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Environment

Projects/Programs

Displaying 1 - 25 of 95
Photograph of a labeled amber bottle containing SRM 2429.

Activated Carbon and FGD Gypsum Standard Reference Materials

Completed
The role of mercury in the environment is now receiving close scrutiny because ultimately it can bioaccumulate as alkyl mercury in seafood with subsequent risk to human health through trophic transfer. Many industrial sources of mercury have been effectively reduced in recent years, but atmospheric
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Advanced Microscopy for Trace and Bulk Particle Characterization

Ongoing
The goal of this project is to help develop innovative metrologies and measurement protocols for micro/nano-scale analysis of particles. In this project, state-of-the-art optical and electron-based microscopy are used to conduct research for quantitative and qualitative analysis of chemical
Atmospheric Particles

Analysis and Modeling of Atmospheric Particles to Assess Effects on Climate

Ongoing
Spectral data from satellite and ground-based remote sensing instruments are used to monitor the effects of atmospheric aerosols on climate. Determinations of how aerosols interact with sunlight or infrared radiation from Earth’s surface rely upon an aerosol model that approximates the sizes, shapes
Photograph of gas cylinders

Audit of EPA Protocol Gas Suppliers

Ongoing
Protocol gas standards are employed in measurements made for compliance purposes; one of the major uses is for measurements of regulated gaseous species from stationary source emitters, i.e., stack gases. Many of these stationary sources are regulated through the Cap and Trade program; therefore

Biogenic Modeling and Measurements

Ongoing
For purposes of top-down GHG emissions monitoring, a high-resolution biospheric model is needed that can resolve fine-scale variability in the atmosphere due to biospheric fluxes. Therefore, we currently focus on models that resolve the diurnal cycle and can be run at high spatial resolutions (e.g

Biosurveillance and Pathogen Detection

Ongoing
NIST has established partnerships with other federal agencies to develop standards and measurement solutions to support biosurveillance. These efforts are supported in part through interagency agreements with partner agencies listed below to address their standards needs. PROGRAMS Standards for
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Bringing the SI to Global Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Measurement

Ongoing
This multifaceted program leverages expertise in three complementary technical focus areas- all of which involve SI-traceable measurements of relevant atmospheric species such as carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor and oxygen. The efforts include gravimetrically based preparation of primary

Building-Level Seismic Performance Assessment

Ongoing
Objective: To better understand the seismic performance of buildings designed in areas of medium-to-high seismicity and to identify ways to create enhanced performance through low-damage approaches, improved code provisions, and improved analysis procedures. What is the Problem? Despite progress
Image showing a variety of gas tanks with carbon dioxide

Carbon Dioxide Measurements and Reference Materials

Ongoing
CO 2 Reference Materials The Gas Sensing Metrology Group at NIST has a long history of providing reference materials to industry, monitoring communities, and academia. The program began in the 1970’s by developing an initial suite of CO2 primary standard mixtures (PSMs) to support the US Department
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Carbon Removal, Capture, Use, and Sequestration

Ongoing
NIST develops benchmark materials, measurements, data, and models to accelerate innovation in and validate performance of materials and technologies for the capture of carbon from air and sequestration in building materials.
Wordcloud consisting of words CCQM metrology group task etc.

CCQM Activities in the Gas Analysis Working Group

Ongoing
The results from these Key comparisons will be used to benchmark the appropriate Calibration and Measurement Claims (CMCs) of the participating NMIs. CMCs are basically the declared capabilities that an NMI offers to customers, and they are included in a searchable database at the BIPM web site
Photograph of three Standard Reference Materials of various soil matrices.

Certification of Three Soil SRMs for Inorganic Environmental Measurements

Completed
The three NIST soil SRMs, 2709, 2710 and 2711, have been used worldwide by hundreds of laboratories; combined sales typically exceed 800 units per year. Use of these SRMs provides our customers with tools that are essential for achieving quality assurance in the analysis of contaminant elements in
Map of the Northern hemisphere Pacific Ocean, with environmental specimen sampling sites indicated with data points in the Hawaiian Islands, Alaska, and Bering Sea locations.

Classification Methods for the NIST Biorepository

Ongoing
NIST has been archiving biological and environmental specimens, including marine animal and environmental samples, for over 40 years. Currently, these biospecimens are stored at cryogenic temperatures in the NIST Biorepository located at the Hollings Marine Laboratory in Charleston, SC. Various
Illustration of satellite sensing of sunlight reflected by buildings, roads, water and trees to assess radiative warming of the earth.

Climate Science

Ongoing
This program encompasses multifaceted efforts to advance the metrology of climate science. Projects include: development of ultra-high accuracy optical standards and technologies to determine greenhouse gases (GHGs) concentrations, atmospheric lifetimes, and aerosol radiative forcing development of

Coastal Inundation: Hazard Characterization and Structural Design

Ongoing
Objective - To develop next-generation methods and tools to better characterize coastal inundation hazards, associated loads, and response of structures, thus enabling performance-based standards for designing structures that resist coastal inundation. What is the new technical idea? Current design
NIST

Community Resilience Program

Ongoing
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES: To develop science-based tools for communities, professionals, and researchers to assess resilience and to support informed planning and decision making at the community scale for improving resilience in communities of all sizes. To conduct a multi-faceted outreach effort to
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Comparative Mammalian Proteome Aggregator Resource (CoMPARe) Program

Ongoing
Comparative proteomics strives to gain insight into key underlying molecular changes that result in unique phenotypes across related taxa. Proteomic analysis complements comparative genomics by providing evidence of protein abundance, orthogonal to gene copy number and amount of transcript. To
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Comparative Serum Proteomics Project

Ongoing
State-of-the-art biomolecular analysis is no longer limited to model organisms and is becoming routine in non-model organisms. Major drivers of this emerging bioanalytical capacity include increasing accessibility and quality of sequenced genomes as well as high-resolution fast-duty cycle mass
Big data analysis report on 3D effects.AI technology generated image

Data Tools for Environmental Metrology

Ongoing
A recent addition to operations in the NIST Biorepository, we seek out places where NIST scientists get bogged down by the complexity of their data. Research at NIST can generated some of the most complex data in the world, at times requiring six months or more of processing to get to the data

Design Methods for Resilient Community Systems

Ongoing
Objective - To advance design and assessment methods for buildings and infrastructure to improve their ability to support the social and economic functions they support and community resilience. What is the technical idea? Quantitative approaches to identify and evaluate the performance of the built

Development of a First-Generation Community-Resilience Systems Model

Ongoing
Objective - To develop computer-based tools that facilitate exploration of decision alternatives for community resilience and that specifically address key challenges related to the scale and interdependencies of the system and the complexities of the planning process. What is the new technical idea

Development and Implementation of the Community Resilience Planning Guides

Ongoing
Objective - To develop guidance documents ( Community Resilience Planning Guide for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems and supporting Guide Briefs) to improve community resilience and to collect data from communities implementing the guidance documents to inform future versions. What is the new