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NASA NTRS2003

Cosmogenic Records in 18 Ordinary Chondrites from the Dar Al Gani Region, Libya: Noble Gases - 1

In the last decade thousands of meteorites have been recovered from hot deserts in the Sahara and Oman. One of the main meteorite concentration surfaces in the Sahara is the Dar al Gani plateau in Libya, which covers a total area of ~8000 km2. More than 1000 meteorites have been reported from this area. The geological setting, meteorite pairings and the meteorite density of the Dar al Gani (DaG) field are described in more detail in [1]. In this work we report concentrations of the noble gas isotopes of He, Ne, Ar as well as 84Kr and 132Xe in 18 DaG meteorites. In a separate paper we will report the cosmogenic radionuclides [2]. We discuss the thermal history and cosmic-ray exposure (CRE) history of these meteorites, and evaluate the effects of the hot desert environment on the noble gas record.

Schultz, L.↗
NASA NTRS2003

MRI of the lung gas-space at very low-field using hyperpolarized noble gases

In hyperpolarized (HP) noble-gas magnetic resonance imaging, large nuclear spin polarizations, about 100,000 times that ordinarily obtainable at thermal equilibrium, are created in 3He and 129Xe. The enhanced signal that results can be employed in high-resolution MRI studies of void spaces such as in the lungs. In HP gas MRI the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) depends only weakly on the static magnetic field (B(0)), making very low-field (VLF) MRI possible; indeed, it is possible to contemplate portable MRI using light-weight solenoids or permanent magnets. This article reports the first in vivo VLF MR images of the lungs in humans and in rats, obtained at a field of only 15 millitesla (150 Gauss).

NASA Discipline Life Sciences Technologies↗
NASA NTRS1998

Dissolved gases in perennially ice-covered lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica

Measurements of dissolved N2, O2, Ar, CO2, and CH4 were made in perennially ice-covered Lake Hoare. Results confirm previous reports that O2 concentrations in the upper water column exceed atmospheric equilibrium and that N2 and Ar are supersaturated throughout the water column. The mean supersaturation of N2 was found to be 2.0 (+/- 0.37) and Ar was 3.8 (+/- 1.1). The ratios of N2/Ar (20.3 +/- 13.8), and O2/Ar (22.5 +/- 4.0) at the ice-water interface are consistent with those previously measured, suggesting that bubble formation is the main process for removing gas from the lake. However, the saturations of N2 and Ar greatly exceed those previously predicted for degassing by bubble formation only at the ice-water interface. The data support the hypothesis that removal of gas by bubbles occurs in the water column to a depth of 11 m in Lake Hoare. CO2 concentration increases from near zero at the ice-water interface to 80-100 times saturation at and below the chemocline at c. 28 m. There is considerable variability in the gas concentrations throughout the water column; samples separated in depth by one metre may vary by more than 50% in gas content. It is likely that this phenomenon results from the lack of turbulent mixing in the water column. Methane (c. 2 micrograms l-1) was detected below the chemocline and immediately above the sediment/water interface at a depth of 30 m. Samples from lakes Vanda, Joyce, and Miers, also show supersaturations of O2, N2, and Ar at levels similar to levels found in Lake Hoare.

NASA Discipline Exobiology↗
NASA NTRS2003

Global 3-D Modeling Studies Of Tropospheric Ozone And Related Gases

Our research was targeted at three issues: (1) the factors controlling ozone in the tropical troposphere, (2) the Asian outflow of ozone and its precursors, and (3) the causes of decadal trends observed in ozone and CO. We have also used support from this ACMAP grant to (1) work with Kelly Chance on the retrieval and interpretation of HCHO and NO2 observations from GOME, and (2) develop GEOS-CHEM into a versatile model supporting the work of a large number of users including outside Harvard. ACMAP has provided the core support for GEOS-CHEM development. Applications of the GEOS-CHEM model with primary support from ACMAP are discussed below. A list of publications resulting from this grant is given at the end of the report.

Jacob, Daniel J.↗
NASA NTRS1997

The early faint sun paradox: organic shielding of ultraviolet-labile greenhouse gases

Atmospheric mixing ratios of approximately 10(-5 +/- 1) for ammonia on the early Earth would have been sufficient, through the resulting greenhouse warming, to counteract the temperature effects of the faint early sun. One argument against such model atmospheres has been the short time scale for ammonia photodissociation by solar ultraviolet light. Here it is shown that ultraviolet absorption by steady-state amounts of high-altitude organic solids produced from methane photolysis may have shielded ammonia sufficiently that ammonia resupply rates were able to maintain surface temperatures above freezing.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS2003

Distributions of Trace Gases and Aerosols during the Dry Biomass Burning Season in Southern Africa

Vertical profiles in the lower troposphere of temperature, relative humidity, sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), condensation nuclei (CN), and carbon monoxide (CO), and horizontal distributions of twenty gaseous and particulate species, are presented for five regions of southern Africa during the dry biomass burning season of 2000. The regions are the semiarid savannas of northeast South Africa and northern Botswana, the savanna-forest mosaic of coastal Mozambique, the humid savanna of southern Zambia, and the desert of western Namibia. The highest average concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), CO, methane (CH4), O3, black particulate carbon, and total particulate carbon were in the Botswana and Zambia sectors (388 and 392 ppmv, 369 and 453 ppbv, 1753 and 1758 ppbv, 79 and 88 ppbv, 2.6 and 5.5 micrograms /cubic meter and 13.2 and 14.3 micrograms/cubic meter). This was due to intense biomass burning in Zambia and surrounding regions. The South Africa sector had the highest average concentrations of SO2, sulfate particles, and CN (5.1 ppbv, 8.3 micrograms/cubic meter, and per 6400 cubic meter , respectively), which derived from biomass burning and electric generation plants and mining operations within this sector. Air quality in the Mozambique sector was similar to the neighboring South Africa sector. Over the arid Namibia sector there were polluted layers aloft, in which average SO2, O3, and CO mixing ratios (1.2 ppbv, 76 ppbv, and 3 10 ppbv, respectively) were similar to those measured over the other more polluted sectors. This was due to transport of biomass smoke from regions of widespread savanna burning in southern Angola. Average concentrations over all sectors of CO2 (386 +/- 8 ppmv), CO (261 +/- 81 ppbv), SO2 (2.5 +/- 1.6 ppbv), O3 (64 +/- 13 ppbv), black particulate carbon (2.3 +/- 1.9 microgram/cubic meter), organic particulate carbon (6.2 +/- 5.2 microgram/cubic meter), total particle mass (26.0 +/- 4.7 microgram/cubic meter), and potassium particles (0.4 +- 0.1 microgram/cubic meter) were comparable to those in polluted, urban air. Since the majority of the measurements in this study were obtained in locations well removed from industrial sources of pollution, the high average concentrations of pollutants reflect the effects of widespread biomass burning. On occasions, relatively thin (-0.5 km) layers of remarkably clean air were located at -3 km above mean sea level, sandwiched between heavily polluted air. The data presented here can be used for inputs to and validation of regional and global atmospheric chemical models.

Sinha, Parikhit↗
NASA NTRS2003

Emissions of Trace Gases and Particles from Savanna Fires in Southern Africa

Airborne measurements made on initial smoke from 10 savanna fires in southern Africa provide quantitative data on emissions of 50 gaseous and particulate species, including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, methane, ammonia, dimethyl sulfide, nonmethane organic compounds, halocarbons, gaseous organic acids, aerosol ionic components, carbonaceous aerosols, and condensation nuclei (CN). Measurements of several of the gaseous species by gas chromatography and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy are compared. Emission ratios and emission factors are given for eight species that have not been reported previously for biomass burning of savanna in southern Africa (namely, dimethyl sulfide, methyl nitrate, five hydrocarbons, and particles with diameters from 0.1 to 3 microns). The emission factor that we measured for ammonia is lower by a factor of 4, and the emission factors for formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, and CN are greater by factors of about 3, 20, and 3 - 15, respectively, than previously reported values. The new emission factors are used to estimate annual emissions of these species from savanna fires in Africa and worldwide.

Sinha, Parikhit↗
NASA NTRS2003

Seasonal Variation and Ecosystem Dependence of Emission Factors for Selected Trace Gases and PM2.5 for Southern African Savanna Fires

In this paper we present the first early dry season (early June-early August) emission factor measurements for carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (Ca), nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHC), and particulates with a diameter less than 2.5 microns (pM2.5) for southern African grassland and woodland fires. Seasonal emission factors for grassland fires correlate linearly with the proportion of green grass, used as a surrogate for the fuel moisture content, and are higher for products of incomplete combustion in the early part of the dry season compared with later in the dry season. Models of emission factors for NMHC and PM(sub 2.5) versus modified combustion efficiency (MCE) are statistically different in grassland compared with woodland ecosystems. We compare predictions based on the integration of emissions factors from this study, from the southern African Fire-Atmosphere Research Initiative 1992 (SAFARI-92), and from SAFARI-2000 with those based on the smaller set of ecosystem-specific emission factors to estimate the effects of using regional-average rather than ecosystem-specific emission factors. We also test the validity of using the SAFARI-92 models for emission factors versus MCE to predict the early dry season emission factors measured in this study. The comparison indicates that the largest discrepancies occur at the low end (0.907) and high end (0.972) of MCE values measured in this study. Finally, we combine our models of MCE versus proportion of green grass for grassland fires with emission factors versus MCE for selected oxygenated volatile organic compounds measured in the SAFARI-2000 campaign to derive the first seasonal emission factors for these compounds. The results of this study demonstrate that seasonal variations in savanna fire emissions are important and should be considered in modeling emissions at regional to continental scales.

Korontzi, S.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Rare Gases Inserted into Biological Building Blocks: A Theoretical Study of Glycine - Rg Compounds (Rg-Xe, Kr, Ar)

Compounds formed by insertion of rare-gas atoms (Xe, Kr, and Ar) into glycine molecule are investigated using accurate ab initio computational methods. Identification of such insertion compounds may open new frontiers in the field of rare-gas chemistry, such as possible existence of biological molecules that include chemically bound rare gas atoms. The most stable glycine-Rg configuration is found to correspond to insertion of Rg atoms into the 0-H bond of glycine. These NH2CH2COORgH compounds are metastable , but separated by sizable potential barriers from the Rg + glycine dissociation products. Preliminary calculations show that NH2CH2COOXeH compound is energetically stable with respect to another (3-body) dissociation channel (NH2CH2COO + Rg + H), while the corresponding Ar species is not stable in this respect. The compound with the inserted Kr is a borderline case, with the 3-body dissociation products being close in energy to the NH2CH2COOKrH minimum.

Chaban, Galina M.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Buoyancy Suppression in Gases at High Temperatures

The computational fluid dynamics code FLUENT was used to study Rayleigh instability at large temperature differences in a sealed gas-filled enclosure with a cold top surface and a heated bottom wall (Benard problem). Both steady state and transient calculations were performed. The results define the boundaries of instability in a system depending on the geometry, temperature and pressure. It is shown that regardless of how fast the bottom-wall temperature can be ramped up to minimize the time spent in the unstable region of fluid motion, the eventual stability of the system depends on the prevailing final pressure after steady state has been reached. Calculations also show that the final state of the system can be different depending on whether the result is obtained via a steady-state solution or is reached by transient calculations. Changes in the slope of the pressure-versus-time curve are found to be a very good indicator of changes in the flow patterns in the system.

Kuczmarski, Maria A.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Highly Ionized Iron Absorption Lines from Outflowing Gases in the X-ray Spectrum of NGC 1365

We present the discovery of four absorption lines in the X-ray spectrum of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 1365, at energies between 6.7 and 8.3 keV. The lines are detected with high statistical confidence (from >20 sigma for the strongest to -4 sigma for the weakest) in two XMM-Newton observations 60 ks long. We also detect the same lines, with a lower signal-to-noise ratio (but still >2 sigma for each line), in two previous shorter (-10 ks) XMM-Newton observations. The spectral analysis identifies these features as Fe XXV and Fe XXVI Kalpha and Kbeta lines, outflowing with velocities varying between -1000 and -5000 km/s among the observations. These are the highest quality detections of such lines so far. The high equivalent widths [EW (Kalpha) approximately 100 eV] and the Kalpha/Kbeta ratios imply that the lines are due to absorption of the AGN continuum by a highly ionized gas with column density NH-5?1023 cm(exp -2) at a distance of -(50-100)RS from the continuum source.

Risaliti, G.↗
NASA NTRS2006

AIRS: Improving Weather Forecasting and Providing New Data on Greenhouse Gases

This paper discusses the performance of AIRS and examines how it is meeting its operational and research objectives based on the experience of more than 2 yr with AIRS data. We describe the science background and the performance of AIRS in terms of the accuracy and stability of its observed spectral radiances. We examine the validation of the retrieved temperature and water vapor profiles against collocated operational radiosondes, and then we assess the impact thereof on numerical weather forecasting of the assimilation of the AIRS spectra and the retrieved temperature. We close the paper with a discussion on the retrieval of several minor tropospheric constituents from AIRS spectra.

remote sensing↗
NASA NTRS2007

Fabry-Perot Based Radiometers for Precise Measurement of Greenhouse Gases

Differential radiometers based upon the Fabry-Perot interferometer have been developed and demonstrated that exhibit very great sensitivity to changes in the atmospheric column of carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water vapor. These instruments employ a solid Fabry-Perot etalon that is tuned to the proper wavelength by changing the temperature. By choosing the thickness of the etalon its multiple pass bands can be made to align with regularly space absorption features of the molecule under investigation. Use of multiple absorption features improves the optical throughput of the instrument and improves the stability of the instrument response with respect to environmental changes. Efforts are underway at Goddard to extend this technique to the carbon 13 isotope of carbon dioxide and to methane. These instruments are intrinsically rugged and can be made rather small and inexpensively. They therefore hold promise for widespread use in ground based networks for calibration of satellite instruments such as OCO and GOSAT. Results will be presented for ground based and airborne operations for these systems. The effects of atmospheric scattering, pointing errors, pressure broadening and temperature effects will be discussed with regard to achieving precision better than .5% required for validation of carbon dioxide column measured from space. Designs permitting the extension of the technique to an even larger number of atmospheric species will be discussed along with theoretical analysis of potential system performance.

Heaps, William S.↗