A Novel Approach of Despeckling SAR Images Using Nonlocal Means Filtering

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a day and night, all weather satellite imaging technology. Inherent property of SAR image is speckle noise which produces granular patterns in the image. Speckle noise occurs due to the interference of backscattered echo from earth’s rough surface. There are various speckle reduction techniques in spatial domain and transform domain. Non local means filtering (NLMF) is the technique used for denoising which uses Gaussian weights. In NLMF algorithm, the filtering is performed by taking the weighted mean of all the pixels in a selected search area. The weight given to the pixel is based on the similarity measure calculated as the weighted Euclidean distance over the two windows. Non local means filtering smoothes out homogeneous areas but edges are not preserved. So a discontinuity adaptive weight is used in order to preserve heterogeneous areas like edges. This technique is called as discontinuity adaptive non local means filtering and is well-adapted and robust in the case of Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) model. But speckle is a multiplicative random noise and hence Euclidean distance is not a good choice. This paper presents evaluation results of using different distance measures for improving the accuracy of the Non local means filtering technique. The results are verified using real and synthetic images and from the results it can be concluded that the usage of Manhattan distance improves the accuracy of NLMF technique. Non local approach is used as a preprocessing or post processing technique for many denoising algorithms. So improving NLMF technique would help improving many of the existing denoising techniques.     

Peninsular Indian rainfall and its association with meteorological and oceanic parameters over the Indian Ocean

The present study attempts to formulate a regression model to predict summer rainfall over Peninsular India (PIR) using some regional predictors. Parameters having significant correlation (99%) with PIR were identified for the period 1975–1997 (training), and a 15-year sliding correlation (90%) was found to check the consistency of the relationship between PIR and predictors. From a set of 14 candidate predictors, 4 were selected using a stepwise regression method and tested over a period from 1998 to 2006. The predictors selected are sea surface temperature during March over Indian Ocean, air temperature at 850?hPa during May over Peninsular India, zonal, and meridional wind at 700?hPa during February and January, respectively, over the Arabian Sea. The model captures a variance of 77.7% and has a multiple correlation of 0.88. The root mean square error, absolute mean error, and bias for the training (test) period were 7.6% (21.5%), 6.6% (17.9%), and 0% (11.4%) of mean rainfall, respectively. Results of the climatological predictions show that the model developed is useful.     

Geodynamics of NW India: Subduction, lithospheric flexure, ridges and seismicity

Spectral analysis of digital data of the Bouguer anomaly map of NW India suggests maximum depth of causative sources as 134 km that represents the regional field and coincides with the upwarped lithosphere — asthenosphere boundary as inferred from seismic tomography. This upwarping of the Indian plate in this section is related to the lithospheric flexure due to its down thrusting along the Himalayan front. The other causative layers are located at depths of 33, 17, and 6 km indicating depth to the sources along the Moho, lower crust and the basement under Ganga foredeep, the former two also appear to be upwarped as crustal bulge with respect to their depths in adjoining sections. The gravity and the geoid anomaly maps of the NW India provide two specific trends, NW-SE and NE-SW oriented highs due to the lithospheric flexure along the NW Himalayan fold belt in the north and the Western fold belt (Kirthar -Sulaiman ranges, Pakistan) and the Aravalli Delhi Fold Belt (ADFB) in the west, respectively. The lithospheric flexures also manifest them self as crustal bulge and shallow basement ridges such as Delhi — Lahore — Sagodha ridge and Jaisalmer — Ganganagar ridge. There are other NE-SW oriented gravity and geoid highs that may be related to thermal events such as plumes that affected this region. The ADFB and its margin faults extend through Ganga basin and intersect the NW Himalayan front in the Nahan salient and the Dehradun reentrant that are more seismogenic. Similarly, the extension of NE-SW oriented gravity highs associated with Jaisalmer — Ganganagar flexure and ridge towards the Himalayan front meets the gravity highs of the Kangra reentrant that is also seismogenic and experienced a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 1905. Even parts of the lithospheric flexure and related basement ridge of Delhi — Lahore — Sargodha show more seismic activity in its western part and around Delhi as compared to other parts. The geoid highs over the Jaisalmer — Ganganagar ridge passes through Kachchh rift and connects it to plate boundaries towards the SW (Murray ridge) and NW (Kirthar range) that makes the Kachchh as a part of a diffused plate boundary, which, is one of the most seismogenic regions with large scale mafic intrusive that is supported from 3-D seismic tomography. The modeling of regional gravity field along a profile, Ganganagar — Chandigarh extended beyond the Main Central Thrust (MCT) constrained from the various seismic studies across different parts of the Himalaya suggests crustal thickening from 35-36 km under plains up to ～56 km under the MCT for a density of 3.1 g/cm³ and 3.25 g/cm³ of the lower most crust and the upper mantle, respectively. An upwarping of ～3 km in the Moho, crust and basement south of the Himalayan frontal thrusts is noticed due to the lithospheric flexure. High density for the lower most crust indicates partial eclogitization that releases copious fluid that may cause reduction of density in the upper mantle due to sepentinization (3.25 g/cm³). It has also been reported from some other sections of Himalaya. Modeling of the residual gravity and magnetic fields along the same profile suggest gravity highs and lows of NW India to be caused by basement ridges and depressions, respectively. Basement also shows high susceptibility indicating their association with mafic rocks. High density and high magnetization rocks in the basement north of Chandigarh may represent part of the ADFB extending to the Himalayan front primarily in the Nahan salient. The Nahan salient shows a basement uplift of ～ 2 km that appears to have diverted courses of major rivers on either sides of it. The shallow crustal model has also delineated major Himalayan thrusts that merge subsurface into the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT), which, is a decollment plane.     

Spherical variable-energy blast wave in self-gravitating gas

Modified similarity method has been used to study the propagation of spherical-variable energy blast waves through a self-gravitating gas. For an energy inputE =E ₀t^4/3, whereE is the energy released up to timet andE ₀ is a functional constant, the similarity solutions correct up to third approximation have been obtained. It is found that the effects of self-gravitational forces are of third order. An increase in the parameterA ² (characterising the gravitational field) increases the shock velocity.     

Movement of seasonal eddies and its relation with cyclonic heat potential and cyclogenesis points in the Bay of Bengal

Movement of seasonal eddies in the Bay of Bengal (BOB) and its relation with cyclonic heat potential (CHP) and cyclogenesis points have been investigated in this study using 6 years (2002–2007) of global ocean monthly analysis datasets based on the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) package (SODA v2.0.4) of Carton et al. (2005) and Indian Meteorological Department cyclogenesis points. The region dominated by anticyclonic eddies with CHP greater than 70 × 10⁷ J/m² as well as good correlations (>0.9) with sea surface height (SSH) and 26°C isothermal depth (D ₂₆) can be a potential region of cyclogenesis. The region dominated by cyclonic eddies with CHP greater than 50 × 10⁷ J/m² and good correlation (>0.9) with both SSH and D ₂₆ can serve as a potential region of high-level depression. Potential cyclogenesis regions are the southern BOB (5°N–12°N) for the post-monsoon season and the head of BOB (north of 15°N) during southwest monsoon. Seven potential regions are identified for the eddy formation for different seasons, which are consistent with the cyclogenesis points. The CHP distributions alone are able to explain the cyclone tracks for the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons but not for the monsoon season.     

Seismic source characteristics in Kachchh and Saurashtra regions of Western India: <Emphasis Type="Italic">b</Emphasis>-value and fractal dimension mapping of aftershock sequences

Seismic source characteristics in the Kachchh rift basin and Saurashtra horst tectonic blocks in the stable continental region (SCR) of western peninsular India are studied using the earthquake catalog data for the period 2006–2011 recorded by a 52-station broadband seismic network known as Gujarat State Network (GSNet) running by Institute of Seismological Research (ISR), Gujarat. These data are mainly the aftershock sequences of three mainshocks, the 2001 Bhuj earthquake (M _w 7.7) in the Kachchh rift basin, and the 2007 and 2011 Talala earthquakes (M _w ≥ 5.0) in the Saurashtra horst. Two important seismological parameters, the frequency–magnitude relation (b-value) and the fractal correlation dimension (D _c) of the hypocenters, are estimated. The b-value and the D _c maps indicate a difference in seismic characteristics of these two tectonic regions. The average b-value in Kachchh region is 1.2 ± 0.05 and that in the Saurashtra region 0.7 ± 0.04. The average D _c in Kachchh is 2.64 ± 0.01 and in Saurashtra 2.46 ± 0.01. The hypocenters in Kachchh rift basin cluster at a depth range 20–35 km and that in Saurashtra at 5–10 km. The b-value and D _c cross sections image the seismogenic structures that shed new light on seismotectonics of these two tectonic regions. The mainshock sources at depth are identified as lower b-value or stressed zones at the fault end. Crustal heterogeneities are well reflected in the maps as well as in the cross sections. We also find a positive correlation between b- and D _c-values in both the tectonic regions.     

Characterizing groundwater recharge using oxygen and hydrogen isotopes: a case study in a temperate forested region,South Korea

In the cool temperate region of South Korea, oxygen and hydrogen isotopes of groundwater, lake water, and precipitation were studied to determine the season of groundwater recharge. All the groundwater samples, irrespective of season, on δ¹⁸O–δ²H scale plotted along the summer precipitation, suggesting summer precipitation largely modulates recharge. The deuterium excess values of groundwater (d-excess) show clear seasonal difference, higher in winter (> 18‰) and lower in summer (< 10‰). And its resemblance to the summer precipitation d-excess value further suggests dominant role of summer precipitation in groundwater recharge. Based on the mass balance equation, with end-member d-excess values of seasonal precipitation and groundwater as input variables, groundwater is composed of 66% summer and 34% winter precipitation. Despite the study area being heavily forested, summer rainfall contribution higher than winter suggests that evapotranspiration effect is minimal in the region; may be due to thin sand–gravel-based porous soil overlying highly weathered granitic rock system.     

Spatial and temporal variation in daily temperature indices in summer and winter seasons over India (1969–2012)

Spatial and temporal variations in summer and winter extreme temperature indices are studied by using daily maximum and minimum temperatures data from 227 surface meteorological stations well distributed over India for the period 1969–2012. For this purpose, time series for six extreme temperature indices namely, hot days (HD), very hot days (VHD), extremely hot days (EHD), cold nights (CN), very cold nights (VCN), and extremely cold nights (ECN) are calculated for all the stations. In addition, time series for mean extreme temperature indices of summer and winter seasons are also analyzed. Study reveals high variability in spatial distribution of threshold temperatures of extreme temperature indices over the country. In general, increasing trends are observed in summer hot days indices and decreasing trends in winter cold night indices over most parts of the country. The results obtained in this study indicate warming in summer maximum and winter minimum temperatures over India. Averaged over India, trends in summer hot days indices HD, VHD, and EHD are significantly increasing (+1.0, +0.64, and +0.32 days/decade, respectively) and winter cold night indices CN, VCN, and ECN are significantly decreasing (−0.93, −0.47, and −0.15 days/decade, respectively). Also, it is observed that the impact of extreme temperature is higher along the west coast for summer and east coast for winter.