← LeaderboardsInvestigatorsiAttributed = a PI's even-split share of each grant — a $1M grant with 2 PIs counts $500K each.
Northwest Research Associates, Inc.
Bellevue, WA
$22,770,191
Total funding
76
Grants
Funding over time
peak $9.4M · FY2008–24$10M$7.5M$5M$2.5M$0
'08
'09
'10
'11
'12
'13
'14
'15
'16
'17
'18
'19
'20
'21
'22
'23
'24
Funding mix
By agency
NASA$16,245,949 · 57
DOD$5,970,156 · 15
NIH$364,597 · 3
DOE$189,489 · 1
By mechanism
—$22,405,594 · 73
R41$264,747 · 2
R43$99,850 · 1
Investigators at Northwest Research Associates, Inc.
InvestigatorsiAttributed = a PI's even-split share of each grant — a $1M grant with 2 PIs counts $500K each.
Exposure= the full size of every grant they're on ($1M each).
Rising Stars
First grant in the last 5 yrs
Not enough data
Emerging Leaders
6–10 yrs in
Not enough data
All-Time
Most funded here, all years
Largest grants
PREDICTING THE TURBULENT AIR-SEA SURFACE FLUXES, INCLUDING SPRAY EFFECTS, FROM WEAK TO STRONG WINDS$1,013,160
· FY2011 · Department of Defense
ACTIVE REGION DYNAMICS AND THE VARIABILITY OF MERIDIONAL AND ZONAL FLOWS$828,903
· FY2020 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
MOUNTAIN WAVES (MWS) ARE CREATED FROM WIND FLOW OVER OROGRAPHY. BECAUSE THEY HAVE NEAR-ZERO PHASE SPEEDS AND BREAK/ATTENUATE BELOW THE TURBOPAUSE AT Z~107 KM THEY DO NOT PROPAGATE INTO THE THERMOSPHERE. YET THE LARGEST QUIET-TIME ATMOSPHERIC GRAVITY WAVE (GW) WINTERTIME HOTSPOT OBSERVED BY GOCE AT Z=250-300 KM AND BY CHAMP AT Z=280-450 KM OCCURS OVER THE SOUTHERN ANDES. THE SOURCE OF THESE HOTSPOT GWS IS CURRENTLY UNKNOWN. HOWEVER RECENT MODELING STUDIES OF THE SOUTHERN ANDES AND MCMURDO STATION DURING THE WINTER FIND THAT MW BREAKING/ATTENUATION CREATES LOCAL BODY FORCES (I.E. HORIZONTAL ACCELERATIONS OF THE FLUID) THAT EXCITE SPECTRA OF LARGER-SCALE SECONDARY GWS SOME OF WHICH PROPAGATE INTO THE THERMOSPHERE. ALSO A RECENT GOCE CASE STUDY ON 5 JULY 2010 FOUND THAT BOTH OF THE ANALYZED GWS OVER THE SOUTHERN ANDES AT Z~280 KM HAD HORIZONTAL INTRINSIC PHASE SPEEDS LARGER THAN THE SOUND SPEED BELOW THE TURBOPAUSE; THEREFORE THESE GWS MUST HAVE BEEN CREATED IN THE THERMOSPHERE. FINALLY THEORY AS WELL AS A RECENT MODEL STUDY SHOW THAT IT IS PROBABLE THAT THE DISSIPATION OF THESE SECONDARY GWS IN THE THERMOSPHERE CREATES BODY FORCES THAT EXCITE SPECTRA OF TERTIARY GWS SOME OF WHICH HAVE INTRINSIC HORIZONTAL PHASE SPEEDS LARGER THAN THE SOUND SPEED BELOW THE TURBOPAUSE. THE KEY SCIENCE QUESTION WE INVESTIGATE IN THIS RESEARCH PROPOSAL IS: ARE THE QUIET-TIME WINTER CHAMP HOTSPOT GWS OVER THE SOUTHERN ANDES SECONDARY AND/OR TERTIARY GWS FROM OROGRAPHIC FORCING? IN THE PROCESS OF INVESTIGATING THIS PROCESS WE WILL ALSO OBTAIN AN IMPROVED FORMULA FOR THE MOLECULAR VISCOSITY IN THE MID/UPPER THERMOSPHERE. THE METHODS/TECHNIQUES WE USE ARE: 1) EXTRACT QUIET-TIME WINTERTIME GWS OVER THE SOUTHERN ANDES AND OTHER MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS FROM CHAMP DATA. DETERMINE THEIR HORIZONTAL WAVELENGTHS INTRINSIC PERIODS AND PROPAGATION DIRECTIONS USING A PREVIOUSLY-DEVELOPED METHOD THAT UTILIZES THE GW DISSIPATIVE DISPERSION AND POLARIZATION RELATIONS. DETERMINE THE GW PARAMETERS AS FUNCTIONS OF ALTITUDE LATITUDE LONGITUDE AND TIME. REVERSE RAY-TRACE THE GWS TO POSSIBLE SOURCES. 2) QUANTIFY THE MWS DURING SELECT EVENTS USING AIRS AND MERRA-2 DATA. CALCULATE THE EXCITATION PROPAGATION AND DISSIPATION OF SECONDARY AND TERTIARY GWS USING THE PI'S BODY FORCE AND RAY TRACE MODELS. FORWARD RAY TRACE THE SECONDARY AND TERTIARY GWS TO CHAMP ALTITUDES. COMPARE THE CHAMP AND MODELED GWS. IF THERE ARE DIFFERENCES ADJUST THE MODELS OVER A REASONABLE RANGE TO SEE IF AGREEMENT IS POSSIBLE. ESTIMATE THE NEUTRAL WIND CHANGES CREATED WHERE THE SECONDARY AND TERTIARY GWS DISSIPATE IN THE THERMOSPHERE. 3) DETERMINE THE ALTITUDINAL PROFILE OF THE MOLECULAR VISCOSITY FROM Z=280-450 KM AS A FUNCTION OF THE BACKGROUND DENSITY USING THE ANALYZED CHAMP GWS. THIS PROPOSED WORK SATISFIES THE CRITERIA OF THIS SOLICITATION BECAUSE IT INCLUDES A) NUMERICAL SIMULATION AND MODELING AND B) THE ANALYSIS OF NASA-SPACECRAFT DATA. CHAMP AND AQUA ARE LISTED AS HISTORICAL AND CURRENT NASA MISSIONS AT HTTPS://WWW.NASA.GOV/ MISSIONS. THE DATA ANALYSIS AND MODELING PROPOSED HERE ADDRESS THE HELIOPHYSICS DECADAL SURVEY GOAL: "DETERMINE THE DYNAMICS AND COUPLING OF EARTH S MAGNETOSPHERE IONOSPHERE AND ATMOSPHERE AND THEIR RESPONSE TO SOLAR AND TERRESTRIAL INPUTS" BECAUSE WE SEEK TO DETERMINE HOW MWS (WHICH ARE TERRESTRIAL INPUTS OF ENERGY AND MOMENTUM) VERTICALLY-COUPLE WITH GWS IN THE MID/UPPER THERMOSPHERE. A KEY FACILITATOR OF THIS COUPLING PROCESS IN THE THERMOSPHERE IS MOLECULAR VISCOSITY WHICH WE SEEK TO FURTHER QUANTIFY. THE PROPOSAL TEAM COVERS THE NECESSARY EXPERTISE THAT THE TECHNIQUES REQUIRE: PI VADAS HAS THE IN-HOUSE BODY FORCE AND RAY TRACE MODELS AND EXPERTISE ANALYZING GWS CO-I YUE HAS EXPERTISE EXTRACTING WAVES FROM SATELLITE DATA AND CO-I BOSSERT HAS EXPERTISE QUANTIFYING MWS IN AIRS DATA. THE MODELING STUDIES WILL ALSO UTILIZE PUBLICLY-AVAILABLE MERRA-2 HWM AND MSIS DATA.$767,888
· FY2020 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
THE AVISO MAPPED SEA LEVEL ANOMALY (SLA) DATASET IS PROBABLY THE MOST WIDELY USED ALTIMETRIC DATA PRODUCT BY THE OCEANOGRAPHIC COMMUNITY AND THE HIGHER RESOLUTION OF FUTURE ALTIMETRIC MISSIONS (INCLUDING SENTINEL-6 AND SWOT) WILL ONLY INCREASE USE.$745,346
· FY2021 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
PARAMETERIZATION OF SUBGRID CONDENSATION IN CUMULUS CONVECTION FOR MESOSCALE FORECAST MODELS$687,902
· FY2016 · Department of the Navy
THE GEOMETRY CONNECTIVITY AND TOPOLOGY OF THE LARGE-SCALE CORONAL MAGNETIC FIELD PLAY A KEY ROLE IN DETERMINING WHETHER A SOLAR RECONNECTION EVENT WILL RESULT IN AN ERUPTION EITHER BY INFLUENCING THE LOCATION WHERE MAGNETIC RECONNECTION RELEASES ENERGY FOR AN EVENT OR BY DETERMINING THE PATHWAYS AND ACCESS TO OPEN FIELD THAT ALLOW AN ERUPTION TO PROCEED. THE RESEARCH PROPOSED HERE INVOLVES STUDYING A LARGE SAMPLE OF FLARING ACTIVE REGIONS TO DETERMINE WHICH TOPOLOGICAL FEATURES ARE MOST CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH BOTH ERUPTIVE AND NON-ERUPTIVE EVENTS. KNOWLEDGE OF TOPOLOGICAL FEATURES THAT AFFECT THE ERUPTIVITY OF ACTIVE REGIONS WILL PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO THEIR CAUSE EITHER IN THE CONTEXT OF THE TYPE OF RECONNECTION GENERATING THE EVENT (E.G. WHETHER CORONAL NULL POINTS ARE MOST STRONGLY ASSOCIATED WITH ERUPTIONS AS IN THE BREAKOUT MODEL) OR IN THE CONTEXT OF UNDERSTANDING WHY SOME FLARES LEAD TO ERUPTIONS BUT OTHERS DON'T (E.G. WHETHER ACCESS TO OPEN MAGNETIC FLUX FACILITATES OR ENHANCES THE CHANCES OF AN ERUPTION). BY DETERMINING HOW OFTEN BALD PATCHES EXIST THE QUESTION OF WHETHER A FLUX ROPE MUST BE PRESENT PRIOR TO AN ERUPTION OR IF IT CAN FORM DURING THE ERUPTION WILL BE ADDRESSED. ESTIMATING THE RATE AT WHICH ERUPTIONS OCCUR WITH AND WITHOUT PARTICULAR TOPOLOGICAL FEATURES WILL YIELD PROBABILISTIC FORECASTS OF WHETHER THE CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR AN ERUPTION SHOULD A FLARE OCCUR. OF PARTICULAR INTEREST WOULD BE A TOPOLOGICAL FEATURE ASSOCIATED WITH VERY LOW ERUPTION RATES AS THIS CAN BE USED TO IMPROVE THE ABILITY TO ISSUE ALL-CLEAR FORECASTS.$682,275
· FY2020 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
IMPROVEMENT, COUPLING, AND VALIDATION OF THE MESORAC-HIAMCM FOR SIMULATING ACCURATE THERMOSPHERIC GWS FROM THE MOST COMMON TROPOSPHERIC/STRATOSPHERIC GW SOURCES$651,461
· FY2024 · Department of the Navy
LATERAL STIRRING BY INTERNAL WAVES$637,630
· FY2015 · Department of Defense
SATELLITE-BASED OBSERVATIONS OF SEA SURFACE HEIGHT OCEAN COLOR AND SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE HAVE PROVIDED A WEALTH OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPERTIES OF NONLINEAR MESOSCALE EDDIES AT THE OCEAN SURFACE. RECENT STUDIES ALSO NOW INCLUDE IN SITU MEASUREMENTS FROM CO-LOCATED ARGO FLOAT PROFILES REVEALING THE RICH INTERNAL STRUCTURES OF THESE EDDIES BOTH NEAR THE SURFACE AND AT DEPTH. THESE ADVANCES ALLOW ESTIMATES OF GLOBAL AND LOCAL TRANSPORT BY INFERRING THREE-DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURES FROM A FEW SIMPLE OCEAN SURFACE OBSERVATIONS. DESPITE THIS PROGRESS THE DYNAMICAL PROPERTIES AND STABILITY CHARACTERISTICS OF THESE EDDY STRUCTURES ARE ALMOST COMPLETELY UNEXPLORED. FURTHERMORE IT IS NOT EVEN KNOWN WHETHER THE IMPLIED EDDY SOLUTIONS ARE DYNAMICALLY CONSISTENT CALLING INTO QUESTION THE ACCURACY OF ANY ESTIMATES OF THEIR IMPACT. IN ORDER TO RESOLVE THESE OUTSTANDING ISSUES AND FACILITATE FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS WE PROPOSE A RESEARCH PLAN WITH THE FOLLOWING PRIMARY OBJECTS.$636,358
· FY2020 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
EFFECTS OF OROGRAPHY ON REGIONAL GRAVITY WAVE BREAKING MIXING CHEMICAL TRACERS TRANSPORT AND CIRCULATION$618,096
· FY2020 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
PARAMETERIZATION OF SUB-GRID LATENT HEAT RELEASE IN TRADE WIND CUMULUS CLOUDS$606,968
· FY2020 · Department of the Navy
WE PROPOSE A FOCUSED STUDY OF HIGH-RESOLUTION GODDARD EARTH OBSERVING SYSTEM (GEOS) MODELING VALIDATION AND ANALYSIS TO INVESTIGATE ATMOSPHERIC WAVES AND THEIR INFLUENCES ON WINDS IN THE UPPER TROPOSPHERE AND STRATOSPHERE. WINDS AT THESE LEVELS GUIDE ROSSBY WAVE PROPAGATION AND TELECONNECTION PATTERNS THAT STRONGLY INFLUENCE THE SIMULATION OF REGIONAL-SCALE CLIMATE PATTERNS AND SKILL OF LONG-RANGE WEATHER FORECASTS. MOST CLIMATE AND WEATHER FORECASTING CENTERS HAVE RAISED THEIR MODEL LIDS IN RECOGNITION OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE UPPER LEVEL WINDS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF SIMULATING THE PROCESSES THAT CONTROL THEM. AT SEASONAL FORECAST MODEL RESOLUTIONS SMALL-SCALE WAVES REMAIN SEVERELY UNDER-RESOLVED YET THE INFLUENCE OF THEIR DRAG FORCES ON THE CIRCULATION IN THE UPPER TROPOSPHERE AND STRATOSPHERE MAKE THEM A KEY PLAYER IN PREDICTABILITY. GRAVITY WAVE DRAG PARAMETERIZATIONS THAT TREAT OROGRAPHIC AND NON-OROGRAPHIC WAVES ARE USED TO TUNE BOTH CLIMATE AND FORECAST MODELS WITH DEMONSTRATED EFFECTS ON BIAS REDUCTION AND FORECAST SKILL. THIS PROJECT WILL INFORM IMPROVED METHODS FOR SIMULATING SMALL-SCALE WAVE EFFECTS ON TWO IMPORTANT FEATURES OF THE CIRCULATION WITH DEMONSTRATED INFLUENCE ON SEASONAL PREDICTABILITY: THE TROPICAL LOWER STRATOSPHERE AND THE WINTER SEASON STRATOSPHERIC VORTEX. THIS PUTS OUR FOCUS ON OROGRAPHIC GRAVITY WAVES AND THOSE GENERATED BY LOCALIZED INTENSE RAIN EVENTS. THE NASA GLOBAL MODELING AND ASSIMILATION OFFICE S (GMAO S) GEOS-5 MODEL IS DESIGNED FOR SIMULATION AT A WIDE RANGE OF ATMOSPHERIC RESOLUTIONS: FOR EXAMPLE IT IS CURRENTLY CONFIGURED FOR CLIMATE SIMULATIONS WITH ~100 KM RESOLUTION AND SPECIALIZED HINDCASTING EXPERIMENTS ARE ROUTINELY RUN IN THE GRAY ZONE (FOR BOTH DEEP CONVECTION AND GRAVITY WAVES) AT ~6 KM. VERTICAL RESOLUTION IS CURRENTLY 72 LEVELS WITH EFFORTS TO DOUBLE THAT UNDERWAY. ATMOSPHERIC WAVES AND THEIR INTERACTION WITH GLOBAL AND REGIONAL CIRCULATION ARE QUITE SENSITIVE TO THESE RESOLUTION CHOICES BUT ALSO SENSITIVE TO MOIST PROCESSES SURFACE DRAG DIVERGENCE DAMPING AND OTHER DISSIPATION MECHANISMS. AS A RESULT RESOLUTION ALONE DICTATES NEITHER THE SCALES OF THE WAVES THAT CAN BE RESOLVED NOR OTHER WAVE PROPERTIES INCLUDING THEIR SOURCES GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTIONS AND DRAG ON THE CIRCULATION. FOR EXAMPLE PREVIOUS HIGHRESOLUTION EXPERIMENTS LIKE THE 7-KM RESOLUTION NATURE RUN NEEDED STRONG PARAMETERIZED GRAVITY WAVES TO COUNTERACT THE EFFECTS OF EXPLICIT PLUS IMPLICIT DISSIPATION ON WAVES RESOLVED IN THE MODEL. THE PROJECT APPROACH INCLUDES (I) OBSERVATIONAL VALIDATION OF GRAVITY WAVES AND SMALL-SCALE HEAVY PRECIPITATION EVENTS IN EXISTING AND FUTURE HIGH-RESOLUTION SIMULATIONS WITH DIFFERENT DISSIPATION SETTINGS (II) EXPLORATORY LIMITED-AREA HIGH-RESOLUTION GEOS EXPERIMENTS TO PROBE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT PHYSICS DISSIPATION AND RESOLUTION SETTINGS ON SMALL-SCALE RESOLVED GRAVITY WAVES AND LATENT HEATING SOURCES (III) AN UPDATE TO THE EXISTING OROGRAPHIC GRAVITY WAVE DRAG PARAMETERIZATION TO INCLUDE EFFECTS OF ANISOTROPY AND LOW-LEVEL WAVE TRAPPING AND (IV) ANALYSIS OF VALIDATED GLOBAL MODEL EXPERIMENTS TO INFER THE ROLES OF SMALL-SCALE WAVES ON MAJOR MODES OF VARIABILITY AND ON WIND BIASES. THE WORK IS EXPECTED TO RESULT IN A DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT IN UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRECISE ROLES OF SMALL-SCALE WAVES ON CIRCULATION AND WILL ALSO INFORM THE GMAO S PLANNED FY 2019 TESTS OF A NEW PROTOTYPE GEOS MODEL THROUGH UNDERSTANDING OF A VARIETY OF MODEL SETTING CHOICES ON SMALL-SCALE WAVES AND GRID-SCALE PRECIPITATION.$584,814
· FY2020 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
WE PROPOSE SATELLITE OBSERVATIONAL ANALYSIS AND MODELING STUDIES TO INFORM THE ROLES OF GRAVITY WAVE DYNAMICS ON CHEMICAL TRANSPORT WHICH HAVE IMPACTS ON STRATOSPHERIC CHEMICAL LIFETIMES STRATOSPHERE-TROPOSPHERE EXCHANGE VARIABILITY IN RADIATIVELY ACTIVE GASES AND ASSOCIATED EFFECTS ON CLIMATE. WHILE THE TRADITIONAL VIEW OF STRATOSPHERIC TRANSPORT PRIMARILY HIGHLIGHTS THE ROLE OF GRAVITY WAVES IN DRIVING THE MESOSPHERIC CIRCULATION RECENT RESEARCH HAS HIGHLIGHTED THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF GRAVITY WAVE DRAG DIRECTLY IN THE STRATOSPHERE AND ADDITIONAL RESEARCH SUGGESTS IMPORTANT ROLES IN FINE-SCALE STRATOSPHERE-TROPOSPHERE EXCHANGE PROCESSES. THE PROPOSED PROJECT WILL UTILIZE A VARIETY OF NASA SATELLITE MEASUREMENTS INCLUDING RECORDS LONGER THAN A DECADE TO ADDRESS PROCESSES WITHIN LOCAL EVENTS AS WELL AS LONG-TERM GLOBAL VARIABILITY. OUR WORK VERY DIRECTLY ADDRESSES ONE OF THE OUTSTANDING QUESTIONS FOR THE COMING DECADE REPORTED FOLLOWING THE 2014 WORKSHOP ON ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION CHEMISTRY DYNAMICS AND RADIATION AT NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER NAMELY WHAT ROLE DO GRAVITY WAVES PLAY IN DRIVING THE LARGE-SCALE CIRCULATION? SPECIFIC TO THE AURA SCIENCE TEAM/ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION MODELING AND ANALYSIS PROGRAM (AST/ACMAP) ANNOUNCEMENT THE WORK FOCUSES ON MEASUREMENTS FROM THE HIGH RESOLUTION DYNAMICS LIMB SOUNDER (HIRDLS) AND MICROWAVE LIMB SOUNDER (MLS) INSTRUMENTS ON AURA TOGETHER WITH OTHER SATELLITE-BASED PRODUCTS AND PREVIOUSLY DEVELOPED IDEALIZED MODEL TOOLS TO CONSTRAIN REGIONAL GRAVITY WAVE DRAG EVENTS STUDY THEIR DYNAMICAL INTERACTIONS WITH ROSSBY WAVES AND ASSESS EFFECTS IN CHEMICAL TRACER MEASUREMENTS. GRAVITY WAVE DRAG IS ONE COMPONENT OF THE WAVE-DRIVEN FORCE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GLOBAL STRATOSPHERIC TRANSPORT CIRCULATION THE BREWER-DOBSON CIRCULATION NAMED FOR THE PIONEERING WORK OF A.W. BREWER AND G.M.B. DOBSON WHO INFERRED THIS GLOBAL EQUATOR-TOPOLE CIRCULATION FROM MEASUREMENTS OF OZONE AND WATER VAPOR. THE BREWER-DOBSON CIRCULATION HAS A RANGE OF IMPACTS ON ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND CLIMATE. TO FIRST ORDER IT EXPLAINS THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE AGE OF STRATOSPHERIC AIR WHICH HAS IMPORTANT EFFECTS ON THE LIFETIMES OF OZONE-DEPLETING SUBSTANCES AND SOME GREENHOUSE GASES. IT HAS A DOMINANT INFLUENCE ON THE TEMPERATURE OF THE VERY COLD TROPICAL TROPOPAUSE AND CORRESPONDING INFLUENCES ON TROPICAL CIRRUS CLOUDS AND GLOBAL WATER VAPOR WITH ASSOCIATED RADIATIVE EFFECTS AND ROLE IN SURFACE TEMPERATURE VARIABILITY. IN GENERAL THE BREWER-DOBSON CIRCULATION DESCRIBES THE RECIRCULATION PATHWAYS AND THE PROCESSING TIME OF CHEMICAL TRACERS THROUGH THE STRATOSPHERE AND THEIR EVENTUAL RETURN TO THE TROPOSPHERE THEREBY ALSO COMPRISING A MAJOR COMPONENT OF STRATOSPHERE-TROPOSPHERE EXCHANGE. THE CURRENT PARADIGM REPRESENTED IN THE WAY SMALL-SCALE GRAVITY WAVE DRAG PROCESSES ARE TREATED IN GLOBAL MODELS SUGGESTS THAT ONLY OROGRAPHIC GRAVITY WAVE DRAG AFFECTS THE STRATOSPHERE WHILE WAVES FROM OTHER SOURCES LIKE CONVECTION PRIMARILY ONLY AFFECT THE MESOSPHERE DIRECTLY. RECENT OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE TELLS A VERY DIFFERENT STORY: INFREQUENT BUT VERY LARGE AMPLITUDE NON-OROGRAPHIC GRAVITY WAVES CARRY A LARGE FRACTION OF THE CIRCULATION-DRIVING FLUX UPWARD ACROSS THE TROPOPAUSE. HENCE THESE LARGE EVENTS VERY LIKELY FORCE THE LOWER STRATOSPHERE DIRECTLY WITH LOCALIZED INTERMITTENT DRAG FORCES. SUCH REALISTIC GRAVITY WAVE-DRIVEN FORCES IN THE STRATOSPHERE ARE NOT CURRENTLY REPRESENTED IN GLOBAL MODELS. OUR WORK WILL QUANTIFY THESE EVENTS USING AURA AND OTHER SATELLITE MEASUREMENTS EXAMINE THEIR INTERACTION WITH LARGER-SCALE SYNOPTIC AND PLANETARY WAVES AND INVESTIGATE THEIR EFFECTS ON CHEMICAL TRACERS IN THE STRATOSPHERE. RECENT RESEARCH SUGGESTS THAT REALISTICALLY INTERMITTENT GRAVITY WAVE DRAG WILL GIVE RISE TO SIGNIFICANTLY MORE VARIABILITY IN CHEMISTRY-CLIMATE MODELS THAN IS CURRENTLY REPRESENTED WITHIN THE CURRENT PARADIGM.$538,925
· FY2020 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
THIS PROJECT IS DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO THE NASA HELIOPHYSICS RESEARCH PROGRAM.$527,499
· FY2021 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
SOLAR FLARES ARE DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR SOME ASPECTS OF SPACE WEATHER AND CAN INDICATE OTHER IMPENDING PHENOMENA (CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS AND SOLAR ENERGETIC PARTICLE EVENTS). PREDICTING SOLAR FLARES IS CHALLENGING DUE TO THE REMOTE-SENSING NATURE$524,840
· FY2022 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
WE PROPOSE TO STUDY THE ORIGIN OF TRANSIENT ACOUSTIC EMISSION FROM FLARES. THIS UNDERTAKING IS MOTIVATED BY RECENT NEW OBSERVATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS BY THE INVESTIGATORS REVEALING A NEW CLASS OF HIGHLY IMPULSIVE ACOUSTIC EMISSION OF ACOUSTIC WAVES$524,045
· FY2020 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
THE INVESTIGATORS WILL USE OBSERVATIONS FROM THE HELIOSEISMIC AND MAGNETIC IMAGER (HMI) ON BOARD THE SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY TO CHARACTERIZE THE SUBSURFACE PROPERTIES OF SUPERGRANULAR (SG) AND ACTIVE-REGION (AR) FLOWS. THE TEAM WILL MAKE$521,435
· FY2022 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
THE ENERGY TO POWER SOLAR ENERGETIC EVENTS MUST ULTIMATELY ORIGINATE AT OR BELOW THE SOLAR PHOTOSPHERE AND IS LIKELY TO BUILD UP IN THE CORONAL MAGNETIC FIELD BEFORE RELEASE IN AN EVENT. IN ORDER TO FULLY UNDERSTAND FLARES AND CMES IT IS IMPORTANT TO BE ABLE TO ACCURATELY ESTIMATE THE AMOUNT OF ENERGY STORED IN THE CORONAL MAGNETIC FIELD. ONE OF THE MAJOR CHALLENGES IN ESTIMATING THE CORONAL ENERGY IS THAT THE RESULTS CANNOT EASILY BE TESTED ON DATA FOR WHICH THE ANSWER IS KNOWN. HOWEVER BY COMPARING THE FLUX INTO AND OUT OF THE CORONA WITH ESTIMATES OF THE ENERGY AT SPECIFIC TIMES OBTAINED FROM A VARIETY OF APPROACHES WE CAN CONSTRAIN THE RESULTS OF THE METHODS. FOR EXAMPLE IF THE FLUX INTO THE CORONA SUBSTANTIALLY EXCEEDS THE FLUX OUT OF THE CORONA OVER AN EXTENDED TIME INTERVAL THEN EITHER THE INPUT FLUX IS BEING OVERESTIMATED OR THE OUTPUT FLUX IS BEING UNDERESTIMATED. THE PROPOSED WORK ADDRESSES THE FIRST AND FOURTH HIGH LEVEL SCIENCE GOALS FROM THE HELIOPHYSICS DECADAL SURVEY NAMELY 1. "DETERMINE THE ORIGINS OF THE SUN'S ACTIVITY AND PREDICT THE VARIATIONS IN THE SPACE ENVIRONMENT" AND 4. "DISCOVER AND CHARACTERIZE FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES THAT OCCUR BOTH WITHIN THE HELIOSPHERE AND THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE." THE PROPOSED INVESTIGATION WILL MODEL HOW THE ENERGY WHICH POWERS SOLAR ENERGETIC EVENTS IS STORED IN THE CORONA AND MAY LEAD TO NEW TOOLS FOR PREDICTING THE VARIATIONS IN THE X-RAY FLUX IN THE SPACE ENVIRONMENT. INSOFAR AS OTHER STARS ALSO HAVE MAGNETIZED CORONAE IT MAY CHARACTERIZE A PROCESS OCCURRING THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE. TO TRACK THE FLOW OF FREE ENERGY THROUGH THE PHOTOSPHERE WE WILL USE DAVE4VM TO ESTIMATE THE PHOTOSPHERIC FLOWS AND FROM THESE COMPUTE THE POYNTING FLUX INTO THE CORONA. TO ESTIMATE THE ENERGY IN THE CORONA AT A GIVEN TIME WE WILL USE NONLINEAR FORCE-FREE FIELD (NLFFF) EXTRAPOLATIONS FROM INDIVIDUAL MAGNETOGRAMS. IN ADDITION WE WILL MODEL THE EVOLUTION OF THE CORONAL MAGNETIC FIELD USING A SEQUENCE OF MAGNETOGRAMS AS THE BOUNDARY CONDITION FOR AN MHD SIMULATION AND A TOPOLOGICAL METHOD; THE CORONAL ENERGY FROM THESE INDEPENDENT METHODS CAN BE EVALUATED AT THE SAME TIMES AS THE NLFFF EXTRAPOLATIONS. FINALLY WE WILL ESTIMATE THE ENERGY LOST FROM THE CORONA. THE RADIATIVE AND CONDUCTIVE LOSSES FOR EXAMPLE CAN BE ESTIMATED BASED ON DOING A DIFFERENTIAL EMISSION MEASURE ANALYSIS TO EXTRACT CORONAL TEMPERATURE AND DENSITY ESTIMATES AND USING THESE TO ESTIMATE RADIATIVE AND CONDUCTIVE LOSSES. FOR THIS INVESTIGATION WE WILL CONSIDER A SMALL SAMPLE OF ACTIVE REGIONS ON THE ORDER OF TEN AND FOCUS ON REGIONS WHICH ARE NOT THE LARGEST AND MOST COMPLICATED TO MAXIMIZE THE CHANCES OF SUCCESSFULLY MODELING THEM. WE WILL FOLLOW EACH REGION FOR AT LEAST A WEEK TRACKING THE FLUX OF ENERGY INTO THE CORONA AND THE ENERGY RELEASED FROM THE CORONA AS WELL AS ESTIMATING THE ENERGY CONTENT OF THE CORONAL MAGNETIC FIELD AT SPECIFIC TIMES. OUR INVESTIGATION WILL PRIMARILY UTILIZE DATA FROM NASA'S SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY BOTH SEQUENCES OF MAGNETOGRAMS FROM THE HELIOSEISMIC AND MAGNETIC IMAGER (HMI) AND CORONAL IMAGES FROM THE ATMOSPHERIC IMAGING ASSEMBLY (AIA). THESE WILL BE SUPPLEMENTED BY MAGNETOGRAMS FROM THE SOLAR OPTICAL TELESCOPE (SOT) ON THE JOINT JAXA/NASA HINODE MISSION AND BY CORONAL IMAGES FROM HINODE'S X-RAY TELESCOPE (XRT).$508,407
· FY2020 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
THE MEAN MERIDIONAL CIRCULATION OF THE STRATOSPHERE, KNOWN AS THE BREWER-DOBSON CIRCULATION, WAS NAMED FOR THE PIONEERING DEDUCTIONS OF A. M. BREWER$494,589
· FY2014 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
VERY RECENT HELIOSEISMIC AND OTHER OBSERVATIONAL ANALYSIS SUGGESTS THAT THE CONVENTIONAL PICTURE OF LARGE-SCALE TURBULENT MOTIONS IN THE SUN IS COMPLICATED BY THE PRESENCE OF ROSSBY WAVES.$450,032
· FY2020 · National Aeronautics and Space Administration