Retrieval of the ocean wave spectrum in open and thin ice covered ocean waters from ERS Synthetic Aperture Radar images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Carolis, G.

2001-01-01

This paper concerns with the task of retrieving ocean wave spectra form imagery provided by space-borne SAR systems such as that on board ERS satellite. SAR imagery of surface wave fields travelling into open ocean and into thin sea ice covers composed of frazil and pancake icefields is considered. The major purpose is to gain insight on how the spectral changes can be related to sea ice properties of geophysical interest such as the thickness. Starting from SAR image cross spectra computed from Single Look Complex (SLC) SAR images, the ocean wave spectrum is retrieved using an inversion procedure based on the gradient descent algorithm. The capability of this method when applied to satellite SAR sensors is investigated. Interest in the SAR image cross spectrum exploitation is twofold: first, the directional properties of the ocean wave spectra are retained; second, external wave information needed to initialize the inversion procedure may be greatly reduced using only information included in the SAR image cross spectrum itself. The main drawback is that the wind waves spectrum could be partly lost and its spectral peak wave number underestimated. An ERS-SAR SLC image acquired on April 10, 1993 over the Greenland Sea was selected as test image. A pair of windows that include open-sea only and sea ice cover, respectively, were selected. The inversions were carried out using different guess wave spectra taken from SAR image cross spectra. Moreover, care was taken to properly handle negative values eventually occurring during the inversion runs. This results in a modification of the gradient descending the technique that is required if a non-negative solution of the wave spectrum is searched for. Results are discussed in view of the possibility of SAR data to detect ocean wave dispersion as a means for the retrieval of ice thickness

Q-space analysis of light scattering by ice crystals

Science.gov (United States)

Heinson, Yuli W.; Maughan, Justin B.; Ding, Jiachen; Chakrabarti, Amitabha; Yang, Ping; Sorensen, Christopher M.

2016-12-01

Q-space analysis is applied to extensive simulations of the single-scattering properties of ice crystals with various habits/shapes over a range of sizes. The analysis uncovers features common to all the shapes: a forward scattering regime with intensity quantitatively related to the Rayleigh scattering by the particle and the internal coupling parameter, followed by a Guinier regime dependent upon the particle size, a complex power law regime with incipient two dimensional diffraction effects, and, in some cases, an enhanced backscattering regime. The effects of significant absorption on the scattering profile are also studied. The overall features found for the ice crystals are similar to features in scattering from same sized spheres.

Thin Ice Area Extraction in the Seasonal Sea Ice Zones of the Northern Hemisphere Using Modis Data

Science.gov (United States)

Hayashi, K.; Naoki, K.; Cho, K.

2018-04-01

Sea ice has an important role of reflecting the solar radiation back into space. However, once the sea ice area melts, the area starts to absorb the solar radiation which accelerates the global warming. This means that the trend of global warming is likely to be enhanced in sea ice areas. In this study, the authors have developed a method to extract thin ice area using reflectance data of MODIS onboard Terra and Aqua satellites of NASA. The reflectance of thin sea ice in the visible region is rather low. Moreover, since the surface of thin sea ice is likely to be wet, the reflectance of thin sea ice in the near infrared region is much lower than that of visible region. Considering these characteristics, the authors have developed a method to extract thin sea ice areas by using the reflectance data of MODIS (NASA MYD09 product, 2017) derived from MODIS L1B. By using the scatter plots of the reflectance of Band 1 (620 nm-670 nm) and Band 2 (841 nm-876 nm)) of MODIS, equations for extracting thin ice area were derived. By using those equations, most of the thin ice areas which could be recognized from MODIS images were well extracted in the seasonal sea ice zones in the Northern Hemisphere, namely the Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. For some limited areas, Landsat-8 OLI images were also used for validation.

GREENLAND ICE SHEET CHANGES FROM SPACE USING LASER, RADAR AND

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Louise Sandberg; Stenseng, Lars; Simonsen, Sebastian Bjerregaard

2010-01-01

The Greenland cryosphere is undergoing rapid changes, and these are documented by remote sensing from space. In this paper, an inversion scheme is used to derive mass changes from gravity changes observed by GRACE, and to derive the mean annual mass loss for the Greenland Ice Sheet, which...... is estimated to be 204 Gt/yr for the period 2002-2010. NASA’s laser altimetry satellite ICESat has provided elevation estimates of the ice sheet since January 2003. In order to be able to compare GRACE and ICESat derived results, the ICESat volume change must be converted into a mass change estimate. Therefore...

Space-Time Quantum Imaging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ronald E. Meyers

2015-03-01

Full Text Available We report on an experimental and theoretical investigation of quantum imaging where the images are stored in both space and time. Ghost images of remote objects are produced with either one or two beams of chaotic laser light generated by a rotating ground glass and two sensors measuring the reference field and bucket field at different space-time points. We further observe that the ghost images translate depending on the time delay between the sensor measurements. The ghost imaging experiments are performed both with and without turbulence. A discussion of the physics of the space-time imaging is presented in terms of quantum nonlocal two-photon analysis to support the experimental results. The theoretical model includes certain phase factors of the rotating ground glass. These experiments demonstrated a means to investigate the time and space aspects of ghost imaging and showed that ghost imaging contains more information per measured photon than was previously recognized where multiple ghost images are stored within the same ghost imaging data sets. This suggests new pathways to explore quantum information stored not only in multi-photon coincidence information but also in time delayed multi-photon interference. The research is applicable to making enhanced space-time quantum images and videos of moving objects where the images are stored in both space and time.

Extraction of lead and ridge characteristics from SAR images of sea ice

Science.gov (United States)

Vesecky, John F.; Smith, Martha P.; Samadani, Ramin

1990-01-01

Image-processing techniques for extracting the characteristics of lead and pressure ridge features in SAR images of sea ice are reported. The methods are applied to a SAR image of the Beaufort Sea collected from the Seasat satellite on October 3, 1978. Estimates of lead and ridge statistics are made, e.g., lead and ridge density (number of lead or ridge pixels per unit area of image) and the distribution of lead area and orientation as well as ridge length and orientation. The information derived is useful in both ice science and polar operations for such applications as albedo and heat and momentum transfer estimates, as well as ship routing and offshore engineering.

Snow and Ice Products from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

Science.gov (United States)

Hall, Dorothy K.; Salomonson, Vincent V.; Riggs, George A.; Klein, Andrew G.

2003-01-01

Snow and sea ice products, derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument, flown on the Terra and Aqua satellites, are or will be available through the National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC). The algorithms that produce the products are automated, thus providing a consistent global data set that is suitable for climate studies. The suite of MODIS snow products begins with a 500-m resolution, 2330-km swath snow-cover map that is then projected onto a sinusoidal grid to produce daily and 8-day composite tile products. The sequence proceeds to daily and 8-day composite climate-modeling grid (CMG) products at 0.05 resolution. A daily snow albedo product will be available in early 2003 as a beta test product. The sequence of sea ice products begins with a swath product at 1-km resolution that provides sea ice extent and ice-surface temperature (IST). The sea ice swath products are then mapped onto the Lambert azimuthal equal area or EASE-Grid projection to create a daily and 8-day composite sea ice tile product, also at 1 -km resolution. Climate-Modeling Grid (CMG) sea ice products in the EASE-Grid projection at 4-km resolution are planned for early 2003.

A network model for characterizing brine channels in sea ice

Science.gov (United States)

Lieblappen, Ross M.; Kumar, Deip D.; Pauls, Scott D.; Obbard, Rachel W.

2018-03-01

The brine pore space in sea ice can form complex connected structures whose geometry is critical in the governance of important physical transport processes between the ocean, sea ice, and surface. Recent advances in three-dimensional imaging using X-ray micro-computed tomography have enabled the visualization and quantification of the brine network morphology and variability. Using imaging of first-year sea ice samples at in situ temperatures, we create a new mathematical network model to characterize the topology and connectivity of the brine channels. This model provides a statistical framework where we can characterize the pore networks via two parameters, depth and temperature, for use in dynamical sea ice models. Our approach advances the quantification of brine connectivity in sea ice, which can help investigations of bulk physical properties, such as fluid permeability, that are key in both global and regional sea ice models.

Experimental MR-guided cryotherapy of the brain with almost real-time imaging by radial k-space scanning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tacke, J.; Schorn, R.; Glowinski, A.; Grosskortenhaus, S.; Adam, G.; Guenther, R.W.; Rasche, V.

1999-01-01

Purpose: To test radial k-space scanning by MR fluoroscopy to guide and control MR-guided interstitial cryotherapy of the healthy pig brain. Methods: After MR tomographic planning of the approach, an MR-compatible experimental cryotherapy probe of 2.7 mm diameter was introduced through a 5 mm burr hole into the right frontal brain of five healthy pigs. The freeze-thaw cycles were imaged using a T 1 -weighted gradient echo sequence with radial k-space scanning in coronal, sagittal, and axial directions. Results: The high temporal resolution of the chosen sequence permits a continuous representation of the freezing process with good image quality and high contrast between ice and unfrozen brain parenchyma. Because of the interactive conception of the sequence the layer plane could be chosen as desired during the measurement. Ice formation was sharply demarcated, spherically configurated, and was free of signals. Its maximum diameter was 13 mm. Conclusions: With use of the novel, interactively controllable gradient echo sequence with radial k-space scanning, guidance of the intervention under fluoroscopic conditions with the advantages of MRT is possible. MR-guided cryotherapy allows a minimally-invasive, precisely dosable focal tissue ablation. (orig.) [de

Iced airfoil separation bubble measurements by particle image velocimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobs, Jason J.

Not long after the birth of aviation, pilots began to recognize the dangers posed by aircraft icing. Since that time, research has improved the awareness of this problem and the scientific understanding of the associated aerodynamic impacts, however, few studies have involved detailed, quantitative, flowfield measurements. For this reason, the current investigation was conducted in which high spatial-resolution flowfield measurements were acquired of a NACA 0012 airfoil with two- and three-dimensional, simulated, leading-edge, horn-ice accretions utilizing particle image velocimetry (PIV). These measurements complemented existing iced airfoil performance measurements, revealed previously unknown details regarding the structure and behavior of these flowfields, and could potentially facilitate the development and improvement of computational schemes used to predict largely separated flows, including that of an iced airfoil near stall. Previous iced airfoil investigations have demonstrated somewhat reduced aerodynamic penalties resulting from a three-dimensional ice simulation, compared to those of a two-dimensional ice simulation of a representative cross section. Correspondingly, the current measurements revealed accelerated transition of the separated shear layer emanating from a three-dimensional ice simulation and therefore enhanced pressure recovery and reduced mean separation bubble length, each relative to the flowfield of a representative two-dimensional ice simulation. These effects appeared to result from the quasi-steady distribution of discrete, streamwise vortices which aided the turbulent entrainment of fluid from the recirculation region of the three-dimensional ice simulation separation bubble flowfield. These vortices were generated by a streamwise-vortex instability excited by roughness along the three-dimensional ice simulation and produced spanwise-cell structures throughout this flowfield, as well as significant spanwise variation in peak

Imaging of Ground Ice with Surface-Based Geophysics

Science.gov (United States)

2015-10-01

terrains. Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT), in particular, has been effective for imaging ground ice. ERT measures the ability of materials to...13 2.2.1 Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT...Engineer Research and Development Center ERT Electrical Resistivity Tomography GPS Global Positioning System LiDAR Light Detection and Ranging SIPRE

Removable cruciform for ice condenser ice basket

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scrabis, C.M.; Mazza, G.E.; Golick, L.R.; Pomaibo, P.

1987-01-01

A removable cruciform for use in an ice basket having a generally cylindrical sidewall defining a central, vertical axis of the ice basket and plural, generally annular retaining rings secured to the interior of the cylindrical sidewall of the ice basket at predetermined, spaced elevations throughout the axial height of the ice basket is described comprising: a pair of brackets, each comprising a central, base portion having parallel longitudinal edges and a pair of integral legs extending at corresponding angles relative to the base portion from the perspective parallel longitudinal edges thereof; a pair of support plate assemblies secured to and extending in parallel, spaced relationship from one of the pair of brackets; a pair of slide support plates secured to the other of the pair of brackets and extending therefrom in spaced, parallel relationship; and spring means received within the housing and engaging the base portions of the brackets and applying a resilient biasing force thereto for maintaining the spaced relationship thereof

Continuous imaging space in three-dimensional integral imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Lei; Yang Yong; Wang Jin-Gang; Zhao Xing; Fang Zhi-Liang; Yuan Xiao-Cong

2013-01-01

We report an integral imaging method with continuous imaging space. This method simultaneously reconstructs real and virtual images in the virtual mode, with a minimum gap that separates the entire imaging space into real and virtual space. Experimental results show that the gap is reduced to 45% of that in a conventional integral imaging system with the same parameters. (electromagnetism, optics, acoustics, heat transfer, classical mechanics, and fluid dynamics)

Enhancement of the MODIS Snow and Ice Product Suite Utilizing Image Segmentation

Science.gov (United States)

Tilton, James C.; Hall, Dorothy K.; Riggs, George A.

2006-01-01

A problem has been noticed with the current NODIS Snow and Ice Product in that fringes of certain snow fields are labeled as "cloud" whereas close inspection of the data indicates that the correct labeling is a non-cloud category such as snow or land. This occurs because the current MODIS Snow and Ice Product generation algorithm relies solely on the MODIS Cloud Mask Product for the labeling of image pixels as cloud. It is proposed here that information obtained from image segmentation can be used to determine when it is appropriate to override the cloud indication from the cloud mask product. Initial tests show that this approach can significantly reduce the cloud "fringing" in modified snow cover labeling. More comprehensive testing is required to determine whether or not this approach consistently improves the accuracy of the snow and ice product.

Benchmarking the x-ray phase contrast imaging for ICF DT ice characterization using roughened surrogates

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dewald, E; Kozioziemski, B; Moody, J; Koch, J; Mapoles, E; Montesanti, R; Youngblood, K; Letts, S; Nikroo, A; Sater, J; Atherton, J

2008-06-26

We use x-ray phase contrast imaging to characterize the inner surface roughness of DT ice layers in capsules planned for future ignition experiments. It is therefore important to quantify how well the x-ray data correlates with the actual ice roughness. We benchmarked the accuracy of our system using surrogates with fabricated roughness characterized with high precision standard techniques. Cylindrical artifacts with azimuthally uniform sinusoidal perturbations with 100 um period and 1 um amplitude demonstrated 0.02 um accuracy limited by the resolution of the imager and the source size of our phase contrast system. Spherical surrogates with random roughness close to that required for the DT ice for a successful ignition experiment were used to correlate the actual surface roughness to that obtained from the x-ray measurements. When comparing average power spectra of individual measurements, the accuracy mode number limits of the x-ray phase contrast system benchmarked against surface characterization performed by Atomic Force Microscopy are 60 and 90 for surrogates smoother and rougher than the required roughness for the ice. These agreement mode number limits are >100 when comparing matching individual measurements. We will discuss the implications for interpreting DT ice roughness data derived from phase-contrast x-ray imaging.

Mid-space-independent deformable image registration.

Science.gov (United States)

Aganj, Iman; Iglesias, Juan Eugenio; Reuter, Martin; Sabuncu, Mert Rory; Fischl, Bruce

2017-05-15

Aligning images in a mid-space is a common approach to ensuring that deformable image registration is symmetric - that it does not depend on the arbitrary ordering of the input images. The results are, however, generally dependent on the mathematical definition of the mid-space. In particular, the set of possible solutions is typically restricted by the constraints that are enforced on the transformations to prevent the mid-space from drifting too far from the native image spaces. The use of an implicit atlas has been proposed as an approach to mid-space image registration. In this work, we show that when the atlas is aligned to each image in the native image space, the data term of implicit-atlas-based deformable registration is inherently independent of the mid-space. In addition, we show that the regularization term can be reformulated independently of the mid-space as well. We derive a new symmetric cost function that only depends on the transformation morphing the images to each other, rather than to the atlas. This eliminates the need for anti-drift constraints, thereby expanding the space of allowable deformations. We provide an implementation scheme for the proposed framework, and validate it through diffeomorphic registration experiments on brain magnetic resonance images. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Phi-s correlation and dynamic time warping - Two methods for tracking ice floes in SAR images

Science.gov (United States)

Mcconnell, Ross; Kober, Wolfgang; Kwok, Ronald; Curlander, John C.; Pang, Shirley S.

1991-01-01

The authors present two algorithms for performing shape matching on ice floe boundaries in SAR (synthetic aperture radar) images. These algorithms quickly produce a set of ice motion and rotation vectors that can be used to guide a pixel value correlator. The algorithms match a shape descriptor known as the Phi-s curve. The first algorithm uses normalized correlation to match the Phi-s curves, while the second uses dynamic programming to compute an elastic match that better accommodates ice floe deformation. Some empirical data on the performance of the algorithms on Seasat SAR images are presented.

Space Images for NASA/JPL

Science.gov (United States)

Boggs, Karen; Gutheinz, Sandy C.; Watanabe, Susan M.; Oks, Boris; Arca, Jeremy M.; Stanboli, Alice; Peez, Martin; Whatmore, Rebecca; Kang, Minliang; Espinoza, Luis A.

2010-01-01

Space Images for NASA/JPL is an Apple iPhone application that allows the general public to access featured images from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). A back-end infrastructure stores, tracks, and retrieves space images from the JPL Photojournal Web server, and catalogs the information into a streamlined rating infrastructure.

Influence of crystal shapes on radiative fluxes in visible wavelength: ice crystals randomly oriented in space

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Chervet

1996-08-01

Full Text Available Radiative properties of cirrus clouds are one of the major unsolved problems in climate studies and global radiation budget. These clouds are generally composed of various ice-crystal shapes, so we tried to evaluate effects of the ice-crystal shape on radiative fluxes. We calculated radiative fluxes of cirrus clouds with a constant geometrical depth, composed of ice crystals with different shapes (hexagonal columns, bullets, bullet-rosettes, sizes and various concentrations. We considered ice particles randomly oriented in space (3D case and their scattering phase functions were calculated by a ray-tracing method. We calculated radiative fluxes for cirrus layers for different microphysical characteristics by using a discrete-ordinate radiative code. Results showed that the foremost effect of the ice-crystal shape on radiative properties of cirrus clouds was that on the optical thickness, while the variation of the scattering phase function with the ice shape remained less than 3% for our computations. The ice-water content may be a better choice to parameterize the optical properties of cirrus, but the shape effect must be included.

Looking at the earth from space

Science.gov (United States)

Geller, Marvin A.

1988-01-01

Some of the scientific accomplishments attained in observing the earth from space are discussed. A brief overview of findings concerning the atmosphere, the oceans and sea ice, the solid earth, and the terrestrial hydrosphere and biosphere is presented, and six examples are examined in which space data have provided unique information enabling new knowledge concerning the workings of the earth to be derived. These examples concern stratospheric water vapor, hemispheric differences in surface and atmosphere parameters, Seasat altimeter mesoscale variability, variability of Antarctic sea ice, variations in the length of day, and spaceborne radar imaging of ancient rivers. Future space observations of the earth are briefly addressed.

Polar Stereographic Valid Ice Masks Derived from National Ice Center Monthly Sea Ice Climatologies, Version 1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — These valid ice masks provide a way to remove spurious ice caused by residual weather effects and land spillover in passive microwave data. They are derived from the...

Factors Affecting the Changes of Ice Crystal Form in Ice Cream

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xin; Watanabe, Manabu; Suzuki, Toru

In this study, the shape of ice crystals in ice cream was quantitatively evaluated by introducing fractal analysis. A small droplet of commercial ice cream mix was quickly cooled to about -30°C on the cold stage of microscope. Subsequently, it was heated to -5°C or -10°C and then held for various holding time. Based on the captured images at each holding time, the cross-sectional area and the length of circumference for each ice crystal were measured to calculate fractal dimension using image analysis software. The results showed that the ice crystals were categorized into two groups, e.g. simple-shape and complicated-shape, according to their fractal dimensions. The fractal dimension of ice crystals became lower with increasing holding time and holding temperature. It was also indicated that the growing rate of complicated-shape ice crystals was relatively higher because of aggregation.

Generalized probabilistic scale space for image restoration.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Alexander; Mishra, Akshaya K

2010-10-01

A novel generalized sampling-based probabilistic scale space theory is proposed for image restoration. We explore extending the definition of scale space to better account for both noise and observation models, which is important for producing accurately restored images. A new class of scale-space realizations based on sampling and probability theory is introduced to realize this extended definition in the context of image restoration. Experimental results using 2-D images show that generalized sampling-based probabilistic scale-space theory can be used to produce more accurate restored images when compared with state-of-the-art scale-space formulations, particularly under situations characterized by low signal-to-noise ratios and image degradation.

IceBridge Radar L3 Tomographic Ice Thickness V001

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This data set contains Level-3 tomographic ice thickness measurements derived from data captured by the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) Multichannel...

Detection of Supra-Glacial Lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet Using MODIS Images

Science.gov (United States)

Verin, Gauthier; Picard, Ghislain; Libois, Quentin; Gillet-Chaulet, Fabien; Roux, Antoine

2015-04-01

During melt season, supra-glacial lakes form on the margins of the Greenland ice sheet. Because of their size exceeding several kilometers, and their concentration, they affect surface albedo leading to an amplification of the regional melt. Furthermore, they foster hydro-fracturing that propagate liquid water to the bedrock and therefore enhance the basal lubrication which may affect the ice motion. It is known that Greenland ice sheet has strongly responded to recent global warming. As air temperature increases, melt duration and melt intensity increase and surface melt area extends further inland. These recent changes may play an important role in the mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet. In this context, it is essential to better monitor and understand supra-glacial spatio-temporal dynamics in order to better assess future sea level rise. In this study MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) images have been used to detect supra-glacial lakes. The observation site is located on the West margin of the ice sheet, between 65°N and 70°N where the concentration of lake is maximum. The detection is performed by a fully automatic algorithm using images processing techniques introduced by Liang et al. (2012) which can be summarized in three steps: the selection of usable MODIS images, mainly we exclude images with too many clouds. The detection of lake and the automatic correction of false detections. This algorithm is capable to tag each individual lake allowing a survey of all lake geometrical properties over the entire melt season. We observed a large population of supra-glacial lakes over 14 melt seasons, from 2000 to 2013 on an extended area of 70.000 km2. In average, lakes are observed from June 9 ± 8.7 days to September 13 ± 13.9 days, and reach a maximum total area of 699 km2 ± 146 km2. As the melt season progresses, lakes form higher in altitude up to 1800 m above sea level. Results show a very strong inter-annual variability in term of

A prelanding assessment of the ice table depth and ground ice characteristics in Martian permafrost at the Phoenix landing site

Science.gov (United States)

Mellon, M.T.; Boynton, W.V.; Feldman, W.C.; Arvidson, R. E.; Titus, Joshua T.N.; Bandfield, L.; Putzig, N.E.; Sizemore, H.G.

2009-01-01

We review multiple estimates of the ice table depth at potential Phoenix landing sites and consider the possible state and distribution of subsurface ice. A two-layer model of ice-rich material overlain by ice-free material is consistent with both the observational and theoretical lines of evidence. Results indicate ground ice to be shallow and ubiquitous, 2-6 cm below the surface. Undulations in the ice table depth are expected because of the thermodynamic effects of rocks, slopes, and soil variations on the scale of the Phoenix Lander and within the digging area, which can be advantageous for analysis of both dry surficial soils and buried ice-rich materials. The ground ice at the ice table to be sampled by the Phoenix Lander is expected to be geologically young because of recent climate oscillations. However, estimates of the ratio of soil to ice in the ice-rich subsurface layer suggest that that the ice content exceeds the available pore space, which is difficult to reconcile with existing ground ice stability and dynamics models. These high concentrations of ice may be the result of either the burial of surface snow during times of higher obliquity, initially high-porosity soils, or the migration of water along thin films. Measurement of the D/H ratio within the ice at the ice table and of the soil-to-ice ratio, as well as imaging ice-soil textures, will help determine if the ice is indeed young and if the models of the effects of climate change on the ground ice are reasonable. Copyright 2008 by the American Geophysical Union.

Ice Sheet Change Detection by Satellite Image Differencing

Science.gov (United States)

Bindschadler, Robert A.; Scambos, Ted A.; Choi, Hyeungu; Haran, Terry M.

2010-01-01

Differencing of digital satellite image pairs highlights subtle changes in near-identical scenes of Earth surfaces. Using the mathematical relationships relevant to photoclinometry, we examine the effectiveness of this method for the study of localized ice sheet surface topography changes using numerical experiments. We then test these results by differencing images of several regions in West Antarctica, including some where changes have previously been identified in altimeter profiles. The technique works well with coregistered images having low noise, high radiometric sensitivity, and near-identical solar illumination geometry. Clouds and frosts detract from resolving surface features. The ETM(plus) sensor on Landsat-7, ALI sensor on EO-1, and MODIS sensor on the Aqua and Terra satellite platforms all have potential for detecting localized topographic changes such as shifting dunes, surface inflation and deflation features associated with sub-glacial lake fill-drain events, or grounding line changes. Availability and frequency of MODIS images favor this sensor for wide application, and using it, we demonstrate both qualitative identification of changes in topography and quantitative mapping of slope and elevation changes.

Determining ice water content from 2D crystal images in convective cloud systems

Science.gov (United States)

Leroy, Delphine; Coutris, Pierre; Fontaine, Emmanuel; Schwarzenboeck, Alfons; Strapp, J. Walter

2016-04-01

Cloud microphysical in-situ instrumentation measures bulk parameters like total water content (TWC) and/or derives particle size distributions (PSD) (utilizing optical spectrometers and optical array probes (OAP)). The goal of this work is to introduce a comprehensive methodology to compute TWC from OAP measurements, based on the dataset collected during recent HAIC (High Altitude Ice Crystals)/HIWC (High Ice Water Content) field campaigns. Indeed, the HAIC/HIWC field campaigns in Darwin (2014) and Cayenne (2015) provide a unique opportunity to explore the complex relationship between cloud particle mass and size in ice crystal environments. Numerous mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) were sampled with the French Falcon 20 research aircraft at different temperature levels from -10°C up to 50°C. The aircraft instrumentation included an IKP-2 (isokinetic probe) to get reliable measurements of TWC and the optical array probes 2D-S and PIP recording images over the entire ice crystal size range. Based on the known principle relating crystal mass and size with a power law (m=α•Dβ), Fontaine et al. (2014) performed extended 3D crystal simulations and thereby demonstrated that it is possible to estimate the value of the exponent β from OAP data, by analyzing the surface-size relationship for the 2D images as a function of time. Leroy et al. (2015) proposed an extended version of this method that produces estimates of β from the analysis of both the surface-size and perimeter-size relationships. Knowing the value of β, α then is deduced from the simultaneous IKP-2 TWC measurements for the entire HAIC/HIWC dataset. The statistical analysis of α and β values for the HAIC/HIWC dataset firstly shows that α is closely linked to β and that this link changes with temperature. From these trends, a generalized parameterization for α is proposed. Finally, the comparison with the initial IKP-2 measurements demonstrates that the method is able to predict TWC values

Existential space understanding through digital image

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susana Iñarra Abad

2013-10-01

Full Text Available The logical way to learn from the architectural space and then be able to design and represent it is, undoubtedly, that of experiencing it through all the sensitive channels that the space wakes up us.  But since the last 30 years, much of our learning about space comes from images of architecture and not from the space itself. The art of architecture is drifting towards a visual art and moving away from its existential side. In digital images that have flooded the architectural media, digital photographs of existing spaces intermingle with non-existent space renderings (photographs with a virtual camera. The first ones represent existing places but can be altered to change the perception that  the observer of the image will have, the second ones speak to us about places that do not exist yet but they present reality portions through extracts from digital photography (textures, trees, people... that compose the image.

Parallel algorithm for determining motion vectors in ice floe images by matching edge features

Science.gov (United States)

Manohar, M.; Ramapriyan, H. K.; Strong, J. P.

1988-01-01

A parallel algorithm is described to determine motion vectors of ice floes using time sequences of images of the Arctic ocean obtained from the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instrument flown on-board the SEASAT spacecraft. Researchers describe a parallel algorithm which is implemented on the MPP for locating corresponding objects based on their translationally and rotationally invariant features. The algorithm first approximates the edges in the images by polygons or sets of connected straight-line segments. Each such edge structure is then reduced to a seed point. Associated with each seed point are the descriptions (lengths, orientations and sequence numbers) of the lines constituting the corresponding edge structure. A parallel matching algorithm is used to match packed arrays of such descriptions to identify corresponding seed points in the two images. The matching algorithm is designed such that fragmentation and merging of ice floes are taken into account by accepting partial matches. The technique has been demonstrated to work on synthetic test patterns and real image pairs from SEASAT in times ranging from .5 to 0.7 seconds for 128 x 128 images.

Imaging the Surfaces of Stars from Space

Science.gov (United States)

Carpenter, Kenneth; Rau, Gioia

2018-04-01

Imaging of Stellar Surfacess has been dominated to-date by ground-based observations, but space-based facilities offer tremendous potential for extending the wavelength coverage and ultimately the resolution of such efforts. We review the imaging accomplished so far from space and then talk about exciting future prospects. The earliest attempts from space indirectly produced surface maps via the Doppler Imaging Technique, using UV spectra obtained with the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE). Later, the first direct UV images were obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), of Mira and Betelgeuse, using the Faint Object Camera (FOC). We will show this work and then investigate prospects for IR imaging with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The real potential of space-based Imaging of Stellar Surfacess, however, lies in the future, when large-baseline Fizeau interferometers, such as the UV-optical Stellar Imager (SI) Vision Mission, with a 30-element array and 500m max baseline, are flown. We describe SI and its science goals, which include 0.1 milli-arcsec spectral Imaging of Stellar Surfacess and the probing of internal structure and flows via asteroseismology.

Global Monitoring of Mountain Glaciers Using High-Resolution Spotlight Imaging from the International Space Station

Science.gov (United States)

Donnellan, A.; Green, J. J.; Bills, B. G.; Goguen, J.; Ansar, A.; Knight, R. L.; Hallet, B.; Scambos, T. A.; Thompson, L. G.; Morin, P. J.

2013-12-01

Mountain glaciers around the world are retreating rapidly, contributing about 20% to present-day sea level rise. Numerous studies have shown that mountain glaciers are sensitive to global environmental change. Temperate-latitude glaciers and snowpack provide water for over 1 billion people. Glaciers are a resource for irrigation and hydroelectric power, but also pose flood and avalanche hazards. Accurate mass balance assessments have been made for only 280 glaciers, yet there are over 130,000 in the World Glacier Inventory. The rate of glacier retreat or advance can be highly variable, is poorly sampled, and inadequately understood. Liquid water from ice front lakes, rain, melt, or sea water and debris from rocks, dust, or pollution interact with glacier ice often leading to an amplification of warming and further melting. Many mountain glaciers undergo rapid and episodic events that greatly change their mass balance or extent but are sparsely documented. Events include calving, outburst floods, opening of crevasses, or iceberg motion. Spaceborne high-resolution spotlight optical imaging provides a means of clarifying the relationship between the health of mountain glaciers and global environmental change. Digital elevation models (DEMs) can be constructed from a series of images from a range of perspectives collected by staring at a target during a satellite overpass. It is possible to collect imagery for 1800 targets per month in the ×56° latitude range, construct high-resolution DEMs, and monitor changes in high detail over time with a high-resolution optical telescope mounted on the International Space Station (ISS). Snow and ice type, age, and maturity can be inferred from different color bands as well as distribution of liquid water. Texture, roughness, albedo, and debris distribution can be estimated by measuring bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (BRDF) and reflectance intensity as a function of viewing angle. The non-sun-synchronous orbit

Laboratory Studies of Solid CO2 Ices at Different Temperatures and Annealing Times in Support of Spitzer Space Telescope Observations

Science.gov (United States)

White, Douglas; Gerakines, P. A.

2007-12-01

The infrared absorption features of solid carbon dioxide have been detected by space observatories in nearly all lines of sight probing the dense interstellar medium (ISM). It has also been shown that the absorption feature of solid CO2 near 658 cm-1 (15.2 μm) should be a sensitive indicator of the physical conditions of the ice (e.g., temperature and composition). However, the profile structure of this feature is not well understood, and previous laboratory studies have concentrated on a limited range of temperatures and compositions for comparisons to observed spectra from both the Infrared Space Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope. In the laboratory study described here, the infrared spectra of ices bearing H2O, CH3OH, and CO2 have been measured with systematically varying compositions and temperatures that span the range of the values expected in the interstellar medium. The mid-infrared spectra (λ = 2.5-25 µm) were measured for 47 different ice compositions at temperatures ranging from 5 K to evaporation (at 5 K intervals). Additionally, annealing experiments of some of these ice compositions have been investigated. These data may be used to determine thermal histories of interstellar ices. This research was supported by NASA award NNG05GE44G under the Astronomy and Physics Research & Analysis Program (APRA).

European Space Imaging & Skybox Imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clark, J.; Schichor, P.

2015-01-01

Skybox and European Space Imaging have partnered to bring timely, Very High-Resolution imagery to customers in Europe and North Africa. Leveraging Silicon Valley ingenuity and world-class aerospace expertise, Skybox designs, builds, and operates a fleet of imaging satellites. With two satellites currently on-orbit, Skybox is quickly advancing towards a planned constellation of 24+ satellites with the potential for daily or sub-daily imaging at 70-90 cm resolution. With consistent, high-resolution imagery and video, European customers can monitor the dynamic units of human activity - cars, trucks, shipping containers, ships, aircraft, etc. - and derive valuable insights about the global economy. With multiple imaging opportunities per day, the Skybox constellation provides unprecedented access to imagery and information about critical targets that require rapid analysis. Skybox's unique capability to deliver high-definition video from space enables European customers to monitor a network of globally distributed assets with full-motion snapshots, without the need to deploy an aircraft or field team. The movement captured in these 30-90 second video windows yield unique insights that improve operational decisions. Skybox and EUSI are excited to offer a unique data source that can drive a better understanding of our world through supply chain monitoring, natural resource management, infrastructure monitoring, and crisis response. (author)

Space Radar Image of Maui, Hawaii

Science.gov (United States)

1994-01-01

This spaceborne radar image shows the 'Valley Island' of Maui, Hawaii. The cloud-penetrating capabilities of radar provide a rare view of many parts of the island, since the higher elevations are frequently shrouded in clouds. The light blue and yellow areas in the lowlands near the center are sugar cane fields. The three major population centers, Lahaina on the left at the western tip of island, Wailuku left of center, and Kihei in the lower center appear as small yellow, white or purple mottled areas. West Maui volcano, in the lower left, is 1800 meters high (5900 feet) and is considered extinct. The entire eastern half of the island consists of East Maui volcano, which rises to an elevation of 3200 meters (10,500 feet) and features a spectacular crater called Haleakala at its summit. Haleakala Crater was produced by erosion during previous ice ages rather than by volcanic activity, although relatively recent small eruptions have produced the numerous volcanic cones and lava flows that can be seen on the floor of the crater. The most recent eruption took place near the coast at the southwestern end of East Maui volcano in the late 1700s. Such a time frame indicates that East Maui should be considered a dormant, rather than an extinct volcano. A new eruption is therefore possible in the next few hundred years. The multi-wavelength capability of the SIR-C radar also permits differences in the vegetation cover on the middle flanks of East Maui to be identified. Rain forests appear in yellow, while grassland is shown in dark green, pink and blue. Radar images such as this one are being used by scientists to understand volcanic processes and to assess potential threats that future activity may pose to local populations. This image was acquired by Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) onboard the space shuttle Endeavour on April 16, 1994. The image is 73.7 kilometers by 48.7 kilometers (45.7 miles by 30.2 miles) and is centered at 20

The Particle Habit Imaging and Polar Scattering probe PHIPS: First Stereo-Imaging and Polar Scattering Function Measurements of Ice Particles

Science.gov (United States)

Abdelmonem, A.; Schnaiter, M.; Schön, R.; Leisner, T.

2009-04-01

Cirrus clouds impact climate by their influence on the water vapour distribution in the upper troposphere. Moreover, they directly affect the radiative balance of the Earth's atmosphere by the scattering of incoming solar radiation and the absorption of outgoing thermal emission. The link between the microphysical properties of ice cloud particles and the radiative forcing of the clouds is not as yet well understood and the influence of the shapes of ice crystals on the radiative budget of cirrus clouds is currently under debate. PHIPS is a new experimental device for the stereo-imaging of individual cloud particles and the simultaneous measurement of the polar scattering function of the same particle. PHIPS uses an automated particle event triggering system that ensures that only those particles are captured which are located in the field of view - depth of field volume of the microscope unit. Efforts were made to improve the resolution power of the microscope unit down to about 3 µm and to facilitate a 3D morphology impression of the ice crystals. This is realised by a stereo-imaging set up composed of two identical microscopes which image the same particle under an angular viewing distance of 30°. The scattering part of PHIPS enables the measurement of the polar light scattering function of cloud particles with an angular resolution of 1° for forward scattering directions (from 1° to 10°) and 8° for side and backscattering directions (from 18° to 170°). For each particle the light scattering pulse per channel is stored either as integrated intensity or as time resolved intensity function which opens a new category of data analysis concerning details of the particle movement. PHIPS is the first step to PHIPS-HALO which is one of the in situ ice particle and water vapour instruments that are currently under development for the new German research aircraft HALO. The instrument was tested in the ice cloud characterisation campaign HALO-02 which was conducted

Evaluation of multichannel Wiener filters applied to fine resolution passive microwave images of first-year sea ice

Science.gov (United States)

Full, William E.; Eppler, Duane T.

1993-01-01

The effectivity of multichannel Wiener filters to improve images obtained with passive microwave systems was investigated by applying Wiener filters to passive microwave images of first-year sea ice. Four major parameters which define the filter were varied: the lag or pixel offset between the original and the desired scenes, filter length, the number of lines in the filter, and the weight applied to the empirical correlation functions. The effect of each variable on the image quality was assessed by visually comparing the results. It was found that the application of multichannel Wiener theory to passive microwave images of first-year sea ice resulted in visually sharper images with enhanced textural features and less high-frequency noise. However, Wiener filters induced a slight blocky grain to the image and could produce a type of ringing along scan lines traversing sharp intensity contrasts.

Space-based infrared sensors of space target imaging effect analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Dai, Huayu; Zhang, Yasheng; Zhou, Haijun; Zhao, Shuang

2018-02-01

Target identification problem is one of the core problem of ballistic missile defense system, infrared imaging simulation is an important means of target detection and recognition. This paper first established the space-based infrared sensors ballistic target imaging model of point source on the planet's atmosphere; then from two aspects of space-based sensors camera parameters and target characteristics simulated atmosphere ballistic target of infrared imaging effect, analyzed the camera line of sight jitter, camera system noise and different imaging effects of wave on the target.

Basic Physical Properties of Ammonia-Rich Ice

Science.gov (United States)

Shandera, S. E.; Lorenz, R. D.

2000-10-01

We report simple measurements of the thermal conductivity, mechanical strength and microwave absorptivity of ammonia hydrate ices, which are likely to be abundant in the Saturnian system. Understanding the dielectric properties of ammonia ice could play an important role in interpreting data from the Cassini spacecraft, which will image Titan's surface by radar in 2004. Thermal conductivity measurements were made by freezing a thin copper wire in the center of ice samples. The wire acted as both heater and temperature sensor, calibrated by a thermocouple also frozen in the sample. Ices with concentrations of 5- 30% ammonia were compared to pure water ice and ices containing salts. Thermal conductivity was found to decrease with increasing concentration of ammonia - a factor of 3 or 4 less than pure water ice for the 30% peritectic composition. Microwave absorptivity was measured by placing insulated ice samples and calibration materials in a conventional microwave oven. The microwave absorptivity was found to increase with increasing concentration of ammonia, although the effect is strongly temperature dependent, and heat leak from the room made quantitative measurement difficult. Mechanical strength was estimated using a ball bearing/accelerometer indentation method. For temperatures 100-150K, ammonia-rich ice has a Young's modulus about 10x smaller than pure ice. These properties affect tidal dissipation and the likelihood and style of cryovolcanism on (and the radar appearance of) the icy satellites and Titan. This work was supported by the Cassini RADAR team and the Arizona Space Grant Consortium.

Measurement and imaging of infragravity waves in sea ice using InSAR

Science.gov (United States)

Mahoney, Andrew R.; Dammann, Dyre O.; Johnson, Mark A.; Eicken, Hajo; Meyer, Franz J.

2016-06-01

Using short-temporal baseline interferometric synthetic aperture radar, we capture instantaneous images of a persistent field of infragravity waves propagating through sea ice near Barrow, Alaska, during January 2015. We estimate wave amplitudes to be between 1.2 and 1.8 mm. Curvature of wavefronts is consistent with refraction of waves entering shallow water from a source region north of Barrow. A shallow water wave model indicates that the geometry of the wavefronts is relatively insensitive to the source location, but other evidence suggests the waves may have originated in the North Atlantic, making this perhaps the longest observed propagation path for waves through ice. We also note that steepening of the waves entering shallow water can increase the peak strain by an order of magnitude, suggesting that infragravity waves may play a role in determining the location of the landfast ice edge with respect to water depth.

Measurement of pressure ridges in SAR images of sea ice - Preliminary results on scattering theory

Science.gov (United States)

Vesecky, J. F.; Smith, M. P.; Daida, J. M.; Samadani, R.; Camiso, J. C.

1992-01-01

Sea ice ridges and keels (hummocks and bummocks) are important in sea ice research for both scientific and practical reasons. A long-term objective is to make quantitative measurements of sea ice ridges using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The preliminary results of a scattering model for sea ice ridge are reported. The approach is through the ridge height variance spectrum Psi(K), where K is the spatial wavenumber, and the two-scale scattering model. The height spectrum model is constructed to mimic height statistics observed with an airborne optical laser. The spectrum model is used to drive a two-scale scattering model. Model results for ridges observed at C- and X-band yield normalized radar cross sections that are 10 to 15 dB larger than the observed cross sections of multiyear ice over the range of angles of incidence from 10 to 70 deg.

Old flying ice-rock body in space allows a glance at its inner working.

Science.gov (United States)

Bieler, A. M.

2015-12-01

I am studying old, cold bodies of rock and ice flying through space, usually far, far away from the Sun. They are even behind the last of the big 8 balls we call our home worlds. (There were 9 balls a few yearsago, but then one of the balls was not considered a ball anymore by some people and he/she had to leave the group.)Because they are so far away from the Sun, they remain dark and very cold for the most part of their life.That is why even most of the very nervous stuff sticks on them ever since. With stuff I mean the little things that the Sun, the big 8 balls, we humans and everything else that is flying around the Sun ismade of. The nervous ones quickly change into something wind like andcan get lost. But the cold on the ice-rock bodies slows this down andthey stick around. This makes those ice-rock bodies interesting tostudy, they did not change too much since they were made.I study news sent back from a computer controlled box flying around oneof those rock-ice things that is now closer to the Sun. When thespace between such a body and the Sun gets smaller, it warms up andsome of the ice changes into wind like things. We find out how muchof what stuff is flying away from that body and at what time.Then I and my friends put those numbers into a big ass computer to findout more on how those rock-ice bodies work. Where does the wind comefrom? Do they all come from the same place or only some? Is it really the Sun's fault? How many cups of ice change into wind each day? Many questions.

Sea ice classification using dual polarization SAR data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huiying, Liu; Huadong, Guo; Lu, Zhang

2014-01-01

Sea ice is an indicator of climate change and also a threat to the navigation security of ships. Polarimetric SAR images are useful in the sea ice detection and classification. In this paper, backscattering coefficients and texture features derived from dual polarization SAR images are used for sea ice classification. Firstly, the HH image is recalculated based on the angular dependences of sea ice types. Then the effective gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) texture features are selected for the support vector machine (SVM) classification. In the end, because sea ice concentration can provide a better separation of pancake ice from old ice, it is used to improve the SVM result. This method provides a good classification result, compared with the sea ice chart from CIS

Properties of Brownian Image Models in Scale-Space

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Kim Steenstrup

2003-01-01

Brownian images) will be discussed in relation to linear scale-space theory, and it will be shown empirically that the second order statistics of natural images mapped into jet space may, within some scale interval, be modeled by the Brownian image model. This is consistent with the 1/f 2 power spectrum...... law that apparently governs natural images. Furthermore, the distribution of Brownian images mapped into jet space is Gaussian and an analytical expression can be derived for the covariance matrix of Brownian images in jet space. This matrix is also a good approximation of the covariance matrix......In this paper it is argued that the Brownian image model is the least committed, scale invariant, statistical image model which describes the second order statistics of natural images. Various properties of three different types of Gaussian image models (white noise, Brownian and fractional...

The Sea-Ice Floe Size Distribution

Science.gov (United States)

Stern, H. L., III; Schweiger, A. J. B.; Zhang, J.; Steele, M.

2017-12-01

The size distribution of ice floes in the polar seas affects the dynamics and thermodynamics of the ice cover and its interaction with the ocean and atmosphere. Ice-ocean models are now beginning to include the floe size distribution (FSD) in their simulations. In order to characterize seasonal changes of the FSD and provide validation data for our ice-ocean model, we calculated the FSD in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas over two spring-summer-fall seasons (2013 and 2014) using more than 250 cloud-free visible-band scenes from the MODIS sensors on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites, identifying nearly 250,000 ice floes between 2 and 30 km in diameter. We found that the FSD follows a power-law distribution at all locations, with a seasonally varying exponent that reflects floe break-up in spring, loss of smaller floes in summer, and the return of larger floes after fall freeze-up. We extended the results to floe sizes from 10 m to 2 km at selected time/space locations using more than 50 high-resolution radar and visible-band satellite images. Our analysis used more data and applied greater statistical rigor than any previous study of the FSD. The incorporation of the FSD into our ice-ocean model resulted in reduced sea-ice thickness, mainly in the marginal ice zone, which improved the simulation of sea-ice extent and yielded an earlier ice retreat. We also examined results from 17 previous studies of the FSD, most of which report power-law FSDs but with widely varying exponents. It is difficult to reconcile the range of results due to different study areas, seasons, and methods of analysis. We review the power-law representation of the FSD in these studies and discuss some mathematical details that are important to consider in any future analysis.

Distinguishing Clouds from Ice over the East Siberian Sea, Russia

Science.gov (United States)

2002-01-01

As a consequence of its capability to retrieve cloud-top elevations, stereoscopic observations from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) can discriminate clouds from snow and ice. The central portion of Russia's East Siberian Sea, including one of the New Siberian Islands, Novaya Sibir, are portrayed in these views from data acquired on May 28, 2002.The left-hand image is a natural color view from MISR's nadir camera. On the right is a height field retrieved using automated computer processing of data from multiple MISR cameras. Although both clouds and ice appear white in the natural color view, the stereoscopic retrievals are able to identify elevated clouds based on the geometric parallax which results when they are observed from different angles. Owing to their elevation above sea level, clouds are mapped as green and yellow areas, whereas land, sea ice, and very low clouds appear blue and purple. Purple, in particular, denotes elevations very close to sea level. The island of Novaya Sibir is located in the lower left of the images. It can be identified in the natural color view as the dark area surrounded by an expanse of fast ice. In the stereo map the island appears as a blue region indicating its elevation of less than 100 meters above sea level. Areas where the automated stereo processing failed due to lack of sufficient spatial contrast are shown in dark gray. The northern edge of the Siberian mainland can be found at the very bottom of the panels, and is located a little over 250 kilometers south of Novaya Sibir. Pack ice containing numerous fragmented ice floes surrounds the fast ice, and narrow areas of open ocean are visible.The East Siberian Sea is part of the Arctic Ocean and is ice-covered most of the year. The New Siberian Islands are almost always covered by snow and ice, and tundra vegetation is very scant. Despite continuous sunlight from the end of April until the middle of August, the ice between the island and the mainland

Quantitative analysis of ice films by near-infrared spectroscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Keiser, Joseph T.

1990-01-01

One of the outstanding problems in the Space Transportation System is the possibility of the ice buildup on the external fuel tank surface while it is mounted on the launch pad. During the T-2 hours (and holding) period, the frost/ice thickness on the external tank is monitored/measured. However, after the resumption of the countdown time, the tank surface can only be monitored remotely. Currently, remote sensing is done with a TV camera coupled to a thermal imaging device. This device is capable of identifying the presence of ice, especially if it is covered with a layer of frost. However, it has difficulty identifying transparent ice, and, it is not capable of determining the thickness of ice in any case. Thus, there is a need for developing a technique for measuring the thickness of frost/ice on the tank surface during this two hour period before launch. The external tank surface is flooded with sunlight (natural or simulated) before launch. It may be possible, therefore, to analyze the diffuse reflection of sunlight from the external tank to determine the presence and thickness of ice. The purpose was to investigate the feasibility of this approach. A near-infrared spectrophotometer was used to record spectra of ice. It was determined that the optimum frequencies for monitoring the ice films were 1.03 and 1.255 microns.

Metop SG Ice Cloud Imager data analysis preparations

Science.gov (United States)

Eriksson, Patrick; Mendrok, Jana; Ekelund, Robin; Rydberg, Bengt; Brath, Manfred; Buehler, Stefan A.

2017-04-01

The Ice Cloud Imager (ICI), one the instruments to be onboard the second generation (SG) of Metop satellites, will be the first operational instrument making use of sub-millimeter wavelengths. Increasing the sensitivity of microwave ice hydrometeor measurements with at least two orders of magnitude, its primary aim is to characterize the bulk mass of ice hydrometeors, where the basic retrieval products will be ice water path, mean mass size, and mean mass altitude. With the expected competitive accuracy it can e.g. complement the narrow horizontal coverage of active instruments. Here we present our activities to develop and improve the data analysis for passive sub-millimeter sensors and ICI in particular, where for the latter we are also developing the froaen hydrometeor retrieval algorithm on behalf of EUMETSAT and its NWC-SAF. One crucial aspect in the data analysis is the quality of the forward modeling, the ability to produce realistic, statistically representative synthetic measurements and to reproduce the performed observations, which poses challenges regarding representation of hydrometeor microphysical as well as optical properties and of the radiative transfer problem itself (atmospheric dimensionality, polarization, etc.). One of our core activities is the creation of a consistent database of ice hydrometeor single scattering properties that covers not only ICI applications, but passive and active sensors in the whole microwave region. The database will fill the gaps (spectral, temperature, habits) of and between existing databases (e.g. by Liu, Hong, Ding, Kuo) and will also hold data for oriented particles. Furthermore, sensitivity to forward modeling assumptions is tested, and the results are validated statistically versus existing (satellite microwave and airborne sub-millimeter) observations. These assumptions include microphysics (e.g. size distributions, habit choices, particle orientation) as well as model complexity (e.g. 3D effects

Ghost Imaging of Space Objects

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Ghost imaging is an optical imaging technique that utilizes the correlations between optical fields in two channels. One of the channels contains the object, however...

Relaxation in x-space magnetic particle imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Croft, Laura R; Goodwill, Patrick W; Conolly, Steven M

2012-12-01

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is a new imaging modality that noninvasively images the spatial distribution of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIOs). MPI has demonstrated high contrast and zero attenuation with depth, and MPI promises superior safety compared to current angiography methods, X-ray, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging angiography. Nanoparticle relaxation can delay the SPIO magnetization, and in this work we investigate the open problem of the role relaxation plays in MPI scanning and its effect on the image. We begin by amending the x-space theory of MPI to include nanoparticle relaxation effects. We then validate the amended theory with experiments from a Berkeley x-space relaxometer and a Berkeley x-space projection MPI scanner. Our theory and experimental data indicate that relaxation reduces SNR and asymmetrically blurs the image in the scanning direction. While relaxation effects can have deleterious effects on the MPI scan, we show theoretically and experimentally that x-space reconstruction remains robust in the presence of relaxation. Furthermore, the role of relaxation in x-space theory provides guidance as we develop methods to minimize relaxation-induced blurring. This will be an important future area of research for the MPI community.

First data from IceAct, an imaging air Cherenkov telescope with SiPMs at the South Pole

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Auffenberg, Jan; Bretz, Thomas; Hansmann, Bengt; Hansmann, Tim; Hebbeker, Thomas; Kemp, Julian; Middendorf, Lukas; Niggemann, Tim; Raedel, Leif; Schaufel, Merlin; Schumacher, Johannes; Stahlberg, Martin; Werhan, Ansgar; Wiebusch, Christopher [RWTH Aachen University (Germany)

2016-07-01

IceCube-Gen2 is planned to extend the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the geographic South Pole. For neutrino astronomy, a large background-free sample of well-reconstructed astrophysical neutrinos is essential. The main background for this signal are muons and neutrinos which are produced in cosmic-ray air showers in the Earth's atmosphere. The coincident detection of these air showers by the surface detector IceTop has been proven to be a powerful veto for atmospheric neutrinos and muons in the field of view of the Southern Hemisphere. This motivates a large extension of IceTop to more efficiently detect cosmic rays, IceVeto. Part of these extension plans is an array of imaging air Cherenkov telescopes, IceAct. A first IceAct prototype is consisting of an SiPM camera and lens optics optimized for harsh environments. Compared to IceTop stations, these telescopes potentially lower the detection threshold for air showers at the cost of a lower duty cycle. We present first data, taken during the commissioning of an IceAct prototype in December 2015 at the South Pole.

Arctic Sea Ice Freeboard and Thickness

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This data set provides measurements of sea ice freeboard and sea ice thickness for the Arctic region. The data were derived from measurements made by from the Ice,...

Determining the ice-binding planes of antifreeze proteins by fluorescence-based ice plane affinity.

Science.gov (United States)

Basu, Koli; Garnham, Christopher P; Nishimiya, Yoshiyuki; Tsuda, Sakae; Braslavsky, Ido; Davies, Peter

2014-01-15

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) are expressed in a variety of cold-hardy organisms to prevent or slow internal ice growth. AFPs bind to specific planes of ice through their ice-binding surfaces. Fluorescence-based ice plane affinity (FIPA) analysis is a modified technique used to determine the ice planes to which the AFPs bind. FIPA is based on the original ice-etching method for determining AFP-bound ice-planes. It produces clearer images in a shortened experimental time. In FIPA analysis, AFPs are fluorescently labeled with a chimeric tag or a covalent dye then slowly incorporated into a macroscopic single ice crystal, which has been preformed into a hemisphere and oriented to determine the a- and c-axes. The AFP-bound ice hemisphere is imaged under UV light to visualize AFP-bound planes using filters to block out nonspecific light. Fluorescent labeling of the AFPs allows real-time monitoring of AFP adsorption into ice. The labels have been found not to influence the planes to which AFPs bind. FIPA analysis also introduces the option to bind more than one differently tagged AFP on the same single ice crystal to help differentiate their binding planes. These applications of FIPA are helping to advance our understanding of how AFPs bind to ice to halt its growth and why many AFP-producing organisms express multiple AFP isoforms.

Projection x-space magnetic particle imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Goodwill, Patrick W; Konkle, Justin J; Zheng, Bo; Saritas, Emine U; Conolly, Steven M

2012-05-01

Projection magnetic particle imaging (MPI) can improve imaging speed by over 100-fold over traditional 3-D MPI. In this work, we derive the 2-D x-space signal equation, 2-D image equation, and introduce the concept of signal fading and resolution loss for a projection MPI imager. We then describe the design and construction of an x-space projection MPI scanner with a field gradient of 2.35 T/m across a 10 cm magnet free bore. The system has an expected resolution of 3.5 × 8.0 mm using Resovist tracer, and an experimental resolution of 3.8 × 8.4 mm resolution. The system images 2.5 cm × 5.0 cm partial field-of views (FOVs) at 10 frames/s, and acquires a full field-of-view of 10 cm × 5.0 cm in 4 s. We conclude by imaging a resolution phantom, a complex "Cal" phantom, mice injected with Resovist tracer, and experimentally confirm the theoretically predicted x-space spatial resolution.

A Learning State-Space Model for Image Retrieval

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lee Greg C

2007-01-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes an approach based on a state-space model for learning the user concepts in image retrieval. We first design a scheme of region-based image representation based on concept units, which are integrated with different types of feature spaces and with different region scales of image segmentation. The design of the concept units aims at describing similar characteristics at a certain perspective among relevant images. We present the details of our proposed approach based on a state-space model for interactive image retrieval, including likelihood and transition models, and we also describe some experiments that show the efficacy of our proposed model. This work demonstrates the feasibility of using a state-space model to estimate the user intuition in image retrieval.

14 CFR 23.1419 - Ice protection.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Ice protection. 23.1419 Section 23.1419... Ice protection. If certification with ice protection provisions is desired, compliance with the... performed to establish, on the basis of the airplane's operational needs, the adequacy of the ice protection...

Mapping Ross Ice Shelf with ROSETTA-Ice airborne laser altimetry

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, M. K.; Fricker, H. A.; Padman, L.; Bell, R. E.; Siegfried, M. R.; Dieck, C. C. M.

2017-12-01

The Ross Ocean and ice Shelf Environment and Tectonic setting Through Aerogeophysical surveys and modeling (ROSETTA-Ice) project combines airborne glaciological, geological, and oceanographic observations to enhance our understanding of the history and dynamics of the large ( 500,000 square km) Ross Ice Shelf (RIS). Here, we focus on the Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) data collected in 2015 and 2016. This data set represents a significant advance in resolution: Whereas the last attempt to systematically map RIS (the surface-based RIGGS program in the 1970s) was at 55 km grid spacing, the ROSETTA-Ice grid has 10-20 km line spacing and much higher along-track resolution. We discuss two different strategies for processing the raw LiDAR data: one that requires proprietary software (Riegl's RiPROCESS package), and one that employs open-source programs and libraries. With the processed elevation data, we are able to resolve fine-scale ice-shelf features such as the "rampart-moat" ice-front morphology, which has previously been observed on and modeled for icebergs. This feature is also visible in the ROSETTA-Ice shallow-ice radar data; comparing the laser data with radargrams provides insight into the processes leading to their formation. Near-surface firn state and total firn air content can also be investigated through combined analysis of laser altimetry and radar data. By performing similar analyses with data from the radar altimeter aboard CryoSat-2, we demonstrate the utility of the ROSETTA-Ice LiDAR data set in satellite validation efforts. The incorporation of the LiDAR data from the third and final field season (December 2017) will allow us to construct a DEM and an ice thickness map of RIS for the austral summers of 2015-2017. These products will be used to validate and extend observations of height changes from satellite radar and laser altimetry, as well as to update regional models of ocean circulation and ice dynamics.

Linking Regional Winter Sea Ice Thickness and Surface Roughness to Spring Melt Pond Fraction on Landfast Arctic Sea Ice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sasha Nasonova

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The Arctic sea ice cover has decreased strongly in extent, thickness, volume and age in recent decades. The melt season presents a significant challenge for sea ice forecasting due to uncertainty associated with the role of surface melt ponds in ice decay at regional scales. This study quantifies the relationships of spring melt pond fraction (fp with both winter sea ice roughness and thickness, for landfast first-year sea ice (FYI and multiyear sea ice (MYI. In 2015, airborne measurements of winter sea ice thickness and roughness, as well as high-resolution optical data of melt pond covered sea ice, were collected along two ~5.2 km long profiles over FYI- and MYI-dominated regions in the Canadian Arctic. Statistics of winter sea ice thickness and roughness were compared to spring fp using three data aggregation approaches, termed object and hybrid-object (based on image segments, and regularly spaced grid-cells. The hybrid-based aggregation approach showed strongest associations because it considers the morphology of the ice as well as footprints of the sensors used to measure winter sea ice thickness and roughness. Using the hybrid-based data aggregation approach it was found that winter sea ice thickness and roughness are related to spring fp. A stronger negative correlation was observed between FYI thickness and fp (Spearman rs = −0.85 compared to FYI roughness and fp (rs = −0.52. The association between MYI thickness and fp was also negative (rs = −0.56, whereas there was no association between MYI roughness and fp. 47% of spring fp variation for FYI and MYI can be explained by mean thickness. Thin sea ice is characterized by low surface roughness allowing for widespread ponding in the spring (high fp whereas thick sea ice has undergone dynamic thickening and roughening with topographic features constraining melt water into deeper channels (low fp. This work provides an important contribution towards the parameterizations of fp in

METHOD OF IMAGE QUALITY ENHANCEMENT FOR SPACE OBJECTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. S. Korshunov

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with an approach for image quality improvement of the space objects in the visible range of electromagnetic wave spectrum. The proposed method is based on the joint taking into account of both the motion velocity of the space supervisory apparatus and a space object observed in the near-earth space when the time of photo-detector exposure is chosen. The timing of exposure is carried out by light-signal characteristics, which determines the optimal value of the charge package formed in the charge-coupled device being irradiated. Thus, the parameters of onboard observation equipment can be selected, which provides space images suitable for interpretation. The linear resolving capacity is used as quality indicator for space images, giving a complete picture for the image contrast and geometric properties of the object on the photo. Observation scenario modeling of the space object, done by sputnik-inspector, has shown the possibility of increasing the linear resolution up to10% - 20% or up to 40% - 50% depending on the non-complanarity angle at the movement along orbits. The proposed approach to the increase of photographs quality provides getting sharp and highcontrast images of space objects by the optical-electronic equipment of the space-based remote sensing. The usage of these images makes it possible to detect in time the space technology failures, which are the result of its exploitation in the nearearth space. The proposed method can be also applied at the stage of space systems design for optical-electronic surveillance in computer models used for facilities assessment of the shooting equipment information tract.

Observation of pressure ridges in SAR images of sea ice: Scattering theory and comparison with observations

Science.gov (United States)

Vesecky, J. F.; Daida, J. M.; Shuchman, R. A.; Onstott, R. H.; Camiso, J. C.

1993-01-01

Ridges and keels (hummocks and bummocks) in sea ice flows are important in sea ice research for both scientific and practical reasons. Sea ice movement and deformation is driven by internal and external stresses on the ice. Ridges and keels play important roles in both cases because they determine the external wind and current stresses via drag coefficients. For example, the drag coefficient over sea ice can vary by a factor of several depending on the fluid mechanical roughness length of the surface. This roughness length is thought to be strongly dependent on the ridge structures present. Thus, variations in ridge and keel structure can cause gradients in external stresses which must be balanced by internal stresses and possibly fracture of the ice. Ridging in sea ice is also a sign of fracture. In a practical sense, large ridges form the biggest impediment to surface travel over the ice or penetration through sea ice by ice-strengthened ships. Ridges also play an important role in the damage caused by sea ice to off-shore structures. Hence, observation and measurement of sea ice ridges is an important component of sea ice remote sensing. The research reported here builds on previous work, estimating the characteristics of ridges and leads in sea ice from SAR images. Our objective is to develop methods for quantitative measurement of sea ice ridges from SAR images. To make further progress, in particular, to estimate ridge height, a scattering model for ridges is needed. Our research approach for a ridge scattering model begins with a survey of the geometrical properties of ridges and a comparison with the characteristics of the surrounding ice. For this purpose we have used airborne optical laser (AOL) data collected during the 1987 Greenland Sea Experiment. These data were used to generate a spatial wavenumber spectrum for height variance for a typical ridge - the typical ridge is the average over 10 large ridges. Our first-order model radar scattering includes

Ice Motion and Topography Near Margin Areas of Kamb Ice Stream, Antarctica, Version 1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This data set includes ice motion and topography measurements that were taken by measuring movement and altitude of poles set in the West Antarctic Ice Shelf. The...

Image-based change estimation (ICE): monitoring land use, land cover and agent of change information for all lands

Science.gov (United States)

Kevin Megown; Andy Lister; Paul Patterson; Tracey Frescino; Dennis Jacobs; Jeremy Webb; Nicholas Daniels; Mark Finco

2015-01-01

The Image-based Change Estimation (ICE) protocols have been designed to respond to several Agency and Department information requirements. These include provisions set forth by the 2014 Farm Bill, the Forest Service Action Plan and Strategic Plan, the 2012 Planning Rule, and the 2015 Planning Directives. ICE outputs support the information needs by providing estimates...

IceBridge Mission Flight Reports

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The IceBridge Mission Flight Reports data set contains flight reports from NASA Operation IceBridge Greenland, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alaska missions. Flight reports...

Image correlation spectroscopy: mapping correlations in space, time, and reciprocal space.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiseman, Paul W

2013-01-01

This chapter presents an overview of two recent implementations of image correlation spectroscopy (ICS). The background theory is presented for spatiotemporal image correlation spectroscopy and image cross-correlation spectroscopy (STICS and STICCS, respectively) as well as k-(reciprocal) space image correlation spectroscopy (kICS). An introduction to the background theory is followed by sections outlining procedural aspects for properly implementing STICS, STICCS, and kICS. These include microscopy image collection, sampling in space and time, sample and fluorescent probe requirements, signal to noise, and background considerations that are all required to properly implement the ICS methods. Finally, procedural steps for immobile population removal and actual implementation of the ICS analysis programs to fluorescence microscopy image time stacks are described. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

OBJECT-SPACE MULTI-IMAGE MATCHING OF MOBILE-MAPPING-SYSTEM IMAGE SEQUENCES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. C. Chen

2012-07-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes an object-space multi-image matching procedure of terrestrial MMS (Mobile Mapping System image sequences to determine the coordinates of an object point automatically and reliably. This image matching procedure can be applied to find conjugate points of MMS image sequences efficiently. Conventional area-based image matching methods are not reliable to deliver accurate matching results for this application due to image scale variations, viewing angle variations, and object occlusions. In order to deal with these three matching problems, an object space multi-image matching is proposed. A modified NCC (Normalized Cross Correlation coefficient is proposed to measure the similarity of image patches. A modified multi-window matching procedure will also be introduced to solve the problem of object occlusion. A coarse-to-fine procedure with a combination of object-space multi-image matching and multi-window matching is adopted. The proposed procedure has been implemented for the purpose of matching terrestrial MMS image sequences. The ratio of correct matches of this experiment was about 80 %. By providing an approximate conjugate point in an overlapping image manually, most of the incorrect matches could be fixed properly and the ratio of correct matches was improved up to 98 %.

Characterization of icebergs and floating sea ice in the Yung Sund fjord in Greenland from satellite radar and optical images.

Science.gov (United States)

Guillaso, Stephane; Gay, Michel; Gervaise, Cedric

2017-04-01

At the Zackenberg site, sea ice starts to move between June and September resulting in icebergs flowing freely on the sea. Splitting into smaller parts, they reduce in size. Icebergs represent a risk for maritime transport and needs to be studied. In order to determine iceberg density per surface unit, size distribution, and movement of icebergs, we need to observe, detect, range and track them. The use of SAR images is particularly well adapted in regions where cloud cover is very present. We focused our study on the Yung Sund fjord in Greenland, where lots of icebergs and sea ice are generated during the summer. In the beginning of July, sea ice breaks up first, followed by icebergs created by the different glaciers based in the ocean. During our investigation, we noticed that the iceberg and sea ice were drifting very fast and thus, we needed to adapt our methodology. To achieve our goal, we collected all remote sensing data available in the region, principally Sentinel 1/2 and LandSAT 8 during one ice free season (from July 1st 2016 to September 30th, 2016). We developed an original approach in order to detect, characterize and track icebergs and sea ice independently from data. The iceberg detection was made using a watershed technique. The advantage of this technique is that it can be applied to both optical and radar images. For the latter, calibrated intensity is transformed into an image using a scaling function, in order to make ice brighter. Land data is masked using a topographic map. When data is segmented, a statistical test derived from the CFAR approach is performed to isolate an iceberg and floating sea ice from the ocean. Finally, a method, such SIFT or BRISK is used to identify and track the different segmented object. These approaches give a representation of the object and make the tracking easier and independent of the scale and rotation, which can occur because icebergs are dependent on ocean currents and wind. Finally, to fill in the gap

Sea and Freshwater Ice Concentration from VIIRS on Suomi NPP and the Future JPSS Satellites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yinghui Liu

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Information on ice is important for shipping, weather forecasting, and climate monitoring. Historically, ice cover has been detected and ice concentration has been measured using relatively low-resolution space-based passive microwave data. This study presents an algorithm to detect ice and estimate ice concentration in clear-sky areas over the ocean and inland lakes and rivers using high-resolution data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS onboard the Suomi National Polar Orbiting Partnership (S-NPP and on future Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS satellites, providing spatial detail that cannot be obtained with passive microwave data. A threshold method is employed with visible and infrared observations to identify ice, then a tie-point algorithm is used to determine the representative reflectance/temperature of pure ice, estimate the ice concentration, and refine the ice cover mask. The VIIRS ice concentration is validated using observations from Landsat 8. Results show that VIIRS has an overall bias of −0.3% compared to Landsat 8 ice concentration, with a precision (uncertainty of 9.5%. Biases and precision values for different ice concentration subranges from 0% to 100% can be larger.

Ice Draft and Ice Velocity Data in the Beaufort Sea, 1990-2003, Version 1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This data set provides measurement of sea ice draft (m) and the movement of sea ice (cm/s) over the continental shelf of the Eastern Beaufort Sea. The data set spans...

Binary-space-partitioned images for resolving image-based visibility.

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Chi-Wing; Wong, Tien-Tsin; Tong, Wai-Shun; Tang, Chi-Keung; Hanson, Andrew J

2004-01-01

We propose a novel 2D representation for 3D visibility sorting, the Binary-Space-Partitioned Image (BSPI), to accelerate real-time image-based rendering. BSPI is an efficient 2D realization of a 3D BSP tree, which is commonly used in computer graphics for time-critical visibility sorting. Since the overall structure of a BSP tree is encoded in a BSPI, traversing a BSPI is comparable to traversing the corresponding BSP tree. BSPI performs visibility sorting efficiently and accurately in the 2D image space by warping the reference image triangle-by-triangle instead of pixel-by-pixel. Multiple BSPIs can be combined to solve "disocclusion," when an occluded portion of the scene becomes visible at a novel viewpoint. Our method is highly automatic, including a tensor voting preprocessing step that generates candidate image partition lines for BSPIs, filters the noisy input data by rejecting outliers, and interpolates missing information. Our system has been applied to a variety of real data, including stereo, motion, and range images.

Imaging of the perivertebral space.

Science.gov (United States)

Mills, Megan K; Shah, Lubdha M

2015-01-01

The perivertebral space extends from the skull base to the mediastinum and is delineated by the deep layer of the deep cervical fascia. The different tissue types, including muscles, bones, nerves, and vascular structures, give rise to the various disorders that can be seen in this space. This article defines the anatomy of the perivertebral space, guides lesion localization, discusses different disease processes arising within this space, and reviews the best imaging approaches. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Space Radar Image of Chernobyl

Science.gov (United States)

1994-01-01

This is an image of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and its surroundings, centered at 51.17 north latitude and 30.15 west longitude. The image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on its 16th orbit on October 1, 1994. The area is located on the northern border of the Ukraine Republic and was produced by using the L-band (horizontally transmitted and received) polarization. The differences in the intensity are due to differences in vegetation cover, with brighter areas being indicative of more vegetation. These data were acquired as part of a collaboration between NASA and the National Space Agency of Ukraine in Remote Sensing and Earth Sciences. NASA has included several sites provided by the Ukrainian space agency as targets of opportunity during the second flight of SIR-C/X-SAR. The Ukrainian space agency also plans to conduct airborne surveys of these sites during the mission. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is located toward the top of the image near the Pripyat River. The 12-kilometer (7.44-mile)-long cooling pond is easily distinguishable as an elongated dark shape in the center near the top of the image. The reactor complex is visible as the bright area to the extreme left of the cooling pond and the city of Chernobyl is the bright area just below the cooling pond next to the Pripyat River. The large dark area in the bottom right of the image is the Kiev Reservoir just north of Kiev. Also visible is the Dnieper River, which feeds into the Kiev Reservoir from the top of the image. The Soviet government evacuated 116,000 people within 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) of the Chernobyl reactor after the explosion and fire on April 26, 1986. Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. The radars illuminate Earth with microwaves, allowing detailed observations at any time, regardless of weather or sunlight

Photometric analysis of a space shuttle water venting

Science.gov (United States)

Viereck, R. A.; Murad, E.; Pike, C. P.; Kofsky, I. L.; Trowbridge, C. A.; Rall, D. L. A.; Satayesh, A.; Berk, A.; Elgin, J. B.

1991-01-01

Presented here is a preliminary interpretation of a recent experiment conducted on Space Shuttle Discovery (Mission STS 29) in which a stream of liquid supply water was vented into space at twilight. The data consist of video images of the sunlight-scattering water/ice particle cloud that formed, taken by visible light-sensitive intensified cameras both onboard the spacecraft and at the AMOS ground station near the trajectory's nadir. This experiment was undertaken to study the phenomenology of water columns injected into the low-Earth orbital environment, and to provide information about the lifetime of ice particles that may recontact Space Shuttle orbits later. The findings about the composition of the cloud have relevance to ionospheric plasma depletion experiments and to the dynamics of the interaction of orbiting spacecraft with the environment.

City under the Ice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Kristian Hvidtfelt

: The public image of Camp Century was one of technological comfort and military-scientific control. Amidst the raging Cold War and up against the harsh environment, the construction of the camp would prove to the public that the combined forces of the US military-technology-science complex would prevail......This paper uses Paul Edwards’ closed world metaphor to understand US involvement in Greenland during the Cold War. Closed worlds mark military-techno-scientific geographies of conflict: They refer to sealed techno-spaces of observation, containment, and control, but also to the settings in which....... However, the military logic of Camp Century was self-referential and closed in the sense that the very idea of constructing the city under ice emerged from Cold War strategy. The closed world of Camp Century established a temporary boundary between, on the one hand, the comfortable space controlled by US...

Self-calibrated correlation imaging with k-space variant correlation functions.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yu; Edalati, Masoud; Du, Xingfu; Wang, Hui; Cao, Jie J

2018-03-01

Correlation imaging is a previously developed high-speed MRI framework that converts parallel imaging reconstruction into the estimate of correlation functions. The presented work aims to demonstrate this framework can provide a speed gain over parallel imaging by estimating k-space variant correlation functions. Because of Fourier encoding with gradients, outer k-space data contain higher spatial-frequency image components arising primarily from tissue boundaries. As a result of tissue-boundary sparsity in the human anatomy, neighboring k-space data correlation varies from the central to the outer k-space. By estimating k-space variant correlation functions with an iterative self-calibration method, correlation imaging can benefit from neighboring k-space data correlation associated with both coil sensitivity encoding and tissue-boundary sparsity, thereby providing a speed gain over parallel imaging that relies only on coil sensitivity encoding. This new approach is investigated in brain imaging and free-breathing neonatal cardiac imaging. Correlation imaging performs better than existing parallel imaging techniques in simulated brain imaging acceleration experiments. The higher speed enables real-time data acquisition for neonatal cardiac imaging in which physiological motion is fast and non-periodic. With k-space variant correlation functions, correlation imaging gives a higher speed than parallel imaging and offers the potential to image physiological motion in real-time. Magn Reson Med 79:1483-1494, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Peruvian Tropical Glacier May Survive Longer Than Previously Thought: Landsat Image Analysis of Nevado Coropuna Ice Cap, Peru

Science.gov (United States)

Kochtitzky, W. H.; Edwards, B. R.; Marino, J.; Manrique, N.

2015-12-01

Nevado Coropuna is a large volcanic complex in southern Peru (15.56°S, 72.62°N; 6,425 m). The complex is approximately 12 km east-west and 8 km north-south with elevation from ~4,500 m at the base to over 6,000 m at the highest points. This ice cap is the largest hosted by a volcano in the tropics, and one of the ten biggest ice masses in the tropics. Previous workers have predicted that the Coropuna ice cap will completely melt by 2050. We present a new analysis of historic satellite imagery to test this hypothesis. In this study, ice and snow are classified based on unique spectral signatures including spectral band thresholds, Normalized Difference Snow Index, and Band 4/5 ratio. Landsat scenes (L2, 4, 5, 7, and 8) from 1975 to present in addition to one SPOT scene (2013) are used. Previous workers used images from June and July, which are peak snow periods in southern Peru, leading to overestimates of ice area. This study uses November and December images when snow is at an annual minimum. Annual equilibrium line altitudes are calculated for each end of year image (November/December). The glaciers of Nevado Coropuna were found to be shrinking at ~0.5 km2/yr, which is ~1/3 the rate previously published. In this study, SPOT (1.5 m resolution) and Landsat 7 ETM scenes from November 23 and 26, 2013 respectively were used to calibrate the spectral band threshold classification. While this study suggests that the ice cap of Coropuna will persist until 2100 given current rates, water quantity and security remains a concern for Peruvian agriculture. Coropuna is an active volcano, so it poses great risk to surrounding inhabitants from lahars, flooding, and debris avalanches. Our new data suggest that these will continue to be risks late into this century.

14 CFR 29.1419 - Ice protection.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Ice protection. 29.1419 Section 29.1419... STANDARDS: TRANSPORT CATEGORY ROTORCRAFT Equipment Safety Equipment § 29.1419 Ice protection. (a) To obtain... of the ice protection system for the various components of the rotorcraft. (c) In addition to the...

14 CFR 25.1419 - Ice protection.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Ice protection. 25.1419 Section 25.1419... STANDARDS: TRANSPORT CATEGORY AIRPLANES Equipment Safety Equipment § 25.1419 Ice protection. If the...) An analysis must be performed to establish that the ice protection for the various components of the...

14 CFR 27.1419 - Ice protection.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Ice protection. 27.1419 Section 27.1419... STANDARDS: NORMAL CATEGORY ROTORCRAFT Equipment Safety Equipment § 27.1419 Ice protection. (a) To obtain..., the adequacy of the ice protection system for the various components of the rotorcraft. (c) In...

Greenland Radar Ice Sheet Thickness Measurements

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Two 150-MHz coherent radar depth sounders were developed and flown over the Greenland ice sheet to obtain ice thickness measurements in support of PARCA...

Space use of a dominant Arctic vertebrate: Effects of prey, sea ice, and land on Pacific walrus resource selection

Science.gov (United States)

Beatty, William; Jay, Chadwick V.; Fischbach, Anthony S.; Grebmeier, Jacqueline M.; Taylor, Rebecca L.; Blanchard, Arny L.; Jewett, Stephen C.

2016-01-01

Sea ice dominates marine ecosystems in the Arctic, and recent reductions in sea ice may alter food webs throughout the region. Sea ice loss may also stress Pacific walruses (Odobenus rosmarus divergens), which feed on benthic macroinvertebrates in the Bering and Chukchi seas. However, no studies have examined the effects of sea ice on foraging Pacific walrus space use patterns. We tested a series of hypotheses that examined walrus foraging resource selection as a function of proximity to resting substrates and prey biomass. We quantified walrus prey biomass with 17 benthic invertebrate families, which included bivalves, polychaetes, amphipods, tunicates, and sipunculids. We included covariates for distance to sea ice and distance to land, and systematically developed a series of candidate models to examine interactions among benthic prey biomass and resting substrates. We ranked candidate models with Bayesian Information Criterion and made inferences on walrus resource selection based on the top-ranked model. Based on the top model, biomass of the bivalve family Tellinidae, distance to ice, distance to land, and the interaction of distances to ice and land all positively influenced walrus foraging resource selection. Standardized model coefficients indicated that distance to ice explained the most variation in walrus foraging resource selection followed by Tellinidae biomass. Distance to land and the interaction of distances to ice and land accounted for similar levels of variation. Tellinidae biomass likely represented an index of overall bivalve biomass, indicating walruses focused foraging in areas with elevated levels of bivalve and tellinid biomass. Our results also emphasize the importance of sea ice to walruses. Projected sea ice loss will increase the duration of the open water season in the Chukchi Sea, altering the spatial distribution of resting sites relative to current foraging areas and possibly affecting the spatial structure of benthic communities.

IceT users' guide and reference.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moreland, Kenneth D.

2011-01-01

The Image Composition Engine for Tiles (IceT) is a high-performance sort-last parallel rendering library. In addition to providing accelerated rendering for a standard display, IceT provides the unique ability to generate images for tiled displays. The overall resolution of the display may be several times larger than any viewport that may be rendered by a single machine. This document is an overview of the user interface to IceT.

IceT users' guide and reference.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moreland, Kenneth D.

2009-06-01

The Image Composition Engine for Tiles (IceT) is a high-performance sort-last parallel rendering library. In addition to providing accelerated rendering for a standard display, IceT provides the unique ability to generate images for tiled displays. The overall resolution of the display may be several times larger than any viewport that may be rendered by a single machine. This document is an overview of the user interface to IceT.

STS-48 ESC Earth observation of ice pack, Antarctic Ice Shelf

Science.gov (United States)

1991-01-01

STS-48 Earth observation taken aboard Discovery, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 103, is of the breakup of pack ice along the periphery of the Antarctic Ice Shelf. Strong offshore winds, probably associated with katabatic downdrafts from the interior of the continent, are seen peeling off the edges of the ice shelf into long filaments of sea ice, icebergs, bergy bits, and growlers to flow northward into the South Atlantic Ocean. These photos are used to study ocean wind, tide and current patterns. Similar views photographed during previous missions, when analyzed with these recent views may yield information about regional ice drift and breakup of ice packs. The image was captured using an electronic still camera (ESC), was stored on a removable hard disk or small optical disk, and was converted to a format suitable for downlink transmission. The ESC documentation was part of Development Test Objective (DTO) 648, Electronic Still Photography.

NO ICE HYDROGENATION: A SOLID PATHWAY TO NH2OH FORMATION IN SPACE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Congiu, Emanuele; Dulieu, François; Chaabouni, Henda; Baouche, Saoud; Lemaire, Jean Louis; Fedoseev, Gleb; Ioppolo, Sergio; Lamberts, Thanja; Linnartz, Harold; Laffon, Carine; Parent, Philippe; Cuppen, Herma M.

2012-01-01

Icy dust grains in space act as catalytic surfaces onto which complex molecules form. These molecules are synthesized through exothermic reactions from precursor radicals and, mostly, hydrogen atom additions. Among the resulting products are species of biological relevance, such as hydroxylamine—NH 2 OH—a precursor molecule in the formation of amino acids. In this Letter, laboratory experiments are described that demonstrate NH 2 OH formation in interstellar ice analogs for astronomically relevant temperatures via successive hydrogenation reactions of solid nitric oxide (NO). Inclusion of the experimental results in an astrochemical gas-grain model proves the importance of a solid-state NO+H reaction channel as a starting point for prebiotic species in dark interstellar clouds and adds a new perspective to the way molecules of biological importance may form in space.

Image Enhancement In HSI Space Using Wavelet Transform

Science.gov (United States)

Bansal, Sonia; Malhotra, Deepti

2010-11-01

Image processing modifies images to improve them (enhancement, restoration), extract information (analysis, recognition), and change their structure (composition, image editing). Image Enhancement is simple and most appealing area among all the digital image processing techniques. The main purpose of image enhancement is to bring out detail that is hidden in an image or to increase contrast in a low contrast image [1]. The color restoration functions of some real color image enhancement algorithms are greatly at random and not proved , and the real color images enhanced which are based on illumination-reflectance model have the loss of details and the `halos', we proposed a new algorithm to overcome these disadvantages. Firstly, we transform the real color image from RGB space to HSI space which is approximately orthonormal system. Secondly, the illumination and the reflectance of value are separated by homomorphic filtering based on illumination-reflectance model. We have discovered that the high dynamic range of image including high bright lights is mainly caused by the reflectance. Thirdly, the details of reflectance are preserved by wavelet transform. Fourthly, the dynamic range of reflectance is compressed by Butterworth filtering. Lastly, the energy of the saturation of real color image in HSI space is attenuated according to the spectral sensitivity of most human vision.

Use of discrete chromatic space to tune the image tone in a color image mosaic

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zuxun; Li, Zhijiang; Zhang, Jianqing; Zheng, Li

2003-09-01

Color image process is a very important problem. However, the main approach presently of them is to transfer RGB colour space into another colour space, such as HIS (Hue, Intensity and Saturation). YIQ, LUV and so on. Virutally, it may not be a valid way to process colour airborne image just in one colour space. Because the electromagnetic wave is physically altered in every wave band, while the color image is perceived based on psychology vision. Therefore, it's necessary to propose an approach accord with physical transformation and psychological perception. Then, an analysis on how to use relative colour spaces to process colour airborne photo is discussed and an application on how to tune the image tone in colour airborne image mosaic is introduced. As a practice, a complete approach to perform the mosaic on color airborne images via taking full advantage of relative color spaces is discussed in the application.

Mesoscopic surface roughness of ice crystals pervasive across a wide range of ice crystal conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Magee, N. B.; Miller, A.; Amaral, M.; Cumiskey, A.

2014-11-01

Here we show high-magnification images of hexagonal ice crystals acquired by environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM). Most ice crystals were grown and sublimated in the water vapor environment of an FEI-Quanta-200 ESEM, but crystals grown in a laboratory diffusion chamber were also transferred intact and imaged via ESEM. All of these images display prominent mesoscopic topography including linear striations, ridges, islands, steps, peaks, pits, and crevasses; the roughness is not observed to be confined to prism facets. The observations represent the most highly magnified images of ice surfaces yet reported and expand the range of conditions in which rough surface features are known to be conspicuous. Microscale surface topography is seen to be ubiquitously present at temperatures ranging from -10 °C to -40 °C, in supersaturated and subsaturated conditions, on all crystal facets, and irrespective of substrate. Despite the constant presence of surface roughness, the patterns of roughness are observed to be dramatically different between growing and sublimating crystals, and transferred crystals also display qualitatively different patterns of roughness. Crystals are also demonstrated to sometimes exhibit inhibited growth in moderately supersaturated conditions following exposure to near-equilibrium conditions, a phenomenon interpreted as evidence of 2-D nucleation. New knowledge about the characteristics of these features could affect the fundamental understanding of ice surfaces and their physical parameterization in the context of satellite retrievals and cloud modeling. Links to supplemental videos of ice growth and sublimation are provided.

Statistical Analysis of SSMIS Sea Ice Concentration Threshold at the Arctic Sea Ice Edge during Summer Based on MODIS and Ship-Based Observational Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Ji, Qing; Li, Fei; Pang, Xiaoping; Luo, Cong

2018-04-05

The threshold of sea ice concentration (SIC) is the basis for accurately calculating sea ice extent based on passive microwave (PM) remote sensing data. However, the PM SIC threshold at the sea ice edge used in previous studies and released sea ice products has not always been consistent. To explore the representable value of the PM SIC threshold corresponding on average to the position of the Arctic sea ice edge during summer in recent years, we extracted sea ice edge boundaries from the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sea ice product (MOD29 with a spatial resolution of 1 km), MODIS images (250 m), and sea ice ship-based observation points (1 km) during the fifth (CHINARE-2012) and sixth (CHINARE-2014) Chinese National Arctic Research Expeditions, and made an overlay and comparison analysis with PM SIC derived from Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS, with a spatial resolution of 25 km) in the summer of 2012 and 2014. Results showed that the average SSMIS SIC threshold at the Arctic sea ice edge based on ice-water boundary lines extracted from MOD29 was 33%, which was higher than that of the commonly used 15% discriminant threshold. The average SIC threshold at sea ice edge based on ice-water boundary lines extracted by visual interpretation from four scenes of the MODIS image was 35% when compared to the average value of 36% from the MOD29 extracted ice edge pixels for the same days. The average SIC of 31% at the sea ice edge points extracted from ship-based observations also confirmed that choosing around 30% as the SIC threshold during summer is recommended for sea ice extent calculations based on SSMIS PM data. These results can provide a reference for further studying the variation of sea ice under the rapidly changing Arctic.

Victoria Land, Ross Sea, and Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Science.gov (United States)

2002-01-01

On December 19, 2001, MODIS acquired data that produced this image of Antarctica's Victoria Land, Ross Ice Shelf, and the Ross Sea. The coastline that runs up and down along the left side of the image denotes where Victoria Land (left) meets the Ross Ice Shelf (right). The Ross Ice Shelf is the world's largest floating body of ice, approximately the same size as France. Credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Sea ice local surface topography from single-pass satellite InSAR measurements: a feasibility study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W. Dierking

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Quantitative parameters characterizing the sea ice surface topography are needed in geophysical investigations such as studies on atmosphere–ice interactions or sea ice mechanics. Recently, the use of space-borne single-pass interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR for retrieving the ice surface topography has attracted notice among geophysicists. In this paper the potential of InSAR measurements is examined for several satellite configurations and radar frequencies, considering statistics of heights and widths of ice ridges as well as possible magnitudes of ice drift. It is shown that, theoretically, surface height variations can be retrieved with relative errors  ≤  0.5 m. In practice, however, the sea ice drift and open water leads may contribute significantly to the measured interferometric phase. Another essential factor is the dependence of the achievable interferometric baseline on the satellite orbit configurations. Possibilities to assess the influence of different factors on the measurement accuracy are demonstrated: signal-to-noise ratio, presence of a snow layer, and the penetration depth into the ice. Practical examples of sea surface height retrievals from bistatic SAR images collected during the TanDEM-X Science Phase are presented.

An ice-motion tracking system at the Alaska SAR facility

Science.gov (United States)

Kwok, Ronald; Curlander, John C.; Pang, Shirley S.; Mcconnell, Ross

1990-01-01

An operational system for extracting ice-motion information from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery is being developed as part of the Alaska SAR Facility. This geophysical processing system (GPS) will derive ice-motion information by automated analysis of image sequences acquired by radars on the European ERS-1, Japanese ERS-1, and Canadian RADARSAT remote sensing satellites. The algorithm consists of a novel combination of feature-based and area-based techniques for the tracking of ice floes that undergo translation and rotation between imaging passes. The system performs automatic selection of the image pairs for input to the matching routines using an ice-motion estimator. It is designed to have a daily throughput of ten image pairs. A description is given of the GPS system, including an overview of the ice-motion-tracking algorithm, the system architecture, and the ice-motion products that will be available for distribution to geophysical data users.

Remote sensing of sea ice: advances during the DAMOCLES project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Heygster

2012-12-01

Full Text Available In the Arctic, global warming is particularly pronounced so that we need to monitor its development continuously. On the other hand, the vast and hostile conditions make in situ observation difficult, so that available satellite observations should be exploited in the best possible way to extract geophysical information. Here, we give a résumé of the sea ice remote sensing efforts of the European Union's (EU project DAMOCLES (Developing Arctic Modeling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term Environmental Studies. In order to better understand the seasonal variation of the microwave emission of sea ice observed from space, the monthly variations of the microwave emissivity of first-year and multi-year sea ice have been derived for the frequencies of the microwave imagers like AMSR-E (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on EOS and sounding frequencies of AMSU (Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit, and have been used to develop an optimal estimation method to retrieve sea ice and atmospheric parameters simultaneously. In addition, a sea ice microwave emissivity model has been used together with a thermodynamic model to establish relations between the emissivities from 6 GHz to 50 GHz. At the latter frequency, the emissivity is needed for assimilation into atmospheric circulation models, but is more difficult to observe directly. The size of the snow grains on top of the sea ice influences both its albedo and the microwave emission. A method to determine the effective size of the snow grains from observations in the visible range (MODIS is developed and demonstrated in an application on the Ross ice shelf. The bidirectional reflectivity distribution function (BRDF of snow, which is an essential input parameter to the retrieval, has been measured in situ on Svalbard during the DAMOCLES campaign, and a BRDF model assuming aspherical particles is developed. Sea ice drift and deformation is derived from satellite observations with the scatterometer

Balance of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Science.gov (United States)

2002-01-01

For several decades, measurements of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet showed it to be retreating rapidly. But new data derived from satellite-borne radar sensors show the ice sheet to be growing. Changing Antarctic ice sheets remains an area of high scientific interest, particularly in light of recent global warming concerns. These new findings are significant because scientists estimate that sea level would rise 5-6 meters (16-20 feet) if the ice sheet collapsed into the sea. Do these new measurements signal the end of the ice sheet's 10,000-year retreat? Or, are these new satellite data simply much more accurate than the sparse ice core and surface measurements that produced the previous estimates? Another possibility is that the ice accumulation may simply indicate that the ice sheet naturally expands and retreats in regular cycles. Cryologists will grapple with these questions, and many others, as they examine the new data. The image above depicts the region of West Antarctica where scientists measured ice speed. The fast-moving central ice streams are shown in red. Slower tributaries feeding the ice streams are shown in blue. Green areas depict slow-moving, stable areas. Thick black lines depict the areas that collect snowfall to feed their respective ice streams. Reference: Ian Joughin and Slawek Tulaczyk Science Jan 18 2002: 476-480. Image courtesy RADARSAT Antarctic Mapping Project

P-band radar ice sounding in Antarctica

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dall, Jørgen; Kusk, Anders; Kristensen, Steen Savstrup

2012-01-01

In February 2011, the Polarimetric Airborne Radar Ice Sounder (POLARIS) was flown in Antarctica in order to assess the feasibility of a potential space-based radar ice sounding mission. The campaign has demonstrated that the basal return is detectable in areas with up to 3 km thick cold ice, in a...

Ice as a Construction Material

Science.gov (United States)

Zuppero, Anthony; Lewis, Joseph

1998-01-01

The use of ice as a construction material is discussed. A model of an ice tire torus space ship, which slowly spins to produce artificial gravity is proposed. The size of the ship, needed to support a given number of people and the required envelope mass is presented.

Imaging spectroscopy to assess the composition of ice surface materials and their impact on glacier mass balance

Science.gov (United States)

Naegeli, Kathrin; Huss, Matthias; Damm, Alexander; de Jong, Rogier; Schaepman, Michael; Hoelzle, Martin

2014-05-01

The ice-albedo feedback plays a crucial role in various glaciological processes, but especially influences ice melt. Glacier surface albedo is one of the most important variables in the energy balance of snow and ice, but depends in a complicated way on many factors, such as cryoconite concentration, impurities due to mineral dust, soot or organic matter, grain size or ice surface morphology. Our understanding on how these various factors influence glacier albedo is still limited hindering a spatially and temporally explicit parameterization of energy balance models and requiring strongly simplified assumptions on actual albedo values. Over the last two decades, several studies have focused on glacier surface albedo using automatic in-situ weather stations in combination with radiation measurement setups or satellite images. Due to limitations of both approaches in matching either the spatial or the temporal length scale of glacier albedo, still fairly little is known about the state, changes and impact of glacier surface albedo in the Swiss Alps, although there are obvious changes in surface characteristics on most alpine glaciers over the last years. With use of the APEX (Airborne Prism EXperiment) image spectrometer, measurements of reflected radiation were acquired in high spatial and spectral resolution on Glacier de la Plaine Morte, Switzerland, to explicitly analyse the ice surface. In-situ radiometric measurements were acquired with an ASD field spectrometer in parallel to APEX overflights. These data are intended to be used for validation purposes as well as input data for the linear spectral unmixing analysis of the APEX data. Seasonal glacier mass balance is monitored since five years using the direct glaciological method. This contribution presents a first evaluation of the data collected in summer 2013. The obtained in-situ and airborne reflectance measurements were used in combination with a spectral mixture analysis (SMA) approach to assess the

Sea-ice deformation in a coupled ocean–sea-ice model and in satellite remote sensing data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Spreen

2017-07-01

Full Text Available A realistic representation of sea-ice deformation in models is important for accurate simulation of the sea-ice mass balance. Simulated sea-ice deformation from numerical simulations with 4.5, 9, and 18 km horizontal grid spacing and a viscous–plastic (VP sea-ice rheology are compared with synthetic aperture radar (SAR satellite observations (RGPS, RADARSAT Geophysical Processor System for the time period 1996–2008. All three simulations can reproduce the large-scale ice deformation patterns, but small-scale sea-ice deformations and linear kinematic features (LKFs are not adequately reproduced. The mean sea-ice total deformation rate is about 40 % lower in all model solutions than in the satellite observations, especially in the seasonal sea-ice zone. A decrease in model grid spacing, however, produces a higher density and more localized ice deformation features. The 4.5 km simulation produces some linear kinematic features, but not with the right frequency. The dependence on length scale and probability density functions (PDFs of absolute divergence and shear for all three model solutions show a power-law scaling behavior similar to RGPS observations, contrary to what was found in some previous studies. Overall, the 4.5 km simulation produces the most realistic divergence, vorticity, and shear when compared with RGPS data. This study provides an evaluation of high and coarse-resolution viscous–plastic sea-ice simulations based on spatial distribution, time series, and power-law scaling metrics.

Snow, ice and solar radiation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuipers Munneke, P.

2009-01-01

The snow-covered ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland reflect most of the incoming solar radiation. The reflectivity, commonly called the albedo, of snow on these ice sheets has been observed to vary in space and time. In this thesis, temporal and spatial changes in snow albedo is found to depend

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Sea Ice Characterization (SIC) Environmental Data Record (EDR) from IDPS

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains an Environmental Data Record (EDR) of Sea Ice Characterization (SIC) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument...

Distribution and development of algal photosynthesis in sea ice during a spring bloom: A novel application of Imaging-PAM fluorometry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hawes, Ian; Lund-Hansen, Lars Chresten; Sorrell, Brian Keith

were able to migrate with ice growth. Furthermore, increases in maximum fluorescence (Fm) and photosynthesis yield (Y) allowed us to document the progression of a spring bloom in algal biomass and activity. Maximum light intensities in the ice algal communities were ca. 40 µmol PPFD m-2 s-1 and light......Sea ice algae are important marine primary producers that may contribute as much as 15% of total global carbon fixation. The difficulties of studying photosynthesis in ice have, however, hampered accurate assessments of their productivity, and much previous research has involved liquid...... cores from the Kangerlussuaq Fjord, Greenland, over two weeks in March 2011, and used Imaging-PAM to explore the spatial distribution of algal biomass (predominantly pennate diatoms), fluorescence yield, and light response curves. Algae were largely confined to the lowest 1 cm of the ice column, where...

Multiscale Observation System for Sea Ice Drift and Deformation

Science.gov (United States)

Lensu, M.; Haapala, J. J.; Heiler, I.; Karvonen, J.; Suominen, M.

2011-12-01

The drift and deformation of sea ice cover is most commonly followed from successive SAR images. The time interval between the images is seldom less than one day which provides rather crude approximation of the motion fields as ice can move tens of kilometers per day. This is particulary so from the viewpoint of operative services, seeking to provide real time information for ice navigating ships and other end users, as leads are closed and opened or ridge fields created in time scales of one hour or less. The ice forecast models are in a need of better temporal resolution for ice motion data as well. We present experiences from a multiscale monitoring system set up to the Bay of Bothnia, the northernmost basin of the Baltic Sea. The basin generates difficult ice conditions every winter while the ports are kept open with the help of an icebreaker fleet. The key addition to SAR imagery is the use of coastal radars for the monitoring of coastal ice fields. An independent server is used to tap the radar signal and process it to suit ice monitoring purposes. This is done without interfering the basic use of the radars, the ship traffic monitoring. About 20 images per minute are captured and sent to the headquarters for motion field extraction, website animation and distribution. This provides very detailed real time picture of the ice movement and deformation within 20 km range. The real time movements are followed in addition with ice drifter arrays, and using AIS ship identification data, from which the translation of ship cannels due to ice drift can be found out. To the operative setup is associated an extensive research effort that uses the data for ice drift model enhancement. The Baltic ice models seek to forecast conditions relevant to ship traffic, especilly hazardous ones like severe ice compression. The main missing link here is downscaling, or the relation of local scale ice dynamics and kinematics to the ice model scale behaviour. The data flow when

Cometary nucleus release experiments and ice physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huebner, W.F.

1976-01-01

Some physical and chemical processes involved in the evaporation and sublimation of mixtures of frozen gases are discussed. Effects of zero gravity, vacuum and solar radiation are emphasized. Relevant experiments that can be carried out with the aid of the space shuttle are proposed. The ice surface and the space just above the surface, i.e., the physics and chemistry of ice sublimation are mainly considered

Imaging analyses of odontogenic infection involving the maxillofacial fascial spaces, with special emphasis on the parapharyngeal space

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ariji, Yoshiko; Gotoh, Masakazu; Izumi, Masahiro; Naitoh, Munetaka; Kurita, Kenichi; Natsume, Nagato; Ariji, Eiichiro [Aichi-Gakuin Univ., Nisshin (Japan). School of Dentistry

2002-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate odontogenic infection pathways into the maxillofacial fascial spaces, especially into the parapharyngeal space, in relation to causal tooth and clinical symptoms. CT and MR images were retrospectively investigated in 47 patients with spread of odontogenic infection into the maxillofacial spaces. The involvement of spaces was evaluated based on lateral asymmetry of their shapes and density on CT images or intensity on MR images. Involvement on images was observed in 70%, 49%, and 30% of the submandibular, the masticator, and the parapharyngeal spaces, respectively. Patients with submandibular space involvement often had spontaneous pain. Of 14 patients with parapharyngeal space involvement, 8 patients showed dysphagia and/or fever, and 13 patients showed involvement of the mandibular molar as a cause of infection. All of these 14 patients also had submandibular space involvement, while only 7 patients (50%) showed changes in the medial pterygoid muscle. The fat layer between the medial pterygoid muscle and parapharyngeal space was maintained in 11 of 14 (79%) patients with parapharyngeal involvement. CT and MR images clearly demonstrated the spread of odontogenic infection into the maxillofacial spaces. Involvement of the parapharyngeal space was mostly caused by infection originating in the mandibular molar, and was considered to be secondary spread from the submandibular space and/or medial pterygoid muscle. (author)

Image reconstruction in k-space from MR data encoded with ambiguous gradient fields.

Science.gov (United States)

Schultz, Gerrit; Gallichan, Daniel; Weber, Hans; Witschey, Walter R T; Honal, Matthias; Hennig, Jürgen; Zaitsev, Maxim

2015-02-01

In this work, the limits of image reconstruction in k-space are explored when non-bijective gradient fields are used for spatial encoding. The image space analogy between parallel imaging and imaging with non-bijective encoding fields is partially broken in k-space. As a consequence, it is hypothesized and proven that ambiguities can only be resolved partially in k-space, and not completely as is the case in image space. Image-space and k-space based reconstruction algorithms for multi-channel radiofrequency data acquisitions are programmed and tested using numerical simulations as well as in vivo measurement data. The hypothesis is verified based on an analysis of reconstructed images. It is found that non-bijective gradient fields have the effect that densely sampled autocalibration data, used for k-space reconstruction, provide less information than a separate scan of the receiver coil sensitivity maps, used for image space reconstruction. Consequently, in k-space only the undersampling artifact can be unfolded, whereas in image space, it is also possible to resolve aliasing that is caused by the non-bijectivity of the gradient fields. For standard imaging, reconstruction in image space and in k-space is nearly equivalent, whereas there is a fundamental difference with practical consequences for the selection of image reconstruction algorithms when non-bijective encoding fields are involved. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

NO ICE HYDROGENATION: A SOLID PATHWAY TO NH{sub 2}OH FORMATION IN SPACE

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Congiu, Emanuele; Dulieu, Francois; Chaabouni, Henda; Baouche, Saoud; Lemaire, Jean Louis [LERMA-LAMAp, Universite de Cergy-Pontoise, Observatoire de Paris, ENS, UPMC, UMR 8112 du CNRS, 5 Mail Gay Lussac, 95000 Cergy Pontoise Cedex (France); Fedoseev, Gleb; Ioppolo, Sergio; Lamberts, Thanja; Linnartz, Harold [Raymond and Beverly Sackler Laboratory for Astrophysics, Leiden Observatory, University of Leiden, P.O. Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden (Netherlands); Laffon, Carine; Parent, Philippe [Laboratoire de Chimie-Physique, Matiere et Rayonnement, Universite Pierre-et-Marie Curie (Paris 06) and CNRS (UMR 7614), 11 rue Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, 75231 Paris (France); Cuppen, Herma M., E-mail: emanuele.congiu@u-cergy.fr [Faculty of Science, Radboud University Nijmegen, IMM, P.O. Box 9010, NL 6500 GL Nijmegen (Netherlands)

2012-05-01

Icy dust grains in space act as catalytic surfaces onto which complex molecules form. These molecules are synthesized through exothermic reactions from precursor radicals and, mostly, hydrogen atom additions. Among the resulting products are species of biological relevance, such as hydroxylamine-NH{sub 2}OH-a precursor molecule in the formation of amino acids. In this Letter, laboratory experiments are described that demonstrate NH{sub 2}OH formation in interstellar ice analogs for astronomically relevant temperatures via successive hydrogenation reactions of solid nitric oxide (NO). Inclusion of the experimental results in an astrochemical gas-grain model proves the importance of a solid-state NO+H reaction channel as a starting point for prebiotic species in dark interstellar clouds and adds a new perspective to the way molecules of biological importance may form in space.

MR imaging of masticator space infection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seong, Chang Kyu; Han, Moon Hee; Kim, Hong Dae; Park, Byung Kwan; Lee, In Hee; Chang, Kee Hyun; Kim, Sam Soo

1998-01-01

To identify the characteristic appearances of masticator space infection, as seen on magnetic resonance(MR) imaging. We retrospectively reviewed the MR images of 23 patients with clinically and bacteriologically proven masticator space infection, with attention to the involved structures, spread pattern, abscess formation, mandibular involvement, and etiology. The masseter muscle was involved in 21 of 23 cases, while the cases, medial pterygoid, lateral pterygoid, and temporalis muscles were involved in 14, 12 , and 13 cases, respectively. All muscles in the masticator space were involved in eight cases and only a single muscle in five. In all but one case, extension through the muscle plane was noted, and in 10 cases, transfascial extension was seen. Abscess formation was noted in seven cases. Mandibular involvement was seen in 16 cases, half of which showed focal cortical disruption. The source of infection was odontogenous in 15 cases, with frequent involvement of the mandible and masseter. Masticator space infection frequently originated from an odontogenous source. the characteristic MR appearances of this infection included extension through the muscle plane and frequent transfascial spread to adjacent deep cervical spaces, as well as common mandibular involvement with or without cortical disruption of focal pattern.=20

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Ice Thickness and Age Environmental Data Records (EDRs) from NDE

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of Ice Thickness and Age from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)...

Ice Caps and Ice Belts: The Effects of Obliquity on Ice−Albedo Feedback

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rose, Brian E. J. [Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University at Albany (State University of New York), 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222 (United States); Cronin, Timothy W. [Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Bitz, Cecilia M., E-mail: brose@albany.edu [Department of Atmospheric Sciences, MS 351640, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1640 (United States)

2017-09-01

Planetary obliquity determines the meridional distribution of the annual mean insolation. For obliquity exceeding 55°, the weakest insolation occurs at the equator. Stable partial snow and ice cover on such a planet would be in the form of a belt about the equator rather than polar caps. An analytical model of planetary climate is used to investigate the stability of ice caps and ice belts over the widest possible range of parameters. The model is a non-dimensional diffusive Energy Balance Model, representing insolation, heat transport, and ice−albedo feedback on a spherical planet. A complete analytical solution for any obliquity is given and validated against numerical solutions of a seasonal model in the “deep-water” regime of weak seasonal ice line migration. Multiple equilibria and unstable transitions between climate states (ice-free, Snowball, or ice cap/belt) are found over wide swaths of parameter space, including a “Large Ice-Belt Instability” and “Small Ice-Belt Instability” at high obliquity. The Snowball catastrophe is avoided at weak radiative forcing in two different scenarios: weak albedo feedback and inefficient heat transport (favoring stable partial ice cover), or efficient transport at high obliquity (favoring ice-free conditions). From speculative assumptions about distributions of planetary parameters, three-fourths to four-fifths of all planets with stable partial ice cover should be in the form of Earth-like polar caps.

Space-Ready Advanced Imaging System, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — In this Phase II effort Toyon will increase the state-of-the-art for video/image systems. This will include digital image compression algorithms as well as system...

A multisensor approach to sea ice classification for the validation of DMSP-SSM/I passive microwave derived sea ice products

Science.gov (United States)

Steffen, K.; Schweiger, A. J.

1990-01-01

The validation of sea ice products derived from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) on board a DMSP platform is examined using data from the Landsat MSS and NOAA-AVHRR sensors. Image processing techniques for retrieving ice concentrations from each type of imagery are developed and results are intercompared to determine the ice parameter retrieval accuracy of the SSM/I NASA-Team algorithm. For case studies in the Beaufort Sea and East Greenland Sea, average retrieval errors of the SSM/I algorithm are between 1.7 percent for spring conditions and 4.3 percent during freeze up in comparison with Landsat derived ice concentrations. For a case study in the East Greenland Sea, SSM/I derived ice concentration in comparison with AVHRR imagery display a mean error of 9.6 percent.

Sea Ice Monitoring from Space with Synthetic Aperture Radar

Science.gov (United States)

Eltoft, T.; Dierking, W.; Doulgeris, A.; Kasapoglu, G.; Kraemer, T.

2013-03-01

This paper summarizes the knowledge status in some areas of SAR monitoring of sea ice. It starts with a brief summary of the whitepaper by Breivik et al. from OceanObs’09 [3], and then focuses on segmentation and classification, drift estimation, and assimilation strategies, which are considered as key areas in the development of more mature sea ice products from SAR and polarimetric SAR (PoLSAR) data.

14 CFR Appendix C to Part 125 - Ice Protection

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Ice Protection C Appendix C to Part 125...—Ice Protection If certification with ice protection provisions is desired, compliance with the following must be shown: (a) The recommended procedures for the use of the ice protection equipment must be...

Active/passive microwave sensor comparison of MIZ-ice concentration estimates. [Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ)

Science.gov (United States)

Burns, B. A.; Cavalieri, D. J.; Keller, M. R.

1986-01-01

Active and passive microwave data collected during the 1984 summer Marginal Ice Zone Experiment in the Fram Strait (MIZEX 84) are used to compare ice concentration estimates derived from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to those obtained from passive microwave imagery at several frequencies. The comparison is carried out to evaluate SAR performance against the more established passive microwave technique, and to investigate discrepancies in terms of how ice surface conditions, imaging geometry, and choice of algorithm parameters affect each sensor. Active and passive estimates of ice concentration agree on average to within 12%. Estimates from the multichannel passive microwave data show best agreement with the SAR estimates because the multichannel algorithm effectively accounts for the range in ice floe brightness temperatures observed in the MIZ.

Attenuation of multiples in image space

Science.gov (United States)

Alvarez, Gabriel F.

In complex subsurface areas, attenuation of 3D specular and diffracted multiples in data space is difficult and inaccurate. In those areas, image space is an attractive alternative. There are several reasons: (1) migration increases the signal-to-noise ratio of the data; (2) primaries are mapped to coherent events in Subsurface Offset Domain Common Image Gathers (SODCIGs) or Angle Domain Common Image Gathers (ADCIGs); (3) image space is regular and smaller; (4) attenuating the multiples in data space leaves holes in the frequency-Wavenumber space that generate artifacts after migration. I develop a new equation for the residual moveout of specular multiples in ADCIGs and use it for the kernel of an apex-shifted Radon transform to focus and separate the primaries from specular and diffracted multiples. Because of small amplitude, phase and kinematic errors in the multiple estimate, we need adaptive matching and subtraction to estimate the primaries. I pose this problem as an iterative least-squares inversion that simultaneously matches the estimates of primaries and multiples to the data. Standard methods match only the estimate of the multiples. I demonstrate with real and synthetic data that the method produces primaries and multiples with little cross-talk. In 3D, the multiples exhibit residual moveout in SODCIGs in in-line and cross-line offsets. They map away from zero subsurface offsets when migrated with the faster velocity of the primaries. In ADCIGs the residual moveout of the primaries as a function of the aperture angle, for a given azimuth, is flat for those angles that illuminate the reflector. The multiples have residual moveout towards increasing depth for increasing aperture angles at all azimuths. As a function of azimuth, the primaries have better azimuth resolution than the multiples at larger aperture angles. I show, with a real 3D dataset, that even below salt, where illumination is poor, the multiples are well attenuated in ADCIGs with the new

Efficient Mosaicking of Spitzer Space Telescope Images

Science.gov (United States)

Jacob, Joseph; Makovoz, David; Eisenhardt, Peter

2007-01-01

A parallel version of the MOPEX software, which generates mosaics of infrared astronomical images acquired by the Spitzer Space Telescope, extends the capabilities of the prior serial version. In the parallel version, both the input image space and the output mosaic space are divided among the available parallel processors. This is the only software that performs the point-source detection and the rejection of spurious imaging effects of cosmic rays required by Spitzer scientists. This software includes components that implement outlier-detection algorithms that can be fine-tuned for a particular set of image data by use of a number of adjustable parameters. This software has been used to construct a mosaic of the Spitzer Infrared Array Camera Shallow Survey, which comprises more than 17,000 exposures in four wavelength bands from 3.6 to 8 m and spans a solid angle of about 9 square degrees. When this software was executed on 32 nodes of the 1,024-processor Cosmos cluster computer at NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a speedup of 8.3 was achieved over the serial version of MOPEX. The performance is expected to improve dramatically once a true parallel file system is installed on Cosmos.

There goes the sea ice: following Arctic sea ice parcels and their properties.

Science.gov (United States)

Tschudi, M. A.; Tooth, M.; Meier, W.; Stewart, S.

2017-12-01

Arctic sea ice distribution has changed considerably over the last couple of decades. Sea ice extent record minimums have been observed in recent years, the distribution of ice age now heavily favors younger ice, and sea ice is likely thinning. This new state of the Arctic sea ice cover has several impacts, including effects on marine life, feedback on the warming of the ocean and atmosphere, and on the future evolution of the ice pack. The shift in the state of the ice cover, from a pack dominated by older ice, to the current state of a pack with mostly young ice, impacts specific properties of the ice pack, and consequently the pack's response to the changing Arctic climate. For example, younger ice typically contains more numerous melt ponds during the melt season, resulting in a lower albedo. First-year ice is typically thinner and more fragile than multi-year ice, making it more susceptible to dynamic and thermodynamic forcing. To investigate the response of the ice pack to climate forcing during summertime melt, we have developed a database that tracks individual Arctic sea ice parcels along with associated properties as these parcels advect during the summer. Our database tracks parcels in the Beaufort Sea, from 1985 - present, along with variables such as ice surface temperature, albedo, ice concentration, and convergence. We are using this database to deduce how these thousands of tracked parcels fare during summer melt, i.e. what fraction of the parcels advect through the Beaufort, and what fraction melts out? The tracked variables describe the thermodynamic and dynamic forcing on these parcels during their journey. This database will also be made available to all interested investigators, after it is published in the near future. The attached image shows the ice surface temperature of all parcels (right) that advected through the Beaufort Sea region (left) in 2014.

IMAGE QUALITY FORECASTING FOR SPACE OBJECTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. I. Altukhov

2013-05-01

Full Text Available The article deals with an approach to quality predicting of the space objects images, which can be used to plan optoelectronic systems of remote sensing satellites work programs. The proposed approach is based on evaluation of the optoelectronic equipment transfer properties and calculation of indexes images quality considering the influence of the orbital shooting conditions.

Imaging of the meninges and the extra-axial spaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Kirmi, Olga; Sheerin, Fintan; Patel, Neel

2009-12-01

The separate meningeal layers and extraaxial spaces are complex and can only be differentiated by pathologic processes on imaging. Differentiation of the location of such processes can be achieved using different imaging modalities. In this pictorial review we address the imaging techniques, enhancement and location patterns, and disease spread that will promote accurate localization of the pathology, thus improving accuracy of diagnosis. Typical and unusual magnetic resonance (MR), computed tomography (CT), and ultrasound imaging findings of many conditions affecting these layers and spaces are described.

Phase-space evolution of x-ray coherence in phase-sensitive imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Xizeng; Liu, Hong

2008-08-01

X-ray coherence evolution in the imaging process plays a key role for x-ray phase-sensitive imaging. In this work we present a phase-space formulation for the phase-sensitive imaging. The theory is reformulated in terms of the cross-spectral density and associated Wigner distribution. The phase-space formulation enables an explicit and quantitative account of partial coherence effects on phase-sensitive imaging. The presented formulas for x-ray spectral density at the detector can be used for performing accurate phase retrieval and optimizing the phase-contrast visibility. The concept of phase-space shearing length derived from this phase-space formulation clarifies the spatial coherence requirement for phase-sensitive imaging with incoherent sources. The theory has been applied to x-ray Talbot interferometric imaging as well. The peak coherence condition derived reveals new insights into three-grating-based Talbot-interferometric imaging and gratings-based x-ray dark-field imaging.

Diurnal Variation of Tropical Ice Cloud Microphysics inferred from Global Precipitation Measurement Microwave Imager (GPM-GMI)'s Polarimetric Measurement

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, J.; Zeng, X.; Wu, D. L.; Li, X.

2017-12-01

Diurnal variation of tropical ice cloud has been well observed and examined in terms of the area of coverage, occurring frequency, and total mass, but rarely on ice microphysical parameters (habit, size, orientation, etc.) because of lack of direct measurements of ice microphysics on a high temporal and spatial resolutions. This accounts for a great portion of the uncertainty in evaluating ice cloud's role on global radiation and hydrological budgets. The design of Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's procession orbit gives us an unprecedented opportunity to study the diurnal variation of ice microphysics on the global scale for the first time. Dominated by cloud ice scattering, high-frequency microwave polarimetric difference (PD, namely the brightness temperature difference between vertically- and horizontally-polarized paired channel measurements) from the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) has been proven by our previous study to be very valuable to infer cloud ice microphysical properties. Using one year of PD measurements at 166 GHz, we found that cloud PD exhibits a strong diurnal cycle in the tropics (25S-25N). The peak PD amplitude varies as much as 35% over land, compared to only 6% over ocean. The diurnal cycle of the peak PD value is strongly anti-correlated with local ice cloud occurring frequency and the total ice mass with a leading period of 3 hours for the maximum correlation. The observed PD diurnal cycle can be explained by the change of ice crystal axial ratio. Using a radiative transfer model, we can simulate the observed 166 GHz PD-brightness temperature curve as well as its diurnal variation using different axial ratio values, which can be caused by the diurnal variation of ice microphysical properties including particle size, percentage of horizontally-aligned non-spherical particles, and ice habit. The leading of the change of PD ahead of ice cloud mass and occurring frequency implies the important role microphysics play in the

3D Micro-topography of Transferred Laboratory and Natural Ice Crystal Surfaces Imaged by Cryo and Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Magee, N. B.; Boaggio, K.; Bancroft, L.; Bandamede, M.

2015-12-01

Recent work has highlighted micro-scale roughness on the surfaces of ice crystals grown and imaged in-situ within the chambers of environmental scanning electron microscopes (ESEM). These observations appear to align with theoretical and satellite observations that suggest a prevalence of rough ice in cirrus clouds. However, the atmospheric application of the lab observations are indeterminate because the observations have been based only on crystals grown on substrates and in pure-water vapor environments. In this work, we present details and results from the development of a transfer technique which allows natural and lab-grown ice and snow crystals to be captured, preserved, and transferred into the ESEM for 3D imaging. Ice crystals were gathered from 1) natural snow, 2) a balloon-borne cirrus particle capture device, and 3) lab-grown ice crystals from a diffusion chamber. Ice crystals were captured in a pre-conditioned small-volume (~1 cm3) cryo-containment cell. The cell was then sealed closed and transferred to a specially-designed cryogenic dewer (filled with liquid nitrogen or crushed dry ice) for transport to a new Hitachi Field Emission, Variable Pressure SEM (SU-5000). The cryo-cell was then removed from the dewer and quickly placed onto the pre-conditioned cryo transfer stage attached to the ESEM (Quorum 3010T). Quantitative 3D topographical digital elevation models of ice surfaces are reported from SEM for the first time, including a variety of objective measures of statistical surface roughness. The surfaces of the transported crystals clearly exhibit signatures of mesoscopic roughening that are similar to examples of roughness seen in ESEM-grown crystals. For most transported crystals, the habits and crystal edges are more intricate that those observed for ice grown directly on substrates within the ESEM chamber. Portions of some crystals do appear smooth even at magnification greater than 1000x, a rare observation in our ESEM-grown crystals. The

Arctic Landfast Sea Ice 1953-1998, Version 1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The files in this data set contain landfast sea ice data (monthly means) gathered from both Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) and Canadian Ice...

Monitoring ice nucleation in pure and salty water via high-speed imaging and computer simulations

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Bauerecker, S.; Ulbig, P.; Buch, V.; Vrbka, Luboš; Jungwirth, Pavel

2008-01-01

Roč. 112, č. 20 (2008), s. 7631-7636 ISSN 1932-7447 R&D Projects: GA MŠk LC512; GA ČR(CZ) GD203/05/H001 Grant - others:DFG(DE) 529278 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z40550506 Keywords : ice freezing * high speed imaging * molecular dynamics Subject RIV: CF - Physical ; Theoretical Chemistry Impact factor: 3.396, year: 2008

Image Segmentation and Processing for Efficient Parking Space Analysis

OpenAIRE

Tutika, Chetan Sai; Vallapaneni, Charan; R, Karthik; KP, Bharath; Muthu, N Ruban Rajesh Kumar

2018-01-01

In this paper, we develop a method to detect vacant parking spaces in an environment with unclear segments and contours with the help of MATLAB image processing capabilities. Due to the anomalies present in the parking spaces, such as uneven illumination, distorted slot lines and overlapping of cars. The present-day conventional algorithms have difficulties processing the image for accurate results. The algorithm proposed uses a combination of image pre-processing and false contour detection ...

Remote Sensing of Lake Ice Phenology in Alaska

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, S.; Pavelsky, T.

2017-12-01

Lake ice phenology (e.g. ice break-up and freeze-up timing) in Alaska is potentially sensitive to climate change. However, there are few current lake ice records in this region, which hinders the comprehensive understanding of interactions between climate change and lake processes. To provide a lake ice database with over a comparatively long time period (2000 - 2017) and large spatial coverage (4000+ lakes) in Alaska, we have developed an algorithm to detect the timing of lake ice using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite data. This approach generally consists of three major steps. First, we use a cloud mask (MOD09GA) to filter out satellite images with heavy cloud contamination. Second, daily MODIS reflectance values (MOD09GQ) of lake surface are used to extract ice pixels from water pixels. The ice status of lakes can be further identified based on the fraction of ice pixels. Third, to improve the accuracy of ice phenology detection, we execute post-processing quality control to reduce false ice events caused by outliers. We validate the proposed algorithm over six lakes by comparing with Landsat-based reference data. Validation results indicate a high correlation between the MODIS results and reference data, with normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) ranging from 1.7% to 4.6%. The time series of this lake ice product is then examined to analyze the spatial and temporal patterns of lake ice phenology.

ICESat-2, its retrievals of ice sheet elevation change and sea ice freeboard, and potential synergies with CryoSat-2

Science.gov (United States)

Neumann, Thomas; Markus, Thorsten; Smith, Benjamin; Kwok, Ron

2017-04-01

Understanding the causes and magnitudes of changes in the cryosphere remains a priority for Earth science research. Over the past decade, NASA's and ESA's Earth-observing satellites have documented a decrease in both the areal extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice, and an ongoing loss of grounded ice from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Understanding the pace and mechanisms of these changes requires long-term observations of ice-sheet mass, sea-ice thickness, and sea-ice extent. NASA's ICESat-2 mission is the next-generation space-borne laser altimeter mission and will use three pairs of beams, each pair separated by about 3 km across-track with a pair spacing of 90 m. The spot size is 17 m with an along-track sampling interval of 0.7 m. This measurement concept is a result of the lessons learned from the original ICESat mission. The multi-beam approach is critical for removing the effects of ice sheet surface slope from the elevation change measurements of most interest. For sea ice, the dense spatial sampling (eliminating along-track gaps) and the small footprint size are especially useful for sea surface height measurements in the, often narrow, leads needed for sea ice freeboard and ice thickness retrievals. Currently, algorithms are being developed to calculate ice sheet elevation change and sea ice freeboard from ICESat-2 data. The orbits of ICESat-2 and Cryosat-2 both converge at 88 degrees of latitude, though the orbit altitude differences result in different ground track patterns between the two missions. This presentation will present an overview of algorithm approaches and how ICESat-2 and Cryosat-2 data may augment each other.

A Convex Formulation for Magnetic Particle Imaging X-Space Reconstruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Konkle, Justin J; Goodwill, Patrick W; Hensley, Daniel W; Orendorff, Ryan D; Lustig, Michael; Conolly, Steven M

2015-01-01

Magnetic Particle Imaging (mpi) is an emerging imaging modality with exceptional promise for clinical applications in rapid angiography, cell therapy tracking, cancer imaging, and inflammation imaging. Recent publications have demonstrated quantitative mpi across rat sized fields of view with x-space reconstruction methods. Critical to any medical imaging technology is the reliability and accuracy of image reconstruction. Because the average value of the mpi signal is lost during direct-feedthrough signal filtering, mpi reconstruction algorithms must recover this zero-frequency value. Prior x-space mpi recovery techniques were limited to 1d approaches which could introduce artifacts when reconstructing a 3d image. In this paper, we formulate x-space reconstruction as a 3d convex optimization problem and apply robust a priori knowledge of image smoothness and non-negativity to reduce non-physical banding and haze artifacts. We conclude with a discussion of the powerful extensibility of the presented formulation for future applications.

Improved space bandwidth product in image upconversion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dam, Jeppe Seidelin; Pedersen, Christian; Tidemand-Lichtenberg, Peter

2012-01-01

We present a technique increasing the space bandwidth product of a nonlinear image upconversion process used for spectral imaging. The technique exploits the strong dependency of the phase-matching condition in sum frequency generation (SFG) on the angle of propagation of the interacting fields...

Extensive degeneracy, Coulomb phase and magnetic monopoles in artificial square ice.

Science.gov (United States)

Perrin, Yann; Canals, Benjamin; Rougemaille, Nicolas

2016-12-15

Artificial spin-ice systems are lithographically patterned arrangements of interacting magnetic nanostructures that were introduced as way of investigating the effects of geometric frustration in a controlled manner. This approach has enabled unconventional states of matter to be visualized directly in real space, and has triggered research at the frontier between nanomagnetism, statistical thermodynamics and condensed matter physics. Despite efforts to create an artificial realization of the square-ice model-a two-dimensional geometrically frustrated spin-ice system defined on a square lattice-no simple geometry based on arrays of nanomagnets has successfully captured the macroscopically degenerate ground-state manifold of the model. Instead, square lattices of nanomagnets are characterized by a magnetically ordered ground state that consists of local loop configurations with alternating chirality. Here we show that all of the characteristics of the square-ice model are observed in an artificial square-ice system that consists of two sublattices of nanomagnets that are vertically separated by a small distance. The spin configurations we image after demagnetizing our arrays reveal unambiguous signatures of a Coulomb phase and algebraic spin-spin correlations, which are characterized by the presence of 'pinch' points in the associated magnetic structure factor. Local excitations-the classical analogues of magnetic monopoles-are free to evolve in an extensively degenerate, divergence-free vacuum. We thus provide a protocol that could be used to investigate collective magnetic phenomena, including Coulomb phases and the physics of ice-like materials.

The ICES system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Inzaghi, A.

1983-01-01

ICES is an integrated system used in the various engineering fields. It is made up of the Basic System and the applied Subsystems. ICES is controlled by the Operating System of the computer, from which it calls for suitable services: space allocation, loading of the modules etc... To be able to use software of this type on a computer the Operating System should be made more general. The Subsystems are developed with special programs included in the ICES Basic System. Each Subsystem is associated with an area of application. In other words, a Subsystem can only treat a previously defined ''class of problems''. The engineer (user) communicates with the Subsystem using a language oriented towards the problem (POL) also previously defined using the CDL language. The use of the (POL) language makes the engineer-computer contact much easier. The applied programs written in ICETRAN, once supplied as input to the ICETRAN Precompiler, become Fortran programs with special characteristics. A Fortran compiler produces the corresponding object programs with which, using the ICES ''Link-edit'' procedures, one obtains the modules which can be executed by an ICES Subsystem

Space Radar Image of Harvard Forest

Science.gov (United States)

1999-01-01

This is a radar image of the area surrounding the Harvard Forest in north-central Massachusetts that has been operated as a ecological research facility by Harvard University since 1907. At the center of the image is the Quabbin Reservoir, and the Connecticut River is at the lower left of the image. The Harvard Forest itself is just above the reservoir. Researchers are comparing the naturally occurring physical disturbances in the forest and the recent and projected chemical disturbances and their effects on the forest ecosystem. Agricultural land appears dark blue/purple, along with low shrub vegetation and some wetlands. Urban development is bright pink; the yellow to green tints are conifer-dominated vegetation with the pitch pine sand plain at the middle left edge of the image appearing very distinctive. The green tint may indicate pure pine plantation stands, and deciduous broadleaf trees appear gray/pink with perhaps wetter sites being pinker. This image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. SIR-C/X-SAR, a joint mission of the German, Italian and the United States space agencies, is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. The image is centered at 42.50 degrees North latitude and 72.33 degrees West longitude and covers an area of 53 kilometers 63 by kilometers (33 miles by 39 miles). The colors in the image are assigned to different frequencies and polarizations of the radar as follows: red is L-band horizontally transmitted and horizontally received; green is L-band horizontally transmitted and vertically received; and blue is C-band horizontally transmitted and horizontally received.

3D high resolution tracking of ice flow using mutli-temporal stereo satellite imagery, Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

Science.gov (United States)

Leprince, S.; Lin, J.; Ayoub, F.; Herman, F.; Avouac, J.

2013-12-01

We present the latest capabilities added to the Co-Registration of Optically Sensed Images and Correlation (COSI-Corr) software, which aim at analyzing time-series of stereoscopic imagery to document 3D variations of the ground surface. We review the processing chain and present the new and improved modules for satellite pushbroom imagery, in particular the N-image bundle block adjustment to jointly optimize the viewing geometry of multiple acquisitions, the improved multi-scale image matching based on Semi-Global Matching (SGM) to extract high resolution topography, and the triangulation of multi-temporal disparity maps to derive 3D ground motion. In particular, processes are optimized to run on a cluster computing environment. This new suite of algorithms is applied to the study of Worldview stereo imagery above the Franz Josef, Fox, and Tasman Glaciers, New Zealand, acquired on 01/30/2013, 02/09/2013, and 02/28/2013. We derive high resolution (1m post-spacing) maps of ice flow in three dimensions, where ice velocities of up to 4 m/day are recorded. Images were collected in early summer during a dry and sunny period, which followed two weeks of unsettled weather with several heavy rainfall events across the Southern Alps. The 3D tracking of ice flow highlights the surface response of the glaciers to changes in effective pressure at the ice-bedrock interface due to heavy rainfall, at an unprecedented spatial resolution.

Imaging findings and significance of deep neck space infection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhuang Qixin; Gu Yifeng; Du Lianjun; Zhu Lili; Pan Yuping; Li Minghua; Yang Shixun; Shang Kezhong; Yin Shankai

2004-01-01

Objective: To study the imaging appearance of deep neck space cellulitis and abscess and to evaluate the diagnostic criteria of deep neck space infection. Methods: CT and MRI findings of 28 cases with deep neck space infection proved by clinical manifestation and pathology were analyzed, including 11 cases of retropharyngeal space, 5 cases of parapharyngeal space infection, 4 cases of masticator space infection, and 8 cases of multi-space infection. Results: CT and MRI could display the swelling of the soft tissues and displacement, reduction, or disappearance of lipoid space in the cellulitis. In inflammatory tissues, MRI imaging demonstrated hypointense or isointense signal on T 1 WI, and hyperintense signal changes on T 2 WI. In abscess, CT could display hypodensity in the center and boundary enhancement of the abscess. MRI could display obvious hyperintense signal on T 2 WI and boundary enhancement. Conclusion: CT and MRI could provide useful information for deep neck space cellulitis and abscess

A State-Space Model for River Ice Forecasting

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Daly, Steven

2003-01-01

Each winter ice forms on rivers streams, and navigable waterways, causing many problems through its effects on the operation of hydraulic control structures, locks and dams, hydropower plants, and water intakes...

Space imaging measurement system based on fixed lens and moving detector

Science.gov (United States)

Akiyama, Akira; Doshida, Minoru; Mutoh, Eiichiro; Kumagai, Hideo; Yamada, Hirofumi; Ishii, Hiromitsu

2006-08-01

We have developed the Space Imaging Measurement System based on the fixed lens and fast moving detector to the control of the autonomous ground vehicle. The space measurement is the most important task in the development of the autonomous ground vehicle. In this study we move the detector back and forth along the optical axis at the fast rate to measure the three-dimensional image data. This system is just appropriate to the autonomous ground vehicle because this system does not send out any optical energy to measure the distance and keep the safety. And we use the digital camera of the visible ray range. Therefore it gives us the cost reduction of the three-dimensional image data acquisition with respect to the imaging laser system. We can combine many pieces of the narrow space imaging measurement data to construct the wide range three-dimensional data. This gives us the improvement of the image recognition with respect to the object space. To develop the fast movement of the detector, we build the counter mass balance in the mechanical crank system of the Space Imaging Measurement System. And then we set up the duct to prevent the optical noise due to the ray not coming through lens. The object distance is derived from the focus distance which related to the best focused image data. The best focused image data is selected from the image of the maximum standard deviation in the standard deviations of series images.

Observation of Drifting Icebergs and Sea Ice from Space by TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X

Science.gov (United States)

Won, Joong-Sun

2017-04-01

Detection and monitoring drifting icebergs and sea ice is of interest across wide range of Arctic and Antarctic coastal studies such as security of navigation, climatic impact, geological impact, etc. It is not easy to discriminate drifting ices from stationary ones, and to measure their drifting speeds. There is a potential to use space-borne SAR for this purpose, but it is difficult to precisely measure because the drift velocity is usually very slow. In this study, we investigate two approaches for discriminating drifting ices on the sea from surrounding static ones and for measuring their range velocity. The first method is to utilize the quad-pol TerraSAR-X which adopts dual receive antenna (DRA), and the second one is to examine the potential use of TanDEM-X bistatic along-track interferometry (ATI). To utilize DRA mode quad-pol SAR as ATI, it is necessary to remove the phase difference of scattering centers between transmitted H- and V-pol signals. By assume that the individual scattering center of returned signal does not change for a few inter-pulse periods, it is possible to measure the Doppler frequency induced by motion through measuring slow-time (or azimuth time) Doppler phase derivative of co-pol or cross-pol pairs. Results applied to TerraSAR-X quad-pol data over the Cape Columbia in the Arctic Ocean are to be presented and discussed. It was successful to detect and measure drift sea ice that was flowing away from the antenna with a velocity of about 0.37 m/s (or 1.4 km/h) to 0.67 m/s (or 2.4 km/h) while neighboring ones were static. A more sophisticated approach would be a bistatic ATI which exploits a long along-track baseline for observation of slowly moving ground objects. TanDEM-X bistatic ATI pairs are examined, which were acquired at an Antarctic coast. The ATI interferograms show an innovative capability of TanDEM-X/TerraSAR-X constellation. An along-track baseline of a few hundred meters is superior to a few meter baseline of DRA mode ATI

Method to estimate drag coefficient at the air/ice interface over drifting open pack ice from remotely sensed data

Science.gov (United States)

Feldman, U.

1984-01-01

A knowledge in near real time, of the surface drag coefficient for drifting pack ice is vital for predicting its motions. And since this is not routinely available from measurements it must be replaced by estimates. Hence, a method for estimating this variable, as well as the drag coefficient at the water/ice interface and the ice thickness, for drifting open pack ice was developed. These estimates were derived from three-day sequences of LANDSAT-1 MSS images and surface weather charts and from the observed minima and maxima of these variables. The method was tested with four data sets in the southeastern Beaufort sea. Acceptable results were obtained for three data sets. Routine application of the method depends on the availability of data from an all-weather air or spaceborne remote sensing system, producing images with high geometric fidelity and high resolution.

Ghost Imaging of Space Objects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strekalov, Dmitry V; Erkmen, Baris I; Yu Nan

2013-01-01

The term 'ghost imaging' was coined in 1995 when an optical correlation measurement in combination with an entangled photon-pair source was used to image a mask placed in one optical channel by raster-scanning a detector in the other, empty, optical channel. Later, it was shown that the entangled photon source could be replaced with thermal sources of light, which are abundantly available as natural illumination sources. It was also shown that the bucket detector could be replaced with a remote point-like detector, opening the possibility to remote-sensing imaging applications. In this paper, we discuss the application of ghost-imaging-like techniques to astronomy, with the objective of detecting intensity-correlation signatures resulting from space objects of interest, such as exo-planets, gas clouds, and gravitational lenses. An important aspect of being able to utilize ghost imaging in astronomy, is the recognition that in interstellar imaging geometries the object of interest can act as an effective beam splitter, yielding detectable variations in the intensity-correlation signature.

Ross Ice Drainage System (RIDS) Glaciochemical Analysis, Version 1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Ross Ice Drainage System (RIDS) project provides a high-resolution record of atmospheric chemical deposition taken from several ice cores and snow pits located...

Essential Climate Variables for the Ice Sheets from Space and Airborne measurements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fredenslund Levinsen, Joanna

The Greenland Ice Sheet is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.Over the past decade, it has undergone substantial changes in e.g. mass balance,surface velocity, and ice thickness. The latter is reflected by surfaceelevation changes, which are detectable with altimetry. Therefore......, this studyexploits the advantages of radar and laser altimetry to analyze surface elevationchanges and build a Digital Elevation Model of the ice sheet. Selected advantagesare radar data’s continuity in time and laser data’s higher horizontal andvertical accuracy. Therefore, ESA Envisat and CryoSat-2 radar altimetry...... dataare used in conjunction with laser data from NASA’s ICESat and airborneATM and LVIS instruments, and from ESA’s airborne CryoVEx campaign.The study is part of the ESA Ice Sheets CCI project. With the release ofREAPER data, one goal is to use the more than two decades of ESA radaraltimetry to develop...

Electrostatic images for underwater anisotropic conductive half spaces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Flykt, M.; Lindell, I.; Eloranta, E.

1998-01-01

A static image principle makes it possible to derive analytical solutions to some basic geometries for DC fields. The underwater environment is especially difficult both from the theoretical and practical point of view. However, there are increasing demands that also the underwater geological formations should be studied in detail. The traditional image of a point source lies at the mirror point of the original. When anisotropic media is involved, however, the image location can change and the image source may be a continues, sector-like distribution. In this paper some theoretical considerations are carried out in the case where the lower half space can have a very general anisotropy in terms of electrical conductivity, while the upper half space is assumed isotropic. The reflection potential field is calculated for different values of electrical conductivity. (orig.)

Polar Sea Ice Monitoring Using HY-2A Scatterometer Measurements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mingming Li

2016-08-01

Full Text Available A sea ice detection algorithm based on Fisher’s linear discriminant analysis is developed to segment sea ice and open water for the Ku-band scatterometer onboard the China’s Hai Yang 2A Satellite (HY-2A/SCAT. Residual classification errors are reduced through image erosion/dilation techniques and sea ice growth/retreat constraint methods. The arctic sea-ice-type classification is estimated via a time-dependent threshold derived from the annual backscatter trends based on previous HY-2A/SCAT derived sea ice extent. The extent and edge of the sea ice obtained in this study is compared with the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS sea ice concentration data and the Sentinel-1 SAR imagery for verification, respectively. Meanwhile, the classified sea ice type is compared with a multi-sensor sea ice type product based on data from the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT and SSMIS. Results show that HY-2A/SCAT is powerful in providing sea ice extent and type information, while differences in the sensitivities of active/passive products are found. In addition, HY-2A/SCAT derived sea ice products are also proved to be valuable complements for existing polar sea ice data products.

Source-space ICA for MEG source imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Jonmohamadi, Yaqub; Jones, Richard D

2016-02-01

One of the most widely used approaches in electroencephalography/magnetoencephalography (MEG) source imaging is application of an inverse technique (such as dipole modelling or sLORETA) on the component extracted by independent component analysis (ICA) (sensor-space ICA + inverse technique). The advantage of this approach over an inverse technique alone is that it can identify and localize multiple concurrent sources. Among inverse techniques, the minimum-variance beamformers offer a high spatial resolution. However, in order to have both high spatial resolution of beamformer and be able to take on multiple concurrent sources, sensor-space ICA + beamformer is not an ideal combination. We propose source-space ICA for MEG as a powerful alternative approach which can provide the high spatial resolution of the beamformer and handle multiple concurrent sources. The concept of source-space ICA for MEG is to apply the beamformer first and then singular value decomposition + ICA. In this paper we have compared source-space ICA with sensor-space ICA both in simulation and real MEG. The simulations included two challenging scenarios of correlated/concurrent cluster sources. Source-space ICA provided superior performance in spatial reconstruction of source maps, even though both techniques performed equally from a temporal perspective. Real MEG from two healthy subjects with visual stimuli were also used to compare performance of sensor-space ICA and source-space ICA. We have also proposed a new variant of minimum-variance beamformer called weight-normalized linearly-constrained minimum-variance with orthonormal lead-field. As sensor-space ICA-based source reconstruction is popular in EEG and MEG imaging, and given that source-space ICA has superior spatial performance, it is expected that source-space ICA will supersede its predecessor in many applications.

Influence of ice thickness and surface properties on light transmission through Arctic sea ice.

Science.gov (United States)

Katlein, Christian; Arndt, Stefanie; Nicolaus, Marcel; Perovich, Donald K; Jakuba, Michael V; Suman, Stefano; Elliott, Stephen; Whitcomb, Louis L; McFarland, Christopher J; Gerdes, Rüdiger; Boetius, Antje; German, Christopher R

2015-09-01

The observed changes in physical properties of sea ice such as decreased thickness and increased melt pond cover severely impact the energy budget of Arctic sea ice. Increased light transmission leads to increased deposition of solar energy in the upper ocean and thus plays a crucial role for amount and timing of sea-ice-melt and under-ice primary production. Recent developments in underwater technology provide new opportunities to study light transmission below the largely inaccessible underside of sea ice. We measured spectral under-ice radiance and irradiance using the new Nereid Under-Ice (NUI) underwater robotic vehicle, during a cruise of the R/V Polarstern to 83°N 6°W in the Arctic Ocean in July 2014. NUI is a next generation hybrid remotely operated vehicle (H-ROV) designed for both remotely piloted and autonomous surveys underneath land-fast and moving sea ice. Here we present results from one of the first comprehensive scientific dives of NUI employing its interdisciplinary sensor suite. We combine under-ice optical measurements with three dimensional under-ice topography (multibeam sonar) and aerial images of the surface conditions. We investigate the influence of spatially varying ice-thickness and surface properties on the spatial variability of light transmittance during summer. Our results show that surface properties such as melt ponds dominate the spatial distribution of the under-ice light field on small scales (sea ice-thickness is the most important predictor for light transmission on larger scales. In addition, we propose the use of an algorithm to obtain histograms of light transmission from distributions of sea ice thickness and surface albedo.

Ross Sea Polynyas: Response of Ice Concentration Retrievals to Large Areas of Thin Ice

Science.gov (United States)

Kwok, R.; Comiso, J. C.; Martin, S.; Drucker, R.

2007-01-01

For a 3-month period between May and July of 2005, we examine the response of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) Enhanced NASA Team 2 (NT2) and AMSR-E Bootstrap (ABA) ice concentration algorithms to large areas of thin ice of the Ross Sea polynyas. Coincident Envisat Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) coverage of the region during this period offers a detailed look at the development of the polynyas within several hundred kilometers of the ice front. The high-resolution imagery and derived ice motion fields show bands of polynya ice, covering up to approximately 105 km(sup 2) of the Ross Sea, that are associated with wind-forced advection. In this study, ice thickness from AMSR-E 36 GHz polarization information serves as the basis for examination of the response. The quality of the thickness of newly formed sea ice (<10 cm) from AMSR-E is first assessed with thickness estimates derived from ice surface temperatures from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument. The effect of large areas of thin ice in lowering the ice concentration estimates from both NT2/ABA approaches is clearly demonstrated. Results show relatively robust relationships between retrieved ice concentrations and thin ice thickness estimates that differ between the two algorithms. These relationships define the approximate spatial coincidence of ice concentration and thickness isopleths. Using the 83% (ABA) and 91% (NT2) isopleths as polynya boundaries, we show that the computed coverage compares well with that using the estimated 10-cm thickness contour. The thin ice response characterized here suggests that in regions with polynyas, the retrieval results could be used to provide useful geophysical information, namely thickness and coverage.

X-space MPI: magnetic nanoparticles for safe medical imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Goodwill, Patrick William; Saritas, Emine Ulku; Croft, Laura Rose; Kim, Tyson N; Krishnan, Kannan M; Schaffer, David V; Conolly, Steven M

2012-07-24

One quarter of all iodinated contrast X-ray clinical imaging studies are now performed on Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) patients. Unfortunately, the iodine contrast agent used in X-ray is often toxic to CKD patients' weak kidneys, leading to significant morbidity and mortality. Hence, we are pioneering a new medical imaging method, called Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI), to replace X-ray and CT iodinated angiography, especially for CKD patients. MPI uses magnetic nanoparticle contrast agents that are much safer than iodine for CKD patients. MPI already offers superb contrast and extraordinary sensitivity. The iron oxide nanoparticle tracers required for MPI are also used in MRI, and some are already approved for human use, but the contrast agents are far more effective at illuminating blood vessels when used in the MPI modality. We have recently developed a systems theoretic framework for MPI called x-space MPI, which has already dramatically improved the speed and robustness of MPI image reconstruction. X-space MPI has allowed us to optimize the hardware for fi ve MPI scanners. Moreover, x-space MPI provides a powerful framework for optimizing the size and magnetic properties of the iron oxide nanoparticle tracers used in MPI. Currently MPI nanoparticles have diameters in the 10-20 nanometer range, enabling millimeter-scale resolution in small animals. X-space MPI theory predicts that larger nanoparticles could enable up to 250 micrometer resolution imaging, which would represent a major breakthrough in safe imaging for CKD patients.

Reassigning hydrogen-bond centering in dense ice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benoit, Magali; Romero, Aldo H.; Marx, Dominik

2002-01-01

Hydrogen bonds in H 2 O ice change dramatically upon compression. Thereby a hydrogen-bonded molecular crystal, ice VII, is transformed to an atomic crystal, ice X. Car-Parrinello simulations reproduce the features of the x-ray diffraction spectra up to about 170 GPa but allow for analysis in real space. Starting from molecular ice VII with static orientational disorder, dynamical translational disordering occurs first via creation of ionic defects, which results in a systematic violation of the ice rules. As a second step, the transformation to an atomic solid and thus hydrogen-bond centering occurs around 110 GPa at 300 K and no novel phase is found up to at least 170 GPa

Intercomparison of passive microwave sea ice concentration retrievals over the high-concentration Arctic sea ice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

andersen, susanne; Tonboe, R.; Kaleschke, L.

2007-01-01

[1] Measurements of sea ice concentration from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) using seven different algorithms are compared to ship observations, sea ice divergence estimates from the Radarsat Geophysical Processor System, and ice and water surface type classification of 59 wide...... with sensor noise between 1.3 and 1.8%. This is in accord with variability estimated from analysis of SSM/I time series. Algorithms, which primarily use 85 GHz information, consistently give the best agreement with both SAR ice concentrations and ship observations. Although the 85 GHz information is more...... sensitive to atmospheric influences, it was found that the atmospheric contribution is secondary to the influence of the surface emissivity variability. Analysis of the entire SSM/I time series shows that there are significant differences in trend between sea ice extent and area, using different algorithms...

A sea ice model for the marginal ice zone with an application to the Greenland Sea

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Leif Toudal; Coon, Max D.

2004-01-01

A model is presented that describes the formation, transport, and desalinization of frazil and pancake ice as it is formed in marginal seas. This model uses as input the total ice concentration evaluated from Special Sensor Microwave Imager and wind speed and direction. The model calculates...... the areal concentration, thickness, volume concentration, and salinity of frazil ice as well as the areal concentration, thickness, and salinity of pancakes. A simple parameterization for the Odden region of the Greenland Sea is presented. The model is run for the winter of 1996-1997. There are direct...... observations of the thickness and salinity of pancakes and the volume concentration of frazil ice to compare with the model. The model results compare very well with the measured data. This new ice model can be tuned to work in marginal seas elsewhere to calculate ice thickness, motion, and brine rejection...

Space Radar Image of Manaus, Brazil

Science.gov (United States)

1999-01-01

These two images were created using data from the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR). On the left is a false-color image of Manaus, Brazil acquired April 12, 1994, onboard space shuttle Endeavour. In the center of this image is the Solimoes River just west of Manaus before it combines with the Rio Negro to form the Amazon River. The scene is around 8 by 8 kilometers (5 by 5 miles) with north toward the top. The radar image was produced in L-band where red areas correspond to high backscatter at HH polarization, while green areas exhibit high backscatter at HV polarization. Blue areas show low backscatter at VV polarization. The image on the right is a classification map showing the extent of flooding beneath the forest canopy. The classification map was developed by SIR-C/X-SAR science team members at the University of California,Santa Barbara. The map uses the L-HH, L-HV, and L-VV images to classify the radar image into six categories: Red flooded forest Green unflooded tropical rain forest Blue open water, Amazon river Yellow unflooded fields, some floating grasses Gray flooded shrubs Black floating and flooded grasses Data like these help scientists evaluate flood damage on a global scale. Floods are highly episodic and much of the area inundated is often tree-covered. Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. The radars illuminate Earth with microwaves allowing detailed observations at any time, regardless of weather or sunlight conditions. SIR-C/X-SAR uses three microwave wavelengths: L-band (24 cm), C-band (6 cm) and X-band (3 cm). The multi-frequency data will be used by the international scientific community to better understand the global environment and how it is changing. The SIR-C/X-SAR data, complemented by aircraft and ground studies, will give scientists clearer insights into those environmental changes which are caused by nature and those

Near field ice detection using infrared based optical imaging technology

Science.gov (United States)

Abdel-Moati, Hazem; Morris, Jonathan; Zeng, Yousheng; Corie, Martin Wesley; Yanni, Victor Garas

2018-02-01

If not detected and characterized, icebergs can potentially pose a hazard to oil and gas exploration, development and production operations in arctic environments as well as commercial shipping channels. In general, very large bergs are tracked and predicted using models or satellite imagery. Small and medium bergs are detectable using conventional marine radar. As icebergs decay they shed bergy bits and growlers, which are much smaller and more difficult to detect. Their low profile above the water surface, in addition to occasional relatively high seas, makes them invisible to conventional marine radar. Visual inspection is the most common method used to detect bergy bits and growlers, but the effectiveness of visual inspections is reduced by operator fatigue and low light conditions. The potential hazard from bergy bits and growlers is further increased by short detection range (<1 km). As such, there is a need for robust and autonomous near-field detection of such smaller icebergs. This paper presents a review of iceberg detection technology and explores applications for infrared imagers in the field. Preliminary experiments are performed and recommendations are made for future work, including a proposed imager design which would be suited for near field ice detection.

Space Radar Image of Colombian Volcano

Science.gov (United States)

1999-01-01

This is a radar image of a little known volcano in northern Colombia. The image was acquired on orbit 80 of space shuttle Endeavour on April 14, 1994, by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR). The volcano near the center of the image is located at 5.6 degrees north latitude, 75.0 degrees west longitude, about 100 kilometers (65 miles) southeast of Medellin, Colombia. The conspicuous dark spot is a lake at the bottom of an approximately 3-kilometer-wide (1.9-mile) volcanic collapse depression or caldera. A cone-shaped peak on the bottom left (northeast rim) of the caldera appears to have been the source for a flow of material into the caldera. This is the northern-most known volcano in South America and because of its youthful appearance, should be considered dormant rather than extinct. The volcano's existence confirms a fracture zone proposed in 1985 as the northern boundary of volcanism in the Andes. The SIR-C/X-SAR image reveals another, older caldera further south in Colombia, along another proposed fracture zone. Although relatively conspicuous, these volcanoes have escaped widespread recognition because of frequent cloud cover that hinders remote sensing imaging in visible wavelengths. Four separate volcanoes in the Northern Andes nations ofColombia and Ecuador have been active during the last 10 years, killing more than 25,000 people, including scientists who were monitoring the volcanic activity. Detection and monitoring of volcanoes from space provides a safe way to investigate volcanism. The recognition of previously unknown volcanoes is important for hazard evaluations because a number of major eruptions this century have occurred at mountains that were not previously recognized as volcanoes. Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. The radars illuminate Earth with microwaves allowing detailed observations at any time, regardless of

Geometric shapes inversion method of space targets by ISAR image segmentation

Science.gov (United States)

Huo, Chao-ying; Xing, Xiao-yu; Yin, Hong-cheng; Li, Chen-guang; Zeng, Xiang-yun; Xu, Gao-gui

2017-11-01

The geometric shape of target is an effective characteristic in the process of space targets recognition. This paper proposed a method of shape inversion of space target based on components segmentation from ISAR image. The Radon transformation, Hough transformation, K-means clustering, triangulation will be introduced into ISAR image processing. Firstly, we use Radon transformation and edge detection to extract space target's main body spindle and solar panel spindle from ISAR image. Then the targets' main body, solar panel, rectangular and circular antenna are segmented from ISAR image based on image detection theory. Finally, the sizes of every structural component are computed. The effectiveness of this method is verified using typical targets' simulation data.

Journey to the centre of the ice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hvenegård-Lassen, Kirsten

2016-01-01

to the Eemian period. This time travel ultimately aims at predicting the climate of the future. While the heroic polar expeditions of the past ventured into unknown spaces horizontally, the secrets of the frontier are now vertically stored in the ice cores. In Secrets of the Ice, five videos produced for public...... dissemination, Greenland is displayed as an empty, frozen space, waiting to be conquered by scientists. Resonating with classical Arctic explorer myths, this conquest has to overcome the difficulties presented by a harsh wilderness landscape. The article situates the glaciological project in Greenland within...

The chinese space program as the image instrument of the great China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Lemus Delgado

2012-10-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes the Chinese space program and how the bureaucratic elite acts to convert China as a leading nation in international arena. This article assumes that, beyond the scientific advances that space exploration has in multiple fields of knowledge, the support to the space program depicts a way to project a positive image of China. This image is a China rising in the international community. The author discusses how space missions and the discourse around the space program strengthen national pride. Thus, China’s space program projects the image of a Greater China. The article concludes that the space program shows that China is modernizing rapidly and is able to be a world power.

Airborne observations of changes of ice sheet and sea ice in the Arctic using CryoVEx campaign data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hvidegaard, Sine Munk; Skourup, Henriette; Forsberg, René

measurements of ice sheet changes. The majority of the campaigns have been sponsored by the European Space Agency, ESA, as part of the CryoSat Validation Experiments – CryoVEx. These have been internationally coordinated efforts to collect coincident space‐borne, airborne, and in‐situ data for pre‐ and post...... cap (Svalbard), the EGIG line crossing the Greenland Ice Sheet, as well as the sea ice north of Alert and sea ice around Svalbard in the Fram Strait. Selected tracks were planned to match CryoSat‐2 passes and a few of them were flown in formation flight with the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) Polar‐5...

Visual properties and memorising scenes: Effects of image-space sparseness and uniformity.

Science.gov (United States)

Lukavský, Jiří; Děchtěrenko, Filip

2017-10-01

Previous studies have demonstrated that humans have a remarkable capacity to memorise a large number of scenes. The research on memorability has shown that memory performance can be predicted by the content of an image. We explored how remembering an image is affected by the image properties within the context of the reference set, including the extent to which it is different from its neighbours (image-space sparseness) and if it belongs to the same category as its neighbours (uniformity). We used a reference set of 2,048 scenes (64 categories), evaluated pairwise scene similarity using deep features from a pretrained convolutional neural network (CNN), and calculated the image-space sparseness and uniformity for each image. We ran three memory experiments, varying the memory workload with experiment length and colour/greyscale presentation. We measured the sensitivity and criterion value changes as a function of image-space sparseness and uniformity. Across all three experiments, we found separate effects of 1) sparseness on memory sensitivity, and 2) uniformity on the recognition criterion. People better remembered (and correctly rejected) images that were more separated from others. People tended to make more false alarms and fewer miss errors in images from categorically uniform portions of the image-space. We propose that both image-space properties affect human decisions when recognising images. Additionally, we found that colour presentation did not yield better memory performance over grayscale images.

Global ice sheet/RSL simulations using the higher-order Ice Sheet System Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Larour, E. Y.; Ivins, E. R.; Adhikari, S.; Schlegel, N.; Seroussi, H. L.; Morlighem, M.

2017-12-01

Relative sea-level rise is driven by processes that are intimately linked to the evolution ofglacial areas and ice sheets in particular. So far, most Earth System models capable of projecting theevolution of RSL on decadal to centennial time scales have relied on offline interactions between RSL andice sheets. In particular, grounding line and calving front dynamics have not been modeled in a way that istightly coupled with Elasto-Static Adjustment (ESA) and/or Glacial-Isostatic Adjustment (GIA). Here, we presenta new simulation of the entire Earth System in which both Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets are tightly coupledto an RSL model that includes both ESA and GIA at resolutions and time scales compatible with processes suchas grounding line dynamics for Antarctica ice shelves and calving front dynamics for Greenland marine-terminatingglaciers. The simulations rely on the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM) and show the impact of higher-orderice flow dynamics and coupling feedbacks between ice flow and RSL. We quantify the exact impact of ESA andGIA inclusion on grounding line evolution for large ice shelves such as the Ronne and Ross ice shelves, as well asthe Agasea Embayment ice streams, and demonstate how offline vs online RSL simulations diverge in the long run,and the consequences for predictions of sea-level rise.This work was performed at the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory undera contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Cryosphere Science Program.

An Explorative Study to Use DBD Plasma Generation for Aircraft Icing Mitigation

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Hui; Zhou, Wenwu; Liu, Yang; Kolbakir, Cem

2017-11-01

An explorative investigation was performed to demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing thermal effect induced by Dielectric-Barrier-Discharge (DBD) plasma generation for aircraft icing mitigation. The experimental study was performed in an Icing Research Tunnel available at Iowa State University (i.e., ISU-IRT). A NACA0012 airfoil/wing model embedded with DBD plasma actuators was installed in ISU-IRT under typical glaze icing conditions pertinent to aircraft inflight icing phenomena. While a high-speed imaging system was used to record the dynamic ice accretion process over the airfoil surface for the test cases with and without switching on the DBD plasma actuators, an infrared (IR) thermal imaging system was utilized to map the corresponding temperature distributions to quantify the unsteady heat transfer and phase changing process over the airfoil surface. The thermal effect induced by DBD plasma generation was demonstrated to be able to keep the airfoil surface staying free of ice during the entire ice accretion experiment. The measured quantitative surface temperature distributions were correlated with the acquired images of the dynamic ice accretion and water runback processes to elucidate the underlying physics. National Science Foundation CBET-1064196 and CBET-1435590.

STRUCTURAL ASPECTS REGARDING TO THE IMAGE OF ICE HOTEL BALEA LAC BREND

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marian ZAHARIA

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Applying a poll-based survey provides important information regarding the tourist offer particulars in Bâlea Lac area. On the day the survey is performed its main advantage is also outlined: the fact that this information display a good accuracy, are obtained in a short time span and involving relatively low expenses. Data collection and centralization of the answers provided by interviewed tourists regarding tourism practice in the Bâlea Lac area have led to drawing up distributions that are presented in the paper. Based on the respective information, statistics methods adequate to the study of tourist opinion on the Bâlea Lac Ice Hotel brand image. Several issues have been outlined, regarding the types of respondents based on their category, Romanian or foreigners, from Romania and based on destination countries, function of: the type of stay; the means of information; their answers referring to their first arrival at Bâlea Lac; the degree of destination assessment; their opinion on host reception; their preference for Bâlea Lac; appreciating value for money; age groups; gender; social and professional standing. The image created through the attractions and services provided in the Bâlea Lac tourist area by tourism activities closely related to the Ice Hotel is well appreciated, so that they have opened up a rather favourable expectancy for those willing to come back and for those tempted to try and spend their holidays in the presented hotel.

Vestibular schwannomas: Accuracy of tumor volume estimated by ice cream cone formula using thin-sliced MR images.

Science.gov (United States)

Ho, Hsing-Hao; Li, Ya-Hui; Lee, Jih-Chin; Wang, Chih-Wei; Yu, Yi-Lin; Hueng, Dueng-Yuan; Ma, Hsin-I; Hsu, Hsian-He; Juan, Chun-Jung

2018-01-01

We estimated the volume of vestibular schwannomas by an ice cream cone formula using thin-sliced magnetic resonance images (MRI) and compared the estimation accuracy among different estimating formulas and between different models. The study was approved by a local institutional review board. A total of 100 patients with vestibular schwannomas examined by MRI between January 2011 and November 2015 were enrolled retrospectively. Informed consent was waived. Volumes of vestibular schwannomas were estimated by cuboidal, ellipsoidal, and spherical formulas based on a one-component model, and cuboidal, ellipsoidal, Linskey's, and ice cream cone formulas based on a two-component model. The estimated volumes were compared to the volumes measured by planimetry. Intraobserver reproducibility and interobserver agreement was tested. Estimation error, including absolute percentage error (APE) and percentage error (PE), was calculated. Statistical analysis included intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), linear regression analysis, one-way analysis of variance, and paired t-tests with P ice cream cone method, and ellipsoidal and Linskey's formulas significantly reduced the APE to 11.0%, 10.1%, and 12.5%, respectively (all P ice cream cone method and other two-component formulas including the ellipsoidal and Linskey's formulas allow for estimation of vestibular schwannoma volume more accurately than all one-component formulas.

Space Radar Image of Sydney, Australia

Science.gov (United States)

1994-01-01

This spaceborne radar image is dominated by the metropolitan area of Australia's largest city, Sydney. Sydney Harbour, with numerous coves and inlets, is seen in the upper center of the image, and the roughly circular Botany Bay is shown in the lower right. The downtown business district of Sydney appears as a bright white area just above the center of the image. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a white line adjacent to the downtown district. The well-known Sydney Opera House is the small, white dot to the right of the bridge. Urban areas appear yellow, blue and brown. The purple areas are undeveloped areas and park lands. Manly, the famous surfing beach, is shown in yellow at the top center of the image. Runways from the Sydney Airport are the dark features that extend into Botany Bay in the lower right. Botany Bay is the site where Captain James Cook first landed his ship, Endeavour, in 1770. The image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) on April 20, 1994, onboard the space shuttle Endeavour. The area shown is 33 kilometers by 38kilometers (20 miles by 23 miles) and is centered at 33.9 degrees south latitude, 151.2 degrees east longitude. North is toward the upper left. The colors are assigned to different radar frequenciesand polarizations as follows: red is L-band, vertically transmittedand horizontally received; green is C-band, vertically transmitted and horizontally received; and blue is C-band, vertically transmittedand received. SIR-C/X-SAR, a joint mission of the German, Italianand United States space agencies, is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. #####

Color Image Evaluation for Small Space Based on FA and GEP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Deng

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Aiming at the problem that color image is difficult to quantify, this paper proposes an evaluation method of color image for small space based on factor analysis (FA and gene expression programming (GEP and constructs a correlation model between color image factors and comprehensive color image. The basic color samples of small space and color images are evaluated by semantic differential method (SD method, color image factors are selected via dimension reduction in FA, factor score function is established, and by combining the entropy weight method to determine each factor weights then the comprehensive color image score is calculated finally. The best fitting function between color image factors and comprehensive color image is obtained by GEP algorithm, which can predict the users’ color image values. A color image evaluation system for small space is developed based on this model. The color evaluation of a control room on AC frequency conversion rig is taken as an example, verifying the effectiveness of the proposed method. It also can assist the designers in other color designs and provide a fast evaluation tool for testing users’ color image.

Knowledge-based sea ice classification by polarimetric SAR

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skriver, Henning; Dierking, Wolfgang

2004-01-01

Polarimetric SAR images acquired at C- and L-band over sea ice in the Greenland Sea, Baltic Sea, and Beaufort Sea have been analysed with respect to their potential for ice type classification. The polarimetric data were gathered by the Danish EMISAR and the US AIRSAR which both are airborne...... systems. A hierarchical classification scheme was chosen for sea ice because our knowledge about magnitudes, variations, and dependences of sea ice signatures can be directly considered. The optimal sequence of classification rules and the rules themselves depend on the ice conditions/regimes. The use...... of the polarimetric phase information improves the classification only in the case of thin ice types but is not necessary for thicker ice (above about 30 cm thickness)...

Microstructural Location and Composition of Impurities in Polar Ice Cores, Version 1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This data set contains measurements of impurities and ions in three polar ice cores: the Vostok 5G ice core and the Byrd ice core from Antarctica, and the Greenland...

Development of ice floe tracker algorithm to measure Lagrangian statistics in the eastern Greenland coast

Science.gov (United States)

Lopez, Rosalinda; Wilhelmus, Monica M.; Schodlok, Michael; Klein, Patrice

2017-11-01

Sea ice export through Fram Strait is a key component of the Arctic climate system. The East Greenland Current (EGC) carries most of the sea ice southwards until it melts. Lagrangian methods using sea ice buoys have been used to map ice features in polar regions. However, their spatial and temporal coverage is limited. Satellite data can provide a better tool to map sea ice flow and its variability. Here, an automated sea ice floe detection algorithm uses ice floes as tracers for surface ocean currents. We process Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer satellite images to track ice floes (length scale 5-10 km) in the north-eastern Greenland Sea region. Our matlab-based routines effectively filter out clouds and adaptively modify the images to segment and identify ice floes. Ice floes were tracked based on persistent surface features common in successive images throughout 2016. Their daily centroid locations were extracted and its resulting trajectories are used to describe surface circulation and its variability using differential kinematic parameters. We will discuss the application of this method to a longer time series and larger spatial coverage. This enables us to derive the inter-annual variability of mesoscale features along the eastern coast of Greenland. Supported by UCR Mechanical Engineering Departmental Fellowship.

GLAS/ICESat L2 Sea Ice Altimetry Data V033

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — GLA13 contains sea ice and open ocean elevations corrected for geodetic and atmospheric affects, calculated from algorithms fine-tuned for sea ice returns. Granules...

SPH Modelling of Sea-ice Pack Dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Staroszczyk, Ryszard

2017-12-01

The paper is concerned with the problem of sea-ice pack motion and deformation under the action of wind and water currents. Differential equations describing the dynamics of ice, with its very distinct mateFfigrial responses in converging and diverging flows, express the mass and linear momentum balances on the horizontal plane (the free surface of the ocean). These equations are solved by the fully Lagrangian method of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). Assuming that the ice behaviour can be approximated by a non-linearly viscous rheology, the proposed SPH model has been used to simulate the evolution of a sea-ice pack driven by wind drag stresses. The results of numerical simulations illustrate the evolution of an ice pack, including variations in ice thickness and ice area fraction in space and time. The effects of different initial ice pack configurations and of different conditions assumed at the coast-ice interface are examined. In particular, the SPH model is applied to a pack flow driven by a vortex wind to demonstrate how well the Lagrangian formulation can capture large deformations and displacements of sea ice.

Research-grade CMOS image sensors for demanding space applications

Science.gov (United States)

Saint-Pé, Olivier; Tulet, Michel; Davancens, Robert; Larnaudie, Franck; Magnan, Pierre; Corbière, Franck; Martin-Gonthier, Philippe; Belliot, Pierre

2017-11-01

Imaging detectors are key elements for optical instruments and sensors on board space missions dedicated to Earth observation (high resolution imaging, atmosphere spectroscopy...), Solar System exploration (micro cameras, guidance for autonomous vehicle...) and Universe observation (space telescope focal planes, guiding sensors...). This market has been dominated by CCD technology for long. Since the mid- 90s, CMOS Image Sensors (CIS) have been competing with CCDs for more and more consumer domains (webcams, cell phones, digital cameras...). Featuring significant advantages over CCD sensors for space applications (lower power consumption, smaller system size, better radiations behaviour...), CMOS technology is also expanding in this field, justifying specific R&D and development programs funded by national and European space agencies (mainly CNES, DGA, and ESA). All along the 90s and thanks to their increasingly improving performances, CIS have started to be successfully used for more and more demanding applications, from vision and control functions requiring low-level performances to guidance applications requiring medium-level performances. Recent technology improvements have made possible the manufacturing of research-grade CIS that are able to compete with CCDs in the high-performances arena. After an introduction outlining the growing interest of optical instruments designers for CMOS image sensors, this talk will present the existing and foreseen ways to reach high-level electro-optics performances for CIS. The developments of CIS prototypes built using an imaging CMOS process and of devices based on improved designs will be presented.

Constraining models of postglacial rebound using space geodesy: a detailed assessment of model ICE-5G (VM2) and its relatives

Science.gov (United States)

Argus, Donald F.; Peltier, W. Richard

2010-05-01

disagreement with the observation that the interior of the North American Plate is deforming more slowly than 1 mm yr-1. Substituting VM5a T60 for VM2 T90, that is, introducing into the lithosphere at its base a layer with a high viscosity of 10 × 1021Pas, greatly improves the fit of the horizontal observations in North America. ICE-4G VM5a T60 Rot predicts most of the North American Plate to be moving horizontally more slowly than ~1 mm yr-1, in agreement with the data. ICE-5G VM5a T60 Rot well fits both the vertical and horizontal observations in Europe. The space geodetic data cannot distinguish between models with and without rotational feedback, in the vertical because the velocity of Earth' centre is uncertain, and in the horizontal because the areas of the plate interiors having geodetic sites is not large enough to detect the small differences in the predictions of rotational feedback going across the plate interiors.

The De-Icing Comparison Experiment (D-ICE): A campaign for improving data retention rates of radiometric measurements under icing conditions in cold regions

Science.gov (United States)

Cox, C. J.; Morris, S. M.

2017-12-01

Longwave and shortwave radiative fluxes are fundamental quantities regularly observed globally using broadband radiometers. In cold climates, frost, rime, snow and ice (collectively, "icing") frequently builds up on sensor windows, contaminating measurements. Since icing occurs under particular meteorological conditions, associated data losses constitutes a climatological bias. Furthermore, the signal caused by ice is difficult to distinguish from that of clouds, hampering efforts to identify contaminated from real data in post-processing. Because of the sensitivity of radiometers to internal temperature instabilities, there are limitations to using heat as a de-icing method. The magnitude of this problem is indicated by the large number of research institutions and commercial vendors that have developed various de-icing strategies. The D-ICE campaign has been designed to bring together a large number of currently available systems to quantitatively evaluate and compare ice-migration strategies and also to characterize the potentially adverse effects of the techniques themselves. For D-ICE, a variety of automated approaches making use of ventilation, heating, modified housings and alcohol spray are being evaluated alongside standard units operating with only the regularly scheduled manual cleaning by human operators at the NOAA Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) station in Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska. Previous experience within the BSRN community suggests that aspiration of ambient air alone may be sufficient to maintain ice-free radiometers without increasing measurement uncertainty during icing conditions, forming the main guiding hypothesis of the experiment. Icing on the sensors is monitored visually using cameras recording images every 15 minutes and quantitatively using an icing probe and met station. The effects of applied heat on infrared loss in pyranometers will be analyzed and the integrated effect of icing on monthly averages will be

Persistent Tracers of Historic Ice Flow in Glacial Stratigraphy near Kamb Ice Stream, West Antarctica

OpenAIRE

Holschuh, Nicholas; Christianson, Knut; Conway, Howard; Jacobel, Robert W.; Welch, Brian C.

2018-01-01

Variations in properties controlling ice flow (e.g., topography, accumulation rate, basal friction) are recorded by structures in glacial stratigraphy. When anomalies that disturb the stratigraphy are fixed in space, the structures they produce advect away from the source, and can be used to trace flow pathways and reconstruct ice-flow patterns of the past. Here we provide an example of one of these persistent tracers: a prominent unconformity in the glacial layering that originates at Mt. Re...

Sea Ice Drift Monitoring in the Bohai Sea Based on GF4 Satellite

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Y.; Wei, P.; Zhu, H.; Xing, B.

2018-04-01

The Bohai Sea is the inland sea with the highest latitude in China. In winter, the phenomenon of freezing occurs in the Bohai Sea due to frequent cold wave influx. According to historical records, there have been three serious ice packs in the Bohai Sea in the past 50 years which caused heavy losses to our economy. Therefore, it is of great significance to monitor the drift of sea ice and sea ice in the Bohai Sea. The GF4 image has the advantages of short imaging time and high spatial resolution. Based on the GF4 satellite images, the three methods of SIFT (Scale invariant feature - the transform and Scale invariant feature transform), MCC (maximum cross-correlation method) and sift combined with MCC are used to monitor sea ice drift and calculate the speed and direction of sea ice drift, the three calculation results are compared and analyzed by using expert interpretation and historical statistical data to carry out remote sensing monitoring of sea ice drift results. The experimental results show that the experimental results of the three methods are in accordance with expert interpretation and historical statistics. Therefore, the GF4 remote sensing satellite images have the ability to monitor sea ice drift and can be used for drift monitoring of sea ice in the Bohai Sea.

Safety Evaluation of 30 kGy Irradiated Chocolate Ice Cream

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeon, Y.E.; Yin, X.F.; Chung, C.K.; Kang, I.J.

2013-01-01

This study was investigated the potential toxicity of gamma-irradiated chocolate ice cream for its future use in space. Chocolate ice cream was irradiated at a dose of 30 kGy at a temperature of -20°C. For the animal study, AIN-93G was used as a control diet and irradiated and non-irradiated chocolate ice cream diets were administered to male and female ICR mice (ten mice per group) for three months. During the experimental period, the group fed irradiated chocolate ice cream did not show any changes in appearance, behavior, mortality, body weight, organ weight, or food consumption compared to the control. Also, all biochemical parameters, including hematology profiles, erythrocyte counts, and serum biochemical values were in normal ranges. In histopathological examinations of liver and kidney tissues, there were no significant differences between the control group and the group fed irradiated chocolate ice cream. These results indicate that chocolate ice cream irradiated at 30 kGy did not cause any toxic effects and could be applied for the development of safe and hygienic space food

The Science of Solar System Ices

CERN Document Server

Castillo-Rogez, Julie

2013-01-01

The Science of Solar System Ices The role of laboratory research and simulations in advancing our understanding of solar system ices (including satellites, KBOs, comets, and giant planets) is becoming increasingly important. Understanding ice surface radiation processing, particle and radiation penetration depths, surface and subsurface chemistry, morphology, phases, density, conductivity, etc., are only a few examples of the inventory of issues that are being addressed by Earth-based laboratory research. As a response to the growing need for cross-disciplinary dialog and communication in the planetary ices science community, this book aims to foster focused collaborations among the observational, modeling, and laboratory research communities. The book is a compilation of articles from experts in ices: experimentalists, modelers, and observers (ground-based telescopes and space missions). Most of the contributors featured in this book are renowned experts in their respective fields. Many of these scientists h...

Observing ice clouds in the submillimeter spectral range: the CloudIce mission proposal for ESA's Earth Explorer 8

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. A. Buehler

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Passive submillimeter-wave sensors are a way to obtain urgently needed global data on ice clouds, particularly on the so far poorly characterized "essential climate variable" ice water path (IWP and on ice particle size. CloudIce was a mission proposal to the European Space Agency ESA in response to the call for Earth Explorer 8 (EE8, which ran in 2009/2010. It proposed a passive submillimeter-wave sensor with channels ranging from 183 GHz to 664 GHz. The article describes the CloudIce mission proposal, with particular emphasis on describing the algorithms for the data-analysis of submillimeter-wave cloud ice data (retrieval algorithms and demonstrating their maturity. It is shown that we have a robust understanding of the radiative properties of cloud ice in the millimeter/submillimeter spectral range, and that we have a proven toolbox of retrieval algorithms to work with these data. Although the mission was not selected for EE8, the concept will be useful as a reference for other future mission proposals.

Determination of CME 3D parameters based on a new full ice-cream cone model

Science.gov (United States)

Na, Hyeonock; Moon, Yong-Jae

2017-08-01

In space weather forecast, it is important to determine three-dimensional properties of CMEs. Using 29 limb CMEs, we examine which cone type is close to a CME three-dimensional structure. We find that most CMEs have near full ice-cream cone structure which is a symmetrical circular cone combined with a hemisphere. We develop a full ice-cream cone model based on a new methodology that the full ice-cream cone consists of many flat cones with different heights and angular widths. By applying this model to 12 SOHO/LASCO halo CMEs, we find that 3D parameters from our method are similar to those from other stereoscopic methods (i.e., a triangulation method and a Graduated Cylindrical Shell model). In addition, we derive CME mean density (ρmean=Mtotal/Vcone) based on the full ice-cream cone structure. For several limb events, we determine CME mass by applying the Solarsoft procedure (e.g., cme_mass.pro) to SOHO/LASCO C3 images. CME volumes are estimated from the full ice-cream cone structure. From the power-law relationship between CME mean density and its height, we estimate CME mean densities at 20 solar radii (Rs). We will compare the CME densities at 20 Rs with their corresponding ICME densities.

T2-weighted MR imaging of the liver: Qualitative and quantitative comparison of SPACE MR imaging with turbo spin-echo MR imaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dohan, Anthony, E-mail: anthony.dohan@lrb.aphp.fr [Department of Body and Interventional Imaging, Hôpital Lariboisière, AP-HP, 2 Rue Ambroise Paré, 75475 Paris Cedex 10 (France); Université Paris-Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 10 Rue de Verdun, 75010 Paris (France); UMR INSERM 965, Hôpital Lariboisière, 2 Rue Amboise Paré, 75010 Paris (France); Gavini, Jean-Philippe, E-mail: jpgavini@gmail.com [Department of Body and Interventional Imaging, Hôpital Lariboisière, AP-HP, 2 Rue Ambroise Paré, 75475 Paris Cedex 10 (France); Université Paris-Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 10 Rue de Verdun, 75010 Paris (France); Placé, Vinciane, E-mail: vinciane.place@gmail.com [Department of Body and Interventional Imaging, Hôpital Lariboisière, AP-HP, 2 Rue Ambroise Paré, 75475 Paris Cedex 10 (France); Sebbag, Delphine, E-mail: delphinesebbag@gmail.com [Department of Body and Interventional Imaging, Hôpital Lariboisière, AP-HP, 2 Rue Ambroise Paré, 75475 Paris Cedex 10 (France); Université Paris-Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 10 Rue de Verdun, 75010 Paris (France); Vignaud, Alexandre, E-mail: alexandre.vignaud@cea.fr [LRMN, Neurospin, CEA-SACLAY, Bâtiment 145, 91 191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex (France); and others

2013-11-01

Objective: To qualitatively and quantitatively compare T2-weighted MR imaging of the liver using volumetric spin-echo with sampling perfection with application-optimized contrast using different flip angle evolutions (SPACE) with conventional turbo spin-echo (TSE) sequence for fat-suppressed T2-weighted MR imaging of the liver. Materials and methods: Thirty-three patients with suspected focal liver lesions had SPACE MR imaging and conventional fat-suppressed TSE MR imaging. Images were analyzed quantitatively by measuring the lesion-to-liver contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of main focal hepatic lesions, hepatic and splenic parenchyma and qualitatively by evaluating the presence of vascular, respiratory motion and cardiac artifacts. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to search for differences between the two sequences. Results: SPACE MR imaging showed significantly greater CNR for focal liver lesions (median = 22.82) than TSE MR imaging (median = 14.15) (P < .001). No differences were found for SNR of hepatic parenchyma (P = .097), main focal hepatic lesions (P = .35), and splenic parenchyma (P = .25). SPACE sequence showed less artifacts than TSE sequence (vascular, P < .001; respiratory motion, P < .001; cardiac, P < .001) but needed a longer acquisition time (228.4 vs. 162.1 s; P < .001). Conclusion: SPACE MR imaging provides a significantly increased CNR for focal liver lesions and less artifacts by comparison with the conventional TSE sequence. These results should stimulate further clinical studies with a surgical standard of reference to compare the two techniques in terms of sensitivity for malignant lesions.

Yield surface evolution for columnar ice

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Zhiwei; Ma, Wei; Zhang, Shujuan; Mu, Yanhu; Zhao, Shunpin; Li, Guoyu

A series of triaxial compression tests, which has capable of measuring the volumetric strain of the sample, were conducted on columnar ice. A new testing approach of probing the experimental yield surface was performed from a single sample in order to investigate yield and hardening behaviors of the columnar ice under complex stress states. Based on the characteristic of the volumetric strain, a new method of defined the multiaxial yield strengths of the columnar ice is proposed. The experimental yield surface remains elliptical shape in the stress space of effective stress versus mean stress. The effect of temperature, loading rate and loading path in the initial yield surface and deformation properties of the columnar ice were also studied. Subsequent yield surfaces of the columnar ice have been explored by using uniaxial and hydrostatic paths. The evolution of the subsequent yield surface exhibits significant path-dependent characteristics. The multiaxial hardening law of the columnar ice was established experimentally. A phenomenological yield criterion was presented for multiaxial yield and hardening behaviors of the columnar ice. The comparisons between the theoretical and measured results indicate that this current model is capable of giving a reasonable prediction for the multiaxial yield and post-yield properties of the columnar ice subjected to different temperature, loading rate and path conditions.

Space Radar Image of Wenatchee, Washington

Science.gov (United States)

1994-01-01

This spaceborne radar image shows a segment of the Columbia River as it passes through the area of Wenatchee, Washington, about 220 kilometers (136 miles) east of Seattle. The Wenatchee Mountains, part of the Cascade Range, are shown in green at the lower left of the image. The Cascades create a 'rain shadow' for the region, limiting rainfall east of the range to less than 26 centimeters (10 inches) per year. The radar's ability to see different types of vegetation is highlighted in the contrast between the pine forests, that appear in green and the dry valley plain that shows up as dark purple. The cities of Wenatchee and East Wenatchee are the grid-like areas straddling the Columbia River in the left center of the image. With a population of about 60,000, the region produces about half of Washington state's lucrative apple crop. Several orchard areas appear as green rectangular patches to the right of the river in the lower right center. Radar images such as these can be used to monitor land use patterns in areas such as Wenatchee, that have diverse and rapidly changing urban, agricultural and wild land pressures. This image was acquired by Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) onboard the space shuttle Endeavour on October 10, 1994. The image is 38 kilometers by 45 kilometers (24 miles by 30 miles) and is centered at 47.3 degrees North latitude, 120.1 degrees West longitude. North is toward the upper left. The colors are assigned to different radar frequencies and polarizations of the radar as follows: red is L-band, horizontally transmitted and received; green is L-band, horizontally transmitted, vertically received; and blue is C-band, horizontally transmitted, vertically received. SIR-C/X-SAR, a joint mission of the German, Italian, and United States space agencies, is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth.

Using Airborne Lidar Data from IcePod to Measure Annual and Seasonal Ice Changes Over Greenland

Science.gov (United States)

Frearson, N.; Bertinato, C.; Das, I.

2014-12-01

The IcePod is a multi-sensor airborne science platform that supports a wide suite of instruments, including a Riegl VQ-580 infrared scanning laser, GPS-inertial positioning system, shallow and deep-ice radars, visible-wave and infrared cameras, and upward-looking pyrometer. These instruments allow us to image the ice from top to bottom, including the surface of melt-water plumes that originate at the ice-ocean boundary. In collaboration with the New York Air National Guard 109th Airlift Wing, the IcePod is flown on LC-130 aircraft, which presents the unique opportunity to routinely image the Greenland ice sheet several times within a season. This is particularly important for mass balance studies, as we can measure elevation changes during the melt season. During the 2014 summer, laser data was collected via IcePod over the Greenland ice sheet, including Russell Glacier, Jakobshavn Glacier, Eqip Glacier, and Summit Camp. The Icepod will also be routinely operated in Antarctica. We present the initial testing, calibration, and error estimates from the first set of laser data that were collected on IcePod. At a survey altitude of 1000 m, the laser swath covers ~ 1000 m. A Northrop-Grumman LN-200 tactical grade IMU is rigidly attached to the laser scanner to provide attitude data at a rate of 200 Hz. Several methods were used to determine the lever arm between the IMU center of navigation and GPS antenna phase center, terrestrial scanning laser, total station survey, and optimal estimation. Additionally, initial bore sight calibration flights yielded misalignment angles within an accuracy of ±4 cm. We also performed routine passes over the airport ramp in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, comparing the airborne GPS and Lidar data to a reference GPS-based ground survey across the ramp, spot GPS points on the ramp and a nearby GPS base station. Positioning errors can severely impact the accuracy of a laser altimeter when flying over remote regions such as across the ice sheets

Dazzled by ice and snow: improving medium ocean color images in Arctic waters

Science.gov (United States)

Babin, M.; Goyens, C.; Belanger, S.

2016-02-01

The importance of phytoplankton blooms for the Arctic marine ecosystem is well recognized but studies disagree as the consequences of sea ice melt on the phytoplankton distribution and growth. This limited understanding in actual and future Arctic phytoplankton dynamics mostly results from a lack of accurate data at the receding ice-edges where phytoplankton blooms are known to occur. Ocean color sensors on-board satellites represent therefore a crucial tool providing a synoptic view of the ocean systems over broad spatio-temporal scales. However, today the use of ocean color data in Arctic environments remains strongly compromised due to, among others, sea ice contamination. Indeed, medium ocean color data along the receding ice edge are "dazzled" by nearby and/or sub-pixel highly reflective ice floes. Standard ocean color data methods ignore ice-contamination during data processing which deteriorates the quality of the radiometric data and subsequent satellite derived bio-geochemical products. Moreover, since Arctic phytoplankton spring blooms typically develop along the receding ice-edges, ignoring ice-contaminated pixels may lead to wrong interpretation of satellite data. The present study shows how adjacent and sub-pixel sea-ice floes affect the retrieved ocean color data. A correction approach is also suggested to improve the "dazzled" ocean color pixels along the receding ice edge in the aim to provide additional support to better understand current and future trends in phytoplankton dynamics.

Space Radar Image of West Texas - SAR scan

Science.gov (United States)

1999-01-01

This radar image of the Midland/Odessa region of West Texas, demonstrates an experimental technique, called ScanSAR, that allows scientists to rapidly image large areas of the Earth's surface. The large image covers an area 245 kilometers by 225 kilometers (152 miles by 139 miles). It was obtained by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) flying aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on October 5, 1994. The smaller inset image is a standard SIR-C image showing a portion of the same area, 100 kilometers by 57 kilometers (62 miles by 35 miles) and was taken during the first flight of SIR-C on April 14, 1994. The bright spots on the right side of the image are the cities of Odessa (left) and Midland (right), Texas. The Pecos River runs from the top center to the bottom center of the image. Along the left side of the image are, from top to bottom, parts of the Guadalupe, Davis and Santiago Mountains. North is toward the upper right. Unlike conventional radar imaging, in which a radar continuously illuminates a single ground swath as the space shuttle passes over the terrain, a Scansar radar illuminates several adjacent ground swaths almost simultaneously, by 'scanning' the radar beam across a large area in a rapid sequence. The adjacent swaths, typically about 50 km (31 miles) wide, are then merged during ground processing to produce a single large scene. Illumination for this L-band scene is from the top of the image. The beams were scanned from the top of the scene to the bottom, as the shuttle flew from left to right. This scene was acquired in about 30 seconds. A normal SIR-C image is acquired in about 13 seconds. The ScanSAR mode will likely be used on future radar sensors to construct regional and possibly global radar images and topographic maps. The ScanSAR processor is being designed for 1996 implementation at NASA's Alaska SAR Facility, located at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and will produce digital images from the

Arctic Sea Ice Structure and Texture over Four Decades Using Landsat Archive Data

Science.gov (United States)

Doulgeris, A. P.; Scambos, T.; Tiampo, K. F.

2017-12-01

Arctic sea ice cover is a sensitive indicator of Arctic climate change, and has shown dramatic changes in recent decades, having thinned by 70% ( 3.5 m to 1.2 m between 1980 and 2015). Age distribution of the ice has changed in a similar fashion, with over 90% of the ice older than 5 winters now lost relative to 1985. To date, most of the data have been based on the continuous passive microwave record that began in 1978, which has 25 km grid resolution, or on SAR imagery with somewhat less frequent, less continuous observations. Landsat image data exist for the Arctic sea ice region north of Alaska and the MacKenzie River Delta area in Canada, the Canadian Archipelago, and Baffin Bay, extending back over 40 years. Resolution of the earliest Landsat MSS data is 56-70 m per pixel, and after 1984 many additional images at 30 m resolution are available. This 40+ year time period is used to investigate long-term changes in sea ice properties, such as comparing image-based snapshots with the trend in seasonal extents today, as well as more novel properties like sea ice roughness, lead structure and texture. The proposed study will initially investigate Landsat image analysis techniques to extract quantitative measures of ice roughness, lead fraction and perhaps morphological measures like lead linearity (which potentially indicate strength and compression history within the ice), and to explore these measures over the 40+ year time frame.

A singular K-space model for fast reconstruction of magnetic resonance images from undersampled data.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Jianhua; Mou, Zhiying; Qin, Binjie; Li, Wanqing; Ogunbona, Philip; Robini, Marc C; Zhu, Yuemin

2017-12-09

Reconstructing magnetic resonance images from undersampled k-space data is a challenging problem. This paper introduces a novel method of image reconstruction from undersampled k-space data based on the concept of singularizing operators and a novel singular k-space model. Exploring the sparsity of an image in the k-space, the singular k-space model (SKM) is proposed in terms of the k-space functions of a singularizing operator. The singularizing operator is constructed by combining basic difference operators. An algorithm is developed to reliably estimate the model parameters from undersampled k-space data. The estimated parameters are then used to recover the missing k-space data through the model, subsequently achieving high-quality reconstruction of the image using inverse Fourier transform. Experiments on physical phantom and real brain MR images have shown that the proposed SKM method constantly outperforms the popular total variation (TV) and the classical zero-filling (ZF) methods regardless of the undersampling rates, the noise levels, and the image structures. For the same objective quality of the reconstructed images, the proposed method requires much less k-space data than the TV method. The SKM method is an effective method for fast MRI reconstruction from the undersampled k-space data. Graphical abstract Two Real Images and their sparsified images by singularizing operator.

Space Radar Image of Flevoland, Netherlands

Science.gov (United States)

1999-01-01

This is a three-frequency false color image of Flevoland, The Netherlands, centered at 52.4 degrees north latitude, 5.4 degrees east longitude. This image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) aboard space shuttle Endeavour on April 14, 1994. It was produced by combining data from the X-band, C-band and L-band radars. The area shown is approximately 25 kilometers by 28 kilometers (15-1/2 by 17-1/2 miles). Flevoland, which fills the lower two-thirds of the image, is a very flat area that is made up of reclaimed land that is used for agriculture and forestry. At the top of the image, across the canal from Flevoland, is an older forest shown in red; the city of Harderwijk is shown in white on the shore of the canal. At this time of the year, the agricultural fields are bare soil, and they show up in this image in blue. The changes in the brightness of the blue areas are equal to the changes in roughness. The dark blue areas are water and the small dots in the canal are boats. This SIR-C/X-SAR supersite is being used for both calibration and agricultural studies. Several soil and crop ground-truth studies will be conducted during the shuttle flight. In addition, about 10calibration devices and 10 corner reflectors have been deployed to calibrate and monitor the radar signal. One of these transponders can be seen as a bright star in the lower right quadrant of the image. This false-color image was made using L-band total power in the red channel, C-band total power in the green channel, and X-band VV polarization in the blue channel. Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. The radars illuminate Earth with microwaves allowing detailed observations at any time, regardless of weather or sunlight conditions. SIR-C/X-SAR uses three microwave wavelengths: L-band (24 cm), C-band (6 cm) and X-band (3 cm). The multi-frequency data will be used by

Patterned basal seismicity shows sub-ice stream bedforms

Science.gov (United States)

Barcheck, C. G.; Tulaczyk, S. M.; Schwartz, S. Y.

2017-12-01

Patterns in seismicity emanating from the bottom of fast-moving ice streams and glaciers may indicate localized patches of higher basal resistance— sometimes called 'sticky spots', or otherwise varying basal properties. These seismogenic basal areas resist an unknown portion of the total driving stress of the Whillans Ice Plain (WIP), in West Antarctica, but may play an important role in the WIP stick-slip cycle and ice stream slowdown. To better understand the mechanism and importance of basal seismicity beneath the WIP, we analyze seismic data collected by a small aperture (micro-earthquakes in Dec 2014, and we compare the resulting map of seismicity to ice bottom depth measured by airborne radar. The number of basal earthquakes per area within the network is spatially heterogeneous, but a pattern of two 400m wide streaks of high seismicity rates is evident, with >50-500 earthquakes detected per 50x50m grid cell in 2 weeks. These seismically active streaks are elongated approximately in the ice flow direction with a spacing of 750m. Independent airborne radar measurements of ice bottom depth from Jan 2013 show a low-amplitude ( 5m) undulation in the basal topography superposed on a regional gradient in ice bottom depth. The flow-perpendicular wavelength of these low-amplitude undulations is comparable to the spacing of the high seismicity bands, and the streaks of high seismicity intersect local lows in the undulating basal topography. We interpret these seismic and radar observations as showing seismically active sub-ice stream bedforms that are low amplitude and elongated in the direction of ice flow, comparable to the morphology of mega scale glacial lineations (MSGLs), with high basal seismicity rates observed in the MSGL troughs. These results have implications for understanding the formation mechanism of MSGLS and well as understanding the interplay between basal topographic roughness, spatially varying basal till and hydrologic properties, basal

Wavelet-space correlation imaging for high-speed MRI without motion monitoring or data segmentation.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yu; Wang, Hui; Tkach, Jean; Roach, David; Woods, Jason; Dumoulin, Charles

2015-12-01

This study aims to (i) develop a new high-speed MRI approach by implementing correlation imaging in wavelet-space, and (ii) demonstrate the ability of wavelet-space correlation imaging to image human anatomy with involuntary or physiological motion. Correlation imaging is a high-speed MRI framework in which image reconstruction relies on quantification of data correlation. The presented work integrates correlation imaging with a wavelet transform technique developed originally in the field of signal and image processing. This provides a new high-speed MRI approach to motion-free data collection without motion monitoring or data segmentation. The new approach, called "wavelet-space correlation imaging", is investigated in brain imaging with involuntary motion and chest imaging with free-breathing. Wavelet-space correlation imaging can exceed the speed limit of conventional parallel imaging methods. Using this approach with high acceleration factors (6 for brain MRI, 16 for cardiac MRI, and 8 for lung MRI), motion-free images can be generated in static brain MRI with involuntary motion and nonsegmented dynamic cardiac/lung MRI with free-breathing. Wavelet-space correlation imaging enables high-speed MRI in the presence of involuntary motion or physiological dynamics without motion monitoring or data segmentation. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The formation of ice sails

Science.gov (United States)

Fowler, A. C.; Mayer, C.

2017-11-01

Debris-covered glaciers are prone to the formation of a number of supraglacial geomorphological features, and generally speaking, their upper surfaces are far from level surfaces. Some of these features are due to radiation screening or enhancing properties of the debris cover, but theoretical explanations of the consequent surface forms are in their infancy. In this paper we consider a theoretical model for the formation of "ice sails", which are regularly spaced bare ice features which are found on debris-covered glaciers in the Karakoram.

In Situ Balloon-Borne Ice Particle Imaging in High-Latitude Cirrus

Science.gov (United States)

Kuhn, Thomas; Heymsfield, Andrew J.

2016-09-01

Cirrus clouds reflect incoming solar radiation, creating a cooling effect. At the same time, these clouds absorb the infrared radiation from the Earth, creating a greenhouse effect. The net effect, crucial for radiative transfer, depends on the cirrus microphysical properties, such as particle size distributions and particle shapes. Knowledge of these cloud properties is also needed for calibrating and validating passive and active remote sensors. Ice particles of sizes below 100 µm are inherently difficult to measure with aircraft-mounted probes due to issues with resolution, sizing, and size-dependent sampling volume. Furthermore, artefacts are produced by shattering of particles on the leading surfaces of the aircraft probes when particles several hundred microns or larger are present. Here, we report on a series of balloon-borne in situ measurements that were carried out at a high-latitude location, Kiruna in northern Sweden (68N 21E). The method used here avoids these issues experienced with the aircraft probes. Furthermore, with a balloon-borne instrument, data are collected as vertical profiles, more useful for calibrating or evaluating remote sensing measurements than data collected along horizontal traverses. Particles are collected on an oil-coated film at a sampling speed given directly by the ascending rate of the balloon, 4 m s-1. The collecting film is advanced uniformly inside the instrument so that an always unused section of the film is exposed to ice particles, which are measured by imaging shortly after sampling. The high optical resolution of about 4 µm together with a pixel resolution of 1.65 µm allows particle detection at sizes of 10 µm and larger. For particles that are 20 µm (12 pixel) in size or larger, the shape can be recognized. The sampling volume, 130 cm3 s-1, is well defined and independent of particle size. With the encountered number concentrations of between 4 and 400 L-1, this required about 90- to 4-s sampling times to

Under the sea ice: Exploring the relationship between sea ice and the foraging behaviour of southern elephant seals in East Antarctica

Science.gov (United States)

Labrousse, Sara; Sallée, Jean-Baptiste; Fraser, Alexander D.; Massom, Robert A.; Reid, Phillip; Sumner, Michael; Guinet, Christophe; Harcourt, Robert; McMahon, Clive; Bailleul, Frédéric; Hindell, Mark A.; Charrassin, Jean-Benoit

2017-08-01

Investigating ecological relationships between predators and their environment is essential to understand the response of marine ecosystems to climate variability and change. This is particularly true in polar regions, where sea ice (a sensitive climate variable) plays a crucial yet highly dynamic and variable role in how it influences the whole marine ecosystem, from phytoplankton to top predators. For mesopredators such as seals, sea ice both supports a rich (under-ice) food resource, access to which depends on local to regional coverage and conditions. Here, we investigate sex-specific relationships between the foraging strategies of southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) in winter and spatio-temporal variability in sea ice concentration (SIC) and coverage in East Antarctica. We satellite-tracked 46 individuals undertaking post-moult trips in winter from Kerguelen Islands to the peri-Antarctic shelf between 2004 and 2014. These data indicate distinct general patterns of sea ice usage: while females tended to follow the sea ice edge as it extended northward, the males remained on the continental shelf despite increasing sea ice. Seal hunting time, a proxy of foraging activity inferred from the diving behaviour, was longer for females in late autumn in the outer part of the pack ice, ∼150-370 km south of the ice edge. Within persistent regions of compact sea ice, females had a longer foraging activity (i) in the highest sea ice concentration at their position, but (ii) their foraging activity was longer when there were more patches of low concentration sea ice around their position (either in time or in space; 30 days & 50 km). The high spatio-temporal variability of sea ice around female positions is probably a key factor allowing them to exploit these concentrated patches. Despite lack of information on prey availability, females may exploit mesopelagic finfishes and squids that concentrate near the ice-water interface or within the water column (from

Self-diffusion of polycrystalline ice Ih under confining pressure: Hydrogen isotope analysis using 2-D Raman imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Noguchi, Naoki; Kubo, Tomoaki; Durham, William B.; Kagi, Hiroyuki; Shimizu, Ichiko

2016-08-01

We have developed a high-resolution technique based on micro Raman spectroscopy to measure hydrogen isotope diffusion profiles in ice Ih. The calibration curve for quantitative analysis of deuterium in ice Ih was constructed using micro Raman spectroscopy. Diffusion experiments using diffusion couples composed of dense polycrystalline H2O and D2O ice were carried out under a gas confining pressure of 100 MPa (to suppress micro-fracturing and pore formation) at temperatures from 235 K to 245 K and diffusion times from 0.2 to 94 hours. Two-dimensional deuterium profiles across the diffusion couples were determined by Raman imaging. The location of small spots of frost from room air could be detected from the shapes of the Raman bands of OH and OD stretching modes, which change because of the effect of the molar ratio of deuterium on the molecular coupling interaction. We emphasize the validity for screening the impurities utilizing the coupling interaction. Some recrystallization and grain boundary migration occurred in recovered diffusion couples, but analysis of two-dimensional diffusion profiles of regions not affected by grain boundary migration allowed us to measure a volume diffusivity for ice at 100 MPa of (2.8 ± 0.4) ×10-3exp[ -57.0 ± 15.4kJ /mol RT ] m2 /s (R is the gas constant, T is temperature). Based on ambient pressure diffusivity measurements by others, this value indicates a high (negative) activation volume for volume diffusivity of -29.5 cm3/mol or more. We can also constrain the value of grain boundary diffusivity in ice at 100 MPa to be volume diffusivity.

WATER ICE AT THE SURFACE OF THE HD 100546 DISK

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Honda, M.; Kudo, T.; Terada, H.; Takato, N.; Takatsuki, S.; Nakamoto, T.; Inoue, A. K.; Fukagawa, M.; Tamura, M.

2016-01-01

We made near-infrared multicolor imaging observations of a disk around Herbig Be star HD 100546 using Gemini/NICI. K (2.2 μm), H 2 O ice (3.06 μm), and L′ (3.8 μm) disk images were obtained and we found a 3.1 μm absorption feature in the scattered light spectrum, likely due to water ice grains at the disk surface. We compared the observed depth of the ice absorption feature with the disk model based on Oka et al., including the water ice photodesorption effect by stellar UV photons. The observed absorption depth can be explained by both the disk models with and without the photodesorption effect within the measurement accuracy, but the model with photodesorption effects is slightly more favored, implying that the UV photons play an important role in the survival/destruction of ice grains at the Herbig Ae/Be disk surface. Further improvement to the accuracy of the observations of the water ice absorption depth is needed to constrain the disk models

WATER ICE AT THE SURFACE OF THE HD 100546 DISK

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Honda, M. [Department of Physics, Kurume University School of Medicine, 67 Asahi-machi, Kurume, Fukuoka, 830-0011 (Japan); Kudo, T.; Terada, H.; Takato, N. [Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 650 North A’ohoku Place, Hilo, Hawaii 96720 (United States); Takatsuki, S.; Nakamoto, T. [Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8551 (Japan); Inoue, A. K. [College of General Education, Osaka Sangyo University, Daito, Osaka 574-8530 (Japan); Fukagawa, M.; Tamura, M. [National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 (Japan)

2016-04-10

We made near-infrared multicolor imaging observations of a disk around Herbig Be star HD 100546 using Gemini/NICI. K (2.2 μm), H{sub 2}O ice (3.06 μm), and L′ (3.8 μm) disk images were obtained and we found a 3.1 μm absorption feature in the scattered light spectrum, likely due to water ice grains at the disk surface. We compared the observed depth of the ice absorption feature with the disk model based on Oka et al., including the water ice photodesorption effect by stellar UV photons. The observed absorption depth can be explained by both the disk models with and without the photodesorption effect within the measurement accuracy, but the model with photodesorption effects is slightly more favored, implying that the UV photons play an important role in the survival/destruction of ice grains at the Herbig Ae/Be disk surface. Further improvement to the accuracy of the observations of the water ice absorption depth is needed to constrain the disk models.

Determination of ice water path in ice-over-water cloud systems using combined MODIS and AMSR-E measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Jianping; Minnis, Patrick; Lin, Bing; Yi, Yuhong; Fan, T.-F.; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Ayers, J. K.

2006-11-01

To provide more accurate ice cloud microphysical properties, the multi-layered cloud retrieval system (MCRS) is used to retrieve ice water path (IWP) in ice-over-water cloud systems globally over oceans using combined instrument data from Aqua. The liquid water path (LWP) of lower-layer water clouds is estimated from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) measurements. The properties of the upper-level ice clouds are then derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) measurements by matching simulated radiances from a two-cloud-layer radiative transfer model. The results show that the MCRS can significantly improve the accuracy and reduce the over-estimation of optical depth and IWP retrievals for ice-over-water cloud systems. The mean daytime ice cloud optical depth and IWP for overlapped ice-over-water clouds over oceans from Aqua are 7.6 and 146.4 gm-2, respectively, down from the initial single-layer retrievals of 17.3 and 322.3 gm-2. The mean IWP for actual single-layer clouds is 128.2 gm-2.

The Sentinel-1 Mission: New Opportunities for Ice Sheet Observations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Nagler

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The Sentinel satellite constellation series, developed by the European Space Agency, represents the dedicated space component of the European Copernicus program, committed to long-term operational services in a wide range of application domains. Here, we address the potential of the Sentinel-1 mission for mapping and monitoring the surface velocity of glaciers and ice sheets. We present an ice velocity map of Greenland, derived from synthetic aperture radar (SAR data acquired in winter 2015 by Sentinel-1A, the first satellite of the Copernicus program in orbit. The map is assembled from about 900 SAR scenes acquired in Interferometric Wide swath (IW mode, applying the offset tracking technique. We discuss special features of IW mode data, describe the procedures for producing ice velocity maps, and assess the uncertainty of the ice motion product. We compare the Sentinel-1 ice motion product with velocity maps derived from high resolution SAR data of the TerraSAR-X mission and from PALSAR data. Beyond supporting operational services, the Sentinel-1 mission offers enhanced capabilities for comprehensive and long-term observation of key climate variables, such as the motion of ice masses.

Ice-skating and roller disco injuries in Dublin.

Science.gov (United States)

Horner, C.; McCabe, M. J.

1984-01-01

A comparative study was carried out on a series of 72 ice-skating and 57 roller skating injuries over a sixteen month period. The average patient age was 20.5 years in the ice-skating group and 16.5 years in the roller skating group. Females predominated in both groups accounting for 72% of ice-skaters injured and 77% of roller skaters injured. Ice-skaters sustained more serious injuries than roller skaters as was evident from the significant difference in fracture numbers in the two groups. Ice-skating fractures accounted for 40% of all injuries while roller skating fractures were only 14% of their total injuries. The majority of ice-skating fractures occurred in females. As a result of our study we recommended several preventative measures. Images p207-a p207-b PMID:6487948

Postglacial Rebound and Current Ice Loss Estimates from Space Geodesy: The New ICE-6G (VM5a) Global Model

Science.gov (United States)

Peltier, W. R.; Argus, D.; Drummond, R.; Moore, A. W.

2012-12-01

We compare, on a global basis, estimates of site velocity against predictions of the newly constructed postglacial rebound model ICE-6G (VM5a). This model is fit to observations of North American postglacial rebound thereby demonstrating that the ice sheet at last glacial maximum must have been, relative to ICE-5G,thinner in southern Manitoba, thinner near Yellowknife (northwest Territories), thicker in eastern and southern Quebec, and thicker along the British Columbia-Alberta border. The GPS based estimates of site velocity that we employ are more accurate than were previously available because they are based on GPS estimates of position as a function of time determined by incorporating satellite phase center variations [Desai et al. 2011]. These GPS estimates are constraining postglacial rebound in North America and Europe more tightly than ever before. In particular, given the high density of GPS sites in North America, and the fact that the velocity of the mass center (CM) of Earth is also more tightly constrained, the new model much more strongly constrains both the lateral extent of the proglacial forebulge and the rate at which this peripheral bulge (that was emplaced peripheral to the late Pleistocence Laurentia ice sheet) is presently collapsing. This fact proves to be important to the more accurate inference of the current rate of ice loss from both Greenland and Alaska based upon the time dependent gravity observations being provided by the GRACE satellite system. In West Antarctica we have also been able to significantly revise the previously prevalent ICE-5G deglaciation history so as to enable its predictions to be optimally consistent with GPS site velocities determined by connecting campaign WAGN measurements to those provided by observations from the permanent ANET sites. Ellsworth Land (south of the Antarctic peninsula), is observed to be rising at 6 ±3 mm/yr according to our latest analyses; the Ellsworth mountains themselves are observed to be

Space situational awareness satellites and ground based radiation counting and imaging detector technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jansen, Frank; Behrens, Joerg; Pospisil, Stanislav; Kudela, Karel

2011-01-01

We review the current status from the scientific and technological point of view of solar energetic particles, solar and galactic cosmic ray measurements as well as high energy UV-, X- and gamma-ray imaging of the Sun. These particles and electromagnetic data are an important tool for space situational awareness (SSA) aspects like space weather storm predictions to avoid failures in space, air and ground based technological systems. Real time data acquisition, position and energy sensitive imaging are demanded by the international space weather forecast services. We present how newly developed, highly miniaturized radiation detectors can find application in space in view of future SSA related satellites as a novel space application due to their counting and imaging capabilities.

Space situational awareness satellites and ground based radiation counting and imaging detector technology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jansen, Frank, E-mail: frank.jansen@dlr.de [DLR Institute of Space Systems, Robert-Hooke-Str. 7, 28359 Bremen (Germany); Behrens, Joerg [DLR Institute of Space Systems, Robert-Hooke-Str. 7, 28359 Bremen (Germany); Pospisil, Stanislav [Czech Technical University, IEAP, 12800 Prague 2, Horska 3a/22 (Czech Republic); Kudela, Karel [Slovak Academy of Sciences, IEP, 04001 Kosice, Watsonova 47 (Slovakia)

2011-05-15

We review the current status from the scientific and technological point of view of solar energetic particles, solar and galactic cosmic ray measurements as well as high energy UV-, X- and gamma-ray imaging of the Sun. These particles and electromagnetic data are an important tool for space situational awareness (SSA) aspects like space weather storm predictions to avoid failures in space, air and ground based technological systems. Real time data acquisition, position and energy sensitive imaging are demanded by the international space weather forecast services. We present how newly developed, highly miniaturized radiation detectors can find application in space in view of future SSA related satellites as a novel space application due to their counting and imaging capabilities.

New Crustal Boundary Revealed Beneath the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, through ROSETTA-Ice Integrated Aerogeophysics, Geology, and Ocean Research

Science.gov (United States)

Tinto, K. J.; Siddoway, C. S.; Bell, R. E.; Lockett, A.; Wilner, J.

2017-12-01

Now submerged within marine plateaus and rises bordering Antarctica, Australia and Zealandia, the East Gondwana accretionary margin was a belt of terranes and stitched by magmatic arcs, later stretched into continental ribbons separated by narrow elongate rifts. This crustal architecture is known from marine geophysical exploration and ocean drilling of the mid-latitude coastal plateaus and rises. A concealed sector of the former East Gondwana margin that underlies the Ross Ice Shelf (RIS), Antarctica, is the focus of ROSETTA-ICE, a new airborne data acquisition campaign that explores the crustal makeup, tectonic boundaries and seafloor bathymetry beneath RIS. Gravimeters and a magnetometer are deployed by LC130 aircraft surveying along E-W lines spaced at 10 km, and N-S tie lines at 55 km, connect 1970s points (RIGGS) for controls on ocean depth and gravity. The ROSETTA-ICE survey, 2/3 completed thus far, provides magnetic anomalies, Werner depth-to-basement solutions, a new gravity-based bathymetric model at 20-km resolution, and a new crustal density map tied to the 1970s data. Surprisingly, the data reveal that the major lithospheric boundary separating East and West Antarctica lies 300 km east of the Transantarctic Mountains, beneath the floating RIS. The East and West regions have contrasting geophysical characteristics and bathymetry, with relatively dense lithosphere, low amplitude magnetic anomalies, and deep bathymetry on the East Antarctica side, and high amplitude magnetic anomalies, lower overall density and shallower water depths on the West Antarctic side. The Central High, a basement structure cored at DSDP Site 270 and seismically imaged in the Ross Sea, continues beneath RIS as a faulted but coherent crustal ribbon coincident with the tectonic boundary. The continuity of Gondwana margin crustal architecture discovered beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet requires a revision of the existing tectonic framework. The sub-RIS narrow rift basins and

Adaptive removal of background and white space from document images using seam categorization

Science.gov (United States)

Fillion, Claude; Fan, Zhigang; Monga, Vishal

2011-03-01

Document images are obtained regularly by rasterization of document content and as scans of printed documents. Resizing via background and white space removal is often desired for better consumption of these images, whether on displays or in print. While white space and background are easy to identify in images, existing methods such as naïve removal and content aware resizing (seam carving) each have limitations that can lead to undesirable artifacts, such as uneven spacing between lines of text or poor arrangement of content. An adaptive method based on image content is hence needed. In this paper we propose an adaptive method to intelligently remove white space and background content from document images. Document images are different from pictorial images in structure. They typically contain objects (text letters, pictures and graphics) separated by uniform background, which include both white paper space and other uniform color background. Pixels in uniform background regions are excellent candidates for deletion if resizing is required, as they introduce less change in document content and style, compared with deletion of object pixels. We propose a background deletion method that exploits both local and global context. The method aims to retain the document structural information and image quality.

Space Radar Image of Central Sumatra, Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

1994-01-01

This is a radar image of the central part of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia that shows how the tropical rainforest typical of this country is being impacted by human activity. Native forest appears in green in this image, while prominent pink areas represent places where the native forest has been cleared. The large rectangular areas have been cleared for palm oil plantations. The bright pink zones are areas that have been cleared since 1989, while the dark pink zones are areas that were cleared before 1989. These radar data were processed as part of an effort to assist oil and gas companies working in the area to assess the environmental impact of both their drilling operations and the activities of the local population. Radar images are useful in these areas because heavy cloud cover and the persistent smoke and haze associated with deforestation have prevented usable visible-light imagery from being acquired since 1989. The dark shapes in the upper right (northeast) corner of the image are a chain of lakes in flat coastal marshes. This image was acquired in October 1994 by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) onboard the space shuttle Endeavour. Environmental changes can be easily documented by comparing this image with visible-light data that were acquired in previous years by the Landsat satellite. The image is centered at 0.9 degrees north latitude and 101.3 degrees east longitude. The area shown is 50 kilometers by 100 kilometers (31 miles by 62 miles). The colors in the image are assigned to different frequencies and polarizations of the radar as follows: red is L-band horizontally transmitted, horizontally received; green is L-band horizontally transmitted, vertically received; blue is L-band vertically transmitted, vertically received. SIR-C/X-SAR, a joint mission of the German, Italian and United States space agencies, is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program.

Parallel magnetic resonance imaging as approximation in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Athalye, Vivek; Lustig, Michael; Martin Uecker

2015-01-01

In magnetic resonance imaging data samples are collected in the spatial frequency domain (k-space), typically by time-consuming line-by-line scanning on a Cartesian grid. Scans can be accelerated by simultaneous acquisition of data using multiple receivers (parallel imaging), and by using more efficient non-Cartesian sampling schemes. To understand and design k-space sampling patterns, a theoretical framework is needed to analyze how well arbitrary sampling patterns reconstruct unsampled k-space using receive coil information. As shown here, reconstruction from samples at arbitrary locations can be understood as approximation of vector-valued functions from the acquired samples and formulated using a reproducing kernel Hilbert space with a matrix-valued kernel defined by the spatial sensitivities of the receive coils. This establishes a formal connection between approximation theory and parallel imaging. Theoretical tools from approximation theory can then be used to understand reconstruction in k-space and to extend the analysis of the effects of samples selection beyond the traditional image-domain g-factor noise analysis to both noise amplification and approximation errors in k-space. This is demonstrated with numerical examples. (paper)

Space Radar Image of County Kerry, Ireland

Science.gov (United States)

1994-01-01

The Iveragh Peninsula, one of the four peninsulas in southwestern Ireland, is shown in this spaceborne radar image. The lakes of Killarney National Park are the green patches on the left side of the image. The mountains to the right of the lakes include the highest peaks (1,036 meters or 3,400 feet) in Ireland. The patchwork patterns between the mountains are areas of farming and grazing. The delicate patterns in the water are caused by refraction of ocean waves around the peninsula edges and islands, including Skellig Rocks at the right edge of the image. The Skelligs are home to a 15th century monastery and flocks of puffins. The region is part of County Kerry and includes a road called the 'Ring of Kerry' that is one of the most famous tourist routes in Ireland. This image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) onboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on April 12, 1994. The image is 82 kilometers by 42 kilometers (51 miles by 26 miles) and is centered at 52.0 degrees north latitude, 9.9 degrees west longitude. North is toward the lower left. The colors are assigned to different radar frequencies and polarizations of the radar as follows: red is L-band, horizontally transmitted and received; green is L-band, vertically transmitted and received; and blue is C-band, vertically transmitted and received. SIR-C/X-SAR, a joint mission of the German, Italian and United States space agencies, is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program.

Application of GRACE to the Evaluation of an Ice Flow Model of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Science.gov (United States)

Schlegel, N.; Wiese, D. N.; Watkins, M. M.; Larour, E. Y.; Box, J. E.; Fettweis, X.; van den Broeke, M. R.; Morlighem, M.; Boening, C.; Seroussi, H. L.

2014-12-01

Quantifying Greenland's future contribution to sea level rise is a challenging task and requires accurate estimates of ice flow sensitivity to climate change. Transient ice flow models are promising tools for estimating future ice sheet behavior. However, confidence in these types of future projections is low, especially because evaluation of model historical runs is so challenging due to the scarcity of continental-wide data for validation. For more than a decade, NASA's GRACE has continuously acquired time-variable measurements of the Earth's gravity field and has provided unprecedented surveillance of mass balance of the ice sheets, offering an opportunity for ice sheet model evaluation. Here, we take advantage of a new high-resolution (~300 km) monthly mascon solution for the purpose of mass balance comparison with an independent, historical ice flow model simulation using the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM). The comparison highlights which regions of the ice sheet differ most from GRACE. Investigation of regional differences in trends and seasonal amplitudes between simulations forced with three different Regional Climate Model (RCM)-based estimates of surface mass balance (SMB) allows us to make conclusions about the relative contributions of various error sources in the model hindcast. This study constitutes the first regional comparison of GRACE data and an ice sheet model. Conclusions will aid in the improvement of RCM SMB estimates as well as ice sheet simulation estimates of present and future rates of sea level rise. This work was performed at the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Cryosphere Program and President's and Director's Fund Program.

Some Results on Sea Ice Rheology for the Seasonal Ice Zone, Obtained from the Deformation Field of Sea Ice Drift Pattern

Science.gov (United States)

Toyota, T.; Kimura, N.

2017-12-01

Sea ice rheology which relates sea ice stress to the large-scale deformation of the ice cover has been a big issue to numerical sea ice modelling. At present the treatment of internal stress within sea ice area is based mostly on the rheology formulated by Hibler (1979), where the whole sea ice area behaves like an isotropic and plastic matter under the ordinary stress with the yield curve given by an ellipse with an aspect ratio (e) of 2, irrespective of sea ice area and horizontal resolution of the model. However, this formulation was initially developed to reproduce the seasonal variation of the perennial ice in the Arctic Ocean. As for its applicability to the seasonal ice zones (SIZ), where various types of sea ice are present, it still needs validation from observational data. In this study, the validity of this rheology was examined for the Sea of Okhotsk ice, typical of the SIZ, based on the AMSR-derived ice drift pattern in comparison with the result obtained for the Beaufort Sea. To examine the dependence on a horizontal scale, the coastal radar data operated near the Hokkaido coast, Japan, were also used. Ice drift pattern was obtained by a maximum cross-correlation method with grid spacings of 37.5 km from the 89 GHz brightness temperature of AMSR-E for the entire Sea of Okhotsk and the Beaufort Sea and 1.3 km from the coastal radar for the near-shore Sea of Okhotsk. The validity of this rheology was investigated from a standpoint of work rate done by deformation field, following the theory of Rothrock (1975). In analysis, the relative rates of convergence were compared between theory and observation to check the shape of yield curve, and the strain ellipse at each grid cell was estimated to see the horizontal variation of deformation field. The result shows that the ellipse of e=1.7-2.0 as the yield curve represents the observed relative conversion rates well for all the ice areas. Since this result corresponds with the yield criterion by Tresca and

GLAS/ICESat L2 Sea Ice Altimetry Data (HDF5) V034

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — GLAH13 contains sea ice and open ocean elevations corrected for geodetic and atmospheric affects, calculated from algorithms fine-tuned for sea ice returns. Granules...

Rapid Access Ice Drill: A New Tool for Exploration of the Deep Antarctic Ice Sheets and Subglacial Geology

Science.gov (United States)

Goodge, J. W.; Severinghaus, J. P.

2014-12-01

The Rapid Access Ice Drill (RAID) will penetrate the Antarctic ice sheets in order to core through deep ice, the glacial bed, and into bedrock below. This new technology will provide a critical first look at the interface between major ice caps and their subglacial geology. Currently in construction, RAID is a mobile drilling system capable of making several long boreholes in a single field season in Antarctica. RAID is interdisciplinary and will allow access to polar paleoclimate records in ice >1 Ma, direct observation at the base of the ice sheets, and recovery of rock cores from the ice-covered East Antarctic craton. RAID uses a diamond rock-coring system as in mineral exploration. Threaded drill-pipe with hardened metal bits will cut through ice using reverse circulation of Estisol for pressure-compensation, maintenance of temperature, and removal of ice cuttings. Near the bottom of the ice sheet, a wireline bottom-hole assembly will enable diamond coring of ice, the glacial bed, and bedrock below. Once complete, boreholes will be kept open with fluid, capped, and made available for future down-hole measurement of thermal gradient, heat flow, ice chronology, and ice deformation. RAID will also sample for extremophile microorganisms. RAID is designed to penetrate up to 3,300 meters of ice and take sample cores in less than 200 hours. This rapid performance will allow completion of a borehole in about 10 days before moving to the next drilling site. RAID is unique because it can provide fast borehole access through thick ice; take short ice cores for paleoclimate study; sample the glacial bed to determine ice-flow conditions; take cores of subglacial bedrock for age dating and crustal history; and create boreholes for use as an observatory in the ice sheets. Together, the rapid drilling capability and mobility of the drilling system, along with ice-penetrating imaging methods, will provide a unique 3D picture of the interior Antarctic ice sheets.

First Space VLBI Observations and Images Using the VLBA and VSOP

Science.gov (United States)

Romney, J. D.; Benson, J. M.; Claussen, M. J.; Desai, K. M.; Flatters, C.; Mioduszewski, A. J.; Ulvestad, J. S.

1997-12-01

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a participant in the VSOP Space VLBI mission, an international collaboration led by Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. NRAO has committed up to 30% of scheduled observing time on the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), and corresponding correlation resources, to Space VLBI observations. The NRAO Space VLBI Project, funded by NASA, has been working for several years to complete the necessary enhancements to the VLBA correlator and the AIPS image processing system. These developments were completed by the time of the successful launch of the VSOP mission's Halca spacecraft on 1997 February 12. As part of the in-orbit checkout phase, the first Space VLBI fringes from a VLBA observation were detected on 1997 June 12, and the VSOP mission's first images, in both the 1.6- and 5-GHz bands, were obtained shortly thereafter. In-orbit test observations continued through early September, with the first General Observing Time (GOT) scientific observations beginning in July. Through mid-October, a total of 20 Space VLBI observations, comprising 190 hours, had been completed at the VLBA correlator. This paper reviews the unique features of correlation and imaging of Space VLBI observations. These include, for correlation, the ephemeris for an orbiting VLBI ``station'' which is not fixed on the surface of the earth, and the requirement to close the loop on the phase-transfer process from a frequency standard on the ground to the spacecraft. Images from a number of early tests and scientific observations are presented. NRAO's user-support program, providing expert assistance in data analysis to Space VLBI observers, is also described.

Testing the reliability of ice-cream cone model

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Zonghao; Shen, Chenglong; Wang, Chuanbing; Liu, Kai; Xue, Xianghui; Wang, Yuming; Wang, Shui

2015-04-01

Coronal Mass Ejections (CME)'s properties are important to not only the physical scene itself but space-weather prediction. Several models (such as cone model, GCS model, and so on) have been raised to get rid of the projection effects within the properties observed by spacecraft. According to SOHO/ LASCO observations, we obtain the 'real' 3D parameters of all the FFHCMEs (front-side full halo Coronal Mass Ejections) within the 24th solar cycle till July 2012, by the ice-cream cone model. Considering that the method to obtain 3D parameters from the CME observations by multi-satellite and multi-angle has higher accuracy, we use the GCS model to obtain the real propagation parameters of these CMEs in 3D space and compare the results with which by ice-cream cone model. Then we could discuss the reliability of the ice-cream cone model.

DETECTIONS OF TRANS-NEPTUNIAN ICE IN PROTOPLANETARY DISKS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McClure, M. K.; Calvet, N.; Bergin, E.; Cleeves, L. I. [Department of Astronomy, The University of Michigan, 500 Church Street, 830 Dennison Bldg., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States); Espaillat, C. [Department of Astronomy, Boston University, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 (United States); D' Alessio, P. [Centro de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica, Universidad NacionalAUtónoma de México, 58089 Morelia, Michoacán (Mexico); Watson, D. M. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627 (United States); Manoj, P. [Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Colaba, Mumbai 400005 (India); Sargent, B., E-mail: melisma@umich.edu, E-mail: ncalvet@umich.edu, E-mail: ebergin@umich.edu, E-mail: cleeves@umich.edu, E-mail: cce@bu.edu, E-mail: p.dalessio@crya.unam.mx, E-mail: dmw@pas.rochester.edu, E-mail: manoj.puravankara@tifr.res.in, E-mail: baspci@rit.edu [Center for Imaging Science and Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics, Rochester Institute of Technology, 54 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623 (United States)

2015-02-01

We present Herschel Space Observatory PACS spectra of T Tauri stars, in which we detect amorphous and crystalline water ice features. Using irradiated accretion disk models, we determine the disk structure and ice abundance in each of the systems. Combining a model-independent comparison of the ice feature strength and disk size with a detailed analysis of the model ice location, we estimate that the ice emitting region is at disk radii >30 AU, consistent with a proto-Kuiper belt. Vertically, the ice emits most below the photodesorption zone, consistent with Herschel observations of cold water vapor. The presence of crystallized water ice at a disk location (1) colder than its crystallization temperature and (2) where it should have been re-amorphized in ∼1 Myr suggests that localized generation is occurring; the most likely cause appears to be micrometeorite impact or planetesimal collisions. Based on simple tests with UV models and different ice distributions, we suggest that the SED shape from 20 to 50 μm may probe the location of the water ice snowline in the disk upper layers. This project represents one of the first extra-solar probes of the spatial structure of the cometary ice reservoir thought to deliver water to terrestrial planets.

Modelling snow ice and superimposed ice on landfast sea ice in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Caixin Wang

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Snow ice and superimposed ice formation on landfast sea ice in a Svalbard fjord, Kongsfjorden, was investigated with a high-resolution thermodynamic snow and sea-ice model, applying meteorological weather station data as external forcing. The model shows that sea-ice formation occurs both at the ice bottom and at the snow/ice interface. Modelling results indicated that the total snow ice and superimposed ice, which formed at the snow/ice interface, was about 14 cm during the simulation period, accounting for about 15% of the total ice mass and 35% of the total ice growth. Introducing a time-dependent snow density improved the modelled results, and a time-dependent oceanic heat flux parameterization yielded reasonable ice growth at the ice bottom. Model results suggest that weather conditions, in particular air temperature and precipitation, as well as snow thermal properties and surface albedo are the most critical factors for the development of snow ice and superimposed ice in Kongsfjorden. While both warming air and higher precipitation led to increased snow ice and superimposed ice forming in Kongsfjorden in the model runs, the processes were more sensitive to precipitation than to air temperature.

NOAA JPSS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Ice Concentration and Ice Surface Temperature Environmental Data Records (EDRs) from NDE

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This dataset contains a high quality operational Environmental Data Record (EDR) of Sea Ice Concentration (SIC) and Ice Surface Temperature (IST) from the Visible...

Space Radar Image of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii

Science.gov (United States)

1994-01-01

This is a deformation map of the south flank of Kilauea volcano on the big island of Hawaii, centered at 19.5 degrees north latitude and 155.25 degrees west longitude. The map was created by combining interferometric radar data -- that is data acquired on different passes of the space shuttle which are then overlayed to obtain elevation information -- acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar during its first flight in April 1994 and its second flight in October 1994. The area shown is approximately 40 kilometers by 80 kilometers (25 miles by 50 miles). North is toward the upper left of the image. The colors indicate the displacement of the surface in the direction that the radar instrument was pointed (toward the right of the image) in the six months between images. The analysis of ground movement is preliminary, but appears consistent with the motions detected by the Global Positioning System ground receivers that have been used over the past five years. The south flank of the Kilauea volcano is among the most rapidly deforming terrains on Earth. Several regions show motions over the six-month time period. Most obvious is at the base of Hilina Pali, where 10 centimeters (4 inches) or more of crustal deformation can be seen in a concentrated area near the coastline. On a more localized scale, the currently active Pu'u O'o summit also shows about 10 centimeters (4 inches) of change near the vent area. Finally, there are indications of additional movement along the upper southwest rift zone, just below the Kilauea caldera in the image. Deformation of the south flank is believed to be the result of movements along faults deep beneath the surface of the volcano, as well as injections of magma, or molten rock, into the volcano's 'plumbing' system. Detection of ground motions from space has proven to be a unique capability of imaging radar technology. Scientists hope to use deformation data acquired by SIR-C/X-SAR and future imaging

A perceptual space of local image statistics.

Science.gov (United States)

Victor, Jonathan D; Thengone, Daniel J; Rizvi, Syed M; Conte, Mary M

2015-12-01

Local image statistics are important for visual analysis of textures, surfaces, and form. There are many kinds of local statistics, including those that capture luminance distributions, spatial contrast, oriented segments, and corners. While sensitivity to each of these kinds of statistics have been well-studied, much less is known about visual processing when multiple kinds of statistics are relevant, in large part because the dimensionality of the problem is high and different kinds of statistics interact. To approach this problem, we focused on binary images on a square lattice - a reduced set of stimuli which nevertheless taps many kinds of local statistics. In this 10-parameter space, we determined psychophysical thresholds to each kind of statistic (16 observers) and all of their pairwise combinations (4 observers). Sensitivities and isodiscrimination contours were consistent across observers. Isodiscrimination contours were elliptical, implying a quadratic interaction rule, which in turn determined ellipsoidal isodiscrimination surfaces in the full 10-dimensional space, and made predictions for sensitivities to complex combinations of statistics. These predictions, including the prediction of a combination of statistics that was metameric to random, were verified experimentally. Finally, check size had only a mild effect on sensitivities over the range from 2.8 to 14min, but sensitivities to second- and higher-order statistics was substantially lower at 1.4min. In sum, local image statistics form a perceptual space that is highly stereotyped across observers, in which different kinds of statistics interact according to simple rules. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Design of a space-based infrared imaging interferometer

Science.gov (United States)

Hart, Michael; Hope, Douglas; Romeo, Robert

2017-07-01

Present space-based optical imaging sensors are expensive. Launch costs are dictated by weight and size, and system design must take into account the low fault tolerance of a system that cannot be readily accessed once deployed. We describe the design and first prototype of the space-based infrared imaging interferometer (SIRII) that aims to mitigate several aspects of the cost challenge. SIRII is a six-element Fizeau interferometer intended to operate in the short-wave and midwave IR spectral regions over a 6×6 mrad field of view. The volume is smaller by a factor of three than a filled-aperture telescope with equivalent resolving power. The structure and primary optics are fabricated from light-weight space-qualified carbon fiber reinforced polymer; they are easy to replicate and inexpensive. The design is intended to permit one-time alignment during assembly, with no need for further adjustment once on orbit. A three-element prototype of the SIRII imager has been constructed with a unit telescope primary mirror diameter of 165 mm and edge-to-edge baseline of 540 mm. The optics, structure, and interferometric signal processing principles draw on experience developed in ground-based astronomical applications designed to yield the highest sensitivity and resolution with cost-effective optical solutions. The initial motivation for the development of SIRII was the long-term collection of technical intelligence from geosynchronous orbit, but the scalable nature of the design will likely make it suitable for a range of IR imaging scenarios.

Climate change and ice hazards in the Beaufort Sea

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barber, D. G.; McCullough, G.; Babb, D.

2014-01-01

Recent reductions in the summer extent of sea ice have focused the world’s attention on the effects of climate change. Increased CO2-derived global warming is rapidly shrinking the Arctic multi-year ice pack. This shift in ice regimes allows for increasing development opportunities for large oil...... will be a much more complex task than modeling average ice circulation. Given the observed reduction in sea ice extent and thickness this rather counterintuitive situation, associated with a warming climate, poses significant hazards to Arctic marine oil and gas development and marine transportation. Accurate...... forecasting of hazardous ice motion will require improved real-time surface wind and ocean current forecast models capable of ingesting local satellite-derived wind data and/or local, closely-spaced networks of anemometers and improved methods of determining high-frequency components of surface ocean current...

An experimental study of icing control using DBD plasma actuator

Science.gov (United States)

Cai, Jinsheng; Tian, Yongqiang; Meng, Xuanshi; Han, Xuzhao; Zhang, Duo; Hu, Haiyang

2017-08-01

Ice accretion on aircraft or wind turbine has been widely recognized as a big safety threat in the past decades. This study aims to develop a new approach for icing control using an AC-DBD plasma actuator. The experiments of icing control (i.e., anti-/de-icing) on a cylinder model were conducted in an icing wind tunnel with controlled wind speed (i.e., 15 m/s) and temperature (i.e., -10°C). A digital camera was used to record the dynamic processes of plasma anti-icing and de-icing whilst an infrared imaging system was utilized to map the surface temperature variations during the anti-/de-icing processes. It was found that the AC-DBD plasma actuator is very effective in both anti-icing and de-icing operations. While no ice formation was observed when the plasma actuator served as an anti-icing device, a complete removal of the ice layer with a thickness of 5 mm was achieved by activating the plasma actuator for ˜150 s. Such information demonstrated the feasibility of plasma anti-/de-icing, which could potentially provide more effective and safer icing mitigation strategies.

ICE VELOCITY MEASUREMENT IN EAST ANTARCTICA FROM 1960s TO 1980s BASED ON ARGON AND LANDSAT IMAGERY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Li

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Ice flow velocity is a vital parameter for estimating the ice mass balance of glaciers in Antarctica. Especially long time serial observation of the surface velocity is of great significance to assessing the relationship between Antarctic ice materials and global climate change. However, the existing research on Antarctic ice velocity based on remote sensing data since 1970s due to the harsh climate in Antarctica. This paper presents an ice flow velocity estimating method includes image pre-processing, geometric model reconstruction, image ortho-rectification and feature matching by using ARGON images token in 1963 and Landsat images collected form 1973 to 1989.Considering the temporal-spatial distributions of ARGON images and Landsat images in Antarctica, two different methods respectively based on ortho-photos pair and Non-Ortho photos are adopted in this paper. More specifically, when there exist two stereo pairs taken in different time in the glacier region, after being ortho-rectified, the stereo pairs can be used to calculate ice flow velocity based on feature matching method. Otherwise, a parallax decomposition method that separates the effect of the terrain relief from the ice flow motion is applied when there only exists one stereo pair with a certain time interval. With this method, glacier surface velocity is available in the glacier region lacked enough stereo pairs. The methods mentioned above for estimating ice flow velocity are applied in Totten, Amery and Fimbul, etc. in eastern Antarctica. Furthermore, a 1960-80s ice flow speed map in the main glaciers of East Antarctica is produced for the first time.

Photobiology of sea ice algae during initial spring growth in Kangerlussuaq, West Greenland

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hawes, Ian; Lund-Hansen, Lars Chresten; Sorrell, Brian Keith

2012-01-01

We undertook a series of measurements of photophysiological parameters of sea ice algae over 12 days of early spring growth in a West Greenland Fjord, by variable chlorophyll fluorescence imaging. Imaging of the ice–water interface showed the development of ice algae in 0.3–0.4 mm wide brine...

The dimensions of urban public space in user’s mental image

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matej Nikšič

2006-01-01

Full Text Available The article presents a method for recognising qualitative and quantitative dimensions of open urban space in the user’s perceptual image. It stems from the hypothesis that the open urban space in mental perception isn’t a uniform continuum, which in general applies to its physical phenomenon. It discloses where and how users experience the limits of real open public space that they occupy and what they perceive as the neighbourhood of such a place. Therefore it researches rules applied by the user to mentally structure physically continuous space into smaller units and then reassemble these into a network. Knowledge of such rules enables expansion of open urban public spaces, which user’s experience as positive, into the wider area, thus revitalising those neighbouring spaces that are perceived as negative or are completely absent in the mental image and consequentially unused. The presence of people is in fact the essential component of quality public spaces.

Color Image Segmentation Based on Different Color Space Models Using Automatic GrabCut

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dina Khattab

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a comparative study using different color spaces to evaluate the performance of color image segmentation using the automatic GrabCut technique. GrabCut is considered as one of the semiautomatic image segmentation techniques, since it requires user interaction for the initialization of the segmentation process. The automation of the GrabCut technique is proposed as a modification of the original semiautomatic one in order to eliminate the user interaction. The automatic GrabCut utilizes the unsupervised Orchard and Bouman clustering technique for the initialization phase. Comparisons with the original GrabCut show the efficiency of the proposed automatic technique in terms of segmentation, quality, and accuracy. As no explicit color space is recommended for every segmentation problem, automatic GrabCut is applied with RGB, HSV, CMY, XYZ, and YUV color spaces. The comparative study and experimental results using different color images show that RGB color space is the best color space representation for the set of the images used.

Effects of lead structure in Bering Sea pack ice on the flight costs of wintering spectacled eiders

Science.gov (United States)

Bump, Joseph K.; Lovvorn, James R.

2004-10-01

In polar regions, sea ice is critical habitat for many marine birds and mammals. The quality of pack ice habitat depends on the duration and spacing of leads (openings in the ice), which determine access to water and air for diving endotherms, and how often and how far they must move as leads open and close. Recent warming trends have caused major changes in the extent and nature of sea ice at large scales used in climate models. However, no studies have analyzed lead structure in terms of habitat for ice-dependent endotherms, or effects of climate on ice habitat at scales relevant to their daily movements. Based on observations from an icebreaker and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, we developed methods to describe the dynamics and thermodynamics of lead structure relative to use by spectacled eiders ( Somateria fischeri) wintering in pack ice of the Bering Sea. By correlating lead structure with weather variables, we then used these methods to estimate changes in lead dynamics from 1945 to 2002, and effects of such changes on flight costs of the eiders. For 1991-1992, when images were available about every 3 days throughout winter, SAR images were divided among five weather regimes defined by wind speed, wind direction, and air temperature. Based on 12.5-m pixels, lead shape, compass orientation, and fetch across leads did not differ among the weather regimes. However, the five regimes differed in total area of open water, leads per unit area, and distance between leads. Lead duration was modeled based on air temperature, wind, and fetch. Estimates of mean daily flight time for eiders, based on lead duration and distance between neighboring leads, differed among regimes by 0 to 15 min. Resulting flight costs varied from 0 to 158 kJ day -1, or from 0% to 11% of estimated field metabolic rate. Over 57 winters (1945-2002), variation among years in mean daily flight time was most influenced by the north-south wind component, which determined pack divergence

Time-Lapse, in Situ Imaging of Ice Crystal Growth Using Confocal Microscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Marcellini, Moreno; Noirjean, Cecile; Dedovets, Dmytro; Maria, Juliette; Deville, Sylvain

2016-11-30

Ice crystals nucleate and grow when a water solution is cooled below its freezing point. The growth velocities and morphologies of the ice crystals depend on many parameters, such as the temperature of ice growth, the melting temperature, and the interactions of solutes with the growing crystals. Three types of morphologies may appear: dendritic, cellular (or fingerlike), or the faceted equilibrium form. Understanding and controlling which type of morphology is formed is essential in several domains, from biology to geophysics and materials science. Obtaining, in situ, three dimensional observations without introducing artifacts due to the experimental technique is nevertheless challenging. Here we show how we can use laser scanning confocal microscopy to follow in real-time the growth of smoothed and faceted ice crystals in zirconium acetate solutions. Both qualitative and quantitative observations can be made. In particular, we can precisely measure the lateral growth velocity of the crystals, a measure otherwise difficult to obtain. Such observations should help us understand the influence of the parameters that control the growth of ice crystals in various systems.

Space Radar Image of Central African Gorilla Habitat

Science.gov (United States)

1999-01-01

This is a false-color radar image of Central Africa, showing the Virunga Volcano chain along the borders of Rwanda, Zaire and Uganda. This area is home to the endangered mountain gorillas. This C-band L-band image was acquired on April 12, 1994, on orbit 58 of space shuttle Endeavour by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR). The area is centered at about 1.75 degrees south latitude and 29.5 degrees east longitude. The image covers an area 58 kilometers by 178 kilometers (48 miles by 178 miles). The false-color composite is created by displaying the L-band HH return in red, the L-band HV return in green and the C-band HH return in blue. The dark area in the bottom of the image is Lake Kivu, which forms the border between Zaire (to the left) and Rwanda (to the right). The airport at Goma, Zaire is shown as a dark line just above the lake in the bottom left corner of the image. Volcanic flows from the 1977 eruption of Mt. Nyiragongo are shown just north of the airport. Mt. Nyiragongo is not visible in this image because it is located just to the left of the image swath. Very fluid lava flows from the 1977 eruption killed 70 people. Mt. Nyiragongo is currently erupting (August 1994) and will be a target of observation during the second flight of SIR-C/X-SAR. The large volcano in the center of the image is Mt. Karisimbi (4,500 meters or 14,800 feet). This radar image highlights subtle differences in the vegetation and volcanic flows of the region. The faint lines shown in the purple regions are believed to be the result of agriculture terracing by the people who live in the region. The vegetation types are an important factor in the habitat of the endangered mountain gorillas. Researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in London will use this data to produce vegetation maps of the area to aid in their study of the remaining 650 gorillas in the region. SIR-C was developed by NASA's Jet

Ice, Ice, Baby!

Science.gov (United States)

Hamilton, C.

2008-12-01

The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) has developed an outreach program based on hands-on activities called "Ice, Ice, Baby". These lessons are designed to teach the science principles of displacement, forces of motion, density, and states of matter. These properties are easily taught through the interesting topics of glaciers, icebergs, and sea level rise in K-8 classrooms. The activities are fun, engaging, and simple enough to be used at science fairs and family science nights. Students who have participated in "Ice, Ice, Baby" have successfully taught these to adults and students at informal events. The lessons are based on education standards which are available on our website www.cresis.ku.edu. This presentation will provide information on the activities, survey results from teachers who have used the material, and other suggested material that can be used before and after the activities.

Using Remote Sensing Data to Parameterize Ice Jam Modeling for a Northern Inland Delta

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fan Zhang

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The Slave River is a northern river in Canada, with ice being an important component of its flow regime for at least half of the year. During the spring breakup period, ice jams and ice-jam flooding can occur in the Slave River Delta, which is of benefit for the replenishment of moisture and sediment required to maintain the ecological integrity of the delta. To better understand the ice jam processes that lead to flooding, as well as the replenishment of the delta, the one-dimensional hydraulic river ice model RIVICE was implemented to simulate and explore ice jam formation in the Slave River Delta. Incoming ice volume, a crucial input parameter for RIVICE, was determined by the novel approach of using MODIS space-born remote sensing imagery. Space-borne and air-borne remote sensing data were used to parameterize the upstream ice volume available for ice jamming. Gauged data was used to complement modeling calibration and validation. HEC-RAS, another one-dimensional hydrodynamic model, was used to determine ice volumes required for equilibrium jams and the upper limit of ice volume that a jam can sustain, as well as being used as a threshold for the volumes estimated by the dynamic ice jam simulations using RIVICE. Parameter sensitivity analysis shows that morphological and hydraulic properties have great impacts on the ice jam length and water depth in the Slave River Delta.

Scale-space for empty catheter segmentation in PCI fluoroscopic images.

Science.gov (United States)

Bacchuwar, Ketan; Cousty, Jean; Vaillant, Régis; Najman, Laurent

2017-07-01

In this article, we present a method for empty guiding catheter segmentation in fluoroscopic X-ray images. The guiding catheter, being a commonly visible landmark, its segmentation is an important and a difficult brick for Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) procedure modeling. In number of clinical situations, the catheter is empty and appears as a low contrasted structure with two parallel and partially disconnected edges. To segment it, we work on the level-set scale-space of image, the min tree, to extract curve blobs. We then propose a novel structural scale-space, a hierarchy built on these curve blobs. The deep connected component, i.e. the cluster of curve blobs on this hierarchy, that maximizes the likelihood to be an empty catheter is retained as final segmentation. We evaluate the performance of the algorithm on a database of 1250 fluoroscopic images from 6 patients. As a result, we obtain very good qualitative and quantitative segmentation performance, with mean precision and recall of 80.48 and 63.04% respectively. We develop a novel structural scale-space to segment a structured object, the empty catheter, in challenging situations where the information content is very sparse in the images. Fully-automatic empty catheter segmentation in X-ray fluoroscopic images is an important and preliminary step in PCI procedure modeling, as it aids in tagging the arrival and removal location of other interventional tools.

Hydrologic Outlets of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Hydrologic Outlets of the Greenland Ice Sheet data set contains GIS point shapefiles that include 891 observed and potential hydrologic outlets of the Greenland...

STEP: Self-supporting tailored k-space estimation for parallel imaging reconstruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Zechen; Wang, Jinnan; Balu, Niranjan; Li, Rui; Yuan, Chun

2016-02-01

A new subspace-based iterative reconstruction method, termed Self-supporting Tailored k-space Estimation for Parallel imaging reconstruction (STEP), is presented and evaluated in comparison to the existing autocalibrating method SPIRiT and calibrationless method SAKE. In STEP, two tailored schemes including k-space partition and basis selection are proposed to promote spatially variant signal subspace and incorporated into a self-supporting structured low rank model to enforce properties of locality, sparsity, and rank deficiency, which can be formulated into a constrained optimization problem and solved by an iterative algorithm. Simulated and in vivo datasets were used to investigate the performance of STEP in terms of overall image quality and detail structure preservation. The advantage of STEP on image quality is demonstrated by retrospectively undersampled multichannel Cartesian data with various patterns. Compared with SPIRiT and SAKE, STEP can provide more accurate reconstruction images with less residual aliasing artifacts and reduced noise amplification in simulation and in vivo experiments. In addition, STEP has the capability of combining compressed sensing with arbitrary sampling trajectory. Using k-space partition and basis selection can further improve the performance of parallel imaging reconstruction with or without calibration signals. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Relationship Between Debris and Grain Growth in Polycrystalline Ice

Science.gov (United States)

Rivera, A.; McCarthy, C.

2017-12-01

An understanding of the mechanisms of ice flow, as well as the factors that affect it, must be improved in order to make more accurate predictions of glacial melting rates, and hence, sea level rise. Both field and laboratory studies have made an association between smaller grain sizes of ice and more rapid deformation. Therefore, it is essential to understand the different factors that affect grain size. Observations from ice cores have shown a correlation between debris content in layers of ice with smaller grain sizes, whereas layers with very little debris have larger grain sizes. Static grain growth rates for both pure ice and ice containing bubbles are well constrained, but the effect of small rock/dust particles has received less attention. We tested the relationship between debris and grain growth in polycrystalline ice with controlled annealing at -5°C and microstructural characterization. Three samples, two containing fine rock powder and one without, were fabricated, annealed, and imaged over time. The samples containing powder had different initial grain sizes due to solidification temperature during fabrication. Microstructural analysis was done on all samples after initial fabrication and at various times during the anneal using a light microscope housed in a cold room. Microstructural images were analyzed by the linear-intercept method. When comparing average grain size over time between pure ice and ice with debris, it was found that the rate of growth for the pure ice was larger than the rate of growth for the ice with debris at both initial grain sizes. These results confirm the observations seen in nature, and suggest that small grain size is indeed influenced by debris content. By understanding this, scientists could gain a more in-depth understanding of internal ice deformation and the mechanisms of ice flow. This, in turn, helps improve the accuracy of glacial melting predictions, and sea level rise in the future.

Space Radar Image of Bahia

Science.gov (United States)

1994-01-01

This is a color composite image of southern Bahia, Brazil, centered at 15.22 degree south latitude and 39.07 degrees west longitude. The image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on its 38th orbit of Earth on October 2, 1994. The image covers an area centered over the Una Biological Reserve, one the largest protected areas in northeastern Brazil. The 7,000-hectare reserve is administered by the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and is part of the larger Atlantic coastal forest, a narrow band of rain forest extending along the eastern coast of Brazil. The Atlantic coastal forest of southern Bahia is one of the world's most threatened and diverse ecosystems. Due to widespread settlement, only 2 to 5 percent of the original forest cover remains. Yet the region still contains an astounding variety of plants and animals, including a large number of endemic species. More than half of the region's tree species and 80 percent of its animal species are indigenous and found nowhere else on Earth. The Una Reserve is also the only federally protected habitat for the golden-headed lion tamarin, the yellow-breasted capuchin monkey and many other endangered species. In the past few years, scientists from Brazilian and international conservation organizations have coordinated efforts to study the biological diversity of this region and to develop practical and economically viable options for preserving the remaining primary forests in southern Bahia. The shuttle imaging radar is used in this study to identify various land uses and vegetation types, including remaining patches of primary forest, cabruca forest (cacao planted in the understory of the native forest), secondary forest, pasture and coastal mangrove. Standard remote-sensing technology that relies on light reflected from the forest canopy cannot accurately distinguish between cabruca and undisturbed forest. Optical remote sensing is also

Breakup ice control structure for the Salmon River in Connecticut

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tuthill, A.M.; White, K.D.

1997-01-01

The Salmon River ice jam problem was investigated and a conceptual design for a breakup ice control structure was developed. Historical ice jam events were reviewed and an ice observation program was conducted during the winter of 1994-95. The factors affecting ice jam frequency and severity were examined. The factors included daily temperature, rainfall quantity and intensity, Salmon River stage and discharge, and Connecticut River tide levels. First, a numerical model was developed to simulate a worst case scenario for ice jams, followed by a conceptual design for a concrete pier ice control structure under two ice breakup scenarios. The first scenario assumed that a semi-intact ice sheet would rest against the piers and retain a floating equilibrium jam upstream, allowing water discharge to pass beneath. The second scenario was based on the assumption that a grounded ice jam in direct contact with the piers would divert water flow around the structure via an armored channel in the overbank area. An ice retention structure consisting of a row of concrete piers, spaced across the main channel, 60 m upstream of an existing dam, was proposed. 11 refs., 6 figs

Identification of sea ice types in spaceborne synthetic aperture radar data

Science.gov (United States)

Kwok, Ronald; Rignot, Eric; Holt, Benjamin; Onstott, R.

1992-01-01

This study presents an approach for identification of sea ice types in spaceborne SAR image data. The unsupervised classification approach involves cluster analysis for segmentation of the image data followed by cluster labeling based on previously defined look-up tables containing the expected backscatter signatures of different ice types measured by a land-based scatterometer. Extensive scatterometer observations and experience accumulated in field campaigns during the last 10 yr were used to construct these look-up tables. The classification approach, its expected performance, the dependence of this performance on radar system performance, and expected ice scattering characteristics are discussed. Results using both aircraft and simulated ERS-1 SAR data are presented and compared to limited field ice property measurements and coincident passive microwave imagery. The importance of an integrated postlaunch program for the validation and improvement of this approach is discussed.

Characterizing Microbial Mat Morphology with Structure from Motion Techniques in Ice-Covered Lake Joyce, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica

Science.gov (United States)

Mackey, T. J.; Leidman, S. Z.; Allen, B.; Hawes, I.; Lawrence, J.; Jungblut, A. D.; Krusor, M.; Coleman, L.; Sumner, D. Y.

2015-12-01

Structure from Motion (SFM) techniques can provide quantitative morphological documentation of otherwise inaccessible benthic ecosystems such as microbial mats in Lake Joyce, a perennially ice-covered lake of the Antarctic McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV). Microbial mats are a key ecosystem of MDV lakes, and diverse mat morphologies like pinnacles emerge from interactions among microbial behavior, mineralization, and environmental conditions. Environmental gradients can be isolated to test mat growth models, but assessment of mat morphology along these gradients is complicated by their inaccessibility: the Lake Joyce ice cover is 4-5 m thick, water depths containing diverse pinnacle morphologies are 9-14 m, and relevant mat features are cm-scale. In order to map mat pinnacle morphology in different sedimentary settings, we deployed drop cameras (SeaViewer and GoPro) through 29 GPS referenced drill holes clustered into six stations along a transect spanning 880 m. Once under the ice cover, a boom containing a second GoPro camera was unfurled and rotated to collect oblique images of the benthic mats within dm of the mat-water interface. This setup allowed imaging from all sides over a ~1.5 m diameter area of the lake bottom. Underwater lens parameters were determined for each camera in Agisoft Lens; images were reconstructed and oriented in space with the SFM software Agisoft Photoscan, using the drop camera axis of rotation as up. The reconstructions were compared to downward facing images to assess accuracy, and similar images of an object with known geometry provided a test for expected error in reconstructions. Downward facing images identify decreasing pinnacle abundance in higher sedimentation settings, and quantitative measurements of 3D reconstructions in KeckCAVES LidarViewer supplement these mat morphological facies with measurements of pinnacle height and orientation. Reconstructions also help isolate confounding variables for mat facies trends with measurements

Sea ice - Multiyear cycles and white ice

Science.gov (United States)

Ledley, T. S.

1985-01-01

The multiyear thickness cycles represent one of the interesting features of the sea ice studies performed by Semtner (1976) and Washington et al. (1976) with simple thermodynamic models of sea ice. In the present article, a description is given of results which show that the insulating effect of snow on the surface of the sea ice is important in producing these multiyear cycles given the physics included in the model. However, when the formation of white ice is included, the cycles almost disappear. White ice is the ice which forms at the snow-ice interface when the snow layer becomes thick enough to depress the ice below the water level. Water infiltrates the snow by coming through the ice at leads and generally freezes there, forming white ice.

Measurement of parapharyngeal space using CT images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ichimura, Keiichi; Kase, Yasuhiro; Iinuma, Toshitaka

1991-01-01

Parapharyngeal space can be defined as a potential space surrounded by deglutitional and masticator muscles and their covering, superficial and middle layer of deep cervical fascia. Parapharyngeal space has traditionally been divided by styloid process and fascia of tensor veli palatini muscle (nasopharyngeal level) or fascia of stylopharyngeus muscle (oropharyngeal level) into two compartments, prestyloid and poststyloid spaces. The latter is often called as carotid space. Prestyloid portion exclusively contains fat tissue, which yields hypoabsorption area in CT films and high density area in MRI. In most of papers in radiological journals, the term of parapharyngeal space is regarded as its prestyloid portion which is clearly identified. Axial CT images of 144 patients without any naso- or oropharyngeal lesions were analyzed. Two reference levels of nasopharynx were adopted for the study. The upper level passes through the plane of fossa of Rosenmuller, and the lower reference level transects soft palate. The following parameters of the space were measured; Length and width of the whole space, length and width of prestyloid fatty space, and furthermore, width of pre- and poststyloid space, that were divided by a imaginary line pararell to the axis of the whole space (the upper level); Length and width of the whole space, length of base and height of a triangle of the prestyloid part (the lower level). While parapharyngeal space was symmmetrical in the upper level, the rate of asymmetry amounted to a fourth in the lower level. Prestyloid space was broader than poststyloid one in the upper level. Men were dominant in length of the space in both the upper and the lower level and in length of the base of fatty space in the lower level. There was no difference between any age groups other than in fatty area in the lower level. Teens tended to be narrow, while 60's and older were wide. (author)

Total variation regularization in measurement and image space for PET reconstruction

KAUST Repository

Burger, M

2014-09-18

© 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd. The aim of this paper is to test and analyse a novel technique for image reconstruction in positron emission tomography, which is based on (total variation) regularization on both the image space and the projection space. We formulate our variational problem considering both total variation penalty terms on the image and on an idealized sinogram to be reconstructed from a given Poisson distributed noisy sinogram. We prove existence, uniqueness and stability results for the proposed model and provide some analytical insight into the structures favoured by joint regularization. For the numerical solution of the corresponding discretized problem we employ the split Bregman algorithm and extensively test the approach in comparison to standard total variation regularization on the image. The numerical results show that an additional penalty on the sinogram performs better on reconstructing images with thin structures.

Antartic sea ice, 1973 - 1976: Satellite passive-microwave observations

Science.gov (United States)

Zwally, H. J.; Comiso, J. C.; Parkinson, C. L.; Campbell, W. J.; Carsey, F. D.; Gloersen, P.

1983-01-01

Data from the Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR) on the Nimbus 5 satellite are used to determine the extent and distribution of Antarctic sea ice. The characteristics of the southern ocean, the mathematical formulas used to obtain quantitative sea ice concentrations, the general characteristics of the seasonal sea ice growth/decay cycle and regional differences, and the observed seasonal growth/decay cycle for individual years and interannual variations of the ice cover are discussed. The sea ice data from the ESMR are presented in the form of color-coded maps of the Antarctic and the southern oceans. The maps show brightness temperatures and concentrations of pack ice averaged for each month, 4-year monthly averages, and month-to-month changes. Graphs summarizing the results, such as areas of sea ice as a function of time in the various sectors of the southern ocean are included. The images demonstrate that satellite microwave data provide unique information on large-scale sea ice conditions for determining climatic conditions in polar regions and possible global climatic changes.

Formation of brine channels in sea ice.

Science.gov (United States)

Morawetz, Klaus; Thoms, Silke; Kutschan, Bernd

2017-03-01

Liquid salty micro-channels (brine) between growing ice platelets in sea ice are an important habitat for CO 2 -binding microalgaea with great impact on polar ecosystems. The structure formation of ice platelets is microscopically described and a phase field model is developed. The pattern formation during solidification of the two-dimensional interstitial liquid is considered by two coupled order parameters, the tetrahedricity as structure of ice and the salinity. The coupling and time evolution of these order parameters are described by a consistent set of three model parameters. They determine the velocity of the freezing process and the structure formation, the phase diagram, the super-cooling and super-heating region, and the specific heat. The model is used to calculate the short-time frozen micro-structures. The obtained morphological structure is compared with the vertical brine pore space obtained from X-ray computed tomography.

Life in Ice: Implications to Astrobiology

Science.gov (United States)

Hoover, Richard B.

2009-01-01

possible natural phenomenon of the solar system that may have played a profoundly important role in the Origin of Life on Earth and the Distribution of Life in the Cosmos. The paper concludes with a consideration of the protective properties of ice by absorption of UV-B, UV-C, h-rays, gamma-rays and the high energy proton environment of the Jupiter Radiation Belt. A proposed instrument that may provide additional data on the potential survivability of microbial extremophiles encased in ice and subjected to the simulated space environment will be briefly described.

Space imaging infrared optical guidance for autonomous ground vehicle

Science.gov (United States)

Akiyama, Akira; Kobayashi, Nobuaki; Mutoh, Eiichiro; Kumagai, Hideo; Yamada, Hirofumi; Ishii, Hiromitsu

2008-08-01

We have developed the Space Imaging Infrared Optical Guidance for Autonomous Ground Vehicle based on the uncooled infrared camera and focusing technique to detect the objects to be evaded and to set the drive path. For this purpose we made servomotor drive system to control the focus function of the infrared camera lens. To determine the best focus position we use the auto focus image processing of Daubechies wavelet transform technique with 4 terms. From the determined best focus position we transformed it to the distance of the object. We made the aluminum frame ground vehicle to mount the auto focus infrared unit. Its size is 900mm long and 800mm wide. This vehicle mounted Ackerman front steering system and the rear motor drive system. To confirm the guidance ability of the Space Imaging Infrared Optical Guidance for Autonomous Ground Vehicle we had the experiments for the detection ability of the infrared auto focus unit to the actual car on the road and the roadside wall. As a result the auto focus image processing based on the Daubechies wavelet transform technique detects the best focus image clearly and give the depth of the object from the infrared camera unit.

Simulation and Domain Identification of Sea Ice Thermodynamic System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bing Tan

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Based on the measured data and characteristics of sea ice temperature distribution in space and time, this study is intended to consider a parabolic partial differential equation of the thermodynamic field of sea ice (coupled by snow, ice, and sea water layers with a time-dependent domain and its parameter identification problem. An optimal model with state constraints is presented with the thicknesses of snow and sea ice as parametric variables and the deviation between the calculated and measured sea ice temperatures as the performance criterion. The unique existence of the weak solution of the thermodynamic system is proved. The properties of the identification problem and the existence of the optimal parameter are discussed, and the one-order necessary condition is derived. Finally, based on the nonoverlapping domain decomposition method and semi-implicit difference scheme, an optimization algorithm is proposed for the numerical simulation. Results show that the simulated temperature of sea ice fit well with the measured data, and the better fit is corresponding to the deeper sea ice.

CO{sub 2} INFRARED PHONON MODES IN INTERSTELLAR ICE MIXTURES

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cooke, Ilsa R. [Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904 (United States); Fayolle, Edith C.; Öberg, Karin I., E-mail: irc5zb@virginia.edu [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)

2016-11-20

CO{sub 2} ice is an important reservoir of carbon and oxygen in star- and planet-forming regions. Together with water and CO, CO{sub 2} sets the physical and chemical characteristics of interstellar icy grain mantles, including desorption and diffusion energies for other ice constituents. A detailed understanding of CO{sub 2} ice spectroscopy is a prerequisite to characterize CO{sub 2} interactions with other volatiles both in interstellar ices and in laboratory experiments of interstellar ice analogs. We report laboratory spectra of the CO{sub 2} longitudinal optical (LO) phonon mode in pure CO{sub 2} ice and in CO{sub 2} ice mixtures with H{sub 2}O, CO, and O{sub 2} components. We show that the LO phonon mode position is sensitive to the mixing ratio of various ice components of astronomical interest. In the era of the James Webb Space Telescope , this characteristic could be used to constrain interstellar ice compositions and morphologies. More immediately, LO phonon mode spectroscopy provides a sensitive probe of ice mixing in the laboratory and should thus enable diffusion measurements with higher precision than has been previously possible.

The extreme melt across the Greenland ice sheet in 2012

Science.gov (United States)

Nghiem, S. V.; Hall, D. K.; Mote, T. L.; Tedesco, M.; Albert, M. R.; Keegan, K.; Shuman, C. A.; DiGirolamo, N. E.; Neumann, G.

2012-10-01

The discovery of the 2012 extreme melt event across almost the entire surface of the Greenland ice sheet is presented. Data from three different satellite sensors - including the Oceansat-2 scatterometer, the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder - are combined to obtain composite melt maps, representing the most complete melt conditions detectable across the ice sheet. Satellite observations reveal that melt occurred at or near the surface of the Greenland ice sheet across 98.6% of its entire extent on 12 July 2012, including the usually cold polar areas at high altitudes like Summit in the dry snow facies of the ice sheet. This melt event coincided with an anomalous ridge of warm air that became stagnant over Greenland. As seen in melt occurrences from multiple ice core records at Summit reported in the published literature, such a melt event is rare with the last significant one occurring in 1889 and the next previous one around seven centuries earlier in the Medieval Warm Period. Given its rarity, the 2012 extreme melt across Greenland provides an exceptional opportunity for new studies in broad interdisciplinary geophysical research.

Space Radar Image of Manaus region of Brazil

Science.gov (United States)

1994-01-01

These L-band images of the Manaus region of Brazil were acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. The left image was acquired on April 12, 1994, and the middle image was acquired on October 3, 1994. The area shown is approximately 8 kilometers by 40 kilometers (5 miles by 25 miles). The two large rivers in this image, the Rio Negro (top) and the Rio Solimoes (bottom), combine at Manaus (west of the image) to form the Amazon River. The image is centered at about 3 degrees south latitude and 61 degrees west longitude. North is toward the top left of the images. The differences in brightness between the images reflect changes in the scattering of the radar channel. In this case, the changes are indicative of flooding. A flooded forest has a higher backscatter at L-band (horizontally transmitted and received) than an unflooded river. The extent of the flooding is much greater in the April image than in the October image, and corresponds to the annual, 10-meter (33-foot) rise and fall of the Amazon River. A third image at right shows the change in the April and October images and was created by determining which areas had significant decreases in the intensity of radar returns. These areas, which appear blue on the third image at right, show the dramatic decrease in the extent of flooded forest, as the level of the Amazon River falls. The flooded forest is a vital habitat for fish and floating meadows are an important source of atmospheric methane. This demonstrates the capability of SIR-C/X-SAR to study important environmental changes that are impossible to see with optical sensors over regions such as the Amazon, where frequent cloud cover and dense forest canopies obscure monitoring of floods. Field studies by boat, on foot and in low-flying aircraft by the University of California at Santa Barbara, in collaboration with Brazil's Instituto Nacional de Pesguisas Estaciais, during

Streak detection and analysis pipeline for space-debris optical images

Science.gov (United States)

Virtanen, Jenni; Poikonen, Jonne; Säntti, Tero; Komulainen, Tuomo; Torppa, Johanna; Granvik, Mikael; Muinonen, Karri; Pentikäinen, Hanna; Martikainen, Julia; Näränen, Jyri; Lehti, Jussi; Flohrer, Tim

2016-04-01

We describe a novel data-processing and analysis pipeline for optical observations of moving objects, either of natural (asteroids, meteors) or artificial origin (satellites, space debris). The monitoring of the space object populations requires reliable acquisition of observational data, to support the development and validation of population models and to build and maintain catalogues of orbital elements. The orbital catalogues are, in turn, needed for the assessment of close approaches (for asteroids, with the Earth; for satellites, with each other) and for the support of contingency situations or launches. For both types of populations, there is also increasing interest to detect fainter objects corresponding to the small end of the size distribution. The ESA-funded StreakDet (streak detection and astrometric reduction) activity has aimed at formulating and discussing suitable approaches for the detection and astrometric reduction of object trails, or streaks, in optical observations. Our two main focuses are objects in lower altitudes and space-based observations (i.e., high angular velocities), resulting in long (potentially curved) and faint streaks in the optical images. In particular, we concentrate on single-image (as compared to consecutive frames of the same field) and low-SNR detection of objects. Particular attention has been paid to the process of extraction of all necessary information from one image (segmentation), and subsequently, to efficient reduction of the extracted data (classification). We have developed an automated streak detection and processing pipeline and demonstrated its performance with an extensive database of semisynthetic images simulating streak observations both from ground-based and space-based observing platforms. The average processing time per image is about 13 s for a typical 2k-by-2k image. For long streaks (length >100 pixels), primary targets of the pipeline, the detection sensitivity (true positives) is about 90% for

Ice and ocean velocity in the Arctic marginal ice zone: Ice roughness and momentum transfer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sylvia T. Cole

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The interplay between sea ice concentration, sea ice roughness, ocean stratification, and momentum transfer to the ice and ocean is subject to seasonal and decadal variations that are crucial to understanding the present and future air-ice-ocean system in the Arctic. In this study, continuous observations in the Canada Basin from March through December 2014 were used to investigate spatial differences and temporal changes in under-ice roughness and momentum transfer as the ice cover evolved seasonally. Observations of wind, ice, and ocean properties from four clusters of drifting instrument systems were complemented by direct drill-hole measurements and instrumented overhead flights by NASA operation IceBridge in March, as well as satellite remote sensing imagery about the instrument clusters. Spatially, directly estimated ice-ocean drag coefficients varied by a factor of three with rougher ice associated with smaller multi-year ice floe sizes embedded within the first-year-ice/multi-year-ice conglomerate. Temporal differences in the ice-ocean drag coefficient of 20–30% were observed prior to the mixed layer shoaling in summer and were associated with ice concentrations falling below 100%. The ice-ocean drag coefficient parameterization was found to be invalid in September with low ice concentrations and small ice floe sizes. Maximum momentum transfer to the ice occurred for moderate ice concentrations, and transfer to the ocean for the lowest ice concentrations and shallowest stratification. Wind work and ocean work on the ice were the dominant terms in the kinetic energy budget of the ice throughout the melt season, consistent with free drift conditions. Overall, ice topography, ice concentration, and the shallow summer mixed layer all influenced mixed layer currents and the transfer of momentum within the air-ice-ocean system. The observed changes in momentum transfer show that care must be taken to determine appropriate parameterizations

Ice cream structure modification by ice-binding proteins.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaleda, Aleksei; Tsanev, Robert; Klesment, Tiina; Vilu, Raivo; Laos, Katrin

2018-04-25

Ice-binding proteins (IBPs), also known as antifreeze proteins, were added to ice cream to investigate their effect on structure and texture. Ice recrystallization inhibition was assessed in the ice cream mixes using a novel accelerated microscope assay and the ice cream microstructure was studied using an ice crystal dispersion method. It was found that adding recombinantly produced fish type III IBPs at a concentration 3 mg·L -1 made ice cream hard and crystalline with improved shape preservation during melting. Ice creams made with IBPs (both from winter rye, and type III IBP) had aggregates of ice crystals that entrapped pockets of the ice cream mixture in a rigid network. Larger individual ice crystals and no entrapment in control ice creams was observed. Based on these results a model of ice crystals aggregates formation in the presence of IBPs was proposed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Space Images for NASA JPL Android Version

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, Jon D.; Gutheinz, Sandy C.; Strom, Joshua R.; Arca, Jeremy M.; Perez, Martin; Boggs, Karen; Stanboli, Alice

2013-01-01

This software addresses the demand for easily accessible NASA JPL images and videos by providing a user friendly and simple graphical user interface that can be run via the Android platform from any location where Internet connection is available. This app is complementary to the iPhone version of the application. A backend infrastructure stores, tracks, and retrieves space images from the JPL Photojournal and Institutional Communications Web server, and catalogs the information into a streamlined rating infrastructure. This system consists of four distinguishing components: image repository, database, server-side logic, and Android mobile application. The image repository contains images from various JPL flight projects. The database stores the image information as well as the user rating. The server-side logic retrieves the image information from the database and categorizes each image for display. The Android mobile application is an interfacing delivery system that retrieves the image information from the server for each Android mobile device user. Also created is a reporting and tracking system for charting and monitoring usage. Unlike other Android mobile image applications, this system uses the latest emerging technologies to produce image listings based directly on user input. This allows for countless combinations of images returned. The backend infrastructure uses industry-standard coding and database methods, enabling future software improvement and technology updates. The flexibility of the system design framework permits multiple levels of display possibilities and provides integration capabilities. Unique features of the software include image/video retrieval from a selected set of categories, image Web links that can be shared among e-mail users, sharing to Facebook/Twitter, marking as user's favorites, and image metadata searchable for instant results.

Ice Sheets & Ice Cores

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mikkelsen, Troels Bøgeholm

Since the discovery of the Ice Ages it has been evident that Earth’s climate is liable to undergo dramatic changes. The previous climatic period known as the Last Glacial saw large oscillations in the extent of ice sheets covering the Northern hemisphere. Understanding these oscillations known....... The first part concerns time series analysis of ice core data obtained from the Greenland Ice Sheet. We analyze parts of the time series where DO-events occur using the so-called transfer operator and compare the results with time series from a simple model capable of switching by either undergoing...

Fundamental Ice Crystal Accretion Physics Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Struk, Peter M.; Broeren, Andy P.; Tsao, Jen-Ching; Vargas, Mario; Wright, William B.; Currie, Tom; Knezevici, Danny; Fuleki, Dan

2012-01-01

Due to numerous engine power-loss events associated with high-altitude convective weather, ice accretion within an engine due to ice crystal ingestion is being investigated. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada are starting to examine the physical mechanisms of ice accretion on surfaces exposed to ice-crystal and mixed-phase conditions. In November 2010, two weeks of testing occurred at the NRC Research Altitude Facility utilizing a single wedge-type airfoil designed to facilitate fundamental studies while retaining critical features of a compressor stator blade or guide vane. The airfoil was placed in the NRC cascade wind tunnel for both aerodynamic and icing tests. Aerodynamic testing showed excellent agreement compared with CFD data on the icing pressure surface and allowed calculation of heat transfer coefficients at various airfoil locations. Icing tests were performed at Mach numbers of 0.2 to 0.3, total pressures from 93 to 45 kPa, and total temperatures from 5 to 15 C. Ice and liquid water contents ranged up to 20 and 3 g/m3, respectively. The ice appeared well adhered to the surface in the lowest pressure tests (45 kPa) and, in a particular case, showed continuous leading-edge ice growth to a thickness greater than 15 mm in 3 min. Such widespread deposits were not observed in the highest pressure tests, where the accretions were limited to a small area around the leading edge. The suction surface was typically ice-free in the tests at high pressure, but not at low pressure. The icing behavior at high and low pressure appeared to be correlated with the wet-bulb temperature, which was estimated to be above 0 C in tests at 93 kPa and below 0 C in tests at lower pressure, the latter enhanced by more evaporative cooling of water. The authors believe that the large ice accretions observed in the low pressure tests would undoubtedly cause the aerodynamic performance of a compressor component

Eulerian Method for Ice Crystal Icing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Norde, Ellen; van der Weide, Edwin Theodorus Antonius; Hoeijmakers, Hendrik Willem Marie

In this study, an ice accretion method aimed at ice crystal icing in turbofan engines is developed and demonstrated for glaciated as well as mixed-phase icing conditions. The particle trajectories are computed by an Eulerian trajectory method. The effects of heat transfer and phase change on the

Astronomers Make First Images With Space Radio Telescope

Science.gov (United States)

1997-07-01

Marking an important new milestone in radio astronomy history, scientists at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Socorro, New Mexico, have made the first images using a radio telescope antenna in space. The images, more than a million times more detailed than those produced by the human eye, used the new Japanese HALCA satellite, working in conjunction with the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) and Very Large Array (VLA) ground-based radio telescopes. The landmark images are the result of a long-term NRAO effort supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). "This success means that our ability to make detailed radio images of objects in the universe is no longer limited by the size of the Earth," said NRAO Director Paul Vanden Bout. "Astronomy's vision has just become much sharper." HALCA, launched on Feb. 11 by Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), is the first satellite designed for radio astronomy imaging. It is part of an international collaboration led by ISAS and backed by NRAO; Japan's National Astronomical Observatory; NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); the Canadian Space Agency; the Australia Telescope National Facility; the European VLBI Network and the Joint Institute for Very Long Baseline Interferometry in Europe. On May 22, HALCA observed a distant active galaxy called PKS 1519-273, while the VLBA and VLA also observed it. Data from the satellite was received by a tracking station at the NRAO facility in Green Bank, West Virginia. Tape-recorded data from the satellite and from the radio telescopes on the ground were sent to NRAO's Array Operations Center (AOC) in Socorro, NM. In Socorro, astronomers and computer scientists used a special-purpose computer to digitally combine the signals from the satellite and the ground telescopes to make them all work together as a single, giant radio telescope. This dedicated machine, the VLBA Correlator, built as

Temperature Measurements of the Low-Attenuation Radiographic Ice Ball During CT-Guided Renal Cryoablation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Permpongkosol, Sompol; Link, Richard E.; Kavoussi, Louis R.; Solomon, Stephen B.

2008-01-01

During renal cryoablation a low-attenuation area on CT develops around the cryoprobe. Knowledge of the temperature of the growing low-attenuation area can guide therapy and ensure lethal temperatures. Herein, we report thermocouple results and correlating CT images during the development of the low-attenuation 'radiographic ice ball.' Five patients who underwent percutaneous CT-guided renal cryoablation were identified who had thermocouples inserted and serial intraprocedural CT images that included images with thermocouple measurements of 0 o and sub-0 o C. Thermocouples had been percutaneously placed just beyond the edge of the tumors either to ensure adequate cooling or to ensure safety to adjacent critical structures. Renal cryotherapy under CT guidance produced a growing low-attenuation area corresponding to the radiographic ice ball. When the thermocouple measured 0 o C, CT images showed the thermocouple tip at the edge of the low-attenuation ice ball. At lower temperatures the tip was within the low-attenuation ice ball. We conclude that knowledge of the temperature at the ice ball edge during cryoablation can be used to predict the extent of tissue necrosis and thus provide an estimate of cryotherapy effectiveness during the procedure. Further work is necessary to establish a firm relationship between the thermal conditions and the zone of damage

Experimental provocation of 'ice-cream headache' by ice cubes and ice water.

Science.gov (United States)

Mages, Stephan; Hensel, Ole; Zierz, Antonia Maria; Kraya, Torsten; Zierz, Stephan

2017-04-01

Background There are various studies on experimentally provoked 'ice-cream headache' or 'headache attributed to ingestion or inhalation of a cold stimulus' (HICS) using different provocation protocols. The aim of this study was to compare two provocation protocols. Methods Ice cubes pressed to the palate and fast ingestion of ice water were used to provoke HICS and clinical features were compared. Results The ice-water stimulus provoked HICS significantly more often than the ice-cube stimulus (9/77 vs. 39/77). Ice-water-provoked HICS had a significantly shorter latency (median 15 s, range 4-97 s vs. median 68 s, range 27-96 s). There was no difference in pain localisation. Character after ice-cube stimulation was predominantly described as pressing and after ice-water stimulation as stabbing. A second HICS followed in 10/39 (26%) of the headaches provoked by ice water. Lacrimation occurred significantly more often in volunteers with than in those without HICS. Discussion HICS provoked by ice water was more frequent, had a shorter latency, different pain character and higher pain intensity than HICS provoked by ice cubes. The finding of two subsequent HICS attacks in the same volunteers supports the notion that two types of HICS exist. Lacrimation during HICS indicates involvement of the trigeminal-autonomic reflex.

CT and MR imaging of the buccal space: Normal anatomy and abnormalities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Hyo Cheol; Han, Moon Hee; Moon, Min Hoan; Kim, Ji Hoon; Kim, In One; Chang, Kee Hyun

2005-01-01

The buccal space is an anatomical compartment lying anterior to the masticator space and lateral to the buccinator muscle. Since the major purpose of imaging is to define the likely anatomic origin and also the extent of a given lesion, thorough knowledge of the normal anatomy of the buccal space is essential, and this knowledge can aid the physician in narrowing down the list of possible maladies on the differential diagnosis. We illustrate here in this paper the important anatomic landmarks and typical pathologic conditions of the buccal space such as the developmental lesions and the neoplastic lesions. Knowledge of the expected pathologic conditions is useful for the radiologist when interpreting facial CT and MR images

Fundamentals and applications of neutron imaging. Application part 3. Application of neutron imaging in aircraft, space rocket, car and gunpowder industries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ikeda, Yasushi

2007-01-01

Neutron imaging is applied to nondestructive test. Four neutron imaging facilities are used in Japan. The application examples of industries are listed in the table: space rocket, aircraft, car, liquid metal, and works of art. Neutron imaging of transportation equipments are illustrated as an application to industry. X-ray radiography testing (XRT) image and neutron radiography testing (NRT) image of turbine blade of aircraft engine, honeycomb structure of aircraft, helicopter rotor blade, trigger tube, separation nut of space rocket, carburetor of car, BMW engine, fireworks and ammunitions are illustrated. (S.Y.)

Barnes Ice Cap South Dome Trilateration Net Survey Data 1970-1984, Version 1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Barnes Ice Cap data set contains survey measurements of a network of 43 stakes along a 10 km flow line on the northeast flank of the south dome of the Barnes Ice...

Ice flow Modelling of the Greenland Ice Sheet

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Lisbeth Tangaa

Models of ice flow have a range of application in glaciology, including investigating the large-scale response of ice sheets to changes in climate, assimilating data to estimate unknown conditions beneath the ice sheet, and in interpreting proxy records obtained from ice cores, among others. In t...... a steady state with respect to the reference climate at the end of the simulation and that the mass balance of the ice sheet at this time was more sensitive to recent climate fluctuations than the temperature forcing in the early or mid-Holocene.......Models of ice flow have a range of application in glaciology, including investigating the large-scale response of ice sheets to changes in climate, assimilating data to estimate unknown conditions beneath the ice sheet, and in interpreting proxy records obtained from ice cores, among others....... In this PhD project, the use of ice flow models for the interpretation of the age-structure of the Greenland ice sheet, i.e. the depth within the ice, at which ice deposited at given times are found at present day. Two different observational data sets of this archive were investigated. Further, paleo...

IceBridge Atmospheric Chemistry L1B Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The IceBridge Atmospheric Chemistry L1B Data set (ICHEM1B) contains measurements acquired over Antarctica using the AVOCET differential Non-Dispersive Infrared...

Arctic sea-ice ridges—Safe heavens for sea-ice fauna during periods of extreme ice melt?

Science.gov (United States)

Gradinger, Rolf; Bluhm, Bodil; Iken, Katrin

2010-01-01

The abundances and distribution of metazoan within-ice meiofauna (13 stations) and under-ice fauna (12 stations) were investigated in level sea ice and sea-ice ridges in the Chukchi/Beaufort Seas and Canada Basin in June/July 2005 using a combination of ice coring and SCUBA diving. Ice meiofauna abundance was estimated based on live counts in the bottom 30 cm of level sea ice based on triplicate ice core sampling at each location, and in individual ice chunks from ridges at four locations. Under-ice amphipods were counted in situ in replicate ( N=24-65 per station) 0.25 m 2 quadrats using SCUBA to a maximum water depth of 12 m. In level sea ice, the most abundant ice meiofauna groups were Turbellaria (46%), Nematoda (35%), and Harpacticoida (19%), with overall low abundances per station that ranged from 0.0 to 10.9 ind l -1 (median 0.8 ind l -1). In level ice, low ice algal pigment concentrations (Turbellaria, Nematoda and Harpacticoida also were observed in pressure ridges (0-200 ind l -1, median 40 ind l -1), although values were highly variable and only medians of Turbellaria were significantly higher in ridge ice than in level ice. Median abundances of under-ice amphipods at all ice types (level ice, various ice ridge structures) ranged from 8 to 114 ind m -2 per station and mainly consisted of Apherusa glacialis (87%), Onisimus spp. (7%) and Gammarus wilkitzkii (6%). Highest amphipod abundances were observed in pressure ridges at depths >3 m where abundances were up to 42-fold higher compared with level ice. We propose that the summer ice melt impacted meiofauna and under-ice amphipod abundance and distribution through (a) flushing, and (b) enhanced salinity stress at thinner level sea ice (less than 3 m thickness). We further suggest that pressure ridges, which extend into deeper, high-salinity water, become accumulation regions for ice meiofauna and under-ice amphipods in summer. Pressure ridges thus might be crucial for faunal survival during periods of

Image Analysis Based on Soft Computing and Applied on Space Shuttle During the Liftoff Process

Science.gov (United States)

Dominquez, Jesus A.; Klinko, Steve J.

2007-01-01

Imaging techniques based on Soft Computing (SC) and developed at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) have been implemented on a variety of prototype applications related to the safety operation of the Space Shuttle during the liftoff process. These SC-based prototype applications include detection and tracking of moving Foreign Objects Debris (FOD) during the Space Shuttle liftoff, visual anomaly detection on slidewires used in the emergency egress system for the Space Shuttle at the laJlIlch pad, and visual detection of distant birds approaching the Space Shuttle launch pad. This SC-based image analysis capability developed at KSC was also used to analyze images acquired during the accident of the Space Shuttle Columbia and estimate the trajectory and velocity of the foam that caused the accident.

Comparison of space borne radar altimetry and airborne laser altimetry over sea ice in the Fram Strait

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Giles, K.A.; Hvidegaard, Sine Munk

2006-01-01

This paper describes the first comparison of satellite radar and airborne laser altimetry over sea ice. In order to investigate the differences between measurements from the two different instruments we explore the statistical properties of the data and determine reasonable scales in space and time...... at which to examine them. The resulting differences between the data sets show that the laser and the radar are reflecting from different surfaces and that the magnitude of the difference decreases with increasing surface air temperature. This suggests that the penetration depth of the radar signal......, into the snow, varies with temperature. The results also show the potential for computing Arctic wide snow depth maps by combining measurements from laser and radar altimeters....

Tunable artificial vortex ice in nanostructured superconductors with a frustrated kagome lattice of paired antidots

Science.gov (United States)

Xue, C.; Ge, J.-Y.; He, A.; Zharinov, V. S.; Moshchalkov, V. V.; Zhou, Y. H.; Silhanek, A. V.; Van de Vondel, J.

2018-04-01

Theoretical proposals for spin-ice analogs based on nanostructured superconductors have suggested larger flexibility for probing the effects of fluctuations and disorder than in the magnetic systems. In this paper, we unveil the particularities of a vortex ice system by direct observation of the vortex distribution in a kagome lattice of paired antidots using scanning Hall probe microscopy. The theoretically suggested vortex ice distribution, lacking long-range order, is observed at half matching field (H1/2 ). Moreover, the vortex ice state formed by the pinned vortices is still preserved at 2 H1/3 . This unexpected result is attributed to the introduction of interstitial vortices at these magnetic-field values. Although the interstitial vortices increase the number of possible vortex configurations, it is clearly shown that the vortex ice state observed at 2 H1/3 is less prone to defects than at H1/2 . In addition, the nonmonotonic variations of the vortex ice quality on the lattice spacing indicates that a highly ordered vortex ice state cannot be attained by simply reducing the lattice spacing. The optimal design to observe defect-free vortex ice is discussed based on the experimental statistics. The direct observations of a tunable vortex ice state provides new opportunities to explore the order-disorder transition in artificial ice systems.

Neoglacial Antarctic sea-ice expansion driven by mid-Holocene retreat of the Ross Ice Shelf.

Science.gov (United States)

Bendle, J. A.; Newton, K.; Mckay, R. M.; Crosta, X.; Etourneau, J.; Anya, A. B.; Seki, O.; Golledge, N. R.; Bertler, N. A. N.; Willmott, V.; Schouten, S.; Riesselman, C. R.; Masse, G.; Dunbar, R. B.

2017-12-01

Recent decades have seen expanding Antarctic sea-ice coverage, coeval with thinning West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) ice shelves and the rapid freshening of surface and bottom waters along the Antarctic margin. The mid-Holocene Neoglacial transition represents the last comparable baseline shift in sea-ice behaviour. The drivers and feedbacks involved in both the recent and Holocene events are poorly understood and characterised by large proxy-model mismatches. We present new records of compound specific fatty acid isotope analyses (δ2H-FA), highly-branched isoprenoid alkenes (HBIs) TEX86L temperatures, grain-size, mass accumulations rates (MARs) and image analyses from a 171m Holocene sediment sequence from Site U1357 (IODP leg 318). In combination with published records we reconstruct Holocene changes in glacial meltwater, sedimentary inputs and sea-ice. The early Holocene (11 to 10 ka) is characterised by large fluctuations in inputs of deglacial meltwater and sediments and seismic evidence of downlapping material from the south, suggesting a dominating influence from glacial retreat of the local outlet glaciers. From 10 to 8 ka there is decreasing meltwater inputs, an onlapping drift and advection of material from the east. After ca. 8 ka positively correlated δ2H-FA and MARs infer that pulses of glacial melt correlate to stronger easterly currents, driving erosion of material from upstream banks and that the Ross Ice Shelf (RIS) becomes a major influence. A large mid-Holocene meltwater pulse (preceded by warming TEX86L temperatures) is evident between ca. 6 to 4.5 ka, culminating in a rapid and permanent increase in sea-ice from 4.5 ka. This is coeval with cosmogenic nuclide evidence for a rapid thinning of the Antarctic ice sheet during the mid-Holocene (Hein et al., 2016). We suggest this represents a final major pulse of deglaciation from the Ross Ice Shelf, which initiates the Neoglacial, driving cool surface waters along the coast and greater sea-ice

An explanation for the dark region in the western melt zone of the Greenland ice sheet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. G. M. Wientjes

2010-07-01

Full Text Available The western part of the Greenland ice sheet contains a region that is darker than the surrounding ice. This feature has been analysed with the help of MODIS images. The dark region appears every year during the summer season and can always be found at the same location, which makes meltwater unlikely as the only source for the low albedos. Spectral information indicates that the ice in this region contains more debris than the ice closer to the margin. ASTER images reveal a wavy pattern in the darker ice. Based on these findings we conclude that ice, containing dust from older periods, is presently outcropping near the margin, leading to albedos lower than observed for the remaining ablation area. Therefore it can be concluded that the accumulation of meltwater is a result rather than a cause of the darkening.

Convergence on the Prediction of Ice Particle Mass and Projected Area in Ice Clouds

Science.gov (United States)

Mitchell, D. L.

2013-12-01

Ice particle mass- and area-dimensional power law (henceforth m-D and A-D) relationships are building-blocks for formulating microphysical processes and optical properties in cloud and climate models, and they are critical for ice cloud remote sensing algorithms, affecting the retrieval accuracy. They can be estimated by (1) directly measuring the sizes, masses and areas of individual ice particles at ground-level and (2) using aircraft probes to simultaneously measure the ice water content (IWC) and ice particle size distribution. A third indirect method is to use observations from method 1 to develop an m-A relationship representing mean conditions in ice clouds. Owing to a tighter correlation (relative to m-D data), this m-A relationship can be used to estimate m from aircraft probe measurements of A. This has the advantage of estimating m at small sizes, down to 10 μm using the 2D-Sterio probe. In this way, 2D-S measurements of maximum dimension D can be related to corresponding estimates of m to develop ice cloud type and temperature dependent m-D expressions. However, these expressions are no longer linear in log-log space, but are slowly varying curves covering most of the size range of natural ice particles. This work compares all three of the above methods and demonstrates close agreement between them. Regarding (1), 4869 ice particles and corresponding melted hemispheres were measured during a field campaign to obtain D and m. Selecting only those unrimed habits that formed between -20°C and -40°C, the mean mass values for selected size intervals are within 35% of the corresponding masses predicted by the Method 3 curve based on a similar temperature range. Moreover, the most recent m-D expression based on Method 2 differs by no more than 50% with the m-D curve from Method 3. Method 3 appears to be the most accurate over the observed ice particle size range (10-4000 μm). An m-D/A-D scheme was developed by which self-consistent m-D and A-D power laws

Ice monitoring program in support of Sakhalin Energy's offshore oil production

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pilkington, R. [CANATEC Associates International Ltd., Calgary, AB (Canada); Keinonen, A. [AKAC Inc., Victoria, BC (Canada); Tambovsky, V.; Ryabov, S. [Environmental Company of Sakhalin, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Russian Federation); Pishchalnik, V. [Russian Academy of Science, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Russian Federation)]|[Far East Geological Inst., Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Russian Federation). Sakhalin Dept.; Sheikin, I. [Arctic and Antarctic Research Inst., St. Petersburg (Russian Federation); Brovin, A. [ABIC Service Ltd., Calgary, AB (Canada)

2006-11-15

The Sakhalin Energy Investment Company (SEIC) has been producing oil at the Molikpaq platform off the east coast of Sakhalin Island since 1999. The Molikpaq oil production occurs during the open water summer season. When ice begins to form in late November, an Ice Management Team begins to monitor conditions at the site to ensure a safe operation. This paper described the ice monitoring program designed to provide extensive ice and environmental data to support risk management and allow the planning of safe oil production operations using a Single Anchor Leg Mooring( SALM) system, Floating Storage and Offloading System (FSO), and export tankers in ice. The following 2 key aspects of the in-ice operations were covered: ice management to protect the offshore loading operation on a minute by minute basis in moving ice, and also ice forecasting, to determine when any unmanageable ice might approach the tanker loading site and cause the shut down of operations in the fall and during the startup of operations in the spring. The forecasting of ice drift, ice formation and growth in the fall and ice decay in the spring were discussed. It was noted that in the last few years, the date on which ice first appears is getting later. Operations cease for the winter before the ice is forecast to become a problem for the operations. The Ice Management Team returns to the site in May when the ice melts and and is no longer harmful to the operations. The Ice Management Team consists of 9 individuals with several years of operational ice experience. Their tasks include data collection from satellite images; helicopter ice reconnaissance; ice breaker ice maps; radar ice maps and ice drift; and, ice drift analysis using terra MODIS satellite images. A daily or twice daily weather forecast is provided by a commercial weather forecasting company. These forecasts provide the winds, gusts, cloud cover, air temperature, wind wave and swell for every 6 hours for the first 3 days, then every

The Sea Ice Index: A Resource for Cryospheric Knowledge Mobilization

Science.gov (United States)

Windnagel, A. K.; Fetterer, F. M.

2017-12-01

The Sea Ice Index is a popular source of information about Arctic and Antarctic sea ice data and trends created at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in 2002. It has been used by cryospheric scientists, cross-discipline scientists, the press, policy makers, and the public for the past 15 years. The Index started as a prototype sea ice extent product in 2001 and was envisioned as a website that would meet a need for readily accessible, easy-to-use information on sea ice trends and anomalies, with products that would assist in monitoring and diagnosing the ice extent minima that were gaining increasing attention in the research community in the late 1990s. The goal was to easily share these valuable data with everyone that needed them, which is the essence of knowledge mobilization. As time has progressed, we have found new ways of disseminating the information carried by the data by providing simple pictures on a website, animating those images, creating Google Earth animations that show the data on a globe, providing simple text files of data values that do not require special software to read, writing a monthly blog about the data that has over 1.7 million readers annually, providing the data to NOAA's Science on Sphere to be seen in museums and classrooms across 23 countries, and creating geo-registered images for use in geospatial software. The Index helps to bridge the gap between sea ice science and the public. Through NSIDC's User Services Office, we receive feedback on the Index and have endeavored to meet the changing needs of our stakeholder communities to best mobilize this knowledge in their direction. We have learned through trial-by-fire the best practices for delivering these data and data services. This tells the tale of managing an unassuming data set as it has journeyed from a simple product consisting of images of sea ice to one that is robust enough to be used in the IPCC Climate Change Report but easy enough to be understood by K-12

Investigations of Spatial and Temporal Variability of Ocean and Ice Conditions in and Near the Marginal Ice Zone. The “Marginal Ice Zone Observations and Processes Experiment” (MIZOPEX) Final Campaign Summary

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

DeMott, P. J. [Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States); Hill, T. C.J. [Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)

2016-02-01

Despite the significance of the marginal ice zones of the Arctic Ocean, basic parameters such as sea surface temperature (SST) and a range of sea-ice characteristics are still insufficiently understood in these areas, and especially so during the summer melt period. The field campaigns summarized here, identified collectively as the “Marginal Ice Zone Ocean and Ice Observations and Processes Experiment” (MIZOPEX), were funded by U.S. National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) with the intent of helping to address these information gaps through a targeted, intensive observation field campaign that tested and exploited unique capabilities of multiple classes of unmanned aerial systems (UASs). MIZOPEX was conceived and carried out in response to NASA’s request for research efforts that would address a key area of science while also helping to advance the application of UASs in a manner useful to NASA for assessing the relative merits of different UASs. To further exercise the potential of unmanned systems and to expand the science value of the effort, the field campaign added further challenges such as air deployment of miniaturized buoys and coordinating missions involving multiple aircraft. Specific research areas that MIZOPEX data were designed to address include relationships between ocean skin temperatures and subsurface temperatures and how these evolve over time in an Arctic environment during summer; variability in sea-ice conditions such as thickness, age, and albedo within the marginal ice zone (MIZ); interactions of SST, salinity, and ice conditions during the melt cycle; and validation of satellite-derived SST and ice concentration fields provided by satellite imagery and models.

Quasi-seismic scaling processes in sea ice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chmel, A; Smirnov, V N

2011-01-01

The cracking, shearing and stick–slip motions in sea ice are similar to those in fracturing geostructures. In this work, the fracture-related, quasi-seismic activity in the Arctic ice pack was monitored during a large-scale ice cover fragmentation that occurred in March 2008. This fragmentation resulted in the formation of a two-dimensional 'fault' clearly seen in satellite images. The energy distribution in elastic waves detected by seismic tiltmeters follows the power law in pre- and post-faulting periods. The power exponent decreases as the 'catastrophe' approaches, and exhibits a trend to restore its initial value after the large-scale perturbation. The detected fracture events are correlated in time in the sense of a scaling relation. A quiescent period (very low quasi-seismic activity) was observed before 'faulting'. A close similarity in scaling characteristics between the crustal seismicity and quasi-seismic activity observed in the ice pack is discussed from the viewpoint of the role of heterogeneity in the behavior of large-scale critical systems

Rate of ice accumulation during ice storms

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Feknous, N. [SNC-Lavalin, Montreal, PQ (Canada); Chouinard, L. [McGill Univ., Montreal, PQ (Canada); Sabourin, G. [Hydro-Quebec, Montreal, PQ (Canada)

2005-07-01

The rate of glaze ice accumulation is the result of a complex process dependent on numerous meteorological and physical factors. The aim of this paper was to estimate the distribution rate of glaze ice accumulation on conductors in southern Quebec for use in the design of mechanical and electrical de-icing devices. The analysis was based on direct observations of ice accumulation collected on passive ice meters. The historical database of Hydro-Quebec, which contains observations at over 140 stations over period of 25 years, was used to compute accumulation rates. Data was processed so that each glaze ice event was numbered in a chronological sequence. Each event consisted of the time series of ice accumulations on each of the 8 cylinders of the ice meters, as well as on 5 of its surfaces. Observed rates were converted to represent the average ice on a 30 mm diameter conductor at 30 m above ground with a span of 300 m. Observations were corrected to account for the water content of the glaze ice as evidenced by the presence of icicles. Results indicated that despite significant spatial variations in the expected severity of ice storms as a function of location, the distribution function for rates of accumulation were fairly similar and could be assumed to be independent of location. It was concluded that the observations from several sites could be combined in order to obtain better estimates of the distribution of hourly rates of ice accumulation. However, the rates were highly variable. For de-icing strategies, it was suggested that average accumulation rates over 12 hour periods were preferable, and that analyses should be performed for other time intervals to account for the variability in ice accumulation rates over time. In addition, accumulation rates did not appear to be highly correlated with average wind speed for maximum hourly accumulation rates. 3 refs., 2 tabs., 10 figs.

Applying High Resolution Imagery to Understand the Role of Dynamics in the Diminishing Arctic Sea Ice Cover

Science.gov (United States)

2015-09-30

describe contemporary ice pack thickness, MODIS , AVHRR, RadarSat-2 (satellite imagery) that describe ice pack deformation features on large scales, as well...high-resolution visible-band images of the Arctic ice pack that are available at the GFL, USGS. The statistics related to the available images are...University of Maryland team as a Faculty Research Assistant, working under the guidance of Co-PI Farrell. Ms. Faber is responsible for analysis of MODIS

An alternative to scale-space representation for extracting local features in image recognition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Hans Jørgen; Nguyen, Phuong Giang

2012-01-01

In image recognition, the common approach for extracting local features using a scale-space representation has usually three main steps; first interest points are extracted at different scales, next from a patch around each interest point the rotation is calculated with corresponding orientation...... and compensation, and finally a descriptor is computed for the derived patch (i.e. feature of the patch). To avoid the memory and computational intensive process of constructing the scale-space, we use a method where no scale-space is required This is done by dividing the given image into a number of triangles...... with sizes dependent on the content of the image, at the location of each triangle. In this paper, we will demonstrate that by rotation of the interest regions at the triangles it is possible in grey scale images to achieve a recognition precision comparable with that of MOPS. The test of the proposed method...

Direct visualization of solute locations in laboratory ice samples

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. Hullar

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Many important chemical reactions occur in polar snow, where solutes may be present in several reservoirs, including at the air–ice interface and in liquid-like regions within the ice matrix. Some recent laboratory studies suggest chemical reaction rates may differ in these two reservoirs. While investigations have examined where solutes are found in natural snow and ice, few studies have examined either solute locations in laboratory samples or the possible factors controlling solute segregation. To address this, we used micro-computed tomography (microCT to examine solute locations in ice samples prepared from either aqueous cesium chloride (CsCl or rose bengal solutions that were frozen using several different methods. Samples frozen in a laboratory freezer had the largest liquid-like inclusions and air bubbles, while samples frozen in a custom freeze chamber had somewhat smaller air bubbles and inclusions; in contrast, samples frozen in liquid nitrogen showed much smaller concentrated inclusions and air bubbles, only slightly larger than the resolution limit of our images (∼ 2 µm. Freezing solutions in plastic vs. glass vials had significant impacts on the sample structure, perhaps because the poor heat conductivity of plastic vials changes how heat is removed from the sample as it cools. Similarly, the choice of solute had a significant impact on sample structure, with rose bengal solutions yielding smaller inclusions and air bubbles compared to CsCl solutions frozen using the same method. Additional experiments using higher-resolution imaging of an ice sample show that CsCl moves in a thermal gradient, supporting the idea that the solutes in ice are present in mobile liquid-like regions. Our work shows that the structure of laboratory ice samples, including the location of solutes, is sensitive to the freezing method, sample container, and solute characteristics, requiring careful experimental design and interpretation of results.

The Antarctic Ice Sheet, Sea Ice, and the Ozone Hole: Satellite Observations of how they are Changing

Science.gov (United States)

Parkinson, Claire L.

2012-01-01

Antarctica is the Earth's coldest and highest continent and has major impacts on the climate and life of the south polar vicinity. It is covered almost entirely by the Earth's largest ice sheet by far, with a volume of ice so great that if all the Antarctic ice were to go into the ocean (as ice or liquid water), this would produce a global sea level rise of about 60 meters (197 feet). The continent is surrounded by sea ice that in the wintertime is even more expansive than the continent itself and in the summertime reduces to only about a sixth of its wintertime extent. Like the continent, the expansive sea ice cover has major impacts, reflecting the sun's radiation back to space, blocking exchanges between the ocean and the atmosphere, and providing a platform for some animal species while impeding other species. Far above the continent, the Antarctic ozone hole is a major atmospheric phenomenon recognized as human-caused and potentially quite serious to many different life forms. Satellites are providing us with remarkable information about the ice sheet, the sea ice, and the ozone hole. Satellite visible and radar imagery are providing views of the large scale structure of the ice sheet never seen before; satellite laser altimetry has produced detailed maps of the topography of the ice sheet; and an innovative gravity-measuring two-part satellite has allowed mapping of regions of mass loss and mass gain on the ice sheet. The surrounding sea ice cover has a satellite record that goes back to the 1970s, allowing trend studies that show a decreasing sea ice presence in the region of the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas, to the west of the prominent Antarctic Peninsula, but increasing sea ice presence around much of the rest of the continent. Overall, sea ice extent around Antarctica has increased at an average rate of about 17,000 square kilometers per year since the late 1970s, as determined from satellite microwave data that can be collected under both light and

Rapid characterization of a nanomaterial structure using X-ray reciprocal-lattice-space imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sakata, Osami; Yoshimoto, Mamoru; Miki, Kazushi

2006-01-01

The X-ray reciprocal-lattice-space imaging method is able to record the reciprocal-lattice-space of nanostructure by sample-and-detector fixed geometry. This method was developed by the surface structure analysis beam line BL13XU of SPring-8. Outline of the X-ray diffraction method and basic principles of the X-ray reciprocal-lattice-space imaging method, and application examples are stated. The method is able to find out the Bragg conditions of nanostructure of surface in the atmosphere. The reciprocal-lattice of the embedded trace atomic wires was observed. The trace atoms of Bi atomic wires embedded in silicone showed the diffraction signal and image by a short exposure time. This method is useful at rapid non-destructive measurement of nanostructure. (S.Y.)

Color image segmentation using perceptual spaces through applets ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Color image segmentation using perceptual spaces through applets for determining and preventing diseases in chili peppers. JL González-Pérez, MC Espino-Gudiño, J Gudiño-Bazaldúa, JL Rojas-Rentería, V Rodríguez-Hernández, VM Castaño ...

Water ice and sub-micron ice particles on Tethys and Mimas

Science.gov (United States)

Scipioni, Francesca; Nordheim, Tom; Clark, Roger Nelson; D'Aversa, Emiliano; Cruikshank, Dale P.; Tosi, Federico; Schenk, Paul M.; Combe, Jean-Philippe; Dalle Ore, Cristina M.

2017-10-01

.References[1] Clark, R., et al., 2013. Observed ices in the solar system. In: Gudipati, M. S., Castillo-Rogez, J. (Eds.), The Science of Solar System Ices. Vol. 356. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Springer Science+Business Media New York, p. 3.

Solid and gaseous inclusions in the EDML deep ice core: origins and implications for the physical properties of polar ice

Science.gov (United States)

Faria, S. H.; Kipfstuhl, S.; Garbe, C. S.; Bendel, V.; Weikusat, C.; Weikusat, I.

2010-12-01

The great value of polar deep ice cores stems mainly from two essential features of polar ice: its crystalline structure and its impurities. They determine the physical properties of the ice matrix and provide proxies for the investigation of past climates. Experience shows that these two essential features of polar ice manifest themselves in a multiscale diversity of dynamic structures, including dislocations, grain boundaries, solid particles, air bubbles, clathrate hydrates and cloudy bands, among others. The fact that these structures are dynamic implies that they evolve with time through intricate interactions between the crystalline structure, impurities, and the ice flow. Records of these interactions have been carefully investigated in samples of the EPICA deep ice core drilled in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica (75°S, 0°E, 2882 m elevation, 2774.15 m core length). Here we show how the distributions of sizes and shapes of air bubbles correlate with impurities and the crystalline structure, how the interaction between moving grain boundaries and micro-inclusions changes with ice depth and temperature, as well as the possible causes for the abrupt change in ice rheology observed in the MIS6-MIS5e transition. We also discuss how these observations may affect the flow of the ice sheet and the interpretation of paleoclimate records. Micrograph of an EDML sample from 555m depth. One can identify air bubbles (dark, round objects), microinclusions (tiny defocused spots), and a grain boundary pinned by a bubble. The width of the image is 700 micrometers.

Determination of Acreage Thermal Protection Foam Loss From Ice and Foam Impacts

Science.gov (United States)

Carney, Kelly S.; Lawrence, Charles

2015-01-01

A parametric study was conducted to establish Thermal Protection System (TPS) loss from foam and ice impact conditions similar to what might occur on the Space Launch System. This study was based upon the large amount of testing and analysis that was conducted with both ice and foam debris impacts on TPS acreage foam for the Space Shuttle Project External Tank. Test verified material models and modeling techniques that resulted from Space Shuttle related testing were utilized for this parametric study. Parameters varied include projectile mass, impact velocity and impact angle (5 degree and 10 degree impacts). The amount of TPS acreage foam loss as a result of the various impact conditions is presented.

Performance Enhancement of Deicing Systems with the Use of an Anti-ice Nano-coating, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The proposed program addresses NASA's need for a new generation of icing mitigation technology for manned and unmanned vehicles, particularly related to icing on...

Characterization of an IceTop tank for the IceCube surface extension IceVeto

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kemp, Julian; Auffenberg, Jan; Hansmann, Bengt; Rongen, Martin; Stahlberg, Martin; Wiebusch, Christopher [III. Physikalisches Institut B, RWTH Aachen University (Germany); Collaboration: IceCube-Collaboration

2015-07-01

IceTop is an air-shower detector located at the South Pole on the surface above the IceCube detector. It consists of 81 detector stations with two Cherenkov tanks each. The tanks are filled with clear ice and instrumented with two photomultipliers. IceTop detects cosmic-ray induced air-showers above an energy threshold of ∝300 TeV. Muons and neutrinos from these air-showers are the main background for astrophysical neutrino searches with IceCube. The usage of IceTop to veto air-showers largely reduces this background in the field of view. To enlarge the field of view an extension of the surface detector, IceVeto, is planned. Therefore, we investigate the properties of an original IceTop tank as a laboratory reference for the development of new detection module designs. First results of these measurements are presented.

The color of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Peng; Leppäranta, Matti; Cheng, Bin; Li, Zhijun; Istomina, Larysa; Heygster, Georg

2018-04-01

Pond color, which creates the visual appearance of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice in summer, is quantitatively investigated using a two-stream radiative transfer model for ponded sea ice. The upwelling irradiance from the pond surface is determined and then its spectrum is transformed into RGB (red, green, blue) color space using a colorimetric method. The dependence of pond color on various factors such as water and ice properties and incident solar radiation is investigated. The results reveal that increasing underlying ice thickness Hi enhances both the green and blue intensities of pond color, whereas the red intensity is mostly sensitive to Hi for thin ice (Hi 1.5 m), similar to the behavior of melt-pond albedo. The distribution of the incident solar spectrum F0 with wavelength affects the pond color rather than its intensity. The pond color changes from dark blue to brighter blue with increasing scattering in ice, and the influence of absorption in ice on pond color is limited. The pond color reproduced by the model agrees with field observations for Arctic sea ice in summer, which supports the validity of this study. More importantly, the pond color has been confirmed to contain information about meltwater and underlying ice, and therefore it can be used as an index to retrieve Hi and Hp. Retrievals of Hi for thin ice (Hi measurements than retrievals for thick ice, but those of Hp are not good. The analysis of pond color is a new potential method to obtain thin ice thickness in summer, although more validation data and improvements to the radiative transfer model will be needed in future.

On The Importance of Connecting Laboratory Measurements of Ice Crystal Growth with Model Parameterizations: Predicting Ice Particle Properties

Science.gov (United States)

Harrington, J. Y.

2017-12-01

Parameterizing the growth of ice particles in numerical models is at an interesting cross-roads. Most parameterizations developed in the past, including some that I have developed, parse model ice into numerous categories based primarily on the growth mode of the particle. Models routinely possess smaller ice, snow crystals, aggregates, graupel, and hail. The snow and ice categories in some models are further split into subcategories to account for the various shapes of ice. There has been a relatively recent shift towards a new class of microphysical models that predict the properties of ice particles instead of using multiple categories and subcategories. Particle property models predict the physical characteristics of ice, such as aspect ratio, maximum dimension, effective density, rime density, effective area, and so forth. These models are attractive in the sense that particle characteristics evolve naturally in time and space without the need for numerous (and somewhat artificial) transitions among pre-defined classes. However, particle property models often require fundamental parameters that are typically derived from laboratory measurements. For instance, the evolution of particle shape during vapor depositional growth requires knowledge of the growth efficiencies for the various axis of the crystals, which in turn depends on surface parameters that can only be determined in the laboratory. The evolution of particle shapes and density during riming, aggregation, and melting require data on the redistribution of mass across a crystals axis as that crystal collects water drops, ice crystals, or melts. Predicting the evolution of particle properties based on laboratory-determined parameters has a substantial influence on the evolution of some cloud systems. Radiatively-driven cirrus clouds show a broader range of competition between heterogeneous nucleation and homogeneous freezing when ice crystal properties are predicted. Even strongly convective squall

Double-theodolite measurement system used in the image calibration of space photographic instrument

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

LI Yan; QIAO Yan-feng; SU Wan-xin; LIU Ze-xun

2005-01-01

The purpose of characterizing the image of space photographic instrument is to gain the space included angles from three coordinate axes in the three-dimensional coordinate of the image and the directionality of the three axes of coordinate in the frame of axes of the instrument. The two reference frames will keep in the same direction finally by adjusting according to space angles. This problem was solved by a new high-precision measurement system composed of a double-theodolite and a set of communication system. In the survey system, two TDA5005 total stations from Leica Company will be selected as the double-theodolite and the interdependence of both coordinate systems can be achieved by moving the stations only at one time. Therefore, this measurement system provides a highly efficient and high-precision surveying method to the image calibration of the space photographic instrument. According to the experiment, its measuring accuracy can reach arc-second level.

Ice Sheet Roughness Estimation Based on Impulse Responses Acquired in the Global Ice Sheet Mapping Orbiter Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Niamsuwan, N.; Johnson, J. T.; Jezek, K. C.; Gogineni, P.

2008-12-01

The Global Ice Sheet Mapping Orbiter (GISMO) mission was developed to address scientific needs to understand the polar ice subsurface structure. This NASA Instrument Incubator Program project is a collaboration between Ohio State University, the University of Kansas, Vexcel Corporation and NASA. The GISMO design utilizes an interferometric SAR (InSAR) strategy in which ice sheet reflected signals received by a dual-antenna system are used to produce an interference pattern. The resulting interferogram can be used to filter out surface clutter so as to reveal the signals scattered from the base of the ice sheet. These signals are further processed to produce 3D-images representing basal topography of the ice sheet. In the past three years, the GISMO airborne field campaigns that have been conducted provide a set of useful data for studying geophysical properties of the Greenland ice sheet. While topography information can be obtained using interferometric SAR processing techniques, ice sheet roughness statistics can also be derived by a relatively simple procedure that involves analyzing power levels and the shape of the radar impulse response waveforms. An electromagnetic scattering model describing GISMO impulse responses has previously been proposed and validated. This model suggested that rms-heights and correlation lengths of the upper surface profile can be determined from the peak power and the decay rate of the pulse return waveform, respectively. This presentation will demonstrate a procedure for estimating the roughness of ice surfaces by fitting the GISMO impulse response model to retrieved waveforms from selected GISMO flights. Furthermore, an extension of this procedure to estimate the scattering coefficient of the glacier bed will be addressed as well. Planned future applications involving the classification of glacier bed conditions based on the derived scattering coefficients will also be described.

Ground ice conditions in Salluit, Northern Quebec

Science.gov (United States)

Allard, M.; Fortier, R.; Calmels, F.; Gagnon, O.; L'Hérault, E.

2011-12-01

Salluit in Northern Québec (ca. 1300 inhabitants) faces difficult ground ice conditions for its development. The village is located in a U-shaped valley, along a fjord that was deglaciated around 8000 cal BP. The post-glacial marine limit is at the current elevation of 150 m ASL. Among the mapped surficial geology units, three contain particularly ice-rich permafrost: marine clays, till and silty colluviums. A diamond drill was used to extract 10 permafrost cores down to 23 m deep. In addition, 18 shallow cores (to 5 m deep) were extracted with a portable drill. All the frozen cores were shipped to Québec city where ground ice contents were measured and cryostructures were imaged by CT-Scanning. Water contents, grain-size and pore water salinity were measured. Refraction seismic profiles were run to measure the depth to bedrock. GPR and electrical resistivity surveys helped to map ice-rich areas. Three cone penetration tests (CPT) were run in the frozen clays to depths ranging from 8 to 21 m. Maximum clay thickness is ca. 50 m deep near the shoreline. The cone penetration tests and all the cores in clays revealed large amounts of both segregated and aggradational ice (volumetric contents up to 93% over thicknesses of one meter) to depths varying between 2.5 and 4 m, below which the ice content decreases and the salinity increases (values measured up to 42 gr/L between 4.5 and 6 m deep). Chunks of organic matter buried below the actual active layer base indicate past cryoturbations under a somewhat warmer climate, most probably associated with intense frost boil action, as widely observed today. The stony till has developed large quantities of segregation ice which can be seen in larger concentrations and as thicker lenses under boulders and in matrix rich (≥ 50% sand and silt) parts of the glacial sediment. As digging for a sewage pond was undertaken in winter 2008 by blasting, the clast-influenced cryostructure of the till could be observed in cuts and in

PSF Estimation of Space-Variant Ultra-Wide Field of View Imaging Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petr Janout

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Ultra-wide-field of view (UWFOV imaging systems are affected by various aberrations, most of which are highly angle-dependent. A description of UWFOV imaging systems, such as microscopy optics, security camera systems and other special space-variant imaging systems, is a difficult task that can be achieved by estimating the Point Spread Function (PSF of the system. This paper proposes a novel method for modeling the space-variant PSF of an imaging system using the Zernike polynomials wavefront description. The PSF estimation algorithm is based on obtaining field-dependent expansion coefficients of the Zernike polynomials by fitting real image data of the analyzed imaging system using an iterative approach in an initial estimate of the fitting parameters to ensure convergence robustness. The method is promising as an alternative to the standard approach based on Shack–Hartmann interferometry, since the estimate of the aberration coefficients is processed directly in the image plane. This approach is tested on simulated and laboratory-acquired image data that generally show good agreement. The resulting data are compared with the results of other modeling methods. The proposed PSF estimation method provides around 5% accuracy of the optical system model.

Unique Spectroscopy and Imaging of Mars with the James Webb Space Telescope

Science.gov (United States)

Villanueva, Geronimo L.; Altieri, Francesca; Clancy, R. Todd; Encrenaz, Therese; Fouchet, Thierry; Hartogh, Paul; Lellouch, Emmanuel; Lopez-Valverde, Miguel A.; Mumma, Michael J.; Novak, Robert E.;

Space Radar Image of Bebedauro, Brazil, seasonal

Science.gov (United States)

1994-01-01

This is an X-band image showing seasonal changes at the hydrological test site of Bebedouro in Brazil. The image is centered at 9 degrees south latitude and 40.2 degrees west longitude. This image was acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on April 10, 1994, during the first flight of the radar system, and on October 1, 1994, during the second mission. The swath width is approximately 16.5 kilometers (10.5 miles) wide. The image channels have the following color assignments: red represents data acquired on April 10; green represents data acquired on October 1; blue corresponds to the ratio of the two data sets. Agriculture plays an important economic and social role in Brazil. One of the major problems related to Brazilian agriculture is estimating the size of planting areas and their productivity. Due to cloud cover and the rainy season, which occurs from November through April, optical and infrared Earth observations are seldom used to survey the region. An additional goal of monitoring this region is to watch the floodplains of rivers like Rio Sao Francisco in order to determine suitable locations for additional agricultural fields. This area belongs to the semi-arid northeastern region of Brazil, where estimates have suggested that about 10 times more land could be used for agriculture, including some locations which could be used for irrigation projects. Monitoring of soil moisture during the important summer crop season is of high priority for the future development and productivity of this region. In April the area was covered with vegetation because of the moisture of the soil and only small differences could be seen in X-band data. In October the run-off channels of this hilly region stand out quite clearly because the greenish areas indicated much less soil moisture and water content in plants. Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR

Hydrologic Outlets of the Greenland Ice Sheet, Version 1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Hydrologic Outlets of the Greenland Ice Sheet data set contains GIS point shapefiles that include 891 observed and potential hydrologic outlets of the Greenland...

Life Cores: A Sci-Art Collaboration Between a Snow/Ice Researcher, an Artist/Educator, Students, and Street Road Artists Space

Science.gov (United States)

Dooley, J.; Courville, Z.; Artinian, E.

2016-12-01

BackgroundStreet Road Artists Space Summer 2015 show was Sailing Stones. Works presented scenarios on tension between transience and permanence, highlighting cultural constructs imposed onto landscape and place. Dooley's installation, CryoZen Garden, operated as visual metaphor, modeling cryospheric processes and explored effects of melting polar ice caps on a warming world. A grant from Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts, with a focus on sharing contemporary works which were participatory, conceptual, and polar science research-based, allowed for a new project to engage community members, particularly students.MethodsIn this project students were introduced to the work of Dooley, artist/educator and Courville, snow/ice researcher. Students created `Life Cores', a take on ice and sediment coring scientists use as evidence of Earth's atmospheric and geologic changes. Students were given plastic tubes 2' long and 2" in diameter and were asked to add a daily layer of materials taken from everyday life, for a one month period. Students chose materials important to them personally, and kept journals, reflecting on items' significance, and/or relationship to life and world events. After creation of the Life Cores, Courville and Dooley visited students, shared their work on polar research, what it's like to live and work on ice, and ways science and art can intertwine to create better understanding of climate change issues. Students used core logging sheets to make observations of each others' life cores, noting layer colors, textures and deposition rates as some of the characteristics researchers use in ice and sediment core interpretation. Students' work was exhibited at Street Road and will remain on Street Road's website. Courville and Dooley presented to the general public during the opening. ConclusionsParticipants were better able to answer the question, How do we know what we know from coring? by relating the science to something that is known and personal, such as

Detailed ice loss pattern in the northern Antarctic Peninsula : Widespread decline driven by ice front retreats

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Scambos, T. A.; Berthier, E.; Haran, T.; Shuman, C. A.; Cook, A. J.; Ligtenberg, S. R M; Bohlander, J.

2014-01-01

The northern Antarctic Peninsula (nAP, < 66° S) is one of the most rapidly changing glaciated regions on earth, yet the spatial patterns of its ice mass loss at the glacier basin scale have to date been poorly documented. We use satellite laser altimetry and satellite stereo-image topography

Near-Space TOPSAR Large-Scene Full-Aperture Imaging Scheme Based on Two-Step Processing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qianghui Zhang

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Free of the constraints of orbit mechanisms, weather conditions and minimum antenna area, synthetic aperture radar (SAR equipped on near-space platform is more suitable for sustained large-scene imaging compared with the spaceborne and airborne counterparts. Terrain observation by progressive scans (TOPS, which is a novel wide-swath imaging mode and allows the beam of SAR to scan along the azimuth, can reduce the time of echo acquisition for large scene. Thus, near-space TOPS-mode SAR (NS-TOPSAR provides a new opportunity for sustained large-scene imaging. An efficient full-aperture imaging scheme for NS-TOPSAR is proposed in this paper. In this scheme, firstly, two-step processing (TSP is adopted to eliminate the Doppler aliasing of the echo. Then, the data is focused in two-dimensional frequency domain (FD based on Stolt interpolation. Finally, a modified TSP (MTSP is performed to remove the azimuth aliasing. Simulations are presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed imaging scheme for near-space large-scene imaging application.

Satellite remote sensing of dust aerosol indirect effects on ice cloud formation.

Science.gov (United States)

Ou, Steve Szu-Cheng; Liou, Kuo-Nan; Wang, Xingjuan; Hansell, Richard; Lefevre, Randy; Cocks, Stephen

2009-01-20

We undertook a new approach to investigate the aerosol indirect effect of the first kind on ice cloud formation by using available data products from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) and obtained physical understanding about the interaction between aerosols and ice clouds. Our analysis focused on the examination of the variability in the correlation between ice cloud parameters (optical depth, effective particle size, cloud water path, and cloud particle number concentration) and aerosol optical depth and number concentration that were inferred from available satellite cloud and aerosol data products. Correlation results for a number of selected scenes containing dust and ice clouds are presented, and dust aerosol indirect effects on ice clouds are directly demonstrated from satellite observations.

Segmenting high-frequency intracardiac ultrasound images of myocardium into infarcted, ischemic, and normal regions.

Science.gov (United States)

Hao, X; Bruce, C J; Pislaru, C; Greenleaf, J F

2001-12-01

Segmenting abnormal from normal myocardium using high-frequency intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) images presents new challenges for image processing. Gray-level intensity and texture features of ICE images of myocardium with the same structural/perfusion properties differ. This significant limitation conflicts with the fundamental assumption on which existing segmentation techniques are based. This paper describes a new seeded region growing method to overcome the limitations of the existing segmentation techniques. Three criteria are used for region growing control: 1) Each pixel is merged into the globally closest region in the multifeature space. 2) "Geographic similarity" is introduced to overcome the problem that myocardial tissue, despite having the same property (i.e., perfusion status), may be segmented into several different regions using existing segmentation methods. 3) "Equal opportunity competence" criterion is employed making results independent of processing order. This novel segmentation method is applied to in vivo intracardiac ultrasound images using pathology as the reference method for the ground truth. The corresponding results demonstrate that this method is reliable and effective.

The IceProd (IceCube Production) Framework

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Díaz-Vélez, J C

2014-01-01

IceProd is a data processing and management framework developed by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory for processing of Monte Carlo simulations and data. IceProd runs as a separate layer on top of middleware or cluster job schedulers and can take advantage of a variety of computing resources including grids such as EGI, OSG, and NorduGrid as well as local clusters running batch systems like HT Condor, PBS, and SGE. This is accomplished by a set of dedicated daemons which process job submission in a coordinated fashion through the use of middleware plug-ins that serve to abstract the details of job submission and job management. IceProd can also manage complex workflow DAGs across distributed computing grids in order to optimize usage of resources. We describe several aspects of IceProd's design and it's applications in collaborative computing environments. We also briefly discuss design aspects of a second generation IceProd, currently being tested in IceCube.

Ice recrystallization inhibition in ice cream as affected by ice structuring proteins from winter wheat grass.

Science.gov (United States)

Regand, A; Goff, H D

2006-01-01

Ice recrystallization in quiescently frozen sucrose solutions that contained some of the ingredients commonly found in ice cream and in ice cream manufactured under commercial conditions, with or without ice structuring proteins (ISP) from cold-acclimated winter wheat grass extract (AWWE), was assessed by bright field microscopy. In sucrose solutions, critical differences in moisture content, viscosity, ionic strength, and other properties derived from the presence of other ingredients (skim milk powder, corn syrup solids, locust bean gum) caused a reduction in ice crystal growth. Significant ISP activity in retarding ice crystal growth was observed in all solutions (44% for the most complex mix) containing 0.13% total protein from AWWE. In heat-shocked ice cream, ice recrystallization rates were significantly reduced 40 and 46% with the addition of 0.0025 and 0.0037% total protein from AWWE. The ISP activity in ice cream was not hindered by its inclusion in mix prior to pasteurization. A synergistic effect between ISP and stabilizer was observed, as ISP activity was reduced in the absence of stabilizer in ice cream formulations. A remarkably smoother texture for ice creams containing ISP after heat-shock storage was evident by sensory evaluation. The efficiency of ISP from AWWE in controlling ice crystal growth in ice cream has been demonstrated.

Frozen waterfall (or ice cascade) growth and decay: a thermodynamic approach

Science.gov (United States)

Gauthier, Francis; Montagnat, Maurine; Weiss, Jérôme; Allard, Michel; Hétu, Bernard

2013-04-01

The ice volume evolution of an ice cascade was studied using a thermodynamic model. The model was developed from meteorological data collected in the vicinity of the waterfall and validated from ice volume measurements estimated from terrestrial LiDAR images. The ice cascade forms over a 45 m high rockwall located in northern Gaspésie, Québec, Canada. Two stages of formation were identified. During the first stage, the growth is mainly controlled by air convection around the flowing and freefalling water. The ice cascade growth rate increases with the decreasing air temperature below 0°C and when the water flow reaches its lowest level. During the second stage, the ice cascade covers the entire rockwall surface, water flow is isolated from the outside environment and ice volume increases asymptotically. Heat is evacuated from the water flow through the ice cover by conduction. The growth is mainly controlled by the radiation energy balance but more specifically by the longwave radiation emitted at the ice surface during the night. In spring, melting of the ice cascade is clearly dependant on the sensible heat carried by the increasing water flow and the diffuse solar radiation received at the ice surface during the day.

Scaling aspects of the sea-ice-drift dynamics and pack fracture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Chmel

2007-05-01

Full Text Available A study of the sea-ice dynamics in the periods of time prior to and during the cycles of basin-wide fragmentation of the ice cover in the Arctic Ocean is presented. The fractal geometry of the ice-sheets limited by leads and ridges was assessed using the satellite images, while the data on the correlated sea-ice motion were obtained in the research stations "North Pole 32" and "North Pole 33" established on the ice pack. The revealed decrease of the fractal dimension as a result of large-scale fragmentation is consistent with the localization of the fracture process (leads propagation. At the same time, the scaling properties of the distribution of amplitudes of ice-fields accelerations were insensitive to the event of sea-ice fragmentation. The temporal distribution of the accelerations was scale-invariant during "quiet" periods of sea-ice drift but disordered in the period of mechanical perturbation. The period of decorrelated (in time ice-field motion during the important fracture event was interpreted as an inter-level transition in the hierarchic dynamical system. The mechanism of the long-range correlations in the sea-ice cover, including the fracture process, is suggested to be in relation with the self-organized oscillation dynamics inherent in the ice pack.

The melt pond fraction and spectral sea ice albedo retrieval from MERIS data: validation and trends of sea ice albedo and melt pond fraction in the Arctic for years 2002–2011

OpenAIRE

L. Istomina; G. Heygster; M. Huntemann; P. Schwarz; G. Birnbaum; R. Scharien; C. Polashenski; D. Perovich; E. Zege; A. Malinka; A. Prikhach; I. Katsev

2014-01-01

The presence of melt ponds on the Arctic sea ice strongly affects the energy balance of the Arctic Ocean in summer. It affects albedo as well as transmittance through the sea ice, which has consequences on the heat balance and mass balance of sea ice. An algorithm to retrieve melt pond fraction and sea ice albedo (Zege et al., 2014) from the MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) data is validated against aerial, ship borne and in situ campaign data. The result sho...

Small space object imaging : LDRD final report.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ackermann, Mark R.; Valley, Michael T.; Kearney, Sean Patrick

2009-10-01

We report the results of an LDRD effort to investigate new technologies for the identification of small-sized (mm to cm) debris in low-earth orbit. This small-yet-energetic debris presents a threat to the integrity of space-assets worldwide and represents significant security challenge to the international community. We present a nonexhaustive review of recent US and Russian efforts to meet the challenges of debris identification and removal and then provide a detailed description of joint US-Russian plans for sensitive, laser-based imaging of small debris at distances of hundreds of kilometers and relative velocities of several kilometers per second. Plans for the upcoming experimental testing of these imaging schemes are presented and a preliminary path toward system integration is identified.

Comparison of measured and computed phase functions of individual tropospheric ice crystals

Science.gov (United States)

Stegmann, Patrick G.; Tropea, Cameron; Järvinen, Emma; Schnaiter, Martin

2016-07-01

Airplanes passing the incuda (lat. anvils) regions of tropical cumulonimbi-clouds are at risk of suffering an engine power-loss event and engine damage due to ice ingestion (Mason et al., 2006 [1]). Research in this field relies on optical measurement methods to characterize ice crystals; however the design and implementation of such methods presently suffer from the lack of reliable and efficient means of predicting the light scattering from ice crystals. The nascent discipline of direct measurement of phase functions of ice crystals in conjunction with particle imaging and forward modelling through geometrical optics derivative- and Transition matrix-codes for the first time allow us to obtain a deeper understanding of the optical properties of real tropospheric ice crystals. In this manuscript, a sample phase function obtained via the Particle Habit Imaging and Polar Scattering (PHIPS) probe during a measurement campaign in flight over Brazil will be compared to three different light scattering codes. This includes a newly developed first order geometrical optics code taking into account the influence of the Gaussian beam illumination used in the PHIPS device, as well as the reference ray tracing code of Macke and the T-matrix code of Kahnert.

Accretion growth of water-ice grains in astrophysically-relevant dusty plasma experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Chai, Kil-Byoung; Marshall, Ryan; Bellan, Paul

2016-10-01

The grain growth process in the Caltech water-ice dusty plasma experiment has been studied using a high-speed camera equipped with a long-distance microscope lens. It is found that (i) the ice grain number density decreases four-fold as the average grain length increases from 20 to 80 um, (ii) the ice grain length has a log-normal distribution rather than a power-law dependence, and (iii) no collisions between ice grains are apparent. The grains have a large negative charge so the agglomeration growth is prevented by their strong mutual repulsion. It is concluded that direct accretion of water molecules is in good agreement with the observed ice grain growth. The volumetric packing factor of the ice grains must be less than 0.25 in order for the grain kinetic energy to be sufficiently small to prevent collisions between ice grains; this conclusion is consistent with ice grain images showing a fractal character.

IceBridge GPS L0 Raw Satellite Navigation Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The NASA IceBridge GPS L0 Raw Satellite Navigation Data (IPUTG0) data set contains GPS readings, including latitude, longitude, track, ground speed, off distance,...

Performance Enhancement of Deicing Systems with the Use of an Anti-Ice Nano-Coating, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The proposed program addresses NASA's need for a new generation of icing mitigation technology for manned and unmanned vehicles. The state of the art active de-icing...

HybridSil Icephobic Nanocomposites for Next Generation Aircraft In-Flight Icing Measurement and Mitigation, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The purpose of this SBIR program is to adapt NanoSonic's HybridSil® nanocomposites and combine high erosion resistance, low ice adhesion, and passive anti-icing...

Crevasse detection with GPR across the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Science.gov (United States)

Delaney, A.; Arcone, S.

2005-12-01

We have used 400-MHz ground penetrating radar (GPR) to detect crevasses within a shear zone on the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, to support traverse operations. The transducer was attached to a 6.5-m boom and pushed ahead of an enclosed tracked vehicle. Profile speeds of 4.8-11.3 km / hr allowed real-time crevasse image display and a quick, safe stop when required. Thirty-two crevasses were located with radar along the 4.8 km crossing. Generally, crevasse radar images were characterized by dipping reflections above the voids, high-amplitude reflections originating from ice layers at the base of the snow-bridges, and slanting, diffracting reflections from near-vertical crevasse walls. New cracks and narrow crevasses (back-filling with bulldozed snow, afforded an opportunity to ground-truth GPR interpretations by comparing void size and snow-bridge geometry with the radar images. While second and third season radar profiles collected along the identical flagged route confirmed stability of the filled crevasses, those profiles also identified several new cracks opened by ice extension. Our experiments demonstrate capability of high-frequency GPR in a cold-snow environment for both defining snow layers and locating voids.

Detection of cold gas releases in space via low energy neutral atom imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McComas, D.J.; Funsten, H.O.; Moore, K.R.; Scime, E.E.; Thomsen, M.F.

1993-01-01

Low energy neutral atoms (LENAs) are produced in space plasmas by charge exchange between the ambient magnetospheric plasma ions and cold neutral atoms. Under normal conditions these cold neutrals come from the terrestrial geocorona, a shroud of few-eV hydrogen atoms surrounding the Earth. As a consequence of this charge exchange, it has become possible to remotely image many regions of the magnetosphere for the first time utilizing recently developed LENA imaging technology. In addition to the natural hydrogen geocorona, conventional explosions and maneuvering thruster firings can also introduce large amounts of cold gas into the space environment. In this paper the authors examine whether such potentially clandestine activities could also be remotely observed for the first time via LENA imaging. First, they examine the fluxes of LENAs produced in the space environment from a conventional explosion. Then they review the present state of the art in the emerging field of LENA detection and imaging. Recent work has shown that LENAs can be imaged by first converting the neutrals to ions with ultra-thin (10s of angstrom) foils and then electrostatically analyzing these newly created ions to reject the large (> 10 10 cm -2 s -1 ) UV background to which the low energy detectors are sensitive. They conclude that the sensitivities for present LENA imager designs may be just adequate for detecting some man-made releases. With additional improvements in LENA detection capabilities, this technique could become an important new method for monitoring for conventional explosions, as well as other man-made neutral releases, in the space environment

Ice formation in model biological membranes in the presence of cryoprotectors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kiselev, M.A. E-mail: kiselev@nf.jinr.ru; Lesieur, P.; Kisselev, A.M.; Ollivon, M

2000-06-21

Ice formation in model biological membranes is studied by SAXS and WAXS in the presence of cryoprotectors: dimethyl sulfoxide and glycerol. Three types of phospholipid membranes: DPPC, DMPC, DSPC are chosen for the investigation as well-studied model biological membranes. A special cryostat is used for sample cooling from 14.1 deg. C to -55.4 deg. C. The ice formation is detected only by WAXS in binary phospholipid/water and ternary phospholipid/cryoprotector/water systems in the condition of excess solvent. Ice formation in a binary phospholipid/water system creates an abrupt decrease of the membrane repeat distance by {delta}d, the so-called ice-induced dehydration of intermembrane space. The value of {delta}d decreases as the cryoprotector concentration increases. The formation of ice does not influence the membrane structure ({delta}d=0) for cryoprotector mole fractions higher than 0.05.

Restoration of retinal images with space-variant blur

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Marrugo, A.; Millán, M. S.; Šorel, Michal; Šroubek, Filip

2014-01-01

Roč. 19, č. 1 (2014), 016023-1-016023-12 ISSN 1083-3668 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-29225S Institutional support: RVO:67985556 Keywords : blind deconvolution * space-variant restoration * retinal image Subject RIV: JD - Computer Applications, Robotics Impact factor: 2.859, year: 2014 http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2014/ZOI/sorel-0424586.pdf

UWBRAD: Ultra Wideband Software Defined Microwave Radiometer for Ice Sheet Subsurface Temperature Sensing

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Existing space and airborne remote sensing instruments have pushed the state-of-the-art in the characterization of ice sheet behaviors with the exception of one key...

Extreme Access & Lunar Ice Mining in Permanently Shadowed Craters

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Results from the recent NASA Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, mission in 2010, indicate that water (H2O), ice and other useful volatiles...

The research of Digital Holographic Object Wave Field Reconstruction in Image and Object Space

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

LI Jun-Chang; PENG Zu-Jie; FU Yun-Chang

2011-01-01

@@ For conveniently detecting objects of different sizes using digital holography, usual measurements employ the object wave transformed by an optical system with different magnifications to fit charge coupled devices (CCDs), then the object field reconstruction involves the diffraction calculation of the optic wave passing through the optical system.We propose two methods to reconstruct the object field.The one is that, when the object is imaging in an image space in which we reconstruct the image of the object field, the object field can be expressed according to the object-image relationship.The other is that, when the object field reaching CCD is imaged in an object space in which we reconstruct the object field, the optical system is described by introducing matrix optics in this paper.The reconstruction formulae which easily use classic diffraction integral are derived.Finally, experimental verifications are also accomplished.%For conveniently detecting objects of different sizes using digital holography, usual measurements employ the object wave transformed by an optical system with different magnifications to fit charge coupled devices (CCDs), then the object Reid reconstruction involves the diffraction calculation of the optic wave passing through the optical system. We propose two methods to reconstruct the object field. The one is that, when the object is imaging in an image space in which we reconstruct the image of the object field, the object field can be expressed according to the object-image relationship. The other is that, when the object field reaching CCD is imaged in an object space in which we reconstruct the object field, the optical system is described by introducing matrix optics in this paper. The reconstruction formulae which easily use classic diffraction integral are derived. Finally, experimental verifications are also accomplished.

Aircraft Surveys of the Beaufort Sea Seasonal Ice Zone

Science.gov (United States)

Morison, J.

2016-02-01

The Seasonal Ice Zone Reconnaissance Surveys (SIZRS) is a program of repeated ocean, ice, and atmospheric measurements across the Beaufort-Chukchi sea seasonal sea ice zone (SIZ) utilizing US Coast Guard Arctic Domain Awareness (ADA) flights of opportunity. The SIZ is the region between maximum winter sea ice extent and minimum summer sea ice extent. As such, it contains the full range of positions of the marginal ice zone (MIZ) where sea ice interacts with open water. The increasing size and changing air-ice-ocean properties of the SIZ are central to recent reductions in Arctic sea ice extent. The changes in the interplay among the atmosphere, ice, and ocean require a systematic SIZ observational effort of coordinated atmosphere, ice, and ocean observations covering up to interannual time-scales, Therefore, every year beginning in late Spring and continuing to early Fall, SIZRS makes monthly flights across the Beaufort Sea SIZ aboard Coast Guard C-130H aircraft from USCG Air Station Kodiak dropping Aircraft eXpendable CTDs (AXCTD) and Aircraft eXpendable Current Profilers (AXCP) for profiles of ocean temperature, salinity and shear, dropsondes for atmospheric temperature, humidity, and velocity profiles, and buoys for atmosphere and upper ocean time series. Enroute measurements include IR imaging, radiometer and lidar measurements of the sea surface and cloud tops. SIZRS also cooperates with the International Arctic Buoy Program for buoy deployments and with the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory atmospheric chemistry sampling program on board the aircraft. Since 2012, SIZRS has found that even as SIZ extent, ice character, and atmospheric forcing varies year-to-year, the pattern of ocean freshening and radiative warming south of the ice edge is consistent. The experimental approach, observations and extensions to other projects will be discussed.

NIAC Phase II Orbiting Rainbows: Future Space Imaging with Granular Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Quadrelli, Marco B.; Basinger, Scott; Arumugam, Darmindra; Swartzlander, Grover

2017-01-01

Inspired by the light scattering and focusing properties of distributed optical assemblies in Nature, such as rainbows and aerosols, and by recent laboratory successes in optical trapping and manipulation, we propose a unique combination of space optics and autonomous robotic system technology, to enable a new vision of space system architecture with applications to ultra-lightweight space optics and, ultimately, in-situ space system fabrication. Typically, the cost of an optical system is driven by the size and mass of the primary aperture. The ideal system is a cloud of spatially disordered dust-like objects that can be optically manipulated: it is highly reconfigurable, fault-tolerant, and allows very large aperture sizes at low cost. This new concept is based on recent understandings in the physics of optical manipulation of small particles in the laboratory and the engineering of distributed ensembles of spacecraft swarms to shape an orbiting cloud of micron-sized objects. In the same way that optical tweezers have revolutionized micro- and nano-manipulation of objects, our breakthrough concept will enable new large scale NASA mission applications and develop new technology in the areas of Astrophysical Imaging Systems and Remote Sensing because the cloud can operate as an adaptive optical imaging sensor. While achieving the feasibility of constructing one single aperture out of the cloud is the main topic of this work, it is clear that multiple orbiting aerosol lenses could also combine their power to synthesize a much larger aperture in space to enable challenging goals such as exo-planet detection. Furthermore, this effort could establish feasibility of key issues related to material properties, remote manipulation, and autonomy characteristics of cloud in orbit. There are several types of endeavors (science missions) that could be enabled by this type of approach, i.e. it can enable new astrophysical imaging systems, exo-planet search, large apertures

Abnormal Winter Melting of the Arctic Sea Ice Cap Observed by the Spaceborne Passive Microwave Sensors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seongsuk Lee

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The spatial size and variation of Arctic sea ice play an important role in Earth’s climate system. These are affected by conditions in the polar atmosphere and Arctic sea temperatures. The Arctic sea ice concentration is calculated from brightness temperature data derived from the Defense Meteorological Satellite program (DMSP F13 Special Sensor Microwave/Imagers (SSMI and the DMSP F17 Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS sensors. Many previous studies point to significant reductions in sea ice and their causes. We investigated the variability of Arctic sea ice using the daily and monthly sea ice concentration data from passive microwave observations to identify the sea ice melting regions near the Arctic polar ice cap. We discovered the abnormal melting of the Arctic sea ice near the North Pole even during the summer and the winter. This phenomenon is hard to explain only surface air temperature or solar heating as suggested by recent studies. We propose a hypothesis explaining this phenomenon. The heat from the deep sea in Arctic Ocean ridges and/or the hydrothermal vents might be contributing to the melting of Arctic sea ice. This hypothesis could be verified by the observation of warm water column structure below the melting or thinning arctic sea ice through the project such as Coriolis dataset for reanalysis (CORA.

Characteristics and processing of seismic data collected on thick, floating ice: Results from the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Science.gov (United States)

Beaudoin, Bruce C.; ten Brink, Uri S.; Stern, Tim A.

1992-01-01

Coincident reflection and refraction data, collected in the austral summer of 1988/89 by Stanford University and the Geophysical Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Zealand, imaged the crust beneath the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica. The Ross Ice Shelf is a unique acquisition environment for seismic reflection profiling because of its thick, floating ice cover. The ice shelf velocity structure is multilayered with a high velocity‐gradient firn layer constituting the upper 50 to 100 m. This near surface firn layer influences the data character by amplifying and frequency modulating the incoming wavefield. In addition, the ice‐water column introduces pervasive, high energy seafloor, intra‐ice, and intra‐water multiples that have moveout velocities similar to the expected subseafloor primary velocities. Successful removal of these high energy multiples relies on predictive deconvolution, inverse velocity stack filtering, and frequency filtering. Removal of the multiples reveals a faulted, sedimentary wedge which is truncated at or near the seafloor. Beneath this wedge the reflection character is diffractive to a two‐way traveltime of ∼7.2 s. At this time, a prominent reflection is evident on the southeast end of the reflection profile. This reflection is interpreted as Moho indicating that the crust is ∼21-km thick beneath the profile. These results provide seismic evidence that the extensional features observed in the Ross Sea region of the Ross Embayment extend beneath the Ross Ice Shelf.

Second Harmonic Imaging improves Echocardiograph Quality on board the International Space Station

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia, Kathleen; Sargsyan, Ashot; Hamilton, Douglas; Martin, David; Ebert, Douglas; Melton, Shannon; Dulchavsky, Scott

2008-01-01

Ultrasound (US) capabilities have been part of the Human Research Facility (HRF) on board the International Space Station (ISS) since 2001. The US equipment on board the ISS includes a first-generation Tissue Harmonic Imaging (THI) option. Harmonic imaging (HI) is the second harmonic response of the tissue to the ultrasound beam and produces robust tissue detail and signal. Since this is a first-generation THI, there are inherent limitations in tissue penetration. As a breakthrough technology, HI extensively advanced the field of ultrasound. In cardiac applications, it drastically improves endocardial border detection and has become a common imaging modality. U.S. images were captured and stored as JPEG stills from the ISS video downlink. US images with and without harmonic imaging option were randomized and provided to volunteers without medical education or US skills for identification of endocardial border. The results were processed and analyzed using applicable statistical calculations. The measurements in US images using HI improved measurement consistency and reproducibility among observers when compared to fundamental imaging. HI has been embraced by the imaging community at large as it improves the quality and data validity of US studies, especially in difficult-to-image cases. Even with the limitations of the first generation THI, HI improved the quality and measurability of many of the downlinked images from the ISS and should be an option utilized with cardiac imaging on board the ISS in all future space missions.

A Space-Time Periodic Task Model for Recommendation of Remote Sensing Images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiuhong Zhang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available With the rapid development of remote sensing technology, the quantity and variety of remote sensing images are growing so quickly that proactive and personalized access to data has become an inevitable trend. One of the active approaches is remote sensing image recommendation, which can offer related image products to users according to their preference. Although multiple studies on remote sensing retrieval and recommendation have been performed, most of these studies model the user profiles only from the perspective of spatial area or image features. In this paper, we propose a spatiotemporal recommendation method for remote sensing data based on the probabilistic latent topic model, which is named the Space-Time Periodic Task model (STPT. User retrieval behaviors of remote sensing images are represented as mixtures of latent tasks, which act as links between users and images. Each task is associated with the joint probability distribution of space, time and image characteristics. Meanwhile, the von Mises distribution is introduced to fit the distribution of tasks over time. Then, we adopt Gibbs sampling to learn the random variables and parameters and present the inference algorithm for our model. Experiments show that the proposed STPT model can improve the capability and efficiency of remote sensing image data services.

Efficient and automatic image reduction framework for space debris detection based on GPU technology

Science.gov (United States)

Diprima, Francesco; Santoni, Fabio; Piergentili, Fabrizio; Fortunato, Vito; Abbattista, Cristoforo; Amoruso, Leonardo

2018-04-01

In the last years, the increasing number of space debris has triggered the need of a distributed monitoring system for the prevention of possible space collisions. Space surveillance based on ground telescope allows the monitoring of the traffic of the Resident Space Objects (RSOs) in the Earth orbit. This space debris surveillance has several applications such as orbit prediction and conjunction assessment. In this paper is proposed an optimized and performance-oriented pipeline for sources extraction intended to the automatic detection of space debris in optical data. The detection method is based on the morphological operations and Hough Transform for lines. Near real-time detection is obtained using General Purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units (GPGPU). The high degree of processing parallelism provided by GPGPU allows to split data analysis over thousands of threads in order to process big datasets with a limited computational time. The implementation has been tested on a large and heterogeneous images data set, containing both imaging satellites from different orbit ranges and multiple observation modes (i.e. sidereal and object tracking). These images were taken during an observation campaign performed from the EQUO (EQUatorial Observatory) observatory settled at the Broglio Space Center (BSC) in Kenya, which is part of the ASI-Sapienza Agreement.

Uniform color space analysis of LACIE image products

Science.gov (United States)

Nalepka, R. F. (Principal Investigator); Balon, R. J.; Cicone, R. C.

1979-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. Analysis and comparison of image products generated by different algorithms show that the scaling and biasing of data channels for control of PFC primaries lead to loss of information (in a probability-of misclassification sense) by two major processes. In order of importance they are: neglecting the input of one channel of data in any one image, and failing to provide sufficient color resolution of the data. The scaling and biasing approach tends to distort distance relationships in data space and provides less than desirable resolution when the data variation is typical of a developed, nonhazy agricultural scene.

River predisposition to ice jams: a simplified geospatial model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. De Munck

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Floods resulting from river ice jams pose a great risk to many riverside municipalities in Canada. The location of an ice jam is mainly influenced by channel morphology. The goal of this work was therefore to develop a simplified geospatial model to estimate the predisposition of a river channel to ice jams. Rather than predicting the timing of river ice breakup, the main question here was to predict where the broken ice is susceptible to jam based on the river's geomorphological characteristics. Thus, six parameters referred to potential causes for ice jams in the literature were initially selected: presence of an island, narrowing of the channel, high sinuosity, presence of a bridge, confluence of rivers, and slope break. A GIS-based tool was used to generate the aforementioned factors over regular-spaced segments along the entire channel using available geospatial data. An ice jam predisposition index (IJPI was calculated by combining the weighted optimal factors. Three Canadian rivers (province of Québec were chosen as test sites. The resulting maps were assessed from historical observations and local knowledge. Results show that 77 % of the observed ice jam sites on record occurred in river sections that the model considered as having high or medium predisposition. This leaves 23 % of false negative errors (missed occurrence. Between 7 and 11 % of the highly predisposed river sections did not have an ice jam on record (false-positive cases. Results, limitations, and potential improvements are discussed.

Using ice melting and ice rolling technologies to remove ice from sub-transmission and transmission lines at Manitoba Hydro

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farias, A. R.

1999-01-01

Development of an of an Ice Storm Management program by Manitoba Hydro to reduce ice storm damage to its 8 kV feeders to 115 kV transmission lines, is discussed. The program consists of the de-icing of overhead lines, either by ice melting, or ice rolling. Ice melting involves the placement of a three-phase short at a calculated point. The term ice rolling denotes a process of mechanically stripping the ice from conductors. The most recent major ice storm experienced by Manitoba Hydro was in the winter of 1997/1998. During the period from February 6 to February 17, 1998, a total of 83 'ice melt' procedures were performed to melt the ice from 2,628 km of overhead line (7,883 km of conductor), in addition to 'ice rolling'. This paper describes Manitoba Hydro's 25-years' experience with ice melting and it also describes the advantages and disadvantages of both ice melting and ice rolling. Although not a panacea to combat the effects of ice storms, ice melting was found to be the most effective way of removing ice from overhead transmission and sub-transmission lines. Ice rolling was also found to be effective. Other tools that have been found to be useful by various utilities in combating ice storm damage include improved structure and line design, system design that provide more redundancies and emergency sources, and standby generators at critical load points

ERS-1 SAR monitoring of ice growth on shallow lakes to determine water depth and availability in north west Alaska

Science.gov (United States)

Jeffries, Martin; Morris, Kim; Liston, Glen

1996-01-01

Images taken by the ERS-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) were used to identify and to differentiate between the lakes that freeze completely to the bottom and those that do not, on the North Slope, in northwestern Alaska. The ice thickness at the time each lake froze completely is determined with numerical ice growth model that gives a maximum simulated thickness of 2.2 m. A method combining the ERS-1 SAR images and numerical ice growth model was used to determine the ice growth and the water availability in these regions.

Ice shelf fracture parameterization in an ice sheet model

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Sainan; Cornford, Stephen L.; Moore, John C.; Gladstone, Rupert; Zhao, Liyun

2017-11-01

Floating ice shelves exert a stabilizing force onto the inland ice sheet. However, this buttressing effect is diminished by the fracture process, which on large scales effectively softens the ice, accelerating its flow, increasing calving, and potentially leading to ice shelf breakup. We add a continuum damage model (CDM) to the BISICLES ice sheet model, which is intended to model the localized opening of crevasses under stress, the transport of those crevasses through the ice sheet, and the coupling between crevasse depth and the ice flow field and to carry out idealized numerical experiments examining the broad impact on large-scale ice sheet and shelf dynamics. In each case we see a complex pattern of damage evolve over time, with an eventual loss of buttressing approximately equivalent to halving the thickness of the ice shelf. We find that it is possible to achieve a similar ice flow pattern using a simple rule of thumb: introducing an enhancement factor ˜ 10 everywhere in the model domain. However, spatially varying damage (or equivalently, enhancement factor) fields set at the start of prognostic calculations to match velocity observations, as is widely done in ice sheet simulations, ought to evolve in time, or grounding line retreat can be slowed by an order of magnitude.

Feasibility study of an image slicer for future space application

Science.gov (United States)

Calcines, A.; Ichimoto, K.

2014-08-01

This communication presents the feasibility study of an image slicer for future space missions, especially for the integral field unit (IFU) of the SUVIT (Solar UV-Visible-IR telescope) spectro-polarimeter on board the Japanese-led solar space mission Solar-C as a backup option. The MuSICa (Multi-Slit Image slicer based on collimator-Camera) image slicer concept, originally developed for the European Solar Telescope, has been adapted to the SUVIT requirements. The IFU will reorganizes a 2-D field of view of 10 x 10 arcsec2 into three slits of 0.18 arcsec width by 185.12 arcsec length using flat slicer mirrors of 100 μm width. The layout of MuSICa for Solar-C is telecentric and offers an optical quality limited by diffraction. The entrance for the SUVIT spectro-polarimeter is composed by the three IFU slits and one ordinal long slit to study, using high resolution spectro-polarimetry, the solar atmosphere (Photosphere and Chromosphere) within a spectral range between 520 nm (optionally 280 nm) and 1,100 nm.

About uncertainties in sea ice thickness retrieval from satellite radar altimetry: results from the ESA-CCI Sea Ice ECV Project Round Robin Exercise

Science.gov (United States)

Kern, S.; Khvorostovsky, K.; Skourup, H.; Rinne, E.; Parsakhoo, Z. S.; Djepa, V.; Wadhams, P.; Sandven, S.

2014-03-01

One goal of the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative sea ice Essential Climate Variable project is to provide a quality controlled 20 year long data set of Arctic Ocean winter-time sea ice thickness distribution. An important step to achieve this goal is to assess the accuracy of sea ice thickness retrieval based on satellite radar altimetry. For this purpose a data base is created comprising sea ice freeboard derived from satellite radar altimetry between 1993 and 2012 and collocated observations of snow and sea ice freeboard from Operation Ice Bridge (OIB) and CryoSat Validation Experiment (CryoVEx) air-borne campaigns, of sea ice draft from moored and submarine Upward Looking Sonar (ULS), and of snow depth from OIB campaigns, Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer aboard EOS (AMSR-E) and the Warren Climatology (Warren et al., 1999). An inter-comparison of the snow depth data sets stresses the limited usefulness of Warren climatology snow depth for freeboard-to-thickness conversion under current Arctic Ocean conditions reported in other studies. This is confirmed by a comparison of snow freeboard measured during OIB and CryoVEx and snow freeboard computed from radar altimetry. For first-year ice the agreement between OIB and AMSR-E snow depth within 0.02 m suggests AMSR-E snow depth as an appropriate alternative. Different freeboard-to-thickness and freeboard-to-draft conversion approaches are realized. The mean observed ULS sea ice draft agrees with the mean sea ice draft computed from radar altimetry within the uncertainty bounds of the data sets involved. However, none of the realized approaches is able to reproduce the seasonal cycle in sea ice draft observed by moored ULS satisfactorily. A sensitivity analysis of the freeboard-to-thickness conversion suggests: in order to obtain sea ice thickness as accurate as 0.5 m from radar altimetry, besides a freeboard estimate with centimetre accuracy, an ice-type dependent sea ice density is as mandatory

Ice Stream Slowdown Will Drive Long-Term Thinning of the Ross Ice Shelf, With or Without Ocean Warming

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Adam J.; Hulbe, Christina L.; Lee, Choon-Ki

2018-01-01

As time series observations of Antarctic change proliferate, it is imperative that mathematical frameworks through which they are understood keep pace. Here we present a new method of interpreting remotely sensed change using spatial statistics and apply it to the specific case of thickness change on the Ross Ice Shelf. First, a numerical model of ice shelf flow is used together with empirical orthogonal function analysis to generate characteristic patterns of response to specific forcings. Because they are continuous and scalable in space and time, the patterns allow short duration observations to be placed in a longer time series context. Second, focusing only on changes that are statistically significant, the synthetic response surfaces are used to extract magnitude and timing of past events from the observational data. Slowdown of Kamb and Whillans Ice Streams is clearly detectable in remotely sensed thickness change. Moreover, those past events will continue to drive thinning into the future.

Constraining ice sheet history in the Weddell Sea, West Antarctica, using ice fabric at Korff Ice Rise

Science.gov (United States)

Brisbourne, A.; Smith, A.; Kendall, J. M.; Baird, A. F.; Martin, C.; Kingslake, J.

2017-12-01

The grounding history of ice rises (grounded area of independent flow regime within a floating ice shelf) can be used to constrain large scale ice sheet history: ice fabric, resulting from the preferred orientation of ice crystals due to the stress regime, can be used to infer this grounding history. With the aim of measuring the present day ice fabric at Korff Ice Rise, West Antarctica, a multi-azimuth wide-angle seismic experiment was undertaken. Three wide-angle common-midpoint gathers were acquired centred on the apex of the ice rise, at azimuths of 60 degrees to one another, to measure variation in seismic properties with offset and azimuth. Both vertical and horizontal receivers were used to record P and S arrivals including converted phases. Measurements of the variation with offset and azimuth of seismic traveltimes, seismic attenuation and shear wave splitting have been used to quantify seismic anisotropy in the ice column. The observations cannot be reproduced using an isotropic ice column model. Anisotropic ray tracing has been used to test likely models of ice fabric by comparison with the data. A model with a weak girdle fabric overlying a strong cluster fabric provides the best fit to the observations. Fabric of this nature is consistent with Korff Ice Rise having been stable for the order of 10,000 years without any ungrounding or significant change in the ice flow configuration across the ice rise for this period. This observation has significant implications for the ice sheet history of the Weddell Sea sector.

GPM GROUND VALIDATION SATELLITE SIMULATED ORBITS TWP-ICE V1

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The GPM Ground Validation Satellite Simulated Orbits TWP-ICE dataset is available in the Orbital database, which takes account for the atmospheric profiles, the...

In vivo carbon-edited detection with proton echo-planar spectroscopic imaging (ICED PEPSI) : [3,4-(CH2)-C-13] glutamate/glutamine tomography in rat brain

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hyder, F; Renken, R; Rothman, DL

1999-01-01

A method for in vivo carbon-edited detection with proton echo-planar spectroscopic imaging (ICED PEPSI) is described. This method is composed of an echo-planar based acquisition implemented with C-13-H-1 J editing spectroscopy and is intended for high temporal and spatial resolution in vivo

Antarctic Glaciological Data at NSIDC: field data, temperature, and ice velocity

Science.gov (United States)

Bauer, R.; Bohlander, J.; Scambos, T.; Berthier, E.; Raup, B.; Scharfen, G.

2003-12-01

An extensive collection of many Antarctic glaciological parameters is available for the polar science community upon request. The National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs funds the Antarctic Glaciological Data Center (AGDC) at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) to archive and distribute Antarctic glaciological and cryospheric system data collected by the U.S. Antarctic Program. AGDC facilitates data exchange among Principal Investigators, preserves recently collected data useful to future research, gathers data sets from past research, and compiles continent-wide information useful for modeling and field work planning. Data sets are available via our web site, http://nsidc.org/agdc/. From here, users can access extensive documentation, citation information, locator maps, derived images and references, and the numerical data. More than 50 Antarctic scientists have contributed data to the archive. Among the compiled products distributed by AGDC are VELMAP and THERMAP. THERMAP is a compilation of over 600 shallow firn temperature measurements ('10-meter temperatures') collected since 1950. These data provide a record of mean annual temperature, and potentially hold a record of climate change on the continent. The data are represented with maps showing the traverse route, and include data sources, measurement technique, and additional measurements made at each site, i.e., snow density and accumulation. VELMAP is an archive of surface ice velocity measurements for the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The primary objective of VELMAP is to assemble a historic record of outlet glaciers and ice shelf ice motion over the Antarctic. The collection includes both PI-contributed measurements and data generated at NSIDC using Landsat and SPOT satellite imagery. Tabular data contain position, speed, bearing, and data quality information, and related references. Two new VELMAP data sets are highlighted: the Mertz Glacier and the Institute Ice Stream. Mertz Glacier ice

Method for maintenance of ice beds of ice condenser containment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scrabis, C.M.; Hardin, R.T. Jr.

1987-01-01

This patent describes a method of maintaining ice baskets associated with a nuclear reactor system and disposed in an array of plural such ice baskets, supported in generally vertically oriented and parallel relationship by a lattice support structure which extends between the individual ice baskets and includes lateral supports adjacent the tops of the comprising: selecting an ice basket of the array requiring replenishment of the ice therewithin due to sublimation voids within the ice charges in the basket; isolating the selected ice basket; drilling a hole downwardly through the ice charges in the ice basket in general parallel axial relationship with respect to the cylindrical sidewall of the ice basket, utilizing a rotary drill bit connected through an auger to a rotary drive means; maintaining the rotary drive means in a fixed axial position and reversing the direction of rotation thereof for driving the auger in reverse rotation; and supplying ice in particulate form to the vicinity of the auger and conveying the particulate ice through the drilled hole by continued, reverse rotation of the auger so as to fill the sublimated voids in communication with the drilled hole, from the lowest and through successively higher such voids in the ice charges within the ice basket, and withdrawing the auger from the drilled hole as the voids are filled

Interannual observations and quantification of summertime H2O ice deposition on the Martian CO2 ice south polar cap

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Adrian J.; Piqueux, Sylvain; Titus, Timothy N.

2014-01-01

The spectral signature of water ice was observed on Martian south polar cap in 2004 by the Observatoire pour l'Mineralogie, l'Eau les Glaces et l'Activite (OMEGA) ( Bibring et al., 2004). Three years later, the OMEGA instrument was used to discover water ice deposited during southern summer on the polar cap ( Langevin et al., 2007). However, temporal and spatial variations of these water ice signatures have remained unexplored, and the origins of these water deposits remains an important scientific question. To investigate this question, we have used observations from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft of the southern cap during austral summer over four Martian years to search for variations in the amount of water ice. We report below that for each year we have observed the cap, the magnitude of the H2O ice signature on the southern cap has risen steadily throughout summer, particularly on the west end of the cap. The spatial extent of deposition is in disagreement with the current best simulations of deposition of water ice on the south polar cap (Montmessin et al., 2007). This increase in water ice signatures is most likely caused by deposition of atmospheric H2O ice and a set of unusual conditions makes the quantification of this transport flux using CRISM close to ideal. We calculate a ‘minimum apparent‘ amount of deposition corresponding to a thin H2O ice layer of 0.2 mm (with 70% porosity). This amount of H2O ice deposition is 0.6–6% of the total Martian atmospheric water budget. We compare our ‘minimum apparent’ quantification with previous estimates. This deposition process may also have implications for the formation and stability of the southern CO2 ice cap, and therefore play a significant role in the climate budget of modern day Mars.

SENTINEL-2 GLOBAL REFERENCE IMAGE VALIDATION AND APPLICATION TO MULTITEMPORAL PERFORMANCES AND HIGH LATITUDE DIGITAL SURFACE MODEL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Gaudel

2017-05-01

Full Text Available In the frame of the Copernicus program of the European Commission, Sentinel-2 is a constellation of 2 satellites with a revisit time of 5 days in order to have temporal images stacks and a global coverage over terrestrial surfaces. Satellite 2A was launched in June 2015, and satellite 2B will be launched in March 2017. In cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA, the French space agency (CNES is in charge of the image quality of the project, and so ensures the CAL/VAL commissioning phase during the months following the launch. This cooperation is also extended to routine phase as CNES supports European Space Research Institute (ESRIN and the Sentinel-2 Mission performance Centre (MPC for validation in geometric and radiometric image quality aspects, and in Sentinel-2 GRI geolocation performance assessment whose results will be presented in this paper. The GRI is a set of S2A images at 10m resolution covering the whole world with a good and consistent geolocation. This ground reference enables accurate multi-temporal registration of refined Sentinel-2 products. While not primarily intended for the generation of DSM, Sentinel-2 swaths overlap between orbits would also allow for the generation of a complete DSM of land and ices over 60° of northern latitudes (expected accuracy: few S2 pixels in altimetry. This DSM would benefit from the very frequent revisit times of Sentinel-2, to monitor ice or snow level in area of frequent changes, or to increase measurement accuracy in areas of little changes.

SENTINEL-2 Global Reference Image Validation and Application to Multitemporal Performances and High Latitude Digital Surface Model

Science.gov (United States)

Gaudel, A.; Languille, F.; Delvit, J. M.; Michel, J.; Cournet, M.; Poulain, V.; Youssefi, D.

2017-05-01

In the frame of the Copernicus program of the European Commission, Sentinel-2 is a constellation of 2 satellites with a revisit time of 5 days in order to have temporal images stacks and a global coverage over terrestrial surfaces. Satellite 2A was launched in June 2015, and satellite 2B will be launched in March 2017. In cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA), the French space agency (CNES) is in charge of the image quality of the project, and so ensures the CAL/VAL commissioning phase during the months following the launch. This cooperation is also extended to routine phase as CNES supports European Space Research Institute (ESRIN) and the Sentinel-2 Mission performance Centre (MPC) for validation in geometric and radiometric image quality aspects, and in Sentinel-2 GRI geolocation performance assessment whose results will be presented in this paper. The GRI is a set of S2A images at 10m resolution covering the whole world with a good and consistent geolocation. This ground reference enables accurate multi-temporal registration of refined Sentinel-2 products. While not primarily intended for the generation of DSM, Sentinel-2 swaths overlap between orbits would also allow for the generation of a complete DSM of land and ices over 60° of northern latitudes (expected accuracy: few S2 pixels in altimetry). This DSM would benefit from the very frequent revisit times of Sentinel-2, to monitor ice or snow level in area of frequent changes, or to increase measurement accuracy in areas of little changes.

Antarctic Glacial Isostatic Adjustment and Ice Sheet Mass Balance using GRACE: A Report from the Ice-sheet Mass Balance Exercise (IMBIE)

Science.gov (United States)

Ivins, E. R.; Wahr, J. M.; Schrama, E. J.; Milne, G. A.; Barletta, V.; Horwath, M.; Whitehouse, P.

2012-12-01

In preparation for the Inter-govermental Panel on Climate Change: Assessment Report 5 (IPCC AR5), ESA and NASA have formed a committee of experts to perform a formal set of comparative experiments concerning space observations of ice sheet mass balance. This project began in August of 2011 and has now concluded with a report submitted for Science (Shepherd et al., 2012). The focus of the work conducted is to re-evaluate scientific reports on the mass balance of Greenland ice sheet (GIS) and Antarctic ice sheet (AIS). The most serious discrepancies have been reported for the AIS, amounting to as much as 0.9 mm/yr in discrepant sea level contribution. A direct method of determining the AIS is by space gravimetry. However, for this method to contribute to our understanding of sea level change, we require knowledge of present-day non-elastic vertical movements of bedrock in Antarctica. Quantifying the uncertainty and bias caused by lack of observational control on models of regional glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), was a major focus for our experiments. This regional process is the most problematic error source for GRACE-determinations of ice mass balance in Antarctica. While GIA likely dominates some large vertical motions in Antarctica that are now observed with GPS (Thomas et al., 2011, GRL), interpretations still require models. The reported uncertainty for space gravimetric (GRACE) based sea level sourcing is roughly 0.20 to 0.35 mm/yr. The uncertainty is also part of the error budget for mass balances derived from altimetry measurements, though at a much lower level. Analysis of the GRACE time series using CSR RL04 (2003.0-2010.10) for AIS mass balance reveals a small trend of order +1 to -24 Gt/yr without a GIA correction. Three periods were selected over which to perform inter-comparisons (see Table). One class of GIA models, that relies primarily on far field sea level reconstructions (e.g. ICE-5G), provide a GIA correction that places AIS mass imbalance (�

Subjective assessment of impairment in scale-space-coded images

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ridder, de H.; Majoor, G.M.M.

1988-01-01

Direct category scaling and a scaling procedure in accordance with Functional Measurement Theory (Anderson, 1982) have been used to assess impairment in scale-space-coded illlages, displayed on a black-and-white TV monitor. The image of a complex scene was passed through a Gaussian filter of limited

The use of ice-cream to reduce inferior and liver uptake of 99mTc Sestamibi

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Williams, R.C.; Jost, G.M.

2002-01-01

Aim: To determine if ice-cream has any role in reducing the main drawback of sestamibi imaging namely inferior and liver uptake of sestamibi in myocardial imaging. This inferior uptake from, Stomach, Loops of Bowel and Left Lobe of liver can make interpretation difficult Can obscure a defect in the inferior margin of the heart and Hot inferior uptake can produce false adjacent cold defect when using a Fourier kernel. Material and Methods: To remove the confounding factor of various 'stress' regimes adenosine exercise and Dobutamine, only resting Sestamibi scans were examined. Patients where Given ice cream on a stick (ice covered) just prior to injection Imaged at 90 mins post injection of 500 Mbq Tc99m Sestamibi with > 90% purity, using eccentric non-elliptical non circular orbit to maximise resolution, for 18 mins with 2 heads. Processing: Reconstruct (for this purpose) with a butterworth filter of 0.4 and a power factor of 2. Sum all coronal views: Make a rectangular ROI covering the inferior 1/2 or the myocardium. Duplicate this ROI and place at same vertical position over highest activity region of liver. Duplicate region and place immediately underneath cardiac region. Create a BGD region of interest between heart and liver. Data: Ratios of heart to liver and inferior to heart are created with and without background correction. Results: Summary: Ice cream reduces the inferior uptake of Sestamibi by 30%. Ice cream reduces the liver uptake by 14%. Conclusion: Given: The low risk of an ice cream intervention. The high acceptance by patients. The low cost. The effect on inferior uptake. The possible effect on liver uptake. I would recommend the use of Ice Cream for all Myocardial Sestamibi Imaging

Micro-Tomographic Investigation of Ice and Clathrate Formation and Decomposition under Thermodynamic Monitoring

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan Arzbacher

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Clathrate hydrates are inclusion compounds in which guest molecules are trapped in a host lattice formed by water molecules. They are considered an interesting option for future energy supply and storage technologies. In the current paper, time lapse 3D micro computed tomographic (µCT imaging with ice and tetrahydrofuran (THF clathrate hydrate particles is carried out in conjunction with an accurate temperature control and pressure monitoring. µCT imaging reveals similar behavior of the ice and the THF clathrate hydrate at low temperatures while at higher temperatures (3 K below the melting point, significant differences can be observed. Strong indications for micropores are found in the ice as well as the THF clathrate hydrate. They are stable in the ice while unstable in the clathrate hydrate at temperatures slightly below the melting point. Significant transformations in surface and bulk structure can be observed within the full temperature range investigated in both the ice and the THF clathrate hydrate. Additionally, our results point towards an uptake of molecular nitrogen in the THF clathrate hydrate at ambient pressures and temperatures from 230 K to 271 K.

Modeling Commercial Turbofan Engine Icing Risk With Ice Crystal Ingestion

Science.gov (United States)

Jorgenson, Philip C. E.; Veres, Joseph P.

2013-01-01

The occurrence of ice accretion within commercial high bypass aircraft turbine engines has been reported under certain atmospheric conditions. Engine anomalies have taken place at high altitudes that have been attributed to ice crystal ingestion, partially melting, and ice accretion on the compression system components. The result was degraded engine performance, and one or more of the following: loss of thrust control (roll back), compressor surge or stall, and flameout of the combustor. As ice crystals are ingested into the fan and low pressure compression system, the increase in air temperature causes a portion of the ice crystals to melt. It is hypothesized that this allows the ice-water mixture to cover the metal surfaces of the compressor stationary components which leads to ice accretion through evaporative cooling. Ice accretion causes a blockage which subsequently results in the deterioration in performance of the compressor and engine. The focus of this research is to apply an engine icing computational tool to simulate the flow through a turbofan engine and assess the risk of ice accretion. The tool is comprised of an engine system thermodynamic cycle code, a compressor flow analysis code, and an ice particle melt code that has the capability of determining the rate of sublimation, melting, and evaporation through the compressor flow path, without modeling the actual ice accretion. A commercial turbofan engine which has previously experienced icing events during operation in a high altitude ice crystal environment has been tested in the Propulsion Systems Laboratory (PSL) altitude test facility at NASA Glenn Research Center. The PSL has the capability to produce a continuous ice cloud which are ingested by the engine during operation over a range of altitude conditions. The PSL test results confirmed that there was ice accretion in the engine due to ice crystal ingestion, at the same simulated altitude operating conditions as experienced previously in

Technology keeps ice away from offshore oil and gas installations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anon

2003-05-01

Ice management services provided to oil and natural gas operators off Canada's North Atlantic coast by Provincial Airlines is described. Provincial Airlines performs iceberg reconnaissance for both the offshore oil and natural gas operators as well as for the Canadian Ice Centre, using its specially equipped B-200 aircraft. The special equipment includes a complete electronic sensor package with 360-degree anti-submarine warfare radar, a thermal imaging system, high powered gyro-stabilized TV camera system, and a computerized data collection and management system. The Ice Data Network System (IDNS) is a fifth generation computer software package designed to monitor ice, provide drift analysis and forecast future trajectories, assess potential threats or risks associated with each piece of ice, and monitor and evaluate towing operations if required. The IDNS is backed up by a fully staffed ice operations centre from which Provincial Airline ice specialists can access satellite data and reports on ice conditions from around the world. Using a process of data fusion and careful analysis, staff of the Ice Centre can produce near-real time reports that depict ice conditions specific to individual operational requirements. Since drilling platforms cannot move, or require a great deal of time to move, to avoid any risk of an iceberg colliding with an oil platform it is important to know where exactly an iceberg is at any given time, hence the enormous importance of iceberg location information.

IceBridge IMU L0 Raw Inertial Measurement Unit Data

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The NASA IceBridge IMU L0 Raw Inertial Measurement Unit Data (IPUTI0) data set contains Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) readings, including latitude, longitude,...

Large Eddy Simulation of Heat Entrainment Under Arctic Sea Ice

Science.gov (United States)

Ramudu, Eshwan; Gelderloos, Renske; Yang, Di; Meneveau, Charles; Gnanadesikan, Anand

2018-01-01

Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly in recent decades. The faster than projected retreat suggests that free-running large-scale climate models may not be accurately representing some key processes. The small-scale turbulent entrainment of heat from the mixed layer could be one such process. To better understand this mechanism, we model the Arctic Ocean's Canada Basin, which is characterized by a perennial anomalously warm Pacific Summer Water (PSW) layer residing at the base of the mixed layer and a summertime Near-Surface Temperature Maximum (NSTM) within the mixed layer trapping heat from solar radiation. We use large eddy simulation (LES) to investigate heat entrainment for different ice-drift velocities and different initial temperature profiles. The value of LES is that the resolved turbulent fluxes are greater than the subgrid-scale fluxes for most of our parameter space. The results show that the presence of the NSTM enhances heat entrainment from the mixed layer. Additionally there is no PSW heat entrained under the parameter space considered. We propose a scaling law for the ocean-to-ice heat flux which depends on the initial temperature anomaly in the NSTM layer and the ice-drift velocity. A case study of "The Great Arctic Cyclone of 2012" gives a turbulent heat flux from the mixed layer that is approximately 70% of the total ocean-to-ice heat flux estimated from the PIOMAS model often used for short-term predictions. Present results highlight the need for large-scale climate models to account for the NSTM layer.

Thon rings from amorphous ice and implications of beam-induced Brownian motion in single particle electron cryo-microscopy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McMullan, G., E-mail: gm2@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk; Vinothkumar, K.R.; Henderson, R.

2015-11-15

We have recorded dose-fractionated electron cryo-microscope images of thin films of pure flash-frozen amorphous ice and pre-irradiated amorphous carbon on a Falcon II direct electron detector using 300 keV electrons. We observe Thon rings [1] in both the power spectrum of the summed frames and the sum of power spectra from the individual frames. The Thon rings from amorphous carbon images are always more visible in the power spectrum of the summed frames whereas those of amorphous ice are more visible in the sum of power spectra from the individual frames. This difference indicates that while pre-irradiated carbon behaves like a solid during the exposure, amorphous ice behaves like a fluid with the individual water molecules undergoing beam-induced motion. Using the measured variation in the power spectra amplitude with number of electrons per image we deduce that water molecules are randomly displaced by a mean squared distance of ∼1.1 Å{sup 2} for every incident 300 keV e{sup −}/Å{sup 2}. The induced motion leads to an optimal exposure with 300 keV electrons of 4.0 e{sup −}/Å{sup 2} per image with which to observe Thon rings centred around the strong 3.7 Å scattering peak from amorphous ice. The beam-induced movement of the water molecules generates pseudo-Brownian motion of embedded macromolecules. The resulting blurring of single particle images contributes an additional term, on top of that from radiation damage, to the minimum achievable B-factor for macromolecular structure determination. - Highlights: • Thon rings can be seen from amorphous ice. • Radiation damage to amorphous ice randomly displaces water molecules. • Each incident 300 keV e{sup −}/Å{sup 2} displaces water molecules on average by ∼1 Å. • Macromolecules embedded in amorphous ice undergo beam induced Brownian motion.

Ice shelf fracture parameterization in an ice sheet model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Sun

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Floating ice shelves exert a stabilizing force onto the inland ice sheet. However, this buttressing effect is diminished by the fracture process, which on large scales effectively softens the ice, accelerating its flow, increasing calving, and potentially leading to ice shelf breakup. We add a continuum damage model (CDM to the BISICLES ice sheet model, which is intended to model the localized opening of crevasses under stress, the transport of those crevasses through the ice sheet, and the coupling between crevasse depth and the ice flow field and to carry out idealized numerical experiments examining the broad impact on large-scale ice sheet and shelf dynamics. In each case we see a complex pattern of damage evolve over time, with an eventual loss of buttressing approximately equivalent to halving the thickness of the ice shelf. We find that it is possible to achieve a similar ice flow pattern using a simple rule of thumb: introducing an enhancement factor ∼ 10 everywhere in the model domain. However, spatially varying damage (or equivalently, enhancement factor fields set at the start of prognostic calculations to match velocity observations, as is widely done in ice sheet simulations, ought to evolve in time, or grounding line retreat can be slowed by an order of magnitude.

Autonomous Ice Mass Balance Buoys for Seasonal Sea Ice

Science.gov (United States)

Whitlock, J. D.; Planck, C.; Perovich, D. K.; Parno, J. T.; Elder, B. C.; Richter-Menge, J.; Polashenski, C. M.

2017-12-01

The ice mass-balance represents the integration of all surface and ocean heat fluxes and attributing the impact of these forcing fluxes on the ice cover can be accomplished by increasing temporal and spatial measurements. Mass balance information can be used to understand the ongoing changes in the Arctic sea ice cover and to improve predictions of future ice conditions. Thinner seasonal ice in the Arctic necessitates the deployment of Autonomous Ice Mass Balance buoys (IMB's) capable of long-term, in situ data collection in both ice and open ocean. Seasonal IMB's (SIMB's) are free floating IMB's that allow data collection in thick ice, thin ice, during times of transition, and even open water. The newest generation of SIMB aims to increase the number of reliable IMB's in the Arctic by leveraging inexpensive commercial-grade instrumentation when combined with specially developed monitoring hardware. Monitoring tasks are handled by a custom, expandable data logger that provides low-cost flexibility for integrating a large range of instrumentation. The SIMB features ultrasonic sensors for direct measurement of both snow depth and ice thickness and a digital temperature chain (DTC) for temperature measurements every 2cm through both snow and ice. Air temperature and pressure, along with GPS data complete the Arctic picture. Additionally, the new SIMB is more compact to maximize deployment opportunities from multiple types of platforms.