The use of LANDSAT data for the establishment, control and supervision of pasture projects in the southeast Amazon region
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The solar system, installed in a new building, was designed to provide 52 percent of the estimated annual space heating load and 84 percent of the estimated annual potable hot water requirement. The liquid flat plate collectors are ground-mounted and cover a total area of 5125 square feet. The system will provide supplemental heat for the school's closed-loop water-to-air heat pump system and domestic hot water. The storage medium is water inside steel tanks with a capacity of 11,828 gallons for space heating and 1,600 gallons for domestic hot water. The solar heating facility is described and drawings are presented of the completed system which was declared operational in September 1978, and has functioned successfully since.
The feasibility of mapping intrusive rocks in polycyclic and polymetamorphic areas using the logic method for photointerpretation of LANDSAT and radar imagery was investigated. The resolution, scale and spectral characteristics of the imagery were considered. Spectral characteristics of the intrusive rock units mapped using image 100 were investigated. It was determined that identification of acidic and basic intrusive bodies and determination of their relationships with principal structural directions using the logic method was feasible. Tectonic compartments were subdivided into units according to their predominant lithographic types, ignoring stratigraphy. The principal directions of various foliations, faults, megafolds, and fractural systems were defined. Delineation of the boundaries of intrusive bodies mapped using the spectral characteristics of Image 100 imagery ws determined to be more accurate than visual analysis. A 1:500,000 scale map of intrusions in the areas studied was generated.
The initial objectives of analyses of the MSS data are two-fold: (1) to evaluate the geodetic accuracy of CCT-P data of the test sites; and (2) to improve the geodetic accuracy by additional processing if the original data either do not meet pre-launch specifications or mapping requirements. The location of 45 ground control points (GCP) digitized from 35 U.S. Geological Survey 1:24,000 scale quadrangles (UTM coordinates) were identified in terms of pixel and scan line values. These 46 points are used to establish UTM position error vector distributions in the scene. As an initial check on the geometric reliability of the MSS data, 28 well-distributed GCPs were input to a program which compares the scaled image distances between all possible point pairs with the corresponding map distances and computes the distance differences; that is, the relative positional errors. The relative errors obtained from initial computations averaged about +/- 200 m. These errors could result from a number of sources, including misidentification of GCP locations, UTM coordinate errors introduced by the map digitizing process or errors resulting from data acquisition and geometric processing.
Rectifications of multispectral scanner and thematic mapper data sets for full and subscene areas, analyses of planimetric errors, assessments of the number and distribution of ground control points required to minimize errors, and factors contributing to error residual are examined. Other investigations include the generation of three dimensional terrain models and the effects of spatial resolution on digital classification accuracies.
The physical properties of rocks, in the crystalline mass of the Voronezh anteclise, were studied. The study of the physical properties of rocks is important for the improvement of geophysical methods for mapping crystalline rocks in the foundation and exploration of different geological objects which are associated with the crystalline foundation, covered by the sedimentary mantle. It is found that: (1) rocks in the crystalline foundation are very different in physical properties; (2) the physical properties are closely related to their substance composition and genesis; (3) petrographic properties give clues of rock afficiation to certain complexes; and (4) physical and magnetic properties should be examined by petrography, chemical and X-ray analysis.
Study results indicate the likelihood of significant net damages from climate change, in particular damages from sea-level rise and higher temperatures that seem unlikely to be offset by favorable shifts in precipitation and carbon dioxide. Also indicated was the importance of better climate models, in particular models that can calculate climate change on a regional scale appropriate to policy-making. In spite of this potential for damage, there seems to be a low level of awareness and concern, probably caused by the higher priority given to economic growth and reinforced by the great uncertainty in the forecasts. The common property nature of global environment systems also leads to a feeling of helplessness on the part of country governments.
Based on relatively high spatial and temporal resolution satelite data collected at 0700 CST and at each hour from 1000 CST to 1700 CST during the summer of 1986, cloud and convection variations over the area from Mississippi east to Georgia and from the Gulf of Mexico north to Tennessee are discussed. The data analyses show an average maximum cloud frequency over the land areas at 1400 local time and a maximum of deep convection one hour later. Both cloudiness and deep convection are found to be at a maximum during the nocturnal hours over the Gulf of Mexico. Cloud frequency shows a strong relationship to small terrain features. Small fresh water bodies have cloud minima relative to the surroundings in the afternoon hours. Higher, steep terrain shows cloud maxima and the adjacent lower terrain exhibits afternoon cloud minima due to a divergence of mountain breeze caused by the valley.
In the spring and summer of 1986, NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) will sponsor the Satellite Precipitation And Cloud Experiment (SPACE) to be conducted in the Central Tennessee, Northern Alabama, and Northeastern Mississippi area. The field program will incorporate high altitude flight experiments associated with meteorological remote sensor development for future space flight, and an investigation of precipitation processes associated with mesoscale and small convective systems. In addition to SPACE, the MIcroburst and Severe Thunderstorm (MIST) program, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the FAA-Lincoln Laboratory Operational Weather Study (FLOWS), sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), will take place concurrently within the SPACE experiment area. All three programs (under the joint acronym COHMEX (COoperative Huntsville Meteorological EXperiment)) will provide a data base for detailed analysis of mesoscale convective systems while providing ground truth comparisons for remote sensor evaluation. The purpose of this document is to outline the experiment design criteria for SPACE, and describe the special observing facilities and data sets that will be available under the COHMEX joint program. In addition to the planning of SPACE-COHMEX, this document covers three other parts of the program. The field program observations' main activity was the operation of an upper air rawinsonde network to provide ground truth for aircraft and spacecraft observations. Another part of the COHMEX program involved using boundary layer mesoscale models to study and simulate the initiation and organization of moist convection due to mesoscale thermal and mechanical circulations. The last part of the program was the collection, archival and distribution of the resulting COHMEX-SPACE data sets.
On 28 March 1997 a low precipitation supercell storm was observed 125 km east of Memphis, TN. The storm exhibited a visual appearance similar to that of Great Plains low precipitation (LP) supercells while it was being video typed for 35 min. beginning at 2335 UTC. While the storm produced hailstones up to 4.5 cm in diameter, and had a 4 hour lifetime, tornadoes were absent. However, over 20 tornadoes were produced in Kentucky and Tennessee (TN) by other thunderstorms during that afternoon and evening. The purpose of this paper is to document this LP supercell that occurred in the Southeastern US. To the authors' knowledge an LP storm has not yet been documented in the Southeastern US. This paper presents a detailed overview of the LP supercell, including synoptic conditions, radar observations, lightning data and visual observations of the storm.
Two vastly different phenomena, extraterrestrial impact and salt diapirism, have been proposed for the origin of Upheaval Dome. Upheaval Dome is a about 2.5-km-diameter structural dome surrounded by a 5-km-diameter ring structural depression, which is in turn flanked by extensive, nearly flat-lying Colorado Plateau strata. Seismic refraction data and geologic mapping indicate that the dome originated by the collapse of a transient cavity formed by impact; data also show that rising salt has had a negligible influence on dome development. Evidence for this includes several factors: (1) a rare lag deposit of impactite is present; (2) fan-tailed fracture surfaces (shatter surfaces) and a few shattercones are present; (3) the top of the underlying salt horizon is at least 500 m below the center of the dome, with no exposures of salt in the dome to support the possibility that a salt diapir has ascended through it; (4) sedimentary strata in the center are significantly imbricated by top-to-the-center thrust faulting and are complexly folded; (5) top-to-the-center low-angle normal faults are found at the perimeter of the structure; and (6) clastic dikes are widespread. The scarcity of melt rocks and shock fabrics is attributed to approximately 0.5 km of erosion; the structures of the dome reflect processes of complex crater development at a depth of about 0.5 km below the crater floor. Based on mapping and kinematic analysis, we infer that the dome formed mainly by centerward motion of rock units along listric faults. Outcrop-scale folding and upturning of beds, especially common in the center, largely resulted from this motion. In addition, we have detected some centerward motion of fault-bounded wedges resulting from displacements on subhorizontal faults that conjoin and die out within horizontal bedding in the perimeter of the structure. Collectively, the observed deformation accounts for the creation of both the central uplift and the encircling ring syncline.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments onboard of Terra and Aqua satellites provide, for the first time, concurrent measurements of sea surface temperature (SST) and ocean color, which are suitable for coastal upwelling studies. The accuracy, the 1-km spatial resolution, and the almost complete daily coverage of the MODIS data compared with historical measurements make it advantageous for resolving important coastal fronts of chlorophyll concentration and temperature. The cold SST anomaly during summer 2003 off the coast of the South Atlantic Bight is an event that is comprehensively covered by NASA's MODIS and SeaWinds satellite observations. These data combined with in situ tide gauge, mooring, and ship measurements can be used to identify important dynamics responsible for the anomalous cold water event. The analysis of the data suggests that coastal upwelling occurs in the climatological summer forced by the climatological southerlies over the South Atlantic Bight area in summer. However, the strong buoyancy barrier in summer prevents the cold water below the thermocline from reaching the ocean surface. In summer 2003, the southwesterlies in July through August were extraordinarily strong and persistent, which generated the upwelling currents strong enough to overcome the buoyancy resistance. The results of this analysis demonstrate the possibility of monitoring and forecasting the event using combination of the satellite and in situ observations. The MODIS data are archived and distributed by the NASA's Goddard Earth Science (GES) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC). The data can be accessed via the URL http://wwv.daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/MODIS.
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Our objective is to determine seasonal snow accumulation in the percolation zone of the Greenland ice sheet on the daily-weekly basis over the large scale. Our approach utilizes data from the Greenland Climate Network (GC-Net) and from the SeaWinds Scatterometer on the QuikSCAT satellite (QSCAT) to measure snow accumulation (SA) in the percolation zone of the Greenland ice sheet. GC-Net measurements provide crucial in-situ data to facilitate the interpretation of QSCAT backscatter signature for the development of an algorithm to map SA.
NASA Stennis Space Center, located in Mississippi, USA, undertook an archaeological survey of the southeastern Louisiana marshes beginning in 2003. Progress on this activity was severely hampered by the 2005 hurricane season when both Katrina and Rita devastated the study area. In 2008, the NASA team reinitiated the analysis of the project data and that work continues today. The project was conducted initially in partnership with the U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers New Orleans District and Tulane University. NASA and its partners utilized a wide variety of satellite and airborne remote sensing instruments combined with field verification surveys to identify prehistoric archeological sites in the Southeastern Louisiana delta, both known and still undiscovered. The main approach was to carefully map known sites and use the spectral characteristics of these sites to locate high probability targets elsewhere in the region. The archaeological activities were conducted in support of Coast 2050 whose stated goals is to sustain and restore a coastal ecosystem that supports and protects the environment, economy and culture of southern Louisiana. As the Coast 2050 report states: [T]he rate of coastal land loss in Louisiana has reached catastrophic proportions. Within the last 50 years, land loss rates have exceeded 40 square miles per year, and in the 1990's the rate has been estimated to be between 25 and 35 square miles each year. This loss represents 80% of the coastal wetland loss in the entire continental United States.
Seafloor pressure records, collected at 11 stations aligned along a single ground track of the Topex/Poseidon and Jason satellites, are analyzed for their tidal content. With very low background noise levels and approximately 27 months of high-quality records, tidal constituents can be estimated with unusually high precision. This includes many high-frequency lines up through the seventh-diurnal band. The station deployment provides a unique opportunity to compare with tides estimated from satellite altimetry, point by point along the satellite track, in a region of moderately high mesoscale variability. That variability can significantly corrupt altimeter-based tide estimates, even with 17 years of data. A method to improve the along-track altimeter estimates by correcting the data for nontidal variability is found to yield much better agreement with the bottom-pressure data. The technique should prove useful in certain demanding applications, such as altimetric studies of internal tides.
Deciphering the Mars water history is important to understanding the planet's geological evolution and whether it could have sustained life. Channel features on Mars, such as the features documented in Kasei Valles, are generally accepted as evidence for water flowing over the Mars surface in the past [1]. However, not all channels are the product of fluvial processes and many can be interpreted as having a volcanic origin [2]. This research involves studying channel features on the flanks of the Ascraeus Mons volcano, which is a part of the Tharsis province. Numerous sinuous channels exist on the rift apron of Ascraeus Mons and they have been interpreted as either fluvial [3] or volcanic [4,5]. The channels originate from pits and linear depressions and extend for many 100 s of km downslope. Mapping the proximal to distal morphology of the complete channel and determining its relationship with other features on the apron provides evidence for the processes of formation and their relative temporal relationships. This study focused on sinuous channels located on the south-east part of the Ascraeus rift apron (Fig. 1). Observations of possible analogous features on Hawaii are used to provide insights into the processes of formation of the Mars features.
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