Nonlinearity and pixel shifting effects in HXRG infrared detectors

We study the nonlinearity (NL) in the conversion from charge to voltage in infrared detectors (HXRG) for use in precision astronomy. We present laboratory measurements of the NL function of a H2RG detector and discuss the accuracy to which it would need to be calibrated in future space missions to perform cosmological measurements through the weak gravitational lensing technique. In addition, we present an analysis of archival data from the infrared H1RG detector of the Wide Field Camera 3 in the Hubble Space Telescope that provides evidence consistent with the existence of a sensor effect analogous to the brighter-fatter effect found in Charge-Coupled Devices. We propose a model in which this effect could be understood as shifts in the effective pixel boundaries, and discuss prospects of laboratory measurements to fully characterize this effect.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of Instrumentation (JINST). Part of "Precision Astronomy with Fully Depleted CCDs" (Dec 1-2, 2016), Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, US

Multimarket optimal bidding for a power producer

This paper considers a profit-maximizing thermal producer that participates in a sequence of spot markets, namely, day-ahead, automatic generation control (AGC), and balancing markets. The producer behaves as a price-taker in both the day-ahead market and the AGC market but as a potential price-maker in the volatile balancing market. The paper provides a stochastic programming methodology to determine the optimal bidding strategies for the day-ahead market. Uncertainty sources include prices for the day-ahead and AGC markets and balancing market linear price variations with the production of the thermal producer. Results from a realistic case study are reported and analyzed. Conclusions are duly drawn.The work of A. J. Conejo was supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Education of Spain under CICYT Project DPI2003-01362 and in part by Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha under Project GC-02-006.Publicad

FPGA-Based High-Speed Optical Fiber Sensor Based on Multitone-Mixing Interferometry

We report a real-time high-speed fiber Bragg grating (FBG) interrogator based on a fiber-optic interferometer. The signal processing is performed by using a low-cost field-programmable gate array (FPGA) system, which is programed to implement a phase-generated carrier (PGC) demodulation algorithm with multitone mixing (MTM) to provide distortion-free signals with high tolerance to modulation depth variations and light intensity fluctuations. The system can stream data at rates up to 1 MS/s and allows multiplexed processing up to two channels. Experimental results show simultaneous measurements of two FBGs, one of which was actuated at frequencies up to 100 kHz. The system features a 3-dB bandwidth of 280 kHz, and a dynamic wavelength resolution of 4.7 fm/Hz ^{mathrm {1/2}}. We also demonstrate a strong reduction of distortion using the MTM approach with respect to the standard technique. Finally, we study the origin of the noise, demonstrating a reduction in common noise sources by using one of the FBGs as a reference. The system can measure FBGs centered at any position within the spectral band of the source, is polarization-independent, and is easily scalable to more than two measurement channels from the same interferometer

Laboratory Measurement of the Brighter-fatter Effect in an H2RG Infrared Detector

The "brighter-fatter" (BF) effect is a phenomenon—originally discovered in charge coupled devices—in which the size of the detector point-spread function (PSF) increases with brightness. We present, for the first time, laboratory measurements demonstrating the existence of the effect in a Hawaii-2RG HgCdTe near-infrared (NIR) detector. We use JPL's Precision Projector Laboratory, a facility for emulating astronomical observations with UV/VIS/NIR detectors, to project about 17,000 point sources onto the detector to stimulate the effect. After calibrating the detector for nonlinearity with flat-fields, we find evidence that charge is nonlinearly shifted from bright pixels to neighboring pixels during exposures of point sources, consistent with the existence of a BF-type effect. NASAs Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will use similar detectors to measure weak gravitational lensing from the shapes of hundreds of million of galaxies in the NIR. The WFIRST PSF size must be calibrated to ≈0.1% to avoid biased inferences of dark matter and dark energy parameters; therefore further study and calibration of the BF effect in realistic images will be crucial

Comparación costo-beneficio de los procedimientos de entrenamiento usados en equivalencia de estímulos y marcos relacionales sobre la formación de relaciones de equivalencia.

10 Páginas: Tablas.Se compararon dos grupos de participantes de acuerdo al entrenamiento con dos procedimientos de igualación a la muestra para el establecimiento de relaciones de equivalencia o derivación de respuestas dentro de marcos de coordinación y distinción. El primer procedimiento de entrenamiento consistió en una igualación a la muestra arbitraria visual-visual, con estímulos novedosos para los participantes, e ítems de prueba posteriores de simetría y transitividad. El segundo procedimiento consistió en un pre-entrenamiento de control contextual del responder relacional a estímulos iguales o diferentes, utilizando el color del fondo de la pantalla como estímulo contextual. Posteriormente, se entrenaron las relaciones de igualdad y diferencia entre estímulos arbitrarios bajo el control de los estímulos contextuales. Finalmente se evaluó simetría y transitividad (implicación mutua y combinatoria) de acuerdo a las relaciones entrenadas. No se encontraron diferencias entre los tipos de entrenamiento en cuanto a su capacidad para generar respuestas precisas a pruebas de relaciones emergentes o derivadas; sin embargo, el procedimiento de equivalencia de estímulos mostró ventajas en cuanto a la rapidez del aprendizaje y adherencia al entrenamiento. Los resultados muestran ventajas del procedimiento tradicional para el estudio de las equivalencias de estímulo sobre el procedimiento para el estudio de marcos relacionales, a partir de un análisis costo/beneficio para la producción de relaciones emergentes. Se discuten algunas implicaciones particularmente para contextos aplicados.Trabajo de práctica investigativaPsicologoPregrad

In-situ monitoring by thermal lens microscopy of a photocatalytic reduction process of hexavalent chromium

In this work, we describe the application of a micro-spatial thermal lens spectroscopy setup (thermal lens microscope, TLM) with coaxial counter-propagating pump, and probe laser beams, and an integrated passive optical Fabry-Perot, to quantify the Cr-VI concentration in water during a photocatalytic reaction in-situ. A series of test samples was analyzed using the 1.5 diphenil carbazide colorimetric method. A calibration curve was obtained by plotting of the TLM signal as a function of the concentration of Cr(VI) in a range between 0 and 10 mu g/L (1 mu g/L = 1 ppb, part per billion), with a detection limit of 53 ng/L (1 ng/L = 1 ppt, part per trillion). A solution of 10 mu g/L Cr(VI) in distillated water was placed into a cell in contact with an iron-incorporated titanium dioxide film, which was previously grown onto a 1 mm thick glass microscope slide by the sol-gel dip-coating technique. The TLM signal was registered as a function of the photocatalysis time measured from the beginning of the process, radiating the film with UV-violet light. The Cr(VI) concentration was determined with the calibration curve and after the first 50 minutes a reduction of 95 % of Cr(VI) was observed, being the chemical reaction kinetic described by a potential time decreasing function.645507511Agências de fomento estrangeiras apoiaram essa pesquisa, mais informações acesse artig

Internal and external variability in regional simulations of the Iberian Peninsula climate over the last millennium

In this study we analyse the role of internal variability in regional climate simulations through a comparison of two regional paleoclimate simulations for the last millennium. They share the same external forcings and model configuration, differing only in the initial condition used to run the driving global model simulation. A comparison of these simulations allows us to study the role of internal variability in climate models at regional scales, and how it affects the long-term evolution of climate variables such as temperature and precipitation. The results indicate that, although temperature is homogeneously sensitive to the effect of external forcings, the evolution of precipitation is more strongly governed by random unpredictable internal dynamics. There are, however, some areas where the role of internal variability is lower than expected, allowing precipitation to respond to the external forcings. In this respect, we explore the underlying physical mechanisms responsible for it. This study identifies areas, depending on the season, in which a direct comparison between model simulations of precipitation and climate reconstructions would be meaningful, but also other areas where good agreement between them should not be expected even if both are perfect