2,889 research outputs found
Image selection system
An image selection (ISS) was developed for the NASA-Ames Research Center Earth Resources Aircraft Project. The ISS is an interactive, graphics oriented, computer retrieval system for aerial imagery. An analysis of user coverage requests and retrieval strategies is presented, followed by a complete system description. Data base structure, retrieval processors, command language, interactive display options, file structures, and the system's capability to manage sets of selected imagery are described. A detailed example of an area coverage request is graphically presented
Superconducting d-wave junctions: The disappearance of the odd ac components
We study voltage-biased superconducting planar d-wave junctions for arbitrary
transmission and arbitrary orientation of the order parameters of the
superconductors. For a certain orientation of the superconductors the odd ac
components disappear, resulting in a doubling of the Josephson frequency. We
study the sensitivity of this disappearance to orientation and compare with
experiments on grain boundary junctions. We also discuss the possibility of a
current flow parallel to the junction.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Report of the five-day forecasting procedure, verification and research as conducted between July 1940 and August 1941
The present report is intended to cover fully the activities of the long-range forecast
project both at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the U. S. Weather Bureau
in Washington, between July 1, 1940, and August 1, 1941. It includes all material
bearing on the activities of the current fiscal year which has appeared in the three progress reports that were written during the year. The report is in four sections.
Section I outlines the administrative set-up of the project and its transfer from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology to the U. S. Weather Bureau in Washington, indicates
the general purpose of the project, outlines the program of routine synoptic and
statistical work which is maintained as a necessary part of the five-day forecast service, and lists the personnel which has been available to carry on the project.
Section II covers in some detail the five-day forecast procedure as practiced during the
past year, including one illustrative case selected and discussed by Mr. Namias. The discussion of the five-day forecast procedure is concluded with some remarks on the significance of the results obtained by the basic method and a summary by Mr. Allen of the success of the forecasts as shown by the statistical verification of the forecast temperature and precipitation anomalies.
Section III contains a brief discussion of each of the special investigations made during the past year which bear on the five-day forecast problem. For the most part, the results of these investigations were not obtained soon enough to be incorporated in the forecast procedure outlined in Section II.
Section IV sets forth recommendations for further theoretical, synoptic and statistical
research which is needed to develop and extend the five-day forecasting technique which has been developed by this project
Ab initio calculation of the anomalous Hall conductivity by Wannier interpolation
The intrinsic anomalous Hall effect in ferromagnets depends on subtle
spin-orbit-induced effects in the electronic structure, and recent ab-initio
studies found that it was necessary to sample the Brillouin zone at millions of
k-points to converge the calculation. We present an efficient first-principles
approach for computing the anomalous Hall conductivity. We start out by
performing a conventional electronic-structure calculation including spin-orbit
coupling on a uniform and relatively coarse k-point mesh. From the resulting
Bloch states, maximally-localized Wannier functions are constructed which
reproduce the ab-initio states up to the Fermi level. The Hamiltonian and
position-operator matrix elements, needed to represent the energy bands and
Berry curvatures, are then set up between the Wannier orbitals. This completes
the first stage of the calculation, whereby the low-energy ab-initio problem is
transformed into an effective tight-binding form. The second stage only
involves Fourier transforms and unitary transformations of the small matrices
set up in the first stage. With these inexpensive operations, the quantities of
interest are interpolated onto a dense k-point mesh and used to evaluate the
anomalous Hall conductivity as a Brillouin zone integral. The present scheme,
which also avoids the cumbersome summation over all unoccupied states in the
Kubo formula, is applied to bcc Fe, giving excellent agreement with
conventional, less efficient first-principles calculations. Remarkably, we find
that more than 99% of the effect can be recovered by keeping a set of terms
depending only on the Hamiltonian matrix elements, not on matrix elements of
the position operator.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure
System for the measurement of ultra-low stray light levels
An apparatus is described for measuring the effectiveness of stray light suppression light shields and baffle arrangements used in optical space experiments and large space telescopes. The light shield and baffle arrangement and a telescope model are contained in a vacuum chamber. A source of short, high-powered light energy illuminates portions of the light shield and baffle arrangement and reflects a portion of same to a photomultiplier tube by virtue of multipath scattering. The resulting signal is transferred to time-channel electronics timed by the firing of the high energy light source allowing time discrimination of the signal thereby enabling the light scattered and suppressed by the model to be distinguished from the walls and holders around the apparatus
Report on an experiment in five-day weather forecasting
The following report is presented as a statement of progress made at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) in the investigation into the possibility of extending the range of reliable weather forecasts. This project has been supported at M.I.T. and other private institutions by Bankhead-Jones appropriations since September, 1937. This report is concerned only with the work completed or in progress at M.I.T.
The complementary program now in progress at the Weather Bureau in Washington is
referred to only in so far as it has contributed directly to these investigations.
Furthermore, the following report refers only to the last two years of the M.I.T.
project. The first year of the three-year project was given over principally to the study of the results obtained by long range forecast methods already in use, and to the establishment of a northern hemisphere synoptic weather map procedure as a necessary precedent to the preparation of weekly forecasts on a synoptic basis. The results of the M.I.T. study of certain long range forecast methods already in practice are included in a general survey of such methods already published. The synoptic charts prepared at M.I.T. during that first year of the investigation are listed in an appendix to this report, together with those of the last two years. The preparation of weekly forecasts carried on during a part of that first year was so experimental in nature, and the procedure was so much changed the following year, that the results obtained were considered neither suffciently significant nor comparable enough with the later forecast results to merit any
discussion.
The present report is divided into three principal sections.
Section I presents in condensed form our present conception of the essential nature
of the general circulation, and discusses briefly the background of one or two of Professor Rossby's theoretical considerations concerning the general circulation which have
found statistical and synoptic application in this investigation.
Section II contains in brief form the results of synoptic and statistical checks of a
large number of hypothetical relationships which might be assumed to hold in the earth's
atmosphere. These include possible relationships in the large scale features of the general circulation, relationships between the general circulation and its different branches or centers of action, between the different branches or centers of action of the general circulation,
between characteristics of the general circulation or its branches and anomalies
of the meteorological elements in certain regions, between anomalies of the meteorological elements in one region and those in another region, and even between solar activity (sunspots) and characteristics of the general circulation or anomalies of the meteorological elements. The aim was to investigate possible interrelationships of all kinds, either with or without lag, in order to detect as many interaction principles or points as possible
in the earth's atmosphere, whether they had direct or only the most indirect bearing on
the forecast problem. The relationships investigated applied to daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, or annual mean conditions. They were selected for investigation either from theoretical or practical considerations of the nature of the general circulation as outlined in Section I, or on the basis of popular beliefs which have long been current among meteorologists, or on the basis of direct observation of data which looked promising. The majority of these hypothetical relationships are found to be quite weak when subjected to rigid statistical checks, but all such results, whether positive or negative, are summarized in this report.
Section III outlines the five-day forecast routine practice which has been carried on
at M.I.T. during the greater part of the past two years on a weekly basis. It includes a
statistical analysis of the verification results.
In the conclusion are summarized the results of the investigation which thus far appear
significant enough to justify their consideration in five-day or longer range forecasts.
Suggestions are offered as to further steps which might profitably be taken if the investigation is to be continued.
Finally there is an appendix in which are listed all the daily synoptic maps and mean
charts and diagrams of surface and upper air data which have been plotted and analyzed
at M.I.T. in connection with this project during the past three years. The importance of such a list is apparent when it is realized that inevitably in an investigation of this kind much the greater part of the time and effort expended is consumed in the routine or semiroutine duties involved in the preparation of such charts
c-axis magnetotransport in CeCoIn
We present the results of out-of-plane electrical transport measurements on
the heavy fermion superconductor CeCoIn at temperatures from 40 mK to 400
K and in magnetic field up to 9 T. For 10 K transport measurements show
that the zero-field resistivity changes linearly with temperature
and extrapolates nearly to zero at 0 K, indicative of non-Fermi-liquid (nFL)
behavior associated with a quantum critical point (QCP). The longitudinal
magnetoresistance (LMR) of CeCoIn for fields applied parallel to the
c-axis is negative and scales as between 50 and 100 K, revealing
the presence of a single-impurity Kondo energy scale K.
Beginning at 16 K a small positive LMR feature is evident for fields less than
3 tesla that grows in magnitude with decreasing temperature. For higher fields
the LMR is negative and increases in magnitude with decreasing temperature.
This sizable negative magnetoresistance scales as from 2.6 K to
roughly 8 K, and it arises from an extrapolated residual resistivity that
becomes negative and grows quadratically with field in the nFL temperature
regime. Applying a magnetic field along the c-axis with B B restores
Fermi-liquid behavior in at less than 130 mK. Analysis of the
resistivity coefficient's field-dependence suggests that the QCP in
CeCoIn is located \emph{below} the upper critical field, inside the
superconducting phase. These data indicate that while high- c-axis transport
of CeCoIn exhibits features typical for a heavy fermion system, low-
transport is governed both by spin fluctuations associated with the QCP and
Kondo interactions that are influenced by the underlying complex electronic
structure intrinsic to the anisotropic CeCoIn crystal structure
The chiral Anomalous Hall effect in re-entrant AuFe alloys
The Hall effect has been studied in a series of AuFe samples in the
re-entrant concentration range, as well as in part of the spin glass range. An
anomalous Hall contribution linked to the tilting of the local spins can be
identified, confirming theoretical predictions of a novel topological Hall term
induced when chirality is present. This effect can be understood in terms of
Aharonov-Bohm-like intrinsic current loops arising from successive scatterings
by canted local spins. The experimental measurements indicate that the chiral
signal persists, meaning scattering within the nanoscopic loops remains
coherent, up to temperatures of the order of 150 K.Comment: 7 pages, 11 eps figures Published version. Minor change
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