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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 559 records · Page 31
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

AmeriFlux US-UR1 Boulder - UCRB

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-UR1 Boulder - UCRB. Site Description - This site is located in Boulder, Wyoming, in a high-altitude grassland ecosystem. The region experiences cold winters and mild summers, with relatively low precipitation throughout the year. Snowfall is common during the winter months, contributing to the seasonal water availability. The landscape is primarily covered by grass vegetation, with some areas supported by a center pivot irrigation system, which helps sustain plant growth in the dry environment.

Neale, C. U. [Daugherty Water for Food Global Inst↗
DOE OSTI2020

Clean Energy Manufacturing: Renewable Energy Technology Benchmarks

The manufacturing of clean energy technologies has become a global enterprise. An analysis of four clean energy technology manufacturing processes—wind turbine components, crystalline silicon solar photovoltaic modules, light-duty vehicle lithium-ion battery cells, and light-emitting diodes—was conducted to provide a reference point for comparison over time as this sector evolves. The manufacturing supply chain analysis included processing of raw materials, making required subcomponents, and assembling final products, using benchmarks that crossed 12 economies: Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Republic of China (Taiwan), the United Kingdom, and the United States. Larger economies, with extensive manufacturing supply chains and high prevailing wages, tend to retain more value added from clean energy manufacturing than small economies. Manufacturing of clean energy technologies drives extensive trade among economies to support the widely distributed supply chain links. Production of wind turbine components and photovoltaic modules is more centralized than production of light-emitting diodes and lithium-ion battery cells. Across the four clean energy technologies evaluated, there was generally an excess of manufacturing capacity relative to global supply.

benchmarks↗
DOE OSTI2020

Research and Development Priorities for Silicon Photovoltaic Module Recycling to Support a Circular Economy

Large-scale deployment of photovoltaic (PV) modules has considerably increased in recent decades. Given an estimated lifetime of 30 years, the challenge of how to handle large volumes of end-of-life PV modules is starting to emerge. In this Perspective, we assess the global status of practice and knowledge for end-of-life management for crystalline silicon PV modules. We focus in particular on module recycling, a key aspect in the circular economy of photovoltaic panels. We recommend research and development to reduce recycling costs and environmental impacts compared to disposal while maximizing material recovery. We suggest that the recovery of high-value silicon is more advantageous than the recovery of intact silicon wafers. This approach requires the identification of contaminants and the design of purification processes for recovered silicon. The environmental and economic impacts of recycling practices should be explored with techno–economic analyses and life-cycle assessments to optimize solutions and minimize trade-offs. As photovoltaic technology advances rapidly, it is important for the recycling industry to plan adaptable recycling infrastructure.

c-Si↗
DOE OSTI2020

Better together: Elements of successful scientific software development in a distributed collaborative community

Many scientific disciplines rely on computational methods for data analysis, model generation, and prediction. Implementing these methods is often accomplished by researchers with domain expertise but without formal training in software engineering or computer science. This arrangement has led to underappreciation of sustainability and maintainability of scientific software tools developed in academic environments. Some software tools have avoided this fate, including the scientific library Rosetta. We use this software and its community as a case study to show how modern software development can be accomplished successfully, irrespective of subject area. Rosetta is one of the largest software suites for macromolecular modeling, with 3.1 million lines of code and many state-of-the-art applications. Since the mid 1990s, the software has been developed collaboratively by the RosettaCommons, a community of academics from over 60 institutions worldwide with diverse backgrounds including chemistry, biology, physiology, physics, engineering, mathematics, and computer science. Developing this software suite has provided us with more than two decades of experience in how to effectively develop advanced scientific software in a global community with hundreds of contributors. Here we illustrate the functioning of this development community by addressing technical aspects (like version control, testing, and maintenance), community-building strategies, diversity efforts, software dissemination, and user support. We demonstrate how modern computational research can thrive in a distributed collaborative community. The practices described here are independent of subject area and can be readily adopted by other software development communities

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2022

PRO-X Fuel Cycle Transportation and Crosscutting Progress Report

The PRO-X program is actively supporting the design of nuclear systems by developing a framework to both optimize the fuel cycle infrastructure for advanced reactors (ARs) and minimize the potential for production of weapons-usable nuclear material. Three study topics are currently being investigated by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) with support from Argonne National Laboratories (ANL). This multi-lab collaboration is focused on three study topics which may offer proliferation resistance opportunities or advantages in the nuclear fuel cycle. These topics are: 1) Transportation Global Landscape, 2) Transportation Avoidability, and 3) Parallel Modular Systems vs Single Large System (Crosscutting Activity).

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Basic Energy Sciences Network Requirements Review (Final Report)

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the high-performance network user facility for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) and delivers highly reliable data transport capabilities optimized for the requirements of data-intensive science. In essence, ESnet is the circulatory system that enables the DOE science mission by connecting all of its laboratories and facilities in the US and abroad. ESnet is funded and stewarded by the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program and managed and operated by the Scientific Networking Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). ESnet is widely regarded as a global leader in the research and education networking community. Between March and September 2022, ESnet and the Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) of the DOE SC organized an ESnet requirements review of BES-supported activities. Preparation for these events included identification of key stakeholders: program and facility management, research groups, and technology providers. Each stakeholder group was asked to prepare formal case study documents about its relationship to the BES program to build a complete understanding of the current, near-term, and long-term status, expectations, and processes that will support the science going forward. A series of pre-planning meetings better prepared case study authors for this task, along with guidance on how the review would proceed in a virtual fashion.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2022

High Energy Physics Network Requirements Review: One-Year Update

The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is the high-performance network user facility for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) and delivers highly reliable data transport capabilities optimized for the requirements of data-intensive science. In essence, ESnet is the circulatory system that enables the DOE science mission by connecting all its laboratories and facilities in the US and abroad. ESnet is funded and stewarded by the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program and managed and operated by the Scientific Networking Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). ESnet is widely regarded as a global leader in the research and education (R&E) networking community. In April 2022, ESnet and the Office of High Energy Physics (HEP) of the DOE SC organized an ESnet requirements review of HEP-supported activities. Preparation for the review included identification of key stakeholders: program and facility management, research groups, and technology providers. Each stakeholder group was asked to prepare formal case study documents about the group’s relationship to the HEP program to build a complete understanding of the current, near-term, and long-term status, expectations, and processes that will support the science going forward. A series of pre-planning meetings better prepared case study authors for this task, along with guidance on how the review would proceed in a virtual fashion.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

TRACER-Uncrewed Aircraft System (TRACER-UAS) Field Campaign Report

Convective processes drive the development of clouds across a variety of scales, thereby playing a central role in governing weather and climate globally. These processes help to set the stage for circulations that redistribute heat and moisture throughout the lower atmosphere, and simultaneously develop storms that supply precipitation to regions that depend on such rain events for supporting a variety of societal needs. At the same time, extreme precipitation events can result in localized flooding of low-lying areas, posing hazards to transportation and regional inhabitants, and potentially damaging structures and infrastructure. As a result, there is an inherent need to better understand the drivers and modulators of clouds and precipitation and leverage such understanding to make projections of how these important systems may evolve with a changing climate. With nearly three billion of Earth’s human inhabitants living within 200 km of a shoreline, development of such understanding is particularly important in coastal regimes. Central drivers of convective cloud development and life cycle in coastal environments include synoptic forcing, local meso- and microscale circulation regimes, microphysical evolution, and aerosol properties. Atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) development and its evolution can help drive the formation and organization of convective clouds, which then impart their own controls through dynamic processes related to latent heating and cooling (including cold-pool formation and propagation), three-dimensional radiative effects, and background environmental conditions (Fan et al. 2016). Such clouds have been contributing to record precipitation events in southeast Texas in recent years, relative to the last several decades of data from regional precipitation gauges (Fagnant et al. 2020). The greater Houston urban area has experienced particularly large increases in the frequency of extreme rainfall events, with enhanced intensity of extreme events (stretching of distribution tails) having potentially significant implications for watershed floodplain planning and mapping in greater Houston and Harris County. While the most extreme precipitation events were associated with tropical cyclones (e.g., Tropical Storm Allison and Hurricane Harvey; Blood 2014, Kao et al. 2019), strong thunderstorms can also deliver large amounts of precipitation over the area over relatively short periods.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Protein Data Bank: A Comprehensive Review of 3D Structure Holdings and Worldwide Utilization by Researchers, Educators, and Students

The Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics Protein Data Bank (RCSB PDB), funded by the United States National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and Department of Energy, supports structural biologists and Protein Data Bank (PDB) data users around the world. The RCSB PDB, a founding member of the Worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB) partnership, serves as the US data center for the global PDB archive housing experimentally-determined three-dimensional (3D) structure data for biological macromolecules. As the wwPDB-designated Archive Keeper, RCSB PDB is also responsible for the security of PDB data and weekly update of the archive. RCSB PDB serves tens of thousands of data depositors (using macromolecular crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, electron microscopy, and micro-electron diffraction) annually working on all permanently inhabited continents. RCSB PDB makes PDB data available from its research-focused web portal at no charge and without usage restrictions to many millions of PDB data consumers around the globe. It also provides educators, students, and the general public with an introduction to the PDB and related training materials through its outreach and education-focused web portal. This review article describes growth of the PDB, examines evolution of experimental methods for structure determination viewed through the lens of the PDB archive, and provides a detailed accounting of PDB archival holdings and their utilization by researchers, educators, and students worldwide.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Impact of Aerosol and Cloud on the Solar Energy Potential over the Central Gangetic Himalayan Region

We examine the impact of atmospheric aerosols and clouds on the surface solar radiation and solar energy at Nainital, a high-altitude remote location in the central Gangetic Himalayan region (CGHR). For this purpose, we exploited the synergy of remote-sensed data in terms of ground-based AERONET Sun Photometer and satellite observations from the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG), with radiative transfer model (RTM) simulations and 1 day forecasts from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). Clouds and aerosols are one of the most common sources of solar irradiance attenuation and hence causing performance issues in the photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) plant installations. The outputs of RTM results presented with high accuracy under clear, cloudy sky and dust conditions for global horizontal (GHI) and beam horizontal irradiance (BHI). On an annual basis the total aerosol attenuation was found to be up to 105 kWh m –2 for the GHI and 266 kWh m –2 for BHI, respectively, while the cloud effect is much stronger with an attenuation of 245 and 271 kWh m –2 on GHI and BHI. The results of this study will support the Indian solar energy producers and electricity handling entities in order to quantify the energy and financial losses due to cloud and aerosol presence.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Community-Driven Methods for Open and Reproducible Software Tools for Analyzing Datasets from Atom Probe Microscopy

Atom probe tomography, and related methods, probe the three-dimensional architecture of a material. The software tools that microscopists use, and how these tools are connected into workflows, makes a substantial contribution to the accuracy and precision of such a material characterization experiment. Typically, we adapt methods from other communities like mathematics, data science, computational geometry, artificial intelligence, or scientific computing. We also realize that improving on research data management is a challenge when it comes to align with the FAIR data stewardship principles. Faced with this global challenge, we are convinced that collaborating is useful. Here, we report the results and challenges with an inter-laboratory call for developing test cases for several types of atom probe software tools. The results support why defining detailed recipes of software workflows and sharing these recipes is necessary and rewarding: Open source tools and (meta)data exchange can help to make our day-to-day data processing tasks become more efficient, the training of new users and knowledge transfer become easier, and assist us with automated quantification of uncertainties to gain access to substantiated results.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Scaling neural simulations in STACS

Abstract As modern neuroscience tools acquire more details about the brain, the need to move towards biological-scale neural simulations continues to grow. However, effective simulations at scale remain a challenge. Beyond just the tooling required to enable parallel execution, there is also the unique structure of the synaptic interconnectivity, which is globally sparse but has relatively high connection density and non-local interactions per neuron. There are also various practicalities to consider in high performance computing applications, such as the need for serializing neural networks to support potentially long-running simulations that require checkpoint-restart. Although acceleration on neuromorphic hardware is also a possibility, development in this space can be difficult as hardware support tends to vary between platforms and software support for larger scale models also tends to be limited. In this paper, we focus our attention on Simulation Tool for Asynchronous Cortical Streams (STACS), a spiking neural network simulator that leverages the Charm++ parallel programming framework, with the goal of supporting biological-scale simulations as well as interoperability between platforms. Central to these goals is the implementation of scalable data structures suitable for efficiently distributing a network across parallel partitions. Here, we discuss a straightforward extension of a parallel data format with a history of use in graph partitioners, which also serves as a portable intermediate representation for different neuromorphic backends. We perform scaling studies on the Summit supercomputer, examining the capabilities of STACS in terms of network build and storage, partitioning, and execution. We highlight how a suitably partitioned, spatially dependent synaptic structure introduces a communication workload well-suited to the multicast communication supported by Charm++. We evaluate the strong and weak scaling behavior for networks on the order of millions of neurons and billions of synapses, and show that STACS achieves competitive levels of parallel efficiency.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Updated resources for exploring experimentally-determined PDB structures and Computed Structure Models at the RCSB Protein Data Bank

The Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics Protein Data Bank (RCSB PDB, RCSB.org), the US Worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB, wwPDB.org) data center for the global PDB archive, provides access to the PDB data via its RCSB.org research-focused web portal. We report substantial additions to the tools and visualization features available at RCSB.org, which now delivers more than 227000 experimentally determined atomic-level three-dimensional (3D) biostructures stored in the global PDB archive alongside more than 1 million Computed Structure Models (CSMs) of proteins (including models for human, model organisms, select human pathogens, crop plants and organisms important for addressing climate change). In addition to providing support for 3D structure motif searches with user-provided coordinates, new features highlighted herein include query results organized by redundancy-reduced Groups and summary pages that facilitate exploration of groups of similar proteins. Newly released programmatic tools are also described, as are enhanced training opportunities.

Burley, Stephen K.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Microbial inoculants for soil restoration: A Risk-Proportional Stewardship Framework Integrating Strain-Resolved Genomics and Adaptive Governance

Global soil degradation and increasing reliance on chemical inputs threaten agricultural sustainability, driving interest in microbial inoculants as tools for soil restoration. These biological products have the potential to enhance nutrient cycling, improve soil structure, and support plant resilience, but their environmental release raises important safety and stewardship considerations. Here, we propose a risk-proportional framework for the responsible deployment of microbial inoculants grounded in release-based stewardship. The framework integrates genome-resolved strain identification, exclusionary hazard screening, bioassay-based risk triage, ecological testing under realistic conditions, and monitored field deployment. Drawing on evidence from microbial ecology and invasion biology, we highlight how inoculants can alter resident microbial communities, influence ecosystem function, and, in some cases, facilitate gene flow, underscoring the need for risk assessment. We further outline a federated, genome-informed data infrastructure to support traceability, cross-jurisdiction learning, and adaptive management. Together, this approach provides a scalable and scientifically grounded pathway to balance innovation and safety, enabling microbial technologies to contribute to soil restoration and climate-resilient agriculture.

Edlund, Anna [OATH Inc]↗
DOE OSTI2024

Soil Carbon Dynamics Following Land Use Changes and Conversion to Oil Palm Plantations in Tropical Lowlands Inferred From Radiocarbon

We measured the 14C and 13C isotopic values of soil organic carbon in mineral soil from lowland tropical forests to provide insight into how quickly carbon is turning over in the soil following conversion of primary forests to oil palm plantations. In addition to areas converted to oil palm plantations in Peru, Indonesia, and Cameroon, we examine pastures and secondary forests in Peru as a comparison to the carbon cycling processes operating in the oil palm plantations.This dataset includes radiocarbon (Δ14C) and stable carbon (δ13C) isotopes of soil organic carbon in mineral soils from natural lowland forests and oil palm plantations in Peru, Indonesia, and Cameroon. We additionally examine plots of secondary forests following agricultural use and pastures on cleared natural forest in Peru. In addition to isotopic data, this dataset includes soil carbon and nitrogen concentrations and stock, soil texture (percent sand, silt, and clay), pH, ECEC (effective cation exchange capacity), base saturation, and bulk density. Soils were sampled in 4 depth increments to 100 cm depth.This dataset supports the publication Finstad et al., 2020. Finstad, K., van Straaten, O., Veldkamp, E., & McFarlane, K. (2020). Soil carbon dynamics following land use changes and conversion to oil palm plantations in tropical lowlands inferred from radiocarbon. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 34, e2019GB006461. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GB006461

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Integration of Open-Source URBANopt and Dragonfly Energy Modeling Capabilities into Practitioner Workflows for District-Scale Planning and Design

High-performance districts and communities offer opportunities for reducing energy use, emissions, and costs, and can be instrumental in helping cities achieve their climate goals. The design of such communities requires identification of opportunities early on and their re-evaluation throughout the planning process. There is a need for energy modeling tools that connect 3D Computer-Aided Design (CAD) platforms to simulation engines, enabling detailed energy analysis of districts within the workflows and tools used by practitioners. This paper introduces the Dragonfly and URBANoptTM combined toolset that supports the creation of urban models from a range of geometry formats typically used by designers and planners, and provides an integrated pathway to simulate district-scale energy systems. The toolset is piloted by a global architecture and master planning firm to evaluate several key urban-scale technical questions for the design of a district in Chicago. The findings indicate that, while energy savings can be achieved through traditional architectural studies and enhancements to individual building efficiency, the modeling toolset helps identify additional savings and insights that can be achieved when considering district-scale energy systems. Finally, this study demonstrates how the Dragonfly/URBANopt toolset can integrate with master planning workflows, thereby enabling an iterative performance-based design process.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Behaviour of cadmium isotopes in sulfidic waters and sediments of the Black Sea: Implications for global cadmium cycling and the application of cadmium isotopes as a paleo-oceanographic proxy

The cadmium isotope system has found use as a tracer for biological productivity, redox and organic carbon burial in the oceans. There are, however, very few observational constraints on Cd isotopic behaviour in modern sulfidic marine conditions, limiting our understanding of the modern Cd cycle, and our ability to use Cd isotope measurements of ancient sedimentary deposits as a paleoceanographic proxy. Here we study the behaviour of dissolved Cd in the water column of the Black Sea and its incorporation into sediments on the basin floor. The isotopic composition of dissolved Cd in the upper ∼50 m of the Black Sea water column is controlled by a combination of biological uptake and regeneration along with mixing of river water and Mediterranean seawater. Cadmium declines to <2 % of its peak subsurface concentration within the zone of nitrate-reduction but above the sulfide chemocline. The isotopic composition of dissolved Cd below the sulfide chemocline evolves in a manner that is consistent with experimental Cd sulfide fractionation factors, providing field-based support for these earlier studies. In contrast, the stability of the dissolved Cd isotopic signature above the chemocline, despite a large reduction in dissolved Cd concentrations, is explained by diffusion towards the Cd-sulfide sink below the chemocline. Sediments accumulating in the deep Black Sea below the sulfide chemocline have isotopic compositions that are similar to dissolved Cd in its near-surface aqueous concentration maximum. Sediments accumulating at shallower depths have lighter isotopic compositions that are likely affected by non-sulfidic burial pathways mediated by macrofaunal mixing and diagenesis of shallow burial phases. Our study shows that the isotopic composition of bulk sediments accumulating under sulfidic conditions is similar to dissolved Cd in the upper water column, supporting its use as a paleo-chemical proxy for ancient seawater as long as basin-scale controls on open ocean seawater sources are considered. We show that Cd burial in the deep Black Sea, predominantly as CdS, accounts for ∼0.5–15 % of total annual Cd burial in the global ocean.

Biogeochemical cycles↗
DOE OSTI2024

Boundary spanning increases knowledge and action on invasive species in a changing climate

Abstract Challenges associated with global change stressors on ecosystems have prompted calls to improve actionable science, including through boundary‐spanning activities, which aim to build connections and communication between researchers and natural resource practitioners. By synthesizing and translating research and practitioner knowledge, boundary‐spanning activities could support proactive, research‐informed conservation practice, but the success of these efforts is rarely evaluated. Using repeat survey data from the Northeast Regional Invasive Species and Climate Change (NE RISCC) Management Network, a boundary‐spanning organization, we evaluate whether participating in NE RISCC affected practitioners' knowledge, actions and priorities related to invasive species management under a changing climate. Our survey results suggest that practitioners who participate in NE RISCC have greater knowledge about invasive species and climate change and are incorporating climate change in more ways into their invasive species management. We also found NE RISCC membership affected the perceived usefulness of informational resources, with NE RISCC members more frequently identifying research syntheses and targeted workshops (both are common products used by NE RISCC to translate science into practice and share manager knowledge) as useful compared to non‐members. Practitioners who participate in NE RISCC also identified somewhat different research priorities, with non‐members and short‐term members more frequently identifying range‐shifting neonative species and their impacts on native communities as higher priorities compared to long‐term NE RISCC members. NE RISCC research activities and outreach materials have consistently framed range‐shifting neonative species as comparatively low risk, suggesting that this information has influenced practitioner's perception of risk. Practical implication : Although real‐world impacts of applied ecology are notoriously difficult to quantify, this analysis illustrates that if research results are actively translated, they can affect the knowledge and actions of natural resource practitioners. These impacts illustrate the potential for boundary‐spanning efforts to address other global change challenges to conservation.

Evans, Annette E.↗