EES Focus AreasEES Group PagesCONTACTS
|
Capabilities of Technical Teams Promotes Interdisciplinary ResearchAdvanced Simulation and Computing Power. Through continuous improvements in computing power and numerical methods, we have greatly increased our ability to explicitly simulate turbulent flows in regions of high temperature or pressure gradients such as those created by a wildfire. Modeling Wildfires, Weather, and Turbulent Flows. EES-2 has developed a wildfire-behavior-modeling capability using a full-physics combustion code in an advanced numerical turbulence model that provides fully interactive computations between wildfire and local weather. The model also simulates stochastic descriptions of flying embers and incorporates physical processes such as radiative preheating of fuels and smoke emissions. Populations and Ecological Risks, Dynamic Response of Ecosystems. Our ecological research encompasses populations and ecological risks as well as the dynamic response of ecosystems to human activities and changes in land use and climate. Present capabilities include studies of the potential for flood, hillslope erosion, sediment transport, and contaminant movement in areas affected by the Cerro Grande fire, which ravaged the Los Alamos area in May 2000. We have also investigated the interconnections between ecological and hydrological processes in northern New Mexico's pinon-juniper woodlands and ponderosa pine forests. Modeling of Groundwater, Surface and Subsurface Hydrology, and Boundary-layer Atmospheric Physics. EES-2 researchers are studying climatic variability in the Rio Grande drainage basin, research that draws upon our knowledge of regional water cycles and incorporates coupled modeling of groundwater, surface and subsurface hydrology, and boundary-layer atmospheric physics. Modeling of Ocean Circulation Systems. We also are developing new models to more accurately represent ocean circulation systems and are testing new algorithms for describing biogeochemistry cycles/carbon cycling, trace gas emissions, and climate feedbacks in global-ocean models. Investigating Electromagnetic Pulses. Los Alamos scientists have taken an interest in atmospheric electrification since the days of atmospheric nuclear testing. Some of the same processes associated with the propagation of electromagnetic pulses (EMP) by nuclear tests occur in thunderstorms and other natural processes. EMPs are potentially harmful to communications satellites. EES-2 is using advanced numerical models to investigate EMPs and upward electrical discharges "the red sprites" and "blue jets" that airline pilots sometimes observe emanating from the tops of thunderclouds. We are also calculating the source region of optical, electromagnetic pulse, and infrasound radiation that is generated by nuclear explosions and natural phenomena such as meteors and lightning, which propagate through the atmosphere and are recorded by satellite and ground-based sensors. Meteorological Instrumentation, Deployment and Analysis of Observational Data. EES-2 has considerable expertise in meteorological instrumentation, deployment and analysis of observational data. For DOE's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program, which focuses on the role clouds play in modifying solar and terrestrial radiation and climate, EES-2's Tropical Western Pacific Program Office has developed three remote research stations on tropical atolls in the equatorial western Pacific Basin and at Darwin, Australia. These remote stations constitute one of three ARM sites worldwide and provide continuous monitoring of the tropical climate system. The group maintains other instrumentation platforms for a variety of field measurement requirements, including remote sensing with LIDAR, radar, and SODAR. The measurements provided by our Raman LIDAR are a powerful tool for understanding the behavior of the atmosphere's surface layer and its interactions with underlying vegetation and other features of the Earth's surface. We have also established a Luminescence Geochronology Laboratory to study optically stimulated luminescence in quartz and feldspar. Capability Teams and their Areas of Expertise
|
Related Sites
|