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This software allows one to down-sample a measured surface map for model validation, not only without introducing any re-sampling errors, but also eliminating the existing measurement noise and measurement errors. The software tool of the current two new techniques can be used in all optical model validation processes involving large space optical surfaces
The MUon RAdiography of VESuvius (MURAVES) project aims to employ muography imaging techniques to investigate the internal structure of the summit of Mount Vesuvius, an active volcano located near Naples, Italy. This paper reports recent advancements in data analysis and simulation tools that significantly improve the quality and reliability of the experiment’s results. A new track selection method, referred to as the Golden Selection, has been developed to identify high-quality muon tracks by applying an improved χ 2 -based criterion. This method enhances the signal-to-background ratio and improves the resolution of the resulting muographic images. Moreover, the simulation framework has been upgraded through the integration of the MULDER (MUon simuLation for DEnsity Reconstruction) library, which consolidates the functionalities of previously used libraries into a single, unified platform. MULDER enables efficient and accurate modeling of muon flux variations induced by topographical features. A good agreement is observed between the simulated and measured muon flux maps, validating the effectiveness of the new analysis and simulation approaches.
We study the Anderson localization of Bogoliubov quasiparticles (elementary many-body excitations) in a weakly interacting Bose gas of chemical potential {mu} subjected to a disordered potential V. We introduce a general mapping (valid for weak inhomogeneous potentials in any dimension) of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations onto a single-particle Schroedinger-like equation with an effective potential. For disordered potentials, the Schroedinger-like equation accounts for the scattering and localization properties of the Bogoliubov quasiparticles. We derive analytically the localization lengths for correlated disordered potentials in the one-dimensional geometry. Our approach relies on a perturbative expansion in V/{mu}, which we develop up to third order, and we discuss the impact of the various perturbation orders. Our predictions are shown to be in very good agreement with direct numerical calculations. We identify different localization regimes: For low energy, the effective disordered potential exhibits a strong screening by the quasicondensate density background, and localization is suppressed. For high-energy excitations, the effective disordered potential reduces to the bare disordered potential, and the localization properties of quasiparticles are the same as for free particles. The maximum of localization is found at intermediate energy when the quasicondensate healing length is of the order of the disorder correlation length. Possible extensions of our work to higher dimensions are also discussed.
Seasonal water variability in the midwestern United States extensively affects the agricultural community, as it impacts irrigation schedules, growing seasons, and overall ecosystem function. Evapotranspiration (ET) is a critical climatic variable in the water cycle and is used to evaluate spatiotemporal trends in drought and flood conditions. The NASA DEVELOP team partnered with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Midwest Climate Hub, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the Illinois State Water Survey, and Michigan State University to compare remotely sensed ET products with in situ observations from January 2001 through December 2020. Remotely sensed actual ET (aET) data were sourced from NASA’s Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and reference ET (refET) data were derived from the Gridded Surface Meteorological (gridMET) dataset. For in situ comparison, aET data were downloaded from the AmeriFlux database while refET data were collected from the Illinois Climate Network and Michigan State University’s Enviro-weather database. For a holistic assessment of ET, this project generated comparisons between remotely sensed and in situ observations, calculated descriptive statistics for validation between refET datasets, and spatially produced statistical validation maps regarding in situ sites. The temporal and spatial gaps of AmeriFlux data limited aET analysis. This comparative assessment of ET products across the Midwest can be used by project partners to assess regional water trends and guide future land management decisions.
We present thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) Compton-$y$ parameter maps constructed from two years (2019-2020) of observations with the South Pole Telescope (SPT) third-generation camera, SPT-3G, combined with data from the Planck satellite. Using a linear combination (LC) pipeline, we obtain a suite of reconstructions that explore different trade-offs between statistical sensitivity and suppression of astrophysical contaminants, including minimum-variance, CMB-deprojected, and CIB-deprojected $y$-maps. We validate these maps through different statistical techniques such as auto- and cross-power spectra with large-scale structure tracers as well as stacking on cluster locations. These tests are used to understand the balance between noise and astrophysical foreground residuals (such as the CIB) in combination with the recovery of the tSZ signal for different maps. For example, results from stacking at the location of clusters confirm the robustness of the recovered tSZ signal over the $\sim 1500\: {\rm deg}^2$ SPT-3G survey field used in this analysis. The high-resolution and low-noise maps produced here provide an important cosmological tool for future studies, including measurements of the Compton-$y$ map power spectrum, cross-correlations with other tracers of the large-scale structure, detailed modeling of cluster pressure profiles, and study of the thermodynamic state of the baryons in the Universe.
We have established through simulations and experiments the area over which Velocity Map Imaging (VMI) conditions prevail. We designed a VMI setup in which we can vary the ionization position perpendicular to the center axis of the time-of-flight spectrometer. We show that weak extraction conditions are far superior over standard three-plate setups if the aim is to increase the ionization volume without distorting VMI conditions. This is important for a number of crossed molecular beam experiments that already utilize weak extraction conditions, but to a greater extent for surface studies where fragments are desorbed or scattered off a surface in all directions. Our results on the dissociation of NO{sub 2} at 226 nm show that ionization of the fragments can occur up to {+-}5.5 mm away from the center axis of the time-of-flight spectrometer without affecting resolution or arrival position.
The code COSY INFINITY uses a beamline coordinate system with a Frenet–Serret frame relative to the reference particle, and calculates differential algebra-valued transfer maps by integrating the ODEs of motion in the respective vector space over a differential algebra (DA). In our work, we described and performed computation of the DA transfer map of an electrostatic spherical deflector in a laboratory coordinate system using two conventional methods: (1) by integrating the ODEs of motion using a numerical integrator and (2) by computing analytically and in closed form the properties of the respective elliptical orbits from Kepler theory. We compared the resulting transfer maps with (3) the DA transfer map of COSY INFINITY’s built-in electrostatic spherical deflector element ESP and (4) the transfer map of the electrostatic spherical deflector computed using the program GIOS, which uses analytic formulas from a paper1 by Hermann Wollnik regarding second-order aberrations. In addition to the electrostatic spherical deflector, we studied an electrostatic cylindrical deflector, where the Kepler theory is not applicable. We computed the DA transfer map by the ODE integration method (1), and we compared it with the transfer maps by (3) COSY INFINITY’s built-in electrostatic cylindrical deflector element ECL and (4) GIOS. The transfer maps of electrostatic spherical and cylindrical deflectors obtained using the direct calculation methods (1) and (2) are in excellent agreement with those computed using (3) COSY INFINITY. On the other hand, we found a significant discrepancy with (4) the program GIOS.
We present new Galactic reddening maps of the high Galactic latitude sky using DESI imaging and spectroscopy. We directly measure the reddening of 2.6 million stars by comparing the observed stellar colors in $g-r$ and $r-z$ from DESI imaging with the synthetic colors derived from DESI spectra from the first two years of the survey. The reddening in the two colors is on average consistent with the Fitzpatrick (1999) extinction curve with $R_\mathrm{V}=3.1$ . We find that our reddening maps differ significantly from the commonly used Schlegel et al. (1998) (SFD) reddening map (by up to 80 mmag in $E(B-V)$ ), and we attribute most of this difference to systematic errors in the SFD map. To validate the reddening map, we select a galaxy sample with extinction correction based on our reddening map, and this yields significantly better uniformity than the SFD extinction correction. Finally, we discuss the potential systematic errors in the DESI reddening measurements, including the photometric calibration errors that are the limiting factor on our accuracy. The $E(g-r)$ and $E(r-z)$ maps presented in this work, and for convenience their corresponding $E(B-V)$ maps with SFD calibration, are publicly available.
The validity of using data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) of the satellites NOAA-6 and NOAA-7 for land cover mapping is assessed by making comparisons with much higher resolution LANDSAT multi-spectral scanner (MSS) data. Near synchronous data for both systems are analysed for test sites in the Imperial Valley, California, the Nile Delta, and southern Italy. The results strongly indicate that despite the very coarse resolution of the AVHRR data compared with conventional MSS data they are sufficiently strongly correlated to suggest that the former have significant potential for land cover mapping, especially at small scales and for large areas. Hence the outstanding benefits of AVHRR data, namely their high temporal frequency, relative cheapness and low data volumes for image processing, may readily be taken advantage of for such tasks.
Abstract Eclipse mapping is a technique for inferring 2D brightness maps of transiting exoplanets from the shape of an eclipse light curve. With JWST’s unmatched precision, eclipse mapping is now possible for a large number of exoplanets. However, eclipse mapping has only been applied to two planets, and the nuances of fitting eclipse maps are not yet fully understood. Here, we use Leave-one-out Cross Validation (LOO-CV) to investigate eclipse mapping, with application to a JWST NIRISS/SOSS observation of the ultrahot Jupiter WASP-18b. LOO-CV is a technique that provides insight into the out-of-sample predictive power of models on a data-point-by-data-point basis. We show that constraints on planetary brightness patterns behave as expected, with large-scale variations driven by the phase-curve variation in the light curve and smaller-scale structures constrained by the eclipse ingress and egress. For WASP-18b we show that the need for higher model complexity (smaller-scale features) is driven exclusively by the shape of the eclipse ingress and egress. We use LOO-CV to investigate the relationship between planetary brightness map components when mapping under a positive-flux constraint to better understand the need for complex models. Finally, we use LOO-CV to understand the degeneracy between the competing “hot spot” and “plateau” brightness map models of WASP-18b, showing that the plateau model is driven by the ingress shape and the hot spot model is driven by the egress shape, but preference for neither model is due to outliers or unmodeled signals. Based on this analysis, we make recommendations for the use of LOO-CV in future eclipse-mapping studies.
This report is produced in accordance with the requirements outlined in the NASA Research Grant NAG9-1032 titled "Validation of Land Cover Maps Utilizing Astronaut Acquired Imagery". This grant funds the Remote Sensing Research Unit of the University of California, Santa Barbara. This document summarizes the research progress and accomplishments to date and describes current on-going research activities. Even though this grant has technically expired, in a contractual sense, work continues on this project. Therefore, this summary will include all work done through and 5 May 1999. The principal goal of this effort is to test the accuracy of a sub-regional portion of an AVHRR-based land cover product. Land cover mapped to three different classification systems, in the southwestern United States, have been subjected to two specific accuracy assessments. One assessment utilizing astronaut acquired photography, and a second assessment employing Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery, augmented in some cases, high aerial photography. Validation of these three land cover products has proceeded using a stratified sampling methodology. We believe this research will provide an important initial test of the potential use of imagery acquired from Shuttle and ultimately the International Space Station (ISS) for the operational validation of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) land cover products.
Satellite-derived snow maps from NASA's Earth Observing System Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) have been produced since February of 2000. The global maps are available daily at 500-m resolution, and at a climate-modeling grid (CMG) resolution of 1/20 deg (approximately 5.6 km). We compared the 8-day composite CMG MODIS-derived global maps from November 1,2001, through March 21,2002, and daily CMG maps from February 26 - March 5,2002, with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Interactive Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System (IMS) 25-km resolution maps for North America. For the Norwegian study area, national snow maps, based on synoptic measurements as well as visual interpretation of AVHRR images, published by the Det Norske Meteorologiske Institutt (Norwegian Meteorological Institute) (MI) maps, as well as Landsat ETM+ images were compared with the MODIS maps. The MODIS-derived maps agreed over most areas with the IMS or MI maps, however, there are important areas of disagreement between the maps, especially when the 8-day composite maps were used. It is concluded that MODIS daily CMG maps should be studied for validation purposes rather than the 8-day composite maps, despite the limitations imposed by cloud obscuration when using the daily maps.
Like those of many agricultural crops, the cultivated cotton is an allotetraploid and has a large genome (~2.5 gigabase pairs). The two sub genomes, A and D, are highly similar but unequally sized and repeat-rich, which pose significant challenges for accurate genome reconstruction using standard approaches. Here we report the development of BAC libraries, sub genome specific physical maps, and a new-generation sequencing approach that will lead to a reference-grade genome assembly for Upland cotton. Three BAC libraries were constructed, fingerprinted, and integrated with BAC-end sequences (BES) to produce a de novo whole-genome physical map. The BAC map was partitioned by sub genomes through alignment to the diploid progenitor D-genome reference sequence with densely spaced BES anchor points and computational filtering. The physical maps were validated with FISH and genetic mapping of SNP markers derived from BES. Two pairs of homeologous chromosomes, A11/D11 and A12/D12, were used to assess multiplex sequencing approaches for completeness and scalability. The results represent the first sub genome anchored physical maps of Upland cotton, and a new-generation approach to the whole-genome sequencing, which will lead to the reference-grade assembly of allopolyploid cotton and serve as a general strategy for sequencing other polyploid species.
Purpose: To develop and evaluate an image-domain noise reduction method based on a modified nonlocal means (NLM) algorithm that is adaptive to local noise level of CT images and to implement this method in a time frame consistent with clinical workflow. Methods: A computationally efficient technique for local noise estimation directly from CT images was developed. A forward projection, based on a 2D fan-beam approximation, was used to generate the projection data, with a noise model incorporating the effects of the bowtie filter and automatic exposure control. The noise propagation from projection data to images was analytically derived. The analytical noise map was validated using repeated scans of a phantom. A 3D NLM denoising algorithm was modified to adapt its denoising strength locally based on this noise map. The performance of this adaptive NLM filter was evaluated in phantom studies in terms of in-plane and cross-plane high-contrast spatial resolution, noise power spectrum (NPS), subjective low-contrast spatial resolution using the American College of Radiology (ACR) accreditation phantom, and objective low-contrast spatial resolution using a channelized Hotelling model observer (CHO). Graphical processing units (GPU) implementation of this noise map calculation and the adaptive NLM filtering were developed to meet demands of clinical workflow. Adaptive NLM was piloted on lower dose scans in clinical practice. Results: The local noise level estimation matches the noise distribution determined from multiple repetitive scans of a phantom, demonstrated by small variations in the ratio map between the analytical noise map and the one calculated from repeated scans. The phantom studies demonstrated that the adaptive NLM filter can reduce noise substantially without degrading the high-contrast spatial resolution, as illustrated by modulation transfer function and slice sensitivity profile results. The NPS results show that adaptive NLM denoising preserves the shape and peak frequency of the noise power spectrum better than commercial smoothing kernels, and indicate that the spatial resolution at low contrast levels is not significantly degraded. Both the subjective evaluation using the ACR phantom and the objective evaluation on a low-contrast detection task using a CHO model observer demonstrate an improvement on low-contrast performance. The GPU implementation can process and transfer 300 slice images within 5 min. On patient data, the adaptive NLM algorithm provides more effective denoising of CT data throughout a volume than standard NLM, and may allow significant lowering of radiation dose. After a two week pilot study of lower dose CT urography and CT enterography exams, both GI and GU radiology groups elected to proceed with permanent implementation of adaptive NLM in their GI and GU CT practices. Conclusions: This work describes and validates a computationally efficient technique for noise map estimation directly from CT images, and an adaptive NLM filtering based on this noise map, on phantom and patient data. Both the noise map calculation and the adaptive NLM filtering can be performed in times that allow integration with clinical workflow. The adaptive NLM algorithm provides effective denoising of CT data throughout a volume, and may allow significant lowering of radiation dose.
Recent advances in the field of electron cryomicroscopy (cryo-EM) have resulted in a rapidly increasing number of atomic models of biomacromolecules that have been solved using this technique and deposited in the Protein Data Bank and the Electron Microscopy Data Bank. Similar to macromolecular crystallography, validation tools for these models and maps are required. While some of these validation tools may be borrowed from crystallography, new methods specifically designed for cryo-EM validation are required. Here, new computational methods and tools implemented in PHENIX are discussed, including d 99 to estimate resolution, phenix.auto_sharpen to improve maps and phenix.mtriage to analyze cryo-EM maps. It is suggested that cryo-EM half-maps and masks should be deposited to facilitate the evaluation and validation of cryo-EM-derived atomic models and maps. The application of these tools to deposited cryo-EM atomic models and maps is also presented.
Purpose: To date, lung CT-ventilation imaging has been based on quantification of local breathing-induced changes in Hounsfield Units (HU) or volume. This work investigates the use of a stress map resulting from a biomechanical deformable image registration (DIR) algorithm as a metric of the ventilation function. Method: Eight lung cancer patients presenting different kinds of ventilation defects were retrospectively analyzed. Additionally, to the 4DCT acquired for radiotherapy planning, five of them had PET and three had SPECT imaging following inhalation of Ga-68 and Tc-99m, respectively. For each patient, the inhale phase of the 4DCT was registered to the exhale phase using Morfeus, a biomechanical DIR algorithm based on the determination of boundary conditions on the lung surfaces and vessel tree. To take into account the heterogeneity of the tissue stiffness in the stress map estimation, each tetrahedral element of the finite-element model was assigned a Young’s modulus ranging from 60kPa to 12MPa, as a function of the HU in the inhale CT. The node displacements and element stresses resulting from the numerical simulation were used to generate three CT-ventilation maps based on: (i) volume changes (Jacobian determinant), (ii) changes in HU, (iii) the maximum principal stress. The voxel-wise correlation between each CT-ventilation map and the PET or SPECT V image was computed in a lung mask. Results: For patients with PET, the mean (min-max) Spearman correlation coefficients r were: 0.33 (0.19–0.45), 0.36 (0.16–0.51) and 0.42 (0.21–0.59) considering the Jacobian, changes in HU and maximum principal stress, respectively. For patients with SPECT V, the mean r were: 0.12 (−0.12–0.43), 0.29 (0.22–0.45) and 0.33 (0.25–0.39). Conclusion: The maximum principal stress maps showed a stronger correlation with the ventilation images than the previously proposed Jacobian or change in HU maps. This metric thus appears promising for CT-ventilation imaging. This work was funded in part by NIH P01CA059827.
Building a simulation tool to select a suitable radiation mapping device for FE detection during Cold Testing. Evaluating asymmetries in photons angular distribution to get information about the FE site position. The final goal is to focus cleaning efforts in that point to reduce employed resources, iterations and costs.
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