Scanning sky monitor (SSM) onboard AstroSat

Scanning Sky Monitor (SSM) onboard AstroSat is an Xray sky monitor in the soft X-ray band designed with a large field of view to detect and locate transient X-ray sources and alert the astronomical community about interesting phenomena in the X-ray sky. SSM comprises position sensitive proportional counters with 1D coded mask for imaging. There are three detector units mounted on a platform capable of rotation which helps covering about 50% of the sky in one full rotation. This paper discusses the elaborate details of the instrument and few immediate results from the instrument after launch.     

Geomagnetic Variation Anomalies In Peninsular India

Summary. Geomagnetic substorms recorded by an array of magnetometers over peninsular India have been analysed to investigate the subsurface electric configuration of the area. the study considered only night-time events when the external inducing field is uniform over the Indian peninsula and the conventional interpretational techniques of geomagnetic deep sounding can be readily applied. Contour maps of Fourier transform amplitudes and phases along with real and quadrature Parkinson arrows are presented. Their features reveal a complex anomaly pattern. the observed anomalies can be classified into: (i) southern peninsular anomalies, (ii) Palk Strait anomalies, (iii) Pondicherry rift anomalies, and (iv) anomalies in the central region. A large-scale induction process seems to be disturbed by localized perturbations. the prominent anomaly observed over the southern tip seems to have a direct relevance to the tectonic setting of the Indian ocean and adjoining areas.     

An assessment of independent component analysis for detection of military targets from hyperspectral images

Hyperspectral data acquired over hundreds of narrow contiguous wavelength bands are extremely suitable for target detection due to their high spectral resolution. Though spectral response of every material is expected to be unique, but in practice, it exhibits variations, which is known as spectral variability. Most target detection algorithms depend on spectral modelling using a priori available target spectra In practice, target spectra is, however, seldom available a priori. Independent component analysis (ICA) is a new evolving technique that aims at finding out components which are statistically independent or as independent as possible. The technique therefore has the potential of being used for target detection applications. A assessment of target detection from hyperspectral images using ICA and other algorithms based on spectral modelling may be of immense interest, since ICA does not require a priori target information. The aim of this paper is, thus, to assess the potential of ICA based algorithm vis a vis other prevailing algorithms for military target detection. Four spectral matching algorithms namely Orthogonal Subspace Projection (OSP), Constrained Energy Minimisation (CEM), Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) and Spectral Correlation Mapper (SCM), and four anomaly detection algorithms namely OSP anomaly detector (OSPAD), Reed–Xiaoli anomaly detector (RXD), Uniform Target Detector (UTD) and a combination of Reed–Xiaoli anomaly detector and Uniform Target Detector (RXD–UTD) were considered. The experiments were conducted using a set of synthetic and AVIRIS hyperspectral images containing aircrafts as military targets. A comparison of true positive and false positive rates of target detections obtained from ICA and other algorithms plotted on a receiver operating curves (ROC) space indicates the superior performance of the ICA over other algorithms.     

Landslide risk assessment using concepts of danger pixels and fuzzy set theory in Darjeeling Himalayas

Landslide risk assessment (LRA) is a key component of landslide studies. The landslide risk can be defined as the potential for adverse consequences or loss to human population and property due to the occurrence of landslides. The LRA can be regional or site-specific in nature and is an important information for planning various developmental activities in the area. LRA is considered as a function of landslide potential (LP) and resource damage potential (RDP). The LP and RDP are typically characterized by the landslide susceptibility zonation map and the resource map (i.e., land use land cover map) of the area, respectively. Development of approaches for LRA has always been a challenge. In the present study, two approaches for LRA, one based on the concept of danger pixels and the other based on fuzzy set theory, have been developed and implemented to generate LRA maps of Darjeeling Himalayas, India. The LRA map based on the first approach indicates that 1,015 pixels of habitation and 921 pixels of road section are under risk due to landslides. The LRA map derived from fuzzy set theory based approach shows that a part of habitat area (2,496 pixels) is under very high risk due to landslides. Also, another part of habitat area and a portion of road network (7,204 pixels) are under high risk due to landslides. Thus, LRA map based on the concept of danger pixels gives the pixels under different resource categories at risk due to landslides whereas the LRA map based on the concept of fuzzy set theory further refines this result by defining the degree of severity of risk to these categories by putting these into high and low risk zones. Hence, the landslide risk assessment study carried out using two approaches in this paper can be considered in cohesion for assessing the risks due to landslides in a region.     

Reflection and transmission of inhomogeneous waves in a composite porous solid saturated by two immiscible fluids

This paper is concerned with reflection and transmission of a plane, elastic, and inhomogeneous wave striking obliquely at some discontinuity inside a porous medium composed of two distinct solids and saturated by two immiscible fluids. It is found that four P‐ and two SV‐waves are reflected, whereas four P‐ and two SV‐waves are transmitted at the interface. All reflected and transmitted waves are inhomogeneous in nature and specified with different directions of propagation and attenuation vectors. An expression for the Umov–Poynting energy flux vector is derived for the system. Continuity of energy flux along normal to the interface gives 12 required boundary conditions. Expressions of amplitude and energy ratios of various reflected and transmitted waves are derived. Variations in amplitude and energy coefficients of reflected and transmitted waves with angle of incidence are numerically studied for a porous matrix composed of shaley sandstone and clay, saturated with water and oil. The effects of change in oil saturation and volume fraction of clay are also observed on amplitude ratios. Numerical simulation reveals that the change in sign in the difference of capillary pressure across the interface causes jump in the values of amplitude ratios of all waves.     

Study of soil gas radon variations in the tectonically active Dharamshala and Chamba regions,Himachal Pradesh,India

Soil gas radon measurements were made in Chamba and Dharamshala regions of Himachal Pradesh, India, to study the correlation, if any, between the soil gas radon, radium activity concentration of soil, and the geology/active tectonics of the study region. Soil gas radon surveys were conducted around the local fault zones to check their tectonic activities using the soil gas technique. Soil gas radon activity concentration at thirty-five different locations in Dharamshala region has been found to be varying from 13.2 ± 1.5 to 110.8 ± 5.0 kBq m^?3 with a geometrical mean of 35.9 kBq m^?3 and geometrical standard deviation of 1.8. Radon activity concentration observed in the thirty-seven soil gas samples collected from the Chamba region of Himachal Pradesh varies from 5.2 ± 1.0 to 35.6 ± 2.5 kBq m^?3, with geometrical mean of 15.8 kBq m^?3 and geometrical standard deviation of 1.6. Average radium activity concentrations in thirty-four soil samples collected from different geological formations of Dharamshala region and Chamba region are found to be 40.4 ± 17 and 38.6 ± 1.7 Bq kg^?1, respectively. It has been observed that soil gas radon activity concentration has a wide range of variation in both Dharamshala and Chamba regions, while radium activity concentrations in soil samples are more or less same in both the regions. Moreover, soil gas radon activity concentration has a better positive correlation with the radium activity concentration in soil samples collected from Chamba region as compared to Dharamshala region.     

Logistic Regression for Feature Selection and Soft Classification of Remote Sensing Data

Feature selection is a key task in remote sensing data processing, particularly in case of classification from hyperspectral images. A logistic regression (LR) model may be used to predict the probabilities of the classes on the basis of the input features, after ranking them according to their relative importance. In this letter, the LR model is applied for both the feature selection and the classification of remotely sensed images, where more informative soft classifications are produced naturally. The results indicate that, with fewer restrictive assumptions, the LR model is able to reduce the features substantially without any significant decrease in the classification accuracy of both the soft and hard classifications     

Geomagnetic solar and lunar daily variations at Alibag,India

Geomagnetic solar and lunar daily variationsS andL, at Alibag, India are derived, by the well-known Chapman-Miller method, from the series of homogeneous mean hourly magnetic data of the years 1932 to 1972. The data for all the three elements — declinationD and horizontal and vertical intensitiesH andZ — are analysed, by dividing the data suitably for a study of the seasonal variations, the effect of the changes in the solar and magnetic activities onS andL, the oceanic dynamo contribution toL, and their interactions with each other. The main results are as follows.

1. ForS the daily pattern and its seasonal progression conform to the type expected from a northern-hemisphere station. On the other hand, the amplitudes of all the four harmonics ofL systematically have higher values in winter, and inD andZ the harmonics show large phase differences between summer and winter. The pattern ofL in winter suggests that the lunar current system consists of a single set of vortices in the summer hemisphere rather than the conventional vortices, one set in each of the hemispheres.
2. Solar-cycle modulation on the solar ranges as well as on the amplitudes of the first three harmonics ofS is greater than that expected solely from the increase in E-region conductivity, whereas the corresponding modulation onL is comparable to that on the E-region conductivity.
3. With increasing magnetic activity the first harmonic ofS shows an increase, and the first three harmonics ofL indicate a general decrease, in amplitude.
4. Of the variability inS 96%, but inL only 32%, is found to be accounted for by the combined effect of the variations in the solar and magnetic activities.