Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “climate warming”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 613 records · Page 34
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Cosmogenic nuclide and solute flux data from central Cuban rivers emphasize the importance of both physical and chemical mass loss from tropical landscapes

We use 25 new measurements of in situ produced cosmogenic 26 Al and 10 Be in river sand, paired with estimates of dissolved load flux in river water, to characterize the processes and pace of landscape change in central Cuba. Long-term erosion rates inferred from 10 Be concentrations in quartz extracted from central Cuban river sand range from 3.4–189 Mg km –2 yr –1 (mean 59, median 45). Dissolved loads (10–176 Mg km –2 yr –1 ; mean 92, median 97), calculated from stream solute concentrations and modeled runoff, exceed measured cosmogenic- 10 Be-derived erosion rates in 18 of 23 basins. This disparity mandates that in this environment landscape-scale mass loss is not fully represented by the cosmogenic nuclide measurements. The 26 Al / 10 Be ratios are lower than expected for steadystate exposure or erosion in 16 of 24 samples. Depressed 26 Al/ 10 Be ratios occur in many of the basins that have the greatest disparity between dissolved loads (high) and erosion rates inferred from cosmogenic nuclide concentrations (low). Depressed 26 Al/ 10 Be ratios are consistent with the presence of a deep, mixed, regolith layer providing extended storage times on slopes and/or burial and extended storage during fluvial transport. River water chemical analyses indicate that many basins with lower 26 Al/ 10 Be ratios and high 10 Be concentrations are underlain at least in part by evaporitic rocks that rapidly dissolve. Our data show that when assessing mass loss in humid tropical landscapes, accounting for the contribution of rock dissolution at depth is particularly important. In such warm, wet climates, mineral dissolution can occur many meters below the surface, beyond the penetration depth of most cosmic rays and thus the production of most cosmogenic nuclides. Our data suggest the importance of estimating solute fluxes and measuring paired cosmogenic nuclides to better understand the processes and rates of mass transfer at a basin scale.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1989

Fluvial valleys and Martian palaeoclimates

Theoretical models of early Martian atmospheric evolution describe the maintenance of a dense CO2 atmosphere and a warm, wet climate until the end of the heavy-bombardment phase of impacting. However, the presence of very young, earthlike fluvial valleys on the northern flank of Alba Patera conflicts with this scenario. Whereas the widespread ancient Martian valleys generally have morphologies indicative of sapping erosion by the slow outflow of subsurface water, the local Alba valleys were probably formed by surface-runoff processes. Because subsurface water flow might be maintained by hydrothermal energy inputs and because surface-runoff valleys developed late in Martian history, it is not necessary to invoke drastically different planet-wide climatic conditions to explain valley development on Mars. The Alba fluvial valleys can be explained by hydrothermal activity or outflow-channel discharges that locally modified the atmosphere, including precipitation and local overland flow on low-permeability volcanic ash.

Gulick, Virginia C.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Studying the earth's poles from satellites

The use of satellite remote sensing is reviewed with respect to the investigation of polar regions and global meteorological processes. Data collected from previous and ongoing satellite missions sponsored by NASA and NOAA are discussed in terms of their ability to describe surface characteristics. Data relating to ocean/atmosphere heat transfer are obtained from microwave radiometers and synthetic aperture radars to give estimates of surface temperatures. Ocean color at several frequencies can be measured to estimate chlorophyll content, and optical and infrared sensors aid in the detection of short- and long-term variance in solar irradiance and earth radiation flux. The geophysical variables collected from satellite data at high latitudes can be used to understand the global climate, atmospheric warming, and other significant mechanisms.

Thomas, Robert H.↗
NASA NTRS1991

New Martian paradigms

Several interrelated paradigms concerning the nature and the evolution of Mars are discussed. These include an impact origin of the northern lowland, Mars as a water-rich planet, former oceans in the northern lowlands, a warm wet climate on early Mars, and the possibility of ancient life on Mars. Locations on Mars suggested for the search of possible ancient life include the heavily cratered terrain dissected by valley networks, possible lacustrine deposits in Valles Marineris, the oxidizing layer below the surface, sites along the fringes of the hypothetical northern circumpolar ocean, and in evaporite deposits.

Mcewen, Alfred S.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Chemical reaction path modeling of hydrothermal processes on Mars: Preliminary results

Hydrothermal processes are thought to have had significant roles in the development of surficial mineralogies and morphological features on Mars. For example, a significant proportion of the Martian soil could consist of the erosional products of hydrothermally altered impact melt sheets. In this model, impact-driven, vapor-dominated hydrothermal systems hydrothermally altered the surrounding rocks and transported volatiles such as S and Cl to the surface. Further support for impact-driven hydrothermal alteration on Mars was provided by studies of the Ries crater, Germany, where suevite deposits were extensively altered to montmorillonite clays by inferred low-temperature (100-130 C) hydrothermal fluids. It was also suggested that surface outflow from both impact-driven and volcano-driven hydrothermal systems could generate the valley networks, thereby eliminating the need for an early warm wet climate. We use computer-driven chemical reaction path calculation to model chemical processes which were likely associated with postulated Martian hydrothermal systems.

Plumlee, Geoffrey S.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Aquatic Plants and Wastewater Treatment (an Overview)

The technology for using water hyacinth to upgrade domestic sewage effluent from lagoons and other wastewater treatment facilities to secondary and advanced secondary standards has been sufficiently developed to be used where the climate is warm year round. The technology of using emergent plants such as bulrush combined with duckweed is also sufficiently developed to make this a viable wastewater treatment alternative. This system is suited for both temperate and semi-tropical areas found throughout most of the U.S. The newest technology in artificial marsh wastewater treatment involves the use of emergent plant roots in conjunction with high surface area rock filters. Smaller land areas are required for these systems because of the increased concentration of microorganisms associated with the rock and plant root surfaces. Approximately 75 percent less land area is required for the plant-rock system than is required for a strict artificial wetland to achieve the same level of treatment.

Wolverton, B. C.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Mars: The initial emplacement of ground ice in response to the thermal evolution of its early crust

Given the geomorphic evidence for the widespread occurrence of water and ice in the early martian crust, and the difficulty involved in accounting for this distribution given the present climate, it has been suggested that the planet's early climate was originally more Earth-like, permitting the global emplacement of crustal H2O by direct precipitation as snow or rain. The resemblance of the martian valley networks to terrestrial runoff channels, and their almost exclusive occurrence in the planet's ancient (approximately 4 billion year old) heavily cratered terrain, is often cited as evidence of just such a period. An alternative school of thought suggests that the early climate did not differ substantially from that of today. Advocates of this view find no compelling reason to invoke a warmer, wetter period to explain the origin of the valley networks. Rather, they cite evidence that the primary mechanism of valley formation was ground water sapping, a process that does not require that surface water exist in equilibrium with the atmosphere. However, while sapping may successfully explain the origin of the small valleys, it fails to address how the crust was initially charged with ice as the climate evolved towards its present state. Therefore, given the uncertainty regarding the environmental conditions that prevailed on early Mars, the initial emplacement of ground ice is considered from two perspectives: (1) that the early climate started warm and wet, but gradually cooled with time; and (2) that it never differed substantially from that of today.

Clifford, Stephen M.↗
NASA NTRS1993

The mineralogic evolution of the Martian surface through time: Implications from chemical reaction path modeling studies

Chemical reaction path calculations were used to model the minerals that might have formed at or near the Martian surface as a result of volcano or meteorite impact driven hydrothermal systems; weathering at the Martian surface during an early warm, wet climate; and near-zero or sub-zero C brine-regolith reactions in the current cold climate. Although the chemical reaction path calculations carried out do not define the exact mineralogical evolution of the Martian surface over time, they do place valuable geochemical constraints on the types of minerals that formed from an aqueous phase under various surficial and geochemically complex conditions.

Plumlee, G. S.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Magmatic Intrusions and a Hydrothermal Origin for Fluvial Valleys on Mars

Numerical models of Martian hydrothermal systems demonstrate that systems associated with magmatic intrusions greater than several hundred cubic kilometers can provide sufficient groundwater outflow to form the observed fluvial valleys, if subsurface permeability exceeds about 1.0 darcy. Groundwater outflow increases with increasing intrusion volume and subsurface permeability and is relatively insensitive to intrusion depth and subsurface porosity within the range considered here. Hydrothermally-derived fluids can melt through 1 to 2 km thick ice-rich permafrost layers in several thousand years. Hydrothermal systems thus provide a viable alternative to rainfall for providing surface water for valley formation. This mechanism can form fluvial valleys not only during the postulated early warm, wet climatic epoch, but also during more recent epochs when atmospheric conditions did not favor atmospheric cycling of water. The clustered distribution of the valley networks on a given geologic surface or terrain unit of Mars may also be more compatible with localized, hydrothermally-driven groundwater outflow than regional rainfall. Hydrothermal centers on Mars may have provided appropriate environments for the initiation of life or final oases for the long-term persistence of life.

Gulick, Virginia C↗
NASA NTRS2001

Dry Mars: Parched Rocks and Fallen Dust

While "following the water" to find life on Mars, it is easy to overlook evidence that Mars is harshly dry, and to neglect ideas that do not invoke water. Direct evidence for a dry Mars comes from the ALH 84001 meteorite, which has seen little or no liquid water during its last 3.9 billion years on Mars. Its aridity is difficult to reconcile with a Mars of abundant near-surface surface water or with episodes of warm wet climate. Alternative scenarios are also possible, even likely, for the martian gullies and debris flows that have been cited as evidence of liquid water. It is reasonable that the gullies flows are the remnants of massive dust avalanches, comparable to large climax snow avalanches seen on Earth. Mars' surface is now desiccated, and at least part of it has been equally desiccated for the past 3.9 billion years. With this background, and the wealth of atmospheric, imaging, and chemical data available from Mars, one must be very cautious in evaluating claims for liquid water recently at or near Mars' surface. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Treiman, Allan H.↗
NASA NTRS2005

III-V Compound Detectors for CO2 DIAL Measurements

Profiling of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is important for understanding the natural carbon cycle on Earth and its influence on global warming and climate change. Differential absorption lidar is a powerful remote sensing technique used for profiling and monitoring atmospheric constituents. Recently there has been an interest to apply this technique, at the 2 m wavelength, for investigating atmospheric CO2. This drives the need for high quality detectors at this wavelength. Although 2 m detectors are commercially available, the quest for a better detector is still on. The detector performance, regarding quantum efficiency, gain and associated noise, affects the DIAL signal-to-noise ratio and background signal, thereby influencing the instrument sensitivity and dynamic range. Detectors based on the III-V based compound materials shows a strong potential for such application. In this paper the detector requirements for a long range CO2 DIAL profiles will be discussed. These requirements were compared to newly developed III-V compound infrared detectors. The performance of ternary InGaSb pn junction devices will be presented using different substrates, as well as quaternary InGaAsSb npn structure. The performance study was based on experimental characterization of the devices dark current, spectral response, gain and noise. The final results are compared to the current state-of-the-art InGaAs technology. Npn phototransistor structure showed the best performance, regarding the internal gain and therefore the device signal-to-noise ratio. 2-micrometers detectivity as high as 3.9 x 10(exp 11) cmHz(sup 1/2)/W was obtained at a temperature of -20 C and 4 V bias voltage. This corresponds to a responsivity of 2650 A/W with about 60% quantum efficiency.

Refaat, Tamer F.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Water Vapor Sensors Go Sky-High to Assure Aircraft Safety

JPL used a special tunable diode laser, which NASA scientists could tune to different wavelengths, like a radio being tuned to different frequencies, to accurately target specific molecules and detect small traces of gas. This tunable diode laser was designed to emit near-infrared light at wavelengths absorbed by the gas or gases being detected. The light energy being absorbed by the target gas is related to the molecules present. This is usually measured in parts per million or parts per billion. Multiple measurements are made every second, making the system quick to respond to variations in the target gas. NASA scientists developed this technology as part of the 1999 Mars Polar Lander mission to explore the possibility of life-giving elements on Mars. NASA has since used the tunable diode laser-based gas sensor on aircraft and on balloons to successfully study weather and climate, global warming, emissions from aircraft, and numerous other areas where chemical gas analysis is needed. SpectraSensors, Inc., was formed in 1999 as a spinoff company of JPL, to commercialize tunable diode laser-based analyzers for industrial gas-sensing applications (Spinoff 2000). Now, the San Dimas, California-based firm has come back to the market with a new product featuring the NASA-developed instrument for atmospheric monitoring. This instrument is now helping aircraft avoid hazardous weather conditions and enabling the National Weather Service to provide more accurate weather forecasts.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2010

Warm Season Subseasonal Variability and Climate Extremes in the Northern Hemisphere: The Role of Stationary Rossby Waves

This study examines the nature of boreal summer subseasonal atmospheric variability based on the new NASA Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) for the period 1979-2010. An analysis of the June, July and August subseasonal 250hPa v-wind anomalies shows distinct Rossby wave-like structures that appear to be guided by the mean jets. On monthly subseasonal time scales, the leading waves (the first 10 rotated empirical orthogonal functions or REOFs of the 250hPa v-wind) explain about 50% of the Northern Hemisphere vwind variability, and account for more than 30% (60%) of the precipitation (surface temperature) variability over a number of regions of the northern middle and high latitudes, including the U.S. northern Great Plains, parts of Canada, Europe, and Russia. The first REOF in particular, consists of a Rossby wave that extends across northern Eurasia where it is a dominant contributor to monthly surface temperature and precipitation variability, and played an important role in the 2003 European and 2010 Russian heat waves. While primarily subseasonal in nature, the Rossby waves can at times have a substantial seasonal mean component. This is exemplified by REOF 4 which played a major role in the development of the most intense anomalies of the U.S. 1988 drought (during June) and the 1993 flooding (during July), though differed in the latter event by also making an important contribution to the seasonal mean anomalies. A stationary wave model (SWM) is used to reproduce some of the basic features of the observed waves and provide insight into the nature of the forcing. In particular, the responses to a set of idealized forcing functions are used to map the optimal forcing patterns of the leading waves. Also, experiments to reproduce the observed waves with the SWM using MERRA-based estimates of the forcing indicate that the wave forcing is dominated by sub-monthly vorticity transients.

Schubert, Siegfried↗
NASA NTRS2009

Identifying the Molecular Origin of Global Warming

We have investigated the physical characteristics of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to assess which properties are most important in determining the efficiency of a GHG. Chlorofluorcarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), nitrogen fluorides, and various other known atmospheric trace molecules have been included in this study. Compounds containing the halogens F or Cl have in common very polar X-F or X-Cl bonds, particularly the X-F bonds. It is shown that as more F atoms bond to the same central atom, the bond dipoles become larger as a result of the central atom becoming more positive. This leads to a linear increase in the total or integrated XF bond dipole derivatives for the molecule, which leads to a non-linear (quadratic) increase in infrared (IR) intensity. Moreover, virtually all of the X-F bond stretches occur in the atmospheric IR window as opposed to X-H stretches, which do not occur in the atmospheric window. It is concluded that molecules possessing several F atoms will always have a large radiative forcing parameter in the calculation of their global warming potential. Some of the implications for global warming and climate change are discussed.

Bera, Partha P.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Expanding the Spatiotemporal Range of Soil Moisture Analysis Utilizing NASA Earth Observations and In Situ Measurements

Drought can cause immense agricultural and ecological damage resulting in high mitigation and compensation costs. Climate variability in future decades is expected to cause severe drought conditions and threaten necessary water resources. Stakeholders seek to implement effective drought assessments in preparation for potential economic and environmental damage invoked by drought. Although in-situ measurements are accurate, the current infrastructure is spatially limited and costly to maintain. A framework was created to compare modeled, satellite and in-situ data in drought monitoring. Here we show that the comparison of in-situ and remotely sensed soil moisture (SM) measurements can increase the spatiotemporal range of SM assessments. Data collected between 2003 and 2021 by NASA’s SPoRT Land Information System (SPoRT-LIS) and Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission were standardized and compared with in-situ data provided through the Illinois Climate Network (WARM). Statistical analysis results including the Pearson correlation coefficient (r), root mean squared error, mean absolute error and others were calculated to compare the WARM measurements to the SMAP and SPoRT-LIS products. Results indicate that both satellite products demonstrate seasonally variable bias that is not present in the in-situ measurements. Bias was highest in the winter months and lowest in the late summer and early fall months in both satellite datasets. Overall, WARM-SPoRT comparisons resulted in lower seasonal variability. However, on average, the SMAP comparison demonstrated higher correlation values and lower error values. The WARM-SMAP average correlation (r) was 0.61 compared to the WARM-SPoRT average correlation (r) value of 0.54. Average mean absolute error values calculated for the SMAP and SPoRT comparisons were 0.07 and 0.08 percent soil moisture by volume, respectively. These analyses suggest integrating in-situ measurements and those provided by NASA Earth observations can be utilized in a multi-faceted SM evaluation, a valuable contribution to drought monitoring and water resource decision making.

Emma P Myrick↗
NASA NTRS2023

Farming the Future: An Approach to Precision Agriculture through UAS-based Thermal Scanners

Food waste is a global issue, and it is extremely prevalent in the United States (U.S.) where one-third of the food produced goes to waste. The most common item found in landfills is food waste, which is why it is one of the most significant contributors to global warming with 8%. These negative environmental impacts also return to affect agriculture, as global warming changes climate patterns and adversely affects farming practices. In addition, the resources that were used to grow the produce are also wasted, including money, water, and time. To tackle this problem at its roots, this paper includes a design of an unmanned thermal drone that can be a farmer’s third eye. This drone will scan over farms and provide data to the farmers about the health, ripeness, and moisture content of their crops through mounted thermal cameras and artificial intelligence. The information provided via these drones will help farmers to make more informed decisions about their crops, decreasing the chances that the crops will go bad in the field. These drones will be one of the first steps in preventing food waste, which will, in turn, help to reduce global emissions that result from farming.

UAS supported agriculture↗