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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 829 records · Page 46
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2022

An Analysis of Spatio-Temporal Relationship between Satellite-Based Land Surface Temperature and Station-Based Near-Surface Air Temperature over Brazil

A better understanding of the relationship between land surface temperature (Ts) and near-surface air temperature (Ta) is crucial for improving the simulation accuracy of climate models, developing retrieval schemes for soil and vegetation moisture, and estimating large-scale Ta from satellite-based Ts observations. In this study, we investigated the relationship between multiple satellite-based Ts products, derived from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard Aqua satellite, and Ta from 204 meteorological stations over Brazil during 2003–2016. Monthly satellite-based Ts products used in this study include: (1) AIRS Version 6 with 1° spatial resolution, (2) AIRS Version 7 with 1° spatial resolution, (3) MODIS Collection 6 with 0.05° spatial resolution, and (4) MODIS Collection 6 with 1° spatial resolution re-sampled from (3) for a direct comparison with AIRS products. We found that satellite-based Ts is lower than Ta over the forest area, but higher than Ta over the non-forest area. Nevertheless, the correlation coefficients (R) between monthly Ta and four Ts products during 2003–2016 are greater than 0.8 over most stations. The long-term trend analysis shows a general warming trend in temperatures, particularly over the central and eastern parts of Brazil. The satellite products could also observe the increasing Ts over the deforestation region. Furthermore, we examined the temperature anomalies during three drought events in the dry season of 2005, 2010, and 2015. All products show similar spatio-temporal patterns, with positive temperature anomalies expanding in areal coverage and magnitude from the 2005 to 2015 event. The above results show that satellite-based Ts is sensitive in reflecting environmental changes such as deforestation and extreme climatic events, and can be used as an alternative to Ta for climatological studies. Moreover, the observed differences between Ts and Ta may inform how thermal assumptions can be improved in satellite-based retrievals of soil and vegetation moisture or evapotranspiration.

land surface temperature↗
NASA NTRS2023

Identification of Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Surface Salinity Fronts along the California Coast: Application Using Saildrone and Satellite Derived Products

Coastal upwelling regions are one of the most dynamic areas of the world’s oceans. The California and Baja California Coasts are impacted by both coastal upwelling and the California Current, leading to frontal activity that is captured by gradients in both Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and Sea Surface Salinity (SSS). Satellite data are a great source of spatial data to study fronts. However, biases near coastal areas and coarse resolutions can impair its usefulness in upwelling areas. In this work gradients in SST from NASA Multi-Scale Ultra-High Resolution (MUR) and in two SSS products derived from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) NASA mission are compared directly with gradients derived from the Saildrone uncrewed vehicles to validate the gradients as well as to assess their ability to detect known frontal features. The three remotely sensed data sets (MURSST/JPL, SMAP SSS/RSS, SMAP SSS) were co-located with the Saildrone data prior to the calculation of the gradients. Wavelet analysis is used to determine how well the satellite derived SST and SSS products are reproducing the Saildrone derived gradients. Overall results indicate the remote sensing products are reproducing features of known areas of coastal upwelling. Differences between the SST and SSS gradients are mainly associated with the limitations of the microwave derived SSS coverage near land and its reduced spatial resolution. The results are promising for using remote sensing data sets to monitor frontal structure along the California Coast and the application to long term changes in coastal upwelling and dynamics.

Sea Surface Salinity↗
DOE OSTI2015

In-situ monitoring of flow-permeable surface area of high explosive powder using small sample masses

To ensure good performance of high explosive devices over long periods of time, initiating powders need to maintain their specific surface area within allowed margins during the entire duration of deployment. A common diagnostic used in this context is the Fisher sub-sieve surface area (FSSA). Furthermore, commercial permeametry instruments measuring the FSSA requires the utilization of a sample mass equal to the crystal density of the sample material, an amount that is often one or two orders of magnitude larger than the typical masses found in standard detonator applications. Here we develop a customization of the standard device that can utilize just tens of milligram samples, and with simple calibration yield FSSA values at ac curacy levels comparable to the standard apparatus. This necessitated a newly designed sample holder, made from a material of low coefficient of thermal expansion, which is conveniently transferred between an aging chamber and a re-designed permeametry tube. This improves the fidelity of accelerated aging studies by allowing measurement on the same physical sample at various time - instants during the aging process, and by obviating the need for a potentially FSSA-altering powder re-compaction step. We used the customized apparatus to monitor the FSSA evolution of a number of undoped and homolog-doped PETN powder samples that were subjected to artificial aging for several months at elevated temperatures. These results, in conjunction with an Arrhenius-based aging model were used to assess powder-coarsening - rates under long-term storage.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Interfacial X-Ray Scattering from Small Surfaces: Adapting Mineral-Fluid Structure Methods for Microcrystalline Materials

Crystal truncation rod (CTR) X-ray diffraction is an invaluable tool for measuring mineral surface and adsorbate structures, and has been applied to several environmentally and geochemically important systems. Traditionally, the method has been restricted to single crystals with lateral dimensions >3 mm. Minerals that meet this size criterion represent a minute fraction of those that are relevant to interfacial geochemistry questions, however. Crystal screening, data collection, and CTR measurement methods have been developed for crystals of <0.3 mm in lateral size using the manganese oxide mineral chalcophanite (ZnMn 3 O 7 •3H 2 O) as a case study. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the feasibility of applying the CTR technique to previously inaccessible surfaces, opening up a large suite of candidate substrates for future study.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Friction surfacing and cold spray deposition for surface crack repair in austenitic stainless steels

Two technologies, friction surfacing (FS) and cold spray deposition (CSD), have been investigated for field repair of cracks in 304L austenitic stainless steel. Both technologies are low-heat-input, solid-state technologies that do not introduce the detrimental effects of solidification, such as compositionally segregated microstructures and shrinkage stresses. Friction surfacing was performed using a 304L stainless steel rod over the substrate of the same material. Further, the process was performed at a high spindle speed of 20,000 RPM allowing for process forces below 500N to be used effectively. Spherical gas-atomized 304L stainless steel powder, in size range of 25–44 µm, was used as feedstock powder for the cold spray process for deposition on 304L substrates. Both technologies showed leak-tight crack repair capabilities on ~30–50 µm wide simulated through-crack specimens based on helium leak tests.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

A simple tool for estimating city-wide annual electrical energy savings from cooler surfaces

We present a simple method to estimate the maximum possible electrical energy saving that might be achieved by increasing the albedo of surfaces in a large city. We restrict this to the “indirect effect”, the cooling of outside air that lessens the demand for air conditioning (AC). Given the power demand of the electric utilities and data about the city, we can use a single linear equation to estimate the maximum savings. For example, the result for an albedo change of 0.2 of pavements in a typical warm city in California, such as Sacramento, is that the saving is less than about 2 kWh per m2 per year. This may help decision makers choose which heat island mitigation techniques are economical from an energy-saving perspective.

Pomerantz, Melvin↗
DOE OSTI2018

Surface Organometallic Chemistry of Supported Iridium(III) as a Probe for Organotransition Metal–Support Interactions in C–H Activation

Systematic study of the interactions between organometallic catalysts and metal oxide support materials is essential for the realization of rational design in heterogeneous catalysis. Herein we describe the stoichiometric and catalytic chemistry of a [Cp*(PMe 3 )Ir(III)] complex chemisorbed on a variety of acidic metal oxides as a multifaceted probe for stereoelectronic communication between the support and organometallic center. Electrophilic bond activation was explored in the context of stoichiometric hydrogenolysis as well as catalytic H/D exchange. Further information was obtained from the observation of processes related to dynamic exchange between grafted organometallic species and those in solution. The supported organometallic species were characterized by a variety of spectroscopic techniques including dynamic nuclear polarization-enhanced solid-state NMR spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Finally, strongly acidic modified metal oxides such as sulfated zirconia engender high levels of activity toward electrophilic bond activation of both sp 2 and sp 3 C–H bonds, including the rapid deuteration of methane at room temperature; however, the global trend for the supports studied here does not suggest a direct correlation between activity and surface Brønsted acidity.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Tuning the reactivity of carbon surfaces with oxygen-containing functional groups

Oxygen-containing carbons are promising supports and metal-free catalysts for many reactions. However, distinguishing the role of various oxygen functional groups and quantifying and tuning each functionality is still difficult. Here we investigate the role of Brønsted acidic oxygen-containing functional groups by synthesizing a diverse library of materials. By combining acid-catalyzed elimination probe chemistry, comprehensive surface characterizations, 15N isotopically labeled acetonitrile adsorption coupled with magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance, machine learning, and density-functional theory calculations, we demonstrate that phenolic is the main acid site in gas-phase chemistries and unexpectedly carboxylic groups are much less acidic than phenolic groups in the graphitized mesoporous carbon due to electron density delocalization induced by the aromatic rings of graphitic carbon. The methodology can identify acidic sites in oxygenated carbon materials in solid acid catalyst-driven chemistry.

Zhou, Jiahua↗
DOE OSTI2013

Dependence of the microwave surface resistance of superconducting niobium on the magnitude of the rf field

Utilizing difference in temperature dependencies we decoupled Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) and residual components of the microwave surface resistance of superconducting niobium at all rf fields up to B{sub rf}{approx}115 mT. We reveal that the residual resistance decreases with field at B{sub rf} Less-Than-Or-Equivalent-To 40 mT and strongly increases in chemically treated niobium at B{sub rf}>80 mT. We find that BCS surface resistance is weakly dependent on field in the clean limit, whereas a strong and peculiar field dependence emerges after 120 Degree-Sign C vacuum baking.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2013

Origins of ion irradiation-induced Ga nanoparticle motion on GaAs surfaces

We have examined the origins of ion irradiation-induced nanoparticle (NP) motion. Focused-ion-beam irradiation of GaAs surfaces induces random walks of Ga NPs, which are biased in the direction opposite to that of ion beam scanning. Although the instantaneous NP velocities are constant, the NP drift velocities are dependent on the off-normal irradiation angle, likely due to a difference in surface non-stoichiometry induced by the irradiation angle dependence of the sputtering yield. It is hypothesized that the random walks are initiated by ion irradiation-induced thermal fluctuations, with biasing driven by anisotropic mass transport.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Mechanism of acoustically induced diffusional structuring of surface adatoms

Physical mechanisms of time-averaged structuring of adatoms induced by a standing surface acoustic wave (SAW) on a solid substrate are studied. Despite some similarity with conventional mechanisms based on averaging of fast oscillation-type motion or radiation-pressure effects, we demonstrate that, for diffusional (i.e., strongly damped) adatom motion, the origin of time-averaged structuring is essentially different. The proposed analytical model and kinetic Monte–Carlo (kMC) simulations reveal several distinct structuring regimes and directly relate them to the transient modification of diffusion barriers and adiabatic temperature variations induced by SAW strains.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗