Overview of MERRA-2 for Applications, Decision-making, and Climate Assessment
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The breakneck expansion of multi-payload launches in low Earth orbit (LEO) has seen significant escalation over the last three years in the Space Domain Awareness (SDA) enterprise. The uptick in satellite deployment frequency, gradation of Mega-constellation deployments utilizing electric propulsion, and surge in metric observation density from the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) have imposed major system enhancements to ensure spaceflight safety. Beginning with the launch phase, new tactics, software, and procedures have been developed over the last few years to optimize the tasking of the SSN and ensure custody of all recently launched satellites that are added to the space catalog. Ensuring appropriate tasking levels were pivotal during the satellite separation phase, which necessitated updates to the mission systems for improved delineation between clustered satellites in a short window of time. The improved incorporation of utilizing owner operator provided ephemeris coupled with critical code improvements have now revolutionized how we maintain custody of earth orbiting objects. The exponential population growth of low-Earth orbiting satellites have also increased the quantity of Conjunction Data Messages sent out to partners such as the Trajectory Operations Group (TOPO) in Johnson Space Center. We will discuss the need for continued collaboration between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and other Mega-Constellation Satellite Operators to safeguard Human Space Flight operations. Lastly, we will discuss the increase in reentry reporting for satellites falling back to Earth’s atmosphere, and the challenges associated with these events.
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Citizen science is often recognized for its potential to directly engage the public in science, and is uniquely positioned to support and extend participants’ learning in science. In March 2018, the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program, NASA’s largest and longest-lasting citizen science program about Earth, organized a month-long event that asked people around the world to contribute daily cloud observations and photographs of the sky (15 March–15 April 2018). What was considered a simple engagement activity turned into an unprecedented worldwide event that garnered major public interest and media recognition, collecting over 55,000 observations from 99 different countries, in more than 15,000 locations, on every continent including Antarctica. The event was called the “Spring Cloud Challenge” and was created to 1) engage the general public in the scientific process and promote the use of the GLOBE Observer app, 2) collect ground-based visual observations of varying cloud types during boreal spring, and 3) increase the number and locations of ground-based visual cloud observations collocated with cloud-observing satellites. The event resulted in roughly 3 times more observations than during the historic and highly publicized 2017 North American total solar eclipse. The dataset also includes observations over the Drake Passage in Antarctica and reports from intense Saharan dust events. This article describes how the challenge was crafted, outreach to volunteer scientists around the world, details of the data collected, and impact of the data.
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The breakneck expansion of multi-payload launches in low Earth orbit (LEO) has seen significant escalation over the last three years in the Space Domain Awareness (SDA) enterprise. The uptick in satellite deployment frequency, gradation of mega-constellation deployments utilizing electric propulsion, and surge in metric observation density from the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) have driven major system enhancements to ensure spaceflight safety. Beginning with the launch phase, new tactics, software, and procedures have been developed over the last few years to optimize the tasking of the SSN and ensure custody of all recently launched satellites that are added to the space catalog. Ensuring appropriate tasking levels were pivotal during the satellite separation phase, which necessitated updates to the mission systems for improved delineation between clustered satellites in a short window of time. The improved incorporation of utilizing satellite owner/operator-provided ephemeris coupled with critical code improvements have revolutionized how we maintain custody of Earth orbiting objects. The exponential population growth of Low-Earth orbiting satellites have also increased the quantity of Conjunction Data Messages sent out to partners such as the Trajectory Operations Group (TOPO) in Johnson Space Center. We will discuss the need for continued collaboration between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and other mega-constellation satellite operators to safeguard human spaceflight operations. Lastly, we will discuss how mega-constellations are driving best practices for safe operations across the space community.
A primary sink of air pollutants and their precursors is dry deposition. Dry deposition estimates differ across chemical transport models, yet an understanding of the model spread is incomplete. Here, we introduce Activity 2 of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative Phase 4 (AQMEII4). We examine 18 dry deposition schemes from regional and global chemical transport models as well as standalone models used for impact assessments or process understanding. We configure the schemes as single-point models at eight Northern Hemisphere locations with observed ozone fluxes. Single-point models are driven by a common set of site-specific meteorological and environmental conditions. Five of eight sites have at least 3 years and up to 12 years of ozone fluxes. The interquartile range across models in multiyear mean ozone deposition velocities ranges from a factor of 1.2 to 1.9 annually across sites and tends to be highest during winter compared with summer. No model is within 50 % of observed multiyear averages across all sites and seasons, but some models perform well for some sites and seasons. For the first time, we demonstrate how contributions from depositional pathways vary across models. Models can disagree with respect to relative contributions from the pathways, even when they predict similar deposition velocities, or agree with respect to the relative contributions but predict different deposition velocities. Both stomatal and nonstomatal uptake contribute to the large model spread across sites. Our findings are the beginning of results from AQMEII4 Activity 2, which brings scientists who model air quality and dry deposition together with scientists who measure ozone fluxes to evaluate and improve dry deposition schemes in the chemical transport models used for research, planning, and regulatory purposes.
Exposure to environmental hazards is an important determinant of health, and the frequency and severity of exposures is expected to be impacted by climate change. Through a partnership with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network is integrating timely observations and model data of priority environmental hazards into its publicly accessible Data Explorer (https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/DataExplorer/). Newly integrated datasets over the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) include: daily 5-day forecasts of air quality based on the Goddard Earth Observing System Composition Forecast (GEOS-CF), daily historical (1980-present) concentrations of speciated PM2.5 based on the Modern Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2), and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) daily near real-time maps of flooding (MCDWD). Data integrated into the CDC Tracking Network are broadly intended to improve community health through action by informing both research and early warning activities, including (1) describing temporal and spatial trends in disease and potential environmental exposures, (2) identifying populations most affected, (3) generating hypotheses about associations between health and environmental exposures, and (4) developing, guiding, and assessing environmental public health policies and interventions aimed at reducing or eliminating health outcomes associated with environmental factors.
A direct impact Hopkinson compression bar experiment is used for compression testing at strain rates in the order of 50,000 s-1. A short specimen mounted on the cross-section surface of a transmitter bar is impacted directly by a projectile (the incident bar in the classical split Hopkinson bar is eliminated).The quantities measured in the test are the projectile impact velocity, the force in the transmitter bar and the strain on the surface of the specimen, which is measured using the digital image correlation method with high-speed cameras. The deformation measurements show a nonuniform deformation in the specimen. To study the strain rate sensitivity properties of the specimen’s material, the experiment is simulated using an assumed material model properties which is validated by comparing the calculated and measured quantities. For aluminum 2024-T351 the results show a small strain rate sensitivity (increase of stress with strain rate) at strain rates above 10,000 s-1.
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This poster, presented at the 2019 Advanced Manufacturing Office Peer Review Meeting, outlines geospatial combined heat and power (CHP) opportunity mapping smart power electronics potential for smart grid integration.
This poster, presented at the 2019 Advanced Manufacturing Office Peer Review Meeting, outlines opportunities, trends and technoeconomic analysis related to sustainable manufacturing.
This poster, presented at the 2019 Advanced Manufacturing Office Peer Review Meeting, outlines opportunities, trends and technoeconomic analysis related to sustainable manufacturing and recycling.
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