The X-ray jet and halo of PKS 0521−365

Chandra ACIS observations of PKS 0521−365 find that the X-ray emission of this BL Lac object consists of emission from an unresolved core, a diffuse halo and a 2-arcsec jet feature coincident with the inner radio/optical jet. A comparison with a new ATCA 8.6-GHz map also finds X-ray emission from the bright hotspot south-east of the nucleus. The jet spectrum, from radio to X-ray, is probably synchrotron emission from an electron population with a broken power-law energy distribution, and resembles the spectra seen from the jets of low-power (FR I) radio galaxies. The hotspot X-ray flux is consistent with the expectations of synchrotron self-Compton emission from a plasma close to equipartition, as seen in studies of high-power (FR II) radio galaxies. While the angular structure of the halo is similar to that found by an analysis of the ROSAT High Resolution Imager image, its brightness is seen to be lower with Chandra , and the halo is best interpreted as thermal emission from an atmosphere of similar luminosity to the haloes around FR I radio galaxies. The X-ray properties of PKS 0521−365 are consistent with it being a foreshortened, beamed, radio galaxy.     

Optical Monitoring of bright Blazars with Automatic Telescopes

Well sampled light curves of BL Lac objects are very useful to understand the physical processes responsible for the highly variable emission from this class of AGN. The best way to perform the necessary high number of observations is the use of automatic small aperture telescopes. We present some results of the Perugia-Roma monitoring program concerning the recent active phase of BL Lac and the Intra-Day Variability of S5 0716+714. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Time evolution of orbital uncertainties for the impactor candidate 2004 AS1

We evaluate the asteroid impact risk from the discovery night onwards using six-dimensional statistical orbit computation techniques to examine the a posteriori probability density of the orbital elements. Close to the discovery moment the observational data of an object are typically exiguous: the number of observations is very small and/or the covered orbital arc is very short. For such data, the covariance matrices computed in the linear approximation (e.g., with the least-squares technique) are known to fail to describe the uncertainties in the orbital parameters. The technique of statistical ranging gives us rigorous means to assess the orbital uncertainties already on the discovery night. To examine the time evolution of orbital uncertainties, we make use of a new nonlinear Monte Carlo technique of phase-space sampling using volumes of variation, which complements the ranging technique for exiguous data and the least-squares technique for extensive observational data. We apply the statistical techniques to the near-Earth Asteroid 2004 AS₁, which grabbed the attention of asteroid scientists because, for one day, it posed the highest and most immediate impact risk so far recorded. We take this extreme case to illustrate the ambiguities in the impact risk assessment for short arcs. We confirm that the weighted fraction of the collision orbits at discovery was large but conclude that this was mostly due to the discordance of the discovery-night observations. This case study highlights the need to introduce a regularization in terms of an a priori probability density to secure the invariance of the probabilistic analysis especially in the nonlinear orbital inversion for short arcs. We remark that a predominant role of the a priori can give indications of the feasibility of the probabilistic interpretation, that is, how reliable the results derived from the a posteriori probability density are. Nevertheless, the strict mathematical definition of, e.g., the collision probability remains valid, and our nonlinear statistical techniques give us the means to always deduce, at the very least, order-of-magnitude-estimates for the collision probability.     

X-Ray Binaries in Nearby Galaxies

In the last few years Chandra observations have revolutionized the study of X-ray binaries by extending observed samples to extragalactic distances and stellar environments of varied star formation history. Here we summarize some of our results related to the interpretation of current observations of young star clusters and of elliptical galaxies.     

Blazar天体的红外偏振和变化研究

利用多波段同时性观测数据,研究了Blazar天体的近红外波段偏振与光学波段偏振的关系,发现两个波段的偏振度和偏振角之间都存在着很强的线性相关性．另外,两个波段的辐射流量也强烈相关．结果表明Blazr天体的近红外辐射主要来自于相对论电子的同步辐射,且与光学波段辐射来自于同一辐射区域．另外,利用2MASS数据还研究了近红外波段3个色指数J-H、H-K和J-K之间的相关性,发现J-H和H-K都与J-K强相关,但J-H与H-K之间没有相关性．最后研究了色指数-星等关系,表明在近红外波段Blazar天体变亮时谱形变平．     

网络中移动对象的2维时空数据模型

提出一种新的2维网络中移动对象的时空数据模型2-Dimensional Spatio-Temporal data model for Mov-ing Objects in Network(2DSTMON)。2DSTMON时空数据模型基于线性参考思想,将3维空间中的轨迹数据转换到2维空间中进行存储和管理,并采用运动矢量的数据更新方式,具有较小的数据量和较低的更新代价。最后,利用ESRI的ArcEngine实现并验证2DSTMON时空数据模型。     

不确定线-面拓扑关系的描述与判别

不确定线状目标和面状目标之间拓扑关系的描述是空间信息处理过程中经常面对的问题。在对不确定线状目标和面状目标进行描述的基础上,对不确定线状目标与面状目标各组成部分之间的相交程度进行了定量表达,通过计算这些度量组成的空间向量与9-交集模型确定的空间关系向量之间的相关度,提出了一种不确定线状目标和面状目标之间拓扑关系的描述模型,通过定量的方法来对其空间拓扑关系进行判别。     

基于ComGIS的典型地物波谱特性数据库研究

典型地物波谱数据库是遥感定量分析和计算机智能提取地物类型的基础数据,是进行地物识别的重要参照系,可用于遥感技术应用项目的数据分析。本文介绍了典型地物波谱数据库系统软件设计的研究内容,包括系统结构的组织、系统环境的集成、功能设计,系统界面设计以及系统的关键技术分析等。     

建筑物三维表面模型简化算法探讨

模型简化是近年来计算机图形学中的一个研究热点,并已在虚拟现实、可视化、实时渲染、计算机视觉和渐进传输等众多方向得到广泛应用。本文针对3D建筑物表面模型的自动简化处理,首先对现有模型简化算法及各自的优缺点进行了归纳总结,分析了现有3D建筑物模型简化算法存在的问题,并探讨了3D建筑物表面模型的简化思路。