A climatically-derived global soil moisture data set for use in the GLAS atmospheric circulation model seasonal cycle experiment

Algorithms for point interpolation and contouring on the surface of the sphere and in Cartesian two-space are developed from Shepard's (1968) well-known, local search method. These mapping procedures then are used to investigate the errors which appear on small-scale climate maps as a result of the all-too-common practice of of interpolating, from irregularly spaced data points to the nodes of a regular lattice, and contouring Cartesian two-space. Using mean annual air temperatures field over the western half of the northern hemisphere is estimated both on the sphere, assumed to be correct, and in Cartesian two-space. When the spherically- and Cartesian-approximted air temperature fields are mapped and compared, the magnitudes (as large as 5 C to 10 C) and distribution of the errors associated with the latter approach become apparent

On the design of an interactive biosphere for the GLAS general circulation model

Improving the realism and accuracy of the GLAS general circulation model (by adding an interactive biosphere that will simulate the transfers of latent and sensible heat from land surface to atmosphere as functions of the atmospheric conditions and the morphology and physiology of the vegetation) is proposed

Measurement of Newtonian fluid slip using a torsional ultrasonic oscillator

The composite torsional ultrasonic oscillator, a versatile experimental system, can be used to investigate slip of Newtonian fluid at a smooth surface. A rigorous analysis of slip-dependent damping for the oscillator is presented. Initially, the phenomenon of finite surface slip and the slip length are considered for a half-space of Newtonian fluid in contact with a smooth, oscillating solid surface. Definitions are revisited and clarified in light of inconsistencies in the literature. We point out that, in general oscillating flows, Navier's slip length b is a complex number. An intuitive velocity discontinuity parameter of unrestricted phase is used to describe the effect of slip on measurement of viscous shear damping. The analysis is applied to the composite oscillator and preliminary experimental work for a 40 kHz oscillator is presented. The Non-Slip Boundary Condition (NSBC) has been verified for a hydrophobic surface in water to within ~60 nm of |b|=0 nm. Experiments were carried out at shear rate amplitudes between 230 and 6800 /s, corresponding to linear displacement amplitudes between 3.2 and 96 nm.Comment: Revised with minor edits for revie

Thermal near infrared monitoring system for electron beam melting with emissivity tracking

This paper presents the design of a high speed, high resolution silicon based thermal imaging instrument and its application to thermally image the temperature distributions of an electron beam melting additive manufacturing system. Typically, thermal images are produced at mid or long wavelengths of infrared radiation. Using the shorter wavelengths that silicon focal plane arrays are sensitive to allows the use of standard windows in the optical path. It also affords fewer modifications to the machine and enables us to make use of mature silicon camera technology. With this new instrument, in situ thermal imaging of the entire build area has been made possible at high speed, allowing defect detection and melt pool tracking. Melt pool tracking was used to implement an emissivity correction algorithm, which produced more accurate temperatures of the melted areas of the layer

Evolution of the interfacial structure of LaAlO3 on SrTiO3

The evolution of the atomic structure of LaAlO3 grown on SrTiO3 was investigated using surface x-ray diffraction in conjunction with model-independent, phase-retrieval algorithms between two and five monolayers film thickness. A depolarizing buckling is observed between cation and oxygen positions in response to the electric field of polar LaAlO3, which decreases with increasing film thickness. We explain this in terms of competition between elastic strain energy, electrostatic energy, and electronic reconstructions. The findings are qualitatively reproduced by density-functional theory calculations. Significant cationic intermixing across the interface extends approximately three monolayers for all film thicknesses. The interfaces of films thinner than four monolayers therefore extend to the surface, which might affect conductivity

Structural Examination of Au/Ge(001) by Surface X-Ray Diffraction and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

The one-dimensional reconstruction of Au/Ge(001) was investigated by means of autocorrelation functions from surface x-ray diffraction (SXRD) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Interatomic distances found in the SXRD-Patterson map are substantiated by results from STM. The Au coverage, recently determined to be 3/4 of a monolayer of gold, together with SXRD leads to three non-equivalent positions for Au within the c(8x2) unit cell. Combined with structural information from STM topography and line profiling, two building blocks are identified: Au-Ge hetero-dimers within the top wire architecture and Au homo-dimers within the trenches. The incorporation of both components is discussed using density functional theory and model based Patterson maps by substituting Germanium atoms of the reconstructed Ge(001) surface.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Measurement of the Fermi Constant by FAST

An initial measurement of the lifetime of the positive muon to a precision of 16 parts per million (ppm) has been performed with the FAST detector at the Paul Scherrer Institute. The result is tau_mu = 2.197083 (32) (15) microsec, where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic. The muon lifetime determines the Fermi constant, G_F = 1.166353 (9) x 10^-5 GeV^-2 (8 ppm).Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

The electronic structure of La1−x_{1-x}Srx_{x}MnO3_{3} thin films and its TcT_c dependence as studied by angle-resolved photoemission

We present angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy results for thin films of the three-dimensional manganese perovskite La$_{1-x}$Sr$_{x}$MnO$_{3}$. We show that the transition temperature ($T_c$) from the paramagnetic insulating to ferromagnetic metallic state is closely related to details of the electronic structure, particularly to the spectral weight at the ${\bf k}$-point, where the sharpest step at the Fermi level was observed. We found that this ${\bf k}$-point is the same for all the samples, despite their different $T_c$. The change of $T_c$ is discussed in terms of kinetic energy optimization. Our ARPES results suggest that the change of the electronic structure for the samples having different transition temperatures is different from the rigid band shift.Comment: Accepted by Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte