AgRISTARS: Foreign Commodity production forecasting. Project procedures designation and description document, volume 1

The crop estimation analysis procedures documentation of the AgRISTARS - Foreign Commodity Production Forecasting Project (FCPF) is presented. Specifically it includes the technical/management documentation of the remote sensing data analysis procedures prepared in accordance with the guidelines provided in the FCPF communication/documentation standards manual. Standard documentation sets are given arranged by procedural type and level then by crop types or other technically differentiating categories

AgRISTARS: Foreign commodity production forecasting. Project test reports document, volume 1

Foreign Commodity Production Forecasting testing activities through June 1981 are documented. A log of test reports is presented. Standard documentation sets are included for each test. The documentation elements presented in each set are summarized

Crop yield literature review for AgRISTARS crops: Corn, soybeans, wheat, barley, sorghum, rice, cotton, and sunflowers

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Experience with duplex bearings in narrow angle oscillating applications

Duplex ball bearings are matched pairs on which the abutting faces of the rings have been accurately ground so that when the rings are clamped together, a controlled amount of interference (preload) exists across the balls. These bearings are vulnerable to radial temperature gradients, blocking in oscillation and increased sensitivity to contamination. These conditions decrease the service life of these bearings. It was decided that an accelerated thermal vacuum life test should be conducted. The test apparatus and results are described and the rationale is presented for reducing a multiyear life test on oil lubricated bearings to less than a year

Beam-based Feedback Simulations for the NLC Linac

Extensive beam-based feedback systems are planned as an integral part of the Next Linear Collider (NLC) control system. Wakefield effects are a significant influence on the feedback design, imposing both architectural and algorithmic constraints. Studies are in progress to assure the optimal selection of devices and to refine and confirm the algorithms for the system design. We show the results of initial simulations, along with evaluations of system response for various conditions of ground motion and other operational disturbances.Comment: 3 pages. Linac2000 conferenc

Expected characteristics of the subclass of Supernova Gamma-ray Bursts (S-GRBs)

The spatial and temporal coincidence between the gamma-ray burst (GRB) 980425 and supernova (SN) 1998bw has prompted speculation that there exists a class of GRBs produced by SNe (``S-GRBs''). Robust arguments for the existence of a relativistic shock have been presented on the basis of radio observations. A physical model based on the radio observations lead us to propose the following characteristics of supernovae GRBs (S-GRBs): 1) prompt radio emission and implied brightness temperature near or below the inverse Compton limit, 2) high expansion velocity of the optical photosphere as derived from lines widths and energy release larger than usual, 3) no long-lived X-ray afterglow, and 4) a single pulse (SP) GRB profile. Radio studies of previous SNe show that only type Ib and Ic potentially satisfy the first condition. Accordingly we have investigated proposed associations of GRBs and SNe finding no convincing evidence (mainly to paucity of data) to confirm any single connection of a SN with a GRB. If there is a more constraining physical basis for the burst time-history of S-GRBs beyond that of the SP requirement, we suggest the 1% of light curves in the BATSE catalogue similar to that of GRB 980425 may constitute the subclass. Future optical follow-up of bursts with similar profiles should confirm if such GRBs originate from some fraction of SN type Ib/Ic.Comment: 11 pages of LaTeX with 1 figure. Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letter

Project communications/documentation standards manual

The standards apply to the identification and description of remote sensing technical crop estimation analysis procedures. Standard working terminology for technical project and programmatic communications among and between FCPF project technologists and managers as well as with other AgRISTARS projects and program management is established. Basic reference material for FCPF project technologists is provided. The material presented can be used as introductory training material for new technical personnel

Phasing of gravitational waves from inspiralling eccentric binaries at the third-and-a-half post-Newtonian order

We obtain an efficient description for the dynamics of nonspinning compact binaries moving in inspiralling eccentric orbits to implement the phasing of gravitational waves from such binaries at the 3.5 post-Newtonian (PN) order. Our computation heavily depends on the phasing formalism, presented in [T. Damour, A. Gopakumar, and B. R. Iyer, Phys. Rev. D \textbf{70}, 064028 (2004)], and the 3PN accurate generalized quasi-Keplerian parametric solution to the conservative dynamics of nonspinning compact binaries moving in eccentric orbits, available in [R.-M. Memmesheimer, A. Gopakumar, and G. Sch\"afer, Phys. Rev. D \textbf{70}, 104011 (2004)]. The gravitational-wave (GW) polarizations $h_{+}$ and $h_{\times}$ with 3.5PN accurate phasing should be useful for the earth-based GW interferometers, current and advanced, if they plan to search for gravitational waves from inspiralling eccentric binaries. Our results will be required to do \emph{astrophysics} with the proposed space-based GW interferometers like LISA, BBO, and DECIGO.Comment: 22 pages including 2 figures; submitted to PR

A family of filters to search for frequency dependent gravitational wave stochastic backgrounds

We consider a three dimensional family of filters based on broken power law spectra to search for gravitational wave stochastic backgrounds in the data from Earth-based laser interferometers. We show that such templates produce the necessary fitting factor for a wide class of cosmological backgrounds and astrophysical foregrounds and that the total number of filters required to search for those signals in the data from first generation laser interferometers operating at the design sensitivity is fairly smallComment: 4 pages, 4 figures, uses iopart.cls, accepted for publications on Classical and Quantum Gravity (Special Issue, Proceedings of Amaldi 2003