61,389 research outputs found
Separation of topographic and intrinsic backscatter variations in biscopic radar images: A magic airbrush
Shaded-relief maps portraying landforms as they would appear in the absence of variations in the intrinsic brightness of the surface are a venerable and extremely useful tool in planetary geology. Such maps have traditionally been produced by a highly labor intensive manual process. Skilled cartographer-artists develop detailed mental images of landforms by meticulous scrutiny of all available data, and are able to use an airbrush and electric eraser to draw these images on a map. This process becomes increasingly time-consuming or even impossible if - as is true for radar data in general and Magellan data in particular - the effects on image brightness of varying scattering properties greatly outweigh those of slope variations. Because of the difficulty of interpreting relief in the Magellan images, the airbrush technique is being used only to remove obvious artifacts from low-resolution, shaded-relief images computed digitally from altimetric data. A surprisingly simple digital-processing technique that can be applied to pairs of radar images to produce shaded-relief-like results at the full image resolution is described. These shaded-relief images can be used not only as base maps, but to improve the accuracy of quantitative topographic mapping by radarclinometry and stereoanalysis
Approaching Visual Search in Photo-Realistic Scenes
Visual search is extended from the domain of polygonal figures presented on a uniform background to scenes in which search is for a photo-realistic object in a dense, naturalistic background. Scene generation for these displays relies on a powerful solid modeling program to define the three dimensional forms, surface properties, relative positions, and illumination of the objects and a rendering program to produce an image. Search in the presented experiments is for a rock with specific properties among other, similar rocks, although the method described can be generalized to other situations. Using this technique we explore the effects of illumination and shadows in aiding search for a rock in front of and closer to the viewer than other rocks in the scene. For these scenes, shadows of two different contrast levels can significantly deet·ease reaction times for displays in which target rocks are similar to distractor rocks. However, when the target rock is itself easily distinguishable from dis tractors on the basis of form, the presence or absence of shadows has no discernible effect. To relate our findings to those for earlier polygonal displays, we simplified the non-shadow displays so that only boundary information remained. For these simpler displays, search slopes (the reaction time as a function of the number of distractors) were significantly faster, indicating that the more complex photo-realistic objects require more time to process for visual search. In contrast with several previous experiments involving polygonal figures, we found no evidence for an effect of illumination direction on search times
Integral field spectroscopy of four lensed quasars: analysis of their neighborhood and evidence for microlensing
CONTEXT: Gravitationally lensed quasars constitute an independent tool to
derive H0 through time-delays; they offer as well the opportunity to study the
mass distribution and interstellar medium of their lensing galaxies and,
through microlensing they also allow one to study details of the emitting
source. AIMS: For such studies, one needs to have an excellent knowledge of the
close environment of the lensed images in order to model the lensing potential:
this means observational data over a large field-of-view and spectroscopy at
high spatial resolution. METHODS: We present VIMOS integral field observations
around four lensed quasars: HE 0230-2130, RX J0911.4+0551, H 1413+117 and B
1359+154. Using the low, medium and high resolution modes, we study the quasar
images and the quasar environments, as well as provide a detailed report of the
data reduction. RESULTS: Comparison between the quasar spectra of the different
images reveals differences for HE 0230-2130, RX J0911.4+0551 and H 1413+117:
flux ratios between the images of the same quasar are different when measured
in the emission lines and in the continuum. We have also measured the redshifts
of galaxies in the neighborhood of HE 0230-2130 and RX J0911.4+0551 which
possibly contribute to the total lensing potential. CONCLUSIONS: A careful
analysis reveals that microlensing is the most natural explanation for the
(de)magnification of the continuum emitting region of the background sources.
In HE 0230-2130, image D is likely to be affected by microlensing
magnification; in RX J0911.4+0551, images A1 and A3 are likely to be modified
by microlensing de-magnification and in H 1413+117, at least image D is
affected by microlensing.Comment: 13 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A: January 7,
200
Vacancy Reassessed
Since 1950, Philadelphia's population has been declining dramatically, by more than 30 percent. This rapid depopulation has led to the vacancy and abandonment of a large number of unmanaged residential lots and buildings. The future of Philadelphia rests on its ability to manage this decline, and in 1999, efforts were fragmented. This report highlights the barriers that many faced in trying to access vacant property and provides recommendations for a more strategic vision so that the city can create a significant and lasting impact
Microlensing Characterization of Wide-Separation Planets
With their excellent photometric precision and dramatic increase in
monitoring frequency, future microlensing survey experiments are expected to be
sensitive to very short time-scale, isolated events caused by free-floating and
wide-separation planets with mass as low as a few lunar masses. We estimate the
probability of measuring the Einstein radius \theta_E for bound and
free-floating planets. We carry out detailed simulations of the planetary
events expected in next-generation surveys and estimate the resulting
uncertainty in \theta_E for these events. We show that, for main-sequence
sources and Jupiter-mass planets, the caustic structure of wide-separation
planets with projected separations of < 20 AU substantially increases the
probability of measuring the dimensionless source size and thus determining
\theta_E compared to the case of unbound planets. In this limit where the
source is much smaller than the caustic, the effective cross-section to measure
\theta_E to 10% is ~25% larger than the full width of the caustic. Measurement
of the lens parallax is possible for low-mass planetary events by combined
observations from the ground and a satellite located in an L2 orbit; this would
complete the mass measurements for such wide-separation planets. Finally,
short-duration events caused by bound planets can be routinely distinguished
from those caused by free-floating planets for planet-star separations < 20 AU
from either the deviations due to the planetary caustic or (more often) the
low-amplitude bump from the magnification due to the parent star.Comment: 10 pages including 7 figures. ApJ, in pres
Lunar Occultation of MACHOs
Lunar occultation can be used to measure the proper motions of some of the
long time scale microlensing events, t_{e} \gsim 70 days, now being detected
toward the Galactic bulge. The long events are difficult to explain within the
context of standard models of the mass distribution and dynamics of the Galaxy.
Han & Gould (1995b) have suggested that they may be due to a kinematically cold
population near the Sun. To resolve the mass, distance, and velocity of
individual events and so to determine their nature, one must measure parallaxes
and proper motions. For long events, parallaxes can be often obtained from
ground-based measurements, but proper motions can only rarely be determined
using conventional methods. Lunar occultations are therefore key to the
understanding of the long events. We carry out realistic simulations to
estimate the uncertainty of these measurements and show that proper motions
could be measured for about one long event per year.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, request hard copy of preprint to
[email protected]
- …