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New insights from artificial intelligence

artificial intelligence

A machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations or decisions influencing real or virtual environments.

Source: U.S. Department of State Source

about permafrost

permafrost

Any ground that remains completely frozen—32°F (0°C) or colder—for at least two years straight. These permanently frozen grounds are commonly found in regions with high mountains and near the North and South Poles.

Source: USGS Source

coverage in the Arctic may soon give policy makers and land managers the high-resolution view they need to predict climate-change-driven threats to infrastructure such as oil pipelines, roads and national security facilities. The AI models also identify the landscape and ecological features driving the predictions, such as vegetative greenness, landscape slope angle and the duration of snow cover.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory will host eight graduate (Ph.D.) students who have received awards through the DOE’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program. Through the SCGSR program, outstanding Ph.D. students — 60 for this cycle — receive supplementary awards to conduct thesis research and doctoral dissertations at national labs across the country.

The dissolution mechanism of iron-based metal oxides is poorly understood at the nanoscale, particularly the interplay between acidic and reductive processes. To clarify parts of the process, scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) applied a new combination of techniques to detail the dissolution of metal oxides at the nanoscale level, examining the dissolution mechanism through variations in solution chemistry.

Growing up in Minnesota, Scott Sugden spent a lot of time in the outdoors, particularly canoeing and backpacking in the Arctic. The Arctic became a landscape that he cared deeply about. It led to work in outdoor education, a high school biology classroom, and now as a researcher in environmental microbiology.

microbiology

Microbiology is the study of microorganisms that are usually too small to be visible with the human eye without a microscope. These tiny organisms shape how nutrients move through the environment.

Source: Energy.Gov Source

This perfect blend of the outdoors and science brought him to Lyle Whyte’s laboratory at McGill University in Quebec, Canada.

Growing up in Eritrea, Hagos witnessed the worst droughts, and years later worked to explain what caused them. Today, Hagos is an earth scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in southeast Washington state, where he models the lifecycles and decadal variability of precipitation and extreme weather events across various regional and global scales. Much of his recent research is funded by the Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

For photovoltaic

photovoltaic

More commonly known as solar panels – generate power using devices that absorb energy from sunlight and convert it into electrical energy through semiconducting materials.

Source: Department of Energy Source

(PV) systems—designed to operate over lifetimes of 20, 30, or even 50 years—small losses in energy production can add up to measurable differences over time. These differences can even determine whether a system operates at a profit or loss. Yet, small changes in energy production are frustratingly difficult to measure, especially in the noisy and often incomplete data of a PV system's production.

In certain parts of the country, the cost of energy is high—in more ways than one. Residents in underserved communities across the United States face industrial pollution, smog, rolling blackouts, and many other challenges that could be helped by integrating more cutting-edge clean energy or decarbonization technologies into the local mix. But many communities lack the resources and capacity to develop feasible action plans to incorporate clean energy technologies into their area

Self-healing electrical grids: It may sound like a concept from science fiction, with tiny robots or some sentient tech crawling around fixing power lines, but in a reality not far from fiction a team of researchers is bringing this idea to life. What’s not hard to imagine is the potential value of a self-healing grid, one able to adapt and bounce back to life, ensuring uninterrupted power even when assailed by a hurricane or a group of bad guys.

As a kid, Genevieve Starke dreamt of becoming a con artist. Inspired by the 1973 hit movie "The Sting," she wanted to orchestrate fraudulent schemes for a living, just like Robert Redford and Paul Newman’s characters. Now a research engineer 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), Starke certainly gets to follow a whole lot of rules. But she also gets to write some new ones.

Around 1980, the Earth’s temperature shifted from a steady uphill stroll into an all-out sprint. That scary shift demanded quick action, and many concerned scientists relied on one common argument to try to raise the alarm: The environment, they argued, benefits humans. We eat and drink from its bounty, build our cities from its resources, and find new medicines in its plants and animals. In short: We should protect the environment, so we can use it.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and National Renewable Energy Laboratory wanted to understand the ecological value of PV (Photovoltaic) solar energy sites planted with native grasses and wildflowers. They examined how vegetation would establish and how insect communities would respond to the newly established habitat.

As snow blankets much of the country, avid skiers and snowboarders are eager to hit the slopes and enjoy fresh powder. These mountain snowpack's may be great fun for winter sports enthusiasts, but they also play a crucial role in meeting our water and energy needs. The amount of snow that accumulates each year—as well as how much it melts and when—impacts the headwaters of major rivers.