An Investigation of Three Dimensional Displays for Real-Time, Safety-Critical Command/Control Applications: with application to Air Traffic Control

Submitted to the University of London for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Scienc

Positioning system of the ANTARES Neutrino Telescope

Completed in May 2008, the ANTARES neutrino telescope is located 40 km off the coast of Toulon, at a depth of about 2500 m. The telescope consists of 12 detect or lines housing a total of 884 optical modules. Each line is anchored to the seabed and pulled taught by the buoyancy of the individual optical modules and a top buoy. Due to the fluid nature of the sea-water detecting medium and the flexible nature of the detector lines, the optical modules of the ANTARES telescope can suffer from deviations of up to several meters from the vertical and as such, real time positioning is needed. Real time positioning of the ANTARES telescope is achieved by a combination of an acoustic positioning system and a lattice of tiltmeters and compasses. These independent and complementary systems are used to compute a global fit to each individual detector line, allowing us to construct a 3 dimensional picture of the ANTARES neutrino telescope with an accuracy of less than 10 cm. In this paper we describe the positioning system of the ANTARES neutrino telescope and discuss its performance during the first year of 12 line data taking.Comment: Proceedings of 31st ICRC conference, Lodz 2009, 4 pages, 3 picture

ELSA and the frontiers of astrometry

ELSA stands for the ambitious goal of `European Leadership in Space Astrometry'. In this closing contribution I will examine how the ELSA network has advanced this goal. I also look ahead to the time when the Gaia data will be published and consider what needs to be done to maintain European leadership.Comment: Closing remarks at the ELSA conference "Gaia: at the frontiers of astrometry". Proceedings editors: C. Turon, F. Arenou & F. Meynadie

The mass of the young planet Pictoris b through the astrometric motion of its host star

The young massive Jupiters discovered with high-contrast imaging provide a unique opportunity to study the formation and early evolution of gas giant planets. A key question is to what extent gravitational energy from accreted gas contributes to the internal energy of a newly formed planet. This has led to a range of formation scenarios from 'cold' to 'hot' start models. For a planet of a given mass, these initial conditions govern its subsequent evolution in luminosity and radius. Except for upper limits from radial velocity studies, disk modelling, and dynamical instability arguments, no mass measurements of young planets are yet available to distinguish between these different models. Here we report on the detection of the astrometric motion of Beta Pictoris, the 21 Myr-old host star of an archetypical directly-imaged gas giant planet, around the system's centre of mass. Subtracting the highly accurate Hipparcos-Gaia proper motion from the internal 3-yr Hipparcos astrometric data reveals the reflex motion of the star, giving a model-independent planet mass of M=11+-2 MJup. This is consistent with scenarios in which the planet is formed in a high-entropy state as assumed by hot start models. The ongoing data collection by Gaia will in the near future lead to mass measurements of other young gas giants and form a great asset to further constrain early evolution scenarios.Comment: Nature Astronomy, Aug 20, 2018; 16 pages, 4 Figs, 2 Table

The Spatial Dictionary

This thesis and the corresponding portfolio ‘The Spatial Dictionary’ is an investigation into the use of written language as a generative and descriptive approach for the design of Interior spaces. The potential utility of the dictionary as an object is explored as a conceptual ‘tool-box’ for the use of Interior designers. The dictionary is to be viewed here as a mechanism to translate both concrete and abstract visual ‘concepts’ into a written commentary, using a defined list of terms, whilst inadvertently exploring the notion that the exploration of this spatial vocabulary gives us an insight into what constitutes interior space and design. This thesis investigates the position that spatial language is not simply one of identification of phenomena pertaining to space but it can also be used as a tool for the intention and creation of interior spaces and desig

Mg II flux and profile variability of hybrid-chromosphere stars

Results from an IUE investigation of the variability seen in the Mg II emission line fluxes and wind absorption components of hybrid-chromosphere stars are presented. Real Mg II flux variability is shown with most of the variation being long-term. This variability appears to be due to global changes in the Mg II surface activity. Major changes in the wind absorption component are not seen