A weighted least squares solution for space intersection of spaceborne stereo SAR data

The use of stereoscopic SAR images offers an alternative to interferometric SAR for the generation of digital elevation models (DEMs). The stereo radargrammetric method is robust and can generate DEMs of sufficient accuracy to geocode SAR images. Previous work has shown that ground coordinates with accuracy of four times the resolution cell can be obtained from ERS data without using any ground control points (GCPs), where the high accuracy of the orbit and satellite position of the order of metres introduce insignificant errors into the intersection procedure. The orbit data for RADARSAT is not as accurate as that for ERS, and the perpendicular relationship between the resultant velocity vector and the resultant range vector is uncertain in terms of image geometry. Hence, it is necessary to refine the method to allow for possible errors. This paper introduces a weighted space intersection algorithm based on an analysis of the predicted errors. A radargrammetric error model for observation errors is also formulated to predict the accuracy of the algorithm. The revised method can be used without any GCPs, but this can lead to systematic errors due to less accurate orbit data, and it has been found that the use of two GCPs provides a reasonable solution. The method is insensitive to the spatial distribution of GCPs, which is often critical in traditional methods. The error statistics of the results generated from 32 independent check points, distributed through the entire SAR image, approach the predicted errors and give positional accuracy of 38 m in three dimensions

Searching for radiative pumping lines of OH masers: II. The 53.3um absorption line towards 1612MHz OH maser sources

This paper analyzes the 53.3um line in the ISO LWS spectra towards a similar sample of OH/IR sources. We find 137 LWS spectra covering 53.3um and associated with 47 galactic OH/IR sources. Ten of these galactic OH/IR sources are found to show and another 5 ones tentatively show the 53.3um absorption while another 7 sources highly probably do not show this line. The source class is found to be correlated with the type of spectral profile: red supergiants (RSGs) and AGB stars tend to show strong blue-shifted filling emission in their 53.3um absorption line profiles while HII regions tend to show a weak red-shifted filling emission in the line profile. GC sources and megamasers do not show filling emission feature. It is argued that the filling emission might be the manifestation of an unresolved half emission half absorption profile of the 53.3um doublet. The 53.3 to 34.6um equivalent width (EW) ratio is close to unity for RSGs but much larger than unity for GC sources and megamasers while H II regions only show the 53.3um line. The pump rate defined as maser to IR photon flux ratio is approximately 5% for RSGs. The pump rates of GC sources are three order of magnitude smaller. Both the large 53.3 to 34.6um EW ratio and the small pump rate of the GC OH masers reflect that the two detected `pumping lines' in these sources are actually of interstellar origin. The pump rate of Arp 220 is 32%--much larger than that of RSGs, which indicates that the contribution of other pumping mechanisms to this megamaser is important.Comment: 34 pages, 12 figures, 4 table

Allowable silicon wafer thickness versus diameter for ingot rotation ID wafering

Inner diameter (ID) wafering of ingot rotation reduce the ID saw blade diameter was investigated. The blade thickness can be reduced, resulting in minimal kerf loss. However, significant breakage of wafers occurs during the rotation wafering as the wafer thickness decreases. Fracture mechanics was used to develop an equation relating wafer thickness, diameter and fracture behavior at the point of fracture by using a model of a wafer, supported by a center column and subjected to a cantilever force. It is indicated that the minimum allowable wafer thickness does not increase appreciably with increasing wafer diameter and that fracture through the thickness rather than through the center supporting column limits the minimum allowable wafer thickness. It is suggested that the minimum allowable wafer thickness can be reduced by using a vacuum chuck on the wafer surface to enhance cleavage fracture of the center core and by using 111 ingots

Predicting real-time roadside CO and NO2 concentrations using neural networks

The main aim of this paper is to develop a model based on neural network (NN) theory to estimate real-time roadside CO and $hbox{NO}_{2}$ concentrations using traffic and meteorological condition data. The location of the study site is at a road intersection in Melton Mowbray, which is a town in Leicestershire, U.K. Several NNs, which can be classified into three types, namely, the multilayer perceptron, the radial basis function, and the modular network, were developed to model the nonlinear relationships that exist in the pollutant concentrations. Their performances are analyzed and compared. The transferability of the developed models is studied using data collected from a road intersection in another city. It was concluded that all NNs provide reliable estimates of pollutant concentrations using limited information and noisy data

Predicting real-time roadside CO and NO2 concentrations using neural networks

The main aim of this paper is to develop a model based on neural network (NN) theory to estimate real-time roadside CO and $hbox{NO}_{2}$ concentrations using traffic and meteorological condition data. The location of the study site is at a road intersection in Melton Mowbray, which is a town in Leicestershire, U.K. Several NNs, which can be classified into three types, namely, the multilayer perceptron, the radial basis function, and the modular network, were developed to model the nonlinear relationships that exist in the pollutant concentrations. Their performances are analyzed and compared. The transferability of the developed models is studied using data collected from a road intersection in another city. It was concluded that all NNs provide reliable estimates of pollutant concentrations using limited information and noisy data

Data compression for satellite images

An efficient data compression system is presented for satellite pictures and two grey level pictures derived from satellite pictures. The compression techniques take advantages of the correlation between adjacent picture elements. Several source coding methods are investigated. Double delta coding is presented and shown to be the most efficient. Both predictive differential quantizing technique and double delta coding can be significantly improved by applying a background skipping technique. An extension code is constructed. This code requires very little storage space and operates efficiently. Simulation results are presented for various coding schemes and source codes

Real time structural damage assessment from vibration measurements

Damage identification in civil engineering structures using vibration measurements has become an important area of research. A reliable and cost effective method is required to detect and quantify local damage in the structures. The objective of this new proposed method is to identify structural damage in real time at a more detailed level directly from the vibration measurements. Structural damage is assumed to be associated with a proportional reduction of element stiffness matrix. Dynamics characteristics of the structure are calculated by using Newmark's numerical integration method based on measured acceleration data. The change in the stiffness matrix caused by structural damage is implemented into the equation of motion of the dynamic system. A system of governing equations is derived, where the difference between the vibration data of undamaged and damaged structures can be directly adopted. The changes in the stiffness matrix are represented by the changes in the coefficients associated with element stiffness matrixes. Those coefficients can be used as damage parameters in structural damage detection. Both the location and extent of the damage are then determined based on the inverse calculations of damage parameters of the individual elements. Finally, a numerical example is utilised to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach for on-line structural damage assessmen

A combined experimental and computational fluid dynamics analysis of the dynamics of drop formation

This article presents a complementary experimental and computational investigation of the effect of viscosity and flowrate on the dynamics of drop formation in the dripping mode. In contrast to previous studies, numerical simulations are performed with two popular commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) packages, CFX and FLOW-3D, both of which employ the volume of fluid (VOF) method. Comparison with previously published experimental and computational data and new experimental results reported here highlight the capabilities and limitations of the aforementioned packages