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At least 433 records · Page 24

Spectral signature selection for mapping unvegetated soils

Airborne multispectral scanner data covering the wavelength interval from 0.40-2.60 microns were collected at an altitude of 1000 m above the terrain in southeastern Pennsylvania. Uniform training areas were selected within three sites from this flightline. Soil samples were collected from each site and a procedure developed to allow assignment of scan line and element number from the multispectral scanner data to each sampling location. These soil samples were analyzed on a spectrophotometer and laboratory spectral signatures were derived. After correcting for solar radiation and atmospheric attenuation, the laboratory signatures were compared to the spectral signatures derived from these same soils using multispectral scanner data. Both signatures were used in supervised and unsupervised classification routines. Computer-generated maps using the laboratory and multispectral scanner derived signatures resulted in maps that were similar to maps resulting from field surveys. Approximately 90% agreement was obtained between classification maps produced using multispectral scanner derived signatures and laboratory derived signatures.

May, G. A.↗

An Imaging Interferometer for Terrestrial Remote Sensing

A prototype imaging interferometer called DASI (digital array scanned interferometer) is under development at our laboratories. Our objective is to design an instrument for remote sensing of Earth's atmosphere and surface. This paper describes the unusual characteristics of DASIs which make them promising candidates for ground and aircraft-based terrestrial measurements. These characteristics include superior signal-to-noise, design simplicity and compactness, relative to dispersion based imaging spectrometers. Perhaps one of the most notable features of DASIs is their ability to acquire an entire interferogram simultaneously without any moving optical elements. We also describe selected laboratory and ground based field measurements using the prototype DASI. A CCD detector array was placed at the DASI detector plane for wavelength coverage from 0.4 to 1.0 micron. A NICMOS MCT detector was used for coverage from 1.1 to 2.2 micron. The DASI was configured to have a spectral resolution of about 300 1/cm, a spatial field of view of 5 degrees, and a constant number of transverse spatial elements (detector dependent) for each exposure frame. Frame exposure rates were up to 0.6 Hz with the potential to achieve 5 Hz. Image cube measurements of laboratory targets and terrestrial scenes were obtained by multiple frame scanning over the field of view. These data sets reveal the potential science yields from obtaining simultaneous high resolution spatial and spectral information.

Hammer, Philip D.↗

Elemental abundances of the supernova remnant G292.0+1.8: Evidence for a massive progenitor

We present a comprehensive nonequilibrium ionization (NEI) analysis of X-ray spectral data from the Einstein Observatory and EXOSAT for the supernova remnant G292.0+1.8. The spectra are well described by a single-temperature, single-timescale NEI model with kT = 1.64(sub -0.19)(sup +0.29) keV and n(sub e)t = (5.55(sub -1.12)(sup +1.2) x 10(exp 10)s/cu cm, which establishes that this remnant is indeed young and in the ionizing phase of evolution of its X-ray spectrum. We determine the abundances of the elements O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ar, and Fe and examine their variation over the allowed range of column density, kT, and n(sub e)t. Numerical calculations of the nucleosynthesis expected for a 25 solar mass progenitor agree best with the fitted abundances; in fact the minimum rms percent difference between this model and the derived abundances is only 15%. From the fitted emission measure and a simple geometric model of the remnant we estimate the mass of X-ray-emitting plasma to be 9.3(sub -6.2)(sup +1.19) solar mass, for an assumed distance of 4.8 +/- 1.6 kpc. Additional errors on this mass estimate, from clumping of the ejecta, for example, may be substantial. No evidence was found for a difference in the thermodynamic state of the plasma as a function of elemental composition based on analysis of the individual ionization timescales of the various species. In this sense then, G292.0+1.8 resembles the remnant Cas A (another product of a massive star supernova), while it is different from the remnants of SN 1572 (Tycho) and SN 1006, both of which are believed to be from Type Ia supernovae.

Hughes, John P.↗

Resolving the xi Boo Binary with Chandra, and Revealing the Spectral Type Dependence of the Coronal "Fip Effect"

On 2008 May 2, Chandra observed the X-ray spectrum of xi Boo (G8 V+K4 V), resolving the binary for the first time in X-rays and allowing the coronae of the two stars to be studied separately. With the contributions of ξ Boo A and B to the system's total X-ray emission now observationally established (88.5% and 11.5% respectively), consideration of mass loss measurements for GK dwarfs of various activity levels (including one for xi Boo) leads to the surprising conclusion that xi Boo B may dominate the wind from the binary, with xi Boo A's wind being very weak despite its active corona. Emission measure (EM) distributions and coronal abundances are computed for both stars and compared with Chandra measurements of other moderately active stars with G8-K5 spectral types, all of which exhibit a narrow peak in EM near log T = 6.6, indicating that the coronal heating process in these stars has a strong preference for this temperature. As is the case for the Sun and many other stars, our sample of stars shows coronal abundance anomalies dependent on the first ionization potential (FIP) of the element. We see no dependence of the degree of FIP effect on activity, but there is a dependence on spectral type, a correlation that becomes more convincing when moderately active main-sequence stars with a broader range of spectral types are considered. This clear dependence of coronal abundances on spectral type weakens if the stellar sample is allowed to be contaminated by evolved stars, interacting binaries or extremely active stars with logLX 29, explaining why this correlation has not been recognized in the past.

CHANDRA↗

Determination of Non-Thermal Velocity Distributions from SERTS Linewidth Observations

Non-thermal velocities obtained from the measurement of coronal Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) linewidths have been consistently observed in solar EUV spectral observations and have been theorized to result fro m many plausible scenarios including wave motions, turbulence, or magnetic reconnection. Constraining these velocities can provide a physical limit for the available energy resulting from unresolved motions in the corona. We statistically determine a series of non-thermal velocity distributions from linewidth measurements of 390 emission lines from a wide array of elements and ionization states observed during the Solar Extreme Ultraviolet Research Telescope and Spectrograph 1991-1997 flights covering the spectral range 174-418 A and a temperature range from 80,000 K to 12.6 MK. This sample includes 248 lines from active regions, 101 lines from quiet-Sun regions, and 41 lines were observed from plasma off the solar limb. We find a strongly peaked distribution corresponding to a non-thermal velocity of 19-22 km/s in all three of the quiet-Sun, active region, and off-limb distributions. For the possibility of Alfven wave resonance heating, we find thai velocities in the core of these distributions do not provide sufficient energy, given typical densities and magnetic field strengths for the coronal plasma, to overcome the estimated coronal energy losses required to maintain the corona at the typical temperatures working as the sole mechanism. We find that at perfect efficiency 50%-60% of the needed energy flux can be produced from the non-thermal velocities measured.

Coyner, Aaron J.↗

Landsat Signature Development Program

The Landsat Signature Development Program, LSDP, is designed to produce an unsupervised classification of a scene from a Landsat tape. This classification is based on the clustering tendencies of the multispectral scanner data processed from the scene. The program will generate a character map that, by identifying each of the general classes of surface features extracted from the scene data with a specific line printer symbol, indicates the approximate locations and distributions of these general classes within the scene. Also provided with the character map are a number of tables each of which describes either some aspect of the spectral properties of the resultant classes, some inter-class relationship, the incidence of picture elements assigned to the various classes in the character map classification of the scene, or some significant intermediate stage in the development of the final classes.

Hall, R. N.↗

Baseband-processed SS-TDMA communication system architecture and design concepts

The architecture and system design for a commercial satellite communications system planned for the 1990's was developed by Motorola for NASA's Lewis Research Center. The system provides data communications between individual users via trunking and customer premises service terminals utilizing a central switching satellite operating in a time-division multiple-access (TDMA) mode. The major elements of the design incorporating baseband processing include: demand-assigned multiple access reservation protocol, spectral utilization, system synchronization, modulation technique and forward error control implementation. Motorola's baseband processor design, which is being proven in a proof-of-concept advanced technology development, will perform data regeneration and message routing for individual users on-board the spacecraft.

Attwood, S.↗

A procedure for combining acoustically induced and mechanically induced loads (first passage failure design criterion)

The combined load statistics are developed by taking the acoustically induced load to be a random population, assumed to be stationary. Each element of this ensemble of acoustically induced loads is assumed to have the same power spectral density (PSD), obtained previously from a random response analysis employing the given acoustic field in the STS cargo bay as a stationary random excitation. The mechanically induced load is treated as either (1) a known deterministic transient, or (2) a nonstationary random variable of known first and second statistical moments which vary with time. A method is then shown for determining the probability that the combined load would, at any time, have a value equal to or less than a certain level. Having obtained a statistical representation of how the acoustic and mechanical loads are expected to combine, an analytical approximation for defining design levels for these loads is presented using the First Passage failure criterion.

Crowe, D. R.↗

Reflecting Schmidt/Littrow Prism Imaging Spectrometer

High resolution achieved with wide field of view. Imaging Spectrometer features off-axis reflecting optics, including reflecting "slit" that also serves as field flattener. Only refracting element is prism. By scanning slit across object or scene and timing out signal, both spectral and spatial information in scene are obtained.

Breckinridge, J. B.↗

Portable reflectance spectrometer

A portable reflectance spectrometer is disclosed. The spectrometer essentially includes an optical unit and an electronic recording unit. The optical unit includes a pair of thermoelectrically-cooled detectors, for detecting total radiance and selected radiance projected through a circular variable filter wheel, and is capable of operating to provide spectral data in the range 0.4 to 2.5 micrometers without requiring coventional substitution of filter elements. The electronic recording unit includes power supplies, amplifiers, and digital recording electronics designed to permit recordation of data on tape casettes. Both the optical unit and electronic recording unit are packaged to be manually portable.

Goetz, A. F. H.↗

Versatile X-Ray Telescope

Proposed telescope for x-rays and extreme ultraviolet rays features high spectral and spatial resolution. Basic x-ray telescope includes glancing-incidence, two-element primary reflector and concave, off-axis ellipsoidal secondary reflector. Different versions of telescope obtained by use of different reflector and detector configurations.

Hoover, R. B.↗

Detecting air pollution stress in southern California vegetation using Landsat Thematic Mapper band data

Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and aircraft-borne Thematic Mapper simulator (TMS) data were collected over two areas of natural vegetation in southern California exposed to gradients of pollutant dose, particularly in photochemical oxidants: the coastal sage scrub of the Santa Monica Mountains in the Los Angeles basin, and the yellow pine forests in the southern Sierra Nevada. In both situations, natural variations in canopy closure, with subsequent exposure of understory elements (e.g.,rock or soil, chaparral, grasses, and herbs), were sufficient to cause changes in spectral variation that could obscure differences due to visible foliar injury symptoms observed in the field. TM or TMS data are therefore more likely to be successful in distinguishing pollution injury from background variation when homogeneous communities with closed canopies are subjected to more severe pollution-induced structural and/or compositional change. The present study helps to define the threshold level of vegetative injury detectable by TM data.

Westman, Walter E.↗

Accuracy and speed in computing the Chebyshev collocation derivative

We studied several algorithms for computing the Chebyshev spectral derivative and compare their roundoff error. For a large number of collocation points, the elements of the Chebyshev differentiation matrix, if constructed in the usual way, are not computed accurately. A subtle cause is is found to account for the poor accuracy when computing the derivative by the matrix-vector multiplication method. Methods for accurately computing the elements of the matrix are presented, and we find that if the entities of the matrix are computed accurately, the roundoff error of the matrix-vector multiplication is as small as that of the transform-recursion algorithm. Results of CPU time usage are shown for several different algorithms for computing the derivative by the Chebyshev collocation method for a wide variety of two-dimensional grid sizes on both an IBM and a Cray 2 computer. We found that which algorithm is fastest on a particular machine depends not only on the grid size, but also on small details of the computer hardware as well. For most practical grid sizes used in computation, the even-odd decomposition algorithm is found to be faster than the transform-recursion method.

Don, Wai-Sun↗

Deep K-Band Observations of TMC-1 with the Green Bank Telescope: Detection of HC7O, Nondetection of HC11N, and a Search for New Organic Molecules

The 100-meter Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope K-band (KFPA) receiver was used to perform a high-sensitivity search for rotational emission lines from complex organic molecules in the cold interstellar medium toward TMC-1 (Taurus Molecular Cloud - cyanopolyyne peak), focussing on the identification of new carbon-chain-bearing species as well as molecules of possible prebiotic relevance. We report a detection of the carbon-chain oxide species HC7O and derive a column density of (7.8 plus or minus 0.9) times 10 (sup 11) per square centimeter. This species is theorized to form as a result of associative electron detachment reactions between oxygen atoms and C7H minus, and/or reaction of C6H2 plus with CO (followed by dissociative electron recombination). Upper limits are given for the related HC6O, C6O, and C7O molecules. In addition, we obtained the first detections of emission from individual (sup 13) C isotopologues of HC7N, and derive abundance ratios HC7N/HCCCC (sup 13) CCCN equal to 110 plus or minus 16 and HC7N/HCCCC (sup 13) CCCN equal to 96 plus or minus 11, indicative of significant (sup 13) C depletion in this species relative to the local interstellar elemental (sup 12) C divided by (sup 13) C ratio of 60-70. The observed spectral region covered two transitions of HC11N, but emission from this species was not detected, and the corresponding column density upper limit is 7.4 times 10 (sup 10) per square centimeter (at 95 percent confidence). This is significantly lower than the value of 2.8 times 10 (sup 11) per square centimeter previously claimed by Bell et al. and confirms the recent nondetection of HC11N in TMC-1 by Loomis et al. Upper limits were also obtained for the column densities of malononitrile and the nitrogen heterocycles quinoline, isoquinoline, and pyrimidine.

ISM: abundances, ISM: lines and bands, ISM: molecu↗

Organic-rich fluids in Pluto’s interior—A source of cryovolcanic activity

The highly variegated surface of Pluto revealed by the New Horizons spacecraft is composed of both volatile ices (N2, CH4, CO) and H2O ice, all of which are intrinsically colorless. The colors on Pluto reveal a non-ice component generally acknowledged to be a refractory complex organic material (tholins) produced by photolysis in the planet’s atmosphere [1], and by photolysis and radiolysis of the surface ices [2-4]. These processes have produced a range of colors from pale yellow to red to brown, and result in a variation of a factor of 10in albedo across the surface. Tholins are disordered polymer-like materials made of repeating chains of linked subunits and complex combinations of functional groups containing carbon. Nitrogen, oxygen, and other elements can be substituted in both the aliphatic and aromatic subunits. The detection of the spectral absorption of an ammoniated compound associated with surface exposures of red-colored H2O ice (herein, RAW) in the LEISA spectral mapping data from New Horizons suggests that a third source of a colored material is ejected from Pluto’s interior as a water-rich fluid(cryomagma) that rapidly freezes at the low temperature (~40K) of the surface [5,6]. The ammoniated compound is thought to be an ammonia hydrate or an ammoniated salt; the spectral data cover a limited wavelength range, resulting in ambiguity in the identification of the form of the ammonia. The distribution of RAW in the vicinity of tectonically stressed and deformed geological structures, particularly graben (fossae), is seen as the result of both fluid effusion and fountaining ejection of cryoclastic materials in Pluto’s Virgil Fossae region [5,6]. RAW is seen elsewhere on Pluto, both in association with graben complexes and on broad expanses of old surface, but primarily in zones of tectonic stress. The nature of the putative subsurface fluid is unknown, but it must have existed at relatively shallow depths such that the graben faulting could reach it. Geochemical modeling of fluids in the interiors of small planetary bodies in the outer Solar System[7] shows that ammonia-bearing H2O in contact with rock and metal components produce a rich chemical soup, including gases that can, in principle, help propel the fluid from shallow reservoirs through crustal fractures to reach the surface. An organic component of the fluid cryomagma is predicted to originate from thermal processing of the components [ref] and may be an example of one-pot synthesis of such complexes as amino acid precursors [ref].

Dale P Cruikshank↗

Prelaunch Radiometric Calibration and Uncertainty Analysis of Landsat Thermal Infrared Sensor 2

The Thermal Infrared Sensor-2 (TIRS-2) that will be onboard Landsat 9 has undergone a prelaunch testing campaign to characterize its radiometric, spectral, and spatial performances and demonstrate compliance to its requirements. This work reviews the key elements of the instrument-level radiometric testing using an SI-traceable source to derive its uncertainties. Those arising from on-orbit calibration using the TIRS-2 onboard blackbody are also discussed. We use a Monte Carlo approach to propagate the uncertainties through a nonlinear calibration equation and address both random and systematic uncertainty terms. Achieving the required performance demonstrates the instrument's potential for enhancing our understanding of the Earth's environment.

Aaron Pearlman↗

A Change in the Solar He II EUV Global Network Structure as an Indicator of the Geo-Effectiveness of Solar Minima

Solar activity during 2007 - 2009 was very low, causing anomalously low thermospheric density. A comparison of solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) irradiance in the He II spectral band (26 to 34 nm) from the Solar Extreme ultraviolet Monitor (SEM), one of instruments on the Charge Element and Isotope Analysis System (CELIAS) on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) for the two latest solar minima showed a decrease of the absolute irradiance of about 15 +/- 6 % during the solar minimum between Cycles 23 and 24 compared with the Cycle 22/23 minimum when a yearly running-mean filter was used. We found that some local, shorter-term minima including those with the same absolute EUV flux in the SEM spectral band show a higher concentration of spatial power in the global network structure from the 30.4 nm SOHO/Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) images for the local minimum of 1996 compared with the minima of 2008 - 2011.We interpret this higher concentration of spatial power in the transition region's global network structure as a larger number of larger-area features on the solar disk. These changes in the global network structure during solar minima may characterize, in part, the geo-effectiveness of the solar He II EUV irradiance in addition to the estimations based on its absolute levels.

Solar extreme ultraviolet irradiance↗