Method and apparatus for determining return stroke polarity of distant lightning

A method is described for determining the return stroke polarity of distant lightning for distances beyond 600 km by detecting the electric field associated with a return stroke of distant lightning, and processing the electric field signal to determine the polarity of the slow tail of the VLF waveform signal associated with the detected electric field. The polarity of the return stroke of distant lightning is determined based upon the polarity of the slow tail portion of the waveform

Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) for the Earth Observing System

Not only are scientific objectives and instrument characteristics given of a calibrated optical LIS for the EOS but also for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) which was designed to acquire and study the distribution and variability of total lightning on a global basis. The LIS can be traced to a lightning mapper sensor planned for flight on the GOES meteorological satellites. The LIS consists of a staring imager optimized to detect and locate lightning. The LIS will detect and locate lightning with storm scale resolution (i.e., 5 to 10 km) over a large region of the Earth's surface along the orbital track of the satellite, mark the time of occurrence of the lightning, and measure the radiant energy. The LIS will have a nearly uniform 90 pct. detection efficiency within the area viewed by the sensor, and will detect intracloud and cloud-to-ground discharges during day and night conditions. Also, the LIS will monitor individual storms and storm systems long enough to obtain a measure of the lightning flashing rate when they are within the field of view of the LIS. The LIS attributes include low cost, low weight and power, low data rate, and important science. The LIS will study the hydrological cycle, general circulation and sea surface temperature variations, along with examinations of the electrical coupling of thunderstorms with the ionosphere and magnetosphere, and observations and modeling of the global electric circuit

Atmospheric electricity/meteorology analysis

This activity focuses on Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS)/Lightning Mapper Sensor (LMS) algorithm development and applied research. Specifically we are exploring the relationships between (1) global and regional lightning activity and rainfall, and (2) storm electrical development, physics, and the role of the environment. U.S. composite radar-rainfall maps and ground strike lightning maps are used to understand lightning-rainfall relationships at the regional scale. These observations are then compared to SSM/I brightness temperatures to simulate LIS/TRMM multi-sensor algorithm data sets. These data sets are supplied to the WETNET project archive. WSR88-D (NEXRAD) data are also used as it becomes available. The results of this study allow us to examine the information content from lightning imaging sensors in low-earth and geostationary orbits. Analysis of tropical and U.S. data sets continues. A neural network/sensor fusion algorithm is being refined for objectively associating lightning and rainfall with their parent storm systems. Total lightning data from interferometers are being used in conjunction with data from the national lightning network. A 6-year lightning/rainfall climatology has been assembled for LIS sampling studies

Optimization of solar cells for air mass zero operation and a study of solar cells at high temperatures, phase 3

The etch-back epitaxy process is described for producing thin, graded composition GaAlAs layers. The palladium-aluminum contact system is discussed along with its associated problems. Recent solar cell results under simulated air mass zero light and at elevated temperatures are reported and the growth of thin polycrystalline GaAs films on foreign substrates is developed

Simulating CCD images of elliptical galaxies

We introduce a procedure developed by the ``Teramo Stellar Populations Tools'' group (Teramo-SPoT), specifically optimized to obtain realistic simulations of CCD images of elliptical galaxies. Particular attention is devoted to include the Surface Brightness Fluctuation (SBF) signal observed in ellipticals and to simulate the Globular Cluster (GC) system in the galaxy, and the distribution of background galaxies present in real CCD frames. In addition to the physical properties of the simulated objects - galaxy distance and brightness profile, luminosity function of GC and background galaxies, etc. - the tool presented allows the user to set some of the main instrumental properties - FoV, zero point magnitude, exposure time, etc.Comment: Presented at From Stars to Galaxies: Building the Pieces to Build up the Universe (StarGal 2006), Venice, Italy, 16-20 Oct 200

A First Comparison of the SBF Survey Distances with the Galaxy Density Field: Implications for H_0 and Omega

We compare the peculiar velocities measured in the SBF Survey of Galaxy Distances with the predictions from the density fields of the IRAS 1.2 Jy flux-limited redshift survey and the Optical Redshift Survey (ORS) to derive simultaneous constraints on the Hubble constant $H_0$ and the density parameter $\beta = \Omega^{0.6}/b$, where $b$ is the linear bias. We find $\beta_I=0.42^{+0.10}_{-0.06}$ and $\beta_O=0.26\pm0.08$ for the IRAS and ORS comparisons, respectively, and $H_0=74\pm4$ \kmsMpc (with an additional 9% uncertainty due to the Cepheids themselves). The match between predicted and observed peculiar velocities is good for these values of $H_0$ and $\beta$, and although there is covariance between the two parameters, our results clearly point toward low-density cosmologies. Thus, the unresolved discrepancy between the ``velocity-velocity'' and ``density-density'' measurements of $\beta$ continues.Comment: 4 pages with 3 embedded ps figures; uses emulateapj.sty (included). Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

On the Metallicity-Color Relations and Bimodal Color Distributions in Extragalactic Globular Cluster Systems

We perform a series of numerical experiments to study how the nonlinear metallicity--color relations predicted by different stellar population models affect the color distributions observed in extragalactic globular cluster systems. % We present simulations in the $UBVRIJHK$ bandpasses based on five different sets of simple stellar population (SSP) models. The presence of photometric scatter in the colors is included as well. % We find that unimodal metallicity distributions frequently ``project'' into bimodal color distributions. The likelihood of this effect depends on both the mean and dispersion of the metallicity distribution, as well as of course on the SSP model used for the transformation. % Adopting the Teramo-SPoT SSP models for reference, we find that optical--to--near-IR colors should be favored with respect to other colors to avoid the bias effect in globular cluster color distributions discussed by \citet{yoon06}. In particular, colors such as \vh\ or \vk are more robust against nonlinearity of the metallicity--color relation, and an observed bimodal distribution in such colors is more likely to indicate a true underlying bimodal metallicity distribution. Similar conclusions come from the simulations based on different SSP models, although we also identify exceptions to this result.Comment: ApJ accepte