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Aluie, Hussein

Publications and source records attributed to Aluie, Hussein.

Combined speckle- and propagation-based single shot two-dimensional phase retrieval method

Single-shot two-dimensional (2D) phase retrieval (PR) can recover the phase shift distribution within an object from a single 2D x-ray phase contrast image (XPCI). Two competing XPCI imaging modalities often used for single-shot 2D PR to recover material properties critical for predictive performance capabilities are: speckle-based (SP-XPCI) and propagation-based (PB-XPCI) XPCI imaging. However, PR from SP-XPCI and PB-XPCI images are, respectively, limited to reconstructing accurately slowly and rapidly varying features due to noise and differences in their contrast mechanisms. Herein, we consider a combined speckle- and propagation-based XPCI (SPB-XPCI) image by introducing a mask to generate a reference pattern and imaging in the near-to-holographic regime to induce intensity modulations in the image. We develop a single-shot 2D PR method for SPB-XPCI images of pure phase objects without imposing restrictions such as object support constraints. It is compared against PR methods inspired by those developed for SP-XPCI and PB-XPCI on simulated and experimental images of a thin glass shell before and during shockwave compression. Reconstructed phase maps show improvements in quantitative scores of root-mean-square error and structural similarity index measure using our proposed method.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Convective and Orographic Origins of the Mesoscale Kinetic Energy Spectrum

The mesoscale spectrum describes the distribution of kinetic energy in the Earth's atmosphere between length scales of 10 and 400 km. Since the first observations, the origins of this spectrum have been controversial. At synoptic scales, the spectrum follows a –3 spectral slope, consistent with two-dimensional turbulence theory, but a shallower –5/3 slope was observed at the shorter mesoscales. The cause of the shallower slope remains obscure, illustrating our lack of understanding. Through a novel coarse-graining methodology, we are able to present a spatio-temporal climatology of the spectral slope. We find convection and orography have a shallowing effect and can quantify this using “conditioned spectra.” These are typical spectra for a meteorological condition, obtained by aggregating spectra where the condition holds. This allows the investigation of new relationships, such as that between energy flux and spectral slope. Potential future applications of our methodology include predictability research and model validation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Surface Variability Mapping and Roughness Analysis of the Moon Using a Coarse–Graining Decomposition

The lunar surface contains a wide variety of topographic shapes and features, each with different distributions and scales, and any analysis technique to objectively measure roughness must respect these qualities. Coarse-graining is a naturally scale-dependent filtering technique that preserves scale-dependent symmetries and produces coarse elevation maps that gradually erase the smaller features from the original topography. In this study of the lunar surface, we present two surface variability metrics obtained from coarse-graining lunar topography: fine elevation and coarse curvature. Both metrics are isotropic, deterministic, slope-independent, and coordinate-agnostic. Fine (detrended) elevation is acquired by subtracting the coarse elevation from the original topography and contains features that are smaller than the coarse-graining length-scale. Coarse curvature is the Laplacian of coarsened topography, and naturally quantifies the curvature at any scale and indicates whether a location is elevated or depressed relative to its neighborhood at that scale. We find that highlands and maria have distinct roughness characteristics at all length-scales. Our topographic spectra reveal four scale-breaks that mark characteristic shifts in surface roughness: 100, 300, 1,000, and 4,000 km. Comparing fine elevation distributions between maria and highlands, we show that maria fine elevation is biased toward smaller-magnitude elevations and that the maria–highland discrepancies are more pronounced at larger length-scales. Here, we also provide local examples of selected regions to demonstrate that these metrics can successfully distinguish geological features of different length-scales.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

A Scale‐Dependent Analysis of the Barotropic Vorticity Budget in a Global Ocean Simulation

Abstract The climatological mean barotropic vorticity budget is analyzed to investigate the relative importance of surface wind stress, topography, planetary vorticity advection, and nonlinear advection in dynamical balances in a global ocean simulation. In addition to a pronounced regional variability in vorticity balances, the relative magnitudes of vorticity budget terms strongly depend on the length‐scale of interest. To carry out a length‐scale dependent vorticity analysis in different ocean basins, vorticity budget terms are spatially coarse‐grained. At length‐scales greater than 1,000 km, the dynamics closely follow the Topographic‐Sverdrup balance in which bottom pressure torque, surface wind stress curl and planetary vorticity advection terms are in balance. In contrast, when including all length‐scales resolved by the model, bottom pressure torque and nonlinear advection terms dominate the vorticity budget (Topographic‐Nonlinear balance), which suggests a prominent role of oceanic eddies, which are of km in size, and the associated bottom pressure anomalies in local vorticity balances at length‐scales smaller than 1,000 km. Overall, there is a transition from the Topographic‐Nonlinear regime at scales smaller than 1,000 km to the Topographic‐Sverdrup regime at length‐scales greater than 1,000 km. These dynamical balances hold across all ocean basins; however, interpretations of the dominant vorticity balances depend on the level of spatial filtering or the effective model resolution. On the other hand, the contribution of bottom and lateral friction terms in the barotropic vorticity budget remains small and is significant only near sea‐land boundaries, where bottom stress and horizontal viscous friction generally peak.

Khatri, Hemant↗