2,412 research outputs found
Identifying Irrigated Areas in the Snake River Plain, Idaho: Evaluating Performance Across Composting Algorithms, Spectral Indices, and Sensors
There are pressing concerns about the interplay between agricultural productivity, water demand, and water availability in semi-arid to arid regions of the world. Currently, irrigated agriculture is the dominant water user in these regions and is estimated to consume approximately 80% of the world’s diverted freshwater resources. We develop an improved irrigated land-use mapping algorithm that uses the seasonal maximum value of a spectral index to distinguish between irrigated and non-irrigated parcels in Idaho’s Snake River Plain. We compare this approach to two alternative algorithms that differentiate between irrigated and non-irrigated parcels using spectral index values at a single date or the area beneath spectral index trajectories for the duration of the agricultural growing season. Using six different pixel and county-scale error metrics, we evaluate the performance of these three algorithms across all possible combinations of two growing seasons (2002 and 2007), two datasets (MODIS and Landsat 5), and three spectral indices, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, Enhanced Vegetation Index and Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDVI, EVI, and NDMI). We demonstrate that, on average, the seasonal-maximum algorithm yields an improvement in classification accuracy over the accepted single-date approach, and that the average improvement under this approach is a 60% reduction in county scale root mean square error (RMSE), and modest improvements of overall accuracy in the pixel scale validation. The greater accuracy of the seasonal-maximum algorithm is primarily due to its ability to correctly classify non-irrigated lands in riparian and developed areas of the study region
The Unique OMI HCHO/NO2 Feature During the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics: Implications for Ozone Production Sensitivity
In preparation of the Beijing Summer Olympic and Paralympics Games, strict controls were imposed between July and September 2008 on motor vehicle traffic and industrial emissions to improve air quality for the competitors. We assessed chemical sensitivity of ozone production to these controls using Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) column measurements of formaldehyde (HCHO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), where their ratio serves as a proxy for the sensitivity. During the emission controls, HCHO/NO2 increased and indicated a NOx-limited regime, in contrast to the same period in the preceding three years when the ratio indicates volatile organic carbon (VOC)-limited and mixed NOx-VOC-limited regimes. After the emission controls were lifted, observed NO2 and HCHO/NO2 returned to their previous values. The 2005-2008 OMI record shows that this transition in regimes was unique as ozone production in Beijing was rarely NOx-limited. OMI measured summertime increases in HCHO of around 13% in 2008 compared to prior years, the same time period during which MODIS vegetation indices increased. The OMI HCHO increase may be due to higher biogenic emissions of HCHO precursors, associated with Beijing's greening initiative for the Olympics. However, NO2 and HCHO were also found to be well-correlated during the summer months. This indicates an anthropogenic VOC contribution from vehicle emissions to OMI HCHO and is a plausible explanation for the relative HCHO minimum observed in August 2008, concurrent with a minimum in traffic emissions. We calculated positive trends in 2005-2008 OMI HCHO and NO2 of about +1 x 10(exp 14) Molec/ square M-2 and +3 x 10(exp 13) molec CM-2 per month, respectively. The positive trend in NO2 may be an indicator of increasing vehicular traffic since 2005, while the positive trend in HCHO may be due to a combined increase in anthropogenic and biogenic emissions since 2005
Spontaneous emission of an atom placed near a nanobelt of elliptical cross-section
Spontaneous emission of an atom (molecule) placed near a nanocylinder of
elliptical cross-section of an arbitrary composition is studied. The analytical
expressions have been obtained for the radiative and nonradiative channels of
spontaneous decay and investigated in details.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figure
Bi-stable tunneling current through a molecular quantum dot
An exact solution is presented for tunneling through a negative-U d-fold
degenerate molecular quantum dot weakly coupled to electrical leads. The tunnel
current exhibits hysteresis if the level degeneracy of the negative-U dot is
larger than two (d>2). Switching occurs in the voltage range V1 < V < V2 as a
result of attractive electron correlations in the molecule, which open up a new
conducting channel when the voltage is above the threshold bias voltage V2.
Once this current has been established, the extra channel remains open as the
voltage is reduced down to the lower threshold voltage V1. Possible
realizations of the bi-stable molecular quantum dots are fullerenes, especially
C60, and mixed-valence compounds.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. (v2) Figure updated to compare the current
hysteresis for degeneracies d=4 and d>>1 of the level in the dot, minor
corrections in the text. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Status of the Super-B factory Design
The SuperB international team continues to optimize the design of an
electron-positron collider, which will allow the enhanced study of the origins
of flavor physics. The project combines the best features of a linear collider
(high single-collision luminosity) and a storage-ring collider (high repetition
rate), bringing together all accelerator physics aspects to make a very high
luminosity of 10 cm sec. This asymmetric-energy collider
with a polarized electron beam will produce hundreds of millions of B-mesons at
the (4S) resonance. The present design is based on extremely low
emittance beams colliding at a large Piwinski angle to allow very low
without the need for ultra short bunches. Use of crab-waist
sextupoles will enhance the luminosity, suppressing dangerous resonances and
allowing for a higher beam-beam parameter. The project has flexible beam
parameters, improved dynamic aperture, and spin-rotators in the Low Energy Ring
for longitudinal polarization of the electron beam at the Interaction Point.
Optimized for best colliding-beam performance, the facility may also provide
high-brightness photon beams for synchrotron radiation applications
Near-threshold production of the multi-strange hyperon
The yield for the multi-strange hyperon has been measured in 6 AGeV
Au+Au collisions via reconstruction of its decay products and
, the latter also being reconstructed from its daughter tracks of
and p. The measurement is rather close to the threshold for
production and therefore provides an important test of model predictions. The
measured yield for and are compared for several
centralities. In central collisions the yield is found to be in
excellent agreement with statistical and transport model predictions,
suggesting that multi-strange hadron production approaches chemical equilibrium
in high baryon density nuclear matter.Comment: Submitted to PR
Sequential Decay Distortion of Goldhaber Model Widths for Spectator Fragments
Momentum widths of the primary fragments and observed final fragments have
been investigated within the framework of an Antisymmetrized Molecular Dynamics
transport model code (AMD-V) with a sequential decay afterburner (GEMINI). It
is found that the secondary evaporation effects cause the values of a reduced
momentum width, , derived from momentum widths of the final fragments
to be significantly less than those appropriate to the primary fragment but
close to those observed in many experiments. Therefore, a new interpretation
for experiemental momentum widths of projectile-like fragments is presented.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figs. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C as a Rapid
Communicatio
Sequential Decay Distortion of Goldhaber Model Widths for Spectator Fragments
Momentum widths of the primary fragments and observed final fragments have
been investigated within the framework of an Antisymmetrized Molecular Dynamics
transport model code (AMD-V) with a sequential decay afterburner (GEMINI). It
is found that the secondary evaporation effects cause the values of a reduced
momentum width, , derived from momentum widths of the final fragments
to be significantly less than those appropriate to the primary fragment but
close to those observed in many experiments. Therefore, a new interpretation
for experiemental momentum widths of projectile-like fragments is presented.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figs. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C as a Rapid
Communicatio
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