Refinement of the method for using pseudo-invariant sites for long term calibration trending of Landsat reflective bands

The long term calibration history of the Landsat 5 TM instrument has recently been defined using a time series of desert sites in Northern Africa. This correction is based on the assumption that the atmosphere is invariant and the reflectance of each site is approximately constant and Lambertian over time. As a result, the top of the atmosphere reflection is assumed constant when corrected for variations in the solar elevation angle and earth-sun distance. While this is true to first order and is the basis for all current temporal calibration, there are multiple known sources of residual error in the data. A methodology is presented for reducing the variation in pseudo-invariant site trending data based on correction for the BRDF. This work establishes a means to use DIRSIG to model the L5 calibration site. It combines a digital elevation map and desert atmosphere with a surface BRDF to reduce the residual errors in the calibration data. A set of Landsat 7 ETM+ calibration days is utilized to optimize the surface reflectance properties used in DIRSIG. These optimized parameters are then used to model the L5 TM calibration days. The results of the DIRSIG modeling are compared to the solar elevation angle and time of year trends of the original data and analyzed for their effectiveness at describing and reducing the residual errors. A major goal of this effort is to understand the contribution that BRDFs make to the current calibration errors and to develop methods that are robust enough to be applicable to a wider range of sites to enable extension of the methodology to earlier data sets (e.g. Landsat MSS). Additionally, while Landsat has a 30 m reflective resolution, the pseudo-invariant site calibration approach is valid for all spatial resolutions. Depending on another instrument\u27s field of view, the BRDF error reduction technique used by L5 TM could either be used on the same desert calibration site or on a subsection of the area

Teasing apart retrieval and encoding interference in the processing of anaphors

Two classes of account have been proposed to explain the memory processes subserving the processing of reflexive-antecedent dependencies. Structure-based accounts assume that the retrieval of the antecedent is guided by syntactic tree-configurational information without considering other kinds of information such as gender marking in the case of English reflexives. By contrast, unconstrained cue-based retrieval assumes that all available information is used for retrieving the antecedent. Similarity-based interference effects from structurally illicit distractors which match a non-structural retrieval cue have been interpreted as evidence favoring the unconstrained cue-based retrieval account since cue-based retrieval interference from structurally illicit distractors is incompatible with the structure-based account. However, it has been argued that the observed effects do not necessarily reflect interference occurring at the moment of retrieval but might equally well be accounted for by interference occurring already at the stage of encoding or maintaining the antecedent in memory, in which case they cannot be taken as evidence against the structure-based account. We present three experiments (self-paced reading and eye-tracking) on German reflexives and Swedish reflexive and pronominal possessives in which we pit the predictions of encoding interference and cue-based retrieval interference against each other. We could not find any indication that encoding interference affects the processing ease of the reflexive-antecedent dependency formation. Thus, there is no evidence that encoding interference might be the explanation for the interference effects observed in previous work. We therefore conclude that invoking encoding interference may not be a plausible way to reconcile interference effects with a structure-based account of reflexive processing

Assessing seed priming, sowing date and mulch film to improve the germination and survival of direct sown Miscanthus sinensis in the UK

Direct sowing of Miscanthus seed could lower crop establishment costs, increase the rate of grower uptake and biomass supply for the emerging bio?economy. A replicated field trial was conducted at two contrasting UK sites: Aberystwyth (ABR) in mid?Wales and Blankney (BLK) in Lincolnshire. These sites encompass the West?East meteorological gradient in the UK where the growing season at ABR is cooler and wetter whilst BLK is warmer and drier. Primed and unprimed M. sinensis seeds were sown directly onto the soil surface with and without a clear bio?degradable mulch film, at nine dates interspersed from May to October. Average daily mean soil surface temperatures measured over the first two months after sowing under the mulch film were higher than control plots (2.7?C ABR and 4.2?C BLK). At both sites the film covering also affected soil volumetric moisture relative to uncovered control plots (?3% ABR and 8% BLK) demonstrating the negative impact of mulch film when sowing on dry soil. Over nine sowings, seed germination at ABR under film varied between ?28% to +18% of germination under control conditions. Seedlings from the first three sowings at both sites under film had sufficient physiological maturity to survive the first winter period. At BLK, mulch film significantly increased tiller count and height in both the first and second year after sowing. At ABR, where temperatures were lower, film covering significantly increased tiller height but not count. Water priming had no significant effect on seed viability or germination in the field tests. Base temperatures for germination of primed and unprimed seed on a thermal gradient plate were 7.0?C and 5.7?C respectively with a ?1.7?C confidence interval. Based on our results for M. sinensis in the UK we recommend the sowing of unprimed seed in May under film and only when the soil is moistpublishersversionPeer reviewe

29 Glitches Detected at Urumqi Observatory

Glitches detected in pulsar timing observations at the Nanshan radio telescope of Urumqi Observatory between 2002 July and 2008 December are presented. In total, 29 glitches were detected in 19 young pulsars, with this being the first detection of a glitch in 12 of these pulsars. Fractional glitch amplitudes range from a few parts in 10^{-11} to 3.9 x 10^{-6}. Three "slow" glitches are identified in PSRs J0631+1036, B1822-09 and B1907+10. Post-glitch recoveries differ greatly from pulsar to pulsar and for different glitches in the same pulsar. Most large glitches show some evidence for exponential post-glitch recovery on timescales of 100 -- 1000 days, but in some cases, e.g., PSR B1758-23, there is little or no recovery. Beside exponential recoveries, permanent increases in slowdown rate are seen for the two large glitches in PSRs B1800-21 and B1823-13. These and several other pulsars also show a linear increase in nudot following the partial exponential recovery, which is similar to the Vela pulsar post-glitch behaviour. Analysis of the whole sample of known glitches show that fractional glitch amplitudes are correlated with characteristic age with a peak at about 10^5 years, but there is a spread of two or three orders of magnitude at all ages. Glitch activity is positively correlated with spin-down rate, again with a wide spread of values.Comment: 17 pages, 29 figures, 4 tables; accepted by MNRA

Changes in isotopic signatures of soil carbon and CO2 respiration immediately and one year after Miscanthus removal

The removal of perennial bioenergy crops, such as Miscanthus, has rarely been studied although it is an important form of land use change. Miscanthus is a C4 plant, and the carbon (C) it deposits during its growth has a different isotopic signature (12/13C) compared to a C3 plant. Identifying the proportion of C stored and released to the atmosphere is important information for ecosystem models and life cycle analyses. During a removal experiment in June 2011 of a 20-year old Miscanthus field (Grignon, France), vegetation was removed mechanically and chemically. Two replicate plots were converted into a rotation of annual crops, two plots had Miscanthus removed with no soil disturbance, followed by bare soil (set-aside), one control plot was left with continued Miscanthus cultivation, and an adjacent field was used as annual arable crops control. There was a significant difference in the isotopic composition of the total soil C under Miscanthus compared with adjacent annual arable crops in all three measured soil layers (0–5, 5–10 and 10–20 cm). Before Miscanthus removal, total C in the soil under Miscanthus ranged from 4.9% in the top layer to 3.9% in the lower layers with δ13C values of −16.3 to −17.8 while soil C under the adjacent arable crop was significantly lower and ranged from 1.6 to 2% with δ13C values of −23.2. This did not change much in 2012, suggesting the accumulation of soil C under Miscanthus persists for at least the first year. In contrast, the isotopic signals of soil respiration 1 year after Miscanthus removal from recultivated and set-aside plots were similar to that of the annual arable control, while just after removal the signals were similar to that of the Miscanthus control. This suggests a rapid change in the form of soil C pools that are respired

The Victorian Newsletter (Fall 1993)

The Victorian Newsletter is sponsored for the Victorian Group of Modern Language Association by Western Kentucky University and is published twice annually.Eros and Logos in Some Fairy Tales by Oscar Wilde: A Jungian Interpretation / Clifton Snider -- "The Central Truth": Phallogocentrism in Aurora Leigh / Patricia Thomas Srebnik -- "I Magnify My Office": Christina Rossetti's Authoritative Voice in Her Devotional Prose / Joel Westerholm -- The Sterile Star of Venus: Swinburne's Dream of Flight / Peter Anderson -- Bringing to Earth the "Good Angel of the Race" / Michael Schiefelbein -- The Flawed Craft of A. E. Housman / A. R. Coulthard -- The Physiological Determinism Debate in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray / Terri A. Hasseler -- Overdetermined Allegory in Jekyll and Hyde / Cyndy Hendershot -- Books Received -- Group New

HI intensity mapping : a single dish approach

We discuss the detection of large scale HI intensity fluctuations using a single dish approach with the ultimate objective of measuring the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations and constraining the properties of dark energy. We present 3D power spectra, 2D angular power spectra for individual redshift slices, and also individual line-of-sight spectra, computed using the S^3 simulated HI catalogue which is based on the Millennium Simulation. We consider optimal instrument design and survey strategies for a single dish observation at low and high redshift for a fixed sensitivity. For a survey corresponding to an instrument with T_sys=50 K, 50 feed horns and 1 year of observations, we find that at low redshift (z \approx 0.3), a resolution of 40 arc min and a survey of 5000 deg^2 is close to optimal, whereas at higher redshift (z \approx 0.9) a resolution of 10 arcmin and 500 deg^2 would be necessary. Continuum foreground emission from the Galaxy and extragalactic radio sources are potentially a problem. We suggest that it could be that the dominant extragalactic foreground comes from the clustering of very weak sources. We assess its amplitude and discuss ways by which it might be mitigated. We then introduce our concept for a single dish telescope designed to detect BAO at low redshifts. It involves an under-illumintated static 40 m dish and a 60 element receiver array held 90 m above the under-illuminated dish. Correlation receivers will be used with each main science beam referenced against an antenna pointing at one of the Celestial Poles for stability and control of systematics. We make sensitivity estimates for our proposed system and projections for the uncertainties on the power spectrum after 1 year of observations. We find that it is possible to measure the acoustic scale at z\approx 0.3 with an accuracy 2.4% and that w can be measured to an accuracy of 16%.Comment: 20 pages, 20 figures, submitted to MNRA

Optics and Quantum Electronics

Contains reports on ten research projects.Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAALO3-86-K-0002)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 83-05448)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 83-10718)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 82-11650)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 84-13178)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 85-52701)US Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract AFOSR-85-0213)National Institutes of Health (Contract 5-RO1-GM35459)U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-86-K-0117

Author Correction: A consensus-based transparency checklist.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper