Solar-Powered Balloons Detect Mysterious Sounds in the Stratosphere #ASA184

To reach the stratosphere, Daniel Bowman of Sandia National Laboratories and his collaborators build relatively simple, solar-powered balloons that span 6 to 7 meters across. After releasing the balloons, they track their routes using GPS and use them to collect data and detect low-frequency sound with microbarometers. Rarely disturbed by planes or turbulence, the microphones on the balloons pick up a variety of sounds unheard anywhere else. Bowman will present his findings using these hot air balloons to eavesdrop on stratospheric sounds at the upcoming 184th ASA Meeting.

Legendary licenses

Licensing expert Bob Westervelt, who has worked to transfer Sandia National Laboratories technologies in the medical, solar and hydrogen production fields, received the 2021 Outstanding Technology Transfer Professional Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium.

International research team begins uncovering Arctic mystery

According to 25 international researchers who collaborated on a first-of-its-kind study, frozen land beneath rising sea levels currently traps 60 billion tons of methane and 560 billion tons of organic carbon. Little is known about the frozen sediment and soil — called submarine permafrost

Helping protect medical professionals

A media comprised of a sandwich of materials, tested by Sandia National Laboratories, is being manufactured into N95-like respirators that could be used in local medical facilities. The project originated from the urgent need for personal protective equipment when the COVID-19 outbreak began.

UAH scientist lands $750,000 DOE EPSCoR grant for low temperature plasma research

A principal research scientist in The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research (CSPAR) has been awarded a $750,000 grant from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) for low temperature plasma (LTP).

Sandia, Puerto Rican university collaborate to develop energy projects for global tropics

A new 10-year agreement between Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, has the potential to bring more reliable electricity to remote communities and the latest in electrical grid technology to rural areas in the world’s tropics. A Sandia manager who was born and grew up in Puerto Rico says the agreement will continue a decadeslong relationship with the university he attended.

Internships fuel research for engineering students from Puerto Rico

The Consortium for Integrating Energy Systems in Engineering and Science Education, CIESESE, internship program, sponsored by the National Nuclear Security Administration, connects engineering students from five Hispanic-serving institutions, including UPRM, with research at Sandia National Laboratories and the National Energy Technology Laboratory. The program has recently been extended through next summer.

High-speed fire footage reveals key insights for power plant safety

Fire protection and optical engineers at Sandia National Laboratories are using high-speed cameras and advanced algorithms, imaging and analytic methods to understand these dangerous arc faults between two conductors, such as the high-voltage bus bars in a switchgear at a power plant. Flames in an arc fault experiment contain useful information that can help keep power plants operating safely.

American Indian Science and Engineering Society recognizes early-career Sandia engineer

Geoscience engineer Dylan Moriarty has been named the 2019 Most Promising Engineer or Scientist by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. The award is given to an American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, First Nations and other indigenous person of North America with less than five years of work experience since his or her last degree.

Earthquake or underground explosion?

Sandia National Laboratories researchers, as part of a group of National Nuclear Security Administration scientists, have wrapped up years of field experiments to improve the United States’ ability to differentiate earthquakes from underground explosions, key knowledge needed to advance the nation’s monitoring and verification capabilities for detecting underground nuclear explosions.