Polygon-70: Data Interpretation in the Light of New Concepts about Internal Waves

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - We analyze our concepts about ocean dynamics and, in particular, internal waves. Our concepts have changed over the 50 years after the Polygon-70...     

Retrieving Sea Wave Spectra Based on High Resolution Satellite Imagery under Different Conditions of Wave Generation

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - A method for retrieving sea wave spectra from space images of high spatial resolution has been developed for various conditions of wave generation based...     

Mini-inflation prior to the cosmic confinement transition?

The onset of the confinement transition in the early universe is studied within the Friedmann model. Exploiting a bag model equation of state for the deconfined matter, which is generalized to include also metastable states, the possibility of a mini-inflationary epoch is demonstrated. A criterion of metastability is derived to estimate parameters of this mini-inflation.     

Depositional environments in the Telychian Stage (Silurian) of the central Oslo region,Norway

The Telychian succession in the central Oslo region was previously interpreted as deposited in a relatively deep, calm environment showing a continuous transgressive development. A new analysis of fossil assemblages shows that sediments in the central districts were deposited at varying water depths in an environment marked by intense infaunal activity in soft substrates. Two small-scale fluctuations in sea level are attributed to eustasy. The maximum deepening events occurred during the Monograptus turriculatus and Monoclimacis crenulata graptolite zones. Previous depositional models include development of a trough to the north of the Oslo region in early Telychian time, which formed due to isostatic loading caused by an advancing thrust front of the Caledonian Orogeny. Bathymetric analysis shows a deepening in the Ringerike district in the latest Aeronian, which here is interpreted as a distal effect of the loading to the north. The local deepening led to reversal of the epicontinental slope between the northern and western districts and the central districts and the development of an east–west elongate positive area further south. The thrust front acted as a source of siliciclastic material; and when the front halted in mid-Telychian time the trough was filled in gradually by a prograding coast or delta. The diachronous Vik Formation is viewed as a distal development of this progradation. When the east–west oriented positive area subsided the Vik Formation was deposited in Skien to the south.     

Planet Four: Craters—Optimizing task workflow to improve volunteer engagement and crater counting performance

Virtual citizen science platforms allow nonscientists to take part in scientific research across a range of disciplines, including planetary science. What is required of the volunteer can vary considerably in terms of task type, variety, judgment required, and autonomy—even when the overall goal is unchanged. Through analysis of our live Zooniverse Planet Four: Craters citizen science platform, the effects of task workflow design factors including volunteer autonomy, task variety, task type, and judgment required on volunteer engagement and crater marking performance were investigated. Website analytics showed volunteers using the Full interface (most autonomy and variety) were more likely to return to the platform, although the amount of time spent per visit was unaffected by the interface used. However, analysis of performance suggested that how this time was used did differ. The interface involving the least complex task resulted in the greatest amount of data and rate of collection, although this also coincided with a greater number of false positives when compared with the expert. Performance in terms of agreement, both between participants and with the expert judgment, was significantly improved when using the Stepped interface for crater position and the Ramped (Mark) when measuring diameter—interfaces that both directly measured the metric with a specific, delineated task. The implications for planetary scientists considering the citizen science route is that there is a balancing act to perform, weighing the importance of volunteer engagement with scientists' data needs and the resources that can be committed to data validation.     

Self-Similarity Properties of the Kerch Peninsula Stream Network and Their Comparison with the Results of Structural and Geomorphological Analysis

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - The results of the fractal analysis of a drainage network reconstructed using a digital elevation model and the structural and geomorphological analysis...     

REDUCE programs for algebraic computation in general relativity

REDUCE programs for algebraic computation in General Relativity are presented which use the metric tensor as input. The programs calculate — according to the user's option — the CHRISTOFFEL symbols, the RIEMANN tensor, the RICCI tensor, the RICCI scalar, the EINSTEIN tensor and the WEYL tensor.     

Considerations on Parallelizing Nonnegative Matrix Factorization for Hyperspectral Data Unmixing

Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) is a recently developed linear unmixing technique that assumes that the original sources and transform were positively defined. Given that the linear mixing model (LMM) for hyperspectral data requires positive endmembers and abundances, with only minor modifications, NMF can be used to solve LMM. Traditionally, NMF solutions include an iterative process resulting in considerable execution times. In this letter, we provide two novel algorithms aimed at speeding the NMF through parallel processing: the first based on the traditional multiplicative solution and the second modifying an adaptive projected gradient technique known to provide better convergence. The algorithms' implementations were tested on various data sets; the results suggest that a significant speedup can be achieved without decrease in accuracy. This supports the further use of NMF for linear unmixing.