87,624 research outputs found
Assimilation of MSG land-surface temperature into land-surface model simulations to constrain estimates of surface energy budget in West Africa
In the semi-arid regions of West Africa the surface energy partition is related closely to near surface moisture availability. Such moisture availability exhibits marked heterogeneity at scales of a few kilometres, related to the
passage of storm systems during the previous one or two days. The associated variations in surface fluxes affect planetary boundary layer properties at the mesoscale, which may in turn affect rainfall and the seasonal development of the West African monsoon.
Atmosphere models used to study this land-atmosphere coupling are sensitive to the soil moisture initial condition. There exists no observation network for soil moisture in West Africa, so models rely on data from atmosphere analyses, which are often unable to describe adequately surface variation at the mesoscale. Additionally, retrospective estimates of the seasonal surface energy and water budgets using land-surface models are biased by persistent model errors in soil moisture. Anomalies in near-surface (top few centimetres) soil moisture are anti-correlated with anomalies in land-surface brightness temperature, which is observed by the SEVIRI thermal infra-red sensors onboard the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites. Here, we present methods developed for assimilating the MSG land-surface temperature product from the Land SAF to constrain estimates of the surface energy and water budgets using the JULES land-surface model. This MSG temperature product has a pixel size of approximately 3 km in this region, and is known to provide information of surface wetness anomalies at the scales of interest. The results will provide, for a large region of West Africa, improved initial conditions for modelling studies and seasonal estimates of the surface energy and water budgets
Absorption of sound in air below 1000 cps
Absorption of sound in air measured for varying conditions of pressure, temperature, and humidit
Vision-model-based Real-time Localization of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Autonomous Structure Inspection under GPS-denied Environment
UAVs have been widely used in visual inspections of buildings, bridges and
other structures. In either outdoor autonomous or semi-autonomous flights
missions strong GPS signal is vital for UAV to locate its own positions.
However, strong GPS signal is not always available, and it can degrade or fully
loss underneath large structures or close to power lines, which can cause
serious control issues or even UAV crashes. Such limitations highly restricted
the applications of UAV as a routine inspection tool in various domains. In
this paper a vision-model-based real-time self-positioning method is proposed
to support autonomous aerial inspection without the need of GPS support.
Compared to other localization methods that requires additional onboard
sensors, the proposed method uses a single camera to continuously estimate the
inflight poses of UAV. Each step of the proposed method is discussed in detail,
and its performance is tested through an indoor test case.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, submitted to i3ce 201
Electron Energy Distributions at Relativistic Shock Sites: Observational Constraints from the Cygnus A Hotspots
We report new detections of the hotspots in Cygnus A at 4.5 and 8.0 microns
with the Spitzer Space Telescope. Together with detailed published radio
observations and synchrotron self-Compton modeling of previous X-ray
detections, we reconstruct the underlying electron energy spectra of the two
brightest hotspots (A and D). The low-energy portion of the electron
distributions have flat power-law slopes (s~1.5) up to the break energy which
corresponds almost exactly to the mass ratio between protons and electrons; we
argue that these features are most likely intrinsic rather than due to
absorption effects. Beyond the break, the electron spectra continue to higher
energies with very steep slopes s>3. Thus, there is no evidence for the
`canonical' s=2 slope expected in 1st order Fermi-type shocks within the whole
observable electron energy range. We discuss the significance of these
observations and the insight offered into high-energy particle acceleration
processes in mildly relativistic shocks.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, in Extragalactic Jets: Theory and Observation
from Radio to Gamma Ray, Eds. T. A. Rector and D. S. De Youn
Microcanonical treatment of black hole decay at the Large Hadron Collider
This study of corrections to the canonical picture of black hole decay in
large extra dimensions examines the effects of back-reaction corrected and
microcanonical emission at the LHC. We provide statistical interpretations of
the different multiparticle number densities in terms of black hole decay to
standard model particles. Provided new heavy particles of mass near the
fundamental Planck scale are not discovered, differences between these
corrections and thermal decay will be insignificant at the LHC.Comment: small additions and clarifications, format for J. Phys.
Coherent energy migration in solids: Determination of the average coherence length in oneâdimensional systems using tunable dye lasers
The coherent nature of energy propagation in solids at low temperatures was established from the time resolved response of the crystal to short optical pulses obtained from a dye laser (pumped by a nitrogen gas laser). The trapping and detrapping of the energy by shallow defects (x traps) was evident in the spectra and enabled us to extract the coherence length: lâł700 Ă
=186 molecules for the oneâdimensional triplet excitons of 1,2,4,5âtetrachlorobenzene crystals at T<4.2° K. This length which clearly exceeds the stochastic random walk limit is related to the thermalization mechanisms in this coupled excitonâtrap system, and its magnitude supports the notion that excitonâphonon coupling is responsible for the loss of coherence on very long molecular chains (trap concentration is 1/256â000)
X-ray Emission from the Radio Jet in 3C 120
We report the discovery of X-ray emission from a radio knot at a projected
distance of 25" from the nucleus of the Seyfert galaxy, 3C 120. The data were
obtained with the ROSAT High Resolution Imager (HRI). Optical upper limits for
the knot preclude a simple power law extension of the radio spectrum and we
calculate some of the physical parameters for thermal bremsstrahlung and
synchrotron self-Compton models. We conclude that no simple model is consistent
with the data but if the knot contains small regions with flat spectra, these
could produce the observed X-rays (via synchrotron emission) without being
detected at other wavebands.Comment: 6 pages latex plus 3 ps/eps figures. Uses 10pt.sty and
emulateapj.sty. Accepted for publication in the ApJ (6 Jan 99
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Layered Fabrication of Branched Networks Using Lindenmayer Systems
A current challenge impeding the growth of bone tissue engineering is the lack of
functional scaffolds of geometric sizes greater than 10mm due to the inability of cells to
survive deep within the scaffold. It is hypothesized that these scaffolds must have an
inbuilt nutrient distribution network to sustain the uniform growth of cells. In this
paper, we seek to enhance the design and layered fabrication of scaffold internal
architecture through the development of Lindenmayer systems, a graphical language
based theory to create nutrient delivery networks. The scaffolds are fabricated using the
Texas Instruments DLPâą system through UVâphotopolymerization to produce
polyethylene glycol hydrogels with internal branch structures. The paper will discuss
the Lindenmayer system, process planning algorithms, layered fabrication of samples,
challenges and future tasks.Mechanical Engineerin
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