Broad Time Scale Research Articles

Full-scale polymer relaxation induced by single-chain confinement enhances mechanical stability of nanocomposites

Polymer nanocomposites with tuning functions are exciting candidates for various applications, and most current research has focused on static mechanical reinforcement. Actually, under service conditions of complex dynamic interference, stable dynamic mechanical properties with high energy dissipation become more critical. However, nanocomposites often exhibit a trade-off between static and dynamic mechanics, because of their contradictory underlying physics between chain crosslinking and chain relaxation. Here, we report a general strategy for constructing ultra-stable dynamic mechanical complex fluid nanocomposites with high energy dissipation by infusing complex fluids into the nanoconfined space. The key is to tailor full-scale polymer dynamics across an exceptionally broad timescale by single-chain confinement. These materials exhibit stable storage modulus (100 ~ 102 MPa) with high energy dissipation (loss factor > 0.4) over a broad frequency range (10−1 ~ 107 Hz)/temperature range (−35 ~ 85°C). In the loss factor > 0.4 region, their dynamic mechanical stability (rate of modulus change versus temperature (k)) is 10 times higher than that of conventional polymer nanocomposites.

Response of an Avifaunal Community to the La Tuna Fire in the Verdugo Mountains of Southern California

In California’s coastal sage scrub and chaparral, fire reshapes the distribution of vegetation and the composition of bird communities, although the direction of the response in various habitats remains unclear. We investigated changes in the bird community at one site following the 2017 La Tuna Fire in the Verdugo Mountains of southern California. We found that the community’s diversity and evenness did not change, but the structure of foraging guilds did. Counts of omnivores and aerial and generalist foragers increased significantly, whereas counts of granivores and shrub foragers decreased. The number of insectivores decreased slightly, and ground foragers appeared unaffected. Principal components analysis suggests positive, neutral, and negative responses of birds associated with these guilds were driving differences in their abundances after the fire. We show how post-fire bird distributions may be related to fire severity, vegetation structure, and interspecific interactions. However, differences between our results and those of other studies suggest that patterns of bird community response to wildfire may be dictated by factors both related and unrelated to the fire over broader time scales.

An Updated Fault Coupling Model Along Major Block‐Bounding Faults on the Eastern and Northeastern Tibetan Plateau From a Stress‐Constrained Inversion of GPS and InSAR Data

AbstractLarge block‐bounding faults on the Tibetan plateau are significant geological structures that accommodate tectonic movements and accumulate stress, leading to large earthquakes. Quantifying the interseismic slip deficit rate helps to better assess the earthquake potential. We combine available InSAR (2015–2020) and interseismic GPS data to determine fault coupling along 14 major block‐bounding faults. Spatially dense InSAR measurements remarkably improve the resolution of the coupling model. Combined with a GPS‐constrained block model, we examine the performance of the inversion approach with the stress constraint and the common Laplacian smoothing based on both synthetic tests and real data. We suggest that, for continental strike‐slip faults, adding the stress constraint can mitigate unphysical coupling distributions due to unreasonable assumptions or modeling artifacts, reducing the model uncertainty and improving the accuracy of the coupling model. This is particularly useful for segments featured by a highly heterogeneous distribution of coupling along the transition zone from locking to creeping region, partially‐coupling segment, and junction zone between main and subsidiary faults. We present a large‐scale fault coupling map along the major block‐bounding faults on the northeastern and eastern Tibetan plateau, highlighting the distinct degrees of fault coupling and lateral variations. The collage of coupling maps along different faults demonstrates the kinematic features over a broad time scale during earthquake cycles ranging from early to late interseismic phases, such as the segments ruptured during the 2001 Kokoxili earthquake and the 1920 Haiyuan earthquake.

The impact of glacial meltwater on the integrated bioenergetic condition of two key antartic benthic polychaetes (Maldane sarsi antarctica, Notomastus latericeus)

In coastal Antarctic environments, glacial meltwater changes the nutrients and physicochemical parameters in the water column. Consequently, top-down cascading effects are triggered throughout the food web, which can affect the bioenergetic condition of benthic invertebrates and their coupling processes between energy levels and flows throughout the marine food web. In this study, two benthic polychaetes (Maldane sarsi antarctica and Notomastus latericeus), exposed to the impact of glacial melting over a broad time scale, were used to evaluate the effect of glacial meltwater on their bioenergetic condition through the integrated analysis of: i) their biochemical composition; ii) fatty acid profiles and iii) total energy contents. The findings indicate that glacial meltwater has a direct effect on the bioenergetic condition of polychaetes. In areas where glacial meltwater has a significant impact, N. latericeus showed higher levels of proteins and glucose, but lower levels of lipids. On the other hand, M. sarsi antarctica exhibited decreased protein content with increasing glacial meltwater impact. M. sarsi antarctica presented varying levels of lipids across different sites, with the highest concentrations observed in areas with moderate impact. Both species showed a reduction in fatty acids with increasing glacial meltwater impact. Additionally, M. sarsi antarctica individuals from highly impacted areas had lower energy levels than those from less impacted areas, while N. latericeus had higher energy levels in the most impacted site. This information enables the development of a framework for assessing the impact of climate change using glacial meltwater and the integrated bioenergetics of key benthic polychaeta as a proxy. Therefore, identifying how glacial meltwater affects their bioenergetic condition helps us understand how climate change could affect trophic interactions, structure, and energy flows in the Antarctic marine food web.

Ecological niche conservatism spurs diversification in response to climate change

Lengthy debate has surrounded the theoretical and empirical science of whether climatic niche evolution is related to increased or decreased rates of biological diversification. Because species can persist for thousands to millions of years, these questions cross broad scales of time and space. Thus, short-term experiments may not provide comprehensive understanding of the system, leading to the emergence of contrasting opinions: niche evolution may increase diversity by allowing species to explore and colonize new geographic areas across which they could speciate; or, niche conservatism might augment biodiversity by supporting isolation of populations that may then undergo allopatric speciation. Here, we use a simulation approach to test how biological diversification responds to different rates and modes of niche evolution. We find that niche conservatism promotes biological diversification, whereas labile niches—whether adapting to the conditions available or changing randomly—generally led to slower diversification rates. These novel results provide a framework for understanding how Earth–life interactions produced such a diverse biota.

A TeZla micromixer for interrogating the early and broad folding landscape of G-quadruplex via multistage velocity descending

Biomacromolecular folding kinetics involves fast folding events and broad timescales. Current techniques face limitations in either the required time resolution or the observation window. In this study, we developed the TeZla micromixer, integrating Tesla and Zigzag microstructures with a multistage velocity descending strategy. TeZla achieves a significant short mixing dead time (40 µs) and a wide time window covering four orders of magnitude (up to 300 ms). Using this unique micromixer, we explored the folding landscape of c-Myc G4 and its noncanonical-G4 derivatives with different loop lengths or G-vacancy sites. Our findings revealed that c-Myc can bypass folding intermediates and directly adopt a G4 structure in the cation-deficient buffer. Moreover, we found that the loop length and specific G-vacancy site could affect the folding pathway and significantly slow down the folding rates. These results were also cross-validated with real-time NMR and circular dichroism. In conclusion, TeZla represents a versatile tool for studying biomolecular folding kinetics, and our findings may ultimately contribute to the design of drugs targeting G4 structures.

Effects of Increased Temperature on Brain and Sensory Development in the Port Jackson Shark (Heterodontus portusjacksoni)

Morphological differences in the peripheral (sensory) and central (brain) nervous system may confer sensory and/or behavioral variation in elasmobranchs, both across taxa and throughout ontogeny. Over the last century, sea surface temperatures have increased over 0.5 °C and are predicted to rise 1–4 °C by the year 2100, potentially affecting species’ physiological performance negatively. As the nervous system of fishes grows continually throughout their lives, it may be highly plastic in response to environmental changes. This study examined the effects of increased rearing temperature on nervous system development in Port Jackson sharks (Heterodontus portusjacksoni). Egg cases (n = 21) were collected from Gulf St. Vincent (Adelaide, SA) and placed into either ambient (17.6 °C) or 3 °C above ambient seawater conditions through hatching and reared for up to five months post-hatch. Relative volumes of the eyes and nose (olfactory rosette) were quantified using magnetic resonance imaging, and relative brain size and size of major brain regions were compared between the two treatment groups. The size of the olfactory bulbs and tegmentum varied significantly between the treatment groups, which suggest differences in primary, secondary, or tertiary sensory processing and/or motor functions at elevated temperatures. While studies on acute responses to environmental conditions cannot inform true adaptation across broad timescales, understanding the effects of increased temperature on the brain phenotype can aid in predicting how elasmobranchs may fare in response to changing ocean conditions.

Time-Dependent Analysis of Human Neurophysiological Activities during an Ecological Olfactory Experience.

It has been demonstrated that odors could affect humans at the psychophysiological level. Significant research has been done on odor perception and physiological mechanisms; however, this research was mainly performed in highly controlled conditions in order to highlight the perceptive phenomena and the correlated physiological responses in the time frame of milliseconds. The present study explored how human physiological activity evolves in response to different odor conditions during an ecological olfactory experience on a broader time scale (from 1 to 90 s). Two odors, vanilla and menthol, together with a control condition (blank) were employed as stimuli. Electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in four frequency bands of interest, theta, alpha, low beta, and high beta, and the electrodermal activity (EDA) of the skin conductance level and response (SCL and SCR) were investigated at five time points taken during: (i) the first ten seconds of exposure (short-term analysis) and (ii) throughout the entire exposure to each odor (90 s, long-term analysis). The results revealed significant interactions between the odor conditions and the time periods in the short-term analysis for the overall frontal activity in the theta (p = 0.03), alpha (p = 0.005), and low beta (p = 0.0067) bands, the frontal midline activity in the alpha (p = 0.015) and low beta (p = 0.02) bands, and the SCR component (p = 0.024). For the long-term effects, instead, only one EEG parameter, frontal alpha asymmetry, was significantly sensitive to the considered dimensions (p = 0.037). In conclusion, the present research determined the physiological response to different odor conditions, also demonstrating the sensitivity of the employed parameters in characterizing the dynamic of such response during the time. As an exploratory study, this work points out the relevance of considering the effects of continuous exposure instead of short stimulation when evaluating the human olfactory experience, providing insights for future studies in the field.

EstuarIndex: an eco-geomorphological index to assess the conservation state of estuaries

The main objective of this work is to present a novel methodology to assess the environmental, ecological, and conservation status of mid-latitude estuaries by means of an index-based method, EstuarIndex. The EstuarIndex is an integration of four sub-indexes, assessing the status of the main subsystems present on estuaries: sandy environments, dunes, tidal flats, and the drainage network. Each sub-index includes variables combining three types of factors: morphosedimentary and oceanographic factors, ecological factors, and management and protection factors. The environmental status is finally evaluated in five possible classes: (1) Very low, (2) Low, (3) Medium, (4) High, and (5) Very High, according to EU requirements for classifying the conservation status of habitats. Three pilot zones along the Spanish coast have been chosen for testing the method: San Vicente de la Barquera estuary (N Spain), Guadiana estuary (SW Spain), and Ebro River delta mouth (E Spain). They present different oceanographic and geomorphological conditions. The results obtained have proven that EstuarIndex is a suitable methodology for the application to other estuaries. The systematic application of EstuarIndex on broad time scales would allow evaluating the system trends, what seems key for implementation of more realistic restoration strategies, and it has a great potential as a tool for environmental management in natural protected areas. Furthermore, it may help in the detection of the most relevant site-specific vulnerabilities for long-term sustainability in response to both natural and artificial drivers.

Twisting and Protonation of Retinal Chromophore Regulate Channel Gating of Channelrhodopsin C1C2.

Channelrhodopsins (ChRs) are light-gated ion channels and central optogenetic tools that can control neuronal activity with high temporal resolution at the single-cell level. Although their application in optogenetics has rapidly progressed, it is unsolved how their channels open and close. ChRs transport ions through a series of interlocking elementary processes that occur over a broad time scale of subpicoseconds to seconds. During these processes, the retinal chromophore functions as a channel regulatory domain and transfers the optical input as local structural changes to the channel operating domain, the helices, leading to channel gating. Thus, the core question on channel gating dynamics is how the retinal chromophore structure changes throughout the photocycle and what rate-limits the kinetics. Here, we investigated the structural changes in the retinal chromophore of canonical ChR, C1C2, in all photointermediates using time-resolved resonance Raman spectroscopy. Moreover, to reveal the rate-limiting factors of the photocycle and channel gating, we measured the kinetic isotope effect of all photoreaction processes using laser flash photolysis and laser patch clamp, respectively. Spectroscopic and electrophysiological results provided the following understanding of the channel gating: the retinal chromophore highly twists upon the retinal Schiff base (RSB) deprotonation, causing the surrounding helices to move and open the channel. The ion-conducting pathway includes the RSB, where inflowing water mediates the proton to the deprotonated RSB. The twisting of the retinal chromophore relaxes upon the RSB reprotonation, which closes the channel. The RSB reprotonation rate-limits the channel closing.

Generalizing progress variable definition in CFD simulation of combustion systems using tabulated chemistry models

In the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation of advanced combustion systems, the chemical kinetics must be examined in detail to predict the emissions and performance characteristics accurately. Nevertheless, the combustion simulation with detailed chemical kinetics is complicated because of the number of equations and a broad timescale spectrum. The Flamelet-Generated Manifold (FGM) is one of the examples of tabulation methods that has received much attention in recent years due to its fast and accurate prediction of combustion characteristics. The Progress Variable (PV) definition in FGM and other PV-based tabulated approaches is often selected randomly or depending on the user's experience. When complicated combustion systems are involved, such choices can become extremely difficult. In the current work, a generic approach for formulating a global PV is developed and tested in various operating conditions relevant to combustion engines. The method is based on a genetic algorithm optimization to maximize the monotonicity of PV, ensuring that for each value of PV, the dependent thermophysical properties have unique values. The FGM model's ability to reproduce the detailed kinetics evolution of the essential combustion and emission parameters of a non-premixed diffusion flame in Spray A configuration is evaluated in both one-dimensional counterflow and CFD simulation. It is concluded that with the use of the current approach, important combustion characteristics can be predicted much better compared to non-optimized PV while eliminating the manual selection of PV definition by the user. Since the algorithm needs to be executed before the chemistry tabulation in the pre-processing step, it does not increase the runtime of the FGM simulation. The algorithm only needs a few minutes to be finished on a standard desktop. The improvement in the results and the distribution of the values of important species in the computational domain is examined.

Large haplotypes highlight a complex age structure within the maize pan-genome.

The genomes of maize and other eukaryotes contain stable haplotypes in regions of low recombination. These regions, including centromeres, long heterochromatic blocks, and rDNA arrays, have been difficult to analyze with respect to their diversity and origin. Greatly improved genome assemblies are now available that enable comparative genomics over these and other nongenic spaces. Using 26 complete maize genomes, we developed methods to align intergenic sequences while excluding genes and regulatory regions. The centromere haplotypes (cenhaps) extend for megabases on either side of the functional centromere regions and appear as evolutionary strata, with haplotype divergence/coalescence times dating as far back as 450 thousand years ago (kya). Application of the same methods to other low recombination regions (heterochromatic knobs and rDNA) and all intergenic spaces revealed that deep coalescence times are ubiquitous across the maize pan-genome. Divergence estimates vary over a broad timescale with peaks at ∼16 and 300 kya, reflecting a complex history of gene flow among diverging populations and changes in population size associated with domestication. Cenhaps and other long haplotypes provide vivid displays of this ancient diversity.

Constraining Bedrock Groundwater Residence Times in a Mountain System With Environmental Tracer Observations and Bayesian Uncertainty Quantification

AbstractGroundwater residence time distributions provide fundamental insights on the hydrological processes within watersheds. Yet, observations that can constrain groundwater residence times over broad timescales remain scarce in mountain catchment studies. We use environmental tracers (CFC‐12, SF6, 3H, and 4He) to investigate groundwater residence times along a hillslope in the East River Watershed, Colorado, USA. We develop a Bayesian inference framework that applies a Markov‐chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach to estimate noble gas recharge temperature, elevation, and excess‐air parameters and the resulting environmental tracer concentrations. MCMC is then used to propagate the environmental tracer uncertainties to estimates of groundwater mean residence times inferred with lumped parameter models. All samples contain 3H, CFC‐12, and SF6 in addition to terrigenic 4He, suggesting a mixture of water characterized by modern and premodern residence times. 4He exponential mean residence times range from hundreds of years at the upslope well to thousands of years at the toe‐slope well assuming average crustal production rates. We find that binary mixing residence time distributions with separate young and old mixing fractions are needed to predict the 4He, CFC‐12, SF6, and 3H observations, supporting the importance of flow path mixing in this bedrock system. Our findings that the fractured bedrock hosts groundwater with a mixture of residence times ranging from decades to millennia suggest variable recharge dynamics and flow path mixing along the hillslope and highlight the importance of characterizing groundwater systems with observations that are sensitive to transport over a broad range of residence times.

Multidetection scheme for transient-grating-based spectroscopy.

Time-resolved optical spectroscopy represents an effective non-invasive approach to investigate the interplay of different degrees of freedom, which plays a key role in the development of novel functional materials. Here, we present magneto-acoustic data on Ni thin films on SiO2 as obtained by a versatile pump-probe setup that combines transient grating spectroscopy with time-resolved magnetic polarimetry. The possibility to easily switch from a pulsed to continuous wave probe allows probing of acoustic and magnetization dynamics on a broad time scale, in both transmission and reflection geometry.

Measurements of damage and repair of binary health attributes in aging mice and humans reveal that robustness and resilience decrease with age, operate over broad timescales, and are affected differently by interventions.

As an organism ages, its health-state is determined by a balance between the processes of damage and repair. Measuring these processes requires longitudinal data. We extract damage and repair transition rates from repeated observations of binary health attributes in mice and humans to explore robustness and resilience, which respectively represent resisting or recovering from damage. We assess differences in robustness and resilience using changes in damage rates and repair rates of binary health attributes. We find a conserved decline with age in robustness and resilience in mice and humans, implying that both contribute to worsening aging health - as assessed by the frailty index (FI). A decline in robustness, however, has a greater effect than a decline in resilience on the accelerated increase of the FI with age, and a greater association with reduced survival. We also find that deficits are damaged and repaired over a wide range of timescales ranging from the shortest measurement scales toward organismal lifetime timescales. We explore the effect of systemic interventions that have been shown to improve health, including the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor enalapril and voluntary exercise for mice. We have also explored the correlations with household wealth for humans. We find that these interventions and factors affect both damage and repair rates, and hence robustness and resilience, in age and sex-dependent manners.

Phytoplankton size-class contributions to new and regenerated production during the EXPORTS Northeast Pacific Ocean field deployment

The NASA EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS) program was established to better quantify the pathways of the biological carbon pump in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of global carbon export efficiency. The summer 2018 field campaign in the vicinity of Ocean Station Papa (Station P; 50°N, 145°W) in the Northeast Pacific Ocean yielded evidence of low phytoplankton biomass and primary productivity dominated by small cells (<5 µm) that are reliant on recycled nutrients. Using combined 13C/15N stable isotope incubations, we calculated an average depth-integrated dissolved inorganic carbon uptake (net primary production) rate of 23.1 mmol C m–2 d–1 throughout the euphotic zone with small cells contributing 88.9% of the total daily DIC uptake. Average depth-integrated NO3– uptake rates were 1.5 mmol N m–2 d–1 with small cells contributing 73.4% of the total daily NO3– uptake. Estimates of new and regenerated production fluctuated, with small cells continuing to dominate both forms of production. The daily mixed-layer f-ratio ranged from 0.17 to 0.38 for the whole community, consistent with previous studies, which indicates a predominance of regenerated production in this region, with small and large cells (≥5 μm) having average f-ratios of 0.28 and 0.82, respectively. Peak phytoplankton biomass, total primary productivity and new production occurred between Julian Days 238 and 242 of our observation period, driven primarily by an increase in carbon and nitrate assimilation rates without apparent substantial shifts in the phytoplankton size-class structure. Our findings demonstrate the importance of small cells in performing the majority of net primary production and new production and the modest productivity fluctuations that occur in this iron-limited region of the Northeast Pacific Ocean, driven by ephemeral increases in new production, which could have significant ramifications for carbon export over broad timescales.

Reverse-engineering method for XPCS studies of non-equilibrium dynamics.

X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) is a powerful tool in the investigation of dynamics covering a broad time and length scale. It has been widely used to probe dynamics for systems in both equilibrium and non-equilibrium states; in particular, for systems undergoing a phase transition where the structural growth kinetics and the microscopic dynamics are strongly intertwined. The resulting time-dependent dynamic behavior can be described using the two-time correlation function (TTC), which, however, often contains more interesting features than the component along the diagonal, and cannot be easily interpreted via the classical simulation methods. Here, a reverse engineering (RE) approach is proposed based on particle-based heuristic simulations. This approach is applied to an XPCS measurement on a protein solution undergoing a liquid-liquid phase separation. It is demonstrated that the rich features of experimental TTCs can be well connected with the key control parameters including size distribution, concentration, viscosity and mobility of domains. The dynamic information obtained from this RE analysis goes beyond the existing theory. The RE approach established in this work is applicable for other processes such as film growth, coarsening or evolving systems.

Photoacid-induced aqueous acid–base reactions probed by femtosecond infrared spectroscopy

Acid-base reactions involving an excited photoacid have typically been investigated at high base concentrations, but the mechanisms at low base concentrations require clarification. Herein, the dynamics of acid-base reactions induced by an excited photoacid, pyranine (DA), were investigated in the presence of azide ion (N3-) in D2O solution using femtosecond infrared spectroscopy. Specifically, the spectral characteristics of four species (DA, electronically excited DA (DA*), the conjugate base of DA* (A*-), and the conjugate base of DA (A-)) were probed in the spectral region of 1400-1670cm-1 in the time range of 1ps-1μs. This broad timescale encompassed all the acid-base reactions initiated by photoexcitation at 400nm; thus, reactions related to both DA* and A- could be probed. Furthermore, changes in the populations of N3- and DN3 were monitored using the absorption bands at 2042 and 2133cm-1, respectively. Following excitation, approximately half of DA* relaxed to DA with a time constant of 0.44 ± 0.04ns. The remainder underwent an acid-base reaction to produce A*-, which relaxed to A- with a time constant of 3.9 ± 0.3ns. The acid-base reaction proceeded via two paths, namely, proton exchange with the added base or simple deuteron release to D2O (protolysis). Notably, all the acid-base reactions were well described by the rate constant at the steady-state limit. Thus, although the acid-base reactions at low base concentrations (< 0.1M) were diffusion controlled, they could be described using a simple rate equation.

Sheared granular matter and the empirical relations of seismicity.

The frictional instability associated with earthquake initiation and earthquake dynamics is believed to be mainly controlled by the dynamics of fragmented rocks within the fault gauge. Principal features of the emerging seismicity (e.g., intermittent dynamics and broad time and/or energy scales) have been replicated by simple experimental setups, which involve a slowly driven slider on top of granular matter, for example. Yet these setups are often physically limited and might not allow one to determine the underlying nature of specific features and, hence, the universality and generality of the experimental observations. Here, we address this challenge by a numerical study of a spring-slider experiment based on two-dimensional discrete element method simulations, which allows us to control the properties of the granular matter and of the surface of the slider, for example. Upon quasistatic loading, stick-slip-type behavior emerges which is contrasted by a stable sliding regime at finite driving rates, in agreement with experimental observations. Across large parameter ranges for damping, interparticle friction, particle polydispersity, etc., the earthquake-like dynamics associated with the former regime results in several robust scale-free statistical features also observed in experiments. At first sight, these closely resemble the main empirical relations of tectonic seismicity at geological scales. This includes the Gutenberg-Richter distribution of event sizes, the Omori-Utsu-type decay of aftershock rates, as well as the aftershock productivity relation and broad recurrence time distributions. Yet, we show that the correlations associated with tectonic aftershocks are absent such that the origin of the Omori-Utsu relation, the aftershock productivity relation, and Båth's relation in the simulations is fundamentally different from the case of tectonic seismicity. This, we believe, is mainly due to a lack of macroscale relaxation processes that are closely tied to the generation of real aftershocks. We argue that the same is true for previous laboratory experiments.

Validation of Near-Real-Time NOAA-20 CrIS Outgoing Longwave Radiation with Multi-Satellite Datasets on Broad Timescales

The Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) package was first developed as a stand-alone application, and then integrated into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Unique Combined Atmospheric Processing System (NUCAPS) hyperspectral sounding retrieval system. An objective of this package is to provide near-real-time OLR products derived from the Cross Track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) onboard the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites. It was initially developed and validated with CrIS onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite, and has been expanded to JPSS-1 (renamed NOAA-20 after launch) datasets that are currently available to the public. In this paper, we provide the results of detailed validation tests with NOAA-20 CrIS for large and wide representative conditions at a global scale. In our validation tests, the observations from Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) on Aqua were treated as the absolute reference or “truth”, and those from SNPP CrIS OLR were used as the transfer standard. The tests were performed on a 1°×1° global spatial grid over daily, monthly, and yearly timescales. We find that the CrIS OLR products from NOAA-20 agree exceptionally well with those from Aqua CERES and SNPP CrIS OLR products in all conditions: the daily bias is within ±0.6 Wm−2, and the standard deviation (STD) ranges from 4.88 to 9.1 Wm−2. The bias and the STD of OLR monthly mean are better, within 0.3 and 2.0 Wm−2, respectively. These findings demonstrate the consistency between NOAA-20 and SNPP CrIS OLR up to annual scales, and the robustness of NUCAPS CrIS OLR products.