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Earth Sciences

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2021

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Full-Text Articles in Astrophysics and Astronomy

Cuny York College–Hosted Nasa Stem Outreach Program Graduates Over 30,000 Students – The Legacy Continues Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic, Nazrul I. Khandaker Dec 2021

Cuny York College–Hosted Nasa Stem Outreach Program Graduates Over 30,000 Students – The Legacy Continues Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic, Nazrul I. Khandaker

Publications and Research

The NASA MUREP (Minority University Research and Education Project) and SEMAA (Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Aerospace Academy) at York College CUNY (City University of New York), borough of Queens, New York City, recently earned a distinction by graduating over 30,000 underrepresented minority students since 1999 with the culmination of the fall 2021 session! African American students are leading the graduates, followed by Hispanic and Asian students being almost equal in proportion. The primary objective of both MAA (MUREP Aerospace Academy) and SEMAA is getting underrepresented minority students exposure to innovative STEM content and prepare many of them to enter higher …


Multi-Faceted Geoscience Research Using Open Access Resources: The Successful Participation Of K9-16 Students, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Noshin Sharmili, Omadevi Singh, Gurwinder Sahota, Sol De Leon, Matthew Khargie, Ali Zarine, Krishna Mahabir, Adacia Teemal, Mildred M. Selby Oct 2021

Multi-Faceted Geoscience Research Using Open Access Resources: The Successful Participation Of K9-16 Students, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Noshin Sharmili, Omadevi Singh, Gurwinder Sahota, Sol De Leon, Matthew Khargie, Ali Zarine, Krishna Mahabir, Adacia Teemal, Mildred M. Selby

Publications and Research

Students interested in geosciences, for the most part, missed out their traditional field- based research activities due to strict social distancing, travel restrictions and/or lacking financial support. An absence of physical laboratory opportunities forced students to choose topics deemed doable through online research. Available data from online sources on extreme weather related case studies, flooding, droughts, groundwater depletion in urban and suburban areas, coastal erosion rate, sealevel rise, landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and atmospheric pollution became quite handy and lucrative. Readily available pertinent data sources enabled K9-16 students to conduct summer research at “stay home” situations. Selective peer mentoring was …


Addressing The Learning Loss During The Covid-19 Pandemic Through The Adaptation Of Virtual Platforms, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Anika Nawar Mayeesha, Violeta Escandon Correa, Toralv Munro, Andrew Singh, Matthew Khargie, Ality Aghedo, Jasmin Budhan, Krishna Mahabir, Belal A. Sayeed Oct 2021

Addressing The Learning Loss During The Covid-19 Pandemic Through The Adaptation Of Virtual Platforms, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Anika Nawar Mayeesha, Violeta Escandon Correa, Toralv Munro, Andrew Singh, Matthew Khargie, Ality Aghedo, Jasmin Budhan, Krishna Mahabir, Belal A. Sayeed

Publications and Research

The York College-hosted NASA MAA (MUREP AEROSPACE ACADEMY) has always played a pivotal role in minimizing the learning loss during the summer months, which was heightened during the pandemic. Support from AT&T, Con Edison and NASA enabled the MAA program at York College to offer a virtual STEM education with an earth science concentration to 1000 plus underserved K1-12 students from the community last summer, including 160 high school students. Two factors made this endeavor fruitful: allowing additional time to engage in STEM lessons and increasing self-motivation to successfully accomplish assigned tasks. Students built partnerships and resolved technical issues with …


Initial Acoustoelastic Measurements In Olivine: Investigating The Effect Of Stress On P- And S-Wave Velocities, Taryn K. Traylor, Pamela C. Burnley, M. L. Whitaker Oct 2021

Initial Acoustoelastic Measurements In Olivine: Investigating The Effect Of Stress On P- And S-Wave Velocities, Taryn K. Traylor, Pamela C. Burnley, M. L. Whitaker

Geoscience Faculty Research

It is well known that elasticity is a key physical property in the determination of the structure and composition of the Earth and provides critical information for the interpretation of seismic data. This study investigates the stress-induced variation in elastic wave velocities, known as the acoustoelastic effect, in San Carlos olivine. A recently developed experimental ultrasonic acoustic system, the Directly Integrated Acoustic System Combined with Pressure Experiments (DIASCoPE), was used with the D-DIA multi-anvil apparatus to transmit ultrasonic sound waves and collect the reflections. We use the DIASCoPE to obtain longitudinal (P) and shear (S) elastic wave velocities from San …


Spatiotemporal Trends And Variability In The Centroid Of The Northern Hemisphere's Circumpolar Vortex, Nazla Bushra, Robert V. Rohli Aug 2021

Spatiotemporal Trends And Variability In The Centroid Of The Northern Hemisphere's Circumpolar Vortex, Nazla Bushra, Robert V. Rohli

Faculty Publications

Recent previous research has established the "sharpest gradient" approach to defining the circumpolar vortex and has identified correlations of the area and circularity of the Northern Hemisphere's circumpolar vortex (NHCPV) to important atmospheric-oceanic teleconnections. However, because geographical shifts in the NHCPV, independent of area or circularity changes, could affect surface environmental conditions, this research addresses the question of the extent to which the NHCPV centroid undergoes such shifts, both intra- and inter-annually. Results show that during the 1979-2017 period, the centroid has moved less on a daily basis in more recent years, perhaps indicative of a stabilization in circulation, with …


A Consistent Model Of Terrestrial Planet Magnetospheres And Rotations In Our Solar System, Fred J. Cadieu May 2021

A Consistent Model Of Terrestrial Planet Magnetospheres And Rotations In Our Solar System, Fred J. Cadieu

Publications and Research

The Sun comprises 99.9% of the solar system mass so it is expected that Sun terrestrial planet interactions can influence the motion as well as the rotation of the terrestrial planets.Gravity affects the planet orbital motions while the changing magnetic fields of the Sun can influence the planet rotations. Planets that manifest a magnetic field dominate any weaker magnetic fields from the Sun, but the rotation of terrestrial planets without a magnetic field interacts with the changing Sun’s field dependent on the electrical conductivity of the core region. It is determined that the average planet density becomes a useful quantity …


Late Amazonian Wind Regimes And Landscape Evolution In Northern Meridiani Planum, Mars, Thomas Stritch May 2021

Late Amazonian Wind Regimes And Landscape Evolution In Northern Meridiani Planum, Mars, Thomas Stritch

Geology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Aeolian process have dominated the lower latitudes of Mars for billions of years. Aeolian landforms can act as records of current and past climates and landscape evolution processes. The etched deposits of Meridiani Planum, a vast suite of layered bedrock extending from southwest Arabia Terra to Schiaparelli crater, have long been noted to have been eroded by aeolian processes. However, little detailed work on the aeolian landforms of Meridiani Planum beyond the Opportunity rover landing site has been done. In this study, I examine wind streaks, aeolian bedforms (including dunes and large ripples), and yardangs in a valley about 370 …


The Role Of Hydrated Minerals And Space Weathering Products In The Bluing Of Carbonaceous Asteroids, David Trang, Michelle S. Thompson, Bet E. Clark, Hannah H. Kaplan, Xiao-Duan Zou, Jian-Yang Li, Salvatore M. Ferrone, Victoria E. Hamilton, Amy A. Simon, Dennis C. Reuter, Lindsay P. Keller, M. Antonietta Barucci, Humberto Campins, Cateline Lantz, Daniella N. Dellagiustina, Ronald-Louis Ballouz, Erica R. Jawin, Harold Connolly Jr., Kevin J. Walsh, Dante Lauretta Apr 2021

The Role Of Hydrated Minerals And Space Weathering Products In The Bluing Of Carbonaceous Asteroids, David Trang, Michelle S. Thompson, Bet E. Clark, Hannah H. Kaplan, Xiao-Duan Zou, Jian-Yang Li, Salvatore M. Ferrone, Victoria E. Hamilton, Amy A. Simon, Dennis C. Reuter, Lindsay P. Keller, M. Antonietta Barucci, Humberto Campins, Cateline Lantz, Daniella N. Dellagiustina, Ronald-Louis Ballouz, Erica R. Jawin, Harold Connolly Jr., Kevin J. Walsh, Dante Lauretta

School of Earth & Environment Faculty Scholarship

The surfaces of airless bodies such as lunar and S-type asteroids typically become spectrally redder in visible to near-infrared reflectance with longer exposures to space weathering. However, some carbonaceous asteroids instead become spectrally bluer. Space weathering experiments on carbonaceous meteorites have provided some clues as to the space weathering products that could produce spectral bluing. We applied these experimental results to our Hapke radiative transfer model, with which we modeled spectral data from the OSIRIS-REx mission in order to determine whether these space weathering products—specifically, nanophase and microphase metallic iron, troilite, and magnetite—could explain the globally blue spectrum of the …


Implications Of An Improved Water Equation Of State For Water-Rich Planets, Chenling Huang, David R. Rice, Zachary M. Grande, Dean Smith, John H. Boisvert, Oliver Tschauner, Ashkan Salamat, Jason Steffen Mar 2021

Implications Of An Improved Water Equation Of State For Water-Rich Planets, Chenling Huang, David R. Rice, Zachary M. Grande, Dean Smith, John H. Boisvert, Oliver Tschauner, Ashkan Salamat, Jason Steffen

Geoscience Faculty Research

Water (H2O), in all forms, is an important constituent in planetary bodies, controlling habitability and influencing geological activity. Under conditions found in the interior of many planets, as the pressure increases, the H-bonds in water gradually weaken and are replaced by ionic bonds. Recent experimental measurements of the water equation of state (EOS) showed both a new phase of H-bonded water ice, ice-VIIt, and a relatively low transition pressure just above 30 GPa to ionic bonded ice-X, which has a bulk modulus 2.5 times larger. The higher bulk modulus of ice-X produces larger planets for a given mass, thereby either …


Concentrated Lunar Resources: Imminent Implications For Governance And Justice, Martin Elvis, Alanna Krolikowski, Tony Milligan Jan 2021

Concentrated Lunar Resources: Imminent Implications For Governance And Justice, Martin Elvis, Alanna Krolikowski, Tony Milligan

History and Political Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Numerous missions planned for the next decade are likely to target a handful of small sites of interest on the Moon's surface, creating risks of crowding and interference at these locations. The Moon presents finite and scarce areas with rare topography or concentrations of resources of special value. Locations of interest to science, notably for astronomy, include the Peaks of Eternal Light, the coldest of the cold traps and smooth areas on the far side. Regions richest in physical resources could also be uniquely suited to settlement and commerce. Such sites of interest are both few and small. Typically, there …


Performance Evaluation Of Uavsar And Simulated Nisar Data For Crop/Noncrop Classification Over Stoneville, Ms, Simon Kraatz, S. Rose, M. H. Cosh, N. Torbick, X. Huang, P. Siquiera Jan 2021

Performance Evaluation Of Uavsar And Simulated Nisar Data For Crop/Noncrop Classification Over Stoneville, Ms, Simon Kraatz, S. Rose, M. H. Cosh, N. Torbick, X. Huang, P. Siquiera

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publication Series

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data are well-suited for change detection over agricultural fields, owing to high spatiotemporal resolution and sensitivity to soil and vegetation. The goal of this work is to evaluate the science algorithm for the NASA ISRO SAR (NISAR) Cropland Area product using data collected by NASA's airborne Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle SAR (UAVSAR) platform and the simulated NISAR data derived from it. This study uses mode 129, which is to be used for global-scale mapping. The mode consists of an upper (129A) and lower band (129B), respectively having bandwidths of 20 and 5 MHz. This work uses 129A …


Spectral Properties Of Lunar Impact Melt Deposits From Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) Data, Catherine Neish, Kevin Cannon, Livio Tornabene, Roberta Flemming, Michael Zanetti, Eric Pilles Jan 2021

Spectral Properties Of Lunar Impact Melt Deposits From Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) Data, Catherine Neish, Kevin Cannon, Livio Tornabene, Roberta Flemming, Michael Zanetti, Eric Pilles

Earth Sciences Publications

Lunar impact melt deposits have unusual surface properties, unlike any measured terrestrial lava flow. Radar observations suggest that they are incredibly rough at decimeter scales, but they appear smooth in high-resolution, meter-scale optical images. The cause of their unusual surface roughness is unknown. In this work, we investigate the properties of impact melt deposits from seven lunar craters, ranging in size from 7.5 to 96 km in diameter, in an effort to understand the cause of their unique surface texture. We use data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s (LRO) Mini-RF instrument to characterize the small-scale roughness of the deposits, data …


Microbially Induced Sedimentary Structures In Clastic Deposits: Implication For The Prospection For Fossil Life On Mars, Nora Noffke Jan 2021

Microbially Induced Sedimentary Structures In Clastic Deposits: Implication For The Prospection For Fossil Life On Mars, Nora Noffke

OES Faculty Publications

Abundant and well-preserved fossil microbenthos occurs in siliciclastic deposits of all Earth ages, from the early Archean to today. Studies in modern settings show how microbenthos responds to sediment dynamics by baffling and trapping, binding, biostabilization, and growth. Results of this microbial-sediment interaction are microbially induced sedimentary structures (MISS). Successful prospection for rich MISS occurrences in the terrestrial lithological record requires unraveling genesis and taphonomy of MISS, both of which are defined only by a narrow range of specific conditions. These conditions have to coincide with high detectability which is a function of outcrop quality, bedding character, and rock type. …