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At least 577 records · Page 32

Knowledge-informed deep learning for hydrological model calibration: an application to Coal Creek Watershed in Colorado

Abstract. Deep learning (DL)-assisted inverse mapping has shown promise in hydrological model calibration by directly estimating parameters from observations. However, the increasing computational demand for running the state-of-the-art hydrological model limits sufficient ensemble runs for its calibration. In this work, we present a novel knowledge-informed deep learning method that can efficiently conduct the calibration using a few hundred realizations. The method involves two steps. First, we determine decisive model parameters from a complete parameter set based on the mutual information (MI) between model responses and each parameter computed by a limited number of realizations (∼50). Second, we perform more ensemble runs (e.g., several hundred) to generate the training sets for the inverse mapping, which selects informative model responses for estimating each parameter using MI-based parameter sensitivity. We applied this new DL-based method to calibrate a process-based integrated hydrological model, the Advanced Terrestrial Simulator (ATS), at Coal Creek Watershed, CO. The calibration is performed against observed stream discharge (Q) and remotely sensed evapotranspiration (ET) from the water year 2017 to 2019. Preliminary MI analysis on 50 realizations resulted in a down-selection of 7 out of 14 ATS model parameters. Then, we performed a complete MI analysis on 396 realizations and constructed the inverse mapping from informative responses to each of the selected parameters using a deep neural network. Compared with calibration using observations covering all time steps, the new inverse mapping improves parameter estimations, thus enhancing the performance of ATS forward model runs. The Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) of streamflow predictions increases from 0.53 to 0.8 when calibrating against Q alone. Using ET observations, on the other hand, does not show much improvement on the performance of ATS modeling mainly due to both the uncertainty of the remotely sensed product and the insufficient coverage of the model ET ensemble in capturing the observation. By using observed Q only, we further performed a multiyear analysis and show that Q is best simulated (NSE > 0.8) by including in the calibration the dry-year flow dynamics that show more sensitivity to subsurface characteristics than the other wet years. Moreover, when continuing the forward runs till the end of 2021, the calibrated models show similar simulation performances during this evaluation period as the calibration period, demonstrating the ability of the estimated parameters in capturing climate sensitivity. Our success highlights the importance of leveraging data-driven knowledge in DL-assisted hydrological model calibration.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Filament Formation in TaO x Thin Films for Memristor Device Application: Modeling Electron Energy Loss Spectra and Electron Transport

Abstract Although understanding filament formation in oxide‐based memristive devices by theory has emerged, there are still fundamental unanswered questions. Importantly, for practical application of thin films the material in its amorphous state is to be considered, but mostly lacking so far, and details on sub‐stoichiometry are also scarce. To gain insight into the optical and electronic properties of sub‐stoichiometric amorphous tantalum oxide (TaO x ), the electron energy loss spectrum (EELS) of model systems is characterized theoretically and electron transport characteristics are analyzed in detail. Calculated blue‐shifts by increasing sub‐stoichiometry explained the measurements, potentially suggesting estimation of oxygen vacancy concentrations through EEL spectra. Electron transport results based on TaO x material models validated by EELS measurements show that oxygen vacancy filamentary paths are initiated at low bias upon increasing sub‐stoichiometry yet noting an interplay with the local amorphous structure. Contact resistances at interfaces of the TaO x switching layer and a tantalum scavenging layer or titanium nitride electrode are quantified, indicating the possibility for either oxygen vacancy‐ or metal cluster‐based conduction mechanisms at the interface. The computational work, combined with experimental characterization for validation, provides a basis for investigating effects of sub‐stoichiometry on filament formation in TaO x thin film memristive devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Binary operations on neuromorphic hardware with application to linear algebraic operations and stochastic equations

Abstract Non-von Neumann computational hardware, based on neuron-inspired, non-linear elements connected via linear, weighted synapses—so-called neuromorphic systems—is a viable computational substrate. Since neuromorphic systems have been shown to use less power than CPUs for many applications, they are of potential use in autonomous systems such as robots, drones, and satellites, for which power resources are at a premium. The power used by neuromorphic systems is approximately proportional to the number of spiking events produced by neurons on-chip. However, typical information encoding on these chips is in the form of firing rates that unarily encode information. That is, the number of spikes generated by a neuron is meant to be proportional to an encoded value used in a computation or algorithm. Unary encoding is less efficient (produces more spikes) than binary encoding. For this reason, here we present neuromorphic computational mechanisms for implementing binary two’s complement operations. We use the mechanisms to construct a neuromorphic, binary matrix multiplication algorithm that may be used as a primitive for linear differential equation integration, deep networks, and other standard calculations. We also construct a random walk circuit and apply it in Brownian motion simulations. We study how both algorithms scale in circuit size and iteration time.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Machine learning enabled discovery of application dependent design principles for two-dimensional materials

Abstract The unique electronic and mechanical properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials make them promising next-generation candidates for a variety of applications. Large-scale searches for high-performing 2D materials are limited to calculating descriptors with computationally demanding first-principles density functional theory. In this work, we alleviate this issue by extending and generalizing crystal graph convolutional neural networks to systems with planar periodicity and train an ensemble of models to predict thermodynamic, mechanical and electronic properties. We carry out a screening of nearly 45,000 structures for two separate applications: mechanical strength and photovoltaics. By collecting statistics of the screened candidates, we investigate structural and compositional design principles that impact the properties of the structures surveyed. Our approach recovers some well-accepted design rules: hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites with lead and tin tend to be good candidates for solar cell applications and titanium based MXenes usually have high stiffness coefficients. Interestingly, other members of the group 4 elements also contribute to increasing the mechanical strength of MXenes. For all-inorganic perovskites, we discover some compositions that have not been deeply studied in the field of photovoltaics and thus open up paths for further investigation. We open-source the code-base to spur further development in this space.

Venturi, Victor (ORCID:0000000156727549)↗

Induced Ferromagnetism in Epitaxial Uranium Dioxide Thin Films

Abstract Actinide materials have various applications that range from nuclear energy to quantum computing. Most current efforts have focused on bulk actinide materials. Tuning functional properties by using strain engineering in epitaxial thin films is largely lacking. Using uranium dioxide (UO 2 ) as a model system, in this work, the authors explore strain engineering in actinide epitaxial thin films and investigate the origin of induced ferromagnetism in an antiferromagnet UO 2 . It is found that UO 2+ x thin films are hypostoichiometric ( x <0) with in‐plane tensile strain, while they are hyperstoichiometric ( x >0) with in‐plane compressive strain. Different from strain engineering in non‐actinide oxide thin films, the epitaxial strain in UO 2 is accommodated by point defects such as vacancies and interstitials due to the low formation energy. Both epitaxial strain and strain relaxation induced point defects such as oxygen/uranium vacancies and oxygen/uranium interstitials can distort magnetic structure and result in magnetic moments. This work reveals the correlation among strain, point defects and ferromagnetism in strain engineered UO 2+ x thin films and the results offer new opportunities to understand the influence of coupled order parameters on the emergent properties of many other actinide thin films.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Molecular‐Level Insight into the Chlorofluorocarbons Adsorption by Defective Covalent Organic Polymers

Abstract Halocarbons have important industrial applications, but because of their contribution to global warming and the fact that they can cause ozone depletion, they are considered highly toxic. Hence, the techniques that can capture and recover the used halocarbons with energy‐efficient methods have been recently received greater attention. In this contribution, we report the capture of dichlorodifluoromethane (R12), which has high global warming and ozone depletion potential, using covalent organic polymers (COPs). The defect‐engineered COPs were synthesized and demonstrated outstanding sorption capacities, ~226 wt % of R12 combined with linear‐shaped adsorption isotherms. We further identified the plausible microscopic adsorption mechanism of the investigated COPs via grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations applied to non‐defective and a collection of atomistic models of the defective COPs. The modeling work suggests that significant R12 adsorption performance is attributed to a gradual increment of porosities due to isolated/interconnected micro‐/meso‐pore channels and the change of the long‐range ordering of both COPs. The successive hierarchical‐pore‐filling mechanism promotes R12 molecular adsorption via moderate van der Waals adsorbate‐adsorbent interactions in the micropores of both COPs at low pressure followed by adsorbate‐adsorbate interactions in the extra‐voids created at moderate to high pressure ranges. This continuous pore‐filling mechanism makes defective COPs as promising sorbents for halocarbon adsorption.

Shen, Jian↗

Smectic C Self‐Assembly in Mesogen‐Free Liquid Crystalline Chiral Polyethers with Sulfonylated Methyl‐Branched Side Chains

Abstract To realize advanced electrical applications for ferroelectric liquid crystalline polymers, high spontaneous polarization ( P s ) is highly desired. However, current ferroelectric liquid crystalline polymers usually exhibit a low P s . In this work, mesogen‐free, chiral polyethers containing sulfonylated methyl‐branched alkyl side chains with a (CH 2 ) 3 O spacer between the sulfonyl and the branched alkyl groups are designed and synthesized. In contrast to the linear n ‐alkyl side chains, the methyl‐branched alkyl side chains induce chain tilting in the smectic layers. When double chirality exists in both the main chain and the side chains, a crystalline structure is observed after mechanical stretching. Intriguingly, when single chirality exists in either the backbone or the side chains, a liquid crystalline smectic C phase is obtained. The electric displacement–electric field study, however, does not show typical ferroelectric switching, although the dielectric constants are relatively high for these liquid crystalline polymers. This is likely because the dipole–dipole interactions among neighboring sulfonyl groups along the main chain are so strong that the ferroelectric switching is hindered in the samples. For the future work, it is desired to weaken the dipole–dipole interaction to achieve ferroelectricity in these mesogen‐free liquid crystalline polymers.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

The Climatic Impact‐Driver Framework for Assessment of Risk‐Relevant Climate Information

Abstract The climate science and applications communities need a broad and demand‐driven concept to assess physical climate conditions that are relevant for impacts on human and natural systems. Here, we augment the description of the “climatic impact‐driver” (CID) approach adopted in the Working Group I (WGI) contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report. CIDs are broadly defined as “physical climate system conditions (e.g., means, events, and extremes) that affect an element of society or ecosystems. Depending on system tolerance, CIDs and their changes can be detrimental, beneficial, neutral, or a mixture of each across interacting system elements and regions.” We give background information on the IPCC Report process that led to the development of the 7 CID types (heat and cold, wet and dry, wind, snow and ice, coastal, open ocean, and other) and 33 distinct CID categories, each of which may be evaluated using a variety of CID indices. This inventory of CIDs was co‐developed with WGII to provide a useful collaboration point between physical climate scientists and impacts/risk experts to assess the specific climatic phenomena driving sectoral responses and identify relevant CID indices within each sector. The CID Framework ensures that a comprehensive set of climatic conditions informs adaptation planning and risk management and may also help prioritize improvements in modeling sectoral dynamics that depend on climatic conditions. CIDs contribute to climate services by increasing coherence and neutrality when identifying and communicating relevant findings from physical climate research to risk assessment and planning activities.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

High-throughput terahertz imaging: progress and challenges

Abstract Many exciting terahertz imaging applications, such as non-destructive evaluation, biomedical diagnosis, and security screening, have been historically limited in practical usage due to the raster-scanning requirement of imaging systems, which impose very low imaging speeds. However, recent advancements in terahertz imaging systems have greatly increased the imaging throughput and brought the promising potential of terahertz radiation from research laboratories closer to real-world applications. Here, we review the development of terahertz imaging technologies from both hardware and computational imaging perspectives. We introduce and compare different types of hardware enabling frequency-domain and time-domain imaging using various thermal, photon, and field image sensor arrays. We discuss how different imaging hardware and computational imaging algorithms provide opportunities for capturing time-of-flight, spectroscopic, phase, and intensity image data at high throughputs. Furthermore, the new prospects and challenges for the development of future high-throughput terahertz imaging systems are briefly introduced.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Solving differential‐algebraic equations in power system dynamic analysis with quantum computing

Abstract Power system dynamics are generally modeled by high dimensional non‐linear differential‐algebraic equations (DAEs) given a large number of components forming the network. These DAEs' complexity can grow exponentially due to the increasing penetration of distributed energy resources, whereas their computation time becomes sensitive due to the increasing interconnection of the power grid with other energy systems. This paper demonstrates the use of quantum computing algorithms to solve DAEs for power system dynamic analysis. We leverage a symbolic programming framework to equivalently convert the power system's DAEs into ordinary differential equations (ODEs) using index reduction methods and then encode their data into qubits using amplitude encoding. The system non‐linearity is captured by Hamiltonian simulation with truncated Taylor expansion so that state variables can be updated by a quantum linear equation solver. Our results show that quantum computing can solve the power system's DAEs accurately with a computational complexity polynomial in the logarithm of the system dimension. We also illustrate the use of recent advanced tools in scientific machine learning for implementing complex computing concepts, that is, Taylor expansion, DAEs/ODEs transformation, and quantum computing solver with abstract representation for power engineering applications.

computational complexity↗

Full time-dependent SOLPS-ITER simulation of the SPARC tokamak: actuator design for particle and divertor condition control *

Abstract This paper presents the application of full time-dependent SOLPS-ITER simulations for actuator design in the SPARC tokamak. This study employs both the EIRENE module, a neutral solver, and the B2.5 plasma module in a time-dependent mode. This is in contrast to most SOLPS simulations, which focus on steady-state solutions, where the neutral distribution is evolved without any time limit or for a time step of 1 ⋅ 10 − 3 second, which is several orders of magnitude larger than the fluid plasma time step. The time-dependent EIRENE was tested with a fixed B2.5 background and compared with a simple conductance based model in a simplified pump chamber geometry. This comparison aimed to verify the reliability of the neutral relaxation timescale derived from the time-dependent EIRENE. Subsequently, a full time-dependent simulation was performed in a realistic geometry, with the Monte-Carlo neutral time step synchronized with the plasma fluid time step. The numerical setup of the code, including relative time steps and the size of the census data used to store Monte-Carlo particle information is considered. The full-time dependent simulations are then applied to inform the design of the SPARC louver structure, which affects divertor plasma parameters by regulating the neutral conductance from the divertor to the pump. The response of the plasma and neutral parameters was captured on a timescale that enables the design of the actuator to consider time-dependent control capability. It was found that changing the louver opacity has an equivalent effect as varying the gas throughput via puff actuation. Therefore, equivalent divertor plasma conditions can be obtained from both actuators, while the neutral pressure distribution in the pump and divertor differs for each actuator.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Focused‐beam X‐ray fluorescence and diffraction microtomographies for mineralogical and chemical characterization of unsectioned extraterrestrial samples

Abstract This study describes the application of new synchrotron X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) and diffraction (XRD) microtomographies for the 3‐D visualization of chemical and mineralogical variations in unsectioned extraterrestrial samples. These improved methods have been applied to three compositionally diverse chondritic meteorite samples that were between 300 and 400 μm in diameter, including samples prepared from fragments of the CR2 chondrite LaPaz Icefield (LAP) 02342, H5 chondrite MacAlpine Hills (MAC) 88203, and the CM2 chondrite Murchison. The synchrotron‐based XRF and XRD tomographies used are focused‐beam techniques that measure the intensities of fluorescent and diffracted X‐rays in a sample simultaneously during irradiation by a high‐energy microfocused incident X‐ray beam. Measured sinograms of the emitted and diffracted intensities were then tomographically reconstructed to generate 2‐D slices of XRF and XRD intensity through the sample, with reconstructed pixel resolution of 1–2 μm, defined by the resolution of the focused incident X‐ray beam. For sample LAP 02342, primary mineral phases that were visualized in reconstructed slices using these techniques included isolated grains of α‐Fe, orthopyroxene, and olivine. For our sample of MAC 88203, XRF/XRD tomography allowed visualization of forsteritic olivine as a primary mineral phase, a vitrified fusion crust at the sample surface, identification of localized Cr‐rich spinels at spatial resolutions of several micrometers, and imaging of a plagioclase‐rich glassy matrix. In the sample of Murchison, major identifiable phases include clinoenstatite‐ and olivine‐rich chondrules, variable serpentine matrix minerals and small Cr‐rich spinels. Most notable in the tomographic analysis of Murchison is the ability to quantitatively distinguish and visualize the complex mixture of serpentine‐group minerals and associated tochilinite–cronstedtite intergrowths. These methods provide new opportunities for spatially resolved characterization of sample texture, mineralogy, crystal structure, and chemical state in unsectioned samples. This provides researchers an ability to characterize such samples internally with minimal disruption of sample micro‐structures and chemistry, possibly without the need for sample extraction from some types of sampling and capture media.

Geochemistry & Geophysics↗