7,041 research outputs found
A center for commercial development of space: Real-time satellite mapping. Remote sensing-based agricultural information expert system
The research project results in a powerful yet user friendly CROPCAST expert system for use by a client to determine the crop yield production of a certain crop field. The study is based on the facts that heuristic assessment and decision making in agriculture are significant and dominate much of agribusiness. Transfer of the expert knowledge concerning remote sensing based crop yield production into a specific expert system is the key program in this study. A knowledge base consisting of a root frame, CROP-YIELD-FORECAST, and four subframes, namely, SATELLITE, PLANT-PHYSIOLOGY, GROUND, and MODEL were developed to accommodate the production rules obtained from the domain expert. The expert system shell Personal Consultant Plus version 4.0. was used for this purpose. An external geographic program was integrated to the system. This project is the first part of a completely built expert system. The study reveals that much effort was given to the development of the rules. Such effort is inevitable if workable, efficient, and accurate rules are desired. Furthermore, abundant help statements and graphics were included. Internal and external display routines add to the visual capability of the system. The work results in a useful tool for the client for making decisions on crop yield production
Nuclear Star-Forming Ring of the Milky Way: Simulations
We present hydrodynamic simulations of gas clouds in the central kpc region of the Milky Way that is modeled with a three-dimensional bar potential. Our simulations consider realistic gas cooling and heating, star Formation, and supernova feedback. A ring of dense gas clouds forms as a result of X-1-X-2 orbit transfer, and our potential model results in a ring radius of similar to 200 pc, which coincides with the extraordinary reservoir of dense molecular clouds in the inner bulge, the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). The gas clouds accumulated in the CMZ can reach high enough densities to form stars, and with an appropriate choice of simulation parameters, we successfully reproduce the observed gas mass and the star Formation rate (SFR) in the CMZ, similar to 2 x 10(7) M-circle dot and similar to 0.1 M-circle dot yr(-1). Star Formation in our simulations takes place mostly in the outermost X-2 orbits, and the SFR per unit surface area outside the CMZ is much lower. These facts suggest that the inner Galactic bulge may harbor a mild version of the nuclear star-forming rings seen in some external disk galaxies. Furthermore, from the relatively small size of the Milky Way's nuclear bulge, which is thought to be a result of sustained star Formation in the CMZ, we infer that the Galactic inner bulge probably had a shallower density profile or stronger bar elongation in the past.Korea Research Foundation KRF-2008-013-C00037MEST of Korea R31-1001NASA NNG 05-GC37G, NNX 10-AF84GNYSTAR Faculty Development ProgramAstronom
The Biophysical Toolbox: a Biophysical Modelling Tool Developed within the IWRAM-DSS
With rapid intensification of agricultural catchments in northern Thailand a suite of environmental issues have surfaced. The Integrated Water Resources Assessment and Management (IWRAM) project was instigated in response to these issues. The project developed a Decision Support System for the exploration of biophysical and socio-economic impacts of water resources use option. The IWRAM-DSS is comprised of a 'Biophysical Toolbox' that can be implemented alone or an 'Integrated Toolbox' that links socioeconomic models with the biophysical toolbox to explore economic trade-offs and impacts of various scenarios. The Biophysical Toolbox is comprised of three modules - the CATCHCROP crop model, a hydrologic module based upon the IHACRES rainfall-runoff model, and a Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) approach modified to suit conditions in northern Thailand. This working paper describes and implements the Fortran 77 version of the Biophysical Toolkit developed jointly by Dr. Barry Croke and Wendy Merritt. A Java version of the model has been coded by Dr. Claude Dietrich and Nick Ardlie, however this version has not been linked with the economic model as part of the fully integrated IWRAM-DSS
Long-Term Evolution of Massive Black Hole Binaries. II. Binary Evolution in Low-Density Galaxies
We use direct-summation N-body integrations to follow the evolution of binary
black holes at the centers of galaxy models with large, constant-density cores.
Particle numbers as large as 400K are considered. The results are compared with
the predictions of loss-cone theory, under the assumption that the supply of
stars to the binary is limited by the rate at which they can be scattered into
the binary's influence sphere by gravitational encounters. The agreement
between theory and simulation is quite good; in particular, we are able to
quantitatively explain the observed dependence of binary hardening rate on N.
We do not verify the recent claim of Chatterjee, Hernquist & Loeb (2003) that
the hardening rate of the binary stabilizes when N exceeds a particular value,
or that Brownian wandering of the binary has a significant effect on its
evolution. When scaled to real galaxies, our results suggest that massive black
hole binaries in gas-poor nuclei would be unlikely to reach gravitational-wave
coalescence in a Hubble time.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure
Spin Evolution of Supermassive Black Holes and Galactic Nuclei
The spin angular momentum S of a supermassive black hole (SBH) precesses due
to torques from orbiting stars, and the stellar orbits precess due to dragging
of inertial frames by the spinning hole. We solve the coupled post-Newtonian
equations describing the joint evolution of S and the stellar angular momenta
Lj, j = 1...N in spherical, rotating nuclear star clusters. In the absence of
gravitational interactions between the stars, two evolutionary modes are found:
(1) nearly uniform precession of S about the total angular momentum vector of
the system; (2) damped precession, leading, in less than one precessional
period, to alignment of S with the angular momentum of the rotating cluster.
Beyond a certain distance from the SBH, the time scale for angular momentum
changes due to gravitational encounters between the stars is shorter than
spin-orbit precession times. We present a model, based on the
Ornstein-Uhlenbeck equation, for the stochastic evolution of star clusters due
to gravitational encounters and use it to evaluate the evolution of S in nuclei
where changes in the Lj are due to frame dragging close to the SBH and to
encounters farther out. Long-term evolution in this case is well described as
uniform precession of the SBH about the cluster's rotational axis, with an
increasingly important stochastic contribution when SBH masses are small. Spin
precessional periods are predicted to be strongly dependent on nuclear
properties, but typical values are 10-100 Myr for low-mass SBHs in dense
nuclei, 100 Myr - 10 Gyr for intermediate mass SBHs, and > 10 Gyr for the most
massive SBHs. We compare the evolution of SBH spins in stellar nuclei to the
case of torquing by an inclined, gaseous accretion disk.Comment: 25 page
Multi-chord fiber-coupled interferometer with a long coherence length laser
This paper describes a 561 nm laser heterodyne interferometer that provides
time-resolved measurements of line-integrated plasma electron density within
the range of 10^15-10^18 cm^(-2). Such plasmas are produced by railguns on the
Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX), which aims to produce \mu s-, cm-, and
Mbar-scale plasmas through the merging of thirty plasma jets in a spherically
convergent geometry. A long coherence length, 320 mW laser allows for a strong,
sub-fringe phase-shift signal without the need for closely-matched probe and
reference path lengths. Thus only one reference path is required for all eight
probe paths, and an individual probe chord can be altered without altering the
reference or other probe path lengths. Fiber-optic decoupling of the probe
chord optics on the vacuum chamber from the rest of the system allows the probe
paths to be easily altered to focus on different spatial regions of the plasma.
We demonstrate that sub-fringe resolution capability allows the interferometer
to operate down to line-integrated densities of order 10^15 cm^(-2).Comment: submitted to Rev. Sci. Instrum. (2011
Sensitivity testing of a biophysical toolbox for exploring water resources utilisation and management options
This paper investigates the sensitivities of model outputs to model parameter values within a Biophysical Toolbox developed as part of a Decision Support System (DSS) for integrated catchment assessment and management of land and water resources in the highland regions of northern Thailand. The toolbox contains a hydrological module based upon the IHACRES rainfall-runoff model, a crop model (CATCHCROP), and an erosion model (USLE) modified to suit conditions in northern Thailand. Emphasis in the development of the individual models within the Biophysical Toolbox was placed upon limiting model complexity. Limited data availability commonly restricts the complexity of the model structure that can justifiably be used to model natural systems. The challenge under conditions with limited data is then to strike a balance in the model(s) between statistical rigour and model complexity. Once encompassed within the Biophysical Toolbox, linkages between the models increase the complexity of the system, despite the relative simplicity of the individual models. Consequently, the impacts of outputs from individual models on the outputs of other models deserve considerable attention. Understanding model sensitivity is of particular importance where there is a lack of data with which to support or adequately verify model behaviour. Sensitivity analysis potentially allows the identification of model components that require attention in terms of improved parameter estimation or improvement in model structure. Preliminary testing of the individual models within the Biophysical Toolbox has been reported previously within the literature and the Biophysical Toolbox as a whole has been described. This paper explores sensitivities within the Biophysical Toolbox, targeting in particular the identification of components of the toolbox in which sensitivities are propagated throughout the model
Apoastron Shift Constraints on Dark Matter Distribution at the Galactic Center
The existence of dark matter (DM) at scales of few pc down to pc around the centers of galaxies and in particular in the Galactic
Center region has been considered in the literature. Under the assumption that
such a DM clump, principally constituted by non-baryonic matter (like WIMPs)
does exist at the center of our galaxy, the study of the -ray emission
from the Galactic Center region allows us to constrain both the mass and the
size of this DM sphere. Further constraints on the DM distribution parameters
may be derived by observations of bright infrared stars around the Galactic
Center. Hall and Gondolo \cite{hallgondolo} used estimates of the enclosed mass
obtained in various ways and tabulated by Ghez et al.
\cite{Ghez_2003,Ghez_2005}. Moreover, if a DM cusp does exist around the
Galactic Center it could modify the trajectories of stars moving around it in a
sensible way depending on the DM mass distribution. Here, we discuss the
constraints that can be obtained with the orbit analysis of stars (as S2 and
S16) moving inside the DM concentration with present and next generations of
large telescopes. In particular, consideration of the S2 star apoastron shift
may allow improving limits on the DM mass and size.Comment: in press on Phys. Rev.
Evolution of Supermassive Black Hole Binary and Acceleration of Jet Precession in Galactic Nuclei
Supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) is expected with the hierarchical
galaxy formation model. Currently, physics processes dominating the evolution
of a SMBHB are unclear. An interesting question is whether we could
observationally determine the evolution of SMBHB and give constraints on the
physical processes. Jet precession have been observed in many AGNs and
generally attributed to disk precession. In this paper we calculate the time
variation of jet precession and conclude that jet precession is accelerated in
SMBHB systems but decelerated in others. The acceleration of jet precession
is related to jet precession timescale and
SMBHB evolution timescale , . Our calculations based on the models
for jet precession and SMBHB evolution show that can be as
high as about with a typical value -0.2 and can be easily detected. We
discussed the differential jet precession for NGC1275 observed in the
literature. If the observed rapid acceleration of jet precession is true, the
jet precession is due to the orbital motion of an unbound SMBHB with mass ratio
. When jets precessed from the ancient bubbles to the currently
active jets, the separation of SMBHB decrease from about to
with an averaged decreasing velocity and evolution timescale . However, if we assume a steady jet precession for many cycles,
the observations implies a hard SMBHB with mass ratio and
separation .Comment: 29 pages, no figure, Accepted for publication in Ap
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