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At least 667 records · Page 37

Modeling Interplanetary Expansion and Deformation of CMEs with ANTEATR-PARADE II: Sensitivity to Input Parameters

Space weather predictions related to coronal mass ejections (CMEs) requires understanding how a CME is initiated and how its properties change as it propagates. While some parameters can be measured relatively easily near the Sun, others are much harder to disentangle from projected coronagraph images. Most predictions have been limited to the arrival time of a CME and include little to no information about the CME's internal properties. ANTEATR-PARADE represents the most thorough description of the interplanetary evolution of CMEs in a highly computationally-efficient model. (Kay & Nieves-Chinchilla, 2020) presents the derivation of this model, where we have added an elliptical cross section to the original arrival time model ANTEATR and introduced internal magnetic forces that, combined with the drag, can alter the shape of the central axis and cross section. ANTEATR-PARADE results include the transit time of CMEs, as well as the shape and size, propagation and expansion velocities, density, and magnetic field properties upon impact. We determine the dependence of each output on each of the ANTEATR-PARADE input parameters. For a fast CME, we see that the transit time and propagation velocity depend most strongly on inputs that modify the drag force whereas the inputs affecting the magnetic forces determine the expansion of the CME. We extend to other CMEs and _nd that the sensitivities change with CME scale. Magnetic forces become more important for an average CME whereas the drag force becomes more important for an extreme CME.

Coronal mass ejections↗

Development of Machine Learning Algorithms to Segment and Study Images of Astromaterial Samples

Introduction: Micrometer-scale chemical analyses of chondritic meteorites and mission-returned asteroid samples can reveal details of the physical and chemical processes operating in the early solar system, including processes that gave rise to planets, moons, and minor bodies. These primitive astromaterials are comprised of chondrules, calcium- and aluminum-rich inclusions (CAI), and many other silicates, oxides, metals, sulfides, and fine-grained materials. The chemical and mineralogical complexity of these samples, vast populations of different components, and heterogeneity across mm to km scales, all limit our understanding of the origin and evolution of these materials. Here, we describe recent efforts to use machine learning techniques to automate the segmentation of chemical maps of chondritic meteorites, designed to aid studies of asteroid samples returned by spacecraft. By automating the task of segmentation it will become possible to rapidly analyze and interpret the sizes, shapes, mineralogy, chemistry, and other properties of every chondrule, calcium- and aluminum-rich inclusion (CAI) and other clast within and between asteroid samples. Sample return missions significantly accelerate and heighten the need to develop such new data analysis techniques, and associated data repositories. Techniques: Neural networks require abundant training data, i.e. images which have been segmented by a human user. We have manually segmented data available from previous petrologic and chemical work at NASA Johnson Space Center and the American Museum of Natural History [1-4]. These data were derived from energy- and wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS, WDS) mapping of samples from many chondrite groups. The Deeplabv3+ [5] neural network architecture was trained on human-labeled masks and used to create machine-labeled masks. Several different algorithms were investigated, with inputs ranging from common RGB image formats through to hyperspectral datasets, with raw data comprising greyscale maps of Mg, Ca, and Al, with or without Si, Fe, Ti for both EDS and WDS data, and extending to other elements in EDS only. Each greyscale image was paired with a binary mask for each labelled particle type. Results: The trained algorithms can segment (Fig 1), classify, and measure the dimensions of thousands of particles in chemical maps of a standard 1-inch round petrographic section in seconds to minutes, rather than many hours needed by a human. Accuracy of the algorithms varied from chondrite to chondrite and across particle types. Further results and details of the algorithms will be presented at the workshop. Future directions: Machine learning has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of complex particle populations contained within primitive astromaterial, with segmentation being a critical first step. Example applications include better understanding of particle transport, nebular reservoirs, parent body accretion, and a deeper understanding of the relationships between particle populations and bulk rock elemental and isotopic compositions. In addition to benefits that machine learning can bring to individual researchers, building a community data repository of thousands to millions of particles across hundreds of samples will open up many other possibilities. For example, with a large enough dataset it will be possible to search for exceptionally closely matching particles across disparate samples. Such a capability would enable a single CAI from OSIRISREx or Hayabusa/II samples to be matched to chondritic CAIs that exhibit near-identical size, texture, and mineralogy, down to the level of similar core phenocrysts, zonation, and rim sequences. Such comparative analyses will help to disentangle precursor chemistry, chronology, gas/dust reservoirs during heating, and accretion. Such an endeavor would be impossible without machine learning and a large community data repository of astromaterial chemical/mineralogic maps.

Machine Learning↗

Photoperiod Decelerates the Advance of Spring Phenology of Six Deciduous Tree Species under Climate Warming

Vegetation phenology in spring has substantially advanced under climate warming, consequently shifting the seasonality of ecosystem process and altering biosphere-atmosphere feedbacks. However, whether and to what extent photoperiod (i.e., daylength) affects the phenological advancement is unclear, leading to large uncertainties in projecting future phenological changes. Here we examined the photoperiod effect on spring phenology at a regional scale using in situ observation of six deciduous tree species from the Pan European Phenological Network during 1980-2016. We disentangled the photoperiod effect from the temperature effect (i.e., forcing and chilling) by utilizing the unique topography of the northern Alps of Europe (i.e., varying daylength but uniform temperature distribution across latitudes) and examining phenological changes across latitudes. We found prominent photoperiod-induced shifts in spring leaf-out across latitudes (up to 1.7 daysper latitudinal degree). Photoperiod regulates spring phenology by delaying early leaf-out and advancing late leaf-out caused by temperature variations. Based on these findings, we proposed two phenological models that consider the photoperiod effect through different mechanisms and compared them with a chilling model. We found that photoperiod regulation would slow down the advance in spring leaf-out under projected climate warming and thus mitigate the increasing frost risk in spring that deciduous forests will face in the future. Our findings identify photoperiod as a critical but understudied factor influencing spring phenology, suggesting that the responses of terrestrial ecosystem processes to climate warming are likely to be overestimated without adequately considering the photoperiod effect.

Lin Meng↗

Extragalactic Magnetism with SOFIA (Legacy Program). I. The Magnetic Field in the Multiphase Interstellar Medium of M51*

The recent availability of high-resolution far-infrared (FIR) polarization observations of galaxies using HAWC+/SOFIA has facilitated studies of extragalactic magnetic fields in the cold and dense molecular disks. We investigate whether any significant structural differences are detectable in the kiloparsec-scale magnetic field of the grand design face-on spiral galaxy M51 when traced within the diffuse (radio) and the dense and cold (FIR) interstellar medium (ISM). Our analysis reveals a complex scenario where radio and FIR polarization observations do not necessarily trace the same magnetic field structure. We find that the magnetic field in the arms is wrapped tighter at 154 μm than at 3 and 6 cm; statistically significant lower values for the magnetic pitch angle are measured at FIR in the outskirts (R ≥ 7 kpc) of the galaxy. This difference is not detected in the interarm region. We find strong correlations of the polarization fraction and total intensity at FIR and radio with the gas column density and 12CO(1–0) velocity dispersion. We conclude that the arms show a relative increase of small-scale turbulent B-fields at regions with increasing column density and dispersion velocities of the molecular gas. No correlations are found with H i neutral gas. The star formation rate shows a clear correlation with the radio polarized intensity, which is not found in FIR, pointing to a small-scale dynamo-driven B-field amplification scenario. This work shows that multiwavelength polarization observations are key to disentangling the interlocked relation between star formation, magnetic fields, and gas kinematics in the multiphase ISM.

Spiral galaxies↗

Hot planets around cool stars – two short-period mini-Neptunes transiting the late K-dwarf TOI-1260

We present the discovery and characterization of two sub-Neptunes in close orbits, as well as a tentative outer planet of a similar size, orbiting TOI-1260 – a low metallicity K6 V dwarf star. Photometry from Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite(TESS) yields radii of R(b) = 2.33 ± 0.10 and R(c) = 2.82 ± 0.15 Rꚛ, and periods of 3.13 and 7.49 d for TOI-1260 b and TOI-1260 c, respectively. We combined the TESS data with a series of ground-based follow-up observations to characterize the planetary system. From HARPS-N high-precision radial velocities we obtain M(b) = 8.6(+1.4,−1.5) and M(c) = 11.8(+3.4,−3.2) Mꚛ. The star is moderately active with a complex activity pattern, which necessitated the use of Gaussian process regression for both the light-curve detrending and the radial velocity modelling, in the latter case guided by suitable activity indicators. We successfully disentangle the stellar-induced signal from the planetary signals, underlining the importance and usefulness of the Gaussian process approach. We test the system’s stability against atmospheric photoevaporation and find that the TOI-1260 planets are classic examples of the structure and composition ambiguity typical for the 2–3 Rꚛ range.

I Y Georgieva↗

The Origins of Long-Term Variability in Martian Upper Atmospheric Densities

We quantify and interpret the long-term variability of dayside Martian upper thermosphere and lower exosphere densities within 180–275 km altitudes. Atmospheric CO2, N2, O, and Ar densities are from NASA Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) observations during the time period of 2015–2020 near solar minimum. These neutral measurements, together with contemporaneous solar irradiance measurements at Mars, enable disentanglement of the orbital effect (due to the annual Sun-Mars distance change with solar longitude) and the solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) effect in atmospheric density variations. The relative importance of these two effects, which is obtained using a statistical method of Dominance Analysis, reveals the competition between the indirect effect of solar infrared (via the upward coupling from the middle atmosphere) and the direct effect of solar EUV (due to local heating). Our results show that, unlike the orbital effect which is relatively constant at low altitudes and then decreases with increasing altitude, the solar EUV effect nearly monotonically increases. These two effects are comparable at high altitudes (about 240/270/205 km for CO2/N2/O). This analysis is extended to include long-term exospheric mass density estimates near 400 km from Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey data, with a focus on representative solar cycle phases of solar minimum and maximum. It is found that near 400 km, the orbital effect is always a key driver regardless of the solar cycle phase, while the solar EUV effect plays a minor role during solar minimum and is greatly enhanced and slightly exceeds the orbital effect during solar maximum.

Xiaohua Fang↗

Exploring the MeV Sky With A Combined Coded Mask and Compton Telescope: the Galactic Explorer With A Coded Aperture Mask Compton Telescope (GECCO)

The sky at MeV energies is currently poorly explored. Here we present an innovative mission concept that builds upon the heritage of past and current missions improving the sensitivity and, very importantly, the angular resolution. This consists in combining a Compton telescope and a coded-mask telescope. We delineate the motivation for such a concept and we define the scientific goals for such a mission. The Galactic Explorer with a Coded Aperture Mask Compton Telescope (GECCO) is a novel concept for a next-generation telescope covering hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray energies. The potential and importance of this approach that bridges the observational gap in the MeV energy range are presented. With the unprecedented angular resolution of the coded mask telescope combined with the sensitive Compton telescope, a mission such as GECCO can disentangle the discrete sources from the truly diffuse emission. Individual Galactic and extragalactic sources are detected. This also allows to understand the gamma-ray Galactic center excess and the Fermi Bubbles, and to trace the low-energy cosmic rays, and their propagation in the Galaxy. Nuclear and annihilation lines are spatially and spectrally resolved from the continuum emission and from sources, addressing the role of low-energy cosmic rays in star formation and galaxy evolution, the origin of the 511 keV positron line, fundamental physics, and the chemical enrichment in the Galaxy. Such an instrument also detects explosive transient gamma-ray sources, which, in turn, enables identifying and studying the astrophysical objects that produce gravitational waves and neutrinos in a multi-messenger context. By looking at a poorly explored energy band it also allows discoveries of new astrophysical phenomena.

Elena Orlando↗

GRO 95577 (CR1) as a mineralogical analogue for asteroid (101955) Bennu

Orbital spectra of asteroid (101955) Bennu collected by NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security–Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS–REx) spacecraft have identified ungrouped C, CI, and CM meteorites having petrologic types 1, 1/2, and 2 as the best mineralogical analogues to Bennu to date. Here we present spectral evidence that Grosvenor Mountains (GRO) 95577, a CR1, is a better analogue for Bennu's bulk surface mineralogy. CR-like parent bodies are targets of interest because they contain some of the most pristine materials from the solar nebula and can contain substantial amounts of H2O and OH− in addition to exotic organics. Unfortunately, terrestrial weathering makes constraining their indigenous mineralogy and organics challenging. Analysis of samples retrieved directly from an asteroid would help us disentangle the effects of terrestrial weathering and asteroidal aqueous alteration and hence whether some of the exotic organics and large populations of presolar grains were affected by terrestrial processes in meteorites. If Bennu is comprised of CR1(−like) material, in whole or in part, the OSIRIS–REx returned sample represents a tremendous opportunity to explore in depth what is currently a unique material among carbonaceous chondrites.

Asteroids↗

Machine-Learning Reveals Climate Forcing From Aerosols is Dominated by Increased Cloud Cover

Aerosol-cloud interactions have a potentially large impact on climate, but are poorly quantified and thus contribute a significant and long-standing uncertainty in climate projections. The impacts derived from climate models are poorly constrained by observations, because retrieving robust large-scale signals of aerosol-cloud interactions are frequently hampered by the considerable noise associated with meteorological co-variability. The Iceland-Holuhraun effusive eruption in 2014 resulted in a massive aerosol plume in an otherwise near-pristine environment and thus provided an ideal natural experiment to quantify cloud responses to aerosol perturbations. Here we disentangle significant signals from the noise of meteorological co-variability using a satellite-based machine-learning approach. Our analysis shows that aerosols from the eruption increased cloud cover by approximately 10%, and this appears to be the leading cause of climate forcing, rather than cloud brightening as previously thought. We find that volcanic aerosols do brighten clouds by reducing droplet size, but this has a significantly smaller radiative impact than changes in cloud fraction. These results add substantial observational constraints on the cooling impact of aerosols. Such constraints are critical for improving climate models, which still inadequately represent the complex macro-physical and micro-physical impacts of aerosol-cloud interactions.

Aerosols↗

Impact of Biomass Burning and Stratospheric Intrusions in the Remote South Pacific Ocean Troposphere

The ozone mixing ratio spatiotemporal variability in the pristine South Pacific Ocean is studied, for the first time, using 21-year-long ozone (O3) records from the entire southern tropical and subtropical Pacific between 1994 and 2014. The analysis considered regional O3 vertical observations from ozonesondes, surface carbon monoxide (CO) observations from flasks, and three-dimensional chemistry-transport model simulations of the global troposphere. Two 21-year-long numerical simulations, with and without biomass burning emissions, were performed to disentangle the importance of biomass burning relative to stratospheric intrusions for ambient ozone levels in the region. Tagged tracers of O3 from the stratosphere and CO from various biomass burning regions have been used to track the impact of these different regions on the southern tropical Pacific O3 and CO levels. Patterns have been analyzed based on atmospheric dynamics variability. Considering the interannual variability in the observations, the model can capture the observed ozone gradients in the troposphere with a positive bias of 7.5 % in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UTLS) as well as near the surface. Remarkably, even the most pristine region of the global ocean is affected by distant biomass burning emissions by convective outflow through the mid and high troposphere and subsequent subsidence over the pristine oceanic region. Therefore, the biomass burning contribution to tropospheric CO levels maximizes in the UTLS. The Southeast Asian open fires have been identified as the major contributing source to CO from biomass burning in the tropical South Pacific, contributing on average for the study period about 8.5 and 13 ppbv of CO at Rapa Nui and Samoa, respectively, at an altitude of around 12 km during the burning season in the spring of the Southern Hemisphere. South America is the second-most important biomass burning source region that influences the study area. Its impact maximizes in the lower troposphere (6.5 ppbv for Rapa Nui and 3.8 ppbv for Samoa). All biomass burning sources contribute about 15–23 ppbv of CO at Rapa Nui and Samoa and account for about 25 % of the total CO in the entire troposphere of the tropical and subtropical South Pacific. This impact is also seen on tropospheric O3, to which biomass burning O3 precursor emissions contribute only a few ppbv during the burning period, while the stratosphere–troposphere exchange is the most important source of O3 for the mid troposphere of the South Pacific Ocean, contributing about 15–20 ppbv in the subtropics.

Tropospheric ozone↗

Decoupling the Effects of Anthropogenic Emission Reductions from the Meteorology and Natural Emissions in TROPOMI NO 2 Retrievals During the 2020 COVID-19 Lockdowns

Satellite measurements during the COVID-19 lockdowns that began in 2020 revealed unprecedented reductions in NO 2 tropospheric vertical column densities (VCD). These reductions have largely been attributed to reduced anthropogenic emissions associated with abrupt decreases in road traffic and other power consuming business activities. Although decreased emissions tended to be the main contributor to the observed NO 2 VCD reduction, meteorological variability also played a role. Whereas the observed VCD changes were predominantly negative in places where public health policies were strictly enforced, meteorology had both positive and negative effects over short time intervals. Here, we present results from a global study of the NO 2 reductions aimed at disentangling the meteorological and natural emission variability from the anthropogenic emissions over the world’s most populated megacities. For this study, NASA’s TROPOMI NO 2 algorithm was used in conjunction with the Global Modeling Initiative (GMI) chemical transport model to separate the contributions due emissions and meteorology. A priori NO 2 profiles were generated from two GMI simulations performed for 2020 at a resolution of 0.25° longitude x 0.25° latitude. The first simulation used updated, COVID-impacted NOX emissions based on Forster et al. (2020), while the second simulation used the 2019 emissions with the 2020 meteorology, referred to here as 2020BAU. The 2020BAU data set allowed for the decoupling of the emission component from the meteorology. When compared to the same period in 2019, NO 2 column amounts during the lockdowns were reduced in 35 out of 36 cities. While reduced emissions contributed most to the observed total change in NO 2 during the lockdowns, the effects of meteorology were significant, ranging between 40% (Chennai) and 15% (Beijing). In China, an increase in NO 2 levels due to meteorology were observed in five out of the seven cities considered in the study. Use of different a-priori NO 2 profiles from the two simulations in our TROPOMI retrievals allowed for a determination of retrieval errors that ranged from -1.7% to -11.0%. We used the quality assurance flag > 0.75 to select the highest quality scenes in the study period. Using the GMI, we estimated the sampling biases to be in the range -11% to 10% of the total change for the cities in our study.

Brad Fisher↗

M2-SCREAM: A Stratospheric Composition Reanalysis of Aura MLS

Stratospheric composition and transport patterns are changing because of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations and declining levels of ozone depleting substances. Superimposed on forced trends are: dynamical variability at a range of time scales and unforeseen perturbations such as those resulting from injections of volcanic material and smoke from PyroCb events. Chemical reanalyses can be powerful tools for studying the composition of the stratosphere and disentangling forced responses from internal variability. This presentation introduces a new chemical reanalysis of stratospheric constituents developed and produced at NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) using the recently developed GMAO Constituent Data Assimilation System. Called the MERRA-2 Stratospheric Composition Reanalysis with Aura MLS (M2-SCREAM), this reanalysis consists of assimilated global three-dimensional fields of stratospheric ozone, water vapor, hydrogen chloride (HCl), nitric acid (HNO3) and nitrous oxide (N2O) mixing ratios and covers the period since the beginning of MLS observations in September 2004 to the present. M2-SCREAM assimilates version 4.2 MLS profiles of the five constituents alongside total ozone column from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument. The dynamics and tropospheric water vapor are constrained by assimilated meteorological fields from MERRA-2. The assimilated constituent fields and meteorology are provided to users at a 50-km horizontal resolution and a three-hourly frequency. Monthly analysis uncertainties and flags are also provided to the users. M2-SCREAM is an accurate and dynamically consistent high-resolution data record of the five constituents, all of which are of primary importance to stratospheric chemistry and transport studies. We will present a description of M2-SCREAM and selected results of a process-based evaluation of this product using independent data. As an illustration, we will discuss the perturbation to stratospheric composition from the eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai in January 2022 as seen in the reanalysis. We will also propose potential scientific applications of M2-SCREAM and outline plans for an upcoming comprehensive composition reanalysis that is being developed at NASA GMAO.

MERRA-2↗

Multiwavelength Light Curves of Two Remarkable Sagittarius A* Flares

Sgr A* , the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, is known to be a variable source of X-ray, near-infrared (NIR), and submillimeter radiation and therefore a prime candidate to study the electromagnetic radiation generated by mass accretion flow onto a black hole and/or a related jet. Disentangling the power source and emission mechanisms of this variability is a central challenge to our understanding of accretion flows around SMBHs. Simultaneous multiwavelength observations of the flux variations and their time correlations can play an important role in obtaining a better understanding of possible emission mechanisms and their origin. This paper presents observations of two flares that both apparently violate the previously established patterns in the relative timing of submillimeter/NIR/X-ray flares from Sgr A* . One of these events provides the first evidence of coeval structure between NIR and submillimeter flux increases, while the second event is the first example of the sequence of submillimeter/X-ray/NIR flux increases all occurring within ∼1 hr. Each of these two events appears to upend assumptions that have been the basis of some analytic models of flaring in Sgr A* . However, it cannot be ruled out that these events, even though unusual, were just coincidental. These observations demonstrate that we do not fully understand the origin of the multiwavelength variability of Sgr A* and show that there is a continued and important need for long-term, coordinated, and precise multiwavelength observations of Sgr A* to characterize the full range of variability behavior

accretion↗

Formaldehyde evolution in U.S. wildfire plumes during FIREX-AQ

Formaldehyde (HCHO) is one of the most abundant non-methane volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by fires. HCHO also undergoes chemical production and loss as a fire plume ages, and it can be an important oxidant precursor. In this study, we disentangle the processes controlling HCHO by examining its evolution in wildfire plumes sampled by the NASA DC-8 during the FIREX-AQ field campaign. In nine of the twelve analyzed plumes, dilution-normalized HCHO increases with physical age (range 1 – 6 h). The balance of HCHO loss (mainly via photolysis) and production (via OH-initiated VOC oxidation) seems to control the sign and magnitude of this trend. Plume-average OH concentrations, calculated from VOC decays, range from –0.5 (± 0.5) × 10 6 to 5.3 (±0.7) × 10 6 cm -3 . The production and loss rates of dilution-normalized HCHO seem to decrease with plume age. Plume-to-plume variability in dilution-normalized secondary HCHO production correlates with OH abundance rather than normalized OH reactivity, suggesting that OH is the main driver of fire-to-fire variability in HCHO secondary production. Analysis suggests an effective HCHO yield of 0.33 (± 0.05) per VOC molecule oxidized for the 12 wildfire plumes. This finding can help connect space-based HCHO observations to the oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere and to VOC emissions.

Air quality↗

Intense Equatorial Electrojet and Counter Electrojet caused by the 15 January 2022 Tonga Volcanic Eruption: Space and Ground-based Observations

Abstract Text: We present space and ground-based multi-instrument observations demonstrating the impact of the 2022 Tonga volcanic eruption on dayside equatorial electrodynamics. A strong counter electrojet (CEJ) was observed by Swarm and ground-based magnetometers on 15 January after the Tonga eruption and during the recovery phase of a moderate geomagnetic storm. Swarm also observed an enhanced equatorial electrojet (EEJ) preceding the CEJ in the previous orbit. The observed EEJ and CEJ exhibited complex spatiotemporal variations. We combine them with the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) neutral wind measurements to disentangle the potential mechanisms. Our analysis indicates that the geomagnetic storm had minimal impact; instead, a large-scale atmospheric disturbance propagating eastward from the Tonga eruption site was the most likely driver for the observed intensification and directional reversal of the equatorial electrojet. The CEJ was associated with strong eastward zonal winds in the E-region ionosphere, as a direct response to the lower atmosphere forcing. Plain-Language Summary: The Earth's E-region ionosphere (~100-150 km altitude) consists of both ionized and neutral gasses, and the two components are coupled through ion-neutral collisions. The state of this region is closely influenced by neutral atmospheric activities from the lower atmosphere and the variability of the solar drivers. On 15 January 2022, the Tonga volcano had a massive eruption and injected an enormous amount of mass and energy into the atmosphere causing disturbances in the E-region ionosphere or even higher. There was also a moderate geomagnetic storm that started one day before the eruption and ended days after. These conditions offer a unique opportunity to understand the different roles they play in controlling the ionosphere. Coordinated observations including the atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphere were made from both space and on the ground during this event. We analyzed the magnetic field and neutral wind data and found that a large-scale atmospheric disturbance generated by the volcano eruption was responsible for the observed directional reversal of the dayside equatorial electric field and electric current.

Guan Le↗

The Co2 Profile and Analytical Model for the Pioneer Venus Large Probe Neutral Mass Spectrometer

We present a significantly updated CO2 altitude profile for Venus (64.2–0.9 km) and provide support for a potential deep lower atmospheric haze of particles (≤17 km). We extracted this information by developing a new analytical model for mass spectra obtained by the Pioneer Venus Large Probe (PVLP) Neutral Mass Spectrometer (LNMS). Our model accounts for changes in LNMS configuration and output during descent and enables the disentanglement of isobaric species via a data fitting routine that adjusts for mass-dependent changes in peak shape. The model yields CO2 in units of density (kg m−3), isotope ratios for 13C/12C and 18O/16O, and 14 measures of CO2 density across 55.4–0.9 km, which represents the most complete altitude profile for CO2 at ≤60 km to date. The CO2 density profile is also consistent with the pressure, temperature, and volumetric gas measurements from the PVLP and VeNeRa spacecraft. Nominal and low-noise operations for the LNMS mass analyzer are supported by the behaviors (e.g., ionization yields, fragmentation yields, and peak shapes) of several internal standards (e.g., CH3+, CH4+, 40Ar+, 136Xe2+, and 136Xe+), which were tracked across the descent. Lastly, our review of the CO2 profile and LNMS spectra reveals hitherto unreported partial and rapidly clearing clogs of the inlet in the lower atmosphere, along with several ensuing data spikes at multiple masses. Together, these observations suggest that atmospheric intake was impacted by particles at ≤17 km and that rapid particle degradation at the inlet yielded a temporary influx of mass signals into the LNMS.

Venus↗

Temperature Effect on Silicate Melt-Sulfide-Metal Trace Element Partitioning in the Presence of Sulfur Under Reduced Conditions

The reduced nature of Mercury, enstatite chondrites, and the aubrite parent bodies (APB) have raised many questions regarding the geochemical behavior of typically lithophile, heat-producing, and rare-earth elements (REE) in magmas at low oxygen fugacity (fO2). Due to decreasing O availability at these low fO2, and an abundance of S(sup 2(-)), sulfur (S) acts as an important anion that changes the partitioning behavior of many elements and modifies the physical properties of silicate melts. Preliminary observations suggest that major and minor elements exhibit different geochemical affinities in highly reduced, S-rich systems compared to terrestrial rocks. The speciation and bonding environment of S, dictated by P/T/fO2 conditions, may strongly influence the degree to which S affects partitioning behavior. Here we investigate the partitioning behavior of major, minor, and trace elements between silicate melt, sulfide melt, and metal as well as the coordination chemistry of S in highly reduced silicate melts. Our work is focused on investigating solely the entropy-dependent temperature effect on partitioning of elements for which we currently have MESSENGER data (K, Na, Th, U, Si, Mg, Fe, Ti, Ca, Al, Cr, Mn, S, Cl) as well as a host of geochemically relevant trace elements such as REEs (P, Co, Ni, Mo, Ce, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Dy, Yb). Previous studies in which temperature, pressure, and fO2 were co-varied found that as fO2 decreases, heat-producing elements U and Th become more chalcophile, while K becomes less chalcophile. Concurrently, nominally lithophile elements Mg and Ca become more chalcophile and were observed as minor elements in exsolved sulfides and bonded with S species in silicate melt. These studies, however, could not disentangle entropic effects from changes in the fO2. New temperature-dependent partitioning data from our work will be used to determine which elements are most likely to retain their lithophile character and hence be incorporated into silicates, and which elements are likely contained within the sulfide (chalcophile) and metal core (siderophile), setting the stage for the thermal and magmatic evolution of reduced planetary bodies.

B A Anzures↗

Amino Acid Encoding for Deep Learning Applications

Background: The number of applications of deep learning algorithms in bioinformatics is increasing as they usually achieve superior performance over classical approaches, especially, when bigger training datasets are available. In deep learning applications, discrete data, e.g. words or n-grams in language, or amino acids or nucleotides in bioinformatics, are generally represented as a continuous vector through an embedding matrix. Recently, learning this embedding matrix directly from the data as part of the continuous iteration of the model to optimize the target prediction – a process called ‘end-to-end learning’ – has led to state-of-the-art results in many fields. Although usage of embeddings is well described in the bioinformatics literature, the potential of end-to-end learning for single amino acids, as compared to more classical manually-curated encoding strategies, has not been systematically addressed. To this end, we compared classical encoding matrices, namely one-hot, VHSE8 and BLOSUM62, to end-to-end learning of amino acid embeddings for two different prediction tasks using three widely used architectures, namely recurrent neural networks (RNN), convolutional neural networks (CNN), and the hybrid CNN-RNN. Results: By using different deep learning architectures, we show that end-to-end learning is on par with classical encodings for embeddings of the same dimension even when limited training data is available, and might allow for a reduction in the embedding dimension without performance loss, which is critical when deploying the models to devices with limited computational capacities. We found that the embedding dimension is a major factor in controlling the model performance. Surprisingly, we observed that deep learning models are capable of learning from random vectors of appropriate dimension. Conclusion: Our study shows that end-to-end learning is a flexible and powerful method for amino acid encoding. Further, due to the flexibility of deep learning systems, amino acid encoding schemes should be benchmarked against random vectors of the same dimension to disentangle the information content provided by the encoding scheme from the distinguishability effect provided by the scheme.

Deep-learning↗