Award Data

From pharmaceuticals and stimulants to industrial chemicals like pesticides and plastic components, the number of contaminants in waste, surface, and groundwater is increasing astronomically. As the hazardous limits of some of these toxins are as low as the 1 part-per-trillion (ppt) range, very sensitive analytical techniques are required. A variety of techniques exist, but they are expensive, lab ...

The Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop new standardization protocols and methodology for preconcentration, preparative-scale separation, and catalytic conversion of CH4 contained in mixtures of atmospheric gases for carbon-14 (14CCH4), carbon-13 (?13CCH4), and hydrogen-2 (?2HCH4) isotopic tracing. The approach addresses challenges with safely performing gas conversion ...

Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, with various anthropogenic factors increasing its prevalence. Methane has 28 times greater heating capacity than carbon dioxide and its atmospheric concentration has increased roughly from 800 parts-per-billion (ppb) in the early 1900s to an alarming 1800 ppb in 2016. With approximately 3.2 million abandoned wells in the US, mit ...

In the US, an estimated one third of food is wasted at the household level resulting in significant environmental impact—total greenhouse gas emissions of US food waste are estimated to be 70 million MTCO2e. While food waste is generated at all stages of the food supply chain over 50% of all food waste is generated at the consumption stage, the majority of which occurs within households. Often, ...

Salient Predictions Inc. proposes to develop new technology for accurate subseasonal to seasonal (S2S) water availability forecasts so that communities may manage water resources in preparation for hazardous events like floods and droughts. Current hydrological models face challenges related to data inputs, as climate change has been presenting weather patterns atypical from historical data. Witho ...

We propose to develop in-situ low cost sensors to support fire meteorology for wildland fire emergency response, by blanketing the fire area with real time measurements. Sensors can be air-deployed to provide vertical atmospheric measurement profiles or hand-emplaced for augmenting existing surface fire weather stations. Each telemeters precision measurements of air temperature, solar radiation, i ...

SpaceLoon proposes to design, prototype, and test a consistent, reliable, and bi-directional Controlled Altitude Ballooning (CAB) system for monitoring climate constituents, such as energetic particles (solar and cosmic) and thermodynamic variables, across various atmospheric layers. The absence of linkage between space weather events and atmospheric physics, chemistry, and dynamics, creates voids ...

Anuma Aerospace seeks to develop the conceptual design for, and determine the technical and economic feasibility of, a Persistently-Elevated, Gas-free, Aerostatic Sensor Utility System (PEGASUS), which will work like a data buoy in the sky, continuously collecting and transmitting weather data from the marine atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) with the data being made available via application progr ...

There is a need for more capable and affordable means to measure optical properties and biological constituents of marine and freshwater environments. These measures are crucial for estimating the abundance of organisms such as those producing harmful algal blooms (HABs). Affordable and effective methods to extend the measurement range and improve sensitivity of traditional optical instruments wil ...

ACME AtronOmatic, LLC is proposing development of an orbital data platform for improving household and community wildfire resilience. With a changing climate and near-urban environments, resilience requires access to actionable information about how to build, move, and/or fortify homes and communities: the proposed project would increase the resilience of stakeholders by clarifying through unique ...