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NASA NTRS2011

Environmental Signatures for Habitability: What to Measure and How to Rank the Habitability Potential of Mars

The environmental signatures for habitability are not necessarily biosignatures, even though on Earth, they are definitive proof of habitability. It is the constant overprint of the chemical signatures of life that makes it difficult to recognize the chemical and physical properties of a potentially habitable environment as distinct from an inhabited one. Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will soon embark on a mission to Mars to assess its past or present habitability, so it is useful to examine how we measure habitability on Earth and prepare for how that approach may differ for Mars. This exercise includes: (a) articulation of fundamental assumptions about habitability, (b) an inventory of factors that affect habitability, (c) development of metrics, measurement approach and implementation, and (d) a new classification scheme for planetary habitability that goes beyond the binary "yes" or "no." There may be dozens of factors that affect habitability and they can be weighted as a function of specific environment. However a robotic, in situ investigation even on Earth has constraints that prevent the measurement of every environmental factor, so metrics must be reduced to the most relevant subset, given available time, cost, technical feasibility and scientific importance. Many of the factors could be measured with a combination of orbital data and the MSL payload. We propose that, at a minimum, a designation of high habitability potential requires the following conditions be met: (a) thermally stable with respect to extremes and frequency of fluctuation, (b) has more than one energy source, (c) sufficient chemical diversity to make compounds with covalent and hydrogen bonding, (d) can moderate ionizing radiation enough to allow a stable or evolving pool of organic molecules, (e) must have water or other high quality polar solvent, (f) must be able to renew chemical resources (e.g., plate tectonics, volcanism or something else we haven't envisioned). A measurement approach we have taken to measure habitability on Earth is : 1. Study remote sensing data, maps, etc. 2. Decide how big an area to measure. 3. Determine the spatial sampling rate. 4. Determine the temporal sampling rate. 5. Determine the order of measurements 6. Decide where to begin measurements 7. Select locations at field site and proceed While science drives each of the steps, there are additional constraints, e.g., technical, time, cost, safety (risk). This approach is also executable on Mars. Measurement of past habitability is more challenging both for Earth and Mars where access to the past means subsurface access and confrontation with unknowns about preservation of the martian past. Some environments preserve evidence of past habitability better than others, and this is where selection of the landing site to maximize the preservation potential of habitability indicators will be key. Mars presents an opportunity to discover transitional states between habitable or not, and we offer a ranking scale for planetary habitability with Mars as the second test subject: CLASS ONE Uninhabitable and likely has never been so CLASS TWO Has a high potential but no confirmed observation of life (as defined above) CLASS THREE Inhabited (we find life) 3-A Globally inhabited 3-B Primitive life; early in its evolution, but not yet globally established 3-C Exists only in refugia -- planet heading toward class four CLASS FOUR Post-habitable (there once was life, but now it's gone) MSL provides an opportunity to carefully investigate the habitability of at least one site on Mars and it will reveal much about the possible states of planetary habitability

Conrad, Pamela G.↗

DOE OSTI2025

Modeling the impact of extreme weather events and future climate on the radiologically contaminated sites of Enewetak Atoll

Enewetak Atoll underwent 43 historical nuclear tests from 1948 to 1958, including the first hydrogen bomb test, resulting in a substantial nuclear material fallout contaminating the Atoll and the lagoon waters. The radionuclide fallout material deposited in lagoon sediments and land soil will remain for decades to come. With intensifying climate and extreme weather events, the possibility of redistribution of deposited radionuclide material has become a great concern. This study uses a numerical modeling approach to estimate the potential elevated radionuclide concentrations that can be distributed during storm events under current and future climates. We simulated three historical storm scenarios that are most likely to impact Atoll’s environment and remobilize the radionuclide-bound sediments. WRF-ARW was used to reconstruct these storm scenarios under current year (2015) and future year (2090) climates. Storm-induced ocean hydrodynamics conditions were generated using FVCOM. FVCOM-ICM was externally coupled to simulate the fate and transport of radionuclides. Given that the 239 Pu is the largest inventory of the lagoon and Atoll islands, the model results show the highest average 239 Pu concentration that an island may be exposed to is 3.25E-4 Bq/m 3 (becquerel per cubic meters), which is an increase of 84 times the average baseline/existing 239 Pu concentration without the storm conditions. The overall increase in 239 Pu average over all the islands of Atoll is about 20 folds relative to the baseline concentration. Despite the high relative increase ratios, the significantly low activity concentrations may not pose an immediate exposure risk. However, due to the limitations of the study and uncertainties/biases in the historical data used, further research supported by field surveys to better characterize the current contamination level may be needed to make more accurate predictions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS2020

The interactive global fire module pyrE (v1.0)

Fires affect the composition of the atmosphere and Earth’s radiation balance by emitting a suite of reactive gases and particles. An interactive fire module in an Earth system model (ESM) allows us to study the natural and anthropogenic drivers, feedbacks, and interactions of open fires. To do so, we have developed pyrE, the NASA GISS (Goddard Institute for Space Studies) interactive fire emissions *module. The pyrE module is driven by environmental variables like flammability and cloud-to-ground lightning, calculated by the GISS ModelE ESM, and parameterized by anthropogenic impacts based on population density data. Fire emissions are generated from the flaming phase in pyrE (active fires). Using pyrE, we examine fire occurrence, regional fire suppression, burned area, fire emissions, and how it all affects atmospheric composition. To do so, we evaluate pyrE by comparing it to satellite-based datasets of fire count, burned area, fire emissions, and aerosol optical depth (AOD). We demonstrate pyrE’s ability to simulate the daily and seasonal cycles of open fires and resulting emissions. Our results indicate that interactive fire emissions are biased low by 32 %–42 %, depending on emitted species, compared to the GFED4s (Global Fire Emissions Database) inventory. The bias in emissions drives underestimation in column densities, which is diluted by natural and anthropogenic emissions sources and production and loss mechanisms. Regionally, the resulting AOD of a simulation with interactive fire emissions is underestimated mostly over Indonesia compared to a simulation with GFED4s emissions and to MODIS AOD. In other parts of the world pyrE’s performance in terms of AOD is marginal to a simulation with prescribed fire emissions.

Fires↗

NASA NTRS2003

Eastern Asian Emissions of Anthropogenic Halocarbons Deduced from Aircraft Concentration Data

The Montreal Protocol restricts production of ozone-depleting halocarbons worldwide. Enforcement of the protocol has relied mainly on annual government statistics of production and consumption of these compounds (bottom-up approach). We show here that aircraft observations of ha1ocarbon:CO enhancement ratios on regional to continental scales can be used to infer halocarbon emissions, providing independent verification of the bottom-up approach. We apply this topdown approach to aircraft observations of Asian outflow &om the TRACE-P mission over the western Pacific (March-April 2001) and derive emissions from eastern Asia (China, Japan, and Korea). We derive an eastern Asian carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) source of 21.5 Gg yr(sup -1), several-fold larger than previous estimates and amounting to -30% of the global budget for this gas. Our emission estimate for CFC-11 from eastern Asia is 50% higher than inventories derived from manufacturing records. Our emission estimates for methyl chloroform (CH3CC13) and CFC-12 are in agreement with existing inventories. For halon 1211 we find only a strong local source originating from the Shanghai area. Our emission estimates for the above gases result in a approximately equal to 40% increase in the ozone depletion potential (ODP) of Asian emissions relative to previous estimates, corresponding to a approximately equal to 10% global increase in ODP.

Palmer, Paul I.↗

DOE OSTI2025

Charpy Impact Characterization of Surveillance Specimens Harvested from Palisades High Fluence A-60 Capsule

Located on the shores of Lake Michigan, the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station (PNGS) was a nuclear power plant that operated in Covert Township, Michigan. The plant had a single pressurized water reactor that produced electricity for the region. The PNGS was shut down in 2022 after more than four decades of service. The PNGS included in its surveillance program a surveillance capsule, designated A-60, containing specimens of a weld metal with nickel content of about 1.36 wt% and copper content of about 0.25 wt%. The capsule was removed from its surveillance position in early 1995 and has been resident in the spent fuel pool since that time. This capsule was irradiated to a fluence of 1.96×10 20 n/cm 2 (E>1MeV) that is equivalent for more than 150 effective full power years (EFPYs) for the US reactor pressure vessel (RPV) fleet. The material is also of special interest because of its very high nickel content and potential for development of NiMnSi (nickel-manganese-silicon) precipitates. Combination of very high fluence and very high Ni and Cu content makes the material in this capsule of great interest as benchmark for currently developing embrittlement trend curves (ETC) aiming to predict embrittlement at high fluences. Multi-year efforts by the Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program personnel from the Materials Research Pathway (MRP) to harvest this capsule finally succeeded in 2023. As a result, the Westinghouse Electric Company (WEC) through contract with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) came to PNGS site, retrieved the A-60 capsule, brought it to WEC Churchill hot cell facility, opened the capsule and sent all surveillance specimens in the capsule to ORNL for future characterization by July 2023. Total of 9 tensile and 48 Charpy specimens were inventoried in the ORNL hot cells. Testing plan has been developed based on available specimens. It includes hardness, tensile, Charpy impact, Mini-CT fracture toughness testing, in-situ thermal annealing, and microstructural characterization, including Atom Probe Tomography (APT). Charpy impact testing has been completed and results are presented in this report. Moreover, negotiations with Pressurized Water Reactors Owners Group (PWROG) and Westinghouse resulted in Westinghouse donating to ORNL a piece of archive weld and base metal such that unirradiated characterization of these materials can be performed as part of this project. Comparison of measured hardening and embrittlement has been performed and data are compared to available large database.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

NASA NTRS1984

Estimating optimal sampling unit sizes for satellite surveys

This paper reports on an approach for minimizing data loads associated with satellite-acquired data, while improving the efficiency of global crop area estimates using remotely sensed, satellite-based data. Results of a sampling unit size investigation are given that include closed-form models for both nonsampling and sampling error variances. These models provide estimates of the sampling unit sizes that effect minimal costs. Earlier findings from foundational sampling unit size studies conducted by Mahalanobis, Jessen, Cochran, and others are utilized in modeling the sampling error variance as a function of sampling unit size. A conservative nonsampling error variance model is proposed that is realistic in the remote sensing environment where one is faced with numerous unknown nonsampling errors. This approach permits the sampling unit size selection in the global crop inventorying environment to be put on a more quantitative basis while conservatively guarding against expected component error variances.

Hallum, C. R.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Critical Climate-Sensitive and Important Grain-Producing Regions: Grain Production/Yield Variations Due to Climate Fluctuations

Ideally, the Crop Country Inventory, CCI, is a methodology for the pre-harvest prediction of large variations in a country s crop production. This is accomplished by monitoring the historical climatic fluctuations, especially during the crop calendar period, in a climate sensitive large crop production region or sub-country, rather than the entire country. The argument can be made that the climatic fluctuations in the climatic sensitive region are responsible for the major annual crop country variations and that the remainder of the country, without major climatic fluctuations for a given year, can be assumed to be a steady-state crop producer. The principal data set that has been used is the Global Climate Mode (GCM) data from the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), taken over the last half century. As a test of its accuracy, GCM data can and has been correlated with the actual meteorological station data at the station site.

Welker, J. E.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Why Do Models Overestimate Surface Ozone in the Southeast United States?

Ozone pollution in the Southeast US involves complex chemistry driven by emissions of anthropogenic nitrogen oxide radicals (NO(x) triple bond NO + NO2) and biogenic isoprene. Model estimates of surface ozone concentrations tend to be biased high in the region and this is of concern for designing effective emission control strategies to meet air quality standards. We use detailed chemical observations from the SEAC(exp 4)RS aircraft campaign in August and September 2013, interpreted with the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model at 0.25 deg x 0.3125 deg horizontal resolution, to better understand the factors controlling surface ozone in the Southeast US. We find that the National Emission Inventory (NEI) for NO(x) from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is too high. This finding is based on SEAC(exp 4)RS observations of NO(x) and its oxidation products, surface network observations of nitrate wet deposition fluxes, and OMI satellite observations of tropospheric NO2 columns. Our results indicate that NEI NO(x) emissions from mobile and industrial sources must be reduced by 30-60%, dependent on the assumption of the contribution by soil NO(x) emissions. Upper-tropospheric NO2 from lightning makes a large contribution to satellite observations of tropospheric NO2 that must be accounted for when using these data to estimate surface NO(x) emissions. We find that only half of isoprene oxidation proceeds by the high-NO(x) pathway to produce ozone; this fraction is only moderately sensitive to changes in NO(x) emissions because isoprene and NO(x) emissions are spatially segregated. GEOS-Chem with reduced NO(x) emissions provides an unbiased simulation of ozone observations from the aircraft and reproduces the observed ozone production efficiency in the boundary layer as derived from a regression of ozone and NO(x) oxidation products. However, the model is still biased high by 6 plus or minus 14 ppb relative to observed surface ozone in the Southeast US. Ozonesondes launched during midday hours show a 7 ppb ozone decrease from 1.5 km to the surface that GEOS-Chem does not capture. This bias may reflect a combination of excessive vertical mixing and net ozone production in the model boundary layer.

Oxidation↗

DOE OSTI2020

PV O&M Cost Model [SWR-21-14]

This tool presents a method for calculating costs associated with the operation and maintenance (O&M) of photovoltaic (PV) systems. The tool compiles details regarding the cost and frequency of multiple O&M services to estimate annual O&M costs ($/year) for each year of an analysis period, the net present value ($) of life cycle costs accumulated over the analysis period, and the reserve account amount ($) that might be required to fund unexpected repairs. The reserve account includes parts inventory and is important for providing a source of funds to make repairs quickly and avoid lost production. This method allows a detailed selection of services to perform based on system size, market served (e.g., residential, commercial, or utility), type and configuration of system components (e.g., micro-, string, or central inverter), and site and environmental conditions (e.g., pollen, bird populations) which is an improvement over simple per unit valuations of O&M costs ($/kW/year). This model also distinguishes costs that vary from year to year and increase at different rates over time as modeled by heuristic failure distributions (e.g., Weibull or Lognormal distribution) based on actuarial data for many of the services.

Walker, Andy↗

NASA NTRS1997

Vertical Transport Processes for Inert and Scavenged Species: TRACE-A Measurements

The TRACE-A mission of the NASA DC-8 aircraft made a large-scale survey of the tropical and subtropical atmosphere in September and October of 1992. Both In-situ measurements of CO (G. Sachsen NASA Langley) and aerosol size (J. Browell group, NASA Langley) provide excellent data sets with which to constrain vertical transport by planetary boundary layer mixing and deep-cloud cumulus convection. Lidar profiles of aerosol-induced scattering and ozone (also by Bremen) are somewhat require more subtle interpretation as tracers, but the vertical information on layering largely compensates for these complexities. The reason this DC-8 dataset is so useful is that very large areas of biomass burning over Africa and South America provide surface sources of appropriate sizes with which to characterize vertical and horizontal motions; the major limitation of our source description is that biomass burning patterns move considerably every few days, and daily burning inventories are a matter of concurrent, intensive research. We use the Penn State / NCAR MM5 model in an assimilation mode on the synoptic and intercontinental scale, and assess the success it shows in vertical transport descriptions. We find that the general level of emissions suggested by the climatological approach (Will. Has, U. of Montana) appears to be approximately correct, possibly a bit low, for this October, 1992, time period. Vertical transport in planetary boundary layer mixing to 5.5 kin was observed and reproduced in our simulations. Furthermore we find evidence that Blackader "transilient" or matrix-transport scheme is needed, but may require some adaptation in our tracer model: CO seems to exhibit very high values at the top of the planetary boundary layer, a process that stretches the eddy-diffusion parameterization. We will report on progress in improving the deep convective transport of carbon monoxide: the Grail scheme as we used it at 100 kin resolution did not transport enough material to the upper troposphere. We expect to be able to attribute this to either parameterization reasons (inadequacy of this parameterization at the large 100km scale) or other reasons. Nevertheless, the qualitative nature of deep transport by clouds shows up well in the simulations. As for scavengable species, the simulations predict tens of micrograms per standard cubic meter of smoke aerosol in the boundary layer. In a straightforward illustration of our simple bulk-mass scavenging parameterization, to one or two micrograms per standard cubic meter of smoke aerosol in the free troposphere just above the source regions: very high concentrations for the free troposphere. We expect to report on comparisons of these predictions to a variety of observations.

Chatfield, Robert B.↗

NASA NTRS2012

On the Sources of Methane to the Los Angeles Atmosphere

We use historical and new atmospheric trace gas observations to refine the estimated source of methane (CH4) emitted into California's South Coast Air Basin (the larger Los Angeles metropolitan region). Referenced to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) CO emissions inventory, total CH4 emissions are 0.44 +/- 0.15 Tg each year. To investigate the possible contribution of fossil fuel emissions, we use ambient air observations of methane (CH4), ethane (C2H6), and carbon monoxide (CO), together with measured C2H6 to CH4 enhancement ratios in the Los Angeles natural gas supply. The observed atmospheric C2H6 to CH4 ratio during the ARCTAS (2008) and CalNex (2010) aircraft campaigns is similar to the ratio of these gases in the natural gas supplied to the basin during both these campaigns. Thus, at the upper limit (assuming that the only major source of atmospheric C2H6 is fugitive emissions from the natural gas infrastructure) these data are consistent with the attribution of most (0.39 +/- 0.15 Tg yr-1) of the excess CH4 in the basin to uncombusted losses from the natural gas system (approximately 2.5-6% of natural gas delivered to basin customers). However, there are other sources of C2H6 in the region. In particular, emissions of C2H6 (and CH4) from natural gas seeps as well as those associated with petroleum production, both of which are poorly known, will reduce the inferred contribution of the natural gas infrastructure to the total CH4 emissions, potentially significantly. This study highlights both the value and challenges associated with the use of ethane as a tracer for fugitive emissions from the natural gas production and distribution system.

Wennberg, Paul O.↗

NASA NTRS2023

Harmonising the Land-Use Flux Estimates of Global Models and National Inventories for 2000–2020

As the focus of climate policy shifts from pledges to implementation, there is a growing need to track progress on climate change mitigation at the country level, particularly for the land-use sector. Despite new tools and models providing unprecedented monitoring opportunities, striking differences remain in estimations of anthropogenic land-use CO 2 fluxes between, on the one hand, the national greenhouse gas inventories (NGHGIs) used to assess compliance with national climate targets under the Paris Agreement and, on the other hand, the Global Carbon Budget and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment reports, both based on global bookkeeping models (BMs). Recent studies have shown that these differences are mainly due to inconsistent definitions of anthropogenic CO 2 fluxes in managed forests. Countries assume larger areas of forest to be managed than BMs do, due to a broader definition of managed land in NGHGIs. Additionally, the fraction of the land sink caused by indirect effects of human-induced environmental change (e.g. fertilisation effect on vegetation growth due to increased atmospheric CO 2 concentration) on managed lands is treated as non-anthropogenic by BMs but as anthropogenic in most NGHGIs. We implement an approach that adds the CO 2 sink caused by environmental change in countries' managed forests (estimated by 16 dynamic global vegetation models, DGVMs) to the land-use fluxes from three BMs. This sum is conceptually more comparable to NGHGIs and is thus expected to be quantitatively more similar. Our analysis uses updated and more comprehensive data from NGHGIs than previous studies and provides model results at a greater level of disaggregation in terms of regions, countries and land categories (i.e. forest land, deforestation, organic soils, other land uses). Our results confirm a large difference (6.7 GtCO 2 yr −1 ) in global land-use CO 2 fluxes between the ensemble mean of the BMs, which estimate a source of 4.8 GtCO 2 yr −1 for the period 2000–2020, and NGHGIs, which estimate a sink of −1.9 GtCO 2 yr −1 in the same period. Most of the gap is found on forest land (3.5 GtCO 2 yr −1 ), with differences also for deforestation (2.4 GtCO 2 yr −1 ), for fluxes from other land uses (1.0 GtCO 2 yr −1 ) and to a lesser extent for fluxes from organic soils (0.2 GtCO2 yr−1). By adding the DGVM ensemble mean sink arising from environmental change in managed forests (−6.4 GtCO 2 yr −1 ) to BM estimates, the gap between BMs and NGHGIs becomes substantially smaller both globally (residual gap: 0.3 GtCO 2 yr −1 ) and in most regions and countries. However, some discrepancies remain and deserve further investigation. For example, the BMs generally provide higher emissions from deforestation than NGHGIs and, when adjusted with the sink in managed forests estimated by DGVMs, yield a sink that is often greater than NGHGIs. In summary, this study provides a blueprint for harmonising the estimations of anthropogenic land-use fluxes, allowing for detailed comparisons between global models and national inventories at global, regional and country levels. This is crucial to increase confidence in land-use emissions estimates, support investments in land-based mitigation strategies and assess the countries' collective progress under the Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement.

Giacomo Grassi↗

DOE OSTI2023

Harmonising the land-use flux estimates of global models and national inventories for 2000–2020

As the focus of climate policy shifts from pledges to implementation, there is a growing need to track progress on climate change mitigation at the country level, particularly for the land-use sector. Despite new tools and models providing unprecedented monitoring opportunities, striking differences remain in estimations of anthropogenic land-use CO 2 fluxes between, on the one hand, the national greenhouse gas inventories (NGHGIs) used to assess compliance with national climate targets under the Paris Agreement and, on the other hand, the Global Carbon Budget and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment reports, both based on global bookkeeping models (BMs). Recent studies have shown that these differences are mainly due to inconsistent definitions of anthropogenic CO 2 fluxes in managed forests. Countries assume larger areas of forest to be managed than BMs do, due to a broader definition of managed land in NGHGIs. Additionally, the fraction of the land sink caused by indirect effects of human-induced environmental change (e.g. fertilisation effect on vegetation growth due to increased atmospheric CO 2 concentration) on managed lands is treated as non-anthropogenic by BMs but as anthropogenic in most NGHGIs. We implement an approach that adds the CO 2 sink caused by environmental change in countries' managed forests (estimated by 16 dynamic global vegetation models, DGVMs) to the land-use fluxes from three BMs. This sum is conceptually more comparable to NGHGIs and is thus expected to be quantitatively more similar. Our analysis uses updated and more comprehensive data from NGHGIs than previous studies and provides model results at a greater level of disaggregation in terms of regions, countries and land categories (i.e. forest land, deforestation, organic soils, other land uses). Our results confirm a large difference (6.7 GtCO 2 yr —1 ) in global land-use CO 2 fluxes between the ensemble mean of the BMs, which estimate a source of 4.8 GtCO 2 yr —1 for the period 2000–2020, and NGHGIs, which estimate a sink of —1.9 GtCO 2 yr —1 in the same period. Most of the gap is found on forest land (3.5 GtCO 2 yr —1 ), with differences also for deforestation (2.4 GtCO 2 yr —1 ), for fluxes from other land uses (1.0 GtCO 2 yr —1 ) and to a lesser extent for fluxes from organic soils (0.2 GtCO 2 yr —1 ). By adding the DGVM ensemble mean sink arising from environmental change in managed forests (—6.4 GtCO 2 yr —1 ) to BM estimates, the gap between BMs and NGHGIs becomes substantially smaller both globally (residual gap: 0.3 GtCO 2 yr —1 ) and in most regions and countries. However, some discrepancies remain and deserve further investigation. For example, the BMs generally provide higher emissions from deforestation than NGHGIs and, when adjusted with the sink in managed forests estimated by DGVMs, yield a sink that is often greater than NGHGIs. In summary, this study provides a blueprint for harmonising the estimations of anthropogenic land-use fluxes, allowing for detailed comparisons between global models and national inventories at global, regional and country levels. This is crucial to increase confidence in land-use emissions estimates, support investments in land-based mitigation strategies and assess the countries' collective progress under the Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2020

Global methane emissions from coal mining to continue growing even with declining coal production

This paper presents projections of global methane emissions from coal mining under different coal extraction scenarios and with increasing mining depth through 2100. The paper proposes an updated methodology for calculating fugitive emissions from coal mining, which accounts for coal extraction method, coal rank, and mining depth and uses evidence-based emissions factors. A detailed assessment shows that coal mining-related methane emissions in 2010 were higher than previous studies show. This study also uses a novel methodology for calculating methane emissions from abandoned coal mines and represents the first estimate of future global methane emissions from those mines. The results show that emissions from abandoned mines increase faster than those from active ones. Using coal production data from six integrated assessment models, this study shows that by 2100 methane emissions from active underground mines increase by a factor of 4, while emissions from abandoned mines increase by a factor of 8. Abandoned mine methane emissions continue through the century even with aggressive mitigation actions.

coal mine methane, abandoned coal mine methane, em↗

DOE OSTI2020

SECARB-USA: Needs Assessment Framework for Storage Complexes

The goal of this task is to develop an assessment to identify data needed to advance geologic storage projects, with a focus on the SECARB region. The GCCC team considers the needs of CO2 source, storage, and utilization operators and stakeholders, finance and insurance institutions, state and local government relators and agencies, property owners, local stakeholders at prospective storage complexes, and environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Many of these needs are spelled out in the requirements of the Class VI permit. However, at the initial stages of project development, the workflow will not start with permit writing. A number of other factors must be evaluated prior to this major investment. The team’s goal in this report is to inventory the range of typical needs for a wide variety of projects. For subsequent tasks, the team will consider how these needs vary among projects and through the stages of investment, so that project developers can plan the early stages of capitalization.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2026

Cr plasma-material-interaction in PISCES-RF: D thermal release, retention, and erosion

Pure chromium (Cr) targets were exposed to high-flux deuterium (D) plasmas in the Pisces-RF linear plasma device, and measurements of D retention, release, and erosion were subsequently performed. Post-exposure D retention was quantified using temperature-programmed desorption on Cr targets irradiated by 50 eV ions over a broad range of exposure temperatures (423–873 K) and ion fluences (3 × 10 24 – 3 × 10 26 m −2 ). The retained D inventory was observed to decrease rapidly with increased exposure temperature, from approximately ∼7 × 10 20 m −2 at ∼ 420 K, to then saturate near ∼ 10 20 m −2 for exposure temperatures above ∼550 K. Separately, at fixed exposure temperature (∼450 K), D retention was found to have only a weak dependence on increasing ion fluence. Lastly, the erosion of Cr in D plasma was investigated for ion impact energies in the range 40 ≤ E i ≤ 250 eV. Erosion was inferred using optical emission spectroscopy (OES) from the ratio of emission lines (Cr I (425.4 nm)/D I (656.1 nm)) measured close to the target. Conversion of the OES yield data to net erosion yield was made with singular ion energy target mass-loss measurements. These net erosion yield data were then further corrected to obtain gross erosion yield by accounting for a re-deposition factor, computed using a simple model. The gross erosion yield is found to be 2–4 times lower than predicted by SDTrimSP, consistent with that typically observed for light-ion sputtering under high-flux plasma conditions.

Chromium↗

DOE OSTI2020

Southeast Regional CO 2 Utilization and Storage Acceleration Partnership (SECARB-USA): Needs Assessment Framework

The goal of this task is to develop an assessment to identify data needed to advance geologic storage projects, with a focus on the SECARB region. The GCCC team considers the needs of CO 2 source, storage, and utilization operators and stakeholders, finance and insurance institutions, state and local government relators and agencies, property owners, local stakeholders at prospective storage complexes, and environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Many of these needs are spelled out in the requirements of the Class VI permit. However, at the initial stages of project development, the workflow will not start with permit writing. A number of other factors must be evaluated prior to this major investment. The team’s goal in this report is to inventory the range of typical needs of for a wide variety of projects. For subsequent tasks, the team will consider how these needs vary among projects and through the stages of investment, so that project developers can plan the early stages of capitalization.

42 ENGINEERING↗

NASA NTRS2018

Improved Rice Residue Burning Emissions Estimates: Accounting for Practice-Specific Emission Factors in Air Pollution Assessments of Vietnam

In Southeast Asia and Vietnam, rice residues are routinely burned after the harvest to prepare fields for the next season. Specific to Vietnam, the two prevalent burning practices include: a). piling the residues after hand harvesting; b). burning the residues without piling, after machine harvesting. In this study, we synthesized field and laboratory studies from the literature on rice residue burning emission factors for Particulate Matter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5). We found significant differences in the resulting burning-practice specific emission factors, with 16.9 grams per square kilogram (plus or minus 6.9) for pile burning and 8.8 grams per square kilogram (plus or minus 3.5) for non-pile burning. We calculated burning practice specific emissions based on rice area data, region-specific fuel-loading factors, combined emission factors, and estimates of burning from the literature. Our results for year 2015 estimate 180 gigagrams of PM2.5 result from the pile burning method and 130 gigagrams result from non-pile burning method, with the most-likely current emission scenario of 150 gigagrams PM2.5 emissions for Vietnam. For comparison purposes, we calculated emissions using generalized agricultural emission factors employed in global biomass burning studies. These results estimate 80 gigagrams PM2.5, which is only 44 percent of the pile burning-based estimates, suggesting underestimation in previous studies. We compare our emissions to an existing all-combustion sources inventory, results show emissions account for 14-18 percent of Vietnam's total PM2.5 depending on burning practice. Within the highly-urbanized and cloud-covered Hanoi Capital region (HCR), we use rice area from Sentinel-1A to derive spatially-explicit emissions and indirectly estimate residue burning dates. Results from HYSPLIT (Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) back-trajectory analysis stratified by season show autumn has most emission trajectories originating in the North, while spring has most originating in the South, suggesting the latter may have bigger impact on air quality. From these results, we highlight locations where emission mitigation efforts could be focused and suggest measures for pollutant mitigation. Our study demonstrates the need to account for emissions variation due to different burning practices.

Air Pollution↗