Cartographic Design and the Space–Time Cube

This paper reports on the results of an empirical evaluation that aimed to define the effectiveness and efficiency of different visual variables in depicting the Space–Time Cube’s (STC) content. Existing STC applications demonstrate that the most used visual variables are size and colour hue. Less is known, however, about their usability metrics. The research sets design criteria for STC contents, such as space–time paths, based on the cartographic design theory. The visual variables colour hue, colour value, colour saturation, size and orientation have been applied in two different use case studies. Besides, to support the three-dimensional visual environment, depth cues such as shading and transparency were considered too. User tests have been executed based on real-world problems with particular attention for the visualization strategy and data complexity. The outcomes revealed the most efficient and effective visual variables to represent data of various complexities in the STC.     

Econometric analysis of the ship demolition market

The topic of ship recycling has obtained considerable attention during the last two decades for a variety of reasons with the likelihood of the adoption of a new international convention under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). This study applies econometric modeling to a unique data set to provide insight into the dynamics of the ship recycling market. The data set contains information on 51,112 ships over 100 gt and includes 748,621 events over a period of 29 years. The analysis confirms a negative relationship of earnings and a positive relationship of scrap prices for all locations while Bangladesh seems to be more sensitive to changes in earnings than the other locations and more likely demolishes larger and older vessels. The results for flag and ownership vary across scrapping locations with Malta and Cyprus indicating potential importance from a registry perspective. The overall safety profile of a vessel seems to be less important towards the probability of a ship being scrapped. Possible implementation of the convention at EU level will mostly likely affect Turkey while non-ratification of one of the major flags will most likely affect China or Bangladesh.     

Stochastic models in the DORIS position time series: estimates for IDS contribution to ITRF2014

This paper focuses on the investigation of the deterministic and stochastic parts of the Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) weekly time series aligned to the newest release of ITRF2014. A set of 90 stations was divided into three groups depending on when the data were collected at an individual station. To reliably describe the DORIS time series, we employed a mathematical model that included the long-term nonlinear signal, linear trend, seasonal oscillations and a stochastic part, all being estimated with maximum likelihood estimation. We proved that the values of the parameters delivered for DORIS data are strictly correlated with the time span of the observations. The quality of the most recent data has significantly improved. Not only did the seasonal amplitudes decrease over the years, but also, and most importantly, the noise level and its type changed significantly. Among several tested models, the power-law process may be chosen as the preferred one for most of the DORIS data. Moreover, the preferred noise model has changed through the years from an autoregressive process to pure power-law noise with few stations characterised by a positive spectral index. For the latest observations, the medians of the velocity errors were equal to 0.3, 0.3 and 0.4 mm/year, respectively, for the North, East and Up components. In the best cases, a velocity uncertainty of DORIS sites of 0.1 mm/year is achievable when the appropriate coloured noise model is taken into consideration.     

On predicting and improving the quality of Volunteer Geographic Information projects

Initiatives that rely upon the contributions of volunteers to reach a specific goal are growing more and more with the success of Web 2.0–interactive applications. Also scientific projects are testing and exploiting volunteers' collaboration, but the quality of information obtained with this approach is often puzzling. This paper offers a rich overview of many scientific projects where geographic contributions are committed to volunteers, to the aim of defining strategies to improve information quality. By describing real examples of Volunteer Geographic Information (VGI), the contribution establishes a categorization based on the characteristics of the information, tasks, and scopes of the projects. After a discussion on the relationships of categories and VGI quality, the paper analyses techniques to improve the quality of volunteered information according to the moment of its assessment (i.e., ex ante, ex post, or both with respect to information creation). The paper outlines the main limitations of the different approaches and indicates some guidelines for future developments.     

Studies on some properties of coronal mass ejections based on angular width

The paper investigates the effects of thermal conductivity and non-uniform magnetic field on the gravitational instability of a non-uniformly rotating infinitely extending axisymmetric cylinder in a homogeneous heat conducting medium. The non-uniform rotation and magnetic field are supposed to act along θ and z directions of the cylinder. It is found that the gravitational instability of this general problem is determined by the same criterion as obtained by Dhiman and Dadwal (Astrophys. Space Sci. 325(2):195–200, 2010) for the self-gravitating isothermal medium in the presence of non-uniform rotation and magnetic field with the only difference that adiabatic sound velocity is now replaced by the isothermal sound velocity. It is found that the thermal conductivity has stabilizing effect on the onset of gravitational instability. Further, the stabilizing/destabilizing effect of the non-uniform magnetic field on the gravitational instability of heat conducting medium has been discussed and is illustrated by considering some special forms of the basic magnetic fields.     

Solar Microflares Observed by SphinX and RHESSI

In 2009, the Russian Complex Orbital Observations Near-Earth of Activity of the Sun (CORONAS-Photon) spacecraft was launched, carrying the Polish Solar PHotometer In X-rays (SphinX). The SphinX was most sensitive in the spectral range 1.2?–?15 keV, thus an excellent opportunity appeared for comparison with the low-energy end of Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) spectra. Common spectral measurements with these instruments cover the range where most of the flare energy is accumulated. We have chosen four consecutive small solar events observed on 4 July 2009 at 13:43 UT, 13:48 UT, 13:52 UT, and 13:55 UT (RHESSI flare peak times) and used them to compare the data and results from the two instruments. Moreover, we included Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) records in our analysis. In practice, the range of comparison performed for SphinX and RHESSI is limited roughly to 3?–?6 keV. RHESSI fluxes measured with a use of one, four, and nine detectors in the 3?–?4 keV energy band agree with SphinX measurements. However, we observed that SphinX spectral irradiances are three times higher than those of RHESSI in the 4?–?6 keV energy band. This effect contributes to the difference in obtained emission measures, but the derived temperatures of plasma components are similar. RHESSI spectra were fitted using a model with two thermal components. We have found that the RHESSI hot component is in agreement with GOES, and the RHESSI hotter component fits the SphinX flaring component well. Moreover, we calculated the so-called thermodynamic measure and the total thermal energy content in the four microflares that we studied. The results obtained show that SphinX is a very sensitive complementary observatory for RHESSI and GOES.     

Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene lake‐level fluctuations in the Lahontan Basin,Nevada: Implications for the distribution of archaeological sites

The Great Basin of the western U.S. contains a rich record of Late Pleistocene and Holocene lake‐level fluctuations as well as an extensive record of human occupation during the same time frame. We compare spatial‐temporal relationships between these records in the Lahontan basin to consider whether lake‐level fluctuations across the Pleistocene‐Holocene transition controlled distribution of archaeological sites. We use the reasonably well‐dated archaeological record from caves and rockshelters as well as results from new pedestrian surveys to investigate this problem. Although lake levels probably reached maximum elevations of about 1230–1235 m in the different subbasins of Lahontan during the Younger Dryas (YD) period, the duration that the lakes occupied the highest levels was brief. Paleoindian and Early Archaic archaeological sites are concentrated on somewhat lower and slightly younger shorelines (_1220–1225 m) that also date from the Younger Dryas period. This study suggests that Paleoindians often concentrated their activities adjacent to large lakes and wetland resources soon after they first entered the Great Basin. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Synthetic secular theories of the planetary orbits: Regular and chaotic behavior

Modern computer technology allows dynamical astronomers to investigate the long term stability of real systems as thoroughly as ever. However, the process is not straightforward and new problems need to be solved. This work deals with only one such problem: the construction-from the numerical integration- of a secular perturbation theory that is able to describe the dynamical behavior of the system. The discussion refers to the outer planets and is based on the knowledge acquired by the author during her participation in project LONGSTOP. A digital filter is used in order to reduce the output and eliminate short periodic terms. Filtering uncovers long term variations in the semimajor axes. From the filtered output a secular perturbation theory is constructed in the assumption that the solution is regular, as secular perturbation theories can only be constructed for regular solutions. If we succeed, this means that the solution is indeed regular for the computed span of time; if not-and this can be established in a rigorous way-it has to be concluded a posteriori that the solution is not regular. The LONGSTOP 1A and 1B integrations show well that as the timespan of the integration increases it is possible to detect the non-regular behavior of the solution. This happens in the eccentricity of Saturn at the 10^–4 level.