Airborne near-real-time monitoring of assembly and parking areas in case of large-scale public events and natural disasters

A critical requirement for an effective and coordinated response by public entities tasked with management, security, and relief during large-scale public events or natural disasters is the availability of current situational information. However, today there is a lack of comprehensive operational systems allowing a near-real-time (NRT) collection, visualization, and provision of situational information for larger areas. In this study a methodological framework is proposed, which allows an NRT extraction and visualization of situational information based on aerial image acquisition. The framework combines digital image analysis using a generic supervised information extraction approach based on statistical modeling with a downstream web-based visualization component realized through an automatic update of web services. Even though being applicable for different scenarios, the workflow will be demonstrated for the specific use-case of a NRT monitoring of open spaces including assembly and parking areas. Compared to other approaches, image analysis results indicate a high robustness and a low demand for computational power sources (7 seconds per image). Due to a high degree of automation, the proposed workflow contributes to a NRT ‘end-to-end’ monitoring system, which was developed within the VABENE (German acronym for ‘traffic management under large-scale public events and disaster conditions’) project covering all parts from the acquisition of raw aerial imagery to the dissemination of information products to end-users.     

Determination of Phobos’ rotational parameters by an inertial frame bundle block adjustment

A functional model for a bundle block adjustment in the inertial reference frame was developed, implemented and tested. This approach enables the determination of rotation parameters of planetary bodies on the basis of photogrammetric observations. Tests with a self-consistent synthetic data set showed that the implementation converges reliably toward the expected values of the introduced unknown parameters of the adjustment, e.g., spin pole orientation, and that it can cope with typical observational errors in the data. We applied the model to a data set of Phobos using images from the Mars Express and the Viking mission. With Phobos being in a locked rotation, we computed a forced libration amplitude of \(1.14^\circ \pm 0.03^\circ \) together with a control point network of 685 points.     

C‐band SAR backscatter characteristics of Arctic sea and land ice during winter

Abstract

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data has become an important tool for studies of polar regions, due to high spatial resolution even during the polar night and under cloudy skies. We have studied the temporal variation of sea and land ice backscatter of twenty‐four SAR images from the European Remote Sensing satellite (ERS‐1) covering an area in Lady Ann Strait and Jones Sound, Nunavut, from January to March 1992. The presence of fast ice in Jones Sound and glaciers and ice caps on the surrounding islands provides an ideal setting for temporal backscatter studies of ice surfaces. Sample regions for eight different ice types were selected and the temporal backscatter variation was studied. The observed backscatter values for each ice type characterize the radar signatures of the ice surfaces. This time series of twenty‐four SAR images over a 3‐month period provides new insights into the degree of temporal variability of each surface. Ice caps exhibit the highest backscatter value of ‐3.9 dB with high temporal variability. Valley glacier ice backscatter values decrease with decreasing altitude, and are temporally the most stable, with standard deviations of 0.08–0.10 dB over the 90‐day period.

First‐year ice and lead ice show a negative trend in backscatter values in time and a positive correlation of up to 0.59 with air temperature over the 90‐day period. For first‐year ice and lead ice, episodes of large temperature fluctuations (±12°C) are associated with rapid changes in backscatter values (±2 dB). We attribute the backscatter increase to a temperature‐induced increase in brine volume at the base of the snow pack. Multi‐year ice, conglomerate ice and shore ice are relatively stable over the 3‐month period, with a backscatter variation of only a few dBs. An observed lag time of up to three days between backscatter increase/decrease and air temperature can be attributed to the insulation effect of the snow cover over sea ice. The net range of the backscatter values observed on the most temporally stable surface, valley glacier ice, of about 0.30 dB indicates that the ERS‐1 SAR instrument exceeds the 1 dB calibration accuracy specified for the Alaska SAR Facility processor for the three winter months.     

Magnetization of celestial bodies with special application to the primeval Earth and Moon

The magnetic fields of celestial bodies are usually supposed to be due to a ‘hydromagnetic dynamo’. This term refers to a number of rather speculative processes which are supposed to take place in the liquid core of a celestial body. In this paper we shall follow another approach which is more closely connected with hydromagnetic processes well-known from the laboratory, and hence basically less speculative. The paper should be regarded as part of a general program to connect cosmical phenomena with phenomena studied in the laboratory. As has been demonstrated by laboratory experiments, a poloidal magnetic field may be increased by the transfer of energy from a toroidal magnetic field through kink instability of the current system. This mechanism can be applied to the fluid core of a celestial body. Any differential rotation will produce a toroidal field from an existing poloidal field, and the kink instability will feed toroidal energy back to the poloidal field, and hence amplify it. In the Earth-Moon system the tidal braking of the Earth's mantle acts to produce a differential angular velocity between core and mantle. The braking will be transferred to the core by hydromagnetic forces which at the same time give rise to a strong magnetic field. The strength of the field will be determined by the rate of tidal braking. It is suggested that the magnetization of lunar rocks from the period ?4 to ?3 Gyears derives from the Earth's magnetic field. As the interior of the Moon immediately after accretion probably was too cool to be melted, the Moon could not produce a magnetic field by hydromagnetic effects in its core. The observed lunar magnetization could be produced by such an amplified Earth field even if the Moon never came closer than 10 or 20 Earth's radii. This hypothesis might be checked by magnetic measurements on the Earth during the same period.     

Origin and evolution of the earth-moon system

The origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system is studied by comparing it to the satellite systems of other planets. The normal structure of a system of secondary bodies orbiting around a central body depends essentially on the mass of the central body. The Earth with a mass intermediate between Uranus and Mars should have a normal satellite system that consists of about half a dozen satellites each with a mass of a fraction of a percent of the lunar mass. Hence, the Moon is not likely to have been generated in the environment of the Earth by a normal accretion process as is claimed by some authors.Capture of satellites is quite a common process as shown by the fact that there are six satellites in the solar system which, because they are retrograde, must have been captured. There is little doubt that the Moon is also a captured satellite, but its capture orbit and tidal evolution are still incompletely understood.The Earth and the Moon are likely to have been formed from planetesimals accreting in particle swarms in Kepler orbits (jet streams). This process leads to the formation of a cool lunar interior with an outer layer accreted at increasingly higher temperatures. The primeval Earth should similarly have formed with a cool inner core surrounded in this case by a very strongly heated outer core and with a mantle accreted slowly and with a low average temperature but with intense transient heating at each individual impact site.     

Der Hagel im Wiener Becken

Zusammenfassung An Hand der Schadenstatistik 1952–1956 der österreichischen Hagelversicherung wurden Häufigkeitsverteilungen der Hagelschäden im Wiener Becken berechnet. Für längere Zeitabschnitte wurde die jährliche Hagelwahrscheinlichkeit in Wien als Poisson-Verteilung dargestellt. Eine Karte bringt die örtliche Verteilung der Hagelgefahr im Wiener Becken, wobei sich zwei besonders gefährdete Gebiete zeigen. Im weiteren wird gezeigt, daß Hagelfälle besonders bei den GroßwetterlagenHN, TK, TR, Vb undTB auftreten. Die südöstliche Höhenströmung in der 500 mb-Fläche wird als besonders hagelbegünstigend erkannt.Für Tage mit verbreiteter Hageltätigkeit wied eine mittlere Aufstiegskurve berechnet. Mittels des Thetagramms wird untersucht, welche Luftmassen bei besonders hagelfördernden Großwetterlagen und Höhenströmungen auftreten. Es zeigt sich, daß fast immer Tropikluft, die in den unteren Schichten überhitzt wird, an den großen Hagelfällen beteiligt ist.

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Summary On the basis of the statistics of damages of the Austrian Hail Insurance Company, 1952–1956, frequency distributions of hail-damages in the basin of Vienna were evaluated. For longer periods the annual probability of hail in Vienna was expressed by a Poisson-distribution. A map represents the local distribution of hail-risk in the basin of Vienna, showing two regions especially endangered. Further it has been shown that hail-storms occur expecially with the weather situationsHN, TK, TR, Vb andTB. The upper wind from southeast has been realized to be especially promoting for the occurrence of hail.A mean sounding was evaluated for days with wide-spread hail-activity. By means of the thetagramm it has been investigated which air-masses occur in weather situations and with upper winds which promote the falling of hail. It turns out that nearly always tropical air-masses, being superheated in layers near the ground, participate in large hail-storms.

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Résumé S'appuyant sur la statistique de dégâts 1952/56 de l'assurance autrichienne contre la grêle, l'auteur a calculé la distribution de fréquence de ces dégâts dans le bassin viennois. La probabilité de grêle à Vienne pour de longues périodes s'exprime par une distribution de Poisson. Une carte représente la répartition géographique du danger de grêle dans le bassin viennois; elle met en évidence deux régions particulièrement menacées. Les chutes de grêle se produisent plus fréquemment lors des situations météorologiquesHN, TK, TR, Vb etTB; le courant de Sud-Est au niveau de la surface de 500 mb apparaît comme particulièrement favorable à la grêle.On établit une courbe d'état aérologique moyenne pour les jours à chutes de grêle étendues. L'étude des thétagrammes permet de préciser quelles sont les masses d'air présentes lors des conditions favorables à la grêle; on constate que c'est presque toujours l'air tropical surchauffé dans les couches basses.

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