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The sealing potential of a caprock is critical for the long-term success of geologic carbon storage and can be influenced by lithological heterogeneities and structural discontinuities (e.g., bedding planes, fractures, and faults). CO2LPIE project investigates the field-scale sealing potential of heterogeneous Opalinus Clay formation under periodic CO2-water injection. Laboratory experiments are conducted on specimens representing the shaly and sandy facies extracted from potential injection sites. It appears that the sandy facies, due to their greater fraction of quartz and carbonate minerals, exhibit higher drained and unjacketed bulk moduli than the shaly facies. The sandy specimens display permeability a few times higher than the shaly counterparts due to differences in pore-scale characteristics. The permeability values of both facies remain well below the threshold required for an effective caprock. A power-law porosity-permeability relationship with sensitivity exponent values of 17-18 is identified, highlighting that even minor porosity variations can significantly change the fluid flow through Opalinus Clay. While existing models capture general permeability trends, they fail to represent this extreme sensitivity to porosity changes. To improve predictability at the field scale, future work will integrate these laboratory findings with numerical simulations and in-situ experiments, advancing the understanding of caprock integrity under CO2 injection conditions. 

Effective water resource management in the western United States (WUS) is possible only with accurate monitoring and forecasting of seasonal snowpacks. Seasonal snowpack, a major water source for the WUS, is declining due to anthropogenic climate change. Overprinted on this trend is year-to-year variance in snowpack extent and mass due to influences from teleconnections related to the El Niño Southern Oscillation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Recently in the 2015 and 2016 winters, extreme droughts in the coastal WUS, mainly the Pacific Northwest (PNW) states of Washington and Oregon were linked with anomalously warm sea surface temperatures (SST) in northeastern Pacific Ocean. Here, we use convergent cross maps (CCMs) to analyze time series of SSTs and snow water equivalent (SWE) in the PNW. For some ecoregions, we show that extratropical SSTs may have a stronger influence on snowfall and snow accumulation in the PNW compared to tropical indices of climatic variability. Cold (warm) SSTs in the northeast Pacific lead to high (low) snow years. CCMs also performed better in recreating SWE anomalies compared to linear regressions with lagged predictor variables. Accounting for the influence of SSTs may help water resource managers to better predict and prepare for extreme snow events in the future. 

Abstract Accurate and timely inland waterbody extent and location data are foundational information to support a variety of hydrological applications and water resources management. Recently, the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) has emerged as a promising tool for delineating inland water due to distinct surface reflectivity characteristics over dry versus wet land which are observable by CYGNSS’s eight microsatellites with passive bistatic radars that acquire reflected L-band signals from the Global Positioning System (GPS) (i.e., signals of opportunity). This study conducts a baseline 1-km comparison of water masks for the contiguous United States between latitudes of 24°N-37°N for 2019 using three Earth observation systems: CYGNSS (i.e., our baseline water mask data), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) (i.e., land water mask data), and the Landsat Global Surface Water product (i.e., Pekel data). Spatial performance of the 1-km comparison water mask was assessed using confusion matrix statistics and optical high-resolution commercial satellite imagery. When a mosaic of binary thresholds for 8 sub-basins for CYGNSS data were employed, confusion matrix statistics were improved such as up to a 34% increase in F1-score. Further, a performance metric of ratio of inland water to catchment area showed that inland water area estimates from CYGNSS, MODIS, and Landsat were within 2.3% of each other regardless of the sub-basin observed. Overall, this study provides valuable insight into the spatial similarities and discrepancies of inland water masks derived from optical (visible) versus radar (Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry, GNSS-R) based satellite Earth observations. 

Tissue failure at suture lines contributes to complications and readmissions following complex surgeries in distensible organs such as those performed in the lower urinary tract. Excess tension at points of tissue approximation can contribute to abnormal wound healing, urine leaks, infections, and fistula development. A flexible biodegradable adhesive patch that adheres to dynamic tissue and prevents non-targeted adhesion to adjacent tissue is needed to provide support at suture sites throughout the wound healing process. Herein, we have developed a ready-to-use bilayer adhesive patch (BLAP) to reinforce suture lines for application to expandable and dynamic fluid-filled tissues such as the bladder. The external non-adhesive layer of BLAP comprises a bioabsorbable poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) elastomer, preventing undesired adhesion to the adjunct tissues. The internal tissue binding layer is composed of PGS modified with L-dopamine (L-DOPA) to allow immediate adhesion to the wet surface of the target tissue. Physical and mechanical properties of the patches were tuned by varying glycerol to sebacate ratios, L-DOPA contents, and curing time to achieve compliance that approximates that of bladder tissue. The candidate PG2S and PG2SD0.018 biomaterials of the designed BLAP demonstrated Young's moduli of 49.4 kPa and 61.5 kPa and stretchability between 174.7% and 223.7%, respectively. BLAP adhered tightly to a porcine bladder repaired cystotomy ex vivo, reinforcing the sutured line and increasing bladder burst pressure more than stand-alone surgical sutures or a commercial bioadhesive glue, Tisseel®. These features, combined with >90% cytocompatibility and biodegradability, render BLAP a promising elastic bioadhesive patch to reinforce suture lines in the bladder. Beyond the urinary tract, BLAP has the potential to be mechanically tuned for a variety of other non-planar, dynamic tissues. 

Geomagnetic Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) are terrestrial manifestations of the propagation of very low frequency magnetic fluid waves in the magnetosphere, and it is critical to develop near real-time space weather products to monitor these geomagnetic disturbances. A wavelet-based index is described in this paper and applied to study geomagnetic ULF pulsations observed in Antarctica and their magnetically conjugate locations in West Greenland. Results showed that (1) the index is effective for identification of pulsation events in the Pc4–Pc5 frequency range, including transient events, and measures important characteristics of ULF pulsations in both the temporal and frequency domains. (2) Comparison between conjugate locations reveals the similarities and differences between ULF pulsations in northern and southern hemispheres during solstice conditions, when the largest asymmetries are expected. Results also showed that the geomagnetic pulsations at conjugate locations respond differently according to the Interplanetary Magnetic Field condition, magnetic field topology, magnetic latitude of the observation, and other conditions. The actual magnetospheric and ionospheric configurations and driving conditions in the case need to be further studied.