Effects of the MY34/2018 Global Dust Storm as Measured by MSL REMS in Gale Crater

The Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) instrument is on board NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover. REMS has been measuring surface pressure, air, and ground brightness temperature, relative humidity, and ultraviolet (UV) irradiance since MSL’s landing in 2012. In Mars Year (MY) 34 (2018) a global dust storm reached Gale Crater at Ls ~ 190°. REMS offers a unique opportunity to better understand the impact of a global dust storm on local environmental conditions, which complements previous observations by the Viking landers and Mars Exploration Rovers. All atmospheric variables measured by REMS are strongly affected albeit at different times. During the onset phase, the daily maximum UV radiation decreased by 90% between sols 2075 (opacity ~1) and 2085 (opacity ~8.5). The diurnal range in ground and air temperatures decreased by 35 and 56 K, respectively, with also a diurnal-average decrease of ~2 and 4 K respectively. The maximum relative humidity, which occurs right before sunrise, decreased to below 5%, compared with prestorm values of up to 29%, due to the warmer air temperatures at night, while the inferred water vapor abundance suggests an increase during the storm. Between sols 2085 and 2130, the typical nighttime stable inversion layer was absent near the surface as ground temperatures remained warmer than near-surface air temperatures. Finally, the frequency domain behavior of the diurnal pressure cycle shows a strong increase in the strength of the semidiurnal and terdiurnal modes peaking after the local opacity maximum, also suggesting differences in the dust abundance inside and outside Gale.Key PointsAtmospheric opacity over Gale Crater was increased by more than 8 times and disturbed all the atmospheric variables measured by REMSREMS data suggest that the nighttime near-surface atmosphere stability was reduced and its water abundance increased during the GDSThe semidiurnal mode peaked after the local opacity maximum, suggesting different dust abundance inside and outside GalePeer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151294/1/jgre21177_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151294/2/jgre21177.pd

1999 Site Environmental Report

Throughout the scientific community, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is renowned for its leading-edge research in physics, medicine, chemistry, biology, materials, and the environment. BNL is committed to supporting its world-class scientific research with an internationally recognized environmental protection program. The 1999 Site Environmental Report (SER) summarizes the status of the Laboratory's environmental programs and performance, including the steady progress towards cleaning up the site and fully integrating environmental stewardship into all facets of the Laboratory's mission. BNL is located on 5,265 acres of pine barrens in Suffolk County in the center of Long Island, New York. The Laboratory is situated above a sole source aquifer at the headwaters of the Peconic River; therefore, protecting ground and surface water quality is a special concern. Approximately 3,600 acres of the site are undeveloped and serve as habitat for a wide variety of animals and plants, including one New York State endangered species, the tiger salamander, and two New York State threatened species, the banded sunfish and the stiff goldenrod. Monitoring, preserving, and restoring these ecological resources is a high priority for the Laboratory

Zigzag line defects and manipulation of colloids in a nematic liquid crystal in microwrinkle grooves

Spatially confined liquid crystals exhibit non-uniform alignment, often accompanied by self-organised topological defects of non-trivial shape in response to imposed boundary conditions and geometry. Here we show that a nematic liquid crystal, when confined in a sinusoidal microwrinkle groove, exhibits a new periodic arrangement of twist deformations and a zigzag line defect. This periodic ordering results from the inherent liquid crystal elastic anisotropy and the antagonistic boundary conditions at the flat liquid crystal–air and the curved liquid crystal–groove interfaces. The periodic structure can be tuned by controlling the groove geometry and the molecular chirality, which demonstrates the importance of boundary conditions and introduced asymmetry for the engineering of topological defects. Moreover, the kinks in the zigzag defects can trap small particles, which may afford a new method for manipulation of colloids. Our system, which uses easily fabricated microwrinkle grooves, provides a new microfabrication method based on the arrangement of controllable defects

Vaccination with the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus viral replicon vaccine induces NP-based T-cell activation and antibodies possessing Fc-mediated effector functions

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV; family Nairoviridae) is a tick-borne pathogen that frequently causes lethal disease in humans. CCHFV has a wide geographic distribution, and cases have been reported in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Availability of a safe and efficacious vaccine is critical for restricting outbreaks and preventing disease in endemic countries. We previously developed a virus-like replicon particle (VRP) vaccine that provides complete protection against homologous and heterologous lethal CCHFV challenge in mice after a single dose. However, the immune responses induced by this vaccine are not well characterized, and correlates of protection remain unknown. Here we comprehensively characterized the kinetics of cell-mediated and humoral immune responses in VRP-vaccinated mice, and demonstrate that they predominantly target the nucleoprotein (NP). NP antibodies are not associated with protection through neutralizing activity, but VRP vaccination results in NP antibodies possessing Fc-mediated antibody effector functions, such as complement activation (ADCD) and antibody-mediated cellular phagocytosis (ADCP). This suggests that Fc-mediated effector functions may contribute to this vaccine’s efficacy

Convective Vortices and Dust Devils Detected and Characterized by Mars 2020

We characterize vortex and dust devils (DDs) at Jezero from pressure and winds obtained with the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) instrument on Mars 2020 over 415 Martian days (sols) (Ls = 6°–213°). Vortices are abundant (4.9 per sol with pressure drops >0.5 Pa correcting from gaps in coverage) and they peak at noon. At least one in every five vortices carries dust, and 75% of all vortices with Δp > 2.0 Pa are dusty. Seasonal variability was small but DDs were abundant during a dust storm (Ls = 152°–156°). Vortices are more frequent and intense over terrains with lower thermal inertia favoring high daytime surface-to-air temperature gradients. We fit measurements of winds and pressure during DD encounters to models of vortices. We obtain vortex diameters that range from 5 to 135 m with a mean of 20 m, and from the frequency of close encounters we estimate a DD activity of 2.0–3.0 DDs km−2 sol−1. A comparison of MEDA observations with a Large Eddy Simulation of Jezero at Ls = 45° produces a similar result. Three 100-m size DDs passed within 30 m of the rover from what we estimate that the activity of DDs with diameters >100 m is 0.1 DDs km−2sol−1, implying that dust lifting is dominated by the largest vortices in Jezero. At least one vortex had a central pressure drop of 9.0 Pa and internal winds of 25 ms−1. The MEDA wind sensors were partially damaged during two DD encounters whose characteristics we elaborate in detail.The authors are very grateful to the entire Mars 2020 science operations team. The authors would also like to thank Lori Fenton and an anonymous reviewer for many suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript. This work was supported by Grant PID2019-109467GB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and by Grupos Gobierno Vasco IT1742-22 and by the Spanish National Research, Development and Innovation Program, through the Grants RTI2018-099825-B-C31, ESP2016-80320-C2-1-R, and ESP2014-54256-C4-3-R. Baptiste Chide is supported by the Director's Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. M. Lemmon is supported by contract 15-712 from Arizona State University and 1607215 from Caltech-JPL. R. Lorenz was supported by JPL contract 1655893. Germán Martínez acknowledges JPL funding from USRA Contract Number 1638782. A. Munguira was supported by Grant PRE2020-092562 funded by MCIN/AEI and by “ESF Investing in your future.” A. Vicente-Retortillo is supported by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) Project No. MDM-2017-0737 Unidad de Excelencia “María de Maeztu”-Centro de Astrobiología (INTA-CSIC), and by the Comunidad de Madrid Project S2018/NMT-4291 (TEC2SPACE-CM). Part of the research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004). Finnish researchers acknowledge the Academy of Finland Grant 328 310529. Researchers based in France acknowledge support from the CNES for their work on Perseverance

Effects of the MY34/2018 Global Dust Storm as Measured by MSL REMS in Gale Crater

The Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) instrument is on board NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover. REMS has been measuring surface pressure, air, and ground brightness temperature, relative humidity, and ultraviolet (UV) irradiance since MSL's landing in 2012. In Mars Year (MY) 34 (2018) a global dust storm reached Gale Crater at Ls ~ 190°. REMS offers a unique opportunity to better understand the impact of a global dust storm on local environmental conditions, which complements previous observations by the Viking landers and Mars Exploration Rovers. All atmospheric variables measured by REMS are strongly affected albeit at different times. During the onset phase, the daily maximum UV radiation decreased by 90% between sols 2075 (opacity ~1) and 2085 (opacity ~8.5). The diurnal range in ground and air temperatures decreased by 35 and 56 K, respectively, with also a diurnal-average decrease of ~2 and 4 K respectively. The maximum relative humidity, which occurs right before sunrise, decreased to below 5%, compared with prestorm values of up to 29%, due to the warmer air temperatures at night, while the inferred water vapor abundance suggests an increase during the storm. Between sols 2085 and 2130, the typical nighttime stable inversion layer was absent near the surface as ground temperatures remained warmer than near-surface air temperatures. Finally, the frequency domain behavior of the diurnal pressure cycle shows a strong increase in the strength of the semidiurnal and terdiurnal modes peaking after the local opacity maximum, also suggesting differences in the dust abundance inside and outside Gale.This research has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competiveness (MINECO), under project ESP2016-79612-C3-1-R.Peer reviewe

Formation of Multigradient Porous Surfaces for Selective Bacterial Entrapment

Herein we describe the preparation of multigradient porous platforms by using the breath figures approach. In a single and straightforward step, we prepared porous surfaces in which three different parameters vary gradually from the edge of the sample to the center in a radial manner. Thus, we evidenced the gradual variation of the pore size and the shape of the pores that can be varied, depending on the sample concentration, but also depending on their radial position within the same sample. In addition, we succeeded in the control over the chemical composition inside and outside the pores as well as the variation of the concentration of block copolymer inside the pores as a function of their radial position. Moreover, the chemical composition and the variable cavity size of porous surfaces have been evaluated to analyze the influence of these variables on the selective bacterial immobilization. To the best of our knowledge this is the first example in which, by using a simple one-step strategy, a multigradient surface can be obtained. These initial results can be the base to construct platforms for selective immobilization and isolation of bacteria.Peer Reviewe

The Modern Near-Surface Martian Climate: A Review of In-situ Meteorological Data from Viking to Curiosity

We analyze the complete set of in-situ meteorological data obtained from the Viking landers in the 1970s to today’s Curiosity rover to review our understanding of the modern near-surface climate of Mars, with focus on the dust, CO2 and H2O cycles and their impact on the radiative and thermodynamic conditions near the surface. In particular, we provide values of the highest confidence possible for atmospheric opacity, atmospheric pressure, near-surface air temperature, ground temperature, near-surface wind speed and direction, and near-surface air relative humidity and water vapor content. Then, we study the diurnal, seasonal and interannual variability of these quantities over a span of more than twenty Martian years. Finally, we propose measurements to improve our understanding of the Martian dust and H2O cycles, and discuss the potential for liquid water formation under Mars’ present day conditions and its implications for future Mars missions. Understanding the modern Martian climate is important to determine if Mars could have the conditions to support life and to prepare for future human exploration.This research is supported by JPL grant number 1449038 and by the NASA Mars Data Analysis Program: Award # NNX15AM53G. We thank the MSL and REMS Teams for supporting this investigation. We also want to thank the reviewers for their excellent suggestions to improve the paper. A.D.V.-R. wishes to acknowledge the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) for FPI fellowship (BES-2012-059241). A.G.F. was supported by the Project “icyMARS”, European Research Council Starting Grant No. 307496.Peer reviewe