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At least 73 records · Page 4

Decovalex-2019 (Task A Final Report)

The DECOVALEX Project is an on-going international research collaboration, established in 1992, to advance the understanding and modeling of coupled Thermal (T), Hydrological (H), Mechanical (M) and Chemical (C) processes in geological in geological systems. This document is the final report of Task A which was proposed by the DECOVALEX Project and coordinated by the British Geological Survey (BGS), presenting the technical definitions of the problems studied, approaches applied, achievements made and outstanding issues for future research. The purpose of Task A under DECOVALEX-2019 is to better understand the processes governing the advective movement of gas in both low-permeability argillaceous repository host rocks and clay-based engineered barriers. Special attention is given to the mechanisms controlling gas entry, flow and pathway sealing and their impact on the performance of the engineered clay barrier. Previous work suggests gas flow may be accompanied by the creation of dilatant pathways whose properties change temporally and spatially within the medium. Thus, new numerical representations for the quantitative prediction of gas migration fluxes through argillaceous rock formations have been developed. These provide an invaluable tool with which to assess the impact of gas flow on repository layout and therefore design of any future facility. In addition, experience gained through this task is of direct relevance to other clay-based engineering issues where immiscible gas flow is a consideration including shale gas, hydrocarbon migration, carbon capture and storage and landfill design.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Assimilating Scanning Radar Data into High-Resolution Models

This report documents the findings of a project aiming to improve the initial conditions of km-scale simulations of deep convective storms by assimilating cloud-scale weather radar observations. More accurate numerical analyses will increase the effectiveness of research efforts using LES cloud models as tool to better understand land-atmosphere coupling, boundary layer turbulence, and cloud processes, each used for model parameterization development. Work reported on herein includes: i) assessment of radar data sets for use in data assimilation (‘DA’) experiments, ii) quality control of the radar data set and format conversion to one acceptable to DA schemes utilized by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, and iii) examination of the sensitivity of the numerical representation of cloud-scale wind and microphysical features to a variety of tunable DA parameters.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Assimilating Scanning Radar Data into Cloud-Scale Models

The aim of this project is to improve the initial conditions of large eddy simulations (LES) of deep convective storms by assimilating scanning radar reflectivity and radial velocity data as well as local environmental observations. Accomplishing this goal often results in more accurate numerical forecasts of clouds and precipitation than if the background initial meteorological conditions are solely relied upon for convection initiation and intensification, as is typical of most operational and research models. Conducted in a storm-scale LES framework, these more accurate numerical analyses can serve as tool to better understand and parameterize land-atmosphere coupling, boundary layer turbulence, and cloud processes, each used for model parameterization development of convection. Our work examined the sensitivity of the numerical representation of cloud-scale wind and microphysical structures to: i) the assimilation of radiosonde observations characterizing the near-storm inflow, ii) the assimilation of radar data of varying resolution for model simulations with grid spacings of 1-km and 0.25-km, and iii) to the assimilation of three-dimensional plan-projection-indicator (PPI) and range-height indicator (RHI) radar volumes. Few studies have explored deep convective storm analyses and forecasts produced by assimilation of radar observations to cloud-scale LES. Furthermore, to our knowledge, no storm-scale DA study has explored the value of assimilating high-resolution sector RHI volumes to determine if they can improve the retrieval of the vertical kinematic and microphysical storm structure aloft over the use of traditionally utilized PPI scans.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Summary of Multiphysics Modeling for Sublimation Mass Transfer

This report summarizes the effort to develop a multiphysics modeling framework for sublimation mass transfer processes. The aim of the project was to develop a multiphysics code capable of predicting phase change between solid and gas in a closed container, and the movement of material within such a container when exposed to various exterior environmental conditions. Two modeling frameworks were developed towards this aim: one with a high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) structure, and the other as a fast reduced-order model. Ultimately, both attempts were unsuccessful due to instabilities in the code and physical processes for which there is no adequate numerical representation. Both modeling attempts are briefly detailed before providing a brief survey of recent updates in the literature, and a recommendation for future work on this subject.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

CoURAGE KAZR b1 Processing: Corrections, Calibrations, and Processing Report

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility supports atmospheric and earth system research through a comprehensive network of fixed and mobile observatories. These facilities provide long-term and intensive campaign-based observations of clouds, aerosols, precipitation, radiation, and meteorological state variables. ARM observations are designed to improve the physical understanding and numerical representation of atmospheric processes in earth system models, with particular emphasis on cloud-radiation interactions and precipitation processes. The Coast-Urban-Rural Atmospheric Gradient Experiment (CoURAGE) deploys one of the ARM Mobile Facilities (AMF) to the Mid-Atlantic region surrounding Baltimore, Maryland, for the period 1 December 2024 through 30 November 2025. This deployment focuses on characterizing atmospheric structure, cloud properties, and precipitation processes across strong land-use and surface heterogeneity gradients associated with urban, rural, and coastal (Chesapeake Bay) environments. The CoURAGE deployment complements the Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative (BSEC), a DOE Urban Integrated Field Laboratory (UIFL), by providing high-quality atmospheric observations needed to connect urban surface processes, emissions, and meteorology to cloud and precipitation responses. In addition to the central urban site, ancillary observing sites were deployed to rural Maryland northwest of Baltimore and to an island site in Chesapeake Bay. These measurements further complement a long-term atmospheric observatory operated in Beltsville, Maryland, by Howard University in collaboration with the Maryland Department of the Environment. Together, these assets form a four-node regional atmospheric observatory network representing Baltimore and its three primary surrounding environments—urban, rural, and coastal/bay. This coordinated observational strategy enables investigation of spatial gradients in boundary-layer structure, cloud occurrence, precipitation evolution, and aerosol-cloud interactions across complex surface regimes. Within this network, vertically pointing cloud radars play a critical role by providing continuous, high-resolution measurements of cloud and precipitation vertical structure.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Data From: Simulating bioclogging effects on dynamic riverbed permeability and infiltration, Water Resources Research

We collected a time series of Russian River infiltration rates to parameterize stochastic model development of infiltration conditions as a function of bioclogging. The time series of infiltration were collected from the Russian River Riverbank Filtration site located in Sonoma County California. Infiltration datasets are shown in units of m/day and were obtained using a seepage meter in 2012. To address the combined effects of bioclogging and disconnection on infiltration, we developed numerical representations of bioclogging processes based on these datasets using a within a one-dimensional, variably saturated flow model representing losing-connected and losing-disconnected rivers. All models and bioclogging formulations were used to create synthetic test cases for bioclogging.This research was supported by the Jane Lewis Fellowship from the University of California, Berkeley, the Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA), the Roy G. Post Foundation Scholarship, the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research under award DE-AC02-05CH11231, and the UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Towards Unifying the Planetary Boundary Layer and Shallow Convection in CAM5 with the Eddy-Diffusivity/Mass-Flux Approach

The modular structure of the boundary layer and convection parameterizations in atmospheric models have long been affecting the numerical representation of subgrid-scale motions and their mutual interactions. A promising alternative, the eddy-diffusivity/mass-flux approach (EDMF), has the potential for unifying the existing formulations into a consistent scheme and improving some of the long-standing issues. This study documents a step towards developing such a unified approach by implementing a stochastic multi-plume EDMF scheme into the Community Atmosphere Model (Version 5.0). Its performance in single-column mode is evaluated against the control parameterization and large-eddy simulation (LES) for two benchmark cases: marine and continental shallow convection. Overall, the results for the two parameterizations agree well with each other and with LES in terms of mean profiles of moist conserved variables and their vertical fluxes, as well as the updraft properties. However, systematic differences between the two schemes, especially for transient continental convection, are also documented. Using EDMF helps improve some of the parameterized features of shallow convection. In particular, for the highest tested vertical resolution, the EDMF cloud base and top heights and the vertical fluxes of energy and water are remarkably close to LES.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Fractal Characterization of Multimodal, Multiscale Images of Shale Rock Fracture Networks

An array of multimodal and multiscale images of fractured shale rock samples and analogs was collected with the aim of improving the numerical representation of fracture networks. 2D and 3D reconstructions of fractures and matrices span from 10 –6 to 100 m. The origin of the fracture networks ranged from natural to thermal maturation to hydraulically induced maturation. Images were segmented to improve fracture identification. Then, the fractal dimension and length distribution of the fracture networks were calculated for each image dataset. The resulting network connectivity and scaling associations are discussed at length on the basis of scale, sample and order of magnitude. Fracture network origin plays an important role in the resulting fracture systems and their scaling. Rock analogs are also evaluated using these descriptive tools and are found to be faithful depictions of maturation-induced fracture networks.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Aerosol characteristics at the Southern Great Plains site during the HI-SCALE campaign

Abstract. Large uncertainties exist in global climate model predictions of radiative forcing due to insufficient understanding and simplified numerical representation of cloud formation and cloud–aerosol interactions. The Holistic Interactions of Shallow Clouds, Aerosols and Land Ecosystems (HI-SCALE) campaign was conducted near the DOE's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) site in north-central Oklahoma to provide a better understanding of land–atmosphere interactions, aerosol and cloud properties, and the influence of aerosol and land–atmosphere interactions on cloud formation. The HI-SCALE campaign consisted of two intensive observational periods (IOPs) (April–May and August–September, 2016), during which coincident measurements were conducted both on the G-1 aircraft platform and at the SGP ground site. In this study we focus on the observations at the SGP ground site. An Aerodyne high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) and an Ionicon proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS) were deployed, characterizing chemistry of non-refractory aerosol and trace gases, respectively. Contributions from various aerosol sources, including biogenic and biomass burning emissions, were retrieved using factor analysis of the AMS data. In general, the organic aerosols at the SGP site was highly oxidized, with oxygenated organic aerosol (OOA) identified as the dominant factor for both the spring and summer IOP though more aged in spring. Cases of isoprene-epoxydiol-derived secondary organic aerosol (IEPOX SOA) and biomass burning events were further investigated to understand additional sources of organic aerosol. Unlike other regions largely impacted by IEPOX chemistry, the IEPOX SOA at SGP was more highly oxygenated, likely due to the relatively weak local emissions of isoprene. Biogenic emissions appear to largely control the formation of organic aerosol (OA) during the HI-SCALE campaign. Potential HOM (highly oxygenated molecule) chemistry likely contributes to the highly oxygenated feature of aerosols at the SGP site, with impacts on new particle formation and global climate.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Evaluating climate emulation: fundamental impulse testing of simple climate models

Abstract. Simple climate models (SCMs) are numerical representations of the Earth's gas cycles and climate system. SCMs are easy to use and computationally inexpensive, making them an ideal tool in both scientific and decision-making contexts (e.g., complex climate model emulation, parameter estimation experiments, climate metric calculations, and probabilistic analyses). Despite their prolific use, the fundamental responses of SCMs are often not directly characterized. In this study, we use fundamental impulse tests of three chemical species (CO2, CH4, and black carbon – BC) to understand the fundamental gas cycle and climate system responses of several comprehensive (Hector v2.0, MAGICC 5.3, MAGICC 6.0) and idealized (FAIR v1.0, AR5-IR) SCMs. We find that while idealized SCMs are widely used, they fail to capture the magnitude and timescales of global mean climate responses under emissions perturbations, which can produce biased temperature results. Comprehensive SCMs, which have physically based nonlinear forcing and carbon cycle representations, show improved responses compared to idealized SCMs. Even the comprehensive SCMs, however, fail to capture the response timescales to BC emission perturbations seen recently in two general circulation models. Some comprehensive SCMs also generally respond faster than more complex models to a 4×CO2 concentration perturbation, although this was not evident for lower perturbation levels. These results suggest where improvements should be made to SCMs. Further, we demonstrate here a set of fundamental tests that we recommend as a standard evaluation suite for any SCM. Fundamental impulse tests allow users to understand differences in model responses and the impact of model selection on results.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

The average motion of a charged particle in a dipole field

The numerical representation of the average motion of a charged particle trapped in a geomagnetic field is developed. An assumption is made of the conservation of the first two adiabatic invariants where integration is along a field line between mirror points. The averaged motion also involved the parameters defining the magnetic field line to which the particle is attached. Methods involved in obtaining the motion in the equatorial plane of model magnetospheres are based on Hamiltonian functions. The restrictions imposed by the special nature of the dipole field are defined.

Chen, A. J.↗

Thermal power systems small power systems applications project. Decision analysis for evaluating and ranking small solar thermal power system technologies. Volume 1: A brief introduction to multiattribute decision analysis

The principal concepts of the Keeney and Raiffa approach to multiattribute decision analysis are described. Topics discussed include the concepts of decision alternatives, outcomes, objectives, attributes and their states, attribute utility functions, and the necessary independence properties for the attribute states to be aggregated into a numerical representation of the preferences of the decision maker for the outcomes and decision alternatives.

Feinberg, A.↗

Documentation for the machine-readable version of the catalog of 5,268 standard stars, 1950.0 based on the normal system N30

The machine-readable version of the N30 catalog available on magnetic tape from the Astronomical Data Center is described. Numerical representations of some data fields on the original catalog were changed to conform more closely to formats being used for star-catalog data, plus all records having asterisks indicating footnotes in the published catalog now have corresponding remarks entries in a second tape file; i.e. the footnotes in the published catalog were computerized and are contained in a second file of the tape.

Warren, W. H., Jr.↗

A computer simulation approach to measurement of human control strategy

Human control strategy is measured through use of a psychologically-based computer simulation which reflects a broader theory of control behavior. The simulation is called the human operator performance emulator, or HOPE. HOPE was designed to emulate control learning in a one-dimensional preview tracking task and to measure control strategy in that setting. When given a numerical representation of a track and information about current position in relation to that track, HOPE generates positions for a stick controlling the cursor to be moved along the track. In other words, HOPE generates control stick behavior corresponding to that which might be used by a person learning preview tracking.

Green, J.↗

Optical residue addition and storage units using a Hughes liquid crystal light valve

Optical addition and storage units are described in this paper. These units are implemented using the Hughes Liquid Crystal Light Valve (LCLV) as a spatial light modulator using residue arithmetic for a numerical representation. The main hardware components of the design, besides the light valve, include an array of single-mode optical fibers that provide input information, a polarizing prism in combination with quarter-wave and half-wave retarders for residue arithmetic implementation in the adder, and a holographic array for spatial stability in the storage unit.

Habiby, S. F.↗

Engineering analysis of drooped leading-edge wings near stall

Numerical results obtained with a three-dimensional vortex panel computer program for the calculation of inviscid, incompressible (potential) flow over infinitely thin finite wings with camber are presented. The program, which is designed for wings with drooped leading edge discontinuities, is essentially a numerical representation of lifting surface theory, involving both spanwise and chordwise distributions of vorticity. The results also include two engineering approximations. First, the effect of the leading-edge discontinuities is modeled by assuming that the vortices emanating from the discontinuities aerodynamically divide the wing into three distinct sections of lower aspect ratio. Secondly, the effect of the separated flow at high angle of attack is modeled by applying rectangular vortex panels with a varying vortex strength over the portions of the wing with attached flow.

Anderson, J. D., Jr.↗

Three-dimensional tomographic reconstruction of the flow around a revolving helicopter rotorblade - A numerical simulation

This paper discusses tomographic data acquisition and reconstruction procedures for determining the flow around a revolving helicopter rotor blade. The data acquisition procedure is simulated using, as a testbed, a numerical representation of the flow and projections through this known field are computed. An investigation has been made of: (1) the effect of the number of projections on the accuracy of the reconstruction and (2) the fidelity of the reconstruction when the region of intersection of all projections is smaller than the spatial extent of the flow.

Hesselink, L.↗

Effective propagation constants in dense random media under effective medium approximation

The effective medium approximation is applied to study the effective propagation constants in a dense random medium. The dyadic Green's function is introduced to establish the effective medium approximation formalism for electromagnetic waves. The multiple scattering equations and the Lippmann-Schwinger equations for the transition operator are obtained in the configuration average form. The dispersion equations of multiple scattering is derived by using a standard method in quantum mechanics. To obtain an expression for the effective propagation constants the matrix elements of the configuration average dyadic transiton operator are calculated in momentum representation. Numerical illustations are carried out to demonstrate the difference in the effective propagation constants between the use of this approximation and the well-known quasi-crystalline approximation. A comparison is made with measured loss tangent in dry snow.

Zhu, P. Y.↗