445 research outputs found
The 13 years of TRMM Lightning Imaging Sensor: From Individual Flash Characteristics to Decadal Tendencies
How often lightning strikes the Earth has been the object of interest and research for decades. Several authors estimated different global flash rates using ground-based instruments, but it has been the satellite era that enabled us to monitor lightning thunderstorm activity on the time and place that lightning exactly occurs. Launched into space as a component of NASA s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, in November 1997, the Lighting Imaging Sensor (LIS) is still operating. LIS detects total lightning (i.e., intracloud and cloud-to-ground) from space in a low-earth orbit (35deg orbit). LIS has collected lightning measurements for 13 years (1998-2010) and here we present a fully revised and current total lightning climatology over the tropics. Our analysis includes the individual flash characteristics (number of events and groups, total radiance, area footprint, etc.), composite climatological maps, and trends for the observed total lightning during these 13 years. We have identified differences in the energetics of the flashes and/or the optical scattering properties of the storms cells due to cell-relative variations in microphysics and kinematics (i.e., convective or stratiform rainfall). On the climatological total lightning maps we found a dependency on the scale of analysis (resolution) in identifying the lightning maximums in the tropics. The analysis of total lightning trends observed by LIS from 1998 to 2010 in different temporal (annual and seasonal) and spatial (large and regional) scales, showed no systematic trends in the median to lower-end of the distributions, but most places in the tropics presented a decrease in the highest total lightning flash rates (higher-end of the distributions)
Seroprevalence of Zika virus in wild African green monkeys and baboons
ABSTRACT Zika virus (ZIKV) has recently spread through the Americas and has been associated with a range of health effects, including birth defects in children born to women infected during pregnancy. Although the natural reservoir of ZIKV remains poorly defined, the virus was first identified in a captive “sentinel” macaque monkey in Africa in 1947. However, the virus has not been reported in humans or nonhuman primates (NHPs) in Africa outside Gabon in over a decade. Here, we examine ZIKV infection in 239 wild baboons and African green monkeys from South Africa, the Gambia, Tanzania, and Zambia using combinations of unbiased deep sequencing, quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR), and an antibody capture assay that we optimized using serum collected from captive macaque monkeys exposed to ZIKV, dengue virus, and yellow fever virus. While we did not find evidence of active ZIKV infection in wild NHPs in Africa, we found variable ZIKV seropositivity of up to 16% in some of the NHP populations sampled. We anticipate that these results and the methodology described within will help in continued efforts to determine the prevalence, natural reservoir, and transmission dynamics of ZIKV in Africa and elsewhere. IMPORTANCE Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne virus originally discovered in a captive monkey living in the Zika Forest of Uganda, Africa, in 1947. Recently, an outbreak in South America has shown that ZIKV infection can cause myriad health effects, including birth defects in the children of women infected during pregnancy. Here, we sought to investigate ZIKV infection in wild African primates to better understand its emergence and spread, looking for evidence of active or prior infection. Our results suggest that up to 16% of some populations of nonhuman primate were, at some point, exposed to ZIKV. We anticipate that this study will be useful for future studies that examine the spread of infections from wild animals to humans in general and those studying ZIKV in primates in particular. Podcast: A podcast concerning this article is available
Disorder-induced magnetic memory: Experiments and theories
Beautiful theories of magnetic hysteresis based on random microscopic
disorder have been developed over the past ten years. Our goal was to directly
compare these theories with precise experiments. We first developed and then
applied coherent x-ray speckle metrology to a series of thin multilayer
perpendicular magnetic materials. To directly observe the effects of disorder,
we deliberately introduced increasing degrees of disorder into our films. We
used coherent x-rays to generate highly speckled magnetic scattering patterns.
The apparently random arrangement of the speckles is due to the exact
configuration of the magnetic domains in the sample. In effect, each speckle
pattern acts as a unique fingerprint for the magnetic domain configuration.
Small changes in the domain structure change the speckles, and comparison of
the different speckle patterns provides a quantitative determination of how
much the domain structure has changed. How is the magnetic domain configuration
at one point on the major hysteresis loop related to the configurations at the
same point on the loop during subsequent cycles? The microscopic return-point
memory(RPM) is partial and imperfect in the disordered samples, and completely
absent when the disorder was not present. We found the complementary-point
memory(CPM) is also partial and imperfect in the disordered samples and
completely absent when the disorder was not present. We found that the RPM is
always a little larger than the CPM. We also studied the correlations between
the domains within a single ascending or descending loop. We developed new
theoretical models that do fit our experiments.Comment: 26 pages, 25 figures, Accepted by Physical Review B 01/25/0
Disorder-induced microscopic magnetic memory
Using coherent x-ray speckle metrology, we have measured the influence of
disorder on major loop return point memory (RPM) and complementary point memory
(CPM) for a series of perpendicular anisotropy Co/Pt multilayer films. In the
low disorder limit, the domain structures show no memory with field cycling--no
RPM and no CPM. With increasing disorder, we observe the onset and the
saturation of both the RPM and the CPM. These results provide the first direct
ensemble-sensitive experimental study of the effects of varying disorder on
microscopic magnetic memory and are compared against the predictions of
existing theories.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review
Letters in Nov. 200
Satellite Proving Ground for the GOES-R Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM)
The key mission of the Satellite Proving Ground is to demonstrate new satellite observing data, products and capabilities in the operational environment to be ready on Day 1 to use the GOES-R suite of measurements. Algorithms, tools, and techniques must be tested, validated, and assessed by end users for their utility before they are finalized and incorporated into forecast operations. The GOES-R Proving Ground for the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) focuses on evaluating how the infusion of the new technology, algorithms, decision aids, or tailored products integrate with other available tools (weather radar and ground strike networks; nowcasting systems, mesoscale analysis, and numerical weather prediction models) in the hands of the forecaster responsible for issuing forecasts and warning products. Additionally, the testing concept fosters operation and development staff interactions which will improve training materials and support documentation development. Real-time proxy total lightning data from regional VHF lightning mapping arrays (LMA) in Northern Alabama, Central Oklahoma, Cape Canaveral Florida, and the Washington, DC Greater Metropolitan Area are the cornerstone for the GLM Proving Ground. The proxy data will simulate the 8 km Event, Group and Flash data that will be generated by GLM. Tailored products such as total flash density at 1-2 minute intervals will be provided for display in AWIPS-2 to select NWS forecast offices and national centers such as the Storm Prediction Center. Additional temporal / spatial combinations are being investigated in coordination with operational needs and case-study proxy data and prototype visualizations may also be generated from the NASA heritage Lightning Imaging Sensor and Optical Transient Detector data. End users will provide feedback on the utility of products in their operational environment, identify use cases and spatial/temporal scales of interest, and provide feedback to the developers for adjusted or new products
Lattice Matrix Elements and CP Violation in B and K Physics: Status and Outlook
Status of lattice calculations of hadron matrix elements along with CP
violation in B and in K systems is reviewed. Lattice has provided useful input
which, in conjunction with experimenatl data, leads to the conclusion that
CP-odd phase in the CKM matrix plays the dominant role in the observed
asymmetry in . It is now quite likely that any beyond the SM,
CP-odd, phase will cause only small deviations in B-physics. Search for the
effects of the new phase(s) will consequently require very large data samples
as well as very precise theoretical predictions. Clean determination of {\it
all} the angles of the unitarity triangle therefore becomes essential. In this
regard processes play a unique role. Regarding K-decays,
remarkable progress made by theory with regard to maintenance of chiral
symmetry on the lattice is briefly discussed. First application already provide
quantitaive information on and the rule. The enhancement
in appears to arise solely from tree operators, esp. ; penguin
contribution to appears to be very small. However, improved
calculations are necessary for \epsilon^'/epsilon as there the contributions
of QCD penguins and electroweak penguins largely seem to cancel. There are good
reasons, though, to believe that these cancellations will not survive
improvements that are now underway. Importance of determining the unitarity
triangle purely from K-decays is also emphasized.Comment: Invited talk at the 9th International Symposium on Particles, Strings
and Cosmology (PASCOS 03), Mumbai (Bombay) India,3-8 Jan 200
Lightning Observations from the International Space Station (ISS) for Science Research and Operational Applications
There exist several core science applications of LIS lightning observations, that range from weather and climate to atmospheric chemistry and lightning physics due to strong quantitative connections that can be made between lightning and other geophysical processes of interest. The space-base vantage point, such as provided by ISS LIS, still remains an ideal location to obtain total lightning observations on a global basis
Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) for the International Space Station (ISS): Mission Description and Science Goals
In recent years, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and their partners have developed and demonstrated space-based lightning observations as an effective remote sensing tool for Earth science research and applications. The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) continues to provide global observations of total lightning after 17 years on-orbit. In April 2013, a space-qualified LIS built as the flight spare for TRMM, was selected for flight as a science mission on the International Space Station. The ISS LIS (or I-LIS as Hugh Christian prefers) will be flown as a hosted payload on the Department of Defense Space Test Program (STP) H5 mission, which has a January 2016 baseline launch date aboard a SpaceX launch vehicle for a 2-4 year or longer mission. The LIS measures the amount, rate, and radiant energy of global lightning. More specifically, it measures lightning during both day and night, with storm scale resolution, millisecond timing, and high, uniform detection efficiency, without any land-ocean bias. Lightning is a direct and most impressive response to intense atmospheric convection. It has been found that the characteristics of lightning that LIS measures can be quantitatively coupled to both thunderstorm and other geophysical processes. Therefore, the ISS LIS lightning observations will provide important gap-filling inputs to pressing Earth system science issues across a broad range of disciplines, including weather, climate, atmospheric chemistry, and lightning physics. A unique contribution from the ISS platform will be the availability of real-time lightning, especially valuable for operational applications over data sparse regions such as the oceans. The ISS platform will also uniquely enable LIS to provide simultaneous and complementary observations with other payloads such as the European Space Agency's Atmosphere-Space Interaction Monitor (ASIM) that will be exploring the connection between thunderstorms and lightning with terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs). Another important function of the ISS LIS will be to provide cross-sensor calibration/validation with a number of other payloads, including the TRMM LIS and the next generation geostationary lightning mappers (e.g., GOES-R Geostationary Lightning Mapper and Meteosat Third Generation Lightning Imager). This inter-calibration will improve the long term climate monitoring provided by all these systems. Finally, the ISS LIS will extend the time-series climate record of LIS lightning observations and expand the latitudinal coverage of LIS lightning to the climate significant upper middle-latitudes
Prefigurative politics between ethical practice and absent promise
'Prefigurative politics' has become a popular term for social movements' ethos of unity between means and ends, but its conceptual genealogy has escaped attention. This article disentangles two components: an ethical revolutionary practice, chiefly indebted to the anarchist tradition, which fights domination while directly constructing alternatives; and prefiguration as a recursive temporal framing, unknowingly drawn from Christianity, in which a future radiates backwards on its past. Tracing prefiguration from the Church Fathers to politicised re-surfacings in the Diggers and the New Left, I associate it with Koselleck's 'process of reassurance' in a pre-ordained historical path. Contrasted to recursive prefiguration are the generative temporal framings couching defences of means-ends unity in the anarchist tradition. These emphasised the path dependency of revolutionary social transformation and the ethical underpinnings of anti-authoritarian politics. Misplaced recursive terminology, I argue, today conveniently distracts from the generative framing of means-ends unity, as the promise of revolution is replaced by that of environmental and industrial collapse. Instead of prefiguration, I suggest conceiving of means-ends unity in terms of Bloch's 'concrete utopia', and associating it with 'anxious' and 'catastrophic' forms of hope
Pion photoproduction on the nucleon in the quark model
We present a detailed quark-model study of pion photoproduction within the
effective Lagrangian approach. Cross sections and single-polarization
observables are investigated for the four charge channels, , , , and .
Leaving the coupling strength to be a free parameter, we obtain a
reasonably consistent description of these four channels from threshold to the
first resonance region. Within this effective Lagrangian approach, strongly
constrainted by the quark model, we consider the issue of double-counting which
may occur if additional {\it t}-channel contributions are included.Comment: Revtex, 35 pages, 16 eps figures; version to appear on PR
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