Environmental science applications with Rapid Integrated Mapping and analysis System (RIMS)

The Rapid Integrated Mapping and analysis System (RIMS) has been developed at the University of New Hampshire as an online instrument for multidisciplinary data visualization, analysis and manipulation with a focus on hydrological applications. Recently it was enriched with data and tools to allow more sophisticated analysis of interdisciplinary data. Three different examples of specific scientific applications with RIMS are demonstrated and discussed. Analysis of historical changes in major components of the Eurasian pan-Arctic water budget is based on historical discharge data, gridded observational meteorological fields, and remote sensing data for sea ice area. Express analysis of the extremely hot and dry summer of 2010 across European Russia is performed using a combination of near-real time and historical data to evaluate the intensity and spatial distribution of this event and its socioeconomic impacts. Integrative analysis of hydrological, water management, and population data for Central Asia over the last 30 years provides an assessment of regional water security due to changes in climate, water use and demography. The presented case studies demonstrate the capabilities of RIMS as a powerful instrument for hydrological and coupled human-natural systems research

Development of Distributed Research Center for analysis of regional climatic and environmental changes

We present an approach and first results of a collaborative project being carried out by a joint team of researchers from the Institute of Monitoring of Climatic and Ecological Systems, Russia and Earth Systems Research Center UNH, USA. Its main objective is development of a hardware and software platform prototype of a Distributed Research Center (DRC) for monitoring and projecting of regional climatic and environmental changes in the Northern extratropical areas. The DRC should provide the specialists working in climate related sciences and decision-makers with accurate and detailed climatic characteristics for the selected area and reliable and affordable tools for their in-depth statistical analysis and studies of the effects of climate change. Within the framework of the project, new approaches to cloud processing and analysis of large geospatial datasets (big geospatial data) inherent to climate change studies are developed and deployed on technical platforms of both institutions. We discuss here the state of the art in this domain, describe web based information-computational systems developed by the partners, justify the methods chosen to reach the project goal, and briefly list the results obtained so far

Higher and missing resonances in omega photoproduction

We study the role of the nucleon resonances ($N^*$) in $\omega$ photoproduction by using the quark model resonance parameters predicted by Capstick and Roberts. The employed $\gamma N \to N^*$ and $N^* \to \omega N$ amplitudes include the configuration mixing effects due to the residual quark-quark interactions. The contributions from the nucleon resonances are found to be important in the differential cross sections at large scattering angles and various spin observables. In particular, the parity asymmetry and beam-target double asymmetry at forward scattering angles are suggested for a crucial test of our predictions. The dominant contributions are found to be from $N\frac32^+ (1910)$, a missing resonance, and $N\frac32^- (1960)$ which is identified as the $D_{13}(2080)$ of the Particle Data Group.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX with ws-p8-50x6-00.cls, 4 figures (5 eps files), Talk presented at the NSTAR2001 Workshop on the Physics of Excited Nucleons, Mainz, Germany, Mar. 7-10, 200

Electromagnetic production of vector mesons at low energies

We have investigated exclusive photoproduction of light vector mesons ($\omega$, $\rho$ and $\phi$) on the nucleon at low energies. In order to explore the questions concerning the so-called missing nucleon resonances, we first establish the predictions from a model based on the Pomeron and meson exchange mechanisms. We have also explored the contributions due to the mechanisms involving $s$- and $u$-channel intermediate nucleon state. Some discrepancies found at the energies near threshold and large scattering angles suggest a possibility of using this reaction to identify the nucleon resonances.Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX with sprocl.sty, 5 figures (11 eps files), Talk presented at the NSTAR2000 Workshop, The Physics of Excited Nucleons, Jefferson Lab., Newport News, Feb. 16-19, 200

Probing nucleon strangeness in phi electroproduction

We investigate $\phi$ meson electroproduction to probe the hidden strangeness content of the nucleon. We found that even a small amount of the $s\bar{s}$ admixture in the nucleon wavefunction can lead to a significant change in several double polarization asymmetries in $\phi$ electroproduction, which can be tested experimentally at current electron facilities.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure (2 eps files), LaTeX2e with espcrc1.sty, Talk at the XVI International Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics (FB16), Taipei, Taiwan, March 6-10, 200

Non-linear Breit-Wheeler process with linearly polarized beams

We study the non-linear Breit-Wheeler process $\vec \gamma' + \vec L \to e^+ + e^-$ in the interaction of linearly polarized probe photons ($\vec \gamma'$) with a linearly polarized laser beam ($\vec L$). In particular, we consider the asymmetry of the total cross section and the azimuthal electron distributions when the polarizations of the photon and laser beams in the initial state are mutually perpendicular or parallel. Considering intense laser beams and the strong field asymptotic we explore essentially the multi-photon dynamics. The asymmetry exhibits some non-monotonic behavior depending on initial kinematic conditions; it depends sensitively on the laser pulse duration. Our results provide additional knowledge for studying non-linear multi-photon effects in quantum electrodynamics and may be used in planning experiments in upcoming laser facilities.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure