentralized, autonomous, and tamper-evident applications, which can be leveraged within TES's ecosystem. DLTs can provide pertinent security controls including access controls, data immutability, and traceability in addition to other well-known advantages such as decentralization and scalability. This work demonstrates the DLT Cybersecurity stack and its applicability to TES-based use-cases/applications. The seven-layer DLT cybersecurity stack is a DLT-agnostic framework that can quickly be used to classify and group the individual needs of an application into the different processing and cybersecurity layers offered by a DLT using a common taxonomy and an architectural mapping framework. This enables application engineers to demystify and strengthen the overall security aspects of their systems while maintaining an open perspective towards features and drawbacks that may hinder their performance in real-world scenarios. The paper leverages the work performed by the IEEE P2418.5 - Blockchain for Energy Standards working group.

Blockchain, blockchain interoperability, Cybersecu↗
DOE OSTI2020

Atmospheric fungal nanoparticle bursts

Aerosol nanoparticles play an important role in the climate system by affecting cloud formation and properties, as well as in human health because of their deep reach into lungs and the circulatory system. Determining nanoparticle sources and composition is a major challenge in assessing their impacts in these areas. The sudden appearance of large numbers of atmospheric nanoparticles is commonly attributed to secondary formation from gas-phase precursors, but in many cases, the evidence for this is equivocal. We report the detection of a mode of fungal fragments with a mobility diameter of roughly 30 nm released in episodic bursts in ambient air over an agricultural area in northern Oklahoma. These events reached concentrations orders of magnitude higher than other reports of biological particles and show similarities to unclarified events reported previously in the Amazon. These particles potentially represent a large source of both cloud-forming ice nuclei and respirable allergens in a variety of ecosystems.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Managing Current Earth Observation Needs through User-Driven Implementation of Upcoming Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG) Solutions

Since 2016, the Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG), an initiative of the U.S. Group on Earth Observations (USGEO), has surveyed federal agencies every two years to identify their satellite earth observation needs. For each expressed need, NASA-led assessment teams coordinate with responding agencies to devise remote sensing solutions that benefit multiple partners and span across a number of thematic areas including, but not limited to, Atmospheric Composition, Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Earth Surface and Interior, and Oceans and Cryosphere. Solutions can comprise existing or modified data products as well as the construction of new data products and technologies: since 2016, a multitude of SNWG activities have been theorized and developed, reaching a wide range of users in the science community. Due to an increase in survey responses in 2020 and to assure solution delivery to users within five years of budget appropriations, the SNWG Management Office was established to oversee the assessment of agency needs and the implementation and operations of solution development. The SNWG MO’s unique implementation strategy creates multiple touchpoints with agencies during solution development helping fulfill Earth Science to Action priorities (the 2024 NASA Earth Science Division strategic plan) and ensuring solutions are accessible, usable, and support decision-making for their intended audience. This presentation will outline the ways in which SNWG supports complementary goals of the Decadal Survey, with specific attention on the SNWG MO’s renewed user-centric implementation strategy for upcoming SNWG solutions.

Jenny Wood↗
DOE OSTI2023

A critical review of existing and emerging technologies and systems to optimize solid waste management for feedstocks and energy conversion

Solid waste generation and its accumulation is increasing at an alarming pace due to population growth and urbanization posing severe risks to health, safety, and natural ecosystems. Herein this review strategically addresses the challenges and solutions to increasing the sustainability footprint of solid waste management (SWM) systems by revealing multipronged approaches that reduce solid waste and handling costs while generating revenue and reducing greenhouse gas and related emissions. For example, the United States sends ~150 million tons of waste to landfills, which is composed of over 75% organic and recyclable materials having a potential to be diverted to alternative scenarios. The emergence of an automated upstream and downstream sorting process for solid waste to increase material diversion from landfills is a promising approach for creating sustainable SWM. The utilization of artificial-intelligence-enabled smart and automated systems at the home and industrial scales, comprehensive public re-education including awareness of the adverse effects of landfilled waste on the ecosystem, and more eco-friendly product development are required to significantly reduce landfills and their negative footprint.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Remediation of contaminated soils by enhanced nanoscale zero valent iron

The use of nanoscale zero valent iron (nZVI) for in situ remediation of soil contamination caused by heavy metals and organic pollutants has drawn great concern, primarily owing to its potential for excellent activity, low cost and low toxicity. This reviews considers recent advances in our understanding of the role of nZVI and enhanced nZVI strategy in the remediation of heavy metals and persistent organic contaminants polluted soil. The performance, the migration and transformation of nZVI affected by the soil physical and chemical conditions are summarized. However, the addition of nZVI inevitably disturbs the soil ecosystem, thus the impacts of nZVI on soil organisms are discussed. In order to further investigate the remediation effect of nZVI, physical, chemical and biological method combination with nZVI was developed to enhance the performance of nZVI. From a high efficient and environmentally friendly perspective, biological method enhanced nZVI technology will be future research needs. Possible improvement of nZVI-based materials and potential areas for further applications in soil remediation are also proposed.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

The role of remote sensing in process-scaling studies of managed forest ecosystems

Sustaining forest resources requires a better understanding of forest ecosystem processes, and how management decisions and climate change may affect these processes in the future. While plot and inventory data provide our most detailed information on forest carbon, energy, and water cycling, applying this understanding to broader spatial and temporal domains requires scaling approaches. Remote sensing provides a powerful resource for "upscaling" process understanding to regional and continental domains. The increased range of available remote sensing modalities, including interferometric radar, lidar, and hyperspectral imagery, allows the retrieval of a broad range of forest attributes. This paper reviews the application of remote sensing for upscaling forest attributes from the plot scale to regional domains, with particular emphasis on how remote sensing products can support parameterization and validation of ecosystem process models. We focus on four key ecological attributes of forests: composition, structure, productivity and evapotranspiration, and disturbance dynamics. For each attribute, we discuss relevant remote sensing technologies, provide examples of their application, and critically evaluate both strengths and challenges associated with their use. Published by Elsevier B.V.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Final Technical Report to DOE for the Award DE-SC0004601

Understanding the responses, adaptations and feedback mechanisms of biological communities to climate change is critical to project future state of earth and climate systems. Although significant amount of knowledge is available on the feedback responses of aboveground communities to climate change, little is known about the responses of belowground microbial communities due to the challenges in analyzing soil microbial community structure. Thus the goal overall goal of this study is to provide system-level, predictive mechanistic understanding of the temperature sensitivity of soil carbon (C) decomposition to climate warming by using cutting-edge integrated metagenomic technologies. Towards this goal, the following four objectives will be pursued: (i) To determine phylogenetic composition and metabolic diversity of microbial communities in the temperate grassland and tundra ecosystems; (ii) To delineate the responses of microbial community structure, functions and activities to climate change in the temperate grassland and tundra ecosystems; (iii) To determine the temperature sensitivity of microbial respiration in soils with different mixtures of labile versus recalcitrant C, and the underlying microbiological basis for temperature sensitivity of these pools; and (iv) To synthesize all experimental data for revealing microbial control of ecosystem carbon processes in responses to climate change. We have achieved our goals for all four proposed objectives. First, we determined the phylogenetic composition and metabolic diversity of microbial communities in the temperate grassland and tundra ecosystems. For this objective, we have developed a novel phasing amplicon sequencing (PAS) approach for MiSeq sequencing of amplicons. This approach has been used for sequencing various phylogenetic and functional genes related to ecosystem functioning. A comprehensive functional gene array (e.g., GeoChip 5.0) has also been developed and used for soil microbial community analysis in this study. In addition, shot-gun metagenome sequencing along with the above approaches have been used to understand the phylogenetic and functional diversity, composition, and structure of soil microbial communities in both temperature grassland and tundra ecosystems. Second, we determined the response of soil microbial communities to climate warming in both temperate grassland and tundra ecosystems using various methods. Our major findings are: (i) Microorganisms are very rapid to respond to climate warming in the tundra ecosystem, AK, which is vulnerable, too. (ii) Climate warming also significantly shifted the metabolic diversity, composition and structure of microbial communities, and key metabolic pathways related to carbon turnover, such as cellulose degradation (~13%) and CO2 production (~10%), and to nitrogen cycling, including denitrification (~12%) were enriched by warming. (iii) Warming also altered the expression patterns of microbial functional genes important to ecosystem functioning and stability through GeoChip and metatranscriptomic analysis of soil microbial communities at the OK site. Third, we analyzed temperature sensitivity of C decomposition to climate warming for both AK and OK soils through laboratory incubations. Key results include: (i) Alaska tundra soils showed that after one year of incubation, CT in the top 15 cm could be as high as 25% and 15% of the initial soil C content at 25°C and 15°C incubations, respectively. (ii) analysis of 456 incubated soil samples with 16S rRNA gene, ITS and GeoChip hybridization showed that warming shifted the phylogenretic and functional diversity, composition, structure and metabolic potential of soil microbial communities, and at different stages of incubation, key populations and functional genes significantly changed along with soil substrate changes. Functional gene diversity and functional genes for degrading labile C components decrease along incubation when labile C components are exhausting, but the genes related to degrading recalcitrant C increase. These molecular data will be directly used for modeling. Fourth, we have developed novel approaches to integrate and model experimental data to understand microbial control of ecosystem C processes in response to climate change. We compared different methods to calculate Q10 for estimating temperature sensitivity, and new approaches for Q10 calculation and molecular ecological network analysis were also developed. Using those newly developed approaches, our result indicated that Q10s increased with the recalcitrance of C pools, suggesting that longer incubation studies are needed in order to assess the temperature sensitivity of slower C pools, especially at low temperature regimes. This project has been very productive, resulting in 42 papers published or in press, 4 submitted, and 13 in preparation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1987

Controlled ecological life support systems; Proceedings of Workshop II of the 26th COSPAR Plenary Meeting, Toulouse, France, June 30-July 11, 1986

The present conference on the development status of Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSSs) discusses food production and gas exchange with the Spirulina blue-green alga, biomass recycling for greater energy efficiency in algal culture CELSSs, algal proteins for food processing in a CELSS, a CELSS with photosynthetic N2-fixing cyanobacteria, the NASA CELSS program, and vapor compression ditillation and membrane technology for water revitalization. Also discussed are a fundamental study of CELSS gas monitoring, the application of catalytic wet oxidation to CELSS, a large-scale perspective on ecosystems, Japanese CELSS research activities, the use of potatoes in bioregenerative life-support, wheat production in controlled environments, and a trickle water and feeding system in plant culture.

Macelroy, R. D.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Urban Air Mobility Airspace Integration Concepts and Considerations

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) - defined as safe and efficient air traffic operations in a metropolitan area for manned aircraft and unmanned aircraft systems - is being researched and developed by industry, academia, and government. Significant resources have been invested toward cultivating an ecosystem for Urban Air Mobility that includes manufacturers of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, builders of takeoff and landing areas, and researchers of the airspace integration concepts, technologies, and procedures needed to conduct Urban Air Mobility operations safely and efficiently alongside other airspace users. This paper provides high-level descriptions of both emergent and early expanded operational concepts for Urban Air Mobility that NASA is developing. The scope of this work is defined in terms of missions, aircraft, airspace, and hazards. Past and current Urban Air Mobility operations are also reviewed, and the considerations for the data exchange architecture and communication, navigation, and surveillance requirements are also discussed. This paper will serve as a starting point to develop a framework for NASA's Urban Air Mobility airspace integration research and development efforts with partners and stakeholders that could include fast-time simulations, human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulations, and flight demonstrations.

airspace integration↗
DOE OSTI2025

Report of the 2025 Workshop on Next-Generation Ecosystems for Scientific Computing: Harnessing Community, Software, and AI for Cross-Disciplinary Team Science

This report summarizes insights from the 2025 Workshop on Next-Generation Ecosystems for Scientific Computing: Harnessing Community, Software, and AI for Cross-Disciplinary Team Science, which convened more than 40 experts from national laboratories, academia, industry, and community organizations to chart a path toward more powerful, sustainable, and collaborative scientific software ecosystems. To address urgent challenges at the intersection of high-performance computing (HPC), AI, and scientific software, participants envisioned agile, robust ecosystems built through socio-technical co-design—the intentional integration of social and technical components as interdependent parts of a unified strategy. This approach combines advances in AI, HPC, and software with new models for cross-disciplinary collaboration, training, and workforce development. Key recommendations include building modular, trustworthy AI-enabled scientific software systems; enabling scientific teams to integrate AI systems into their workflows while preserving human creativity, trust, and scientific rigor; and creating innovative training pipelines that keep pace with rapid technological change. Pilot projects were identified as near-term catalysts, with initial priorities focused on hybrid AI/HPC infrastructure, cross-disciplinary collaboration and pedagogy, responsible AI guidelines, and prototyping of public-private partnerships. This report presents a vision of next-generation ecosystems for scientific computing where AI, software, hardware, and human expertise are interwoven to drive discovery, expand access, strengthen the workforce, and accelerate scientific progress.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
NASA NTRS2011

Evaluating Cloud Computing in the Proposed NASA DESDynI Ground Data System

The proposed NASA Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice (DESDynI) mission would be a first-of-breed endeavor that would fundamentally change the paradigm by which Earth Science data systems at NASA are built. DESDynI is evaluating a distributed architecture where expert science nodes around the country all engage in some form of mission processing and data archiving. This is compared to the traditional NASA Earth Science missions where the science processing is typically centralized. What's more, DESDynI is poised to profoundly increase the amount of data collection and processing well into the 5 terabyte/day and tens of thousands of job range, both of which comprise a tremendous challenge to DESDynI's proposed distributed data system architecture. In this paper, we report on a set of architectural trade studies and benchmarks meant to inform the DESDynI mission and the broader community of the impacts of these unprecedented requirements. In particular, we evaluate the benefits of cloud computing and its integration with our existing NASA ground data system software called Apache Object Oriented Data Technology (OODT). The preliminary conclusions of our study suggest that the use of the cloud and OODT together synergistically form an effective, efficient and extensible combination that could meet the challenges of NASA science missions requiring DESDynI-like data collection and processing volumes at reduced costs.

Benchmark↗