Forest height estimation in a tropical forest context from PolInSAR measurements: Illustration from the TropiSAR campaign in French Guyana

The BIOMASS mission was retained in January 2009 as one of the three candidates for the next Earth Explorer Core mission to go to phase A. BIOMASS main objective is to provide information on the carbon sinks and sources in the forests globally, which will be of essential value for climate modelling and policy adaptation, e.g. REDD. Up to now, biomass retrieval algorithms have been developed and validated for the range of biomass up to 300 t/ha. The methods are based on combining SAR intensity and SAR Polarimetric interferometry (PolInSAR) which provide respectively estimates of biomass and canopy height. The remaining questions concern the overall performance of the retrieval algorithms in tropical forests characterized by high biomass density (> 300 t/ha) and complex structure. The TropiSAR experiment in French Guyana was proposed to provide feedbacks on the performances of a P-band SAR to measure biomass and canopy height of a tropical forest with higher biomass density. Characterising tropical forests is essential as it represents a large component of the terrestrial carbon pool and the carbon sources. Specifically, TropiSAR was designed to provide measurements of temporal coherence at P-band over tropical forests for time intervals compatible with space-borne missions (typically 20-30 days), to assess performances of methods transforming P-Band SAR intensity and interferometric measurements into forest biomass and forest height. The SAR system is the ONERA airborne system SETHI that flew in French Guyana in August 2009. This paper presents the first results from this analysis. The temporal coherence at P-band over tropical forests is observed to remain high even after 22 days, a time interval period compatible with typical SAR orbit cycle. The vegetation height map estimated from Polarimetric interferometry is shown to be in good agreement with Lidar measured heights and the in-situ measurements in the study area. The PolInSAR derived height captures the main structural features of the studied forests

Unveiling Cosmic Dawn: the synergetic role of space and ground-based telescopes

Large scale structure and cosmolog

Bluebell, short film and feminist film practice as research: Strategies for dissemination and peer review

This article seeks to reflect on my filmmaking practice through a discussion of my short film Bluebell (2003), situating the film within a theoretical context and providing a ‘route map’ of the practice research process. The film uses the cliché of ‘stranger rape’ to set up and upset audience expectations of rape narrative, challenging the construction of women as the victims rather than survivors of rape. Drawing on previous research on Angela Carter's reworking of Perrault's Little Red Riding Hood, and its reception by the feminist sisterhood, the article explores the opportunities and the dangers of feminist reappropriation of patriarchal narratives. The formal properties of the short film are examined as a potentially radical space for the emergent feminist filmmaker and strategies of dissemination and peer review are put forward. © 2007 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit: a consolidated design for the system requirement review of the preliminary definition phase

The Athena X-ray Integral Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray spectrometer studied since 2015 for flying in the mid-30s on the Athena space X-ray Observatory. Athena is a versatile observatory designed to address the Hot and Energetic Universe science theme, as selected in November 2013 by the Survey Science Committee. Based on a large format array of Transition Edge Sensors (TES), X-IFU aims to provide spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV (up to 7 keV) over a hexagonal field of view of 5 arc minutes (equivalent diameter). The X-IFU entered its System Requirement Review (SRR) in June 2022, at about the same time when ESA called for an overall X-IFU redesign (including the X-IFU cryostat and the cooling chain), due to an unanticipated cost overrun of Athena. In this paper, after illustrating the breakthrough capabilities of the X-IFU, we describe the instrument as presented at its SRR (i.e. in the course of its preliminary definition phase, so-called B1), browsing through all the subsystems and associated requirements. We then show the instrument budgets, with a particular emphasis on the anticipated budgets of some of its key performance parameters, such as the instrument efficiency, spectral resolution, energy scale knowledge, count rate capability, non X-ray background and target of opportunity efficiency. Finally, we briefly discuss the ongoing key technology demonstration activities, the calibration and the activities foreseen in the X-IFU Instrument Science Center, touch on communication and outreach activities, the consortium organisation and the life cycle assessment of X-IFU aiming at minimising the environmental footprint, associated with the development of the instrument. Thanks to the studies conducted so far on X-IFU, it is expected that along the design-to-cost exercise requested by ESA, the X-IFU will maintain flagship capabilities in spatially resolved high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, enabling most of the original X-IFU related scientific objectives of the Athena mission to be retained. The X-IFU will be provided by an international consortium led by France, The Netherlands and Italy, with ESA member state contributions from Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, with additional contributions from the United States and Japan.The French contribution to X-IFU is funded by CNES, CNRS and CEA. This work has been also supported by ASI (Italian Space Agency) through the Contract 2019-27-HH.0, and by the ESA (European Space Agency) Core Technology Program (CTP) Contract No. 4000114932/15/NL/BW and the AREMBES - ESA CTP No.4000116655/16/NL/BW. This publication is part of grant RTI2018-096686-B-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”. This publication is part of grant RTI2018-096686-B-C21 and PID2020-115325GB-C31 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033

The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit: a consolidated design for the system requirement review of the preliminary definition phase

The Athena X-ray Integral Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray spectrometer, studied since 2015 for flying in the mid-30s on the Athena space X-ray Observatory, a versatile observatory designed to address the Hot and Energetic Universe science theme, selected in November 2013 by the Survey Science Committee. Based on a large format array of Transition Edge Sensors (TES), it aims to provide spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV (up to 7 keV) over an hexagonal field of view of 5 arc minutes (equivalent diameter). The X-IFU entered its System Requirement Review (SRR) in June 2022, at about the same time when ESA called for an overall X-IFU redesign (including the X-IFU cryostat and the cooling chain), due to an unanticipated cost overrun of Athena. In this paper, after illustrating the breakthrough capabilities of the X-IFU, we describe the instrument as presented at its SRR, browsing through all the subsystems and associated requirements. We then show the instrument budgets, with a particular emphasis on the anticipated budgets of some of its key performance parameters. Finally we briefly discuss on the ongoing key technology demonstration activities, the calibration and the activities foreseen in the X-IFU Instrument Science Center, and touch on communication and outreach activities, the consortium organisation, and finally on the life cycle assessment of X-IFU aiming at minimising the environmental footprint, associated with the development of the instrument. Thanks to the studies conducted so far on X-IFU, it is expected that along the design-to-cost exercise requested by ESA, the X-IFU will maintain flagship capabilities in spatially resolved high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, enabling most of the original X-IFU related scientific objectives of the Athena mission to be retained. (abridged).Comment: 48 pages, 29 figures, Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy with minor editin

P-band SAR study of tropical forest in French Guiana

In August 2009, the TropiSAR campaign was conducted in French Guiana with the ONERA airborne system SETHI in order to support the Phase A of the Earth Explorer candidate mission, BIOMASS. Several SAR data acquisitions at P-band are now available for analysis over tropical forest. This paper presents one of the four acquisition sites, Paracou and two related studies performed over this dataset. The first interrogation focuses on the radiometric stability at P-band of the forest backscatter. This stability is an essential point if the backscatter is expected to be used for forest biomass estimation. Moreover, the compatibility of the current BIOMASS mission design, relying on repeat pass interferometry for forest height retrieval, to tropical forest and the related temporal decorrelation is then explored. (Résumé d'auteur

Effectiveness of a home-based pulmonary rehabilitation programme in people recovering from a severe and critically COVID-19 infection.

International audienc

Michael Snow : almost Cover to Cover

This catalogue from Snow’s first major British exhibition includes an interview with the artist, a major essay, and seven shorter texts, surveying his œuvre. The stated aim is to disolve the assumed separation of Snow’s films from his gallery based work. As Roberta writes, Snow experiments with a variety of media to investigate optical perception and embodied vision. Biographical notes on the ten contributors. Bio-bibliography 7 p. 76 bibl. ref