The Growth and Morphology of Small Ice Crystals in a Diffusion Chamber

Small water ice crystals are the main component of cold tropospheric clouds such as cirrus. Because these clouds cover large areas of our planet, their role in the radiation budget of incoming and outgoing radiation to the planet’s surface is important. At present, the representation of these clouds in climate and weather models is subject to improvements: a large part of the uncertainty error stems from the lack of precise micro-physical and radiation model schemes for ice crystal clouds. To improve the cloud representations, a better understanding of the life time dynamics of the clouds and their composition is necessary, comprising a detailed understanding of the ice particle genesis, and development over their lifetime. It is especially important to understand how the development of ice crystals over time is linked to the changes in observable variables such as water vapour content and temperature and how they change the light scattering properties of the crystals. Recent remote and aircraft based in-situ measurements have shown that many ice particles show a light scattering behaviour typical for crystals having rough surfaces or being of complex geometrical shapes. The aim of this thesis was to develop the experimental setup and experiments to investigate this further by studying the surface morphology of small water ice crystals using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The experiments I developed study the growth of water ice crystals inside an SEM chamber under controlled environmental conditions. The influence of water vapour supersaturation, pressure and temperature is investigated. I demonstrate how to retrieve the surface topology from observed crystals for use as input to computational light scattering codes to derive light scattering phase functions and asymmetry parameters, which can be used as input into atmospheric models. Difficulties with the method for studying the growth of water ice crystals, such as the effect of the electron beam-gas ionization and charging effects, the problem of facilitating repeated and localized ice growth, and the effect of radiative influences on the crystal growth are discussed. A broad set of nucleation target materials is studied. In a conclusion, I demonstrate that the method is suitable to study the surface morphologies, but is experimentally very challenging and many precautions must be taken, such as imaging only once and preventing radiative heat exchange between the chamber walls and the crystals to avoid unwanted effects on the crystal morphology. It is also left as a question if a laboratory experiment, where crystals will need to be grown in connection to a substrate, can represent the real world well enough. Deriving the required light scattering data in-situ might be an alternative, easier way to collect data for modelling use

7. GI/ITG KuVS Fachgespräch Drahtlose Sensornetze

In dem vorliegenden Tagungsband sind die Beiträge des Fachgesprächs Drahtlose Sensornetze 2008 zusammengefasst. Ziel dieses Fachgesprächs ist es, Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler aus diesem Gebiet die Möglichkeit zu einem informellen Austausch zu geben – wobei immer auch Teilnehmer aus der Industrieforschung willkommen sind, die auch in diesem Jahr wieder teilnehmen.Das Fachgespräch ist eine betont informelle Veranstaltung der GI/ITG-Fachgruppe „Kommunikation und Verteilte Systeme“ (www.kuvs.de). Es ist ausdrücklich keine weitere Konferenz mit ihrem großen Overhead und der Anforderung, fertige und möglichst „wasserdichte“ Ergebnisse zu präsentieren, sondern es dient auch ganz explizit dazu, mit Neueinsteigern auf der Suche nach ihrem Thema zu diskutieren und herauszufinden, wo die Herausforderungen an die zukünftige Forschung überhaupt liegen.Das Fachgespräch Drahtlose Sensornetze 2008 findet in Berlin statt, in den Räumen der Freien Universität Berlin, aber in Kooperation mit der ScatterWeb GmbH. Auch dies ein Novum, es zeigt, dass das Fachgespräch doch deutlich mehr als nur ein nettes Beisammensein unter einem Motto ist.Für die Organisation des Rahmens und der Abendveranstaltung gebührt Dank den beiden Mitgliedern im Organisationskomitee, Kirsten Terfloth und Georg Wittenburg, aber auch Stefanie Bahe, welche die redaktionelle Betreuung des Tagungsbands übernommen hat, vielen anderen Mitgliedern der AG Technische Informatik der FU Berlin und natürlich auch ihrem Leiter, Prof. Jochen Schiller

Analysis of dynamic behavior of the back-toback High Voltage Direct Current link model as part of electrical power system

One of the main directions of the development of electric power systems is the introduction of technologies based on high-power semiconductor switches, such as FACTS devices and HVDC technologies. These systems effectively solve a number of urgent tasks of EPS, connected with asynchronous connection of EPS, transmission of electricity, improve local and systemic flexibility and reliability of EPS, increasing the capacity of network elements that contains a "weak" connection. However, the implementation and operation of mentioned technologies in the EPS determines the need for a wide range of analysis and research that can only be done with the help of mathematical modeling

Wigner flow reveals topological order in quantum phase space dynamics

The behaviour of classical mechanical systems is characterised by their phase portraits, the collections of their trajectories. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle precludes the existence of sharply defined trajectories, which is why traditionally only the time evolution of wave functions is studied in quantum dynamics. These studies are quite insensitive to the underlying structure of quantum phase space dynamics. We identify the flow that is the quantum analog of classical particle flow along phase portrait lines. It reveals hidden features of quantum dynamics and extra complexity. Being constrained by conserved flow winding numbers, it also reveals fundamental topological order in quantum dynamics that has so far gone unnoticed.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Formation and investigation of micro-arc Sr-containing calciumphosphate biocoatings on Mg-0.8 Ca alloy

The investigation of the XRD analysis, thickness, masses and roughness of Sr-substituted calcium phosphate coatings on the Mg-0.8Ca substrate deposited by the micro arc oxidation method under different process voltages was performed. The increase of the process voltage leads to the growth of the thickness, masses and roughness of the coatings. Results of XRD analysis showed that the Sr-CaP coatings formed under the process voltages of 350-450 V are contained α-Ca[3](PO[4])[2], Mg[3](PO[4])[2] and Mg phases

Controlling oscillatory behaviour of a two neuron recurrent neural network using inputs

Haschke R, Steil JJ, Ritter H. Controlling oscillatory behaviour of a two neuron recurrent neural network using inputs. In: Dorffner G, Bischof H, Hornik K, eds. Artificial Neural Networks - ICANN 2001. Lecture notes in computer science. Vol 2130. Springer; 2001: 1109-1114.We derive analytical expressions of codim-1-bifurcations for a fully connected, additive two-neuron network with sigmoidal activations, where the two external inputs are regarded as bifurcation parameters. The obtained Neimark-Sacker bifurcation curve encloses a region in input space with stable oscillatory behaviour, in which it is possible to control the oscillation frequency by adjusting the inputs

Aging of a Pt/Al₂O₃ exhaust gas catalyst monitored by quasi in situ X-ray micro computed tomography

Catalyst aging effects were analyzed using X-ray absorption micro-computed tomography in combination with conventional characterization methods on various length scales ranging from nm to [small mu ]m to gain insight into deactivation mechanisms. For this purpose, a 4 wt% Pt/Al2O3 model exhaust gas catalyst was coated on a cordierite honeycomb and subjected to sequential thermal aging in static air at 950 [degree]C for 4, 8, 12 and 24 hours. The aging was followed on the one hand by traditional methods, i.e. CO-oxidation activity, scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM, TEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). On the other hand, all intermediate aging steps were captured by X-ray absorption micro-computed tomography ([small mu ]-CT) with 1.27 [small mu ]m voxel size using a quasi in situ approach as complementary tool. The [small mu ]-CT data allowed comparing exactly the same position after each treatment using a special alignment procedure during data analysis which took into account that the sample was remounted on the sample holder. A growth of the initially nanometer-sized Pt particles into larger crystals as well as its agglomeration was found, preferentially in voids between support grains. Sintering occurred especially around the larger particles, which is in line with the Ostwald ripening mechanism reported for this system on a nanometer scale. The distribution of chemical elements in an embedded and mechanically cross-sectioned honeycomb was additionally mapped by an electron probe micro analyzer (EPMA), which in agreement to the [small mu ]-CT results shows no diffusion of Pt into the cordierite. Together with studies on the nanometer scale, these results allow a more thorough multi-scale modeling of exhaust gas catalysts, especially also during aging

Die Wohnungs- und Immobilienwirtschaft als Impulsgeber und Unterstützer für moderne Wohn- und Lebensformen im Alter

DIE WOHNUNGS- UND IMMOBILIENWIRTSCHAFT ALS IMPULSGEBER UND UNTERSTÜTZER FÜR MODERNE WOHN- UND LEBENSFORMEN IM ALTER Die Wohnungs- und Immobilienwirtschaft als Impulsgeber und Unterstützer für moderne Wohn- und Lebensformen im Alter / Färber, Michael (Rights reserved) ( -