An Accurate Method for Computing the Absorption of Solar Radiation by Water Vapor

The method is based upon molecular line parameters and makes use of a far wing scaling approximation and k distribution approach previously applied to the computation of the infrared cooling rate due to water vapor. Taking into account the wave number dependence of the incident solar flux, the solar heating rate is computed for the entire water vapor spectrum and for individual absorption bands. The accuracy of the method is tested against line by line calculations. The method introduces a maximum error of 0.06 C/day. The method has the additional advantage over previous methods in that it can be applied to any portion of the spectral region containing the water vapor bands. The integrated absorptances and line intensities computed from the molecular line parameters were compared with laboratory measurements. The comparison reveals that, among the three different sources, absorptance is the largest for the laboratory measurements

Weighted universal bit allocation: optimal multiple quantization matrix coding

We introduce a two-stage bit allocation algorithm analogous to the algorithm for weighted universal vector quantization (WUVQ). The encoder uses a collection of possible bit allocations (typically in the form of a collection of quantization matrices) rather than a single bit allocation (or single quantization matrix). We describe both an encoding algorithm for achieving optimal compression using a collection of bit allocations and a technique for designing locally optimal collections of bit allocations. We demonstrate performance on a JPEG style coder using the mean squared error (MSE) distortion measure. On a sequence of medical brain scans, the algorithm achieves up to 2.5 dB improvement over a single bit allocation system, up to 5 dB improvement over a WUVQ with first- and second-stage vector dimensions equal to 16 and 4 respectively, and up to 12 dB improvement over an entropy constrained vector quantizer (ECVQ) using 4 dimensional vectors

Branching Ratios and CP Asymmetries of B \to a_1(1260) \pi and a_1(1260) K Decays

We present the studies of the decays $B\to a_1(1260) \pi$ and $a_1(1260) K$ within the framework of QCD factorization. Due to the G-parity, unlike the vector meson, the chiral-odd two-parton light-cone distribution amplitudes of the $a_1$ are antisymmetric under the exchange of quark and anti-quark momentum fractions in the SU(2) limit. The branching ratios for $a_1 \pi$ modes are sensitive to tree--penguin interference. The resultant ${\cal B}(B^0 \to a_1^\pm \pi^\mp)$ are in good agreement with the data. However, using the current Cabibbo--Kobayashi--Maskawa angles, $\beta=22.0^\circ$ and $\gamma=59.0^\circ$, our results for the mixing-induced parameter $S$ and $\alpha_{\rm eff}$ differ from the measurements of the time-dependent CP asymmetries in the decay $B^0\to a_1^\pm \pi^\mp$ at about the $3.7\sigma$ level. This puzzle may be resolved by using a larger $\gamma \gtrsim 80^\circ$. For $a_1 K$ modes, the annihilation topologies give sizable contributions and are sensitive to the first Gegenbauer moment of the leading-twist tensor (chiral-odd) distribution amplitude of the $a_1$ meson. The $B\to a_1 K$ amplitudes resemble the corresponding $B\to \pi K$ ones very much. Taking the ratios of corresponding CP-averaged $a_1 K$ and $\pi K$ branching ratios, we can extract information relevant to the electroweak penguins and annihilations. The existence of new-physics in the electroweak penguin sector and final state interactions during decays can thus be explored.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure, 4 tables, typos corrected, some discussions added, version to appear in PR

Variable dimension weighted universal vector quantization and noiseless coding

A new algorithm for variable dimension weighted universal coding is introduced. Combining the multi-codebook system of weighted universal vector quantization (WUVQ), the partitioning technique of variable dimension vector quantization, and the optimal design strategy common to both, variable dimension WUVQ allows mixture sources to be effectively carved into their component subsources, each of which can then be encoded with the codebook best matched to that source. Application of variable dimension WUVQ to a sequence of medical images provides up to 4.8 dB improvement in signal to quantization noise ratio over WUVQ and up to 11 dB improvement over a standard full-search vector quantizer followed by an entropy code. The optimal partitioning technique can likewise be applied with a collection of noiseless codes, as found in weighted universal noiseless coding (WUNC). The resulting algorithm for variable dimension WUNC is also described

A Faraway Quasar in the Direction of the Highest Energy Auger Event

The highest energy cosmic ray event reported by the Auger Observatory has an energy of 148 EeV. It does not correlate with any nearby (z$<$0.024) object capable of originating such a high energy event. Intrigued by the fact that the highest energy event ever recorded (by the Fly's Eye collaboration) points to a faraway quasar with very high radio luminosity and large Faraday rotation measurement, we have searched for a similar source for the Auger event. We find that the Auger highest energy event points to a quasar with similar characteristics to the one correlated to the Fly's Eye event. We also find the same kind of correlation for one of the highest energy AGASA events. We conclude that so far these types of quasars are the best source candidates for both Auger and Fly's Eye highest energy events. We discuss a few exotic candidates that could reach us from gigaparsec distances.Comment: 13 pages (version to be published in JCAP

Universal quantization of parametric sources has redundancy k/2 (log n)/n

Rissanen has shown that there exist universal noiseless codes for {Xi} with per-letter rate redundancy as low as k/2 (log n)/n, where n is the blocklength and k is the number of source parameters. We derive an analogous result for universal quantization: for any given La-grange multiplier λ>0, there exist universal fixed-rate and variable-rate quantizers with per-letter Lagrangian redundancy (i.e., distortion redundancy plus λ times the rate redundancy) as low as λk/2 (log n)/n

Rates of convergence in adaptive universal vector quantization

We consider the problem of adaptive universal quantization. By adaptive quantization we mean quantization for which the delay associated with encoding the jth sample in a sequence of length n is bounded for all n>j. We demonstrate the existence of an adaptive universal quantization algorithm for which any weighted sum of the rate and the expected mean square error converges almost surely and in expectation as O(√(log log n/log n)) to the corresponding weighted sum of the rate and the distortion-rate function at that rate

One-pass adaptive universal vector quantization

The authors introduce a one-pass adaptive universal quantization technique for real, bounded alphabet, stationary sources. The algorithm is set on line without any prior knowledge of the statistics of the sources which it might encounter and asymptotically achieves ideal performance on all sources that it sees. The system consists of an encoder and a decoder. At increasing intervals, the encoder refines its codebook using knowledge about incoming data symbols. This codebook is then described to the decoder in the form of updates on the previous codebook. The accuracy to which the codebook is described increases as the number of symbols seen, and thus the accuracy to which the codebook is known, grows

Variable-rate source coding theorems for stationary nonergodic sources

For a stationary ergodic source, the source coding theorem and its converse imply that the optimal performance theoretically achievable by a fixed-rate or variable-rate block quantizer is equal to the distortion-rate function, which is defined as the infimum of an expected distortion subject to a mutual information constraint. For a stationary nonergodic source, however, the. Distortion-rate function cannot in general be achieved arbitrarily closely by a fixed-rate block code. We show, though, that for any stationary nonergodic source with a Polish alphabet, the distortion-rate function can be achieved arbitrarily closely by a variable-rate block code. We also show that the distortion-rate function of a stationary nonergodic source has a decomposition as the average of the distortion-rate functions of the source's stationary ergodic components, where the average is taken over points on the component distortion-rate functions having the same slope. These results extend previously known results for finite alphabets

An efficient routine for infrared radiative transfer in a cloudy atmosphere

A FORTRAN program that calculates the atmospheric cooling rate and infrared fluxes for partly cloudy atmospheres is documented. The IR fluxes in the water bands and the 9.6 and 15 micron bands are calculated at 15 levels ranging from 1.39 mb to the surface. The program is generalized to accept any arbitrary atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles and clouds as input and return the cooling rate and fluxes as output. Sample calculations for various atmospheric profiles and cloud situations are demonstrated