Supervisory Liability under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983: Searching for the Deep Pocket

Suits under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 are complex. Section 1983\u27s theory of constitutional wrongdoing without vicarious liability will seem strange to some practitioners. There are circumstances, however, in which a plaintiff may sue the supervisor of the person who immediately inflicted the injury. This Comment examines the intricacies of supervisory liability as determined by recent United States Supreme Court and circuit court decisions and provides pointers to practitioners. In addition, this Comment suggests an amendment to section 1983

Resolution enhancement of multichannel microwave imagery from the Nimbus-7 SMMR for maritime rainfall analysis

A restoration of the 37, 21, 18, 10.7, and 6.6 GHz satellite imagery from the scanning multichannel microwave radiometer (SMMR) aboard Nimbus-7 to 22.2 km resolution is attempted using a deconvolution method based upon nonlinear programming. The images are deconvolved with and without the aid of prescribed constraints, which force the processed image to abide by partial a priori knowledge of the high-resolution result. The restored microwave imagery may be utilized to examined the distribution of precipitating liquid water in marine rain systems

Rainfall observation from X-band, space-borne, synthetic aperture radar

Abstract. Satellites carrying X-band Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR) have recently been launched by several countries. These provide new opportunities to measure precipitation with higher spatial resolution than has heretofore been possible. Two algorithms to retrieve precipitation from such measurements over land have been developed, and the retrieved rainfall distributions were found to be consistent. A maritime rainfall distribution obtained from dual frequency (X and C-band) data was used to compute the Differential Polarized Phase Shift. The computed Differential Polarized Phase Shift compared well with the value measured from space. Finally, we show a comparison between a recent X-band SAR image of a precipitation distribution and an observation of the same rainfall from ground-based operational weather radar. Although no quantitative comparison of retrieved and conventional rainfall distributions could be made with the available data at this time, the results presented here point the way to such comparisons.</p

Potential of high-resolution detection and retrieval of precipitation fields from X-band spaceborne synthetic aperture radar over land

Abstract. X-band Synthetic Aperture Radars (X-SARs), able to image the Earth's surface at metric resolution, may provide a unique opportunity to measure rainfall over land with spatial resolution of about few hundred meters, due to the atmospheric moving-target degradation effects. This capability has become very appealing due to the recent launch of several X-SAR satellites, even though several remote sensing issues are still open. This work is devoted to: (i) explore the potential of X-band high-resolution detection and retrieval of rainfall fields from space using X-SAR signal backscattering amplitude and interferometric phase; (ii) evaluate the effects of spatial resolution degradation by precipitation and inhomogeneous beam filling when comparing to other satellite-based sensors. Our X-SAR analysis of precipitation effects has been carried out using both a TerraSAR-X (TSX) case study of Hurricane "Gustav" in 2008 over Mississippi (USA) and a COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) X-SAR case study of orographic rainfall over Central Italy in 2009. For the TSX case study the near-surface rain rate has been retrieved from the normalized radar cross section by means of a modified regression empirical algorithm (MREA). A relatively simple method to account for the geometric effect of X-SAR observation on estimated rainfall rate and first-order volumetric effects has been developed and applied. The TSX-retrieved rain fields have been compared to those estimated from the Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) in Mobile (AL, USA). The rainfall detection capability of X-SAR has been tested on the CSK case study using the repeat-pass coherence response and qualitatively comparing its signature with ground-based Mt. Midia C-band radar in central Italy. A numerical simulator to represent the effect of the spatial resolution and the antenna pattern of TRMM satellite Precipitation Radar (PR) and Microwave Imager (TMI), using high-resolution TSX-retrieved rain images, has been also set up in order to evaluate the rainfall beam filling phenomenon. As expected, the spatial average can modify the statistics of the high-resolution precipitation fields, strongly reducing its dynamics in a way non-linearly dependent on the rain rate local average value

Potential of High-resolution Detection and Retrieval of Precipitation Fields from X-band Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar over land

X-band Synthetic Aperture Radars (X-SARs), able to image the Earth’s surface at metric resolution, may provide a unique opportunity to measure rainfall over land with spatial resolution of about few hundred meters, due to the atmospheric moving-target degradation effects. This capability has become very appealing due to the recent launch of several X-SAR satellites, even though several remote sensing issues are still open. This work is devoted to: (i) explore the potential of X-band high-resolution detection and retrieval of rainfall fields from space using X-SAR signal backscattering amplitude and interferometric phase; (ii) evaluate the effects of spatial resolution degradation by precipitation and inhomogeneous beam filling when comparing to other satellite-based sensors. Our X-SAR analysis of precipitation effects has been carried out using both a TerraSAR-X (TSX) case study of Hurricane “Gustav” in 2008 over Mississippi (USA) and a COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) X-SAR case study of orographic rainfall over Central Italy in 2009. For the TSX case study the near-surface rain rate has been retrieved from the normalized radar cross section by means of a modified regression empirical algorithm (MREA). A relatively simple method to account for the geometric effect of X-SAR observation on estimated rainfall rate and firstorder volumetric effects has been developed and applied. The TSX-retrieved rain fields have been compared to those estimated from the Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) in Mobile (AL, USA). The rainfall detection capability of X-SAR has been tested on the CSK case study using the Correspondence to: F. S. Marzano ([email protected]) repeat-pass coherence response and qualitatively comparing its signature with ground-based Mt. Midia C-band radar in central Italy. A numerical simulator to represent the effect of the spatial resolution and the antenna pattern of TRMMsatellite Precipitation Radar (PR) and Microwave Imager (TMI), using high-resolution TSX-retrieved rain images, has been also set up in order to evaluate the rainfall beam filling phenomenon. As expected, the spatial average can modify the statistics of the high-resolution precipitation fields, strongly reducing its dynamics in a way non-linearly dependent on the rain rate local average value

The evaluation of a shuttle borne lidar experiment to measure the global distribution of aerosols and their effect on the atmospheric heat budget

A shuttle-borne lidar system is described, which will provide basic data about aerosol distributions for developing climatological models. Topics discussed include: (1) present knowledge of the physical characteristics of desert aerosols and the absorption characteristics of atmospheric gas, (2) radiative heating computations, and (3) general circulation models. The characteristics of a shuttle-borne radar are presented along with some laboratory studies which identify schemes that permit the implementation of a high spectral resolution lidar system