645 research outputs found
Monitoring the Petermann Ice Island with TanDEM-X
This paper presents the processing of TanDEM-X acquisitions for the monitoring of the topography of the Petermann ice island. In this particular case the area under study is continuously moving and the acquisition geometry is changing, so the processing of the icebergâs DEMs is challenging and additional effects are to be considered. The SAR processing chain used is presented and the results obtained summarized, showing the effects and limitations observed during the process
Sea state monitoring using coastal GNSS-R
We report on a coastal experiment to study GPS L1 reflections. The campaign
was carried out at the Barcelona Port breaker and dedicated to the development
of sea-state retrieval algorithms. An experimental system built for this
purpose collected and processed GPS data to automatically generate a times
series of the interferometric complex field (ICF). The ICF was analyzed off
line and compared to a simple developed model that relates ICF coherence time
to the ratio of significant wave height (SWH) and mean wave period (MWP). The
analysis using this model showed good consistency between the ICF coherence
time and nearby oceanographic buoy data. Based on this result, preliminary
conclusions are drawn on the potential of coastal GNSS-R for sea state
monitoring using semi-empirical modeling to relate GNSS-R ICF coherence time to
SWH.Comment: All Starlab authors have contributed significantly; the Starlab
author list has been ordered randomly. Submitted to GR
Effects of Wind Field Inhomogeneities on Doppler Beam Swinging Revealed by an Imaging Radar
In this work, the accuracy of the Doppler beam-swinging (DBS) technique for wind measurements is studied using an imaging radarâthe turbulent eddy profiler (TEP) developed by the University of Mas- sachusetts, with data collected in summer 2003. With up to 64 independent receivers, and using coherent radar imaging (CRI), several hundred partially independent beams can be formed simultaneously within the volume defined by the transmit beam. By selecting a subset of these beams, an unprecedented number of DBS configurations with varying zenith angle, azimuth angle, and number of beams can be investigated. The angular distributions of echo power and radial velocity obtained by CRI provide a unique opportunity to validate the inherent assumption in the DBS method of homogeneity across the region defined by the beam directions. Through comparison with a reference wind field, calculated as the optimal uniform wind field derived from all CRI beams with sufficient signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the accuracy of the wind estimates for various DBS configurations is statistically analyzed. It is shown that for a three-beam DBS configura- tion, although the validity of the homogeneity assumption is enhanced at smaller zenith angles, the root- mean-square (RMS) error increases because of the ill-conditioned matrix in the DBS algorithm. As ex- pected, inhomogeneities in the wind field produce large bias for the three-beam DBS configuration for large zenith angles. An optimal zenith angle, in terms of RMS error, of approximately 9°â10° was estimated. It is further shown that RMS error can be significantly reduced by increasing the number of off-vertical beams used for the DBS processing
Sulphur and zinc abundances in Galactic stars and damped Lyman-alpha systems
High resolution spectra of 34 halo population dwarf and subgiant stars have
been obtained with VLT/UVES and used to derive sulphur abundances from the
8694.0, 8694.6 A and 9212.9, 9237.5 A SI lines. In addition, iron abundances
have been determined from 19 FeII lines and zinc abundances from the 4722.2,
4810.5 ZnI lines. The abundances are based on a classical 1D, LTE model
atmosphere analysis, but effects of 3D hydrodynamical modelling on the [S/Fe],
[Zn/Fe] and [S/Zn] ratios are shown to be small. We find that most halo stars
with metallicities in the range -3.2 < [Fe/H] < -0.8 have a near-constant
[S/Fe] = +0.3; a least square fit to [S/Fe] vs. {Fe/H] shows a slope of only
-0.04 +/- 0.01. Among halo stars with -1.2 < [Fe/H] < -0.8 the majority have
[S/Fe] ~ +0.3, but two stars (previously shown to have low [alpha/Fe] ratios)
have [S/Fe] ~ 0. For disk stars with [Fe/H] > -1, [S/Fe] decreases with
increasing [Fe/H]. Hence, sulphur behaves like other typical alpha-capture
elements, Mg, Si and Ca. Zinc, on the other hand, traces iron over three orders
of magnitude in [Fe/H], although there is some evidence for a small systematic
Zn overabundance ([Zn/Fe] ~ +0.1) among metal-poor disk stars and for halo
stars with [Fe/H] < -2.0. Recent measurements of S and Zn in ten damped
Ly-alpha systems (DLAs) with redshifts between 1.9 and 3.4 and zinc abundances
in the range -2.1 < [Zn/H] < -0.15 show an offset relative to the [S/Zn] -
[Zn/H] relation in Galactic stars. Possible reasons for this offset are
discussed, including low and intermittent star formation rates in DLAs.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 16pages; 9 figure
Phase inconsistencies and water effects in SAR interferometric stacks
SAR Interferometry with stacks has already shown its potential in identifying permanent scatterers, in processing decorrelating targets, mitigating atmospheric delays, etc., but we believe that there is still potential for retrieving information on the scattering environment which has not been extensively studied yet. In particular interferometric stacks can reveal systematic phase inconsistencies which are not detectable in single interferograms, challenging any simple interpretation of the interferometric phase
and associated coherence. The explanation of such inconsistencies requires more complex propagation models than the one based on a simple delay
Estimating instantaneous sea-ice dynamics from space using the bi-static radar measurements of Earth Explorer 10 candidate Harmony
This article describes the observation techniques and suggests processing methods to estimate dynamical sea-ice parameters from data of the Earth Explorer 10 candidate Harmony. The two Harmony satellites will fly in a reconfigurable formation with Sentinel-1D. Both will be equipped with a multi-angle thermal infrared sensor and a passive radar receiver, which receives the reflected Sentinel-1D signals using two antennas. During the lifetime of the mission, two different formations will be flown. In the stereo formation, the Harmony satellites will fly approximately 300âkm in front and behind Sentinel-1, which allows for the estimation of instantaneous sea-ice drift vectors. We demonstrate that the addition of instantaneous sea-ice drift estimates on top of the daily integrated values from feature tracking have benefits in terms of interpretation, sampling and resolution. The wide-swath instantaneous drift observations of Harmony also help to put high-temporal-resolution instantaneous buoy observations into a spatial context. Additionally, it allows for the extraction of deformation parameters, such as shear and divergence. As a result, Harmony's data will help to improve sea-ice statistics and parametrizations to constrain sea-ice models. In the cross-track interferometry (XTI) mode, Harmony's satellites will fly in close formation with an XTI baseline to be able to estimate surface elevations. This will allow for improved estimates of sea-ice volume and also enables the retrieval of full, two-dimensional swell-wave spectra in sea-ice-covered regions without any gaps. In stereo formation, the line-of-sight diversity allows the inference of swell properties in both directions using traditional velocity bunching approaches. In XTI mode, Harmony's phase differences are only sensitive to the ground-range direction swell. To fully recover two-dimensional swell-wave spectra, a synergy between XTI height spectra and intensity spectra is required. If selected, the Harmony mission will be launched in 2028
The HoxD cluster is a dynamic and resilient TAD boundary controlling the segregation of antagonistic regulatory landscapes
The mammalian HoxD cluster lies between two topologically associating domains (TADs) matching distinct enhancer-rich regulatory landscapes. During limb development, the telomeric TAD controls the early transcription of Hoxd genes in forearm cells, whereas the centromeric TAD subsequently regulates more posterior Hoxd genes in digit cells. Therefore, the TAD boundary prevents the terminal Hoxd13 gene from responding to forearm enhancers, thereby allowing proper limb patterning. To assess the nature and function of this CTCF-rich DNA region in embryos, we compared chromatin interaction profiles between proximal and distal limb bud cells isolated from mutant stocks where various parts of this boundary region were removed. The resulting progressive release in boundary effect triggered inter-TAD contacts, favored by the activity of the newly accessed enhancers. However, the boundary was highly resilient, and only a 400-kb deletion, including the whole-gene cluster, was eventually able to merge the neighboring TADs into a single structure. In this unified TAD, both proximal and distal limb enhancers nevertheless continued to work independently over a targeted transgenic reporter construct. We propose that the whole HoxD cluster is a dynamic TAD border and that the exact boundary position varies depending on both the transcriptional status and the developmental context. Press
Elliptic and hyperelliptic magnetohydrodynamic equilibria
The present study is a continuation of a previous one on "hyperelliptic"
axisymmetric equilibria started in [Tasso and Throumoulopoulos, Phys. Plasmas
5, 2378 (1998)].
Specifically, some equilibria with incompressible flow nonaligned with the
magnetic field and restricted by appropriate side conditions like "isothermal"
magnetic surfaces, "isodynamicity" or P + B^2/2 constant on magnetic surfaces
are found to be reducible to elliptic integrals. The third class recovers
recent equilibria found in [Schief, Phys. Plasmas 10, 2677 (2003)]. In contrast
to field aligned flows, all solutions found here have nonzero toroidal magnetic
field on and elliptic surfaces near the magnetic axis.Comment: 9 page
Galaxy Group at z=0.3 Associated with the Damped Lyman Alpha System Towards Quasar Q1127-145
(Abridged) We performed a spectroscopic galaxy survey, complete to m<20.3
(L_B>0.15L_B* at z=0.3), within 100x100" of the quasar Q1127-145 (z=1.18). The
VLT/UVES quasar spectrum contains three z<0.33 MgII absorption systems. We
obtained eight new galaxy redshifts, adding to the four previously known, and
galaxy star formation rates and metallicities were computed where possible. A
strong MgII system [W_r(2796)=1.8A], which is a known DLA, had three previously
identified galaxies; we found two additional galaxies associated with this
system. These five galaxies form a group with diverse properties, such as a
luminosity range of 0.04<L_B<0.63L_B*, an impact parameter range of 17<D<241kpc
and velocity dispersion of 115km/s. The DLA group galaxy redshifts span beyond
the 350km/s velocity spread of the metallic absorption lines of the DLA itself.
The two brightest group galaxies have SFRs of a few Msun/yr and should not have
strong winds. We have sufficient spectroscopic information to directly compare
three of the five group galaxies' (emission-line) metallicities with the DLA
(absorption) metallicity: the DLA metallicity is 1/10th solar, substantially
lower than the three galaxies' which range between less than 1/2 solar to solar
metallicity. HST/WFPC-2 imaging shows perturbed morphologies for the three
brightest group galaxies, with tidal tails extending 25kpc. We favor a scenario
where the DLA absorption originates from tidal debris in the group environment.
Another absorber exhibits weak MgII absorption [W_r(2796)=0.03A] and had a
previously identified galaxy at a similar redshift. We have identified a second
galaxy associated with this system. Both galaxies have solar metallicities and
unperturbed morphologies. The SFR of one galaxy is much lower than expected for
strong outflows. Finally, we have identified five galaxies at large impact
parameters with no associated MgII absorption.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS
Relative abundance pattern along the profile of high redshift Damped Lyman-alpha systems
We investigated abundance ratios along the profiles of six high-redshift
Damped Lyman-alpha systems, three of them associated with H2 absorption, and
derived optical depths in each velocity pixel. The variations of the pixel
abundance ratios were found to be remarkably small and usually smaller than a
factor of two within a profile. This result holds even when considering
independent sub-clumps in the same system. The depletion factor is
significantly enhanced only in those components where H2 is detected. There is
a strong correlation between [Fe/S] and [Si/S] abundances ratios, showing that
the abundance ratio patterns are definitely related to the presence of dust.
The depletion pattern is usually close to the one seen in the warm halo gas of
our Galaxy.Comment: 14 page
- âŠ