The NASA Decadal Survey Aerosol, Cloud, Ecosystems Mission

In 2007, the National Academy of Sciences delivered a Decadal Survey (Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond) for NASA, NOAA, and USGS, which is a prioritization of future satellite Earth observations. The recommendations included 15 missions (13 for NASA, two for NOAA), which were prioritized into three groups or tiers. One of the second tier missions is the Aerosol, Cloud, (ocean) Ecosystems (ACE) mission, which focuses on climate forcing, cloud and aerosol properties and interactions, and ocean ecology, carbon cycle science, and fluxes. The baseline instruments recommended for ACE are a cloud radar, an aerosol/cloud lidar, an aerosol/cloud polarimeter, and an ocean radiometer. The instrumental heritage for these measurements are derived from the Cloudsat, CALIPSO, Glory, SeaWiFS and Aqua (MODIS) missions. In 2008, NASA HQ, lead by Hal Maring and Paula Bontempi, organized an interdisciplinary science working group to help formulate the ACE mission by refining the science objectives and approaches, identifying measurement (satellite and field) and mission (e.g., orbit, data processing) requirements, technology requirements, and mission costs. Originally, the disciplines included the cloud, aerosol, and ocean biogeochemistry communities. Subsequently, an ocean-aerosol interaction science working group was formed to ensure the mission addresses the broadest range of science questions possible given the baseline measurements, The ACE mission is a unique opportunity for ocean scientists to work closely with the aerosol and cloud communities. The science working groups are collaborating on science objectives and are defining joint field studies and modeling activities. The presentation will outline the present status of the ACE mission, the science questions each discipline has defined, the measurement requirements identified to date, the current ACE schedule, and future opportunities for broader community participation

Social Strategy of Ciliwung River Bank Community

This article explains relation of social economic strategy applied by the community on the setting of watershed area with dinamics and complexity of urban life. To explain the problem, this article use the perspective of ecological anthropology and urban anthropology. This research uses indepth-interview, participatory observation, and focus group discussion. This research was conducted on the community of Ciliwung watershed on Kampung Melayu and Cawang village in East Jakarta. This research shows that the community on Ciliwung watershed area have social organization based on primordial and religion. The social organization have inclusive orientation and have goal to overcome everyday social problem. The community have model of ecological adaptation and social-economic strategy that have characteristics of resistance (control, protect, defend, and resist) as respon to uncertainty of policy and involution of Ciliwung watershed development.Tulisan ini menjelaskan hubungan antara strategi sosial ekonomi yang dijalankan masyarakat dalam latar ekologi bantaran sungai dengan kondisi kehidupan perkotaan yang dinamis dan kompleks. Untuk menjelaskan masalah tersebut, penelitian ini menginspirasi kepada perspektif antropologi ekologi dan antropologi perkotaan. Penelitian ini mengacu kepada pendekatan kualitatif dengan menerapkan metode wawancara mendalam, pengamatan terlibat, dan diskusi kelompok terfokus. Penelitian lapangan dilakukan pada masyarakat bantaran sungai Ciliwung di Kelurahan Cawang dan Kelurahan Kampung Melayu, Jakarta Timur. Hasil penelitian memperlihatkan bahwa masyarakat bantaran sungai Ciliwung memiliki organisai sosial berbasis asal-usul daerah dan agama berorientasi inklusif dan bertujuan mengatasi masalah sosial yang dihadapi dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Masyarakat memiliki pola adaptasi ekologi dan strategi sosial ekonomi berciri bertahan (menguasai, melindungi, bertahan, dan melawan) sebagai respon terhadap ketidakpastian kebijakan dan involusi pembangunan bantaran sungai Ciliwung

Effects of Intraventricular Locus Coeruleus Transplants on Seizure Severity in Genetically Epilepsy-Prone Rats Following Depletion of Brain Norepinephrine

Audiogenic seizures (AGS) in genetically epilepsy-prone rats (GEPR) of the moderateseizure substrain (GEPR-3s) were investigated to determine whether norepinephrine (NE) depletion induced by 6-hydroxydopalnine (6-OHDA) microinfusion into the locus coeruleus (LC) could alter the efficacy of intraventricular NE tissue grafts in promoting reductions in seizure severity in AGS. GEPR-3s were stereotaxically infused with 6-OHDA (4μg/side/rat), or vehicle into the region of the LC. Following 6-OHDA treatment all animals were subjected to 3 AGS tests. GEPR-3s seizure severities were increased in 39.5% of the animals after microinfusion of 6-OHDA into the region of the LC. Following the third AGS test, each rat was stereotaxicaily implanted with 17 gestational day rat fetal tissue obtained from the dorsal pons and containing the primordia of the LC or with tissue obtained from the neocortex or were sham-grafted. Subsequent to grafting, rats were subjected to 3 additional AGS tests. 53% (10/19) of 6-OHDA treated GEPRs showed a significant reduction in seizure severity following transplantation of fetal LC tissue. In contrast, only 20% (1/5) of GEPRs infused with saline rather than 6-OHDA showed, a reduction of seizure severity following fetal LC transplantation. NE content in the cortex and pons/medulla was decreased by 78% and 46% respectively following 6-OHDA microinfusion into the LC. Prominent grafts with numerous TH positive neurons and neurites were present within the third ventricle of grafted animals, while cortex grafts contained no TH immunostained structures. These findings suggest that the efficacy of fetal LC tissue to promote reductions in seizure severity in GEPRs is increased following depletion of central NE by microinfusion of 6-OHDA

Planning, implementation, and first results of the Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling Experiment (TC4)

The Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling Experiment (TC4), was based in Costa Rica and Panama during July and August 2007. The NASA ER-2, DC-8, and WB-57F aircraft flew 26 science flights during TC4. The ER-2 employed 11 instruments as a remote sampling platform and satellite surrogate. The WB-57F used 25 instruments for in situ chemical and microphysical sampling in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL). The DC-8 used 25 instruments to sample boundary layer properties, as well as the radiation, chemistry, and microphysics of the TTL. TC4 also had numerous sonde launches, two ground-based radars, and a ground-based chemical and microphysical sampling site. The major goal of TC4 was to better understand the role that the TTL plays in the Earth's climate and atmospheric chemistry by combining in situ and remotely sensed data from the ground, balloons, and aircraft with data from NASA satellites. Significant progress was made in understanding the microphysical and radiative properties of anvils and thin cirrus. Numerous measurements were made of the humidity and chemistry of the tropical atmosphere from the boundary layer to the lower stratosphere. Insight was also gained into convective transport between the ground and the TTL, and into transport mechanisms across the TTL. New methods were refined and extended to all the NASA aircraft for real-time location relative to meteorological features. The ability to change flight patterns in response to aircraft observations relayed to the ground allowed the three aircraft to target phenomena of interest in an efficient, well-coordinated manner

Voorradenbeheer : operationalisering van duurzaam bodembeheer op gebiedsniveau via voorraadbenadering

Binnen het project “Duurzaam bodembeheer middels voorraden” is een methode ontwikkeld om bodemthema’s zoals bodemdaling of verzilting om te zetten naar voorraden. Een voorraad heeft duidelijke ruimtelijke dimensies: een volume/omvang, die in de tijd kan veranderen en geografisch traceerbaar is. Zo wordt bijvoorbeeld duidelijk waar en hoeveel de bodem daalt binnen een gebied en waar de verzilting in een regio door een ingreep toe- of afneemt. De methode is een hulpmiddel bij de concretisering van bodemambities op provinciaal en gemeentelijk niveau en het toetsen van deze ambities. Publicatie in opdracht van Stichting Kennisontwikkeling Kennisoverdracht Bodem (SKB), TNO, Haskoning, Alterra, Provincie Zuid-Holland en H2Ruimt

Global statistics of liquid water content and effective number concentration of water clouds over ocean derived from combined CALIPSO and MODIS measurements

This study presents an empirical relation that links the volume extinction coefficients of water clouds, the layer integrated depolarization ratios measured by lidar, and the effective radii of water clouds derived from collocated passive sensor observations. Based on Monte Carlo simulations of CALIPSO lidar observations, this method combines the cloud effective radius reported by MODIS with the lidar depolarization ratios measured by CALIPSO to estimate both the liquid water content and the effective number concentration of water clouds. The method is applied to collocated CALIPSO and MODIS measurements obtained during July and October of 2006, and January 2007. Global statistics of the cloud liquid water content and effective number concentration are presented

Oscillatory Shear Flow-Induced Alignment of Lamellar Melts of Hydrogen-Bonded Comb Copolymer Supramolecules

In this work we present the orientational behavior of comb copolymer-like supramolecules P4VP(PDP)1.0, obtained by hydrogen bonding between poly(4-vinylpyridine) and pentadecylphenol, during large-amplitude oscillatory shear flow experiments over a broad range of frequencies (0.001-10 Hz). The alignment diagram, presenting the macroscopic alignment in T/TODT vs ω/ωc, contains three regions of parallel alignment separated by a region of perpendicular alignment. For our material, the order-disorder temperature TODT = 67 °C and ωc, the frequency above which the distortion of the chain conformation dominates the materials’ viscoelasticity, is around 0.1 Hz at 61 °C. For the first time flipping from a pure transverse alignment via biaxial transverse/perpendicular alignment to a perpendicular alignment as a function of the strain amplitude was found.

The Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) Mission: Design, Execution, and First Results

The NASA Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) mission was conducted in two 3-week deployments based in Alaska (April 2008) and western Canada (June–July 2008). Its goal was to better understand the factors driving current changes in Arctic atmospheric composition and climate, including (1) influx of mid-latitude pollution, (2) boreal forest fires, (3) aerosol radiative forcing, and (4) chemical processes. The June–July deployment was preceded by one week of flights over California (ARCTAS-CARB) focused on (1) improving state emission inventories for greenhouse gases and aerosols, (2) providing observations to test and improve models of ozone and aerosol pollution. ARCTAS involved three aircraft: a DC-8 with a detailed chemical payload, a P-3 with an extensive aerosol and radiometric payload, and a B-200 with aerosol remote sensing instrumentation. The aircraft data augmented satellite observations of Arctic atmospheric composition, in particular from the NASA A-Train. The spring phase (ARCTAS-A) revealed pervasive Asian pollution throughout the Arctic as well as significant European pollution below 2 km. Unusually large Siberian fires in April 2008 caused high concentrations of carbonaceous aerosols and also affected ozone. Satellite observations of BrO column hotspots were found not to be related to Arctic boundary layer events but instead to tropopause depressions, suggesting the presence of elevated inorganic bromine (5–10 pptv) in the lower stratosphere. Fresh fire plumes from Canada and California sampled during the summer phase (ARCTAS-B) indicated low $NO_x$ emission factors from the fires, rapid conversion of $NO_x$ to PAN, no significant secondary aerosol production, and no significant ozone enhancements except when mixed with urban pollution.Engineering and Applied Science