22,595 research outputs found
Use of plan curvature variations for the identification of ridges and channels on DEM
This paper proposes novel improvements in the traditional algorithms for the identification of ridge and channel (also called ravines) topographic features on raster digital elevation models (DEMs). The overall methodology consists of two main steps: (1) smoothing the DEM by applying a mean filter, and (2) detection of ridge and channel features as cells with positive and negative plan curvature respectively, along with a decline and incline in plan curvature away from the cell in direction orthogonal to the feature axis respectively. The paper demonstrates a simple approach to visualize the multi-scale structure of terrains and utilize it for semi-automated topographic feature identification. Despite its simplicity, the revised algorithm produced markedly superior outputs than a comparatively sophisticated feature extraction algorithm based on conic-section analysis of terrain
VLT/VIMOS Observations of an Occulting Galaxy Pair: Redshifts and Effective Extinction Curve
We present VLT/VIMOS IFU observations of an occulting galaxy pair previously
discovered in HST observations. The foreground galaxy is a low-inclination
spiral disk, which causes clear attenuation features seen against the bright
bulge and disk of the background galaxy. We find redshifts of and z=0.065 for the foreground and background galaxy respectively.
This relatively small difference does not rule out gravitational interaction
between the two galaxies. Emission line ratios point to a star-forming, not
AGN-dominated foreground galaxy.
We fit the Cardelli, Clayton & Mathis (CCM) extinction law to the spectra of
individual fibres to derive slope () and normalization (). The
normalization agrees with the HST attenuation map and the slope is lower than
the Milky Way relation (), which is likely linked to the spatial
sampling of the disk. We speculate that the values of point to either
coherent ISM structures in the disk larger than usual ( kpc) or higher
starting values of , indicative of recent processing of the dust.
The foreground galaxy is a low stellar mass spiral () with a high dust content (). The dust disk geometry visible in the HST image would explain the
observed SED properties of smaller galaxies: a lower mean dust temperature, a
high dust-to-stellar mass ratio but relatively little optical attenuation.
Ongoing efforts to find occulting pairs with a small foreground galaxies will
show how common this geometry is.Comment: 16 pages, 3 tables, 13 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
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