Spatial process and data models: Toward integration of agent-based models and GIS

The use of object-orientation for both spatial data and spatial process models facilitates their integration, which can allow exploration and explanation of spatial-temporal phenomena. In order to better understand how tight coupling might proceed and to evaluate the possible functional and efficiency gains from such a tight coupling, we identify four key relationships affecting how geographic data (fields and objects) and agent-based process models can interact: identity, causal, temporal and topological. We discuss approaches to implementing tight integration, focusing on a middleware approach that links existing GIS and ABM development platforms, and illustrate the need and approaches with example agent-based models.     

Boreal forest coherence-based measures of interferometric pair suitability for operational stem volume retrieval

The performance of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (INSAR)-based boreal forest stem volume retrieval is strongly affected by weather conditions around the time of the SAR image acquisitions. Since weather conditions cannot be controlled, the suitability of a particular interferometric pair for stem volume retrieval can only be assessed afterward. In this letter, four objective measures based on observed forest coherence were compared in assessing the suitability of interferometric pairs for stem volume retrieval. These suitability measures can be used to identify the best and worst pairs, i.e., the ones with the most and least favorable weather conditions. Stem volume retrievals were performed using single European Remote Sensing (ERS-1/2) Tandem interferometric pairs by inverting a backscattering-coherence model for boreal forests. A total of 14 ERS Tandem image pairs acquired in varying weather conditions were studied, and the stem volume retrieval performance was assessed against ground-based stem volume estimates on 134 boreal forest stands. Stem volume retrieval performance as measured by R/sup 2/-values between INSAR-estimated stem volumes and ground truth was found to be directly proportional to boreal forest coherence. The interferometric coherence-contrast (ICC), i.e., the difference in coherence between sparsest and densest boreal forest stands was found to be the best of the four studied suitability measures. The ICC could be used as a suitability parameter in the selection of the best interferometric pairs for operational boreal forest stem volume retrieval.     

Internet teaching foundation for the Remote Sensing Core Curriculum program

The Remote Sensing Core Curriculum (RSCC) was initiated in 1993 to meet the demands for a college-level set of resources to enhance the quality of education across national and international campuses. The American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing adopted the RSCC in 1996 to sustain support of this educational initiative for its membership and collegiate community. A series of volumes, containing lectures, exercises, and data, is being created by expert contributors to address the different technical fields of remote sensing. The RSCC program is designed to operate on the Internet taking full advantage of the World Wide Web (WWW) technology for distance learning. The issues of curriculum development related to the educational setting, with demands on faculty, students, and facilities, is considered to understand the new paradigms for WW-influenced computer-aided learning. The WWW is shown to be especially appropriate for facilitating remote sensing education with requirements for addressing image data sets and multimedia learning tools. The RSCC is located at http://www.umbc.edu/rscc     

航空重力测量厄特弗斯改正公式注记

针对当前国内外机构和学者在使用航空重力测量厄特弗斯改正公式中存在的不一致性问题,详细分析了不同时期、不同形式改正计算公式的来源及其相互关系,并比较了它们在数值上的差异,指出我国作业部门目前使用近似公式存在的误用问题和统一使用严密公式的必要性。     

The international GLONASS experiment: products, progress and prospects

 In October 1998 the IGEX field campaign, the first coordinated international effort to monitor GLONASS satellites on global basis, was started. Currently about 40 institutions worldwide support this effort either by providing GLONASS tracking data or in operating related data and analysis centers. The increasing quality and consistency of the calculated GLONASS orbits (about 25 cm early in 2000), even after the end of the official IGEX field campaign, are shown. Particular attention is drawn to the combination of precise ephemerides in order to generate a robust, reliable and complete IGEX orbits product. Some problems in modeling the effect of solar radiation pressure on GLONASS satellites are demonstrated. Finally, the expected benefits and prospects of the upcoming International GLOnass Service-Pilot Project (IGLOS-PP) of the International GPS Service (IGS) are discussed in more detail. Received: 17 August 2000 / Accepted: 12 April 2001     

Variation in Coronal Activity from Solar Cycle 24 Minimum to Maximum Using Three-Dimensional Reconstructions of the Coronal Electron Density from STEREO/COR1

Three-dimensional electron density distributions in the solar corona are reconstructed for 100 Carrington rotations (CR 2054?–?2153) during 2007/03?–?2014/08 using the spherically symmetric method from polarized white-light observations with the inner coronagraph (COR1) onboard the twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO). These three-dimensional electron density distributions are validated by comparison with similar density models derived using other methods such as tomography and a magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) model as well as using data from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)/Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO)-C2. Uncertainties in the estimated total mass of the global corona are analyzed based on differences between the density distributions for COR1-A and -B. Long-term variations of coronal activity in terms of the global and hemispheric average electron densities (equivalent to the total coronal mass) reveal a hemispheric asymmetry during the rising phase of Solar Cycle 24, with the northern hemisphere leading the southern hemisphere by a phase shift of 7?–?9 months. Using 14 CR (\(\approx13\)-month) running averages, the amplitudes of the variation in average electron density between Cycle 24 maximum and Cycle 23/24 minimum (called the modulation factors) are found to be in the range of 1.6?–?4.3. These modulation factors are latitudinally dependent, being largest in polar regions and smallest in the equatorial region. These modulation factors also show a hemispheric asymmetry: they are somewhat larger in the southern hemisphere. The wavelet analysis shows that the short-term quasi-periodic oscillations during the rising and maximum phases of Cycle 24 have a dominant period of 7?–?8 months. In addition, it is found that the radial distribution of the mean electron density for streamers at Cycle 24 maximum is only slightly larger (by \(\approx30\%\)) than at cycle minimum.     

Martian water vapor: Mars Express PFS/LW observations

We present the seasonal and geographical variations of the martian water vapor monitored from the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer Long Wavelength Channel aboard the Mars Express spacecraft. Our dataset covers one martian year (end of Mars Year 26, Mars Year 27), but the seasonal coverage is far from complete. The seasonal and latitudinal behavior of the water vapor is globally consistent with previous datasets, Viking Orbiter Mars Atmospheric Water Detectors (MAWD) and Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer (MGS/TES), and with simultaneous results obtained from other Mars Express instruments, OMEGA and SPICAM. However, our absolute water columns are lower and higher by a factor of 1.5 than the values obtained by TES and SPICAM, respectively. In particular, we retrieve a Northern midsummer maximum of 60 pr-μm, lower than the 100-pr-μm observed by TES. The geographical distribution of water exhibits two local maxima at low latitudes, located over Tharsis and Arabia. Global Climate Model (GCM) simulations suggest that these local enhancements are controlled by atmospheric dynamics. During Northern spring, we observe a bulge of water vapor over the seasonal polar cap edge, consistent with the northward transport of water from the retreating seasonal cap to the permanent polar cap. In terms of vertical distribution, we find that the water volume mixing ratio over the large volcanos remains constant with the surface altitude within a factor of two. However, on the whole dataset we find that the water column, normalized to a fixed pressure, is anti-correlated with the surface pressure, indicating a vertical distribution intermediate between control by atmospheric saturation and confinement to a surface layer. This anti-correlation is not reproduced by GCM simulations of the water cycle, which do not include exchange between atmospheric and subsurface water. This situation suggests a possible role for regolith-atmosphere exchange in the martian water cycle.     

Relationship between the velocity ellipsoids of galactic-disk stars and their ages and metallicities

The dependences of the velocity ellipsoids of F-G stars of the thin disk of the Galaxy on their ages and metallicities are analyzed based on the new version of the Geneva-Copenhagen Catalog. The age dependences of the major, middle, and minor axes of the ellipsoids, and also of the dispersion of the total residual velocity, obey power laws with indices 0.25, 0.29, 0.32, and 0.27 (with uncertainties ±0.02). Due to the presence of thick-disk objects, the analogous indices for all nearby stars are about a factor of 1.5 larger. Attempts to explain such values are usually based on modeling relaxation processes in the Galactic disk. Elimination of stars in the most numerous moving groups from the sample slightly reduces the corresponding indices (0.22, 0.26, 0.27, and 0.24). Limiting the sample to stars within 60 pc of the Sun, so that the sample can be considered to be complete, leaves both the velocity ellipsoids and their age dependences virtually unchanged. With increasing age, the velocity ellipsoid increases in size and becomes appreciablymore spherical, turns toward the direction of the Galactic center, and loses angular momentum. The shape of the velocity ellipsoid remains far from equilibrium. With increasing metallicity, the velocity ellipsoid for stars of mixed age increases in size, displays a weak tendency to become more spherical, and turns toward the direction of the Galactic center (with these changes occurring substantially more rapidly in the transition through the metallicity [Fe/H]≈−0.25). Thus, the ellipsoid changes similarly to the way it does with age; however, with decreasing metallicity, the rotational velocity about the Galactic center monotonically increases, rather than decreases (!). Moreover, the power-law indices for the age dependences of the axes depend on the metallicity, and display a maximum near [Fe/H] ≈−0.1. The age dependences of all the velocity-ellipsoid parameters for stars with equal metallicity are roughly the same. It is proposed that the appearance of a metallicity dependence of the velocity ellipsoids for thin-disk stars, recorded from the close to the Sun, is most likely due to the radial migration of stars.     

Chemical composition of Russian Arctic precipitation in 2007-2015

The results of observations of the chemical composition of precipitation in the Russian Arctic in 2007-2015 are summarized including the data from NP-35 drifting ice station obtained in 2007-2008 in the framework of the joint program of Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute and Voeikov Main Geophysical Observatory. The qualitative and quantitative difference in the chemical composition of precipitation in the Atlantic, Siberian, and Pacific sectors of the Russian Arctic is revealed. It is found that the concentration of microelements (heavy metals) in precipitation at NP-35 ice station did not exceed 12% of total ions at the lowest mineralization. The comparative analysis is presented of the concentration of sulfate ions in precipitation in Norilsk and at NP-35 ice stations.