Non-Planck equilibrium radiation in plasma model of early Universe

Consideration of the adiabatic character of radiation expansion in early Universe leads to the conclusion that equilibrium distribution of the primordial radiation in the presence of charged particles could be different from the Planck distribution in some regions of the spectrum. The equilibrium distribution of electromagnetic radiation (the black body radiation) is generalized for the system containing an extremely dense fully ionized plasma. The conditions of the adiabatic expansion of radiation for the model of the early Universe are found.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Possible techniques for optical measurement of temperature and concentration profiles in a supersonic ramjet

Optical measurement techniques of temperature and concentration profiles in supersonic ramje

Commencement Address

Commencement address given by Arno A. Penzias, Vice President of Research at AT&T Bell Laboratories, to the Winter 1988 graduating class of The Ohio State University, St. John Arena, Columbus, Ohio, March 18, 1988

Archeops, mapping the CMB sky from large to small angular scales

Archeops is a balloon-borne experiment designed to measure the temperature fluctuations of the CMB on a large region of the sky ($\simeq 30$) with a high angular resolution (10 arcminutes) and a high sensitivity ($60\mu K$ per pixel). Archeops will perform a measurement of the CMB anisotropies power spectrum from large angular scales ($\ell\simeq 30$) to small angular scales ($\ell \simeq 800$). Archeops flew for the first time for a test flight in July 1999 from Sicily to Spain and the first scientific flight took place from Sweden to Russia in January 2001. The data analysis is on its way and I present here preliminary results, realistic simulations showing the expected accuracy on the measurement of the power spectrum and perspectives for the incoming flights (Winter 2001/2003).Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, proceedings to TAUP2001 conference, LNGS, Italy, Sept. 200

The interstellar C18O/C17O ratio in the solar neighbourhood: The rho Oph cloud

Observations of up to ten carbon monoxide (CO and isotopomers) transitions are presented to study the interstellar C18O/C17O ratio towards 21 positions in the nearby (d~140pc) low-mass star forming cloud rho Oph. A map of the C18O J=1-0 distribution of parts of the cloud is also shown. An average 12C18O/12C17O isotopomeric ratio of 4.11 +/- 0.14, reflecting the 18O/17O isotope ratio, is derived from Large Velocity Gradient (LVG) calculations. From LTE column densities we derive a ratio of 4.17 +/-0.26. These calculations also show that the kinetic temperature decreases from about 30 K in the cloud envelope to about 10 K in the cloud cores. This decrease is accompanied by an increase of the average molecular hydrogen density from 10^4 cm-3 to >10^5 cm-3. Towards some lines of sight C18O optical depths reach values of order unity.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures; accepted for publication in A&

Foreground removal from WMAP 5yr temperature maps using an MLP neural network

One of the main obstacles for extracting the cosmic microwave background (CMB) signal from observations in the mm/sub-mm range is the foreground contamination by emission from Galactic component: mainly synchrotron, free-free, and thermal dust emission. The statistical nature of the intrinsic CMB signal makes it essential to minimize the systematic errors in the CMB temperature determinations. The feasibility of using simple neural networks to extract the CMB signal from detailed simulated data has already been demonstrated. Here, simple neural networks are applied to the WMAP 5yr temperature data without using any auxiliary data. A simple \emph{multilayer perceptron} neural network with two hidden layers provides temperature estimates over more than 75 per cent of the sky with random errors significantly below those previously extracted from these data. Also, the systematic errors, i.e.\ errors correlated with the Galactic foregrounds, are very small. With these results the neural network method is well prepared for dealing with the high - quality CMB data from the ESA Planck Surveyor satellite.Comment: 6 pages, 13 figure

A Low Cost System for Detecting Fog Events and Triggering an Active Fog Water Collector

A simple method of activating the Caltech Active Strand Cloud-water Collector (CASCC) is described. This system detected the onset of wet deposition events associated with the advection of marine stratus clouds using an optical rain sensor (ORS) and a standard passive fog collector (SFC) in combination with a relative humidity threshold. The system was deployed on a rooftop between May 10 and September 20, 2016 (134 days) at the University of California, Santa Cruz, six km from Pacific Ocean, at 240 m elevation. Twenty-nine fog water samples (daily mean volume = 174 ± 71 mL) were collected for the purposes of quantifying the concentration of monomethylmercury (MMHg) and its possible marine origins. For 20 days during the study, a visibility sensor (VS) was collocated with the ORS and both sensors detected 7 fog events. The ORS detected 2 additional marine stratus drizzle events missed by the VS. The start time of the events detected by the ORS was delayed relative to the onset of visibility reduction in 6 of 7 events by 4.5 ± 3.3 hours. Low wind speeds at night at this location limited the wet deposition to the SFC. Average CASCC sampling time during these events was 6.2 ± 2.8 hours and 4 liquid samples were obtained (80 to \u3e 275 mL). As a comparison, fog water collections at UCSC during the fog seasons of 2014 and 2015 yielded 35 and 12 samples, respectively using a trigger based on relative humidity (RH) and sampling times of \u3e 12 h per day. The main benefit of triggering with the ORS in 2016 was to cut in half the sampling time without loss of sample collection volume. Mean MMHg concentrations between the 3 years were not significantly different suggesting that the SFC/ORS triggering system is appropriate for use at multiple fog collection sites simultaneously

At what level does risk aversion affect the investment into a passive house under uncertain energy prices?

Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es einen Wert für die Risikoarversion zu finden, der ein Individuum veranlasst unter unsicheren zukünftigen Energiepreisen in ein Passivhaus anstelle eines normalen Hauses zu investieren. In diesem Szenario wird die Annahme getroffen, dass das Individuum die Wahl hat in eines von zwei Häusern mit unterschiedlichen Standards zu investieren. Die Standards wurden laut dem „Energieausweis für Gebäude“, welcher in der OIB Richtlinie 6 rechtlich verankert ist, festgesetzt. Zusätzlich wurde noch die Annahme getroffen, dass diese Investition nicht auf einen späteren Zeitpunkt verschoben werden kann, sondern sofort getätigt werden muss. Der Zeitrahmen in diesem Modell wurde auf 40 Jahre festgesetzt. Die Energiepreise werden durch eine Monte Carlo Simulation ermittelt. Um die Simulationen durchführen zu können wurde eine Brownian Motion mit Drift gewählt. Des weiteren wurde angenommen, dass die Nutzenfunktion des Individuums die Eigenschaften der konstanten relativen Risikoaversion besitzt. Die Risikoaversion wurde anhand mehrerer realitätsnaher Parameter berechnet. Beispiele hierfür wären die Drift Rate der Brownian Motion, die Volatilität der Energiepreise, die jährliche Steigerung des Einkommens, etc. Ausgehend von den gleichen Parametern werden in der folgenden Arbeit zwei Szenarien behandelt. Im ersten Szenario verwenden beide Haustypen zur Beheizung Gas, im zweiten Szenario wird Heizöl als Grundlage herangezogen. Für beide Szenarien müssen lediglich der Verbrauch, sowie der Preis des verwendeten Rohstoffes angepasst werden. Aus beiden Investitionsalternativen resultieren zwei Nutzenfunktionen, die mittels Kapitalwertmethode abgezinst und einander gegenüber gestellt werden. Der Schnittpunkt beider Funktionen offenbart den Wert des Risikomaßes, den das Individuum besitzt, wenn es in ein Passivhaus investiert. Der Grundgedanke hinter dieser Arbeit ist, dass ein Passivhaus höhere Anschaffungskosten hat als ein Standardhaus, jedoch sind die Kosten des Heizwärmebedarfs wesentlich geringer. Als Folge ist der resultierende Nutzen aus der Passivhausinvestition anfangs geringer als der Nutzen der Standardhausinvestition. Durch die geringeren Heizwärmekosten des Passivhauses ist die Steigung der Nutzenfunktion höher als die des Standardhauses. Diese Tatsache führt dazu, dass sich beide Kurven in einem späteren Zeitpunkt schneiden, da der Nutzen des Passivhauses größer wird. Eine weitere wichtige Tatsache ist, dass ein risikoneutrales Individuum die Investition prinzipiell nicht tätigen wird, da der Kapitalwert der gesamten Energieersparnis des Passivhauses gegenüber dem Standardhaus geringer ist als die Differenz der Investitionskosten. Abschließend zeigt die vorliegende Arbeit in Kapitel 5, wie sich das Risikomaß, unter Veränderung einzelner Parameter, verhält.The main goal of this paper is to find the level of risk aversion which is required for an individual to choose to invest into a passive house over a standard house under uncertainty of electricity prices over future periods. The investment will be made under the assumption that the individual who has the option to invest into a home can choose between a home with passive standard and a "regular" home (in accordance with the "Energieausweis für Gebäude", OIB Richtlinie 6) but must choose to invest and cannot postpone the investment. The future electricity price will be forecasted in a Monte Carlo Simulation where the electricity price follows a Brownian motion with drift. Additionally, it will be assumed that the individual's utility function which is required to find the level of risk aversion follows the theory of constant relative risk aversion where the downside of risks is weighted more than the upside of risks. The scenario will also consist of a specific set of parameters (such as the drift rate of the Brownian Motion, the volatility of energy prices, different levels of interest rates for borrowing, as well as saving money, income and yearly income increase, etc.) which shall correspond to real world values. In order to find the value of risk aversion at which an individual will decide to invest in a passive house, the expected net present value of utility as a function of risk aversion for two different investments must be made: the first function which results from an investment in a standard home, and second the function which results from an investment in a passive house. The point where the two functions intersect (and the expected net present value of utility from the passive house investment becomes larger than that of the standard home investment) will show the corresponding degree of risk aversion should an individual choose to invest into a passive house. Furthermore it will be shown how the degree of relative risk aversion will change in correspondence to the changes made to certain parameters in the model

Sources and budgets for CO and O-3 in the northeastern Pacific during the spring of 2001: Results from the PHOBEA-II Experiment

Abstract. Ground and airborne measurements of CO, ozone, and aerosols were obtained in th