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Refractivity Observations from Radar Phase Measurements: The 22 May 2002 Dryline Case during IHOP Project

The dryline, often associated with the development of severe storms in the Southern Great Plains of the United States of America, is a boundary layer phenomenon that occurs when a warm and moist air mass from the Gulf of Mexico meets a hot and dry air mass from the southwest desert area. An accurate knowledge of the water vapor spatio-temporal variability in the lower part of the atmosphere is crucial for a better understanding of the evolution of the dryline. The tropospheric refractivity, directly related to water vapor content, is a proxy for the water vapor content of the troposphere. It has already been demonstrated that the refractivity and the refractivity vertical gradient can be jointly estimated from radar phase measurements. In fact, it has been shown that using kriging interpolation techniques, accurate refractivity maps within the coverage area of the radar can be obtained with high temporal resolution. In this paper, a detailed analysis of the time series of radar-based refractivity maps obtained during a dryline that occurred on the afternoon of 22 May 2002 during the International H 2 O Project is presented. Comparisons between the time series of radar refractivity maps, obtained with the NCAR S-Pol radar, and the refractivity measurements derived from automatic ground-based weather stations and the AERI instrument, placed at different locations within the coverage area of the NCAR S-Pol radar, demonstrate the accuracy of radar refractivity estimates even for highly variable conditions, both in time and space, in the troposphere. Correlation coefficients higher than 0.95 are obtained in all weather station locations. Regarding the RMSE, errors less than 6 N-units are obtained for all cases, being even as low as 2.92 N-units at some locations.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Long-Range Transport of Biomass Burning Aerosols from Southern Africa: A Case Study Using Layered Atlantic Smoke Interactions with Clouds Observations

A case study of an incoming biomass burning aerosol plume at Ascension Island is analyzed for the peak of the 2017 fire season using satellites, reanalysis and in situ observations. Measurements from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Mobile Facility 1 reveal an abrupt change from relatively clean conditions (~70 parts per billion by volume of carbon monoxide) to a more polluted state (~150 parts per billion by volume of carbon monoxide). Corresponding changes in aerosol size reveal a broadening of size distributions toward larger optical diameters, consistent with the arrival of aged aerosols. Within a 24 h period, black carbon fraction increases ~500% from ~300 ng m e to ~1500 ng m 3 , while light absorption coefficients increase ~300%. Long-range transport of these aerosols is primarily confined between 2 and 5 km above sea level along the northwesterly trade winds. Our results show that the primary driver of increases in aerosol loading over Ascension Island is an intensification of the St. Helena high-pressure system (anticyclone) that leads to a weakening of trade winds and increases westward transport on its northern flank. A better understanding of the complex interactions between air quality, meteorology and long-range aerosol transport is important for future modeling studies focused on aerosol–cloud–radiation interactions over the open ocean and reducing its associated uncertainties.

aerosol size distribution↗

A Case Study about Energy and Cost Impacts for Different Community Scenarios Using a Community-Scale Building Energy Modeling Tool

The United States building sector consumed approximately 75% of electricity in 2019. By implementing renewable energy technologies and control strategies into buildings, future buildings will serve as energy generators as well as consumers. To accommodate this transition, communications among buildings and between buildings and the grid could provide more possibilities to optimize the energy performance of buildings. This paper develops a community-scale building energy model tool and conducts a case study adopting behind-the-meter distributed energy resources, sharing energy in different buildings, and using different electricity tariff structures. Three scenarios are studied: (1) electricity only supplied by the grid, (2) photovoltaic (PV) panels installed on and available to some but not all buildings, and (3) a connected community. To consider the impacts of locations and energy tariffs, this paper selects four cities and three electricity tariffs to evaluate the energy and cost performances of these three scenarios. The results show that the PV panels in Scenario 2 reduce 25% to 33% of the community-level electricity consumption and 20% to 30% of the community-level electricity cost compared with Scenario 1 in all studied locations and energy tariffs. By considering power management in the connected community (Scenario 3), the electricity consumption and cost can be further reduced by 6% to 7% and 5% to 11%, respectively, compared with Scenario 2.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Sensor Incipient Fault Impacts on Building Energy Performance: A Case Study on a Multi-Zone Commercial Building

Existing studies show sensor faults/error could double building energy consumption and carbon emissions compared with the baseline. Those studies assume that the sensor error is fixed or constant. However, sensor faults are incipient in real conditions and there were extremely limited studies investigating the incipient sensor fault impacts systematically. This study filled in this research gap by studying time-developing sensor fault impacts to rule-based controls on a 10-zone office building. The control sequences for variable air volume boxes (VAV) with an air handling unit (AHU) system were selected based on ASHRAE Guideline 36-2018: High-Performance Sequences of Operation for HVAC Systems. Large-scale simulations on cloud were conducted (3600 cases) through stochastic approach. Results show (1) The site energy differences could go –3.3% lower or 18.1% higher, compared with baseline. (2) The heating energy differences could go –66.5% lower or 314.4% higher, compared with baseline. (3) The cooling energy differences could go –11.5% lower or 65.0% higher, compared with baseline. (4) The fan energy differences could go 0.15% lower or 6.9% higher, compared with baseline.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Environmental and Economic Assessments and Uncertainties of Multiple Lignocellulosic Biomass Utilization for Bioenergy Products: Case Studies

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) were applied to assess the economic feasibility and environmental benefits of utilizing multiple biomass feedstocks for bioenergy products under three different technological pathways with consideration of uncertainties. Three cases were studied for the production of pellets, biomass-based electricity, and pyrolysis bio-oil. A Monte Carlo simulation was used to examine the uncertainties of fossil energy consumption, bioenergy conversion efficiency, stochastic production rate, etc. The cradle-to-gate LCA results showed that pellet production had the lowest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water and fossil fuels consumption (8.29 kg CO2 eq (equivalent), 0.46 kg, and 105.42 MJ, respectively). The conversion process presented a greater environmental impact for all three bioenergy products. When producing 46,929 Mg of pellets, 223,380 MWh of electricity, and 78,000 barrels of pyrolysis oil, the net present values (NPV) indicated that only pellet and electricity production were profitable with NPVs of $1.20 million for pellets, and $5.59 million for biopower. Uncertainty analysis indicated that pellet production showed the highest uncertainty in GHG emission, and bio-oil production had the least uncertainty in GHG emission but had risks producing greater-than-normal amounts of GHG. Biopower production had the highest probability to be a profitable investment with 85.23%.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Chemical Impacts of Potential CO2 and Brine Leakage on Groundwater Quality with Quantitative Risk Assessment: A Case Study of the Farnsworth Unit

Potential leakage of reservoir fluids is considered a key risk factor for geologic CO2 sequestration (GCS), with concerns of their chemical impacts on the quality of overlying underground sources of drinking water (USDWs). Effective risk assessment provides useful information to guide GCS activities for protecting USDWs. In this study, we present a quantified risk assessment case study of an active commercial-scale CO2-enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) and sequestration field, the Farnsworth Unit (FWU). Specific objectives of this study include: (1) to quantify potential risks of CO2 and brine leakage to the overlying USDW quality with response surface methodology (RSM); and (2) to identify water chemistry indicators for early detection criteria. Results suggest that trace metals (e.g., arsenic and selenium) are less likely to become a risk due to their adsorption onto clay minerals; no-impact thresholds based on site monitoring data could be a preferable reference for early groundwater quality evaluation; and pH is suggested as an indicator for early detection of a leakage. This study may provide quantitative insight for monitoring strategies on GCS sites to enhance the safety of long-term CO2 sequestration.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Forced Oscillation Grid Vulnerability Analysis and Mitigation Using Inverter-Based Resources: Texas Grid Case Study

Forced oscillation events have become a challenging problem with the increasing penetration of renewable and other inverter-based resources (IBRs), especially when the forced oscillation frequency coincides with the dominant natural oscillation frequency. A severe forced oscillation event can deteriorate power system dynamic stability, damage equipment, and limit power transfer capability. This paper proposes a two-dimension scanning forced oscillation grid vulnerability analysis method to identify areas/zones in the system that are critical to forced oscillation. These critical areas/zones can be further considered as effective actuator locations for the deployment of forced oscillation damping controllers. Additionally, active power modulation control through IBRs is also proposed to reduce the forced oscillation impact on the entire grid. The proposed methods are demonstrated through a case study on a synthetic Texas power system model. The simulation results demonstrate that the critical areas/zones of forced oscillation are related to the areas that highly participate in the natural oscillations and the proposed oscillation damping controller through IBRs can effectively reduce the forced oscillation impact in the entire system.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Gait Characterization and Analysis of Hereditary Amyloidosis Associated with Transthyretin Patients: A Case Series

Hereditary amyloidosis associated with transthyretin (ATTRv), is a rare autosomal dominant disease characterized by length-dependent symmetric polyneuropathy that has gait impairment as one of its consequences. The gait pattern of V30M ATTRv amyloidosis patients has been described as similar to that of diabetic neuropathy, associated with steppage, but has never been quantitatively characterized. In this study we aim to characterize the gait pattern of patients with V30M ATTRv amyloidosis, thus providing information for a better understanding and potential for supporting diagnosis and disease progression evaluation. We present a case series in which we conducted two gait analyses, 18 months apart, of five V30M ATTRv amyloidosis patients using a 12-camera, marker based, optical system as well as six force platforms. Linear kinematics, ground reaction forces, and angular kinematics results are analyzed for all patients. All patients, except one, showed a delayed toe-off in the second assessment, as well as excessive pelvic rotation, hip extension and external transverse rotation and knee flexion (in stance and swing phases), along with reduced vertical and mediolateral ground reaction forces. The described gait anomalies are not clinically quantified; thus, gait analysis may contribute to the assessment of possible disease progression along with the clinical evaluation.

Vilas-Boas, Maria do Carmo (ORCID:000000025012789X↗

Characterizing Families of Spectral Similarity Scores and Their Use Cases for Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry Small Molecule Identification

Metabolomics provides a unique snapshot into the world of small molecules and the complex biological processes that govern the human, animal, plant, and environmental ecosystems encapsulated by the One Health modeling framework. However, this “molecular snapshot” is only as informative as the number of metabolites confidently identified within it. The spectral similarity (SS) score is traditionally used to identify compound(s) in mass spectrometry approaches to metabolomics, where spectra are matched to reference libraries of candidate spectra. Unfortunately, there is little consensus on which of the dozens of available SS metrics should be used. This lack of standard SS score creates analytic uncertainty and potentially leads to issues in reproducibility, especially as these data are integrated across other domains. In this work, we use metabolomic spectral similarity as a case study to showcase the challenges in consistency within just one piece of the One Health framework that must be addressed to enable data science approaches for One Health problems. Here, using a large cohort of datasets comprising both standard and complex datasets with expert-verified truth annotations, we evaluated the effectiveness of 66 similarity metrics to delineate between correct matches (true positives) and incorrect matches (true negatives). We additionally characterize the families of these metrics to make informed recommendations for their use. Our results indicate that specific families of metrics (the Inner Product, Correlative, and Intersection families of scores) tend to perform better than others, with no single similarity metric performing optimally for all queried spectra. This work and its findings provide an empirically-based resource for researchers to use in their selection of similarity metrics for GC-MS identification, increasing scientific reproducibility through taking steps towards standardizing identification workflows.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Platiniferous Tetra-Auricupride: A Case Study from the Bolshoy Khailyk Placer Deposit, Western Sayans, Russia

Tetra-auricupride, ideally AuCu, represents the only species showing the coexistence of Au with an elevated level of Pt, as in the case of a detrital grain studied structurally for the first time, from an ophiolite-associated placer at Bolshoy Khailyk, western Sayans, Russia. We infer that tetra-auricupride can incorporate as much as ~30 mol. % of a “PtCu” component, apparently without significant modification of the unit cell. The unit-cell parameters of platiniferous tetra-auricupride are: a 2.790(1) Å, c 3.641(4) Å, with c/a = 1.305, which are close to those reported for ordered AuCu(I) in the system Au–Cu, and close also to the cell parameters of tetraferroplatinum (PtFe), which both appear to crystallize in the same space group, P4/mmm. These intermetallic compounds and natural alloys are thus isostructural. The closeness of their structures presumably allows Pt to replace Au atoms so readily. The high extent of Cu + Au enrichment is considered to be a reflection of geochemical evolution and buildup in levels of the incompatible Cu and Au with subordinate Pt in a remaining volume of melt at low levels of fO 2 and fS 2 in the system.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Towards Next-Generation Urban Decision Support Systems through AI-Powered Construction of Scientific Ontology Using Large Language Models—A Case in Optimizing Intermodal Freight Transportation

The incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) models into various optimization systems is on the rise. However, addressing complex urban and environmental management challenges often demands deep expertise in domain science and informatics. This expertise is essential for deriving data and simulation-driven insights that support informed decision-making. In this context, we investigate the potential of leveraging the pre-trained Large Language Models (LLMs) to create knowledge representations for supporting operations research. By adopting ChatGPT-4 API as the reasoning core, we outline an applied workflow that encompasses natural language processing, Methontology-based prompt tuning, and Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT), to automate the construction of scenario-based ontologies using existing research articles and technical manuals of urban datasets and simulations. From these ontologies, knowledge graphs can be derived using widely adopted formats and protocols, guiding various tasks towards data-informed decision support. The performance of our methodology is evaluated through a comparative analysis that contrasts our AI-generated ontology with the widely recognized pizza ontology, commonly used in tutorials for popular ontology software. We conclude with a real-world case study on optimizing the complex system of multi-modal freight transportation. Our approach advances urban decision support systems by enhancing data and metadata modeling, improving data integration and simulation coupling, and guiding the development of decision support strategies and essential software components.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

Energy Transitions Towards Low Carbon Resilience: Evaluation of Disaster-Triggered Local and Regional Cases

Following numerous global scientific studies and major international agreements, the decarbonization of energy systems is an apparent and pressing concern. The consequence of continued emission growth tied to rising global average temperatures is difficult to predict, but against a background of other natural and human-induced disasters, may create a situation, from a positive perspective, where each disaster event triggers “build back better” responses designed to speed the transition toward low carbon, resilience-oriented energy systems. This article examines the potential for disaster-triggered responses in communities, at various local and regional levels, in four industrial economies in the Asia Pacific region: Japan, China, Australia, and the USA. Seven case studies were evaluated against a set of criteria that exemplify the key aspects of resilient energy systems. The research results suggest that a new space of innovation does emerge in post-disaster situations at a range of local and regional scales. The greatest potential benefit and opportunity for significant gains, however, appears to manifest at the small community level, and the ultimate challenge relates to how to mainstream local innovations into state and national level transformation on energy systems so as to enhance resilience and promote rapid decarbonization.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Empirical Modeling of Direct Expansion (DX) Cooling System for Multiple Research Use Cases

This study provides a general procedure to generate a direct expansion (DX) cooling coil system for a roof top unit (RTU), which is a typical heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system for commercial buildings in the United States. Experimental data from a full-scale unoccupied 2-story commercial building is used for the HVAC modeling. The regression for identifying the model coefficients was carried out with multiple stages, and the results were validated with measured data. The model’s applicability was evaluated with multiple case studies, including a building energy simulation (BES) program validation, model-based predictive control (MPC), and fault diagnostics and detection (FDD).

42 ENGINEERING↗

A Sustainable Wind–Biogas Hybrid System for Remote Areas in Jordan: A Case Study of Mobile Hospital for a Zaatari Syrian Refugee Camp

Access to reliable and sustainable energy in remote areas remains a pressing global challenge, significantly affecting economic development and the quality of life. This study focuses on the implementation of fully off-grid wind–biogas hybrid power systems to address this issue, with a focus on remote healthcare camp facilities. This paper investigates the performance of a hybrid renewable energy system within the context of one of Jordan’s northern remote areas, the Zaatari Syrian Refugee Camp, assessing its efficiency and environmental impact by taking the Zaatari hospital as the case study. Simulations were conducted to evaluate system components, including wind turbines, biogas generators, and diesel generators. A comprehensive evaluation was conducted, encompassing both the operational efficiency of the system and its impact on the environment. This study also considered various scenarios (SC#), including grid availability and autonomy levels, to optimize system configurations. The techno-economic assessment employed the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) as a key performance indicator, and sensitivity analyses explored the impact of diesel costs and wind power fluctuations on the system. Additionally, environmental assessment was conducted to evaluate the environmental effects of hybrid systems, with a specific focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This investigation involved an examination of emissions in three different scenarios. The results indicate that the lowest LCOE that could be achieved was 0.0734 USD/kWh in SC#1 with 72.42% autonomy, whereas achieving 100% autonomy increased the LCOE to 0.1756 USD/kWh. Additionally, the results reveal that in scenarios SC#2 and SC#3, which have a higher proportion of diesel generator usage, there were elevated levels of NO x and CO 2 emissions. Conversely, in SC#1, which lacks diesel generators, emissions were notably lower. The proposed hybrid system demonstrates its potential to provide a reliable energy supply to healthcare facilities in remote regions, emphasizing both economic feasibility and environmental benefits. These findings contribute to informed decision making for sustainable energy solutions in similar contexts, promoting healthcare accessibility and environmental sustainability.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

The Circum-Galactic Medium of MASsive Spirals. I. An overview and a case study of NGC 5908

The Circum-Galactic Medium of MASsive Spirals is a project studying the overall content, physical and chemical properties, and spatial distributions of the multi-phase circumgalactic medium around a small sample of the most massive (M{sub ∗}≳2×10{sup 11} M{sub ⊙}, v{sub rot}>300 km s{sup −1}) isolated spiral galaxies in the local universe. We introduce the sample and present a detailed case study of the XMM-Newton observation of the hot gas halo of NGC 5908. After data calibration, point source removal, and background analysis, we find that the diffuse soft X-ray emission of NGC 5908 is significantly more extended than the stellar light in the vertical direction. The 0.5–1.25 keV radial intensity profile tracing hot gas emission can be detected above the background out to about 2{sup ′}, or 30 kpc from the nucleus. The unresolved soft X-ray emission can be characterized using a β-model with a slope of β≈0.68. The unresolved 0.5–2 keV luminosity within 1{sup ′} is 6.8×10{sup 39} erg s{sup −1}, but young stellar sources may contribute significantly to it. Assuming a metallicity of 0.2 solar, an upper limit (without subtracting the very uncertain young stellar contribution) to the mass of hot gas within this radius is 2.3×10{sup 9} M{sub ⊙}. The cooling radius is r{sub cool}≈25 kpc or ≈0.06r{sub 200}, within which the hot gas could cool radiatively in less than 10 Gyr, and the cooling of hot gas could significantly contribute to replenishing the gas consumed in star formation. The hot gas accounts for ≈1.9% of the baryons detected within the cooling radius. By comparing NGC 5908 to other galaxies, we find that its X-ray luminosity per stellar mass is consistent with lower-mass non-starburst field spiral galaxies. However, a large scatter in hot gas soft X-ray emissivity is indicated for spiral galaxies with M{sub ∗}≳2×10{sup 11} M{sub ⊙}.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Extra-galactic Distances with Massive Stars: The Role of Stellar Variability in the Case of M33

In modern cosmology, determining the Hubble constant (H{sub 0}) using a distance ladder to percent level and comparing with the results from the Planck satellite can shed light on the nature of dark energy, physics of the neutrino, and curvature of the universe. Thanks to the endeavor of the SH0ES team, the uncertainty of the H{sub 0} has be dramatically reduced, from 10% to 2.4%, and with the promise of even reaching 1% in the near future. In this regard, it is fundamentally important to investigate the systematics. This is best done using other good independent distance indicators. One promising method is the flux-weighted gravity luminosity relation (FGLR) of the blue supergiants (BSGs). As BSGs are the brightest objects in galaxies, they can probe distances up to 10 Mpc with negligible blending effects. While the FGLR method delivered distance is in good agreement with other distance indicators, it has been shown that this method delivers greater distances in the cases of M33 and NGC 55. Here, we investigate whether the M33 distance estimate of FGLR suffers systematics from stellar variability. Using CFHT M33 monitoring data, we found that 9 out of 22 BSGs showed variability during the course of 500 days, although with amplitudes as small as 0.05 mag. This suggests that stellar variability plays a negligible role in the FGLR distance determination.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Disentangling the Planet from the Star in Late-Type M Dwarfs: A Case Study of TRAPPIST-1g

The atmospheres of late M stars represent a significant challenge in the characterization of any transiting exoplanets because of the presence of strong molecular features in the stellar atmosphere. TRAPPIST-1 is an ultracool dwarf, host to seven transiting planets, and contains its own molecular signatures that can potentially be imprinted on planetary transit lightcurves as a result of inhomogeneities in the occulted stellar photosphere. We present a case study on TRAPPIST-1g, the largest planet in the system, using a new observation together with previous data, to disentangle the atmospheric transmission of the planet from that of the star. We use the out-of-transit stellar spectra to reconstruct the stellar flux on the basis of one, two, and three temperature components. We find that TRAPPIST-1 is a 0.08 M {sub *}, 0.117 R {sub *}, M8V star with a photospheric effective temperature of 2400 K, with ∼35% 3000 K spot coverage and a very small fraction, <3%, of ∼5800 K hot spot. We calculate a planetary radius for TRAPPIST-1g to be R {sub p} = 1.124 R {sub ⊕}with a planetary density of ρ {sub p} = 0.8214 ρ {sub ⊕}. On the basis of the stellar reconstruction, there are 11 plausible scenarios for the combined stellar photosphere and planet transit geometry; in our analysis, we are able to rule out eight of the 11 scenarios. Using planetary models, we evaluate the remaining scenarios with respect to the transmission spectrum of TRAPPIST-1g. We conclude that the planetary transmission spectrum is likely not contaminated by any stellar spectral features and are able to rule out a clear solar H{sub 2}/He-dominated atmosphere at greater than 3σ.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

H- and Dissociation in Ultra-hot Jupiters: A Retrieval Case Study of WASP-18b

Atmospheres of a number of ultra-hot Jupiters (UHJs) with temperatures ≳2000 K have been observed recently. Many of these planets show largely featureless thermal spectra in the near-infrared observed with the HST WFC3 spectrograph (1.1–1.7 μm) even though this spectral range contains strong H{sub 2}O opacity. Recent works have proposed the possibility of H- opacity masking the H{sub 2}O feature and/or thermal dissociation of H{sub 2}O causing its apparent depletion at the high temperatures of UHJs. In this work, we test these hypotheses using observations of the exoplanet WASP-18b as a case study. We report detailed atmospheric retrievals of the planet using the HyDRA retrieval code, extended to include the effects of H- opacity and thermal dissociation. We report constraints on the H{sub 2}O, CO, and H- abundances as well as the pressure–temperature profile of the dayside atmosphere for retrievals with and without H-/dissociation for each data set. We find that the H{sub 2}O and H- abundances are relatively unconstrained given the featureless WFC3 spectra. We do not conclusively detect H- in the planet, contrary to previous studies that used equilibrium models to infer its presence. The constraint on the CO abundance depends on the combination of WFC3 and Spitzer data, ranging from solar to super-solar CO values. We additionally see signs of a thermal inversion from two of the data sets. Our study demonstrates the potential of atmospheric retrievals of UHJs, including the effects of H- and thermal dissociation of molecules.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗