Crop Characteristics Research: Growth and Reflectance Analysis

Much of the early research in remote sensing follows along developing spectral signatures of cover types. It was found, however, that a signature from an unknown cover class could not always be matched to a catalog value of known cover class. This approach was abandoned and supervised classification schemes followed. These were not efficient and required extensive training. It was obvious that data acquired at a single time could not separate cover types. A large portion of the proposed research has concentrated on modeling the temporal behavior of agricultural crops and on removing the need for any training data in remote sensing surveys; the key to which is the solution of the so-called 'signature extension' problem. A clear need to develop spectral estimaters of crop ontogenic stages and yield has existed even though various correlations have been developed. Considerable effort in developing techniques to estimate these variables was devoted to this work. The need to accurately evaluate existing canopy reflectance model(s), improve these models, use them to understand the crop signatures, and estimate leaf area index was the third objective of the proposed work. A synopsis of this research effort is discussed

Inexpensive lightweight mirror

Aluminized Mylar film is bonded to polyurethane foam mold; Mylar is then removed, leaving highly reflective coating of aluminum on foam. Mold may be used repeatedly to make mirrors for several optical instruments. Large mirrors of almost any shape may be made singularly or in quantity

Argentina spectral-agronomic multitemporal data set

A multitemporal LANDSAT spectral data set was created. The data set is over five 5 nm-by-6 nm areas over Argentina and contains by field, the spectral data, vegetation type and cloud cover information

Observation of cosmic ray positrons from 5 to 25 GeV

The positron data gathered in conjunction with electron data published elsewhere is reported. The basic recognition scheme was to look for low mass positive particles that cause a cascade in a 7 radiation length shower counter. The mass criteria is imposed by selecting particles that were accompanied by Cherenkov light but whose rigidity was below the proton Cherenkov threshold. Thus the proton Cherenkov threshold represents an upper limit to the range of the experiment

Absolute rigidity spectrum of protons and helium nuclei above 10 GV/c

Proton and helium nuclei differential spectra were gathered with a balloon borne magnet spectrometer. The data were fitted to the assumption that the differential flux can be represented by a power law in rigidity. In the rigidity range 10 to 25 GV/c the spectral indices were found to be -(2.74 plus or minus 0.04) for protons and -(2.71 plus or minus 0.05) for helium nuclei. A brief discussion is given by systematic errors

The ALTCRISS project on board the International Space Station

The Altcriss project aims to perform a long term survey of the radiation environment on board the International Space Station. Measurements are being performed with active and passive devices in different locations and orientations of the Russian segment of the station. The goal is to perform a detailed evaluation of the differences in particle fluence and nuclear composition due to different shielding material and attitude of the station. The Sileye-3/Alteino detector is used to identify nuclei up to Iron in the energy range above 60 MeV/n. Several passive dosimeters (TLDs, CR39) are also placed in the same location of Sileye-3 detector. Polyethylene shielding is periodically interposed in front of the detectors to evaluate the effectiveness of shielding on the nuclear component of the cosmic radiation. The project was submitted to ESA in reply to the AO in the Life and Physical Science of 2004 and data taking began in December 2005. Dosimeters and data cards are rotated every six months: up to now three launches of dosimeters and data cards have been performed and have been returned with the end of expedition 12 and 13.Comment: Accepted for publication on Advances in Space Research http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2007.04.03

Radio-emitting electrons and cosmic ray confinement

The propagation of cosmic ray electrons in the framework of the Disk-Halo diffusion model in which the diffusion coefficientD ∝ z δ E μ (where z is the distance from the galactic plane and E is the energy), and the magnetic field H∝z - ξ has been examined by making use of the recently available radio data up to 8 GHz toward the anticenter (A) and halo minimum (M). The following inferences are then made. From the difference in the frequency at which steepening occurs in the radio spectra toward A and H, it is found that the observations are consistent with the magnetic field decreasing with z such that ξ=0.24-0.37. An electron injection spectrum with a single power law down to energies well below 1 GeV cannot explain satisfactorily the observed radio spectra. All observations, however, can be understood in a self consistent way if the observed steepening of the radio spectra, and hence the interstellar electron spectrum, is due partly to the deviation in the power law electron injection spectrum below a few GeV and partly to the first break arising from electron energy losses occurring in the same energy region. In this case, using the value of ξ obtained above and a value of μ=0.3-0.6, it is found that the spectral index γ 0 of the injected electrons above a few GeV has a value between 1.9 and 2.3 and the index δ a value between 0.5 and 1. Further, if the electrons and protons have the same spectral shape at injection, then γ 0=2.1-2.3

Parametrizations of Inclusive Cross Sections for Pion Production in Proton-Proton Collisions

Accurate knowledge of cross sections for pion production in proton-proton collisions finds wide application in particle physics, astrophysics, cosmic ray physics and space radiation problems, especially in situations where an incident proton is transported through some medium, and one requires knowledge of the output particle spectrum given the input spectrum. In such cases accurate parametrizations of the cross sections are desired. In this paper we review much of the experimental data and compare to a wide variety of different cross section parametrizations. In so doing, we provide parametrizations of neutral and charged pion cross sections which provide a very accurate description of the experimental data. Lorentz invariant differential cross sections, spectral distributions and total cross section parametrizations are presented.Comment: 32 pages with 15 figures. Published in Physical Review D62, 094030. File includes 6 tex files. The main file is paper.tex which has include statements refering to the rest. figures are in graphs.di

Search for antihelium in cosmic rays

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) was flown on the space shuttle Discovery during flight STS-91 in a 51.7 degree orbit at altitudes between 320 and 390 km. A total of 2.86 * 10^6 helium nuclei were observed in the rigidity range 1 to 140 GV. No antihelium nuclei were detected at any rigidity. An upper limit on the flux ratio of antihelium to helium of < 1.1 * 10^-6 is obtained.Comment: 18 pages, Latex, 9 .eps figure