50,679 research outputs found
Circular spectropolarimetric sensing of chiral photosystems in decaying leaves
Circular polarization spectroscopy has proven to be an indispensable tool in
photosynthesis research and (bio)-molecular research in general. Oxygenic
photosystems typically display an asymmetric Cotton effect around the
chlorophyll absorbance maximum with a signal . In vegetation, these
signals are the direct result of the chirality of the supramolecular
aggregates. The circular polarization is thus directly influenced by the
composition and architecture of the photosynthetic macrodomains, and is thereby
linked to photosynthetic functioning. Although ordinarily measured only on a
molecular level, we have developed a new spectropolarimetric instrument,
TreePol, that allows for both laboratory and in-the-field measurements. Through
spectral multiplexing, TreePol is capable of fast measurements with a
sensitivity of and is therefore suitable of non-destructively
probing the molecular architecture of whole plant leaves. We have measured the
chiroptical evolution of \textit{Hedera helix} leaves for a period of 22 days.
Spectrally resolved circular polarization measurements (450-900 nm) on whole
leaves in transmission exhibit a strong decrease in the polarization signal
over time after plucking, which we accredit to the deterioration of chiral
macro-aggregates. Chlorophyll \textit{a} levels measured over the same period
by means of UV-Vis absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy showed a much
smaller decrease. With these results we are able to distinguish healthy from
deteriorating leaves. Hereby we indicate the potency of circular polarization
spectroscopy on whole and intact leaves as a nondestructive tool for structural
and plant stress assessment. Additionally, we underline the establishment of
circular polarization signals as remotely accessible means of detecting the
presence of extraterrestrial life.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figure
Estimation of photosynthetic capacity using MODIS polarization: 1988 proposal to NASA Headquarters
The remote sensing community has clearly identified the utility of NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) and SR (simple ratio) and other vegetation indices for estimating such metrics of landscape ecology as green foliar biomass, photosynthetic capacity, and net primary production. Both theoretical and empirical investigations have established cause and effect relationships between the photosynthetic process in plant canopies and these combinations of remotely sensed data. Yet it has also been established that the relationships exhibit considerable variability that appears to be ecosystem-dependent and may represent a source of ecologically important information. The overall hypothesis of this proposal is that the ecosystem-dependent variability in the various vegetation indices is in part attributable to the effects of specular reflection. The polarization channels on MODIS provide the potential to estimate this specularly reflected light and allow the modification of the vegetation indices to better measure the photosynthetic process in plant canopies. In addition, these polarization channels potentially provide additional ecologically important information about the plant canopy
A model of plant canopy polarization
A model for the amount of linearly polarized light reflected by the shiny leaves of grain crops is based on the morphological and phenological characteristics of the plant canopy and upon the Fresnel equations which describe the light reflection process at the smooth boundary separating two dielectrics. The theory used demonstrates that, potentially, measurements of the linearly polarized light from a crop canopy may be used as an additional feature to discriminate between crops such as wheat and barley, two crops which are so spectrally similar that they are misclassified with unacceptable frequency. Examination of the model suggests that, potentially, satellite polarization measurements may be used to monitor crop development stage, leaf water content, leaf area index, hail damage, and certain plant diseases. The information content of these measurements is needed to evaluate the proposed polarization sensor for the satellite-borne multispectral resource sampler
Fundamental remote sensing science research program. Part 1: Scene radiation and atmospheric effects characterization project
Brief articles summarizing the status of research in the scene radiation and atmospheric effect characterization (SRAEC) project are presented. Research conducted within the SRAEC program is focused on the development of empirical characterizations and mathematical process models which relate the electromagnetic energy reflected or emitted from a scene to the biophysical parameters of interest
Field research on the spectral properties of crops and soils, volume 1
The experiment design, data acquisition and preprocessing, data base management, analysis results and development of instrumentation for the AgRISTARS Supporting Research Project, Field Research task are described. Results of several investigations on the spectral reflectance of corn and soybean canopies as influenced by cultural practices, development stage and nitrogen nutrition are reported as well as results of analyses of the spectral properties of crop canopies as a function of canopy geometry, row orientation, sensor view angle and solar illumination angle are presented. The objectives, experiment designs and data acquired in 1980 for field research experiments are described. The development and performance characteristics of a prototype multiband radiometer, data logger, and aerial tower for field research are discussed
The photocurrent generated by photon replica states of an off-resonantly coupled dot-cavity system
Transport properties of a quantum dot coupled to a photon cavity are
investigated using a quantum master equation in the steady-state regime. In the
off-resonance regime, when the photon energy is smaller than the energy spacing
between the lowest electron states of the quantum dot, we calculate the current
that is generated by photon replica states as the electronic system is pumped
with photons.Tuning the electron-photon coupling strength, the photocurrent can
be enhanced by the influences of the photon polarization, and the cavity-photon
coupling strength of the environment. We show that the current generated
through the photon replicas is very sensitive on the photon polarization, but
it is not strongly dependent on the average number of photons in the
environment.Comment: RevTeX, 9 pages with 10 included eps figure
Spin and the Coulomb Gap in the Half-Filled Lowest Landau Level
The Coulomb gap observed in tunneling between parallel two-dimensional
electron systems, each at half filling of the lowest Landau level, is found to
depend sensitively on the presence of an in-plane magnetic field. Especially at
low electron density, the width of the Coulomb gap at first increases sharply
with in-plane field, but then abruptly levels off. This behavior appears to
coincide with the known transition from partial to complete spin polarization
of the half-filled lowest Landau level. The tunneling gap therefore opens a new
window onto the spin configuration of two-dimensional electron systems at high
magnetic field.Comment: 6 pages, 4 postscript figures. Minor changes. To appear in Physical
Review
Sustained resonance: a binary system perturbed by gravitational radiation
The general phenomena associated with sustained resonance are studied in this
paper in connection with relativistic binary pulsars. We represent such a
system by two point masses in a Keplerian binary system that evolves via
gravitational radiation damping as well as an external tidal perturbation. For
further simplification, we assume that the external tidal perturbation is
caused by a normally incident circularly polarized monochromatic gravitational
wave. In this case, the second-order partially averaged equations are studied
and a theorem of C. Robinson is employed to prove that for certain values of
the physical parameters resonance capture followed by sustained resonance is
possible in the averaged system. We conjecture that sustained resonance can
occur in the physical system when the perturbing influences nearly balance each
other.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures. To appear in Journal of Physics
- …