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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Evaluating indoor thermal resilience of passive and low-power cooling shelters for outdoor workers in India

India’s 231 million outdoor workers are exposed to deadly heat during heat waves. We report results from a simulation-based study that focuses on passive design of cooling shelters for the hot and dry climate zone of India. The goal is to design a cooler-than-outdoor shelter for outdoor workers’ intermittent rest and recovery from heat stress during their arduous outdoor work, to avoid heat-related morbidities and mortality. Expected indoor thermal conditions in low-cost cooling shelters deploying a range of passive designs and low-power active measures are investigated, consistent with the current Indian standards and practices, located in the city of Jodhpur in western India. Heat resilience of the shelter was measured with the predicted reduction of hazardous hours inside the shelter based on the wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and extended heat index. These measures include improving the building envelope, installing cool roofs, using internal thermal mass, and natural ventilation. Additionally, a low-power active measure of using ventilation fans and ceiling fans is explored. EnergyPlus-based simulation results show that simple, commonly available measures, particularly natural ventilation and ceiling fans, achieve the most significant reductions in overheating danger hours, by 22% and 21%, respectively, while more complex or costly passive strategies yield only marginal additional benefits. Moreover, combined measure packages are identified that can reduce the indoor WBGT by 8 to 10 °C, eliminating overheating danger hours. These findings highlight the critical importance of scalable, low-cost, and easily deployable cooling solutions for developing resilient cooling shelters for vulnerable outdoor workers during heat waves in India.

building performance↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Systematic Approach to Developing Sustainable Post-Disaster Shelters in the Southern Region of the United States

This study aims to propose a sustainable shelter design involving energy savings, less environmental impact, and rapid construction. The structural design of the shelter is based on 3D-printing technology. Sustainability assessments, including life cycle analysis (LCA), life cycle energy assessment (LCEA), and energy justice of the designed shelter, were conducted to prove the sustainable shelter design. The outcomes of this study for several scenarios will not only allow decision-makers to design permanent shelters with maximized utilization of limited resources but also help local communities strengthen their ability to recover with minimal outside assistance post-disaster. Furthermore, residents can utilize the sustainable shelter to maintain critical functions, including business continuity and local business in emergencies.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2026

Shelter Island, New York, Energy Reliability Assessment and Local Generation Options

Shelter Island's Green Options Committee (GOC), an all-volunteer committee tasked with considering all environmental conservation issues, requested technical assistance under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded Energy Technology Innovation Partnership Project (ETIPP). The primary goals of this technical assistance project included: 1. Informing the GOC about energy use trends within the community as well as distributed solar, wind and storage opportunities; 2. Providing additional resources and technical feasibility information for geothermal, agrivoltaics and tidal energy; 3. Supporting the development of a community engagement plan; and 4. Supporting collaboration between the GOC and PSEG in order to find mutually beneficial follow-on projects. Assistance from NLR to help the GOC meet these overall project goals was provided through the following primary tasks: 1. Collaborate with the local utility in order to collect energy use data and inform the community on energy use patterns through a baseline assessment; 2. Technical analysis of distributed renewable and resiliency opportunities (solar, wind and storage) that best align with the community's energy priorities; 3. Provide high level feasibility support for future renewable energy scenarios that include agrivoltaic solutions, tidal energy, and geothermal projects on Shelter Island, and 4. Integrate all findings into a Community Outreach presentation to help the GOC engage with community stakeholders to build support and awareness of chosen resilience strategies.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Revisiting a Drag Partition Model For Canopy-Like Roughness Elements

Turbulent flows over a large surface area (S) covered by n obstacles experience an overall drag due to the presence of the ground and the protruding obstacles into the flow. The drag partition between the roughness obstacles and the ground is analyzed using an analytical model proposed by Raupach (Boundary-Layer Meteorol 60:375-395, 1992) and is hereafter referred to as R92. The R92 is based on the premise that the wake behind an isolated roughness element can be described by a shelter area A and a shelter volume V. The individual sizes of A and V without any interference from other obstacles can be determined from scaling analysis for the spread of wakes. To upscale from an individual roughness element to n/S elements where wakes may interact, R92 adopted a background stress re-normalizing instead of reducing A or V with each element addition. This work demonstrates that R92’s approach results in a linear background stress reduction in A and V only when the ratio of n/S is small, due to a low probability of wake interactions. This probabilistic nature suggests that up-scaling from individual to multiple roughness elements can be re-formulated using stochastic averaging methods proposed here. The two approaches are shown to recover R92 under plausible conditions. An alternative scaling for the shelter volume is also proposed here using thermodynamic arguments of work and dissipation though the final outcome remains similar to R92. Comparisons between R92 and available data spanning more than two decades after R92 on blocks and vegetation-like roughness elements confirm the practical utility of R92. The agreement between R92 and this updated databases of experiments and simulations confirm the potential use of R92 in large-scale models provided that the relevant parameters accommodate certain features of the roughness element type (cube versus vegetation-like) and, to a lesser extent, their configuration throughout S. Last, a comparison between R92 and models based on first-order closure principles with constant mixing length suggests that R92 can outperform such models when evaluated across a wide range of roughness densities.

canopy turbulence↗
DOE OSTI2024

Aerosol Optical Properties as Part of the Long-Term Aerosol Measurements in Puerto Rico (AOP-LAMP) Field Campaign Report

The University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras Campus (UPR-RP) has been measuring aerosol optical, chemical, and microphysical properties at Cape San Juan (CSJ, also known as CPR) since 2004. This site has also hosted several intensive field campaigns, with context provided by the long-term measurements. Hurricane Maria largely destroyed the station on September 20, 2017, forcing a cessation of the measurements. The scientific focus of this intensive operational period was to use a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility (AMF) aerosol shelter to enable the resumption of long-term aerosol measurements. This AMF shelter is now the main aerosol shelter for CSJ operations.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Rainfall events stimulate episodic associative nitrogen fixation in switchgrass

Abstract Associative N 2 fixation (ANF) is widespread but poorly characterized, limiting our ability to estimate global inputs from N 2 fixation. In some places, ANF rates are at or below detection most of the time but occasionally and unpredictably spiking to very high rates. Here we test the hypothesis that plant phenology and rainfall events stimulate ANF episodes. We measured ANF in intact soil cores in switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum L.) in Michigan, USA. We used rain exclusion shelters to impose three rainfall treatments with each receiving 60 mm of water over a 20-day period but at different frequencies. We concurrently established a treatment that received ambient rainfall, and all four treatments were replicated four times. To assess the effects of plant phenology, we measured ANF at key phenological stages in the ambient treatment. To assess the effects of rainfall, we measured ANF immediately before and immediately after each wetting event in each treatment involving rainfall manipulation. We found that the previous day’s rainfall could explain 29% of the variation in ANF rates within the ambient treatment alone, and that bulk soil C:N ratio was also positively correlated with ANF, explaining 18% of the variation alone. Wetting events increased ANF and the magnitude of response to wetting increased with the amount of water added and decreased with the amount of inorganic N added in water. ANF episodes thus appear to be driven primarily by wetting events. Wetting events likely increase C availability, promote microbial growth, and make rhizosphere conditions conducive to ANF.

Vizza, Carmella (ORCID:0000000292690357)↗
DOE OSTI2026

Learning from nature’s plant engineers: Hijacking metabolism and development beyond genetics

Plant metabolism underpins the food, fiber, and fuel that support our economy, driving strong interest in new strategies to rewire plant metabolism for emerging applications. While most synthetic biology efforts are reliant on genetic engineering, plants can be manipulated in many other ways that remain comparatively underexplored. Across nature, diverse organisms, including bacteria, fungi, and insects, have evolved sophisticated mechanisms to exploit plant metabolic richness, reshaping it for purposes that span from basic nutrition to the construction of complex, novel structures for shelters. These interspecies interactions and non-model systems represent unique manners in which plants can be reprogrammed or hijacked by other organisms, offering inspiration for novel approaches to engineering plant metabolism. By better understanding the basis of how organisms induce these remarkable transformations in plants, we can expand the conceptual boundaries of synthetic biology and reveal alternative routes to manipulating plants for the production of a diverse array of valuable compounds and materials. Deeper insight into these mechanisms will yield novel blueprints for rethinking the scope and breadth in which we can redesign plant metabolism across many applications.

Sarkiss, Anthony E. [University of California, Ber↗
DOE OSTI2025

Assessing Indoor versus Outdoor PM 2.5 Concentrations during the 2025 Los Angeles Fires Using the PurpleAir Sensor Network

In January 2025, a series of fast-moving wildland-urban-interface (WUI) fires swept through the Los Angeles (LA) metropolitan area, causing severe air pollution. While the impacts of WUI fires on outdoor air quality have been extensively studied, indoor exposure remains less understood, despite most people sheltering indoors during WUI fires. Here, this study investigates the spatial and temporal patterns of indoor and outdoor PM 2.5 concentrations across the South Coast Air Basin, with a focus on LA County during the LA fires. Using high-resolution data from co-located indoor and outdoor PurpleAir (PA) sensors, we analyze hourly PM 2.5 levels and indoor/outdoor ratios. Outdoor PM 2.5 concentrations spiked sharply during the fires, reaching unhealthy levels exceeding 130 μg/m 3 , compared to the mean concentration (12 μg/m 3 ) during non-fire hours. Indoor concentrations also increased, though to a lesser extent, peaking around 60 μg/m 3 compared to a mean of 7 μg/m 3 during non-fire hours. This reflects the partial shielding that indoor environments provide from outdoor air pollution. The mean (0.42) and median (0.29) indoor/outdoor PM 2.5 ratios during LA fire hours were lower than the mean (0.93) and median (0.66) ratios during non-fire hours. Indoor/outdoor PM 2.5 ratios across sensors showed a wide distribution, reflecting differences in building characteristics and occupant behavior, such as indoor activities and the use of air purifiers. These findings emphasize the need for guidance and interventions to reduce indoor PM 2.5 exposure and protect public health during extreme WUI fire events.

2025 Los Angeles Fires↗
DOE OSTI2025

Contrast and Predictability of Island‐Scale El Niño Influences on Hawaii Wave Climate

Abstract The El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) influences ocean wave activity across the Pacific, but its effects on island shores are modulated by local weather and selective sheltering of multi‐modal seas. Utilizing 41 years of high‐resolution wave hindcasts, we decipher the season‐ and locality‐dependent connections between ENSO and wave patterns around the Hawaiian Islands. The north and west‐facing shores, exposed to energetic northwest swells during boreal winters, experience the most pronounced ENSO‐related variability, with increased high‐surf activity during El Niño years. While the year‐round trade wind waves exhibit moderate correlation with ENSO, the basin‐wide climate influence is masked by locally accelerated trade winds in channels and around large headlands. The remarkable global‐to‐local pathway through the high‐resolution hindcast enables development of an ENSO‐based semi‐empirical wave model to statistically describe and predict severe wave conditions on vulnerable shores with potential application in coastal risk management and hazard mitigation for Pacific Islands and beyond.

Zhao, Sen [Department of Atmospheric Sciences Scho↗
DOE OSTI2025

Where to cool off: a geospatial framework for placement of cooling centers

Indoor cooling is essential to reduce heat stress and increase passive survivability during heatwaves. Although air conditioning (AC) is recommended for maintaining indoor thermal comfort, low- and medium-income households in the U.S. often do not own an AC and/or limit AC usage to reduce energy consumption and associated costs, thereby risking their health and safety. With the frequency and intensity of heatwaves increasing, cooling centers are considered an appropriate alternative to indoor cooling and a possible mitigation strategy to prevent adverse health impacts of heat exposure. However, these centers are limited in numbers and not always accessible. This requires (i) developing a geospatial framework using physical and social factors for optimal siting of cooling centers to meet future needs and (ii) ranking of existing and potential cooling centers (schools, libraries, religious institutions) based on their accessibility among vulnerable populations and proximity to healthcare facilities. We developed and deployed a geospatial framework based on the Multi-criteria Decision Analysis approach in five U.S. cities (Los Angeles (LA), Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta, Miami) to evaluate the effectiveness of the framework in ranking cooling centers based on accessibility and population coverage. The results revealed that (i) access to cooling centers varies across cities and 32.2–50.7% of centers are within walking distance of the most vulnerable populations, (ii) vulnerable populations exposed to Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects are more likely to experience energy burden, and (iii) about 21.2–49.4% of population with high energy burden have access to these centers. Considering that more cooling centers are needed to assist energy burdened households alleviate heat exposure impacts, the framework developed herein could be adapted to incorporate other factors (e.g. health impacts, policies) to assess site suitability of existing shelters, identify potential sites for new cooling centers, and geo-target communities where energy efficient emerging technologies could be deployed to reduce heat stress.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Nap1 and Kap114 co-chaperone H2A-H2B and facilitate targeted histone release in the nucleus

Core histones, synthesized and processed in the cytoplasm, must be chaperoned as they are transported into the nucleus for nucleosome assembly. The importin Kap114 transports H2A-H2B into the yeast nucleus, where RanGTP facilitates histone release. Kap114 and H2A-H2B also bind the histone chaperone Nap1, but how Nap1 and Kap114 cooperate in transport and nucleosome assembly remains unclear. Here, biochemical and structural analyses show that Kap114, H2A-H2B, and a Nap1 dimer (Nap12) associate in the absence and presence of RanGTP to form equimolar complexes. A previous study had shown that RanGTP reduces Kap114’s ability to chaperone H2A-H2B, but a new cryo-EM structure of the Nap12•H2A-H2B•Kap114•RanGTP complex explains how both Kap114 and Nap12 interact with H2A-H2B, restoring its chaperoning within the assembly while effectively depositing it into nucleosomes. Together, our results suggest that Kap114 and Nap12 provide a sheltered path that facilitates the transfer of H2A-H2B from Kap114 to Nap12, ultimately directing its specific deposition into nucleosomes.

Fung, Ho Yee Joyce (ORCID:0000000205021957)↗
DOE OSTI2025

ERAD: A Graph-Based Tool for Energy Resilience Analysis of Electric Distribution Systems

Understanding the impact of extreme events on people's ability to access energy is crucial for designing resilient energy systems. In the event of a disaster, damage to the electric system and related infrastructure (e.g., downed power lines, flooded equipment, hacked communication systems, damaged roads, etc.) can impact people's access to critical services, including not just electricity but also shelter, food, healthcare, and more. There is a key need to understand such impacts better and evaluate options to improve energy resilience. The Energy Resilience Analysis for Electric Distribution Systems (ERAD) tool is a free and open-source software package designed to help researchers and decision-makers analyze and improve energy system resilience.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Floating photovoltaic power plants: A review of energy yield, reliability, and operation and maintenance

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are essential for the transition to sustainable energy, reducing fossil fuel dependence and mitigating climate change. Although PV requires minimal land area — PV can meet the European Union's energy needs using only 0.26% of its land — space for deployment is often scarce in densely populated regions. Floating photovoltaics (FPV) offer an effective solution to land-use challenges by installing PV systems on floating structures in water bodies. FPV is a growing niche within PV with a cumulative installed capacity reaching 7.7 GW globally by 2023. Almost 90% of the installed FPV capacity is in Asia, with close to 50% of in China alone, while the Netherlands and France are the largest markets outside Asia. FPV shows strong potential to support climate targets, but still faces challenges like regulatory barriers, cost competitiveness compared to ground-based PV (GPV), and uncertainties about environmental impacts and system reliability. FPV systems are currently installed mainly on sheltered inland waters, such as quarry lakes, irrigation ponds and reservoirs. FPV technical standards are still being developed. Guidelines have been published by the World Bank, DNV, and Solar Power Europe, and emerging national standards from South Korea, China, and Singapore address design, components, and safety. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is working on formal standards for floats, mooring systems, and electrical connectors. However, the published best practices lack quantitative guidance for yield modelling and reliability, which this report aims to address. It provides data-driven insights, models, and parameters essential for accurate energy yield, reliability, and maintenance predictions over FPV systems' lifetimes.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Development of the Table of Initial Isolation and Protective Action Distances for the 2024 Emergency Response Guidebook

The transportation of hazardous materials creates numerous opportunities for the release of toxic substances into the environment, whether caused by traffic accidents, train derailments, equipment failures, or human error. Such releases can pose acute hazards to the general public and to emergency response personnel who are the first to arrive at the scene. To help first responders determine whether a shipment is potentially hazardous and decide what actions should be taken if a toxic spill does occur, the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) is published by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Transport Canada, and the Secretariat of Transport and Communications of Mexico; with contributions from Centro de Informaciòn Quìmica para Emergencias of Argentina. The most recent version is the 2024 edition of the ERG (ERG 2024), titled 2024 Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG2024). The ERG provides essential information about firefighting, spill response, and potential public health effects. For chemicals that are toxic by inhalation (TIH) and chemicals that produce TIH gases upon reaction with water (TIH by water reactivity or TIHWR), the ERG provides initial isolation distances (IIDs) and protective action distances (PADs). The IID defines the radius of the zone around the spill that should be accessed solely by people who are directly involved in emergency response. The PAD is the distance downwind of the source of the release within which persons should be either evacuated or sheltered in place, depending on the severity of the incident and the nature of the population (e.g., density, age, health).

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTAN↗
DOE OSTI2025

Long Island Steatite Sourcing from Rhode Island Quarries During the Late Holocene Era

This study aimed to investigate the possible sourcing of Long Island steatite artifacts from quarries in Rhode Island. Seven steatite samples from archeological sites on Long Island including Nassau County, Suffolk County (North Fork and South Fork) and Shelter Island were compared to two Rhode Island quarry sample putative sources using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) microscopy at the Submicron Resolution X-ray spectroscopy (SRX) beamline of the National Synchrotron Light Source II at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The site-derived steatite samples displayed numerous similarities in elemental composition compared to the two Rhode Island quarries, Oaklawn and Ochee Springs. This study provides new evidence to support the possible sourcing of Long Island steatite from Rhode Island during the late Holocene era.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

VA EDH Advanced Software Pipeline Framework Report: Enhancing Automation and Scalability

The VA Environmental Determinants of Health (EDH) Advanced Software Pipeline Framework is designed to enhance the efficiency, scalability, and security of geospatial data processing workflows. This framework integrates modern data orchestration and containerization technologies, including Prefect for workflow automation, Docker for containerization, and PostgreSQL/PostGIS for geospatial data storage and analysis. It ensures standardized, reproducible, and automated data processing, supporting VA objectives related to substance use risk assessment and recovery research. The pipeline addresses key scalability and performance challenges through horizontal and vertical scaling, high-performance computing (HPC) integration, parallel processing, task caching, and dynamic resource allocation. These optimizations improve throughput and reduce latency, allowing the system to efficiently manage large and complex datasets. Additionally, security and compliance measures—such as data encryption (SSL), Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), and adherence to GDPR and HIPAA standards—safeguard sensitive information throughout data transmission and storage. A key implementation of this framework includes the automation of shelter list geolocation workflows, ensuring that up-to-date data is readily available for VA decision-making. Lessons learned from this project include the transition from in-memory processing to incremental storage writes, improving resource management and reliability. Future enhancements aim to expand automation, integrate AI-driven anomaly detection, and incorporate high-performance computing resources. This framework provides a scalable, secure, and adaptable solution for managing geospatial datasets, reinforcing the VA’s ability to support clinical and strategic initiatives through data-driven decision-making.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Long Island Steatite Sourcing from Rhode Island Quarries During the Late Holocene Era

This study aimed to investigate the possible sourcing of Long Island steatite artifacts from quarries in Rhode Island. Seven steatite samples from archeological sites on Long Island including Nassau County, Suffolk County (North Fork and South Fork) and Shelter Island were compared to two Rhode Island quarry sample putative sources using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) microscopy at the Submicron Resolution X-ray spectroscopy (SRX) beamline of the National Synchrotron Light Source II at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The site-derived steatite samples displayed numerous similarities in elemental composition compared to the two Rhode Island quarries, Oaklawn and Ochee Springs. This study provides new evidence to support the possible sourcing of Long Island steatite from Rhode Island during the late Holocene era.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

LandScan Mosaic Rapid Population Update: Jamaica After Hurricane Melissa (V1)

During a natural disaster such as Hurricane Melissa, understanding where people are located is critical for situational awareness, operational planning and humanitarian support and consequence assessment. Traditional population datasets focus on mapping populations based on residential, or "business-as-usual" scenarios. However, natural disasters can create disruptions in daily routines of population in addition to the magnitude of the population displacement, depending on the type, duration, context, and location of the event. The Geospatial Science and Human Security Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) produced this latest LandScan Mosaic Rapid Population Update for Jamaica following Hurricane Melissa, a category 5 hurricane that made landfall on Jamaica on October 28 2025. This Rapid Population Update captures the immediate population displacement following the hurricane using a combination of open-source building damage assessment data from Microsoft, flood exposure data from the Global Flood Monitoring service, reported population displacement information, and humanitarian shelter locations from the Jamaican Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management and the underlying LandScan Mosaic Jamaica as a base population.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗