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At least 1,189 records · Page 66
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DOE OSTI2020

Chiral Instabilities and the Onset of Chiral Turbulence in QED Plasmas

We present a first principles study of chiral plasma instabilities and the onset of chiral turbulence in QED plasmas with strong gauge matter interaction ( e 2 N f = 64 ), far from equilibrium. By performing classical-statistical lattice simulations of the microscopic theory, we show that the generation of strong helical magnetic fields from a helicity imbalance in the fermion sector proceeds via three distinct phases. During the initial linear instability regime the helicity imbalance of the fermion sector causes an exponential growth (damping) of magnetic field modes with right- (left-) handed polarization, for which we extract the characteristic growth (damping) rates. Secondary growth of unstable modes accelerates the helicity transfer from fermions to gauge fields and ultimately leads to the emergence of a self-similar scaling regime characteristic of a decaying turbulence, where magnetic helicity is efficiently transferred to macroscopic length scales. Within this turbulent regime, the evolution of magnetic helicity spectrum can be described by an infrared power spectrum with spectral exponent κ = 10.2 ± 0.5 and dynamical scaling exponents α = 1.14 ± 0.50 and β = 0.37 ± 0.13 .

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Exploring ship track spreading rates with a physics-informed Langevin particle parameterization

Abstract. The rate at which aerosols spread from a point source injection, such as from a ship or other stationary pollution source, is critical for accurately representing subgrid plume spreading in a climate model. Such climate model results will guide future decisions regarding the feasibility and application of large-scale intentional marine cloud brightening (MCB). Prior modeling studies have shown that the rate at which ship plumes spread may be strongly dependent on meteorological conditions, such as precipitating versus non-precipitating boundary layers and shear. In this study, we apply a Lagrangian particle model (PM-ABL v1.0), governed by a Langevin stochastic differential equation, to create a simplified framework for predicting the rate of spreading from a ship-injected aerosol plume in sheared, precipitating, and non-precipitating boundary layers. The velocity and position of each stochastic particle is predicted with the acceleration of each particle being driven by the turbulent kinetic energy, dissipation rate, momentum variance, and mean wind. These inputs to the stochastic particle velocity equation are derived from high-fidelity large-eddy simulations (LES) equipped with a prognostic aerosol–cloud microphysics scheme (UW-SAM) to simulate an aerosol injection from a ship into a cloud-topped marine boundary layer. The resulting spreading rate from the reduced-order stochastic model is then compared to the spreading rate in the LES. The stochastic particle velocity representation is shown to reasonably reproduce spreading rates in sheared, precipitating, and non-precipitating cases using domain-averaged turbulent statistics from the LES.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Azimuthally averaged wind and thermodynamic structures of tropical cyclones in global climate models and their sensitivity to horizontal resolution

Characteristics of tropical cyclones (TCs) in global climate models (GCMs) are known to be influenced by details of the model configurations, including horizontal resolution and parameterization schemes. Understanding model-to-model differences in TC characteristics is a prerequisite for reducing uncertainty in future TC activity projections by GCMs. This study performs a process-level examination of TC structures in eight GCM simulations that span a range of horizontal resolutions from 1° to 0.25°. A recently developed set of process-oriented diagnostics is used to examine the azimuthally averaged wind and thermodynamic structures of the GCM-simulated TCs. Results indicate that the inner-core wind structures of simulated TCs are more strongly constrained by the horizontal resolutions of the models than are the thermodynamic structures of those TCs. As expected, the structures of TC circulations become more realistic with smaller horizontal grid spacing, such that the radii of maximum wind (RMW) become smaller, and the maximum vertical velocities occur off the center. However, the RMWs are still too large, especially at higher intensities, and there are rising motions occurring at the storm centers, inconsistently with observations. The distributions of precipitation, moisture, radiative and surface turbulent heat fluxes around TCs are diverse, even across models with similar horizontal resolutions. At the same horizontal resolution, models that produce greater rainfall in the inner-core regions tend to simulate stronger TCs. Further, when TCs are weak, the radial gradient of net column radiative flux convergence is comparable to that of surface turbulent heat fluxes, emphasizing the importance of cloud-radiative feedbacks during the early developmental phases of TCs.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Investigation of Wind Plant Wake Effects at the AWAKEN Field Campaign

Wind plant wakes characterized by lower momentum flow with increased turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) have been shown to propagate for several kilometers and interact with neighboring plants. To better understand these interactions, an Oklahoma site hosting five wind plants is heavily instrumented as part of the American Wake Experiment (AWAKEN) field campaign. Upstream, interior-plant, and downstream flows are probed using a suite of remote sensing instruments to quantify wake properties such as the magnitude and extent of momentum deficit and TKE increase. The effects of atmospheric inflow (wind speed, turbulence, stability, etc.) are investigated. Under certain conditions, the impact of an upstream plant on its downstream neighbor can be observed using the performance data recorded by the downstream plant. In addition to providing insight into plant wake behavior, the results of this study will be used as a benchmark case for wind plant simulations.

AWAKEN↗
DOE OSTI2025

Regime-based aerosol–cloud interactions from CALIPSO-MODIS and the Energy Exascale Earth System Model version 2 (E3SMv2) over the Eastern North Atlantic

This study investigates aerosol-cloud interactions in marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds using an advanced deep-learning-driven synoptic-regime-based framework, combining satellite data (CALIPSO vertically resolved aerosol extinction and MODIS cloud properties) with 1° nudged Energy Exascale Earth System Model version 2 (E3SMv2) simulation over the Eastern North Atlantic (ENA; ∼10°×10°, 2006–2014). The E3SMv2 captures observed seasonal variations in cloud droplet number concentrations (N d ) and liquid water path (LWP), though it systematically underestimates N d . We then partition ENA meteorology into four synoptic regimes (Pre-Trough, Post-Trough, Ridge, Trough) via a deep-learning clustering of ERA5 reanalysis fields, enabling regime-dependent aerosol-cloud interactions analyses. Both satellite and E3SMv2 exhibit an inverted-V LWP-N d relationship. In Post-Trough and Ridge regimes, the satellite shows stronger negative LWP-N d sensitivities than in Pre-Trough regime. The Trough regime displays a muted satellite LWP response. In comparison, the model predicts more exaggerated LWP responses across regimes, with LWP increasing too quickly at low N d and decreasing more sharply at high N d , especially in Pre-Trough and Trough regimes. These exaggerated model LWP sensitivities may stem from uncertainties in representing drizzle processes, entrainment, and turbulent mixing. As for N d susceptibility to aerosols, N d increases with MBL aerosol extinction in both datasets, but the simulated aerosol-cloud interactions appear oversensitive to meteorological conditions. Overall, E3SMv2 better captures aerosol effects under regimes that favor stratiform clouds (Post-Trough, Ridge), but performance deteriorates for regimes with deeper, dynamically complex clouds (Trough), highlighting the need for improved representations of those cloud processes in climate models.

Environmental sciences↗
DOE OSTI2021

Local wave-number model for inhomogeneous two-fluid mixing

We analyze the local wave-number (LWN) model, a two-point spectral closure model for turbulence, as applied to the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability, the flow induced by the relaxation of a statically-unstable density stratification. Model outcomes are validated against data from 3D simulations of the RT instability. In the first part of the study we consider the minimal model terms required to capture inhomogeneous mixing and show that this version, with suitable model coefficients, is sufficient to capture the evolution of important mean global quantities including mix-width, turbulent mass flux velocity, and Reynolds stress, if the start time is chosen such that the earliest transitions are avoided. However, this simple model does not permit the expected finite asymptote of the density-specific-volume covariance b. In the second part of the study, we investigate two forms for a source term for the evolution of the spectrum of density-specific-volume covariance for the LWN model. The first includes an empirically motivated calibration of the source to achieve the final asymptotic state of constant b. Here, the second form does not require calibration but, in conjunction with enhanced diffusion and drag captures the full evolution of all the dynamical quantities, namely, the mix-layer growth, turbulent mass-flux velocity, Reynolds stress, as well as the desired behavior of b.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

ETG turbulence in a tokamak pedestal

This paper explores the fundamental characteristics of electron-temperature-gradient (ETG)-driven turbulence in the tokamak pedestal. The extreme gradients in the pedestal produce linear instabilities and nonlinear turbulence that are distinct from the corresponding ETG phenomenology in the core plasma. The linear system exhibits multiple (greater than ten) unstable eigenmodes at each perpendicular wave vector, representing different toroidal and slab branches of the ETG instability. Proper orthogonal decomposition of the nonlinear fluctuations reveals no clear one-to-one correspondence between the linear and nonlinear modes for most wave vectors. Moreover, nonlinear frequencies deviate strongly from those of the linear instabilities, with spectra peaking at positive frequencies, which is opposite the sign of the ETG instability. The picture that emerges is one in which the linear properties are preserved only in a narrow range of k-space. Outside this range, nonlinear processes produce strong deviations from both the linear frequencies and eigenmode structures. This is interpreted in the context of critical balance, which enforces alignment between the parallel scales and fluctuation frequencies. We also investigate the nonlinear saturation processes. We observe a direct energy cascade from the injection scale to smaller scales in both perpendicular directions. However, in the bi-normal direction, there is also nonlocal inverse energy transfer to larger scales. Neither streamers nor zonal flows dominate the saturation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Vertical Resolution Impacts Explicit Simulation of Deep Convection

Abstract The aggregation of tropical convection greatly influences the mean‐state of the atmosphere, altering humidity distributions, total atmospheric radiative cooling, and cloud amounts. Although studies have demonstrated the sensitivity of convective aggregation to horizontal resolution and domain size, few studies have explored the impact of vertical resolution on convective aggregation. Here, we investigate the impact of vertical resolution on simulations of deep convection and convective aggregation using the System for Atmospheric Modeling convection resolving model. We analyze simulations of tropical radiative‐convective equilibrium with varying vertical levels (32, 64, 128, and 256) across small (100 km), medium (700 km) and large (1,500 km) domains. We demonstrate that relative humidity and cloud fraction decrease with increasing vertical resolution as a result of reduced turbulent mixing. Vertical resolution also influences the occurrence of, onset time, and equilibrium intensity of aggregated convection, and also appears to affect the sensitivity of convective aggregation to domain size. Understanding how simulated convection aggregates, as well as its simulated sensitivity to model formulation, is critical for making and interpreting future predictions of global climate change.

Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences↗
DOE OSTI2026

The Role of Three-dimensional Effects on Ion Injection and Acceleration in Perpendicular Shocks

Understanding the conditions that enable particle acceleration at nonrelativistic collisionless shocks is essential to unveil the origin of cosmic rays. We employ 2D and 3D hybrid simulations (with kinetic ions and fluid electrons) to explore particle acceleration and magnetic field amplification in nonrelativistic perpendicular shocks, focusing on the role of shock drift acceleration and its dependence on the shock Mach number. We perform an analysis of the ion injection process and demonstrate why efficient acceleration is only observed in 3D. In particular, we show that ion injection critically depends on the “porosity” of the magnetic turbulence in the downstream region near the shock, a property describing how easily the postshock region allows particles to traverse it and return upstream without being trapped. This effect can only be properly captured in 3D. Additionally, we explore the impact of numerical resolution on ion energization, highlighting how resolving small-scale turbulence—on scales below the thermal ion gyroradius—is essential for accurately modeling particle injection. Overall, our results emphasize the necessity of high-resolution 3D simulations to capture the fundamental microphysics driving particle acceleration at perpendicular shocks.

Orusa, Luca [Princeton Univ., NJ (United States); ↗
DOE OSTI2022

A two-fluid single-column model of turbulent shallow convection, Part III: Results and parameter sensitivity

Two-fluid modelling has recently emerged as a promising approach to representing cumulus convection in weather and climate models. This study applies the two-fluid model described in Part II Thuburn et al., 2021b to a shallow cumulus convection case study over land (ARM). Large eddy simulation data is used to tune the majority of the closures that determine the properties of entrained and detrained air. The two-fluid model is generally able to reproduce the profiles of the mean and turbulent quantities over all stages of the diurnal cycle. As such, the initiation of shallow convection and the evolution of the cloud layer are well captured. The robustness of the two-fluid model is further verified using a steady-state test case (BOMEX), in which the cloud properties are also well modelled.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Scaling of Turbulence and Microphysics in a Convection–Cloud Chamber of Varying Height

Abstract The convection–cloud chamber enables measurement of aerosol and cloud microphysics, as well as their interactions, within a turbulent environment under steady‐state conditions. Increasing the size of a convection–cloud chamber, while holding the imposed temperature difference constant, leads to increased Rayleigh, Reynolds and Nusselt numbers. Large–eddy simulation coupled with a bin microphysics model allows the influence of increased velocity, time, and spatial scales on cloud microphysical properties to be explored. Simulations of a convection–cloud chamber, with fixed aspect ratio and increasing heights of H = 1, 2, 4, and (for dry conditions only) 8 m are performed. The key findings are: Velocity fluctuations scale as H 1/3 , consistent with the Deardorff expression for convective velocity, and implying that the turbulence correlation time scales as H 2/3 . Temperature and other scalar fluctuations scale as H −3/7 . Droplet size distributions from chambers of different sizes can be matched by adjusting the total aerosol injection rate as the horizontal cross‐sectional area (i.e., as H 2 for constant aspect ratio). Injection of aerosols at a point versus distributed throughout the volume makes no difference for polluted conditions, but can lead to cloud droplet size distribution broadening in clean conditions. Cloud droplet growth by collision and coalescence leads to a broader right tail of the distribution compared to condensation growth alone, and this tail increases in magnitude and extent monotonically as the increase of chamber height. These results also have implications for scaling within turbulent, cloudy mixed‐layers in the atmosphere, such as fog layers.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Influence of tower shadow on downwind flexible rotors: Field tests and simulations

Abstract As wind turbine rotors become larger, the blades become more flexible, requiring extra stiffness and cost to avoid the risk of tower strike. Wind turbines in a downwind configuration have a reduced risk of tower strike because the rotor thrust acts away from the tower. However, downwind blades pass through the wake of the tower, and the resulting load variation may contribute to blade fatigue. To date, there have been no field tests to quantify this tower shadow effect on unsteady blade moments. The present study reports on the first field testing of a flexible, downwind, coned rotor and compares the experimental data against simulations run in OpenFAST. The tower shadow effect is simulated using the conventional Powles model and a new Eames model (developed herein), which includes the influence of upstream turbulence. Both models reasonably predict the blade root out‐of‐plane bending moment data and the tower shadow dip magnitude when compared to field test data in Region 3. Tower shadow was found to increase the short‐term Damage Equivalent Loads (DELs) by less than 10% compared to other effects (gravity, shear, and turbulence), and the predictions were consistent with experiments. These results indicate that the tower shadow effect can be reasonably modeled with the simpler Powles model and that the tower shadow effect can be small compared to the effect of turbulence. However, long‐term fatigue due to tower shadow should be included in detailed structural analysis and design of the rotor and the tower.

Simpson, Juliet G.↗
DOE OSTI2021

HTR-1.3 solver: Predicting electrified combustion using the hypersonic task-based research solver

Here this manuscript presents an updated open-source version of the Hypersonics Task-based Research (HTR) solver. The solver, whose main features are presented in Di Renzo et al. (2020) and Di Renzo & Pirozzoli (2021), is designed for direct numerical simulation of reacting flows at high Reynolds numbers. This new version extends the applications of the HTR solver to turbulent combustion in the presence of external electric fields. In particular, a new distributed Poisson solver compatible with heterogeneous architectures has been incorporated in the algorithm to compute the electric potential distribution in bi-periodic configurations. The drift fluxes of the electrically charged species are now included in the transport equations using a targeted essentially non-oscillatory scheme. A verification of these new features of the solver is provided using one-dimensional burner stabilized flames, whereas a three dimensional turbulent flame is utilized to discuss the scalability of the proposed numerical tool.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Global Atmosphere‐aerosol Model ICON‐A‐HAM2.3–Initial Model Evaluation and Effects of Radiation Balance Tuning on Aerosol Optical Thickness

Abstract The Hamburg Aerosol Module version 2.3 (HAM2.3) from the ECHAM6.3‐HAM2.3 global atmosphere‐aerosol model is coupled to the recently developed icosahedral nonhydrostatic ICON‐A (icon‐aes‐1.3.00) global atmosphere model to yield the new ICON‐A‐HAM2.3 atmosphere‐aerosol model. The ICON‐A and ECHAM6.3 host models use different dynamical cores, parameterizations of vertical mixing due to sub‐grid scale turbulence, and parameter settings for radiation balance tuning. Here, we study the role of the different host models for simulated aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and evaluate impacts of using HAM2.3 and the ECHAM6‐HAM2.3 two‐moment cloud microphysics scheme on several meteorological variables. Sensitivity runs show that a positive AOT bias over the subtropical oceans is remedied in ICON‐A‐HAM2.3 because of a different default setting of a parameter in the moist convection parameterization of the host models. The global mean AOT is biased low compared to MODIS satellite instrument retrievals in ICON‐A‐HAM2.3 and ECHAM6.3‐HAM2.3, but the bias is larger in ICON‐A‐HAM2.3 because negative AOT biases over the Amazon, the African rain forest, and the northern Indian Ocean are no longer compensated by high biases over the sub‐tropical oceans. ICON‐A‐HAM2.3 shows a moderate improvement with respect to AOT observations at AERONET sites. A multivariable bias score combining biases of several meteorological variables into a single number is larger in ICON‐A‐HAM2.3 compared to standard ICON‐A and standard ECHAM6.3. In the tropics, this multivariable bias is of similar magnitude in ICON‐A‐HAM2.3 and in ECHAM6.3‐HAM2.3. In the extra‐tropics, a smaller multivariable bias is found for ICON‐A‐HAM2.3 than for ECHAM6.3‐HAM2.3.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Quasilinear modeling of heat flux from microtearing turbulence

Microtearing (MT) turbulence affects plasma confinement and profile evolution in many different magnetic-confinement scenarios, ranging from tokamak core plasmas to the H-mode pedestal and from spherical tokamaks to reversed-field pinches. Thus, an urgent need exists to design and test reduced models of MT turbulence and transport. Here, a heuristic quasilinear model is composed and verified by comparing its predictions against nonlinear MT simulations. It is found to yield good predictions of magnetic flutter transport as key parameters are varied: the collision frequency, the electron temperature gradient, and the normalized plasma pressure.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

LLNL FESP Theory Highlights: August 2024

The 2024 ABOUND SciDAC and BOUT++ combined workshop was held August 5-9 th 2024 at the University of California Livermore Collaboration Center (UCLC) in Livermore. Bringing together leading scientists and researchers from across the globe, this pivotal event focused on advancing plasma physics and boundary plasma dynamics within the context of fusion energy research. Key discussions throughout the meeting highlighted significant advancements in the BOUT++ framework, including enhanced simulations of small Edge Localized Modes (ELMs) and the initiation of integrating the integration of the 5D GEM gyrokinetic turbulence core code with the 2D SOLPS-ITER boundary transport code. These developments are crucial for managing heat loads in fusion reactors and supporting the longevity of plasma-facing components. The event also featured a session on Inter-SciDAC Collaborations, where principal investigators from multiple U.S. FES SciDAC tokamak projects explored opportunities for cross-collaboration. Additionally, the meeting showcased cutting-edge advancements in GPU acceleration and AI/ML technologies, poised to drive the next generation of fusion research. In his closing remarks, Dr. Xueqiao Xu emphasized the importance of the collaborative efforts and discussions that took place, noting their potential to shape future breakthroughs in fusion energy. The event underscored the global nature of the BOUT++ collaboration, with contributions from over 57 institutions worldwide. The 2024 BOUT++ and ABOUND Joint Hybrid Meeting continues to drive forward the research and innovations needed to achieve fusion energy, setting the stage for future collaboration and discovery.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Ion Acceleration and the Development of a Power-law Energy Spectrum in Magnetic Reconnection

How charged particles are accelerated efficiently and form a power-law energy spectrum in magnetic reconnection is a problem that is not well understood. In a previous paper, it was shown that the electron Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (EKHI) in force-free magnetic reconnection generates fast-expanding vortices that can accelerate electrons in a few tens of ion gyroperiods (less than 1 ms in the solar corona) to form a power-law energy distribution. In this paper, we present a particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation study of ion acceleration in force-free magnetic reconnection in the presence of the EKHI-induced turbulence. We find that ions are not significantly accelerated by the EKHI-induced stochastic electric field until the magnetic vortices expand to sizes comparable to the ion gyroradius. The Alfvén waves generated by the EKHI couple with the magnetic vortices, leading to resonance between the ions inside the magnetic vortices and Alfvén waves and enhanced ion heating. The induced Alfvén wave resonance results in a broken power-law energy spectrum with a breakpoint at $\sim {m}_{i}{v}_{A}^{2}$, where v A is the Alfvén velocity. Here, we show that the process that forms the nonthermal tail is a second-order Fermi mechanism and the mean spectral index is α = (1 + 4 a 2 D/R) /2, where D is the spatial scale of the inductive electric field, R is that of vortices, and a = B g /B 0 , with ratio of guide field B g and asymptotic B 0 .

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Estimating Drizzle Parameters by Aircraft Sampling

In-cloud supersaturation is calculated from aircraft derived measurements of the in-cloud vertical gradient of liquid water content, vertical velocity, the pt and 3 rd cloud droplet radius moments and a parameter related to the heat and mass transport during condensation and evaporation of cloud droplets. The aircraft data where taken during the VOCALS 2008 study in marine stratocumulus clouds off the coast of Chile. Approximately 16000 discrete samples, 2.5 meter in length, were used in the present analysis of in-cloud supersaturation and its variability, both of which are indicative of turbulent processes within the cloud and their significant impact on drizzle formation. Two additional drizzle parameters, the eddy persistence time and the variance of fluctuations in in-cloud droplet growth rate were also estimated from this data set. These results will help to constrain parameterizations of underlying turbulent microphysical processes of clouds and thereby advance the future development of warm cloud and precipitation models for climate simulation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗