US SOLAS Science Report

The Surface Ocean – Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) (http://www.solas-int.org/) is an international research initiative focused on understanding the key biogeochemical-physical interactions and feedbacks between the ocean and atmosphere that are critical elements of climate and global biogeochemical cycles. Following the release of the SOLAS Decadal Science Plan (2015-2025) (Brévière et al., 2016), the Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction Committee (OAIC) was formed as a subcommittee of the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Scientific Steering Committee to coordinate US SOLAS efforts and activities, facilitate interactions among atmospheric and ocean scientists, and strengthen US contributions to international SOLAS. In October 2019, with support from OCB, the OAIC convened an open community workshop, Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions: Scoping directions for new research with the goal of fostering new collaborations and identifying knowledge gaps and high-priority science questions to formulate a US SOLAS Science Plan. Based on presentations and discussions at the workshop, the OAIC and workshop participants have developed this US SOLAS Science Plan. The first part of the workshop and this Science Plan were purposefully designed around the five themes of the SOLAS Decadal Science Plan (2015-2025) (Brévière et al., 2016) to provide a common set of research priorities and ensure a more cohesive US contribution to international SOLAS.This report was developed with federal support of NSF (OCE-1558412) and NASA (NNX17AB17G)

US SOLAS Science Report

The article of record may be found at https://doi.org/10.1575/1912/27821The Surface Ocean – Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) (http://www.solas-int.org/) is an international research initiative focused on understanding the key biogeochemical-physical interactions and feedbacks between the ocean and atmosphere that are critical elements of climate and global biogeochemical cycles. Following the release of the SOLAS Decadal Science Plan (2015-2025) (Brévière et al., 2016), the Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction Committee (OAIC) was formed as a subcommittee of the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Scientific Steering Committee to coordinate US SOLAS efforts and activities, facilitate interactions among atmospheric and ocean scientists, and strengthen US contributions to international SOLAS. In October 2019, with support from OCB, the OAIC convened an open community workshop, Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions: Scoping directions for new research with the goal of fostering new collaborations and identifying knowledge gaps and high-priority science questions to formulate a US SOLAS Science Plan. Based on presentations and discussions at the workshop, the OAIC and workshop participants have developed this US SOLAS Science Plan. The first part of the workshop and this Science Plan were purposefully designed around the five themes of the SOLAS Decadal Science Plan (2015-2025) (Brévière et al., 2016) to provide a common set of research priorities and ensure a more cohesive US contribution to international SOLAS.This report was developed with federal support of NSF (OCE-1558412) and NASA (NNX17AB17G).This report was developed with federal support of NSF (OCE-1558412) and NASA (NNX17AB17G)

Carbon Capture and Storage and the Marine Environment: Impact assessment and assurance monitoring

Underground storage of CO2 as part of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) provides an option for significant reduction of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel power generation and other industrial processes as well as facilitating direct air capture. Although CCS will mitigate climate change, international regulations and societal expectations require that storage integrity is assured and environmental issues of deployment are considered, in particular related to the unplanned release of CO2. Globally many storage sites are located offshore within continental shelves, necessitating both a marine environmental impact assessment and an appropriate offshore monitoring strategy coupled with appropriate communication to enhance public understanding. This thesis by papers contains a body of work addressing both impact and monitoring challenges, primarily mediated using modelling approaches but also describing a novel real-world CO2 release experiment. The experiment revealed the previously unconsidered complexity of CO2 flow through and reactivity within sediments and behaviour in the water column. This work established the challenges associated with monitoring and detection informing further research programmes focused on increasing the technology readiness levels of sensors and developing monitoring strategies. As a result of the body of work presented here it is possible to constrain potential impacts, relative to leakage rates and conclude that only large-scale catastrophic leaks would have the capacity to inflict significant environmental damage. This work also identifies a potentially cost efficient and highly sensitive detection/assurance methodology, based on an understanding of leakage dynamics and natural variability of the marine system

Ensuring efficient and robust offshore storage – The role of marine system modelling

This paper describes the utility of developing marine system models to aid the efficient and regulatory compliant development of offshore carbon storage, maximising containment assurance by well-planned monitoring strategies. Using examples from several model systems, we show that marine models allow us to characterize the chemical perturbations arising from hypothetical release scenarios whilst concurrently quantifying the natural variability of the system with respect to the same chemical signatures. Consequently models can identify a range of potential leakage anomaly detection criteria, identifying the most sensitive discriminators applicable to a given site or season. Further, using models as in-silico testbeds we can devise the most cost-efficient deployment of sensors to maximise detection of CO2 leakage. Modelling studies can also contribute to the required risk assessments, by quantifying potential impact from hypothetical release scenarios. Finally, given this demonstrable potential we discuss the challenges to ensuring model systems are available, fit for purpose and transferable to CCS operations across the globe

Applications of Drones in Atmospheric Chemistry

The emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has changed the composition of the atmosphere during the Anthropocene. A major technical and scientific challenge is quantifying the resulting fugitive trace gas fluxes under variable meteorological conditions. Accurately documenting the sources and magnitude of GHGs emission is an important undertaking for discriminating contributions of different processes to radiative forcing. Therefore, the adverse environmental and health effects of undetected gas leaks motivates new methods of detecting, characterizing, and quantifying plumes of fugitive trace gases. Currently, there is no mobile platform able to quantify trace gases at altitudes(UASs), or drones, can be deployed on-site in minutes and can support the payloads necessary to quantify trace gases. Thus, the research herein has contributed to the advancement of atmospheric, environmental, and analytical chemistry through the development, calibration, validation, and application of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS). The quantification of atmospheric gases with sUAS is expanding the ability to safely perform environmental monitoring tasks and quickly evaluate the impact of technologies. The experimental findings have developed the sUAS as a platform for atmospheric measurements and demonstrated applications of meteorological and trace gas measurements. The research ultimately enabled novel studies that quantified and modeled the atmospheric transport of trace gases to better understand their impact on environmental and atmospheric chemistry

Remote sensing for cost-effective blue carbon accounting

Blue carbon ecosystems (BCE) include mangrove forests, tidal marshes, and seagrass meadows, all of which are currently under threat, putting their contribution to mitigating climate change at risk. Although certain challenges and trade-offs exist, remote sensing offers a promising avenue for transparent, replicable, and cost-effective accounting of many BCE at unprecedented temporal and spatial scales. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has issued guidelines for developing blue carbon inventories to incorporate into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Yet, there is little guidance on remote sensing techniques for monitoring, reporting, and verifying blue carbon assets. This review constructs a unified roadmap for applying remote sensing technologies to develop cost-effective carbon inventories for BCE – from local to global scales. We summarise and discuss (1) current standard guidelines for blue carbon inventories; (2) traditional and cutting-edge remote sensing technologies for mapping blue carbon habitats; (3) methods for translating habitat maps into carbon estimates; and (4) a decision tree to assist users in determining the most suitable approach depending on their areas of interest, budget, and required accuracy of blue carbon assessment. We designed this work to support UNFCCC-approved IPCC guidelines with specific recommendations on remote sensing techniques for GHG inventories. Overall, remote sensing technologies are robust and cost-effective tools for monitoring, reporting, and verifying blue carbon assets and projects. Increased appreciation of these techniques can promote a technological shift towards greater policy and industry uptake, enhancing the scalability of blue carbon as a Natural Climate Solution worldwide

Characterising turbulent ship wakes from an environmental impact perspective

The world’s oceans, especially coastal areas, are intensively trafficked by ships. All these ships exert pressure on the marine environment, through emission to the atmosphere, discharges of pollutants to the water, and physical disturbance through energy input. Of these impacts, energy pollution from shipping has received the least attention. Especially the impact of ship-induced turbulence in the wake, which is induced by the hull friction and propeller, and remains for up to 15 minutes. The turbulent wake can impact the spread of contaminants, affect air-sea gas exchange, physically disturb plankton, and potentially impact local biogeochemistry through increased entrainment and vertical mixing. To assess these impacts, an understanding of the turbulent wake development and interaction with surface ocean stratification, is essential. However, characterisation of the turbulent wake development in time and space, especially in stratified conditions, is challenging and requires an interdisciplinary approach.\ua0\ua0 The aim of this thesis is to advance the understanding of turbulent wake development from an environmental impact perspective. The intensity and spatiotemporal extent of the turbulent wake, and its impact, have been investigated through a combination of in situ and ex situ observations, and Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) modelling of ships in full-scale. The unique dataset of several hundred in situ turbulent wake observations, showed large variation in spatiotemporal extent and intensity. Wake depths can reach down to 30 m, and the turbulent intensities in the near wake are 1–3 orders of magnitude higher than generally observed in the upper ocean surface layer. In addition, during stratified conditions ship-induced turbulence entrain water from below the pycnocline, with implications for local nutrient input and primary production in the ocean surface layer. In addition, ship-passages were observed to frequently trigger large methane emissions in an estuarine shipping lane. The results highlight the importance of addressing ship-induced turbulence in marine environmental management. Intensively trafficked coastal areas should be considered anthropogenically impacted, even unnatural, with respect to turbulence. The interdisciplinary approach applied in this thesis, is a first step towards a holistic assessment of the environmental impact of the turbulent wake

Fourteen pathways between urban transportation and health: A conceptual model and literature review

Introduction: Transportation is an integral part of our daily lives, giving us access to people, education, jobs, services, and goods. Our transportation choices and patterns are influenced by four interrelated factors: the land use and built environment, infrastructure, available modes, and emerging technologies/disruptors. These factors influence how we can or choose to move ourselves and goods. In turn, these factors impact various exposures, lifestyles and health outcomes. / Aim and methods: We developed a conceptual model to clarify the connections between transportation and health. We conducted a literature review focusing on publications from the past seven years. We complemented this with expert knowledge and synthesized information to summarize the health outcomes of transportation, along 14 identified pathways. / Results: The pathways linking transportation to health include those that are beneficial, such as when transportation serves as means for social connectivity, independence, physical activity, and access. Some pathways link transportation to detrimental health outcomes from air pollution, road travel injuries, noise, stress, urban heat islands, contamination, climate change, community severance, and restricted green space, blue space, and aesthetics. Other possible effects may come from electromagnetic fields, but this is not definitive. We define each pathway and summarize its health outcomes. We show that transportation-related exposures and associated health outcomes, and their severity, can be influenced by inequity and intrinsic and extrinsic effect modifiers. / Conclusions: While some pathways are widely discussed in the literature, others are new or under-researched. Our conceptual model can form the basis for future studies looking to explore the transportation-health nexus. We also propose the model as a tool to holistically assess the impact of transportation decisions on public health

Low-budget topographic surveying comes of age: Structure from motion photogrammetry in geography and the geosciences

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publicarions via the DOI in this record