Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
Jones explains how DAF is preparing for global competition
-
Similar Topics
-
By Space Force
A prototype F-16 Fight Falcon cockpit collapsible ladder for agile combat employment and contingency operations emerged as the 2024 Spark Tank winner at the Pentagon.
View the full article
-
By Space Force
Seven teams made the final round in this year’s annual Fight Tonight competition and presented their concepts to U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command leaders Oct. 7.
View the full article
-
By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The Permafrost Tunnel north of Fairbanks, Alaska, was dug in the 1960s and is run by the U.S. Army’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. It is the site of much research into permafrost — ground that stays frozen throughout the year, for multiple years.NASA/Kate Ramsayer Earth’s far northern reaches have locked carbon underground for millennia. New research paints a picture of a landscape in change.
A new study, co-authored by NASA scientists, details where and how greenhouse gases are escaping from the Earth’s vast northern permafrost region as the Arctic warms. The frozen soils encircling the Arctic from Alaska to Canada to Siberia store twice as much carbon as currently resides in the atmosphere — hundreds of billions of tons — and most of it has been buried for centuries.
An international team, led by researchers at Stockholm University, found that from 2000 to 2020, carbon dioxide uptake by the land was largely offset by emissions from it. Overall, they concluded that the region has been a net contributor to global warming in recent decades in large part because of another greenhouse gas, methane, that is shorter-lived but traps significantly more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Greenhouse gases shroud the globe in this animation showing data from 2021. Carbon dioxide is shown in orange; methane is shown in purple. Methane traps heat 28 times more effectively than carbon dioxide over a 100-year timescale. Wetlands are a significant source of such emissions.NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio The findings reveal a landscape in flux, said Abhishek Chatterjee, a co-author and scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “We know that the permafrost region has captured and stored carbon for tens of thousands of years,” he said. “But what we are finding now is that climate-driven changes are tipping the balance toward permafrost being a net source of greenhouse gas emissions.”
Carbon Stockpile
Permafrost is ground that has been permanently frozen for anywhere from two years to hundreds of thousands of years. A core of it reveals thick layers of icy soils enriched with dead plant and animal matter that can be dated using radiocarbon and other techniques. When permafrost thaws and decomposes, microbes feed on this organic carbon, releasing some of it as greenhouse gases.
Unlocking a fraction of the carbon stored in permafrost could further fuel climate change. Temperatures in the Arctic are already warming two to four times faster than the global average, and scientists are learning how thawing permafrost is shifting the region from being a net sink for greenhouse gases to becoming a net source of warming.
They’ve tracked emissions using ground-based instruments, aircraft, and satellites. One such campaign, NASA’s Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE), is focused on Alaska and western Canada. Yet locating and measuring emissions across the far northern fringes of Earth remains challenging. One obstacle is the vast scale and diversity of the environment, composed of evergreen forests, sprawling tundra, and waterways.
This map, based on data provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, shows the extent of Arctic permafrost. The amount of permafrost underlying the surface ranges from continuous — in the coldest areas — to more isolated and sporadic patches.NASA Earth Observatory Cracks in the Sink
The new study was undertaken as part of the Global Carbon Project’s RECCAP-2 effort, which brings together different science teams, tools, and datasets to assess regional carbon balances every few years. The authors followed the trail of three greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide — across 7 million square miles (18 million square kilometers) of permafrost terrain from 2000 to 2020.
Researchers found the region, especially the forests, took up a fraction more carbon dioxide than it released. This uptake was largely offset by carbon dioxide emitted from lakes and rivers, as well as from fires that burned both forest and tundra.
They also found that the region’s lakes and wetlands were strong sources of methane during those two decades. Their waterlogged soils are low in oxygen while containing large volumes of dead vegetation and animal matter — ripe conditions for hungry microbes. Compared to carbon dioxide, methane can drive significant climate warming in short timescales before breaking down relatively quickly. Methane’s lifespan in the atmosphere is about 10 years, whereas carbon dioxide can last hundreds of years.
The findings suggest the net change in greenhouse gases helped warm the planet over the 20-year period. But over a 100-year period, emissions and absorptions would mostly cancel each other out. In other words, the region teeters from carbon source to weak sink. The authors noted that events such as extreme wildfires and heat waves are major sources of uncertainty when projecting into the future.
Bottom Up, Top Down
The scientists used two main strategies to tally greenhouse gas emissions from the region. “Bottom-up” methods estimate emissions from ground- and air-based measurements and ecosystem models. Top-down methods use atmospheric measurements taken directly from satellite sensors, including those on NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) and JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite.
Regarding near-term, 20-year, global warming potential, both scientific approaches aligned on the big picture but differed in magnitude: The bottom-up calculations indicated significantly more warming.
“This study is one of the first where we are able to integrate different methods and datasets to put together this very comprehensive greenhouse gas budget into one report,” Chatterjee said. “It reveals a very complex picture.”
News Media Contacts
Jane J. Lee / Andrew Wang
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0307 / 626-379-6874
jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov
Written by Sally Younger
2024-147
Share
Details
Last Updated Oct 29, 2024 Related Terms
Earth Carbon Cycle Climate Change Greenhouse Gases Jet Propulsion Laboratory Explore More
6 min read NASA’s Perseverance Rover Looks Back While Climbing Slippery Slope
Article 22 hours ago 6 min read NASA Successfully Integrates Coronagraph for Roman Space Telescope
Article 1 day ago 3 min read High-Altitude ER-2 Flights Get Down-to-Earth Data
Article 4 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
Missions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
View the full article
-
By Space Force
The changes are part of an ongoing effort to streamline and modernize Total Force enlisted development following the separation of DAFI 36-2670, Total Force Development, into more specialized instructions.
View the full article
-
By NASA
Making the most of a solar eclipse demands attention to detail. Do you have what it takes? NASA’s Eclipse Megamovie project launched a new coding competition, and they need your help to organize images from the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse. This is your chance to make a lasting contribution to solar science!
The Eclipse Megamovie project asked volunteers to take photos of the total solar eclipse that took place on April 8, 2024 to discover the secret lives of solar jets and plumes. Many jets and plumes seem to disappear or change from the time they are formed on the Sun to when they move out into the solar wind. Thanks to the efforts of over 145 citizen scientists, more than 1 terabyte of photographs were collected and are now being analyzed. These images will help scientists track disappearing jets and plumes, shedding light on how these solar events impact space weather and our understanding of the Sun’s outer atmosphere.
One of the standout volunteers in the Eclipse Megamovie project is Hy Tran, a citizen scientist who earned praise from the science team for his detailed feedback and mentorship of fellow volunteers. “We love working with volunteers like Hy,” said Eclipse Megamovie scientist Hannah Hellman. “They bring passion, experience, and technological knowledge to our projects.”
Superstar volunteer Hy Tran helps mentor other eclipse chasers. You can join the Eclipse Megamovie project now by taking part in a coding competition! Tran’s day job is in metrology—the science of measurement (not to be confused with meteorology!). “In my professional life,” said Tran, “I support a measurement standards and calibration program, so we live by having good procedures!” He also volunteers in technical societies, focusing on standards development, engineering, and technology education. Outside of work, Hy mentors and serves as a local leader in science/technology/engineering/mathematics (STEM) outreach. He loves woodturning and dabbles in amateur astrophotography and underwater photography. The technical challenges of participating in eclipse science projects so far have hit his sweet spot.
Although it will be a while until the next eclipse, the Eclipse Megamovie team still needs your help. Join volunteers like Hy and participate in their coding competition! Your mission is to create the most accurate sorting machine that categorizes a solar eclipse photograph into a specific solar eclipse phase. Not only will your code help organize the massive amounts of data collected, but you’ll also have the chance to win some prizes.
Prizes for the Competition
First Place: Image-stabilized binoculars with solar filters, a feature on the Eclipse Megamovie website, an Eclipse Megamovie Team Patch, a NASA calendar, an Eclipse Megamovie sticker, and a First Prize Certificate. Second and Third Place: A feature on the Eclipse Megamovie website, an Eclipse Megamovie Team Patch, a NASA calendar, an Eclipse Megamovie sticker, and a certificate. Think you’ve got the skills to tackle this challenge? Visit the Eclipse Megamovie project website to sign up today!
For more information, visit the Eclipse Megamovie page at Kaggle: http://kaggle.com/competitions/eclipse-megamovie.
Facebook logo @DoNASAScience @DoNASAScience Share
Details
Last Updated Oct 15, 2024 Related Terms
Citizen Science Eclipses Heliophysics Explore More
2 min read ESA/NASA’s SOHO Spies Bright Comet Making Debut in Evening Sky
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has captured images of the second-brightest comet to ever pass…
Article
4 days ago
2 min read Sail Along with NASA’s Solar Sail Tech Demo in Real-Time Simulation
Article
5 days ago
3 min read Four Asteroids Named After NASA Volunteers
Article
7 days ago
View the full article
-
-
Check out these Videos
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.