COMPARE AND CONTRAST AURORA SIGHTINGS

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Springtime night lights: Finding the aurora
Aurorasaurus project allows aurora-viewers around the world to compare sightings

Dance of the spirits, it's known by the Cree, one of North America's largest groups of Native Americans.

The phenomenon, called the aurora borealis in the Northern Hemisphere and aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere, is indeed a dance of particles and magnetism between the sun and the Earth.

The sun continuously produces a solar wind of charged particles, or plasma. As that "breath" reaches Earth, it causes our planet's magnetic field to shapeshift from round to teardrop--with a long tail on the side farthest from the sun.

The teardrop-stretched field ultimately reconfigures into two parts, one controlled by Earth's magnetic field, the other by the solar wind.

The instability excites the solar-charged particles. They follow spiral paths along lines connecting Earth's north and south magnetic poles to its atmosphere.

"What happens next," says scientist Elizabeth MacDonald of the New Mexico Consortium in Los Alamos, "is one of nature's most spectacular sights: the aurora."

The light of the aurora is emitted when the charged particles collide with gases in Earth's upper atmosphere.

Glimpsing an aurora

How often the aurora is visible in an area, MacDonald says, depends upon a host of factors, including the intensity of the solar wind; the season--the aurora may be strongest around the spring and fall equinoxes; whether the sun is near the peak of its 11-year cycle; and how far someone is from what scientists call the auroral oval, the lights' ring-shaped display.

Knowing where and when an aurora is happening has been difficult to find out--until now. A new project called Aurorasaurus allows citizens around the world to track auroras and report on their progress.

Visitors to the Aurorasaurus website can see where an aurora is happening in real-time, let other Aurorasaurus visitors know of an aurora's existence, and receive "early warnings" when an aurora is likely to happen in their Earth-neighborhood.

Aurora-power

"Auroras are beautiful displays that have fascinated humans through the ages," says Therese Moretto Jorgensen, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Geosciences, which, along with NSF's Directorate for Education and Human Resources and Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering, funds Aurorasaurus through NSF's INSPIRE program.

INSPIRE supports projects whose scientific advances lie outside the scope of a single program or discipline, lines of research that promise transformational advances, and prospective discoveries at the interfaces of scientific boundaries.

"Auroras are of major interest," says Moretto Jorgensen, "because of their effects on Earth. There's a close relationship between auroras and the magnetic variations that pose a threat to the power grid.

"A better understanding of when and where auroras happen will help us develop models that can forecast these potentially hazardous events."

Amassing new data

Scientists hope that by amassing data from thousands of aurora-viewers, they'll learn more about the solar storms that can disrupt or destroy Earth's communications networks and affect the planet's navigation, pipeline, electrical and transportation systems.

During one solar storm in 1989, transformers in New Jersey melted and wiped out power all the way to Quebec, leaving millions of people in the dark.

The largest such solar storm in history, the Carrington Event, zapped Earth in 1859. It was so large it lit up the skies with auroras from the poles to the tropics. Electrical currents from the storm caused fires in telegraph systems and knocked out communications.

St. Patrick's Day magic in the skies

Could it happen again? Yes, if St. Patrick's Day this year is any guide.

On March 17, 2015, researchers and the public were treated to once-a-decade views. As people waited for glimpses of leprechauns, they saw something even more magical, viewers say.

Earth experienced the biggest solar storm to date of this 11-year sun cycle, sparking auroras around the world.

The St. Patrick's Day auroras, many of which were indeed green, were a fortuitous combination of events. Two days earlier, there was an explosion on the sun. The explosion, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), unleashed a blast of gas bubbles that created a strong disturbance as it collided with Earth's magnetic field.

The CME's magnetic field was directed southward, opposite to the Earth's magnetic field, and the solar wind whipped by very fast, says MacDonald.

"The storm's conditions led to a perfect environment for aurora-hunting," she says. On a scale of G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme), the storm reached a G4, or "severe" level.

The storm's Kp index, a global solar storm index, registered in the 6-8 range (9 is the highest).

Rare aurora-viewing--all the way to the southern U.S.

The strong solar wind blew for more than 24 hours, creating auroras visible as far south as the central and southern United States--a very rare occurrence.

The solar storm's peak hit during the daytime over most of the United States and Europe, but the storm persisted into the night and offered Americans and Europeans a brilliant nighttime light show.

Aurorasaurus reports came in from unusual regions: the south of England, Germany and Poland. In the United States, people spotted auroras in states such as Pennsylvania, Virginia and Colorado.

Data peak from Aurorasaurus users

Aurorasaurus participants logged more than 160 sightings during the St. Patrick's Day solar storm.

From midnight on March 17th through mid-day on March 18th, the number of registered users increased by 50 percent. Registering allows Aurorasaurus to communicate information in return, sending location-based sighting alerts.

"We combine reports to provide real-time alerts when auroras might be visible nearby," says MacDonald. "During this storm alone, we issued 361 such notifications.

"We're using Aurorasaurus data to improve auroral oval models, and to develop a better notification system using both satellite-based data and citizen science data."

Adds Moretto Jorgensen, "Auroras on a global scale are very difficult to capture using traditional scientific methods. Human observers linked through Aurorasaurus are a unique network for documenting them."

Whether on St. Patrick's Day or any other Earth-day, the aurora carries a message: take time to look up at one of the planet's most breathtaking sights.

Then look down, to be sure you can send photos of the event from your cell phone. Spirits dancing across the skies may have played havoc with its transmissions.

-- Cheryl Dybas, NSF
Investigators
Andrea Tapia
Michelle Hall
Elizabeth MacDonald

SCIENTIST SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR ATOMIC ENERGY ACT VIOLATIONS

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Former Los Alamos National Laboratory Scientist Sentenced to Prison for Atomic Energy Act Violations

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Damon P. Martinez for the District of New Mexico, Assistant Director Randall C. Coleman of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division and Special Agent in Charge Carol K.O. Lee of the FBI’s Albuquerque Division announced that Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, a scientist formerly employed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), was sentenced this morning for Atomic Energy Act and other violations relating to his communication of classified nuclear weapons data to a person he believed to be a Venezuelan government official.

Mascheroni, 79, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Argentina, was sentenced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, by U.S. District Judge William P. Johnson to 60 months in federal prison followed by the three years of supervised release.  His wife, Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, 71, previously was sentenced in August 2014 to a year and a day of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release for her conviction on conspiracy and false statement charges.

“The public trusts that the government will do all it can to safeguard Restricted Data from being unlawfully transmitted to foreign nations not entitled to receive it,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin.  “We simply cannot allow people to violate their pledge to protect the classified nuclear weapons data with which they are entrusted.  Today’s sentencing should leave no doubt that counterespionage investigations remain one of our most powerful tools to protect our national security.  I thank the many people who worked to bring these convictions to fruition.”

“Our laws are designed to prevent ‘Restricted Data’ from falling into the wrong hands because of the potential harm to our national security,” said U.S. Attorney Martinez.  “Those who work at our country’s national laboratories are charged with safeguarding that sensitive information, and we must and will vigorously prosecute anyone who compromises our nation’s nuclear secrets for profit.  I commend the many agents, analysts and prosecutors who worked tirelessly to bring about the convictions in this case.  I also thank the Los Alamos National Laboratory for cooperating fully in the investigation and prosecution of this case.”

“This case demonstrates the consequences that result when those charged with protecting our nation’s secrets violate the trust placed in them by the American people,” said Assistant Director Coleman.  “Safeguarding classified material is vital to the public interest, and the FBI will continue to hold accountable those who knowingly and willfully threaten the national security of the United States through the unauthorized disclosure of protected information.”

“America trusts those who work with our country's classified information to keep it away from those who would harm us.  Anyone who betrays that trust for his own gain puts our nation's security up for auction, and the price for us all could be very high indeed,” said Special Agent in Charge Lee.  “Since World War II, the FBI has worked tirelessly to protect U.S. nuclear weapons data, and we are proud of our investigation in this case.”

Mascheroni, a Ph.D. physicist, worked as a scientist at LANL from 1979 to 1988 and held a security clearance that allowed him access to certain classified information, including “Restricted Data.”  Roxby Mascheroni worked at LANL between 1981 and 2010, where her duties included technical writing and editing.  She also held a security clearance at LANL that allowed her access to certain classified information, including “Restricted Data.”  As defined under the Atomic Energy Act, “Restricted Data” is classified information concerning the design, manufacture or use of atomic weapons; the production of special nuclear material; or the use of special nuclear material in the production of energy.

Mascheroni and Roxby Mascheroni were indicted in September 2010 and charged with conspiracy to communicate and communicating Restricted Data to an individual with the intent to secure an advantage to a foreign nation, as well as conspiracy to convey and conveying classified information.  The indictment also charged Mascheroni with concealing and retaining U.S. records with the intent to convert them to his own use and gain, and both defendants with making false statements.

Mascheroni pleaded guilty in June 2013, to counts seven and eight of the indictment, charging him with conversion of government property and retention of U.S. records, and counts 10 through 15, charging him with making false statements.  Mascheroni also pleaded guilty to a felony information charging him with two counts of communication of Restricted Data and one count of retention of national defense information.

In entering his guilty plea, Mascheroni admitted that in November 2008 and July 2009, he unlawfully communicated Restricted Data to another individual with reason to believe that the data would be utilized to secure an advantage to Venezuela.  He also admitted unlawfully converting Department of Energy information to his own use and selling the information in November 2008 and July 2009, and failing to deliver classified information relating to the United States’ national defense to appropriate authorities and instead unlawfully retaining the information in his home.  Finally, Mascheroni admitted making materially false statements to the FBI when he was interviewed in October 2009.

Roxby Mascheroni pleaded guilty in June 2014, to count six of the indictment, charging her with conspiracy, and counts 16 through 22, charging her with making false statements.  She also pleaded guilty to a felony information charging her with conspiracy to communicate Restricted Data.  Roxby Mascheroni admitted that between October 2007 and October 2009, she conspired with Mascheroni to convey Restricted Data belonging to the United States to another person with reason to believe that the information would be used to secure an advantage to Venezuela.  She also admitted making materially false statements to the FBI when she was interviewed in October 2009.

The indictment in this case did not allege that the government of Venezuela or anyone acting on its behalf sought or was passed any classified information, nor did it charge any Venezuelan government officials or anyone acting on their behalf with wrongdoing.  The indictment also did not allege any wrongdoing by other individuals working at LANL.

This investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Albuquerque Division with assistance from the Department of Energy and LANL.  The prosecution was handled by Senior Counsel Kathleen Kedian and Trial Attorney David Recker of the Counterespionage Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Fred J. Federici, Dean Tuckman and Holland S. Kastrin of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico.

HOW TO BURN ALUMINUM

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY 

Photo Caption: nanoparticles-When dry, aluminum nanoparticles look like simple dark gray dust.  LANL photo.

Scientists Ignite Aluminum Water Mix

Combustion mechanism of aluminum nanoparticles and water published in prestigious German chemistry journal

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., June 30, 2014—Don't worry, that beer can you’re holding is not going to spontaneously burst into flames, but under the right circumstances aluminum does catch fire, and the exact mechanism that governs how, has long been a mystery.

Now, new research by Los Alamos National Laboratory explosives scientist Bryce Tappan, published as the cover story in the prestigious German journal of chemistry Angewandte Chemie, for the first time confirms that chemical kinetics — the speed of a chemical reaction — is a primary function in determining nanoaluminum combustion burn rates.

"It's been long understood that nanoscale aluminum particles, 110 nanometers and smaller, are highly reactive. Aluminum particles at this scale have been used in novel explosives, propellants, and pyrotechnic formulations," said Tappan. "The understanding of the combustion mechanism impacts how we look at the design of ever smaller aluminum particles like molecular aluminum clusters as well as possible nanoaluminum applications like hydrogen fuel storage devices — and this might be a little 'out there' — but also energetic formulations that could use extraterrestrial water as the oxidizer in rocket fuel."

Tappan and his co-authors, Matthew Dirmyer of Los Alamos, and Grant Risha of Penn State University, made this discovery by looking for the "kinetic isotope effect" in nanoaluminum particles 110, 80, and 38 nanometers in size. The particles consisted of a "core-shell" structure with an elemental aluminum core and a two to five nanometer oxide shell. The particles are mixed with deionized water, H2O, or deuterium, D2O, to the gooey consistency of cake batter.

The kinetic isotope effect is observed in a chemical reaction when an atom of one of the reactants (water) is substituted with its isotope (deuterium, or "heavy water") and the two reactions are compared for differences. This effect is considered one of the most important tools in determining chemical reaction mechanisms.

Tappan and his team obtained burn rates by putting water/deuterium nanoaluminum mixtures in small glass tubes, placing the tubes in pressure vessels, igniting the nanoaluminum with a laser and taking measurements as the mixture burned.

For many years it’s been proposed that other mechanisms like oxygen diffusion through the particles, or tiny aluminum “explosions” in the mixture might govern the rates of the burning process. “Now we know that reaction kinetics are a major player,” said Tappan.

"Knowing much more about the mechanisms at work in metal combustion gives you a chance to refine the models that govern these reactions," Tappan added. "This fundamental knowledge gives us a window on how to better control these processes."

The research was funded by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at Los Alamos National Laboratory, with additional funding from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

PROBING INSIDE THE FUKUSHIMA REACTORS

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY 

Christopher Morris, leader of Los Alamos National Laboratory's Muon Tomography Project, watches an image of two dense hemispheres of lead develop on a computer screen after just over a minute of exposure to muons -- naturally occurring particles generated with cosmic rays interact with Earth's atmosphere. Morris and colleagues have developed a method to use muons to peer inside closed containers, even very dense ones, to detect smuggled nuclear materials or to peer inside damaged nuclear reactor cores, like those at the Fukushima Daiichi complex in Japan. (Photo Credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Probing Fukushima with Cosmic Rays Should Speed Cleanup
Los Alamos to partner with Toshiba to remotely and safely peer inside nuclear reactors

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., June 18, 2014—Los Alamos National Laboratory today announced an impending partnership with Toshiba Corporation to use a Los Alamos technique called muon tomography to safely peer inside the cores of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors and create high-resolution images of the damaged nuclear material inside without ever breaching the cores themselves. The initiative could reduce the time required to clean up the disabled complex by at least a decade and greatly reduce radiation exposure to personnel working at the plant.

“Our recent technical work has clearly shown that the muon scattering technique pioneered at Los Alamos provides a superior method for obtaining high-resolution images of nuclear materials inside structures, and this will allow plant operators to establish the condition of reactor-core material without the need to actually get inside,” said Duncan McBranch, Los Alamos’s Chief Technology Officer. “One of the most challenging, time-consuming and potentially dangerous tasks in cleaning up after a reactor accident is determining the condition and location of the core material, especially when the material itself may have melted and flowed to a different part of the building. Invasive techniques such as video endoscopy or introduction of robots run the risk of releasing radiation. Furthermore, those techniques at best offer a partial view of material location. Muon tomography will enable plant operators to see the location of the nuclear material inside, determine its condition, and provide crucial insight that can inform the design of a safer and faster cleanup. We are hopeful that our partnership with Toshiba will assist the Tokyo Electric Power Company and the Japanese government in their efforts to accelerate cleanup operations in the safest way possible.”

Muon radiography (also called cosmic-ray radiography) uses secondary particles generated when cosmic rays collide with upper regions of Earth’s atmosphere to create images of the objects that the particles, called muons, penetrate. The process is analogous to an X-ray image, except muons are produced naturally and do not damage the materials they contact. Muon radiography has been used before in imaginative applications such as mapping the interior of the Great Pyramid at Giza, but Los Alamos’s muon tomography technique represents a vast improvement over earlier technology.

In developing muon tomography, Los Alamos researchers found that by placing a pair of muon detectors in front of and behind an object, and measuring the degree of scatter the muons underwent as they interacted with the materials they penetrated, they could gather detailed images. The method works particularly well with highly interfering materials (so-called “high Z” materials) such as uranium.

Because the muon scattering angle increases with atomic number, core materials within a reactor show up more clearly than the surrounding containment building, plumbing and other objects. Consequently, the Los Alamos muon tomography method shows tremendous promise for pinpointing the exact location of materials within the Fukushima reactor buildings.

“Los Alamos researchers began working on an improved method for muon radiography within weeks of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that damaged the Fukushima reactor complex,” said Christopher Morris, chief scientist and leader of the Los Alamos Muon Tomography Team. “Within 18 months we had refined our technique and published a paper showing that the Los Alamos method was superior to traditional muon radiography techniques for remotely locating and identifying nuclear materials, and that it could be employed for field use.”

As part of the partnership, Los Alamos will assist Toshiba in developing a Muon Tracker for use at the Fukushima plant.

Los Alamos’s muon tomography technology also has the potential to be deployed in locations around the world to help detect smuggled nuclear materials. In fact, Los Alamos previously granted an exclusive license to Decision Sciences International Corporation for broad commercialization of the Los Alamos technology. The company has successfully deployed portal monitors that use muon tomography at a major seaport for cargo-container scanning as well as at other locations under their licensing agreement.

Muon tomography and development of its application at Fukushima was made possible in part through Los Alamos’ Laboratory-Directed Research and Development Program (LDRD), which uses a small percentage of the Laboratory’s overall budget to invest in new or cutting-edge research. The U.S. Department of Energy supported contacts of the Los Alamos team with other research groups, including several Japanese institutions and the University of Texas.

MICROSCOPE TAKES IMAGES USING PROTONS

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY 

Taking pictures with protons

U.S., German, Russian collaboration conducts first experiments in Germany

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., June 17, 2014—A new facility for using protons to take microscopic images has been commissioned at the ring accelerator of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH (Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research) in Darmstadt, Germany.

The proton microscope was developed by an international collaboration consisting of Los Alamos National Laboratory, GSI, the Technical University Darmstadt, and the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Russia.

Protons, like neutrons, are the building blocks of atomic nuclei. Similar to x-rays, they can be used to radiograph objects, generating images of them. Protons are able to penetrate hot dense matter that can't be examined with light or x-rays. This technology, also known as "proton radiography," was originally invented at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the 1990s, but has been adopted around the world. In the future, the technique will be used at an accelerator currently under construction in Darmstadt called the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) and at the proposed Matter and Radiation In Extremes (MaRIE) facility at Los Alamos.

In their first experiments, researchers used a proton beam accelerated to an energy of 4.5 gigaelectronvolts (more than 98 percent of the speed of light) by the GSI accelerator facility. A special setup of four quadrupole magnets served as optics to magnify objects with the beam. Initially, they radiographed different items like sets of wires with varying sizes and a wristwatch.

Scientists have succeeded in resolving objects and structures down to a size of 30 micrometers or one thousandth of an inch. The GSI facility, called the Proton Microscope for FAIR, or PRIOR, achieved resolutions comparable to existing facilities in the U.S. or Russia. Scientists plan to improve this to a value of up to 10 micrometers in experiments this year. Another goal is the recording of image sequences of moving objects. In experiments scheduled for July 2014 thin wires will be explosively evaporated by a strong electrical discharge, and this "plasma explosion" will be examined with the proton beam.

The study of plasma is of particular interest to scientists because plasma is found in stars or gas planets like Jupiter. This state of matter can be generated in the laboratory with lasers or strong electrical discharges for short intervals of time. Because protons can penetrate plasmas, they offer unique possibilities to measure the properties of plasma with instruments like PRIOR.

"Combining the experience of this international collaboration has proven to be very productive," said Frank Merrill of the Laboratory's Neutron Science and Technology group and a collaborator on the project. "By joining the enhancements gained from increased proton energy with the gains from proton microscope imaging lenses, a new and remarkable proton radiography capability has been developed."

"Next to the research on events in space, the technique also has very practical applications", said Dmitry Varentsov from GSI's department Plasma Physics and Detectors. "For example one could radiograph running engines or diagnose and treat tumors with it. We want to explore all these opportunities."

The proton microscope will also play an important role at the FAIR accelerator facility. GSI will serve as injector for FAIR. The new FAIR accelerators will provide protons with even higher energies improving the possibilities for experiments. After the completion of FAIR the PRIOR setup will be moved to the new facility. The development of this technique is being extended to the use of electrons and will be utilized for applications at MaRIE.

LANL PROVIDING FUNDS TO BUSINESS INCUBATOR FOR PURCHASE OF CYTOMETER

Right:  Photo Caption: Modern flow cytometers were invented at Los Alamos National Laboratory and can be used to count and sort individual cells from a stream of liquid. (Photo courtesy of Los Alamos National Laboratory)

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY

Santa Fe Business Incubator Nets Big Boost from Los Alamos Lab

BioScience Lab receives funding for cell-sorting machine

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., April 15, 2014—Los Alamos National Laboratory is providing funding to the Santa Fe Business Incubator BioScience Laboratory for the purchase of a commercial flow cytometer—a technology originally developed at Los Alamos and then later successfully commercialized by a Santa Fe company. The SFBI BioScience Lab is holding its open house today.

“The commercialization of flow cytometry is a true success for our sponsor, the National Institutes of Health, and it is a story that Los Alamos is proud to have played a part,” said David Pesiri, leader of the Richard P. Feynman Center for Innovation (FCI), the Laboratory’s technology transfer organization. “It’s fitting that the technology is coming back home to help boost the high-tech economy in the region. Not only did flow cytometers revolutionize the Human Genome Project, but this technology from the national laboratories is saving lives and delivering value to the marketplace.”

The Laboratory, through FCI, is providing $10,000 to SFBI for the purchase of an Attune flow cytometer. The SFBI is a not-for-profit economic development organization created in 1997 to support regional entrepreneurs with light manufacturing and laboratory space. The SFBI BioScience Laboratory is the region’s only shared facility providing state-of-the-art resources to entrepreneurs. The flow cytometer will provide an invaluable resource for start-up companies specializing in life-sciences applications, biotech and bio-medical devices.

In 2006, Los Alamos National Laboratory spun out a private company to commercialize a portable, low cost flow cytometer. This product was the culmination of more than four decades of programmatic research and development in the area of cytometry and cell sorting.

Los Alamos was a pioneer of flow cytometry. In the mid-1960s, physicist Mack Fulwyler married a cutting-edge cell-sorting system with fledgling ink-jet printing technology to create the modern flow cytometer. This platform gives researchers the ability to sort cells of different sizes and has been the standard in medical and biopharmaceutical industries to study and treat diseases such as cancer, AIDS, genetic disorders and other maladies.

“Los Alamos takes its responsibility to support and encourage private innovation very seriously,” said Pesiri. “We live in a complex and competitive world. Los Alamos understands working with private companies to develop resources and technologies that we can use to help fulfill our national-security mission is an important part of our Laboratory. Just as flow cytometry has evolved over the past 50 years, our approach to transferring technology to and from the private sector is evolving as well, and Los Alamos’s Feynman Center for Innovation aims to be part of how the U.S. gets it right.”

LANL ON USE OF QUANTUM DOTS TO IMPROVE SOLAR CELLS

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
Nontoxic Quantum Dot Research Improves Solar Cells

Record power-conversion efficiency at Los Alamos from quantum-dot sensitized photovoltaics

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Dec. 10, 2013—Solar cells made with low-cost, non-toxic copper-based quantum dots can achieve unprecedented longevity and efficiency, according to a study by Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sharp Corporation.

“For the first time, we have certified the performance of a quantum dot sensitized solar cell at greater than 5 percent, which is among the highest reported for any quantum dot solar cell,” said Hunter McDaniel, a Los Alamos postdoctoral researcher and the lead author on a paper appearing in Nature Communications this week. “The robust nature of these devices opens up the possibility for commercialization of this emerging low-cost and low-toxicity photovoltaic technology,” he noted.

The reported solar cells are based on a new generation of nontoxic quantum dots (not containing either lead or cadmium as do most quantum dots used in solar cells). These dots are based on copper indium selenide sulfide and are rigorously optimized to reduce charge-carrier losses from surface defects and to provide the most complete coverage of the solar spectrum.

“The new solar cells were certified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and demonstrated a record power-conversion efficiency for this type of devices,” according to Victor Klimov of Los Alamos, director of the Center for Advanced Solar Photophysics a DOE Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC). In addition to CASP-EFRC, this research has been also supported via a cooperative research agreement with Sharp Corporation.

The paper, “An integrated approach to realizing high-performance liquid-junction quantum dot sensitized solar cells” is scheduled for online publication in Nature Communications on Dec. 10, 2013.

The paper's authors are Hunter McDaniel, Nikolay S. Makarov, Jeffrey M. Pietryga, and Victor I. Klimov of the Center for Advanced Solar Photophysics, Los Alamos National Laboratory, in partnership with Nobuhiro Fuke of the Materials & Energy Technology Laboratory, Sharp Corporation, Japan.

LANL RESEARCHERS STUDY HIV VIRUS SPREAD WITH COMPUTER MODELING

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
HIV Virus Spread and Evolution Studied Through Computer Modeling

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., November 19, 2013—Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory are investigating the complex relationships between the spread of the HIV virus in a population (epidemiology) and the actual, rapid evolution of the virus (phylogenetics) within each patient’s body.

“We have developed novel ways of estimating epidemics dynamics such as who infected whom, and the true population incidence of infection versus mere diagnoses dates,” said Thomas Leitner, principal investigator. “Obviously, knowledge about these things is important for public health monitoring, decision making and intervention campaigns, and further to forensic investigations.”

The team models the uninfected population using traditional differential equations on the computer; this is done for computational speed, because an agent-based component is much more demanding. Once a person is infected, he/she becomes an “agent” in computer modeling terms, and the model starts following their behavior individually, as well as the viral HIV evolution within the person.

Agent-based Modeling Clarifies Infection History

This new modeling approach distinguishes between susceptible and infected individuals to capture the full infection history, including contact tracing data for infected individuals. The uninfected individuals are modeled at a population level and stratified by transmission risk and social group. The social network in this model forms – and can change – during the simulation. Thus, the model is much more realistic than traditional models.

The advantage of this epidemiological model, Leitner said, is that “it allows us to simulate many possible outcomes of epidemics with known parameters of human interactions, where social networks form as part of the agent interactions. It is a flexible system that has the ability to describe realistic human populations.”

Within a National Institutes of Health-supported project “Reconstructing HIV Epidemics from HIV Phylogenetics,” the team has published 10 papers describing new mathematical models and results from real data addressing these issues. Most recently, they published a Nature correspondence on the limitations of HIV forensics and the need for better standards.

Who Infected Whom

A key question is on the fundamental limitations to the inference of who infected whom, based on a concept known as the pre-transmission interval (which this group first described back in 1999). Another publication, published in Epidemics, developed a new hybrid model to simulate and analyze the spread of HIV or other pathogens spread in a human population. The work also appeared in PLoS-ONE Public Library of Science online publication.

As an example, the team modeled a Latvian HIV-1 epidemic, and they showed that injecting drug users fueled the heterosexual population, thereby sustaining the overall epidemic. The researchers are now expanding this hybrid model to also include HIV genetic evolution, which occurs in every infected individual.

The researchers have shown that in fast HIV epidemics – such as among individuals injecting themselves with drugs – HIV viral evolution is slow, resulting in little diversification at the population level. Meanwhile, slower-spreading epidemics display more HIV evolution over the same amount of time.

New Field of Phylodynamics Evolves

Understanding HIV’s genetic evolution will soon allow investigations of how accurately researchers can reconstruct different epidemiological scenarios using pathogen genetic materials, an important and growing field called phylodynamics.

The team also has developed a new mathematical model that facilitates estimation of when a person was infected with HIV based on a previously used biomarker (BED IgG).

“This is important because most HIV infected persons are not discovered shortly after infection rather, they are often discovered long after, often years after infection, said Leitner. “Thus, to estimate true incidence, that is when infections actually occurred, cannot be done based on diagnosis dates.”

Using Swedish surveillance data, the team has shown that the common assumption that infection occurred on average half way between last negative test and first positive test, is wrong. Instead, the actual infection is strongly skewed towards the first positive sample.

This finding should have large impact on epidemiological models used worldwide by public health organizations, Leitner says. “Currently, we have further developed this model to also correct for unknown cases, such as infected people not yet discovered but who contribute to new infections and thereby the true incidence of the disease.”

The Team Behind the Insights

Researchers include Frederik Graw, Thomas Leitner, Ruy M. Ribeiro, and Helena Skar (Los Alamos National Laboratory) and Jan Albert (Karolinska Institute and Karolinska University Hospital). The National Institutes of Health funded the research.

DEVELOPING VERY SENSITIVE METHANE-SENSING TECHNOLOGY

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
Technologies to Characterize Natural Gas Emissions Tested in Field Experiments

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., October 28, 2013—A new collaborative science program is pioneering the development of ultra-sensitive methane-sensing technology.

“Given the importance of methane to global climate change, this study is essential,” said Manvendra Dubey of Los Alamos National Laboratory “This work aids both commercial and government sectors in an effort to better understand and mitigate fugitive methane emissions.”

“A significant part of understanding Man’s role in global climate change is the accurate measurement of the components that have a profound effect on climate. This project takes four of the top organizations in the discipline and sets their expertise to the test, that of measuring methane in the field and then making the results available to the larger scientific community,” he said.

The program is a joint effort on the part of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Department of Energy (DOE), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Chevron Corporation. The program was launched following a field experiment at DOE’s Rocky Mountain Oil Testing Center (RMOTC) some 35 miles north of Casper, Wyoming.

Why Measure Methane?

Methane, the principal component of natural gas, is one of many gases whose presence in the atmosphere contributes to global climate change. It is a goal of industry and scientists alike to better constrain the source flux of fugitive methane emissions from man-made activities. A key tool in the measurement of methane is to understand the capabilities of currently available airborne and ground-based sensors.

Los Alamos and Chevron have worked collaboratively on sensor technology development since 2001, while the more nascent collaborative agreement between Chevron and NASA has been effective since July 2011.

The organizations have worked hard to develop a range of technologies targeting effective and responsible exploration and production of petroleum and natural gas that will ultimately provide benefit to the environment. The majority of these research projects have been focused on upstream applications in the oil and gas sector. The recent methane controlled release airborne/in situ project marks the first time that JPL and Los Alamos have worked collaboratively on an experiment this significant, the researchers said.

The Work in the Field

The summer science campaign at RMOTC (held June 20-26, 2013) was designed to measure methane abundances released at different rates using three airborne instruments on separate aircraft, a small, unmanned aerial system (sUAS), and an array of in situ sensors. The goal is to understand the sensitivity and accuracy at measuring methane for airborne sensors.

The methane was released at metered, controlled rates and observed downwind by a 45-foot tower at each release site to examine the spatiotemporal variability of methane and local winds, while the four aircraft flew overhead to allow for sensor performance appraisal under controlled conditions.

Who’s Who on the Team

The RMOTC’s primary mission is to provide facilities for advancing technologies applicable to the energy sector to promote enhanced safety and efficient energy production. As such, it provided the testing grounds for the recent Chevron/JPL/LANL methane controlled-release experiment. JPL was responsible for deployment of remote sensing airborne instruments and Los Alamos provided ground-based sensor and modeling capabilities.

Los Alamos was responsible for the in situ science including quantifying methane using tower-mounted ground based sensors and a Picarro Global Surveyor vehicle for real-time assessment of methane concentrations and its isotopic composition while conducting driving surveys.

“We have assembled a world-class dream team that harnesses national assets at NASA's JPL and DOE's LANL, each contributing their expertise to methane detection and attribution, with JPL providing airborne remote sensing expertise and LANL focusing on modeling and in situ measurements,” said Dubey, LANL’s principal investigator.

“The project is pioneering the development of ultra-sensitive methane sensing technology to fill current gaps in quantifying fugitive leaks from petroleum extraction. With US energy independence a priority to the nation, understanding the effects of varied extraction techniques is important and calls for high-quality data.”

JPL deployed three different airborne sensors: the Next Generation Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-ng), the Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES), and the CARVE instrument suite. All of the airborne sensors have capability to detect enhanced concentrations of methane from ground sources.

“We’ve organized deployment of a suite of state-of-the art instruments available for methane detection whose performance in controlled release testing will demonstrate their efficacy for methane remote sensing – preliminary results from our data analysis reveal detection of robust plume signatures from these controlled experiments,” said Andrew Aubrey, project manager at JPL.

“This study demonstrates tools that can be utilized for investigations of natural and anthropogenic methane emissions while also informing us to the performance expected from the next generation remote sensing instruments currently being designed at JPL.”

Over the coming months the team plans to publish and disseminate the results of their combined aerial and ground experiments. This study is particularly relevant given the importance of methane to global climate change and the co-aligned goals of commercial and government sectors to better understand and mitigate fugitive emissions. The tools tested at RMOTC include those technologies that can help to allow safe and responsible production of gas in future operations.

DOE SECRETARY VISITS LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY 
DOE secretary stresses energy security during Los Alamos visit

Tours biology laboratory created in partnership with county, universities, LANL

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Sept. 3, 2013—U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz today during a visit to Los Alamos National Laboratory and the new biological laboratory built by the New Mexico Consortium (NMC) to explore alternative fuel sources from algae and other plants said that Los Alamos and all the DOE labs have a major role in addressing two key initiatives of the President.

“In view of the President's emphasis on nuclear security and climate change, the work at Los Alamos has never been more important," Secretary Moniz said.

Moniz also addressed Los Alamos employees and received briefings on the Laboratory’s nuclear weapons and intelligence work. It was the first visit by an Energy secretary to Los Alamos since 2009.

Moniz was accompanied by Rep. Ben Ray Luján and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology President Daniel Lopez.

The NMC is a non-profit formed by the three New Mexico research universities to engage universities and industry in scientific research in the nation's interest and to increase the role of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in science, education and economic development in the state.

The Biological Laboratory was built by the NMC in partnership with the County of Los Alamos, Los Alamos National Bank and Los Alamos National Laboratory. The County of Los Alamos played a critical role in the project, providing a $2.6 million toward construction of the building.

The NMC Biological Laboratory supports the LANL/NMC initiative in sustainable global energy and food security. This initiative pursues joint research on higher yielding biofuel production systems and more nutritious and higher yielding crops.

“Los Alamos National Laboratory has been forward thinking and innovative in pursuing new mechanisms to engage with universities and industry through the NMC. I am very excited about the future of this partnership. ” said NMC Executive Director Katharine Chartrand.

LANL ANNOUNCES EXPRESS LICENSING PROGRAM FOR NEW TECHNOLOGY

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY 

Los Alamos National Laboratory announces Express Licensing program

Streamlined procedure speeds business access to new technology

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., August 1, 2013—With the launch of a new “Express Licensing” program, access to innovative technology invented at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has gotten easier. The new licensing alternative was announced today by David Pesiri, director of LANL’s Technology Transfer Division.

“The Express License program offers an additional licensing resource for local entrepreneurs as well as national collaborators,” Pesiri said. “Our licensing and software teams have worked very hard to offer this specialized model for those wanting to quickly license Los Alamos technology.”

The Express Licensing program at LANL is the first of several new initiatives under development by the Technology Transfer Division (TT) at Los Alamos that should streamline access to LANL innovations by potential partners and customers.

“The primary goal of our first new commercialization initiative, the Express Licensing program, is to provide easy access to Los Alamos technologies and expedite the licensing process,” said Laura Barber, licensing manager at LANL. “This program will provide an accelerated, streamlined process for non-exclusive licensing of patents and software at LANL, with favorable, pre-established terms that eliminate time-consuming negotiations. Many of the software packages are freely available as either executable downloads or open-source software and may be accessed online with the click of a mouse.”

“By making access to LANL technologies faster, easier and more valuable to our partners, this initiative moves us closer to our broader goal of getting Los Alamos innovations into the hands of the experts in the marketplace and elsewhere who can make an impact,” Pesiri said.

LANL HONORED FOR INNOVATION AND UTILITY

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
X-Ray Imaging, Spacecraft Nuclear Fission and Cosmic Ray Contraband Detection Score R&D 100 Awards

Los Alamos and partner technologies honored for innovation and utility

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., July 8, 2013—R&D Magazine today announced the winners of its annual “R&D 100” competition, commonly known as the “Oscars of Innovation,” and three technologies from Los Alamos National Laboratory and its partners are among the honorees.

“The innovation and creativity shown in this year’s awards is truly inspiring. It gives me great confidence in the Laboratory’s intellectual vitality and ongoing role in national security science. Congratulations to our researchers and their partners,” said Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charles McMillan.

A Digital X-ray Imager for Field Use

 MiniMAX is a battery powered, digital x-ray imaging system that is completely self-contained, lightweight, compact and portable. Its applications include homeland security (postal inspection of suspicious packages and explosive ordnance disposal), nondestructive testing, weld inspection, disaster relief (to triage broken bones and confirm dental X-rays) and for field and veterinary medicine. (Joint entry with Los Alamos, Leica Camera AG, JDS Uniphase and JENOPTIK Optical Systems LLC.)
Nuclear Fission for Spacecraft

KiloPower uses a nuclear fission system as a heat source that transfers heat via a heat pipe to a small Stirling-engine-based power convertor to produce electricity from uranium. With KiloPower, it is possible for NASA and other government and industrial organizations to continue developing probes and spacecraft for the exploration of deep space. (Joint entry with Los Alamos, NASA Glenn Research Center and National Security Technologies, LLC.)
Cosmic Ray Muons for Contraband Detection

Multi-Mode Passive Detection System (MMPDS) is a scanning device using muon particles from cosmic rays for quickly detecting unshielded to heavily shielded nuclear and radiological threats as well as explosives and other contraband. (Joint entry with Los Alamos and Decision Sciences International Corporation.)
But wait, there’s more. . .

Los Alamos was also a joint winner with Sandia National Laboratories, which led the work, on

Mantevo Suite 1.0: This suite of software prototypes or small sections of code allows computational scientists to measure the performance of new computing environments and helps in the design of future computing applications. (Joint entry with Sandia, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories, the United Kingdom-based Atomic Weapons Establishment and Santa Clara-based NVIDIA Corp.)
A History of Success

Since 1978 when it first competed, Los Alamos has won 129 of the prestigious R&D100 awards that celebrate the top 100 proven technological advances of the year as judged by R&D Magazine. These technologies include innovative new materials, chemistry breakthroughs, biomedical products, consumer items, testing equipment, and high-energy physics.

In the years since 1995, winning innovations have returned more than $45 million in funding to Los Alamos in the form of Cooperative Research and Development Agreements, Work for Others, User Facility Agreements and licenses. An estimated 80 patent awards have been associated with winners with many more patents pending. Some 25 percent of LANL's commercial licenses and 35 percent of noncommercial licenses can be attributed to R&D 100 winners.

MiniMAX_With_Carbon#66DDD1D.jpg
KILOnotextSM[2].jpg
multi-mode passive #66DDCF3.jpg
About Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and URS Corporation for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.

LANL BEATS WASTE SHIPMENT GOAL

FROM:  LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY

Los Alamos Exceeds Waste Shipping Goal
Lab breaks another record with three months remaining in fiscal year

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., July 8, 2013—Los Alamos National Laboratory, which broke its waste shipping records in 2012, has exceeded last year’s record with three months left to go in fiscal year 2013. During the past nine months, Los Alamos shipped 1,074 cubic meters of transuranic (TRU) and mixed low-level waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and other approved waste disposal facilities, exceeding last year’s record of 920 cubic meters.

“Los Alamos continues to exceed expectations dispositioning waste from Area G,” said Pete Maggiore, assistant manager for Environmental Operations at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos Field Office. “The success of this campaign has been made possible through the efforts of many people, including our partners at the New Mexico Environment Department.”

The effort is part of an agreement between the New Mexico Environment Department and the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and Office of Environmental Management to remove 3,706 cubic meters of TRU waste stored aboveground at Area G, the Laboratory’s waste storage facility, by June 30, 2014. The accelerated removal campaign is in its second year, with a goal to remove 2,600 cubic meters of waste by September 30, 2013. Since the campaign began, Los Alamos has removed 1,994 cubic meters of waste.

“We’ve made significant progress removing waste stored above ground at Area G, and we made this progress while maintaining an excellent safety record,” said Jeff Mousseau, associate director of Environmental Programs at the Laboratory. “We are confident this trend will continue throughout the rest of the campaign.”

What is transuranic, or TRU, waste?

TRU waste consists of clothing, tools, rags, debris, soil and other items contaminated with radioactive material, mostly plutonium. Transuranic elements such as plutonium have an atomic number greater than uranium, so they are labeled transuranic, for “beyond uranium” on the periodic table of elements.

About 90 percent of the current TRU waste inventory is a result of decades of nuclear research and weapons production at the Laboratory and is often referred to as “legacy” waste.

LOS ALAMOS ANNOUNCES NEW REPACKAGING FACILITY GOES ONLINE TO PROCESS NUCLEAR WASTE

A view of the new box line facility where transuranic waste will be repackaged at Los Alamos National Laboratory

FROM: LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
Los Alamos National Laboratory opens new waste repackaging facility
Box line facility is largest of its kind ever built

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., March 7, 2013—Los Alamos National Laboratory has brought a third waste repackaging facility online to increase its capability to process nuclear waste for permanent disposal.

The "375 box line facility" enables Los Alamos to repackage transuranic (TRU) waste stored in large boxes.

Built inside a dome once used to house containers of waste at the Laboratory, the facility is the largest Perma-Con© structure ever constructed. A Perma-Con© is a modular structure typically used for radiological or hazardous containment. Contaminated items such as equipment and protective clothing, used during past operations at Los Alamos, are removed from their containers inside the structure and then are repackaged for shipment to licensed, permanent disposal facilities.

The record-setting structure is 110 feet long by 48 feet wide.

"We needed to build a structure big enough to accommodate these waste boxes, some of which are 40 feet long," said Jeff Mousseau, associate director of environmental programs at LANL. "These are the largest, most contaminated boxes of waste at Los Alamos, and this facility will give us the capability to repackage them safely."

The Perma-Con© structure was provided by Radiation Protection Systems, Inc.

"The 375 box line facility is the largest, most technically challenging and complex containment facility RPS has produced to date," said Bill Rambow, Radiation Protection Systems CEO. "The RPS team is very proud to have contributed to the LANL TRU waste disposal effort."

The facility is part of an effort to accelerate removal of 3,706 cubic meters of TRU waste currently stored above ground at Los Alamos. As part of an agreement with the State of New Mexico, the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Laboratory have made removing this waste one of their top environmental priorities. In the first year of the accelerated work, Los Alamos shattered its former nuclear waste shipping records, with more than 230 waste shipments resulting in the disposition of 920 cubic meters of TRU waste.

"This new repackaging facility will allow us to dispose of even greater volumes of TRU waste during the coming months," said Pete Maggiore, assistant manager for environmental operations at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Los Alamos Field Office.

Photograph cutlines:

A view of the new box line facility where transuranic waste will be repackaged at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

A worker transports the first box of waste to be repackaged at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s newest box line facility.

What is transuranic, or TRU, waste?

TRU waste consists of clothing, tools, rags, debris, soil and other items contaminated with radioactive material, mostly plutonium. Transuranic elements such as plutonium have an atomic number greater than uranium, so they are labeled transuranic, for "beyond uranium" on the periodic table of elements.

About 90 percent of the current TRU waste inventory is a result of decades of nuclear research and weapons production at the Laboratory and is often referred to as "legacy" waste.

About Perma-Con© Modular Containment Structures The Perma-Con© structure built to process TRU waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory was provided by Radiation Protection Systems, Inc. A description of the modular enclosures, as well as company contact information, is provided here.

TO ALL MARTIANS: WE COME IN PEACE TO BLAST YOUR PLANET WITH A LASER

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
FROM: LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
Los Alamos Laser Instrument Arrives on Red Planet’s Surface
LANL ChemCam to be tested soon and will begin probing Mars mysteries

LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO, August 6, 2012—Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists are elated by Sunday’s successful landing of NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars, and are ready to begin a nearly two-year-long mission that will use a rock-zapping laser device mounted on the mast of the SUV-sized rover to help unravel mysteries of the Red Planet. The ChemCam laser characterization instrument was developed at LANL and the French space institute, IRAP.

"I can’t describe the feeling when we realized that Curiosity had landed safely on the planet," said LANL planetary scientist Roger Wiens, principal investigator of the Mars Science Laboratory mission’s ChemCam team. "My own curiosity about Mars began when I was a boy, and having an instrument that I’ve handled land on the Martian surface fulfills a lifelong dream that started long ago with a backyard telescope. This is an extremely happy, fulfilling moment."

The ChemCam system is one of 10 instruments mounted on the MSL mission’s Curiosity rover—a six-wheeled mobile laboratory that will roam more than 12 miles of the planet’s surface during the course of one Martian year (98 Earth weeks). When ChemCam fires its extremely powerful laser pulse, it briefly focuses the energy of a million light bulbs onto an area the size of a pinhead. The laser blast vaporizes part of its target up to seven meters (23 feet) away.

The resultant flash of glowing plasma is viewed by the system’s 4.3-inch aperture telescope, which records the colors of light within the flash. These spectral colors are then interpreted by a spectrometer, enabling scientists to determine the elemental composition of the vaporized material. ChemCam also has a high-resolution camera that provides close-up images of an analyzed location. It can image a human hair from seven feet away.

The core ChemCam team is comprised of Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers and scientists from IRAP, a partner institution in Toulouse, France. Scientists from around the U.S., France, Canada, and the United Kingdom, along with post-doctoral researchers and students from LANL, round out the entire 45-person team.

Sometime around August 10 (sol 4 in Martian days after landing), the ChemCam team expects to take images of calibration targets mounted on the Rover. These initial tests will help scientists determine the integrity of the ChemCam system and the pointing capability of the rover’s mast, which supports ChemCam’s laser and telescope.

The ChemCam instrument is the first to perform active remote sensing on the surface of the Red Planet. It can deliver three laser pulses each second to a single area, or it can quickly zap multiple areas, providing researchers with great versatility for sampling the surface of the planet. The first few laser pulses remove dust that would otherwise obscure the target surface, enabling scientists to observe the underlying sample. In that sense, the laser is like a long arm that can reach out more than twenty feet and brush off a sample before analysis.

The laser can profile through and study surface coatings on rocks, which, Earth scientists have learned, can often provide important clues to climate and water interaction, and can indicate biological interaction with surface materials. ChemCam is designed to look for lighter elements such as hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, all of which are crucial for life, as well as to determine abundances of other elements.

After firing its laser, the ChemCam system looks at the entire visible spectrum as well as portions on either side (the infrared and ultraviolet), which gives the instrument the ability to see any element in the periodic table. Researchers expect to take the first analyses of the Martian surface sometime on or after sol 11 or 12 (August 17-18). The system is designed to capture as many as 14,000 observations throughout the mission.

Curiosity is expected to investigate the Gale Crater located close to the equator near the boundary between the southern highlands and the more featureless northern low plains of Mars. The massive crater spans 96 miles in diameter, an area roughly equivalent to the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. A towering mountain, informally named Mount Sharp, rises up nearly three miles above the crater floor. This mammoth feature will provide opportunities for ChemCam to sample geologic layers on the mountainside.

"The amazing thing about the mountain in Gale crater is that it appears from orbit to be entirely sedimentary material," said Nina Lanza, a post-doctoral researcher in LANL’s International, Space, and Response (ISR) division. "This is a collection of sedimentary layers that is nearly three times higher than the Grand Canyon is deep."

Probing this stratified geology with ChemCam could help researchers understand how the Red Planet transformed over time into a drier, less hospitable climate.

Los Alamos also has roles in other aspects of the Mars Science Laboratory. Dave Vaniman of LANL’s Earth and Environmental Sciences Division is deputy leader of another instrument called CheMin, which uses X-ray diffraction to determine the composition of mineral samples collected and dropped into a funnel on the Curiosity rover.

Los Alamos also provided radioisotope fuel processing and encapsulation for the rover's electrical power generator and heat source, called a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG). The generator keeps the rover's battery charged night and day, giving Curiosity the potential of being the longest-operating, farthest-traveling, most-productive Mars surface mission in history.

Weighing nearly a ton, Curiosity is the largest rover ever deployed to another planet. Previously, NASA sent a pair of much smaller rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, to Mars in January 2004. Both rovers gathered a wide range of rock and soil data that have helped provide important information about the wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable to supporting microbial life. The Opportunity rover continues to gather data and send images and information back to Earth—surpassing its planned mission by many years