Regional estimation of daily to annual regional evapotranspiration with MODIS data in the Yellow River Delta wetland

Evapotranspiration (ET) from the wetland of the Yellow River Delta (YRD) is one of the important components in the water cycle, which represents the water consumption by the plants and evaporation from the water and the non-vegetated surfaces. Reliable estimates of the total evapotranspiration from the wetland is useful information both for understanding the hydrological process and for water management to protect this natural environment. Due to the heterogeneity of the vegetation types and canopy density and of soil water content over the wetland (specifically over the natural reserve areas), it is difficult to estimate the regional evapotranspiration extrapolating measurements or calculations usually done locally for a specific land cover type. Remote sensing can provide observations of land surface conditions with high spatial and temporal resolution and coverage. In this study, a model based on the Energy Balance method was used to calculate daily evapotranspiration (ET) using instantaneous observations of land surface reflectance and temperature from MODIS when the data were available on clouds-free days. A time series analysis algorithm was then applied to generate a time series of daily ET over a year period by filling the gaps in the observation series due to clouds. A detailed vegetation classification map was used to help identifying areas of various wetland vegetation types in the YRD wetland. Such information was also used to improve the parameterizations in the energy balance model to improve the accuracy of ET estimates. This study showed that spatial variation of ET was significant over the same vegetation class at a given time and over different vegetation types in different seasons in the YRD wetlan

On determination of the geometric cosmological constant from the OPERA experiment of superluminal neutrinos

The recent OPERA experiment of superluminal neutrinos has deep consequences in cosmology. In cosmology a fundamental constant is the cosmological constant. From observations one can estimate the effective cosmological constant $\Lambda_{eff}$ which is the sum of the quantum zero point energy $\Lambda_{dark energy}$ and the geometric cosmological constant $\Lambda$. The OPERA experiment can be applied to determine the geometric cosmological constant $\Lambda$. It is the first time to distinguish the contributions of $\Lambda$ and $\Lambda_{dark energy}$ from each other by experiment. The determination is based on an explanation of the OPERA experiment in the framework of Special Relativity with de Sitter space-time symmetry.Comment: 7 pages, no figure

Superconductivity and magnetic order in the non-centrosymmetric Half Heusler compound ErPdBi

We report superconductivity at $T_c = 1.22$ K and magnetic order at $T_N = 1.06$ K in the semi-metallic noncentrosymmetric Half Heusler compound ErPdBi. The upper critical field, $B_{c2}$, has an unusual quasi-linear temperature variation and reaches a value of 1.6 T for $T \rightarrow 0$. Magnetic order is found below $T_c$ and is suppressed at $B{_M} \sim 2.5$ T for $T \rightarrow 0$. Since $T_c \simeq T_N$, the interaction of superconductivity and magnetism is expected to give rise to a complex ground state. Moreover, electronic structure calculations show ErPdBi has a topologically nontrivial band inversion and thus may serve as a new platform to study the interplay of topological states, superconductivity and magnetic order.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in Europhysics Letter

A New Method to Calculate Electromagnetic Impedance Matching Degree in One-Layer Microwave Absorbers

A delta-function method was proposed to quantitatively evaluate the electromagnetic impedance matching degree. Measured electromagnetic parameters of {\alpha}-Fe/Fe3B/Y2O3 nanocomposites are applied to calculate the matching degree by the method. Compared with reflection loss and quarter-wave principle theory, the method accurately reveals the intrinsic mechanism of microwave transmission and reflection properties. A possible honeycomb structure with promising high-performance microwave absorption according to the method is also proposed.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Accurate Modelling of Left-Handed Metamaterials Using Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method with Spatial Averaging at the Boundaries

The accuracy of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) modelling of left-handed metamaterials (LHMs) is dramatically improved by using an averaging technique along the boundaries of LHM slabs. The material frequency dispersion of LHMs is taken into account using auxiliary differential equation (ADE) based dispersive FDTD methods. The dispersive FDTD method with averaged permittivity along the material boundaries is implemented for a two-dimensional (2-D) transverse electric (TE) case. A mismatch between analytical and numerical material parameters (e.g. permittivity and permeability) introduced by the time discretisation in FDTD is demonstrated. The expression of numerical permittivity is formulated and it is suggested to use corrected permittivity in FDTD simulations in order to model LHM slabs with their desired parameters. The influence of switching time of source on the oscillation of field intensity is analysed. It is shown that there exists an optimum value which leads to fast convergence in simulations.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Journal of Optics A Nanometa special issu

Semileptonic B Decays into Excited Charmed Mesons (D1D_1, D2∗D^*_2) in HQEFT

Exclusive semileptonic B decays into excited charmed mesons ($D_1$, $D^*_2$) are studied up to the order of $1/m_Q$ in the framework of the heavy quark effective field theory (HQEFT), which contains the contributions of both particles and antiparticles. Two wave functions $\eta^b_0$ and $\eta^c_0$, which characterize the contributions from the kinematic operator at the order of $1/m_Q$, are calculated by using QCD sum rule approach in HQEFT. Zero recoil values of other two wave functions $\kappa'_1$ and $\kappa'_2$ are extracted from the excited charmed-meson masses. Possible effects from the spin-dependent transition wave functions which arise from the magnetic operators at the order of $1/m_Q$ are analyzed. It is shown that the experimental measurements for the branching ratios of $B \to D_1 l\nu$ and $B \to D^*_2 l\nu$ can be understood in the framework of HQEFT.Comment: 27 pages, RevTex, 4 figures, 3 tables, to be published in IJMP

Observational constraints on cosmic neutrinos and dark energy revisited

Using several cosmological observations, i.e. the cosmic microwave background anisotropies (WMAP), the weak gravitational lensing (CFHTLS), the measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations (SDSS+WiggleZ), the most recent observational Hubble parameter data, the Union2.1 compilation of type Ia supernovae, and the HST prior, we impose constraints on the sum of neutrino masses (\mnu), the effective number of neutrino species (\neff) and dark energy equation of state ($w$), individually and collectively. We find that a tight upper limit on \mnu can be extracted from the full data combination, if \neff and $w$ are fixed. However this upper bound is severely weakened if \neff and $w$ are allowed to vary. This result naturally raises questions on the robustness of previous strict upper bounds on \mnu, ever reported in the literature. The best-fit values from our most generalized constraint read \mnu=0.556^{+0.231}_{-0.288}\rm eV, \neff=3.839\pm0.452, and $w=-1.058\pm0.088$ at 68% confidence level, which shows a firm lower limit on total neutrino mass, favors an extra light degree of freedom, and supports the cosmological constant model. The current weak lensing data are already helpful in constraining cosmological model parameters for fixed $w$. The dataset of Hubble parameter gains numerous advantages over supernovae when $w=-1$, particularly its illuminating power in constraining \neff. As long as $w$ is included as a free parameter, it is still the standardizable candles of type Ia supernovae that play the most dominant role in the parameter constraints.Comment: 39 pages, 15 figures, 7 tables, accepted to JCA