1,895 research outputs found
Definition and testing of the hydrologic component of the pilot land data system
The specific aim was to develop within the Pilot Land Data System (PLDS) software design environment, an easily implementable and user friendly geometric correction procedure to readily enable the georeferencing of imagery data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) onboard the NOAA series spacecraft. A software subsystem was developed within the guidelines set by the PLDS development environment utilizing NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Image Analysis Facility's (IAF's) Land Analysis Software (LAS) coding standards. The IAS current program development environment, the Transportable Applications Executive (TAE), operates under a VAX VMS operating system and was used as the user interface. A brief overview of the ICARUS algorithm that was implemented in the set of functions developed, is provided. The functional specifications decription is provided, and a list of the individual programs and directory names containing the source and executables installed in the IAF system are listed. A user guide is provided for the LAS system documentation format for the three functions developed
Balancing ERISA\u27s Anti-Alienation Provisions against Garnishment of a Convicted Criminal\u27s Retirements Funds: Unscrambling the Approaches to Protecting the Retirement Nest Egg
Balancing ERISA\u27s Anti-Alienation Provisions against Garnishment of a Convicted Criminal\u27s Retirements Funds: Unscrambling the Approaches to Protecting the Retirement Nest Egg
Merging LANDSAT Derived Land Covers into Quad-referenced Geographic Information Systems
An approach for merging multiscene LANDSAT data bases into existing geographic information systems having 5-second or smaller cells is described. The approach uses the output from the State of Maryland's UNIVAC 1180-based LANDSAT classification program ASTEP (Algorithm Simulation Test and Evaluation) developed by NASA. The structure of the technique was designed to address the problems that emerged as part of the LANDSAT classification of the 64,000 square mile Chesapeake water shed involving twelve scenes. The removal of overlap among adjacent scenes, the crossreferencing of ground control points, and the isolation of the appropriate pixels from the LANDSAT data base for subsequent positioning into a file containing ancillary data referenced to a specific USGS 7 1/2 minute quadrangle sheet are described. Examples illustrate the clustering of classified LANDSAT pixels to define the dominant land use for each of 8,100 cells within a series of quadrangle sheets distributed over the State of Maryland. The approach uses a hard copy terminal tied to an ASTEP algorithm through telephone lines. A coordinate digitizing board for inputing the position of ground control points is also valuable, although manual measurements are possible. The approach is quite efficient and should be especially attractive for use on regional scale studies
Evidence that widespread star formation may be underway in G0.253+016, "The Brick"
Image cubes of differential column density as a function of dust temperature
are constructed for Galactic Centre molecular cloud G0.253+0.016 ("The Brick")
using the recently described PPMAP procedure. The input data consist of
continuum images from the Herschel Space Telescope in the wavelength range
70-500 m, supplemented by previously published interferometric data at 1.3
mm wavelength. While the bulk of the dust in the molecular cloud is consistent
with being heated externally by the local interstellar radiation field, our
image cube shows the presence, near one edge of the cloud, of a filamentary
structure whose temperature profile suggests internal heating. The structure
appears as a cool ( K) tadpole-like feature, pc in length, in
which is embedded a thin spine of much hotter ( 40-50 K) material. We
interpret these findings in terms of a cool filament whose hot central region
is undergoing gravitational collapse and fragmentation to form a line of
protostars. If confirmed, this would represent the first evidence of widespread
star formation having started within this cloud.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter
Spin-Current Relaxation Time in Spin-Polarized Heisenberg Paramagnets
We study the spatial Fourier transform of the spin correlation function
G_q(t) in paramagnetic quantum crystals by direct simulation of a 1d lattice of
atoms interacting via a nearest-neighbor Heisenberg exchange Hamiltonian. Since
it is not practical to diagonalize the s=1/2 exchange Hamiltonian for a lattice
which is of sufficient size to study long-wavelength (hydrodynamic)
fluctuations, we instead study the s -> infinity limit and treat each spin as a
vector with a classical equation of motion. The simulations give a detailed
picture of the correlation function G_q(t) and its time derivatives. At high
polarization, there seems to be a hierarchy of frequency scales: the local
exchange frequency, a wavelength-independent relaxation rate 1/tau that
vanishes at large polarization P ->1, and a wavelength-dependent spin-wave
frequency proportional to q^2. This suggests a form for the correlation
function which modifies the spin diffusion coefficients obtained in a moments
calculation by Cowan and Mullin, who used a standard Gaussian ansatz for the
second derivative of the correlation function.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Void-mediated formation of Sn quantum dots in a Si matrix
Atomic scale analysis of Sn quantum dots (QDs) formed during the molecular beam-epitaxy (MBE) growth of Sn_xSi_(1−x) (0.05 ⩽ x ⩽ 0.1) multilayers in a Si matrix revealed a void-mediated formation mechanism. Voids below the Si surface are induced by the lattice mismatch strain between Sn_xSi_(1−x) layers and Si, taking on their equilibrium tetrakaidecahedron shape. The diffusion of Sn atoms into these voids leads to an initial rapid coarsening of quantum dots during annealing. Since this formation process is not restricted to Sn, a method to grow QDs may be developed by controlling the formation of voids and the diffusion of materials into these voids during MBE growth
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