News

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has received $1 million to explore technologies that stimulate hydrogen production from mineral deposits found in the subsurface, including developing our understanding of hydrogen-producing geochemical reactions and how to enhance or control the rate of hydrogen production. The use of hydrogen fuel

hydrogen fuel

A clean fuel that, when consumed in a fuel cell, produces only water. Hydrogen can be produced from a variety of domestic resources, such as natural gas, nuclear power, biomass, and renewable power like solar and wind.

Source: U.S Department of Energy Source

to offset fossil fuel applications could assist efforts to reduce climate change

climate change

A change in the average conditions — such as temperature and rainfall — in a region over a long period of time.

Source: NASA Climate Kids Source

impacts if produced without increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

As a kid growing up in Clear Lake City, Texas, home of the Johnson Space Center, Amy Robertson was immersed in what was happening at NASA. With a childhood dream of joining that world, she pursued a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering. However, she found her true calling on Earth, now serving as the offshore wind energy group manager at the National Renewable Energy

renewable energy

Renewable energy comes from unlimited, naturally replenished resources, such as the sun, tides, and wind. Renewable energy can be used for electricity generation, space and water heating and cooling, and transportation.

Source: U.S Department of Energy Source

Laboratory (NREL).

Schnabel and Ocean Energy May Be Young, but Both Can Help Fight Climate Change. Most kids who grew up in chilly, snow-prone areas remember the dreaded five-day rule: After five snow days savoring hot chocolate and chucking snowballs, any extra had to be traded for precious summer vacation days. Alec Schnabel was one of those kids. Growing up in central Ohio in the 2000s, he remembers eclipsing the five-day rule more winters than not. But then, as he got older, something changed.

Pyrite,

pyrite

Pyrite (FeS2) is a mineral composed of the elements iron and sulfur.

Source: USGS Source

the Earth’s most abundant sulfide mineral, contains trace elements crucial for understanding ocean evolution. However, little is known about their incorporation into pyrite. A recent study using atom probe tomography

atom probe tomography

A unique analytical tool capable of providing 3D atomic maps of any element in the periodic table with sub-nm (sub-nanometre) spatial resolution and high analytical sensitivity (in the ppm range, in some cases).

Source: NIST Source

(APT) successfully improved resolution in characterizing trace element distributions in framboids, which are spherical clusters of microcrystals of pyrite, surpassing previous methods.

The highly anticipated report from a series of Workshops on Digital Twins

digital twin

A set of virtual information constructs that mimics the structure, context, and behavior of a natural, engineered, or social system (or system-of-systems); is dynamically updated with data from its physical twin; has a predictive capability; and informs decisions that realize value.

Source: EESM Source

was recently published and is available to everyone. The workshops were organized in 2023 by an ad hoc committee appointed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to identify needs and opportunities to advance the mathematical, statistical, and computational foundations of digital twins in applications across science, medicine, engineering, and society.

Plant-soil-microbe interactions play a crucial role in processes that take place in the soil directly around plant roots, or the rhizosphere,

rhizosphere

The soil region influenced by plant roots where complex biological and ecological processes occur.

Source: EMSL Source

and these processes contribute to nutrient cycling

nutrient cycle

The nutrient cycle describes how nutrients move from the physical environment into living organisms and are recycled back to the physical environment.

Source: Sustainable Sanitation and Water Management Toolbox Source

and metabolite turnover in the environment. Amid the water scarcity that occurs with climate change, plants are forced to adapt through a range of processes that impact soil organic matter turnover in the rhizosphere.

The refactorization of large-scale scientific code, such as the E3SM

Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM)

The Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) project includes Earth System Models, simulations, and predictions to investigate energy-relevant science using code optimized for DOE's advanced supercomputers.

Source: NVCL Web Page Source

Land Model (ELM) for Exascale computers with hybrid computing architecture, poses a significant challenge for the scientific community. This paper introduces a holistic approach to the development of the ultrahigh-resolution ELM (uELM) over the Exascale computers at the DOE’s national laboratories.

Four-fold grid refinement slows the water cycle with reduced fluxes.

flux

The amount of some type of particle or energy crossing a unit area per unit time.

Source: NRC Library Source

High Resolution (HR) methods usually improve evapotranspiration

evapotranspiration

The process by which water moves from the land or ocean surface to the atmosphere (evaporation) and transpiration (evaporation from plants).

Source: USGS Source

but produce varied effects on precipitation, moisture convergence, terrestrial

terrestrial

The geographical and biological features that are associated with the Earth's solid, rocky surface, residing on or resembling the land or terrain found on our planet.

Source: NASA Source

water storage, and runoff. However, HR notably enhances precipitation extremes, storm event contributions, and mountain snowpack, demonstrating its role in refining atmospheric and hydrological processes.

hydrological processes

Hydrological processes refer to the various natural processes involved in the movement, distribution, and cycling of water on Earth's surface, in the soil, and within the atmosphere.

Source: Source

The E3SM project recently completed the development of SCREAM, the Simple Cloud Resolving E3SM Atmosphere model. This is the E3SM’s first performance portable global atmospheric model capable of running at nonhydrostatic cloud-resolving resolutions. In 2023, the SCREAM model completed some of the world’s first year-long climate simulations at cloud-resolving resolution.

The Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) project began with a 10-year vision in mind: modeling the climate on exascale machines. That bold decadal vision was achieved in 2023 and was recognized with the Gordon Bell Prize in Climate Modeling. Let’s look back at the decade of progress and end with a look ahead to the beginnings of a new decadal vision as E3SM enters its second decade.

With the clean energy transition well underway, there is plenty of exciting news about increasing deployment of renewable energy solutions like solar. Yet as more of these variable renewables connect to the grid, there is an increasing need for firm, flexible, and renewable power and storage to balance supply and demand.

New research highlights effects of emissions on climate. Since the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) circulates water from north to south and back in a long cycle within the Atlantic Ocean. This circulation brings warmth to various parts of the globe and also carries nutrients necessary to sustain ocean life.

Source: NOAA Source

(AMOC) was first monitored in 2004, it has been the focus of thousands of scientific papers and even a blockbuster movie that grossed more than $552 million worldwide. New research is hoping to add another twist to the current conversation.