Feasibility of utilizing Cherenkov Telescope Array gamma-ray telescopes as free-space optical communication ground stations.

PubMed

Carrasco-Casado, Alberto; Vilera, Mariafernanda; Vergaz, Ricardo; Cabrero, Juan Francisco

2013-04-10

The signals that will be received on Earth from deep-space probes in future implementations of free-space optical communication will be extremely weak, and new ground stations will have to be developed in order to support these links. This paper addresses the feasibility of using the technology developed in the gamma-ray telescopes that will make up the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) observatory in the implementation of a new kind of ground station. Among the main advantages that these telescopes provide are the much larger apertures needed to overcome the power limitation that ground-based gamma-ray astronomy and optical communication both have. Also, the large number of big telescopes that will be built for CTA will make it possible to reduce costs by economy-scale production, enabling optical communications in the large telescopes that will be needed for future deep-space links.

Molecular clouds and the large-scale structure of the galaxy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thaddeus, Patrick; Stacy, J. Gregory

1990-01-01

The application of molecular radio astronomy to the study of the large-scale structure of the Galaxy is reviewed and the distribution and characteristic properties of the Galactic population of Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs), derived primarily from analysis of the Columbia CO survey, and their relation to tracers of Population 1 and major spiral features are described. The properties of the local molecular interstellar gas are summarized. The CO observing programs currently underway with the Center for Astrophysics 1.2 m radio telescope are described, with an emphasis on projects relevant to future comparison with high-energy gamma-ray observations. Several areas are discussed in which high-energy gamma-ray observations by the EGRET (Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope) experiment aboard the Gamma Ray Observatory will directly complement radio studies of the Milky Way, with the prospect of significant progress on fundamental issues related to the structure and content of the Galaxy.

A Future Large-Aperture UVOIR Space Observatory: Key Technologies and Capabilities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolcar, Matthew Ryan; Stahle, Carl M.; Balasubramaniam, Kunjithapatham; Clampin, Mark; Feinberg, Lee D.; Mosier, Gary E.; Quijada, Manuel A.; Rauscher, Bernard J.; Redding, David C.; Rioux, Norman M.;

Beyond concordance cosmology with magnification of gravitational-wave standard sirens.

PubMed

Camera, Stefano; Nishizawa, Atsushi

2013-04-12

We show how future gravitational-wave detectors would be able to discriminate between the concordance Λ cold dark matter cosmological model and up-to-date competing alternatives, e.g., dynamical dark energy (DE) models or modified gravity (MG) theories. Our method consists of using the weak-lensing magnification effect that affects a standard-siren signal because of its traveling through the Universe's large scale structure. As a demonstration, we present constraints on DE and MG from proposed gravitational-wave detectors, namely Einstein Telescope and DECI-Hertz Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory and Big-Bang Observer.

Property and instrumental heritage of the Bordeaux Astronomical Observatory; What future?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de La Noë, J.; Charlot, P.; Grousset, F.

2009-11-01

In the years 1870, the Government of the Third Republic decided to develop scientific and technical research. Such an effort contributed to supporting and creating universities and other institutes such as astronomical observatories. The dual wish of the Bordeaux council and professors at the Faculté des Sciences de Bordeaux led to the foundation of the astronomical Observatory of Bordeaux. It was set up by Georges Rayet in the years 1880's. The observatory owns a property of 12 hectares with a dozen of buildings, five domes housing an instrument, a Würzburg radiotelescope, a 2.5 meter radiotelescope, and a large collection of about 250 instruments, 4 500 photographic plates, drawings, slides for teaching astronomy, maps of the Carte du Ciel and 200 files of archives. In addition, the library contains about a thousand books for the period 1600-1950. The future of the observatory is not clear at the present time, when the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique will leave to the campus in a few years.

X6.9-CLASS FLARE-INDUCED VERTICAL KINK OSCILLATIONS IN A LARGE-SCALE PLASMA CURTAIN AS OBSERVED BY THE SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY/ATMOSPHERIC IMAGING ASSEMBLY

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Srivastava, A. K.; Goossens, M.

2013-11-01

We present rare observational evidence of vertical kink oscillations in a laminar and diffused large-scale plasma curtain as observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The X6.9-class flare in active region 11263 on 2011 August 9 induces a global large-scale disturbance that propagates in a narrow lane above the plasma curtain and creates a low density region that appears as a dimming in the observational image data. This large-scale propagating disturbance acts as a non-periodic driver that interacts asymmetrically and obliquely with the top of the plasma curtain and triggers the observed oscillations. In themore » deeper layers of the curtain, we find evidence of vertical kink oscillations with two periods (795 s and 530 s). On the magnetic surface of the curtain where the density is inhomogeneous due to coronal dimming, non-decaying vertical oscillations are also observed (period ≈ 763-896 s). We infer that the global large-scale disturbance triggers vertical kink oscillations in the deeper layers as well as on the surface of the large-scale plasma curtain. The properties of the excited waves strongly depend on the local plasma and magnetic field conditions.« less

Community Observatories: Fostering Ideas that STEM From Ocean Sense: Local Observations. Global Connections.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pelz, M. S.; Ewing, N.; Hoeberechts, M.; Riddell, D. J.; McLean, M. A.; Brown, J. C. K.

2015-12-01

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) uses education and communication to inspire, engage and educate via innovative "meet them where they are, and take them where they need to go" programs. ONC data are accessible via the internet allowing for the promotion of programs wherever the learners are located. We use technologies such as web portals, mobile apps and citizen science to share ocean science data with many different audiences. Here we focus specifically on one of ONC's most innovative programs: community observatories and the accompanying Ocean Sense program. The approach is based on equipping communities with the same technology enabled on ONC's large cabled observatories. ONC operates the world-leading NEPTUNE and VENUS cabled ocean observatories and they collect data on physical, chemical, biological, and geological aspects of the ocean over long time periods, supporting research on complex Earth processes in ways not previously possible. Community observatories allow for similar monitoring on a smaller scale, and support STEM efforts via a teacher-led program: Ocean Sense. This program, based on local observations and global connections improves data-rich teaching and learning via visualization tools, interactive plotting interfaces and lesson plans for teachers that focus on student inquiry and exploration. For example, students use all aspects of STEM by accessing, selecting, and interpreting data in multiple dimensions, from their local community observatories to the larger VENUS and NEPTUNE networks. The students make local observations and global connections in all STEM areas. The first year of the program with teachers and students who use this innovative technology is described. Future community observatories and their technological applications in education, communication and STEM efforts are also described.

Ares V and Future Very Large Launch Vehicles to Enable Major Astronomical Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thronson, Harley A.; Lester, Daniel F.; Langhoff, Stephanie R.; Corell, Randy; Stahl, H. Philip

2008-01-01

The current NASA architecture intended to return humans to the lunar surface includes the Ares V cargo launch vehicle, which is planned to be available within a decade. The capabilities designed for Ares V would permit an 8.8-m diameter, 55 mT payload to be carried to Sun-Earth L1,2 locations. That is, this vehicle could launch very large optical systems to achieve major scientific goals that would otherwise be very difficult. For example, an 8-m monolith UV/visual/IR telescope appears able to be launched to a Sun-Earth L2 location. Even larger apertures that are deployed or assembled seem possible. Alternatively, multiple elements of a spatial array or two or three astronomical observatories might be launched simultaneously. Over the years, scientists and engineers have been evaluating concepts for astronomical observatories that use future large launch vehicles. In this presentation, we report on results of a recent workshop held at NASA Ames Research Center that have improved understanding of the science goals that can be achieved using Ares V. While such a vehicle uniquely enables few of the observatory concepts considered at the workshop, most have a baseline mission that can be flown on existing or near-future vehicles. However, the performance of the Ares V permits design concepts (e.g., large monolithic mirrors) that reduce complexity and risk.

Challenges and Opportunities to Developing Synergies Among Diverse Environmental Observatories: FSML, NEON, and GLEON

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williamson, C. E.; Weathers, K. C.; Knoll, L. B.; Brentrup, J.

2012-12-01

Recent rapid advances in sensor technology and cyberinfrastructure have enabled the development of numerous environmental observatories ranging from local networks at field stations and marine laboratories (FSML) to continental scale observatories such as the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) to global scale observatories such as the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON). While divergent goals underlie the initial development of these observatories, and they are often designed to serve different communities, many opportunities for synergies exist. In addition, the use of existing infrastructure may enhance the cost-effectiveness of building and maintaining large scale observatories. For example, FSMLs are established facilities with the staff and infrastructure to host sensor nodes of larger networks. Many field stations have existing staff and long-term databases as well as smaller sensor networks that are the product of a single or small group of investigators with a unique data management system embedded in a local or regional community. These field station based facilities and data are a potentially untapped gold mine for larger continental and global scale observatories; common ecological and environmental challenges centered on understanding the impacts of changing climate, land use, and invasive species often underlie these efforts. The purpose of this talk is to stimulate a dialog on the challenges of merging efforts across these different spatial and temporal scales, as well as addressing how to develop synergies among observatory networks with divergent roots and philosophical approaches. For example, FSMLs have existing long-term databases and facilities, while NEON has sparse past data but a well-developed template and closely coordinated team working in a coherent format across a continental scale. GLEON on the other hand is a grass-roots network of experts in science, information technology, and engineering with a common goal of building a scalable network around the world to understand and predict how lakes respond to global change. Creating synergies among networks at these divergent scales requires open discussions ranging from data collection and management to data serving and sharing. Coordination of these efforts can provide an additional opportunity to educate both students and the public in innovative new ways about the broader continental to global scale of ecological and environmental challenges that they have observed in their more local ecosystems.

Constraints on the Origin of Cosmic Rays above 1018 eV from Large-scale Anisotropy Searches in Data of the Pierre Auger Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pierre Auger Collaboration; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.; Ahlers, M.; Ahn, E. J.; Albuquerque, I. F. M.; Allard, D.; Allekotte, I.; Allen, J.; Allison, P.; Almela, A.; Alvarez Castillo, J.; Alvarez-Muñiz, J.; Alves Batista, R.; Ambrosio, M.; Aminaei, A.; Anchordoqui, L.; Andringa, S.; Antiči'c, T.; Aramo, C.; Arganda, E.; Arqueros, F.; Asorey, H.; Assis, P.; Aublin, J.; Ave, M.; Avenier, M.; Avila, G.; Badescu, A. M.; Balzer, M.; Barber, K. B.; Barbosa, A. F.; Bardenet, R.; Barroso, S. L. C.; Baughman, B.; Bäuml, J.; Baus, C.; Beatty, J. J.; Becker, K. H.; Bellétoile, A.; Bellido, J. A.; BenZvi, S.; Berat, C.; Bertou, X.; Biermann, P. L.; Billoir, P.; Blanco, F.; Blanco, M.; Bleve, C.; Blümer, H.; Boháčová, M.; Boncioli, D.; Bonifazi, C.; Bonino, R.; Borodai, N.; Brack, J.; Brancus, I.; Brogueira, P.; Brown, W. C.; Bruijn, R.; Buchholz, P.; Bueno, A.; Buroker, L.; Burton, R. E.; Caballero-Mora, K. S.; Caccianiga, B.; Caramete, L.; Caruso, R.; Castellina, A.; Catalano, O.; Cataldi, G.; Cazon, L.; Cester, R.; Chauvin, J.; Cheng, S. H.; Chiavassa, A.; Chinellato, J. A.; Chirinos Diaz, J.; Chudoba, J.; Cilmo, M.; Clay, R. W.; Cocciolo, G.; Collica, L.; Coluccia, M. R.; Conceição, R.; Contreras, F.; Cook, H.; Cooper, M. J.; Coppens, J.; Cordier, A.; Coutu, S.; Covault, C. E.; Creusot, A.; Criss, A.; Cronin, J.; Curutiu, A.; Dagoret-Campagne, S.; Dallier, R.; Daniel, B.; Dasso, S.; Daumiller, K.; Dawson, B. R.; de Almeida, R. M.; De Domenico, M.; De Donato, C.; de Jong, S. J.; De La Vega, G.; de Mello Junior, W. J. M.; de Mello Neto, J. R. T.; De Mitri, I.; de Souza, V.; de Vries, K. D.; del Peral, L.; del Río, M.; Deligny, O.; Dembinski, H.; Dhital, N.; Di Giulio, C.; Díaz Castro, M. L.; Diep, P. N.; Diogo, F.; Dobrigkeit, C.; Docters, W.; D'Olivo, J. C.; Dong, P. N.; Dorofeev, A.; dos Anjos, J. C.; Dova, M. T.; D'Urso, D.; Dutan, I.; Ebr, J.; Engel, R.; Erdmann, M.; Escobar, C. O.; Espadanal, J.; Etchegoyen, A.; Facal San Luis, P.; Falcke, H.; Fang, K.; Farrar, G.; Fauth, A. C.; Fazzini, N.; Ferguson, A. P.; Fick, B.; Figueira, J. M.; Filevich, A.; Filipčič, A.; Fliescher, S.; Fracchiolla, C. E.; Fraenkel, E. D.; Fratu, O.; Fröhlich, U.; Fuchs, B.; Gaior, R.; Gamarra, R. F.; Gambetta, S.; García, B.; Garcia Roca, S. T.; Garcia-Gamez, D.; Garcia-Pinto, D.; Garilli, G.; Gascon Bravo, A.; Gemmeke, H.; Ghia, P. L.; Giller, M.; Gitto, J.; Glass, H.; Gold, M. S.; Golup, G.; Gomez Albarracin, F.; Gómez Berisso, M.; Gómez Vitale, P. F.; Gonçalves, P.; Gonzalez, J. G.; Gookin, B.; Gorgi, A.; Gouffon, P.; Grashorn, E.; Grebe, S.; Griffith, N.; Grillo, A. F.; Guardincerri, Y.; Guarino, F.; Guedes, G. P.; Hansen, P.; Harari, D.; Harrison, T. A.; Harton, J. L.; Haungs, A.; Hebbeker, T.; Heck, D.; Herve, A. E.; Hill, G. C.; Hojvat, C.; Hollon, N.; Holmes, V. C.; Homola, P.; Hörandel, J. R.; Horvath, P.; Hrabovský, M.; Huber, D.; Huege, T.; Insolia, A.; Ionita, F.; Italiano, A.; Jansen, S.; Jarne, C.; Jiraskova, S.; Josebachuili, M.; Kadija, K.; Kampert, K. H.; Karhan, P.; Kasper, P.; Katkov, I.; Kégl, B.; Keilhauer, B.; Keivani, A.; Kelley, J. L.; Kemp, E.; Kieckhafer, R. M.; Klages, H. O.; Kleifges, M.; Kleinfeller, J.; Knapp, J.; Koang, D.-H.; Kotera, K.; Krohm, N.; Krömer, O.; Kruppke-Hansen, D.; Kuempel, D.; Kulbartz, J. K.; Kunka, N.; La Rosa, G.; Lachaud, C.; LaHurd, D.; Latronico, L.; Lauer, R.; Lautridou, P.; Le Coz, S.; Leão, M. S. A. B.; Lebrun, D.; Lebrun, P.; Leigui de Oliveira, M. A.; Letessier-Selvon, A.; Lhenry-Yvon, I.; Link, K.; López, R.; Lopez Agüera, A.; Louedec, K.; Lozano Bahilo, J.; Lu, L.; Lucero, A.; Ludwig, M.; Lyberis, H.; Maccarone, M. C.; Macolino, C.; Maldera, S.; Maller, J.; Mandat, D.; Mantsch, P.; Mariazzi, A. G.; Marin, J.; Marin, V.; Maris, I. C.; Marquez Falcon, H. R.; Marsella, G.; Martello, D.; Martin, L.; Martinez, H.; Martínez Bravo, O.; Martraire, D.; Masías Meza, J. J.; Mathes, H. J.; Matthews, J.; Matthews, J. A. J.; Matthiae, G.; Maurel, D.; Maurizio, D.; Mazur, P. O.; Medina-Tanco, G.; Melissas, M.; Melo, D.; Menichetti, E.; Menshikov, A.; Mertsch, P.; Messina, S.; Meurer, C.; Meyhandan, R.; Mi'canovi'c, S.; Micheletti, M. I.; Minaya, I. A.; Miramonti, L.; Molina-Bueno, L.; Mollerach, S.; Monasor, M.; Monnier Ragaigne, D.; Montanet, F.; Morales, B.; Morello, C.; Moreno, E.; Moreno, J. C.; Mostafá, M.; Moura, C. A.; Muller, M. A.; Müller, G.; Münchmeyer, M.; Mussa, R.; Navarra, G.; Navarro, J. L.; Navas, S.; Necesal, P.; Nellen, L.; Nelles, A.; Neuser, J.; Nhung, P. T.; Niechciol, M.; Niemietz, L.; Nierstenhoefer, N.; Nitz, D.; Nosek, D.; Nožka, L.; Oehlschläger, J.; Olinto, A.; Ortiz, M.; Pacheco, N.; Pakk Selmi-Dei, D.; Palatka, M.; Pallotta, J.; Palmieri, N.; Parente, G.; Parizot, E.; Parra, A.; Pastor, S.; Paul, T.; Pech, M.; Peķala, J.; Pelayo, R.; Pepe, I. M.; Perrone, L.; Pesce, R.; Petermann, E.; Petrera, S.; Petrolini, A.; Petrov, Y.; Pfendner, C.; Piegaia, R.; Pierog, T.; Pieroni, P.; Pimenta, M.; Pirronello, V.; Platino, M.; Plum, M.; Ponce, V. H.; Pontz, M.; Porcelli, A.; Privitera, P.; Prouza, M.; Quel, E. J.; Querchfeld, S.; Rautenberg, J.; Ravel, O.; Ravignani, D.; Revenu, B.; Ridky, J.; Riggi, S.; Risse, M.; Ristori, P.; Rivera, H.; Rizi, V.; Roberts, J.; Rodrigues de Carvalho, W.; Rodriguez, G.; Rodriguez Cabo, I.; Rodriguez Martino, J.; Rodriguez Rojo, J.; Rodríguez-Frías, M. D.; Ros, G.; Rosado, J.; Rossler, T.; Roth, M.; Rouillé-d'Orfeuil, B.; Roulet, E.; Rovero, A. C.; Rühle, C.; Saftoiu, A.; Salamida, F.; Salazar, H.; Salesa Greus, F.; Salina, G.; Sánchez, F.; Santo, C. E.; Santos, E.; Santos, E. M.; Sarazin, F.; Sarkar, B.; Sarkar, S.; Sato, R.; Scharf, N.; Scherini, V.; Schieler, H.; Schiffer, P.; Schmidt, A.; Scholten, O.; Schoorlemmer, H.; Schovancova, J.; Schovánek, P.; Schröder, F.; Schuster, D.; Sciutto, S. J.; Scuderi, M.; Segreto, A.; Settimo, M.; Shadkam, A.; Shellard, R. C.; Sidelnik, I.; Sigl, G.; Silva Lopez, H. H.; Sima, O.; 'Smiałkowski, A.; Šmída, R.; Snow, G. R.; Sommers, P.; Sorokin, J.; Spinka, H.; Squartini, R.; Srivastava, Y. N.; Stanic, S.; Stapleton, J.; Stasielak, J.; Stephan, M.; Stutz, A.; Suarez, F.; Suomijärvi, T.; Supanitsky, A. D.; Šuša, T.; Sutherland, M. S.; Swain, J.; Szadkowski, Z.; Szuba, M.; Tapia, A.; Tartare, M.; Taşcău, O.; Tcaciuc, R.; Thao, N. T.; Thomas, D.; Tiffenberg, J.; Timmermans, C.; Tkaczyk, W.; Todero Peixoto, C. J.; Toma, G.; Tomankova, L.; Tomé, B.; Tonachini, A.; Torralba Elipe, G.; Travnicek, P.; Tridapalli, D. B.; Tristram, G.; Trovato, E.; Tueros, M.; Ulrich, R.; Unger, M.; Urban, M.; Valdés Galicia, J. F.; Valiño, I.; Valore, L.; van Aar, G.; van den Berg, A. M.; van Velzen, S.; van Vliet, A.; Varela, E.; Vargas Cárdenas, B.; Vázquez, J. R.; Vázquez, R. A.; Veberič, D.; Verzi, V.; Vicha, J.; Videla, M.; Villaseñor, L.; Wahlberg, H.; Wahrlich, P.; Wainberg, O.; Walz, D.; Watson, A. A.; Weber, M.; Weidenhaupt, K.; Weindl, A.; Werner, F.; Westerhoff, S.; Whelan, B. J.; Widom, A.; Wieczorek, G.; Wiencke, L.; Wilczyńska, B.; Wilczyński, H.; Will, M.; Williams, C.; Winchen, T.; Wommer, M.; Wundheiler, B.; Yamamoto, T.; Yapici, T.; Younk, P.; Yuan, G.; Yushkov, A.; Zamorano Garcia, B.; Zas, E.; Zavrtanik, D.; Zavrtanik, M.; Zaw, I.; Zepeda, A.; Zhou, J.; Zhu, Y.; Zimbres Silva, M.; Ziolkowski, M.

2013-01-01

A thorough search for large-scale anisotropies in the distribution of arrival directions of cosmic rays detected above 1018 eV at the Pierre Auger Observatory is reported. For the first time, these large-scale anisotropy searches are performed as a function of both the right ascension and the declination and expressed in terms of dipole and quadrupole moments. Within the systematic uncertainties, no significant deviation from isotropy is revealed. Upper limits on dipole and quadrupole amplitudes are derived under the hypothesis that any cosmic ray anisotropy is dominated by such moments in this energy range. These upper limits provide constraints on the production of cosmic rays above 1018 eV, since they allow us to challenge an origin from stationary galactic sources densely distributed in the galactic disk and emitting predominantly light particles in all directions.

Designing a Gamma-Ray Telescope on a Budget

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2017-05-01

Major space-based observatories are imperative in astronomy, but they take a long time to plan, build, and launch and they arent cheap. A new study examines an interesting compromise: a low-cost, space-based gamma-ray detector that we could use while we wait for the next big observatory to launch.Coverage and sensitivity of past and future missions for the X-ray to gamma-ray energy range (click for a better look!). The only past mission to explore the 1 MeV region was COMPTEL, on board CGRO. e-ASTROGAM is a proposed future space mission that would explore this range. [Lucchetta et al. 2017]A Gap in CoverageIn the last few decades, weve significantly expanded our X-ray and gamma-ray viewof the sky. One part of the electromagnetic spectrum remains poorly explored, however: the approximate transition point between X-rays and gamma rays near 1 MeV.Space-based gamma-ray telescopes have been proposed for the future to better explore this energy range. But these major observatories have costs of around half a billion Euros and will take roughly a decade to build and launch. Is there a way to get eyes on this energy range sooner?Scaling Down with CubeSatA team of scientists led by Giulio Lucchetta (University of Padova and INFN Padova, Italy) has proposed an intriguing solution for the more immediate future: a nano-satellite telescope based on the CubeSat standard.Structure of the proposed gamma-ray detector, in a 2U CubeSat design. [Lucchetta et al. 2017]A CubeSat is a miniaturized satellite design that can be easily deployed in space, either from the International Space Station or by hitching a ride as a secondary payload on a large rocket. The size of a CubeSat is a standardized unit of measurement: a single CubeSat unit, or 1U, is a mere 10x10x10 cm and a maximum of 1.33 kg in weight.The gamma-ray telescope proposed by Lucchetta and collaborators would use a 2U standard for the instrument, so the instrument would be only 10x10x20 cm in size! The design for the telescope as a whole including the on-board electronics and flight system would likely require a 4U model.The teams proposed nanoscale observatory would be capable of detecting gamma rays from 100 keV up to a few MeV. In comparison to the major space-based observatories, this project would be very low-cost, at only half a million Euros and such a telescope could go from build to launch in about a year.Evaluating PerformanceEstimated sensitivity of the proposed nanoscale satellite telescope (for tracked, untracked, and pair production events) compared to that of COMPTEL. [Lucchetta et al. 2017]Cheaper and faster is great, but how would this project do in terms of quality? The authors performed simulations to examine the scientific performance of the proposed detector, evaluating its effective area, energy resolution, and angular resolution. Luchetta and collaborators show that while the scientific performance would be well below that expected for large future missions, it would likely be on par with the last detector to observe this region COMPTEL, on board the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.It seems that a nanoscale satellite like this one would helpfully cover the gap around 1 MeV and allow us to learn more about low-energy gamma rays while we wait for large future missions to launch. As an additional benefit, such a project could serve as a pathfinder mission to test technologies and algorithms to be used in larger missions in the future.CitationGiulio Lucchetta et al 2017 AJ 153 237. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aa6a1b

Ocean Observing at Axial Seamount: Details of the Current OOI-RSN Design Within the Context of the April 2011 Eruption

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Proskurowski, G.; Kelley, D. S.; Fundis, A. T.; Kawka, O.; Denny, G. F.; Delaney, J. R.

2011-12-01

In 2013, the NSF's Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) will deploy 22 instrument suites within the caldera of Axial Seamount as part of the cabled observatory component implemented by the Regional Scale Nodes (RSN) at the University of Washington. The cabled infrastructure will initially provide Axial caldera with a total of 8kW of power and 11Gbps of data bandwidth. Only an approximate 20% fraction will be used by "core instrumentation"-instrumentation supported and maintained by OOI-RSN. Thus, the OOI provided infrastructure is highly, and readily, expandable to include community-generated instrumention once the system is commissioned and begins operations in early 2015. Here we present the details of the current design of the cabled observatory at Axial Seamount, including locations of instruments, data products, and sampling rates placed in the context of meter scale resolution bathymetry and down-looking photomosaics of the experimental sites. The April 2011 Axial eruption is a demonstration of the importance of transmitting seismic, video, and vent fluid chemistry information in real-time. The eruptive event, or series of events, in April 2011 went undetected until a series of ROV/AUV cruises, planned separately and years in advance, made observations to discover, confirm, and detail the transformation to Axial (see Chadwick et al., this session). What transpired during, and shortly after, the eruption will remain largely unknown, as the initial extraordinary fluxes of heat, chemistry and biology will have decayed in the intervening three and a half months. Here we detail the response capabilities of the OOI-RSN cabled observatory to a future eruptive event under two scenarios-as built, and an expanded version using existing technology.

The Use of Astronomical Seeing Measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teare, S. W.

2002-12-01

Very few observatories have access to a daily record of the astronomical seeing over an extended historical period. An exception to this is the Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO) whose astronomical seeing logs cover the period from shortly after the observatory was founded in 1904 through to the present day. These measurements provide a unique look into the changes to the seeing conditions at a major US observatory site. While the keeping of this record has been entrusted to many at the observatory, most often the telescope night assistants, these measurements have been taken diligently and from all accounts repeatably over the years. The early workers at MWO developed an 8-point scale that was used to evaluate the seeing. This scale began as a measure of how large a telescope aperture would provide diffraction limited seeing during a given night. If a small telescope aperture was needed to see diffraction rings, then the seeing was poor and the seeing number would be small. Of course a larger number on the scale then denotes better seeing. This became known as the Mount Wilson Seeing Scale and a variation of it is still in common use at the observatory. This scale has not always had the strongest support in the astronomical community, but its use has resulted in a nearly continuous set of comparable data. In this paper astronomical seeing data from MWO is presented and analyzed using several different approaches. It shows that there are very long period events that can be identified and also shows that the astronomical seeing, even at a very good site, is not guaranteed over the life of the observatory.

The effect of the geomagnetic field on cosmic ray energy estimates and large scale anisotropy searches on data from the Pierre Auger Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pierre Auger Collaboration; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.; Ahn, E. J.; Albuquerque, I. F. M.; Allard, D.; Allekotte, I.; Allen, J.; Allison, P.; Alvarez Castillo, J.; Alvarez-Muñiz, J.; Ambrosio, M.; Aminaei, A.; Anchordoqui, L.; Andringa, S.; Antičić, T.; Anzalone, A.; Aramo, C.; Arganda, E.; Arqueros, F.; Asorey, H.; Assis, P.; Aublin, J.; Ave, M.; Avenier, M.; Avila, G.; Bäcker, T.; Balzer, M.; Barber, K. B.; Barbosa, A. F.; Bardenet, R.; Barroso, S. L. C.; Baughman, B.; Bäuml, J.; Beatty, J. J.; Becker, B. R.; Becker, K. H.; Bellétoile, A.; Bellido, J. A.; BenZvi, S.; Berat, C.; Bertou, X.; Biermann, P. L.; Billoir, P.; Blanco, F.; Blanco, M.; Bleve, C.; Blümer, H.; Boháčová, M.; Boncioli, D.; Bonifazi, C.; Bonino, R.; Borodai, N.; Brack, J.; Brogueira, P.; Brown, W. C.; Bruijn, R.; Buchholz, P.; Bueno, A.; Burton, R. E.; Caballero-Mora, K. S.; Caramete, L.; Caruso, R.; Castellina, A.; Catalano, O.; Cataldi, G.; Cazon, L.; Cester, R.; Chauvin, J.; Cheng, S. H.; Chiavassa, A.; Chinellato, J. A.; Chou, A.; Chudoba, J.; Clay, R. W.; Coluccia, M. R.; Conceição, R.; Contreras, F.; Cook, H.; Cooper, M. J.; Coppens, J.; Cordier, A.; Coutu, S.; Covault, C. E.; Creusot, A.; Criss, A.; Cronin, J.; Curutiu, A.; Dagoret-Campagne, S.; Dallier, R.; Dasso, S.; Daumiller, K.; Dawson, B. R.; de Almeida, R. M.; De Domenico, M.; De Donato, C.; de Jong, S. J.; De La Vega, G.; de Mello Junior, W. J. M.; de Mello Neto, J. R. T.; De Mitri, I.; de Souza, V.; de Vries, K. D.; Decerprit, G.; del Peral, L.; del Río, M.; Deligny, O.; Dembinski, H.; Dhital, N.; Di Giulio, C.; Diaz, J. C.; Díaz Castro, M. L.; Diep, P. N.; Dobrigkeit, C.; Docters, W.; D'Olivo, J. C.; Dong, P. N.; Dorofeev, A.; dos Anjos, J. C.; Dova, M. T.; D'Urso, D.; Dutan, I.; Ebr, J.; Engel, R.; Erdmann, M.; Escobar, C. O.; Espadanal, J.; Etchegoyen, A.; Facal San Luis, P.; Fajardo Tapia, I.; Falcke, H.; Farrar, G.; Fauth, A. C.; Fazzini, N.; Ferguson, A. P.; Ferrero, A.; Fick, B.; Filevich, A.; Filipčič, A.; Fliescher, S.; Fracchiolla, C. E.; Fraenkel, E. D.; Fröhlich, U.; Fuchs, B.; Gaior, R.; Gamarra, R. F.; Gambetta, S.; García, B.; García Gámez, D.; Garcia-Pinto, D.; Gascon, A.; Gemmeke, H.; Gesterling, K.; Ghia, P. L.; Giaccari, U.; Giller, M.; Glass, H.; Gold, M. S.; Golup, G.; Gomez Albarracin, F.; Gómez Berisso, M.; Gonçalves, P.; Gonzalez, D.; Gonzalez, J. G.; Gookin, B.; Góra, D.; Gorgi, A.; Gouffon, P.; Gozzini, S. R.; Grashorn, E.; Grebe, S.; Griffith, N.; Grigat, M.; Grillo, A. F.; Guardincerri, Y.; Guarino, F.; Guedes, G. P.; Guzman, A.; Hague, J. D.; Hansen, P.; Harari, D.; Harmsma, S.; Harrison, T. A.; Harton, J. L.; Haungs, A.; Hebbeker, T.; Heck, D.; Herve, A. E.; Hojvat, C.; Hollon, N.; Holmes, V. C.; Homola, P.; Hörandel, J. R.; Horneffer, A.; Horvath, P.; Hrabovský, M.; Huege, T.; Insolia, A.; Ionita, F.; Italiano, A.; Jarne, C.; Jiraskova, S.; Josebachuili, M.; Kadija, K.; Kampert, K. H.; Karhan, P.; Kasper, P.; Kégl, B.; Keilhauer, B.; Keivani, A.; Kelley, J. L.; Kemp, E.; Kieckhafer, R. M.; Klages, H. O.; Kleifges, M.; Kleinfeller, J.; Knapp, J.; Koang, D.-H.; Kotera, K.; Krohm, N.; Krömer, O.; Kruppke-Hansen, D.; Kuehn, F.; Kuempel, D.; Kulbartz, J. K.; Kunka, N.; La Rosa, G.; Lachaud, C.; Lautridou, P.; Leão, M. S. A. B.; Lebrun, D.; Lebrun, P.; Leigui de Oliveira, M. A.; Lemiere, A.; Letessier-Selvon, A.; Lhenry-Yvon, I.; Link, K.; López, R.; Lopez Agüera, A.; Louedec, K.; Lozano Bahilo, J.; Lu, L.; Lucero, A.; Ludwig, M.; Lyberis, H.; Maccarone, M. C.; Macolino, C.; Maldera, S.; Mandat, D.; Mantsch, P.; Mariazzi, A. G.; Marin, J.; Marin, V.; Maris, I. C.; Marquez Falcon, H. R.; Marsella, G.; Martello, D.; Martin, L.; Martinez, H.; Martínez Bravo, O.; Mathes, H. J.; Matthews, J.; Matthews, J. A. J.; Matthiae, G.; Maurizio, D.; Mazur, P. O.; Medina-Tanco, G.; Melissas, M.; Melo, D.; Menichetti, E.; Menshikov, A.; Mertsch, P.; Meurer, C.; Mićanović, S.; Micheletti, M. I.; Miller, W.; Miramonti, L.; Molina-Bueno, L.; Mollerach, S.; Monasor, M.; Monnier Ragaigne, D.; Montanet, F.; Morales, B.; Morello, C.; Moreno, E.; Moreno, J. C.; Morris, C.; Mostafá, M.; Moura, C. A.; Mueller, S.; Muller, M. A.; Müller, G.; Münchmeyer, M.; Mussa, R.; Navarra, G.; Navarro, J. L.; Navas, S.; Necesal, P.; Nellen, L.; Nelles, A.; Neuser, J.; Nhung, P. T.; Niemietz, L.; Nierstenhoefer, N.; Nitz, D.; Nosek, D.; Nožka, L.; Nyklicek, M.; Oehlschläger, J.; Olinto, A.; Oliva, P.; Olmos-Gilbaja, V. M.; Ortiz, M.; Pacheco, N.; Pakk Selmi-Dei, D.; Palatka, M.; Pallotta, J.; Palmieri, N.; Parente, G.; Parizot, E.; Parra, A.; Parsons, R. D.; Pastor, S.; Paul, T.; Pech, M.; Pękala, J.; Pelayo, R.; Pepe, I. M.; Perrone, L.; Pesce, R.; Petermann, E.; Petrera, S.; Petrinca, P.; Petrolini, A.; Petrov, Y.; Petrovic, J.; Pfendner, C.; Phan, N.; Piegaia, R.; Pierog, T.; Pieroni, P.; Pimenta, M.; Pirronello, V.; Platino, M.; Ponce, V. H.; Pontz, M.; Privitera, P.; Prouza, M.; Quel, E. J.; Querchfeld, S.; Rautenberg, J.; Ravel, O.; Ravignani, D.; Revenu, B.; Ridky, J.; Riggi, S.; Risse, M.; Ristori, P.; Rivera, H.; Rizi, V.; Roberts, J.; Robledo, C.; Rodrigues de Carvalho, W.; Rodriguez, G.; Rodriguez Martino, J.; Rodriguez Rojo, J.; Rodriguez-Cabo, I.; Rodríguez-Frías, M. D.; Ros, G.; Rosado, J.; Rossler, T.; Roth, M.; Rouillé-d'Orfeuil, B.; Roulet, E.; Rovero, A. C.; Rühle, C.; Salamida, F.; Salazar, H.; Salesa Greus, F.; Salina, G.; Sánchez, F.; Santo, C. E.; Santos, E.; Santos, E. M.; Sarazin, F.; Sarkar, B.; Sarkar, S.; Sato, R.; Scharf, N.; Scherini, V.; Schieler, H.; Schiffer, P.; Schmidt, A.; Schmidt, F.; Scholten, O.; Schoorlemmer, H.; Schovancova, J.; Schovánek, P.; Schröder, F.; Schulte, S.; Schuster, D.; Sciutto, S. J.; Scuderi, M.; Segreto, A.; Settimo, M.; Shadkam, A.; Shellard, R. C.; Sidelnik, I.; Sigl, G.; Silva Lopez, H. H.; Śacute; Smiałkowski, A.; Šmída, R.; Snow, G. R.; Sommers, P.; Sorokin, J.; Spinka, H.; Squartini, R.; Stanic, S.; Stapleton, J.; Stasielak, J.; Stephan, M.; Strazzeri, E.; Stutz, A.; Suarez, F.; Suomijärvi, T.; Supanitsky, A. D.; Šuša, T.; Sutherland, M. S.; Swain, J.; Szadkowski, Z.; Szuba, M.; Tamashiro, A.; Tapia, A.; Tartare, M.; Taşąu, O.; Tavera Ruiz, C. G.; Tcaciuc, R.; Tegolo, D.; Thao, N. T.; Thomas, D.; Tiffenberg, J.; Timmermans, C.; Tiwari, D. K.; Tkaczyk, W.; Todero Peixoto, C. J.; Tomé, B.; Tonachini, A.; Travnicek, P.; Tridapalli, D. B.; Tristram, G.; Trovato, E.; Tueros, M.; Ulrich, R.; Unger, M.; Urban, M.; Valdés Galicia, J. F.; Valiño, I.; Valore, L.; van den Berg, A. M.; Varela, E.; Vargas Cárdenas, B.; Vázquez, J. R.; Vázquez, R. A.; Veberič, D.; Verzi, V.; Vicha, J.; Videla, M.; Villaseñor, L.; Wahlberg, H.; Wahrlich, P.; Wainberg, O.; Walz, D.; Warner, D.; Watson, A. A.; Weber, M.; Weidenhaupt, K.; Weindl, A.; Westerhoff, S.; Whelan, B. J.; Wieczorek, G.; Wiencke, L.; Wilczyńska, B.; Wilczyński, H.; Will, M.; Williams, C.; Winchen, T.; Winnick, M. G.; Wommer, M.; Wundheiler, B.; Yamamoto, T.; Yapici, T.; Younk, P.; Yuan, G.; Yushkov, A.; Zamorano, B.; Zas, E.; Zavrtanik, D.; Zavrtanik, M.; Zaw, I.; Zepeda, A.; Zimbres Silva, M.; Ziolkowski, M.

2011-11-01

We present a comprehensive study of the influence of the geomagnetic field on the energy estimation of extensive air showers with a zenith angle smaller than 60°, detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory. The geomagnetic field induces an azimuthal modulation of the estimated energy of cosmic rays up to the ~ 2% level at large zenith angles. We present a method to account for this modulation of the reconstructed energy. We analyse the effect of the modulation on large scale anisotropy searches in the arrival direction distributions of cosmic rays. At a given energy, the geomagnetic effect is shown to induce a pseudo-dipolar pattern at the percent level in the declination distribution that needs to be accounted for.

Transformative Science for the Next Decade with the Green Bank Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Neil, Karen; Frayer, David; Ghigo, Frank; Lockman, Felix; Lynch, Ryan; Maddalena, Ronald; minter, Anthony; Prestage, Richard

2018-01-01

With new instruments and improved performance, the 100m Green Bank Telescope is now demonstrating its full potential. On this 60th anniversary of the groundbreaking for the Green Bank Observatory, we can look forward to the future of the facility for the next 5, 10, and even 20 years. Here we describe the results from a recent workshop, “Transformative Science for the Next Decade with the Green Bank Observatory: Big Questions, Large Programs, and New Instruments,” and describe the scientific plans for our facility.

Spatial Fluctuations in the Diffuse Cosmic X-Ray Background. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shafer, R. A.

1983-01-01

The bright, essentially isotropic, X-ray sky flux above 2 keV yields information on the universe at large distances. However, a definitive understanding of the origin of the flux is lacking. Some fraction of the total flux is contributed by active galactic nuclei and clusters of galaxies, but less than one percent of the total is contributed by the or approximately 3 keV band resolved sources, which is the band where the sky flux is directly observed. Parametric models of AGN (quasar) luminosity function evolution are examined. Most constraints are by the total sky flux. The acceptability of particular models hinges on assumptions currently not directly testable. The comparison with the Einstein Observatory 1 to keV low flux source counts is hampered by spectral uncertainties. A tentative measurement of a large scale dipole anisotropy is consistent with the velocity and direction derived from the dipole in the microwave background. The impact of the X-ray anisotropy limits for other scales on studies of large-scale structure in the universe is sketched. Models of the origins of the X-ray sky flux are reviewed, and future observational programs outlined.

The Pierre Auger Observatory Upgrade - Preliminary Design Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aab, Alexander

The Pierre Auger Observatory has begun a major Upgrade of its already impressive capabilities, with an emphasis on improved mass composition determination using the surface detectors of the Observatory. Known as AugerPrime, the upgrade will include new 4 m 2 plastic scintillator detectors on top of all 1660 water-Cherenkov detectors, updated and more flexible surface detector electronics, a large array of buried muon detectors, and an extended duty cycle for operations of the fluorescence detectors. This Preliminary Design Report was produced by the Collaboration in April 2015 as an internal document and information for funding agencies. It outlines the scientificmore » and technical case for AugerPrime. We now release it to the public via the arXiv server. We invite you to review the large number of fundamental results already achieved by the Observatory and our plans for the future.« less

Better Spectrometers, Beautiful Spectra and Confusion for All

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pearson, J. C.; Brauer, C. S.; Drouin, B. J.; Yu, S.

2009-01-01

The confluence of enormous improvements in submillimeter receivers and the development of powerful large scale observatories is about to force astrophysics and the sciences that support it to develop novel approaches for interpretation of data. The historical method of observing one or two lines and carefully analyzing them in the context of a simple model is now only applicable for distant objects where only a few lines are strong enough to be observable. Modern observatories collect many GHz of high signal-to-noise spectra in a single observation and in many cases, at sufficiently high spatial resolution to start resolving chemically distinct regions. The observatories planned for the near future and the inevitable upgrades of existing facilities will make large spectral data sets the rule rather than the exception in many areas of molecular astrophysics. The methodology and organization required to fully extract the available information and interpret these beautiful spectra represents a challenge to submillimeter astrophysics similar in magnitude to the last few decades of effort in improving receivers. The quality and abundance of spectra effectively prevents line-by-line analysis from being a time efficient proposition, however, global analysis of complex spectra is a science in its infancy. Spectroscopy at several other wavelengths have developed a number of techniques to analyze complex spectra, which can provide a great deal of guidance to the molecular astrophysics community on how to attack the complex spectrum problem. Ultimately, the challenge is one of organization, similar to building observatories, requiring teams of specialists combining their knowledge of dynamical, structural, chemical and radiative models with detailed knowledge in molecular physics and gas and grain surface chemistry to extract and exploit the enormous information content of complex spectra. This paper presents a spectroscopists view of the necessary elements in a tool for complex spectral analysis.

Resolving the Circumstellar Environment of the Galactic B[e] Supergiant Star MWC 137 from Large to Small Scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kraus, Michaela; Liimets, Tiina; Cappa, Cristina E.; Cidale, Lydia S.; Nickeler, Dieter H.; Duronea, Nicolas U.; Arias, Maria L.; Gunawan, Diah S.; Oksala, Mary E.; Borges Fernandes, Marcelo; Maravelias, Grigoris; Curé, Michel; Santander-García, Miguel

2017-11-01

The Galactic object MWC 137 has been suggested to belong to the group of B[e] supergiants. However, with its large-scale optical bipolar ring nebula and high-velocity jet and knots, it is a rather atypical representative of this class. We performed multiwavelength observations spreading from the optical to the radio regimes. Based on optical imaging and long-slit spectroscopic data, we found that the northern parts of the large-scale nebula are predominantly blueshifted, while the southern regions appear mostly redshifted. We developed a geometrical model consisting of two double cones. Although various observational features can be approximated with such a scenario, the observed velocity pattern is more complex. Using near-infrared integral-field unit spectroscopy, we studied the hot molecular gas in the vicinity of the star. The emission from the hot CO gas arises in a small-scale disk revolving around the star on Keplerian orbits. Although the disk itself cannot be spatially resolved, its emission is reflected by the dust arranged in arc-like structures and the clumps surrounding MWC 137 on small scales. In the radio regime, we mapped the cold molecular gas in the outskirts of the optical nebula. We found that large amounts of cool molecular gas and warm dust embrace the optical nebula in the east, south, and west. No cold gas or dust was detected in the north and northwestern regions. Despite the new insights into the nebula kinematics gained from our studies, the real formation scenario of the large-scale nebula remains an open issue. Based on observations collected with (1) the ESO VLT Paranal Observatory under programs 094.D-0637(B) and 097.D-0033(A), (2) the MPG 2.2 m telescope at La Silla Observatory, Chile, under programs 096.A-9030(A) and 096.A-9039(A), (3) the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (United Kingdom), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brazil), and Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (Argentina), under program GN-2013B-Q-11, (4) the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated by the Nordic Optical Telescope Scientific Association at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, (5) the APEX telescope under the program CHILE-9711B-2016. APEX is a collaboration between the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, the European Southern Observatory, and the Onsala Observatory, and (6) the Perek 2 m telescope at Ondřejov Observatory, Czech Republic.

Explosive events on the Sun.

PubMed

Harra, Louise K

2002-12-15

I describe two of the most dynamic and highly energetic phenomena in the Solar System--the explosive flares that can occur when plasma is confined by magnetic fields and the large-scale ejections of material known as 'coronal mass ejections'. These explosive events are poorly understood and yet occur in a variety of contexts in the Universe, ranging from planetary magnetospheres to active galactic nuclei. Understanding why flares and coronal mass ejections occur is a major goal across a wide range of space physics and astrophysics. Although explosive events from the Sun have dramatic effects on Earth, flares in other stars, for example, can be vastly more energetic and have an even more profound effect on their environment. We are now in the unprecedented position of having access to a number of space observatories dedicated to the Sun: the Yohkoh spacecraft, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer and the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager. These cover a wide wavelength range from white light to gamma rays with both spectroscopy and imaging, and allow huge progress to be made in understanding the processes involved in such large explosions. The high-resolution data show dramatic and complex explosions of material on all spatial scales on the Sun. They have revealed that the Sun is constantly changing everywhere on its surface--something that was never imagined before. One of the mechanisms that has been proposed to account for the large energy release is magnetic reconnection. Recent observations from space increasingly support this view. This article will discuss those observations that support this model and also those that suggest different processes. The current space missions have given us an excellent insight into the actual explosive processes in the Sun. However, they have provided us with only a tantalizing glimpse of what causes the elusive trigger. Future missions such as Solar-B (the follow-on to Yohkoh), the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Solar Orbiter mission will allow us to probe the trigger in a way that was not dreamt of a decade ago, by providing stereo views, measurements from Sun-grazing orbit, and much higher spatial, temporal and spectral resolution. It is an exciting time for solar physics and everything that we learn about the Sun will improve our ability to understand other magnetic phenomena in the Universe.

World atlas of large optical telescopes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meszaros, S. P.

1979-01-01

By 1980 there will be approximately 100 large optical telescopes in the world with mirror or lens diameters of one meter (39 inches) and larger. This atlas gives information on these telescopes and shows their locations on continent-sized maps. Observatory locations considered suitable for the construction of future large telescopes are also shown.

Infrastructure for large space telescopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacEwen, Howard A.; Lillie, Charles F.

2016-10-01

It is generally recognized (e.g., in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration response to recent congressional appropriations) that future space observatories must be serviceable, even if they are orbiting in deep space (e.g., around the Sun-Earth libration point, SEL2). On the basis of this legislation, we believe that budgetary considerations throughout the foreseeable future will require that large, long-lived astrophysics missions must be designed as evolvable semipermanent observatories that will be serviced using an operational, in-space infrastructure. We believe that the development of this infrastructure will include the design and development of a small to mid-sized servicing vehicle (MiniServ) as a key element of an affordable infrastructure for in-space assembly and servicing of future space vehicles. This can be accomplished by the adaptation of technology developed over the past half-century into a vehicle approximately the size of the ascent stage of the Apollo Lunar Module to provide some of the servicing capabilities that will be needed by very large telescopes located in deep space in the near future (2020s and 2030s). We specifically address the need for a detailed study of these servicing requirements and the current proposals for using presently available technologies to provide the appropriate infrastructure.

Astrophysics from the moon; Proceedings of the Workshop, Annapolis, MD, Feb. 5-7, 1990

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mumma, Michael J. (Editor); Smith, Harlan J. (Editor)

1990-01-01

The present conference on astrophysics from the moon encompasses the study of the Galaxy, external planetary systems, solar physics, stars and stellar evolution, the frontiers of Galactic, extragalactic, and cosmological astronomy, an introduction to lunar-based astronomy, concepts for lunar observatories including high-energy observatories, solar observatories, and observatories for particle astrophysics and gravitational studies. Specific issues addressed include the dynamics of Jovian atmospheres, planetary magnetospheres, flare physics, exobiology and SETI from the lunar farside, and the study of interactive stars, star formation, H II regions in absorption at low frequencies, and normal galaxies. Also addressed are the potential lunar investigation of quasars, the formation epoch, and the large-scale structure of the universe, and observational issues related to X-ray large arrays, optical interferometers, VLF radio astronomy, a UV-solar reflecting coronagraph, and a heavy-nucleus detector.

Advanced situation awareness with localised environmental community observatories in the Future Internet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sabeur, Z. A.; Denis, H.; Nativi, S.

2012-04-01

The phenomenal advances in information and communication technologies over the last decade have led to offering unprecedented connectivity with real potentials for "Smart living" between large segments of human populations around the world. In particular, Voluntary Groups(VGs) and individuals with interest in monitoring the state of their local environment can be connected through the internet and collaboratively generate important localised environmental observations. These could be considered as the Community Observatories(CO) of the Future Internet(FI). However, a set of FI enablers are needed to be deployed for these communities to become effective COs in the Future Internet. For example, these communities will require access to services for the intelligent processing of heterogeneous data and capture of advancend situation awarness about the environment. This important enablement will really unlock the communities true potential for participating in localised monitoring of the environment in addition to their contribution in the creation of business entreprise. Among the eight Usage Areas(UA) projects of the FP7 FI-PPP programme, the ENVIROFI Integrated Project focuses on the specifications of the Future Internet enablers of the Environment UA. The specifications are developed under multiple environmental domains in context of users needs for the development of mash-up applications in the Future Internet. It will enable users access to real-time, on-demand fused information with advanced situation awareness about the environment at localised scales. The mash-up applications shall get access to rich spatio-temporal information from structured fusion services which aggregate COs information with existing environmental monitoring stations data, established by research organisations and private entreprise. These applications are being developed in ENVIROFI for the atmospheric, marine and biodiversity domains, together with a potential to be extended to other domains and scenarios concerning smart and safe living in the Future Internet.

Innovative telescope architectures for future large space observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Polidan, Ronald S.; Breckinridge, James B.; Lillie, Charles F.; MacEwen, Howard A.; Flannery, Martin R.; Dailey, Dean R.

2016-10-01

Over the past few years, we have developed a concept for an evolvable space telescope (EST) that is assembled on orbit in three stages, growing from a 4×12-m telescope in Stage 1, to a 12-m filled aperture in Stage 2, and then to a 20-m filled aperture in Stage 3. Stage 1 is launched as a fully functional telescope and begins gathering science data immediately after checkout on orbit. This observatory is then periodically augmented in space with additional mirror segments, structures, and newer instruments to evolve the telescope over the years to a 20-m space telescope. We discuss the EST architecture, the motivation for this approach, and the benefits it provides over current approaches to building and maintaining large space observatories.

Through the Lens of History: The Unusual Circumstances Leading to the Acquisition of the Lowell Spectrograph

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schindler, K. S.

2013-04-01

In 1900 Lowell Observatory assistant Andrew Douglass advised his employer Percival Lowell to purchase a state-of-the-art spectrograph from instrument maker John Brashear of Pennsylvania. Lowell agreed with Douglass's suggestion, realizing that such an instrument was critical for the Observatory staff's research. However, the purchase also fulfilled a little-known obligation between Percival Lowell and Brashear that dated back to an accident occurring in 1895. If not for this unusual incident that led to the purchase of the spectrograph, the future of Lowell Observatory and, on a larger scale, unmasking of the nature of the expanding universe, would likely have played out much differently.

Flathead River Basin Hydrologic Observatory, Northern Rocky Mountains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woessner, W. W.; Running, S. W.; Potts, D. F.; Kimball, J. S.; Deluca, T. H.; Fagre, D. B.; Makepeace, S.; Hendrix, M. S.; Lorang, M. S.; Ellis, B. K.; Lafave, J.; Harper, J.

2004-12-01

We are proposing the 22, 515 km2 glacially-sculpted Flathead River Basin located in Montana and British Columbia as a Hydrologic Observatory. This hydrologic landscape is diverse and includes large pristine watersheds, rapidly developing intermountain valleys, and a 95 km2 regulated reservoir and 510 km2 lake. The basin has a topographic gradient of over 2,339 m, and spans high alpine to arid climatic zones and a range of biomes. Stream flows are snow-melt dominated and underpinned by groundwater baseflow. The site headwaters contain 37 glaciers and thousands of square kilometers of watersheds in which fire and disease are the only disturbances. In contrast, the HO also contains watersheds at multiple scales that were dominated by glaciers within the last 100 years but are now glacier free, impacted by timber harvests and fires of varying ages to varying degrees, modified by water management practices including irrigation diversion and dams, and altered by development for homes, cities and agriculture. This Observatory provides a sensitive monitor of historic and future climatic shifts, air shed influences and impacts, and the consequences of land and water management practices on the hydrologic system. The HO watersheds are some of the only pristine watersheds left in the contiguous U.S.. They provide critical habitat for key species including the native threaten bull trout and lynx, and the listed western cutthroat trout, bald eagle, gray wolf and the grizzly bear. For the last several thousand years this system has been dominated by snow-melt runoff and moderated by large quantities of water stored in glacial ice. However, the timing and magnitude of droughts and summer flows have changed dramatically. With the information that can be gleaned from sediment cores and landscape records at different scales, this HO provides scientists with opportunities to establish baseline watershed conditions and data on natural hydrologic variability within the system. Such a context frames the current and further observations and assists with translating measured changes into links with the varied HO ecosystems.

An Engineering Design Reference Mission for a Future Large-Aperture UVOIR Space Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thronson, Harley A.; Bolcar, Matthew R.; Clampin, Mark; Crooke, Julie A.; Redding, David; Rioux, Norman; Stahl, H. Philip

2016-01-01

From the 2010 NRC Decadal Survey and the NASA Thirty-Year Roadmap, Enduring Quests, Daring Visions, to the recent AURA report, From Cosmic Birth to Living Earths, multiple community assessments have recommended development of a large-aperture UVOIR space observatory capable of achieving a broad range of compelling scientific goals. Of these priority science goals, the most technically challenging is the search for spectroscopic biomarkers in the atmospheres of exoplanets in the solar neighborhood. Here we present an engineering design reference mission (EDRM) for the Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST), which was conceived from the start as capable of breakthrough science paired with an emphasis on cost control and cost effectiveness. An EDRM allows the engineering design trade space to be explored in depth to determine what are the most demanding requirements and where there are opportunities for margin against requirements. Our joint NASA GSFC/JPL/MSFC/STScI study team has used community-provided science goals to derive mission needs, requirements, and candidate mission architectures for a future large-aperture, non-cryogenic UVOIR space observatory. The ATLAST observatory is designed to operate at a Sun-Earth L2 orbit, which provides a stable thermal environment and excellent field of regard. Our reference designs have emphasized a serviceable 36-segment 9.2 m aperture telescope that stows within a five-meter diameter launch vehicle fairing. As part of our cost-management effort, this particular reference mission builds upon the engineering design for JWST. Moreover, it is scalable to a variety of launch vehicle fairings. Performance needs developed under the study are traceable to a variety of additional reference designs, including options for a monolithic primary mirror.

The USNO Astrometry Department

Science.gov Websites

and methods, such as large scale CCD measuring devices, speckle and radio interferometry, are being the observational programs are published in the Naval Observatory Publications and in refereed

The Landscape Evolution Observatory: a large-scale controllable infrastructure to study coupled Earth-surface processes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pangle, Luke A.; DeLong, Stephen B.; Abramson, Nate; Adams, John; Barron-Gafford, Greg A.; Breshears, David D.; Brooks, Paul D.; Chorover, Jon; Dietrich, William E.; Dontsova, Katerina; Durcik, Matej; Espeleta, Javier; Ferré, T.P.A.; Ferriere, Regis; Henderson, Whitney; Hunt, Edward A.; Huxman, Travis E.; Millar, David; Murphy, Brendan; Niu, Guo-Yue; Pavao-Zuckerman, Mitch; Pelletier, Jon D.; Rasmussen, Craig; Ruiz, Joaquin; Saleska, Scott; Schaap, Marcel; Sibayan, Michael; Troch, Peter A.; Tuller, Markus; van Haren, Joost; Zeng, Xubin

2015-01-01

Zero-order drainage basins, and their constituent hillslopes, are the fundamental geomorphic unit comprising much of Earth's uplands. The convergent topography of these landscapes generates spatially variable substrate and moisture content, facilitating biological diversity and influencing how the landscape filters precipitation and sequesters atmospheric carbon dioxide. In light of these significant ecosystem services, refining our understanding of how these functions are affected by landscape evolution, weather variability, and long-term climate change is imperative. In this paper we introduce the Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO): a large-scale controllable infrastructure consisting of three replicated artificial landscapes (each 330 m2 surface area) within the climate-controlled Biosphere 2 facility in Arizona, USA. At LEO, experimental manipulation of rainfall, air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed are possible at unprecedented scale. The Landscape Evolution Observatory was designed as a community resource to advance understanding of how topography, physical and chemical properties of soil, and biological communities coevolve, and how this coevolution affects water, carbon, and energy cycles at multiple spatial scales. With well-defined boundary conditions and an extensive network of sensors and samplers, LEO enables an iterative scientific approach that includes numerical model development and virtual experimentation, physical experimentation, data analysis, and model refinement. We plan to engage the broader scientific community through public dissemination of data from LEO, collaborative experimental design, and community-based model development.

Framework for Informed Policy Making Using Data from National Environmental Observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wee, B.; Taylor, J. R.; Poinsatte, J.

2012-12-01

Large-scale environmental changes pose challenges that straddle environmental, economic, and social boundaries. As we design and implement climate adaptation strategies at the Federal, state, local, and tribal levels, accessible and usable data are essential for implementing actions that are informed by the best available information. Data-intensive science has been heralded as an enabler for scientific breakthroughs powered by advanced computing capabilities and interoperable data systems. Those same capabilities can be applied to data and information systems that facilitate the transformation of data into highly processed products. At the interface of scientifically informed public policy and data intensive science lies the potential for producers of credible, integrated, multi-scalar environmental data like the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and its partners to capitalize on data and informatics interoperability initiatives that enable the integration of environmental data from across credible data sources. NSF's large-scale environmental observatories such as NEON and the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) are designed to provide high-quality, long-term environmental data for research. These data are also meant to be repurposed for operational needs that like risk management, vulnerability assessments, resource management, and others. The proposed USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS) Long Term Agro-ecosystem Research (LTAR) network is another example of such an environmental observatory that will produce credible data for environmental / agricultural forecasting and informing policy. To facilitate data fusion across observatories, there is a growing call for observation systems to more closely coordinate and standardize how variables are measured. Together with observation standards, cyberinfrastructure standards enable the proliferation of an ecosystem of applications that utilize diverse, high-quality, credible data. Interoperability facilitates the integration of data from multiple credible sources of data, and enables the repurposing of data for use at different geographical scales. Metadata that captures the transformation of data into value-added products ("provenance") lends reproducability and transparency to the entire process. This way, the datasets and model code used to create any product can be examined by other parties. This talk outlines a pathway for transforming environmental data into value-added products by various stakeholders to better inform sustainable agriculture using data from environmental observatories including NEON and LTAR.;

The Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST): Science Drivers, Technology Developments, and Synergies with Other Future Facilities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Postman, Marc; Brown, Tom; Sembach, Kenneth; Giavalisco, Mauro; Traub, Wesley; Stapelfeldt, Karl; Calzetti, Daniela; Oegerle, William; Rich, R. Michael; Stahl, H. Philip;

Lightweight telescopes for lunar observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rozelot, J. P.; Bingham, R.; Walker, D.

1994-06-01

Future optical observatories in space will require telescopes of very high resolution. To satisfy this demand, technology must be developed for large mirrors capable of diffraction-limited imaging. Conventional monolithic glass substrates (light-weight or not) have serious limitations for future development. In particular, glass is susceptible to fracture during ground-handling, transport and launch. An alternative solution is aluminium. It has lower cost, increased strength, easier and safer methods of fixing, amongst other advantages. It is readily lightweighted and can be produced with good polishing quality with nickel coating. We foresee applications for satellite telescope for astronomy, remote sensing, surveys of asteroids and debris in space. Furthermore, this technology is ideally suitable for lunar mounted interferometric experiments - as mirrors can be easily replicate, saving cost - and for telescopes deployed on planetary surfaces. Some results from the European Eureka Large Active Mirrors in Aluminium (LAMA) are here presented, which show the feasibility of such systems.

Future of Space Astronomy: A Global Road Map for the Next Decades

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ubertini, Pietro; Gehrels, Neil; Corbett, Ian; DeBernardis, Paolo; Machado, Marcos; Griffin, Matt; Hauser, Michael; Manchanda, Ravinder K.; Kawai, Nobuyuki; Zhang, Shuang-Nan;

Optical Manufacturing and Testing Requirements Identified by the NASA Science Instruments, Observatories and Sensor Systems Technology Assessment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stahl, H. Philip; Barney, Rich; Bauman, Jill; Feinberg, Lee; Mcleese, Dan; Singh, Upendra

2011-01-01

In August 2010, the NASA Office of Chief Technologist (OCT) commissioned an assessment of 15 different technology areas of importance to the future of NASA. Technology assessment #8 (TA8) was Science Instruments, Observatories and Sensor Systems (SIOSS). SIOSS assess the needs for optical technology ranging from detectors to lasers, x-ray mirrors to microwave antenna, in-situ spectrographs for on-surface planetary sample characterization to large space telescopes. The needs assessment looked across the entirety of NASA and not just the Science Mission Directorate. This paper reviews the optical manufacturing and testing technologies identified by SIOSS which require development in order to enable future NASA high priority missions.

Observable tensor-to-scalar ratio and secondary gravitational wave background

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chatterjee, Arindam; Mazumdar, Anupam

2018-03-01

In this paper we will highlight how a simple vacuum energy dominated inflection-point inflation can match the current data from cosmic microwave background radiation, and predict large primordial tensor to scalar ratio, r ˜O (10-3-10-2), with observable second order gravitational wave background, which can be potentially detectable from future experiments, such as DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (DECIGO), Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (eLISA), cosmic explorer (CE), and big bang observatory (BBO).

Large-scale Distribution of Arrival Directions of Cosmic Rays Detected Above 1018 eV at the Pierre Auger Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pierre Auger Collaboration; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.; Ahlers, M.; Ahn, E. J.; Albuquerque, I. F. M.; Allard, D.; Allekotte, I.; Allen, J.; Allison, P.; Almela, A.; Alvarez Castillo, J.; Alvarez-Muñiz, J.; Alves Batista, R.; Ambrosio, M.; Aminaei, A.; Anchordoqui, L.; Andringa, S.; Antiči'c, T.; Aramo, C.; Arganda, E.; Arqueros, F.; Asorey, H.; Assis, P.; Aublin, J.; Ave, M.; Avenier, M.; Avila, G.; Badescu, A. M.; Balzer, M.; Barber, K. B.; Barbosa, A. F.; Bardenet, R.; Barroso, S. L. C.; Baughman, B.; Bäuml, J.; Baus, C.; Beatty, J. J.; Becker, K. H.; Bellétoile, A.; Bellido, J. A.; BenZvi, S.; Berat, C.; Bertou, X.; Biermann, P. L.; Billoir, P.; Blanco, F.; Blanco, M.; Bleve, C.; Blümer, H.; Boháčová, M.; Boncioli, D.; Bonifazi, C.; Bonino, R.; Borodai, N.; Brack, J.; Brancus, I.; Brogueira, P.; Brown, W. C.; Bruijn, R.; Buchholz, P.; Bueno, A.; Buroker, L.; Burton, R. E.; Caballero-Mora, K. S.; Caccianiga, B.; Caramete, L.; Caruso, R.; Castellina, A.; Catalano, O.; Cataldi, G.; Cazon, L.; Cester, R.; Chauvin, J.; Cheng, S. H.; Chiavassa, A.; Chinellato, J. A.; Chirinos Diaz, J.; Chudoba, J.; Cilmo, M.; Clay, R. W.; Cocciolo, G.; Collica, L.; Coluccia, M. R.; Conceição, R.; Contreras, F.; Cook, H.; Cooper, M. J.; Coppens, J.; Cordier, A.; Coutu, S.; Covault, C. E.; Creusot, A.; Criss, A.; Cronin, J.; Curutiu, A.; Dagoret-Campagne, S.; Dallier, R.; Daniel, B.; Dasso, S.; Daumiller, K.; Dawson, B. R.; de Almeida, R. M.; De Domenico, M.; De Donato, C.; de Jong, S. J.; De La Vega, G.; de Mello Junior, W. J. M.; de Mello Neto, J. R. T.; De Mitri, I.; de Souza, V.; de Vries, K. D.; del Peral, L.; del Río, M.; Deligny, O.; Dembinski, H.; Dhital, N.; Di Giulio, C.; Díaz Castro, M. L.; Diep, P. N.; Diogo, F.; Dobrigkeit, C.; Docters, W.; D'Olivo, J. C.; Dong, P. N.; Dorofeev, A.; dos Anjos, J. C.; Dova, M. T.; D'Urso, D.; Dutan, I.; Ebr, J.; Engel, R.; Erdmann, M.; Escobar, C. O.; Espadanal, J.; Etchegoyen, A.; Facal San Luis, P.; Falcke, H.; Fang, K.; Farrar, G.; Fauth, A. C.; Fazzini, N.; Ferguson, A. P.; Fick, B.; Figueira, J. M.; Filevich, A.; Filipčič, A.; Fliescher, S.; Fracchiolla, C. E.; Fraenkel, E. D.; Fratu, O.; Fröhlich, U.; Fuchs, B.; Gaior, R.; Gamarra, R. F.; Gambetta, S.; García, B.; Garcia Roca, S. T.; Garcia-Gamez, D.; Garcia-Pinto, D.; Garilli, G.; Gascon Bravo, A.; Gemmeke, H.; Ghia, P. L.; Giller, M.; Gitto, J.; Glass, H.; Gold, M. S.; Golup, G.; Gomez Albarracin, F.; Gómez Berisso, M.; Gómez Vitale, P. F.; Gonçalves, P.; Gonzalez, J. G.; Gookin, B.; Gorgi, A.; Gouffon, P.; Grashorn, E.; Grebe, S.; Griffith, N.; Grillo, A. F.; Guardincerri, Y.; Guarino, F.; Guedes, G. P.; Hansen, P.; Harari, D.; Harrison, T. A.; Harton, J. L.; Haungs, A.; Hebbeker, T.; Heck, D.; Herve, A. E.; Hill, G. C.; Hojvat, C.; Hollon, N.; Holmes, V. C.; Homola, P.; Hörandel, J. R.; Horvath, P.; Hrabovský, M.; Huber, D.; Huege, T.; Insolia, A.; Ionita, F.; Italiano, A.; Jansen, S.; Jarne, C.; Jiraskova, S.; Josebachuili, M.; Kadija, K.; Kampert, K. H.; Karhan, P.; Kasper, P.; Katkov, I.; Kégl, B.; Keilhauer, B.; Keivani, A.; Kelley, J. L.; Kemp, E.; Kieckhafer, R. M.; Klages, H. O.; Kleifges, M.; Kleinfeller, J.; Knapp, J.; Koang, D.-H.; Kotera, K.; Krohm, N.; Krömer, O.; Kruppke-Hansen, D.; Kuempel, D.; Kulbartz, J. K.; Kunka, N.; La Rosa, G.; Lachaud, C.; LaHurd, D.; Latronico, L.; Lauer, R.; Lautridou, P.; Le Coz, S.; Leão, M. S. A. B.; Lebrun, D.; Lebrun, P.; Leigui de Oliveira, M. A.; Letessier-Selvon, A.; Lhenry-Yvon, I.; Link, K.; López, R.; Lopez Agüera, A.; Louedec, K.; Lozano Bahilo, J.; Lu, L.; Lucero, A.; Ludwig, M.; Lyberis, H.; Maccarone, M. C.; Macolino, C.; Maldera, S.; Maller, J.; Mandat, D.; Mantsch, P.; Mariazzi, A. G.; Marin, J.; Marin, V.; Maris, I. C.; Marquez Falcon, H. R.; Marsella, G.; Martello, D.; Martin, L.; Martinez, H.; Martínez Bravo, O.; Martraire, D.; Masías Meza, J. J.; Mathes, H. J.; Matthews, J.; Matthews, J. A. J.; Matthiae, G.; Maurel, D.; Maurizio, D.; Mazur, P. O.; Medina-Tanco, G.; Melissas, M.; Melo, D.; Menichetti, E.; Menshikov, A.; Mertsch, P.; Messina, S.; Meurer, C.; Meyhandan, R.; Mi'canovi'c, S.; Micheletti, M. I.; Minaya, I. A.; Miramonti, L.; Molina-Bueno, L.; Mollerach, S.; Monasor, M.; Monnier Ragaigne, D.; Montanet, F.; Morales, B.; Morello, C.; Moreno, E.; Moreno, J. C.; Mostafá, M.; Moura, C. A.; Muller, M. A.; Müller, G.; Münchmeyer, M.; Mussa, R.; Navarra, G.; Navarro, J. L.; Navas, S.; Necesal, P.; Nellen, L.; Nelles, A.; Neuser, J.; Nhung, P. T.; Niechciol, M.; Niemietz, L.; Nierstenhoefer, N.; Nitz, D.; Nosek, D.; Nožka, L.; Oehlschläger, J.; Olinto, A.; Ortiz, M.; Pacheco, N.; Pakk Selmi-Dei, D.; Palatka, M.; Pallotta, J.; Palmieri, N.; Parente, G.; Parizot, E.; Parra, A.; Pastor, S.; Paul, T.; Pech, M.; Peķala, J.; Pelayo, R.; Pepe, I. M.; Perrone, L.; Pesce, R.; Petermann, E.; Petrera, S.; Petrolini, A.; Petrov, Y.; Pfendner, C.; Piegaia, R.; Pierog, T.; Pieroni, P.; Pimenta, M.; Pirronello, V.; Platino, M.; Plum, M.; Ponce, V. H.; Pontz, M.; Porcelli, A.; Privitera, P.; Prouza, M.; Quel, E. J.; Querchfeld, S.; Rautenberg, J.; Ravel, O.; Ravignani, D.; Revenu, B.; Ridky, J.; Riggi, S.; Risse, M.; Ristori, P.; Rivera, H.; Rizi, V.; Roberts, J.; Rodrigues de Carvalho, W.; Rodriguez, G.; Rodriguez Cabo, I.; Rodriguez Martino, J.; Rodriguez Rojo, J.; Rodríguez-Frías, M. D.; Ros, G.; Rosado, J.; Rossler, T.; Roth, M.; Rouillé-d'Orfeuil, B.; Roulet, E.; Rovero, A. C.; Rühle, C.; Saftoiu, A.; Salamida, F.; Salazar, H.; Salesa Greus, F.; Salina, G.; Sánchez, F.; Santo, C. E.; Santos, E.; Santos, E. M.; Sarazin, F.; Sarkar, B.; Sarkar, S.; Sato, R.; Scharf, N.; Scherini, V.; Schieler, H.; Schiffer, P.; Schmidt, A.; Scholten, O.; Schoorlemmer, H.; Schovancova, J.; Schovánek, P.; Schröder, F.; Schuster, D.; Sciutto, S. J.; Scuderi, M.; Segreto, A.; Settimo, M.; Shadkam, A.; Shellard, R. C.; Sidelnik, I.; Sigl, G.; Silva Lopez, H. H.; Sima, O.; 'Smiałkowski, A.; Šmída, R.; Snow, G. R.; Sommers, P.; Sorokin, J.; Spinka, H.; Squartini, R.; Srivastava, Y. N.; Stanic, S.; Stapleton, J.; Stasielak, J.; Stephan, M.; Stutz, A.; Suarez, F.; Suomijärvi, T.; Supanitsky, A. D.; Šuša, T.; Sutherland, M. S.; Swain, J.; Szadkowski, Z.; Szuba, M.; Tapia, A.; Tartare, M.; Taşcău, O.; Tcaciuc, R.; Thao, N. T.; Thomas, D.; Tiffenberg, J.; Timmermans, C.; Tkaczyk, W.; Todero Peixoto, C. J.; Toma, G.; Tomankova, L.; Tomé, B.; Tonachini, A.; Torralba Elipe, G.; Travnicek, P.; Tridapalli, D. B.; Tristram, G.; Trovato, E.; Tueros, M.; Ulrich, R.; Unger, M.; Urban, M.; Valdés Galicia, J. F.; Valiño, I.; Valore, L.; van Aar, G.; van den Berg, A. M.; van Velzen, S.; van Vliet, A.; Varela, E.; Vargas Cárdenas, B.; Vázquez, J. R.; Vázquez, R. A.; Veberič, D.; Verzi, V.; Vicha, J.; Videla, M.; Villaseñor, L.; Wahlberg, H.; Wahrlich, P.; Wainberg, O.; Walz, D.; Watson, A. A.; Weber, M.; Weidenhaupt, K.; Weindl, A.; Werner, F.; Westerhoff, S.; Whelan, B. J.; Widom, A.; Wieczorek, G.; Wiencke, L.; Wilczyńska, B.; Wilczyński, H.; Will, M.; Williams, C.; Winchen, T.; Wommer, M.; Wundheiler, B.; Yamamoto, T.; Yapici, T.; Younk, P.; Yuan, G.; Yushkov, A.; Zamorano Garcia, B.; Zas, E.; Zavrtanik, D.; Zavrtanik, M.; Zaw, I.; Zepeda, A.; Zhou, J.; Zhu, Y.; Zimbres Silva, M.; Ziolkowski, M.

2012-12-01

A thorough search for large-scale anisotropies in the distribution of arrival directions of cosmic rays detected above 1018 eV at the Pierre Auger Observatory is presented. This search is performed as a function of both declination and right ascension in several energy ranges above 1018 eV, and reported in terms of dipolar and quadrupolar coefficients. Within the systematic uncertainties, no significant deviation from isotropy is revealed. Assuming that any cosmic-ray anisotropy is dominated by dipole and quadrupole moments in this energy range, upper limits on their amplitudes are derived. These upper limits allow us to test the origin of cosmic rays above 1018 eV from stationary Galactic sources densely distributed in the Galactic disk and predominantly emitting light particles in all directions.

To the horizon and beyond: Weak lensing of the CMB and binary inspirals into horizonless objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kesden, Michael

This thesis examines two predictions of general relativity: weak lensing and gravitational waves. The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is gravitationally lensed by the large-scale structure between the observer and the last- scattering surface. This weak lensing induces non-Gaussian correlations that can be used to construct estimators for the deflection field. The error and bias of these estimators are derived and used to analyze the viability of lensing reconstruction for future CMB experiments. Weak lensing also affects the one-point probability distribution function of the CMB. The skewness and kurtosis induced by lensing and the Sunayev- Zel'dovich (SZ) effect are calculated as functions of the angular smoothing scale of the map. While these functions offer the advantage of easy computability, only the skewness from lensing-SZ correlations can potentially be detected, even in the limit of the largest amplitude fluctuations allowed by observation. Lensing estimators are also essential to constrain inflation, the favored explanation for large-scale isotropy and the origin of primordial perturbations. B-mode polarization is considered to be a "smoking-gun" signature of inflation, and lensing estimators can be used to recover primordial B-modes from lensing-induced contamination. The ability of future CMB experiments to constrain inflation is assessed as functions of survey size and instrumental sensitivity. A final application of lensing estimators is to constrain a possible cutoff in primordial density perturbations on near-horizon scales. The paucity of independent modes on such scales limits the statistical certainty of such a constraint. Measurements of the deflection field can be used to constrain at the 3s level the existence of a cutoff large enough to account for current CMB observations. A final chapter of this thesis considers an independent topic: the gravitational-wave (GW) signature of a binary inspiral into a horizonless object. If the supermassive objects at galactic centers lack the horizons of traditional black holes, inspiraling objects could emit GWs after passing within their surfaces. The GWs produced by such an inspiral are calculated, revealing distinctive features potentially observable by future GW observatories.

Hydrological response of karst systems to large-scale climate variability for different catchments of the French karst observatory network INSU/CNRS SNO KARST

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Massei, Nicolas; Labat, David; Jourde, Hervé; Lecoq, Nicolas; Mazzilli, Naomi

2017-04-01

The french karst observatory network SNO KARST is a national initiative from the National Institute for Earth Sciences and Astronomy (INSU) of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). It is also part of the new french research infrastructure for the observation of the critical zone OZCAR. SNO KARST is composed by several karst sites distributed over conterminous France which are located in different physiographic and climatic contexts (Mediterranean, Pyrenean, Jura mountain, western and northwestern shore near the Atlantic or the English Channel). This allows the scientific community to develop advanced research and experiments dedicated to improve understanding of the hydrological functioning of karst catchments. Here we used several sites of SNO KARST in order to assess the hydrological response of karst catchments to long-term variation of large-scale atmospheric circulation. Using NCEP reanalysis products and karst discharge, we analyzed the links between large-scale circulation and karst water resources variability. As karst hydrosystems are highly heterogeneous media, they behave differently across different time-scales : we explore the large-scale/local-scale relationships according to time-scales using a wavelet multiresolution approach of both karst hydrological variables and large-scale climate fields such as sea level pressure (SLP). The different wavelet components of karst discharge in response to the corresponding wavelet component of climate fields are either 1) compared to physico-chemical/geochemical responses at karst springs, or 2) interpreted in terms of hydrological functioning by comparing discharge wavelet components to internal components obtained from precipitation/discharge models using the KARSTMOD conceptual modeling platform of SNO KARST.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Variables in Centaurus field F170 (Pietrukowicz+, 2012)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pietrukowicz, P.; Minniti, D.; Alonso-Garcia; J.; Hempel, M.

2011-10-01

VJHKs photometry of stars in two VIMOS disc fields: F167 and F170. Data table with 333 variables detected in the field F170 in Centaurus. The optical observations were taken with the 8.2-m Unit Telescope 3 + VIMOS imager with a scale of 0.205"/pix at ESO Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory. Date of the observations: Apr 11-12, 2005. The infrared observations were obtained with the 4.1-m VISTA telescope + VIRCAM with a scale of 0.34"/pix also at Paranal Observatory. Date of the observations: Mar-Apr 2010. (4 data files).

Getting into the GROOVE: How Building Effective Education Partnerships and Promoting Authentic Student Research through the Girls' Remotely Operated Ocean Vehicle Exploration (GROOVE) Workshop.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pelz, M.; Heesemann, M.; Hoeberechts, M.

2017-12-01

This presentation outlines the pilot year of Girls' Remotely Operated Ocean Vehicle Exploration or GROOVE, a hands-on learning program created collaboratively with education partners Ocean Networks Canada and St. Margaret's School (Victoria, BC, Canada). The program features student-led activities, authentic student experiences, clearly outlined learning outcomes, teacher and student self-assessment tools, and curriculum-aligned content. Presented through the lens of STEM, students build a modified Seaperch ROV and explore and research thematic scientific concepts such as buoyancy, electronic circuitry, and deep-sea exploration. Further, students learn engineering skills such as isotropic scaling, soldering, and assembly as they build their ROV. Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), an initiative of the University of Victoria, develops, operates, and maintains cabled ocean observatory systems. These include technologies developed on the world-leading NEPTUNE and VENUS observatories and the ever-expanding network of community observatories in the Arctic and coastal British Columbia. These observatories, large and small, enable communities, users, scientists, teachers, and students to monitor real-time and historical data from the local marine environment from anywhere on the globe. GROOVE, Girls' Remotely Operated Ocean Vehicle Exploration, is ONC's newest educational program and is related to their foundational program K-12 Ocean Sense educational program. This presentation will share our experiences developing, refining, and assessing our efforts to implement GROOVE using a train-the-trainer model aimed at formal and informal K-12 educators. We will highlight lessons learned from multiple perspectives (students, participants, developers, and mentors) with the intent of informing future education and outreach initiatives.

The Virtual Watershed Observatory: Cyberinfrastructure for Model-Data Integration and Access

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duffy, C.; Leonard, L. N.; Giles, L.; Bhatt, G.; Yu, X.

2011-12-01

The Virtual Watershed Observatory (VWO) is a concept where scientists, water managers, educators and the general public can create a virtual observatory from integrated hydrologic model results, national databases and historical or real-time observations via web services. In this paper, we propose a prototype for automated and virtualized web services software using national data products for climate reanalysis, soils, geology, terrain and land cover. The VWO has the broad purpose of making accessible water resource simulations, real-time data assimilation, calibration and archival at the scale of HUC 12 watersheds (Hydrologic Unit Code) anywhere in the continental US. Our prototype for model-data integration focuses on creating tools for fast data storage from selected national databases, as well as the computational resources necessary for a dynamic, distributed watershed simulation. The paper will describe cyberinfrastructure tools and workflow that attempts to resolve the problem of model-data accessibility and scalability such that individuals, research teams, managers and educators can create a WVO in a desired context. Examples are given for the NSF-funded Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory and the European Critical Zone Observatories within the SoilTrEC project. In the future implementation of WVO services will benefit from the development of a cloud cyber infrastructure as the prototype evolves to data and model intensive computation for continental scale water resource predictions.

New ultracool subdwarfs identified in large-scale surveys using Virtual Observatory tools (Corrigendum). I. UKIDSS LAS DR5 vs. SDSS DR7

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lodieu, N.; Espinoza Contreras, M.; Zapatero Osorio, M. R.; Solano, E.; Aberasturi, M.; Martín, E. L.

2017-01-01

Based on observations made with ESO Telescopes at the La Silla Paranal Observatory under programme ID 084.C-0928A.Based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma jointly by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.

TMT in the Astronomical Landscape of the 2020s

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dickinson, Mark; Inami, Hanae

2014-07-01

Thirty Meter Telescope Observatory and NOAO will host the second TMT Science Forum at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, Arizona. The TMT Science Forum is an an annual gathering of astronomers, educators, and observatory staff, who meet to explore TMT science, instrumentation, observatory operations, archiving and data processing, astronomy education, and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) issues. It is an opportunity for astronomers from the international TMT partners and from the US-at-large community to learn about the observatory status, discuss and plan cutting-edge science, establish collaborations, and to help shape the future of TMT. One important theme for this year's Forum will be the synergy between TMT and other facilities in the post-2020 astronomical landscape. There will be plenary sessions, an instrumentation workshop, topical science sessions and meetings of the TMT International Science Development Teams (ISDTs).

Large Aperture Camera for the Simon's Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dicker, Simon; Simons Observatory Collaboration

2018-01-01

The Simon's observatory will consist of one large 6m telescope and three or more smaller telescopes working together with a goal of measuring the polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background on angular scales as small as 1' to larger than 1 degree and at a sensitivity far greater than has ever been reached before. To reach these sensitivities, needed for our science goals, we require over 90000 background limited TES detectors on the large telescope - hence a very large field-of-view. The telescope design we have selected is a copy of the CCAT-prime telescope, a Crossed Dragone with extra aspheric terms to increase the diffraction limited field-of-view. At the secondary focus will be a 2.5m diameter cryostat containing re-imaging silicon optics which can correct remaining aberrations (mostly astigmatism) at the edge of the field of view and allow this part of the focal plane to be used at higher frequencies. This poster will contain an outline of our optical designs and take a brief look at how they could be scaled to a larger telescope.

The ALMA archive and its place in the astronomy of the future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stoehr, Felix; Lacy, Mark; Leon, Stephane; Muller, Erik; Manning, Alisdair; Moins, Christophe; Jenkins, Dustin

2014-07-01

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile, is the largest astronomical project in existence. While ALMA's capabilities are ramping up, Early Science observations have started. The ALMA Archive is at the center of the operations of the telescope array and is designed to manage the 200 TB of data that will be taken each year, once the observatory is in full operations. We briefly describe design principles. The second part of this paper focuses on how astronomy is likely to evolve as the amount and complexity of data taken grows. We argue that in the future observatories will compete for astronomers to work with their data, that observatories will have to reorient themselves to from providing good data only to providing an excellent end-to-end user-experience with all its implications, that science-grade data-reduction pipelines will become an integral part of the design of a new observatory or instrument and that all this evolution will have a deep impact on how astronomers will do science. We show how ALMA's design principles are in line with this paradigm.

Large scale distribution of ultra high energy cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory with zenith angles up to 80°

DOE PAGES

Aab, Alexander

2015-03-30

In this study, we present the results of an analysis of the large angular scale distribution of the arrival directions of cosmic rays with energy above 4 EeV detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory including for the first time events with zenith angle between 60° and 80°. We perform two Rayleigh analyses, one in the right ascension and one in the azimuth angle distributions, that are sensitive to modulations in right ascension and declination, respectively. The largest departure from isotropy appears in themore » $$E\\gt 8$$ EeV energy bin, with an amplitude for the first harmonic in right ascension $$r_{1}^{\\alpha }=(4.4\\pm 1.0)\\times {{10}^{-2}}$$, that has a chance probability $$P(\\geqslant r_{1}^{\\alpha })=6.4\\times {{10}^{-5}}$$, reinforcing the hint previously reported with vertical events alone.« less

Listening to the Deep: live monitoring of ocean noise and cetacean acoustic signals.

PubMed

André, M; van der Schaar, M; Zaugg, S; Houégnigan, L; Sánchez, A M; Castell, J V

2011-01-01

The development and broad use of passive acoustic monitoring techniques have the potential to help assessing the large-scale influence of artificial noise on marine organisms and ecosystems. Deep-sea observatories have the potential to play a key role in understanding these recent acoustic changes. LIDO (Listening to the Deep Ocean Environment) is an international project that is allowing the real-time long-term monitoring of marine ambient noise as well as marine mammal sounds at cabled and standalone observatories. Here, we present the overall development of the project and the use of passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) techniques to provide the scientific community with real-time data at large spatial and temporal scales. Special attention is given to the extraction and identification of high frequency cetacean echolocation signals given the relevance of detecting target species, e.g. beaked whales, in mitigation processes, e.g. during military exercises. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Photospheric magnetic fields in six magnetographs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Virtanen, Ilpo; Mursula, Kalevi

2016-10-01

Photospheric magnetic field has been routinely observed since 1950s, but calibrated digital data exist only since 1970s. The longest uniform data set is measured at the Wilcox Solar Observatory (WSO), covering 40 years from 1976 onwards. However, the WSO instrument operates in very low spatial resolution and suffers from saturation of strong fields. Other, higher resolution instruments like those at NSO Kitt Peak (KP) offer a more detailed view of the solar magnetic field, but several instrument updates make the data less uniform. While the different observatories show a similar large scale structure of the photospheric field, the measured magnetic field intensities differ significantly between the observatories. In this work we study the photospheric magnetic fields and, especially, the scaling of the magnetic field intensity between six independent data sets. We use synoptic maps constructed from the measurements of the photospheric magnetic field at Wilcox Solar Observatory, Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO), Kitt Peak (KP), SOLIS, SOHO/MDI and SDO/HMI. We calculate the harmonic expansion of the magnetic field from all six data sets and investigate the scaling of harmonic coefficients between the observations. We investigate how scaling depends on latitude and field strength, as well as on the solar cycle phase, and what is the effect of polar field filling in KP, SOLIS and MDI. We find that scaling factors based on harmonic coefficients are in general smaller than scaling factors based on pixel-by-pixel comparison or histogram techniques. This indicates that a significant amount of total flux is contained in the high harmonics of the higher resolution observations that are beyond the resolution of WSO. We note that only scaling factors based on harmonic coefficients should be used when using the PFSS-model, since the other methods tend to lead to overestimated values of the magnetic flux. The scaling of the low order harmonic coefficients is typically different than for higher terms. The most problematic harmonic is the axial quadrupole term, which is known to be noisy and to suffer from observational limitations (e.g., the vantage point effect). We did not find significant solar cycle variation in the scaling factors.

Beyond MOS and fibers: Optical Fourier-transform Imaging Unit for Cananea Observatory (OFIUCO)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nieto-Suárez, M. A.; Rosales-Ortega, F. F.; Castillo, E.; García, P.; Escobedo, G.; Sánchez, S. F.; González, J.; Iglesias-Páramo, J.; Mollá, M.; Chávez, M.; Bertone, E.; et al.

2017-11-01

Many physical processes in astronomy are still hampered by the lack of spatial and spectral resolution, and also restricted to the field-of-view (FoV) of current 2D spectroscopy instruments available worldwide. It is due to that, many of the ongoing or proposed studies are based on large-scale imaging and/or spectroscopic surveys. Under this philosophy, large aperture telescopes are dedicated to the study of intrinsically faint and/or distance objects, covering small FoVs, with high spatial resolution, while smaller telescopes are devoted to wide-field explorations. However, future astronomical surveys, should be addressed by acquiring un-biases, spatially resolved, high-quality spectroscopic information for a wide FoV. Therefore, and in order to improve the current instrumental offer in the Observatorio Astrofísico Guillermo Haro (OAGH) in Cananea, Mexico (INAOE); and to explore a possible instrument for the future Telescopio San Pedro Mártir (6.5m), we are currently integrating at INAOE an instrument prototype that will provide us with un-biased wide-field (few arcmin) spectroscopic information, and with the flexibility of operating at different spectral resolutions (R 1-20000), with a spatial resolution limited by seeing, and therefore, to be used in a wide range of astronomical problems. This instrument called OFIUCO: Optical Fourier-transform Imaging Unit for Cananea Observatory, will make use of the Fourier Transform Spectroscopic technique, which has been proved to be feasible in the optical wavelength range (350-1000 nm) with designs such as SITELLE (CFHT). We describe here the basic technical description of a Fourier transform spectrograph with important modifications from previous astronomical versions, as well as the technical advantages and weakness, and the science cases in which this instrument can be implemented.

James Webb Space Telescope Core 2 Test - Cryogenic Thermal Balance Test of the Observatorys Core Area Thermal Control Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cleveland, Paul; Parrish, Keith; Thomson, Shaun; Marsh, James; Comber, Brian

2016-01-01

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, will be the largest astronomical telescope ever sent into space. To observe the very first light of the early universe, JWST requires a large deployed 6.5-meter primary mirror cryogenically cooled to less than 50 Kelvin. Three scientific instruments are further cooled via a large radiator system to less than 40 Kelvin. A fourth scientific instrument is cooled to less than 7 Kelvin using a combination pulse-tube Joule-Thomson mechanical cooler. Passive cryogenic cooling enables the large scale of the telescope which must be highly folded for launch on an Ariane 5 launch vehicle and deployed once on orbit during its journey to the second Earth-Sun Lagrange point. Passive cooling of the observatory is enabled by the deployment of a large tennis court sized five layer Sunshield combined with the use of a network of high efficiency radiators. A high purity aluminum heat strap system connects the three instrument's detector systems to the radiator systems to dissipate less than a single watt of parasitic and instrument dissipated heat. JWST's large scale features, while enabling passive cooling, also prevent the typical flight configuration fully-deployed thermal balance test that is the keystone of most space missions' thermal verification plans. This paper describes the JWST Core 2 Test, which is a cryogenic thermal balance test of a full size, high fidelity engineering model of the Observatory's 'Core' area thermal control hardware. The 'Core' area is the key mechanical and cryogenic interface area between all Observatory elements. The 'Core' area thermal control hardware allows for temperature transition of 300K to approximately 50 K by attenuating heat from the room temperature IEC (instrument electronics) and the Spacecraft Bus. Since the flight hardware is not available for test, the Core 2 test uses high fidelity and flight-like reproductions.

Ubiquitous and Continuous Propagating Disturbances in the Solar Corona

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morgan, Huw; Hutton, Joseph

2018-02-01

A new processing method applied to Atmospheric Imaging Assembly/Solar Dynamic Observatory observations reveals continuous propagating faint motions throughout the corona. The amplitudes are small, typically 2% of the background intensity. An hour’s data are processed from four AIA channels for a region near disk center, and the motions are characterized using an optical flow method. The motions trace the underlying large-scale magnetic field. The motion vector field describes large-scale coherent regions that tend to converge at narrow corridors. Large-scale vortices can also be seen. The hotter channels have larger-scale regions of coherent motion compared to the cooler channels, interpreted as the typical length of magnetic loops at different heights. Regions of low mean and high time variance in velocity are where the dominant motion component is along the line of sight as a result of a largely vertical magnetic field. The mean apparent magnitude of the optical velocities are a few tens of km s‑1, with different distributions in different channels. Over time, the velocities vary smoothly between a few km s‑1 to 100 km s‑1 or higher, varying on timescales of minutes. A clear bias of a few km s‑1 toward positive x-velocities is due to solar rotation and may be used as calibration in future work. All regions of the low corona thus experience a continuous stream of propagating disturbances at the limit of both spatial resolution and signal level. The method provides a powerful new diagnostic tool for tracing the magnetic field, and to probe motions at sub-pixel scales, with important implications for models of heating and of the magnetic field.

The JCMT as operated by the East Asian Observatory: a brief (but thrilling) history

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dempsey, Jessica T.; Ho, Paul T. P.; Walther, Craig; Friberg, Per; Bell, Graham S.; Parsons, Harriet; Chen, Ming-Tang

2016-07-01

The newly formed East Asian Observatory assumed operations of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in March of 2015. In just three weeks, the facility needed to run up completely mothballed observatory operations, introduce the telescope to a vast new scientist base with no familiarity with the facility, and create a non-existent science program. The handover to the EAO has since been a succession of challenging time-lines, and nearly unique problems requiring novel solutions. The results, however, have been spectacular, with subscription rates at unprecedented levels, a new series of Large Programs underway, as well as an exciting Future Instrumentation Project that together promises to keep JCMT at the forefront of wide-field submillimeter astronomy for the next decade.

Future Large-Aperture Ultraviolet/Optical/Infrared Space Observatory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thronson, Harley; Mandell, Avi; Polidan, Ron; Tumlinson, Jason

2016-01-01

Since the beginning of modern astronomical science in the early 1900s, astronomers have yearned to escape the turbulence and absorption of Earth's atmosphere by placing observatories in space. One of the first papers to lay out the advantages of space astronomy was by Lyman Spitzer in 1946, "Astronomical Advantages of an Extra-Terrestrial Observatory," though later in life he minimized the influence of this work. Since that time, and especially gaining momentum in the 1960s after the launch of Sputnik, astronomers, technologists, and engineers continued to advance, organizing scientific conferences, advocating for necessary technologies, and assessing sophisticated designs for increasingly ambitious space observations at ultraviolet, visual, and infrared (UVOIR) wavelengths. These community-wide endeavors, combined with the explosion in technological capability enabled by the Apollo era, led to rapid advancement in space observatory performance that culminated in the spectacularly successful Hubble Space Telescope (HST), launched in 1990 and still returning surpassing scientific results.

Initial Technology Assessment for the Large-Aperture UV-Optical-Infrared (LUVOIR) Mission Concept Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolcar, Matthew R.; Feinberg, Lee; France, Kevin; Rauscher, Bernard J.; Redding, David; Schiminovich, David

2016-01-01

The NASA Astrophysics Division's 30-Year Roadmap prioritized a future large-aperture space telescope operating in the ultra-violet/optical/infrared wavelength regime. The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy envisioned a similar observatory, the High Definition Space Telescope. And a multi-institution group also studied the Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope. In all three cases, a broad science case is outlined, combining general astrophysics with the search for biosignatures via direct-imaging and spectroscopic characterization of habitable exoplanets. We present an initial technology assessment that enables such an observatory that is currently being studied for the 2020 Decadal Survey by the Large UV/Optical/Infrared (LUVOIR) surveyor Science and Technology Definition Team. We present here the technology prioritization for the 2016 technology cycle and define the required technology capabilities and current state-of-the-art performance. Current, planned, and recommended technology development efforts are also reported.

Initial Technology Assessment for the Large UV-Optical-Infrared (LUVOIR) Mission Concept Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolcar, Matthew R.; Feinberg, Lee D.; France, Kevin; Rauscher, Bernard J.; Redding, David; Schiminovich, David

2016-01-01

The NASA Astrophysics Divisions 30-Year Roadmap prioritized a future large-aperture space telescope operating in the ultra-violet-optical-infrared wavelength regime. The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy envisioned a similar observatory, the High Definition Space Telescope. And a multi-institution group also studied the Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope. In all three cases, a broad science case is outlined, combining general astrophysics with the search for bio-signatures via direct-imaging and spectroscopic characterization of habitable exo-planets. We present an initial technology assessment that enables such an observatory that is currently being studied for the 2020 Decadal Survey by the Large UV-Optical Infrared (LUVOIR) surveyor Science and Technology Definition Team. We present here the technology prioritization for the 2016 technology cycle and define the required technology capabilities and current state-of-the-art performance. Current, planned, and recommended technology development efforts are also reported.

Heating of large format filters in sub-mm and fir space optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baccichet, N.; Savini, G.

2017-11-01

Most FIR and sub-mm space borne observatories use polymer-based quasi-optical elements like filters and lenses, due to their high transparency and low absorption in such wavelength ranges. Nevertheless, data from those missions have proven that thermal imbalances in the instrument (not caused by filters) can complicate the data analysis. Consequently, for future, higher precision instrumentation, further investigation is required on any thermal imbalances embedded in such polymer-based filters. Particularly, in this paper the heating of polymers when operating at cryogenic temperature in space will be studied. Such phenomenon is an important aspect of their functioning since the transient emission of unwanted thermal radiation may affect the scientific measurements. To assess this effect, a computer model was developed for polypropylene based filters and PTFE-based coatings. Specifically, a theoretical model of their thermal properties was created and used into a multi-physics simulation that accounts for conductive and radiative heating effects of large optical elements, the geometry of which was suggested by the large format array instruments designed for future space missions. It was found that in the simulated conditions, the filters temperature was characterized by a time-dependent behaviour, modulated by a small scale fluctuation. Moreover, it was noticed that thermalization was reached only when a low power input was present.

A Search for Cosmic String Loops Using GADGET-2 Cosmological N-Body Simulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Braverman, William; Cousins, Bryce; Jia, Hewei

2018-01-01

Cosmic string loops are an extremely elusive hypothetical entity that have eluded the grasp of physicists and astronomers since their existence was postulated in the 1970’s. Finding evidence of their existence could be the first empirical evidence of string theory.Simulating their basic motion in a cold dark matter background using GADGET-2 allows us to predict where they may cluster during large scale structure formation (if they cluster at all). Here, we present our progress in placing cosmic strings into GADGET-2 with their basic equations of motion to lay a ground work for more complex simulations to find where these strings cluster. Ultimately, these simulations could lay a groundwork as to where future microlensing and gravitational wave observatories should look for cosmic strings.

The Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) Technology Roadmap

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stahle, Carl; Balasubramanian, K.; Bolcar, M.; Clampin, M.; Feinberg, L.; Hartman, K.; Mosier, C.; Quijada, M.; Rauscher, B.; Redding, D.;

Developing a NASA strategy for the verification of large space telescope observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crooke, Julie A.; Gunderson, Johanna A.; Hagopian, John G.; Levine, Marie

2006-06-01

In July 2005, the Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation (PA&E) at NASA Headquarters was directed to develop a strategy for verification of the performance of large space telescope observatories, which occurs predominantly in a thermal vacuum test facility. A mission model of the expected astronomical observatory missions over the next 20 years was identified along with performance, facility and resource requirements. Ground testing versus alternatives was analyzed to determine the pros, cons and break points in the verification process. Existing facilities and their capabilities were examined across NASA, industry and other government agencies as well as the future demand for these facilities across NASA's Mission Directorates. Options were developed to meet the full suite of mission verification requirements, and performance, cost, risk and other analyses were performed. Findings and recommendations from the study were presented to the NASA Administrator and the NASA Strategic Management Council (SMC) in February 2006. This paper details the analysis, results, and findings from this study.

The Hubble Space Telescope at 25: Lessons Learned for Future Missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiseman, Jennifer

2015-08-01

This year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope mission. Astronomy worldwide has been transformed by the discoveries made with Hubble. At this momentous milestone it is important to reflect on the unique successes of Hubble, and the components of that success, as the astronomical community develops facilities and a vision for future major international efforts in scientific space exploration. First, Hubble was envisioned by pioneering astronomers long before its launch, galvanizing support from astronomers, NASA, and governmental leaders for such an innovative and risky endeavor. Second, the interplay of the astronaut program with scientific exploration was paramount to the success of Hubble, not only with the initial dramatic repair mission, but also for the subsequent five servicing missions that kept the observatory perpetually refreshed. Cooperative missions involving astronauts, engineers, and scientists may be critical for constructing and operating large facilities in space in the future. Third, the scientific discoveries of Hubble involve both incredible successes that were planned from the outset as well as new discoveries and innovative uses of the observatory that could not have been planned in advance. Hubble has been used not only to gauge the expansion rate and age of the universe, but has also been a major player in the recent surprise detection of acceleration in that expansion. Hubble has also been key for studying star formation and now the atmospheres of exoplanets; even water has been detected in exoplanetary systems, something never envisioned for Hubble originally. And the incredible evolutionary picture of galaxies has been unveiled through Hubble observations, now enhanced by the revolutionary uses of gravitational lensing to study both dark matter in the lensing clusters, and extremely distant magnified galaxies. Finally, Hubble’s great success in public outreach has made the discoveries of astronomy easily accessible and treasured by people around the world. This talk will outline how these successes of the Hubble Space Telescope program can inform and prepare us for future large scale astronomical facilities and exploration endeavors.

The Large-Scale Cosmic-Ray Anisotropy as Observed with Milagro

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdo, A. A.; Allen, B. T.; Aune, T.; Berley, D.; Casanova, S.; Chen, C.; Dingus, B. L.; Ellsworth, R. W.; Fleysher, L.; Fleysher, R.; Gonzalez, M. M.; Goodman, J. A.; Hoffman, C. M.; Hopper, B.; Hüntemeyer, P. H.; Kolterman, B. E.; Lansdell, C. P.; Linnemann, J. T.; McEnery, J. E.; Mincer, A. I.; Nemethy, P.; Noyes, D.; Pretz, J.; Ryan, J. M.; Parkinson, P. M. Saz; Shoup, A.; Sinnis, G.; Smith, A. J.; Sullivan, G. W.; Vasileiou, V.; Walker, G. P.; Williams, D. A.; Yodh, G. B.

2009-06-01

Results are presented of a harmonic analysis of the large-scale cosmic-ray (CR) anisotropy as observed by the Milagro observatory. We show a two-dimensional display of the sidereal anisotropy projections in right ascension (R.A.) generated by the fitting of three harmonics to 18 separate declination bands. The Milagro observatory is a water Cherenkov detector located in the Jemez mountains near Los Alamos, New Mexico. With a high duty cycle and large field of view, Milagro is an excellent instrument for measuring this anisotropy with high sensitivity at TeV energies. The analysis is conducted using a seven-year data sample consisting of more than 95 billion events, the largest such data set in existence. We observe an anisotropy with a magnitude around 0.1% for CRs with a median energy of 6 TeV. The dominant feature is a deficit region of depth (2.49 ± 0.02 stat. ± 0.09 sys.) ×10-3 in the direction of the Galactic north pole centered at 189 deg R.A. We observe a steady increase in the magnitude of the signal over seven years.

Winter sky brightness & cloud cover over Dome A

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Yi; Moore, A. M.; Fu, J.; Ashley, M.; Cui, X.; Feng, L.; Gong, X.; Hu, Z.; Laurence, J.; LuongVan, D.; Riddle, R. L.; Shang, Z.; Sims, G.; Storey, J.; Tothill, N.; Travouillon, T.; Wang, L.; Yang, H.; Yang, J.; Zhou, X.; Zhu, Z.; Burton, M. G.

2014-01-01

At the summit of the Antarctic plateau, Dome A offers an intriguing location for future large scale optical astronomical Observatories. The Gattini DomeA project was created to measure the optical sky brightness and large area cloud cover of the winter-time sky above this high altitude Antarctic site. The wide field camera and multi-filter system was installed on the PLATO instrument module as part of the Chinese-led traverse to Dome A in January 2008. This automated wide field camera consists of an Apogee U4000 interline CCD coupled to a Nikon fish-eye lens enclosed in a heated container with glass window. The system contains a filter mechanism providing a suite of standard astronomical photometric filters (Bessell B, V, R), however, the absence of tracking systems, together with the ultra large field of view 85 degrees) and strong distortion have driven us to seek a unique way to build our data reduction pipeline. We present here the first measurements of sky brightness in the photometric B, V, and R band, cloud cover statistics measured during the 2009 winter season and an estimate of the transparency. In addition, we present example light curves for bright targets to emphasize the unprecedented observational window function available from this ground-based location. A ~0.2 magnitude agreement of our simultaneous test at Palomar Observatory with NSBM(National Sky Brightness Monitor), as well as an 0.04 magnitude photometric accuracy for typical 6th magnitude stars limited by the instrument design, indicating we obtained reasonable results based on our ~7mm effective aperture fish-eye lens.

Studies of dark energy with X-ray observatories.

PubMed

Vikhlinin, Alexey

2010-04-20

I review the contribution of Chandra X-ray Observatory to studies of dark energy. There are two broad classes of observable effects of dark energy: evolution of the expansion rate of the Universe, and slow down in the rate of growth of cosmic structures. Chandra has detected and measured both of these effects through observations of galaxy clusters. A combination of the Chandra results with other cosmological datasets leads to 5% constraints on the dark energy equation-of-state parameter, and limits possible deviations of gravity on large scales from general relativity.

S-net : Construction of large scale seafloor observatory network for tsunamis and earthquakes along the Japan Trench

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mochizuki, M.; Uehira, K.; Kanazawa, T.; Shiomi, K.; Kunugi, T.; Aoi, S.; Matsumoto, T.; Sekiguchi, S.; Yamamoto, N.; Takahashi, N.; Nakamura, T.; Shinohara, M.; Yamada, T.

2017-12-01

NIED has launched the project of constructing a seafloor observatory network for tsunamis and earthquakes after the occurrence of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake to enhance reliability of early warnings of tsunamis and earthquakes. The observatory network was named "S-net". The S-net project has been financially supported by MEXT.The S-net consists of 150 seafloor observatories which are connected in line with submarine optical cables. The total length of submarine optical cable is about 5,500 km. The S-net covers the focal region of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and its vicinity regions. Each observatory equips two units of a high sensitive pressure gauges as a tsunami meter and four sets of three-component seismometers. The S-net is composed of six segment networks. Five of six segment networks had been already installed. Installation of the last segment network covering the outer rise area have been finally finished by the end of FY2016. The outer rise segment has special features like no other five segments of the S-net. Those features are deep water and long distance. Most of 25 observatories on the outer rise segment are located at the depth of deeper than 6,000m WD. Especially, three observatories are set on the seafloor of deeper than about 7.000m WD, and then the pressure gauges capable of being used even at 8,000m WD are equipped on those three observatories. Total length of the submarine cables of the outer rise segment is about two times longer than those of the other segments. The longer the cable system is, the higher voltage supply is needed, and thus the observatories on the outer rise segment have high withstanding voltage characteristics. We employ a dispersion management line of a low loss formed by combining a plurality of optical fibers for the outer rise segment cable, in order to achieve long-distance, high-speed and large-capacity data transmission Installation of the outer rise segment was finished and then full-scale operation of S-net has started. All the data from 150 seafloor observatories are being transferred to and stored in the Tsukuba DC. Some data are being transmitted directly to JMA and have been used for monitoring of earthquakes and tsunamis. We will report construction and operation of the S-net system as well as the outline of the obtained data in this presentation.

Summary of the NASA Science Instrument, Observatories and Sensor Systems (SIOSS) Technology Assessment Roadmap

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stahl, H. Philip

2011-01-01

In August 2010, the NASA Office of Chief Technologist (OCT) commissioned an assessment of 15 different technology areas of importance to the future of NASA. Technology Assessment #8 (TA8) was Science Instruments, Observatories and Sensor Systems (SIOSS). SIOSS assessed the needs for optical technology ranging from detectors to lasers, x-ray mirrors to microwave antenna, in-situ spectrographs for on-surface planetary sample characterization to large space telescopes. This needs assessment looked across the entirety of NASA and not just the Science Mission Directorate. This paper summarizes the SIOSS findings and recommendations.

Astronomical Extinction Over The ELT Moroccan Sites From Aerosol Satellite Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siher, E. A.; Benkhaldoun, Z.; Bounhir, A.

2006-08-01

Two Moroccan sites are selected to be characterized for the ELT telescopes. These sites are in the Atlas, between Oukaimeden (where is the national observatory) and The Canaries Islands. For a preliminary study, we will use the TOMS/Nimbus7 aerosol index (AI), threshold 0.7, to extract the astronomical extinction (AE), threshold 0.2 mag/airmass. In fact, on the one hand, one previously work showed the link between these parameters over the Canaries Islands (ORM Observatory). On the other hand, many studies proposed the dust characterization for the future extremely large telescope for a mandatory qualification.

A gravitational wave observatory operating beyond the quantum shot-noise limit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ligo Scientific Collaboration; Abadie, J.; Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D.; Abernathy, M.; Adams, C.; Adhikari, R.; Affeldt, C.; Allen, B.; Allen, G. S.; Amador Ceron, E.; Amariutei, D.; Amin, R. S.; Anderson, S. B.; Anderson, W. G.; Arai, K.; Arain, M. A.; Araya, M. C.; Aston, S. M.; Atkinson, D.; Aufmuth, P.; Aulbert, C.; Aylott, B. E.; Babak, S.; Baker, P.; Ballmer, S.; Barker, D.; Barr, B.; Barriga, P.; Barsotti, L.; Barton, M. A.; Bartos, I.; Bassiri, R.; Bastarrika, M.; Batch, J.; Bauchrowitz, J.; Behnke, B.; Bell, A. S.; Belopolski, I.; Benacquista, M.; Berliner, J. M.; Bertolini, A.; Betzwieser, J.; Beveridge, N.; Beyersdorf, P. T.; Bilenko, I. A.; Billingsley, G.; Birch, J.; Biswas, R.; Black, E.; Blackburn, J. K.; Blackburn, L.; Blair, D.; Bland, B.; Bock, O.; Bodiya, T. P.; Bogan, C.; Bondarescu, R.; Bork, R.; Born, M.; Bose, S.; Brady, P. R.; Braginsky, V. B.; Brau, J. E.; Breyer, J.; Bridges, D. O.; Brinkmann, M.; Britzger, M.; Brooks, A. F.; Brown, D. A.; Brummitt, A.; Buonanno, A.; Burguet-Castell, J.; Burmeister, O.; Byer, R. L.; Cadonati, L.; Camp, J. B.; Campsie, P.; Cannizzo, J.; Cannon, K.; Cao, J.; Capano, C. D.; Caride, S.; Caudill, S.; Cavagliá, M.; Cepeda, C.; Chalermsongsak, T.; Chalkley, E.; Charlton, P.; Chelkowski, S.; Chen, Y.; Christensen, N.; Cho, H.; Chua, S. S. Y.; Chung, S.; Chung, C. T. Y.; Ciani, G.; Clara, F.; Clark, D. E.; Clark, J.; Clayton, J. H.; Conte, R.; Cook, D.; Corbitt, T. R.; Cordier, M.; Cornish, N.; Corsi, A.; Costa, C. A.; Coughlin, M.; Couvares, P.; Coward, D. M.; Coyne, D. C.; Creighton, J. D. E.; Creighton, T. D.; Cruise, A. M.; Cumming, A.; Cunningham, L.; Cutler, R. M.; Dahl, K.; Danilishin, S. L.; Dannenberg, R.; Danzmann, K.; Daudert, B.; Daveloza, H.; Davies, G.; Daw, E. J.; Dayanga, T.; Debra, D.; Degallaix, J.; Dent, T.; Dergachev, V.; Derosa, R.; Desalvo, R.; Dhurandhar, S.; Diguglielmo, J.; di Palma, I.; Díaz, M.; Donovan, F.; Dooley, K. L.; Dorsher, S.; Drever, R. W. P.; Driggers, J. C.; Du, Z.; Dumas, J.-C.; Dwyer, S.; Eberle, T.; Edgar, M.; Edwards, M.; Effler, A.; Ehrens, P.; Engel, R.; Etzel, T.; Evans, K.; Evans, M.; Evans, T.; Factourovich, M.; Fairhurst, S.; Fan, Y.; Farr, B. F.; Farr, W.; Fazi, D.; Fehrmann, H.; Feldbaum, D.; Finn, L. S.; Fisher, R. P.; Flanigan, M.; Foley, S.; Forsi, E.; Fotopoulos, N.; Frede, M.; Frei, M.; Frei, Z.; Freise, A.; Frey, R.; Fricke, T. T.; Friedrich, D.; Fritschel, P.; Frolov, V. V.; Fulda, P. J.; Fyffe, M.; Ganija, M. R.; Garcia, J.; Garofoli, J. A.; Geng, R.; Gergely, L. Á.; Gholami, I.; Ghosh, S.; Giaime, J. A.; Giampanis, S.; Giardina, K. D.; Gill, C.; Goetz, E.; Goggin, L. M.; González, G.; Gorodetsky, M. L.; Goßler, S.; Graef, C.; Grant, A.; Gras, S.; Gray, C.; Gray, N.; Greenhalgh, R. J. S.; Gretarsson, A. M.; Grosso, R.; Grote, H.; Grunewald, S.; Guido, C.; Gupta, R.; Gustafson, E. K.; Gustafson, R.; Ha, T.; Hage, B.; Hallam, J. M.; Hammer, D.; Hammond, G.; Hanks, J.; Hanna, C.; Hanson, J.; Harms, J.; Harry, G. M.; Harry, I. W.; Harstad, E. D.; Hartman, M. T.; Haughian, K.; Hayama, K.; Heefner, J.; Heintze, M. C.; Hendry, M. A.; Heng, I. S.; Heptonstall, A. W.; Herrera, V.; Hewitson, M.; Hild, S.; Hoak, D.; Hodge, K. A.; Holt, K.; Hong, T.; Hooper, S.; Hosken, D. J.; Hough, J.; Howell, E. J.; Hughey, B.; Huynh-Dinh, T.; Husa, S.; Huttner, S. H.; Ingram, D. R.; Inta, R.; Isogai, T.; Ivanov, A.; Izumi, K.; Jacobson, M.; Jang, H.; Johnson, W. W.; Jones, D. I.; Jones, G.; Jones, R.; Ju, L.; Kalmus, P.; Kalogera, V.; Kamaretsos, I.; Kandhasamy, S.; Kang, G.; Kanner, J. B.; Katsavounidis, E.; Katzman, W.; Kaufer, H.; Kawabe, K.; Kawamura, S.; Kawazoe, F.; Kells, W.; Keppel, D. G.; Keresztes, Z.; Khalaidovski, A.; Khalili, F. Y.; Khazanov, E. A.; Kim, B.; Kim, C.; Kim, D.; Kim, H.; Kim, K.; Kim, N.; Kim, Y.-M.; King, P. J.; Kinsey, M.; Kinzel, D. L.; Kissel, J. S.; Klimenko, S.; Kokeyama, K.; Kondrashov, V.; Kopparapu, R.; Koranda, S.; Korth, W. Z.; Kozak, D.; Kringel, V.; Krishnamurthy, S.; Krishnan, B.; Kuehn, G.; Kumar, R.; Kwee, P.; Lam, P. K.; Landry, M.; Lang, M.; Lantz, B.; Lastzka, N.; Lawrie, C.; Lazzarini, A.; Leaci, P.; Lee, C. H.; Lee, H. M.; Leindecker, N.; Leong, J. R.; Leonor, I.; Li, J.; Lindquist, P. E.; Lockerbie, N. A.; Lodhia, D.; Lormand, M.; Luan, J.; Lubinski, M.; Lück, H.; Lundgren, A. P.; MacDonald, E.; Machenschalk, B.; Macinnis, M.; MacLeod, D. M.; Mageswaran, M.; Mailand, K.; Mandel, I.; Mandic, V.; Marandi, A.; Márka, S.; Márka, Z.; Markosyan, A.; Maros, E.; Martin, I. W.; Martin, R. M.; Marx, J. N.; Mason, K.; Matichard, F.; Matone, L.; Matzner, R. A.; Mavalvala, N.; Mazzolo, G.; McCarthy, R.; McClelland, D. E.; McGuire, S. C.; McIntyre, G.; McIver, J.; McKechan, D. J. A.; Meadors, G. D.; Mehmet, M.; Meier, T.; Melatos, A.; Melissinos, A. C.; Mendell, G.; Menendez, D.; Mercer, R. A.; Meshkov, S.; Messenger, C.; Meyer, M. S.; Miao, H.; Miller, J.; Mitrofanov, V. P.; Mitselmakher, G.; Mittleman, R.; Miyakawa, O.; Moe, B.; Moesta, P.; Mohanty, S. D.; Moraru, D.; Moreno, G.; Mori, T.; Mossavi, K.; Mow-Lowry, C. M.; Mueller, C. L.; Mueller, G.; Mukherjee, S.; Mullavey, A.; Müller-Ebhardt, H.; Munch, J.; Murphy, D.; Murray, P. G.; Mytidis, A.; Nash, T.; Nawrodt, R.; Necula, V.; Nelson, J.; Newton, G.; Nishizawa, A.; Nolting, D.; Nuttall, L.; O'Dell, J.; O'Reilly, B.; O'Shaughnessy, R.; Ochsner, E.; Oelker, E.; Oh, J. J.; Oh, S. H.; Ogin, G. H.; Oldenburg, R. G.; Osthelder, C.; Ott, C. D.; Ottaway, D. J.; Ottens, R. S.; Overmier, H.; Owen, B. J.; Page, A.; Pan, Y.; Pankow, C.; Papa, M. A.; Ajith, P.; Patel, P.; Pedraza, M.; Peiris, P.; Pekowsky, L.; Penn, S.; Peralta, C.; Perreca, A.; Phelps, M.; Pickenpack, M.; Pinto, I. M.; Pitkin, M.; Pletsch, H. J.; Plissi, M. V.; Pöld, J.; Postiglione, F.; Predoi, V.; Price, L. R.; Prijatelj, M.; Principe, M.; Privitera, S.; Prix, R.; Prokhorov, L.; Puncken, O.; Quetschke, V.; Raab, F. J.; Radkins, H.; Raffai, P.; Rakhmanov, M.; Ramet, C. R.; Rankins, B.; Mohapatra, S. R. P.; Raymond, V.; Redwine, K.; Reed, C. M.; Reed, T.; Reid, S.; Reitze, D. H.; Riesen, R.; Riles, K.; Robertson, N. A.; Robinson, C.; Robinson, E. L.; Roddy, S.; Rodriguez, C.; Rodruck, M.; Rollins, J.; Romano, J. D.; Romie, J. H.; Röver, C.; Rowan, S.; Rüdiger, A.; Ryan, K.; Ryll, H.; Sainathan, P.; Sakosky, M.; Salemi, F.; Samblowski, A.; Sammut, L.; Sancho de La Jordana, L.; Sandberg, V.; Sankar, S.; Sannibale, V.; Santamaría, L.; Santiago-Prieto, I.; Santostasi, G.; Sathyaprakash, B. S.; Sato, S.; Saulson, P. R.; Savage, R. L.; Schilling, R.; Schlamminger, S.; Schnabel, R.; Schofield, R. M. S.; Schulz, B.; Schutz, B. F.; Schwinberg, P.; Scott, J.; Scott, S. M.; Searle, A. C.; Seifert, F.; Sellers, D.; Sengupta, A. S.; Sergeev, A.; Shaddock, D. A.; Shaltev, M.; Shapiro, B.; Shawhan, P.; Shoemaker, D. H.; Sibley, A.; Siemens, X.; Sigg, D.; Singer, A.; Singer, L.; Sintes, A. M.; Skelton, G.; Slagmolen, B. J. J.; Slutsky, J.; Smith, R. J. E.; Smith, J. R.; Smith, M. R.; Smith, N. D.; Somiya, K.; Sorazu, B.; Soto, J.; Speirits, F. C.; Stein, A. J.; Steinert, E.; Steinlechner, J.; Steinlechner, S.; Steplewski, S.; Stefszky, M.; Stochino, A.; Stone, R.; Strain, K. A.; Strigin, S.; Stroeer, A. S.; Stuver, A. L.; Summerscales, T. Z.; Sung, M.; Susmithan, S.; Sutton, P. J.; Talukder, D.; Tanner, D. B.; Tarabrin, S. P.; Taylor, J. R.; Taylor, R.; Thomas, P.; Thorne, K. A.; Thorne, K. S.; Thrane, E.; Thüring, A.; Titsler, C.; Tokmakov, K. V.; Torres, C.; Torrie, C. I.; Traylor, G.; Trias, M.; Tseng, K.; Ugolini, D.; Urbanek, K.; Vahlbruch, H.; Vallisneri, M.; van Veggel, A. A.; Vass, S.; Vaulin, R.; Vecchio, A.; Veitch, J.; Veitch, P. J.; Veltkamp, C.; Villar, A. E.; Vitale, S.; Vorvick, C.; Vyatchanin, S. P.; Wade, A.; Waldman, S. J.; Wallace, L.; Wan, Y.; Wanner, A.; Wang, X.; Wang, Z.; Ward, R. L.; Wei, P.; Weinert, M.; Weinstein, A. J.; Weiss, R.; Wen, L.; Wen, S.; Wessels, P.; West, M.; Westphal, T.; Wette, K.; Whelan, J. T.; Whitcomb, S. E.; White, D.; Whiting, B. F.; Wilkinson, C.; Willems, P. A.; Williams, H. R.; Williams, L.; Willke, B.; Winkelmann, L.; Winkler, W.; Wipf, C. C.; Wittel, H.; Wiseman, A. G.; Woan, G.; Wooley, R.; Worden, J.; Yablon, J.; Yakushin, I.; Yamamoto, K.; Yamamoto, H.; Yang, H.; Yeaton-Massey, D.; Yoshida, S.; Yu, P.; Zanolin, M.; Zhang, L.; Zhang, W.; Zhang, Z.; Zhao, C.; Zotov, N.; Zucker, M. E.; Zweizig, J.

2011-12-01

Around the globe several observatories are seeking the first direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs). These waves are predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity and are generated, for example, by black-hole binary systems. Present GW detectors are Michelson-type kilometre-scale laser interferometers measuring the distance changes between mirrors suspended in vacuum. The sensitivity of these detectors at frequencies above several hundred hertz is limited by the vacuum (zero-point) fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. A quantum technology--the injection of squeezed light--offers a solution to this problem. Here we demonstrate the squeezed-light enhancement of GEO600, which will be the GW observatory operated by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration in its search for GWs for the next 3-4 years. GEO600 now operates with its best ever sensitivity, which proves the usefulness of quantum entanglement and the qualification of squeezed light as a key technology for future GW astronomy.

The Advanced Gamma-Ray Imaging System (AGIS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, David A.; AGIS Collaboration

2009-01-01

The spectacular astrophysical discoveries made by the present generation of ground-based gamma-ray observatories have opened a new era in the exploration of the highest energy Universe and have conclusively established the field of very-high-energy (VHE) astronomy, covering the energy regime above about 50 GeV. The detection of nearly 100 galactic and extragalactic sources has generated considerable interest in the astronomy, astrophysics and particle physics communities and has stimulated ambitious ideas and plans for future gamma-ray observatories. AGIS is a concept for a next generation VHE observatory with a collecting area on the scale of a square kilometer being developed by an international collaboration. It would have significantly improved angular and energy resolution, increased field of view, and an order of magnitude increase in sensitivity over existing space or ground-based instruments in the energy range 40 GeV to 100 TeV. The scientific motivations and R&D roadmap for AGIS will be discussed.

The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dickinson, Mark

2008-05-01

Observing the formation and evolution of ordinary galaxies at early cosmic times requires data at many wavelengths in order to recognize, separate and analyze the many physical processes which shape galaxies' history, including the growth of large scale structure, gravitational interactions, star formation, and active nuclei. Extremely deep data, covering an adequately large volume, are needed to detect ordinary galaxies in sufficient numbers at such great distances. The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) was designed for this purpose as an anthology of deep field observing programs that span the electromagnetic spectrum. GOODS targets two fields, one in each hemisphere. Some of the deepest and most extensive imaging and spectroscopic surveys have been carried out in the GOODS fields, using nearly every major space- and ground-based observatory. Many of these data have been taken as part of large, public surveys (including several Hubble Treasury, Spitzer Legacy, and ESO Large Programs), which have produced large data sets that are widely used by the astronomical community. I will review the history of the GOODS program, highlighting results on the formation and early growth of galaxies and their active nuclei. I will also describe new and upcoming observations, such as the GOODS Herschel Key Program, which will continue to fill out our portrait of galaxies in the young universe.

World Atlas of large optical telescopes (second edition)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meszaros, S. P.

1986-01-01

By early 1986 there will be over 120 large optical telescopes in the world engaged in astronomical research with mirror or lens diameters of one meter (39-inches) and larger. This atlas gives information on these telescopes and shows their observatory sites on continent sized maps. Also shown are observatory locations considered suitable for the construction of future large telescopes. Of the 126 major telescopes listed in this atlas, 101 are situated in the Northern Hemisphere and 25 are located in the Southern Hemisphere. The totals by regions are as follows: Europe (excluding the USSR), 30; Soviet Union, 9; Asia (excluding the USSR), 5; Africa, 9; Australia, 6; The Pacific, 4 (all on Hawaii); South America, 17; North America, 46 (the continental US has 38 of these). In all, the United States has 42 of the world's major telescopes on its territory (continental US plus Hawaii) making it by far the leading nation in astronomical instrumentation.

World Atlas of large optical telescopes (second edition)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meszaros, S. P.

1986-04-01

By early 1986 there will be over 120 large optical telescopes in the world engaged in astronomical research with mirror or lens diameters of one meter (39-inches) and larger. This atlas gives information on these telescopes and shows their observatory sites on continent sized maps. Also shown are observatory locations considered suitable for the construction of future large telescopes. Of the 126 major telescopes listed in this atlas, 101 are situated in the Northern Hemisphere and 25 are located in the Southern Hemisphere. The totals by regions are as follows: Europe (excluding the USSR), 30; Soviet Union, 9; Asia (excluding the USSR), 5; Africa, 9; Australia, 6; The Pacific, 4 (all on Hawaii); South America, 17; North America, 46 (the continental US has 38 of these). In all, the United States has 42 of the world's major telescopes on its territory (continental US plus Hawaii) making it by far the leading nation in astronomical instrumentation.

A large-scale solar dynamics observatory image dataset for computer vision applications.

PubMed

Kucuk, Ahmet; Banda, Juan M; Angryk, Rafal A

2017-01-01

The National Aeronautics Space Agency (NASA) Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) mission has given us unprecedented insight into the Sun's activity. By capturing approximately 70,000 images a day, this mission has created one of the richest and biggest repositories of solar image data available to mankind. With such massive amounts of information, researchers have been able to produce great advances in detecting solar events. In this resource, we compile SDO solar data into a single repository in order to provide the computer vision community with a standardized and curated large-scale dataset of several hundred thousand solar events found on high resolution solar images. This publicly available resource, along with the generation source code, will accelerate computer vision research on NASA's solar image data by reducing the amount of time spent performing data acquisition and curation from the multiple sources we have compiled. By improving the quality of the data with thorough curation, we anticipate a wider adoption and interest from the computer vision to the solar physics community.

Large-Scale periodic solar velocities: An observational study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dittmer, P. H.

1977-01-01

Observations of large-scale solar velocities were made using the mean field telescope and Babcock magnetograph of the Stanford Solar Observatory. Observations were made in the magnetically insensitive ion line at 5124 A, with light from the center (limb) of the disk right (left) circularly polarized, so that the magnetograph measures the difference in wavelength between center and limb. Computer calculations are made of the wavelength difference produced by global pulsations for spherical harmonics up to second order and of the signal produced by displacing the solar image relative to polarizing optics or diffraction grating.

ROADNET: A Real-time Data Aware System for Earth, Oceanographic, and Environmental Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vernon, F.; Hansen, T.; Lindquist, K.; Ludascher, B.; Orcutt, J.; Rajasekar, A.

2003-12-01

The Real-time Observatories, Application, and Data management Network (ROADNet) Program aims to develop an integrated, seamless, and transparent environmental information network that will deliver geophysical, oceanographic, hydrological, ecological, and physical data to a variety of users in real-time. ROADNet is a multidisciplinary, multinational partnership of researchers, policymakers, natural resource managers, educators, and students who aim to use the data to advance our understanding and management of coastal, ocean, riparian, and terrestrial Earth systems in Southern California, Mexico, and well off shore. To date, project activity and funding have focused on the design and deployment of network linkages and on the exploratory development of the real-time data management system. We are currently adapting powerful "Data Grid" technologies to the unique challenges associated with the management and manipulation of real-time data. Current "Grid" projects deal with static data files, and significant technical innovation is required to address fundamental problems of real-time data processing, integration, and distribution. The technologies developed through this research will create a system that dynamically adapt downstream processing, cataloging, and data access interfaces when sensors are added or removed from the system; provide for real-time processing and monitoring of data streams--detecting events, and triggering computations, sensor and logger modifications, and other actions; integrate heterogeneous data from multiple (signal) domains; and provide for large-scale archival and querying of "consolidated" data. The software tools which must be developed do not exist, although limited prototype systems are available. This research has implications for the success of large-scale NSF initiatives in the Earth sciences (EarthScope), ocean sciences (OOI- Ocean Observatories Initiative), biological sciences (NEON - National Ecological Observatory Network) and civil engineering (NEES - Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation). Each of these large scale initiatives aims to collect real-time data from thousands of sensors, and each will require new technologies to process, manage, and communicate real-time multidisciplinary environmental data on regional, national, and global scales.

Large-scale solar magnetic fields and H-alpha patterns

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcintosh, P. S.

1972-01-01

Coronal and interplanetary magnetic fields computed from measurements of large-scale photospheric magnetic fields suffer from interruptions in day-to-day observations and the limitation of using only measurements made near the solar central meridian. Procedures were devised for inferring the lines of polarity reversal from H-alpha solar patrol photographs that map the same large-scale features found on Mt. Wilson magnetograms. These features may be monitored without interruption by combining observations from the global network of observatories associated with NOAA's Space Environment Services Center. The patterns of inferred magnetic fields may be followed accurately as far as 60 deg from central meridian. Such patterns will be used to improve predictions of coronal features during the next solar eclipse.

Scientific Workflows and the Sensor Web for Virtual Environmental Observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simonis, I.; Vahed, A.

2008-12-01

Virtual observatories mature from their original domain and become common practice for earth observation research and policy building. The term Virtual Observatory originally came from the astronomical research community. Here, virtual observatories provide universal access to the available astronomical data archives of space and ground-based observatories. Further on, as those virtual observatories aim at integrating heterogeneous ressources provided by a number of participating organizations, the virtual observatory acts as a coordinating entity that strives for common data analysis techniques and tools based on common standards. The Sensor Web is on its way to become one of the major virtual observatories outside of the astronomical research community. Like the original observatory that consists of a number of telescopes, each observing a specific part of the wave spectrum and with a collection of astronomical instruments, the Sensor Web provides a multi-eyes perspective on the current, past, as well as future situation of our planet and its surrounding spheres. The current view of the Sensor Web is that of a single worldwide collaborative, coherent, consistent and consolidated sensor data collection, fusion and distribution system. The Sensor Web can perform as an extensive monitoring and sensing system that provides timely, comprehensive, continuous and multi-mode observations. This technology is key to monitoring and understanding our natural environment, including key areas such as climate change, biodiversity, or natural disasters on local, regional, and global scales. The Sensor Web concept has been well established with ongoing global research and deployment of Sensor Web middleware and standards and represents the foundation layer of systems like the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). The Sensor Web consists of a huge variety of physical and virtual sensors as well as observational data, made available on the Internet at standardized interfaces. All data sets and sensor communication follow well-defined abstract models and corresponding encodings, mostly developed by the OGC Sensor Web Enablement initiative. Scientific progress is currently accelerated by an emerging new concept called scientific workflows, which organize and manage complex distributed computations. A scientific workflow represents and records the highly complex processes that a domain scientist typically would follow in exploration, discovery and ultimately, transformation of raw data to publishable results. The challenge is now to integrate the benefits of scientific workflows with those provided by the Sensor Web in order to leverage all resources for scientific exploration, problem solving, and knowledge generation. Scientific workflows for the Sensor Web represent the next evolutionary step towards efficient, powerful, and flexible earth observation frameworks and platforms. Those platforms support the entire process from capturing data, sharing and integrating, to requesting additional observations. Multiple sites and organizations will participate on single platforms and scientists from different countries and organizations interact and contribute to large-scale research projects. Simultaneously, the data- and information overload becomes manageable, as multiple layers of abstraction will free scientists to deal with underlying data-, processing or storage peculiarities. The vision are automated investigation and discovery mechanisms that allow scientists to pose queries to the system, which in turn would identify potentially related resources, schedules processing tasks and assembles all parts in workflows that may satisfy the query.

The effect of the geomagnetic field on cosmic ray energy estimates and large scale anisotropy searches on data from the Pierre Auger Observatory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Abreu, P.; /Lisbon, IST; Aglietta, M.

2011-11-01

We present a comprehensive study of the influence of the geomagnetic field on the energy estimation of extensive air showers with a zenith angle smaller than 60{sup o}, detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory. The geomagnetic field induces an azimuthal modulation of the estimated energy of cosmic rays up to the {approx} 2% level at large zenith angles. We present a method to account for this modulation of the reconstructed energy. We analyse the effect of the modulation on large scale anisotropy searches in the arrival direction distributions of cosmic rays. At a given energy, the geomagnetic effect is shownmore » to induce a pseudo-dipolar pattern at the percent level in the declination distribution that needs to be accounted for. In this work, we have identified and quantified a systematic uncertainty affecting the energy determination of cosmic rays detected by the surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory. This systematic uncertainty, induced by the influence of the geomagnetic field on the shower development, has a strength which depends on both the zenith and the azimuthal angles. Consequently, we have shown that it induces distortions of the estimated cosmic ray event rate at a given energy at the percent level in both the azimuthal and the declination distributions, the latter of which mimics an almost dipolar pattern. We have also shown that the induced distortions are already at the level of the statistical uncertainties for a number of events N {approx_equal} 32 000 (we note that the full Auger surface detector array collects about 6500 events per year with energies above 3 EeV). Accounting for these effects is thus essential with regard to the correct interpretation of large scale anisotropy measurements taking explicitly profit from the declination distribution.« less

ESONET , a milestone towards sustained multidisciplinary ocean observation.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rolin, J.-F.

2012-04-01

At the end of a 4 year project dedicated to the constitution of a Network of Excellence (NoE) on subsea observatories in Europe, large expectations are still in the agenda. The economical crisis changes the infrastructure construction planning in many ways but the objectives are quite clear and may be reached at European scale. The overall objective of the ESONET NoE was to create an organisation able to implement, operate and maintain a sustainable underwater observation network, extending into deep water, capable of monitoring biological, geo-chemical, geological, geophysical and physical processes occurring throughout the water column, sea floor interface and solid earth below. This main objective of ESONET has been met by creating the network of 11 permanent underwater observation sites together with the "ESONET Vi" Virtual Institute organising the exchange of staff and joint experiments on EMSO large research infrastructure observatories. The development of recommendations on best practices, standardization and interoperability concepts concerning underwater observatory equipment, as synthetized by the so called ESONET Label document has been created. The ESONET Label is a set of criteria to be met by the deep-sea observatory equipment as well as recommended solutions and options to guarantee their optimal operation in the ocean over long time periods. ESONET contributes to the fixed point sustained observatory community which extends worldwide, is fully multidisciplinary and in its way may open a new page in ocean sciences history.

Pierre Auger Observatory and Telescope Array: Joint Contributions to the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2013)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Abu-Zayyad, T.; et al.

2013-10-02

Joint contributions of the Pierre Auger and Telescope Array Collaborations to the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 2013: cross-calibration of the fluorescence telescopes, large scale anisotropies and mass composition.

Measuring the Large-scale Solar Magnetic Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoeksema, J. T.; Scherrer, P. H.; Peterson, E.; Svalgaard, L.

2017-12-01

The Sun's large-scale magnetic field is important for determining global structure of the corona and for quantifying the evolution of the polar field, which is sometimes used for predicting the strength of the next solar cycle. Having confidence in the determination of the large-scale magnetic field of the Sun is difficult because the field is often near the detection limit, various observing methods all measure something a little different, and various systematic effects can be very important. We compare resolved and unresolved observations of the large-scale magnetic field from the Wilcox Solar Observatory, Heliseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI), and Solis. Cross comparison does not enable us to establish an absolute calibration, but it does allow us to discover and compensate for instrument problems, such as the sensitivity decrease seen in the WSO measurements in late 2016 and early 2017.

X-Ray Optics: Past, Present, and Future

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zhang, William W.

2010-01-01

X-ray astronomy started with a small collimated proportional counter atop a rocket in the early 1960s. It was immediately recognized that focusing X-ray optics would drastically improve both source location accuracy and source detection sensitivity. In the past 5 decades, X-ray astronomy has made significant strides in achieving better angular resolution, large photon collection area, and better spectral and timing resolutions, culminating in the three currently operating X-ray observatories: Chandra, XMM/Newton, and Suzaku. In this talk I will give a brief history of X-ray optics, concentrating on the characteristics of the optics of these three observatories. Then I will discuss current X-ray mirror technologies being developed in several institutions. I will end with a discussion of the optics for the International X-ray Observatory that I have been developing at Goddard Space Flight Center.

NEPTUNE: an under-sea plate scale observatory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beauchamp, P. M.; Heath, G. R.; Maffei, A.; Chave, A.; Howe, B.; Wilcock, W.; Delaney, J.; Kirkham, H.

2002-01-01

The NEPTUNE project will establish a linked array of undersea observatories on the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate. This observatory will provide a new kind of research platform for real-time, long-term, plate-scale studies in the ocean and Earth sciences.

Early laser operations at the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahmer, Gustavo; Lefebvre, Michael; Christou, Julian; Raab, Walfried; Rabien, Sebastian; Ziegleder, Julian; Borelli, José L.; Gässler, Wolfgang

2014-08-01

ARGOS is the GLAO (Ground-Layer Adaptive Optics) Rayleigh-based LGS (Laser Guide Star) facility for the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory (LBTO). It is dedicated for observations with LUCI1 and LUCI2, LBTO's pair of NIR imagers and multi-object spectrographs. The system projects three laser beams from the back of each of the two secondary mirror units, which create two constellations circumscribed on circles of 2 arcmin radius with 120 degree spacing. Each of the six Nd:YAG lasers provides a beam of green (532nm) pulses at a rate of 10kHz with a power of 14W to 18W. We achieved first on-sky propagation on the night of November 5, 2013, and commissioning of the full system will take place during 2014. We present the initial results of laser operations at the observatory, including safety procedures and the required coordination with external agencies (FAA, Space Command, and Military Airspace Manager). We also describe our operational procedures and report on our experiences with aircraft spotters. Future plans for safer and more efficient aircraft monitoring and detection are discussed.

Current Technology Development Efforts on the International X-Ray Observatory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Robinson, David

2011-01-01

The International X-ray Observatory (IXO) is a collaboration between NASA, ESA, and JAXA which is under study for launch in 2021. IXO will be a large 6600 kilogram Great Observatory-class mission which will build upon the legacies of the Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observatories. There is an extensive ongoing effort to raise the technology readiness level of the X-ray mirror from TRL 3 to TRL 6 in the next decade. Improvements have recently been made in the area of positioning and bonding mirrors on the nanometer scale and developing metals and composites with a matching coefficient of thermal expansion to the glass X-ray mirrors. On the mission systems side, the NASA reference design has been through a preliminary coupled loads analysis and a STOP analysis of the flight mirror assembly has been initiated. An impact study was performed comparing launching IXO on an Ariane 5 or a U.S. EELV. This paper will provide a snapshot of NASA's current observatory configuration and summarize the progress of these various technology and design efforts.

The Monterey Ocean Observing System Development Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chaffey, M.; Graybeal, J. B.; O'Reilly, T.; Ryan, J.

2004-12-01

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) has a major development program underway to design, build, test and apply technology suitable to deep ocean observatories. The Monterey Ocean Observing System (MOOS) program is designed to form a large-scale instrument network that provides generic interfaces, intelligent instrument support, data archiving and near-real-time interaction for observatory experiments. The MOOS mooring system is designed as a portable surface mooring based seafloor observatory that provides data and power connections to both seafloor and ocean surface instruments through a specialty anchor cable. The surface mooring collects solar and wind energy for powering instruments and transmits data to shore-side researchers using a satellite communications modem. The use of a high modulus anchor cable to reach seafloor instrument networks is a high-risk development effort that is critical for the overall success of the portable observatory concept. An aggressive field test program off the California coast is underway to improve anchor cable constructions as well as end-to-end test overall system design. The overall MOOS observatory systems view is presented and the results of our field tests completed to date are summarized.

S-net project: Construction of large scale seafloor observatory network for tsunamis and earthquakes in Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mochizuki, M.; Kanazawa, T.; Uehira, K.; Shimbo, T.; Shiomi, K.; Kunugi, T.; Aoi, S.; Matsumoto, T.; Sekiguchi, S.; Yamamoto, N.; Takahashi, N.; Shinohara, M.; Yamada, T.

2016-12-01

National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience ( NIED ) has launched the project of constructing an observatory network for tsunamis and earthquakes on the seafloor. The observatory network was named "S-net, Seafloor Observation Network for Earthquakes and Tsunamis along the Japan Trench". The S-net consists of 150 seafloor observatories which are connected in line with submarine optical cables. The total length of submarine optical cable is about 5,700 km. The S-net system extends along Kuril and Japan trenches around Japan islands from north to south covering the area between southeast off island of Hokkaido and off the Boso Peninsula, Chiba Prefecture. The project has been financially supported by MEXT Japan. An observatory package is 34cm in diameter and 226cm long. Each observatory equips two units of a high sensitive water-depth sensor as a tsunami meter and four sets of three-component seismometers. The water-depth sensor has measurement resolution of sub-centimeter level. Combination of multiple seismometers secures wide dynamic range and robustness of the observation that are needed for early earthquake warning. The S-net is composed of six segment networks that consists of about 25 observatories and 800-1,600km length submarine optical cable. Five of six segment networks except the one covering the outer rise area of the Japan Trench has been already installed. The data from the observatories on those five segment networks are being transferred to the data center at NIED on a real-time basis, and then verification of data integrity are being carried out at the present moment. Installation of the last segment network of the S-net, that is, the outer rise one is scheduled to be finished within FY2016. Full-scale operation of the S-net will start at FY2017. We will report construction and operation of the S-net submarine cable system as well as the outline of the obtained data in this presentation.

Be/X-ray Binary Science for Future X-ray Timing Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson-Hodge, Colleen A.

2011-01-01

For future missions, the Be/X-ray binary community needs to clearly define our science priorities for the future to advocate for their inclusion in future missions. In this talk, I will describe current designs for two potential future missions and Be X-ray binary science enabled by these designs. The Large Observatory For X-ray Timing (LOFT) is an X-ray timing mission selected in February 2011 for the assessment phase from the 2010 ESA M3 call for proposals. The Advanced X-ray Timing ARray (AXTAR) is a NASA explorer concept X-ray timing mission. This talk is intended to initiate discussions of our science priorities for the future.

President of Czech Republic visits ESO's Paranal Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2011-04-01

On 6 April 2011, the ESO Paranal Observatory was honoured with a visit from the President of the Czech Republic, Václav Klaus, and his wife Livia Klausová, who also took the opportunity to admire Cerro Armazones, the future site of the planned E-ELT. The distinguished visitor was shown the technical installations at the observatory, and was present when the dome of one of the four 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes of ESO's Very Large Telescope opened for a night's observing at Cerro Paranal, the world's most advanced visible-light observatory. "I'm delighted to welcome President Klaus to the Paranal Observatory and to show him first-hand the world-leading astronomical facility that ESO has designed, has built, and operates for European astronomy," said ESO's Director General, Tim de Zeeuw. President Klaus replied, "I am very impressed by the remarkable technology that ESO has built here in the heart of the desert. Czech astronomers are already making good use of these facilities and we look forward to having Czech industry and its scientific community contribute to the future E-ELT." From the VLT platform, the President had the opportunity to admire Cerro Armazones as well as other spectacular views of Chile's Atacama Desert surrounding Paranal. Adjacent to Cerro Paranal, Armazones has been chosen as the site for the future E-ELT (see eso1018). ESO is seeking approval from its governing bodies by the end of 2011 for the go-ahead for the 1-billion euro E-ELT. Construction is expected to begin in 2012 and the start of operations is planned for early in the next decade. President Klaus was accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Karel Schwarzenberg, the Czech Ambassador in Chile, Zdenek Kubánek, dignitaries of the government, and a Czech industrial delegation. The group was hosted at Paranal by the ESO Director General, Tim de Zeeuw, the ESO Representative in Chile, Massimo Tarenghi, the Director of Operations, Andreas Kaufer, and Jan Palous, Czech representative at the ESO Council. After the opening of the telescopes, President Klaus had the opportunity to enjoy the spectacular sunset over the Pacific Ocean from the VLT platform. Then he visited the VLT control room, which operates the four Unit Telescopes and the VLT Interferometer (VLTI). Here, the President took part in the start of observations from the console of one of the VLT Unit telescopes. More information ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive astronomical observatory. It is supported by 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and VISTA, the world's largest survey telescope. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning a 42-metre European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".

Precision engineering for astronomy: historical origins and the future revolution in ground-based astronomy.

PubMed

Cunningham, Colin; Russell, Adrian

2012-08-28

Since the dawn of civilization, the human race has pushed technology to the limit to study the heavens in ever-increasing detail. As astronomical instruments have evolved from those built by Tycho Brahe in the sixteenth century, through Galileo and Newton in the seventeenth, to the present day, astronomers have made ever more precise measurements. To do this, they have pushed the art and science of precision engineering to extremes. Some of the critical steps are described in the evolution of precision engineering from the first telescopes to the modern generation telescopes and ultra-sensitive instruments that need a combination of precision manufacturing, metrology and accurate positioning systems. In the future, precision-engineered technologies such as those emerging from the photonics industries may enable future progress in enhancing the capabilities of instruments, while potentially reducing the size and cost. In the modern era, there has been a revolution in astronomy leading to ever-increasing light-gathering capability. Today, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is at the forefront of this revolution, building observatories on the ground that are set to transform our view of the universe. At an elevation of 5000 m in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) is nearing completion. The ALMA is the most powerful radio observatory ever and is being built by a global partnership from Europe, North America and East Asia. In the optical/infrared part of the spectrum, the latest project for ESO is even more ambitious: the European Extremely Large Telescope, a giant 40 m class telescope that will also be located in Chile and which will give the most detailed view of the universe so far.

Searches for Large-scale Anisotropy in the Arrival Directions of Cosmic Rays Detected above Energy of 1019 eV at the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aab, A.; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.; Ahn, E. J.; Samarai, I. Al; Albuquerque, I. F. M.; Allekotte, I.; Allen, J.; Allison, P.; Almela, A.; Alvarez Castillo, J.; Alvarez-Muñiz, J.; Alves Batista, R.; Ambrosio, M.; Aminaei, A.; Anchordoqui, L.; Andringa, S.; Aramo, C.; Arqueros, F.; Asorey, H.; Assis, P.; Aublin, J.; Ave, M.; Avenier, M.; Avila, G.; Badescu, A. M.; Barber, K. B.; Bäuml, J.; Baus, C.; Beatty, J. J.; Becker, K. H.; Bellido, J. A.; Berat, C.; Bertaina, M. E.; Bertou, X.; Biermann, P. L.; Billoir, P.; Blanco, M.; Bleve, C.; Blümer, H.; Boháčová, M.; Boncioli, D.; Bonifazi, C.; Bonino, R.; Borodai, N.; Brack, J.; Brancus, I.; Brogueira, P.; Brown, W. C.; Buchholz, P.; Bueno, A.; Buitink, S.; Buscemi, M.; Caballero-Mora, K. S.; Caccianiga, B.; Caccianiga, L.; Candusso, M.; Caramete, L.; Caruso, R.; Castellina, A.; Cataldi, G.; Cazon, L.; Cester, R.; Chavez, A. G.; Chiavassa, A.; Chinellato, J. A.; Chudoba, J.; Cilmo, M.; Clay, R. W.; Cocciolo, G.; Colalillo, R.; Coleman, A.; Collica, L.; Coluccia, M. R.; Conceição, R.; Contreras, F.; Cooper, M. J.; Cordier, A.; Coutu, S.; Covault, C. E.; Cronin, J.; Curutiu, A.; Dallier, R.; Daniel, B.; Dasso, S.; Daumiller, K.; Dawson, B. R.; de Almeida, R. M.; De Domenico, M.; de Jong, S. J.; de Mello Neto, J. R. T.; De Mitri, I.; de Oliveira, J.; de Souza, V.; del Peral, L.; Deligny, O.; Dembinski, H.; Dhital, N.; Di Giulio, C.; Di Matteo, A.; Diaz, J. C.; Díaz Castro, M. L.; Diogo, F.; Dobrigkeit, C.; Docters, W.; D'Olivo, J. C.; Dorofeev, A.; Dorosti Hasankiadeh, Q.; Dova, M. T.; Ebr, J.; Engel, R.; Erdmann, M.; Erfani, M.; Escobar, C. O.; Espadanal, J.; Etchegoyen, A.; Facal San Luis, P.; Falcke, H.; Fang, K.; Farrar, G.; Fauth, A. C.; Fazzini, N.; Ferguson, A. P.; Fernandes, M.; Fick, B.; Figueira, J. M.; Filevich, A.; Filipčič, A.; Fox, B. D.; Fratu, O.; Fröhlich, U.; Fuchs, B.; Fuji, T.; Gaior, R.; García, B.; Garcia Roca, S. T.; Garcia-Gamez, D.; Garcia-Pinto, D.; Garilli, G.; Gascon Bravo, A.; Gate, F.; Gemmeke, H.; Ghia, P. L.; Giaccari, U.; Giammarchi, M.; Giller, M.; Glaser, C.; Glass, H.; Gómez Berisso, M.; Gómez Vitale, P. F.; Gonçalves, P.; Gonzalez, J. G.; González, N.; Gookin, B.; Gorgi, A.; Gorham, P.; Gouffon, P.; Grebe, S.; Griffith, N.; Grillo, A. F.; Grubb, T. D.; Guardincerri, Y.; Guarino, F.; Guedes, G. P.; Hampel, M. R.; Hansen, P.; Harari, D.; Harrison, T. A.; Hartmann, S.; Harton, J. L.; Haungs, A.; Hebbeker, T.; Heck, D.; Heimann, P.; Herve, A. E.; Hill, G. C.; Hojvat, C.; Hollon, N.; Holt, E.; Homola, P.; Hörandel, J. R.; Horvath, P.; Hrabovský, M.; Huber, D.; Huege, T.; Insolia, A.; Isar, P. G.; Islo, K.; Jandt, I.; Jansen, S.; Jarne, C.; Josebachuili, M.; Kääpä, A.; Kambeitz, O.; Kampert, K. H.; Kasper, P.; Katkov, I.; Kégl, B.; Keilhauer, B.; Keivani, A.; Kemp, E.; Kieckhafer, R. M.; Klages, H. O.; Kleifges, M.; Kleinfeller, J.; Krause, R.; Krohm, N.; Krömer, O.; Kruppke-Hansen, D.; Kuempel, D.; Kunka, N.; La Rosa, G.; LaHurd, D.; Latronico, L.; Lauer, R.; Lauscher, M.; Lautridou, P.; Le Coz, S.; Leão, M. S. A. B.; Lebrun, D.; Lebrun, P.; Leigui de Oliveira, M. A.; Letessier-Selvon, A.; Lhenry-Yvon, I.; Link, K.; López, R.; Lopez Agüera, A.; Louedec, K.; Lozano Bahilo, J.; Lu, L.; Lucero, A.; Ludwig, M.; Maccarone, M. C.; Malacari, M.; Maldera, S.; Mallamaci, M.; Maller, J.; Mandat, D.; Mantsch, P.; Mariazzi, A. G.; Marin, V.; Mariş, I. C.; Marsella, G.; Martello, D.; Martin, L.; Martinez, H.; Martínez Bravo, O.; Martraire, D.; Masías Meza, J. J.; Mathes, H. J.; Mathys, S.; Matthews, J. A. J.; Matthews, J.; Matthiae, G.; Maurel, D.; Maurizio, D.; Mayotte, E.; Mazur, P. O.; Medina, C.; Medina-Tanco, G.; Melissas, M.; Melo, D.; Menichetti, E.; Menshikov, A.; Messina, S.; Meyhandan, R.; Mićanović, S.; Micheletti, M. I.; Middendorf, L.; Minaya, I. A.; Miramonti, L.; Mitrica, B.; Molina-Bueno, L.; Mollerach, S.; Monasor, M.; Monnier Ragaigne, D.; Montanet, F.; Morello, C.; Mostafá, M.; Moura, C. A.; Muller, M. A.; Müller, G.; Münchmeyer, M.; Mussa, R.; Navarra, G.; Navas, S.; Necesal, P.; Nellen, L.; Nelles, A.; Neuser, J.; Niechciol, M.; Niemietz, L.; Niggemann, T.; Nitz, D.; Nosek, D.; Novotny, V.; Nožka, L.; Ochilo, L.; Olinto, A.; Oliveira, M.; Pacheco, N.; Pakk Selmi-Dei, D.; Palatka, M.; Pallotta, J.; Palmieri, N.; Papenbreer, P.; Parente, G.; Parra, A.; Paul, T.; Pech, M.; Pękala, J.; Pelayo, R.; Pepe, I. M.; Perrone, L.; Pesce, R.; Petermann, E.; Peters, C.; Petrera, S.; Petrolini, A.; Petrov, Y.; Phuntsok, J.; Piegaia, R.; Pierog, T.; Pieroni, P.; Pimenta, M.; Pirronello, V.; Platino, M.; Plum, M.; Porcelli, A.; Porowski, C.; Prado, R. R.; Privitera, P.; Prouza, M.; Purrello, V.; Quel, E. J.; Querchfeld, S.; Quinn, S.; Rautenberg, J.; Ravel, O.; Ravignani, D.; Revenu, B.; Ridky, J.; Riggi, S.; Risse, M.; Ristori, P.; Rizi, V.; Roberts, J.; Rodrigues de Carvalho, W.; Rodriguez Cabo, I.; Rodriguez Fernandez, G.; Rodriguez Rojo, J.; Rodríguez-Frías, M. D.; Ros, G.; Rosado, J.; Rossler, T.; Roth, M.; Roulet, E.; Rovero, A. C.; Saffi, S. J.; Saftoiu, A.; Salamida, F.; Salazar, H.; Saleh, A.; Salesa Greus, F.; Salina, G.; Sánchez, F.; Sanchez-Lucas, P.; Santo, C. E.; Santos, E.; Santos, E. M.; Sarazin, F.; Sarkar, B.; Sarmento, R.; Sato, R.; Scharf, N.; Scherini, V.; Schieler, H.; Schiffer, P.; Scholten, O.; Schoorlemmer, H.; Schovánek, P.; Schulz, A.; Schulz, J.; Schumacher, J.; Sciutto, S. J.; Segreto, A.; Settimo, M.; Shadkam, A.; Shellard, R. C.; Sidelnik, I.; Sigl, G.; Sima, O.; Śmiałkowski, A.; Šmída, R.; Snow, G. R.; Sommers, P.; Sorokin, J.; Squartini, R.; Srivastava, Y. N.; Stanič, S.; Stapleton, J.; Stasielak, J.; Stephan, M.; Stutz, A.; Suarez, F.; Suomijärvi, T.; Supanitsky, A. D.; Sutherland, M. S.; Swain, J.; Szadkowski, Z.; Szuba, M.; Taborda, O. A.; Tapia, A.; Tartare, M.; Theodoro, V. M.; Timmermans, C.; Todero Peixoto, C. J.; Toma, G.; Tomankova, L.; Tomé, B.; Tonachini, A.; Torralba Elipe, G.; Torres Machado, D.; Travnicek, P.; Trovato, E.; Tueros, M.; Ulrich, R.; Unger, M.; Urban, M.; Valdés Galicia, J. F.; Valiño, I.; Valore, L.; van Aar, G.; van den Berg, A. M.; van Velzen, S.; van Vliet, A.; Varela, E.; Vargas Cárdenas, B.; Varner, G.; Vázquez, J. R.; Vázquez, R. A.; Veberič, D.; Verzi, V.; Vicha, J.; Videla, M.; Villaseñor, L.; Vlcek, B.; Vorobiov, S.; Wahlberg, H.; Wainberg, O.; Walz, D.; Watson, A. A.; Weber, M.; Weidenhaupt, K.; Weindl, A.; Werner, F.; Widom, A.; Wiencke, L.; Wilczyńska, B.; Wilczyński, H.; Will, M.; Williams, C.; Winchen, T.; Wittkowski, D.; Wundheiler, B.; Wykes, S.; Yamamoto, T.; Yapici, T.; Younk, P.; Yuan, G.; Yushkov, A.; Zamorano, B.; Zas, E.; Zavrtanik, D.; Zavrtanik, M.; Zaw, I.; Zepeda, A.; Zhou, J.; Zhu, Y.; Zimbres Silva, M.; Ziolkowski, M.; Pierre Auger Collaboration; Abbasi, R. U.; Abe, M.; Abu-Zayyad, T.; Allen, M.; Anderson, R.; Azuma, R.; Barcikowski, E.; Belz, J. W.; Bergman, D. R.; Blake, S. A.; Cady, R.; Chae, M. J.; Cheon, B. G.; Chiba, J.; Chikawa, M.; Cho, W. R.; Fujii, T.; Fukushima, M.; Goto, T.; Hanlon, W.; Hayashi, Y.; Hayashida, N.; Hibino, K.; Honda, K.; Ikeda, D.; Inoue, N.; Ishii, T.; Ishimori, R.; Ito, H.; Ivanov, D.; Jui, C. C. H.; Kadota, K.; Kakimoto, F.; Kalashev, O.; Kasahara, K.; Kawai, H.; Kawakami, S.; Kawana, S.; Kawata, K.; Kido, E.; Kim, H. B.; Kim, J. H.; Kim, J. H.; Kitamura, S.; Kitamura, Y.; Kuzmin, V.; Kwon, Y. J.; Lan, J.; Lim, S. I.; Lundquist, J. P.; Machida, K.; Martens, K.; Matsuda, T.; Matsuyama, T.; Matthews, J. N.; Minamino, M.; Mukai, K.; Myers, I.; Nagasawa, K.; Nagataki, S.; Nakamura, T.; Nonaka, T.; Nozato, A.; Ogio, S.; Ogura, J.; Ohnishi, M.; Ohoka, H.; Oki, K.; Okuda, T.; Ono, M.; Oshima, A.; Ozawa, S.; Park, I. H.; Pshirkov, M. S.; Rodriguez, D. C.; Rubtsov, G.; Ryu, D.; Sagawa, H.; Sakurai, N.; Sampson, A. L.; Scott, L. M.; Shah, P. D.; Shibata, F.; Shibata, T.; Shimodaira, H.; Shin, B. K.; Smith, J. D.; Sokolsky, P.; Springer, R. W.; Stokes, B. T.; Stratton, S. R.; Stroman, T. A.; Suzawa, T.; Takamura, M.; Takeda, M.; Takeishi, R.; Taketa, A.; Takita, M.; Tameda, Y.; Tanaka, H.; Tanaka, K.; Tanaka, M.; Thomas, S. B.; Thomson, G. B.; Tinyakov, P.; Tkachev, I.; Tokuno, H.; Tomida, T.; Troitsky, S.; Tsunesada, Y.; Tsutsumi, K.; Uchihori, Y.; Udo, S.; Urban, F.; Vasiloff, G.; Wong, T.; Yamane, R.; Yamaoka, H.; Yamazaki, K.; Yang, J.; Yashiro, K.; Yoneda, Y.; Yoshida, S.; Yoshii, H.; Zollinger, R.; Zundel, Z.; Telescope Array Collaboration

2014-10-01

Spherical harmonic moments are well-suited for capturing anisotropy at any scale in the flux of cosmic rays. An unambiguous measurement of the full set of spherical harmonic coefficients requires full-sky coverage. This can be achieved by combining data from observatories located in both the northern and southern hemispheres. To this end, a joint analysis using data recorded at the Telescope Array and the Pierre Auger Observatory above 1019 eV is presented in this work. The resulting multipolar expansion of the flux of cosmic rays allows us to perform a series of anisotropy searches, and in particular to report on the angular power spectrum of cosmic rays above 1019 eV. No significant deviation from isotropic expectations is found throughout the analyses performed. Upper limits on the amplitudes of the dipole and quadrupole moments are derived as a function of the direction in the sky, varying between 7% and 13% for the dipole and between 7% and 10% for a symmetric quadrupole.

RadioAstron and millimetron space observatories: Multiverse models and the search for life

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kardashev, N. S.

2017-04-01

The transition from the radio to the millimeter and submillimeter ranges is very promising for studies of galactic nuclei, as well as detailed studies of processes related to supermassive black holes, wormholes, and possible manifestations of multi-element Universe (Multiverse) models. This is shown by observations with the largest interferometer available—RadioAstron observatory—that will be used for the scientific program forMillimetron observatory. Observations have also shown the promise of this range for studies of the formation and evolution of planetary systems and searches for manifestations of intelligent life. This is caused by the requirements to use a large amount of condensedmatter and energy in large-scale technological activities. This range can also be used efficiently in the organisation of optimal channels for the transmission of information.

SOFIA: The future of airborne astronomy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Erickson, Edwin F.; Davidson, Jacqueline A.

1995-01-01

For the past 20 years, the 91 cm telescope in NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) has enabled scientists to observe infrared sources which are obscured by the earth's atmosphere at ground-based sites, and to observe transient astronomical events from anywhere in the world. To augment this capability, the United States and German Space Agencies (NASA and DARA) are collaborating in plans to replace the KAO with a 2.5 meter telescope installed in a Boeing 747 aircraft: SOFIA - The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. SOFIA's large aperture, wide wavelength coverage, mobility, accessibility, and sophisticated instruments will permit a broad range of scientific studies, some of which are described here. Its unique features complement the capabilities of other future space missions. In addition, SOFIA has important potential as a stimulus for development of new technology and as a national resource for education of K-12 teachers. If started in 1996, SOFIA will be flying in the year 2000.

Multivariate Spatio-Temporal Clustering: A Framework for Integrating Disparate Data to Understand Network Representativeness and Scaling Up Sparse Ecosystem Measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoffman, F. M.; Kumar, J.; Maddalena, D. M.; Langford, Z.; Hargrove, W. W.

2014-12-01

Disparate in situ and remote sensing time series data are being collected to understand the structure and function of ecosystems and how they may be affected by climate change. However, resource and logistical constraints limit the frequency and extent of observations, particularly in the harsh environments of the arctic and the tropics, necessitating the development of a systematic sampling strategy to maximize coverage and objectively represent variability at desired scales. These regions host large areas of potentially vulnerable ecosystems that are poorly represented in Earth system models (ESMs), motivating two new field campaigns, called Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments (NGEE) for the Arctic and Tropics, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Multivariate Spatio-Temporal Clustering (MSTC) provides a quantitative methodology for stratifying sampling domains, informing site selection, and determining the representativeness of measurement sites and networks. We applied MSTC to down-scaled general circulation model results and data for the State of Alaska at a 4 km2 resolution to define maps of ecoregions for the present (2000-2009) and future (2090-2099), showing how combinations of 37 bioclimatic characteristics are distributed and how they may shift in the future. Optimal representative sampling locations were identified on present and future ecoregion maps, and representativeness maps for candidate sampling locations were produced. We also applied MSTC to remotely sensed LiDAR measurements and multi-spectral imagery from the WorldView-2 satellite at a resolution of about 5 m2 within the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) in Alaska. At this resolution, polygonal ground features—such as centers, edges, rims, and troughs—can be distinguished. Using these remote sensing data, we up-scaled vegetation distribution data collected on these polygonal ground features to a large area of the BEO to provide distributions of plant functional types that can be used to parameterize ESMs. In addition, we applied MSTC to 4 km2 global bioclimate data to define global ecoregions and understand the representativeness of CTFS-ForestGEO, Fluxnet, and RAINFOR sampling networks. These maps identify tropical forests underrepresented in existing observations of individual and combined networks.

Thermal System Verification and Model Validation for NASA's Cryogenic Passively Cooled James Webb Space Telescope

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cleveland, Paul E.; Parrish, Keith A.

2005-01-01

A thorough and unique thermal verification and model validation plan has been developed for NASA s James Webb Space Telescope. The JWST observatory consists of a large deployed aperture optical telescope passively cooled to below 50 Kelvin along with a suite of several instruments passively and actively cooled to below 37 Kelvin and 7 Kelvin, respectively. Passive cooling to these extremely low temperatures is made feasible by the use of a large deployed high efficiency sunshield and an orbit location at the L2 Lagrange point. Another enabling feature is the scale or size of the observatory that allows for large radiator sizes that are compatible with the expected power dissipation of the instruments and large format Mercury Cadmium Telluride (HgCdTe) detector arrays. This passive cooling concept is simple, reliable, and mission enabling when compared to the alternatives of mechanical coolers and stored cryogens. However, these same large scale observatory features, which make passive cooling viable, also prevent the typical flight configuration fully-deployed thermal balance test that is the keystone to most space missions thermal verification plan. JWST is simply too large in its deployed configuration to be properly thermal balance tested in the facilities that currently exist. This reality, when combined with a mission thermal concept with little to no flight heritage, has necessitated the need for a unique and alternative approach to thermal system verification and model validation. This paper describes the thermal verification and model validation plan that has been developed for JWST. The plan relies on judicious use of cryogenic and thermal design margin, a completely independent thermal modeling cross check utilizing different analysis teams and software packages, and finally, a comprehensive set of thermal tests that occur at different levels of JWST assembly. After a brief description of the JWST mission and thermal architecture, a detailed description of the three aspects of the thermal verification and model validation plan is presented.

Twisting/Swirling Motions during a Prominence Eruption as Seen from SDO/AIA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pant, V.; Datta, A.; Banerjee, D.; Chandrashekhar, K.; Ray, S.

2018-06-01

A quiescent prominence was observed at the northwest limb of the Sun using different channels of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. We report and analyze twisting/swirling motions during and after the prominence eruption. We segregate the observed rotational motions into small and large scales. Small-scale rotational motions manifest in the barbs of the prominence, while the large-scale rotation manifests as the roll motion during the prominence eruption. We noticed that both footpoints of the prominence rotate in the counterclockwise direction. We propose that a similar sense of rotation in both footpoints leads to a prominence eruption. The prominence erupted asymmetrically near the southern footpoint, which may be due to an uneven mass distribution and location of the cavity near the southern footpoint. Furthermore, we study the swirling motion of the plasma along different circular paths in the cavity of the prominence after the prominence eruption. The rotational velocities of the plasma moving along different circular paths are estimated to be ∼9–40 km s‑1. These swirling motions can be explained in terms of twisted magnetic field lines in the prominence cavity. Finally we observe the twist built up in the prominence, being carried away by the coronal mass ejection, as seen in the Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

A large-scale dataset of solar event reports from automated feature recognition modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schuh, Michael A.; Angryk, Rafal A.; Martens, Petrus C.

2016-05-01

The massive repository of images of the Sun captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) mission has ushered in the era of Big Data for Solar Physics. In this work, we investigate the entire public collection of events reported to the Heliophysics Event Knowledgebase (HEK) from automated solar feature recognition modules operated by the SDO Feature Finding Team (FFT). With the SDO mission recently surpassing five years of operations, and over 280,000 event reports for seven types of solar phenomena, we present the broadest and most comprehensive large-scale dataset of the SDO FFT modules to date. We also present numerous statistics on these modules, providing valuable contextual information for better understanding and validating of the individual event reports and the entire dataset as a whole. After extensive data cleaning through exploratory data analysis, we highlight several opportunities for knowledge discovery from data (KDD). Through these important prerequisite analyses presented here, the results of KDD from Solar Big Data will be overall more reliable and better understood. As the SDO mission remains operational over the coming years, these datasets will continue to grow in size and value. Future versions of this dataset will be analyzed in the general framework established in this work and maintained publicly online for easy access by the community.

Moving toward queue operations at the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edwards, Michelle L.; Summers, Doug; Astier, Joseph; Suarez Sola, Igor; Veillet, Christian; Power, Jennifer; Cardwell, Andrew; Walsh, Shane

2016-07-01

The Large Binocular Telescope Observatory (LBTO), a joint scientific venture between the Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft (LBTB), University of Arizona, Ohio State University (OSU), and the Research Corporation, is one of the newest additions to the world's collection of large optical/infrared ground-based telescopes. With its unique, twin 8.4m mirror design providing a 22.8 meter interferometric baseline and the collecting area of an 11.8m telescope, LBT has a window of opportunity to exploit its singular status as the "first" of the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). Prompted by urgency to maximize scientific output during this favorable interval, LBTO recently re-evaluated its operations model and developed a new strategy that augments classical observing with queue. Aided by trained observatory staff, queue mode will allow for flexible, multi-instrument observing responsive to site conditions. Our plan is to implement a staged rollout that will provide many of the benefits of queue observing sooner rather than later - with more bells and whistles coming in future stages. In this paper, we outline LBTO's new scientific model, focusing specifically on our "lean" resourcing and development, reuse and adaptation of existing software, challenges presented from our one-of-a-kind binocular operations, and lessons learned. We also outline further stages of development and our ultimate goals for queue.

Launch Window Trade Analysis for the James Webb Space Telescope

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yu, Wayne H.; Richon, Karen

2014-01-01

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large-scale space telescope mission designed to study fundamental astrophysical questions ranging from the formation of the universe to the origin of planetary systems and the origins of life. JWSTs orbit design is a Libration Point Orbit (LPO) around the Sun-Earth/Moon (SEM) L2 point for a planned mission lifetime of 10.5 years. The launch readiness period for JWST is from Oct 1st, 2018 November 30th, 2018. This paper presents the first launch window analysis for the JWST observatory using finite-burn modeling; previous analysis assumed a single impulsive midcourse correction to achieve the mission orbit. The physical limitations of the JWST hardware stemming primarily from propulsion, communication and thermal requirements alongside updated mission design requirements result in significant launch window within the launch readiness period. Future plans are also discussed.

Quantifying CO2 Emissions from Individual Power Plants using OCO-2 Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nassar, R.; Hill, T. G.; McLinden, C. A.; Wunch, D.; Jones, D. B. A.; Crisp, D.

2017-12-01

In order to better manage anthropogenic CO2 emissions, improved methods of quantifying emissions are needed at all spatial scales from the national level down to the facility level. Although the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) satellite was not designed for monitoring power plant emissions, we show that in select cases, CO2 observations from OCO-2 can be used to quantify daily CO2 emissions from individual mid- to large-sized coal power plants by fitting the data to plume model simulations. Emission estimates for US power plants are within 1-13% of reported daily emission values enabling application of the approach to international sites that lack detailed emission information. These results affirm that a constellation of future CO2 imaging satellites, optimized for point sources, could be used for the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of CO2 emissions from individual power plants to support the implementation of climate policies.

A balloon-borne prototype for demonstrating the concept of JEM-EUSO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

von Ballmoos, P.; Santangelo, A.; Adams, J. H.; Barrillon, P.; Bayer, J.; Bertaina, M.; Cafagna, F.; Casolino, M.; Dagoret, S.; Danto, P.; Distratis, G.; Dupieux, M.; Ebersoldt, A.; Ebisuzaki, T.; Evrard, J.; Gorodetzky, Ph.; Haungs, A.; Jung, A.; Kawasaki, Y.; Medina-Tanco, G.; Mot, B.; Osteria, G.; Parizot, E.; Park, I. H.; Picozza, P.; Prévôt, G.; Prieto, H.; Ricci, M.; Rodríguez Frías, M. D.; Roudil, G.; Scotti, V.; Szabelski, J.; Takizawa, Y.; Tusno, K.

2014-05-01

EUSO-BALLOON has been conceived as a pathfinder for JEM-EUSO, a mission concept for a space-borne wide-field telescope monitoring the Earth's nighttime atmosphere with the objective of recording the ultraviolet light from tracks initiated by ultra-high energy cosmic rays. Through a series of stratospheric balloon flights performed by the French Space Agency CNES, EUSO-BALLOON will serve as a test-bench for the key technologies of JEM-EUSO. EUSO-BALLOON shall perform an end-to-end test of all subsystems and components, and prove the global detection chain while improving our knowledge of the atmospheric and terrestrial ultraviolet background. The balloon-instrument also has the potential to detect for the first time UV-light generated by atmospheric air-shower from above, marking a milestone in the development of UHECR science, and paving the way for any future large scale, space-based ultra-high energy cosmic ray observatory.

James Webb Space Telescope Launch Window Trade Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yu, Wayne; Richon, Karen

2014-01-01

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large-scale space telescope mission designed to study fundamental astrophysical questions ranging from the formation of the universe to the origin of planetary systems and the origins of life. JWSTs orbit design is a Libration Point Orbit (LPO) around the Sun-EarthMoon (SEM) L2 point for a planned mission lifetime of 10.5 years. The launch readiness period for JWST is from Oct 1st, 2018 November 30th, 2018. This paper presents the first launch window analysis for the JWST observatory using finite-burn modeling; previous analysis assumed a single impulsive midcourse correction to achieve the mission orbit. The physical limitations of the JWST hardware stemming primarily from propulsion, communication and thermal requirements alongside updated mission design requirements result in significant launch window within the launch readiness period. Future plans are also discussed.

Preconditioner-free Wiener filtering with a dense noise matrix

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huffenberger, Kevin M.

2018-05-01

This work extends the Elsner & Wandelt (2013) iterative method for efficient, preconditioner-free Wiener filtering to cases in which the noise covariance matrix is dense, but can be decomposed into a sum whose parts are sparse in convenient bases. The new method, which uses multiple messenger fields, reproduces Wiener-filter solutions for test problems, and we apply it to a case beyond the reach of the Elsner & Wandelt (2013) method. We compute the Wiener-filter solution for a simulated Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) map that contains spatially varying, uncorrelated noise, isotropic 1/f noise, and large-scale horizontal stripes (like those caused by atmospheric noise). We discuss simple extensions that can filter contaminated modes or inverse-noise-filter the data. These techniques help to address complications in the noise properties of maps from current and future generations of ground-based Microwave Background experiments, like Advanced ACTPol, Simons Observatory, and CMB-S4.

Quantifying CO2 Emissions From Individual Power Plants From Space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nassar, Ray; Hill, Timothy G.; McLinden, Chris A.; Wunch, Debra; Jones, Dylan B. A.; Crisp, David

2017-10-01

In order to better manage anthropogenic CO2 emissions, improved methods of quantifying emissions are needed at all spatial scales from the national level down to the facility level. Although the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) satellite was not designed for monitoring power plant emissions, we show that in some cases, CO2 observations from OCO-2 can be used to quantify daily CO2 emissions from individual middle- to large-sized coal power plants by fitting the data to plume model simulations. Emission estimates for U.S. power plants are within 1-17% of reported daily emission values, enabling application of the approach to international sites that lack detailed emission information. This affirms that a constellation of future CO2 imaging satellites, optimized for point sources, could monitor emissions from individual power plants to support the implementation of climate policies.

Eliminating large-scale magnetospheric current perturbations from long-term geomagnetic observatory data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pick, L.; Korte, M. C.

2016-12-01

Magnetospheric currents generate the largest external contribution to the geomagnetic field observed on Earth. Of particular importance is the solar-driven effect of the ring current whose fluctuations overlap with internal field secular variation (SV). Recent core field models thus co-estimate this effect but their validity is limited to the last 15 years offering satellite data. We aim at eliminating magnetospheric modulation from the whole geomagnetic observatory record from 1840 onwards in order to obtain clean long-term SV that will enhance core flow and geodynamo studies.The ring current effect takes form of a southward directed external dipole field aligned with the geomagnetic main field axis. Commonly the Dst index (Sugiura, 1964) is used to parametrize temporal variations of this dipole term. Because of baseline instabilities, the alternative RC index was derived from hourly means of 21 stations spanning 1997-2013 (Olsen et al., 2014). We follow their methodology based on annual means from a reduced station set spanning 1960-2010. The absolute level of the variation so determined is "hidden" in the static lithospheric offsets taken as quiet-time means. We tackle this issue by subtracting crustal biases independently calculated for each observatory from an inversion of combined Swarm satellite and observatory data.Our index reproduces the original annual RC index variability with a reasonable offset of -10 nT in the reference time window 2000-2010. Prior to that it depicts a long-term trend consistent with the external dipole term from COV-OBS (Gillet et al., 2013), being the only long-term field model available for comparison. Sharper variations that are better correlated with the Ap index than the COV-OBS solution lend support to the usefulness of our initial modeling approach. Following a detailed sensitivity study of station choice future work will focus on increasing the resolution from annual to hourly means.

A Modern Operating System for Near-real-time Environmental Observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orcutt, John; Vernon, Frank

2014-05-01

The NSF Ocean Observatory Initiative (OOI) provided an opportunity for expanding the capabilities for managing open, near-real-time (latencies of seconds) data from ocean observatories. The sensors deployed in this system largely return data from seafloor, cabled fiber optic cables as well as satellite telemetry. Bandwidth demands range from high-definition movies to the transmission of data via Iridium satellite. The extended Internet also provides an opportunity to not only return data, but to also control the sensors and platforms that comprise the observatory. The data themselves are openly available to any users. In order to provide heightened network security and overall reliability, the connections to and from the sensors/platforms are managed without Layer 3 of the Internet, but instead rely upon message passing using an open protocol termed Advanced Queuing Messaging Protocol (AMQP). The highest bandwidths in the system are in the Regional Scale Network (RSN) off Oregon and Washington and on the continent with highly reliable network connections between observatory components at 10 Gbps. The maintenance of metadata and life cycle histories of sensors and platforms is critical for providing data provenance over the years. The integrated cyberinfrastructure is best thought of as an operating system for the observatory - like the data, the software is also open and can be readily applied to new observatories, for example, in the rapidly evolving Arctic.

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and Post-war Japanese Optical Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tajima, Toshiyuki

This paper depicts some aspects of the formative process of the Japanese optical and infrared astronomical community in the post-war period, featuring the transition of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(NAOJ). We take up three cases of telescope construction, examining their background and their contribution to the Japanese astronomical community. Through these cases, the characteristics of traditions and cultures of optical and infrared astronomy in Japan are considered. Although the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory (TAO) of the University of Tokyo, the predecessor of NAOJ, was originally founded as an agency for practical astronomical observation such as time and almanac service, it has become an international centre for all types of astrophysical research. Research and development of telescopes and observational instruments have become an important part of the astronomers' practice. Now, however, a number of Japanese universities are planning to have their own large to middle-sized telescopes, and a new style of astronomical research is emerging involving astrophysical studies utilising data acquired from the Virtual Observatory, so there is a distinct possibility that the status of the NAOJ will change even further in the future.

Monitoring CO2 sources and sinks from space : the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Crisp, David

2006-01-01

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) will make the first space-based measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) with the precision, resolution, and coverage needed to characterize the geographic distribution of CO2 sources and sinks and quantify their variability over the seasonal cycle. OCO is currently scheduled for launch in 2008. The observatory will carry a single instrument that incorporates three high-resolution grating spectrometers designed to measure the near-infrared absorption by CO2 and molecular oxygen (O2) in reflected sunlight. OCO will fly 12 minutes ahead of the EOS Aqua platform in the Earth Observing System (EOS) Afternoon Constellation (A-Train). The in-strument will collect 12 to 24 soundings per second as the Observatory moves along its orbit track on the day side of the Earth. A small sampling footprint (<3 km2 at nadir) was adopted to reduce biases in each sounding associated with clouds and aerosols and spatial variations in surface topography. A comprehensive ground-based validation program will be used to assess random errors and biases in the XCO2 product on regional to continental scales. Measurements collected by OCO will be assimilated with other environmental measurements to retrieve surface sources and sinks of CO2. This information could play an important role in monitoring the integrity of large scale CO2 sequestration projects.

CLEANER-Hydrologic Observatory Joint Science Plan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Welty, C.; Dressler, K.; Hooper, R.

2005-12-01

The CLEANER-Hydrologic Observatory* initiative is a distributed network for research on complex environmental systems that focuses on the intersecting water-related issues of both the CUAHSI and CLEANER communities. It emphasizes research on the nation's water resources related to human-dominated natural and built environments. The network will be comprised of: interacting field sites with an integrated cyberinfrastructure; a centralized technical resource staff and management infrastructure to support interdisciplinary research through data collection from advanced sensor systems, data mining and aggregation from multiple sources and databases; cyber-tools for analysis, visualization, and predictive multi-scale modeling that is dynamically driven. As such, the network will transform 21st century workforce development in the water-related intersection of environmental science and engineering, as well as enable substantial educational and engagement opportunities for all age levels. The scientific goal and strategic intent of the CLEANER-Hydrologic Observatory Network is to transform our understanding of the earth's water cycle and associated biogeochemical cycles across spatial and temporal scales-enabling quantitative forecasts of critical water-related processes, especially those that affect and are affected by human activities. This strategy will develop scientific and engineering tools that will enable more effective adaptive approaches for resource management. The need for the network is based on three critical deficiencies in current abilities to understand large-scale environmental processes and thereby develop more effective management strategies. First we lack basic data and the infrastructure to collect them at the needed resolution. Second, we lack the means to integrate data across scales from different media (paper records, electronic worksheets, web-based) and sources (observations, experiments, simulations). Third, we lack sufficiently accurate modeling and decision-support tools to predict the underlying processes or subsequently forecast the effects of different management strategies. Water is a critical driver for the functioning of all ecosystems and development of human society, and it is a key ingredient for the success of industry, agriculture and, national economy. CLEANER-Hydrologic Observatories will foster cutting-edge science and engineering research that addresses major national needs (public and governmental) related to water and include, for example: (i) water resource problems, such as impaired surface waters, contaminated ground water, water availability for human use and ecosystem needs, floods and floodplain management, urban storm water, agricultural runoff, and coastal hypoxia; (ii) understanding environmental impacts on public health; (iii) achieving a balance of economic and environmental sustainability; (iv) reversing environmental degradation; and (v) protecting against chemical and biological threats. CLEANER (Collaborative Large-scale Engineering Analysis Network for Environmental Research) is an ENG initiative; the Hydrologic Observatory Network is GEO initiative through CUAHSI (Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc.). The two initiatives were merged into a joint, bi-directorate program in December 2004.

Dark matter profiles and annihilation in dwarf spheroidal galaxies: prospectives for present and future γ-ray observatories - I. The classical dwarf spheroidal galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Charbonnier, A.; Combet, C.; Daniel, M.; Funk, S.; Hinton, J. A.; Maurin, D.; Power, C.; Read, J. I.; Sarkar, S.; Walker, M. G.; Wilkinson, M. I.

2011-12-01

Due to their large dynamical mass-to-light ratios, dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) are promising targets for the indirect detection of dark matter (DM) in γ-rays. We examine their detectability by present and future γ-ray observatories. The key innovative features of our analysis are as follows: (i) we take into account the angular size of the dSphs; while nearby objects have higher γ-ray flux, their larger angular extent can make them less attractive targets for background-dominated instruments; (ii) we derive DM profiles and the astrophysical J-factor (which parametrizes the expected γ-ray flux, independently of the choice of DM particle model) for the classical dSphs directly from photometric and kinematic data. We assume very little about the DM profile, modelling this as a smooth split-power-law distribution, with and without subclumps; (iii) we use a Markov chain Monte Carlo technique to marginalize over unknown parameters and determine the sensitivity of our derived J-factors to both model and measurement uncertainties; and (iv) we use simulated DM profiles to demonstrate that our J-factor determinations recover the correct solution within our quoted uncertainties. Our key findings are as follows: (i) subclumps in the dSphs do not usefully boost the signal; (ii) the sensitivity of atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes to dSphs within ˜20 kpc with cored haloes can be up to ˜50 times worse than when estimated assuming them to be point-like. Even for the satellite-borne Fermi-Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT), the sensitivity is significantly degraded on the relevant angular scales for long exposures; hence, it is vital to consider the angular extent of the dSphs when selecting targets; (iii) no DM profile has been ruled out by current data, but using a prior on the inner DM cusp slope 0 ≤γprior≤ 1 provides J-factor estimates accurate to a factor of a few if an appropriate angular scale is chosen; (iv) the J-factor is best constrained at a critical integration angle αc= 2rh/d (where rh is the half-light radius and d is the distance from the dwarf) and we estimate the corresponding sensitivity of γ-ray observatories; (v) the 'classical' dSphs can be grouped into three categories: well constrained and promising (Ursa Minor, Sculptor and Draco), well constrained but less promising (Carina, Fornax and Leo I), and poorly constrained (Sextans and Leo II); and (vi) observations of classical dSphs with the Fermi-LAT integrated over the mission lifetime are more promising than observations with the planned Cherenkov Telescope Array for DM particle mass ≲ 700 GeV. However, even the Fermi-LAT will not have sufficient integrated signal from the classical dwarfs to detect DM in the 'vanilla' Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Both the Galactic Centre and the 'ultrafaint' dwarfs are likely to be better targets and will be considered in future work.

Science & Technology Review: September 2016

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vogt, Ramona L.; Meissner, Caryn N.; Chinn, Ken B.

2016-09-30

This is the September issue of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Science & Technology Review, which communicates, to a broad audience, the Laboratory’s scientific and technological accomplishments in fulfilling its primary missions. This month, there are features on "Laboratory Investments Drive Computational Advances" and "Laying the Groundwork for Extreme-Scale Computing." Research highlights include "Nuclear Data Moves into the 21st Century", "Peering into the Future of Lick Observatory", and "Facility Drives Hydrogen Vehicle Innovations."

Searching for ultra high energy neutrinos from space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santangelo, A.

2006-07-01

Observations of neutrinos at Ultra High Energies (UHE), from a few 1018 eV to beyond the decade of 1020 eV, are an extraordinary opportunity to explore this still largely unknown Universe and present us a tremendous experimental challenge. It is indeed expected that observations of UHEνs (and cosmic rays) will provide entirely new information on the sources and on the physical mechanisms able to accelerate these extreme messengers to macroscopic energies. However, as extensively debated in the last few years, UHE particles might, also, carry evidence of unknown physics or of exotic particles, relics of the early Universe. To reach these goals, high statistics, high quality observations are required. This implies innovative experiments with larger acceptances and good understanding of systematic uncertainties. The ground-based Pierre Auger Observatory, whose southern site is expected to be completed in Malargue, Argentina by the end of 2006, will surely provide, in the near future, a more solid observational scenario for UHE Cosmic Rays (UHECR). However, only space-based observatories can reach the effective area necessary to systematically explore the UHE universe. Space-based observatories are likely to be essential for neutrino observations at UHE. In fact only a few UHE neutrinos will be detected by the current planned observatories and only if the most promising estimates for fluxes applies. In the present paper, after summarizing the science rationale behind UHEν studies, we review the status of current experimental efforts, with the main emphasis on the actual generation of space-based observatories. We also briefly discuss the scientific goals, the requirements and the R&D of a “next-generation” space-based mission for UHE observations. The opening of the ESA “Cosmic Vision 2015 2025” long term plan provides, in the very near future, an unique opportunity to develop such a challenging and innovative observatory for UHE.

Ice nucleating particles from a large-scale sampling network: insight into geographic and temporal variability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schrod, Jann; Weber, Daniel; Thomson, Erik S.; Pöhlker, Christopher; Saturno, Jorge; Artaxo, Paulo; Curtius, Joachim; Bingemer, Heinz

2017-04-01

The number concentration of ice nucleating particles (INP) is an important, yet under quantified atmospheric parameter. The temporal and geographic extent of observations worldwide remains relatively small, with many regions of the world (even whole continents and oceans), almost completely unrepresented by observational data. Measurements at pristine sites are particularly rare, but all the more valuable because such observations are necessary to estimate the pre-industrial baseline of aerosol and cloud related parameters that are needed to better understand the climate system and forecast future scenarios. As a partner of BACCHUS we began in September 2014 to operate an INP measurement network of four sampling stations, with a global geographic distribution. The stations are located at unique sites reaching from the Arctic to the equator: the Amazonian Tall Tower Observatory ATTO in Brazil, the Observatoire Volcanologique et Sismologique on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, the Zeppelin Observatory at Svalbard in the Norwegian Arctic and the Taunus Observatory near Frankfurt, Germany. Since 2014 samples were collected regularly by electrostatic precipitation of aerosol particles onto silicon substrates. The INP on the substrate are activated and analyzed in the isothermal static diffusion chamber FRIDGE at temperatures between -20°C and -30°C and relative humidity with respect to ice from 115 to 135%. Here we present data from the years 2015 and 2016 from this novel INP network and from selected campaign-based measurements from remote sites, including the Mt. Kenya GAW station. Acknowledgements The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) project BACCHUS under grant agreement No 603445 and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under the Research Unit FOR 1525 (INUIT).

Education and Outreach with the Virtual Astronomical Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lawton, Brandon L.; Eisenhamer, B.; Raddick, M. J.; Mattson, B. J.; Harris, J.

2012-01-01

The Virtual Observatory (VO) is an international effort to bring a large-scale electronic integration of astronomy data, tools, and services to the global community. The Virtual Astronomical Observatory (VAO) is the U.S. NSF- and NASA-funded VO effort that seeks to put efficient astronomical tools in the hands of U.S. astronomers, students, educators, and public outreach leaders. These tools will make use of data collected by the multitude of ground- and space-based missions over the previous decades. Many future missions will also be incorporated into the VAO tools when they launch. The Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) program for the VAO is led by the Space Telescope Science Institute in collaboration with the HEASARC E/PO program and Johns Hopkins University. VAO E/PO efforts seek to bring technology, real-world astronomical data, and the story of the development and infrastructure of the VAO to the general public, formal education, and informal education communities. Our E/PO efforts will be structured to provide uniform access to VAO information, enabling educational opportunities across multiple wavelengths and time-series data sets. The VAO team recognizes that many VO programs have built powerful tools for E/PO purposes, such as Microsoft's World Wide Telescope, SDSS Sky Server, Aladin, and a multitude of citizen-science tools available from Zooniverse. We are building partnerships with Microsoft, Zooniverse, and NASA's Night Sky Network to leverage the communities and tools that already exist to meet the needs of our audiences. Our formal education program is standards-based and aims to give teachers the tools to use real astronomical data to teach the STEM subjects. To determine which tools the VAO will incorporate into the formal education program, needs assessments will be conducted with educators across the U.S.

Water resource sensitivity from a Mediterranean perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lyon, S. W.; Klein, J.; Archibald, J. A.; Walter, T.

2012-12-01

The water cycle in semiarid environments is intimately connected to plant-water interactions making these regions sensitive to both future climatic changes and landuse alterations. This study explores the sensitivity of water resource availability from a Mediterranean perspective using the Navarino Environmental Observatory (NEO) in Costa Navarino, Greece as a large-scale laboratory for developing and testing the potential resource impacts of various landuse/climatic trajectories. Direct measurements of evapotranspiration were combined with Penman-Monteith estimates to compare water vapor flux variability across the gradient of current management conditions found within the NEO landscape. These range from native, non-managed vegetation to historic, traditionally managed agriculture to modern, actively managed recreational lands. These management conditions greatly impact the vertical flux of water vapor in this semiarid landscape. Our evapotranspiration estimates were placed into a process-based modeling framework to characterize the current state of regional water resource availability and simulate future trajectories (and the associated uncertainties) in response to landuse/climatic changes. This region is quite sensitive with regards to water cycle modifications due to the anthropogenic redistribution of water within and across the landscape. Such sensitivity typifies that expected for much of the Mediterranean region, highlighting the NEO as a potential key location for future observation and investigation.

Variation of organic matter quantity and quality in streams at Critical Zone Observatory watersheds

Treesearch

Matthew P. Miller; Elizabeth W. Boyer; Diane M. McKnight; Michael G. Brown; Rachel S. Gabor; Carolyn Hunsaker; Lidiia Iavorivska; Shreeram Inamdar; Dale W. Johnson; Louis A. Kaplan; Henry Lin; William H. McDowell; Julia N. Perdrial

2016-01-01

The quantity and chemical composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in surface waters influence ecosystem processes and anthropogenic use of freshwater. However, despite the importance of understanding spatial and temporal patterns in DOM, measures of DOM quality are not routinely included as part of large-scale ecosystem monitoring programs and variations in...

An improved ephemeris and physical elements of ER Vul

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harmanec, P.; Božić, H.; Thanjavur, K.; Robb, R. M.; Ruždjak, D.; Sudar, D.

2004-02-01

New photoelectric U B{V} and BV RI observations, secured during August-November of 2002 at two observatories distant in local time are analyzed together with two earlier photometric data sets and all available radial velocities to derive the most accurate ephemeris of the binary and to set limits on its basic physical elements. These observations were obtained as a support for a high-dispersion spectroscopic study, results of which will be published separately. It was found that radial velocities and photometric observations spanning 53 years can be reconciled with the linear ephemeris T_prim.min.=HJD 2 440 182.25628(46) + 0698095113(29)d × E, where the rms errors of the last digits are given in brackets. Masses of the stars are 1.02 \\fms and 0.97 \\fms and the binary separation is 4.170 R⊙. There is still a large uncertainty in the stellar radii. We also report the discovery of rapid light variations on a time scale of hours seen in the U band light curve and offer a few thoughts on the future investigation of this binary. This research is based on photoelectric observations from Hvar and University of Victoria Observatories. Table 4 is only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/415/289

Modeling of coronal mass ejections with the STEREO heliospheric imagers verified with in situ observations by the Heliophysics System Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Möstl, Christian; Isavnin, Alexey; Kilpua, Emilia; Bothmer, Volker; Mrotzek, Nicolas; Boakes, Peter; Rodriguez, Luciano; Krupar, Vratislav; Eastwood, Jonathan; Davies, Jackie; Harrison, Richard; Barnes, David; Winslow, Reka; Helcats Team

2017-04-01

We present the first study to verify modeling of CMEs as observed by the heliospheric imagers on the two STEREO spacecraft with a large scale dataset of in situ plasma and magnetic field observations from the Heliophysics System Observatory, including MESSENGER, VEX, Wind, and the in situ measurements on the two STEREO spacecraft. To this end, we have established a new interplanetary CME catalog (ICMECAT) for these spacecraft by gathering and updating individual ICME lists. In addition, we have re-calculated the in situ parameters in a consistent way, resulting in 668 events observed between 2007-2015. We then calculated the efficacy of the STEREO/HI instruments for predicting (in hindsight) with the SSEF30 model the arrival time and speed of CMEs as well as hit/miss ratios. We also show how ICMECAT gives decent statistics concerning CME impacts on all of the terrestrial planets, including Mars. The results show some major implications for future heliospheric imagers which may be used for space weather forecasting. Our effort should also serve as a baseline for the upcoming new era in heliospheric science with Solar Orbiter, Solar Probe Plus, BepiColombo returning partly comparable observations in the next decade. The presented work has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/ 2007-2013) under grant agreement No. 606692 [HELCATS].

Soils as sinks or sources for diffuse pollution of the water cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grathwohl, Peter

2010-05-01

Numerous chemical compounds have been released into the environment by human activities and can nowadays be found everywhere, i.e. in the compartments water, soil, and air, at the poles and in high mountains. Examples for a global distribution of toxic compounds are the persistent organic pollutants (PCB, dioxins, PAH, fluorinated surfactants and flame retardants, etc.: "the Stockholm dirty dozen") but also mercury and other metals. Many of these compounds reached a global distribution via the atmo¬sphere; others have been and are still directly applied to top soils at the large scale by agriculture or are released into groundwater at landfill sites or by discharge of treated or untreated waste waters. Sooner or later such compounds end up in the water cycle - often via an intermediate storage in soils. Pollutants in soils are leached by seepage waters, transferred to ground¬water, and transported to rivers via groundwater flow. Adsorbed compounds may be transported from soils into surface waters by erosion processes and will end up in the sediments. Diffuse pollution of the subsurface environment not only reflects the history of the economic development of the modern society but it is still ongoing - e.g. the number of organic pollutants released into the environment is increasing even though the con¬centrations may decrease compared to the past. Evidence shows that many compounds are persistent in the subsurface environment at large time scales (up to centuries). Thus polluted soils already are or may become a future source for pollution of adjacent compartments such as the atmosphere and groundwater. A profound understanding on how diffuse pollutants are stored and processed in the subsurface environment is crucial to assess their long term fate and transport at large scales. Thus integrated studies e.g. at the catchment scale and models are needed which couple not only the relevant compartments (soil - atmosphere - groundwater/surface waters) but also flow and reactive transport. Field observations must allow long-term monitoring (e.g. in hydrological observatories, TERENO etc.), new cross-compartment monitoring strategies need to be applied, and massive parallel numerical codes for prediction of reactive transport of potential water pollutants at catchment scale have to be developed. This is also a prerequisite to assess the impact of climate change as well as land use change on future surface and groundwater quality.

Networking of Bibliographical Information: Lessons learned for the Virtual Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Genova, Françoise; Egret, Daniel

Networking of bibliographic information is particularly remarkable in astronomy. On-line journals, the ADS bibliographic database, SIMBAD and NED are everyday tools for research, and provide easy navigation from one resource to another. Tables are published on line, in close collaboration with data centers. Recent new developments include the links between observatory archives and the ADS, as well as the large scale prototyping of object links between Astronomy and Astrophysics and SIMBAD, following those implemented a few years ago with New Astronomy and the International Bulletin of Variable stars . This networking has been made possible by close collaboration between the ADS, data centers such as the CDS and NED, and the journals, and this partnership being now extended to observatory archives. Simple, de facto exchange standards, like the bibcode to refer to a published paper, have been the key for building links and exchanging data. This partnership, in which practitioners from different disciplines agree to link their resources and to work together to define useful and usable standards, has produced a revolution in scientists' practice. It is an excellent model for the Virtual Observatory projects.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Mission Accessible Near-Earth Objects Survey (Thirouin+, 2016)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thirouin, A.; Moskovitz, N.; Binzel, R. P.; Christensen, E.; DeMeo, F. E.; Person, M. J.; Polishook, D.; Thomas, C. A.; Trilling, D.; Willman, M.; Hinkle, M.; Burt, B.; Avner, D.; Aceituno, F. J.

2017-06-01

The data were obtained with the 4.3m Lowell Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT), the 4.1m Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope, the 4m Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope, the 2.1m at Kitt Peak Observatory, the 1.8m Perkins telescope, the 1.5m Sierra Nevada Observatory (OSN), and the 1.3m SMARTS telescope between 2013 August and 2015 October. The DCT is forty miles southeast of Flagstaff at the Happy Jack site (Arizona, USA). Images were obtained using the Large Monolithic Imager (LMI), which is a 6144*6160 CCD. The total field of view is 12.5*12.5 with a plate scale of 0.12''/pixel (unbinned). Images were obtained using the 3*3 or 2*2 binning modes. Observations were carried out in situ. The SOAR telescope is located on Cerro Pachon, Chile. Images were obtained using the Goodman High Throughput Spectrograph (Goodman-HTS) instrument in its imaging mode. The instrument consists of a 4096*4096 Fairchild CCD, with a 7.2' diameter field of view (circular field of view) and a plate scale of 0.15''/pixel. Images were obtained using the 2*2 binning mode. Observations were conducted remotely. The Mayall telescope is a 4m telescope located at the Kitt Peak National Observatory (Tucson, Arizona, USA). The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) CCD Mosaic-1.1 is a wide field imager composed of an array of eight CCD chips. The field of view is 36'*36', and the plate scale is 0.26''/pixel. Observations were performed remotely. The 2.1m at Kitt Peak Observatory was operated with the STA3 2k*4k CCD, which has a plate scale of 0.305''/pixel and a field of view of 10.2'*6.6'. The instrument was binned 2*2 and the observations were conducted in situ. The Perkins 72'' telescope is located at the Anderson Mesa station at Lowell Observatory (Flagstaff, Arizona, USA). We used the Perkins ReImaging SysteM (PRISM) instrument, a 2*2k Fairchild CCD. The PRISM plate scale is 0.39''/pixel for a field of view of 13'*13'. Observations were performed in situ. The 1.5m telescope located at the OSN at Loma de Dilar in the National Park of Sierra Nevada (Granada, Spain) was operated in situ. Observations were carried out with a 2k*2k CCD, with a total field of view of 7.8'*7.8'. We used 2*2 binning mode, resulting in an effective plate scale of 0.46''/pixel. The 1.3m SMARTS telescope is located at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (Coquimbo region, Chile). This telescope is equipped with a camera called ANDICAM (A Novel Dual Imaging CAMera). ANDICAM is a Fairchild 2048*2048 CCD. The pixel scale is 0.371''/pixel, and the field of view is 6'*6'. Observations were carried out in queue mode. (2 data files).

Technology gap assessment for a future large-aperture ultraviolet-optical-infrared space telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolcar, Matthew R.; Balasubramanian, Kunjithapatham; Crooke, Julie; Feinberg, Lee; Quijada, Manuel; Rauscher, Bernard J.; Redding, David; Rioux, Norman; Shaklan, Stuart; Stahl, H. Philip; Stahle, Carl M.; Thronson, Harley

2016-10-01

The Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) team identified five key technology areas to enable candidate architectures for a future large-aperture ultraviolet/optical/infrared (LUVOIR) space observatory envisioned by the NASA Astrophysics 30-year roadmap, "Enduring Quests, Daring Visions." The science goals of ATLAST address a broad range of astrophysical questions from early galaxy and star formation to the processes that contributed to the formation of life on Earth, combining general astrophysics with direct-imaging and spectroscopy of habitable exoplanets. The key technology areas are internal coronagraphs, starshades (or external occulters), ultra-stable large-aperture telescope systems, detectors, and mirror coatings. For each technology area, we define best estimates of required capabilities, current state-of-the-art performance, and current technology readiness level (TRL), thus identifying the current technology gap. We also report on current, planned, or recommended efforts to develop each technology to TRL 5.

Infrared Astronomy Professional Development for K-12 Educators: WISE Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borders, Kareen; Mendez, B. M.

2010-01-01

K-12 educators need effective and relevant astronomy professional development. WISE Telescope (Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer) and Spitzer Space Telescope Education programs provided an immersive teacher professional development workshop at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico during the summer of 2009. As many common misconceptions involve scale and distance, teachers worked with Moon/Earth scale, solar system scale, and distance of objects in the universe. Teachers built and used basic telescopes, learned about the history of telescopes, explored ground and satellite based telescopes, and explored and worked on models of WISE Telescope. An in-depth explanation of WISE and Spitzer telescopes gave participants background knowledge for infrared astronomy observations. We taught the electromagnetic spectrum through interactive stations. The stations included an overview via lecture and power point, the use of ultraviolet beads to determine ultraviolet exposure, the study of WISE lenticulars and diagramming of infrared data, listening to light by using speakers hooked up to photoreceptor cells, looking at visible light through diffraction glasses and diagramming the data, protocols for using astronomy based research in the classroom, and infrared thermometers to compare environmental conditions around the observatory. An overview of LIDAR physics was followed up by a simulated LIDAR mapping of the topography of Mars. We will outline specific steps for K-12 infrared astronomy professional development, provide data demonstrating the impact of the above professional development on educator understanding and classroom use, and detail future plans for additional K-12 professional development. Funding was provided by WISE Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, Starbucks, Arecibo Observatory, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Washington Space Grant Consortium.

Initiatives in astronomy education in South Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rijsdijk, Case L.

A brief review of the issues affecting the current status of science education in general, and astronomy education in particular, is given. The paper looks at the present situation at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. South Africa has unique educational problems and the initiatives by local observatories and universities at school level are described. The problems encountered by the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) Science Education Initiative (SEI) are typical, as is the SEI approach to addressing some of these. The experience of the SEI is described, as are some of the resources developed by them for primary and secondary schools. Finally a brief look is taken at future developments, in particular, ways in which the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) can contribute to astronomy and science education.

Large-scale anisotropy in the extragalactic gamma-ray background as a probe for cosmological antimatter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gao, Yi-Tian; Stecker, Floyd W.; Gleiser, Marcelo; Cline, David B.

1990-01-01

Intrinsic anisotropies in the extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGB), which should be detectable with the forthcoming Gamma Ray Observatory, can be used to examine some of the mechanisms proposed to explain its origin, one of which, the baryon-symmetric big bang (BSBB) model, is investigated here. In this simulation, large domains containing matter and antimatter galaxies produce gamma rays by annihilation at the domain boundaries. This mechanism can produce mountain-chain-shaped angular fluctuations in the EGB flux.

Understanding the Physical Nature of Coronal "EIT Waves"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Long, D. M.; Bloomfield, D. S.; Chen, P.-F.; Downs, C.; Gallagher, P. T.; Kwon, R.-Y.; Vanninathan, K.; Veronig, A.; Vourlidas, A.; Vrsnak, B.; Warmuth, A.; Zic, T.

2016-10-01

For almost 20 years the physical nature of globally-propagating waves in the solar corona (commonly called "EIT waves") has been controversial and subject to debate. Additional theories have been proposed throughout the years to explain observations that did not fit with the originally proposed fast-mode wave interpretation. However, the incompatibility of observations made using the Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory with the fast-mode wave interpretation have been challenged by differing viewpoints from the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory spacecraft and higher spatial/temporal resolution data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. In this paper, we reexamine the theories proposed to explain "EIT waves" to identify measurable properties and behaviours that can be compared to current and future observations. Most of us conclude that "EIT waves" are best described as fast-mode large-amplitude waves/shocks, which are initially driven by the impulsive expansion of an erupting coronal mass ejection in the low corona.

Understanding the Physical Nature of Coronal "EIT Waves".

PubMed

Long, D M; Bloomfield, D S; Chen, P F; Downs, C; Gallagher, P T; Kwon, R-Y; Vanninathan, K; Veronig, A M; Vourlidas, A; Vršnak, B; Warmuth, A; Žic, T

2017-01-01

For almost 20 years the physical nature of globally propagating waves in the solar corona (commonly called "EIT waves") has been controversial and subject to debate. Additional theories have been proposed over the years to explain observations that did not agree with the originally proposed fast-mode wave interpretation. However, the incompatibility of observations made using the Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory with the fast-mode wave interpretation was challenged by differing viewpoints from the twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory spacecraft and data with higher spatial and temporal resolution from the Solar Dynamics Observatory . In this article, we reexamine the theories proposed to explain EIT waves to identify measurable properties and behaviours that can be compared to current and future observations. Most of us conclude that the so-called EIT waves are best described as fast-mode large-amplitude waves or shocks that are initially driven by the impulsive expansion of an erupting coronal mass ejection in the low corona.

The rotation of the sun - Observations at Stanford

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scherrer, P. H.; Wilcox, J. M.; Svalgaard, L.

1980-01-01

Daily observations of the photospheric rotation rate using the Doppler effect have been made at the Stanford Solar Observatory since May 1976. These observations show no daily or long-period variations in the rotation rate that exceed the observational error of about 1%. The average rotation rate is the same as that of the sunspots and the large-scale magnetic field structures.

A Comparison of Aircraft and Ground-Based Measurements at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, During GTE PEM-West and MLOPEX 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Atlas, E.; Ridley, B.; Walega, J.; Greenberg, J.; Kok, G.; Staffelbach, T.; Schauffler, S.; Lind, J.; Huebler, G.; Norton, R.

1996-01-01

During October 19-20, 1991, one flight of the NASA Global Tropospheric Experiment (GTE) Pacific Exploratory Mission (PEM-West A) mission was conducted near Hawaii as an intercomparison with ground-based measurements of the Mauna Loa Observatory Photochemistry Experiment (MLOPEX 2) and the NOAA Climate Modeling and Diagnostics Laboratory (CMDL). Ozone, reactive nitrogen species, peroxides, hydrocarbons, and halogenated hydrocarbons were measured by investigators aboard the DC-8 aircraft and at the ground site. Lidar cross sections of ozone revealed a complex air mass structure near the island of Hawaii which was evidenced by large variation in some trace gas mixing ratios. This variation limited the time and spatial scales for direct measurement intercomparisons. Where differences occurred between measurements in the same air masses, the intercomparison suggested that biases for some trace gases was due to different calibration scales or, in some cases, instrumental or sampling biases. Relatively large uncertainties were associated with those trace gases present in the low parts per trillion by volume range. Trace gas correlations were used to expand the scope of the intercomparison to identify consistent trends between the different data sets.

Site Protection Efforts at the AURA Observatory in Chile

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, R. Chris; Smith, Malcolm G.; Sanhueza, Pedro

2015-08-01

The AURA Observatory (AURA-O) was the first of the major international observatories to be established in northern Chile to exploit the optimal astronomical conditions available there. The site was originally established in 1962 to host the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO). It now hosts more than 20 operational telescopes, including some of the leading U.S. and international astronomical facilities in the southern hemisphere, such as the Blanco 4m telescope on Cerro Tololo and the Gemini-South and SOAR telescopes on Cerro Pachón. Construction of the next generation facility, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), has recently begun on Cerro Pachón, while additional smaller telescopes continue to be added to the complement on Cerro Tololo.While the site has become a major platform for international astronomical facilities over the last 50 years, development in the region has led to an ever-increasing threat of light pollution around the site. AURA-O has worked closely with local, regional, and national authorities and institutions (in particular with the Chilean Ministries of Environment and Foreign Relations) in an effort to protect the site so that future generations of telescopes, as well as future generations of Chileans, can benefit from the dark skies in the region. We will summarize our efforts over the past 15 years to highlight the importance of dark sky protection through education and public outreach as well as through more recent promotion of IDA certifications in the region and support for the World Heritage initiatives described by others in this conference.

NASA's future plans for space astronomy and astrophysics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kaplan, Mike

1992-01-01

A summary is presented of plans for the future NASA astrophysics missions called SIRTF (Space Infrared Telescope Facility), SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy), SMIM (Submillimeter Intermdiate Mission), and AIM (Astrometric Interferometry Mission), the Greater Observatories, and MFPE (Mission From Planet Earth). Technology needs for these missions are briefly described.

An Integrated Cyberenvironment for Event-Driven Environmental Observatory Research and Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Myers, J.; Minsker, B.; Butler, R.

2006-12-01

National environmental observatories will soon provide large-scale data from diverse sensor networks and community models. While much attention is focused on piping data from sensors to archives and users, truly integrating these resources into the everyday research activities of scientists and engineers across the community, and enabling their results and innovations to be brought back into the observatory, also critical to long-term success of the observatories, is often neglected. This talk will give an overview of the Environmental Cyberinfrastructure Demonstrator (ECID) Cyberenvironment for observatory-centric environmental research and education, under development at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), which is designed to address these issues. Cyberenvironments incorporate collaboratory and grid technologies, web services, and other cyberinfrastructure into an overall framework that balances needs for efficient coordination and the ability to innovate. They are designed to support the full scientific lifecycle both in terms of individual experiments moving from data to workflows to publication and at the macro level where new discoveries lead to additional data, models, tools, and conceptual frameworks that augment and evolve community-scale systems such as observatories. The ECID cyberenvironment currently integrates five major components a collaborative portal, workflow engine, event manager, metadata repository, and social network personalization capabilities - that have novel features inspired by the Cyberenvironment concept and enabling powerful environmental research scenarios. A summary of these components and the overall cyberenvironment will be given in this talk, while other posters will give details on several of the components. The summary will be presented within the context of environmental use case scenarios created in collaboration with researchers from the WATERS (WATer and Environmental Research Systems) Network, a joint National Science Foundation-funded initiative of the hydrology and environmental engineering communities. The use case scenarios include identifying sensor anomalies in point- and streaming sensor data and notifying data managers in near-real time; and referring users of data or data products (e.g., workflows, publications) to related data or data products.

Ssalmon - The Solar Simulations For The Atacama Large Millimeter Observatory Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wedemeyer, Sven; Ssalmon Group

2016-07-01

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) provides a new powerful tool for observing the solar chromosphere at high spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution, which will allow for addressing a wide range of scientific topics in solar physics. Numerical simulations of the solar atmosphere and modeling of instrumental effects are valuable tools for constraining, preparing and optimizing future observations with ALMA and for interpreting the results. In order to co-ordinate related activities, the Solar Simulations for the Atacama Large Millimeter Observatory Network (SSALMON) was initiated on September 1st, 2014, in connection with the NA- and EU-led solar ALMA development studies. As of April, 2015, SSALMON has grown to 83 members from 18 countries (plus ESO and ESA). Another important goal of SSALMON is to promote the scientific potential of solar science with ALMA, which has resulted in two major publications so far. During 2015, the SSALMON Expert Teams produced a White Paper with potential science cases for Cycle 4, which will be the first time regular solar observations will be carried out. Registration and more information at http://www.ssalmon.uio.no.

Investigation of Hydrological Response of Three Identical Artificial Hillslopes at the Landscape Evolution Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matos, K.; Alves Meira Neto, A.; Troch, P. A. A.; Volkmann, T.

2017-12-01

Hydrological processes at the hillslope scale are complex and heterogeneous, but monitoring hillslopes with a large number of sensors or replicate experimental designs is rarely feasible. The Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO) at Biosphere 2 consists of three replicated, large (330 m2) artificial hillslopes (East, Center and West) packed with 1-m depth of initially homogeneous, basaltic soil. Each landscape contains a spatially dense network of sensors capable of resolving meter-scale lateral heterogeneity and sub-meter scale vertical heterogeneity in moisture content and water potential, as well as the hillslope-integrated water balance components. A sophisticated irrigation system allows performing controlled forcing experiments. The three hillslopes are thought to be nearly identical, however recent data showed significant differences in discharge and storage behavior. A 45-day periodic-steady-state tracer experiment was conducted in November and December of 2016, where a 3.5-day long, identical irrigation sequence was repeated 15 times. Each sequence's rainfall, runoff, and storage dynamics were recorded, and distributed moisture characteristics were derived using paired moisture content and matric potential data from 496 positions in each hillslope. In order to understand why the three hillslopes behave hydrologically different, we analyzed soil water retention characteristics at various scales ranging from individually paired moisture and matric potential to whole-hillslope soil water retention characteristics. The results confirm the distinct hydrological behavior between the three hillslopes. The East and West hillslopes behave more similar with respect to the release of water. In contrast, the East and Center hillslopes are more similar with respect to their storage behavior. The differences in hillslope behavior arising from three identically built hillslopes are a surprising and beneficial opportunity to explore how differences in small-scale heterogeneity can impact hydrological dynamics at the hillslope scale.

Hydrologic Observatories: Design, Operation, and the Neuse Basin Prototype

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reckhow, K.; Band, L.

2003-12-01

Hydrologic observatories are conceived as major research facilities that will be available to the full hydrologic community, to facilitate comprehensive, cross-disciplinary and multi-scale measurements necessary to address the current and next generation of critical science and management issues. A network of hydrologic observatories is proposed that both develop national comparable, multidisciplinary data sets and provide study areas to allow scientists, through their own creativity, to make scientific breakthroughs that would be impossible without the proposed observatories. The core objective of an observatory is to improve predictive understanding of the flow paths, fluxes, and residence times of water, sediment and nutrients (the "core data") across a range of spatial and temporal scales across `interfaces'. To assess attainment of this objective, a benchmark will be established in the first year, and evaluated periodically. The benchmark should provide an estimate of prediction uncertainty at points in the stream across scale; the general principle is that predictive understanding must be demonstrated internal to the catchment as well as its outlet. The core data will be needed for practically any hydrologic study, yet absence of these data has been a barrier to larger scale studies in the past. However, advancement of hydrologic science facilitated by the network of hydrologic observatories is expected to focus on a set of science drivers, drawn from the major scientific questions posed by the set of NRC reports and refined into CUAHSI themes. These hypotheses will be tested at all observatories and will be used in the design to ensure the sufficiency of the data set. To make the observatories a national (and international) resource, a key aspect of the operation is the support of remote PI's. This support will include a resident staff of scientists and technicians on the order of 10 FTE's, availability of dormitory, laboratory, workshop space for all scientists, and the awarding of travel support out of observatory funds. The conflicting goals of support for a PI-designed observatory and a network of community-available observatories will be achieved by allocation of resources to assure both goals will be met. It is proposed that these resources be divided into three pools: Core data pool. Data to be collected by the observatory PI's and staff, and where possible, augmented by existing (e.g., USGS) data collection. Design pool. Available to support the designs of observatory PI's. Community pool. Available to non-PI scientists to test cross-observatory hypotheses. Application of these design and operation concepts to the design of the Neuse basin prototype hydrologic observatory is briefly discussed.

Optimal strategies for observation of active galactic nuclei variability with Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giomi, Matteo; Gerard, Lucie; Maier, Gernot

2016-07-01

Variable emission is one of the defining characteristic of active galactic nuclei (AGN). While providing precious information on the nature and physics of the sources, variability is often challenging to observe with time- and field-of-view-limited astronomical observatories such as Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs). In this work, we address two questions relevant for the observation of sources characterized by AGN-like variability: what is the most time-efficient way to detect such sources, and what is the observational bias that can be introduced by the choice of the observing strategy when conducting blind surveys of the sky. Different observing strategies are evaluated using simulated light curves and realistic instrument response functions of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), a future gamma-ray observatory. We show that strategies that makes use of very small observing windows, spread over large periods of time, allows for a faster detection of the source, and are less influenced by the variability properties of the sources, as compared to strategies that concentrate the observing time in a small number of large observing windows. Although derived using CTA as an example, our conclusions are conceptually valid for any IACTs facility, and in general, to all observatories with small field of view and limited duty cycle.

A future wide field-of-view TeV gamma-ray observatory in the Southern Hemisphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mostafa, Miguel; HAWC Collaboration

2017-01-01

High-energy gamma-ray observations are an essential probe of cosmic-ray acceleration. Detection of the highest energies and the shortest timescales of variability are key motivations when designing the next generation of gamma-ray experiments. The Milagro experiment was the first-generation of gamma-ray detectors based on the water-Cherenkov technique, and demonstrated that it is possible to continuously monitor a large fraction of the TeV sky. The second-generation water-Cherenkov experiment, the High Altitude Water Cherenkov observatory, consists of an array of 300 water-Cherenkov detectors covering an area of 22,000 m2 at 4,100 m a.s.l. The larger effective area, the higher altitude, and the optical isolation of the detectors led to a 15-fold increase in sensitivity relative to Milagro. Instruments with a wide field of view and large duty cycle are capable of surveying the TeV sky, mapping the diffuse emission, detecting emission from extended regions, and observing transient events such as gamma ray bursts. They also have the potential for discovering electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational waves and astrophysical neutrinos. I will present the preliminary design of a third-generation water-Cherenkov observatory located at very high altitude in South America.

Watching Stars Grow: The adaptation and creation of instructional material for the acquisition, reduction, and analysis of data using photometry tools at the WestRock Observatory.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Keeffe, Brendon; Johnson, Michael; Murphy Williams, Rosa Nina

2018-06-01

The WestRock observatory at Columbus State University provides laboratory and research opportunities to earth and space science students specializing in astrophysics and planetary geology. Through continuing improvements, the observatory has been expanding the types of research carried out by undergraduates. Photometric measurements are an essential tool for observational research, especially for objects of variable brightness.Using the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) database, students choose variable star targets for observation. Students then perform observations to develop the ability to properly record, calibrate, and interpret the data. Results are then submitted to a large database of observations through the AAVSO.Standardized observation procedures will be developed in the form of manuals and instructional videos specific to the equipment housed in the WestRock Observatory. This procedure will be used by students conducting laboratory exercises and undergraduate research projects that utilize photometry. Such hands-on, direct observational experience will help to familiarize the students with observational techniques and contribute to an active dataset, which in turn will prepare them for future research in their field.In addition, this set of procedures and the data resulting from them will be used in the wider outreach programs of the WestRock Observatory, so that students and interested public nationwide can learn about both the process and importance of photometry in astronomical research.

Weak Lensing Calibrated M-T Scaling Relation of Galaxy Groups in the COSMOS Fieldsstarf

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kettula, K.; Finoguenov, A.; Massey, R.; Rhodes, J.; Hoekstra, H.; Taylor, J. E.; Spinelli, P. F.; Tanaka, M.; Ilbert, O.; Capak, P.; McCracken, H. J.; Koekemoer, A.

2013-11-01

The scaling between X-ray observables and mass for galaxy clusters and groups is instrumental for cluster-based cosmology and an important probe for the thermodynamics of the intracluster gas. We calibrate a scaling relation between the weak lensing mass and X-ray spectroscopic temperature for 10 galaxy groups in the COSMOS field, combined with 55 higher-mass clusters from the literature. The COSMOS data includes Hubble Space Telescope imaging and redshift measurements of 46 source galaxies per arcminute2, enabling us to perform unique weak lensing measurements of low-mass systems. Our sample extends the mass range of the lensing calibrated M-T relation an order of magnitude lower than any previous study, resulting in a power-law slope of 1.48^{+0.13}_{-0.09}. The slope is consistent with the self-similar model, predictions from simulations, and observations of clusters. However, X-ray observations relying on mass measurements derived under the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium have indicated that masses at group scales are lower than expected. Both simulations and observations suggest that hydrostatic mass measurements can be biased low. Our external weak lensing masses provide the first observational support for hydrostatic mass bias at group level, showing an increasing bias with decreasing temperature and reaching a level of 30%-50% at 1 keV. Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. Also based on data collected at the Subaru Telescope, which is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan; the XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and NASA; the European Southern Observatory under Large Program 175.A-0839, Chile; Kitt Peak National Observatory, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation; the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.; and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) with MegaPrime/MegaCam operated as a joint project by the CFHT Corporation, CEA/DAPNIA, the National Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique de France, TERAPIX, and the University of Hawaii.

Future-oriented maintenance strategy based on automated processes is finding its way into large astronomical facilities at remote observing sites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silber, Armin; Gonzalez, Christian; Pino, Francisco; Escarate, Patricio; Gairing, Stefan

2014-08-01

With expanding sizes and increasing complexity of large astronomical observatories on remote observing sites, the call for an efficient and recourses saving maintenance concept becomes louder. The increasing number of subsystems on telescopes and instruments forces large observatories, like in industries, to rethink conventional maintenance strategies for reaching this demanding goal. The implementation of full-, or semi-automatic processes for standard service activities can help to keep the number of operating staff on an efficient level and to reduce significantly the consumption of valuable consumables or equipment. In this contribution we will demonstrate on the example of the 80 Cryogenic subsystems of the ALMA Front End instrument, how an implemented automatic service process increases the availability of spare parts and Line Replaceable Units. Furthermore how valuable staff recourses can be freed from continuous repetitive maintenance activities, to allow focusing more on system diagnostic tasks, troubleshooting and the interchanging of line replaceable units. The required service activities are decoupled from the day-to-day work, eliminating dependencies on workload peaks or logistic constrains. The automatic refurbishing processes running in parallel to the operational tasks with constant quality and without compromising the performance of the serviced system components. Consequentially that results in an efficiency increase, less down time and keeps the observing schedule on track. Automatic service processes in combination with proactive maintenance concepts are providing the necessary flexibility for the complex operational work structures of large observatories. The gained planning flexibility is allowing an optimization of operational procedures and sequences by considering the required cost efficiency.

Lunar and Planetary Science XXXVI, Part 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

Topics covered include: Ringwoodite-olivine assemblages in Dhofar L6 melt veins; Amorphization of forsterite grains due to high energy heavy ion irradiation: Implications for grain processing in ISM; Validation of AUTODYN in replicating large-scale planetary impact events; A network of geophysical observatories for mars; Modelling catastrophic floods on the surface of mars; Impact into coarse grained spheres; The diderot meteorite: The second chassignite; Galileo global color mosaics of Io; Ganymede's sulci on global and regional scales; and The cold traps near the south pole of the moon.

The Advanced Modeling, Simulation and Analysis Capability Roadmap Vision for Engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zang, Thomas; Lieber, Mike; Norton, Charles; Fucik, Karen

2006-01-01

This paper summarizes a subset of the Advanced Modeling Simulation and Analysis (AMSA) Capability Roadmap that was developed for NASA in 2005. The AMSA Capability Roadmap Team was chartered to "To identify what is needed to enhance NASA's capabilities to produce leading-edge exploration and science missions by improving engineering system development, operations, and science understanding through broad application of advanced modeling, simulation and analysis techniques." The AMSA roadmap stressed the need for integration, not just within the science, engineering and operations domains themselves, but also across these domains. Here we discuss the roadmap element pertaining to integration within the engineering domain, with a particular focus on implications for future observatory missions. The AMSA products supporting the system engineering function are mission information, bounds on information quality, and system validation guidance. The Engineering roadmap element contains 5 sub-elements: (1) Large-Scale Systems Models, (2) Anomalous Behavior Models, (3) advanced Uncertainty Models, (4) Virtual Testing Models, and (5) space-based Robotics Manufacture and Servicing Models.

Observations of volcanic plumes using small balloon soundings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Voemel, H.

2015-12-01

Eruptions of volcanoes are very difficult to predict and for practical purposes may occur at any time. Any observing system intending to observe volcanic eruptions has to be ready at any time. Due to transport time scales, emissions of large volcanic eruptions, in particular injections into the stratosphere, may be detected at locations far from the volcano within days to weeks after the eruption. These emissions may be observed using small balloon soundings at dedicated sites. Here we present observations of particles of the Icelandic Grimsvotn eruption at the Meteorological Observatory Lindenberg, Germany in the months following the eruption and observations of opportunity of other volcanic particle events. We also present observations of the emissions of SO2 from the Turrialba volcano at San Jose, Costa Rica. We argue that dedicated sites for routine observations of the clean and perturbed atmosphere using small sounding balloons are an important element in the detection and quantification of emissions from future volcanic eruptions.

Indirect probes of supersymmetry breaking in the JEM-EUSO observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Albuquerque, Ivone F. M.; Cavalcante de Souza, Jairo

2013-01-01

In this paper we propose indirect probes of the supersymmetry-breaking scale, through observations in the Extreme Universe Space Observatory onboard the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM-EUSO). We consider scenarios where the lightest supersymmetric particle is the gravitino, and the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) is a long-lived slepton. We demonstrate that JEM-EUSO will be able to probe models where the NLSP decays, therefore probing supersymmetry-breaking scales below 5×106GeV. The observatory field of view will be large enough to detect a few tens of events per year, depending on its energy threshold. This is complementary to a previous proposal [I. Albuquerque , Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 221802 (2004)PRLTAO0031-9007] where it was shown that 1km3 neutrino telescopes can directly probe this scale. NLSPs will be produced by the interaction of high-energy neutrinos in the Earth. Here we investigate scenarios where they subsequently decay, either in the atmosphere after escaping the Earth or right before leaving the Earth, producing taus. These can be detected by JEM-EUSO and have two distinctive signatures: one, they are produced in the Earth and go upwards in the atmosphere, which allows discrimination from atmospheric taus, and second, as NLSPs are always produced in pairs, coincident taus will be a strong signature for these events. Assuming that the neutrino flux is equivalent to the Waxman-Bahcall limit, we determine the rate of taus from NLSP decays reaching JEM-EUSO’s field of view.

Discovery of a Large-Scale Filament Connected to the Massive Galaxy Cluster MACS J0717.5+3745 at z=0.551,

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ebeling, H.; Barrett, E.; Donovan, D.

2004-07-01

We report the detection of a 4 h-170 Mpc long large-scale filament leading into the massive galaxy cluster MACS J0717.5+3745. The extent of this object well beyond the cluster's nominal virial radius (~2.3 Mpc) rules out prior interaction between its constituent galaxies and the cluster and makes it a prime candidate for a genuine filament as opposed to a merger remnant or a double cluster. The structure was discovered as a pronounced overdensity of galaxies selected to have V-R colors close to the cluster red sequence. Extensive spectroscopic follow-up of over 300 of these galaxies in a region covering the filament and the cluster confirms that the entire structure is located at the cluster redshift of z=0.545. Featuring galaxy surface densities of typically 15 Mpc-2 down to luminosities of 0.13L*V, the most diffuse parts of the filament are comparable in density to the clumps of red galaxies found around A851 in the only similar study carried out to date (Kodama et al.). Our direct detection of an extended large-scale filament funneling matter onto a massive distant cluster provides a superb target for in-depth studies of the evolution of galaxies in environments of greatly varying density and supports the predictions from theoretical models and numerical simulations of structure formation in a hierarchical picture. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. Based partly on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (US), the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (UK), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), CNP (Brazil), and CONICET (Argentina).

The Large Deployable Reflector (LDR) - Plans and progress

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Swanson, Paul N.

1987-01-01

The program history, scientific aims, design, and projected performance of the LDR, a 20-m-primary two-stage four-mirror orbiting sub-mm/FIR astronomical observatory under NASA development, are reviewed. It is shown that the LDR would provide capabilities complementary to those of IRAS, the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, the IRTF, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the planned Space IR Telescope Facility for observations of small-scale background anisotropies, high-redshift galaxies, and objects at temperatures of a few times 10 K or lower. The current design concept is illustrated with extensive drawings, diagrams, and tables of instrument parameters. Particular attention is given to the graphite-epoxy facing and Al-honeycomb core of the primary structure, the focal-plane instruments, and outstanding technological problems.

Winter sky brightness and cloud cover at Dome A, Antarctica

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, Anna M.; Yang, Yi; Fu, Jianning; Ashley, Michael C. B.; Cui, Xiangqun; Feng, Long Long; Gong, Xuefei; Hu, Zhongwen; Lawrence, Jon S.; Luong-Van, Daniel M.; Riddle, Reed; Shang, Zhaohui; Sims, Geoff; Storey, John W. V.; Tothill, Nicholas F. H.; Travouillon, Tony; Wang, Lifan; Yang, Huigen; Yang, Ji; Zhou, Xu; Zhu, Zhenxi

2013-01-01

At the summit of the Antarctic plateau, Dome A offers an intriguing location for future large scale optical astronomical observatories. The Gattini Dome A project was created to measure the optical sky brightness and large area cloud cover of the winter-time sky above this high altitude Antarctic site. The wide field camera and multi-filter system was installed on the PLATO instrument module as part of the Chinese-led traverse to Dome A in January 2008. This automated wide field camera consists of an Apogee U4000 interline CCD coupled to a Nikon fisheye lens enclosed in a heated container with glass window. The system contains a filter mechanism providing a suite of standard astronomical photometric filters (Bessell B, V, R) and a long-pass red filter for the detection and monitoring of airglow emission. The system operated continuously throughout the 2009, and 2011 winter seasons and part-way through the 2010 season, recording long exposure images sequentially for each filter. We have in hand one complete winter-time dataset (2009) returned via a manned traverse. We present here the first measurements of sky brightness in the photometric V band, cloud cover statistics measured so far and an estimate of the extinction.

On the Prospects of Measuring the Cosmic History of Element Synthesis with Future Far-IR/Submillimeter Observatories

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leisawitz, David

2003-01-01

To understand the cosmic history of element synthesis it will be important to obtain extinction-free measures of the heavy element contents of high-redshift objects and to chart two monumental events: the collapse of the first metal-free clouds to form stars, and the initial seeding of the universe with dust. The information needed to achieve these objectives is uniquely available in the far-infrared/submillimeter (FIR/SMM) spectral region. Following the Decadal Report and anticipating the development of the Single Aperature Far-IR (SAFIR) telescope capabilities of a large-aperature, background-limited FIR/SMM observatory and an interferometer on a boom, and discuss how such instruments could be used to measure the element synthesis history of the universe.

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gehrz, R. D.; Becklin, E. E.

2008-07-01

The joint U.S. and German Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Project will operate a 2.5-meter infrared airborne telescope in a Boeing 747SP. Flying in the stratosphere at altitudes as high as 45,000 feet, SOFIA enables observations in the infrared and submillimeter region with an average transmission of 80%. SOFIA has a wide instrument complement including broadband imaging cameras, moderate resolution spectrographs capable of resolving broad features due to dust and large molecules, and high resolution spectrometers suitable for kinematic studies of molecular and atomic gas lines at km/s resolution. The first generation and future instruments will enable SOFIA to make unique contributions to a broad array of science topics. SOFIA began its post-modification test flight series on April 26, 2007 in Waco, Texas and will conclude in winter of 2008-09. SOFIA will be staged out of Dryden's aircraft operations facility at Palmdale, Site 9, CA for science operations. The SOFIA Science Center will be at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA. First science flights will begin in 2009, the next instrument call and first General Observer science call will be in 2010, and a full operations schedule of ~120 flights per year will be reached by 2014. The observatory is expected to operate for more than 20 years. The sensitivity, characteristics, science instrument complement, future instrument opportunities, and examples of first light and early mission science are discussed.

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gehrz, Robert

The joint U.S. and German Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Project to develop and operate a 2.5-meter infrared airborne telescope in a Boeing 747-SP is in its final stages of development. Flying in the stratosphere at altitudes as high as 45,000 feet, SOFIA enables observations throughout the infrared and submillimeter region with an average transmission of greater than 80 percent. SOFIA has a wide instrument complement including broadband imagers, moderate resolution spectrographs capable of resolving broad features due to dust and large molecules, and high resolution spectrometers suitable for kinematic studies of molecular and atomic gas lines at km/s resolution. The first generation and future instruments will enable SOFIA to make unique contributions to a broad array of science topics. SOFIA began its post-modification test flight series on April 26, 2007 in Waco, Texas. The test flight series continues at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, California. SOFIA will be staged out of Dryden's new aircraft operations facility at Palmdale, CA starting in December, 2007. First science flights will begin in 2009, the next instrument call and the first General Observer science call will be in 2010, and a full operations schedule of about 120 flights per year will be reached by 2014. The observatory is expected to operate for more than 20 years. The sensitivity, characteristics, science instrument complement, future instrument opportunities and examples of first light science will be discussed.

Future changes in peak river flows across northern Eurasia as inferred from an ensemble of regional climate projections under the IPCC RCP8.5 scenario

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shkolnik, Igor; Pavlova, Tatiana; Efimov, Sergey; Zhuravlev, Sergey

2018-01-01

Climate change simulation based on 30-member ensemble of Voeikov Main Geophysical Observatory RCM (resolution 25 km) for northern Eurasia is used to drive hydrological model CaMa-Flood. Using this modeling framework, we evaluate the uncertainties in the future projection of the peak river discharge and flood hazard by 2050-2059 relative to 1990-1999 under IPCC RCP8.5 scenario. Large ensemble size, along with reasonably high modeling resolution, allows one to efficiently sample natural climate variability and increase our ability to predict future changes in the hydrological extremes. It has been shown that the annual maximum river discharge can almost double by the mid-XXI century in the outlets of major Siberian rivers. In the western regions, there is a weak signal in the river discharge and flood hazard, hardly discernible above climate variability. Annual maximum flood area is projected to increase across Siberia mostly by 2-5% relative to the baseline period. A contribution of natural climate variability at different temporal scales to the uncertainty of ensemble prediction is discussed. The analysis shows that there expected considerable changes in the extreme river discharge probability at locations of the key hydropower facilities. This suggests that the extensive impact studies are required to develop recommendations for maintaining regional energy security.

The Carl Sagan solar and stellar observatories as remote observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saucedo-Morales, J.; Loera-Gonzalez, P.

In this work we summarize recent efforts made by the University of Sonora, with the goal of expanding the capability for remote operation of the Carl Sagan Solar and Stellar Observatories, as well as the first steps that have been taken in order to achieve autonomous robotic operation in the near future. The solar observatory was established in 2007 on the university campus by our late colleague A. Sánchez-Ibarra. It consists of four solar telescopes mounted on a single equatorial mount. On the other hand, the stellar observatory, which saw the first light on 16 February 2010, is located 21 km away from Hermosillo, Sonora at the site of the School of Agriculture of the University of Sonora. Both observatories can now be remotely controlled, and to some extent are able to operate autonomously. In this paper we discuss how this has been accomplished in terms of the use of software as well as the instruments under control. We also briefly discuss the main scientific and educational objectives, the future plans to improve the control software and to construct an autonomous observatory on a mountain site, as well as the opportunities for collaborations.

Development of Armenian-Georgian Virtual Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mickaelian, Areg; Kochiashvili, Nino; Astsatryan, Hrach; Harutyunian, Haik; Magakyan, Tigran; Chargeishvili, Ketevan; Natsvlishvili, Rezo; Kukhianidze, Vasil; Ramishvili, Giorgi; Sargsyan, Lusine; Sinamyan, Parandzem; Kochiashvili, Ia; Mikayelyan, Gor

2009-10-01

The Armenian-Georgian Virtual Observatory (ArGVO) project is the first initiative in the world to create a regional VO infrastructure based on national VO projects and regional Grid. The Byurakan and Abastumani Astrophysical Observatories are scientific partners since 1946, after establishment of the Byurakan observatory . The Armenian VO project (ArVO) is being developed since 2005 and is a part of the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA). It is based on the Digitized First Byurakan Survey (DFBS, the digitized version of famous Markarian survey) and other Armenian archival data. Similarly, the Georgian VO will be created to serve as a research environment to utilize the digitized Georgian plate archives. Therefore, one of the main goals for creation of the regional VO is the digitization of large amounts of plates preserved at the plate stacks of these two observatories. The total amount of plates is more than 100,000 units. Observational programs of high importance have been selected and some 3000 plates will be digitized during the next two years; the priority is being defined by the usefulness of the material for future science projects, like search for new objects, optical identifications of radio, IR, and X-ray sources, study of variability and proper motions, etc. Having the digitized material in VO standards, a VO database through the regional Grid infrastructure will be active. This partnership is being carried out in the framework of the ISTC project A-1606 "Development of Armenian-Georgian Grid Infrastructure and Applications in the Fields of High Energy Physics, Astrophysics and Quantum Physics".

The Galics Project: Virtual Galaxy: from Cosmological N-body Simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guiderdoni, B.

The GalICS project develops extensive semi-analytic post-processing of large cosmological simulations to describe hierarchical galaxy formation. The multiwavelength statistical properties of high-redshift and local galaxies are predicted within the large-scale structures. The fake catalogs and mock images that are generated from the outputs are used for the analysis and preparation of deep surveys. The whole set of results is now available in an on-line database that can be easily queried. The GalICS project represents a first step towards a 'Virtual Observatory of virtual galaxies'.

Variation of Supergranule Parameters with Solar Cycles: Results from Century-long Kodaikanal Digitized Ca ii K Data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chatterjee, Subhamoy; Mandal, Sudip; Banerjee, Dipankar, E-mail: dipu@iiap.res.in

The Ca ii K spectroheliograms spanning over a century (1907–2007) from Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, have recently been digitized and calibrated. Applying a fully automated algorithm (which includes contrast enhancement and the “Watershed method”) to these data, we have identified the supergranules and calculated the associated parameters, such as scale, circularity, and fractal dimension. We have segregated the quiet and active regions and obtained the supergranule parameters separately for these two domains. In this way, we have isolated the effect of large-scale and small-scale magnetic fields on these structures and find a significantly different behavior of the supergranule parameters overmore » solar cycles. These differences indicate intrinsic changes in the physical mechanism behind the generation and evolution of supergranules in the presence of small-scale and large-scale magnetic fields. This also highlights the need for further studies using solar dynamo theory along with magneto-convection models.« less

Large Scale Deformation of the Western U.S. Cordillera

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bennett, Richard A.

2002-01-01

Over the past couple of years, with support from NASA, we used a large collection of data from GPS, VLBI, SLR, and DORIS networks which span the Western U.S. Cordillera (WUSC) to precisely quantify present-day large-scale crustal deformations in a single uniform reference frame. Our work was roughly divided into an analysis of these space geodetic observations to infer the deformation field across and within the entire plate boundary zone, and an investigation of the implications of this deformation field regarding plate boundary dynamics. Following the determination of the first generation WUSC velocity solution, we placed high priority on the dissemination of the velocity estimates. With in-kind support from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, we constructed a web-site which allows anyone to access the data, and to determine their own velocity reference frame.

Large Scale Deformation of the Western U.S. Cordillera

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bennett, Richard A.

2002-01-01

Over the past couple of years, with support from NASA, we used a large collection of data from GPS, VLBI, SLR, and DORIS networks which span the Westem U.S. Cordillera (WUSC) to precisely quantify present-day large-scale crustal deformations in a single uniform reference frame. Our work was roughly divided into an analysis of these space geodetic observations to infer the deformation field across and within the entire plate boundary zone, and an investigation of the implications of this deformation field regarding plate boundary dynamics. Following the determination of the first generation WUSC velocity solution, we placed high priority on the dissemination of the velocity estimates. With in-kind support from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, we constructed a web-site which allows anyone to access the data, and to determine their own velocity reference frame.

Instrumentation at Paranal Observatory: maintaining the instrument suite of five large telescopes and its interferometer alive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gillet, Gordon; Alvarez, José Luis; Beltrán, Juan; Bourget, Pierre; Castillo, Roberto; Diaz, Álvaro; Haddad, Nicolás; Leiva, Alfredo; Mardones, Pedro; O'Neal, Jared; Ribes, Mauricio; Riquelme, Miguel; Robert, Pascal; Rojas, Chester; Valenzuela, Javier

2010-07-01

This presentation provides interesting miscellaneous information regarding the instrumentation activities at Paranal Observatory. It introduces the suite of 23 instruments and auxiliary systems that are under the responsibility of the Paranal Instrumentation group, information on the type of instruments, their usage and downtime statistics. The data is based on comprehensive data recorded in the Paranal Night Log System and the Paranal Problem Reporting System whose principles are explained as well. The work organization of the 15 team members around the high number of instruments is laid out, which includes: - Maintaining older instruments with obsolete components - Receiving new instruments and supporting their integration and commissioning - Contributing to future instruments in their developing phase. The assignments of the Instrumentation staff to the actual instruments as well as auxiliary equipment (Laser Guide Star Facility, Mask Manufacturing Unit, Cloud Observation Tool) are explained with respect to responsibility and scheduling issues. The essential activities regarding hardware & software are presented, as well as the technical and organizational developments within the group towards its present and future challenges.

The rotation of the Sun: Observations at Stanford. [using the Doppler effect

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scherrer, J. M.; Wilcox, J. M.; Svalgaard, L.

1980-01-01

Daily observations of the photospheric rotation rate using the Doppler effect made at the Stanford Solar Observatory since May 1976 are analyzed. Results show that these observations show no daily or long period variations in the rotation rate that exceed the observational error of about one percent. The average rotation rate is the same as that of the sunspot and the large-scale magnetic field structures.

The Texas Water Observatory: Utilizing Advanced Observing System Design for Understanding Water Resources Sustainability Across Climatic and Geologic Gradients of Texas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohanty, B.; Moore, G. W.; Miller, G. R.; Quiring, S. M.; Everett, M. E.; Morgan, C.

2015-12-01

The Texas Water Observatory (TWO) is a new distributed network of field observatories for better understanding of the hydrologic flow in the critical zone (encompassing groundwater, soil water, surface water, and atmospheric water) at various space and time scales. Core sites in the network will begin in Brazos River corridor and expand from there westward. Using many advanced observational platforms and real-time / near-real time sensors, this observatory will monitor high frequency data of water stores and fluxes, critical for understanding and modeling the in the state of Texas and Southern USA. Once implemented, TWO will be positioned to support high-impact water science that is highly relevant to societal needs and serve as a regional resource for better understanding and/or managing agriculture, water resources, ecosystems, biodiversity, disasters, health, energy, and weather/climate. TWO infrastructure will span land uses (cultivation agriculture, range/pasture, forest), landforms (low-relief erosional uplands to depositional lowlands), and across climatic and geologic gradients of Texas to investigate the sensitivity and resilience of fertile soils and the ecosystems they support. Besides developing a network of field water observatory infrastructure/capacity for accounting water flow and storage, TWO will facilitate developing a new generation interdisciplinary water professionals (from various TAMU Colleges) with better understanding and skills for attending to future water challenges of the region. This holistic growth will have great impact on TAMU research enterprise related to water resources, leading to higher federal and state level competitiveness for funding and establishing a center of excellence in the region

The Eruption of a Small-scale Emerging Flux Rope as the Driver of an M-class Flare and of a Coronal Mass Ejection

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yan, X. L.; Xue, Z. K.; Wang, J. C.

Solar flares and coronal mass ejections are the most powerful explosions in the Sun. They are major sources of potentially destructive space weather conditions. However, the possible causes of their initiation remain controversial. Using high-resolution data observed by the New Solar Telescope of Big Bear Solar Observatory, supplemented by Solar Dynamics Observatory observations, we present unusual observations of a small-scale emerging flux rope near a large sunspot, whose eruption produced an M-class flare and a coronal mass ejection. The presence of the small-scale flux rope was indicated by static nonlinear force-free field extrapolation as well as data-driven magnetohydrodynamics modeling ofmore » the dynamic evolution of the coronal three-dimensional magnetic field. During the emergence of the flux rope, rotation of satellite sunspots at the footpoints of the flux rope was observed. Meanwhile, the Lorentz force, magnetic energy, vertical current, and transverse fields were increasing during this phase. The free energy from the magnetic flux emergence and twisting magnetic fields is sufficient to power the M-class flare. These observations present, for the first time, the complete process, from the emergence of the small-scale flux rope, to the production of solar eruptions.« less

Large-scale educational telecommunications systems for the US: An analysis of educational needs and technological opportunities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morgan, R. P.; Singh, J. P.; Rothenberg, D.; Robinson, B. E.

1975-01-01

The needs to be served, the subsectors in which the system might be used, the technology employed, and the prospects for future utilization of an educational telecommunications delivery system are described and analyzed. Educational subsectors are analyzed with emphasis on the current status and trends within each subsector. Issues which affect future development, and prospects for future use of media, technology, and large-scale electronic delivery within each subsector are included. Information on technology utilization is presented. Educational telecommunications services are identified and grouped into categories: public television and radio, instructional television, computer aided instruction, computer resource sharing, and information resource sharing. Technology based services, their current utilization, and factors which affect future development are stressed. The role of communications satellites in providing these services is discussed. Efforts to analyze and estimate future utilization of large-scale educational telecommunications are summarized. Factors which affect future utilization are identified. Conclusions are presented.

AstroGrid: the UK's Virtual Observatory Initiative

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mann, Robert G.; Astrogrid Consortium; Lawrence, Andy; Davenhall, Clive; Mann, Bob; McMahon, Richard; Irwin, Mike; Walton, Nic; Rixon, Guy; Watson, Mike; Osborne, Julian; Page, Clive; Allan, Peter; Giaretta, David; Perry, Chris; Pike, Dave; Sherman, John; Murtagh, Fionn; Harra, Louise; Bentley, Bob; Mason, Keith; Garrington, Simon

AstroGrid is the UK's Virtual Observatory (VO) initiative. It brings together the principal astronomical data centres in the UK, and has been funded to the tune of ˜pounds 5M over the next three years, via PPARC, as part of the UK e--science programme. Its twin goals are the provision of the infrastructure and tools for the federation and exploitation of large astronomical (X-ray to radio), solar and space plasma physics datasets, and the delivery of federations of current datasets for its user communities to exploit using those tools. Whilst AstroGrid's work will be centred on existing and future (e.g. VISTA) UK datasets, it will seek solutions to generic VO problems and will contribute to the developing international virtual observatory framework: AstroGrid is a member of the EU-funded Astrophysical Virtual Observatory project, has close links to a second EU Grid initiative, the European Grid of Solar Observations (EGSO), and will seek an active role in the development of the common standards on which the international virtual observatory will rely. In this paper we shall primarily describe the concrete plans for AstroGrid's one-year Phase A study, which will centre on: (i) the definition of detailed science requirements through community consultation; (ii) the undertaking of a ``functionality market survey" to test the utility of existing technologies for the VO; and (iii) a pilot programme of database federations, each addressing different aspects of the general database federation problem. Further information on AstroGrid can be found at AstroGrid .

GLACIOCLIM-SAMBA: A Terre Adelie / Wilkes Land Antarctic surface mass balance observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Genthon, C.; Frezzotti, M.; Le Meur, E.; Magand, O.; Six, D.; Wagnon, P.

2005-12-01

While local measurements at hundreds of sites are now available (although sometimes questionable, e.g. Magand et al., this volume) to verify how large-scale models reproduce the spatial distribution of the surface mass balance (SMB) of Antarctica, few field observations yet make it possible to verify current intra- and inter-annual variability and trends of the SMB in the models, and to evaluate the processes that relate this variability with that of climate. It is a major aim of the GLACIOCLIM-SAMBA observatory (http://lgge.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr/~christo/glacioclim/samba/), initiated in 2004, to provide such observations in the Terre Adelie and Wilkes Land area. Recognizing that the largest absolute changes (and thus contribution to sea-level) of Antarctic SMB are expected where the current mean SMB is largest, that is in the coastal regions, SAMBA is largely focused on ice sheet margin. To sample spatial scales compatible with the scales resolved by models used to predict climate and SMB changes, a 150 km accumulation stakes line is being set up from the coast near the French Dumont d'Urville station, towards to Antarctic plateau in the general direction of the Italy/France Concordia station. Ground penetrating radar survey will provide snap-shot SMB interpolation along the stakes line. A blue ice stretch at the coast is being monitored by a 50-stake ablation network. Three 50-stakes networks are being set up near Concordia station to relate coastal and plateau SMB variability and change. An automatic weather station (AWS, including radiation) deployed at the coast, and the D-10, D-47 and DCII Antarctic Meteorological Research Center (http://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/) AWSs, provide meteorological information to relate observed SMB and climate. Italian meteorology and radiation programs at Concordia, planned micrometeorology special campaigns at the margin, and precipitation monitoring at both sites, should help decipher the processes that relate SMB and climate variability. As a summary of results on the existing observatory as of Jan; 2005: i) The first year mean SMB along a 50 km stakes line was ~60 cm water equivalent (we), which qualifies 2004 as a very high accumulation year in the Terre Adelie area; ii) Spatial variability along the stakes line is high, ranging from 16 to 125 cm (we), confirming the need for spatial sampling consistent with the scales resolved by climate models; iii) At the coastal blue ice, ablation occurs in summer only while the winter SMB is close to 0. The SAMBA observatory is scheduled to operate for at least 10 years, hopefully more if successful, with main support by the French (IPEV) and Italian (PNRA) Polar Institutes. The French ministry of research and Institut National des Sciences de l'univers (Climate Change and Cryosphere and ORE-GLACIOCLIM programs) also contribute support. All SAMBA observations will be distributed and freely available on the internet as soon as the observatory is fully operational and validated.

Improved Large-Scale Inundation Modelling by 1D-2D Coupling and Consideration of Hydrologic and Hydrodynamic Processes - a Case Study in the Amazon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoch, J. M.; Bierkens, M. F.; Van Beek, R.; Winsemius, H.; Haag, A.

2015-12-01

Understanding the dynamics of fluvial floods is paramount to accurate flood hazard and risk modeling. Currently, economic losses due to flooding constitute about one third of all damage resulting from natural hazards. Given future projections of climate change, the anticipated increase in the World's population and the associated implications, sound knowledge of flood hazard and related risk is crucial. Fluvial floods are cross-border phenomena that need to be addressed accordingly. Yet, only few studies model floods at the large-scale which is preferable to tiling the output of small-scale models. Most models cannot realistically model flood wave propagation due to a lack of either detailed channel and floodplain geometry or the absence of hydrologic processes. This study aims to develop a large-scale modeling tool that accounts for both hydrologic and hydrodynamic processes, to find and understand possible sources of errors and improvements and to assess how the added hydrodynamics affect flood wave propagation. Flood wave propagation is simulated by DELFT3D-FM (FM), a hydrodynamic model using a flexible mesh to schematize the study area. It is coupled to PCR-GLOBWB (PCR), a macro-scale hydrological model, that has its own simpler 1D routing scheme (DynRout) which has already been used for global inundation modeling and flood risk assessments (GLOFRIS; Winsemius et al., 2013). A number of model set-ups are compared and benchmarked for the simulation period 1986-1996: (0) PCR with DynRout; (1) using a FM 2D flexible mesh forced with PCR output and (2) as in (1) but discriminating between 1D channels and 2D floodplains, and, for comparison, (3) and (4) the same set-ups as (1) and (2) but forced with observed GRDC discharge values. Outputs are subsequently validated against observed GRDC data at Óbidos and flood extent maps from the Dartmouth Flood Observatory. The present research constitutes a first step into a globally applicable approach to fully couple hydrologic with hydrodynamic computations while discriminating between 1D-channels and 2D-floodplains. Such a fully-fledged set-up would be able to provide higher-order flood hazard information, e.g. time to flooding and flood duration, ultimately leading to improved flood risk assessment and management at the large scale.

Multi-resolution anisotropy studies of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aab, A.; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.; Samarai, I. Al; Albuquerque, I. F. M.; Allekotte, I.; Almela, A.; Alvarez Castillo, J.; Alvarez-Muñiz, J.; Anastasi, G. A.; Anchordoqui, L.; Andrada, B.; Andringa, S.; Aramo, C.; Arqueros, F.; Arsene, N.; Asorey, H.; Assis, P.; Aublin, J.; Avila, G.; Badescu, A. M.; Balaceanu, A.; Barreira Luz, R. J.; Baus, C.; Beatty, J. J.; Becker, K. H.; Bellido, J. A.; Berat, C.; Bertaina, M. E.; Bertou, X.; Biermann, P. L.; Billoir, P.; Biteau, J.; Blaess, S. G.; Blanco, A.; Blazek, J.; Bleve, C.; Boháčová, M.; Boncioli, D.; Bonifazi, C.; Borodai, N.; Botti, A. M.; Brack, J.; Brancus, I.; Bretz, T.; Bridgeman, A.; Briechle, F. L.; Buchholz, P.; Bueno, A.; Buitink, S.; Buscemi, M.; Caballero-Mora, K. S.; Caccianiga, L.; Cancio, A.; Canfora, F.; Caramete, L.; Caruso, R.; Castellina, A.; Cataldi, G.; Cazon, L.; Chavez, A. G.; Chinellato, J. A.; Chudoba, J.; Clay, R. W.; Colalillo, R.; Coleman, A.; Collica, L.; Coluccia, M. R.; Conceição, R.; Contreras, F.; Cooper, M. J.; Coutu, S.; Covault, C. E.; Cronin, J.; D'Amico, S.; Daniel, B.; Dasso, S.; Daumiller, K.; Dawson, B. R.; de Almeida, R. M.; de Jong, S. J.; De Mauro, G.; de Mello Neto, J. R. T.; De Mitri, I.; de Oliveira, J.; de Souza, V.; Debatin, J.; Deligny, O.; Di Giulio, C.; Di Matteo, A.; Díaz Castro, M. L.; Diogo, F.; Dobrigkeit, C.; D'Olivo, J. C.; dos Anjos, R. C.; Dova, M. T.; Dundovic, A.; Ebr, J.; Engel, R.; Erdmann, M.; Erfani, M.; Escobar, C. O.; Espadanal, J.; Etchegoyen, A.; Falcke, H.; Farrar, G.; Fauth, A. C.; Fazzini, N.; Fick, B.; Figueira, J. M.; Filipčič, A.; Fratu, O.; Freire, M. M.; Fujii, T.; Fuster, A.; Gaior, R.; García, B.; Garcia-Pinto, D.; Gaté, F.; Gemmeke, H.; Gherghel-Lascu, A.; Ghia, P. L.; Giaccari, U.; Giammarchi, M.; Giller, M.; Głas, D.; Glaser, C.; Golup, G.; Gómez Berisso, M.; Gómez Vitale, P. F.; González, N.; Gorgi, A.; Gorham, P.; Gouffon, P.; Grillo, A. F.; Grubb, T. D.; Guarino, F.; Guedes, G. P.; Hampel, M. R.; Hansen, P.; Harari, D.; Harrison, T. A.; Harton, J. L.; Hasankiadeh, Q.; Haungs, A.; Hebbeker, T.; Heck, D.; Heimann, P.; Herve, A. E.; Hill, G. C.; Hojvat, C.; Holt, E.; Homola, P.; Hörandel, J. R.; Horvath, P.; Hrabovský, M.; Huege, T.; Hulsman, J.; Insolia, A.; Isar, P. G.; Jandt, I.; Jansen, S.; Johnsen, J. A.; Josebachuili, M.; Kääpä, A.; Kambeitz, O.; Kampert, K. H.; Katkov, I.; Keilhauer, B.; Kemp, E.; Kemp, J.; Kieckhafer, R. M.; Klages, H. O.; Kleifges, M.; Kleinfeller, J.; Krause, R.; Krohm, N.; Kuempel, D.; Kukec Mezek, G.; Kunka, N.; Kuotb Awad, A.; LaHurd, D.; Lauscher, M.; Legumina, R.; Leigui de Oliveira, M. A.; Letessier-Selvon, A.; Lhenry-Yvon, I.; Link, K.; Lopes, L.; López, R.; López Casado, A.; Luce, Q.; Lucero, A.; Malacari, M.; Mallamaci, M.; Mandat, D.; Mantsch, P.; Mariazzi, A. G.; Mariş, I. C.; Marsella, G.; Martello, D.; Martinez, H.; Martínez Bravo, O.; Masías Meza, J. J.; Mathes, H. J.; Mathys, S.; Matthews, J.; Matthews, J. A. J.; Matthiae, G.; Mayotte, E.; Mazur, P. O.; Medina, C.; Medina-Tanco, G.; Melo, D.; Menshikov, A.; Messina, S.; Micheletti, M. I.; Middendorf, L.; Minaya, I. A.; Miramonti, L.; Mitrica, B.; Mockler, D.; Mollerach, S.; Montanet, F.; Morello, C.; Mostafá, M.; Müller, A. L.; Müller, G.; Muller, M. A.; Müller, S.; Mussa, R.; Naranjo, I.; Nellen, L.; Nguyen, P. H.; Niculescu-Oglinzanu, M.; Niechciol, M.; Niemietz, L.; Niggemann, T.; Nitz, D.; Nosek, D.; Novotny, V.; Nožka, H.; Núñez, L. A.; Ochilo, L.; Oikonomou, F.; Olinto, A.; Pakk Selmi-Dei, D.; Palatka, M.; Pallotta, J.; Papenbreer, P.; Parente, G.; Parra, A.; Paul, T.; Pech, M.; Pedreira, F.; Pȩkala, J.; Pelayo, R.; Peña-Rodriguez, J.; Pereira, L. A. S.; Perlín, M.; Perrone, L.; Peters, C.; Petrera, S.; Phuntsok, J.; Piegaia, R.; Pierog, T.; Pieroni, P.; Pimenta, M.; Pirronello, V.; Platino, M.; Plum, M.; Porowski, C.; Prado, R. R.; Privitera, P.; Prouza, M.; Quel, E. J.; Querchfeld, S.; Quinn, S.; Ramos-Pollan, R.; Rautenberg, J.; Ravignani, D.; Revenu, B.; Ridky, J.; Risse, M.; Ristori, P.; Rizi, V.; Rodrigues de Carvalho, W.; Rodriguez Fernandez, G.; Rodriguez Rojo, J.; Rogozin, D.; Roncoroni, M. J.; Roth, M.; Roulet, E.; Rovero, A. C.; Ruehl, P.; Saffi, S. J.; Saftoiu, A.; Salazar, H.; Saleh, A.; Salesa Greus, F.; Salina, G.; Sánchez, F.; Sanchez-Lucas, P.; Santos, E. M.; Santos, E.; Sarazin, F.; Sarmento, R.; Sarmiento, C. A.; Sato, R.; Schauer, M.; Scherini, V.; Schieler, H.; Schimp, M.; Schmidt, D.; Scholten, O.; Schovánek, P.; Schröder, F. G.; Schulz, A.; Schulz, J.; Schumacher, J.; Sciutto, S. J.; Segreto, A.; Settimo, M.; Shadkam, A.; Shellard, R. C.; Sigl, G.; Silli, G.; Sima, O.; Śmiałkowski, A.; Šmída, R.; Snow, G. R.; Sommers, P.; Sonntag, S.; Sorokin, J.; Squartini, R.; Stanca, D.; Stanič, S.; Stasielak, J.; Stassi, P.; Strafella, F.; Suarez, F.; Suarez Durán, M.; Sudholz, T.; Suomijärvi, T.; Supanitsky, A. D.; Swain, J.; Szadkowski, Z.; Taboada, A.; Taborda, O. A.; Tapia, A.; Theodoro, V. M.; Timmermans, C.; Todero Peixoto, C. J.; Tomankova, L.; Tomé, B.; Torralba Elipe, G.; Torri, M.; Travnicek, P.; Trini, M.; Ulrich, R.; Unger, M.; Urban, M.; Valdés Galicia, J. F.; Valiño, I.; Valore, L.; van Aar, G.; van Bodegom, P.; van den Berg, A. M.; van Vliet, A.; Varela, E.; Vargas Cárdenas, B.; Varner, G.; Vázquez, J. R.; Vázquez, R. A.; Veberič, D.; Vergara Quispe, I. D.; Verzi, V.; Vicha, J.; Villaseñor, L.; Vorobiov, S.; Wahlberg, H.; Wainberg, O.; Walz, D.; Watson, A. A.; Weber, M.; Weindl, A.; Wiencke, L.; Wilczyński, H.; Winchen, T.; Wittkowski, D.; Wundheiler, B.; Yang, L.; Yelos, D.; Yushkov, A.; Zas, E.; Zavrtanik, D.; Zavrtanik, M.; Zepeda, A.; Zimmermann, B.; Ziolkowski, M.; Zong, Z.; Zuccarello, F.

2017-06-01

We report a multi-resolution search for anisotropies in the arrival directions of cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory with local zenith angles up to 80o and energies in excess of 4 EeV (4 × 1018 eV). This search is conducted by measuring the angular power spectrum and performing a needlet wavelet analysis in two independent energy ranges. Both analyses are complementary since the angular power spectrum achieves a better performance in identifying large-scale patterns while the needlet wavelet analysis, considering the parameters used in this work, presents a higher efficiency in detecting smaller-scale anisotropies, potentially providing directional information on any observed anisotropies. No deviation from isotropy is observed on any angular scale in the energy range between 4 and 8 EeV. Above 8 EeV, an indication for a dipole moment is captured; while no other deviation from isotropy is observed for moments beyond the dipole one. The corresponding p-values obtained after accounting for searches blindly performed at several angular scales, are 1.3 × 10-5 in the case of the angular power spectrum, and 2.5 × 10-3 in the case of the needlet analysis. While these results are consistent with previous reports making use of the same data set, they provide extensions of the previous works through the thorough scans of the angular scales.

Tools for Virtual Collaboration Designed for High Resolution Hydrologic Research with Continental-Scale Data Support

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duffy, Christopher; Leonard, Lorne; Shi, Yuning; Bhatt, Gopal; Hanson, Paul; Gil, Yolanda; Yu, Xuan

2015-04-01

Using a series of recent examples and papers we explore some progress and potential for virtual (cyber-) collaboration inspired by access to high resolution, harmonized public-sector data at continental scales [1]. The first example describes 7 meso-scale catchments in Pennsylvania, USA where the watershed is forced by climate reanalysis and IPCC future climate scenarios (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). We show how existing public-sector data and community models are currently able to resolve fine-scale eco-hydrologic processes regarding wetland response to climate change [2]. The results reveal that regional climate change is only part of the story, with large variations in flood and drought response associated with differences in terrain, physiography, landuse and/or hydrogeology. The importance of community-driven virtual testbeds are demonstrated in the context of Critical Zone Observatories, where earth scientists from around the world are organizing hydro-geophysical data and model results to explore new processes that couple hydrologic models with land-atmosphere interaction, biogeochemical weathering, carbon-nitrogen cycle, landscape evolution and ecosystem services [3][4]. Critical Zone cyber-research demonstrates how data-driven model development requires a flexible computational structure where process modules are relatively easy to incorporate and where new data structures can be implemented [5]. From the perspective of "Big-Data" the paper points out that extrapolating results from virtual observatories to catchments at continental scales, will require centralized or cloud-based cyberinfrastructure as a necessary condition for effectively sharing petabytes of data and model results [6]. Finally we outline how innovative cyber-science is supporting earth-science learning, sharing and exploration through the use of on-line tools where hydrologists and limnologists are sharing data and models for simulating the coupled impacts of catchment hydrology on lake eco-hydrology (NSF-INSPIRE, IIS1344272). The research attempts to use a virtual environment (www.organicdatascience.org) to break down disciplinary barriers and support emergent communities of science. [1] Source: Leonard and Duffy, 2013, Environmental Modelling & Software; [2] Source: Yu et al, 2014, Computers in Geoscience; [3] Source: Duffy et al, 2014, Procedia Earth and Planetary Science; [4] Source: Shi et al, Journal of Hydrometeorology, 2014; [5] Source: Bhatt et al, 2014, Environmental Modelling & Software ; [6] Leonard and Duffy, 2014, Environmental Modelling and Software.

CHILI: China Lijiang IFU

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hao, Lei

2014-07-01

Wide-field IFU technology on medium-size telescope provides a unique science capability that compliments larger future facilities. Here I introduce a program to employ a VIRUS-like unit on the 2.4 meter telescope in GaoMeiGu Observatory in LiJiang, China. We name the instrument "CHILI (China Lijiang IFU)". It will be an IFU with very large field of view at 1.8'x3.6'. We discuss its science capabilities and its potential benefit to the Chinese astronomical community.

Coronal holes, large-scale magnetic field, and activity complexes in solar cycle 23

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tavastsherna, K. S.; Polyakow, E. V.

2014-12-01

A correlation among coronal holes (CH), a large-scale magnetic field (LMF), and activity complexes (AC) is studied in this work for 1997-2007 with the use of a coronal hole series obtained from observations at the Kitt Peak Observatory in the HeI 10830 Å line in 1975-2003 and SOHO/EIT-195 Å in 1996-2012 (Tlatov et al., 2014), synoptic Hα charts from Kislovodsk Mountain Astonomical Station, and the catalog of AC cores (Yazev, 2012). From the imposition of CH boundaries on Hα charts, which characterize the positions of neutral lines of the radial components of a large-scale solar magnetic field, it turns out that 70% of CH are located in unipolar regions of their sign during the above period, 10% are in the region of an opposite sign, and 20% are mainly very large CH, which are often crossed by the neutral lines of several unipolar regions. Data on mutual arrangement of CH and AC cores were obtained. It was shown that only some activity comples cores have genetic relationships with CH.

Overview of lunar-based astronomy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Harlan J.

1988-01-01

The opportunities along with the advantages and disadvantages of the Moon for astronomical observatories are carefully and methodically considered. Taking a relatively unbiased approach, it was concluded that lunar observatories will clearly be a major factor in the future of astronomy in the next century. He concludes that ground based work will continue because of its accessibility and that Earth orbital work will remain useful, primarily for convenience of access in constructing and operating very large space systems. Deep space studies will feature not only probes but extensive systems for extremely long baseline studies at wavelengths from gamma rays through visible and IR out to radio is also a conclusion drawn, along with the consideration that lunar astronomy will have found important permanent applications along lines such as are discussed at the present symposium and others quite unsuspected today.

The Full-Scale Prototype for the Fluorescence Detector Array of Single-Pixel Telescopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fujii, T.; Malacari, M.; Bellido, J. A.; Farmer, J.; Galimova, A.; Horvath, P.; Hrabovsky, M.; Mandat, D.; Matalon, A.; Matthews, J. N.; Merolle, M.; Ni, X.; Nozka, L.; Palatka, M.; Pech, M.; Privitera, P.; Schovanek, P.; Thomas, S. B.; Travnicek, P.

The Fluorescence detector Array of Single-pixel Telescopes (FAST) is a design concept for the next generation of ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) observatories, addressing the requirements for a large-area, low-cost detector suitable for measuring the properties of the highest energy cosmic rays. In the FAST design, a large field of view is covered by a few pixels at the focal plane of a mirror or Fresnel lens. Motivated by the successful detection of UHECRs using a prototype comprised of a single 200 mm photomultiplier-tube and a 1 m2 Fresnel lens system, we have developed a new "full-scale" prototype consisting of four 200 mm photomultiplier-tubes at the focus of a segmented mirror of 1.6 m in diameter. We report on the status of the full-scale prototype, including test measurements made during first light operation at the Telescope Array site in central Utah, U.S.A.

Double Beta Decays and Neutrinos - Experiments and MOON

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ejiri, H.; National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba, 263-8555

2008-01-24

This is a brief review of the present and future experiments of neutrino-less double beta decays (0{nu}{beta}{beta}) and the MOON (Mo Observatory Of Neutrinos) project. High sensitivity 0{nu}{beta}{beta} experiments are unique and realistic probes for studying the Majorana nature of neutrinos and the absolute mass scale as suggested by neutrino oscillation experiments. MOON aims at spectroscopic 0{nu}{beta}{beta} studies with the {nu}-mass sensitivity of 100-30 meV by means of a super ensemble of multilayer modules of scintillator plates and tracking detector planes.

Observations of Sprites above Haiti/Dominican Republic Thunderstorms from Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pasko, V. P.; Stanley, M.; Mathews, J. D.; Inan, U. S.; Wood, T. G.; Cummer, S. A.; Williams, E. R.; Heavner, M. J.

2002-12-01

In August-September 2001 an experimental campaign has been conducted in Puerto Rico to perform correlative studies of lightning and lightning-induced ionospheric effects. The campaign, which was sponsored by a Small Grant for Exploratory Research from the National Science Foundation to Penn State University, had a broad range of scientific goals including studies ionospheric effects of thunderstorms, studies of VHF-quiet positive leaders and studies of large scale optical phenomena above ocean thunderstorms in tropics. As part of this program we conducted night time video recordings of lightning and large scale luminous phenomena above thunderstorms using a SONY DCR TRV 730 CCD video camera equipped with a blue extended ITT Night Vision GEN III NQ 6010 intensifier with 40 deg field of view. The intensifier provided a monochrome (predominantly green) image output. The video system was deployed at the Lidar Laboratory on the grounds of Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico (18.247 deg N, 66.754 deg W, elevation 305 m above the sea level). In this talk we report results of observations conducted between 01 and 03 UT on September 3, 2001. A total of 7 sprite events have been detected above a large thunderstorm system (cloud area exceeding 104 km2) located approximately 500 km from the observational site above Haiti/Dominican Republic. The observed events exhibited typical sprite features documented in other parts of the globe, including single columns, groups of columns, relatively small horizontal glows confined to higher altitudes, as well as two large and impulsive events with the transverse extent ~eq50 km. In this talk we will also report results of preliminary analysis of available ELF electromagnetic signatures associated with the observed events recorded by Stanford University at Palmer Station, Antarctica, Duke University, MIT and Los Alamos Sferic Array in Florida. Acknowledgments: The GEN III intensifier has been provided by ITT Night Vision Industries. We are grateful to M. Robinson of ITT Industries for support of our program. We thank W. Lyons for useful discussions. We are indebted to S. Gonzalez, Q. Zhou, M. Sulzer, C. Tepley, J. Friedman, E. Robles, A. Venkataraman and E. Castro for support of our observations at Arecibo Observatory.

Shifting from Stewardship to Analytics of Massive Science Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crichton, D. J.; Doyle, R.; Law, E.; Hughes, S.; Huang, T.; Mahabal, A.

2015-12-01

Currently, the analysis of large data collections is executed through traditional computational and data analysis approaches, which require users to bring data to their desktops and perform local data analysis. Data collection, archiving and analysis from future remote sensing missions, be it from earth science satellites, planetary robotic missions, or massive radio observatories may not scale as more capable instruments stress existing architectural approaches and systems due to more continuous data streams, data from multiple observational platforms, and measurements and models from different agencies. A new paradigm is needed in order to increase the productivity and effectiveness of scientific data analysis. This paradigm must recognize that architectural choices, data processing, management, analysis, etc are interrelated, and must be carefully coordinated in any system that aims to allow efficient, interactive scientific exploration and discovery to exploit massive data collections. Future observational systems, including satellite and airborne experiments, and research in climate modeling will significantly increase the size of the data requiring new methodological approaches towards data analytics where users can more effectively interact with the data and apply automated mechanisms for data reduction, reduction and fusion across these massive data repositories. This presentation will discuss architecture, use cases, and approaches for developing a big data analytics strategy across multiple science disciplines.

Progress Report on the US Critical Zone Observatory Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barrera, E. C.

2014-12-01

The Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) program supported by the National Science Foundation originated from the recommendation of the Earth Science community published in the National Research Council report "Basic Research Opportunities in Earth Sciences" (2001) to establish natural laboratories to study processes and systems of the Critical Zone - the surface and near-surface environment sustaining nearly all terrestrial life. After a number of critical zone community workshops to develop a science plan, the CZO program was initiated in 2007 with three sites and has now grown to 10 sites and a National Office, which coordinates research, education and outreach activities of the network. Several of the CZO sites are collocated with sites supported by the US Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) and the Long Term Agricultural Research (LTAR) programs, and the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). Future collaboration with additional sites of these networks will add to the potential to answer questions in a more comprehensive manner and in a larger regional scale about the critical zone form and function. At the international level, CZOs have been established in many countries and strong collaborations with the US program have been in place for many years. The next step is the development of a coordinated international program of critical zone research. The success of the CZO network of sites can be measured in transformative results that elucidate properties and processes controlling the critical zone and how the critical zone structure, stores and fluxes respond to climate and land use change. This understanding of the critical zone can be used to enhance resilience and sustainability, and restore ecosystem function. Thus, CZO science can address major societal challenges. The US CZO network is a facility open to research of the critical zone community at large. Scientific data and information about the US program are available at www.criticalzone.org.

Ionospheric magnetic signals during conjunctions between ground based and Swarm satellite observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saturnino, Diana; Olsen, Nils; Finlay, Chris

2017-04-01

High-precision magnetic measurements collected by satellites such as Swarm or CHAMP,flying at altitudes between 300 and 800km, allow for improved geomagnetic field modelling. An accurate description of the internal (core and crust) field must account for contributions from other sources, such as the ionosphere and magnetosphere. However, the description of the rapidly changing external field contributions, particularly during the quiet times from which the data are selected, constitutes a major challenge of the construction of such models. Our study attempts to obtain improved knowledge on ionospheric field contributions during quiet times conditions, in particular during night local times. We use two different datasets: ground magnetic observatories time series (obtained below the ionospheric E-layer currents), and Swarm satellites measurements acquired above these currents. First, we remove from the data estimates of the core, lithospheric and large-scale magnetospheric magnetic contributions as given by the CHAOS-6 model, to obtain corrected time series. Then, we focus on the differences of the corrected time series: for a pair of ground magnetic observatories, we determine the time series of the difference, and similarly we determine time series differences at satellite altitude, given by the difference between the Swarm Alpha and Charlie satellites taken in the vicinity of the ground observatory locations. The obtained differences time series are analysed regarding their temporal and spatial scales variations, with emphasis on measurements during night local times.

Operations of and Future Plans for the Pierre Auger Observatory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Abraham, : J.; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.

2009-06-01

These are presentations to be presented at the 31st International Cosmic Ray Conference, in Lodz, Poland during July 2009. It consists of the following presentations: (1) Performance and operation of the Surface Detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory; (2) Extension of the Pierre Auger Observatory using high-elevation fluorescence telescopes (HEAT); (3) AMIGA - Auger Muons and Infill for the Ground Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory; (4) Radio detection of Cosmic Rays at the southern Auger Observatory; (5) Hardware Developments for the AMIGA enhancement at the Pierre Auger Observatory; (6) A simulation of the fluorescence detectors of the Pierre Augermore » Observatory using GEANT 4; (7) Education and Public Outreach at the Pierre Auger Observatory; (8) BATATA: A device to characterize the punch-through observed in underground muon detectors and to operate as a prototype for AMIGA; and (9) Progress with the Northern Part of the Pierre Auger Observatory.« less

On the scaling features of high-latitude geomagnetic field fluctuations during a large geomagnetic storm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Michelis, Paola; Federica Marcucci, Maria; Consolini, Giuseppe

2015-04-01

Recently we have investigated the spatial distribution of the scaling features of short-time scale magnetic field fluctuations using measurements from several ground-based geomagnetic observatories distributed in the northern hemisphere. We have found that the scaling features of fluctuations of the horizontal magnetic field component at time scales below 100 minutes are correlated with the geomagnetic activity level and with changes in the currents flowing in the ionosphere. Here, we present a detailed analysis of the dynamical changes of the magnetic field scaling features as a function of the geomagnetic activity level during the well-known large geomagnetic storm occurred on July, 15, 2000 (the Bastille event). The observed dynamical changes are discussed in relationship with the changes of the overall ionospheric polar convection and potential structure as reconstructed using SuperDARN data. This work is supported by the Italian National Program for Antarctic Research (PNRA) - Research Project 2013/AC3.08 and by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme ([FP7/2007-2013]) under Grant no. 313038/STORM and

Magnetically-coupled microcalorimeter arrays for x-ray astrophysics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bandler, Simon

The "X-ray Surveyor" has been listed by NASA as one of the four major large mission concepts to be studied in the next Astrophysics Decadal Review in its preliminary list of large concepts. One of the key instruments on such a mission would be a very large format X-ray microcalorimeter array, with an array size of greater than 100 thousand pixels. Magnetically-coupled microcalorimeters (MCC) are one of the technologies with the greatest potential to meet the requirements of this mission, and this proposal is one to carry out research specifically to reach the goals of this vision. The "X-ray Surveyor" is a concept for a future mission that will make X-ray observations that are instrumental to understanding the quickly emerging population of galaxies and supermassive black holes at z ~10. The observations will trace the formation of galaxies and their assembly into large-scale structures starting from the earliest possible epochs. This mission would be observing baryons and large-scale physical processes outside of the very densest regions in the local Universe. This can be achieved with an X-ray observatory with similar angular resolution as Chandra but with significantly improved optic area and detector sensitivity. Chandra-scale angular resolution (1" or better) is essential in building more powerful, higher throughput observatories to avoid source confusion and remain photon-limited rather than background-limited. A prime consideration for the microcalorimeter camera on this type of mission is maintaining ~ 1 arcsec spatial resolution over the largest possible field of view, even if this means a slight trade-off against the spectral resolution. A uniform array of 1" pixels covering at least 5'x5' field of view is desired. To reduce the number of sensors read out, in geometries where extremely fine pitch (~50 microns) is desired, the most promising technologies are those in which a thermal sensor such an MCC can read out a sub-array of 20-25 individual 1'• pixels. Projections based on the current state of this technology indicate that less than 5 eV energy resolution can be achieved with this sort of geometry. Theoretically, magnetically-coupled microcalorimeters are well-equipped to achieve the very highest energy resolutions, especially when several absorbers are attached to each sensor, increasing the heat capacity. This program will build upon the work carried out by our group on metallic magnetic calorimeters (MMC) and Magnetic penetration thermometers (MPT) in the antecedent program. In this program we will carry out development in three main areas. First, we will develop sensor geometries that are optimized for reading out sub-arrays of pixels with a single sensor of the type that is likely desired by the "X-ray Surveyor". Second, we will further develop large-format arraying prototypes with the engineering of wiring-pixel approaches that are scalable to the large-format arrays that are needed. Third, we will develop the read-out technology that will be necessary, which utilizes the next generation of X-ray microcalorimeter read-out approach, a microwave multiplexing readout.

KELT RR Lyrae Variable Stars Observed by NKU Schneider and Michigan State Observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Lee, Nathan M.; Brueneman, Stacy; Hicks, Logan; Russell, Neil; Kinemuchi, Karen; Pepper, Joshua; Rodriguez, Joseph; Paegert, Martin; Smith, Horace A.

2017-01-01

In this poster we will discuss our ongoing program to use extant light curves from the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) survey to find and characterize RR Lyrae (RRL) stars in the disk and inner halo of the Milky Way. RRL stars are of particular interest because they are standard candles and can be used to map out structure in the galaxy. The periods and shape of RRL light curves also contain information about their Oosterhoff type, which can probe galactic formation history, and metallicity respectively. Although there have been several large photometric surveys for RR Lyrae in the nearby galaxy (OGLE, NSVS, ASAS, and MACHO to name a few), they have each been limited in either sky coverage or number of epochs. The KELT survey represents a new generation of surveys that has many epochs over a large portion of the sky. KELT samples over 70% of the entire sky, and has a long-time-baseline of up to 11 years with a very high cadence rate of less than 20 minutes. This translates to upwards of 11,000 epochs per light curve with completeness out to 3 kpc from the Sun. This poster will present follow-up multi-color photometry taken of RR Lyrae candidate stars found in the KELT survey. These stars were observed using an 11inch telescope at the NKU Schneider Observatory. We also have archival photometry of these stars from the Michigan State Observatory. We will discuss photometric accuracies, cadence, and initial analysis of these stars. We will also discuss the capabilities of our new observatory as well as future follow-up and analysis plans.

Norwegian Ocean Observatory Network (NOON)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferré, Bénédicte; Mienert, Jürgen; Winther, Svein; Hageberg, Anne; Rune Godoe, Olav; Partners, Noon

2010-05-01

The Norwegian Ocean Observatory Network (NOON) is led by the University of Tromsø and collaborates with the Universities of Oslo and Bergen, UniResearch, Institute of Marine Research, Christian Michelsen Research and SINTEF. It is supported by the Research Council of Norway and oil and gas (O&G) industries like Statoil to develop science, technology and new educational programs. Main topics relate to ocean climate and environment as well as marine resources offshore Norway from the northern North Atlantic to the Arctic Ocean. NOON's vision is to bring Norway to the international forefront in using cable based ocean observatory technology for marine science and management, by establishing an infrastructure that enables real-time and long term monitoring of processes and interactions between hydrosphere, geosphere and biosphere. This activity is in concert with the EU funded European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap and European Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observation (EMSO) project to attract international leading research developments. NOON envisions developing towards a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). Beside, the research community in Norway already possesses a considerable marine infrastructure that can expand towards an international focus for real-time multidisciplinary observations in times of rapid climate change. PIC The presently established cable-based fjord observatory, followed by the establishment of a cable-based ocean observatory network towards the Arctic from an O&G installation, will provide invaluable knowledge and experience necessary to make a successful larger cable-based observatory network at the Norwegian and Arctic margin (figure 1). Access to large quantities of real-time observation from the deep sea, including high definition video, could be used to provide the public and future recruits to science a fascinating insight into an almost unexplored part of the Earth beyond the Arctic Circle. More information about NOON is available at NOON's web site www.oceanobservatory.com. PIC

Multi-parameter observations in the Ibero-Moghrebian region: the Western Mediterranean seismic network (WM) and ROA GPS geodynamic network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pazos, Antonio; Martín Davila, José; Buforn, Elisa; Gárate Pasquín, Jorge; Catalán Morollón, Manuel; Hanka, Winfried; Udías, Agustín.; Benzzeghoud, Mourad; Harnafi, Mimoun

2010-05-01

The plate boundary between Eurasia and Africa plates crosses the called "Ibero-Maghrebian" region from the San Vicente Cape (SW Portugal) to Tunisia including the South of Iberia, Alboran Sea, and northern Morocco and Algeria. In this area, the convergence, with a low rate, is accommodated over a wide and diffuse deformation zone, characterized by a significant and widespread moderate seismic activity [Buforn et al., 1995], and the occurrence of large earthquakes is separated by long time intervals. Since more than hundred years ago San Fernando Naval Observatory (ROA), in collaboration with other Institutes, has deployed different geophysical and geodetic equipment in the Southern Spain - North-western Africa area in order to study this broad deformation zone. Currently a Broad Band seismic net (Western Mediterranean, WM net) is deployed, in collaboration with other institutions, around the Gulf of Cádiz and the Alboran sea, with stations in the South of Iberia and in North Africa (at Spanish places and Morocco), together with the seismic stations a permanent geodetic GPS net is co-installed at the same sites. Also, other geophysical instruments have been installed: a Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) station at San Fernando Observatory Headquarter, a Geomagnetic Observatory in Cádiz bay area and some meteorological stations. These networks have been recently improved with the deployment of a new submarine and on-land geophysical observatory in the Alboran island (ALBO Observatory), where a permanent GPS, a meteorological station were installed on land and a permanent submarine observatory in 50 meters depth was also deploy in last October (with a broad band seismic sensor, a 3 C accelerometer and a DPG). This work shows the present status and the future plans of these networks and some results.

An automated extinction and sky brightness monitor for the Indian Astronomical Observatory, Hanle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharma, Tarun Kumar; Parihar, Padmakar; Banyal, R. K.; Dar, Ajaz Ahmad; Kemkar, P. M. M.; Stanzin, Urgain; Anupama, G. C.

2017-09-01

We have developed a simple and portable device that makes precise and automated measurements of night sky extinction. Our instrument uses a commercially available telephoto lens for light collection, which is retrofitted to a custom-built telescope mount, a thermoelectrically cooled CCD for imaging, and a compact enclosure with electronic control to facilitate remote observations. The instrument is also capable of measuring the sky brightness and detecting the presence of thin clouds that otherwise would remain unnoticed. The measurements of sky brightness made by our simple device are more accurate than those made using a large telescope. Another capability of the device is that it can provide an instantaneous measurement of atmospheric extinction, which is extremely useful for exploring the nature of short-term extinction variation. The instrument was designed and developed primarily in order to characterize and investigate thoroughly the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO), Hanle for the establishment of India's future large-telescope project. The device was installed at the IAO, Hanle in 2014 May. In this paper, we present the instrument details and discuss the results of extinction data collected for about 250 nights.

The Full-sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer - Astrometry for the New Millennium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Horner, S. D.; Germain, M. E.; Greene, T. P.; Harris, F. H.; Johnson, M. S.; Johnson, K. J.; Monet, D. G.; Murison, M. A.; Phillips, J. D.; Reasenberg, R. D.; Seidelmann, P. K.; Urban, S. E.; Vassar, R. H.

FAME is designed to perform an all-sky, astrometric survey with unprecedented accuracy. It will create a rigid astrometric catalog of ~40,000,000 stars with visual band magnitudes 5 < V < 15. For bright stars, 5 < V < 9, FAME will determine positions and parallaxes accurate to < 50 microarcseconds, with proper motion errors < 50 microarcseconds/year. For fainter stars, 9 < V < 15, FAME will determine positions and parallaxes accurate to < 300 microarcseconds, with proper motion errors < 300 microarcseconds/year. It will also collect photometric data on these 40,000,000 stars in four Sloan DSS colors. The FAME data will provide a rigid, accurate, optical, astrometric grid. The proper motion data, combined with Hipparcos and other data should be ideal for use by the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) to select its astrometric reference grid stars. FAME will also identify stars with nonlinear proper motions as candidates for further study by SIM, Terrestrial Planet Finder, and future ground based interferometers as possible planetary systems. The fundamental astrometric data provided at relatively low cost by FAME will help optimize the scientific return from these future projects. This is in addition to the considerable direct scientific return from FAME. It will redefine the extragalactic distance scale and provide a large, rich database of information on stellar properties that will enable numerous science investigations into stellar structure and evolution, the dynamics of the Milky Way, and stellar companions including brown dwarfs and giant planets. NASA has selected the Full-sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer (FAME) to be one of five MIDEX missions to be funded for a concept study. This concept study will be submitted to NASA on 18 June, with final selection, scheduled for September, of two of these missions for fli ght in 2003 or 2004. FAME is a joint development e ffort of the U.S. Naval Observatory, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space, the Naval Research Laboratory, and Omitron Incorporated.

Cyberinfrastructure (CI) for Interactive Ocean Observatories: LOOKING Ahead

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orcutt, J.; Abbott, M.; Bellingham, J.; Chave, A.; Delaney, J.; Johnson, R.; Lazowska, E.; Moline, M.; Smarr, L.

2004-12-01

Investments in next-generation facilities to achieve a permanent, interactive telepresence throughout remote or hostile environments can empower a broad spectrum of autonomous sensornet facilities through the NSF Major Research Equipment and Facililties Construction Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). These systems must involve powerful suites of generic cyberinfrastructure tools designed to optimize access and benefits to a large academic and public user base. Many future research and educational efforts focused throughout the ocean basins, especially within heavily populated coastal regions, will be empowered by these new systems. Our project LOOKING (Laboratory for the Ocean Observatory Knowledge Integration Grid) is developing prototype CI for the OOI to achieve these goals. In the case of ocean observatory networks, it is essential to establish powerful network infrastructures linking the wet or subsea portion, with a host of shore station facilities. These components in turn must seamlessly communicate with an ensemble of data repositories, and relevant computer and visualization resources designed to serve a widely diverse ocean science community with real time, broadband access to all observatory system data, products, and metadata. This infrastructure must be secure, reliable, and resilient. It must meet the potentially ambitious latency, bandwidth, and performance requirements demanded by a set of evolving autonomous sensor platforms over a period of decades. This Grid environment must seamlessly interconnect all relevant national and international research and education nets accessible through high speed, next generation communication networks. The primary components of LOOKING are remote services that fulfill the CI needs of the ocean observatory community. These services arise from overarching science and education requirements: 1) Instrument Services operate at the sensor end of an ocean observatory, and are dominantly but not exclusively wet. 2) Infrastructure Services operate within the ocean observatory itself, providing data, time distribution, and power functions to instruments; 3) Data Services interface the ocean observatory to users, whether human beings or modeling programs. In an appropriately designed and functioning system, none can stand alone, nor can they be developed in isolation. These services and associated middleware layers must be designed from the outset to interact seamlessly and transparently.

The Very Large Array Data Processing Pipeline

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kent, Brian R.; Masters, Joseph S.; Chandler, Claire J.; Davis, Lindsey E.; Kern, Jeffrey S.; Ott, Juergen; Schinzel, Frank K.; Medlin, Drew; Muders, Dirk; Williams, Stewart; Geers, Vincent C.; Momjian, Emmanuel; Butler, Bryan J.; Nakazato, Takeshi; Sugimoto, Kanako

2018-01-01

We present the VLA Pipeline, software that is part of the larger pipeline processing framework used for the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), and Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) for both interferometric and single dish observations.Through a collection of base code jointly used by the VLA and ALMA, the pipeline builds a hierarchy of classes to execute individual atomic pipeline tasks within the Common Astronomy Software Applications (CASA) package. Each pipeline task contains heuristics designed by the team to actively decide the best processing path and execution parameters for calibration and imaging. The pipeline code is developed and written in Python and uses a "context" structure for tracking the heuristic decisions and processing results. The pipeline "weblog" acts as the user interface in verifying the quality assurance of each calibration and imaging stage. The majority of VLA scheduling blocks above 1 GHz are now processed with the standard continuum recipe of the pipeline and offer a calibrated measurement set as a basic data product to observatory users. In addition, the pipeline is used for processing data from the VLA Sky Survey (VLASS), a seven year community-driven endeavor started in September 2017 to survey the entire sky down to a declination of -40 degrees at S-band (2-4 GHz). This 5500 hour next-generation large radio survey will explore the time and spectral domains, relying on pipeline processing to generate calibrated measurement sets, polarimetry, and imaging data products that are available to the astronomical community with no proprietary period. Here we present an overview of the pipeline design philosophy, heuristics, and calibration and imaging results produced by the pipeline. Future development will include the testing of spectral line recipes, low signal-to-noise heuristics, and serving as a testing platform for science ready data products.The pipeline is developed as part of the CASA software package by an international consortium of scientists and software developers based at the National Radio Astronomical Observatory (NRAO), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).

New Paradigms for Ensuring the Enduring Viability of the Space Science Enterprise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arenberg, Jonathan; Conti, Alberto

2018-01-01

Pursuing ground breaking science in a highly cost and funding constrained environment presents new challenges to the development of future large space astrophysics missions. Within the conventional cost models for large observatories, executing a flagship “mission after next” appears to be unstainable. To achieve our nation’s space astrophysics ambitions requires new paradigms in system design, development and manufacture. Implementation of this new paradigm requires that the space astrophysics community adopt new answers to a new set of questions. This poster will present our recent results on the origins of these new questions and the steps to their answers.

Science Enabled by Ocean Observatory Acoustics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Howe, B. M.; Lee, C.; Gobat, J.; Freitag, L.; Miller, J. H.; Committee, I.

2004-12-01

Ocean observatories have the potential to examine the physical, chemical, biological, and geological parameters and processes of the ocean at time and space scales previously unexplored. Acoustics provides an efficient and cost-effective means by which these parameters and processes can be measured and information can be communicated. Integrated acoustics systems providing navigation and communications for mobile platforms and conducting acoustical measurements in support of science objectives are critical and essential elements of the ocean observatories presently in the planning and implementation stages. The ORION Workshop (Puerto Rico, 4-8 January 2004) developed science themes that can be addressed utilizing ocean observatory infrastructure. The use of acoustics to sense the 3-d/volumetric ocean environment on all temporal and spatial scales was discussed in many ORION working groups. Science themes that are related to acoustics and measurements using acoustics are reviewed and tabulated, as are the related and sometimes competing requirements for passive listening, acoustic navigation and acoustic communication around observatories. Sound in the sea, brought from observatories to universities and schools via the internet, will also be a major education and outreach mechanism.

Cosmic-ray physics with the milagro gamma-ray observatory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sinnis, Gus

2008-01-01

The Milagro gamma-ray observatory is a water Cherenkov detector with an energy response between 100 GeV and 100 TeV. While the major scientific goals of Milagro were to detect and study cosmic sources of TeV gamma rays, Milagro has made measurements important to furthering our understanding of the cosmic radiation that pervades our Galaxy. Milagro has made the first measurement of the Galactic diffuse emission in the TeV energy band. In the Cygnus Region we measure a flux {approx}2.7 times that predicted by GALPROP. Milagro has also made measurements of the anisotropy of the arrival directions of the local cosmicmore » radiation. On large scales the measurements made by Milagro agree with those previously reported by the Tibet AS{gamma} array. However, we have also discovered a time dependence to this anisotropy, perhaps due to solar modulation. On smaller scales, {approx}10 degrees, we have detected two regions of excess. These excesses have a spectrum that is inconsistent with the local cosmic-ray spectrum.« less

External Long-Duration Materials Instrument Research Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Engelhardt, J. P.; Heath, K.

2018-02-01

The External Long-duration Materials and Instrument Research Observatory (ELMIRO) is a commercial facility that will allow for continuous and repeatable external testing on the Deep Space Gateway of materials, electronics/instruments for future deep space spacecraft.

Instruments, Detectors and the Future of Astronomy with Large Ground Based Telescopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simons, Douglas A.; Amico, Paola; Baade, Dietrich; Barden, Sam; Campbell, Randall; Finger, Gert; Gilmore, Kirk; Gredel, Roland; Hickson, Paul; Howell, Steve; Hubin, Norbert; Kaufer, Andreas; Kohley, Ralf; MacQueen, Philip; Markelov, Sergej; Merrill, Mike; Miyazaki, Satoshi; Nakaya, Hidehiko; O'Donoghue, Darragh; Oliva, Tino; Richichi, Andrea; Salmon, Derrick; Schmidt, Ricardo; Su, Hongjun; Tulloch, Simon; García Vargas, Maria Luisa; Wagner, R. Mark; Wiecha, Olivier; Ye, Binxun

2005-01-01

Results of a survey of instrumentation and detector systems, either currently deployed or planned for use at telescopes larger than 3.5 m, in ground based observatories world-wide, are presented. This survey revealed a number of instrumentation design trends at optical, near, and mid-infrared wavelengths. Some of the most prominent trends include the development of vastly larger optical detector systems (> 109 pixels) than anything built to date, and the frequent use of mosaics of near-infrared detectors - something that was quite rare only a decade ago in astronomy. Some future science applications for detectors are then explored, in an attempt to build a bridge between current detectors and what will be needed to support the research ambitions of astronomers in the future.

The Future of Astronomy and the ALMA Archive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stoehr, F.; Lacy, M.; Leon, S.; Muller, E.; Kawamura, A.

2015-09-01

Astronomy is changing as the amount and complexity of data taken grows. We argue that in the future observatories will compete for astronomers to work with their data, that observatories will have to reorient themselves to from providing good data only to providing an excellent end-to-end user-experience with all its implications, that science-grade data-reduction pipelines will become an integral part of the design of a new observatory or instrument and that all this evolution will have a deep impact on how astronomers will do science. We show how ALMA's general design principles are in line with this paradigm and how the ALMA archive fits into this picture.

Synchrotron Radiation from Outer Space and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weisskopf, M. C.

2006-01-01

The universe provides numerous extremely interesting astrophysical sources of synchrotron X radiation. The Chandra X-ray Observatory and other X-ray missions provide powerful probes of these and other cosmic X-ray sources. Chandra is the X-ray component of NASA's Great Observatory Program which also includes the Hubble Space telescope, the Spitzer Infrared Telescope Facility, and the now defunct Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory provides the best angular resolution (sub-arcsecond) of any previous, current, or planned (for the foreseeable near future) space-based X-ray instrumentation. We present here a brief overview of the technical capability of this X-Ray observatory and some of the remarkable discoveries involving cosmic synchrotron sources.

Survey of decentralized control methods. [for large scale dynamic systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Athans, M.

1975-01-01

An overview is presented of the types of problems that are being considered by control theorists in the area of dynamic large scale systems with emphasis on decentralized control strategies. Approaches that deal directly with decentralized decision making for large scale systems are discussed. It is shown that future advances in decentralized system theory are intimately connected with advances in the stochastic control problem with nonclassical information pattern. The basic assumptions and mathematical tools associated with the latter are summarized, and recommendations concerning future research are presented.

Formation of a White-Light Jet Within a Quadrupolar Magnetic Configuration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filippov, Boris; Koutchmy, Serge; Tavabi, Ehsan

2013-08-01

We analyze multi-wavelength and multi-viewpoint observations of a large-scale event viewed on 7 April 2011, originating from an active-region complex. The activity leads to a white-light jet being formed in the outer corona. The topology and evolution of the coronal structures were imaged in high resolution using the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). In addition, large field-of-view images of the corona were obtained using the Sun Watcher using Active Pixel System detector and Image Processing (SWAP) telescope onboard the PRoject for Onboard Autonomy (PROBA2) microsatellite, providing evidence for the connectivity of the coronal structures with outer coronal features that were imaged with the Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) C2 on the S olar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). The data sets reveal an Eiffel-tower type jet configuration extending into a narrow jet in the outer corona. The event starts from the growth of a dark area in the central part of the structure. The darkening was also observed in projection on the disk by the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory-Ahead (STEREO-A) spacecraft from a different point of view. We assume that the dark volume in the corona descends from a coronal cavity of a flux rope that moved up higher in the corona but still failed to erupt. The quadrupolar magnetic configuration corresponds to a saddle-like shape of the dark volume and provides a possibility for the plasma to escape along the open field lines into the outer corona, forming the white-light jet.

Preservation and maintenance of the astronomical sites in Armenia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mickaelian, A. M.

2008-01-01

Astronomy in Armenia was popular since ancient times. There are signs of astronomical observations coming from a few thousands years ago. Two ancient observatories, Karahunge and Metzamor are especially well known. Karahunge is the Armenian twin of the Stonehenge and is even older. However, there is no proper attention from the state authorities and efforts are needed for preservation of such historical-astronomical monuments. The Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory (BAO) is the modern famous Armenian observatory founded in 1946 by the outstanding scientist Victor Ambartsumian. It was one of the world astronomical centres in 1950-s to 1970-s, and at present is the largest observatory in the Middle East area. As the ancient astronomical sites, Byurakan also needs a proper attitude from the state authorities and corresponding international organizations to preserve its values and importance for the present and future astronomical activities in the region, including its rich observational archive, telescopes, and human resources. Despite all the difficulties, the Armenian astronomers keep high international level of research and display various activities organizing international meetings and schools, preparing new young generation for the future research. The Armenian Astronomical Society (ArAS) is an affiliated member of EAS. Armenia has its Virtual Observatory project (ArVO) as well. The next Joint European and National Astronomy Meeting (JENAM-2007) will be held in Yerevan, Armenia, in August 2007. There are plans to organize astronomical tours to Armenia for making observations from various sites, including the ancient observatories. The future of astronomy in Armenia strongly depends on all of this activities and the proper attention both from state authorities and society.

Virtual Observatory Science Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McGlynn, Tom

2005-01-01

Many Virtual-Observatory-based applications are now available to astronomers for use in their research. These span data discovery, access, visualization and analysis. Tools can quickly gather and organize information from sites around the world to help in planning a response to a gamma-ray burst, help users pick filters to isolate a desired feature, make an average template for z=2 AGN, select sources based upon information in many catalogs, or correlate massive distributed databases. Using VO protocols, the reach of existing software tools and packages can be greatly extended, allowing users to find and access remote information almost as conveniently as local data. The talk highlights just a few of the tools available to scientists, describes how both large and small scale projects can use existing tools, and previews some of the new capabilities that will be available in the next few years.

Important aspects of Eastern Mediterranean large-scale variability revealed from data of three fixed observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bensi, Manuel; Velaoras, Dimitris; Cardin, Vanessa; Perivoliotis, Leonidas; Pethiakis, George

2015-04-01

Long-term variations of temperature and salinity observed in the Adriatic and Aegean Seas seem to be regulated by larger-scale circulation modes of the Eastern Mediterranean (EMed) Sea, such as the recently discovered feedback mechanisms, namely the BiOS (Bimodal Oscillating System) and the internal thermohaline pump theories. These theories are the results of interpretation of many years' observations, highlighting possible interactions between two key regions of the EMed. Although repeated oceanographic cruises carried out in the past or planned for the future are a very useful tool for understanding the interaction between the two basins (e.g. alternating dense water formation, salt ingressions), recent long time-series of high frequency (up to 1h) sampling have added valuable information to the interpretation of internal mechanisms for both areas (i.e. mesoscale eddies, evolution of fast internal processes, etc.). During the last 10 years, three deep observatories were deployed and maintained in the Adriatic, Ionian, and Aegean Seas: they are respectively, the E2-M3A, the Pylos, and the E1-M3A. All are part of the largest European network of Fixed Point Open Ocean Observatories (FixO3, http://www.fixo3.eu/). Herein, from the analysis of temperature and salinity, and potential density time series collected at the three sites from the surface down to the intermediate and deep layers, we will discuss the almost perfect anti-correlated behavior between the Adriatic and the Aegean Seas. Our data, collected almost continuously since 2006, reveal that these observatories well represent the thermohaline variability of their own areas. Interestingly, temperature and salinity in the intermediate layer suddenly increased in the South Adriatic from the end of 2011, exactly when they started decreasing in the Aegean Sea. Moreover, Pylos data used together with additional ones (e.g. Absolute dynamic topography, temperature and salinity data from other platforms) collected along the typical pathway of the Levantine/Cretan intermediate waters towards the Adriatic Sea, reveal variability of the subsurface/intermediate layers (100-400m depth), which could possibly be attributed to seasonal variability or influences from dynamical features such as the Pelops Gyre. References Bensi, M., V. Cardin, A. Rubino, G. Notarstefano, and P. M. Poulain (2013), Effects of winter convection on the deep layer of the Southern Adriatic Sea in 2012, J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 118, doi:10.1002/2013JC009432. Velaoras, D., G. Krokos, K. Nittis, and A. Theocharis (2014), Dense intermediate water outflow from the Cretan Sea: A salinity driven, recurrent phenomenon, connected to thermohaline circulation changes, J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 119, doi:10.1002/2014JC009937.

Archive interoperability in the Virtual Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Genova, Françoise

2003-02-01

Main goals of Virtual Observatory projects are to build interoperability between astronomical on-line services, observatory archives, databases and results published in journals, and to develop tools permitting the best scientific usage from the very large data sets stored in observatory archives and produced by large surveys. The different Virtual Observatory projects collaborate to define common exchange standards, which are the key for a truly International Virtual Observatory: for instance their first common milestone has been a standard allowing exchange of tabular data, called VOTable. The Interoperability Work Area of the European Astrophysical Virtual Observatory project aims at networking European archives, by building a prototype using the CDS VizieR and Aladin tools, and at defining basic rules to help archive providers in interoperability implementation. The prototype is accessible for scientific usage, to get user feedback (and science results!) at an early stage of the project. ISO archive participates very actively to this endeavour, and more generally to information networking. The on-going inclusion of the ISO log in SIMBAD will allow higher level links for users.

Steam explosions, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions -- what's in Yellowstone's future?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lowenstern, Jacob B.; Christiansen, Robert L.; Smith, Robert B.; Morgan, Lisa A.; Heasler, Henry

2005-01-01

Yellowstone, one of the world?s largest active volcanic systems, has produced several giant volcanic eruptions in the past few million years, as well as many smaller eruptions and steam explosions. Although no eruptions of lava or volcanic ash have occurred for many thousands of years, future eruptions are likely. In the next few hundred years, hazards will most probably be limited to ongoing geyser and hot-spring activity, occasional steam explosions, and moderate to large earthquakes. To better understand Yellowstone?s volcano and earthquake hazards and to help protect the public, the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Utah, and Yellowstone National Park formed the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, which continuously monitors activity in the region.

Pushing the Boundaries of X-ray Grating Spectroscopy in a Suborbital Rocket

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McEntaffer, Randall L.; DeRoo, Casey; Schultz, Ted; Zhang, William W.; Murray, Neil J.; O'Dell, Stephen; Cash, Webster

2013-01-01

Developments in grating spectroscopy are paramount for meeting the soft X-ray science goals of future NASA X-ray Observatories. While developments in the laboratory setting have verified the technical feasibility of using off-plane reflection gratings to reach this goal, flight heritage is a key step in the development process toward large missions. To this end we have developed a design for a suborbital rocket payload employing an Off-Plane X-ray Grating Spectrometer. This spectrometer utilizes slumped glass Wolter-1 optics, an array of gratings, and a CCD camera. We discuss the unique capabilities of this design, the expected performance, the science return, and the perceived impact to future missions.

Visible and Ultraviolet Detectors for High Earth Orbit and Lunar Observatories

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Woodgate, Bruce E.

1989-01-01

The current status of detectors for the visible and UV for future large observatories in earth orbit and the moon is briefly reviewed. For the visible, CCDs have the highest quantum efficiency, but are subject to contamination of the data by cosmic ray hits. For the moon, the level of hits can be brought down to that at the earth's surface by shielding below about 20 meters of rock. For high earth orbits above the geomagnetic shield, CCDs might be able to be used by combining many short exposures and vetoing the cosmic ray hits, otherwise photoemissive detectors will be necessary. For the UV, photoemissive detectors will be necessary to reject the visible; to use CCDs would require the development of UV-efficient filters which reject the visible by many orders of magnitude. Development of higher count rate capability would be desirable for photoemissive detectors.

Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becklin, E. E.; Gehrz, R. D.

2009-08-01

The joint U.S. and German SOFIA project to develop and operate a 2.5-meter infrared airborne telescope in a Boeing 747-SP is in its final stages of development. Flying in the stratosphere, SOFIA allows observations throughout the infrared and submillimeter region, with an average transmission of greater than 80%. SOFIA's first generation instrument complement includes high-speed photometers, broadband imagers, moderate resolution spectrographs capable of resolving broad features due to dust and large molecules, and high resolution spectrometers suitable for kinematic studies of molecular and atomic gas lines at km/s resolution. These instruments will enable SOFIA to make unique contributions to a broad array of science topics. First science flights will begin in 2010, and the observatory is expected to operate for more than 20 years. The sensitivity, characteristics, science instrument complement, future instrument opportunities and examples of first light science will be discussed.

Inventing a Space Mission: The Story of the Herschel Space Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Minier, Vincent; Bonnet, Roger-Maurice; Bontems, Vincent; de Graauw, Thijs; Griffin, Matt; Helmich, Frank; Pilbratt, Göran; Volonte, Sergio

This book describes prominent technological achievements within a very successful space science mission: the Herschel space observatory. Focusing on the various processes of innovation it offers an analysis and discussion of the social, technological and scientific context of the mission that paved the way to its development. It addresses the key question raised by these processes in our modern society, i.e.: how knowledge management of innovation set the conditions for inventing the future? In that respect the book is based on a transdisciplinary analysis of the programmatic complexity of Herschel, with inputs from space scientists, managers, philosophers, and engineers. This book is addressed to decision makers, not only in space science, but also in other industries and sciences using or building large machines. It is also addressed to space engineers and scientists as well as students in science and management.

Cascadia Gas Vent Distribution and Challenges to Quantify Margin-Wide Methane Fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scherwath, M.; Riedel, M.; Roemer, M.; Veloso, M.; Heesemann, M.; Spence, G.

2017-12-01

Gas venting along the Cascadia Margin has been mapped over decades with ship sonar and in recent years with permanent seafloor installations utilizing the seafloor observatories NEPTUNE of Ocean Networks Canada and the Cabled Array of the Ocean Observatories Initiative. We show the distribution of over 1000 vents, most on the shallow shelf. For a third of the vents we have estimated methane flow rates, ranging from 0.05 to 69 L/min, and extrapolate these results to a margin-wide methane flow estaimate of around 4 Mt/yr (at surface pressure and temperature) and a flux estimate of 0.05 kg yr-1 m-2. However, these estimates are based on several assumptions, e.g. bubble sizes or data coverage, providing large uncertainties. With continued research expeditions and potential seafloor calibration experiments, these data can be refined and improved in future years.

Astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics with compact binary coalescence and the Einstein Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van Den Broeck, C.

2014-03-01

The second-generation interferometric gravitational wave detectors, currently under construction are expected to make their first detections within this decade. This will firmly establish gravitational wave physics as an empirical science, and will open up a new era in astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics. Already with the first detections, we will be able to, among other things, establish the nature of short-hard gamma ray bursts, definitively confirm the existence of black holes, measure the Hubble constant in a completely independent way, and for the first time gain access to the genuinely strong-field dynamics of gravity. Hence, it is time to consider the longer-term future of this new field. The Einstein Telescope (ET) is a concrete conceptual proposal for a third-generation gravitational wave observatory, which will be ~ 10 times more sensitive in strain than the second-generation detectors. This will give access to sources at cosmological distances, with a correspondingly higher detection rate. We have given an overview of the science case for ET, with a focus on what can be learned from signals emitted by coalescing compact binaries. Third-generation observatories will allow us to map the coalescence rate out to redshifts z ~ 3, determine the mass functions of neutron stars and black holes, and perform precision measurements of the neutron star equation of state. ET will enable us to study the large-scale structure and evolution of the Universe without recourse to a cosmic distance ladder. Finally, we have discussed how it will allow for high-precision measurements of strong-field, dynamical gravity.

Future Directions for Astronomical Image Display

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mandel, Eric

2000-01-01

In the "Future Directions for Astronomical Image Displav" project, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) and the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO) evolved our existing image display program into fully extensible. cross-platform image display software. We also devised messaging software to support integration of image display into astronomical analysis systems. Finally, we migrated our software from reliance on Unix and the X Window System to a platform-independent architecture that utilizes the cross-platform Tcl/Tk technology.

Processing of DMSP magnetic data and its use in geomagnetic field modeling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ridgway, J. R.; Sabaka, T. J.; Chinn, D.; Langel, R. A.

1989-01-01

The DMSP F-7 satellite is an operational Air Force meteorological satellite which carried a magnetometer for geophysical measurements. The magnetometer was located within the body of the spacecraft in the presence of large spacecraft fields. In addition to stray magnetic fields, the data have inherent position and time inaccuracies. Algorithms were developed to identify and remove time varying magnetic field noise from the data. Techniques developed for Magsat were then modified and used to attempt determination of the spacecraft fields, of any rotation between the magnetometer axes and the spacecraft axes, and of any scale changes within the magnetometer itself. The corrected data were then used to attempt to model the geomagnetic field. This was done in combination with data from Magsat, from the standard magnetic observatories, from aeromagnetic and other survey data, and from DE-2 spacecraft field data. Future DMSP missions can be upgraded in terms of geomagnetic measurements by upgrading the time and position information furnished with the data, placing the magnetometer at the end of the boom, upgrading the attitude determination at the magnetometer, and increasing the accuracy of the magnetometer.

Research in Lattice Gauge Theory and in the Phenomenology of Neutrinos and Dark Matter

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Meurice, Yannick L; Reno, Mary Hall

Research in theoretical elementary particle physics was performed by the PI Yannick Meurice and co-PI Mary Hall Reno. New techniques designed for precision calculations of strong interaction physics were developed using the tensor renormalization group method. Large-scale Monte Carlo simulations with dynamical quarks were performed for candidate models for Higgs compositeness. Ab-initio lattice gauge theory calculations of semileptonic decays of B-mesons observed in collider experiments and relevant to test the validity of the standard model were performed with the Fermilab/MILC collaboration. The phenomenology of strong interaction physics was applied to new predictions for physics processes in accelerator physics experiments andmore » to cosmic ray production and interactions. A research focus has been on heavy quark production and their decays to neutrinos. The heavy quark contributions to atmospheric neutrino and muon fluxes have been evaluated, as have the neutrino fluxes from accelerator beams incident on heavy targets. Results are applicable to current and future particle physics experiments and to astrophysical neutrino detectors such as the IceCube Neutrino Observatory.« less

OBSERVATION OF MAGNETIC RECONNECTION DRIVEN BY GRANULAR SCALE ADVECTION

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zeng Zhicheng; Cao Wenda; Ji Haisheng

2013-06-01

We report the first evidence of magnetic reconnection driven by advection in a rapidly developing large granule using high spatial resolution observations of a small surge event (base size {approx} 4'' Multiplication-Sign 4'') with the 1.6 m aperture New Solar Telescope at the Big Bear Solar Observatory. The observations were carried out in narrowband (0.5 A) He I 10830 A and broadband (10 A) TiO 7057 A. Since He I 10830 A triplet has a very high excitation level and is optically thin, its filtergrams enable us to investigate the surge from the photosphere through the chromosphere into the lowermore » corona. Simultaneous space data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly and Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory were used in the analysis. It is shown that the surge is spatio-temporally associated with magnetic flux emergence in the rapidly developing large granule. During the development of the granule, its advecting flow ({approx}2 km s{sup -1}) squeezed the magnetic flux into an intergranular lane area, where a magnetic flux concentration was formed and the neighboring flux with opposite magnetic polarity was canceled. During the cancellation, the surge was produced as absorption in He I 10830 A filtergrams while simultaneous EUV brightening occurred at its base. The observations clearly indicate evidence of a finest-scale reconnection process driven by the granule's motion.« less

NEON: the first continental-scale ecological observatory with airborne remote sensing of vegetation canopy biochemistry and structure

Treesearch

Thomas U. Kampe; Brian R. Johnson; Michele Kuester; Michael Keller

2010-01-01

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is an ecological observation platform for discovering, understanding and forecasting the impacts of climate change, land use change, and invasive species on continental-scale ecology. NEON will operate for 30 years and gather long-term data on ecological response changes and on feedbacks with the geosphere, hydrosphere...

Multi-resolution anisotropy studies of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aab, A.; Abreu, P.; Andringa, S.

2017-06-01

We report a multi-resolution search for anisotropies in the arrival directions of cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory with local zenith angles up to 80{sup o} and energies in excess of 4 EeV (4 × 10{sup 18} eV). This search is conducted by measuring the angular power spectrum and performing a needlet wavelet analysis in two independent energy ranges. Both analyses are complementary since the angular power spectrum achieves a better performance in identifying large-scale patterns while the needlet wavelet analysis, considering the parameters used in this work, presents a higher efficiency in detecting smaller-scale anisotropies, potentially providingmore » directional information on any observed anisotropies. No deviation from isotropy is observed on any angular scale in the energy range between 4 and 8 EeV. Above 8 EeV, an indication for a dipole moment is captured; while no other deviation from isotropy is observed for moments beyond the dipole one. The corresponding p -values obtained after accounting for searches blindly performed at several angular scales, are 1.3 × 10{sup −5} in the case of the angular power spectrum, and 2.5 × 10{sup −3} in the case of the needlet analysis. While these results are consistent with previous reports making use of the same data set, they provide extensions of the previous works through the thorough scans of the angular scales.« less

Multi-resolution anisotropy studies of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aab, A.; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.

We report a multi-resolution search for anisotropies in the arrival directions of cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory with local zenith angles up to 80(o) and energies in excess of 4 EeV (4 × 10 18 eV). This search is conducted by measuring the angular power spectrum and performing a needlet wavelet analysis in two independent energy ranges. Both analyses are complementary since the angular power spectrum achieves a better performance in identifying large-scale patterns while the needlet wavelet analysis, considering the parameters used in this work, presents a higher efficiency in detecting smaller-scale anisotropies, potentially providing directional information onmore » any observed anisotropies. No deviation from isotropy is observed on any angular scale in the energy range between 4 and 8 EeV. Above 8 EeV, an indication for a dipole moment is captured, while no other deviation from isotropy is observed for moments beyond the dipole one. The corresponding p-values obtained after accounting for searches blindly performed at several angular scales, are 1.3 × 10 -5 in the case of the angular power spectrum, and 2.5 × 10 -3 in the case of the needlet analysis. While these results are consistent with previous reports making use of the same data set, they provide extensions of the previous works through the thorough scans of the angular scales.« less

Feedback and Feeding in the Context of Galaxy Evolution with SPICA: Direct Characterisation of Molecular Outflows and Inflows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

González-Alfonso, E.; Armus, L.; Carrera, F. J.; Charmandaris, V.; Efstathiou, A.; Egami, E.; Fernández-Ontiveros, J. A.; Fischer, J.; Granato, G. L.; Gruppioni, C.; Hatziminaoglou, E.; Imanishi, M.; Isobe, N.; Kaneda, H.; Koziel-Wierzbowska, D.; Malkan, M. A.; Martín-Pintado, J.; Mateos, S.; Matsuhara, H.; Miniutti, G.; Nakagawa, T.; Pozzi, F.; Rico-Villas, F.; Rodighiero, G.; Roelfsema, P.; Spinoglio, L.; Spoon, H. W. W.; Sturm, E.; van der Tak, F.; Vignali, C.; Wang, L.

2017-11-01

A far-infrared observatory such as the SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics, with its unprecedented spectroscopic sensitivity, would unveil the role of feedback in galaxy evolution during the last 10 Gyr of the Universe (z = 1.5-2), through the use of far- and mid-infrared molecular and ionic fine structure lines that trace outflowing and infalling gas. Outflowing gas is identified in the far-infrared through P-Cygni line shapes and absorption blueshifted wings in molecular lines with high dipolar moments, and through emission line wings of fine-structure lines of ionised gas. We quantify the detectability of galaxy-scale massive molecular and ionised outflows as a function of redshift in AGN-dominated, starburst-dominated, and main-sequence galaxies, explore the detectability of metal-rich inflows in the local Universe, and describe the most significant synergies with other current and future observatories that will measure feedback in galaxies via complementary tracers at other wavelengths.

Ultralow-Background Large-Format Bolometer Arrays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Benford, Dominic; Chervenak, Jay; Irwin, Kent; Moseley, S. Harvey; Oegerle, William (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

In the coming decade, work will commence in earnest on large cryogenic far-infrared telescopes and interferometers. All such observatories - for example, SAFIR, SPIRIT, and SPECS - require large format, two dimensional arrays of close-packed detectors capable of reaching the fundamental limits imposed by the very low photon backgrounds present in deep space. In the near term, bolometer array architectures which permit 1000 pixels - perhaps sufficient for the next generation of space-based instruments - can be arrayed efficiently. Demonstrating the necessary performance, with Noise Equivalent Powers (NEPs) of order 10-20 W/square root of Hz, will be a hurdle in the coming years. Superconducting bolometer arrays are a promising technology for providing both the performance and the array size necessary. We discuss the requirements for future detector arrays in the far-infrared and submillimeter, describe the parameters of superconducting bolometer arrays able to meet these requirements, and detail the present and near future technology of superconducting bolometer arrays. Of particular note is the coming development of large format planar arrays with absorber-coupled and antenna-coupled bolometers.

The Cincinnati Observatory as a Research Instrument for Undergraduate Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abel, Nicholas; Regas, Dean; Flateau, Davin C.; Larrabee, Cliff

2016-06-01

The Cincinnati Observatory, founded in 1842, was the first public observatory in the Western Hemisphere. The history of Cincinnati is closely intertwined with the history of the Observatory, and with the history of science in the United States. Previous directors of the Observatory helped to create the National Weather Service, the Minor Planet Center, and the first astronomical journal in the U.S. The Cincinnati Observatory was internationally known in the late 19th century, with Jules Verne mentioning the Cincinnati Observatory in two of his books, and the Observatory now stands as a National Historic Landmark.No longer a research instrument, the Observatory is now a tool for promoting astronomy education to the general public. However, with the 11" and 16" refracting telescopes, the Observatory telescopes are very capable of collecting data to fuel undergraduate research projects. In this poster, we will discuss the history of the Observatory, types of student research projects capable with the Cincinnati Observatory, future plans, and preliminary results. The overall goal of this project is to produce a steady supply of undergraduate students collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data, and thereby introduce them to the techniques and methodology of an astronomer at an early stage of their academic career.

AGN Science with AGIS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coppi, Paolo

2009-05-01

AGIS, a proposed future gamma-ray telescope consisting of a square km array of 50 atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, will provide a powerful new view of the high energy universe. The combination of its increased sensitivity (a factor 10 over current observatories), increased survey capabilities, and a low energy threshold (<30 GeV) that allows observations at energies not subject to absorption on extragalactic background light will result in a dramatic increase in the number of AGN accessible at high energies. The overall number of ``TeV blazar" AGN, those detected by current ground-based observatories, should increase by a factor 30 or more with a corresponding increase in the number of these that can be monitored at high statistical significance to test emission models rigorously. More excitingly, AGIS may also begin to pick up entirely new classes of AGN such as radio galaxies with X-ray emitting hotspots at large distances from the central engine, providing further insight into the outflows from AGN. The low AGIS threshold energy will also allow significant source overlap with objects detected by the recently launched Fermi gamma-ray space observatory at lower, GeV energies. AGIS will significantly improve on the localization and variability monitoring of the Fermi sources it sees.

ScienceCast 151: NASA to Launch Carbon Observatory

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-06-24

NASA is about to launch a satellite dedicated to the study of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) will quantify global CO2 sources and sinks, and help researchers predict the future of climate change.

Large-N correlator systems for low frequency radio astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foster, Griffin

Low frequency radio astronomy has entered a second golden age driven by the development of a new class of large-N interferometric arrays. The low frequency array (LOFAR) and a number of redshifted HI Epoch of Reionization (EoR) arrays are currently undergoing commission and regularly observing. Future arrays of unprecedented sensitivity and resolutions at low frequencies, such as the square kilometer array (SKA) and the hydrogen epoch of reionization array (HERA), are in development. The combination of advancements in specialized field programmable gate array (FPGA) hardware for signal processing, computing and graphics processing unit (GPU) resources, and new imaging and calibration algorithms has opened up the oft underused radio band below 300 MHz. These interferometric arrays require efficient implementation of digital signal processing (DSP) hardware to compute the baseline correlations. FPGA technology provides an optimal platform to develop new correlators. The significant growth in data rates from these systems requires automated software to reduce the correlations in real time before storing the data products to disk. Low frequency, widefield observations introduce a number of unique calibration and imaging challenges. The efficient implementation of FX correlators using FPGA hardware is presented. Two correlators have been developed, one for the 32 element BEST-2 array at Medicina Observatory and the other for the 96 element LOFAR station at Chilbolton Observatory. In addition, calibration and imaging software has been developed for each system which makes use of the radio interferometry measurement equation (RIME) to derive calibrations. A process for generating sky maps from widefield LOFAR station observations is presented. Shapelets, a method of modelling extended structures such as resolved sources and beam patterns has been adapted for radio astronomy use to further improve system calibration. Scaling of computing technology allows for the development of larger correlator systems, which in turn allows for improvements in sensitivity and resolution. This requires new calibration techniques which account for a broad range of systematic effects.

Studies of the cosmic ray spectrum and large scale anisotropies with the KASCADE-Grande experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiavassa, A.; Apel, W. D.; Arteaga-Velázquez, J. C.; Bekk, K.; Bertaina, M.; Blümer, J.; Bozdog, H.; Brancus, I. M.; Cantoni, E.; Cossavella, F.; Curcio, C.; Daumiller, K.; de Souza, V.; Di Pierro, F.; Doll, P.; Engel, R.; Engler, J.; Fuchs, B.; Fuhrmann, D.; Gils, H. J.; Glasstetter, R.; Grupen, C.; Haungs, A.; Heck, D.; Hörandel, J. R.; Huber, D.; Huege, T.; Kampert, K.-H.; Kang, D.; Klages, H. O.; Link, K.; Łuczak, P.; Ludwig, M.; Mathes, H. J.; Mayer, H. J.; Melissas, M.; Milke, J.; Mitrica, B.; Morello, C.; Oehlschläger, J.; Ostapchenko, S.; Palmieri, N.; Petcu, M.; Pierog, T.; Rebel, H.; Roth, M.; Schieler, H.; Schoo, S.; Schröder, F. G.; Sima, O.; Toma, G.; Trinchero, G. C.; Ulrich, H.; Weindl, A.; Wochele, J.; Zabierowski, J.

2014-08-01

KASCADE-Grande is an air shower observatory devoted to the detection of cosmic rays in the 1016 - 1018eV energy range. For each event the arrival direction, the total number of charged particles (Nch) and the total number of muons (Nμ), at detection level (i.e. 110 m a.s.l.), are measured. The detection of these observarbles, with high accuracy, allows the study of the primary spectrum, chemical composition and large scale anisotropies, that are the relevant informations to investigate the astrophysics of cosmic rays in this energy range. These studies are of main importance to deeply investigate the change of slope of the primary spectrum detected at ~ 4 × 1015 eV, also known as the knee, and to search for the transition from galactic to extra-galactic cosmic rays.

Inferring field-scale properties of a fractured aquifer from ground surface deformation during a well test

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schuite, Jonathan; Longuevergne, Laurent; Bour, Olivier; Boudin, Frédérick; Durand, Stéphane; Lavenant, Nicolas

2015-12-01

Fractured aquifers which bear valuable water resources are often difficult to characterize with classical hydrogeological tools due to their intrinsic heterogeneities. Here we implement ground surface deformation tools (tiltmetry and optical leveling) to monitor groundwater pressure changes induced by a classical hydraulic test at the Ploemeur observatory. By jointly analyzing complementary time constraining data (tilt) and spatially constraining data (vertical displacement), our results strongly suggest that the use of these surface deformation observations allows for estimating storativity and structural properties (dip, root depth, and lateral extension) of a large hydraulically active fracture, in good agreement with previous studies. Hence, we demonstrate that ground surface deformation is a useful addition to traditional hydrogeological techniques and opens possibilities for characterizing important large-scale properties of fractured aquifers with short-term well tests as a controlled forcing.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory, Studying the Sun and Its Influence on Other Bodies in the Solar System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chamberlin, P. C.

2011-01-01

The solar photon output, which was once thought to be constant, varies over all time scales from seconds during solar flares to years due to the solar cycle. These solar variations cause significant deviations in the Earth and space environments on similar time scales, such as affecting the atmospheric densities and composition of particular atoms, molecules, and ions in the atmospheres of the Earth and other planets. Presented and discussed will be examples of unprecedented observations from NASA's new solar observatory, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Using three specialized instruments, SDO measures the origins of solar activity from inside the Sun, though its atmosphere, then accurately measuring the Sun's radiative output in X-ray and EUV wavelengths (0.1-121 nm). Along with the visually appealing observations will be discussions of what these measurements can tell us about how the plasma motions in all layers of the Sun modifies and strengthens the weak solar dipole magnetic field to drive large energy releases in solar eruptions. Also presented will be examples of how the release of the Sun's energy, in the form of photons and high energy particles, physically influence other bodies in the solar system such as Earth, Mars, and the Moon, and how these changes drive changes in the technology that we are becoming dependent upon. The presentation will continuously emphasize how SDO, the first satellite in NASA's Living with a Star program, improving our understanding of the variable Sun and its Heliospheric influence.

Infrared Astronomy and Education: Linking Infrared Whole Sky Mapping with Teacher and Student Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borders, Kareen; Mendez, Bryan; Thaller, Michelle; Gorjian, Varoujan; Borders, Kyla; Pitman, Peter; Pereira, Vincent; Sepulveda, Babs; Stark, Ron; Knisely, Cindy; Dandrea, Amy; Winglee, Robert; Plecki, Marge; Goebel, Jeri; Condit, Matt; Kelly, Susan

The Spitzer Space Telescope and the recently launched WISE (Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer) observe the sky in infrared light. Among the objects WISE will study are asteroids, the coolest and dimmest stars, and the most luminous galaxies. Secondary students can do authentic research using infrared data. For example, students will use WISE data to mea-sure physical properties of asteroids. In order to prepare students and teachers at this level with a high level of rigor and scientific understanding, the WISE and the Spitzer Space Tele-scope Education programs provided an immersive teacher professional development workshop in infrared astronomy.The lessons learned from the Spitzer and WISE teacher and student pro-grams can be applied to other programs engaging them in authentic research experiences using data from space-borne observatories such as Herschel and Planck. Recently, WISE Educator Ambassadors and NASA Explorer School teachers developed and led an infrared astronomy workshop at Arecibo Observatory in PuertoRico. As many common misconceptions involve scale and distance, teachers worked with Moon/Earth scale, solar system scale, and distance and age of objects in the Universe. Teachers built and used basic telescopes, learned about the history of telescopes, explored ground and satellite based telescopes, and explored and worked on models of WISE Telescope. An in-depth explanation of WISE and the Spitzer telescopes gave participants background knowledge for infrared astronomy observations. We taught the electromagnetic spectrum through interactive stations. We will outline specific steps for sec-ondary astronomy professional development, detail student involvement in infrared telescope data analysis, provide data demonstrating the impact of the above professional development on educator understanding and classroom use, and detail future plans for additional secondary professional development and student involvement in infrared astronomy. Funding was provided by NASA, WISE Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Starbucks, and Washington Space Grant Consortium.

How Did Climate and Humans Respond to Past Volcanic Eruptions?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Toohey, Matthew; Ludlow, Francis; Legrande, Allegra N.

2016-01-01

To predict and prepare for future climate change, scientists are striving to understand how global-scale climatic change manifests itself on regional scales and also how societies adapt or don't to sometimes subtle and complex climatic changes. In this regard, the strongest volcanic eruptions of the past are powerful test cases, showcasing how the broad climate system responds to sudden changes in radiative forcing and how societies have responded to the resulting climatic shocks. These issues were at the heart of the inaugural workshop of the Volcanic Impacts on Climate and Society (VICS) Working Group, convened in June 2016 at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Palisades, N.Y. The 3-day meeting gathered approximately 50 researchers, who presented work intertwining the history of volcanic eruptions and the physical processes that connect eruptions with human and natural systems on a global scale.

Astronomical Research at the U.S. Air Force Academy Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Della-Rose, Devin J.; Carlson, Randall E.; Chun, Francis K.; Giblin, Timothy W.; Novotny, Steven J.; Polsgrove, Daniel E.

2018-01-01

The U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) Observatory houses 61-cm and 41-cm Ritchey-Chrétien (RC) reflecting telescopes, and serves as the hub for a world-wide network of 50-cm RC reflectors known as the Falcon Telescope Network (FTN). Since the 1970s, the USAFA Observatory has hosted a wide range of student and faculty research projects including variable star photometry, exoplanet light curve and radial velocity studies, near-Earth object astrometry, and “lucky imaging” of manmade spacecraft. Further, the FTN has been used extensively for LEO through GEO satellite photometry and spectroscopy, and for exoplanet photometry. Future capabilities of our observatory complex include fielding several new FTN observatory sites and the acquisition of a 1-meter RC fast-tracking telescope at the USAFA Observatory.

Observatories, think tanks, and community models in the hydrologic and environmental sciences: How does it affect me?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torgersen, Thomas

2006-06-01

Multiple issues in hydrologic and environmental sciences are now squarely in the public focus and require both government and scientific study. Two facts also emerge: (1) The new approach being touted publicly for advancing the hydrologic and environmental sciences is the establishment of community-operated "big science" (observatories, think tanks, community models, and data repositories). (2) There have been important changes in the business of science over the last 20 years that make it important for the hydrologic and environmental sciences to demonstrate the "value" of public investment in hydrological and environmental science. Given that community-operated big science (observatories, think tanks, community models, and data repositories) could become operational, I argue that such big science should not mean a reduction in the importance of single-investigator science. Rather, specific linkages between the large-scale, team-built, community-operated big science and the single investigator should provide context data, observatory data, and systems models for a continuing stream of hypotheses by discipline-based, specialized research and a strong rationale for continued, single-PI ("discovery-based") research. I also argue that big science can be managed to provide a better means of demonstrating the value of public investment in the hydrologic and environmental sciences. Decisions regarding policy will still be political, but big science could provide an integration of the best scientific understanding as a guide for the best policy.

Ionospheric current source modeling and global geomagnetic induction using ground geomagnetic observatory data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sun, Jin; Kelbert, Anna; Egbert, G.D.

2015-01-01

Long-period global-scale electromagnetic induction studies of deep Earth conductivity are based almost exclusively on magnetovariational methods and require accurate models of external source spatial structure. We describe approaches to inverting for both the external sources and three-dimensional (3-D) conductivity variations and apply these methods to long-period (T≥1.2 days) geomagnetic observatory data. Our scheme involves three steps: (1) Observatory data from 60 years (only partly overlapping and with many large gaps) are reduced and merged into dominant spatial modes using a scheme based on frequency domain principal components. (2) Resulting modes are inverted for corresponding external source spatial structure, using a simplified conductivity model with radial variations overlain by a two-dimensional thin sheet. The source inversion is regularized using a physically based source covariance, generated through superposition of correlated tilted zonal (quasi-dipole) current loops, representing ionospheric source complexity smoothed by Earth rotation. Free parameters in the source covariance model are tuned by a leave-one-out cross-validation scheme. (3) The estimated data modes are inverted for 3-D Earth conductivity, assuming the source excitation estimated in step 2. Together, these developments constitute key components in a practical scheme for simultaneous inversion of the catalogue of historical and modern observatory data for external source spatial structure and 3-D Earth conductivity.

The relationship of the large-scale solar field to the interplanetary magnetic field - What will Ulysses find?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hoeksema, J. T.

1986-01-01

Using photospheric magnetic field observations obtained at the Stanford Wilcox Solar Observatory, results from a potential field model for the present solar cycle are given, and qualitative predictions of the IMF that Ulysses may encounter are presented. Results indicate that the IMF consists of large regions of opposite polarity separated by a neutral sheet (NS) (extended to at least 50 deg) and a four-sector structure near solar minimum (produced by small quadripolar NS warps). The latitudinal extent of the NS increases following minimum and the structure near maximum includes multiple NSs, while a simplified IMF is found during the declining phase.

Optical scattering lengths in large liquid-scintillator neutrino detectors.

PubMed

Wurm, M; von Feilitzsch, F; Göger-Neff, M; Hofmann, M; Lachenmaier, T; Lewke, T; Marrodán Undagoitia, T; Meindl, Q; Möllenberg, R; Oberauer, L; Potzel, W; Tippmann, M; Todor, S; Traunsteiner, C; Winter, J

2010-05-01

For liquid-scintillator neutrino detectors of kiloton scale, the transparency of the organic solvent is of central importance. The present paper reports on laboratory measurements of the optical scattering lengths of the organic solvents phenylxylylethane, linear alkylbenzene (LAB), and dodecane, which are under discussion for next-generation experiments such as SNO+ (Sudbury Neutrino Observatory), HanoHano, or LENA (Low Energy Neutrino Astronomy). Results comprise the wavelength range of 415-440 nm. The contributions from Rayleigh and Mie scattering as well as from absorption/re-emission processes are discussed. Based on the present results, LAB seems to be the preferred solvent for a large-volume detector.

Optical scattering lengths in large liquid-scintillator neutrino detectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wurm, M.; von Feilitzsch, F.; Göger-Neff, M.; Hofmann, M.; Lachenmaier, T.; Lewke, T.; Undagoitia, T. Marrodán; Meindl, Q.; Möllenberg, R.; Oberauer, L.; Potzel, W.; Tippmann, M.; Todor, S.; Traunsteiner, C.; Winter, J.

2010-05-01

For liquid-scintillator neutrino detectors of kiloton scale, the transparency of the organic solvent is of central importance. The present paper reports on laboratory measurements of the optical scattering lengths of the organic solvents phenylxylylethane, linear alkylbenzene (LAB), and dodecane, which are under discussion for next-generation experiments such as SNO+ (Sudbury Neutrino Observatory), HanoHano, or LENA (Low Energy Neutrino Astronomy). Results comprise the wavelength range of 415-440 nm. The contributions from Rayleigh and Mie scattering as well as from absorption/re-emission processes are discussed. Based on the present results, LAB seems to be the preferred solvent for a large-volume detector.

Ten Years of Chandra

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weisskopf, Martin C.

2009-01-01

We celebrated the 10-th anniversary of the Launch of the Chandra X-ray Observatory on July 13, 2009. During these 10 years data from this Great Observatory have had a profound impact on 21st century astrophysics. With its unrivaled capability to produce sub-arcsecond images, the Observatory has enabled astronomers to make new discoveries in topics as diverse as comets and cosmology. We shall review some of the highlights, discuss the current status, and future plans.

Ground System for Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tann, Hun K.; Silva, Christopher J.; Pages, Raymond J.

2005-01-01

NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has recently completed its Critical Design Review (CDR) of a new dual Ka and S-band ground system for the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Mission. SDO, the flagship mission under the new Living with a Star Program Office, is one of GSFC s most recent large-scale in-house missions. The observatory is scheduled for launch in August 2008 from the Kennedy Space Center aboard an Atlas-5 expendable launch vehicle. Unique to this mission is an extremely challenging science data capture requirement. The mission is required to capture 99.99% of available science over 95% of all observation opportunities. Due to the continuous, high volume (150 Mbps) science data rate, no on-board storage of science data will be implemented on this mission. With the observatory placed in a geo-synchronous orbit at 36,000 kilometers within view of dedicated ground stations, the ground system will in effect implement a "real-time" science data pipeline with appropriate data accounting, data storage, data distribution, data recovery, and automated system failure detection and correction to keep the science data flowing continuously to three separate Science Operations Centers (SOCs). Data storage rates of approx. 45 Tera-bytes per month are expected. The Mission Operations Center (MOC) will be based at GSFC and is designed to be highly automated. Three SOCs will share in the observatory operations, each operating their own instrument. Remote operations of a multi-antenna ground station in White Sands, New Mexico from the MOC is part of the design baseline.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: OGLE-III. Magellanic Clouds stellar proper motions (Poleski+, 2012)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Poleski, R.; Soszynski, I.; Udalski, A.; Szymanski, M. K.; Kubiak, M.; Pietrzynski, G.; Wyrzykowski, L.; Ulaczyk, K.

2015-07-01

The OGLE-III project observed the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Small Magellanic Cloud, and the globular cluster 47 Tuc between 2001 and 2009 with the 1.3-m Warsaw telescope, which is situated at the Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. The telescope was equipped with an eight-chip mosaic CCD camera. The field of view was 36'x36' and the pixel scale was 0.26"/pix. I-band filter was used. (5 data files).

State of the Art Methodology for the Design and Analysis of Future Large Scale Evaluations: A Selective Examination.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burstein, Leigh

Two specific methods of analysis in large-scale evaluations are considered: structural equation modeling and selection modeling/analysis of non-equivalent control group designs. Their utility in large-scale educational program evaluation is discussed. The examination of these methodological developments indicates how people (evaluators,…

A Conceptual Framework to Enhance the Interoperability of Observatories among Countries, Continents and the World

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loescher, H.; Fundamental Instrument Unit

2013-05-01

Ecological research addresses challenges relating to the dynamics of the planet, such as changes in climate, biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and services, carbon and energy cycles, natural and human-induced hazards, and adaptation and mitigation strategies that involve many science and engineering disciplines and cross national boundaries. Because of the global nature of these challenges, greater international collaboration is required for knowledge sharing and technology deployment to advance earth science investigations and enhance societal benefits. For example, the Working Group on Biodiversity Preservation and Ecosystem Services (PCAST 2011) noted the scale and complexity of the physical and human resources needed to address these challenges. Many of the most pressing ecological research questions require global-scale data and global scale solutions (Suresh 2012), e.g., interdisciplinary data access from data centers managing ecological resources and hazards, drought, heat islands, carbon cycle, or data used to forecast the rate of spread of invasive species or zoonotic diseases. Variability and change at one location or in one region may well result from the superposition of global processes coupled together with regional and local modes of variability. For example, we know the El Niño-Southern Oscillation large-scale modes of variability in the coupled terrestrial-aquatic-atmospheric systems' correlation with variability in regional rainfall and ecosystem functions. It is therefore a high priority of government and non-government organizations to develop the necessary large scale, world-class research infrastructures for environmental research—and the framework by which these data can be shared, discovered, and utilized by a broad user community of scientists and policymakers, alike. Given that there are many, albeit nascent, efforts to build new environmental observatories/networks globally (e.g., EU-ICOS, EU-Lifewatch, AU-TERN, China-CERN, GEOSS, GEO-BON, NutNet, etc.) and domestically, (e.g., NSF-CZO, USDA-LTAR, DOE-NGEE, Soil Carbon Network, etc.), there is a strong and mutual desire to assure interoperability of data. Developing interoperability is the degree by which each of the following is mapped between observatories (entities), defined by linking i) science requirements with science questions, ii) traceability of measurements to nationally and internationally accepted standards, iii) how data product are derived, i.e., algorithms, procedures, and methods, and iv) the bioinformatics which broadly include data formats, metadata, controlled vocabularies, and semantics. Here, we explore the rationale and focus areas for interoperability, the governance and work structures, example projects (NSF-NEON, EU-ICOS, and AU-TERN), and the emergent roles of scientists in these endeavors.

The space telescope: A study of NASA, science, technology, and politics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Robert William

1989-01-01

Scientific, technological, economic, and political aspects of NASA efforts to orbit a large astronomical telescope are examined in a critical historical review based on extensive interviews with participants and analysis of published and unpublished sources. The scientific advantages of large space telescopes are explained; early plans for space observatories are summarized; the history of NASA and its major programs is surveyed; the redesign of the original Large Space Telescope for Shuttle deployability is discussed; the impact of the yearly funding negotiations with Congress on the development of the final Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is described; and the implications of the HST story for the future of large space science projects are explored. Drawings, photographs, a description of the HST instruments and systems, and lists of the major contractors and institutions participating in the HST program are provided.

Towards An Oceanographic Component Of A Global Earth Observation System Of Systems: Progress And Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ackleson, S. G.

2012-12-01

Ocean observatories (systems of coordinated sensors and platforms providing real-time in situ observations across multiple temporal and spatial scales) have advanced rapidly during the past several decades with the integration of novel hardware, development of advanced cyber-infrastructures and data management software, and the formation of researcher networks employing fixed, drifting, and mobile assets. These advances have provided persistent, real-time, multi-disciplinary observations representing even the most extreme environmental conditions, enabled unique and informative views of complicated ocean processes, and aided in the development of more accurate and higher fidelity ocean models. Combined with traditional ship-based and remotely sensed observations, ocean observatories have yielded new knowledge across a broad spectrum of earth-ocean scales that would likely not exist otherwise. These developments come at a critical time in human history when the demands of global population growth are creating unprecedented societal challenges associated with rapid climatic change and unsustainable consumption of key ocean resources. Successfully meeting and overcoming these challenges and avoiding the ultimate tragedy of the commons will require greater knowledge of environmental processes than currently exists, including interactions between the ocean, the overlying atmosphere, and the adjacent land and synthesizing new knowledge into effective policy and management structures. To achieve this, researchers must have free and ready access to comprehensive data streams (oceanic, atmospheric, and terrestrial), regardless of location and collection system. While the precedent for the concept of free and open access to environmental data is not new (it traces back to the International Geophysical Year, 1957), implementing procedures and standards on a global scale is proving to be difficult, both logistically and politically. Observatories have been implemented in many parts of the global ocean, inspiring researchers to begin planning and developing connected regional observing systems that are networked into a Global Ocean Observing System as part of a comprehensive Global Earth Observation System of Systems. However, much remains to be accomplished, especially in the areas of standardizing observation methods and metadata, implementing procedures to assure an acceptable level of data quality, and defining and producing key derived products. This paper will briefly discuss the evolution of ocean observatories, summarize current efforts to develop local, regional and global observing networks, and suggest future steps towards a global ocean observing system.

Architectural Optimization of Digital Libraries

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Biser, Aileen O.

1998-01-01

This work investigates performance and scaling issues relevant to large scale distributed digital libraries. Presently, performance and scaling studies focus on specific implementations of production or prototype digital libraries. Although useful information is gained to aid these designers and other researchers with insights to performance and scaling issues, the broader issues relevant to very large scale distributed libraries are not addressed. Specifically, no current studies look at the extreme or worst case possibilities in digital library implementations. A survey of digital library research issues is presented. Scaling and performance issues are mentioned frequently in the digital library literature but are generally not the focus of much of the current research. In this thesis a model for a Generic Distributed Digital Library (GDDL) and nine cases of typical user activities are defined. This model is used to facilitate some basic analysis of scaling issues. Specifically, the calculation of Internet traffic generated for different configurations of the study parameters and an estimate of the future bandwidth needed for a large scale distributed digital library implementation. This analysis demonstrates the potential impact a future distributed digital library implementation would have on the Internet traffic load and raises questions concerning the architecture decisions being made for future distributed digital library designs.

The Next Generation of Chromospheric Measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarbell, T. D.

2005-05-01

I discuss the new measurements which we know will happen, from missions or observatories which are being developed now, as well as the measurements which should happen for further progress. The future is promising, with new missions such as Solar-B, SDO, and SunRise, and new or upgraded observatories, such as SVST, DOT, GREGOR, ATST, and FASR. I also point out significant needs for the future, such as detailed chromospheric spectroscopy of the type which would have been provided by NEXUS or similar instruments.

the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events: Status and Prospects

DOE PAGES

Alduino, C.; Alfonso, K.; Artusa, D. R.; ...

2017-05-09

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is a large-scale double beta decay experiment utilizing cryogenic bolometers that is currently being commissioned at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) in Italy. Its primary focus is to search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of 130Te with a projected sensitivity to Majorana neutrino masses near the inverted mass hierarchy region. The detector is composed of 988 5x5x5-cm 3 TeO 2 crystals of natural isotopic composition arranged in 19 towers of 52 crystals each, all housed in a common dilution refrigerator. A single CUORE-like tower, CUORE-0, was assembled and operated asmore » a stand-alone detector for a period of approximately two years. In this report, the results from CUORE-0 and the current status and physics potential of CUORE are presented.« less

The Cosmic Ray Energy Spectrum and Related Measurements with the Pierre Auger Observatory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Abraham, : J.; Abreu, P.; Aglietta, M.

2009-06-01

These are presentations to be presented at the 31st International Cosmic Ray Conference, in Lodz, Poland during July 2009. It consists of the following presentations: (1) Measurement of the cosmic ray energy spectrum above 10{sup 18} eV with the Pierre Auger Observatory; (2) The cosmic ray flux observed at zenith angles larger than 60 degrees with the Pierre Auger Observatory; (3) Energy calibration of data recorded with the surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory; (4) Exposure of the Hybrid Detector of The Pierre Auger Observatory; and (5) Energy scale derived from Fluorescence Telescopes using Cherenkov Light and Shower Universality.

A 1,574-Day Periodicity of Transits Orbiting KIC 8462852

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sacco, G.; Ngo, L. D.; Modolo, J.

2018-06-01

Observations of the main sequence F3V star KIC 8462852 (also known as Boyajianís star) revealed extreme aperiodic dips in flux up to 20% during the four years of the Kepler mission. Smaller dips (< 3%) were also observed with ground-based telescopes between May 2017 and May 2018. We investigated possible correlation between recent dips and the major dips in the last 100 days of the Kepler mission. We compared Kepler light curve data, 2017 data from two observatories (TFN, OGG) which are part of the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) network, as well as archival data from the Harvard College Observatory (HCO), Sonneberg Observatory, and Sternberg Observatory, and determined that observations appear consistent with a 1,574-day (4.31-year) periodicity of a transit (or group of transits) orbiting Boyajianís star within the habitable zone. Comparison with future observations is required to validate this hypothesis. Furthermore, it is unknown if transits that have produced other major dips as observed during the Kepler mission (e.g. D792) share the same orbital period. Nevertheless, the proposed periodicity is a step forward in guiding future observation efforts.

Site Selection and Deployment Scenarios for Servicing of Deep-Space Observatories

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Willenberg, Harvey J.; Fruhwirth, Michael A.; Potter, Seth D.; Leete, Stephen J.; Moe, Rud V.

2001-01-01

The deep-space environment and relative transportation accessibility of the Weak Stability Boundary (WSB) region connecting the Earth-Moon and Sun-Earth libration points makes the Sun-Earth L2 an attractive operating location for future observatories. A summary is presented of key characteristics of future observatories designed to operate in this region. The ability to service observatories that operate within the region around the Lagrange points may greatly enhance their reliability, lifetime, and scientific return. The range of servicing missions might begin with initial deployment, assembly, test, and checkout. Post-assembly servicing missions might also include maintenance and repair, critical fluids resupply, and instrument upgrades. We define the range of servicing missions that can be performed with extravehicular activity, with teleoperated robots, and with autonomous robots. We then describe deployment scenarios that affect payload design. A trade study is summarized of the benefits and risks of alternative servicing sites, including at the International Space Station, at other low-Earth-orbit locations, at the Earth-Moon L1 location, and on-site at the Sun-Earth L2 location. Required technology trades and development issues for observatory servicing at each site, and with each level of autonomy, are summarized.

Parallel Adjective High-Order CFD Simulations Characterizing SOFIA Cavity Acoustics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barad, Michael F.; Brehm, Christoph; Kiris, Cetin C.; Biswas, Rupak

2016-01-01

This paper presents large-scale MPI-parallel computational uid dynamics simulations for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). SOFIA is an airborne, 2.5-meter infrared telescope mounted in an open cavity in the aft fuselage of a Boeing 747SP. These simulations focus on how the unsteady ow eld inside and over the cavity interferes with the optical path and mounting structure of the telescope. A temporally fourth-order accurate Runge-Kutta, and spatially fth-order accurate WENO- 5Z scheme was used to perform implicit large eddy simulations. An immersed boundary method provides automated gridding for complex geometries and natural coupling to a block-structured Cartesian adaptive mesh re nement framework. Strong scaling studies using NASA's Pleiades supercomputer with up to 32k CPU cores and 4 billion compu- tational cells shows excellent scaling. Dynamic load balancing based on execution time on individual AMR blocks addresses irregular numerical cost associated with blocks con- taining boundaries. Limits to scaling beyond 32k cores are identi ed, and targeted code optimizations are discussed.

Parallel Adaptive High-Order CFD Simulations Characterizing SOFIA Cavitiy Acoustics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barad, Michael F.; Brehm, Christoph; Kiris, Cetin C.; Biswas, Rupak

2015-01-01

This paper presents large-scale MPI-parallel computational uid dynamics simulations for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). SOFIA is an airborne, 2.5-meter infrared telescope mounted in an open cavity in the aft fuselage of a Boeing 747SP. These simulations focus on how the unsteady ow eld inside and over the cavity interferes with the optical path and mounting structure of the telescope. A tempo- rally fourth-order accurate Runge-Kutta, and a spatially fth-order accurate WENO-5Z scheme were used to perform implicit large eddy simulations. An immersed boundary method provides automated gridding for complex geometries and natural coupling to a block-structured Cartesian adaptive mesh re nement framework. Strong scaling studies using NASA's Pleiades supercomputer with up to 32k CPU cores and 4 billion compu- tational cells shows excellent scaling. Dynamic load balancing based on execution time on individual AMR blocks addresses irregular numerical cost associated with blocks con- taining boundaries. Limits to scaling beyond 32k cores are identi ed, and targeted code optimizations are discussed.

UK Announces Intention to Join ESO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2000-11-01

Summary The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) , the UK's strategic science investment agency, today announced that the government of the United Kingdom is making funds available that provide a baseline for this country to join the European Southern Observatory (ESO) . The ESO Director General, Dr. Catherine Cesarsky , and the ESO Community warmly welcome this move towards fuller integration in European astronomy. "With the UK as a potential member country of ESO, our joint opportunities for front-line research and technology will grow significantly", she said. "This announcement is a clear sign of confidence in ESO's abilities, most recently demonstrated with the construction and operation of the unique Very Large Telescope (VLT) on Paranal. Together we will look forward with confidence towards new, exciting projects in ground-based astronomy." It was decided earlier this year to place the 4-m UK Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope (VISTA) at Paranal, cf. ESO Press Release 03/00. Following negotiations between ESO and PPARC, a detailed proposal for the associated UK/ESO Agreement with the various entry modalities will now be presented to the ESO Council for approval. Before this Agreement can enter into force, the ESO Convention and associated protocols must also be ratified by the UK Parliament. Research and key technologies According to the PPARC press release, increased funding for science, announced by the UK government today, will enable UK astronomers to prepare for the next generation of telescopes and expand their current telescope portfolio through membership of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The uplift to its baseline budget will enable PPARC to enter into final negotiations for UK membership of the ESO. This will ensure that UK astronomers, together with their colleagues in the ESO member states, are actively involved in global scale preparations for the next generation of astronomy facilities. among these are ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) in Chile and the very large optical/infrared telescopes now undergoing conceptual studies. ESO membership will give UK astronomers access to the suite of four world-class 8.2-meter VLT Unit Telescopes at the Paranal Observatory (Chile), as well as other state-of-the-art facilities at ESO's other observatory at La Silla. Through PPARC the UK already participates in joint collaborative European science programmes such as CERN and the European Space Agency (ESA), which have already proved their value on the world scale. Joining ESO will consolidate this policy, strengthen ESO and enhance the future vigour of European astronomy. Statements Commenting on the funding announcement, Prof. Ian Halliday , PPARC's CEO, said that " this new funding will ensure our physicists and astronomers remain at the forefront of international research - leading in discoveries that push back the frontiers of knowledge - and the UK economy will also benefit through the provision of highly trained people and the resulting advances in IT and commercial spin-offs ". Prof. Mike Edmunds , UCW Cardiff, and Chairman of the UK Astronomy Review Panel which recently set out a programme of opportunities and priorities for the next 10 - 20 years added that " this is excellent news for UK science and lays the foundation for cutting edge research over the next ten years. British astronomers will be delighted by the Government's rapid and positive response to their case. " Speaking on behalf of the ESO Organisation and the community of more than 2500 astronomers in the ESO member states [2], the ESO Director General, Dr. Catherine Cesarsky , declared: "When ESO was created in 1962, the UK decided not to join, because of access to other facilities in the Southern Hemisphere. But now ESO has developed into one of the world's main astronomical organisations, with top technology and operating the VLT at Paranal, the largest and most efficient optical/infrared telescope facility in the world. We look forward to receiving our UK colleagues in our midst and work together on the realization of future cutting-edge projects." Joining ESO was considered a top priority for UK astronomy following a community report to the UK Long Term Science Review, which set out a programme of opportunities and priorities for PPARC science over the next 10 to 20 years. The report is available on the web at URL: www.pparc.ac.uk/ltsr.

RabbitQR: fast and flexible big data processing at LSST data rates using existing, shared-use hardware

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kotulla, Ralf; Gopu, Arvind; Hayashi, Soichi

2016-08-01

Processing astronomical data to science readiness was and remains a challenge, in particular in the case of multi detector instruments such as wide-field imagers. One such instrument, the WIYN One Degree Imager, is available to the astronomical community at large, and, in order to be scientifically useful to its varied user community on a short timescale, provides its users fully calibrated data in addition to the underlying raw data. However, time-efficient re-processing of the often large datasets with improved calibration data and/or software requires more than just a large number of CPU-cores and disk space. This is particularly relevant if all computing resources are general purpose and shared with a large number of users in a typical university setup. Our approach to address this challenge is a flexible framework, combining the best of both high performance (large number of nodes, internal communication) and high throughput (flexible/variable number of nodes, no dedicated hardware) computing. Based on the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol, we a developed a Server-Manager- Worker framework. In addition to the server directing the work flow and the worker executing the actual work, the manager maintains a list of available worker, adds and/or removes individual workers from the worker pool, and re-assigns worker to different tasks. This provides the flexibility of optimizing the worker pool to the current task and workload, improves load balancing, and makes the most efficient use of the available resources. We present performance benchmarks and scaling tests, showing that, today and using existing, commodity shared- use hardware we can process data with data throughputs (including data reduction and calibration) approaching that expected in the early 2020s for future observatories such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

Accessing Multi-Dimensional Images and Data Cubes in the Virtual Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tody, Douglas; Plante, R. L.; Berriman, G. B.; Cresitello-Dittmar, M.; Good, J.; Graham, M.; Greene, G.; Hanisch, R. J.; Jenness, T.; Lazio, J.; Norris, P.; Pevunova, O.; Rots, A. H.

2014-01-01

Telescopes across the spectrum are routinely producing multi-dimensional images and datasets, such as Doppler velocity cubes, polarization datasets, and time-resolved “movies.” Examples of current telescopes producing such multi-dimensional images include the JVLA, ALMA, and the IFU instruments on large optical and near-infrared wavelength telescopes. In the near future, both the LSST and JWST will also produce such multi-dimensional images routinely. High-energy instruments such as Chandra produce event datasets that are also a form of multi-dimensional data, in effect being a very sparse multi-dimensional image. Ensuring that the data sets produced by these telescopes can be both discovered and accessed by the community is essential and is part of the mission of the Virtual Observatory (VO). The Virtual Astronomical Observatory (VAO, http://www.usvao.org/), in conjunction with its international partners in the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA), has developed a protocol and an initial demonstration service designed for the publication, discovery, and access of arbitrarily large multi-dimensional images. The protocol describing multi-dimensional images is the Simple Image Access Protocol, version 2, which provides the minimal set of metadata required to characterize a multi-dimensional image for its discovery and access. A companion Image Data Model formally defines the semantics and structure of multi-dimensional images independently of how they are serialized, while providing capabilities such as support for sparse data that are essential to deal effectively with large cubes. A prototype data access service has been deployed and tested, using a suite of multi-dimensional images from a variety of telescopes. The prototype has demonstrated the capability to discover and remotely access multi-dimensional data via standard VO protocols. The prototype informs the specification of a protocol that will be submitted to the IVOA for approval, with an operational data cube service to be delivered in mid-2014. An associated user-installable VO data service framework will provide the capabilities required to publish VO-compatible multi-dimensional images or data cubes.

Recent Ultra High Energy neutrino bounds and multimessenger observations with the Pierre Auger Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zas, Enrique

2018-01-01

The overall picture of the highest energy particles produced in the Universe is changing because of measurements made with the Pierre Auger Observatory. Composition studies of cosmic rays point towards an unexpected mixed composition of intermediate mass nuclei, more isotropic than anticipated, which is reshaping the future of the field and underlining the priority to understand composition at the highest energies. The Observatory is competitive in the search for neutrinos of all flavors above about 100 PeV by looking for very inclined showers produced deep in the atmosphere by neutrinos interacting either in the atmosphere or in the Earth's crust. It covers a large field of view between -85° and 60° declination in equatorial coordinates. Neutrinos are expected because of the existence of ultra high energy cosmic rays. They provide valuable complementary information, their fluxes being sensitive to the primary cosmic ray masses and their directions reflecting the source positions. We report the results of the neutrino search providing competitive bounds to neutrino production and strong constraints to a number of production models including cosmogenic neutrinos due to ultra high energy protons. We also report on two recent contributions of the Observatory to multimessenger studies by searching for correlations of neutrinos both with cosmic rays and with gravitational waves. The correlations of the directions of the highest energy astrophysical neutrinos discovered with IceCube with the highest energy cosmic rays detected with the Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array revealed an excess that is not statistically significant and is being monitored. The targeted search for neutrinos correlated with the discovery of the gravitational wave events GW150914 and GW151226 with advanced LIGO has led to the first bounds on the energy emitted by black hole mergers in Ultra-High Energy Neutrinos.

On time scales and time synchronization using LORAN-C as a time reference signal

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chi, A. R.

1974-01-01

The long term performance of the eight LORAN-C chains is presented in terms of the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) of the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO); and the use of the LORAN-C navigation system for maintaining the user's clock to a UTC scale is described. The atomic time scale and the UTC of several national laboratories and observatories relative to the international atomic time are reported. Typical performance of several NASA tracking station clocks, relative to the USNO master clock, is also presented.

B-DEOS: British Dynamics of Earth and Ocean systems- new approaches for a multidisciplinary ocean observing system in the Atlantic and S Ocean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schultz, A.; Lampitt, R. S.

2001-12-01

Advances in theoretical understanding of the natural systems in the sea and in the Earth below have been closely associated with new data sets made possible by technological advances. The plate tectonic revolution, the discovery of hydrothermal circulation, and many other examples can be attributed to the application of innovative new technology to the study of the sea. A consortium of research groups and institutions within the United Kingdom is planning a system of multidisciplinary ocean observatories to study the components of, and linkages between the physical, chemical and biological processes regulating the earth-ocean-atmosphere-biosphere system. An engineering feasibility design study has been completed which has resulted in a robust and flexible design for a telecommunications/power buoy system, and a UK NERC Thematic Programme is in the advanced planning stage. Representatives of the US, Japan, France, Portugal, Spain, Germany and other countries have been involved in consultations, and a coordinated international effort is expected to develop throughout the Atlantic and S Oceans, with collaborations extended to observatories operated by cooperating partners in other regions. The B-DEOS observatory system is designed to allow studies on scales of order cm to 1000 km, as well as to supplement on larger spatial scales the emerging global ocean and seafloor solid earth observatory network. The facility will make it possible to obtain requisite long-term synoptic baseline data, and to monitor natural and man-made changes to this system by: 1) Establishing a long-term, permanent and relocatable network of instrumented seafloor platforms, moorings and profiler vehicles, provided with power from the ocean surface and internal power supplies, and maintaining a real- or near-real time bidirectional Internet link to shore. 2) Examining the time varying properties of these different environments (solid earth, ocean, atmosphere, biosphere), exploring the links between them and the causes of the variability. 3) Developing appropriate methods of acquiring data in real-time, assimilating them into mathematical models of the solid earth, oceans, and air-ocean interface, and promoting interpretation of these data for a truly synoptic understanding of the linked earth-ocean-atmosphere-biosphere system and its components. Large scale multidisciplinary observatories (each comprising an area of at least 200 km by 50 km) have been proposed for areas centred on the S Reykjanes Ridge, the region of the Drake Passage and the Scotia Sea, and (particularly in concert with partners throughout the EU) the MOMAR area of the Lucky Strike Segment, MAR. Technical aspects of the observatory infrastructure, and the scientific rationale for extended deployments at these sites will be presented.

The MEXART ips observations in route to the next solar maximum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carrillo-Vargas, Armando; Gonzalez-Esparza, Americo; Andrade, Ernesto; Perez-Enriquez, Roman; Aguilar-Rodriguez, Ernesto; Casillas-Perez, Gilberto; Jeyakumar, Solai; Kurtz, Stanley; Sierra, Pablo; Vazquez, Samuel

We report the status of the Mexican Array Radio Telescope (MEXART) in preparation for the next solar maximum. During this epoch, the MEXART will be one of the four dedicated radio telescopes (with the ORT in India; STEL in Japan; and MWA in Australia) to track large-scale structures in the solar wind using the interplanetary scintillation (IPS) technique. This network of IPS observatories would produce, for the first time four g maps of the sky showing the size and shape of disturbances between the Sun and the Earth. We describe the operation and current observations of the first IPS radio sources at 140 MHz detected by the MEXART. These observations use a plane dipole array of 1024 elements (16 lines with 64 dipoles each one), feeding a Butler matrix of 16x16 ports. This system generates a 16 lobes at fixed declinations covering 120 degrees (from 40 degrees South to 80 degrees North). The beam fan uses the Earth's rotation to cover the whole sky. The observations that will be made with the network of observatories of interplanetary flashing will complement the observations of other observatories, instruments in situ, space probes, satellite, among others.

Milagro Limits and HAWC Sensitivity for the Rate-Density of Evaporating Primordial Black Holes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abdo, A. A.; Abeysekara, A. U.; Alfaro, R.; Allen, B.T.; Alvarez, C.; Alvarez, J. D.; Arceo, R.; Arteaga-Velazquez, J. C.; Aune, T.; Ayala Solares, H. A.;

New seismic instrumentation packaged for all terrestrial environments (including the quietest observatories!).

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parker, Tim; Devanney, Peter; Bainbridge, Geoff; Townsend, Bruce

2017-04-01

The march to make every type of seismometer, weak to strong motion, reliable and economically deployable in any terrestrial environment continues with the availability of three new sensors and seismic systems including ones with over 200dB of dynamic range. Until recently there were probably 100 pier type broadband sensors for every observatory type pier, not the types of deployments geoscientists are needing to advance science and monitoring capability. Deeper boreholes are now the recognized quieter environments for best observatory class instruments and these same instruments can now be deployed in direct burial environments which is unprecedented. The experiences of facilities in large deployments of broadband seismometers in continental scale rolling arrays proves the utility of packaging new sensors in corrosion resistant casings and designing in the robustness needed to work reliably in temporary deployments. Integrating digitizers and other sensors decreases deployment complexity, decreases acquisition and deployment costs, increases reliability and utility. We'll discuss the informed evolution of broadband pier instruments into the modern integrated field tools that enable economic densification of monitoring arrays along with supporting new ways to approach geoscience research in a field environment.

Milagro Limits and HAWC Sensitivity for the Rate-Density of Evaporating Primordial Black Holes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abdo, A. A.; Abeysekara, A. U.; Alfaro, R.; Allen, B. T.; Alvarez, C.; Alvarez, J. D.; Arceo, R.; Arteaga-Velazquez, J. C.; Aune, T.; Ayala Solares, H. A.;

The Fram Strait integrated ocean observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fahrbach, E.; Beszczynska-Möller, A.; Rettig, S.; Rohardt, G.; Sagen, H.; Sandven, S.; Hansen, E.

2012-04-01

A long-term oceanographic moored array has been operated since 1997 to measure the ocean water column properties and oceanic advective fluxes through Fram Strait. While the mooring line along 78°50'N is devoted to monitoring variability of the physical environment, the AWI Hausgarten observatory, located north of it, focuses on ecosystem properties and benthic biology. Under the EU DAMOCLES and ACOBAR projects, the oceanographic observatory has been extended towards the innovative integrated observing system, combining the deep ocean moorings, multipurpose acoustic system and a network of gliders. The main aim of this system is long-term environmental monitoring in Fram Strait, combining satellite data, acoustic tomography, oceanographic measurements at moorings and glider sections with high-resolution ice-ocean circulation models through data assimilation. In future perspective, a cable connection between the Hausgarten observatory and a land base on Svalbard is planned as the implementation of the ESONET Arctic node. To take advantage of the planned cabled node, different technologies for the underwater data transmission were reviewed and partially tested under the ESONET DM AOEM. The main focus was to design and evaluate available technical solutions for collecting data from different components of the Fram Strait ocean observing system, and an integration of available data streams for the optimal delivery to the future cabled node. The main components of the Fram Strait integrated observing system will be presented and the current status of available technologies for underwater data transfer will be reviewed. On the long term, an initiative of Helmholtz observatories foresees the interdisciplinary Earth-Observing-System FRAM which combines observatories such as the long term deep-sea ecological observatory HAUSGARTEN, the oceanographic Fram Strait integrated observing system and the Svalbard coastal stations maintained by the Norwegian ARCTOS network. A vision of this modular underwater observatory network in Fram Strait will be presented.

iRODS: A Distributed Data Management Cyberinfrastructure for Observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rajasekar, A.; Moore, R.; Vernon, F.

2007-12-01

Large-scale and long-term preservation of both observational and synthesized data requires a system that virtualizes data management concepts. A methodology is needed that can work across long distances in space (distribution) and long-periods in time (preservation). The system needs to manage data stored on multiple types of storage systems including new systems that become available in the future. This concept is called infrastructure independence, and is typically implemented through virtualization mechanisms. Data grids are built upon concepts of data and trust virtualization. These concepts enable the management of collections of data that are distributed across multiple institutions, stored on multiple types of storage systems, and accessed by multiple types of clients. Data virtualization ensures that the name spaces used to identify files, users, and storage systems are persistent, even when files are migrated onto future technology. This is required to preserve authenticity, the link between the record and descriptive and provenance metadata. Trust virtualization ensures that access controls remain invariant as files are moved within the data grid. This is required to track the chain of custody of records over time. The Storage Resource Broker (http://www.sdsc.edu/srb) is one such data grid used in a wide variety of applications in earth and space sciences such as ROADNet (roadnet.ucsd.edu), SEEK (seek.ecoinformatics.org), GEON (www.geongrid.org) and NOAO (www.noao.edu). Recent extensions to data grids provide one more level of virtualization - policy or management virtualization. Management virtualization ensures that execution of management policies can be automated, and that rules can be created that verify assertions about the shared collections of data. When dealing with distributed large-scale data over long periods of time, the policies used to manage the data and provide assurances about the authenticity of the data become paramount. The integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) (http://irods.sdsc.edu) provides the mechanisms needed to describe not only management policies, but also to track how the policies are applied and their execution results. The iRODS data grid maps management policies to rules that control the execution of the remote micro-services. As an example, a rule can be created that automatically creates a replica whenever a file is added to a specific collection, or extracts its metadata automatically and registers it in a searchable catalog. For the replication operation, the persistent state information consists of the replica location, the creation date, the owner, the replica size, etc. The mechanism used by iRODS for providing policy virtualization is based on well-defined functions, called micro-services, which are chained into alternative workflows using rules. A rule engine, based on the event-condition-action paradigm executes the rule-based workflows after an event. Rules can be deferred to a pre-determined time or executed on a periodic basis. As the data management policies evolve, the iRODS system can implement new rules, new micro-services, and new state information (metadata content) needed to manage the new policies. Each sub- collection can be managed using a different set of policies. The discussion of the concepts in rule-based policy virtualization and its application to long-term and large-scale data management for observatories such as ORION and NEON will be the basis of the paper.

Exploring the Hot and Energetic Universe: The first scientific conference dedicated to the Athena X-ray observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ehle, Matthias

2015-09-01

The Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics (Athena) is a large-class mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). It is currently entering an assessment study phase, with launch planned for 2028. Athena has been designed to address the science theme "The Hot and Energetic Universe", which poses two key questions: - How does ordinary matter assemble into the large-scale structures we see today? - How do black holes grow and influence the Universe? The mission will employ a variety of techniques to address these topics in a comprehensive matter, including spatially-resolved high resolution spectroscopy, sensitive wide field imaging, high throughput spectral-timing, and fast follow-up of transient phenomena. The purpose of this conference is to gather together all members of the astronomical community worldwide who have an interest in Athena. The main focus of the meeting is to discuss the key science questions which will be addressed by the mission. A significant portion of the programme is devoted to presenting the status of the project and discussing the synergies with other future large multi-wavelength facilities and missions. Scientific topics include: - Formation, evolution and physical properties of clusters of galaxies - Cosmic feedback - The missing baryons and the WHIM - Supermassive black hole evolution - Accretion physics and strong gravity - High energy transient phenomena - Solar system and exoplanets - Star formation and evolution - The physics of compact object - Supernovae, supernova remnants and the ISM - Multiwavelength synergies

Mechanical Overview of the International X-Ray Observatory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Robinson, David W.; McClelland, Ryan S.

2009-01-01

The International X-ray Observatory (IXO) is a new collaboration between NASA, ESA, and JAXA which is under study for launch in 2020. IXO will be a large 6600 kilogram Great Observatory-class mission which will build upon the legacies of the Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observatories. It combines elements from NASA's Constellation-X program and ESA's XEUS program. The observatory will have a 20-25 meter focal length, which necessitates the use of a deployable instrument module. Currently the project is actively trading configurations and layouts of the various instruments and spacecraft components. This paper will provide a snapshot of the latest observatory configuration under consideration and summarize the observatory from the mechanical engineering perspective.

The Development of Replicated Optical Integral Field Spectrographs and their Application to the Study of Lyman-alpha Emission at Moderate Redshifts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chonis, Taylor Steven

In the upcoming era of extremely large ground-based astronomical telescopes, the design of wide-field spectroscopic survey instrumentation has become increasingly complex due to the linear growth of instrument pupil size with telescope diameter for a constant spectral resolving power. The upcoming Visible Integral field Replicable Unit Spectrograph (VIRUS), a baseline array of 150 copies of a simple integral field spectrograph that will be fed by 3:36 x 104 optical fibers on the upgraded Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at McDonald Observatory, represents one of the first uses of large-scale replication to break the relationship between instrument pupil size and telescope diameter. By dividing the telescope's field of view between a large number of smaller and more manageable instruments, the total information grasp of a traditional monolithic survey spectrograph can be achieved at a fraction of the cost and engineering complexity. To highlight the power of this method, VIRUS will execute the HET Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) and survey & 420 degrees2 of sky to an emission line flux limit of ˜ 10-17 erg s-1 cm -2 to detect ˜ 106 Lyman-alpha emitting galaxies (LAEs) as probes of large-scale structure at redshifts of 1:9 < z < 3:5. HETDEX will precisely measure the evolution of dark energy at that epoch, and will simultaneously amass an LAE sample that will be unprecedented for extragalactic astrophysics at the redshifts of interest. Large-scale replication has clear advantages to increasing the total information grasp of a spectrograph, but there are also challenges. In this dissertation, two of these challenges with respect to VIRUS are detailed. First, the VIRUS cryogenic system is discussed, specifically the design and tests of a novel thermal connector and internal camera croygenic components that link the 150 charge-coupled device detectors to the instrument's liquid nitrogen distribution system. Second, the design, testing, and mass production of the suite of volume phase holographic (VPH) diffraction gratings for VIRUS is presented, which highlights the challenge and success associated with producing of a very large number of highly customized optical elements whose performance is crucial to meeting the efficiency requirements of the spectrograph system. To accommodate VIRUS, the HET is undergoing a substantial wide-field upgrade to increase its field of view to 22' in diameter. The previous HET facility Low Resolution Spectrograph (LRS), which was directly fed by the telescope's previous spherical aberration corrector, must be removed from the prime focus instrument package as a result of the telescope upgrades and instead be fiber-coupled to the telescope focal plane. For a similar cost as modifying LRS to accommodate these changes, a new second generation instrument (LRS2) will be based on the VIRUS unit spectrograph. The design, operational concept, construction, and laboratory testing and characterization of LRS2 is the primary focus of this dissertation, which highlights the benefits of leveraging the large engineering investment, economies of scale, and laboratory and observatory infrastructure associated with the massively replicated VIRUS instrument. LRS2 will provide integral field spectroscopy for a seeing-limited field of 12" x 6". The multiplexed VIRUS framework facilitates broad wavelength coverage from 370 nm to 1.0 mum spread between two dual-channel spectrographs at a moderate spectral resolving power of R ≈ 2000. The design departures from VIRUS are presented, including the novel integral field unit, VPH grism dispersers, and various optical changes for accommodating the broadband wavelength coverage. Laboratory testing has verified that LRS2 largely meets its image quality specification and is nearly ready for delivery to the HET where its final verification and validation tasks will be executed. LRS2 will enable the continuation of most legacy LRS science programs and provide improved capability for future investigations. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).

Ion figuring of large prototype mirror segments for the E-ELT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghigo, M.; Vecchi, G.; Basso, S.; Citterio, O.; Civitani, M.; Mattaini, E.; Pareschi, G.; Sironi, G.

2014-07-01

At INAF-Astronomical Observatory of Brera a study is under way to explore the problems related to the ion beam figuring of full scale Zerodur hexagonal mirrors of M1 for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), having size of 1.4 m corner to corner. During this study it is initially foreseen the figuring of a scaled down version mirror of the same material having size of 1 m corner to corner to assess the relevant figuring problems and issues. This specific mirror has a radius of curvature of 3 m, which allows for easy interferometric measurement. A mechanical support was designed to minimize its deformations due to the gravity. The Ion Beam Figuring Facility used for this study has been recently completed in the Brera Observatory and has a figuring area of 140 cm x 170 cm. It employs a Kaufman ion source having 50 mm grids mounted on three axis. This system has been designed and developed to be autonomous and self-monitoring during the figuring process. The software and the mathematical tools used to compute the dwell time solution have been developed at INAF-OAB as well. Aim of this study is the estimation and optimization of the time requested to correct the surface adopting strategies to mitigate the well-known thermal problems related to the Zerodur material. In this paper, the results obtained figuring the 1 m corner-to-corner test segment are reported.

Development of Telecommunications of Prao ASC Lpi RAS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Isaev, E. A.; Dumskiy, D. V.; Likhachev, S. F.; Shatskaya, M. V.; Pugachev, V. D.; Samodurov, V. A.

The new modern and reliable data storage system was acquired in 2010 in order to develop internal telecommunication resources of the Observatory. The system is designed for store large amounts of observation data obtained from the three radio-astronomy complexes (PT-22, DKR-1000 and BSA). The digital switching system - "Elcom" is installed in the Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory to ensure the observatory by phone communications. The phone communication between buildings of the observatory carried out over fiber-optic data links by using the ip-telephony. The direct optical channel from tracking station RT-22 in Pushchino to Moscow processing center has been created and put into operation to transfer large amounts of data at the final stage of the establishment of ground infrastructure for the international space project "Radioastron". A separate backup system for processing and storing data is organized in Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory to eliminate data loss during communication sessions with the Space Telescope.

Modeling dynamics of western juniper under climate change in a semiarid ecosystem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shrestha, R.; Glenn, N. F.; Flores, A. N.

2013-12-01

Modeling future vegetation dynamics in response to climate change and disturbances such as fire relies heavily on model parameterization. Fine-scale field-based measurements can provide the necessary parameters for constraining models at a larger scale. But the time- and labor-intensive nature of field-based data collection leads to sparse sampling and significant spatial uncertainties in retrieved parameters. In this study we quantify the fine-scale carbon dynamics and uncertainty of juniper woodland in the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed (RCEW) in southern Idaho, which is a proposed critical zone observatory (CZO) site for soil carbon processes. We leverage field-measured vegetation data along with airborne lidar and timeseries Landsat imagery to initialize a state-and-transition model (VDDT) and a process-based fire-model (FlamMap) to examine the vegetation dynamics in response to stochastic fire events and climate change. We utilize recently developed and novel techniques to measure biomass and canopy characteristics of western juniper at the individual tree scale using terrestrial and airborne laser scanning techniques in RCEW. These fine-scale data are upscaled across the watershed for the VDDT and FlamMap models. The results will immediately improve our understanding of fine-scale dynamics and carbon stocks and fluxes of woody vegetation in a semi-arid ecosystem. Moreover, quantification of uncertainty will also provide a basis for generating ensembles of spatially-explicit alternative scenarios to guide future land management decisions in the region.

Current and Future Capabilities of the 74-inch Telescope of Kottamia Astronomical Observatory in Egypt

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Azzam, Y. A.; Ali, G. B.; Ismail, H. A.; Haroon, A.; Selim, I.

In this paper, we are going to introduce the Kottamia Astronomical Observatory, KAO, to the astronomical community. The current status of the telescope together with the available instrumentations is described. An upgrade stage including a new optical system and a computer controlling of both the telescope and dome are achieved. The specifications of a set of CCD cameras for direct imaging and spectroscopy are given. A grating spectrograph is recently gifted to KAO from Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, OAO, of the National Astronomical Observatories in Japan. This spectrograph is successfully tested and installed at the F/18 Cassegrain focus of the KAO 74" telescope.

KELT RR Lyrae Variable Stars Observed by the NKU Schneider Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Lee, Nathan M.; Russell, Neil; Kinemuchi, Karen; Pepper, Joshua; Rodriguez, Joseph E.; Paegert, Martin

2016-01-01

In this poster we will discuss our ongoing program to use extant light curves from the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) survey to find and characterize RR Lyrae (RRL) stars in the disk and inner halo of the Milky Way. RRL stars are of particular interest because they are standard candles and can be used to map out structure in the galaxy. The periods and shape of RRL light curves also contain information about their Oosterhoff type, which can probe galactic formation history, and metallicity respectively. Although there have been several large photometric surveys for RR Lyrae in the nearby galaxy (OGLE, NSVS, ASAS, and MACHO to name a few), they have each been limited in either sky coverage or number of epochs. The KELT survey represents a new generation of surveys that has many epochs over a large portion of the sky. KELT samples over 60% of the sky in both northern and southern hemispheres, and has a long-time-baseline of 4-10 years with a very high cadence rate of less than 20 minutes. This translates into 4,000 to 10,000+ epochs per light curve with completeness out to 3 kpc from the Sun. This poster will present follow-up data taken of RR Lyrae candidate stars found in the KELT survey. These stars were observed using an 11inch telescope at the NKU Schneider Observatory. We will discuss photometric accuracies, cadence, and initial analysis of these stars. We will also discuss the capabilities of our new observatory as well as future follow-up and analysis plans.

Scientific Observatories And The Long-term Fate Of The Data They Collect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pirenne, B.

2017-12-01

Observatories are designed to take successive snapshots of their environment, (e.g., deep underground, the ocean abyss, land, sky and all the way to the farthest reaches of the Universe). In the humanities and social sciences, observatories collect data on people and their activities. In doing so, they help study the environment's history and its (rate of) change in an attempt to understand it, and ultimately predict its future. The mechanism for capturing snapshots relies on sensors: they range from transcribed human experiences to sophisticated apparatus that require billion of dollars of equipment and decades of planning, construction and operation. Today sensors are ubiquitous and their product is data. The advent of the digital era has allowed the collection of more and more data points, and offered almost no limits to the scope of insights that can be obtained from them through computing. Though an individual data point's value is continually decreasing due to the explosion of the number of sensors and their ever increasing rate of sampling, data analytics assigns data points a role, and consequently a non-zero value. It is therefore imperative to keep them all: new knowledge stemming from new ideas and methods is consistently obtained from re-analysis of older data. Observatory operators have typically proposed that their organization would be in the best position to deal with the long-term archival of the data produced at the facility. This was justified by the need to have the right level of expertise near the new, unique and novel data. Funding agencies have given the argument a positive nod and supported facility-based data archives. Nowadays however, funding agencies will only funds facilities for 3 to 5 years. Data managers, when asked about their plans related to the post-funding future of their datasets, respond with a promise to deposit them in large national or supra-national repositories. Is this a good approach? Are there suitable alternatives? Are there enough "world data centres" capable of supporting those datasets for future generations of users? Do they have the wherewithal to update the technologies needed to read the data for decades to come? Are those data centres also merely facilities with limited life expectancy? This contribution will open the debate on these questions.

Dynamics of Large-scale Coronal Structures as Imaged during the 2012 and 2013 Total Solar Eclipses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alzate, Nathalia; Habbal, Shadia R.; Druckmüller, Miloslav; Emmanouilidis, Constantinos; Morgan, Huw

2017-10-01

White light images acquired at the peak of solar activity cycle 24, during the total solar eclipses of 2012 November 13 and 2013 November 3, serendipitously captured erupting prominences accompanied by CMEs. Application of state-of-the-art image processing techniques revealed the intricate details of two “atypical” large-scale structures, with strikingly sharp boundaries. By complementing the processed white light eclipse images with processed images from co-temporal Solar Dynamics Observatory/AIA and SOHO/LASCO observations, we show how the shape of these atypical structures matches the shape of faint CME shock fronts, which traversed the inner corona a few hours prior to the eclipse observations. The two events were not associated with any prominence eruption but were triggered by sudden brightening events on the solar surface accompanied by sprays and jets. The discovery of the indelible impact that frequent and innocuous transient events in the low corona can have on large-scale coronal structures was enabled by the radial span of the high-resolution white light eclipse images, starting from the solar surface out to several solar radii, currently unmatched by any coronagraphic instrumentation. These findings raise the interesting question as to whether large-scale coronal structures can ever be considered stationary. They also point to the existence of a much larger number of CMEs that goes undetected from the suite of instrumentation currently observing the Sun.

Characteristics of medium- and large-scale TIDs over Japan derived from OI 630-nm nightglow observation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kubota, M.; Fukunishi, H.; Okano, S.

2001-07-01

A new optical instrument for studying upper atmospheric dynamics, called the Multicolor All-sky Imaging System (MAIS), has been developed. The MAIS can obtain all-sky images of airglow emission at two different wavelengths simultaneously with a time resolution of several minutes. Since December 1991, imaging observations with the MAIS have been conducted at the Zao observatory (38.09°N, 140.56°E). From these observations, two interesting events with wave structures have been detected in OI 630-nm nightglow images. The first event was observed on the night of June 2/3, 1992 during a geomagnetically quiet period. Simultaneous data of ionospheric parameters showed that they are caused by propagation of the medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbance (TID). Phase velocity and horizontal wavelength determined from the image data are 45-100 m/s and ~280 km, and the propagation direction is south-westward. The second event was observed on the night of February 27/28, 1992 during a geomagnetic storm. It is found that a large enhancement of OI 630-nm emission is caused by a propagation of the large-scale TID. Meridional components of phase velocities and wavelengths determined from ionospheric data are 305-695 m/s (southward) and 930-5250 km. The source of this large-scale TID appears to be auroral processes at high latitudes.

Large-scale water projects in the developing world: Revisiting the past and looking to the future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sivakumar, Bellie; Chen, Ji

2014-05-01

During the past half a century or so, the developing world has been witnessing a significant increase in freshwater demands due to a combination of factors, including population growth, increased food demand, improved living standards, and water quality degradation. Since there exists significant variability in rainfall and river flow in both space and time, large-scale storage and distribution of water has become a key means to meet these increasing demands. In this regard, large dams and water transfer schemes (including river-linking schemes and virtual water trades) have been playing a key role. While the benefits of such large-scale projects in supplying water for domestic, irrigation, industrial, hydropower, recreational, and other uses both in the countries of their development and in other countries are undeniable, concerns on their negative impacts, such as high initial costs and damages to our ecosystems (e.g. river environment and species) and socio-economic fabric (e.g. relocation and socio-economic changes of affected people) have also been increasing in recent years. These have led to serious debates on the role of large-scale water projects in the developing world and on their future, but the often one-sided nature of such debates have inevitably failed to yield fruitful outcomes thus far. The present study aims to offer a far more balanced perspective on this issue. First, it recognizes and emphasizes the need for still additional large-scale water structures in the developing world in the future, due to the continuing increase in water demands, inefficiency in water use (especially in the agricultural sector), and absence of equivalent and reliable alternatives. Next, it reviews a few important success and failure stories of large-scale water projects in the developing world (and in the developed world), in an effort to arrive at a balanced view on the future role of such projects. Then, it discusses some major challenges in future water planning and management, with proper consideration to potential technological developments and new options. Finally, it highlights the urgent need for a broader framework that integrates the physical science-related aspects ("hard sciences") and the human science-related aspects ("soft sciences").

Time is an affliction: Why ecology cannot be as predictive as physics and why it needs time series

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boero, F.; Kraberg, A. C.; Krause, G.; Wiltshire, K. H.

2015-07-01

Ecological systems depend on both constraints and historical contingencies, both of which shape their present observable system state. In contrast to ahistorical systems, which are governed solely by constraints (i.e. laws), historical systems and their dynamics can be understood only if properly described, in the course of time. Describing these dynamics and understanding long-term variability can be seen as the mission of long time series measuring not only simple abiotic features but also complex biological variables, such as species diversity and abundances, allowing deep insights in the functioning of food webs and ecosystems in general. Long time-series are irreplaceable for understanding change, and crucially inherent system variability and thus envisaging future scenarios. This notwithstanding current policies in funding and evaluating scientific research discourage the maintenance of long term series, despite a clear need for long-term strategies to cope with climate change. Time series are crucial for a pursuit of the much invoked Ecosystem Approach and to the passage from simple monitoring programs of large-scale and long-term Earth observatories - thus promoting a better understanding of the causes and effects of change in ecosystems. The few ongoing long time series in European waters must be integrated and networked so as to facilitate the formation of nodes of a series of observatories which, together, should allow the long-term management of the features and characteristics of European waters. Human capacity building in this region of expertise and a stronger societal involvement are also urgently needed, since the expertise in recognizing and describing species and therefore recording them reliably in the context of time series is rapidly vanishing from the European Scientific community.

Astronomy in Iraq

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alsabti, A. W.

2006-08-01

The history of modern Iraqi astronomy is reviewed. During the early 1970's Iraqi astronomy witnessed significant growth through the introduction of the subject at university level and extensively within the school curriculum. In addition, astronomy was popularised in the media, a large planetarium was built in Baghdad, plus a smaller one in Basra. Late 1970 witnessed the construction of the Iraqi National Observatory at Mount Korek in Iraqi Kurdistan. The core facilities of the Observatory included 3.5-meter and 1.25-meter optical telescopes, and a 30-meter radio telescope for millimetre wavelength astronomy. The Iraqi Astronomical Society was founded and Iraq joined the IAU in 1976. During the regime of Saddam Hussain in the 1980's, the Observatory was attacked by Iranian artillery during the Iraq-Iran war, and then again during the second Gulf war by the US air force. Years of sanctions during the 1990's left Iraq cut off from the rest of the international scientific community. Subscriptions to astronomical journals were halted and travel to conferences abroad was virtually non-existent. Most senior astronomers left the country for one reason or another. Support from expatriate Iraqi astronomers existed (and still exists) however, this is not sufficient. Recent changes in Iraq, and the fall of Saddam's regime, has meant that scientific communication with the outside world has resumed to a limited degree. The Ministry of Higher Education in Baghdad, Baghdad University and the Iraqi National Academy of Science, have all played active roles in re-establishing Iraqi astronomy and re-building the damaged Observatory at Mount Korek. More importantly the University of Sallahudin in Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, has taken particular interest in astronomy and the Observatory. Organized visits to the universities, and also to the Observatory, have given us a first-hand assessment of the scale of the damage to the Observatory, as well as the needs of astronomy teaching and research. Joint supervision for postgraduate level research was organized between local and Iraqi expatriate astronomers. The IAU was among the first international organizations to offer assistance. Many observatories worldwide have also given support. Plans will be proposed for re-building the Observatory, supporting teaching and research, and establishing an institute for astronomy in Erbil, together with further suggestions on how the international astronomical community can assist Iraqi astronomers.

Data Integration: Charting a Path Forward to 2035

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-02-14

New York, NY: Gotham Books, 2004. Seligman , Len. Mitre Corporation, e-mail interview, 6 Dec 2010. Singer, P.W. Wired for War: The Robotics...articles.aspx (accessed 4 Dec 2010). Ultra-Large-Scale Systems: The Software Challenge of the Future. Study lead Linda Northrup. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie...Virtualization?‖ 1. 41 Ultra-Large-Scale Systems: The Software Challenge of the Future. Study lead Linda Northrup. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon Software

Ocean Networks Canada's "Big Data" Initiative

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dewey, R. K.; Hoeberechts, M.; Moran, K.; Pirenne, B.; Owens, D.

2013-12-01

Ocean Networks Canada operates two large undersea observatories that collect, archive, and deliver data in real time over the Internet. These data contribute to our understanding of the complex changes taking place on our ocean planet. Ocean Networks Canada's VENUS was the world's first cabled seafloor observatory to enable researchers anywhere to connect in real time to undersea experiments and observations. Its NEPTUNE observatory is the largest cabled ocean observatory, spanning a wide range of ocean environments. Most recently, we installed a new small observatory in the Arctic. Together, these observatories deliver "Big Data" across many disciplines in a cohesive manner using the Oceans 2.0 data management and archiving system that provides national and international users with open access to real-time and archived data while also supporting a collaborative work environment. Ocean Networks Canada operates these observatories to support science, innovation, and learning in four priority areas: study of the impact of climate change on the ocean; the exploration and understanding the unique life forms in the extreme environments of the deep ocean and below the seafloor; the exchange of heat, fluids, and gases that move throughout the ocean and atmosphere; and the dynamics of earthquakes, tsunamis, and undersea landslides. To date, the Ocean Networks Canada archive contains over 130 TB (collected over 7 years) and the current rate of data acquisition is ~50 TB per year. This data set is complex and diverse. Making these "Big Data" accessible and attractive to users is our priority. In this presentation, we share our experience as a "Big Data" institution where we deliver simple and multi-dimensional calibrated data cubes to a diverse pool of users. Ocean Networks Canada also conducts extensive user testing. Test results guide future tool design and development of "Big Data" products. We strive to bridge the gap between the raw, archived data and the needs and experience of a diverse user community, each requiring tailored data visualization and integrated products. By doing this we aim to design tools that maximize exploitation of the data.

Ozone-Depleting Gases in the Atmosphere: Results From 28 Years of Measurements by the NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (CMDL)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hurst, D. F.; Elkins, J. W.; Montzka, S. A.; Butler, J. H.; Dutton, G. S.; Hall, B. D.; Mondeel, D. J.; Moore, F. L.; Nance, J. D.; Romashkin, P. A.; Thompson, T. M.

2005-12-01

Back in 1978, NOAA/CMDL initiated the weekly filling of flasks at CMDL observatories in Alaska, Hawaii, American Samoa, and Antarctica for analyses of CFC-11, CFC-12 and N2O in the home laboratory. A decade later, each observatory was outfitted with an automated gas chromatograph to make routine, in situ measurements of these three source gases plus methyl chloroform and carbon tetrachloride. Both measurement programs are ongoing, having expanded over the years to include methyl halides and substitutes for regulated halocarbons, to presently account for 95% of the total burden of long-lived Cl and Br believed to enter the stratosphere. These long-term monitoring data have been assimilated into temporal records of the global tropospheric burdens of ozone-depleting chlorine and bromine which are critical input to models that predict future trends in stratospheric ozone. Other information pivotal to ozone projections, such as the atmospheric lifetimes of source gases, stratospheric entry values for total chlorine and total bromine, and identification of the stratospheric sink regions for long-lived source gases, has been gained from in situ measurements by NOAA/CMDL instruments aboard NASA high-altitude aircraft (ER-2 and WB-57) and balloons since 1991. Though CMDL's routine monitoring activities provide important historical records of halogenated source gases in the atmosphere, significant inaccuracies in ozone projections may propagate from the uncertain estimates of impending emissions of ozone-depleting gases. Scenarios of future halocarbon emissions require substantial assumptions about past and pending compliance with the Montreal Protocol, and the sizes and release rates of existing global reservoirs (banks) of halocarbons. Recent work by CMDL has focused on quantifying halocarbon bank emission rates in Russia, the USA, and Canada through geographically extensive measurements aboard trains and low-altitude aircraft. The USA and Canada results indicate that globally significant emissions continued to emanate from these two countries in 2003, more than 7 years after the Montreal Protocol-mandated production phase-out. Large-scale, measurement-based emission estimates such as these provide important checks of our understanding of contemporary halocarbon emissions and will undoubtedly help to improve the accuracy of projected future halocarbon abundances and ozone recovery rates.

Latitudinal variability of large-scale coronal temperature and its association with the density and the global magnetic field

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guhathakurta, M.; Fisher, R. R.

1994-01-01

In this paper we utilize the latitiude distribution of the coronal temperature during the period 1984-1992 that was derived in a paper by Guhathakurta et al, 1993, utilizing ground-based intensity observations of the green (5303 A Fe XIV) and red (6374 A Fe X) coronal forbidden lines from the National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak, and establish it association with the global magnetic field and the density distributions in the corona. A determination of plasma temperature, T, was estimated from the intensity ratio Fe X/Fe XIV (where T is inversely proportional to the ratio), since both emission lines come from ionized states of Fe, and the ratio is only weakly dependent on density. We observe that there is a large-scale organization of the inferred coronal temperature distribution that is associated with the large-scale, weak magnetic field structures and bright coronal features; this organization tends to persist through most of the magnetic activity cycle. These high-temperature structures exhibit time-space characteristics which are similar to those of the polar crown filaments. This distribution differs in spatial and temporal characterization from the traditional picture of sunspot and active region evolution over the range of the sunspot cycle, which are manifestations of the small-scale, strong magnetic field regions.

ESO PR Highlights in 2000

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2001-01-01

At the beginning of the new millennium, ESO and its staff are facing the future with confidence. The four 8.2-m Unit Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) are in great shape and the VLT Interferometer (VLTI) will soon have "first fringes". The intercontinental ALMA project is progressing well and concepts for extremely large optical/infrared telescopes are being studied. They can also look back at a fruitful and rewarding past year. Perhaps the most important, single development has been the rapid transition of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). From being a "high-tech project under construction" it has now become a highly proficient, world-class astronomical observatory. This trend is clearly reflected in ESO's Press Releases , as more and more front-line scientific results emerge from rich data obtained at this very efficient facility. There were also exciting news from several of the instruments at La Silla. At the same time, the ESO community may soon grow, as steps towards membership are being taken by various European countries. Throughout 2000, a total of 54 PR communications were made, with a large number of Press Photos and Video Clips, cf. the 2000 PR Index. Some of the ESO PR highlights may be accessed directly via the clickable image on the present page. ESO PR Photo 01/01 is also available in a larger (non-clickable) version [ JPEG: 566 x 566 pix - 112k]. It may be reproduced, if credit is given to the European Southern Observatory.

NASA's Future X-ray Missions: From Constellation-X to Generation-X

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hornschemeier, A.

2006-01-01

Among the most important topics in modern astrophysics are the formation and evolution of supermassive black holes in concert with galaxy bulges, the nature of the dark energy equation of state, and the self-regulating symmetry imposed by both stellar and AGN feedback. All of these topics are readily addressed with observations at X-ray wavelengths. NASA's next major X-ray observatory is Constellation-X, which is being developed to perform spatially resolved high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy. Con-X will directly measure the physical properties of material near black holes' last stable orbits and the absolute element abundances and velocities of hot gas in clusters of galaxies. The Con-X mission will be described, as well as its successor, Generation-X (anticipated to fly approx.1 decade after Con-X). After describing these missions and their driving science areas, the talk will focus on areas in which Chandra observing programs may enable science with future X-ray observatories. These areas include a possible ultra-deep Chandra imaging survey as an early Universe pathfinder, a large program to spatially resolve the hot intracluster medium of massive clusters to aid dark energy measurements, and possible deep spectroscopic observations to aid in preparatory theoretical atomic physics work needed for interpreting Con-X spectra.

Christodoulou Memory of GW150914 - Prospects of Detection in LIGO and Future Detectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, Aaron; Kapadia, Shasvath; Kennefick, Daniel

2017-01-01

The event GW150914 produced strains of the order 10-21 in the two instruments comprising the Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO). The event has been interpreted as originating in a coalescing black hole binary, with individual components of about 30 solar masses each. A striking aspect of the coalescence deduced from the signal is the emission of 3 solar masses of energy in the oscillating gravitational wave. Theory predicts a DC component of the gravitational signal associated with the emission of such large amounts of gravitational wave energy known as the Christodoulou memory. The memory, as a non-linear component of the signal, is expected to be an order of magnitude smaller than the amplitude of the primary AC component of the gravitational waves. We discuss the prospects of detecting the Christodoulou memory in similar future signals, both with LIGO and with other detectors, including future space-based instruments.

The Plate Boundary Observatory Cascadia Network: Development and Installation of a Large Scale Real-time GPS Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Austin, K. E.; Blume, F.; Berglund, H. T.; Feaux, K.; Gallaher, W. W.; Hodgkinson, K. M.; Mattioli, G. S.; Mencin, D.

2014-12-01

The EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO), through a NSF-ARRA supplement, has enhanced the geophysical infrastructure in in the Pacific Northwest by upgrading a total of 282 Plate Boundary Observatory GPS stations to allow the collection and distribution of high-rate (1 Hz), low-latency (<1 s) data streams (RT-GPS). These upgraded stations supplemented the original 100 RT-GPS stations in the PBO GPS network. The addition of the new RT-GPS sites in Cascadia should spur new volcano and earthquake research opportunities in an area of great scientific interest and high geophysical hazard. Streaming RT-GPS data will enable researchers to detect and investigate strong ground motion during large geophysical events, including a possible plate-interface earthquake, which has implications for earthquake hazard mitigation. A Mw 6.9 earthquake occurred on March 10, 2014, off the coast of northern California. As a response, UNAVCO downloaded high-rate GPS data from Plate Boundary Observatory stations within 500 km of the epicenter of the event, providing a good test of network performance.In addition to the 282 stations upgraded to real-time, 22 new meteorological instruments were added to existing PBO stations. Extensive testing of BGAN satellite communications systems has been conducted to support the Cascadia RT-GPS upgrades and the installation of three BGAN satellite fail over systems along the Cascadia margin will allow for the continuation of data flow in the event of a loss of primary communications during in a large geophysical event or other interruptions in commercial cellular networks. In summary, with these additional upgrades in the Cascadia region, the PBO RT-GPS network will increase to 420 stations. Upgrades to the UNAVCO data infrastructure included evaluation and purchase of the Trimble Pivot Platform, servers, and additional hardware for archiving the high rate data, as well as testing and implementation of GLONASS and Trimble RTX positioning on the receivers. UNAVCO staff is working closely with the UNAVCO community to develop data standards, protocols, and a science plan for the use of RT-GPS data.

The diverse utility of ground-based magnetometer data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Love, J. J.

2012-12-01

The global network of magnetic observatories represents a unique collective asset for the scientific community. Since observatory data record a wide range of physical phenomena, they are also used for a wide range of applications. Historically, magnetic observatories were first established in the 19th century to support global magnetic-field mapping projects, and this application continues to be important today. But since the dawn of the space age and the International Geophysical Year, observatory data have become important for research analysis of the ionosphere, the magnetosphere, and, indirectly, the heliosphere. Over the past couple of solar cycles, magnetic observatories have also played an important role in real-time operational monitoring of the changing conditions of space weather and assessment of ground-level geomagnetic hazards. This diversification and expansion of the observatory-data user community has brought demands for data that meet new and more stringent standards. In cooperation with the many institutes that support magnetic observatories, INTERMAGNET has been helping to coordinate and facilitate observatory modernization and improved operation. In this presentation, we give an overview of the diversity of signals recorded in observatory data, including secular, quiet, storm-time, and solar-cycle variations. We discuss future opportunities, especially for global integration and data sharing.

Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yeaman, Andrew R. J.

Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI), the state-of-the-art production techniques for computer chips, promises such powerful, inexpensive computing that, in the future, people will be able to communicate with computer devices in natural language or even speech. However, before full-scale VLSI implementation can occur, certain salient factors must be…

Deployment of the Oklahoma borehole seismic experiment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Harben, P.E.; Rock, D.W.

1989-01-20

This paper discusses the Oklahoma borehole seismic experiment, currently in operation, set up by members of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Treaty Verification Program and the Oklahoma Geophysical Observatory to determine deep-borehole seismic characteristics in geology typical of large regions in the Soviet Union. We evaluated and logged an existing 772-m deep borehole on the Observatory site by running caliper, cement bonding, casing inspection, and hole-deviation logs. Two Teledyne Geotech borehole-clamping seismometers were placed at various depths and spacings in the deep borehole. Currently, they are deployed at 727 and 730 m. A Teledyne Geotech shallow-borehole seismometer was mounted inmore » a 4.5-m hole, one meter from the deep borehole. The seismometers' system coherency were tested and found to be excellent to 35 Hz. We have recorded seismic noise, quarry blasts, regional earthquakes and teleseisms in the present configuration. We will begin a study of seismic noise and attenuation as a function of depth in the near future. 7 refs., 18 figs.« less

A full year of snow on sea ice observations and simulations - Plans for MOSAiC 2019/20

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicolaus, M.; Geland, S.; Perovich, D. K.

2017-12-01

The snow cover on sea on sea ice dominates many exchange processes and properties of the ice covered polar oceans. It is a major interface between the atmosphere and the sea ice with the ocean underneath. Snow on sea ice is known for its extraordinarily large spatial and temporal variability from micro scales and minutes to basin wide scales and decades. At the same time, snow cover properties and even snow depth distributions are among the least known and most difficult to observe climate variables. Starting in October 2019 and ending in October 2020, the international MOSAiC drift experiment will allow to observe the evolution of a snow pack on Arctic sea ice over a full annual cycle. During the drift with one ice floe along the transpolar drift, we will study snow processes and interactions as one of the main topics of the MOSAiC research program. Thus we will, for the first time, be able to perform such studies on seasonal sea ice and relate it to previous expeditions and parallel observations at different locations. Here we will present the current status of our planning of the MOSAiC snow program. We will summarize the latest implementation ideas to combine the field observations with numerical simulations. The field program will include regular manual observations and sampling on the main floe of the central observatory, autonomous recordings in the distributed network, airborne observations in the surrounding of the central observatory, and retrievals of satellite remote sensing products. Along with the field program, numerical simulations of the MOSAiC snow cover will be performed on different scales, including large-scale interaction with the atmosphere and the sea ice. The snow studies will also bridge between the different disciplines, including physical, chemical, biological, and geochemical measurements, samples, and fluxes. The main challenge of all measurements will be to accomplish the description of the full annual cycle.

Telepresence and real-time data transmission from Axial Seamount: implications for education and community engagement utilizing the OOI-RSN cabled observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fundis, A. T.; Kelley, D. S.; Sautter, L. R.; Proskurowski, G.; Kawka, O.; Delaney, J. R.

2011-12-01

Axial Seamount, the most robust volcanic system on the Juan de Fuca Ridge, is a future site of the cabled observatory component of the National Science Foundation's Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) (see Delaney et al; Proskurowski et al., this meeting). In 2014, high-bandwidth data, high-definition video and digital still imagery will be streamed live from the cable observatory at Axial Seamount via the Internet to researchers, educators, and the public. The real-time data and high-speed communications stream will open new approaches for the onshore public and scientists to experience and engage in sea-going research as it is happening. For the next 7 years, the University of Washington and the OOI will collaboratively support an annual multi-week cruise aboard the research vessel Thomas G. Thompson. These "VISIONS" cruises will include scientific and maintenance operations related to the cabled network, the OOI Regional Scale Nodes (RSN). Leading up to 2014, VISIONS cruises will also be used to engage students, educators, scientists and the public in science focused at Axial Seamount through avenues that will be adaptable for the live data stream via the OOI-RSN cable. Here we describe the education and outreach efforts employed during the VISIONS'11 cruise to Axial Seamount including: 1) a live HD video stream from the seafloor and the ship to onshore scientists, educators, and the public; 2) a pilot program to teach undergraduates from the ship via live and taped broadcasts; 3) utilizing social media from the ship to communicate with scientists, educators, and the public onshore; and 4) providing undergraduate and graduate students onboard immersion into sea-going research. The 2011 eruption at Axial Seamount (see Chadwick et al., this meeting) is a prime example of the potential behind having these effective tools in place to engage the scientific community, students, and the public when the OOI cabled observatory comes online in 2014.

Ada training evaluation and recommendations from the Gamma Ray Observatory Ada Development Team

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1985-01-01

The Ada training experiences of the Gamma Ray Observatory Ada development team are related, and recommendations are made concerning future Ada training for software developers. Training methods are evaluated, deficiencies in the training program are noted, and a recommended approach, including course outline, time allocation, and reference materials, is offered.

Optics Developments for X-Ray Astronomy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramsey, Brian

2014-01-01

X-ray optics has revolutionized x-ray astronomy. The degree of background suppression that these afford, have led to a tremendous increase in sensitivity. The current Chandra observatory has the same collecting area (approx. 10(exp 3)sq cm) as the non-imaging UHURU observatory, the first x-ray observatory which launched in 1970, but has 5 orders of magnitude more sensitivity due to its focusing optics. In addition, its 0.5 arcsec angular resolution has revealed a wealth of structure in many cosmic x-ray sources. The Chandra observatory achieved its resolution by using relatively thick pieces of Zerodur glass, which were meticulously figured and polished to form the four-shell nested array. The resulting optical assembly weighed around 1600 kg, and cost approximately $0.5B. The challenge for future x-ray astronomy missions is to greatly increase the collecting area (by one or more orders of magnitude) while maintaining high angular resolution, and all within realistic mass and budget constraints. A review of the current status of US optics for x-ray astronomy will be provided along with the challenges for future developments.

The Large Ring Laser G for Continuous Earth Rotation Monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schreiber, K. U.; Klügel, T.; Velikoseltsev, A.; Schlüter, W.; Stedman, G. E.; Wells, J.-P. R.

2009-09-01

Ring Laser gyroscopes exploit the Sagnac effect and measure rotations absolute. They do not require an external reference frame and therefore provide an independent method to monitor Earth rotation. Large-scale versions of these gyroscopes promise to eventually provide a similar high resolution for the measurement of the variations in the Earth rotation rate as the established methods based on VLBI and GNSS. This would open the door to a continuous monitoring of LOD (Length of Day) and polar motion, which is not yet available today. Another advantage is the access to the sub-daily frequency regime of Earth rotation. The ring laser “G” (Grossring), located at the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell (Germany) is the most advanced realization of such a large gyroscope. This paper outlines the current sensor design and properties.

Hydrogen Epoch of Reinozation Array (HERA) Calibrated FFT Correlator Simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salazar, Jeffrey David; Parsons, Aaron

2018-01-01

The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) project is an astronomical radio interferometer array with a redundant baseline configuration. Interferometer arrays are being used widely in radio astronomy because they have a variety of advantages over single antenna systems. For example, they produce images (visibilities) closely matching that of a large antenna (such as the Arecibo observatory), while both the hardware and maintenance costs are significantly lower. However, this method has some complications; one being the computational cost of correlating data from all of the antennas. A correlator is an electronic device that cross-correlates the data between the individual antennas; these are what radio astronomers call visibilities. HERA, being in its early stages, utilizes a traditional correlator system. The correlator cost scales as N2, where N is the number of antennas in the array. The purpose of a redundant baseline configuration array setup is for the use of a more efficient Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) correlator. FFT correlators scale as Nlog2N. The data acquired from this sort of setup, however, inherits geometric delay and uncalibrated antenna gains. This particular project simulates the process of calibrating signals from astronomical sources. Each signal “received” by an antenna in the simulation is given random antenna gain and geometric delay. The “linsolve” Python module was used to solve for the unknown variables in the simulation (complex gains and delays), which then gave a value for the true visibilities. This first version of the simulation only mimics a one dimensional redundant telescope array detecting a small amount of sources located in the volume above the antenna plane. Future versions, using GPUs, will handle a two dimensional redundant array of telescopes detecting a large amount of sources in the volume above the array.

Ocean Surface Temperature Response to Atmosphere-Ocean Interaction of the MJO: A Component of Coupled Air-Wave-Sea Processes in the Subtropics Department Research Initiative

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-30

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University Ocean and Climate Physics Division 61 Route 9W Palisades , NY 10964 Phone: (845) 365-8547...Route 9W Palisades , NY 10964 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S...convective cells in the region as seen in the S-Pol. The robust large-scale temperature gradient of nearly 1°C is real with window and atmosphere

Astronomical Archive at Tartu Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Annuk, K.

2007-10-01

Archiving astronomical data is important task not only at large observatories but also at small observatories. Here we describe the astronomical archive at Tartu Observatory. The archive consists of old photographic plate images, photographic spectrograms, CCD direct--images and CCD spectroscopic data. The photographic plate digitizing project was started in 2005. An on-line database (based on MySQL) was created. The database includes CCD data as well photographic data. A PHP-MySQL interface was written for access to all data.

Using Websites to Convey Scientific Uncertainties for Volcanic Processes and Potential Hazards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Venezky, D. Y.; Lowenstern, J. B.; Hill, D. P.

2005-12-01

The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) and Long Valley Observatory (LVO) websites have greatly increased the public's awareness and access to information about scientific uncertainties for volcanic processes by communicating at multiple levels of understanding and varied levels of detail. Our websites serve a broad audience ranging from visitors unaware of the calderas, to lay volcano enthusiasts, to scientists, federal agencies, and emergency managers. Both Yellowstone and Long Valley are highly visited tourist attractions with histories of caldera-forming eruptions large enough to alter global climate temporarily. Although it is much more likely that future activity would be on a small scale at either volcano, we are constantly posed questions about low-probability, high-impact events such as the caldera-forming eruption depicted in the recent BBC/Discovery movie, "Supervolcano". YVO and LVO website objectives include: providing monitoring data, explaining the likelihood of future events, summarizing research results, helping media provide reliable information, and expanding on information presented by the media. Providing detailed current information is a crucial website component as the public often searches online to augment information gained from often cryptic pronouncements by the media. In May 2005, for example, YVO saw an order of magnitude increase in page requests on the day MSNBC ran the misleading headline, "Yellowstone eruption threat high." The headline referred not to current events but a general rating of Yellowstone as one of 37 "high threat" volcanoes in the USGS National Volcano Early Warning System report. As websites become a more dominant source of information, we continuously revise our communication plans to make the most of this evolving medium. Because the internet gives equal access to all information providers, we find ourselves competing with various "doomsday" websites that sensationalize and distort the current understanding of natural systems. For example, many sites highlight a miscalculated repose period for caldera-forming eruptions at Yellowstone and conclude that a catastrophic eruption is overdue. Recent revisions on the YVO website have discussed how intervals are calculated and why the commonly quoted values are incorrect. Our aim is to reduce confusion by providing clear, simple explanations that highlight the process by which scientists reach conclusions and calculate associated uncertainties.

Prospects for Future Synergies Between SKA and AtLAST

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wagg, Jeff

2018-01-01

The Square Kilometre Array will be the next major global radio astronomy observatory. Being built in two phases, the first phase will consist of a low frequency array in Australia and a mid to high frequency array of dishes in the Karoo of South Africa. The design of SKA1 is nearly complete with the expectation that construction should begin within the next two years. A significant fraction of the observing time on both SKA1-MID and SKA1-LOW will likely be devoted to large survey programmes covering a broad range of science objectives. Given the timeline for these SKA1 programmes to be completed, it is anticipated that they could naturally complement future high frequency surveys using AtLAST. I will highlight a few areas where such synergies should exist.

JHelioviewer. Time-dependent 3D visualisation of solar and heliospheric data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Müller, D.; Nicula, B.; Felix, S.; Verstringe, F.; Bourgoignie, B.; Csillaghy, A.; Berghmans, D.; Jiggens, P.; García-Ortiz, J. P.; Ireland, J.; Zahniy, S.; Fleck, B.

2017-09-01

Context. Solar observatories are providing the world-wide community with a wealth of data, covering wide time ranges (e.g. Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO), multiple viewpoints (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory, STEREO), and returning large amounts of data (Solar Dynamics Observatory, SDO). In particular, the large volume of SDO data presents challenges; the data are available only from a few repositories, and full-disk, full-cadence data for reasonable durations of scientific interest are difficult to download, due to their size and the download rates available to most users. From a scientist's perspective this poses three problems: accessing, browsing, and finding interesting data as efficiently as possible. Aims: To address these challenges, we have developed JHelioviewer, a visualisation tool for solar data based on the JPEG 2000 compression standard and part of the open source ESA/NASA Helioviewer Project. Since the first release of JHelioviewer in 2009, the scientific functionality of the software has been extended significantly, and the objective of this paper is to highlight these improvements. Methods: The JPEG 2000 standard offers useful new features that facilitate the dissemination and analysis of high-resolution image data and offers a solution to the challenge of efficiently browsing petabyte-scale image archives. The JHelioviewer software is open source, platform independent, and extendable via a plug-in architecture. Results: With JHelioviewer, users can visualise the Sun for any time period between September 1991 and today; they can perform basic image processing in real time, track features on the Sun, and interactively overlay magnetic field extrapolations. The software integrates solar event data and a timeline display. Once an interesting event has been identified, science quality data can be accessed for in-depth analysis. As a first step towards supporting science planning of the upcoming Solar Orbiter mission, JHelioviewer offers a virtual camera model that enables users to set the vantage point to the location of a spacecraft or celestial body at any given time.

Tenth International Colloquium on UV and X-Ray Spectroscopy of Astrophysical and Laboratory Plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silver, Eric H.; Kahn, Steven M.

UV and X-ray spectroscopy of astrophysical and laboratory plasmas draws interest from many disciplines. Contributions from international specialists are collected together in this book from a timely recent conference. In astrophysics, the Hubble Space Telescope, Astro 1 and ROSAT observatories are now providing UV and X-ray spectra and images of cosmic sources in unprecedented detail, while the Yohkoh mission recently collected superb data on the solar corona. In the laboratory, the development of ion-trap facilities and novel laser experiments are providing vital new data on high temperature plasmas. Recent innovations in the technology of spectroscopic instrumentation are discussed. These papers constitute an excellent up-to-date review of developments in short-wavelength spectroscopy and offer a solid introduction to its theoretical and experimental foundations. These proceedings give an up-to-date review of developments in short-wavelength spectroscopy and offer a solid introduction to its theoretical and experimental foundations. Various speakers presented some of the first results from the high resolution spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope, the high sensitivity far ultraviolet and X-ray spectrometers of the ASTRO 1 Observatory, the imaging X-ray spectrometer on the ROSAT Observatory, and the high resolution solar X-ray spectrometer on Yohkoh. The development of ion trap devices had brought about a revolution in laboratory investigations of atomic processes in highly charged atoms. X-ray laser experiments had not only yielded considerable insight into electron ion interactions in hot dense plasmas, but also demonstrated the versatility of laser plasmas as laboratory X-ray sources. Such measurements also motivated and led to refinements in the development of large-scale atomic and molecular codes. On the instrumental side, the design and development of the next series of very powerful short wavelength observatories had generated a large number of technological innovations in both dispersive and nondispersive spectroscopic instrumentation.

High-resolution Earth-based lunar radar studies: Applications to lunar resource assessment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stacy, N. J. S.; Campbell, D. B.

1992-01-01

The lunar regolith will most likely be a primary raw material for lunar base construction and resource extraction. High-resolution radar observations of the Moon provide maps of radar backscatter that have intensity variations generally controlled by the local slope, material, and structural properties of the regolith. The properties that can be measured by the radar system include the dielectric constant, density, loss tangent, and wavelength scale roughness. The radar systems currently in operation at several astronomical observatories provide the ability to image the lunar surface at spatial resolutions approaching 30 m at 3.8 cm and 12.6 cm wavelengths and approximately 500 m at 70 cm wavelength. The radar signal penetrates the lunar regolith to a depth of 10-20 wavelengths so the measured backscatter contains contributions from the vacuum-regolith interface and from wavelength-scale heterogeneities in the electrical properties of the subsurface material. The three wavelengths, which are sensitive to different scale structures and scattering volumes, provide complementary information on the regolith properties. Aims of the previous and future observations include (1) analysis of the scattering properties associated with fresh impact craters, impact crater rays, and mantled deposits; (2) analysis of high-incidence-angle observations of the lunar mare to investigate measurement of the regolith dielectric constant and hence porosity; (3) investigation of interferometric techniques using two time-delayed observations of the same site, observations that require a difference in viewing geometry less than 0.05 deg and, hence, fortuitous alignment of the Earth-Moon system when visible from Arecibo Observatory.

Contributions of the "Great" X-Ray Observatories (XMM-Newton and Chandra) to Astronomy and Astrophysics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weisskopf, Martin

2011-01-01

NASA s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA s XMM-Newton made their first observations over a decade ago. The unprecedented and complementary capabilities of these observatories to detect, image, and measure the energy of cosmic X-rays, achieved less than 50 years after the first detection of an extra-solar X-ray source, represent an increase in sensitivity comparable in going from naked-eye observations to the most powerful optical telescopes over the past 400 years. In this presentation we highlight some of the many discoveries made using these powerful X-ray observatories that have transformed 21st century astronomy. We briefly discuss future prospects for this truly exciting field.

Interferometry in the Era of Very Large Telescopes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barry, Richard K.

2010-01-01

Research in modern stellar interferometry has focused primarily on ground-based observatories, with very long baselines or large apertures, that have benefited from recent advances in fringe tracking, phase reconstruction, adaptive optics, guided optics, and modern detectors. As one example, a great deal of effort has been put into development of ground-based nulling interferometers. The nulling technique is the sparse aperture equivalent of conventional coronography used in filled aperture telescopes. In this mode the stellar light itself is suppressed by a destructive fringe, effectively enhancing the contrast of the circumstellar material located near the star. Nulling interferometry has helped to advance our understanding of the astrophysics of many distant objects by providing the spatial resolution necessary to localize the various faint emission sources near bright objects. We illustrate the current capabilities of this technique by describing the first scientific results from the Keck Interferometer Nuller that combines the light from the two largest optical telescopes in the world including new, unpublished measurements of exozodiacal dust disks. We discuss prospects in the near future for interferometry in general, the capabilities of secondary masking interferometry on very large telescopes, and of nulling interferometry using outriggers on very large telescopes. We discuss future development of a simplified space-borne NIR nulling architecture, the Fourier-Kelvin Stellar Interferometer, capable of detecting and characterizing an Earth twin in the near future and how such a mission would benefit from the optical wavelength coverage offered by large, ground-based instruments.

Projections of meteorological and snow conditions in the Pyrenees using adjusted EURO-CORDEX climate projections

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verfaillie, Deborah; Déqué, Michel; Morin, Samuel; Soubeyroux, Jean-Michel; Lafaysse, Matthieu

2017-04-01

Current and future availability of seasonal snow is a recurring topic in mountain regions such as the Pyrenees, where winter tourism and hydropower production are large contributors to the regional revenues in France, Spain and Andorra. Associated changes in river discharges, their consequences on water storage management, the future vulnerability of Pyrenean ecosystems as well as the occurrence of climate-related hazards such as debris flows and avalanches are also under consideration. However, to generate projections of snow conditions, a traditional dynamical downscaling approach featuring spatial resolutions typically between 10 and 50 km is not sufficient to capture the fine-scale processes and thresholds at play. Indeed, the altitudinal resolution matters, since the phase of precipitation is mainly controlled by the temperature which is altitude-dependent. Moreover, simulations from general circulation models (GCMs) and regional climate models (RCMs) suffer from biases compared to local observations, and often provide outputs at too coarse time resolution to drive impact models. RCM simulations must therefore be adjusted before they can be used to drive specific models such as land surface models. In this study, time series of hourly temperature, precipitation, wind speed, humidity, and short- and longwave radiation were generated over the Pyrenees for the period 1950-2100, by using a new approach (named ADAMONT for ADjustment of RCM outputs to MOuNTain regions) based on quantile mapping applied to daily data, followed by time disaggregation accounting for weather patterns selection. Meteorological observations used for the quantile mapping consist of the regional scale reanalysis SAFRAN, which operates at the scale of homogeneous areas on the order of 1000 km2 within which meteorological conditions vary only with elevation. SAFRAN combines large-scale NWP reanalysis (ERA40, ARPEGE) with in-situ meteorological observations. The SAFRAN reanalysis is available over the entire Pyrenean chain since 1980. Outputs from EURO-CORDEX simulations spanning 6 different RCMs forced by 6 different GCMs under 3 representative concentration pathways scenarios (RCP 2.6, 4.5 and 8.5) over Europe were downscaled at the massif scale and for 300 m elevation bands and statistically adjusted against the SAFRAN reanalysis. These corrected fields were then used to force the SURFEX/ISBA-Crocus land surface model over the Pyrenees. Here we present as an example a reanalysis and future projections (using adjusted EURO-CORDEX data) of meteorological and snow conditions obtained using this method at the site of La Mongie in the French Pyrenees, which we compare to in-situ observations carried out since the 1970s. These results further enable us to identify and apportion the main drivers for changes in snow conditions at the site, and the various uncertainty components at play. This work is a direct contribution of the French GICC ADAMONT project, and of the Interreg project "Clim'Py", aiming to develop the Pyrenean Observatory of Climate Change.

The most remote point method for the site selection of the future GGOS network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hase, Hayo; Pedreros, Felipe

2014-10-01

The Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) proposes 30-40 geodetic observatories as global infrastructure for the most accurate reference frame to monitor the global change. To reach this goal, several geodetic observatories have upgrade plans to become GGOS stations. Most initiatives are driven by national institutions following national interests. From a global perspective, the site distribution remains incomplete and the initiatives to improve this are up until now insufficient. This article is a contribution to answer the question on where to install new GGOS observatories and where to add observation techniques to existing observatories. It introduces the iterative most remote point (MRP) method for filling in the largest gaps in existing technique-specific networks. A spherical version of the Voronoi-diagram is used to pick the optimal location of the new observatory, but practical concerns determine its realistic location. Once chosen, the process is iterated. A quality and a homogeneity parameter of global networks measure the progress of improving the homogeneity of the global site distribution. This method is applied to the global networks of VGOS, and VGOS co-located with SLR to derive some clues about where additional observatory sites or additional observation techniques at existing observatories will improve the GGOS network configuration. With only six additional VGOS-stations, the homogeneity of the global VGOS-network could be significantly improved by more than . From the presented analysis, 25 known or new co-located VGOS and SLR sites are proposed as the future GGOS backbone: Colombo, Easter Island, Fairbanks, Fortaleza, Galapagos, GGAO, Hartebeesthoek, Honiara, Ibadan, Kokee Park, La Plata, Mauritius, McMurdo, Metsahövi, Ny Alesund, Riyadh, San Diego, Santa Maria, Shanghai, Syowa, Tahiti, Tristan de Cunha, Warkworth, Wettzell, and Yarragadee.

The Strasbourg Large Refractor and Dome: Significant Improvements and Failed Attempts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heck, Andre

2009-01-01

Founded by the German Empire in the late 19th century, Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory featured several novelties from the start. According to Mueller (1978), the separation of observing buildings from the study area and from the astronomers' residence was a revolution in observatory construction. The instruments were, as much as possible, isolated from the vibrations of the buildings themselves. "Gas flames" and water were used to reduce temperature effects. Thus the Large Dome (ca 11m diameter), housing the Large Refractor (ca 49cm, then the largest in Germany) and covered by zinc over wood, could be cooled down by water running from the top. Reports (including by the French who took over the observatory after World War I) are however somehow nonexistent on the effective usage and actual efficiency of such a system (which must have generated locally a significant amount of humidity). The paper will detail these technical attempts as well as the specificities of the instruments installed in that new observatory intended as a showcase of German astronomy.

An astronomical observatory for Peru

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

del Mar, Juan Quintanilla; Sicardy, Bruno; Giraldo, Víctor Ayma; Callo, Víctor Raúl Aguilar

2011-06-01

Peru and France are to conclude an agreement to provide Peru with an astronomical observatory equipped with a 60-cm diameter telescope. The principal aims of this project are to establish and develop research and teaching in astronomy. Since 2004, a team of researchers from Paris Observatory has been working with the University of Cusco (UNSAAC) on the educational, technical and financial aspects of implementing this venture. During an international astronomy conference in Cusco in July 2009, the foundation stone of the future Peruvian Observatory was laid at the top of Pachatusan Mountain. UNSAAC, represented by its Rector, together with the town of Oropesa and the Cusco regional authority, undertook to make the sum of 300,000€ available to the project. An agreement between Paris Observatory and UNSAAC now enables Peruvian students to study astronomy through online teaching.

NASA's search for the solar connection. I. [OSO Skylab, Solar Maximum Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chapman, R. W.

1979-01-01

NASA's solar research, which leans toward the study of the sun as a star, is surveyed. The Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO) program is covered, which yielded data such as spectras of 140-400 A wavelength of the entire solar disk. Attention is also given to the results obtained by Skylab, such as data showing that whenever a large coronal hole exists near the sun's equator, a stream of high-speed solar wind will be observed at the earth. Finally areas of future research, such as a concerted study of flare phenomenon, are discussed.

Ensuring the Enduring Viability of the Space Science Enterprise: New Questions, New Thinking, New Paradigms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arenberg, Jonathan; Conti, Alberto; Atkinson, Charles

2017-01-01

Pursuing ground breaking science in a highly cost and funding constrained environment presents new challenges to the development of future space astrophysics missions. Within the conventional cost models for large observatories, executing a flagship “mission after next” appears to be unstainable. To achieve our nation’s space astrophysics ambitions requires new paradigms in system design, development and manufacture. Implementation of this new paradigm requires that the space astrophysics community adopt new answers to a new set of questions. This paper will discuss the origins of these new questions and the steps to their answers.

The Metro Atlanta Solar System: A Southern Slice of the Sky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Pree, Christopher G.

2010-01-01

The Metro Atlanta Solar System (MASS) is a scale model solar system centered at the Bradley Observatory plaza on the campus of Agnes Scott College, a liberal arts women's college located in Decatur, GA. The MASS model was dedicated on September 11, 2009 in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA). One of the planets (Uranus) was installed at Hartsfield Jackson International Airport in May 2009 as part of the From Earth to the Universe (FETTU) exhibit that will be at the airport through the end of January 2010. MASS places scaled images of the planets at locations throughout the city, along their orbits at distances scaled to the size of a 30 foot diameter Sun (the observing plaza) located at Agnes Scott College. The planetary images are those from the airport FETTU exhibition, so the model serves as a way to connect the entire city of Atlanta to the airport images. In this model, 1 AU = 1 km. We discuss the planning, implementation and future uses of this model.

Subgrid Scale Modeling in Solar Convection Simulations using the ASH Code

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Young, Y.-N.; Miesch, M.; Mansour, N. N.

2003-01-01

The turbulent solar convection zone has remained one of the most challenging and important subjects in physics. Understanding the complex dynamics in the solar con- vection zone is crucial for gaining insight into the solar dynamo problem. Many solar observatories have generated revealing data with great details of large scale motions in the solar convection zone. For example, a strong di erential rotation is observed: the angular rotation is observed to be faster at the equator than near the poles not only near the solar surface, but also deep in the convection zone. On the other hand, due to the wide range of dynamical scales of turbulence in the solar convection zone, both theory and simulation have limited success. Thus, cutting edge solar models and numerical simulations of the solar convection zone have focused more narrowly on a few key features of the solar convection zone, such as the time-averaged di erential rotation. For example, Brun & Toomre (2002) report computational finding of differential rotation in an anelastic model for solar convection. A critical shortcoming in this model is that the viscous dissipation is based on application of mixing length theory to stellar dynamics with some ad hoc parameter tuning. The goal of our work is to implement the subgrid scale model developed at CTR into the solar simulation code and examine how the differential rotation will be a affected as a result. Specifically, we implement a Smagorinsky-Lilly subgrid scale model into the ASH (anelastic spherical harmonic) code developed over the years by various authors. This paper is organized as follows. In x2 we briefly formulate the anelastic system that describes the solar convection. In x3 we formulate the Smagorinsky-Lilly subgrid scale model for unstably stratifed convection. We then present some preliminary results in x4, where we also provide some conclusions and future directions.

Analysis of the ability of large-scale reanalysis data to define Siberian fire danger in preparation for future fire prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soja, Amber; Westberg, David; Stackhouse, Paul, Jr.; McRae, Douglas; Jin, Ji-Zhong; Sukhinin, Anatoly

2010-05-01

Fire is the dominant disturbance that precipitates ecosystem change in boreal regions, and fire is largely under the control of weather and climate. Fire frequency, fire severity, area burned and fire season length are predicted to increase in boreal regions under current climate change scenarios. Therefore, changes in fire regimes have the potential to compel ecological change, moving ecosystems more quickly towards equilibrium with a new climate. The ultimate goal of this research is to assess the viability of large-scale (1°) data to be used to define fire weather danger and fire regimes, so that large-scale data can be confidently used to predict future fire regimes using large-scale fire weather data, like that available from current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate change scenarios. In this talk, we intent to: (1) evaluate Fire Weather Indices (FWI) derived using reanalysis and interpolated station data; (2) discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using these distinct data sources; and (3) highlight established relationships between large-scale fire weather data, area burned, active fires and ecosystems burned. Specifically, the Canadian Forestry Service (CFS) Fire Weather Index (FWI) will be derived using: (1) NASA Goddard Earth Observing System version 4 (GEOS-4) large-scale reanalysis and NASA Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) data; and National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) surface station-interpolated data. Requirements of the FWI are local noon surface-level air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and daily (noon-noon) rainfall. GEOS-4 reanalysis and NCDC station-interpolated fire weather indices are generally consistent spatially, temporally and quantitatively. Additionally, increased fire activity coincides with increased FWI ratings in both data products. Relationships have been established between large-scale FWI to area burned, fire frequency, ecosystem types, and these can be use to estimate historic and future fire regimes.

Future changes in large-scale transport and stratosphere-troposphere exchange

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abalos, M.; Randel, W. J.; Kinnison, D. E.; Garcia, R. R.

2017-12-01

Future changes in large-scale transport are investigated in long-term (1955-2099) simulations of the Community Earth System Model - Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (CESM-WACCM) under an RCP6.0 climate change scenario. We examine artificial passive tracers in order to isolate transport changes from future changes in emissions and chemical processes. The model suggests enhanced stratosphere-troposphere exchange in both directions (STE), with decreasing tropospheric and increasing stratospheric tracer concentrations in the troposphere. Changes in the different transport processes are evaluated using the Transformed Eulerian Mean continuity equation, including parameterized convective transport. Dynamical changes associated with the rise of the tropopause height are shown to play a crucial role on future transport trends.

Characterization of a Double Mesospheric Bore Over Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, Steven M.; Stober, Gunter; Jacobi, Christoph; Chau, Jorge L.; Gerding, Michael; Mlynczak, Martin G.; Russell, James M.; Baumgardner, Jeffrey L.; Mendillo, Michael; Lazzarin, Monica; Umbriaco, Gabriel

2017-09-01

Observations of a pair of mesospheric bore disturbances that propagated through the nighttime mesosphere over Europe are presented. The observations were made at the Padua Observatory, Asiago (45.9°N, 11.5°E), by the Boston University all-sky imager on 11 March 2013. The bores appeared over the northwest horizon, approximately 30 min apart, and propagated toward the southeast. Using additional satellite and radar data, we present evidence indicating the bores originated in the mesosphere from a single, larger-scale mesospheric disturbance propagating through the mesopause region. Furthermore, the large-scale mesospheric disturbance appeared to be associated with an intense weather disturbance that moved southeastward over the United Kingdom and western Europe during 10 and 11 March.

Ad Astra Per Automobile

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peterson, C. C.; D'Alto, N.; Frambach, A.; Gaskill, M.; Hostetler, A. J.; Johnson, R.; Novy, R.

2005-05-01

There are professional research observatories open to the public across the United States. Many of these offer public tours, star parties, classes, lectures, and educational movies about astronomy. Lick Observatory, the oldest continually operated professional observatory in the world, lies just east of San Jose, California. It is home to planet searches and offers special summer evening programs. McDonald Observatory, near Fort Davis, Texas, offers a wide variety of visitor programs year-round, including Star Parties three nights per week. Green Bank radio observatory in the mountains of West Virginia is home to the 360 foot Byrd Radio Telescope. Visitors are welcome year round and they can visit the new Science Center and exhibits. Other observatories noted are Sacramento Peak near Cloud Croft, New Mexico, the Very Large Array near Socorro, New Mexico, Palomar near San Diego, California, Cincinnati Observatory and Historic Landmark, and Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

Continental Tele-connections of ET and Precipitation: Tractable Models, Viable Management, and Potential Monitoring.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Selker, J. S.; Higgins, C. W.; Tai, L. C. M.

2014-12-01

The linkage between large-scale manipulation of land cover and resulting patterns of precipitation has been a long-standing problem. For example, what is the impact of the Columbia River project's 2,700 km^2 irrigated area (applying approximately 300 m^3/s) on the down-wind continental rainfall in North America? Similarly, can we identify places on earth where planting large-scale runoff-reducing forests might increase down-wind precipitation, thus leading to magnified carbon capture? In this talk we present an analytical Lagrangian framework for the prediction of incremental increases in down-wind precipitation due to land surface evaporation and transpiration. We compare these predictions to recently published rainfall recycling values from the literature. Focus is on the Columbia basin (Pacific Northwest of hte USA), with extensions to East Africa. We further explore the monitoring requirements for verification of any such impact, and see if the planned TAHMO African Observatory (TAHMO.org) has the potential to document any such processes over the 25-year and 1,000 km scales.

The Little Thompson Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schweitzer, A. E.; VanLew, K.; Melsheimer, T.; Sackett, C.

1999-12-01

The Little Thompson Observatory is the second member of the Telescopes in Education (TIE) project. Construction of the dome and the remote control system has been completed, and the telescope is now on-line and operational over the Internet. The observatory is located on the grounds of Berthoud High School in northern Colorado. Local schools and youth organizations have prioritized access to the telescope, and there are monthly opportunities for public viewing. In the future, the telescope will be open after midnight to world-wide use by schools following the model of the first TIE observatory, the 24" telescope on Mt. Wilson. Students remotely connect to the observatory over the Internet, and then receive the images on their local computers. The observatory grew out of grassroots support from the local community surrounding Berthoud, Colorado, a town of 3,500 residents. TIE has provided the observatory with a Tinsley 18" Cassegrain telescope on a 10-year loan. The facility has been built with tremendous support from volunteers and the local school district. With funding from an IDEAS grant, we have begun teacher training workshops which will allow K-12 schools in northern Colorado to make use of the Little Thompson Observatory, including remote observing from classrooms.

Orbiting Geophysical Observatory Attitude Control Subsystem Design Survey. NASA/ERC Design Criteria Program, Guidance and Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mc Kenna, K. J.; Schmeichel, H.

1968-01-01

This design survey summarizes the history of the Orbiting Geophysical Observatories' (OGO) Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS) from the proposal phase through current flight experience. Problems encountered in design, fabrication, test, and on orbit are discussed. It is hoped that the experiences of the OGO program related here will aid future designers.

Milagro limits and HAWC sensitivity for the rate-density of evaporating primordial black holes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Abdo, A. A.; Abeysekara, A. U.; Alfaro, R.

Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) are gravitationally collapsed objects that may have been created by density fluctuations in the early universe and could have arbitrarily small masses down to the Planck scale. Hawking showed that due to quantum effects, a black hole has a temperature inversely proportional to its mass and will emit all species of fundamental particles thermally. PBHs with initial masses of ~ 5.0 × 10¹⁴ g should be expiring in the present epoch with bursts of high-energy particles, including gamma radiation in the GeV – TeV energy range. The Milagro high energy observatory, which operated from 2000 tomore » 2008, is sensitive to the high end of the PBH evaporation gamma-ray spectrum. Due to its large field-of-view, more than 90% duty cycle and sensitivity up to 100 TeV gamma rays, the Milagro observatory is well suited to perform a search for PBH bursts. Based on a search on the Milagro data, we report new PBH burst rate density upper limits over a range of PBH observation times. In addition, we report the sensitivity of the Milagro successor, the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, to PBH evaporation events.« less

Milagro limits and HAWC sensitivity for the rate-density of evaporating primordial black holes

DOE PAGES

Abdo, A. A.; Abeysekara, A. U.; Alfaro, R.; ...

2015-04-01

Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) are gravitationally collapsed objects that may have been created by density fluctuations in the early universe and could have arbitrarily small masses down to the Planck scale. Hawking showed that due to quantum effects, a black hole has a temperature inversely proportional to its mass and will emit all species of fundamental particles thermally. PBHs with initial masses of ~ 5.0 × 10¹⁴ g should be expiring in the present epoch with bursts of high-energy particles, including gamma radiation in the GeV – TeV energy range. The Milagro high energy observatory, which operated from 2000 tomore » 2008, is sensitive to the high end of the PBH evaporation gamma-ray spectrum. Due to its large field-of-view, more than 90% duty cycle and sensitivity up to 100 TeV gamma rays, the Milagro observatory is well suited to perform a search for PBH bursts. Based on a search on the Milagro data, we report new PBH burst rate density upper limits over a range of PBH observation times. In addition, we report the sensitivity of the Milagro successor, the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, to PBH evaporation events.« less

SOFIA: A Promising Resource for Future Nova Studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Helton, L. A.; Sofia Science Team

2014-12-01

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a 2.5-m telescope carried on board a Boeing 747-SP aircraft. Optimized for observations from infrared through sub-mm wavelengths, SOFIA observes from an altitude of 37,000 - 45,000 feet, above 99% of the atmospheric water vapor. The Observatory's complement of instruments possesses a broad range of capabilities, many of which are especially well suited for observations of classical novae, recurrent novae, and other cataclysmic variables. Here we present a selection of the instruments available on board SOFIA that may prove to be very useful for future novae studies.

Youth Science Ambassadors: Connecting Indigenous communities with Ocean Networks Canada tools to inspire future ocean scientists and marine resource managers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pelz, M.; Hoeberechts, M.; Hale, C.; McLean, M. A.

2017-12-01

This presentation describes Ocean Networks Canada's (ONC) Youth Science Ambassador Program. The Youth Science Ambassadors are a growing network of youth in Canadian coastal communities whose role is to connect ocean science, ONC data, and Indigenous knowledge. By directly employing Indigenous youth in communities in which ONC operates monitoring equipment, ONC aims to encourage wider participation and interest in ocean science and exploration. Further, the Youth Science Ambassadors act as role models and mentors to other local youth by highlighting connections between Indigenous and local knowledge and current marine science efforts. Ocean Networks Canada, an initiative of the University of Victoria, develops, operates, and maintains cabled ocean observatory systems. These include technologies developed on the world-leading NEPTUNE and VENUS observatories as well as community observatories in the Arctic and coastal British Columbia. These observatories, large and small, enable communities, users, scientists, teachers, and students to monitor real-time and historical data from the local marine environment from anywhere on the globe. Youth Science Ambassadors are part of the Learning and Engagement team whose role includes engaging Indigenous communities and schools in ocean science through ONC's K-12 Ocean Sense education program. All of the data collected by ONC are freely available over the Internet for non-profit use, including disaster planning, community-based decision making, and education. The Youth Science Ambassadors support collaboration with Indigenous communities and schools by facilitating educational programming, encouraging participation in ocean data collection and analysis, and fostering interest in ocean science. In addition, the Youth Science Ambassadors support community collaboration in decision-making for instrument deployment locations and identify ways in which ONC can help to address any areas of concern raised by the community. This presentation will share the successes and challenges of the Youth Science Ambassador program in engaging both rural and urban Indigenous communities. We will share activities and experiences, discuss how we have adapted to meet the needs of each community, and outline ideas we have for the future development of the program.

High-Level Location Based Search Services That Improve Discoverability of Geophysical Data in the Virtual ITM Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schaefer, R. K.; Morrison, D.; Potter, M.; Barnes, R. J.; Nylund, S. R.; Patrone, D.; Aiello, J.; Talaat, E. R.; Sarris, T.

2015-12-01

The great promise of Virtual Observatories is the ability to perform complex search operations across the metadata of a large variety of different data sets. This allows the researcher to isolate and select the relevant measurements for their topic of study. The Virtual ITM Observatory (VITMO) has many diverse geophysical datasets that cover a large temporal and spatial range that present a unique search problem. VITMO provides many methods by which the user can search for and select data of interest including restricting selections based on geophysical conditions (solar wind speed, Kp, etc) as well as finding those datasets that overlap in time. One of the key challenges in improving discoverability is the ability to identify portions of datasets that overlap in time and in location. The difficulty is that location data is not contained in the metadata for datasets produced by satellites and would be extremely large in volume if it were available, making searching for overlapping data very time consuming. To solve this problem we have developed a series of light-weight web services that can provide a new data search capability for VITMO and others. The services consist of a database of spacecraft ephemerides and instrument fields of view; an overlap calculator to find times when the fields of view of different instruments intersect; and a magnetic field line tracing service that maps in situ and ground based measurements to the equatorial plane in magnetic coordinates for a number of field models and geophysical conditions. These services run in real-time when the user queries for data. These services will allow the non-specialist user to select data that they were previously unable to locate, opening up analysis opportunities beyond the instrument teams and specialists, making it easier for future students who come into the field.

The ASTRI SST-2M prototype for the Cherenkov Telescope Array: prototype technologies goals and strategies for the future SST

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marchiori, Gianpietro; Busatta, Andrea; Giacomel, Stefano; Folla, Ivan; Valsecchi, Marco; Canestrari, Rodolfo; Bonnoli, Giacomo; Cascone, Enrico; Conconi, Paolo; Fiorini, Mauro; Giro, Enrico; La Palombara, Nicola; Pareschi, Giovanni; Perri, Luca; Rodeghiero, Gabriele; Sironi, Giorgia; Stringhetti, Luca; Toso, Giorgio; Tosti, Gino; Pellicciari, Carlo

2014-07-01

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) observatory will represent the next generation of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope. Using a combination of large-, medium-, and small-scale telescopes (LST, MST, SST, respectively), it will explore the Very High Energy domain from a few tens of GeVup to about few hundreds of TeV with unprecedented sensitivity, angular resolution and imaging quality. In this framework, the Italian ASTRI program, led by the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) developed a 4-meter class telescope, which will adopt an aplanatic, wide-field, double-reflection optical layout in a Schwarzschild- Couder configuration. Within this program INAF assigned to the consortium between Galbiati Group and EIE Group the construction, assembly and tests activities of the prototype named ASTRI SST-2M. On the basis of the lesson learnt from the prototype, other telescopes will be produced, starting from a re-design phase, in order to optimize performances and the overall costs and production schedule for the CTA-SST telescope. This paper will firstly give an overview of the concept for the SST prototype mount structure. In this contest, the technologies adopted for the design, manufacturing and tests of the entire system will be presented. Moreover, a specific focus on the challenges of the prototype and the strategies associated with it will be provided, in order to outline the near future performance goals for this type of Cherenkov telescopes employed for Gamma ray science.

Direct hot slumping of thin glass foils for future generation x-ray telescopes: current state of the art and future outlooks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salmaso, B.; Basso, S.; Brizzolari, C.; Civitani, M.; Ghigo, M.; Pareschi, G.; Spiga, D.; Tagliaferri, G.; Vecchi, G.

2017-11-01

To significantly improve the performances of the current X-ray observatories, the next generation of X-ray telescopes has to be characterized by a large effective area (Aeff { 2 m2 at 1 keV) and angular resolution better than 5 arcsec. The large dimension implied by these requirements forces the use of a modular approach, splitting the optics into segments. Moreover, lightweight materials, such as glass, have to be selected for the segmented optics in order to maintain a manageable weight for the optics. Since 2009 we are developing a direct hot slumping technique assisted by pressure, in which the glass optical surface is in contact with the mould and a pressure is applied in order to force the glass to copy the mould shape. A cold slumping step is used then to integrate the mirror segments into the final Wolter-I configuration. We present the state of the art of our hot slumping technology, comparing the results obtained with different glass types and mould materials. We also provide an overview of the possibilities of this technology also in view of future developments.

NRAO Salutes Past, Looks to Future In 50th-Anniversary Science Meeting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2007-06-01

Radio telescopes now in operation or under construction will be indispensible to scientists wrestling with the big, unanswered questions of 21st-Century astrophysics. That was the conclusion of a wide-ranging scientific meeting held in Charlottesville, Virginia, June 18-21, to mark the 50th anniversary of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). 1957 Dedication Dedication of NRAO, 17 October 1957. Left to right: R.M. Emberson, L.V. Berkner, G.A. Nay, J.W. Findlay (seated in front of 140ft telescope model), N.L. Ashton, D.S. Heeschen, H. Hockenberry. CREDIT: NRAO/AUI/NSF Click on Image for Larger File ALMA Artist's conception of completed ALMA. CREDIT: NRAO/AUI/ESO Click on Image for Larger File (2.4 MB) Nearly 200 scientists from around the world heard presentations about the frontiers of astrophysics and how the challenges at those frontiers will be met. In specialties as disparate as seeking the nature of the mysterious Dark Energy that is speeding the Universe's expansion to unraveling the details of how stars and planets are formed, more than 70 presenters looked toward future research breakthroughs. "NRAO's telescopes have made landmark contributions to the vast explosion of astronomical knowledge of the past half- century, and we look eagerly to making even more important contributions in the coming decades," said Fred K.Y. Lo, NRAO's director. Over the four days of the meeting, discussions ranged from recollections of radio astronomy's pioneering days of vacuum-tube equipment and paper chart recorders to the design of telescopes that will produce amounts of data that will strain today's computers. Presenters pointed out that, in the coming decades, radio telescope observations will advance not only astronomy but also fields of basic physics such as gravitational radiation, particle physics, and the fundamental physical constants. "This meeting provided a great overview of where astrophysics stands today and where the challenges and opportunities of the future lie. We had a good mix of veterans from the early days of radio astronomy and the young researchers who will carry the science well into the observatory's next half-century," said NRAO astronomer Jim Condon, who organized the scientific program. In addition to the presentations, meeting participants got an in-depth tour of the NRAO Technology Center, where the observatory is developing and building state-of-the-art electronics for radio astronomy. A half-century ago, NRAO staffers were preparing to break ground for the observatory's first telescope at Green Bank, West Virginia. That telescope was dedicated the next year. It was followed by ever more capable telescopes, culminating in the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, the largest fully-steerable dish antenna in the world. Work at Green Bank laid the technical foundation for the Very Large Array, near Socorro, New Mexico, which was dedicated in 1980. The continent-wide Very Long Baseline Array was dedicated in 1993. NRAO, along with partners in Europe and Japan, is constructing the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in northern Chile, a facility that will bring entirely new observing capabilities to the world's astronomers. ALMA is expected to provide the opportunity for major advances in the understanding of how stars and planets are formed, and to reveal some of the first stars and galaxies that formed in the early Universe, among other achievements. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

Relationship between Ripples and Gravity Waves Observed in OH Airglow over the Andes Lidar Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, B.; Gelinas, L. J.; Liu, A. Z.; Hecht, J. H.

2016-12-01

Instabilities generated by large amplitude gravity waves are ubiquitous in the mesopause region, and contribute to the strong forcing on the background atmosphere. Gravity waves and ripples generated by instability are commonly detected by high resolution airglow imagers that measure the hydroxyl emissions near the mesopause ( 87 km). Recently, a method based on 2D wavelet is developed by Gelinas et al. to characterize the statistics of ripple parameters from the Aerospace Infrared Camera at Andes Lidar Observatory located at Cerro Pachón, Chile (70.74°W, 30.25°S). In the meantime, data from a collocated all-sky imager is used to derive gravity wave parameters and their statistics. In this study, the relationship between the ripples and gravity waves that appeared at the same time and location are investigated in terms of their orientations, magnitudes and scales, to examine the statistical properties of the gravity wave induced instabilities and the ripples they generate.

ACCRETION DISK SIGNATURES IN TYPE I X-RAY BURSTS: PROSPECTS FOR FUTURE MISSIONS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Keek, L.; Wolf, Z.; Ballantyne, D. R., E-mail: laurens.keek@nasa.gov

2016-07-20

Type I X-ray bursts and superbursts from accreting neutron stars illuminate the accretion disk and produce a reflection signal that evolves as the burst fades. Examining the evolution of reflection features in the spectra will provide insight into the burst–disk interaction, a potentially powerful probe of accretion disk physics. At present, reflection has been observed during only two bursts of exceptional duration. We investigate the detectability of reflection signatures with four of the latest well-studied X-ray observatory concepts: Hitomi , Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer ( NICER ), Athena , and Large Observatory For X-ray Timing ( LOFT ). Burstmore » spectra are modeled for different values for the flux, temperature, and the disk ionization parameter, which are representative for most known bursts and sources. The effective area and throughput of a Hitomi -like telescope are insufficient for characterizing burst reflection features. NICER and Athena will detect reflection signatures in Type I bursts with peak fluxes ≳10{sup 7.5} erg cm{sup 2} s{sup 1} and also effectively constrain the reflection parameters for bright bursts with fluxes of ∼10{sup 7} erg cm{sup 2} s{sup 1} in exposures of several seconds. Thus, these observatories will provide crucial new insight into the interaction of accretion flows and X-ray bursts. For sources with low line-of-sight absorption, the wide bandpass of these instruments allows for the detection of soft X-ray reflection features, which are sensitive to the disk metallicity and density. The large collecting area that is part of the LOFT design would revolutionize the field by tracing the evolution of the accretion geometry in detail throughout short bursts.« less

The Era After the ELT: Optical Interferometry With Kilometer Baselines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bakker, Eric J.

2007-12-01

The 8-meter class telescopes seen first light in 1993-1998 (Keck, 1993, VLT 1998). The ELT will see first light in the 2013-2018 time frame. The follow-up of the ELT will see first light around 2023. That is 15 years from today. The sequence from 8-meter to 30 meter telescopes (started as a goal of 100m), will suggest a follow-up telescope with an aperture of 300 meter as initial goal. Cleary a 300 meter or more ambitiously a 1000-meter telescope can no longer be structural one piece that has to point to any point on the sky and track the objects. The more likely scenario is to follow the process applied in radio astronomy and move from single telescopes to interferometers. Optical interferometry is maturing very quickly with the de-commissioning of experimental instruments (COAST, GT2I, IOTA, and probably PTI and ISI in the near future) and the use of precision mechanics and automation. The remaining interferometers are grouped in three categories: large telescopes (VLTI and KECK-I), mid-size interferometers (MROI) and small interferometers (CHARA and NPOI). The Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer (MROI) is scheduled for first light/fringe in 2009 and will provide unique observing capabilities to astronomers with limiting magnitudes in the same range as those currently achieved by Keck-I and VLTI. The Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer (near Socorro, NM) invites interested engineers, scientists, and astronomers to participate in the construction and science program of MRO at all levels. Ranging from visitors instruments, support of large procurements in return for access, to individual contributions related to the science program, shared risk observations, etc. For more information, contact the Project Manager at the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer.

The initiation of coronal mass ejections by newly emerging magnetic flux

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Feynman, J.; Martin, S. F.

1995-01-01

We present observational evidence that eruptions of quiescent filaments and associated coronal mass ejections (CMEs) occur as a consequence of the destabilization of large-scale coronal arcades due to interactions between these structures and new and growing active regions. Both statistical and case studies have been carried out. In a case study of a 'bulge' observed by the High-Altitude Observatory Solar Maximum Mission coronagraph, the high-resolution magnetograms from the Big Bear Solar Observatory show newly emerging and rapidly changing flux in the magnetic fields that apparently underlie the bugle. For other case studies and in the statistical work the eruption of major quiescent filaments was taken as a proxy for CME eruption. We have found that two thirds of the quiescent-filament-associated CMEs occurred after substantial amounts of new magnetic flux emerged in the vicinity of the filament. In addition, in a study of all major quiescent filaments and active regions appearing in a 2-month period we found that 17 of the 22 filaments that were associated with new active regions erupted and 26 of the 31 filaments that were not associated with new flux did not erupt. In all cases in which the new flux was oriented favorably for reconnection with the preexisting large-scale coronal arcades; the filament was observed to erupt. The appearance of the new flux in the form of new active regions begins a few days before the eruption and typically is still occurring at the time of the eruption. A CME initiation scenario taking account of these observational results is proposed.

The Flux Variability of Markarian 501 in Very High Energy Gamma Rays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quinn, J.; Bond, I. H.; Boyle, P. J.; Bradbury, S. M.; Breslin, A. C.; Buckley, J. H.; Burdett, A. M.; Gordo, J. Bussons; Carter-Lewis, D. A.; Catanese, M.; Cawley, M. F.; Fegan, D. J.; Finley, J. P.; Gaidos, J. A.; Hall, T.; Hillas, A. M.; Krennrich, F.; Lamb, R. C.; Lessard, R. W.; Masterson, C.; McEnery, J. E.; Moriarty, P.; Rodgers, A. J.; Rose, H. J.; Samuelson, F. W.; Sembroski, G. H.; Srinivasan, R.; Vassiliev, V. V.; Weekes, T. C.

1999-06-01

The BL Lacertae object Markarian 501 was identified as a source of γ-ray emission at the Whipple Observatory in 1995 March. Here we present a flux variability analysis on several timescales of the 233 hr data set accumulated over 213 nights (from March 1995 to July 1998) with the Whipple Observatory 10 m atmospheric Cerenkov imaging telescope. In 1995, with the exception of a single night, the flux from Markarian 501 was constant on daily and monthly timescales and had an average flux of only 10% that of the Crab Nebula, making it the weakest very high energy source detected to date. In 1996, the average flux was approximately twice the 1995 flux and showed significant month-to-month variability. No significant day-scale variations were detected. The average γ-ray flux above ~350 GeV in the 1997 observing season rose to 1.4 times that of the Crab Nebula--14 times the 1995 discovery level--allowing a search for variability on timescales shorter than 1 day. Significant hour-scale variability was present in the 1997 data, with the shortest, observed on MJD 50,607, having a doubling time of ~2 hr. In 1998 the average emission level decreased considerably from that of 1997 (to ~20% of the Crab Nebula flux), but two significant flaring events were observed. Thus the emission from Markarian 501 shows large amplitude and rapid flux variability at very high energies, as does Markarian 421. It also shows large mean flux level variations on year-to-year timescales, behavior that has not been seen from Markarian 421 so far.

Observatories Combine to Crack Open the Crab Nebula

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

Astronomers have produced a highly detailed image of the Crab Nebula, by combining data from telescopes spanning nearly the entire breadth of the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves seen by the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to the powerful X-ray glow as seen by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory. And, in between that range of wavelengths, the Hubble Space Telescope's crisp visible-light view, and the infrared perspective of the Spitzer Space Telescope. This composite image of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant, was assembled by combining data from five telescopes spanning nearly the entire breadth of the electromagnetic spectrum: the Very Large Array, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope, the XMM-Newton Observatory, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Credits: NASA, ESA, NRAO/AUI/NSF and G. Dubner (University of Buenos Aires) #nasagoddard #space #science

The Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network (AMON)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith. M. W. E.; Fox, D. B.; Cowen, D. F.; Meszaros, P.; Tesic, G.; Fixelle, J.; Bartos, I.; Sommers, P.; Ashtekar, Abhay; Babu, G. Jogesh;

Ten years of the Spanish Virtual Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Solano, E.

2015-05-01

The main objective of the Virtual Observatory (VO) is to guarantee an easy and efficient access and analysis of the information hosted in astronomical archives. The Spanish Virtual Observatory (SVO) is a project that was born in 2004 with the goal of promoting and coordinating the VO-related activities at national level. SVO is also the national contact point for the international VO initiatives, in particular the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) and the Euro-VO project. The project, led by Centro de Astrobiología (INTA-CSIC), is structured around four major topics: a) VO compliance of astronomical archives, b) VO-science, c) VO- and data mining-tools, and d) Education and outreach. In this paper I will describe the most important results obtained by the Spanish Virtual Observatory in its first ten years of life as well as the future lines of work.

Water Vapor Monitoring at the Roque de LOS Muchachos Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodriguez-Espinosa, J. M.; Kidger, M.; del Rosario, J. C.; Trancho, G.

1997-12-01

We present the first results from a long-term campaign of water vapor monitoring at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Canary Islands, Spain). This observatory is situated on a volcanic peak, on the small island of La Palma. Although its altitude is relatively low (2400 meters), our initial site-testing, taken for site selection for the Spanish 10m telescope project, shows that a significant fraction of nights have water vapor column of 1mm, or lower, with values of 2mm and lower being relatively common, even in summer. The water vapor column can be stable at under 1mm for several nights, with only minimal variations. We contrast the results obtained using an infrared radiometer (on loan from Kitt Peak National Observatory), with those obtained using the 940nm water vapor line and comment briefly on plans for future automatic monitoring of water vapor at the observatory.

The Nitrate Inventory of Unsaturated Soils at the Barrow Environmental Observatory: Current Conditions and Potential Future Trajectories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heikoop, J. M.; Newman, B. D.; Arendt, C. A.; Andresen, C. G.; Lara, M. J.; Wainwright, H. M.; Throckmorton, H.; Graham, D. E.; Wilson, C. J.; Wullschleger, S. D.; Romanovsky, V. E.; Bolton, W. R.; Wales, N. A.; Rowland, J. C.

2016-12-01

Studies conducted in the Barrow Environmental Observatory under the auspices of the United States Department of Energy Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment (NGEE) - Arctic have demonstrated measurable nitrate concentrations ranging from <1 to 17 mg/L in the unsaturated centers of high-centered polygons. Conversely, nitrate concentrations in saturated areas of polygonal terrain were generally below the limit of detection. Isotopic analysis of this nitrate demonstrates that it results from microbial nitrification. The study site currently comprises mostly saturated soils. Several factors, however, could lead to drying of soils on different time scales. These include 1) topographic inversion of polygonal terrain associated with ice-wedge degradation, 2) increased connectivity and drainage of polygon troughs, similarly related to the thawing and subsidence of ice-wedges, and 3) near-surface soil drainage associated with wide-spread permafrost thaw and active layer deepening. Using a GIS approach we will estimate the current inventory of nitrate in the NGEE intensive study site using soil moisture data and existing unsaturated zone nitrate concentration data and new concentration data collected in the summer of 2016 from high- and flat-centered polygons and the elevated rims of low-centered polygons. Using this baseline, we will present potential future inventories based on various scenarios of active layer thickening and landscape geomorphic reorganization associated with permafrost thaw. Predicted inventories will be based solely on active layer moisture changes, ignoring for now potential changes associated with mineralization and nitrification of previously frozen old organic matter and changes in vegetation communities. We wish to demonstrate that physical landscape changes alone could have a profound effect on future nitrate availability. Nitrate data from recent NGEE campaigns in the Seward Peninsula of Alaska will also be presented.

Simultaneous stochastic inversion for geomagnetic main field and secular variation. I - A large-scale inverse problem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bloxham, Jeremy

1987-01-01

The method of stochastic inversion is extended to the simultaneous inversion of both main field and secular variation. In the present method, the time dependency is represented by an expansion in Legendre polynomials, resulting in a simple diagonal form for the a priori covariance matrix. The efficient preconditioned Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno algorithm is used to solve the large system of equations resulting from expansion of the field spatially to spherical harmonic degree 14 and temporally to degree 8. Application of the method to observatory data spanning the 1900-1980 period results in a data fit of better than 30 nT, while providing temporally and spatially smoothly varying models of the magnetic field at the core-mantle boundary.

Spacecraft Conceptual Design for the 8-Meter Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hopkins, Randall C.; Capizzo, Peter; Fincher, Sharon; Hornsby, Linda S.; Jones, David

2010-01-01

The Advanced Concepts Office at Marshall Space Flight Center completed a brief spacecraft design study for the 8-meter monolithic Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST-8m). This spacecraft concept provides all power, communication, telemetry, avionics, guidance and control, and thermal control for the observatory, and inserts the observatory into a halo orbit about the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point. The multidisciplinary design team created a simple spacecraft design that enables component and science instrument servicing, employs articulating solar panels for help with momentum management, and provides precise pointing control while at the same time fast slewing for the observatory.

Local Helioseismology of Emerging Active Regions: A Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kosovichev, Alexander G.; Zhao, Junwei; Ilonidis, Stathis

2018-04-01

Local helioseismology provides a unique opportunity to investigate the subsurface structure and dynamics of active regions and their effect on the large-scale flows and global circulation of the Sun. We use measurements of plasma flows in the upper convection zone, provided by the Time-Distance Helioseismology Pipeline developed for analysis of solar oscillation data obtained by Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), to investigate the subsurface dynamics of emerging active region NOAA 11726. The active region emergence was detected in deep layers of the convection zone about 12 hours before the first bipolar magnetic structure appeared on the surface, and 2 days before the emergence of most of the magnetic flux. The speed of emergence determined by tracking the flow divergence with depth is about 1.4 km/s, very close to the emergence speed in the deep layers. As the emerging magnetic flux becomes concentrated in sunspots local converging flows are observed beneath the forming sunspots. These flows are most prominent in the depth range 1-3 Mm, and remain converging after the formation process is completed. On the larger scale converging flows around active region appear as a diversion of the zonal shearing flows towards the active region, accompanied by formation of a large-scale vortex structure. This process occurs when a substantial amount of the magnetic flux emerged on the surface, and the converging flow pattern remains stable during the following evolution of the active region. The Carrington synoptic flow maps show that the large-scale subsurface inflows are typical for active regions. In the deeper layers (10-13 Mm) the flows become diverging, and surprisingly strong beneath some active regions. In addition, the synoptic maps reveal a complex evolving pattern of large-scale flows on the scale much larger than supergranulation

Power Spectrum Analysis of Polarized Emission from the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stutz, R. A.; Rosolowsky, E. W.; Kothes, R.; Landecker, T. L.

2014-05-01

Angular power spectra are calculated and presented for the entirety of the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey polarization data set at 1.4 GHz covering an area of 1060 deg2. The data analyzed are a combination of data from the 100 m Effelsberg Telescope, the 26 m Telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, and the Synthesis Telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, allowing all scales to be sampled down to arcminute resolution. The resulting power spectra cover multipoles from l ≈ 60 to l ≈ 104 and display both a power-law component at low multipoles and a flattening at high multipoles from point sources. We fit the power spectrum with a model that accounts for these components and instrumental effects. The resulting power-law indices are found to have a mode of 2.3, similar to previous results. However, there are significant regional variations in the index, defying attempts to characterize the emission with a single value. The power-law index is found to increase away from the Galactic plane. A transition from small-scale to large-scale structure is evident at b = 9°, associated with the disk-halo transition in a 15° region around l = 108°. Localized variations in the index are found toward H II regions and supernova remnants, but the interpretation of these variations is inconclusive. The power in the polarized emission is anticorrelated with bright thermal emission (traced by Hα emission) indicating that the thermal emission depolarizes background synchrotron emission.

The Conceptual Design of the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buscher, D. F.; Creech-Eakman, M.; Farris, A.; Haniff, C. A.; Young, J. S.

We describe the scientific motivation for and conceptual design of the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer, an imaging interferometer designed to operate at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. The rationale for the major technical decisions in the interferometer design is discussed, the success of the concept is appraised, and the implications of this analysis for the design of future arrays are drawn out.

Matera Laser Ranging Observatory (MLRO): An overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Varghese, Thomas K.; Decker, Winfield M.; Crooks, Henry A.; Bianco, Giuseppe

1993-01-01

The Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) is currently under negotiation with the Bendix Field Engineering Corporation (BFEC) of the Allied Signal Aerospace Company (ASAC) to build a state-of-the-art laser ranging observatory for the Centro di Geodesia Spaziale, in Matera, Italy. The contract calls for the delivery of a system based on a 1.5 meter afocal Cassegrain astronomical quality telescope with multiple ports to support a variety of experiments for the future, with primary emphasis on laser ranging. Three focal planes, viz. Cassegrain, Coude, and Nasmyth will be available for these experiments. The open telescope system will be protected from dust and turbulence using a specialized dome which will be part of the building facilities to be provided by ASI. The fixed observatory facility will be partitioned into four areas for locating the following: laser, transmit/receive optics, telescope/dome enclosure, and the operations console. The optical tables and mount rest on a common concrete pad for added mechanical stability. Provisions will be in place for minimizing the effects of EMI, for obtaining maximum cleanliness for high power laser and transmit optics, and for providing an ergonomic environment fitting to a state-of-the-art multipurpose laboratory. The system is currently designed to be highly modular and adaptable for scaling or changes in technology. It is conceived to be a highly automated system with superior performance specifications to any currently operational system. Provisions are also made to adapt and accommodate changes that are of significance during the course of design and integration.

A pilot Virtual Observatory (pVO) for integrated catchment science - Demonstration of national scale modelling of hydrology and biogeochemistry (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Freer, J. E.; Bloomfield, J. P.; Johnes, P. J.; MacLeod, C.; Reaney, S.

2010-12-01

There are many challenges in developing effective and integrated catchment management solutions for hydrology and water quality issues. Such solutions should ideally build on current scientific evidence to inform policy makers and regulators and additionally allow stakeholders to take ownership of local and/or national issues, in effect bringing together ‘communities of practice’. A strategy being piloted in the UK as the Pilot Virtual Observatory (pVO), funded by NERC, is to demonstrate the use of cyber-infrastructure and cloud computing resources to investigate better methods of linking data and models and to demonstrate scenario analysis for research, policy and operational needs. The research will provide new ways the scientific and stakeholder communities come together to exploit current environmental information, knowledge and experience in an open framework. This poster presents the project scope and methodologies for the pVO work dealing with national modelling of hydrology and macro-nutrient biogeochemistry. We evaluate the strategies needed to robustly benchmark our current predictive capability of these resources through ensemble modelling. We explore the use of catchment similarity concepts to understand if national monitoring programs can inform us about the behaviour of catchments. We discuss the challenges to applying these strategies in an open access and integrated framework and finally we consider the future for such virtual observatory platforms for improving the way we iteratively improve our understanding of catchment science.

A Forecast of Reduced Solar Activity and Its Implications for NASA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schatten, Kenneth; Franz, Heather

2005-01-01

The "Solar Dynamo" method of solar activity forecasting is reviewed. Known generically as a 'precursor" method, insofar as it uses observations which precede solar activity generation, this method now uses the Solar Dynamo Amplitude (SODA) Index to estimate future long-term solar activity. The peak amplitude of the next solar cycle (#24), is estimated at roughly 124 in terms of smoothed F10.7 Radio Flux and 74 in terms of the older, more traditional smoothed international or Zurich Sunspot number (Ri or Rz). These values are significantly smaller than the amplitudes of recent solar cycles. Levels of activity stay large for about four years near the peak in smoothed activity, which is estimated to occur near the 2012 timeflame. Confidence is added to the prediction of low activity by numerous examinations of the Sun s weakened polar field. Direct measurements are obtained by the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory and the Wilcox Solar Observatory. Further support is obtained by examining the Sun s polar faculae (bright features), the shape of coronal soft X-ray "holes," and the shape of the "source surface" - a calculated coronal feature which maps the large scale structure of the Sun s field. These features do not show the characteristics of well-formed polar coronal holes associated with typical solar minima. They show stunted polar field levels, which are thought to result in stunted levels of solar activity during solar cycle #24. The reduced levels of solar activity would have concomitant effects upon the space environment in which satellites orbit. In particular, the largest influences would affect orbit determination of satellites in LEO (Low Earth Orbit), based upon the altered thermospheric and exospheric densities. A decrease in solar activity would result in smaller satellite decay rates, as well as fewer large solar events that can destroy satellite electronic functions. Other effects of reduced solar activity upon the space environment include enhanced galactic cosmic rays and more space debris at low altitudes (from the decay of old satellite parts, etc.). The reasons are well known: namely, solar activity serves to sweep the inner heliosphere of galactic cosmic rays, and lower exospheric densities result in decreased drag on LEO debris, allowing longer lifetimes.

Clumpy filaments of the Chamaeleon I cloud: C18O mapping with the SEST

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haikala, L. K.; Harju, J.; Mattila, K.; Toriseva, M.

2005-02-01

The Chamaeleon I dark cloud (Cha I) has been mapped in C18O with an angular resolution of 1 arcmin using the SEST telescope. The large scale structures previously observed with lower spatial resolution in the cloud turn into a network of clumpy filaments. The automatic Clumpfind routine developed by \\cite{williams1994} is used to identify individual clumps in a consistent way. Altogether 71 clumps were found and the total mass of these clumps is 230 M⊙. The dense ``cores'' detected with the NANTEN telescope (\\cite{mizuno1999}) and the very cold cores detected in the ISOPHOT serendipity survey (\\cite{toth2000}) form parts of these filaments but decompose into numerous ``clumps''. The filaments are preferentially oriented at right angles to the large-scale magnetic field in the region. We discuss the cloud structure, the physical characteristics of the clumps and the distribution of young stars. The observed clump mass spectrum is compared with the predictions of the turbulent fragmentation model of \\cite{padoan2002}. Agreement is found if fragmentation has been driven by very large-scale hypersonic turbulence, and if by now it has had time to dissipate into modestly supersonic turbulence in the interclump gas. According to numerical simulations, large-scale turbulence should have resulted in filamentary structures as seen in Cha I. The well-oriented magnetic field does not, however, support this picture, but suggests magnetically steered large-scale collapse. The origin of filaments and clumps in Cha I is thus controversial. A possible solution is that the characterization of the driving turbulence fails and that in fact different processes have been effective on small and large scales in this cloud. Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile. FITS files are only available in electronic form at http://www.edpsciences.org

Large-Scale Atmospheric Circulation Patterns Associated with Temperature Extremes as a Basis for Model Evaluation: Methodological Overview and Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loikith, P. C.; Broccoli, A. J.; Waliser, D. E.; Lintner, B. R.; Neelin, J. D.

2015-12-01

Anomalous large-scale circulation patterns often play a key role in the occurrence of temperature extremes. For example, large-scale circulation can drive horizontal temperature advection or influence local processes that lead to extreme temperatures, such as by inhibiting moderating sea breezes, promoting downslope adiabatic warming, and affecting the development of cloud cover. Additionally, large-scale circulation can influence the shape of temperature distribution tails, with important implications for the magnitude of future changes in extremes. As a result of the prominent role these patterns play in the occurrence and character of extremes, the way in which temperature extremes change in the future will be highly influenced by if and how these patterns change. It is therefore critical to identify and understand the key patterns associated with extremes at local to regional scales in the current climate and to use this foundation as a target for climate model validation. This presentation provides an overview of recent and ongoing work aimed at developing and applying novel approaches to identifying and describing the large-scale circulation patterns associated with temperature extremes in observations and using this foundation to evaluate state-of-the-art global and regional climate models. Emphasis is given to anomalies in sea level pressure and 500 hPa geopotential height over North America using several methods to identify circulation patterns, including self-organizing maps and composite analysis. Overall, evaluation results suggest that models are able to reproduce observed patterns associated with temperature extremes with reasonable fidelity in many cases. Model skill is often highest when and where synoptic-scale processes are the dominant mechanisms for extremes, and lower where sub-grid scale processes (such as those related to topography) are important. Where model skill in reproducing these patterns is high, it can be inferred that extremes are being simulated for plausible physical reasons, boosting confidence in future projections of temperature extremes. Conversely, where model skill is identified to be lower, caution should be exercised in interpreting future projections.

Technology development for the Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) as a candidate large UV-Optical-Infrared (LUVOIR) surveyor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolcar, Matthew R.; Balasubramanian, Kunjithapatham; Clampin, Mark; Crooke, Julie; Feinberg, Lee; Postman, Marc; Quijada, Manuel; Rauscher, Bernard; Redding, David; Rioux, Norman; Shaklan, Stuart; Stahl, H. Philip; Stahle, Carl; Thronson, Harley

2015-09-01

The Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) team has identified five key technologies to enable candidate architectures for the future large-aperture ultraviolet/optical/infrared (LUVOIR) space observatory envisioned by the NASA Astrophysics 30-year roadmap, Enduring Quests, Daring Visions. The science goals of ATLAST address a broad range of astrophysical questions from early galaxy and star formation to the processes that contributed to the formation of life on Earth, combining general astrophysics with direct-imaging and spectroscopy of habitable exoplanets. The key technologies are: internal coronagraphs, starshades (or external occulters), ultra-stable large-aperture telescopes, detectors, and mirror coatings. Selected technology performance goals include: 1x10-10 raw contrast at an inner working angle of 35 milli-arcseconds, wavefront error stability on the order of 10 pm RMS per wavefront control step, autonomous on-board sensing and control, and zero-read-noise single-photon detectors spanning the exoplanet science bandpass between 400 nm and 1.8 μm. Development of these technologies will provide significant advances over current and planned observatories in terms of sensitivity, angular resolution, stability, and high-contrast imaging. The science goals of ATLAST are presented and flowed down to top-level telescope and instrument performance requirements in the context of a reference architecture: a 10-meter-class, segmented aperture telescope operating at room temperature (~290 K) at the sun-Earth Lagrange-2 point. For each technology area, we define best estimates of required capabilities, current state-of-the-art performance, and current Technology Readiness Level (TRL) - thus identifying the current technology gap. We report on current, planned, or recommended efforts to develop each technology to TRL 5.

Technology Development for the Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) as a Candidate Large UV-Optical-Infrared (LUVOIR) Surveyor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolcar, Matthew R.; Balasubramanian, Kunjithapatha; Clampin, Mark; Crooke, Julie; Feinberg, Lee; Postman, Marc; Quijada, Manuel; Rauscher, Bernard; Redding, David; Rioux, Norman;

Virtual Observatories, Data Mining, and Astroinformatics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borne, Kirk

The historical, current, and future trends in knowledge discovery from data in astronomy are presented here. The story begins with a brief history of data gathering and data organization. A description of the development ofnew information science technologies for astronomical discovery is then presented. Among these are e-Science and the virtual observatory, with its data discovery, access, display, and integration protocols; astroinformatics and data mining for exploratory data analysis, information extraction, and knowledge discovery from distributed data collections; new sky surveys' databases, including rich multivariate observational parameter sets for large numbers of objects; and the emerging discipline of data-oriented astronomical research, called astroinformatics. Astroinformatics is described as the fourth paradigm of astronomical research, following the three traditional research methodologies: observation, theory, and computation/modeling. Astroinformatics research areas include machine learning, data mining, visualization, statistics, semantic science, and scientific data management.Each of these areas is now an active research discipline, with significantscience-enabling applications in astronomy. Research challenges and sample research scenarios are presented in these areas, in addition to sample algorithms for data-oriented research. These information science technologies enable scientific knowledge discovery from the increasingly large and complex data collections in astronomy. The education and training of the modern astronomy student must consequently include skill development in these areas, whose practitioners have traditionally been limited to applied mathematicians, computer scientists, and statisticians. Modern astronomical researchers must cross these traditional discipline boundaries, thereby borrowing the best of breed methodologies from multiple disciplines. In the era of large sky surveys and numerous large telescopes, the potential for astronomical discovery is equally large, and so the data-oriented research methods, algorithms, and techniques that are presented here will enable the greatest discovery potential from the ever-growing data and information resources in astronomy.

The hills are alive: Earth surface dynamics in the University of Arizona Landscape Evolution Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeLong, S.; Troch, P. A.; Barron-Gafford, G. A.; Huxman, T. E.; Pelletier, J. D.; Dontsova, K.; Niu, G.; Chorover, J.; Zeng, X.

2012-12-01

To meet the challenge of predicting landscape-scale changes in Earth system behavior, the University of Arizona has designed and constructed a new large-scale and community-oriented scientific facility - the Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO). The primary scientific objectives are to quantify interactions among hydrologic partitioning, geochemical weathering, ecology, microbiology, atmospheric processes, and geomorphic change associated with incipient hillslope development. LEO consists of three identical, sloping, 333 m2 convergent landscapes inside a 5,000 m2 environmentally controlled facility. These engineered landscapes contain 1 meter of basaltic tephra ground to homogenous loamy sand and contains a spatially dense sensor and sampler network capable of resolving meter-scale lateral heterogeneity and sub-meter scale vertical heterogeneity in moisture, energy and carbon states and fluxes. Each ~1000 metric ton landscape has load cells embedded into the structure to measure changes in total system mass with 0.05% full-scale repeatability (equivalent to less than 1 cm of precipitation), to facilitate better quantification of evapotraspiration. Each landscape has an engineered rain system that allows application of precipitation at rates between3 and 45 mm/hr. These landscapes are being studied in replicate as "bare soil" for an initial period of several years. After this initial phase, heat- and drought-tolerant vascular plant communities will be introduced. Introduction of vascular plants is expected to change how water, carbon, and energy cycle through the landscapes, with potentially dramatic effects on co-evolution of the physical and biological systems. LEO also provides a physical comparison to computer models that are designed to predict interactions among hydrological, geochemical, atmospheric, ecological and geomorphic processes in changing climates. These computer models will be improved by comparing their predictions to physical measurements made in LEO. The main focus of our iterative modeling and measurement discovery cycle is to use rapid data assimilation to facilitate validation of newly coupled open-source Earth systems models. LEO will be a community resource for Earth system science research, education, and outreach. The LEO project operational philosophy includes 1) open and real-time availability of sensor network data, 2) a framework for community collaboration and facility access that includes integration of new or comparative measurement capabilities into existing facility cyberinfrastructure, 3) community-guided science planning and 4) development of novel education and outreach programs.Artistic rendering of the University of Arizona Landscape Evolution Observatory

Surface-subsurface flow modeling: an example of large-scale research at the new NEON user facility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Powell, H.; McKnight, D. M.

2009-12-01

Climate change is predicted to alter surface-subsurface interactions in freshwater ecosystems. These interactions are hypothesized to control nutrient release at diel and seasonal time scales, which may then exert control over epilithic algal growth rates. The mechanisms underlying shifts in complex physical-chemical-biological patterns can be elucidated by long-term observations at sites that span hydrologic and climate gradients across the continent. Development of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) will provide researchers the opportunity to investigate continental-scale patterns by combining investigator-driven measurements with Observatory data. NEON is a national-scale research platform for analyzing and understanding the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on ecology. NEON features sensor networks and experiments, linked by advanced cyberinfrastructure to record and archive ecological data for at least 30 years. NEON partitions the United States into 20 ecoclimatic domains. Each domain hosts one fully instrumented Core Aquatic site in a wildland area and one Relocatable site, which aims to capture ecologically significant gradients (e.g. landuse, nitrogen deposition, urbanization). In the current definition of NEON there are 36 Aquatic sites: 30 streams/rivers and 6 ponds/lakes. Each site includes automated, in-situ sensors for groundwater elevation and temperature; stream flow (discharge and stage); pond water elevation; atmospheric chemistry (Tair, barometric pressure, PAR, radiation); and surface water chemistry (DO, Twater, conductivity, pH, turbidity, cDOM, nutrients). Groundwater and surface water sites shall be regularly sampled for selected chemical and isotopic parameters. The hydrologic and geochemical monitoring design provides basic information on water and chemical fluxes in streams and ponds and between groundwater and surface water, which is intended to support investigator-driven modeling studies. Theoretical constructs, such as the River Continuum Concept, that aim to elucidate general mechanistic underpinnings of freshwater ecosystem function via testable hypotheses about relative rates of photosynthesis and respiration, for example, may be readily examined using data collected at hourly time scales at the NEON facility once constructed. By taking advantage of NEON data and adding PI-driven research to the Observatory, we can further our understanding of the relative roles of water flow, nutrients, temperature, and light on freshwater ecosystem function and structure.

ESO's First Observatory Celebrates 40th Anniversary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2009-03-01

ESO's La Silla Observatory, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, became the largest astronomical observatory of its time. It led Europe to the frontline of astronomical research, and is still one of the most scientifically productive in ground-based astronomy. ESO PR Photo 12a/09 La Silla Aerial View ESO PR Photo 12b/09 The ESO New Technology Telescope ESO PR Photo 12c/09 SEST on La Silla ESO PR Photo 12d/09 Looking for the best site ESO PR Video 12a/09 ESOcast 5 With about 300 refereed publications attributable to the work of the observatory per year, La Silla remains at the forefront of astronomy. It has led to an enormous number of scientific discoveries, including several "firsts". The HARPS spectrograph is the world's foremost exoplanet hunter. It detected the system around Gliese 581, which contains what may be the first known rocky planet in a habitable zone, outside the Solar System (ESO 22/07). Several telescopes at La Silla played a crucial role in discovering that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating (ESO 21/98) and in linking gamma-ray bursts -- the most energetic explosions in the Universe since the Big Bang - with the explosions of massive stars (ESO 15/98). Since 1987, the ESO La Silla Observatory has also played an important role in the study and follow-up of the nearest supernova, SN 1987A (ESO 08/07). "The La Silla Observatory continues to offer the astronomical community exceptional capabilities," says ESO Director General, Tim de Zeeuw. "It was ESO's first presence in Chile and as such, it triggered a very long and fruitful collaboration with this country and its scientific community." The La Silla Observatory is located at the edge of the Chilean Atacama Desert, one of the driest and loneliest areas of the world. Like other observatories in this geographical area, La Silla is located far from sources of polluting light and, as the Paranal Observatory that houses the Very Large Telescope, it has one of the darkest and clearest night skies on the Earth. At its peak, La Silla was home to no fewer than 15 telescopes, among them the first -- and, for a very long time, the only -- telescope working in submillimetric waves (the 15-metre SEST) in the southern hemisphere, which paved the way for APEX and ALMA, and the 1-metre Schmidt telescope, which completed the first photographic mapping of the southern sky. The telescopes at La Silla have also supported countless space missions, e.g., by obtaining the last images of comet Shoemaker Levy 9 before it crashed into Jupiter, thereby helping predicting the exact moment when the Galileo spacecraft should observe to capture images of the cosmic collision. "Many of the current generation of astronomers were trained on La Silla where they got their first experience with what were then considered large telescopes," says Bruno Leibundgut, ESO Director for Science. While some of the smaller telescopes have been closed over the years, frontline observations continue with the larger telescopes, aided by new and innovative astronomical instruments. La Silla currently hosts two of the most productive 4-metre class telescopes in the world, the 3.5-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT) and the 3.6-metre ESO telescope. "The NTT broke new ground for telescope engineering and design," says Andreas Kaufer, director of the La Silla Paranal Observatory. The NTT was the first in the world to have a computer-controlled main mirror (active optics), a technology developed at ESO and now applied to the VLT and most of the world's current large telescopes. The ESO 3.6-metre telescope, which was for many years one of the largest European telescopes in operation, is now home to the extrasolar planet hunter, HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher), a spectrograph with unrivalled precision. The infrastructure of La Silla is used by many of the ESO member states for targeted projects such as the Swiss 1.2-metre Euler telescope, the Italian Rapid-Eye Mount (REM) and French TAROT gamma-ray burst chasers as well as more common user facilities such as the 2.2-metre telescope of the German Max Planck Society and the 1.5-metre Danish telescopes. The 67-million pixel Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-metre telescope has taken many amazing images of celestial objects, some of which have now become icons of their own. The La Silla Observatory, north of the town of La Serena, has been a stronghold of the organisation's capabilities since the 1960s. The site was chosen after an initial prospecting expedition -- partly on horseback -- to the Chilean Andes, during 1963 and 1964, by the first ESO Director General, Otto Heckmann, and several senior astronomers. This was done with the help of AURA, which had just chosen to install an observatory at nearby Cerro Tololo. In the following years, the site was developed and the first small and mid-sized telescopes were erected, followed by the 3.6-metre telescope in 1977 and the NTT in 1989. On 25 March 1969, an audience of more than 300 people, including the then Chilean President, Eduardo Frei and the Minister of Education of Sweden, Olof Palme, celebrated the completion of the first phase of the construction programme. "The erection of the La Silla Observatory is not only of vast importance for the future of astronomical research, but also a striking example of what may be achieved through efficient, and truly far-reaching, international cooperation," said Olof Palme at the time. The future of the La Silla Observatory remains bright. In 2007 ESO's Council endorsed a plan that maintains an important role for La Silla, alongside the other large ESO facilities, the VLT, ALMA and the E-ELT. La Silla also plans to host new national telescope projects and visitor instruments -- an option that has already received a strong positive response from the astronomical community.

High Energy Astrophysics with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hays, Elizabeth

2009-01-01

This slide presentation reviews some of the findings of the Large Area Telescope (LAT) aboard the Fermi Observatory. It includes information about the LAT, and the Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM), detection of the quiet sun and the moon in gamma rays, Pulsars observed by the observatory, Globular Star Clusters, Active Galactic Nucleus, and Gamma-Ray Bursts, with specific information about GRB 080916C.

Structure and evolution of the large scale solar and heliospheric magnetic fields. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hoeksema, J. T.

1984-01-01

Structure and evolution of large scale photospheric and coronal magnetic fields in the interval 1976-1983 were studied using observations from the Stanford Solar Observatory and a potential field model. The solar wind in the heliosphere is organized into large regions in which the magnetic field has a componenet either toward or away from the sun. The model predicts the location of the current sheet separating these regions. Near solar minimum, in 1976, the current sheet lay within a few degrees of the solar equator having two extensions north and south of the equator. Soon after minimum the latitudinal extent began to increase. The sheet reached to at least 50 deg from 1978 through 1983. The complex structure near maximum occasionally included multiple current sheets. Large scale structures persist for up to two years during the entire interval. To minimize errors in determining the structure of the heliospheric field particular attention was paid to decreasing the distorting effects of rapid field evolution, finding the optimum source surface radius, determining the correction to the sun's polar field, and handling missing data. The predicted structure agrees with direct interplanetary field measurements taken near the ecliptic and with coronameter and interplanetary scintillation measurements which infer the three dimensional interplanetary magnetic structure. During most of the solar cycle the heliospheric field cannot be adequately described as a dipole.

TERENO-MED: Observation and Exploration Platform for Water Resources in the Mediterranean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krueger, E.; Zacharias, S.; Friesen, J.; Vereecken, H.; Bogena, H.; Kallioras, A.

2012-04-01

According to the latest IPCC projections, the Circum-Mediterranean region will be particularly affected by Global and Climate Change. These changes include population growth, increases in food, water and energy demands, changes in land use patterns and urbanization/industrialization, while at the same time, the renewable water resources in the region are predicted to decrease by up to 50 % within the next 100 years. However, a profound basis for estimating and predicting the long-term effects of Global and Climate Change on the development of the quantity and quality of water resources and on ecosystems is still lacking. The main reason for this is that environmental monitoring, in particular in the Mediterranean region, is strongly disciplinarily oriented, and financing is usually limited to short-term periods. The TERENO-MED (Terrestrial Environmental Observatories in the Mediterranean) initiative aims to fill the described gap. Together with partners in the region, TERENO-MED will establish a Circum-Mediterranean network of Global Change observatories, and will investigate the effects of anthropogenic impacts and of climate change on Mediterranean water resources and ecosystems. Within a set of representative catchments around the Circum-Mediterranean region (Southern Europe, Northern Africa, Near East), observatory sites will be installed with state-of-the-art and innovative monitoring equipment, in order to measure hydrological states and fluxes on a long-term basis (minimum 15 years). Monitoring equipment will cover all scales, from the point to the regional scale using ground-based and remote sensing technologies. Based on the acquired information, TERENO-MED, together with partners across the Mediterranean region will develop model scenarios that may serve as a basis for sustainable political and economical decisions. In order to gain a deep understanding of the most relevant processes and feedbacks, and to deliver reliable future scenarios for the Mediterranean region, the two initiating Helmholtz Centres, UFZ (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research) and Forschungszentrum Juelich, are seeking interested German and international partners to conduct joint research within the planned monitoring network.

High-accuracy absolute rotation rate measurements with a large ring laser gyro: establishing the scale factor.

PubMed

Hurst, Robert B; Mayerbacher, Marinus; Gebauer, Andre; Schreiber, K Ulrich; Wells, Jon-Paul R

2017-02-01

Large ring lasers have exceeded the performance of navigational gyroscopes by several orders of magnitude and have become useful tools for geodesy. In order to apply them to tests in fundamental physics, remaining systematic errors have to be significantly reduced. We derive a modified expression for the Sagnac frequency of a square ring laser gyro under Earth rotation. The modifications include corrections for dispersion (of both the gain medium and the mirrors), for the Goos-Hänchen effect in the mirrors, and for refractive index of the gas filling the cavity. The corrections were measured and calculated for the 16  m² Grossring laser located at the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell. The optical frequency and the free spectral range of this laser were measured, allowing unique determination of the longitudinal mode number, and measurement of the dispersion. Ultimately we find that the absolute scale factor of the gyroscope can be estimated to an accuracy of approximately 1 part in 10⁸.

The solar wind structure that caused a large-scale disturbance of the plasma tail of comet Austin

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kozuka, Yukio; Konno, Ichishiro; Saito, Takao; Numazawa, Shigemi

1992-01-01

The plasma tail of Comet Austin (1989c1) showed remarkable disturbances because of the solar maximum periods and its orbit. Figure 1 shows photographs of Comet Austin taken in Shibata, Japan, on 29 Apr. 1990 UT, during about 20 minutes with the exposure times of 90 to 120 s. There are two main features in the disturbance; one is many bowed structures, which seem to move tailwards; and the other is a large-scale wavy structure. The bowed structures can be interpreted as arcade structures brushing the surface of both sides of the cometary plasma surrounding the nucleus. We identified thirteen structures of the arcades from each of the five photographs and calculated the relation between the distance of each structure from the cometary nucleus, chi, and the velocity, upsilon. The result is shown. This indicates that the velocity of the structures increases with distance. This is consistent with the result obtained from the observation at the Kiso Observatory.

Large-scale patterns formed by solar active regions during the ascending phase of cycle 21

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaizauskas, V.; Harvey, K. L.; Harvey, J. W.; Zwaan, C.

1983-02-01

Synoptic maps of photospheric magnetic fields prepared at the Kitt Peak National Observatory are used in investigating large-scale patterns in the spatial and temporal distribution of solar active regions for 27 solar rotations between 1977 and 1979. The active regions are found to be distributed in 'complexes of activity' (Bumba and Howard, 1965). With the working definition of a complex of activity based on continuity and proximity of the constituent active regions, the phenomenology of complexes is explored. It is found that complexes of activity form within one month and that they are typically maintained for 3 to 6 solar rotations by fresh injections of magnetic flux. During the active lifetime of a complex of activity, the total magnetic flux in the complex remains steady to within a factor of 2. The magnetic polarities are closely balanced, and each complex rotates about the sun at its own special, constant rate. In certain cases, the complexes form two diverging branches.

Direct EUV/X-Ray Modulation of the Ionosphere During the August 2017 Total Solar Eclipse

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mrak, Sebastijan; Semeter, Joshua; Drob, Douglas; Huba, J. D.

2018-05-01

The great American total solar eclipse of 21 August 2017 offered a fortuitous opportunity to study the response of the atmosphere and ionosphere using a myriad of ground instruments. We have used the network of U.S. Global Positioning System receivers to examine perturbations in maps of ionospheric total electron content (TEC). Coherent large-scale variations in TEC have been interpreted by others as gravity wave-induced traveling ionospheric disturbances. However, the solar disk had two active regions at that time, one near the center of the disk and one at the edge, which resulted in an irregular illumination pattern in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV)/X-ray bands. Using detailed EUV occultation maps calculated from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solar Dynamics Observatory Atmospheric Imaging Assembly images, we show excellent agreement between TEC perturbations and computed gradients in EUV illumination. The results strongly suggest that prominent large-scale TEC disturbances were consequences of direct EUV modulation, rather than gravity wave-induced traveling ionospheric disturbances.

Highly Adjustable Systems: An Architecture for Future Space Observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arenberg, Jonathan; Conti, Alberto; Redding, David; Lawrence, Charles R.; Hachkowski, Roman; Laskin, Robert; Steeves, John

2017-06-01

Mission costs for ground breaking space astronomical observatories are increasing to the point of unsustainability. We are investigating the use of adjustable or correctable systems as a means to reduce development and therefore mission costs. The poster introduces the promise and possibility of realizing a “net zero CTE” system for the general problem of observatory design and introduces the basic systems architecture we are considering. This poster concludes with an overview of our planned study and demonstrations for proving the value and worth of highly adjustable telescopes and systems ahead of the upcoming decadal survey.

New ultracool subdwarfs identified in large-scale surveys using Virtual Observatory tools. I. UKIDSS LAS DR5 vs. SDSS DR7

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lodieu, N.; Espinoza Contreras, M.; Zapatero Osorio, M. R.; Solano, E.; Aberasturi, M.; Martín, E. L.

2012-06-01

Aims: The aim of the project is to improve our knowledge of the low-mass and low-metallicity population to investigate the influence of metallicity on the stellar (and substellar) mass function. Methods: We present the results of a photometric and proper motion search aimed at discovering ultracool subdwarfs in large-scale surveys. We employed and combined the Fifth Data Release (DR5) of the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Large Area Survey (LAS) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 complemented with ancillary data from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS), the DEep Near-Infrared Survey (DENIS) and the SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys (SSS). Results: The SDSS DR7 vs. UKIDSS LAS DR5 search returned a total of 32 ultracool subdwarf candidates, only two of which are recognised as a subdwarf in the literature. Twenty-seven candidates, including the two known ones, were followed-up spectroscopically in the optical between 600 and 1000 nm, thus covering strong spectral features indicative of low metallicity (e.g., CaH), 21 with the Very Large Telescope, one with the Nordic Optical Telescope, and five were extracted from the Sloan spectroscopic database to assess (or refute) their low-metal content. We confirm 20 candidates as subdwarfs, extreme subdwarfs, or ultra-subdwarfs with spectral types later than M5; this represents a success rate of ≥ 60%. Among those 20 new subdwarfs, we identify two early-L subdwarfs that are very likely located within 100 pc, which we propose as templates for future searches because they are the first examples of their subclass. Another seven sources are solar-metallicity M dwarfs with spectral types between M4 and M7 without Hα emission, suggesting that they are old M dwarfs. The remaining five candidates do not have spectroscopic follow-up yet; only one remains as a bona-fide ultracool subdwarf after revision of their proper motions. We assigned spectral types based on the current classification schemes and, when possible, we measured their radial velocities. Using the limited number of subdwarfs with trigonometric parallaxes, we estimated distances ranging from ~95 to ~600 pc for the new subdwarfs. We provide mid-infrared photometry extracted from the WISE satellite databases for two subdwarfs and discuss their colours. Finally, we estimate a lower limit of the surface density of ultracool subdwarfs about 5000-5700 times lower than that of solar-metallicity late-M dwarfs. Based on observations made with ESO Telescopes at the La Silla Paranal Observatory under programme ID 084.C-0928A.Based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma jointly by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.

Running a distributed virtual observatory: U.S. Virtual Astronomical Observatory operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McGlynn, Thomas A.; Hanisch, Robert J.; Berriman, G. Bruce; Thakar, Aniruddha R.

2012-09-01

Operation of the US Virtual Astronomical Observatory shares some issues with modern physical observatories, e.g., intimidating data volumes and rapid technological change, and must also address unique concerns like the lack of direct control of the underlying and scattered data resources, and the distributed nature of the observatory itself. In this paper we discuss how the VAO has addressed these challenges to provide the astronomical community with a coherent set of science-enabling tools and services. The distributed nature of our virtual observatory-with data and personnel spanning geographic, institutional and regime boundaries-is simultaneously a major operational headache and the primary science motivation for the VAO. Most astronomy today uses data from many resources. Facilitation of matching heterogeneous datasets is a fundamental reason for the virtual observatory. Key aspects of our approach include continuous monitoring and validation of VAO and VO services and the datasets provided by the community, monitoring of user requests to optimize access, caching for large datasets, and providing distributed storage services that allow user to collect results near large data repositories. Some elements are now fully implemented, while others are planned for subsequent years. The distributed nature of the VAO requires careful attention to what can be a straightforward operation at a conventional observatory, e.g., the organization of the web site or the collection and combined analysis of logs. Many of these strategies use and extend protocols developed by the international virtual observatory community. Our long-term challenge is working with the underlying data providers to ensure high quality implementation of VO data access protocols (new and better 'telescopes'), assisting astronomical developers to build robust integrating tools (new 'instruments'), and coordinating with the research community to maximize the science enabled.

Studying the Light Pollution around Urban Observatories: Columbus State University’s WestRock Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Keeffe, Brendon Andrew; Johnson, Michael

2017-01-01

Light pollution plays an ever increasing role in the operations of observatories across the world. This is especially true in urban environments like Columbus, GA, where Columbus State University’s WestRock Observatory is located. Light pollution’s effects on an observatory include high background levels, which results in a lower signal to noise ratio. Overall, this will limit what the telescope can detect, and therefore limit the capabilities of the observatory as a whole.Light pollution has been mapped in Columbus before using VIIRS DNB composites. However, this approach did not provide the detailed resolution required to narrow down the problem areas around the vicinity of the observatory. The purpose of this study is to assess the current state of light pollution surrounding the WestRock observatory by measuring and mapping the brightness of the sky due to light pollution using light meters and geographic information system (GIS) software.Compared to VIIRS data this study allows for an improved spatial resolution and a direct measurement of the sky background. This assessment will enable future studies to compare their results to the baseline established here, ensuring that any changes to the way the outdoors are illuminated and their effects can be accurately measured, and counterbalanced.

Lockheed Solar Observatory and the Discovery of Moreton-Ramsey Waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarbell, Theodore D.

2014-06-01

Moreton Waves are high-speed disturbances seen traveling away from large solar flares in H-alpha movies of the solar chromosphere. They were discovered by the observer Harry Ramsey in the late 1950s, and then published and publicized by the director Gail Moreton, both of the Lockheed Solar Observatory in the Hollywood Hills of Southern California. These efforts established the scientific reputation and secured continuing funding of the observatory, whose present-day successor is the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab in Palo Alto. Moreton waves are rare, and there was limited interest in them until the EIT instrument on SOHO began seeing large numbers of similar waves in the corona in the late 1990s. The exact relation between the two observations is still a research topic today. This talk will describe some of the history of the observatory and the discovery and early interpretation of the waves.

An electrified dust storm over the Negev desert, Israel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yair, Yoav; Katz, Shai; Yaniv, Roy; Ziv, Baruch; Price, Colin

2016-11-01

We report on atmospheric electrical measurements conducted at the Wise Observatory in Mitzpe-Ramon, Israel (30°35‧N, 34°45‧E) during a large dust storm that occurred over the Eastern Mediterranean region on 10-11 February 2015. The dust was transported from the Sahara, Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula ahead of an approaching Cyprus low. Satellite images show the dust plume covering the Negev desert and Southern Israel and moving north. The concentrations of PM10 particles measured by the air-quality monitoring network of the Israeli Ministry of the Environment in Beer-Sheba reached values > 450 μg m- 3 and the AOT from the AERONET station in Sde-Boker was 1.5 on February 10th. The gradual intensification of the event reached peak concentrations on February 11th of over 1200 μg m- 3 and an AOT of 1.8. Continuous measurements of the fair weather vertical electric field (Ez) and vertical current density (Jz) were conducted at the Wise Observatory with 1 minute temporal resolution. Meteorological data was also recorded at the site. As the dust was advected over the observatory, very large fluctuations in the electrical parameters were registered. From the onset of the dust storm, the Ez values changed between + 1000 and + 8000 V m- 1 while the current density fluctuated between - 10 pA m2 and + 20 pA m2, both on time-scales of a few minutes. These values are significant departures from the average fair-weather values measured at the site, which are ~- 200 V m- 1 and ~ 2 pA m2. The disturbed episodes lasted for several hours on February 10th and the 11th and coincided with local meteorological conditions related to the wind speed and direction, which carried large amounts of dust particles over our observation station. We interpret the rapid changes as caused by the transport of electrically charged dust, carrying an excess of negative charge at lower altitudes.

Crisis GIS: Preparing for the Next Volcanic Crisis in the United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramsey, D. W.; Robinson, J. E.; Schilling, S. P.; Schaefer, J. R.; Kimberly, P.; Trusdell, F. A.; Guffanti, M. C.; Mayberry, G. C.; Cameron, C. E.; Smith, J. G.; McIntire, J. A.; Snedigar, S.; Ewert, J. W.

2004-12-01

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialists from the Volcano Hazards Program (VHP) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), including personnel at Menlo Park, California, the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington, the Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory in Hawaii National Park, Hawaii, and the Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program in Washington, DC, are developing a GIS response plan in the event of a volcano crisis. This plan, referred to as "Crisis GIS", outlines how VHP can ensure rapid, reliable delivery of spatial and ancillary information for data analysis and visualization at any required location during a volcanic crisis or event within the United States. An effective Crisis GIS needs the capacity to store multiple, large datasets, including: base layer data, elevation data, geologic maps, hazard assessment maps, satellite data, and aerial photography for volcanoes around the U.S. It must be readily accessible by VHP GIS specialists stationed around the Nation. Such a GIS should also support installations of monitoring instruments and telemetry equipment that relay monitoring signals, and provision of updates to public officials, the media, and the public during a crisis. GIS technology has proven to be an invaluable tool for crisis response. Recently, GIS was applied as part of the response efforts to two large-scale crises: the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the Southern California wildfires of Fall 2003. In each case, GIS was used to organize large quantities of spatial data and to produce electronic and paper maps that illustrated hazards, supported decision making, and communicated developing situations to responsible emergency-management authorities and to the populace affected (Kant, 2002, and Pratt, 2003). VHP GIS specialists are currently testing the software and hardware employed in recent major crisis response efforts and are learning to adapt the technology for volcano crisis response.

The Little Thompson Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schweitzer, A.; VanLew, K.; Melsheimer, T.; Sackett, C.

2000-12-01

The Little Thompson Observatory is the second member of the Telescopes in Education (TIE) project. The observatory is located on the grounds of Berthoud High School in northern Colorado. The telescope is operational over the Internet, and we are now debugging the software to enable schools to control the telescope from classroom computers and take images. Local schools and youth organizations have prioritized access to the telescope, and there are monthly opportunities for public viewing. In the future, the telescope will be open after midnight to world-wide use by schools following the model of the first TIE observatory, the 24" telescope on Mt. Wilson. The observatory grew out of grassroots support from the local community surrounding Berthoud, Colorado, a town of 3,500 residents. TIE has provided the observatory with a Tinsley 18" Cassegrain telescope on a 10-year loan. The facility has been built with tremendous support from volunteers and the local school district. With funding from an IDEAS grant, we have completed the first teacher training workshops to allow K-12 schools in northern Colorado to make use of the Little Thompson Observatory, including remote observing from classrooms. The workshops were accredited by the school district, and received very favorable reviews.

Design and Implement of Astronomical Cloud Computing Environment In China-VO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Changhua; Cui, Chenzhou; Mi, Linying; He, Boliang; Fan, Dongwei; Li, Shanshan; Yang, Sisi; Xu, Yunfei; Han, Jun; Chen, Junyi; Zhang, Hailong; Yu, Ce; Xiao, Jian; Wang, Chuanjun; Cao, Zihuang; Fan, Yufeng; Liu, Liang; Chen, Xiao; Song, Wenming; Du, Kangyu

2017-06-01

Astronomy cloud computing environment is a cyber-Infrastructure for Astronomy Research initiated by Chinese Virtual Observatory (China-VO) under funding support from NDRC (National Development and Reform commission) and CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences). Based on virtualization technology, astronomy cloud computing environment was designed and implemented by China-VO team. It consists of five distributed nodes across the mainland of China. Astronomer can get compuitng and storage resource in this cloud computing environment. Through this environments, astronomer can easily search and analyze astronomical data collected by different telescopes and data centers , and avoid the large scale dataset transportation.

High-Energy Astrophysics. American and Soviet Perspectives

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lewin, Walter H. G. (Editor); Clark, George W. (Editor); Sunyaev, Rashid A. (Editor); Trivers, Kathleen Kearney (Editor); Abramson, David M. (Editor)

1991-01-01

The proceedings of the American-Soviet high energy astrophysics workshop, which was held at the Institute for Space Research in Moscow and the Abastumani Laboratory and Observatory in the republic of Georgia from June 18 to July 1, 1989, is presented. Topics discussed at the workshop include the inflationary universe; the large scale structure of the universe, the diffuse x-ray background; gravitational lenses, quasars, and active galactic nuclei (AGNs); infrared galaxies (results from IRAS); Supernova 1987A; millisecond radio pulsars; quasi-periodic oscillations in the x-ray flux of low mass X-ray binaries; and gamma ray bursts.

Lunar surface magnetometer experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dyal, P.; Parkin, C. W.; Colburn, D. S.; Schubert, G.

1972-01-01

The Apollo 16 lunar surface magnetometer (LSM) activation completed the network installation of magnetic observatories on the lunar surface and initiated simultaneous measurements of the global response of the moon to large-scale solar and terrestrial magnetic fields. Fossil remanent magnetic fields have been measured at nine locations on the lunar surface, including the Apollo 16 LSM site in the Descartes highlands area. This fossil record indicates the possible existence of an ancient lunar dynamo or a solar or terrestrial field much stronger than exists at present. The experimental technique and operation of the LSM are described and the results obtained are discussed.

Dynamics of the middle atmosphere as observed by the ARISE project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blanc, E.

2015-12-01

It has been strongly demonstrated that variations in the circulation of the middle atmosphere influence weather and climate all the way to the Earth's surface. A key part of this coupling occurs through the propagation and breaking of planetary and gravity waves. However, limited observations prevent to faithfully reproduce the dynamics of the middle atmosphere in numerical weather prediction and climate models. The main challenge of the ARISE (Atmospheric dynamics InfraStructure in Europe) project is to combine existing national and international observation networks including: the International infrasound monitoring system developed for the CTBT (Comprehensive nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty) verification, the NDACC (Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Changes) lidar network, European observation infrastructures at mid latitudes (OHP observatory), tropics (Maïdo observatory), high latitudes (ALOMAR and EISCAT), infrasound stations which form a dense European network and satellites. The ARISE network is unique by its coverage (polar to equatorial regions in the European longitude sector), its altitude range (from troposphere to mesosphere and ionosphere) and the involved scales both in time (from seconds to tens of years) and space (from tens of meters to thousands of kilometers). Advanced data products are produced with the scope to assimilate data in the Weather Prediction models to improve future forecasts over weeks and seasonal time scales. ARISE observations are especially relevant for the monitoring of extreme events such as thunderstorms, volcanoes, meteors and at larger scales, deep convection and stratospheric warming events for physical processes description and study of long term evolution with climate change. Among the applications, ARISE fosters integration of innovative methods for remote detection of non-instrumented volcanoes including distant eruption characterization to provide notifications with reliable confidence indices to the civil aviation.

[Results of the EGRET Detector Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carter-Lewis, D. A.

1998-01-01

This NASA grant has funded studies of cosmic objects observed by both the EGRET detector aboard the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory and Whipple Gamma-ray imaging telescope. The former has sensitivity up to a few GeV and latter has sensitivity starting at about 200 GeV extending up to beyond 10 TeV. Thus these instruments probe some of the most energetic phenomena in the universe. This program has been in place for several years and led to important results referred to below. The Whipple Observatory Imaging Cherenkov Telescope consists of a 10-meter reflector with a nanosecond photomultiplier-tube camera at the focal plane. During the time period covered by this grant, it had either 109 pixels or 151 pixels on a 1/4 degree hexagonal pattern. As a TeV gamma ray enters the atmosphere, it produces an electron/positron pair initiating an extensive air shower. Cherenkov light from the electrons and positrons in the shower form an image of the shower at the phototube camera. The shape and intensity of this image is used to distinguish gamma-ray initiated showers from cosmic-ray (largely proton and alpha-particle) background showers and to derive an energy estimate for the primary gamma-ray. The Whipple Observatory gamma-ray collaboration pioneered this imaging technique which normally rejects over 99 percent of the cosmic-ray background while keeping over 70 percent of the gamma-ray signal. One of its key features is 2 large collection area which can exceed 50,000 meters. This grant covered primarily correlated observations of Markarian 421 and observations of the Cygnus region. The former resulted in a multiwavelength campaign showing correlations in several wavebands. The TeV data showed dramatic variability with the emission characterized by day-scale flickering and with now well defined steady component.

Reorganization and Reconfiguration of the Information Management System of Istanbul University Observatory taking the Padova - Asiago Observatory Information Management System as a Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gulsecen, S.; Saygac, A. T.; Passuello, R.; Rigoni, A.

1998-01-01

In this paper we describe the need for a more powerful Information management System (IMS) to be used as a useful aid for astronomers. The main purpose of IMS in astronomical places like observatories and astronomy departments is described and two models are presented: one to be reorganized and reconfigurated (Istanbul University,Faculty of Science, Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences -ASS- IMS) and one to be taken as a good model for the previous (University of Padova, Asiago astrophysical Observatory IMS). Particular attention is given to the implementation of the new IMS of ASS to be done carefully. In order to take success in this, the need for current and future cooperation and support in mentioned.

Plans for an Enhanced Terrestrial and Freshwater Environmental Observation Network in South Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Everson, C. S.; Bond, W. J.; Moncrieff, G. R.; Everson, T. M.

2015-12-01

There is currently little information in South Africa concerning the influence of terrestrial ecosystems on biosphere-atmosphere interactions and their impact on the earth system. Climate modellers require data on energy exchanges between the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum to develop surface models of carbon, energy and water to scale up from the different biomes in South Africa, to regional and, ultimately, global scales. Atmospheric exchanges of South African biomes (ecosystems) are important due to the large and varied pant diversity they represent. The important ecosystem services (including water) delivered by these natural systems and their potential role in the long-term CO2 uptake from the atmosphere and carbon storage is a key gap in South African research. South Africa is already a water-scarce country so the predicted impacts of climate change on water resources are likely to have devastating effects. It is against this diminishing water supply that the South African government must develop innovative investments in water technologies and infrastructure to mitigate the impacts of growing water shortages due to climate change. The Department of Science and Technology of South Africa is planning a multi-million rand investment in long-term ecological infrastructure with a focus on carbon, water and energy. The terrestrial programme will comprise six to seven landscape-scale 'climate change observatories', some in urban and agricultural situations, with eddy covariance flux towers for carbon water and energy measurements, regular remote sensing, for the long-term collection of environmental, ecological and social data. The South African flux network measurement programme aims to become a key role player in the assessment of the consequences of rapid land use change and future impacts of climate change both regionally and internationally. Key words: flux towers, eddy co-variance, carbon, water and energy

Towards stellar effective temperatures and diameters at 1 per cent accuracy for future surveys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Casagrande, L.; Portinari, L.; Glass, I. S.; Laney, D.; Silva Aguirre, V.; Datson, J.; Andersen, J.; Nordström, B.; Holmberg, J.; Flynn, C.; Asplund, M.

2014-04-01

The apparent size of stars is a crucial benchmark for fundamental stellar properties such as effective temperatures, radii and surface gravities. While interferometric measurements of stellar angular diameters are the most direct method to gauge these, they are still limited to relatively nearby and bright stars, which are saturated in most of the modern photometric surveys. This dichotomy prevents us from safely extending well-calibrated relations to the faint stars targeted in large spectroscopic and photometric surveys. Here, we alleviate this obstacle by presenting South African Astronomical Observatory near-infrared JHK observations of 55 stars: 16 of them have interferometric angular diameters and the rest are in common with the 2 Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS, unsaturated) data set, allowing us to tie the effective temperatures and angular diameters derived via the infrared flux method to the interferometric scale. We extend the test to recent interferometric measurements of unsaturated 2MASS stars, including giants, and the metal-poor benchmark target HD122563. With a critical evaluation of the systematics involved, we conclude that a 1 per cent accuracy in fundamental stellar parameters is usually within reach. Caution, however, must be used when indirectly testing a Teff scale via colour relations as well as when assessing the reliability of interferometric measurements, especially at submilliarcsec level. As a result, rather different effective temperature scales can be compatible with a given subset of interferometric data. We highlight some caveats to be aware of in such a quest and suggest a simple method to check against systematics in fundamental measurements. A new diagnostic combination seismic radii with astrometric distances is also presented.

The Generation-X X-ray Observatory Vision Mission and Technology Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Figueroa-Feliciano, Enectali

2004-01-01

The new frontier in astrophysics is the study of the birth and evolution of the first stars, galaxies and black holes in the early Universe. X-ray astronomy opens a window into these objects by studying the emission from black holes, supernova explosions and the gamma-ray burst afterglows of massive stars. However, such objects are beyond the grasp of current or near-future observatories. X-ray imaging and spectroscopy of such distant objects will require an X-ray telescope with large collecting area and high angular resolution. Our team has conceived the Generation-X Vision Mission based on an X-ray observatory with 100 sq m collecting area at 1 keV (1000 times larger than Chandra) and 0.1 arcsecond angular resolution (several times better than Chandra and 50 times better than the Constellation-X resolution goal). Such an observatory would be capable of detecting the earliest black holes and galaxies in the Universe, and will also study extremes of density, gravity, magnetic fields, and kinetic energy which cannot be created in laboratories. NASA has selected the Generation-X mission for study under its Vision Mission Program. We describe the studies being performed to develop the mission concept and define candidate technologies and performance requirements for Generation-X. The baseline Generation-X mission involves four 8m diameter X-ray telescopes operating at Sun-Earth L2. We trade against an alternate concept of a single 26m diameter telescope with focal plane instruments on a separate spacecraft. A telescope of this size will require either robotic or human-assisted in-flight assembly. The required effective area implies that extremely lightweight grazing incidence X-ray optics must be developed. To achieve the required aerial density of at least 100 times lower than in Chandra, we will study 0.1mm thick mirrors which have active on-orbit figure control. We discuss the suite of required detectors, including a large FOV high angular resolution imager, a cryogenic imaging spectrometer and a grating spectrometer. We outline the development roadmap to confront the many technological challenges far implementing the Generation-X mission.

The Boyden Observatories Museum -- Project Overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van Heerden, H. J.; van Jaarsveldt, D. P.; Hoffman, M. J. H.

2010-12-01

The planned museum at Boyden about the history of the observatories in Bloemfontein as well as the Roberts archives and all the most important contributors to astronomy in the region will be discussed. The layout, current progress, future plans, the people involved and all relevant information will be shown. A conclusion about the possible impact and the possible events around the opening will then be made.

Towards Productive Critique of Large-Scale Comparisons in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gorur, Radhika

2017-01-01

International large-scale assessments and comparisons (ILSAs) in education have become significant policy phenomena. How a country fares in these assessments has come to signify not only how a nation's education system is performing, but also its future prospects in a global economic "race". These assessments provoke passionate arguments…

The role of Natural Flood Management in managing floods in large scale basins during extreme events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quinn, Paul; Owen, Gareth; ODonnell, Greg; Nicholson, Alex; Hetherington, David

2016-04-01

There is a strong evidence database showing the negative impacts of land use intensification and soil degradation in NW European river basins on hydrological response and to flood impact downstream. However, the ability to target zones of high runoff production and the extent to which we can manage flood risk using nature-based flood management solution are less known. A move to planting more trees and having less intense farmed landscapes is part of natural flood management (NFM) solutions and these methods suggest that flood risk can be managed in alternative and more holistic ways. So what local NFM management methods should be used, where in large scale basin should they be deployed and how does flow is propagate to any point downstream? Generally, how much intervention is needed and will it compromise food production systems? If we are observing record levels of rainfall and flow, for example during Storm Desmond in Dec 2015 in the North West of England, what other flood management options are really needed to complement our traditional defences in large basins for the future? In this paper we will show examples of NFM interventions in the UK that have impacted at local scale sites. We will demonstrate the impact of interventions at local, sub-catchment (meso-scale) and finally at the large scale. These tools include observations, process based models and more generalised Flood Impact Models. Issues of synchronisation and the design level of protection will be debated. By reworking observed rainfall and discharge (runoff) for observed extreme events in the River Eden and River Tyne, during Storm Desmond, we will show how much flood protection is needed in large scale basins. The research will thus pose a number of key questions as to how floods may have to be managed in large scale basins in the future. We will seek to support a method of catchment systems engineering that holds water back across the whole landscape as a major opportunity to management water in large scale basins in the future. The broader benefits of engineering landscapes to hold water for pollution control, sediment loss and drought minimisation will also be shown.

Climatology at the Roque de LOS Muchachos Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Varela, Antonia M.; Muñoz-Tuñón, Casiana

2009-09-01

The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) at La Palma (Canary Islands) is one of the two top pre-selected sites for hosting the future European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), the other ones are Ventarrones (Chile), Macon (Argentine) and Aklim (Maroc). Meteorological and seeing conditions are crucial both for the site selection and for telescope design and feasibility studies for adaptive optics. The ELTs shall be very sensitive to wind behavior when operating in open air, therefore ground level wind velocity and wind gust are also required for the feasibility of the telescope construction. Here we analyze the wind speed and wind direction, the air temperature, the relative humidity and the barometric pressure statistical results obtained from data recorded at different sites at the ORM by several Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) since 1985, day and night time separately. Ground wind speed regimes (775mbar) are compared with those provided by satellites from 200 to 700mbar. There exists also observational evidence of the correlation between the seeing and the wind speed and wind direction that will be discussed in this work.

A Simple and Customizable Web Interface to the Virtual Solar Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hughitt, V. Keith; Hourcle, J.; Suarez-Sola, I.; Davey, A.

2010-05-01

As the variety and number of solar data sources continue to increase at a rapid rate, the importance of providing methods to search through these sources becomes increasingly important. By taking advantage of the power of modern JavaScript libraries, a new version of the Virtual Solar Observatory's web interface aims to provide a significantly faster and simpler way to explore the multitude of data repositories available. Querying asynchroniously serves not only to eliminates bottlenecks resulting from slow or unresponsive data providers, but also allows for displaying of results as soon as they are returned. Implicit pagination and post-query filtering enables users to work with large result-sets, while a more modular and customizable UI provides a mechanism for customizing both the look-and-feel and behavior of the VSO web interface. Finally, the new web interface features a custom widget system capable of displaying additional tools and information along-side of the standard VSO search form. Interested users can also write their own widgets and submit them for future incorporation into VSO.

Stability Analysis of the Planetary System Orbiting Upsilon Andromedae. 2; Simulations Using New Lick Observatory Fits

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lissauer, Jack J.; Rivera, Eugenio J.; DeVincenzi, Donald (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

We present results of long-term numerical orbital integrations designed to test the stability of the three-planet system orbiting upsilon Andromedae and short-term integrations to test whether mutual perturbations among the planets can be used to determine planetary masses. Our initial conditions are based on recent fits to the radial velocity data obtained by the planet search group at Lick Observatory. The new fits result in significantly more stable systems than did the initially announced planetary parameters. Our integrations using the 2000 February parameters show that if the system is nearly planar, then it is stable for at least 100 Myr for m(sub f) = 1/sin i less than or = 4. In some stable systems, the eccentricity of the inner planet experiences large oscillations. The relative periastra of the outer two planets' orbits librate about 0 deg. in most of the stable systems; if future observations imply that the periastron longitudes of these planets are very closely aligned at the present epoch, dynamical simulations may provide precise estimates for the masses and orbital inclinations of these two planets.

Observations of Exoplanets with the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gehrz, R.; Becklin, E.

2010-10-01

The joint U.S. and German Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a 2.5-meter infrared airborne telescope in a Boeing 747-SP that will begin science flights in 2010. Flying in the stratosphere at altitudes as high as 45,000 feet, SOFIA will be used to conduct photometric, spectroscopic, and imaging observations at wavelengths from 0.3 microns to 1.9 millimeters with an average transmission of greater than 80 percent. SOFIA's first-generation instrument complement includes high speed photometers, broadband imagers, moderate resolution spectrographs capable of resolving broad features due to dust and large molecules, and high resolution spectrometers suitable for kinematic studies of molecular and atomic gas lines at km/s resolution. These and future instruments will give SOFIA the potential to make unique contributions to the characterization of the atmospheres of exoplanets that transit their parent stars. First-light images obtained on May 26, 2010 with the FORCAST imager will be shown. We will discuss several types of experiments that are being contemplated with respect to observations of exoplanets .

Design Considerations of Polishing Lap for Computer-Controlled Cylindrical Polishing Process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Khan, Gufran S.; Gubarev, Mikhail; Speegle, Chet; Ramsey, Brian

2010-01-01

The future X-ray observatory missions, such as International X-ray Observatory, require grazing incidence replicated optics of extremely large collecting area (3 m2) in combination with angular resolution of less than 5 arcsec half-power diameter. The resolution of a mirror shell depends ultimately on the quality of the cylindrical mandrels from which they are being replicated. Mid-spatial-frequency axial figure error is a dominant contributor in the error budget of the mandrel. This paper presents our efforts to develop a deterministic cylindrical polishing process in order to keep the mid-spatial-frequency axial figure errors to a minimum. Simulation studies have been performed to optimize the operational parameters as well as the polishing lap configuration. Furthermore, depending upon the surface error profile, a model for localized polishing based on dwell time approach is developed. Using the inputs from the mathematical model, a mandrel, having conical approximated Wolter-1 geometry, has been polished on a newly developed computer-controlled cylindrical polishing machine. We report our first experimental results and discuss plans for further improvements in the polishing process.

The OMIV Observatory on landslides - Observing with Multi-parameters the Instability of Versants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grasso, J.-R.; Garambois, S.; D; Jongmans; Helmstetter, A.; Lebourg, T.; Malet, J.-P.; Berolo, W.; Bethoux, R.; Daras, L.; Ulrich, P.

2010-05-01

The OMIV Observatory on landslides (Observatoire Multi-disciplinaire des Instabilités de Versants; e.g. Multi-disciplinary Observatory on Slope Instabilities) is a French-research initiative clustering five research institutes in earth sciences (e.g. GéoAzur in Nice; EOST-IPGS in Strasbourg, LETG in Caen, LGIT in Grenoble, LST in Lyon) under the auspices of INSU (Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers) since 2007. The primary objectives of OMIV are (1) to deploy and maintain permanent instrumental networks in order to be able to (2) to provide robust, long-lasting multi-parameter, open datasets to the international geoscience community. Such continuous monitoring of ongoing landslides are missing and they will provide constrains on the processes that lead to slope instabilities. Worldwide, the societal impact of landslides is one of the most important natural hazard in mountainous and rocky coastal areas. The variability in time and space of the slope structures and their susceptibility to external forcing (weathering, earthquake, climatic triggers) restrain our ability to simulate and forecast slope instabilities. Four active large landslides are monitored by the OMIV observatory group; these sites have been chosen according to their past history of monitoring, to the risk they may create and to the scientific challenges they raise up. The four studied landslides are: the Avignonet landslide (30 km South of Grenoble) and the Super-Sauze landslide (5 km South to Barcelonnette) which are soft-rock slides developed in clays for which the susceptibility to rainfalls and earthquake is the main open question; the La Clapière (100 km North of Nice) and the Séchilienne landslide (25km East of Grenoble) which are typical mature and immature large scale rock mass gravitational instabilities, respectively. On these four pilot sites, the OMIV research group is monitoring in continuous three types of observations: landslide kinematics (deformation and displacements), landslide seismic activity (through passive seismic auscultation), and landslide slope hydrology (hydrodynamics and hydro-geochemistry). These observables are open datasets which are available through the OMIV website (for the four sites, http://www-lgit.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr/observations/omiv/donnees.html and for the Super-Sauze landslide also at http://eost.u-strasbg.fr/omiv). When kinematics, hydrology and seismic activity are the main observables for many monitored landslides worldwide, only a few of them combines the three types of observables at relevant spatial and temporal scales. It is hypothesized by the OMIV observatory group that the combination of these three measurements will give access to a better knowledge on the physical processes controlling landslide behavior, such as the generation of brittle damage in the landslide material during sliding, the recognition and characterization of slip surface(s), the characterization of the hydrological behavior of the slope before and after failure. It opens possible routes toward characterizing the macro-scale rheology of the systems (e.g. brittle plastic transition for hard rock slopes, slide to flow transition for soft-rock landslides). The cross analysis of the monitoring data will bring new insights on the kinematics and dynamics of unstable slopes. In this study, we present (i) the technical organization of the multi-parameter monitoring datasets, and (ii) preliminary results from the ongoing monitoring.

The Power Spectrum of the Milky Way: Velocity Fluctuations in the Galactic Disk

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bovy, Jo; Bird, Jonathan C.; García Pérez, Ana E.; Majewski, Steven R.; Nidever, David L.; Zasowski, Gail

2015-02-01

We investigate the kinematics of stars in the mid-plane of the Milky Way (MW) on scales between 25 pc and 10 kpc with data from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE), and the Geneva-Copenhagen survey (GCS). Using red-clump (RC) stars in APOGEE, we determine the large-scale line-of-sight velocity field out to 5 kpc from the Sun in (0.75 kpc)2 bins. The solar motion V ⊙ - c with respect to the circular velocity Vc is the largest contribution to the power on large scales after subtracting an axisymmetric rotation field; we determine the solar motion by minimizing the large-scale power to be V ⊙ - c = 24 ± 1 (ran.) ± 2 (syst. [Vc ]) ± 5 (syst.[large-scale]) km s-1, where the systematic uncertainty is due to (1) a conservative 20 km s-1 uncertainty in Vc and (2) the estimated power on unobserved larger scales. Combining the APOGEE peculiar-velocity field with RC stars in RAVE out to 2 kpc from the Sun and with local GCS stars, we determine the power spectrum of residual velocity fluctuations in the MW's disk on scales between 0.2 kpc-1 <= k <= 40 kpc-1. Most of the power is contained in a broad peak between 0.2 kpc-1 < k < 0.9 kpc-1. We investigate the expected power spectrum for various non-axisymmetric perturbations and demonstrate that the central bar with commonly used parameters but of relatively high mass can explain the bulk of velocity fluctuations in the plane of the Galactic disk near the Sun. Streaming motions ≈10 km s-1 on >~ 3 kpc scales in the MW are in good agreement with observations of external galaxies and directly explain why local determinations of the solar motion are inconsistent with global measurements.

ATLAS and LHC computing on CRAY

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sciacca, F. G.; Haug, S.; ATLAS Collaboration

2017-10-01

Access and exploitation of large scale computing resources, such as those offered by general purpose HPC centres, is one important measure for ATLAS and the other Large Hadron Collider experiments in order to meet the challenge posed by the full exploitation of the future data within the constraints of flat budgets. We report on the effort of moving the Swiss WLCG T2 computing, serving ATLAS, CMS and LHCb, from a dedicated cluster to the large Cray systems at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre CSCS. These systems do not only offer very efficient hardware, cooling and highly competent operators, but also have large backfill potentials due to size and multidisciplinary usage and potential gains due to economy at scale. Technical solutions, performance, expected return and future plans are discussed.

Recent and future liquid metal experiments on homogeneous dynamo action and magnetic instabilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stefani, Frank; Gerbeth, Gunter; Giesecke, Andre; Gundrum, Thomas; Kirillov, Oleg; Seilmayer, Martin; Gellert, Marcus; Rüdiger, Günther; Gailitis, Agris

2011-10-01

The present status of the Riga dynamo experiment is summarized and the prospects for its future exploitation are evaluated. We further discuss the plans for a large-scale precession driven dynamo experiment to be set-up in the framework of the new installation DRESDYN (DREsden Sodium facility for dynamo and thermohydraulic studies) at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. We report recent investigations of the magnetorotational instability and the Tayler instability and sketch the plans for another large-scale liquid sodium facility devoted to the combined study of both effects.

Chandra X-Ray Observatory Observations of the Jovian System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Elsner, R. F.; Bhardwaj, A.; Gladstone, R.; Waite, J. H.; Ford, P.; Branduari-Raymont, G.

2005-01-01

Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) and XMM-Newton observations of x-rays from the Jovian system have answered questions that arose from early observations with the Einstein and Rosat X-ray Observatories, but in the process of vastly increasing our knowledge of x-ray emission from Jupiter and its environs they have also raised new questions and point to new opportunities for future studies. We will review recent x-ray results on the Jovian system, from the point of view of the CXO, and discuss various questions that have arisen in the course of our studies. We will discuss prospects for more observations in the immediate future, and how they might address open questions. Finally we will briefly describe ways in which an imaging x-ray spectrometer in the vicinity of the Jovian system could provide a wealth of data and results concerning Jupiter's x-ray auroral and disk emission, elemental abundance measurements for the Galilean moons, and detailed studies of x-ray emission from the Io Plasma Torus.

Deep space target location with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Hipparcos data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Null, George W.

1988-01-01

Interplanetary spacecraft navigation requires accurate a priori knowledge of target positions. A concept is presented for attaining improved target ephemeris accuracy using two future Earth-orbiting optical observatories, the European Space Agency (ESA) Hipparcos observatory and the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Assuming nominal observatory performance, the Hipparcos data reduction will provide an accurate global star catalog, and HST will provide a capability for accurate angular measurements of stars and solar system bodies. The target location concept employs HST to observe solar system bodies relative to Hipparcos catalog stars and to determine the orientation (frame tie) of these stars to compact extragalactic radio sources. The target location process is described, the major error sources discussed, the potential target ephemeris error predicted, and mission applications identified. Preliminary results indicate that ephemeris accuracy comparable to the errors in individual Hipparcos catalog stars may be possible with a more extensive HST observing program. Possible future ground and spacebased replacements for Hipparcos and HST astrometric capabilities are also discussed.

A Prototype Publishing Registry for the Virtual Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williamson, R.; Plante, R.

2004-07-01

In the Virtual Observatory (VO), a registry helps users locate resources, such as data and services, in a distributed environment. A general framework for VO registries is now under development within the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) Registry Working Group. We present a prototype of one component of this framework: the publishing registry. The publishing registry allows data providers to expose metadata descriptions of their resources to the VO environment. Searchable registries can harvest the metadata from many publishing registries and make them searchable by users. We have developed a prototype publishing registry that data providers can install at their sites to publish their resources. The descriptions are exposed using the Open Archive Initiative (OAI) Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. Automating the input of metadata into registries is critical when a provider wishes to describe many resources. We illustrate various strategies for such automation, both currently in use and planned for the future. We also describe how future versions of the registry can adapt automatically to evolving metadata schemas for describing resources.

Closing the Loop for ALMA - Three antennas working in unison open new bright year for revolutionary observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2010-01-01

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has passed a key milestone crucial for the high quality images that will be the trademark of this revolutionary new tool for astronomy. Astronomers and engineers have, for the first time, successfully linked three of the observatory's antennas at the 5000-metre elevation observing site in northern Chile. Having three antennas observing in unison paves the way for precise images of the cool Universe at unprecedented resolution, by providing the missing link to correct errors that arise when only two antennas are used. On 20 November 2009 the third antenna for the ALMA observatory was successfully installed at the Array Operations Site, the observatory's "high site" on the Chajnantor plateau, at an altitude of 5000 metres in the Chilean Andes. Later, after a series of technical tests, astronomers and engineers observed the first signals from an astronomical source making use of all three 12-metre diameter antennas linked together, and are now working around the clock to establish the stability and readiness of the system. "The first signal using just two ALMA antennas, observed in October, can be compared to a baby's first babblings," says Leonardo Testi, the European Project Scientist for ALMA at ESO. "Observing with a third antenna represents the moment when the baby says its very first, meaningful word - not yet a full sentence, but overwhelmingly exciting! The linking of three antennas is indeed the first actual step towards our goal of achieving precise and sharp images at submillimetre wavelengths." The successful linking of the antenna trio was a key test of the full electronic and software system now being installed at ALMA, and its success anticipates the future capabilities of the observatory. When complete, ALMA will have at least 66 high-tech antennas operating together as an "interferometer", working as a single, huge telescope probing the sky in the millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths of light. The combination of the signals received at the individual antennas is crucial to achieve images of astronomical sources of unprecedented quality at its designed observing wavelengths. The three-antenna linkup is a critical step towards the observatory's operations as an interferometer. Although the first, successful measurements employing just two antennas were obtained at the ALMA high site from October 2009 (see ESO Announcement) and demonstrated the excellent performance of the instruments, the addition of the third antenna is a leap of vital importance into the future of the observatory. This major milestone for the project is known as "phase closure" and provides an important independent check on the quality of the interferometry. "The use of a network of three (or more) antennas in an interferometer dramatically enhances its performance over a simple pair of antennas," explains Wolfgang Wild, the European ALMA Project Manager. "This gives astronomers control over possible features which degrade the quality of the image, arising due to the instrument or to atmospheric turbulence. By comparing the signals received simultaneously by the three individual antennas, these unwanted effects can be cancelled out - this is completely impossible using only two antennas." To achieve this crucial goal, astronomers observed the light coming from a distant extragalactic source, the quasar QSO B1921-293, well known to astronomers for its bright emission at very long wavelengths, including the millimetre/submillimetre range probed by ALMA. The stability of the signal measured from this object shows that the antennas are working impressively well. Several additional antennas will be installed on the Chajnantor plateau over the next year and beyond, allowing astronomers to start producing early scientific results with the ALMA system around 2011. After this, the interferometer will steadily grow to reach its full scientific potential, with at least 66 antennas. ALMA, an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. More information The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ESO is the European partner in ALMA. ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence, is a revolutionary telescope, comprising an array of 66 giant 12-metre and 7-metre diameter antennas observing at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths. ALMA will start scientific observations in 2011. ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive astronomical observatory. It is supported by 14 countries: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory, and VISTA, the world's largest survey telescope. ESO is currently planning a 42-metre European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".

A framework for cross-observatory volcanological database management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aliotta, Marco Antonio; Amore, Mauro; Cannavò, Flavio; Cassisi, Carmelo; D'Agostino, Marcello; Dolce, Mario; Mastrolia, Andrea; Mangiagli, Salvatore; Messina, Giuseppe; Montalto, Placido; Fabio Pisciotta, Antonino; Prestifilippo, Michele; Rossi, Massimo; Scarpato, Giovanni; Torrisi, Orazio

2017-04-01

In the last years, it has been clearly shown how the multiparametric approach is the winning strategy to investigate the complex dynamics of the volcanic systems. This involves the use of different sensor networks, each one dedicated to the acquisition of particular data useful for research and monitoring. The increasing interest devoted to the study of volcanological phenomena led the constitution of different research organizations or observatories, also relative to the same volcanoes, which acquire large amounts of data from sensor networks for the multiparametric monitoring. At INGV we developed a framework, hereinafter called TSDSystem (Time Series Database System), which allows to acquire data streams from several geophysical and geochemical permanent sensor networks (also represented by different data sources such as ASCII, ODBC, URL etc.), located on the main volcanic areas of Southern Italy, and relate them within a relational database management system. Furthermore, spatial data related to different dataset are managed using a GIS module for sharing and visualization purpose. The standardization provides the ability to perform operations, such as query and visualization, of many measures synchronizing them using a common space and time scale. In order to share data between INGV observatories, and also with Civil Protection, whose activity is related on the same volcanic districts, we designed a "Master View" system that, starting from the implementation of a number of instances of the TSDSystem framework (one for each observatory), makes possible the joint interrogation of data, both temporal and spatial, on instances located in different observatories, through the use of web services technology (RESTful, SOAP). Similarly, it provides metadata for equipment using standard schemas (such as FDSN StationXML). The "Master View" is also responsible for managing the data policy through a "who owns what" system, which allows you to associate viewing/download of spatial or time intervals to particular users or groups.

RE-Europe, a large-scale dataset for modeling a highly renewable European electricity system

PubMed Central

Jensen, Tue V.; Pinson, Pierre

2017-01-01

Future highly renewable energy systems will couple to complex weather and climate dynamics. This coupling is generally not captured in detail by the open models developed in the power and energy system communities, where such open models exist. To enable modeling such a future energy system, we describe a dedicated large-scale dataset for a renewable electric power system. The dataset combines a transmission network model, as well as information for generation and demand. Generation includes conventional generators with their technical and economic characteristics, as well as weather-driven forecasts and corresponding realizations for renewable energy generation for a period of 3 years. These may be scaled according to the envisioned degrees of renewable penetration in a future European energy system. The spatial coverage, completeness and resolution of this dataset, open the door to the evaluation, scaling analysis and replicability check of a wealth of proposals in, e.g., market design, network actor coordination and forecasting of renewable power generation. PMID:29182600

RE-Europe, a large-scale dataset for modeling a highly renewable European electricity system.

PubMed

Jensen, Tue V; Pinson, Pierre

2017-11-28

Future highly renewable energy systems will couple to complex weather and climate dynamics. This coupling is generally not captured in detail by the open models developed in the power and energy system communities, where such open models exist. To enable modeling such a future energy system, we describe a dedicated large-scale dataset for a renewable electric power system. The dataset combines a transmission network model, as well as information for generation and demand. Generation includes conventional generators with their technical and economic characteristics, as well as weather-driven forecasts and corresponding realizations for renewable energy generation for a period of 3 years. These may be scaled according to the envisioned degrees of renewable penetration in a future European energy system. The spatial coverage, completeness and resolution of this dataset, open the door to the evaluation, scaling analysis and replicability check of a wealth of proposals in, e.g., market design, network actor coordination and forecasting of renewable power generation.

RE-Europe, a large-scale dataset for modeling a highly renewable European electricity system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jensen, Tue V.; Pinson, Pierre

2017-11-01

Future highly renewable energy systems will couple to complex weather and climate dynamics. This coupling is generally not captured in detail by the open models developed in the power and energy system communities, where such open models exist. To enable modeling such a future energy system, we describe a dedicated large-scale dataset for a renewable electric power system. The dataset combines a transmission network model, as well as information for generation and demand. Generation includes conventional generators with their technical and economic characteristics, as well as weather-driven forecasts and corresponding realizations for renewable energy generation for a period of 3 years. These may be scaled according to the envisioned degrees of renewable penetration in a future European energy system. The spatial coverage, completeness and resolution of this dataset, open the door to the evaluation, scaling analysis and replicability check of a wealth of proposals in, e.g., market design, network actor coordination and forecasting of renewable power generation.

Education and public astronomy programs at the Carter Observatory: an overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orchiston, W.; Dodd, R. J.

1996-05-01

This paper outlines the extensive range of public programs offered by the Carter Observatory, including 'public nights', new planetarium and audio-visual shows, displays, the Carter Memorial Lectures, the annual 'Astronomical Handbook' and other publications, and a monthtly newspaper column and three monthly radio programs. It also deals with the Observatory's involvement in undergraduate and postgraduate astronomy at Victoria University of Wellington, various adult education training programs, holiday programs, and the recent development of the Education Service in response to the introduction of an Astronomy curriculum into schools throughout New Zealand. Some possible future developments in the public astronomy and education areas are also discussed.

Devastating Carolina Floods Viewed by NASA SMAP

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-10-08

Surface soil moisture in the Southeastern United States as retrieved from NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite observatory at around 6 a.m. on Oct. 5, 2015. Large parts of South Carolina appear blue, representing the impact of heavy localized rains and flooding. Regions in blue indicate areas with saturated soil conditions and possible standing water. Large-scale flooding was experienced all over South Carolina on Oct. 5-6, 2015. As of Oct. 7, 17 deaths had been attributed to these floods, with heavy economic losses. In some regions, the intensity of these floods was described as a 1,000-year storm (1-in-1,000 chance of happening in any given year). At least 14 dams have already failed as a result of these floods. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20001

Simultaneous Observations of a Large-scale Wave Event in the Solar Atmosphere: From Photosphere to Corona

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, Yuandeng; Liu, Yu

2012-06-01

For the first time, we report a large-scale wave that was observed simultaneously in the photosphere, chromosphere, transition region, and low corona layers of the solar atmosphere. Using the high temporal and high spatial resolution observations taken by the Solar Magnetic Activity Research Telescope at Hida Observatory and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board Solar Dynamic Observatory, we find that the wave evolved synchronously at different heights of the solar atmosphere, and it propagated at a speed of 605 km s-1 and showed a significant deceleration (-424 m s-2) in the extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) observations. During the initial stage, the wave speed in the EUV observations was 1000 km s-1, similar to those measured from the AIA 1700 Å (967 km s-1) and 1600 Å (893 km s-1) observations. The wave was reflected by a remote region with open fields, and a slower wave-like feature at a speed of 220 km s-1 was also identified following the primary fast wave. In addition, a type-II radio burst was observed to be associated with the wave. We conclude that this wave should be a fast magnetosonic shock wave, which was first driven by the associated coronal mass ejection and then propagated freely in the corona. As the shock wave propagated, its legs swept the solar surface and thereby resulted in the wave signatures observed in the lower layers of the solar atmosphere. The slower wave-like structure following the primary wave was probably caused by the reconfiguration of the low coronal magnetic fields, as predicted in the field-line stretching model.

The Coronal Analysis of SHocks and Waves (CASHeW) framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kozarev, Kamen A.; Davey, Alisdair; Kendrick, Alexander; Hammer, Michael; Keith, Celeste

2017-11-01

Coronal bright fronts (CBF) are large-scale wavelike disturbances in the solar corona, related to solar eruptions. They are observed (mostly in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light) as transient bright fronts of finite width, propagating away from the eruption source location. Recent studies of individual solar eruptive events have used EUV observations of CBFs and metric radio type II burst observations to show the intimate connection between waves in the low corona and coronal mass ejection (CME)-driven shocks. EUV imaging with the atmospheric imaging assembly instrument on the solar dynamics observatory has proven particularly useful for detecting large-scale short-lived CBFs, which, combined with radio and in situ observations, holds great promise for early CME-driven shock characterization capability. This characterization can further be automated, and related to models of particle acceleration to produce estimates of particle fluxes in the corona and in the near Earth environment early in events. We present a framework for the coronal analysis of shocks and waves (CASHeW). It combines analysis of NASA Heliophysics System Observatory data products and relevant data-driven models, into an automated system for the characterization of off-limb coronal waves and shocks and the evaluation of their capability to accelerate solar energetic particles (SEPs). The system utilizes EUV observations and models written in the interactive data language. In addition, it leverages analysis tools from the SolarSoft package of libraries, as well as third party libraries. We have tested the CASHeW framework on a representative list of coronal bright front events. Here we present its features, as well as initial results. With this framework, we hope to contribute to the overall understanding of coronal shock waves, their importance for energetic particle acceleration, as well as to the better ability to forecast SEP events fluxes.

Toward a global multi-scale heliophysics observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Semeter, J. L.

2017-12-01

We live within the only known stellar-planetary system that supports life. What we learn about this system is not only relevant to human society and its expanding reach beyond Earth's surface, but also to our understanding of the origins and evolution of life in the universe. Heliophysics is focused on solar-terrestrial interactions mediated by the magnetic and plasma environment surrounding the planet. A defining feature of energy flow through this environment is interaction across physical scales. A solar disturbance aimed at Earth can excite geospace variability on scales ranging from thousands of kilometers (e.g., global convection, region 1 and 2 currents, electrojet intensifications) to 10's of meters (e.g., equatorial spread-F, dispersive Alfven waves, plasma instabilities). Most "geospace observatory" concepts are focused on a single modality (e.g., HF/UHF radar, magnetometer, optical) providing a limited parameter set over a particular spatiotemporal resolution. Data assimilation methods have been developed to couple heterogeneous and distributed observations, but resolution has typically been prescribed a-priori and according to physical assumptions. This paper develops a conceptual framework for the next generation multi-scale heliophysics observatory, capable of revealing and quantifying the complete spectrum of cross-scale interactions occurring globally within the geospace system. The envisioned concept leverages existing assets, enlists citizen scientists, and exploits low-cost access to the geospace environment. Examples are presented where distributed multi-scale observations have resulted in substantial new insight into the inner workings of our stellar-planetary system.

VLT/SPHERE- and ALMA-based shape reconstruction of asteroid (3) Juno

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Viikinkoski, M.; Kaasalainen, M.; Ďurech, J.; Carry, B.; Marsset, M.; Fusco, T.; Dumas, C.; Merline, W. J.; Yang, B.; Berthier, J.; Kervella, P.; Vernazza, P.

2015-09-01

We use the recently released Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and VLT/SPHERE science verification data, together with earlier adaptive-optics images, stellar occultation, and lightcurve data to model the 3D shape and spin of the large asteroid (3) Juno with the all-data asteroid modelling (ADAM) procedure. These data set limits on the plausible range of shape models, yielding reconstructions suggesting that, despite its large size, Juno has sizable unrounded features moulded by non-gravitational processes such as impacts. Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Paranal, Chile (prog. ID: 60.A-9379, 086.C-0785), and at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundation.

The Path to a UV/optical/IR Flagship: ATLAST and Its Predecessors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thronson, Harley; Bolcar, Matthew R.; Clampin, Mark; Crooke, Julie; Feinberg, Lee; Oegerle, William; Postman, Marc; Rioux, Norman; Stahl, H. Philip; Stapelfeldt, Karl

2016-01-01

The recently completed study for the Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Telescope (ATLAST) was the culmination of three years of work that built upon earlier engineering designs, science objectives, and sustained recommendations for technology investments. Since the mid-1980s, multiple teams of astronomers, technologists, and engineers have developed concepts for a large-aperture UV/optical/IR space observatory to follow the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Especially over the past decade, technology advances and exciting scientific results has led to growing support for development in the 2020s of a large UVOIR space observatory. Here we summarize the history of major mission designs, scientific goals, key technology recommendations, community workshops and conferences, and recommendations to NASA for a major UV/optical/IR observatory to follow HST. We conclude with a capsule summary of the ATLAST reference design developed over the past three years.

The Need for Large-Scale, Longitudinal Empirical Studies in Middle Level Education Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mertens, Steven B.; Caskey, Micki M.; Flowers, Nancy

2016-01-01

This essay describes and discusses the ongoing need for large-scale, longitudinal, empirical research studies focused on middle grades education. After a statement of the problem and concerns, the essay describes and critiques several prior middle grades efforts and research studies. Recommendations for future research efforts to inform policy…

Manufacturing Process Developments for Regeneratively-Cooled Channel Wall Rocket Nozzles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gradl, Paul; Brandsmeier, Will

2016-01-01

Regeneratively cooled channel wall nozzles incorporate a series of integral coolant channels to contain the coolant to maintain adequate wall temperatures and expand hot gas providing engine thrust and specific impulse. NASA has been evaluating manufacturing techniques targeting large scale channel wall nozzles to support affordability of current and future liquid rocket engine nozzles and thrust chamber assemblies. The development of these large scale manufacturing techniques focus on the liner formation, channel slotting with advanced abrasive water-jet milling techniques and closeout of the coolant channels to replace or augment other cost reduction techniques being evaluated for nozzles. NASA is developing a series of channel closeout techniques including large scale additive manufacturing laser deposition and explosively bonded closeouts. A series of subscale nozzles were completed evaluating these processes. Fabrication of mechanical test and metallography samples, in addition to subscale hardware has focused on Inconel 625, 300 series stainless, aluminum alloys as well as other candidate materials. Evaluations of these techniques are demonstrating potential for significant cost reductions for large scale nozzles and chambers. Hot fire testing is planned using these techniques in the future.

Controlled experiments of hillslope co-evolution at the Biosphere 2 Landscape Evolution Observatory: toward prediction of coupled hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Volkmann, T. H. M.; Sengupta, A.; Pangle, L.; Abramson, N.; Barron-Gafford, G.; Breshears, D. D.; Bugaj, A.; Chorover, J.; Dontsova, K.; Durcik, M.; Ferre, T. P. A.; Harman, C. J.; Hunt, E.; Huxman, T. E.; Kim, M.; Maier, R. M.; Matos, K.; Alves Meira Neto, A.; Meredith, L. K.; Monson, R. K.; Niu, G. Y.; Pelletier, J. D.; Rasmussen, C.; Ruiz, J.; Saleska, S. R.; Schaap, M. G.; Sibayan, M.; Tuller, M.; Van Haren, J. L. M.; Wang, Y.; Zeng, X.; Troch, P. A.

2017-12-01

Understanding the process interactions and feedbacks among water, microbes, plants, and porous geological media is crucial for improving predictions of the response of Earth's critical zone to future climatic conditions. However, the integrated co-evolution of landscapes under change is notoriously difficult to investigate. Laboratory studies are typically limited in spatial and temporal scale, while field studies lack observational density and control. To bridge the gap between controlled lab and uncontrolled field studies, the University of Arizona - Biosphere 2 built a macrocosm experiment of unprecedented scale: the Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO). LEO consists of three replicated, 330-m2 hillslope landscapes inside a 5000-m2 environmentally controlled facility. The engineered landscapes contain 1-m depth of basaltic tephra ground to homogenous loamy sand that will undergo physical, chemical, and mineralogical changes over many years. Each landscape contains a dense sensor network capable of resolving water, carbon, and energy cycling processes at sub-meter to whole-landscape scale. Embedded sampling devices allow for quantification of biogeochemical processes, and facilitate the use of chemical tracers applied with the artificial rainfall. LEO is now fully operational and intensive forcing experiments have been launched. While operating the massive infrastructure poses significant challenges, LEO has demonstrated the capacity of tracking multi-scale matter and energy fluxes at a level of detail impossible in field experiments. Initial sensor, sampler, and restricted soil coring data are already providing insights into the tight linkages between water flow, weathering, and (micro-) biological community development during incipient landscape evolution. Over the years to come, these interacting processes are anticipated to drive the model systems to increasingly complex states, potentially perturbed by changes in climatic forcing. By intensively monitoring the evolutionary trajectory, integrating data with models, and fostering community-wide collaborations, we envision that emergent landscape structures and functions can be linked and significant progress can be made toward predicting the coupled hydro-biogeochemical and ecological responses to global change.

Generation-X: An X-ray observatory designed to observe first light objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Windhorst, Rogier A.; Cameron, R. A.; Brissenden, R. J.; Elvis, M. S.; Fabbiano, G.; Gorenstein, P.; Reid, P. B.; Schwartz, D. A.; Bautz, M. W.; Figueroa-Feliciano, E.; Petre, R.; White, N. E.; Zhang, W. W.

2006-03-01

The new cosmological frontier will be the study of the very first stars, galaxies and black holes in the early Universe. These objects are invisible to the current generation of X-ray telescopes, such as Chandra. In response, the Generation-X ("Gen-X") Vision Mission has been proposed as a future X-ray observatory which will be capable of detecting the earliest objects. X-ray imaging and spectroscopy of such faint objects demands a large collecting area and high angular resolution. The Gen-X mission plans 100 m 2 collecting area at 1 keV (1000× that of Chandra), and with an angular resolution of 0.1″. The Gen-X mission will operate at Sun-Earth L2, and might involve four 8 m diameter telescopes or even a single 20 m diameter telescope. To achieve the required effective area with reasonable mass, very lightweight grazing incidence X-ray optics must be developed, having an areal density 100× lower than in Chandra, with mirrors as thin as 0.1 mm requiring active on-orbit figure control. The suite of available detectors for Gen-X should include a large-area high resolution imager, a cryogenic imaging spectrometer, and a grating spectrometer. We discuss use of Gen-X to observe the birth of the first black holes, stars and galaxies, and trace their cosmic evolution.

The General History of Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gingerich, Owen

2010-04-01

Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgements; Part I. The Birth of Astrophysics and Other Late Nineteenth-Century Trends (c.1850-c.1920); 1. The origins of astrophysics A. J. Meadows; 2. The impact of photography on astronomy John Lankford; 3. Telescope building, 1850-1900 Albert Van Helden; 4. The new astronomy A. J. Meadows; 5. Variable stars Helen Sawyer Hogg; 6. Stellar evolution and the origin of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram David DeVorkin; Part II. Observatories and Instrumentation: 7. Astronomical institutions. Introduction Owen Gingerich, Greenwich Observatory Philip S. Laurie, Paris Observatory Jacques Lévy, Pulkovo Observatory Aleksandr A. Mikhailov, Harvard College Observatory Howard Plotkin, United States Naval Observatory Deborah Warner, Lick Observatory Trudy E. Bell, Potsdam Astrophysical Observatory Dieter B. Herrmann; 8. Building large telescopes, 1900-1950 Albert Van Helden; 9. Astronomical institutions in the southern hemisphere, 1850-1950 David S. Evans; 10. Twentieth-century instrumentation Charles Fehrenbach, with a section on 'Early rockets in astronomy' Herbert Friedman; 11. Early radio astronomy Woodruff T. Sullivan III; Appendix: The world's largest telescopes, 1850-1950 Barbara L. Welther; Illustrations: acknowledgements and sources; Index.

Development and Flight-testing of Astronomical Instrumentation for Future NASA Astrophysics Missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

France, Kevin

We propose a four year suborbital research program to continue the University of Colorado's efforts in the development and flight testing of instrument designs and critical path technologies for ultraviolet spectroscopy in support of future NASA Explorer, Probe-, and Flagship-class missions. This proposal builds on our existing program of high-resolution spectroscopy for the 100 - 160 nm bandpass with the development of a new high-efficiency imaging spectrograph operating in the same band. The ultimate goal of the University of Colorado ultraviolet rocket program is to develop the technical capabilities to enable a future, highly multiplexed ultraviolet spectrograph (with both high-resolution and imaging spectroscopy modes), e.g., an analog to the successful HST-STIS instrument, with an order-of-magnitude higher efficiency. We do this in the framework of a university led program where undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral training is paramount and cutting edge science investigations support our baseline technology development program. In the proposed effort, we will optimize our high-resolution (R > 100,000) echelle spectrograph payload (CHESS) with the first science flight of a new, large-format CCD array provided by our collaborators at JPL and Arizona State University. We will launch CHESS to study our local interstellar environment with spectral resolving power and bandpass that cannot be achieved with any suite of current or planned space missions. In parallel with the proposed science flights of CHESS, we will design, calibrate, and launch a new high-throughput imaging spectrograph (SISTINE); the first sub-arcsecond imaging, medium spectral resolution (R = 10,000), spectrograph ever flown with spectral coverage over the entire 100 - 160 nm bandpass. SISTINE incorporates several novel optical technologies that were highlighted as major hardware drivers for NASA's next large ultraviolet/optical/near-IR observatory by the 2014 Cosmic Origins Technology Report, including advanced mirror coatings with high broadband reflectivity (including > 20% efficiency gains below 115 nm), the first demonstration and flight test of these coatings on a shaped 0.5-meter telescope, and large-format, high-QE photon counting detectors. SISTINE will be launched to study the energetic radiation environment in the habitable zones around nearby low-mass exoplanet host stars, systems that are the top priority in NASA's search for the signatures of biological activity in the coming decade. SISTINE addresses the highest science priority in the 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey and is a crucial step towards meeting NASA's technology needs for future space observatories.

Study of the characteristics of seismic signals generated by natural and cultural phenomena. [such as earthquakes, sonic booms, and nuclear explosions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goforth, T. T.; Rasmussen, R. K.

1974-01-01

Seismic data recorded at the Tonto Forest Seismological Observatory in Arizona and the Uinta Basin Seismological Observatory in Utah were used to compare the frequency of occurrence, severity, and spectral content of ground motions resulting from earthquakes, and other natural and man-made sources with the motions generated by sonic booms. A search of data recorded at the two observatories yielded a classification of over 180,000 earthquake phase arrivals on the basis of frequency of occurrence versus maximum ground velocity. The majority of the large ground velocities were produced by seismic surface waves from moderate to large earthquakes in the western United States, and particularly along the Pacific Coast of the United States and northern Mexico. A visual analysis of raw film seismogram data over a 3-year period indicates that local and regional seismic events, including quarry blasts, are frequent in occurrence, but do not produce ground motions at the observatories comparable to either the large western United States earthquakes or to sonic booms. Seismic data from the Nevada Test Site nuclear blasts were used to derive magnitude-distance-sonic boom overpressure relations.

Distributed Observatory Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Godin, M. A.; Bellingham, J. G.

2006-12-01

A collection of tools for collaboratively managing a coastal ocean observatory have been developed and used in a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary field experiment. The Autonomous Ocean Sampling Network program created these tools to support the Adaptive Sampling and Prediction (ASAP) field experiment that occurred in Monterey Bay in the summer of 2006. ASAP involved the day-to-day participation of a large group of researchers located across North America. The goal of these investigators was to adapt an array of observational assets to optimize data collection and analysis. Achieving the goal required continual interaction, but the long duration of the observatory made sustained co-location of researchers difficult. The ASAP team needed a remote collaboration tool, the capability to add non-standard, interdisciplinary data sets to the overall data collection, and the ability to retrieve standardized data sets from the collection. Over the course of several months and "virtual experiments," the Ocean Observatory Portal (COOP) collaboration tool was created, along with tools for centralizing, cataloging, and converting data sets into common formats, and tools for generating automated plots of the common format data. Accumulating the data in a central location and converting the data to common formats allowed any team member to manipulate any data set quickly, without having to rely heavily on the expertise of data generators to read the data. The common data collection allowed for the development of a wide range of comparison plots and allowed team members to assimilate new data sources into derived outputs such as ocean models quickly. In addition to the standardized outputs, team members were able to produce their own specialized products and link to these through the collaborative portal, which made the experimental process more interdisciplinary and interactive. COOP was used to manage the ASAP vehicle program from its start in July 2006. New summaries were posted to the COOP tool on a daily basis, and updated with announcements on schedule, system status, voting results from previous day, ocean, atmosphere, hardware, adaptive sampling and coordinated control and forecast. The collection of standardized data files was used to generate daily plots of observed and predicted currents, temperature, and salinity. Team members were able to participate from any internet-accessible location using common Internet browsers, and any team member could add to the day's summary, point out trends and discuss observations, and make an adaptation proposal. If a team member submitted a proposal, team-wide discussion and voting followed. All interactions were archived and left publicly accessible so that future experiments could be made more systematic with increased automation. The need for collaboration and data handling tools is important for future ocean observatories, which will require 24-hour per day, 7-day a week interactions over many years. As demonstrated in the ASAP experiment, the COOP tool and associated data handling tools allowed scientists to coherently and collaboratively manage an ocean observatory, without being co-located at the observatory. Lessons learned from operating these collaborative tools during the ASAP experiment provide an important foundation for creating even more capable portals.

The ANGWIN Antarctic Research Program: First Results on Coordinated Trans-Antarctic Gravity Wave Measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taylor, M. J.; Pautet, P. D.; Zhao, Y.; Nakamura, T.; Ejiri, M. K.; Murphy, D. J.; Moffat-Griffin, T.; Kavanagh, A. J.; Takahashi, H.; Wrasse, C. M.

2014-12-01

ANGWIN (ANrctic Gravity Wave Instrument Network) is a new "scientist driven" research program designed to develop and utilize a network of Antarctic atmospheric gravity wave observatories, operated by different nations working together in a spirit of close scientific collaboration. Our research plan has brought together colleagues from several international institutions, all with a common goal to better understand the large "continental-scale" characteristics and impacts of gravity waves on the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT) environment over Antarctica. ANGWIN combines complementary measurements obtained using new and existing aeronomy instrumentation with new modeling capabilities. To date, our activities have focused on developing coordinated airglow image data of gravity waves in the MLT region at the following sites: McMurdo (US), Syowa (Japan), Davis (Australia), Halley (UK), Rothera (UK), and Comandante Ferraz (Brazil). These are all well-established international research stations that are uniformly distributed around the continental perimeter, and together with ongoing measurements at South Pole Station they provide unprecedented coverage of the Antarctic gravity wave field and its variability during the extended polar winter season. This presentation introduces the ANGWIN program and research goals, and presents first results on trans-Antarctic wave propagation using coordinated measurements during the winter season 2011. We also discuss future plans for the development of this exciting program for Antarctic research.

Finding the UV-Visible Path Forward: Proceedings of the Community Workshop to Plan the Future of UV/Visible Space Astrophysics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scowen, Paul A.; Tripp, Todd; Beasley, Matt; Ardila, David; Andersson, B.-G.; Maíz Apellániz, Jesús; Barstow, Martin; Bianchi, Luciana; Calzetti, Daniela; Clampin, Mark; Evans, Christopher J.; France, Kevin; García García, Miriam; Gomez de Castro, Ana; Harris, Walt; Hartigan, Patrick; Howk, J. Christopher; Hutchings, John; Larruquert, Juan; Lillie, Charles F.; Matthews, Gary; McCandliss, Stephan; Polidan, Ron; Perez, Mario R.; Rafelski, Marc; Roederer, Ian U.; Sana, Hugues; Sanders, Wilton T.; Schiminovich, David; Thronson, Harley; Tumlinson, Jason; Vallerga, John; Wofford, Aida

2017-07-01

We present the science cases and technological discussions that came from the workshop titled “Finding the ultraviolet (UV)-Visible Path Forward” held at NASA GSFC 2015 June 25-26. The material presented outlines the compelling science that can be enabled by a next generation space-based observatory dedicated for UV-visible science, the technologies that are available to include in that observatory design, and the range of possible alternative launch approaches that could also enable some of the science. The recommendations to the Cosmic Origins Program Analysis Group from the workshop attendees on possible future development directions are outlined.

Morphologies and ages of star cluster pairs and multiplets in the Small Magellanic Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Oliveira, M. R.; Dutra, C. M.; Bica, E.; Dottori, H.

2000-10-01

An isophotal atlas of 75 star cluster pairs and multiplets in the Small Magellanic Cloud is presented, comprising 176 objects. They are concentrated in the SMC main body. The isophotal contours were made from Digitized Sky Survey* images and showed relevant structural features possibly related to interactions in about 25% of the sample. Previous N-body simulations indicate that such shapes could be due to tidal tails, bridges or common envelopes. The diameter ratio between the members of a pair is preferentially in the range 1 - 2, with a peak at 1. The projected separation is in the range ~ 3 - 22 pc with a pronounced peak at ~ 13 pc. For 91 objects it was possible to derive ages from Colour-Magnitude Diagrams using the OGLE-II photometric survey. The cluster multiplets in general occur in OB stellar associations and/or HII region complexes. This indicates a common origin and suggests that multiplets coalesce into pairs or single clusters in a short time scale. Pairs in the SMC appear to be mostly coeval and consequently captures are a rare phenomenon. We find evidence that star cluster pairs and multiplets may have had an important role in the dynamical history of clusters presently seen as large single objects. The images in this study are based on photographic data obtained using the UK Schmidt Telescope, which was operated by the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, with funding from the UK Science and Engineering Research Council, until 1988 June, and thereafter by the Anglo-Australian Observatory. Original plate material is copyright by the Royal Observatory Edinburgh and the Anglo-Australian Observatory. The plates were processed into the present compressed digital form with their permission. The Digitized Sky Survey was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute under US Government grant NAG W-2166.

A distributed atmosphere-sea ice-ocean observatory in the central Arctic Ocean: concept and first results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoppmann, Mario; Nicolaus, Marcel; Rabe, Benjamin; Wenzhöfer, Frank; Katlein, Christian; Scholz, Daniel; Valcic, Lovro

2017-04-01

To understand the current evolution of the Arctic Ocean towards a less extensive, thinner and younger sea ice cover is one of the biggest challenges in climate research. Especially the lack of simultaneous in-situ observations of sea ice, ocean and atmospheric properties leads to significant knowledge gaps in their complex interactions, and how the associated processes impact the polar marine ecosystem. Here we present a concept for the implementation of a long-term strategy to monitor the most essential climate- and ecosystem parameters in the central Arctic Ocean, year round and synchronously. The basis of this strategy is the development and enhancement of a number of innovative autonomous observational platforms, such as rugged weather stations, ice mass balance buoys, ice-tethered bio-optical buoys and upper ocean profilers. The deployment of those complementing platforms in a distributed network enables the simultaneous collection of physical and biogeochemical in-situ data on basin scales and year round, including the largely undersampled winter periods. A key advantage over other observatory systems is that the data is sent via satellite in near-real time, contributing to numerical weather predictions through the Global Telecommunication System (GTS) and to the International Arctic Buoy Programme (IABP). The first instruments were installed on ice floes in the Eurasian Basin in spring 2015 and 2016, yielding exceptional records of essential climate- and ecosystem-relevant parameters in one of the most inaccessible regions of this planet. Over the next 4 years, and including the observational periods of the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP, 2017-2019) and the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of the Arctic Climate (MOSAiC, 2020), the distributed observatory will be maintained by deployment of additional instruments in the central Arctic each year, benefitting from international logistical efforts.

HEAO Block 2 study executive summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1976-01-01

An executive summary is presented of a preliminary study done on several potential High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO) missions which are follow-on missions to the currently defined HEAO program. The purpose was to examine several typical missions and determine the relative complexities associated with them. The four payloads investigated were (1) a 1.2 m Diameter X-ray Telescope observatory, (2) a Large Area Moderate Angular Resolution (LAMAR) observatory, (3) a cosmic ray observatory, and (4) a gamma ray observatory. Each of the four observatories was considered a national facility. Low cost approaches were stressed throughout, with considerable use of HEAO Block I experience and designs effected to provide a high degree of confidence that such approaches were achievable. The use of the Multi-Mission Spacecraft (MMS) and the HEAO Block I spacecraft was considered as a result of this low cost emphasis. Also, NASA standard components were considered, where applicable.

KSC-06pd1538

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-07-10

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the hazardous processing facility at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., technicians check Observatory A before lifting onto a scale for weight measurements. The observatory is one of two in the STEREO spacecraft and later will be fueled. STEREO stands for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory. The STEREO mission is the first to take measurements of the sun and solar wind in 3-dimension. This new view will improve our understanding of space weather and its impact on the Earth. STEREO is expected to lift off aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket no earlier than Aug. 1. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

A SOLAR CORONAL JET EVENT TRIGGERS A CORONAL MASS EJECTION

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liu, Jiajia; Wang, Yuming; Shen, Chenglong

2015-11-10

In this paper, we present multi-point, multi-wavelength observations and analysis of a solar coronal jet and coronal mass ejection (CME) event. Employing the GCS model, we obtained the real (three-dimensional) heliocentric distance and direction of the CME and found it to propagate at a high speed of over 1000 km s{sup −1}. The jet erupted before the CME and shared the same source region. The temporal and spacial relationship between these two events lead us to the possibility that the jet triggered the CME and became its core. This scenario hold the promise of enriching our understanding of the triggeringmore » mechanism of CMEs and their relations to coronal large-scale jets. On the other hand, the magnetic field configuration of the source region observed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)/HMI instrument along with the off-limb inverse Y-shaped configuration observed by SDO/AIA in the 171 Å passband provide the first detailed observation of the three-dimensional reconnection process of a large-scale jet as simulated in Pariat et al. The eruption process of the jet highlights the importance of filament-like material during the eruption of not only small-scale X-ray jets, but likely also of large-scale EUV jets. Based on our observations and analysis, we propose the most probable mechanism for the whole event, with a blob structure overlaying the three-dimensional structure of the jet, to describe the interaction between the jet and the CME.« less

Still Virtual After All These Years: Recent Developments in the Virtual Solar Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gurman, J. B.; Bogart, R. S.; Davey, A. R.; Hill, F.; Martens, P. C.; Zarro, D. M.; Team, T. v.

2008-05-01

While continuing to add access to data from new missions, including Hinode and STEREO, the Virtual Solar Observatory is also being enhanced as a research tool by the addition of new features such as the unified representation of catalogs and event lists (to allow joined searches in two or more catalogs) and workable representation and manipulation of large numbers of search results (as are expected from the Solar Dynamics Observatory database). Working with our RHESSI colleagues, we have also been able to improve the performance of IDL-callable vso_search and vso_get functions, to the point that use of those routines is a practical alternative to reproducing large subsets of mission data on one's own LAN.

Still Virtual After All These Years: Recent Developments in the Virtual Solar Observatory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gurman, Joseph B.; Bogart; Davey; Hill; Masters; Zarro

2008-01-01

While continuing to add access to data from new missions, including Hinode and STEREO, the Virtual Solar Observatory is also being enhanced as a research tool by the addition of new features such as the unified representation of catalogs and event lists (to allow joined searches in two or more catalogs) and workable representation and manipulation of large numbers of search results (as are expected from the Solar Dynamics Observatory database). Working with our RHESSI colleagues, we have also been able to improve the performance of IDL-callable vso_search and vso_get functions, to the point that use of those routines is a practical alternative to reproducing large subsets of mission data on one's own LAN.

A kilo-pixel imaging system for future space based far-infrared observatories using microwave kinetic inductance detectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baselmans, J. J. A.; Bueno, J.; Yates, S. J. C.; Yurduseven, O.; Llombart, N.; Karatsu, K.; Baryshev, A. M.; Ferrari, L.; Endo, A.; Thoen, D. J.; de Visser, P. J.; Janssen, R. M. J.; Murugesan, V.; Driessen, E. F. C.; Coiffard, G.; Martin-Pintado, J.; Hargrave, P.; Griffin, M.

2017-05-01

Aims: Future astrophysics and cosmic microwave background space missions operating in the far-infrared to millimetre part of the spectrum will require very large arrays of ultra-sensitive detectors in combination with high multiplexing factors and efficient low-noise and low-power readout systems. We have developed a demonstrator system suitable for such applications. Methods: The system combines a 961 pixel imaging array based upon Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) with a readout system capable of reading out all pixels simultaneously with only one readout cable pair and a single cryogenic amplifier. We evaluate, in a representative environment, the system performance in terms of sensitivity, dynamic range, optical efficiency, cosmic ray rejection, pixel-pixel crosstalk and overall yield at an observation centre frequency of 850 GHz and 20% fractional bandwidth. Results: The overall system has an excellent sensitivity, with an average detector sensitivity < NEPdet> =3×10-19 WHz measured using a thermal calibration source. At a loading power per pixel of 50 fW we demonstrate white, photon noise limited detector noise down to 300 mHz. The dynamic range would allow the detection of 1 Jy bright sources within the field of view without tuning the readout of the detectors. The expected dead time due to cosmic ray interactions, when operated in an L2 or a similar far-Earth orbit, is found to be <4%. Additionally, the achieved pixel yield is 83% and the crosstalk between the pixels is <-30 dB. Conclusions: This demonstrates that MKID technology can provide multiplexing ratios on the order of a 1000 with state-of-the-art single pixel performance, and that the technology is now mature enough to be considered for future space based observatories and experiments.

ESO's Two Observatories Merge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2005-02-01

On February 1, 2005, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has merged its two observatories, La Silla and Paranal, into one. This move will help Europe's prime organisation for astronomy to better manage its many and diverse projects by deploying available resources more efficiently where and when they are needed. The merged observatory will be known as the La Silla Paranal Observatory. Catherine Cesarsky, ESO's Director General, comments the new development: "The merging, which was planned during the past year with the deep involvement of all the staff, has created unified maintenance and engineering (including software, mechanics, electronics and optics) departments across the two sites, further increasing the already very high efficiency of our telescopes. It is my great pleasure to commend the excellent work of Jorge Melnick, former director of the La Silla Observatory, and of Roberto Gilmozzi, the director of Paranal." ESO's headquarters are located in Garching, in the vicinity of Munich (Bavaria, Germany), and this intergovernmental organisation has established itself as a world-leader in astronomy. Created in 1962, ESO is now supported by eleven member states (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom). It operates major telescopes on two remote sites, all located in Chile: La Silla, about 600 km north of Santiago and at an altitude of 2400m; Paranal, a 2600m high mountain in the Atacama Desert 120 km south of the coastal city of Antofagasta. Most recently, ESO has started the construction of an observatory at Chajnantor, a 5000m high site, also in the Atacama Desert. La Silla, north of the town of La Serena, has been the bastion of the organization's facilities since 1964. It is the site of two of the most productive 4-m class telescopes in the world, the New Technology Telescope (NTT) - the first major telescope equipped with active optics - and the 3.6-m, which hosts HARPS, a unique instrument capable of measuring stellar radial velocities with an unsurpassed accuracy better than 1 m/s, making it a very powerful tool for the discovery of extra-solar planets. In addition, astronomers have also access to the 2.2-m ESO/MPG telescope with its Wide Field Imager camera. A new control room, the RITZ (Remote Integrated Telescope Zentrum), allows operating all three ESO telescopes at La Silla from a single place. The La Silla Observatory is also the first world-class observatory to have been granted certification for the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 Quality Management System. Moreover, the infrastructure of La Silla is still used by many of the ESO member states for targeted projects such as the Swiss 1.2-m Euler telescope and the robotic telescope specialized in the follow-up of gamma-ray bursts detected by satellites, the Italian REM (Rapid Eye Mount). In addition, La Silla is in charge of the APEX (Atacama Pathfinder Experiment) 12-m sub-millimetre telescope which will soon start routine observations at Chajnantor, the site of the future Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). The APEX project is a collaboration between the Max Planck Society in Germany, Onsala Observatory in Sweden and ESO. ESO also operates Paranal, home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the VLT Interferometer (VLTI). Antu, the first 8.2-m Unit Telescope of the VLT, saw First Light in May 1998, starting what has become a revolution in European astronomy. Since then, the three other Unit Telescopes - Kueyen, Melipal and Yepun - have been successfully put into operation with an impressive suite of the most advanced astronomical instruments. The interferometric mode of the VLT (VLTI) is also operational and fully integrated in the VLT data flow system. In the VLTI mode, one state-of-the-art instrument is already available and another will follow soon. With its remarkable resolution and unsurpassed surface area, the VLT is at the forefront of astronomical technology and is one of the premier facilities in the world for optical and near-infrared observations. In addition to the state-of-the-art Very Large Telescope and the four Auxiliary Telescopes of 1.8-m diameter which can move to relocate in up to 30 different locations feeding the interferometer, Paranal will also be home to the 2.6-m VLT Survey telescope (VST) and the 4.2-m VISTA IR survey telescope. Both Paranal and La Silla have a proven record of their unique ability to address most current issues in observational astronomy. In 2004 alone, each observatory provided data for the publication of about 350 peer-reviewed journal articles, more than any other ground-based observatory. With the present merging of these top-ranking astronomical observatories, fostering synergies and harmonizing the many diverse activities, ESO and the entire community of European astronomers will profit even more from these highly efficient research facilities. Images of ESO's observatories and telescopes are available in the ESO gallery.

Science Objectives of the JEM EUSO Mission on International Space Station

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Takahashi, Yoshiyuki

2007-01-01

JEM-EUSO space observatory is planned with a very large exposure factor which will exceed the critical exposure factor required for observing the most of the sources within the propagational horizon of about one hundred Mpc. The main science objective of JEM-EUSO is the source-identifying astronomy in particle channel with extremey-high-energy particles. Quasi-linear tracking of the source objects through galactic magnetic field should become feasible at energy > 10(exp 20) eV for all-sky. The individual GZK profile in high statistics experiments should differ from source to source due to different distance unless Lorentz invariance is somehow limited. hi addition, JEM-EUSO has three exploratory test observations: (i), extremely high energy neutrinos beginning at E > 10(exp 19) eV: neutrinos as being expected to have a slowly increasing cross section in the Standard Model, and in particular, hundreds of times more in the extra-dimension models. (ii). fundamental physics at extreme Super LHC (Large Hadronic Collider) energies with the hierarchical unified energy much below the GUT scale, and (iii). global atmospheric observation, including large-scale and local plasma discharges, night-glow, meteorites, and others..

Inferring cortical function in the mouse visual system through large-scale systems neuroscience.

PubMed

Hawrylycz, Michael; Anastassiou, Costas; Arkhipov, Anton; Berg, Jim; Buice, Michael; Cain, Nicholas; Gouwens, Nathan W; Gratiy, Sergey; Iyer, Ramakrishnan; Lee, Jung Hoon; Mihalas, Stefan; Mitelut, Catalin; Olsen, Shawn; Reid, R Clay; Teeter, Corinne; de Vries, Saskia; Waters, Jack; Zeng, Hongkui; Koch, Christof

2016-07-05

The scientific mission of the Project MindScope is to understand neocortex, the part of the mammalian brain that gives rise to perception, memory, intelligence, and consciousness. We seek to quantitatively evaluate the hypothesis that neocortex is a relatively homogeneous tissue, with smaller functional modules that perform a common computational function replicated across regions. We here focus on the mouse as a mammalian model organism with genetics, physiology, and behavior that can be readily studied and manipulated in the laboratory. We seek to describe the operation of cortical circuitry at the computational level by comprehensively cataloging and characterizing its cellular building blocks along with their dynamics and their cell type-specific connectivities. The project is also building large-scale experimental platforms (i.e., brain observatories) to record the activity of large populations of cortical neurons in behaving mice subject to visual stimuli. A primary goal is to understand the series of operations from visual input in the retina to behavior by observing and modeling the physical transformations of signals in the corticothalamic system. We here focus on the contribution that computer modeling and theory make to this long-term effort.

Peering into space with the Morocco Oukaïmeden Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benkhaldoun, Zouhair

2018-05-01

Moroccan scientific production in astronomy and astrophysics has shown sustained growth since the late 1980s. This growth is largely due to the dynamism of an increasingly entrepreneurial community and to the creation of an astronomical observatory in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains.

Copy of Using Emulation and Simulation to Understand the Large-Scale Behavior of the Internet.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Adalsteinsson, Helgi; Armstrong, Robert C.; Chiang, Ken

2008-10-01

We report on the work done in the late-start LDRDUsing Emulation and Simulation toUnderstand the Large-Scale Behavior of the Internet. We describe the creation of a researchplatform that emulates many thousands of machines to be used for the study of large-scale inter-net behavior. We describe a proof-of-concept simple attack we performed in this environment.We describe the successful capture of a Storm bot and, from the study of the bot and furtherliterature search, establish large-scale aspects we seek to understand via emulation of Storm onour research platform in possible follow-on work. Finally, we discuss possible future work.3

Constraining Large-Scale Solar Magnetic Field Models with Optical Coronal Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uritsky, V. M.; Davila, J. M.; Jones, S. I.

2015-12-01

Scientific success of the Solar Probe Plus (SPP) and Solar Orbiter (SO) missions will depend to a large extent on the accuracy of the available coronal magnetic field models describing the connectivity of plasma disturbances in the inner heliosphere with their source regions. We argue that ground based and satellite coronagraph images can provide robust geometric constraints for the next generation of improved coronal magnetic field extrapolation models. In contrast to the previously proposed loop segmentation codes designed for detecting compact closed-field structures above solar active regions, we focus on the large-scale geometry of the open-field coronal regions located at significant radial distances from the solar surface. Details on the new feature detection algorithms will be presented. By applying the developed image processing methodology to high-resolution Mauna Loa Solar Observatory images, we perform an optimized 3D B-line tracing for a full Carrington rotation using the magnetic field extrapolation code presented in a companion talk by S.Jones at al. Tracing results are shown to be in a good qualitative agreement with the large-scalie configuration of the optical corona. Subsequent phases of the project and the related data products for SSP and SO missions as wwll as the supporting global heliospheric simulations will be discussed.

The Observatory for Multi-Epoch Gravitational Lens Astrophysics (OMEGA)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moustakas, Leonidas A.; Bolton, Adam J.; Booth, Jeffrey T.; Bullock, James S.; Cheng, Edward; Coe, Dan; Fassnacht, Christopher D.; Gorjian, Varoujan; Heneghan, Cate; Keeton, Charles R.; Kochanek, Christopher S.; Lawrence, Charles R.; Marshall, Philip J.; Metcalf, R. Benton; Natarajan, Priyamvada; Nikzad, Shouleh; Peterson, Bradley M.; Wambsganss, Joachim

2008-07-01

Dark matter in a universe dominated by a cosmological constant seeds the formation of structure and is the scaffolding for galaxy formation. The nature of dark matter remains one of the fundamental unsolved problems in astrophysics and physics even though it represents 85% of the mass in the universe, and nearly one quarter of its total mass-energy budget. The mass function of dark matter "substructure" on sub-galactic scales may be enormously sensitive to the mass and properties of the dark matter particle. On astrophysical scales, especially at cosmological distances, dark matter substructure may only be detected through its gravitational influence on light from distant varying sources. Specifically, these are largely active galactic nuclei (AGN), which are accreting super-massive black holes in the centers of galaxies, some of the most extreme objects ever found. With enough measurements of the flux from AGN at different wavelengths, and their variability over time, the detailed structure around AGN, and even the mass of the super-massive black hole can be measured. The Observatory for Multi-Epoch Gravitational Lens Astrophysics (OMEGA) is a mission concept for a 1.5-m near-UV through near-IR space observatory that will be dedicated to frequent imaging and spectroscopic monitoring of ~100 multiply-imaged active galactic nuclei over the whole sky. Using wavelength-tailored dichroics with extremely high transmittance, efficient imaging in six channels will be done simultaneously during each visit to each target. The separate spectroscopic mode, engaged through a flip-in mirror, uses an image slicer spectrograph. After a period of many visits to all targets, the resulting multidimensional movies can then be analyzed to a) measure the mass function of dark matter substructure; b) measure precise masses of the accreting black holes as well as the structure of their accretion disks and their environments over several decades of physical scale; and c) measure a combination of Hubble's local expansion constant and cosmological distances to unprecedented precision. We present the novel OMEGA instrumentation suite, and how its integrated design is ideal for opening the time domain of known cosmologically-distant variable sources, to achieve the stated scientific goals.

Reengineering observatory operations for the time domain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seaman, Robert L.; Vestrand, W. T.; Hessman, Frederic V.

2014-07-01

Observatories are complex scientific and technical institutions serving diverse users and purposes. Their telescopes, instruments, software, and human resources engage in interwoven workflows over a broad range of timescales. These workflows have been tuned to be responsive to concepts of observatory operations that were applicable when various assets were commissioned, years or decades in the past. The astronomical community is entering an era of rapid change increasingly characterized by large time domain surveys, robotic telescopes and automated infrastructures, and - most significantly - of operating modes and scientific consortia that span our individual facilities, joining them into complex network entities. Observatories must adapt and numerous initiatives are in progress that focus on redesigning individual components out of the astronomical toolkit. New instrumentation is both more capable and more complex than ever, and even simple instruments may have powerful observation scripting capabilities. Remote and queue observing modes are now widespread. Data archives are becoming ubiquitous. Virtual observatory standards and protocols and astroinformatics data-mining techniques layered on these are areas of active development. Indeed, new large-aperture ground-based telescopes may be as expensive as space missions and have similarly formal project management processes and large data management requirements. This piecewise approach is not enough. Whatever challenges of funding or politics facing the national and international astronomical communities it will be more efficient - scientifically as well as in the usual figures of merit of cost, schedule, performance, and risks - to explicitly address the systems engineering of the astronomical community as a whole.

Pteropods are Undervalued Contributors to Aragonite Flux in Tropical Gyres

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pebody, C. A.; Lampitt, R. S.

2016-02-01

Pteropods are a large component of the animals routinely caught in sediment traps at 3000m at the NOG observatory in the North Atlantic Oligotrophic Gyre and at the SOG observatory in the South Atlantic Oligotrophic Gyre. Sediment traps have been used to collect downward settling material at NOG and SOG since 2008. Pteropods have been identified and removed from the samples during processing in line with best practice. Some of these animals maybe opportunistic swimmers, but some are most definitely broken and should be considered as a component of the downward particle flux. Samples from both locations demonstrate a sustained and sometimes seasonal flux of pteropods to the deep ocean interior. In gyre regions with low levels of particle flux compared to temperate regions, the additional mostly inorganic material supplied in the form of pteropod shells represents a large proportional increase. Our data set from both northern and southern Atlantic gyres demonstrates due consideration should be given to the importance of pteropod flux and the contribution this makes to the biological carbon pump. These observatories at 23°N 41°W and 18°S 25°W, are part of the FixO3 open observatory network and are supported by NOC and NERC. Analysis of the first three years of each observatory are now yielding new insight on these large and poorly sampled areas of the open ocean. Key words: pteropods; aragonite; sediment traps; NOG SOG; FixO3; biological carbon pump; biogeochemical cycles; Tropical Atlantic Gyres.

Ideas for Future GPS Timing Improvements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hutsell, Steven T.

1996-01-01

Having recently met stringent criteria for full operational capability (FOC) certification, the Global Positioning System (GPS) now has higher customer expectations than ever before. In order to maintain customer satisfaction, and the meet the even high customer demands of the future, the GPS Master Control Station (MCS) must play a critical role in the process of carefully refining the performance and integrity of the GPS constellation, particularly in the area of timing. This paper will present an operational perspective on several ideas for improving timing in GPS. These ideas include the desire for improving MCS - US Naval Observatory (USNO) data connectivity, an improved GPS-Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) prediction algorithm, a more robust Kalman Filter, and more features in the GPS reference time algorithm (the GPS composite clock), including frequency step resolution, a more explicit use of the basic time scale equation, and dynamic clock weighting. Current MCS software meets the exceptional challenge of managing an extremely complex constellation of 24 navigation satellites. The GPS community will, however, always seek to improve upon this performance and integrity.

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gehrz, Robert; Becklin, Eric; Young, Erick; Krabbe, Alfred; Marcum, Pamela; Roellig, Thomas

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a joint U.S./German Project to develop and operate a 2.5-meter infrared airborne telescope in a Boeing 747-SP that flies in the stratosphere at altitudes as high as 45,000 and is capable of observations from 0.3 microns to 1.6 mm with an average transmission greater than 80 percent. SOFIA will be staged out of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center aircraft operations facility at Palmdale, CA and the SOFIA Science Mission Operations Center (SSMOC) will be located at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. First science flights will begin in 2010, and the number of flights will ramp up annually with a flight rate of over 100 8 to 10 hour flights per year expected by 2014. The observatory is expected to operate until the mid 2030's. SOFIA will initially fly with eight focal plane instruments that include broadband imagers, moderate resolution spectrographs that will resolve broad features due to dust and large molecules, and high resolution spectrometers capable of studying the kinematics of molecular and atomic gas lines at km/s resolution. We describe the SOFIA facility and outline the opportunities for observations by the general scientific community and future instrumentation developments. The operational characteristics of the SOFIA first-generation instruments are summarized and we give several specific examples of the types of scientific studies to which these instruments are expected to make fundamental scientific contributions.

Future Radiation Damage in Space due to South Atlantic Anomaly

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heirtzler, J. R.

1999-01-01

Predictions of radiation damage for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites now use semi-empirical models developed from prior satellite data. From these models it is clear that the low field strength of the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) controls where the maximum radiation damage occurs. One may make an estimate of future radiation damage to LEO spacecraft if one can predict the future of the SAA. Although reliable maps of the geomagnetic field strength and its secular change have only been made in the last few decades, certain geomagnetic observatories in South America and Africa have recorded the geomagnetic field for a much longer time. These observatories show that the present geomagnetic field change has persisted for more than 100 years. In spite of the fact that a few observatories have shown sudden changes in secular variation, those around the SAA have shown a stable secular variation. Assuming that this will continue for the next 50 to 100 years one can show that the SAA will expand to cover most of the South Atlantic Ocean and will become much weaker. This will greatly intensify the radiation hazard in LEO, put significant new limitations on radiation-hardened hardware, severely restrict the length of time that humans can remain in orbit, and materially change the configuration of the radiation belts.

Swift Creek Landslide Observatory: a university public - private partnership for education and public safety

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Linneman, S. R.

2017-12-01

Community - Scientist partnerships take many forms. In the northwest corner of Washington state a large, active, serpentinitic earthflow has, for decades, shed >25,000 m^3/yr of asbestos-rich sediment into a small agricultural stream system. While the landslide, which moves 3 m/yr, and its unusual sediment have much attracted scientific interest, the situation also presents a great opportunity for community - scientist partnerships. The Swift Creek Landslide Observatory (SCLO) (http://landslide.geol.wwu.edu) is a partnership between scientists and technical staff at Western Washington University + local landowners + the state Department of Ecology + Whatcom County Public Works + a local video security firm. SCLO maintains two remote webcams from which current images are posted to the SCLO website hourly. Users can also view archived images from the cameras, create image-compare visualizations, and create time-lapse movies from the eight-year image archive. SCLO is used by local emergency managers and residents to evaluate the threat of debris flows and floods. It is also used by educators to dramatically illustrate hillslope evolution at a variety of time scales.

On the frequency spectra of the core magnetic field Gauss coefficients

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lesur, Vincent; Wardinski, Ingo; Baerenzung, Julien; Holschneider, Matthias

2018-03-01

From monthly mean observatory data spanning 1957-2014, geomagnetic field secular variation values were calculated by annual differences. Estimates of the spherical harmonic Gauss coefficients of the core field secular variation were then derived by applying a correlation based modelling. Finally, a Fourier transform was applied to the time series of the Gauss coefficients. This process led to reliable temporal spectra of the Gauss coefficients up to spherical harmonic degree 5 or 6, and down to periods as short as 1 or 2 years depending on the coefficient. We observed that a k-2 slope, where k is the frequency, is an acceptable approximation for these spectra, with possibly an exception for the dipole field. The monthly estimates of the core field secular variation at the observatory sites also show that large and rapid variations of the latter happen. This is an indication that geomagnetic jerks are frequent phenomena and that significant secular variation signals at short time scales - i.e. less than 2 years, could still be extracted from data to reveal an unexplored part of the core dynamics.

Computational Models of Consumer Confidence from Large-Scale Online Attention Data: Crowd-Sourcing Econometrics

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Economies are instances of complex socio-technical systems that are shaped by the interactions of large numbers of individuals. The individual behavior and decision-making of consumer agents is determined by complex psychological dynamics that include their own assessment of present and future economic conditions as well as those of others, potentially leading to feedback loops that affect the macroscopic state of the economic system. We propose that the large-scale interactions of a nation's citizens with its online resources can reveal the complex dynamics of their collective psychology, including their assessment of future system states. Here we introduce a behavioral index of Chinese Consumer Confidence (C3I) that computationally relates large-scale online search behavior recorded by Google Trends data to the macroscopic variable of consumer confidence. Our results indicate that such computational indices may reveal the components and complex dynamics of consumer psychology as a collective socio-economic phenomenon, potentially leading to improved and more refined economic forecasting. PMID:25826692

Computational models of consumer confidence from large-scale online attention data: crowd-sourcing econometrics.

PubMed

Dong, Xianlei; Bollen, Johan

2015-01-01

Economies are instances of complex socio-technical systems that are shaped by the interactions of large numbers of individuals. The individual behavior and decision-making of consumer agents is determined by complex psychological dynamics that include their own assessment of present and future economic conditions as well as those of others, potentially leading to feedback loops that affect the macroscopic state of the economic system. We propose that the large-scale interactions of a nation's citizens with its online resources can reveal the complex dynamics of their collective psychology, including their assessment of future system states. Here we introduce a behavioral index of Chinese Consumer Confidence (C3I) that computationally relates large-scale online search behavior recorded by Google Trends data to the macroscopic variable of consumer confidence. Our results indicate that such computational indices may reveal the components and complex dynamics of consumer psychology as a collective socio-economic phenomenon, potentially leading to improved and more refined economic forecasting.

SkICAT: A cataloging and analysis tool for wide field imaging surveys

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weir, N.; Fayyad, U. M.; Djorgovski, S. G.; Roden, J.

1992-01-01

We describe an integrated system, SkICAT (Sky Image Cataloging and Analysis Tool), for the automated reduction and analysis of the Palomar Observatory-ST ScI Digitized Sky Survey. The Survey will consist of the complete digitization of the photographic Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-II) in three bands, comprising nearly three Terabytes of pixel data. SkICAT applies a combination of existing packages, including FOCAS for basic image detection and measurement and SAS for database management, as well as custom software, to the task of managing this wealth of data. One of the most novel aspects of the system is its method of object classification. Using state-of-theart machine learning classification techniques (GID3* and O-BTree), we have developed a powerful method for automatically distinguishing point sources from non-point sources and artifacts, achieving comparably accurate discrimination a full magnitude fainter than in previous Schmidt plate surveys. The learning algorithms produce decision trees for classification by examining instances of objects classified by eye on both plate and higher quality CCD data. The same techniques will be applied to perform higher-level object classification (e.g., of galaxy morphology) in the near future. Another key feature of the system is the facility to integrate the catalogs from multiple plates (and portions thereof) to construct a single catalog of uniform calibration and quality down to the faintest limits of the survey. SkICAT also provides a variety of data analysis and exploration tools for the scientific utilization of the resulting catalogs. We include initial results of applying this system to measure the counts and distribution of galaxies in two bands down to Bj is approximately 21 mag over an approximate 70 square degree multi-plate field from POSS-II. SkICAT is constructed in a modular and general fashion and should be readily adaptable to other large-scale imaging surveys.

Observed correlations between aerosol and cloud properties in an Indian Ocean trade cumulus regime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pistone, K.; Praveen, P. S.; Thomas, R. M.; Ramanathan, V.; Wilcox, E.; Bender, F. A.-M.

2015-10-01

There are many contributing factors which determine the micro- and macrophysical properties of clouds, including atmospheric structure, dominant meteorological conditions, and aerosol concentration, all of which may be coupled to one another. In the quest to determine aerosol effects on clouds, these potential relationships must be understood, as changes in atmospheric conditions due to aerosol may change the expected magnitude of indirect effects by altering cloud properties in unexpected ways. Here we describe several observed correlations between aerosol conditions and cloud and atmospheric properties in the Indian Ocean winter monsoon season. In the CARDEX (Cloud, Aerosol, Radiative forcing, Dynamics EXperiment) field campaign conducted in February and March 2012 in the northern Indian Ocean, continuous measurements of atmospheric precipitable water vapor and the liquid water path (LWP) of trade cumulus clouds were made, concurrent with measurements of water vapor flux, cloud and aerosol vertical profiles, meteorological data, and surface and total-column aerosol. Here we present evidence of a positive correlation between aerosol and cloud LWP which becomes clear after the data are filtered to control for the natural meteorological variability in the region. We then use the aircraft and ground observatory measurements to explore the mechanisms behind the observed aerosol-LWP correlation. We determine that increased boundary-layer humidity lowering the cloud base is responsible for the observed increase in cloud liquid water. Large-scale analysis indicates that high pollution cases originate with a highly-polluted boundary layer air mass approaching the observatory from a northwesterly direction. This polluted mass exhibits higher temperatures and humidity than the clean case, the former of which may be attributable to heating due to aerosol absorption of solar radiation over the subcontinent. While high temperature conditions dispersed along with the high-aerosol anomaly, the high humidity condition was observed to instead develop along with the polluted air mass. We then explore potential causal mechanisms of the observed correlations, though future research will be needed to more fully describe the aerosol-humidity relationship.

Bi-static Optical Observations of GEO Objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seitzer, Patrick; Barker, Edwin S.; Cowardin, Heather; Lederer, Susan M.; Buckalew, Brent

2014-01-01

A bi-static study of objects at Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) was conducted using two ground-based wide-field optical telescopes. The University of Michigan's 0.6-m MODEST (Michigan Orbital Debris Survey Telescope) located at the Cerro Tololo Inter- American Observatory in Chile was employed in a series of coordinated observations with the U.S. Naval Observatory's (USNO) 1.3-m telescope at the USNO Flagstaff Station near Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. The goals of this project are twofold: (1) Obtain optical distances to known and unknown objects at GEO from the difference in the observed topocentric position of objects measured with respect to a reference star frame. The distance can be derived directly from these measurements, and is independent of any orbital solution. The wide geographical separation of these two telescopes means that the parallax difference is larger than ten degrees, and (2) Compare optical photometry in similar filters of GEO objects taken during the same time period from the two sites. The object's illuminated surfaces presented different angles of reflected sunlight to the two telescopes.During a four hour period on the night.of 22 February 2014 (UT), coordinated observations were obtained for eight different GEO positions. Each coordinated observation sequence was started on the hour or half-hour, and was selected to ensure the same cataloged GEO object was available in the field of view of both telescopes during the thirty minute observing sequence. GEO objects were chosen to be both controlled and uncontrolled at a range of orbital inclinations, and the objects were not tracked. Instead both telescopes were operated with all drives off in GEO survey mode to discover un-cataloged objects at GEO. The initial results from this proof-of-concept observing run will be presented, with the intent of laying the foundation for future large-scale bi-static observing campaigns of the GEO regime.

Artificial intelligence approaches to astronomical observation scheduling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnston, Mark D.; Miller, Glenn

1988-01-01

Automated scheduling will play an increasing role in future ground- and space-based observatory operations. Due to the complexity of the problem, artificial intelligence technology currently offers the greatest potential for the development of scheduling tools with sufficient power and flexibility to handle realistic scheduling situations. Summarized here are the main features of the observatory scheduling problem, how artificial intelligence (AI) techniques can be applied, and recent progress in AI scheduling for Hubble Space Telescope.

NASA's future plans for space astronomy and astrophysics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kaplan, Michael S.

1992-01-01

NASA's plans in the field of space astronomy and astrophysics through the first decade of the next century are reviewed with reference to specific missions and mission concepts. The missions discussed include the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, the Submillimeter Intermediate Mission, the Astrometric Interferometry Mission, the Greater Observatories program, and Mission from Planet Earth. Plans to develop optics and sensors technology to enable these missions are also discussed.

AstroGrid: Taverna in the Virtual Observatory .

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benson, K. M.; Walton, N. A.

This paper reports on the implementation of the Taverna workbench by AstroGrid, a tool for designing and executing workflows of tasks in the Virtual Observatory. The workflow approach helps astronomers perform complex task sequences with little technical effort. Visual approach to workflow construction streamlines highly complex analysis over public and private data and uses computational resources as minimal as a desktop computer. Some integration issues and future work are discussed in this article.

Advances and trends in computational structural mechanics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Noor, A. K.

1986-01-01

Recent developments in computational structural mechanics are reviewed with reference to computational needs for future structures technology, advances in computational models for material behavior, discrete element technology, assessment and control of numerical simulations of structural response, hybrid analysis, and techniques for large-scale optimization. Research areas in computational structural mechanics which have high potential for meeting future technological needs are identified. These include prediction and analysis of the failure of structural components made of new materials, development of computational strategies and solution methodologies for large-scale structural calculations, and assessment of reliability and adaptive improvement of response predictions.

Imaging detectors and electronics—a view of the future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spieler, Helmuth

2004-09-01

Imaging sensors and readout electronics have made tremendous strides in the past two decades. The application of modern semiconductor fabrication techniques and the introduction of customized monolithic integrated circuits have made large-scale imaging systems routine in high-energy physics. This technology is now finding its way into other areas, such as space missions, synchrotron light sources, and medical imaging. I review current developments and discuss the promise and limits of new technologies. Several detector systems are described as examples of future trends. The discussion emphasizes semiconductor detector systems, but I also include recent developments for large-scale superconducting detector arrays.

The Rapid Ice Sheet Change Observatory (RISCO)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morin, P.; Howat, I. M.; Ahn, Y.; Porter, C.; McFadden, E. M.

2010-12-01

The recent expansion of observational capacity from space has revealed dramatic, rapid changes in the Earth’s ice cover. These discoveries have fundamentally altered how scientists view ice-sheet change. Instead of just slow changes in snow accumulation and melting over centuries or millennia, important changes can occur in sudden events lasting only months, weeks, or even a single day. Our understanding of these short time- and space-scale processes, which hold important implications for future global sea level rise, has been impeded by the low temporal and spatial resolution, delayed sensor tasking, incomplete coverage, inaccessibility and/or high cost of data available to investigators. New cross-agency partnerships and data access policies provide the opportunity to dramatically improve the resolution of ice sheet observations by an order of magnitude, from timescales of months and distances of 10’s of meters, to days and meters or less. Advances in image processing technology also enable application of currently under-utilized datasets. The infrastructure for systematically gathering, processing, analyzing and distributing these data does not currently exist. Here we present the development of a multi-institutional, multi-platform observatory for rapid ice change with the ultimate objective of helping to elucidate the relevant timescales and processes of ice sheet dynamics and response to climate change. The Rapid Ice Sheet Observatory (RISCO) gathers observations of short time- and space-scale Cryosphere events and makes them easily accessible to investigators, media and general public. As opposed to existing data centers, which are structured to archive and distribute diverse types of raw data to end users with the specialized software and skills to analyze them, RISCO focuses on three types of geo-referenced raster (image) data products in a format immediately viewable with commonly available software. These three products are (1) sequences of images and image animations from the ice sheet scale down to scales of meters, (2) maps of ice flow velocity and acceleration and (3) digital elevation models and elevation change maps. These products are created both from user-tasked data acquisitions and from a decade of archived data. An online user interface will allow browsing of the data catalog, product ordering and requests for sensor tasking. Over the next few years, RISCO will develop into a long-term observational system, with an adaptable infrastructure to accommodate new sensors and currently unforeseeable demands. RISCO has the potential to greatly enhance observation of ice sheets, moving from ad hoc studies of past changes using whatever data happens to be available, to scalable, targeted, near-real time monitoring of events as they occur.

Shedding Light on the Cosmic Skeleton

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2009-11-01

Astronomers have tracked down a gigantic, previously unknown assembly of galaxies located almost seven billion light-years away from us. The discovery, made possible by combining two of the most powerful ground-based telescopes in the world, is the first observation of such a prominent galaxy structure in the distant Universe, providing further insight into the cosmic web and how it formed. "Matter is not distributed uniformly in the Universe," says Masayuki Tanaka from ESO, who led the new study. "In our cosmic vicinity, stars form in galaxies and galaxies usually form groups and clusters of galaxies. The most widely accepted cosmological theories predict that matter also clumps on a larger scale in the so-called 'cosmic web', in which galaxies, embedded in filaments stretching between voids, create a gigantic wispy structure." These filaments are millions of light years long and constitute the skeleton of the Universe: galaxies gather around them, and immense galaxy clusters form at their intersections, lurking like giant spiders waiting for more matter to digest. Scientists are struggling to determine how they swirl into existence. Although massive filamentary structures have been often observed at relatively small distances from us, solid proof of their existence in the more distant Universe has been lacking until now. The team led by Tanaka discovered a large structure around a distant cluster of galaxies in images they obtained earlier. They have now used two major ground-based telescopes to study this structure in greater detail, measuring the distances from Earth of over 150 galaxies, and, hence, obtaining a three-dimensional view of the structure. The spectroscopic observations were performed using the VIMOS instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope and FOCAS on the Subaru Telescope, operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. Thanks to these and other observations, the astronomers were able to make a real demographic study of this structure, and have identified several groups of galaxies surrounding the main galaxy cluster. They could distinguish tens of such clumps, each typically ten times as massive as our own Milky Way galaxy - and some as much as a thousand times more massive - while they estimate that the mass of the cluster amounts to at least ten thousand times the mass of the Milky Way. Some of the clumps are feeling the fatal gravitational pull of the cluster, and will eventually fall into it. "This is the first time that we have observed such a rich and prominent structure in the distant Universe," says Tanaka. "We can now move from demography to sociology and study how the properties of galaxies depend on their environment, at a time when the Universe was only two thirds of its present age." The filament is located about 6.7 billion light-years away from us and extends over at least 60 million light-years. The newly uncovered structure does probably extend further, beyond the field probed by the team, and hence future observations have already been planned to obtain a definite measure of its size. More information This research was presented in a paper published as a letter in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Journal: The spectroscopically confirmed huge cosmic structure at z = 0.55, by Tanaka et al. The team is composed of Masayuki Tanaka (ESO), Alexis Finoguenov (Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany and University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA), Tadayuki Kodama (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo, Japan), Yusei Koyama (Department of Astronomy, University of Tokyo, Japan), Ben Maughan (H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, UK) and Fumiaki Nakata (Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan). ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive astronomical observatory. It is supported by 14 countries: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning a 42-metre European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".

QUIJOTE Experiment: status of telescopes and instrumentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pérez-de-Taoro, M. R.; Aguiar-González, M.; Cózar-Castellano, J.; Génova-Santos, R.; Gómez-Reñasco, F.; Hoyland, R.; Peláez-Santos, A.; Poidevin, F.; Tramonte, D.; Rebolo-López, R.; Rubiño-Martín, J. A.; Sánchez-de-la-Rosa, V.; Vega-Moreno, A.; Viera-Curbelo, T.; Vignaga, R.; Casas, F. J.; Martinez-Gonzalez, E.; Ortiz, D.; Aja, B.; Artal, E.; Cano-de-Diego, J. L.; de-la-Fuente, L.; Mediavilla, A.; Terán, J. V.; Villa, E.; Harper, S.; McCulloch, M.; Melhuish, S.; Piccirillo, L.; Lasenby, A.

2016-07-01

The QUIJOTE Experiment (Q-U-I JOint TEnerife) is a combined operation of two telescopes and three instruments working in the microwave band to measure the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) from the northern hemisphere, at medium and large angular scales. The experiment is located at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, one of the seven Canary Islands (Spain). The project is a consortium maintained by several institutions: the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), the Instituto de Física de Cantabria (IFCA), the Communications Engineering Department (DICOM) at Universidad de Cantabria, and the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge. The consortium is led by the IAC.

Interests of long-term hydrogeological observatories for characterizing and modelling heterogeneous groundwater systems at multiple temporal and spatial scales: the example of Ploemeur, a crystalline rock aquifer (Brittany).

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bour, Olivier; Longuervergne, Laurent; Le Borgne, Tanguy; Lavenant, Nicolas; de Dreuzy, Jean-Raynald; Schuite, Jonathan; Labasque, Thierry; Aquilina, Luc; Davy, Philippe

2017-04-01

Characterizing groundwater flows and surface interactions in heterogeneous groundwater systems such as crystalline fractured rock is often extremely complex. In particular, hydraulic properties are highly variable while groundwater chemical properties may vary both in space and time, especially due to the impact of groundwater abstraction. Here, we show the interest of hydrological observatories and long-term monitoring for characterizing hydrological processes occurring in a crystalline rock aquifer. We present results from the site of Ploemeur (French Brittany) that belongs to the network of hydrogeological sites H+ and the research infrastructure OZCAR, and where interdisciplinary and integrated research at multiple temporal and spatial scales has been developed for almost twenty years. This outstandingly heterogeneous crystalline rock aquifer is also used for groundwater supply since 1991. In particular, we show how cross-borehole flowmeter tests, pumping tests and a frequency domain analysis of groundwater levels allow quantifying the hydraulic properties of the aquifer at different scales. In addition, groundwater temperature evolution was used as an excellent tracer for characterizing groundwater flow. At the site scale, measurements of ground surface deformation through long-base tiltmeters provide robust estimates of aquifer storage and allow identifying the active structures, including those acting during recharge process. Finally, a numerical model of the watershed scale that combines hydraulic data and groundwater ages confirms the geometry of this complex aquifer and the consistency of the different datasets. In parallel, this hydrological observatory is also used for developing hydrogeophysical methods and to characterize groundwater transport and biogeochemical reactivity in the sub-surface. The Ploemeur hydrogeological observatory is a good example of the interest of focusing research activities on a site during long-term as it provides a thorough understanding of both hydrological and biogeochemical processes that can be extended to many heterogeneous aquifers.

Vertical flows of supergranular and mesogranular scale observed on the sun with OSO 8

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

November, L. J.; Toomre, J.; Gebbie, K. B.; Simon, G. W.

1982-01-01

A program of observations was carried out in order to study the penetration of supergranular flows over a broad range of heights in the solar atmosphere. Steady Doppler velocities are determined from observations of a Si II spectral line using the Ultraviolet Spectrometer on the Orbiting Solar Observatory 8 (OSO 8) satellite and Fe I and Mg I lines with the diode-array instrument on the vacuum telescope at Sacramento Peak Observatory (SPO). The heights of formation of these spectral lines span about 1400 km or nearly 11 density scale heights from the photosphere to the middle chromosphere. Steady vertical flows on spatial scales typical of supergranulation and mesogranulation have been detected in the middle chromosphere with OSO 8. The patterns of intensity and steady velocity of granular scale are reproducible in successive data sets. The patterns appear to evolve slowly over the 9 hr period spanned by six orbits.

Infrared Astrophysics in the SOFIA Era - An Overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yorke, Harold W.

2018-06-01

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) provides the international astronomical community access to a broad range of instrumentation that covers wavelengths spanning the near to far infrared. The high spectral resolution of many of these instruments in several wavelength bands is unmatched by any existing or near future planned facility. The far infrared polarization capabilities of one of its instruments, HAWC+, is also unique. Moreover, SOFIA allows for additional instrument augmentations, as new state-of-the-art photometric, spectrometric, and polarimetric capabilities have been added and are being further improved. The fact that SOFIA provides ample mass, power, computing capabilities as well as 4K cooling eases the constraints on future instrument design, technical readiness, and the instrument build to an extent not possible for space-borne missions. We will review SOFIA's current and future planned capabilities and highlight specific science areas for which the stratospheric observatory will be able to significantly advance Origins science topics.

Complementarity of NGST, ALMA, and Far IR Space Observatories

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mather, John C.

2004-01-01

The Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) will both start operations long before a new far IR observatory to follow SIRTF into space can be launched. What will be unknown even after they are operational, and what will a far IR space observatory be able to add? I will compare the telescope design concepts and capabilities and the advertised scientific programs for the projects and attempt to forecast the research topics that will be at the forefront in 2010.

Complementarity of NGST, ALMA, and far IR Space Observatories

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mather, John C.; Fisher, Richard R. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) will both start operations long before a new far IR observatory in space can be launched. What will be unknown even after they are operational, and what will a far IR space observatory be able to add? I will compare the telescope design concepts and capabilities and the advertised scientific programs for the projects and attempt to forecast the research topics that will be at the forefront in 2010.

Gemini Observatory base facility operations: systems engineering process and lessons learned

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Serio, Andrew; Cordova, Martin; Arriagada, Gustavo; Adamson, Andy; Close, Madeline; Coulson, Dolores; Nitta, Atsuko; Nunez, Arturo

2016-08-01

Gemini North Observatory successfully began nighttime remote operations from the Hilo Base Facility control room in November 2015. The implementation of the Gemini North Base Facility Operations (BFO) products was a great learning experience for many of our employees, including the author of this paper, the BFO Systems Engineer. In this paper we focus on the tailored Systems Engineering processes used for the project, the various software tools used in project support, and finally discuss the lessons learned from the Gemini North implementation. This experience and the lessons learned will be used both to aid our implementation of the Gemini South BFO in 2016, and in future technical projects at Gemini Observatory.

The Most Remote Point Method for the Site Selection of the Future VGOS Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hase, Hayo; Pedreros, Felipe

2014-12-01

The VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS) will be part of the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) and will consist of globally well distributed geodetic observatories. The most remote point (MRP) method is used to identify gaps in the network geometry. In each iteration step the identified most remote points are assumed to become new observatory sites improving the homogeneity of the global network. New locations for VGOS observatories have been found in La Plata, Tahiti, O'Higgins, Galapagos, Colombo, and Syowa. This contribution is an excerpt of a work published in Journal of Geodesy (DOI: 10.1007/s00190-014-0731-y) covering the site selection for the GGOS.%

Performance of Loran-C chains relative to UTC

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chi, A. R.

1974-01-01

The long term performance of the eight Loran-C chains in terms of the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) of the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO) and the use of the Loran-C navigation system to maintain the user's clock to a UTC scale, are examined. The atomic time (AT) scale and the UTC of several national laboratories and observatories relative to the international atomic time (TAI) are presented. In addition, typical performance of several NASA tracking station clocks, relative to the USNO master clock, is also presented. Recent revision of the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) by the International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR) is given in an appendix.

Developing an astronomical observatory in Paraguay

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Troche-Boggino, Alexis E.

Background: Paraguay has some heritage from the astronomy of the Guarani Indians. Buenaventura Suarez S.J. was a pioneer astronomer in the country in the XVIII century. He built various astronomical instruments and imported others from England. He observed eclipses of Jupiter's satellites and of the Sun and Moon. He published his data in a book and through letters. The Japanese O.D.A. has collaborated in obtaining equipment and advised their government to assist Paraguay in building an astronomical observatory, constructing a moving-roof observatory and training astronomers as observatory operators. Future: An astronomical center is on the horizon and some possible fields of research are being considered. Goal: To improve education at all possible levels by not only observing sky wonders, but also showing how instruments work and teaching about data and image processing, saving data and building a data base. Students must learn how a modern scientist works.

Research Article. Towards a tidal loading model for the Argentine-German Geodetic Observatory (La Plata)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Richter, A.; Müller, L.; Marderwald, E.; Mendoza, L.; Kruse, E.; Perdomo, R.; Scheinert, M.; Perdomo, S.

2017-02-01

We present a regionalized model of ocean tidal loading effects for the Argentine-German Geodetic Observatory in La Plata. It provides the amplitudes and phases of gravity variations and vertical deformation for nine tidal constituents to be applied as corrections to the observatory's future geodetic observation data. This model combines a global ocean tide model with a model of the tides in the Río de la Plata estuary. A comparison with conventional predictions based only on the global ocean tide model reveals the importance of the incorporation of the regional tide model. Tidal loading at the observatory is dominated by the tides in the Atlantic Ocean. An additional contribution of local tidal loading in channels and groundwater is examined. The magnitude of the tidal loading is also reviewed in the context of the effects of solid earth tides, atmospheric loading and non-tidal loads.

The Renovation and Future Capabilities of the Thacher Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Neill, Katie; Osuna, Natalie; Edwards, Nick; Klink, Douglas; Swift, Jonathan; Vyhnal, Chris; Meyer, Kurt

2016-01-01

The Thacher School is in the process of renovating the campus observatory with a new meter class telescope and full automation capabilities for the purpose of scientific research and education. New equipment on site has provided a preliminary site characterization including seeing and V-band sky brightness measurements. These data, along with commissioning data from the MINERVA project (which uses comparable hardware) are used to estimate the capabilities of the observatory once renovation is complete. Our V-band limiting magnitude is expected to be better than 21.3 for a one minute integration time, and we estimate that milli-magnitude precision photometry will be possible for a V=14.5 point source over approximately 5 min timescales. The quick response, autonomous operation, and multi-band photometric capabilities of the renovated observatory will make it a powerful follow-up science facility for exoplanets, eclipsing binaries, near-Earth objects, stellar variability, and supernovae.

Globalizing Lessons Learned from Regional-scale Observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glenn, S. M.

2016-02-01

The Mid Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System (MARACOOS) has accumulated a decade of experience designing, building and operating a Regional Coastal Ocean Observing System for the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). MARACOOS serves societal goals and supports scientific discovery at the scale of a Large Marine Ecosystem (LME). Societal themes include maritime safety, ecosystem decision support, coastal inundation, water quality and offshore energy. Scientific results that feed back on societal goals with better products include improved understanding of seasonal transport pathways and their impact on phytoplankton blooms and hypoxia, seasonal evolution of the subsurface Mid Atlantic Cold Pool and its impact on fisheries, biogeochemical transformations in coastal plumes, coastal ocean evolution and impact on hurricane intensities, and storm sediment transport pathways. As the global ocean observing requirements grow to support additional societal needs for information on fisheries and aquaculture, ocean acidification and deoxygenation, water quality and offshore development, global observing will necessarily evolve to include more coastal observations and forecast models at the scale of the world's many LMEs. Here we describe our efforts to share lessons learned between the observatory operators at the regional-scale of the LMEs. Current collaborators are spread across Europe, and also include Korea, Indonesia, Australia, Brazil and South Africa. Specific examples include the development of a world standard QA/QC approach for HF Radar data that will foster the sharing of data between countries, basin-scale underwater glider missions between internationally-distributed glider ports to developed a shared understanding of operations and an ongoing evaluation of the global ocean models in which the regional models for the LME will be nested, and joint training programs to develop the distributed teams of scientists and technicians required to support the global network. Globalization includes the development of international networks to coordinate activities, such as the Global HF Radar network supported by GEO, the global Everyone's Glider Organization supported by WMO and IOC, and the need for professional training supported by MTS.

Addressing the social dimensions of citizen observatories: The Ground Truth 2.0 socio-technical approach for sustainable implementation of citizen observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wehn, Uta; Joshi, Somya; Pfeiffer, Ellen; Anema, Kim; Gharesifard, Mohammad; Momani, Abeer

2017-04-01

Owing to ICT-enabled citizen observatories, citizens can take on new roles in environmental monitoring, decision making and co-operative planning, and environmental stewardship. And yet implementing advanced citizen observatories for data collection, knowledge exchange and interactions to support policy objectives is neither always easy nor successful, given the required commitment, trust, and data reliability concerns. Many efforts are facing problems with the uptake and sustained engagement by citizens, limited scalability, unclear long-term sustainability and limited actual impact on governance processes. Similarly, to sustain the engagement of decision makers in citizen observatories, mechanisms are required from the start of the initiative in order to have them invest in and, hence, commit to and own the entire process. In order to implement sustainable citizen observatories, these social dimensions therefore need to be soundly managed. We provide empirical evidence of how the social dimensions of citizen observatories are being addressed in the Ground Truth 2.0 project, drawing on a range of relevant social science approaches. This project combines the social dimensions of citizen observatories with enabling technologies - via a socio-technical approach - so that their customisation and deployment is tailored to the envisaged societal and economic impacts of the observatories. The projects consists of the demonstration and validation of six scaled up citizen observatories in real operational conditions both in the EU and in Africa, with a specific focus on flora and fauna as well as water availability and water quality for land and natural resources management. The demonstration cases (4 EU and 2 African) cover the full 'spectrum' of citizen-sensed data usage and citizen engagement, and therefore allow testing and validation of the socio-technical concept for citizen observatories under a range of conditions.

The instrumentation program for the Thirty Meter Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simard, Luc; Crampton, David; Ellerbroek, Brent; Boyer, Corinne

2012-09-01

An overview of the current status of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) instrumentation program is presented. Science cases and operational concepts as well as their links to the instruments are continually revisited and updated through a series of workshops and conferences. Work on the three first-light instruments (WFOS IRIS, and IRMS) has made significant progress, and many groups in TMT partner communities are developing future instrument concepts. Other instrument-related subsystems are also receiving considerable attention given their importance to the scientific end-to-end performance of the Observatory. As an example, we describe aspects of the facility instrument cooling system that are crucially important to successful diffraction-limited observations on an extremely large telescope.

Adjustable Grazing-Incidence X-Ray Optics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

O'Dell, Stephen L.; Reid, Paul B.

2015-01-01

With its unique subarcsecond imaging performance, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory illustrates the importance of fine angular resolution for x-ray astronomy. Indeed, the future of x-ray astronomy relies upon x-ray telescopes with comparable angular resolution but larger aperture areas. Combined with the special requirements of nested grazing-incidence optics, mass, and envelope constraints of space-borne telescopes render such advances technologically and programmatically challenging. The goal of this technology research is to enable the cost-effective fabrication of large-area, lightweight grazing-incidence x-ray optics with subarcsecond resolution. Toward this end, the project is developing active x-ray optics using slumped-glass mirrors with thin-film piezoelectric arrays for correction of intrinsic or mount-induced distortions.

Orbit and Dynamical Mass of the Late-T Dwarf GL 758 B

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bowler, Brendan P.; Dupuy, Trent J.; Endl, Michael; Cochran, William D.; MacQueen, Phillip J.; Fulton, Benjamin J.; Petigura, Erik A.; Howard, Andrew W.; Hirsch, Lea; Kratter, Kaitlin M.; Crepp, Justin R.; Biller, Beth A.; Johnson, Marshall C.; Wittenmyer, Robert A.

2018-04-01

Gl 758 B is a late-T dwarf orbiting a metal-rich Sun-like star at a projected separation of ρ ≈ 1.″6 (25 au). We present four epochs of astrometry of this system with NIRC2 at Keck Observatory spanning 2010 to 2017 together with 630 radial velocities (RVs) of the host star acquired over the past two decades from McDonald Observatory, Keck Observatory, and the Automated Planet Finder at Lick Observatory. The RVs reveal that Gl 758 is accelerating with an evolving rate that varies between 2 and 5 m s‑1 yr‑1, consistent with the expected influence of the imaged companion Gl 758 B. A joint fit of the RVs and astrometry yields a dynamical mass of {42}-7+19 M Jup for the companion with a robust lower limit of 30.5 M Jup at the 4-σ level. Gl 758 B is on an eccentric orbit (e = 0.26–0.67 at 95% confidence) with a semimajor axis of a = {21.1}-1.3+2.7 au and an orbital period of P = {96}-9+21 yr, which takes it within ≈9 au from its host star at periastron passage. Substellar evolutionary models generally underpredict the mass of Gl 758 B for nominal ages of 1–6 Gyr that have previously been adopted for the host star. This discrepancy can be reconciled if the system is older—which is consistent with activity indicators and recent isochrone fitting of the host star—or alternatively if the models are systematically overluminous by ≈0.1–0.2 dex. Gl 758 B is currently the lowest-mass directly imaged companion inducing a measured acceleration on its host star. In the future, bridging RVs and high-contrast imaging with the next generation of extremely large telescopes and space-based facilities will open the door to the first dynamical mass measurements of imaged exoplanets. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundation.

The Virtual Observatory: I

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanisch, R. J.

2014-11-01

The concept of the Virtual Observatory arose more-or-less simultaneously in the United States and Europe circa 2000. Ten pages of Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium: Panel Reports (National Academy Press, Washington, 2001), that is, the detailed recommendations of the Panel on Theory, Computation, and Data Exploration of the 2000 Decadal Survey in Astronomy, are dedicated to describing the motivation for, scientific value of, and major components required in implementing the National Virtual Observatory. European initiatives included the Astrophysical Virtual Observatory at the European Southern Observatory, the AstroGrid project in the United Kingdom, and the Euro-VO (sponsored by the European Union). Organizational/conceptual meetings were held in the US at the California Institute of Technology (Virtual Observatories of the Future, June 13-16, 2000) and at ESO Headquarters in Garching, Germany (Mining the Sky, July 31-August 4, 2000; Toward an International Virtual Observatory, June 10-14, 2002). The nascent US, UK, and European VO projects formed the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) at the June 2002 meeting in Garching, with yours truly as the first chair. The IVOA has grown to a membership of twenty-one national projects and programs on six continents, and has developed a broad suite of data access protocols and standards that have been widely implemented. Astronomers can now discover, access, and compare data from hundreds of telescopes and facilities, hosted at hundreds of organizations worldwide, stored in thousands of databases, all with a single query.

Advanced Telescopes and Observatories Capability Roadmap Presentation to the NRC

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

This viewgraph presentation provides an overview of the NASA Advanced Planning and Integration Office (APIO) roadmap for developing technological capabilities for telescopes and observatories in the following areas: Optics; Wavefront Sensing and Control and Interferometry; Distributed and Advanced Spacecraft; Large Precision Structures; Cryogenic and Thermal Control Systems; Infrastructure.

Large-Angular-Scale Clustering as a Clue to the Source of UHECRs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berlind, Andreas A.; Farrar, Glennys R.

We explore what can be learned about the sources of UHECRs from their large-angular-scale clustering (referred to as their "bias" by the cosmology community). Exploiting the clustering on large scales has the advantage over small-scale correlations of being insensitive to uncertainties in source direction from magnetic smearing or measurement error. In a Cold Dark Matter cosmology, the amplitude of large-scale clustering depends on the mass of the system, with more massive systems such as galaxy clusters clustering more strongly than less massive systems such as ordinary galaxies or AGN. Therefore, studying the large-scale clustering of UHECRs can help determine a mass scale for their sources, given the assumption that their redshift depth is as expected from the GZK cutoff. We investigate the constraining power of a given UHECR sample as a function of its cutoff energy and number of events. We show that current and future samples should be able to distinguish between the cases of their sources being galaxy clusters, ordinary galaxies, or sources that are uncorrelated with the large-scale structure of the universe.

FINE STRUCTURES AND OVERLYING LOOPS OF CONFINED SOLAR FLARES

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yang, Shuhong; Zhang, Jun; Xiang, Yongyuan, E-mail: shuhongyang@nao.cas.cn

2014-10-01

Using the Hα observations from the New Vacuum Solar Telescope at the Fuxian Solar Observatory, we focus on the fine structures of three confined flares and the issue why all the three flares are confined instead of eruptive. All the three confined flares take place successively at the same location and have similar morphologies, so can be termed homologous confined flares. In the simultaneous images obtained by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, many large-scale coronal loops above the confined flares are clearly observed in multi-wavelengths. At the pre-flare stage, two dipoles emerge near the negative sunspot, and the dipolar patches aremore » connected by small loops appearing as arch-shaped Hα fibrils. There exists a reconnection between the small loops, and thus the Hα fibrils change their configuration. The reconnection also occurs between a set of emerging Hα fibrils and a set of pre-existing large loops, which are rooted in the negative sunspot, a nearby positive patch, and some remote positive faculae, forming a typical three-legged structure. During the flare processes, the overlying loops, some of which are tracked by activated dark materials, do not break out. These direct observations may illustrate the physical mechanism of confined flares, i.e., magnetic reconnection between the emerging loops and the pre-existing loops triggers flares and the overlying loops prevent the flares from being eruptive.« less

Searching the Heavens and the Earth: This History of Jesuit Observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Udías, Agustín

2003-10-01

Jesuits established a large number of astronomical, geophysical and meteorological observatories during the 17th and 18th centuries and again during the 19th and 20th centuries throughout the world. The history of these observatories has never been published in a complete form. Many early European astronomical observatories were established in Jesuit colleges. During the 17th and 18th centuries Jesuits were the first western scientists to enter into contact with China and India. It was through them that western astronomy was first introduced in these countries. They made early astronomical observations in India and China and they directed for 150 years the Imperial Observatory of Beijing. In the 19th and 20th centuries a new set of observatories were established. Besides astronomy these now included meteorology and geophysics. Jesuits established some of the earliest observatories in Africa, South America and the Far East. Jesuit observatories constitute an often forgotten chapter of the history of these sciences. This volume is aimed at all scientists and students who do not want to forget the Jesuit contributions to science. Link: http://www.wkap.nl/prod/b/1-4020-1189-X

User Needs and Advances in Space Wireless Sensing and Communications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kegege, Obadiah

2017-01-01

Decades of space exploration and technology trends for future missions show the need for new approaches in space/planetary sensor networks, observatories, internetworking, and communications/data delivery to Earth. The User Needs to be discussed in this talk includes interviews with several scientists and reviews of mission concepts for the next generation of sensors, observatories, and planetary surface missions. These observatories, sensors are envisioned to operate in extreme environments, with advanced autonomy, whereby sometimes communication to Earth is intermittent and delayed. These sensor nodes require software defined networking capabilities in order to learn and adapt to the environment, collect science data, internetwork, and communicate. Also, some user cases require the level of intelligence to manage network functions (either as a host), mobility, security, and interface data to the physical radio/optical layer. For instance, on a planetary surface, autonomous sensor nodes would create their own ad-hoc network, with some nodes handling communication capabilities between the wireless sensor networks and orbiting relay satellites. A section of this talk will cover the advances in space communication and internetworking to support future space missions. NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program continues to evolve with the development of optical communication, a new vision of the integrated network architecture with more capabilities, and the adoption of CCSDS space internetworking protocols. Advances in wireless communications hardware and electronics have enabled software defined networking (DVB-S2, VCM, ACM, DTN, Ad hoc, etc.) protocols for improved wireless communication and network management. Developing technologies to fulfil these user needs for wireless communications and adoption of standardized communication/internetworking protocols will be a huge benefit to future planetary missions, space observatories, and manned missions to other planets.

Parallel Adaptive High-Order CFD Simulations Characterizing Cavity Acoustics for the Complete SOFIA Aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barad, Michael F.; Brehm, Christoph; Kiris, Cetin C.; Biswas, Rupak

2014-01-01

This paper presents one-of-a-kind MPI-parallel computational fluid dynamics simulations for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). SOFIA is an airborne, 2.5-meter infrared telescope mounted in an open cavity in the aft of a Boeing 747SP. These simulations focus on how the unsteady flow field inside and over the cavity interferes with the optical path and mounting of the telescope. A temporally fourth-order Runge-Kutta, and spatially fifth-order WENO-5Z scheme was used to perform implicit large eddy simulations. An immersed boundary method provides automated gridding for complex geometries and natural coupling to a block-structured Cartesian adaptive mesh refinement framework. Strong scaling studies using NASA's Pleiades supercomputer with up to 32,000 cores and 4 billion cells shows excellent scaling. Dynamic load balancing based on execution time on individual AMR blocks addresses irregularities caused by the highly complex geometry. Limits to scaling beyond 32K cores are identified, and targeted code optimizations are discussed.

The occultation of Epsilon Geminorum by Mars - Analysis of McDonald data. [turbulent scintillation in light curves

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Africano, J.; De Vaucouleurs, G.; Evans, D. S.; Finkel, B. E.; Nather, R. E.; Palm, C.; Silverberg, E.; Wiant, J.; Hubbard, W. B.; Jokipii, J. R.

1977-01-01

An analysis of observations of the occultation of Epsilon Gem by Mars on April 8, 1976, is presented. The data were obtained by three neighboring telescopes at McDonald Observatory. Intensity fluctuations on time scales of the order of 100 ms were observed simultaneously at the three telescopes. As the observations compare well with predictions of turbulent scintillation theory, it is concluded that such fluctuations were probably largely the effect of stellar scintillations in the Martian atmosphere. The stellar diameter is included as a parameter in the theory but in a way which differs from previously published interpretations of occultations of extended sources by planetary atmospheres. Scintillations govern the experimental uncertainty in the deduction of the scale height of the high Martian atmosphere. A density scale height of 9.9 + or - 2.5 km is obtained at an altitude of 74 + or - 8 km above the mean surface. For CO 2 gas, this result corresponds to a temperature of 190 + or - 50 K.

KSC-06pd1535

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-07-10

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the hazardous processing facility at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., technicians remove the protective cover from the top of Observatory A, one of two STEREO spacecraft. The observatory will be lifted onto a scale for weight measurements and later will be fueled. STEREO stands for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory. The STEREO mission is the first to take measurements of the sun and solar wind in 3-dimension. This new view will improve our understanding of space weather and its impact on the Earth. STEREO is expected to lift off aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket no earlier than Aug. 1. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

KSC-06pd1534

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-07-10

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the hazardous processing facility at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., technicians begin removing the protective cover from Observatory A of the STEREO spacecraft. The observatory will be lifted onto a scale for weight measurements and later will be fueled. STEREO stands for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory. The STEREO mission is the first to take measurements of the sun and solar wind in 3-dimension. This new view will improve our understanding of space weather and its impact on the Earth. STEREO is expected to lift off aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket no earlier than Aug. 1. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

KSC-06pd1533

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-07-10

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the hazardous processing facility at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., technicians begin removing the protective cover from Observatory A of the STEREO spacecraft. The observatory will be lifted onto a scale for weight measurements and later will be fueled. STEREO stands for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory. The STEREO mission is the first to take measurements of the sun and solar wind in 3-dimension. This new view will improve our understanding of space weather and its impact on the Earth. STEREO is expected to lift off aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket no earlier than Aug. 1. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

The California Volcano Observatory: Monitoring the state's restless volcanoes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stovall, Wendy K.; Marcaida, Mae; Mangan, Margaret T.

2014-01-01

Volcanic eruptions happen in the State of California about as frequently as the largest earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault Zone. At least 10 eruptions have taken place in California in the past 1,000 years—most recently at Lassen Peak in Lassen Volcanic National Park (1914 to 1917) in the northern part of the State—and future volcanic eruptions are inevitable. The U.S. Geological Survey California Volcano Observatory monitors the State's potentially hazardous volcanoes.

Bernhard Schmidt and the Schmidt Telescope for Mapping the Sky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wolfschmidt, G.

Bernhard Voldemar Schmidt (1879--1935) was born in Estonia. He ran an optical workshop in Mittweida, Saxonia, between 1901 and 1927. Astronomers appreciated the quality of his telescopes. Starting in 1925, working freelance in Hamburg Observatory, he developed a short focal length optical system with a large field of view. He succeeded in inventing the ``Schmidt Telescope'' in 1930, which allows the imaging a large field of the sky without any distortions. Shortly after Schmidt's death, the director of the observatory published details on the invention and production of the Schmidt Telescope. After World War II, Schmidt telescopes have been widely used. The first large Schmidt telescope was built in 1948, the ``Big Schmidt'' (126 cm), Mount Palomar, USA. Schmidt telescopes are also important tools for cosmology. The result of the Palomar Observatory Sky Surveys (1949--1958, 1985--1999) is a data base of about 20 million galaxies and over 100 million stars, supplemented in 1971 by the ESO Schmidt for the southern sky. Also high resolution spectrometers can be fitted to the Schmidt telescope. The 80 cm Schmidt telescope of Hamburg Observatory, planned since 1936, finished 1955, is on Calar Alto, Spain, since 1975. Combined with two objective prisms, it was used for a Quasar survey project.

Hawaii's Annual Journey Through the Universe Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harvey, J.; Daou, D.; Day, B.; Slater, T. F.; Slater, S. J.

2012-08-01

Hawaii's annual Journey through the Universe program is a flagship Gemini public education and outreach event that engages the public, teachers, astronomers, engineers, thousands of local students and staff from all of the Mauna Kea Observatories. The program inspires, educates, and engages teachers, students, and their families as well as the community. From February 10-18, 2011, fifty-one astronomy educators from observatories on Mauna Kea and across the world visited over 6,500 students in 310 classrooms at 18 schools. Two family science events were held for over 2,500 people at the 'Imiloa Astronomy Education Center and the University of Hawaii at Hilo. The local Chamber of Commerce(s) held an appreciation celebration for the astronomers attended by over 170 members from the local government and business community. Now going into its eighth year in Hawaii, the 2012 Journey Through the Universe program will continue working with the observatories on Mauna Kea and with the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI). As a new partner in our Journey program, NLSI will join the Journey team (Janice Harvey, Gemini Observatory, Journey Team Leader) and give an overview of the successes and future developments of this remarkable program and its growth. The future of America rests on our ability to train the next generation of scientists and engineers. Science education is key and Journey through the Universe opens the doors of scientific discovery for our students. www.gemini.edu/journey

Searching for Primordial Antimatter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2008-10-01

Scientists are on the hunt for evidence of antimatter - matter's arch nemesis - leftover from the very early Universe. New results using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Compton Gamma Ray Observatory suggest the search may have just become even more difficult. Antimatter is made up of elementary particles, each of which has the same mass as their corresponding matter counterparts --protons, neutrons and electrons -- but the opposite charges and magnetic properties. When matter and antimatter particles collide, they annihilate each other and produce energy according to Einstein's famous equation, E=mc2. According to the Big Bang model, the Universe was awash in particles of both matter and antimatter shortly after the Big Bang. Most of this material annihilated, but because there was slightly more matter than antimatter - less than one part per billion - only matter was left behind, at least in the local Universe. Trace amounts of antimatter are believed to be produced by powerful phenomena such as relativistic jets powered by black holes and pulsars, but no evidence has yet been found for antimatter remaining from the infant Universe. How could any primordial antimatter have survived? Just after the Big Bang there was believed to be an extraordinary period, called inflation, when the Universe expanded exponentially in just a fraction of a second. "If clumps of matter and antimatter existed next to each other before inflation, they may now be separated by more than the scale of the observable Universe, so we would never see them meet," said Gary Steigman of The Ohio State University, who conducted the study. "But, they might be separated on smaller scales, such as those of superclusters or clusters, which is a much more interesting possibility." X-rayChandra X-ray Image In that case, collisions between two galaxy clusters, the largest gravitationally-bound structures in the Universe, might show evidence for antimatter. X-ray emission shows how much hot gas is involved in such a collision. If some of the gas from either cluster has particles of antimatter, then there will be annihilation and the X-rays will be accompanied by gamma rays. Steigman used data obtained by Chandra and Compton to study the so-called Bullet Cluster, where two large clusters of galaxies have crashed into one another at extremely high velocities. At a relatively close distance and with a favorable side-on orientation as viewed from Earth, the Bullet Cluster provides an excellent test site to search for the signal for antimatter. People Who Read This Also Read... Jet Power and Black Hole Assortment Revealed in New Chandra Image Chandra Data Reveal Rapidly Whirling Black Holes Black Holes Have Simple Feeding Habits Galaxies Coming of Age in Cosmic Blobs "This is the largest scale over which this test for antimatter has ever been done," said Steigman, whose paper was published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. "I'm looking to see if there could be any clusters of galaxies which are made of large amounts of antimatter." The observed amount of X-rays from Chandra and the non-detection of gamma rays from the Compton data show that the antimatter fraction in the Bullet Cluster is less than three parts per million. Moreover, simulations of the Bullet Cluster merger show that these results rule out any significant amounts of antimatter over scales of about 65 million light years, an estimate of the original separation of the two colliding clusters. "The collision of matter and antimatter is the most efficient process for generating energy in the Universe, but it just may not happen on very large scales," said Steigman. "But, I'm not giving up yet as I'm planning to look at other colliding galaxy clusters that have recently been discovered." Finding antimatter in the Universe might tell scientists about how long the period of inflation lasted. "Success in this experiment, although a long shot, would teach us a lot about the earliest stages of the Universe," said Steigman. Tighter constraints have been placed by Steigman on the presence of antimatter on smaller scales by looking at single galaxy clusters that do not involve such large, recent collisions. The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory was in orbit from 1991 until 2000 when it was safely de-orbited. The data used in this result came from Compton's Energetic Gamma Ray Telescope, or EGRET, instrument. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.

The Transition Region Explorer: Observing the Multi-Scale Dynamics of Geospace

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Donovan, E.

2015-12-01

Meso- and global-scale IT remote sensing is accomplished via satellite imagers and ground-based instruments. On the ground, the approach is arrays providing extensive as possible coverage (the "net") and powerful observatories that drill deep to provide detailed information about small-scale processes (the "drill"). Always, there is a trade between cost, spatial resolution, coverage (extent), number of parameters, and more, such that in general the larger the network the sparser the coverage. Where are we now? There are important gaps. With THEMIS-ASI, we see processes that quickly evolve beyond the field of view of one observatory, but involve space/time scales not captured by existing meso- and large-scale arrays. Many forefront questions require observations at heretofore unexplored space and time scales, and comprehensive inter-hemispheric conjugate observations than are presently available. To address this, a new ground-based observing initiative is being developed in Canada. Called TREx, for Transition Region Explorer, this new facility will incorporate dedicated blueline, redline, and Near-Infrared All-Sky Imagers, together with an unprecedented network of ten imaging riometers, with a combined field of view spanning more than three hours of magnetic local time and from equatorward to poleward of typical auroral latitudes (spanning the ionospheric footprint of the "nightside transition region" that separates the highly stretched tail and the inner magnetosphere). The TREx field-of-view is covered by HF radars, and contains a dense network of magnetometers and VLF receivers, as well as other geospace and upper atmospheric remote sensors. Taken together, TREx and these co-located instruments represent a quantum leap forward in terms of imaging, in multiple parameters (precipitation, ionization, convection, and currents), ionospheric dynamics in the above-mentioned scale gap. This represents an exciting new opportunity for studying geospace at the system level, especially for using the aurora to remote sense magnetospheric plasma physics and dynamics, and comes with a set of Big Data challenges that are going to be exciting. One such challenge is the development of a fundamentally new type of data product, namely time series of multi-parameter, geospatially referenced 'data cubes'.

Survey on large scale system control methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mercadal, Mathieu

1987-01-01

The problem inherent to large scale systems such as power network, communication network and economic or ecological systems were studied. The increase in size and flexibility of future spacecraft has put those dynamical systems into the category of large scale systems, and tools specific to the class of large systems are being sought to design control systems that can guarantee more stability and better performance. Among several survey papers, reference was found to a thorough investigation on decentralized control methods. Especially helpful was the classification made of the different existing approaches to deal with large scale systems. A very similar classification is used, even though the papers surveyed are somehow different from the ones reviewed in other papers. Special attention is brought to the applicability of the existing methods to controlling large mechanical systems like large space structures. Some recent developments are added to this survey.

The Mount Wilson Optical Shop during the Second World War

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abrahams, P.

2004-12-01

During the Second World War, the Optical Shop of Mount Wilson Observatory, located in Pasadena, engaged in a variety of exacting and pioneering ventures in optical design and fabrication. Roof prisms for military optics were produced on a large scale, leading to the production of an instruction manual, for guidance in other workshops. Triple mirrors, or autocollimating corner cubes, were another precision part made in large numbers. Aerial photography was extensively developed. Test procedures for measuring resolution of lenses were researched. Various camera shutters and film sweep mechanisms were devised. The most significant work concerned Schmidt cameras, for possible use in night-time aerial photography. Variations included a solid Schmidt, and the Schmidt Cassegrain, which was fabricated for the first time at MWO. Key figures include Don Hendrix, Roger Hayward, Aden Meinel, and Walter Adams.

The ESA Herschel Space Observatory -first year achievements and early science highlights

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pilbratt, Göran

The Herschel Space Observatory was suc-cessfully launched on 14 May 2009, carried into space by an Ariane 5 ECA launcher together with the second passenger Planck, both spacecraft being injected into transfer orbits towards L2 with exquisite precision. Herschel is the most recent observatory mission in the European Space Agency (ESA) science programme. It carries a 3.5 metre diameter Cassegrain passively cooled monolithic silicon carbide telescope. The focal plane units of the science payload complement -two cameras/medium resolution imaging spectrometers, the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) and Spectral and Photometric Imaging REceiver (SPIRE), and the very high resolution Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI) spectrometer -are housed in a superfluid helium cryostat. Herschel is the first large aperture space infrared observatory, it builds on previous infrared space missions including the IRAS, ISO, AKARI, and Spitzer observatories, by offering a much larger telescope and pushes towards longer wavelengths. It will perform imaging photometry and spectroscopy in the far infrared and submillimetre part of the spectrum, covering approximately the 55-672 micron range. I will describe Herschel and its science capabilities putting it into perspective. Herschel is designed to observe the 'cool universe'; the key science objectives include star and galaxy formation and evolution, and in particular the physics, dynamics, and chemistry of the interstellar medium and its molecular clouds, the wombs of the stars and planets. Herschel is currently opening a new window to study how the universe has evolved to become the universe we see today, and how our star the sun, our planet the earth, and we ourselves fit in. I will outline the early inflight operations of Herschel and the transition from launch and early operational phases into the routine science phase. I will present the demonstrated science capabilities and provide examples of scientific highlights to date. Herschel has been designed to offer a minimum of 3 years of routine science observations. Nominally 20,000 hours will be available for astronomy, 32(OT) offered to the general astronomical community through a standard competitive proposal procedure. I will describe future observing opportunities.

Sierra Stars Observatory Network: An Accessible Global Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, Richard; Beshore, Edward

2011-03-01

The Sierra Stars Observatory Network (SSON) is a unique partnership among professional observatories that provides its users with affordable high-quality calibrated image data. SSON comprises observatories in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere and is in the process of expanding to a truly global network capable of covering the entire sky 24 hours a day in the near future. The goal of SSON is to serve the needs of science-based projects and programs. Colleges, universities, institutions, and individuals use SSON for their education and research projects. The mission of SSON is to promote and expand the use of its facilities among the thousands of colleges and schools worldwide that do not have access to professional-quality automated observatory systems to use for astronomy education and research. With appropriate leadership and guidance educators can use SSON to help teach astronomy and do meaningful scientific projects. The relatively small cost of using SSON for this type of work makes it affordable and accessible for educators to start using immediately. Remote observatory services like SSON need to evolve to better support education and research initiatives of colleges, institutions and individual investigators. To meet these needs, SSON is developing a sophisticated interactive scheduling system to integrate among the nodes of the observatory network. This will enable more dynamic observations, including immediate priority interrupts, acquiring moving objects using ephemeris data, and more.

Keele Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Theodorus van Loon, Jacco; Albinson, James; Bagnall, Alan; Bryant, Lian; Caisley, Dave; Doody, Stephen; Johnson, Ian; Klimczak, Paul; Maddison, Ron; Robinson, StJohn; Stretch, Matthew; Webb, John

2015-08-01

Keele Observatory was founded by Dr. Ron Maddison in 1962, on the hill-top campus of Keele University in central England, hosting the 1876 Grubb 31cm refractor from Oxford Observatory. It since acquired a 61cm research reflector, a 15cm Halpha solar telescope and a range of other telescopes. Run by a group of volunteering engineers and students under directorship of a Keele astrophysicist, it is used for public outreach as well as research. About 4,000 people visit the observatory every year, including a large number of children. We present the facility, its history - including involvement in the 1919 Eddington solar eclipse expedition which proved Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity - and its ambitions to erect a radio telescope on its site.

Large-Scale Academic Achievement Testing of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students: Past, Present, and Future

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Qi, Sen; Mitchell, Ross E.

2012-01-01

The first large-scale, nationwide academic achievement testing program using Stanford Achievement Test (Stanford) for deaf and hard-of-hearing children in the United States started in 1969. Over the past three decades, the Stanford has served as a benchmark in the field of deaf education for assessing student academic achievement. However, the…