Infrared sky noise study

The hardware and techniques to measure and compare sky noise at several sites were studied, and a device was developed that would maximize its output and minimize its output for modulation. The instrument and its functions are described. The nature of sky emissions and the fluctuation, gaseous sources of sky noise, and aerosol sources are discussed. It is concluded that sky noise really exists, and the spatial distribution of the sky noise sources are such that observed noise values are linear functions of chopping stroke

Towards a More Equal City: Framing the Challenges and Opportunities

Cities are growing differently today than before. As much as 70 percent of people in emerging cities in Asia, Africa and Latin America is under-served. Furthermore, cities face challenges in four areas:Highest rates of urbanization are in sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast AsiaUrbanization is now happening in more low-income countries than in the pastThe share of poor people living in urban areas is on the rise worldwideCities in the Global South have the fewest public resources per capitaWe need a new approach that will benefit all urban residents and create sustainable, productive cities for the 21st century. The World Resources Report (WRR) examines if prioritizing access to core urban services, we can create cities that are prosperous and sustainable for all people.This first installment of the WRR developed a new categorization of cities into emerging, struggling, thriving, and stabilizing cities. It focuses on solutions for struggling and emerging cities—over half the cities included in the analysis—because they have the greatest opportunity to alter their development trajectory

Novel duplex vapor-electrochemical method for silicon solar cells

Optimization studies were carried out for the SiF4-Na reaction with solid Na feed. The goals of the study were the consistent production of high purity reaction products and the gathering of relevant information needed to scale-up the reactor. Parameters studied include: (1) effect of surface to volume ratio of Na slices on the extent of reaction; (2) effect of Na surface oxidation on the extent of reaction; (3) effect of external heating on the extent of SiF4-Na reaction; (4) effect of Na slice addition rate on extent of the reaction; and (5) SiF4-Na reaction - high pressure experiments. An investigation was also made of the possible role played by NaF as a fluxing agent during the separation of silicon by melting of the reaction product (Si + NaF) mixture. Since silicon can be produced by the thermite reaction between Na2SiF6 and Na, studies were initiated to gather information on parameters which control the efficiency of the thermite reaction

Method of directing a laser beam with very high accuracy

System will collimate and direct an argon laser beam with high angular tracking accuracy at objects on the moons surface. It can be adapted to missile and satellite tracking

Method and apparatus for aligning a laser beam projector Patent

Laser beam projector for continuous, precise alignment between target, laser generator, and astronomical telescope during trackin

Wavefront sensing of atmospheric phase distortions at the Palomar 200-in. telescope and implications for adaptive optics

Major efforts in astronomical instrumentation are now being made to apply the techniques of adaptive optics to the correction of phase distortions induced by the turbulent atmosphere and by quasi-static aberrations in telescopes themselves. Despite decades of study, the problem of atmospheric turbulence is still only partially understood. We have obtained video-rate (30 Hz) imaging of stellar clusters and of single-star phase distortions over the pupil of the 200" Hale telescope on Palomar Mountain. These data show complex temporal and spatial behavior, with multiple components arising at a number of scale heights in the atmosphere; we hope to quantify this behavior to ensure the feasibility of adaptive optics at the Observatory. We have implemented different wavefront sensing techniques to measure aperture phase in wavefronts from single stars, including the classical Foucault test, which measures the local gradient of phase, and the recently-devised curvature sensing technique, which measures the second derivative of pupil phase and has formed the real-time wavefront sensor for some very productive astronomical adaptive optics. Our data, though not fast enough to capture all details of atmospheric phase fluctuations, provide important information regarding the capabilities that must be met by the adaptive optics system now being built for the 200" telescope by a team at the Jet Propulsion Lab. We describe our data acquisition techniques, initial results from efforts to characterize the properties of the turbulent atmosphere at Palomar Mountain, and future plans to extract additional quantitative parameters of use for adaptive optics performance predictions

Evidence from Strandings for Geomagnetic Sensitivity in Cetaceans

We tested the hypothesis that cetaceans use weak anomalies in the geomagnetic field as cues for orientation, navigation and/or piloting. Using the positions of 212 stranding events of live animals in the Smith sonian compilation which fall within the boundaries of the USGS East-Coast Aeromagnetic Survey, we found that there are highly significant tendencies for cetaceans to beach themselves near coastal locations with local magnetic minima. Monte-Carlo simulations confirm the significance of these effects. These results suggest that cetaceans have a magnetic sensory systemcomparable to that in other migratory and homing animals, and predict that the magnetic topography and in particular the marine magnetic lineations may play an important role in guiding long-distance migration. The ‘map’ sense of migratoryanimals may therefore be largely based on a simple strategy of following paths of local magnetic minima and avoiding magnetic gradients

Expendable bubble tiltmeter for geophysical monitoring

An unusually rugged highly sensitive and inexpensive bubble tiltmeter has been designed, tested, and built in quantity. These tiltmeters are presently used on two volcanoes and an Alaskan glacier, where they continuously monitor surface tilts of geological interest. This paper discusses the mechanical, thermal, and electric details of the meter, and illustrates its performance characteristics in both large ( > 10^(-4) radian) and small ( < 10^(-6) radian) tilt environments. The meter's ultimate sensitivity is better than 2 X 10^(-8) radians rms for short periods (hours), and its useful dynamic range is greater than 10^4. Included is a short description of field use of the instrument for volcano monitoring