Evaluation of RADARSAT ScanSAR synthetic aperture radar data for rice crop inventory and monitoring

Radarsat ScanSAR Narrow (SN2) data acquired on July 24 and August 17, 1997 were used to analyse the signature of rice crop in West Bengal, India. The analysis showed that the lowland practice of cultivation gives a distinct signature to rice due to the initial water background. The relatively stable backscatter from water bodies in temporal data enhanced the separability of rice fields from water using two date data. Around 94 per cent classification accuracy was achieved for rice crop using two date data. It was feasible to discriminate rice sub-classes based on their planting period like early and late crop. The analysis indicates the suitability of ScanSAR data for large area rice crop monitoring as it has a wide swath of 300 km.     

Quantification of stability improvement of a dump through biological reclamation

An integrated study on biological stabilisation of a dump slope has indicated that biological reclamation with grass and tree species should be considered for long term stability of this coal mine dump in India. The grasses have greater soil binding capacity and help to control soil erosion and improve dump stability. Native grasses such as Bamboo (Dendrocalmus strictus) and Kashi (Saccharum spontaneum) are the important constituents of grass species which can stabilise the dump slopes. Field observation of growth performance of grasses have indicated that mean grass height, root depth and below-ground root biomass are 185 cm (±68), 45 cm (±5) and 467 g m^–2 (±170), respectively after three years of grass growth on Mudidih overburden dump slope in India. The growth performance of tree species, namely Sisum (Dalbergia sisoo) and Subabool (Leucena lecocephala), in terms of height, diameter increment, below-ground biomass and root depth have shown mean values of 219 cm (±94), 48 mm (±6), 4.0 kg m^–2 (±1.5) and 1 m (±0.1), respectively. This acts as biological fertility which helps in root proliferation and enhancement of dump stability. From the numerical modelling it is suggested that roots of these grass and tree species have significantly enhanced the factor of safety of dump from 1.4 to 1.8 and therefore have a positive role in maintaining long term stability.     

Gravitational Field of Domain Walls in Higher Dimension

In this paper, we study the gravitational field of domain wall in fivedimensional space-time. Exact solutions of Einstein's equations for a scalarfield with a potential V(Ø) are presented, describing thegravitational field of plane symmetric domain walls. The solution showsthat the energy density as well as pressure in the perpendicular directionon both sides of the walls to be reflection symmetric with respect to thewalls.PACS numbers: 98.80 cq, 0450     

Analysis of pile subjected to torsion in multi‐layered soil

A new method of analysis of piles in multi‐layered elastic soil subjected to a torque at the head is developed. The differential equation governing the angle of twist in the pile is derived using the variational principles of mechanics. The method of initial parameters is used to obtain closed‐form solutions of the angle of twist and torque in the pile as a function of depth. The inputs required for the analysis are shear moduli of pile and soil, pile geometry and thickness of soil layers. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Higher-order gravity in anR 1×S 1×S 2 space-time

The action with general Lagrangian is transformed to the canonical form. The classical field equations are analysed for a particular choice of the Lagrangian. A study of the Wheeler-Dewitt equation has also been performed.     

Segmentation and classification of high spatial resolution images based on Hölder exponents and variance

Pixel-based or texture-based classification technique individually does not yield an appropriate result in classifying the high spatial resolution remote sensing imagery since it comprises textured and non-textured regions. In this study, Hölder exponents (HE) and variance (VAR) are used together to transform the image for measuring texture. A threshold is derived to segment the transformed image into textured and non-textured regions. Subsequently, the original image is extracted into textured and non-textured regions using this segmented image mask. Afterward, extracted textured region is classified using ISODATA classification algorithm considering HE, VAR, and intensity values of individual pixel of textured region. And extracted non-textured region of the image is classified using ISODATA classification algorithm. In case of non-textured region, HE and VAR value of individual pixel is not considered for classification for significant textural variation is not found among different classes. Consequently, the classified outputs of non-textured and textured regions that are generated independently are merged together to get the final classified image. IKONOS 1 m PAN images are classified using the proposed algorithm, and the classification accuracy is more than 88%.     

Understanding Diurnality and Inter-Seasonality of a Sub-tropical Urban Heat Island

We quantify the spatial and temporal aspects of the urban heat-island (UHI) effect for Kanpur, a major city in the humid sub-tropical monsoon climate of the Gangetic basin. Fixed station measurements are used to investigate the diurnality and inter-seasonality in the urban–rural differences in surface temperature (\({\Delta } T_\mathrm{s}\)) and air temperature (\({\Delta } T_\mathrm{c}\)) separately. The extent of the spatial variations of the nighttime \({\Delta } T_\mathrm{c}\) and \({\Delta } T_\mathrm{s}\) is investigated through mobile campaigns and satellite remote sensing respectively. Nighttime \({\Delta } T_\mathrm{c}\) values dominate during both the pre-monsoon (maximum of 3.6 \(^\circ \hbox {C}\)) and the monsoon (maximum of 2.0 \(^\circ \hbox {C}\)). However, the diurnality in \({\Delta } T_\mathrm{s}\) is different, with higher daytime values during the pre-monsoon, but very little diurnality during the monsoon. The nighttime \({\Delta } T_\mathrm{s}\) value is mainly associated with differences in the urban–rural incoming longwave radiative flux (\(r^{2}=0.33\) during the pre-monsoon; 0.65 during the monsoon), which, in turn, causes a difference in the outgoing longwave radiative flux. This difference may modulate the nighttime \({\Delta } T_\mathrm{c}\) value as suggested by significant correlations (\(r^{2}=0.68\) for the pre-monsoon; 0.50 for the monsoon). The magnitude of \({\Delta } T_\mathrm{c}\) may also be modulated by advection, as it is inversely related with the urban wind speed. A combination of in situ, remotely sensed, and model simulation data were used to show that the inter-seasonality in \({\Delta } T_\mathrm{s}\), and, to a lesser extent, in \({\Delta } T_\mathrm{c}\), may be related to the change in the land use of the rural site between the pre-monsoon and the monsoon periods. Results suggest that the degree of coupling of \({\Delta } T_\mathrm{s}\) and \({\Delta } T_\mathrm{c}\) may be a strong function of land use and land cover.     

Evening twilight OH (7,2) band emission at Calcutta and its covariation with LI 6708 Å

Evening twilight airglow emissions of OH (7,2) band and Li 6708 Å are observed by Dunn-Manring type photometer and following important results are obtained.

1. Intensity of OH (7,2) and Li (6708 Å) decrease exponentially during evening twilight period.
2. OH (7,2) band covaries with Li (6708 Å) during evening twilight period.
3. Empirical equations of OH (7,2) band with time is obtained.
4. Possible explanations of such type of variations is also presented.

     

A study of Brans-Dicke theory in FRW-model

In FRW space time Brans-Dicke theory is developed for two cases: (i) the vacuum and (ii) the perfect fluid model. The field equations are transformed into a much simpler form under a change of time co-ordinates and then the solutions are determined for the above cases. An equation of statep =/3 (radiation) is assumed in the case of perfect fluid.