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At least 217 records · Page 12

Temporal variations of particle fluxes in the deep subtropical and tropical North Atlantic - Eulerian versus Lagrangian effects

The flux of particles measured by sediment traps in the deep water of the Sargasso Sea and western tropical North Atlantic undergoes pronounced temporal variation. In the Sargasso Sea the variability is largely due to seasonal changes in mixed-layer depth and attendant changes in primary productivity affecting a wide region. By contrast, the variability in the western tropical Atlantic appears to be caused by patches of elevated nutrient and pigment concentrations which have their origin in the plumes of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers. Coastal zone color scanner scenes demonstrate the great seasonal and interannual differences in the direction and dispersal patterns of the plumes. The river plumes break up into irregular patches which may pass through the catchment area of a sediment trap at varying rates, thereby creating the impression of almost random temporal flux variability at a fixed trap site.

Deuser, W. G.↗

Seasonal variation of the temporal variance of long-lived trace gases measured during MAP

A series of balloon observations of long lived trace gases was performed in the midlatitude stratosphere during MAP. The temporal variance of the local mixing ratios of CH4, N2O, CFCl3, and CF2Cl2 indicates a substantial annual variability. The concept of the equivalent displacement height (EDH), introduced by Ehhalt et al., is used to investigate some features of transport activity in the lower stratosphere. It appears that most of the temporal variance originates from strong transport effects during the periods of the spring and autumn turn-around of the stratospheric circulation. The dynamical process was found to be considerably reduced during October.

Roeth, E. P.↗

Two classes of models for temporal variability of the Io torus

Two classes of spatially uniform models for the Io torus are analyzed for the stability and temporal variability of the torus. It is shown that stable-equilibrium torus models exist in two classes of models, one with nonlinear radial transport loss of plasma (e.g., from centrifugally driven interchanges) and one with linear transport (e.g., from externally driven interchanges). The two classes of models make substantially different predictions regarding temporal variability of the Io torus. Observational tests are proposed that make it possible to discriminate between the two classes.

Cheng, Andrew F.↗

Temporal filters for isolating steady photospheric flows

A variety of temporal filters are tested on artificial data with 60 and 75 s sampling intervals to determine their accuracy in separating the nearly-steady photospheric flows from the p-mode oscillations in Doppler velocity data. Longer temporal averages are better at reducing the residual signal due to p-modes but they introduce additional errors from the rotation of the supergranule pattern across the solar disk. Unweighted filters (boxcar averages) leave residual rms errors of about 6 m/s from the p-modes after 60 min of averaging. Weighted filters, with nearly Gaussian shapes, leave similar residual errors after only 20 min of averaging and introduce smaller errors from the rotation of the supergranule pattern. The best filters found are weighted filters that use data separated by 150 or 120 s so that the p-modes are sampled at opposite phases.

Hathaway, David H.↗

Temporal logics meet telerobotics

The specificity of telerobotics being the presence of a human operator, decision assistance tools are necessary for the operator, especially in hostile environments. In order to reduce execution hazards due to a degraded ability for quick and efficient recovery of unexpected dangerous situations, it is of importance to have the opportunity, amongst others, to simulate the possible consequences of a plan before its actual execution, in order to detect these problematic situations. Hence the idea of providing the operator with a simulator enabling him to verify the temporal and logical coherence of his plans. Therefore, the power of logical formalisms is used for representation and deduction purposes. Starting from the class of situations that are represented, a STRIPS (the STanford Research Institute Problem Solver)-like formalism and its underlying logic are adapted to the simulation of plans of actions in time. The choice of a temporal logic enables to build a world representation, on which the effects of plans, grouping actions into control structures, will be transcribed by the simulation, resulting in a verdict and information about the plan's coherence.

Rutten, Eric↗

An efficient temporal logic for robotic task planning

Computations required for temporal reasoning can be prohibitively expensive if fully general representations are used. Overly simple representations, such as totally ordered sequence of time points, are inadequate for use in a nonlinear task planning system. A middle ground is identified which is general enough to support a capable nonlinear task planner, but specialized enough that the system can support online task planning in real time. A Temporal Logic System (TLS) was developed during the Intelligent Task Automation (ITA) project to support robotic task planning. TLS is also used within the ITA system to support plan execution, monitoring, and exception handling.

Becker, Jeffrey M.↗

Temporal and vertical distribution of acidity and ionic composition in clouds - Comparison between modeling results and observations

Cyclic temporal variations of pH and ionic concentration in sampled clouds which traversed the Mt. Mitchell State Park (North Carolina) site during the summers of 1986, 1987, and 1988 are reported. These clouds typically had a measured pH minimum during their initial and final stages. The cause of this basic cylic pattern is attributed to sampling at different vertical levels of the cloud. This is substantiated by visual observations made while sampling. The results also suggest that the measured pH patterns do not always exhibit minima during the formative and dissipative stages of the cloud, apparently in response to the underlying dynamical processes. The relationship between temporal pH measurements made at a stationary site to vertical cloud levels provides insights into the physical processes (e.g., nucleation scavenging near cloud base, dry air entrainment near cloud top) influencing the observed cloud-water chemistry on a real-time basis and would improve cloud chemistry models.

Defelice, T. P.↗

Model checking for linear temporal logic: An efficient implementation

This report provides evidence to support the claim that model checking for linear temporal logic (LTL) is practically efficient. Two implementations of a linear temporal logic model checker is described. One is based on transforming the model checking problem into a satisfiability problem; the other checks an LTL formula for a finite model by computing the cross-product of the finite state transition graph of the program with a structure containing all possible models for the property. An experiment was done with a set of mutual exclusion algorithms and tested safety and liveness under fairness for these algorithms.

Sherman, Rivi↗

Reasoning about real-time systems with temporal interval logic constraints on multi-state automata

Models of real-time systems using a single paradigm often turn out to be inadequate, whether the paradigm is based on states, rules, event sequences, or logic. A model-based approach to reasoning about real-time systems is presented in which a temporal interval logic called TIL is employed to define constraints on a new type of high level automata. The combination, called hierarchical multi-state (HMS) machines, can be used to model formally a real-time system, a dynamic set of requirements, the environment, heuristic knowledge about planning-related problem solving, and the computational states of the reasoning mechanism. In this framework, mathematical techniques were developed for: (1) proving the correctness of a representation; (2) planning of concurrent tasks to achieve goals; and (3) scheduling of plans to satisfy complex temporal constraints. HMS machines allow reasoning about a real-time system from a model of how truth arises instead of merely depending of what is true in a system.

Gabrielian, Armen↗

Spatial and temporal variability of the extent of chemically processed stratospheric air

Simulations of the spatial and temporal variability of the extent of chemically processed air in the Arctic stratosphere have been carried out using a three-dimensional chemistry-transport model for the winters of 1979 and 1989. Chemically processed air is identified in the model as that in which the amounts of hydrogen chloride (HCl) calculated with parameterized loss for conditions appropriate to polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) formation are substantially smaller than those calculated in a model with gas phase chemistry only. It is seen that chemically processed air may be identified over much of the Arctic lower stratosphere from early January to late February, with HCl depletions being larger in 1989 than in 1979. Near the latitude of the Arctic circle, there is important spatial and temporal variability in the extent of chemically processed air. There is some evidence for transport to midlatitudes of processed air during these winters, but the HCl reductions are much smaller and more sporadic than those near the pole. At 62 and 42N, processed air is calculated to occur preferentially over the longitude regions from 60-120E and 270-330E.

Kaye, Jack A.↗

Managing temporal relations in the MAESTRO scheduling system

A set of viewgraphs on managing temporal relations in the MAESTRO scheduling system are given. The viewgraphs present information on such topics as why scheduling is hard, managing temporal relations, constraints on the placement of a single activity, constraints between activities, soft constraints (such as preferences), and contingency handling.

Britt, Daniel L.↗

Temporal variation of heat and moisture flux divergence in the FIFE atmospheric boundary layer during spring

A one-day investigation of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is reported in which an aircraft monitors the temporal and spatial variations of heat and moisture turbulent-flux divergences. Incoming solar radiation is similar over natural prairie land and agriculturally developed land although the heat and moisture values show significant differences over the surfaces. Other temporal variations are noted which demonstrate that ABL transport of sensible and latent heat is affected by complex variables even under simple synoptic conditions.

Grossman, Robert L.↗

Implications of isotopic compositions of N and Ne in the Martian atmosphere to temporal evolution of its atmosphere and regolith

The isotopic compositions of N and Ne in the Martian atmosphere are governed by several factors, principal among which are the temporal evolution in (1) the absolute surface pressure of oxygen, (2) the physicochemical characteristics of the regolith, and finally (3) the N-15 enrichment expected due to preferential hydrodynamical escape of N-14 (due to solar wind bombardment). Each of these factors is unique to Mars. In fact, no other planet offers the uniquely favorable situations for N-15 and Ne-21 enrichments. The cosmogenic production of N-15 is, in particular, unique. It promises to provide very valuable constraints on the temporal evolution of the martian CO2 and H2O, both in the atmosphere and regolith. The rate of production of cosmogenic (spallation) N-15 is dependent on the surface pressure of oxygen, the principal target element for formation of N-15. In view of the relatively high O/N ratio in the martian atmosphere, relatively high N-15/N ratio are expected to arise from cosmogenic reactions. The added bonus comes from the fact that an appreciable production of N-15 is expected in the martian regolith because of its thin atmosphere. From model calculations it is shown that if accurate isotopic composition data become available for N and Ne, it should be possible to put robust constraints on the time averages martian oxygen surface pressure and subsurface water in the upper layers.

Lal, D.↗

Combining qualitative and quantitative spatial and temporal information in a hierarchical structure: Approximate reasoning for plan execution monitoring

The problem of plan generation (PG) and the problem of plan execution monitoring (PEM), including updating, queries, and resource-bounded replanning, have different reasoning and representation requirements. PEM requires the integration of qualitative and quantitative information. PEM is the receiving of data about the world in which a plan or agent is executing. The problem is to quickly determine the relevance of the data, the consistency of the data with respect to the expected effects, and if execution should continue. Only spatial and temporal aspects of the plan are addressed for relevance in this work. Current temporal reasoning systems are deficient in computational aspects or expressiveness. This work presents a hybrid qualitative and quantitative system that is fully expressive in its assertion language while offering certain computational efficiencies. In order to proceed, methods incorporating approximate reasoning using hierarchies, notions of locality, constraint expansion, and absolute parameters need be used and are shown to be useful for the anytime nature of PEM.

Hoebel, Louis J.↗

Classification with spatio-temporal interpixel class dependency contexts

A contextual classifier which can utilize both spatial and temporal interpixel dependency contexts is investigated. After spatial and temporal neighbors are defined, a general form of maximum a posterior spatiotemporal contextual classifier is derived. This contextual classifier is simplified under several assumptions. Joint prior probabilities of the classes of each pixel and its spatial neighbors are modeled by the Gibbs random field. The classification is performed in a recursive manner to allow a computationally efficient contextual classification. Experimental results with bitemporal TM data show significant improvement of classification accuracy over noncontextual pixelwise classifiers. This spatiotemporal contextual classifier should find use in many applications of remote sensing, especially when the classification accuracy is important.

Jeon, Byeungwoo↗

Three-dimensional temporal reconstruction and analysis of plume images

An experiment with two subsonic jets generating a cross-flow was conducted as part of a study of the structural features of temporal reconstruction of plume images. The flow field structure was made visible using a direct injection flow visualization technique. It is shown that image analysis and temporal three-dimensional visualization can provide new information on the vortical structural dynamics of multiple jets in a cross-flow. It is expected that future developments in image analysis, quantification and interpretation, and flow visualization of rocket engine plume images may provide a tool for correlating the engine diagnostic features by interpreting the evolution of the structures in the plume.

Dhawan, Atam P.↗

Comparison of multi-temporal NOAA-AVHRR and SPOT-XS satellite data for mapping land-cover dynamics in the West African Sahel

Multi-resolution and multi-temporal remote sensing data (SPOT-XS and AVHRR) were evaluated for mapping local land-cover dynamics in the Sahel of West Africa. The aim of this research was to evaluate the agricultural information that could be derived from both high and low spatial resolution data in areas where there is very often limited ground information. A combination of raster-based image processing and vector-based geographical information system mapping was found to be effective for understanding both spatial and spectral land-cover dynamics. The SPOT data proved useful for mapping local land-cover classes in a dominantly recessive agricultural region. The AVHRR-LAC data could be used to map the dynamics of riparian vegetation, but not the changes associated with recession agriculture. In areas where there was a complex mixture of recession and irrigated agriculture, as well as riparian vegetation, the AVHRR data did not provide an accurate temporal assessment of vegetation dynamics.

Marsh, S. E.↗

Spatial and temporal variations of the fluxes of carbon dioxide and sensible and latent heat over the FIFE site

Airborne measurements of flux densities of carbon dioxide CO2, sensible heat, and latent heat (H2O) obtained over the First ISLSCP Field Experiment (FIFE) site during three intensive field campaigns in 1987 and one in 1989 are examined to characterize the spatial and temporal variations of CO2 and energy transfer processes. These data were collected by the National Research Council Twin Otter using low-level flight patterns, all flown at constant pressure altitude during relatively clear days. The spatial variations are larger in 1989 than in 1987 and a higher correlation is observed between the fluxes and the surface features. The temporal patterns are easier to characterize with the relatively homogeneous situation of 1987. Functional relationships obtained between fluxes of CO2 and latent heat, CO2 fluxes and greenness index, latent heat fluxes and greenness index, and between sensible heat fluxes and surface air temperature differences are presented for one day in 1987 and one in 1989 as an example of the kind of information that can be obtained from grid flights at constant pressure altitude.

Desjardins, R. L.↗