Analysis of Interpolation Methods for Kinematic DGPS Control in Aerial Photogrammetry

Kinematic differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) positioning is routinely used in industry for directly observing an aircraft's position at each instant of photographic exposure during a photogammetric survey. A critical aspect of the subsequent data processing is estimation of the aircraft position at the exact time of exposure. GPS measurements are acquired at a uniform sampling rate, typically 1 Hz. The exposure times, however, do not generally coincide with these times. As a result, the exposure station positions must be interpolated from the adjacent GPS positions. This is typically done using a low-order polynomial, expressed as a function of time, for each coordinate dimension. However, trajectory perturbations induced by atmospheric turbulence can render such interpolation methods ineffective. This article will convey the results of an investigation into the use of several different interpolation models with airborne GPS data during straight, level flight. The fundamental task of time series reconstruction will first be addressed, in which several possible interpolation models are described. Two 10-Hz, airborne GPS data sets were collected to test the accuracy of each model. The error properties resulting from the application of each model to these data will be presented and analyzed in terms of time-domain statistics and frequency-domain characteristids. It will be demonstrated that interpolation error can be significantly reduced, especially in the height dimension, through judicious choice of an interpolator. ? 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Compatibility of NMEA GGA with GPS Receivers Implementation

The NMEA GGA standard for global positioning system (GPS) and GLONASS receiver interfaces provides smooth data transfer from receiver to computer for postprocessing. Specifically, the NMEA GGA specifies that the orthometric height and the undulation be listed in addition to other quantities. The Ashtech manual (Ashtech, 1997; p. 104), however, specifies that the respective field in the NMEA GGA message contains the ellipsoidal height when outputting from Ashtech's GG24 receiver. Because such an inconsistency between the official NMEA GGA specifications and the implementation by a manufacturer can potentially confuse the user, we carried out a numerical test to confirm Ashtech's implentation. The result indicates that Ashtech indeed gives the ellipsoidal height in the fielt that should actually contain the orthometric height according to the NMEA GGA specifications. Firmware version after and including GF02 have corrected this situation. ? 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Modelling Watersheds as Spatial Object Hierarchies: Structure and Dynamics

The generation, transport and fate of non-point source pollutants in surface water systems is recognized as a major threat to water supplies, aquatic and coastal ecosystems. The transformation and movement of water, carbon and nutrients through watersheds integrates a set of ecosystem processes along hydrologic flowpaths. Human individual and institutional interactions with these processes involve direct addition or abstraction of these substances, or the alteration of land cover and drainage systems. In natural and developed catchments, these processes often vary at granularities ranging from below the level of a hillslope, up through regional watersheds. This suggests the need for the development of hierarchical analysis tools that can address the integration of a set of biophysical, biogeochemical and socioeconomic processes over a spectrum of scales. We describe and illustrate the use of a watershed model implemented as a spatial object hierarchy, representing successively contained landform classes associated with class specific processes as member functions. The model has been linked in a range of looser and tighter couplings with GRASS and ArcView, supplemented by specific terrain analytical functions. We illustrate the data and model system for an instrumented catchment monitored as part of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES), a Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site centering on integrated carbon, water and nutrient cycling.     

Telecommunications Synchronization and GPS

Today, the Global Positioning System (GPS) is the technology most frequently selected for use in digital communication networks to meet the requirement for precision timing synchronization. The technological evolution of the telecommunications industry over the past 30 years has driven this constantly growing demand for higher performance and timing accuracy. Increased timing accuracy provides overall improvements in system performance, quality, and efficiency. In the United States and in many parts of the world, the telecommunications infrastructure uses the GPS signal as an integral and basic part of the system. The stability of GPS, ongoing health of the GPS constellation, and GPS signal quality can mpact telecommunications systems. ? 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Determination of failure probabilities of flood defence systems with improved dynamic bounds method

In this paper, we describe the computational framework of a novel method for solving the challenging problem of probabilistic finite elements. The method is called Improved Dynamic Bounds (IDB) and was developed recently to improve the efficiency of the dynamic bounds. The IDB is used in finite element numerical models to calculate time-dependent failure analyses of structures. In applications, the IDB can speed up the overall simulation process by several orders of magnitude. In applications controlled by two influential variables (e.g, two-dimensional problem), the computational efficiency is improved by a factor of 769 according to Rajabalinejad (2009). Applications of IDB indicate the method is most efficient for problems where the number of influential variables are limited. This is often the case for geotechnical and coastal flood defence systems. The IDB method is applied in this paper to the 17th Street Flood Wall, a component of the flood defence system (levee infra-structure) that failed during the Hurricane Katrina, to calculate the failure probability of an I-wall.     

Relation of CME Speed and Magnetic Helicity in CME Source Regions on the Sun during the Early Phase of Solar Cycles 23 and 24

To investigate the relations between coronal mass ejection (CME) speed and magnetic field properties measured in the photospheric surface of CME source regions, we selected 22 disk CMEs in the rising and early maximum phases of the current Solar Cycle 24. For the CME speed, we used two-dimensional (2D) projected speed observed by the Large Angle and Spectroscopic Coronagraph onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO/LASCO), as well as a 3D speed calculated from the triangulation method using multi-point observations. Two magnetic parameters of CME source regions were considered: the average of magnetic helicity injection rate and the total unsigned magnetic flux. We then classified the selected CMEs into two groups, showing: i) a monotonically increasing pattern with one sign of helicity (group A: 16 CMEs) and ii) a pattern of significant helicity injection followed by its sign reversal (group B: 6 CMEs). We found that: 1) 3D speed generally shows better correlations with the magnetic parameters than the 2D speed for 22 CME events in Solar Cycle 24; 2) 2D speed and the magnetic parameters of 22 CME events in this solar cycle have lower values than those of 47 CME events in Solar Cycle 23; 3) all events of group B in Solar Cycle 24 occur only after the beginning of the maximum phase, a trend well consistent with that shown in Solar Cycle 23; 4) the 2D speed and the helicity parameter of group B events continue to increase in the declining phase of Solar Cycle 23, while those of group A events abruptly decrease in the same period. Our results indicate that the two CME groups have a different tendency in the solar cycle variations of CME speed and the helicity parameters. Active regions that show a complex helicity evolution pattern tend to appear in the maximum and declining phases, while active regions with a relatively simple helicity evolution pattern appear throughout the whole solar cycle.     

Chemical analysis of natural objects by ion chromatographic method in combination with a priori calculations using IONCHROM software

This paper briefly describes original developments in the theoretical and practical ion chromatography. It is demonstrated that new methods may be applied for the highly-selective analysis of complex natural objects. The determination of different species of sulfur and other ions in the condensates of fumarolic gases is considered in detail as an example.     

The upper Bajocian of the Crimean Mountains: Paleogeography and sedimentation conditions from palynological data

Based on the spore-pollen data, the mineral composition of clay rocks, analyzed structures and facies, and a general paleogeographic analysis, the sedimentation conditions and landscapes of islands located during the Late Bajocian in the region of the present-day the Crimean Mountains have been reconstructed. It is shown that the sublatitudinally elongated insular land zone had a width of 30 km, the heights of the islands were no more than 1 km, with steep mudflow-affected northern slopes and with an extensive river system on the southern slopes.