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The Marshall Star for January 17, 2024


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The Marshall Star for January 17, 2024

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‘Be King’: Team Redstone Invites All to Honor Civil Rights Icon’s Legacy

By Jessica Barnett

Several accomplished speakers took to the stage Jan. 11 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center to share how Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy helped shape their lives.

The event was hosted by Marshall’s ODEO (Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity), along with the FBI and U.S. Army, in the center’s Activities Building 4316 as a way of honoring King, a minister and activist from Atlanta who rose to national prominence as a key figure in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. King would have been 95 on Jan. 15.

Several guest speakers took to the stage Jan. 11 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center to share how Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy impacted them personally, as well as how others can continue his legacy by being like King today. Pictured here, from left, are Tora Henry, director of Marshall’s Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity; Kenny Anderson, director of Huntsville City’s Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Jacquelyn Gates Shipe, CEO of Global Ties Alabama; Darell Ezell, social scientist, professor, administrator, and corporate strategist; Bryan Samuel, vice president of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the University of Alabama in Huntsville; and Larry Leopard, associate center director, technical, at Marshall.
Several guest speakers took to the stage Jan. 11 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center to share how Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy impacted them personally, as well as how others can continue his legacy by being like King today. Pictured here, from left, are Tora Henry, director of Marshall’s Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity; Kenny Anderson, director of Huntsville City’s Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Jacquelyn Gates Shipe, CEO of Global Ties Alabama; Darell Ezell, social scientist, professor, administrator, and corporate strategist; Bryan Samuel, vice president of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the University of Alabama in Huntsville; and Larry Leopard, associate center director, technical, at Marshall.
NASA/Alex Russell

Marshall ODEO Deputy Director Carolyn Magsby and Associate Center Director-Technical Larry Leopard kicked off the event before welcoming Kenny Anderson, Huntsville City’s director of the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

Though the theme for the event was “It Starts with Me,” Anderson helped set the tone by encouraging everyone to honor King by “being King” and choosing peace, compassion, and education over violence, criticism, and ignorance.

Following Anderson’s remarks, Bill Marks, who serves as deputy director of Marshall’s Office of Center Operations, moderated a panel featuring Darrell Ezell, a social scientist, administrator, professor, and corporate strategist; Jacquelyn Gates Shipe, CEO of Global Ties Alabama; and Bryan Samuel, vice president of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the University of Alabama at Huntsville.

Kenny Anderson, director of Huntsville City’s Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, speaks about Martin Luther King Jr. during an Jan. 11 event honoring King’s life and legacy ahead of what would have been the civil rights icon’s 95th birthday. Joining Anderson on stage are, from left, Global Ties CEO Jacquelyn Gates Shipe; social scientist and professor Darell Ezell; and Bryan Samuel, vice president of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Kenny Anderson, director of Huntsville City’s Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, speaks about Martin Luther King Jr. during an Jan. 11 event honoring King’s life and legacy ahead of what would have been the civil rights icon’s 95th birthday. Joining Anderson on stage are, from left, Global Ties CEO Jacquelyn Gates Shipe; social scientist and professor Darell Ezell; and Bryan Samuel, vice president of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
NASA/Alex Russell

The panelists each shared King’s impact on their personal lives, from school desegregation to interactions with foreign visitors to how they work to highlight and overcome injustice in their community. They also discussed the impacts of social media, cross-cultural connections, and access to education on the injustices faced by minority communities.

Marshall ODEO Director Tora Henry said she looks forward to the event inspiring courageous conversations throughout 2024.

Barnett, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.

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National Mentor Month: Navigating Mentorship with Michoud’s Cynthia Spraul and Marie Allain

By Celine Smith

As a mentor at NASA’s MAF (Michoud Assembly Facility), Cynthia Spraul says her goal is the success of her mentee, Marie Allain.

“It feels really good to pass on my experience to somebody who can get there faster and go beyond,” Spraul said.

Mentor and Michoud Assembly Facility integrations lead Cynthia Spraul, left, smiles with mentee, Marie Allain, project coordinator, at a holiday party in 2022.
Mentor and Michoud Assembly Facility integrations lead Cynthia Spraul, left, smiles with mentee, Marie Allain, project coordinator, at a holiday party in 2022.
NASA/Courtesy of Marie Allain

For some, a mentorship may seem daunting. A mentee looking for a mentor in a new environment can find it difficult to find someone they trust to guide their career and personal growth. Meanwhile, mentors may feel discouraged, thinking they might not have enough knowledge to be in their role.

Hoping their experience can help others during National Mentor Month, Spraul and Allain shared their insight about finding and starting a mentorship.

Spraul worked for Lockheed Martin at Michoud on the Space Shuttle Program’s External Tank for 20 years. For the past 17 years, she has worked for NASA at Michoud, where she is currently the integrations lead.

“I work on strategic site management, resource management, and contract management,” Spraul said.

Allain graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from LSU (Louisiana State University) in 2021. “I got involved with the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at LSU, an aerospace professional society, which is how I really got into aerospace,” she said.

Allain now works as a project coordinator on Spraul’s integrations team. She performs project management in the Michoud Directorate and contract administration along with Component Processing Facility management.

Spraul was asked to coordinate the summer internship program at Michoud, which is how she got started as a mentor. Spraul was the program’s first mentor at MAF. So, when Allain approached her requesting mentorship, she gladly took her on.

Question: What does mentorship mean to you?

Spraul: Seeing someone’s interest in what you do, like Marie taking an interest in my past experience, reinvigorates my love for my job and my desire to work. Mentoring makes work fun for me again. I might be doing the same things, but since I’m teaching somebody while I’m doing it, I get to listen to myself when I talk. It makes me go, ‘Oh, wow, I really get to do this.’ I get excited about my work all over again.

Allain: My mentor makes me feel like I’m starting my career with the insight a person at the peak of their career wishes they had when they started. This mentorship gives me an opportunity to start on the right foot. I get to start out with tools that will help me later down the line. It gives me the opportunity to glean a lot of insight from people who have been at Michoud for a long time. They know the history of the place firsthand. A lot of people in this office are getting near retirement, and before too long, we’re going to have a lot of information, a lot of our history, that’s lost. I get the opportunity to retain some of that history from somebody who experienced it firsthand.

Question: What impact has mentorship had on you and your career?

Spraul: Someone having an interest in what I’m doing is a catalyst for me and my own career growth. The more I get reinterested in what I’m doing, the more I ask myself, ‘What’s my next step and how do I get there?’ Especially because Allain’s watching me. It’s always better to perform when someone’s watching you. There’s a reason to do better and grow because young people are watching. I also tend to turn my focus on the coming generations, because they’re going to be here when I’m gone.

Allain: Before going into this mentorship, I struggled visualizing what my career could look like. Especially coming right out of college, nobody knows what jobs actually exist. Spraul knows what our organization is and what exists in it, and what it’s like to work in different roles in the organization. The kind of insight she provided completely changed how I feel about my career. I have an actual vision of where I’m headed. Beforehand, I felt I was somewhat free floating in space.

Question: How did you find and connect with your mentor/mentee?

Spraul: After mentoring college interns over the years, I’m always excited when I learn something new from them. When Marie came to me requesting mentorship, she had already taught me so many things that I thought it was a great idea to expand our dialogue.

Allain: It was natural for us.After the first few months of working together on projects, we would have lunch together. We’d spend some time together and talk. I started to realize she and I have a lot in common.

Question: What steps did you take to approach your mentor/mentee to initiate the partnership?

Allain: I started asking her for insight about her experience and her career. The mentorship relationship developed from there. It started with discussions during lunch and developed into conversations about everything from work stories to life experience.

Spraul: Allain asked introspective questions that would lead us on a good tangent while we worked together as well. We also started staying after work so I could have longer conversations with Allain about a path for her future.

Question: What advice do you have for someone else considering finding or being a mentor?

Allain: For mentees, find somebody you look up to in your organization and just ask. Most potential mentors see it as a huge compliment. The worst thing that can happen is being told no. I think most people at NASA would say yes. Don’t feel like you’re putting somebody out by asking them to mentor you. Also, don’t sit around assuming mentors are going to come to you.

Spraul: I would suggest that mentees observe other people above them. Mentees should watch how potential mentors conduct themselves to see who they would like to model themselves after. For mentors, a lot of work goes into being mentor. It’s more than showing up. Be prepared by knowing what you’re going to have your mentee do and try. Being a mentor does take some work, but you receive tenfold in your own career and the enjoyment of your day. Don’t be afraid is my best advice. Even showing up is valuable to the mentee. You’ll get results from anything else you put into it.

Editor’s note: This is the first in a Marshall Star series during National Mentor Month in January. Marshall team members can learn more about the benefits of mentoring on Inside Marshall.

Smith, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.

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NASA Shares Progress Toward Early Artemis Moon Missions with Crew

NASA announced Jan. 9 updates to its Artemis campaign that will establish the foundation for long-term scientific exploration at the Moon, land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface, and prepare for human expeditions to Mars for the benefit of all. To safely carry out these missions, agency leaders are adjusting the schedules for Artemis II and Artemis III to allow teams to work through challenges associated with first-time developments, operations, and integration.

NASA will now target September 2025 for Artemis II, the first crewed Artemis mission around the Moon, and September 2026 for Artemis III, which is planned to land the first astronauts near the lunar South Pole. Artemis IV, the first mission to the Gateway lunar space station, remains on track for 2028.

ksc-20230920-ph-kls01-0126large.jpg?w=19
From left, Artemis II crew members CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman walk out of Astronaut Crew Quarters inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building to the Artemis crew transportation vehicles prior to traveling to Launch Pad 39B as part of an integrated ground systems test at Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 20, to test the crew timeline for launch day.
NASA

“We are returning to the Moon in a way we never have before, and the safety of our astronauts is NASA’s top priority as we prepare for future Artemis missions,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “We’ve learned a lot since Artemis I, and the success of these early missions relies on our commercial and international partnerships to further our reach and understanding of humanity’s place in our solar system. Artemis represents what we can accomplish as a nation – and as a global coalition. When we set our sights on what is hard, together, we can achieve what is great.”

Ensuring crew safety is the primary driver for the Artemis II schedule changes. As the first Artemis flight test with crew aboard the Orion spacecraft, the mission will test critical environmental control and life support systems required to support astronauts. NASA’s testing to qualify components to keep the crew safe and ensure mission success has uncovered issues that require additional time to resolve. Teams are troubleshooting a battery issue and addressing challenges with a circuitry component responsible for air ventilation and temperature control.

NASA’s investigation into unexpected loss of char layer pieces from the spacecraft’s heat shield during Artemis I is expected to conclude this spring. Teams have taken a methodical approach to understand the issue, including extensive sampling of the heat shield, testing, and review of data from sensors and imagery.

The new timeline for Artemis III aligns with the updated schedule for Artemis II, ensures the agency can incorporate lessons learned from Artemis II into the next mission, and acknowledges development challenges experienced by NASA’s industry partners. As each crewed Artemis mission increases complexity and adds flight tests for new systems, the adjusted schedule will give the providers developing new capabilities – SpaceX for the HLS (human landing system) and Axiom Space for the next-generation spacesuits – additional time for testing and any refinements ahead of the mission.

“We are letting the hardware talk to us so that crew safety drives our decision-making. We will use the Artemis II flight test, and each flight that follows, to reduce risk for future Moon missions,” said Catherine Koerner, associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “We are resolving challenges associated with first-time capabilities and operations, and we are closer than ever to establishing sustained exploration of Earth’s nearest neighbor under Artemis.”

In addition to the schedule updates for Artemis II and III, NASA is reviewing the schedule for launching the first integrated elements of Gateway, previously planned for October 2025, to provide additional development time and better align that launch with the Artemis IV mission in 2028.

NASA also shared that it has asked both Artemis human landing system providers – SpaceX and Blue Origin – to begin applying knowledge gained in developing their systems as part of their existing contracts toward future variations to potentially deliver large cargo on later missions.

“Artemis is a long-term exploration campaign to conduct science at the Moon with astronauts and prepare for future human missions to Mars. That means we must get it right as we develop and fly our foundational systems so that we can safely carry out these missions,” said Amit Kshatriya, deputy associate administrator of Exploration Systems Development, and manager of NASA’s Moon to Mars Program Office at headquarters. “Crew safety is and will remain our number one priority.”

NASA leaders emphasized the importance of all partners delivering on time so the agency can maximize the flight objectives with available hardware on a given mission. NASA regularly assesses progress and timelines and as a part of integrated programmatic planning to ensure the agency and its partners can successfully accomplish its Moon to Mars exploration goals.

With Artemis, NASA will explore more of the Moon than ever before, learn how to live and work away from home, and prepare for future human exploration of the Red Planet. NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, exploration ground systems, and Orion spacecraft, along with the human landing system, next-generation spacesuits, Gateway lunar space station, and future rovers are NASA’s foundation for deep space exploration.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the SLS and HLS programs. NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, which is managed by Marshall, manufactures several Artemis components, including the SLS core stage.

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IXPE Helps Researchers Maximize ‘Microquasar’ Findings

By Rick Smith

The powerful gravity fields of black holes can devour whole planets’ worth of matter – often so violently that they expel streams of particles traveling near the speed of light in formations known as jets. Scientists understand that these high-speed jets can accelerate these particles, called cosmic rays, but little is definitively known about that process.

Recent findings by researchers using data from NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) spacecraft give scientists new clues as to how particle acceleration happens in this extreme environment. The observations came from a “microquasar,” a system comprised of a black hole siphoning off material from a companion star.

The microquasar in question – Stephenson and Sanduleak 433, or SS 433 – sits in the center of the supernova remnant W50 in the constellation Aquila, some 18,000 light-years from Earth. SS 433’s powerful jets, which distort the remnant’s shape and earned it the nickname the “Manatee Nebula,” have been clocked at roughly 26% of the speed of light, or more than 48,000 miles per second. Identified in the late 1970s, SS 433 is the first microquasar ever discovered.

IXPE’s three onboard telescopes measure a special property of X-ray light called polarization, which tells scientists about the organization and alignment of electromagnetic waves at X-ray frequencies. X-ray polarization helps researchers understand the physical processes taking place within extreme regions of our universe – such as the environment around black holes – and how particles get accelerated in these regions.

IXPE spent 18 days in April and May of 2023 studying one such acceleration site in the eastern lobe of SS 433, where emissions are made by energetic electrons spiraling in a magnetic field – a process called synchrotron radiation.

“The IXPE data show that the magnetic field near the acceleration region points in the direction the jets are moving,” said astrophysicist Philip Kaaret of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, and principal investigator of the IXPE mission, along with lead author of a new paper about the findings at SS 433.

“The high level of polarization seen with IXPE shows that the magnetic field is well ordered, with at least half of the field aligned in the same direction,” Kaaret said.

That finding was unexpected, he said. Researchers have long theorized that the interaction between the jet and the interstellar medium – the environment of gas and dust between stars – likely creates a shock, leading to disordered magnetic fields.

The data suggests a new possibility, Kaaret said – that the magnetic fields within the powerful jets may be “trapped” and stretched when they collide with interstellar matter, directly impacting their alignment in the region of particle acceleration.

Since the 1980s, researchers have surmised that SS 433’s jets act as particle accelerators. In 2018, observers at the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory in Puebla, Mexico, verified the jets’ acceleration effect, and scientists used NASA’s NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton observatories to pinpoint the region of acceleration.

As researchers continue to assess IXPE findings and study new targets in space, its data also could help determine whether the same mechanism acts to align magnetic fields in outflows expelled by a variety of phenomena – from black hole jets streaming away from supernova remnants to debris ejected from exploded stars such as blazars.

“This very delicate measurement was made possible by the imaging capabilities of IXPE’s X-ray polarimeters, making possible the detection of the tenuous signal in a small region of the jet 95 light-years from the central black hole,” said Paolo Soffitta, Italian principal investigator for the IXPE mission.

The new paper, detailing IXPE’s observations at SS 433, is available in the latest edition of The Astrophysical Journal.

IXPE is a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries. IXPE is led by Marshall.

Smith, an Aeyon/MTS employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.

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NASA Shares Lessons Learned in Low Earth Orbit Through Payload Workshop

By Jessica Barnett

NASA welcomed commercial partners from around the globe to Marshall Space Flight Center for a three-day workshop last fall, highlighting what the agency has learned during its more than 20 years in Low Earth orbit.

Through tours, panels, and one-on-one discussions, the workshop provided an overview and best practices of what NASA does to prepare International Space Station payloads for operations, so commercial partners can leverage NASA’s knowledge and experience as they build their own space stations and presence in Low Earth orbit.

NASA experts discuss International Space Station payload operations during a three-day workshop held Nov. 7-9 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The workshop provided NASA’s commercial partners an overview and NASA’s best practices for preparing space station payloads for operations.
NASA experts discuss International Space Station payload operations during a three-day workshop held Nov. 7-9 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The workshop provided NASA’s commercial partners an overview and NASA’s best practices for preparing space station payloads for operations.
NASA/Sherresa Lockett

“We have so much history and knowledge, and we want to impart on them what we know so they can think about it, and see what applies to them and what doesn’t,” said Eleasa Kim, who serves as the Payload Operations Lead for NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program, also known as CLDP, supporting Marshall’s Human Exploration Development and Operations Division.

NASA’s CLDP is supporting the development of commercially owned and operated Low Earth orbit destinations from which NASA, along with other customers, can purchase services and stimulate the growth of commercial activities. As commercial Low Earth orbit destinations become available, NASA intends to implement an orderly transition from current space station operations to these new commercial destinations.

More than 70 people joined the workshop in person and online. Attendees were able to listen to experts discuss a litany of topics, from a general overview of the payload life cycle to safety reviews and flight readiness checks to real-time support and anomaly response.

Among the attendees, was John Selmarten, senior manager, Payload Project Management at Axiom Space. Selmarten said the workshop offered invaluable help to the company.

“The CLDP workshop offered industry access to, and an overview of, NASA’s wide variety of subject matter experts, tools, and facilities currently utilized to operate payloads on the ISS,” Selmarten said. “This information is invaluable to Axiom Space as we begin the transformation of low-Earth orbit into a global marketplace through research, in-space manufacturing, and tech demos.”

For Alex Stuetz and Denis Healy of Los Angeles-based aerospace company Vast, it was an amazing opportunity to hear from people with decades of experience.

“I certainly benefited from the breadth of topics covered,” said Healy, who serves as Vast’s mission operations engineer II. “It wasn’t three or four very specific, niche areas, but there was a good scope of subjects covered, and the details and nuance as it relates to each.”

The pair also took part in the tours and one-on-one discussions made available through the workshop.

Kirt Costello, standing, speaks to a room of NASA’s commercial partners during the Payload Operations Workshop. Costello is the utilization manager for the commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program.
Kirt Costello, standing, speaks to a room of NASA’s commercial partners during the Payload Operations Workshop. Costello is the utilization manager for the commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program.
NASA/Jessica Barnett

“It’s incredibly helpful to be able to have face-to-face conversations and get a tour of the facilities, to see the hardware,” said Stuetz, Vast’s mission manager. “It’s these types of events that really push everything forward rapidly and in a collaborative manner.”

Marshall team members were equally excited to share their knowledge with NASA’s commercial partners.

“It’s a chance to share and build something new, to continue the Low Earth orbit presence,” said Joe Kitchen, operations discipline lead for the Planning and Analysis Branch of the Payload Mission Operations Division at Marshall. “Commercializing is really the only way to enable it, so it’s cool to be part of this.”

Marty O’Toole, the Starlab payloads lead on the Voyager team, also shared his appreciation for the MSFC Payload Ops team and the workshop.

“It was a very informative briefing on all aspects of ISS payload operations, from early integration activities through planning, certification, real-time ops and return,” said O’Toole. “The presentation format with a group of experienced individuals assuming their CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration) roles helped to demonstrate and emphasize the detailed coordination needed across all the ops functions. This exercise stimulated lots of discussion and thinking about how Starlab can implement and streamline its operations program going forward.”

Kim explained that the workshop is the first of its kind for her team, which spent three months preparing, including dry runs on each Friday of the final month leading up to the workshop. In addition to preparing tours and panels, they arranged social events, networking opportunities, case studies with filmed simulations, and more for the commercial partners.

Learn more about Commercial Destinations in Low Earth Orbit.

Barnett, a Media Fusion employee, supports the Marshall Office of Communications.

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Brr, It’s Cold in Here! NASA’s Cryo Efforts Beyond the Atmosphere

Establishing sustained operations at the Moon and Mars presents a multitude of opportunities and challenges NASA has yet to encounter. Many of these activities require new technologies and processes to ensure the agency is prepared for its ambitious Artemis missions and those beyond.

One of those challenges is working with cryogenic fluids, meaning fluids existing in a liquid state between minus 238 degrees Fahrenheit and absolute zero (minus 460 F). These fluids – liquid hydrogen (the most difficult to work with), methane, and oxygen – are vital to spacecraft propulsion and life support systems. The fluids may also be produced in the future on the lunar and Martian surfaces via ISRU (in-situ resource utilization).

grc-2019-c-08020.jpg?w=2048
A 2019 image of the SHIIVER tank sitting inside the In-Space Propulsion Facility’s vacuum chamber at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio. The tank was part of a Cryogenic Fluid Management project effort to test the tank at extreme temperatures and ensure the new technologies kept the propellants inside cold and in a liquid state.
Credit: NASA

Human exploration in deep space requires storing large amounts of cryogenic fluids for weeks, months, or longer, as well as transferring between spacecraft or fuel depots in orbit and on the surface. Each aspect is challenging, and, to date, large amounts of cryogenic fluids have only been stored for hours in space. Engineers working in NASA’s Cryogenic Fluid Management, or CFM, Portfolio – led by Technology Demonstration Missions within the Space Technology Mission Directorate and managed at the agency’s Glenn Research Center and Marshall Space Flight Center – are solving those issues ahead of future missions.

“This is a task neither NASA, nor our partners, have ever done before,” said Lauren Ameen, deputy CFM Portfolio manager. “Our future mission concepts rely on massive amounts of cryogenic fluids, and we have to figure out how to efficiently use them over long durations, which requires a series of new technologies far exceeding today’s capabilities.”

For a cryogenic fluid to be useable, it must remain in a frigid, liquid state. However, the physics of space travel – moving in and out of sunlight and long stays in low gravity – make keeping those fluids in a liquid state and knowing how much is in the tank complicated.  

The heat sources in space ­– like the Sun and the spacecraft’s exhaust – create a hot environment inside and around storage tanks causing evaporation or “boiloff.” When fluid evaporates, it can no longer efficiently fuel a rocket engine. It also increases the risk of leakage or, even worse, a tank rupture.

Being unsure of how much gas is left in the tank isn’t how our explorers want to fly to Mars. Low gravity is challenging because the fuel wants to float around – also known as “slosh” – which makes accurately gauging the amount of liquid and transferring it very difficult.

“Previous missions using cryogenic propellants were in space for only a few days due to boiloff or venting losses,” Ameen noted. “Those spacecraft used thrust and other maneuvers to apply force to settle propellant tanks and enable fuel transfers. During Artemis, spacecraft will dwell in low gravity for much longer and need to transfer liquid hydrogen in space for the first time, so we must mitigate boiloff and find innovative ways to transfer and measure cryogenic propellants.”

NASA’s CFM portfolio encompasses 24 development activities and investments to reduce boiloff, improve gauging, and advance fluid transfer techniques for in-space propulsion, landers, and ISRU. There are four near-term efforts taking place on the ground, in near-Earth orbit, and soon on the lunar surface.  

Flight Demos

In 2020, NASA awarded four CFM-focused Tipping Point contracts to American industry – Eta Space, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance – to assist in developing and demonstrating CFM technologies in space. Each company is scheduled to launch its respective demonstration in either 2024 or 2025, performing multiple tests using liquid hydrogen to validate technologies and processes.

Radio Frequency Mass Gauge

To improve gauging, NASA has developed RFMG (Radio Frequency Mass Gauges) to allow for more accurate fluid measurement in low-gravity or low-thrust conditions. Engineers do this by measuring the electromagnetic spectrum, or radio waves, within a spacecraft’s tank throughout the mission, comparing them to fluid simulations to accurately gauge remaining fuel.

The RFMG has been proven in ground tests, sub-orbital parabolic flight, and on the International Space Station, and it will soon be tested on the Moon during an upcoming Commercial Lunar Payload Services flight with Intuitive Machines. Once demonstrated in the lunar environment, NASA will continue to develop and scale the technology to enable improved spacecraft and lander operations.

Cryocoolers

Cryocoolers act like heat exchangers for large propellant tanks to mitigate boiloff when combined with innovative tank insulation systems. With industry partners, like Creare, NASA has begun testing high-capacity cryocooler systems that pump the “working” fluid through a network of tubes installed on the tank to keep it cool. NASA plans to increase tank size and capabilities to meet mission requirements before conducting future flight demonstrations.

CryoFill

NASA is also developing a liquefaction system to turn gaseous oxygen into liquid oxygen on the surface of the Moon or Mars to refuel landers using propellant produced in situ. This approach uses various methods to cool oxygen down to critical temperature (at least minus 297 degrees Fahrenheit), where it condenses, turning from a gas to a liquid. Initial development and testing have proven NASA can do this efficiently, and the team continues to scale the technology to relevant tank sizes and quantities for future operations.

Ultimately, NASA efforts to develop and test CFM systems that are energy-, mass-, and cost-efficient are critical to the success of the agency’s ambitious missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. 

For more info, view the CFM fact sheet.

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Astronomers Find Spark of Star Birth Across Billions of Years

Four images from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes represent a sample of galaxy clusters that are part of the largest and most complete study to learn what triggers stars to form in the universe’s biggest galaxies, as described in a press release.

This research showed that the conditions for stellar conception in these exceptionally massive galaxies have not changed over the last ten billion years.

This release includes composite images of four galaxy clusters, presented in a two-by-two grid. Each image features a hazy, purple cloud representing X-rays from hot gas observed by Chandra. The distant galaxies in and around the clouds of hot gas have been captured in optical data, and are shown in golden yellows with hints of vibrant cyan blue.
These images represent a sample of galaxy clusters that are part of the largest and most complete study to learn what triggers stars to form in the universe’s biggest galaxies. Clusters of galaxies are the largest objects in the universe held together by gravity and contain huge amounts of hot gas seen in X-rays. This research, made using Chandra and other telescopes, showed that the conditions for stellar conception in these exceptionally massive galaxies have not changed over the last ten billion years. In these images, X-rays from Chandra are shown along with optical data from Hubble.
X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/M. Calzadilla el al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk & J. Major

Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the universe held together by gravity and contain huge amounts of hot gas seen in X-rays. This hot gas weighs several times the total mass of all the stars in all the hundreds of galaxies typically found in galaxy clusters. In the four galaxy cluster images in this graphic, X-rays from hot gas detected by Chandra are in purple and optical data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, mostly showing galaxies in the clusters, are yellow and cyan.

In this study, researchers looked at the brightest and most massive class of galaxies in the universe, called BCGs (brightest cluster galaxies), in the centers of 95 clusters of galaxies. The galaxy clusters chosen are themselves an extreme sample – the most massive clusters in a large survey using the SPT (South Pole Telescope), with funding support from the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy – and are located between 3.4 and 9.9 billion light-years from Earth.

The four galaxy clusters shown here at located at distances of 3.9 billion (SPT-CLJ0106-5943), 5.6 billion (SPT-CLJ0307-6225), 6.4 billion (SPT-CLJ0310-4647) and 7.7 billion (SPT-CLJ0615-5746) light-years from Earth, and the images are 1.7 million, 2 million, 2.4 million and 2.2 million light-years across, respectively. By comparison our galaxy is only about 100,000 light-years across.

In SPT-CLJ0307-6225 the BCG is near the bottom right of the image and in the other images they are near the centers. Some of the long, narrow features are caused by gravitational lensing, where mass in the clusters is warping the light from galaxies behind the clusters. The images have been rotated from standard astronomer’s configuration of North up by 20 degrees clockwise (SPT-CLJ0106-5943), 6.2 degrees counterclockwise (SPT-CLJ0307-6225), 29,2 degrees counterclockwise (SPT-CLJ0310-4647) and 24.2 degrees clockwise (SPT-CLJ0615-5746).

The team found that the precise trigger for stars to form in the galaxies that they studied is when the amount of disordered motion in the hot gas – a physical concept called “entropy” – falls below a critical threshold. Below this threshold, the hot gas inevitably cools to form new stars.

In addition to the X-ray data from Chandra X-ray Observatory and radio data from the SPT already mentioned, this result also used radio data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array, and the Australian SKA Pathfinder Telescope, infrared data from NASA’s WISE satellite, and several optical telescopes. The optical telescopes used in this study were the Magellan 6.5-m Telescopes, the Gemini South Telescope, the Blanco 4-m Telescope (DECam, MOSAIC-II) and the Swope 1m Telescope. A total of almost 50 days of Chandra observing time was used for this result.

Michael Caldazilla of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) presented these results at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans, Louisana. In addition, there is a paper submitted to The Astrophysical Journal led by Caldazilla on this result.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

Read more about Chandra.

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NASA Selects 12 Companies for Space Station Services Contract

NASA has selected 12 companies to provide research, engineering, and mission integration services for the International Space Station Program.

The $478 million Research, Engineering & Mission Integration Services-2 or REMIS-2 contract will support the work of the International Space Station Program based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The companies will provide spaceflight, ground hardware and software, sustaining engineering functions and services, payload facility integration, and research mission integration operations services.

NASA meatball logo

Each company will receive a multiple-award, indefinite-quantity contract with firm-fixed price and cost-plus-fixed-fee task orders. The seven-year contract extends through Sept. 30, 2030, with an option to extend through Sept. 30, 2032.

The companies selected are:

  • Aegis Aerospace, Inc., Houston
  • Axient Corp, Huntsville, Alabama
  • Cimarron Software Services, Houston
  • Consolidated Safety Services, Exploration Park, Florida
  • JES Tech, Houston
  • KBR Wyle, Fulton, Maryland
  • Leidos, Webster, Texas
  • Metis, Albuquerque, New Mexico
  • Oceaneering, Houston
  • Tec-Masters, Huntsville
  • Teledyne Brown Engineering, Huntsville
  • University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama

The majority of the work will take place at contractor facilities across the country. Services also may be required at other NASA centers, contractor or subcontractor locations, or vendor facilities as requirements warrant.

The contract also includes a small business reserve, which was fulfilled by selecting Aegis, Cimarron, Consolidated Safety Services, JES Tech, Metis, and Tec-Masters. 

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      Finding Refuge in Climate Crisis: Analyzing the Differences between Refugia and Non-Refugia in the Northern Philippines Using Remote Sensing
      Emmanelle Cuasay
      Refugia are areas that are characterized by stable environmental conditions that can act as a refuge for species as Earth’s climate warms. In this study, fourteen Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 images from February 2014 – March 2024 of the northern Philippines region were used. The region of interest is the terrestrial biome by Lake Taal. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) maps were created from all fourteen images to determine the NDVI 25th highest quartiles of the long-term average NDVI images and of a dry and wet year NDVI image. These values were then used to create refugia and non-refugia maps using ArcGIS Pro. Land cover data from Sentinel-2 and a digital elevation model (DEM), using the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), were plotted in ArcGIS Pro to determine the slope and aspect of the area. Global Ecosystems Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) data were used to look at forest height of the study area, and the distribution of forest height, slope, aspect, and elevation were plotted to determine their probability densities in refugia and non-refugia areas. Results of this study show increased biomass in refugia areas. This suggests that conservation practices are crucial to aid in the preservation of biodiversity and biomass within these refugia areas.

      Jayce Crayne
      Site-Based Observations of a Saharan Dust Storm’s Impacts on Evapotranspiration in North-Central Florida
      Jayce Crayne
      Saharan dust storms serve an important role in the western Atlantic’s climate in their contribution to Earth’s radiation budget, modulating sea surface temperatures (SSTs), fertilizing ecosystems, and suppressing cloud and precipitation patterns (Yuan et al., 2020). However, Saharan dust storms are expected to become less frequent in this region as SSTs continue to rise (Yuan et al., 2020). Predicting the climate response to this change requires a keen understanding of how the presence of these storms affect evapotranspiration (ET) and its indicators. This study utilizes site-based observational data from an AmeriFlux tower near Gainesville, FL recorded during a large dust storm in late June 2020. The storm’s progression was documented using satellite imagery from Aqua and Terra and aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements from an Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) station co-located with the AmeriFlux tower. Indicators of ET such as surface air temperature, vapor pressure deficit, photosynthetic photon flux density, and net radiation were analyzed. Findings were compared to modeled ET and latent energy flux reanalysis data provided by the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS). Both model simulations and on-site observations support that ET decreased during the days dust concentrations were heaviest and for a short time thereafter. Cloud cover data adopted from meteorological aerodrome reports (METARs) provided by an automated surface observing system (ASOS) located in Gainesville showed that clouds were not a major contributor in decreasing ET during the days of heaviest dust. The results of this study show a considerable decrease in ET as a result of dust aerosols. Further research is necessary to determine whether changes in ET due to Saharan dust storms are significant enough to alter climates in the western Atlantic and, if so, what the climate response will be if the frequency of storms decreases.

      Brandon Wilson
      Predicting 2025 and 2028 dNBR and dNDIV for Csarf Smith River Complex / Evaluating the Effects of 2019 California Wildfire Fund
      Brandon Wilson
      Biodiverse regions across California remain vulnerable to harmful wildfires year round. Quantifying and measuring these regions’ wildfire resilience is necessary for understanding where/how to allocate environmental resources. Several ecological wildfire studies have been conducted utilizing artificial intelligence and remote sensing to analyze and predict biodiversity damage across wildfire prone regions, including Northern Algeria and Arkansas, USA. The current case study aims to analyze biodiversity damage from the 2023 Csarf Smith River Complex Fire in Six Rivers National Forest, California and predict the difference in Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) and difference in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (dNDVI) for 2025 and 2028 using remote-sensing-based random forest (RF) regression. Furthermore, to observe, holistically, a practical method California has implemented to address state-wide wildfire damage, the 2019 California Wildfire Fund (AB 1054 and AB 111) was evaluated using the synthetic control method (SCM). For this case study, remote sensing data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA (Landsat 9 Satellite C2 L2, TerraClimate and the Land Data Assimilation System) were utilized for processing relevant spectral indexes for the RF. Data from NOAA, Energy Information Agency, International Monetary Fund and Bureau of Economic Analysis were utilized as synthetic control datasets to evaluate the effects of the 2019 California Wildfire Fund. Elevated topography in this study area is susceptible to high severity burn effects, while less elevated topography burns less. This result affected dNBR and dNDVI predictions as elevated areas seemingly did not have strong resilience to rampant burns. This demonstrates a direct correlation to potential lower transpiration rates for elevated areas, warranting further analysis. Results of low variance, post-treatment, between the treated unit and the synthetic control unit, poses concern for the positive effect of the 2019 Wildfire Fund.

      Carrie Hashimoto
      Describing changes in evapotranspiration following the 2020 Creek Fire in the southern Sierra Nevada
      Carrie Hashimoto
      Climatic warming and high tree density have caused larger and more severe wildfires to occur in western United States forests over time. Wildfires affect both the hydrology and ecology of forests via alterations to the water balance (e.g., evapotranspiration, streamflow, infiltration, and more) and could shift vegetation communities and subsequent ecosystem structure and function. This project explores ecological characteristics of a landscape that predict the extent to which the Creek Fire in the southern Sierra Nevada has affected evapotranspiration. Strides in understanding of consequential evapotranspiration changes can create pathways to address emerging forest health challenges posed by similar western fires. For analysis, various remote sensing and modeled data were collected from OpenET, the North American Land Data Assimilation System, TerraClimate, Harmonized LandSat Sentinel-2 data, and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Multiple linear regression and generalized additive models were constructed. Relative change in evapotranspiration served as the response variable. Model covariates included average temperature, total precipitation in the preceding months, average soil moisture, elevation, slope, aspect, northness, latitude, pre-fire normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and post-fire change in normalized burn ratio (dNBR). Best subset selection with cross validation demonstrated minimization of cross-validation error with a 7-covariate model. This reduced model yields lower complexity and more interpretability while sustaining an adjusted R2 of 0.626, compared to the full model’s adjusted R2 of 0.663. A reduced generalized additive model (GAM) with interaction terms drawn from the linear model variable selection demonstrated an adjusted R2 of 0.695, indicating a better fit that comes at the cost of reduced interpretability and higher computational requirements than the linear models. The goal of this work is to disentangle environmental indicators of post-fire evapotranspiration change, such that predictive modeling of future wildfire impacts on evapotranspiration can be achieved.


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      Last Updated Nov 22, 2024 Related Terms
      General Explore More
      8 min read SARP East 2024 Ocean Remote Sensing Group
      Article 21 mins ago 10 min read SARP East 2024 Atmospheric Science Group
      Article 21 mins ago 11 min read SARP East 2024 Terrestrial Fluxes Group
      Article 22 mins ago View the full article
    • By NASA
      11 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      Return to 2024 SARP Closeout Faculty Advisors:
      Dr. Lisa Haber, Virginia Commonwealth University
      Dr. Brandon Alveshere, Virginia Commonwealth University
      Dr. Chris Gough, Virginia Commonwealth University
      Graduate Mentor:
      Mindy Priddy, Virginia Commonwealth University

      Mindy Priddy, Graduate Mentor
      Mindy Priddy, graduate mentor for the 2024 SARP Terrestrial Fluxes group, provides an introduction for each of the group members and shares behind-the scenes moments from the internship.

      Angelina De La Torre
      Using NDVI as a Proxy for GPP to Predict Carbon Dioxide Fluxes
      Angelina De La Torre
      Climate change, driven primarily by greenhouse gases, poses a threat to the future of our planet. Among these gases is carbon dioxide (CO₂), which has a much longer atmospheric residence time compared to other greenhouse gases. One potential factor in reducing atmospheric CO₂ enrichment is plant productivity. Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) estimates the amount of CO₂ fixed during photosynthesis. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) provides insight into the health of an ecosystem by measuring the density and greenness of vegetation. Therefore, it can be inferred that there is a relationship between NDVI and GPP, as greener plants are likely more productive. In this study, we used NDVI as a proxy for GPP and analyzed the effect NDVI had on CO₂ fluxes during California’s wet season between January and March 2023 in a restored tidal freshwater wetland. GPP and CO₂ flux data were obtained from the Dutch Slough AmeriFlux tower in Oakley, California. Landsat data were used to calculate the average NDVI. The influence of NDVI on GPP was assessed using linear regression. A second linear regression was then performed using NDVI and CO₂ flux, of which GPP is one component. We anticipate that wetlands with greater vegetation density will have lower CO₂ emissions.

      Because Landsat data scans in 16-day intervals, daily variation in NDVI could not be observed. This translates to a frequency discrepancy between the Landsat and AmeriFlux data, as AmeriFlux towers measure in half-hour intervals. Additionally, the wet season represented was limited by data availability, as the data before 2023 were unavailable. Despite data limitations in this study, the outlined process could be repeated in various wetland and climate classifications for further analysis of a larger sample size. This study could assist in developing strategies to increase CO₂ sequestration in an attempt to slow the effects of climate change.

      Samarth Jayadev
      Using Machine Learning to Assess Relationships between NDVI and Net Carbon Exchange During the COVID-19 Pandemic
      Samarth Jayadev
      Understanding the movement of carbon between Earth’s land surface and atmosphere is essential for ecosystem monitoring, creating climate change mitigation strategies, and assessing the carbon budget on national to global scales. Measures of greenness serve as indicators of processes such as photosynthesis that control carbon exchange and are vital in modeling of carbon fluxes. NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) provides high quality measurements of column-averaged CO₂ concentrations that can be used to derive net carbon exchange (NCE), a measure of CO₂ flux between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere.
      From OCO-2, NCE data collected at the land nadir, land glint satellite position combined with in situ sampling can provide accurate measurements on a 1°x1° scale suitable for carbon flux characterization across the contiguous United States (CONUS). Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), which ranges from -1 to +1, measures the greenness of vegetation, serving as an indicator of plant density and health. This can help to understand ecosystem to carbon-cycle interactions and be leveraged for determining patterns with NCE. We examined the relationship between NDVI and NCE across CONUS during 2020 using Gradient Boosting Decision Trees (GBDT) which specialize in classifying and predicting non-linear relationships. This algorithm takes multiple weak learners (decision trees) and combines their predictions in an iterative ensemble method to improve prediction accuracy. Feature and permutation importance tests found that January and August (trough and peak NDVI, respectively) were the highest weighted predictor variables related to NCE. The dataset was split in a 90% training 10% test ratio across latitude/longitude grid cells to assess and verify model performance. Using the mean squared error loss function and hyperparameters with optimal estimators, tree depth, sample split, and learning rate the algorithm was able to converge the test predictions to match the deviance of the training data. The gradient boosting model can be applied to different months and years of NDVI/NCE to further explore these relationships or a multitude of research questions. Further studies should consider integrating land use and land cover change variables such as bare land and urbanization to improve predictions of NCE.

      Makai Ogoshi
      Deep-learning Derived Spaceborne Canopy Structural Metrics Predict Forest Carbon Fluxes
      Makai Ogoshi
      Terrestrial and airborne lidar data products describing canopy structure are potent predictors of forest carbon fluxes, but whether satellite data products produce similarly robust indicators of canopy structure is not known. The assessment of contemporary spaceborne lidar and other remote sensing data products as predictors of carbon fluxes is crucial to next generation instrument and data product design and large-spatial scale modeling. We investigated relationships between deciduous broadleaf forest canopy structure, derived from deep-learning models created with lidar data from GEDI and optical imagery from Sentinel-2, and forest carbon exchange. These included comparisons to in-situ continuous net ecosystem exchange (NEE), gross primary production (GPP), and net primary production (NPP). We find that the mean  canopy height from the gridded spaceborne product has a strong correlation with forest NPP, similar to prior analysis with ground-based lidar (portable canopy lidar; PCL). For comparison to NPP, heights taken from the gridded spaceborne product were compared by overlapping the product with nine terrestrial forest sites from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). We used standard deviation of canopy height as a measure of canopy structural complexity. Complexity derived from the gridded spaceborne product does not show the same strong correlation with NPP as found when using PCL. Mean annual GPP and NEE across five years were compared to the gridded spaceborne product at six Fluxnet2015-tower sites with continuous, gap-filled carbon flux data. When compared to in-situ flux tower data, neither mean canopy height nor structural complexity strongly correlate to annual NEE or GPP. Primarily, the finding that derived spaceborne products exhibit a strong correlation between forest canopy height and NPP will advance global-scale application of forest-carbon flux predictions. Secondarily, a variety of limitations highlight shortcomings in the current terrestrial flux data network. A small number of available study sites, both spatially and temporally, and lack of resolution in vertical complexity of canopy structure both contribute to uncertainty in assessing the relationships to NEE and GPP.

      Sebastian Reed
      Porewater Methane Concentrations Vary Significantly Across A Freshwater Tidal Wetland
      Sebastian Reed
      Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is over 80 times more powerful than CO₂ at trapping heat and accounts for an estimated 30% of global temperature rise associated with climate change. The largest natural source of methane worldwide is wetlands. Despite the role of methane in driving climate change, the magnitude of global annual wetland methane flux remains highly uncertain. This study analyzes the effects of greenness (assessed using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index; NDVI), plant species composition, rooting depth, atmospheric methane concentration, and plant longevity on porewater methane concentration at the Kimages Rice Rivers Center tidal freshwater wetland. Samples for atmospheric and porewater concentrations were conducted in situ in June 2024. For each sampling location (n = 23) we collected whole air samples (WAS) 2m above the marsh surface and porewater samples 5cm below the marsh surface. We visually assessed species composition at each sample location, with 12 species of wetland plants present overall. We used the TRY plant database to find the rooting depth, leaf nitrogen content, and lifespan of each species. Drone multispectral data from 2023 was used to estimate NDVI values. These variables were compared to the pore water methane concentration via stepwise linear regression. Leaf N content, NDVI, plant species, and WAS sampling did not show statistically significant correlation to porewater methane concentration. Rooting depth showed a slight positive correlation with porewater methane (alpha = 0.1, p = 0.08, R^2 = 0.1). Samples with only perennial plants (as opposed to annual plants) had a higher mean value of porewater methane (p = 0.1). Analyzing porewater methane provides insight as to what wetland components affect methanogenesis and methane release, which aids in assessing which plant functional traits are most responsible for driving or mitigating climate change. Results from this study and future research in this area has the potential to more accurately assess how methane cycles through wetlands to the atmosphere.

      Nohemi Rodarte
      Understanding the vertical profile of CO₂ concentration: How carbon dioxide levels change with altitude
      Nohemi Rodarte
      Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is one of the main greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming.While the relationship between CO₂ concentrations and land cover types, such as forests and urban areas, is well documented, there is limited knowledge of how CO₂ concentrations vary with altitude at fine spatial scales. Guided by our hypothesis that CO₂ levels vary with altitude and increase with elevation, we used airborne data collected from the B200 aircraft, which flew at different altitudes (400 to 1200 feet) above the urban area of Hopewell, Virginia, between 9:40 AM and 10:40 AM. We analyzed the CO₂ concentrations recorded by the flight to obtain the median and range for each 100 feet of altitude. Our results reveal that carbon dioxide concentrations varied significantly across the range of altitudes investigated. Within the area studied, CO₂ concentrations were found to range between 410 and 470 ppm. The distribution of these concentrations along the altitude gradient shows a bimodal pattern, with notable peaks at altitudes of 700 to 800 feet and 1100 to 1200 feet. Although CO₂ levels were present at all measured altitudes, there was a noticeable drop in the mean concentration at 800 feet,which then stabilized until reaching 1,000 feet before rising again. This pattern indicates that the concentrations of this greenhouse gas are not uniformly distributed with altitude, but rather vary significantly, showing higher concentrations at certain elevations and lower concentrations at others. The CO₂ distribution fluctuates with altitude, showing higher or lower levels at specific heights rather than a smooth gradient, indicating that altitude impacts CO₂ concentrations. While we did not identify the drivers of this change, future studies could evaluate how factors such as surface emissions, atmospheric mixing, and local conditions may contribute to vertical CO₂ profiles, since the altitudes we considered in this research are within the troposphere.

      Camille Shaw
      Linking NDVI with CO₂ and CH₄ Fluxes: Insights into Vegetation and Urban Source-Sink Dynamics in the Great Dismal Swamp
      Camille Shaw
      In recent years, carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases have gained attention because of their contribution to the rise in Earth’s global mean temperature. Methane and carbon dioxide have various sources and sinks, but an expanding array of sources have created a need to assess ongoing change in carbon balance. This study aims to quantify the relationship between Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, or NDVI, and methane and carbon dioxide fluxes. We measured carbon dioxide and methane concentrations within the boundary layer using the PICARRO instrument, focusing on the Great Dismal Swamp, a forested wetland, and surrounding areas in the Eastern Mid-Atlantic Region. Data collection occurred at various times of day and along different flight paths in 2016, 2017, and 2024, with each year representing data from a single season, either spring or fall, for temporal analysis. We calculated methane and carbon dioxide fluxes along the flight paths using airborne eddy covariance, a method for capturing accurate flux measurements while accounting for the mixing of gases in the boundary layer caused by heat. Additionally, we calculated NDVI for this area using NASA’s Landsat 8 and 9 satellite imagery. Analysis of the afternoon flight data revealed a negative linear correlation between NDVI and carbon dioxide flux. Urban areas, characterized by low NDVI, exhibit a positive carbon dioxide flux as a consequence of emissions from vehicles, while forested areas, with high NDVI, show a negative carbon dioxide flux because of photosynthesis. In contrast, methane flux shows minimal correlation with NDVI. The lack of correlation arises because forested wetlands, with high NDVI, emit substantial amounts of methane, while urban areas, despite having low NDVI, still produce significant methane emissions from landfills and industrial activities. Future research could further investigate how seasonal and diurnal variations influence the correlations between NDVI and greenhouse gases by collecting comprehensive data across all seasons within a given year and at various times of the day.

      Return to 2024 SARP Closeout Share
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      Last Updated Nov 22, 2024 Related Terms
      General Explore More
      8 min read SARP East 2024 Ocean Remote Sensing Group
      Article 21 mins ago 10 min read SARP East 2024 Atmospheric Science Group
      Article 21 mins ago 10 min read SARP East 2024 Hydroecology Group
      Article 21 mins ago View the full article
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