146 research outputs found
comparisons between different interpolation techniques
Digital terrain models are key tools in land analysis and management as they are directly employable in GIS systems and other specific applications like hydraulic modelling, geotechnical analyses, road planning, telecommunication, and many others. TIN generation, from different kind of measurement techniques, is ruled by specific regulations. Interpolation techniques to compute a regular grid from a TIN, are, instead, still lacking in specific regulations: a unitary and shared methodology has not already been made compulsory in order to be used in cartographic production while generating digital models. Such ambiguity obviously involves non univocal results and can affect precision, which can lead to divergent analyses on the same territory. In the present study different algorithms will be analysed in order to spot an optimal interpolation methodology. The availability of the recent digital model produced by the Regione Piemonte with airborne LIDAR and the presence of sections of testing realized with higher resolutions and the presence of independent digital models on the same territory allow to set a series of analysis with consequent determination of the best methodologies of interpolation. The analysis of the residuals on the test sites allows to calculate the descriptive statistics of the computed values: all the algorithms have furnished interesting results; all the more interesting, notably for dense models, the IDW (Inverse Distance Weighing) algorithm results to give best results in this study case. Moreover, a comparative analysis was carried out by interpolating data at different input point density, with the purpose of highlighting thresholds in input density that may influence the quality reduction of the final output in the interpolation phase
Generation of an ultrastable 578 nm laser for Yb lattice clock
In this paper we described the development and the characterization of a 578 nm laser source to be the clock laser for an Ytterbium Lattice Optical clock. Two independent laser sources have been realized and the characterization of the stability with a beat note technique is presente
Generation of continuous-wave THz radiation by use of quantum interference
We propose a scheme for generation of continuous-wave THz radiation. The
scheme requires a medium where three discrete states in a
configuration can be selected, with the THz-frequency transition between the
two lower metastable states. We consider the propagation of three-frequency
continuous-wave electromagnetic (e.m.) radiation through a medium.
Under resonant excitation, the medium absorption can be strongly reduced due to
quantum interference of transitions, while the nonlinear susceptibility is
enhanced. This leads to very efficient energy transfer between the e.m. waves
providing a possibility for THz generation. We demonstrate that the photon
conversion efficiency is approaching unity in this technique.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure
Measurement of the Blackbody Radiation Shift of the 133Cs Hyperfine Transition in an Atomic Fountain
We used a Cs atomic fountain frequency standard to measure the Stark shift on
the ground state hyperfine transiton frequency in cesium (9.2 GHz) due to the
electric field generated by the blackbody radiation. The measures relative
shift at 300 K is -1.43(11)e-14 and agrees with our theoretical evaluation
-1.49(07)e-14. This value differs from the currently accepted one
-1.69(04)e-14. The difference has a significant implication on the accuracy of
frequency standards, in clocks comparison, and in a variety of high precision
physics tests such as the time stability of fundamental constants.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 2 table
COMPARISONS BETWEEN DIFFERENT INTERPOLATION TECHNIQUES
Digital terrain models are key tools in land analysis and management as they are directly employable in GIS systems and other specific applications like hydraulic modelling, geotechnical analyses, road planning, telecommunication, and many others. TIN generation, from different kind of measurement techniques, is ruled by specific regulations. Interpolation techniques to compute a regular grid from a TIN, are, instead, still lacking in specific regulations: a unitary and shared methodology has not already been made compulsory in order to be used in cartographic production while generating digital models. Such ambiguity obviously involves non univocal results and can affect precision, which can lead to divergent analyses on the same territory.
In the present study different algorithms will be analysed in order to spot an optimal interpolation methodology. The availability of the recent digital model produced by the Regione Piemonte with airborne LIDAR and the presence of sections of testing realized with higher resolutions and the presence of independent digital models on the same territory allow to set a series of analysis with consequent determination of the best methodologies of interpolation. The analysis of the residuals on the test sites allows to calculate the descriptive statistics of the computed values: all the algorithms have furnished interesting results; all the more interesting, notably for dense models, the IDW (Inverse Distance Weighing) algorithm results to give best results in this study case. Moreover, a comparative analysis was carried out by interpolating data at different input point density, with the purpose of highlighting thresholds in input density that may influence the quality reduction of the final output in the interpolation phase
Survey solutions for 3D acquisition and representation of artificial and natural caves
A three-dimensional survey of natural caves is often a difficult task due to the roughness of the investigated area and the problems of accessibility. Traditional adopted techniques allow a simplified acquisition of the topography of caves characterized by an oversimplification of the geometry. Nowadays, the advent of LiDAR and Structure from Motion applications eased three-dimensional surveys in different environments. In this paper, we present a comparison between other three-dimensional survey systems, namely a Terrestrial Laser Scanner, a SLAM-based portable instrument, and a commercial photo camera, to test their possible deployment in natural caves survey. We presented a comparative test carried out in a tunnel stretch to calibrate the instrumentation on a benchmark site. The choice of the site is motivated by its regular geometry and easy accessibility. According to the result obtained in the calibration site, we presented a methodology, based on the Structure from Motion approach that resulted in the best compromise among accuracy, feasibility, and cost-effectiveness, that could be adopted for the three-dimensional survey of complex natural caves using a sequence of images and the structure from motion algorithm. The methods consider two different approaches to obtain a low resolution complete three-dimensional model of the cave and ultra-detailed models of most peculiar cave morphological elements. The proposed system was tested in the Gazzano Cave (Piemonte region, Northwestern Italy). The obtained result is a three-dimensional model of the cave at low resolution due to the site’s extension and the remarkable amount of data. Additionally, a peculiar speleothem, i.e., a stalagmite, in the cave was surveyed at high resolution to test the proposed high-resolution approach on a single object. The benchmark and the cave trials allowed a better definition of the instrumentation choice for underground surveys regarding accuracy and feasibility
Beyond the fundamental noise limit in coherent optical fiber links
It is well known that temperature variations and acoustic noise affect
ultrastable frequency dissemination along optical fiber. Active stabilization
techniques are in general adopted to compensate for the fiber-induced phase
noise. However, despite this compensation, the ultimate link performances
remain limited by the so called delay-unsuppressed fiber noise that is related
to the propagation delay of the light in the fiber. In this paper, we
demonstrate a data post-processing approach which enables us to overcome this
limit. We implement a subtraction algorithm between the optical signal
delivered at the remote link end and the round-trip signal. In this way, a 6 dB
improvement beyond the fundamental limit imposed by delay-unsuppressed noise is
obtained. This result enhances the resolution of possible comparisons between
remote optical clocks by a factor of 2. We confirm the theoretical prediction
with experimental data obtained on a 47 km metropolitan fiber link, and propose
how to extend this method for frequency dissemination purposes as well
Semi-automatic mapping of shallow landslides using free Sentinel-2 images and Google Earth Engine
The global availability of Sentinel-2 data and the widespread coverage of cost-free and high-resolution images nowadays give opportunities to map, at a low cost, shallow landslides triggered by extreme events (e.g. rainfall, earthquakes). Rapid and low-cost shallow landslide mapping could improve damage estimations, susceptibility models and land management.
This work presents a two-phase procedure to detect and map shallow
landslides. The first is a semi-automatic methodology allowing for mapping
potential shallow landslides (PLs) using Sentinel-2 images. The PL aims to
detect the most affected areas and to focus on them an high-resolution mapping and further investigations. We create a GIS-based and user-friendly methodology to extract PL based on pre- and post-event normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) variation and
geomorphological filtering. In the second phase, the semi-automatic
inventory was compared with a benchmark landslide inventory drawn on
high-resolution images. We also used Google Earth Engine scripts to
extract the NDVI time series and to make a multi-temporal analysis.
We apply this procedure to two study areas in NW Italy, hit in 2016 and 2019 by extreme rainfall events. The results show that the semi-automatic mapping based on Sentinel-2 allows for detecting the majority of shallow landslides larger than satellite ground pixel (100 m2). PL density and distribution match well with the benchmark. However, the false positives (30 % to 50 % of cases) are challenging to filter, especially when they
correspond to riverbank erosions or cultivated land.</p
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