First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe(WMAP) Observations: Data Processing Methods and Systematic Errors Limits

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinshaw, G.; Barnes, C.; Bennett, C. L.; Greason, M. R.; Halpern, M.; Hill, R. S.; Jarosik, N.; Kogut, A.; Limon, M.; Meyer, S. S.

2003-01-01

We describe the calibration and data processing methods used to generate full-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from the first year of Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) observations. Detailed limits on residual systematic errors are assigned based largely on analyses of the flight data supplemented, where necessary, with results from ground tests. The data are calibrated in flight using the dipole modulation of the CMB due to the observatory's motion around the Sun. This constitutes a full-beam calibration source. An iterative algorithm simultaneously fits the time-ordered data to obtain calibration parameters and pixelized sky map temperatures. The noise properties are determined by analyzing the time-ordered data with this sky signal estimate subtracted. Based on this, we apply a pre-whitening filter to the time-ordered data to remove a low level of l/f noise. We infer and correct for a small (approx. 1 %) transmission imbalance between the two sky inputs to each differential radiometer, and we subtract a small sidelobe correction from the 23 GHz (K band) map prior to further analysis. No other systematic error corrections are applied to the data. Calibration and baseline artifacts, including the response to environmental perturbations, are negligible. Systematic uncertainties are comparable to statistical uncertainties in the characterization of the beam response. Both are accounted for in the covariance matrix of the window function and are propagated to uncertainties in the final power spectrum. We characterize the combined upper limits to residual systematic uncertainties through the pixel covariance matrix.

Reconstruction of Sky Illumination Domes from Ground-Based Panoramas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coubard, F.; Lelégard, L.; Brédif, M.; Paparoditis, N.; Briottet, X.

2012-07-01

The knowledge of the sky illumination is important for radiometric corrections and for computer graphics applications such as relighting or augmented reality. We propose an approach to compute environment maps, representing the sky radiance, from a set of ground-based images acquired by a panoramic acquisition system, for instance a mobile-mapping system. These images can be affected by important radiometric artifacts, such as bloom or overexposure. A Perez radiance model is estimated with the blue sky pixels of the images, and used to compute additive corrections in order to reduce these radiometric artifacts. The sky pixels are then aggregated in an environment map, which still suffers from discontinuities on stitching edges. The influence of the quality of estimated sky radiance on the simulated light signal is measured quantitatively on a simple synthetic urban scene; in our case, the maximal error for the total sensor radiance is about 10%.

C-BASS: The C-Band All Sky Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pearson, Timothy J.; C-BASS Collaboration

2016-06-01

The C-Band All Sky Survey (C-BASS) is a project to image the whole sky at a wavelength of 6 cm (frequency 5 GHz), measuring both the brightness and the polarization of the sky. Correlation polarimeters are mounted on two separate telescopes, one at the Owens Valley Observatory (OVRO) in California and another in South Africa, allowing C-BASS to map the whole sky. The OVRO instrument has completed observations for the northern part of the survey. We are working on final calibration of intensity and polarization. The southern instrument has recently started observations for the southern part of the survey from its site at Klerefontein near Carnarvon in South Africa. The principal aim of C-BASS is to allow the subtraction of polarized Galactic synchrotron emission from the data produced by CMB polarization experiments, such as WMAP, Planck, and dedicated B-mode polarization experiments. In addition it will contribute to studies of: (1) the local (< 1 kpc) Galactic magnetic field and cosmic-ray propagation; (2) the distribution of the anomalous dust emission, its origin and the physical processes that affect it; (3) modeling of Galactic total intensity emission, which may allow CMB experiments access to the currently inaccessible region close to the Galactic plane. Observations at many wavelengths from radio to infrared are needed to fully understand the foregrounds. At 5 GHz, C-BASS maps synchrotron polarization with minimal corruption by Faraday rotation, and complements the full-sky maps from WMAP and Planck. I will present the project status, show results of component separation in selected sky regions, and describe the northern survey data products.C-BASS (http://www.astro.caltech.edu/cbass/) is a collaborative project between the Universities of Oxford and Manchester in the UK, the California Institute of Technology (supported by the National Science Foundation and NASA) in the USA, the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (supported by the Square Kilometre Array project) in South Africa, and the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Saudi Arabia.

The bee's map of the e-vector pattern in the sky.

PubMed

Rossel, S; Wehner, R

1982-07-01

It has long been known that bees can use the pattern of polarized light in the sky as a compass cue even if they can see only a small part of the whole pattern. How they solve this problem has remained enigmatic. Here we show that the bees rely on a generalized celestial map that is used invariably throughout the day. We reconstruct this map by analyzing the navigation errors made by bees to which single e-vectors are displayed. In addition, we demonstrate how the bee's celestial map can be derived from the e-vector patterns in the sky.

Whole Sky Imager Characterization of Sky Obscuration by Clouds for the Starfire Optical Range

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-01-11

9.3 Further Algorithm Development and Evaluation 58 9.4 Analysis of the Data Base 58 10.0 DISCUSSION OF CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS 59 10.1...clouds, Site 5 Feb 14 2008 0900 28 21 Transmittance map, Moonlight , clear sky, Site 5 Feb 3 2008 0700 28 22 Transmittance map, Moonlight , thin...clouds, Site 5 Feb 8 2008 1200 29 23 Transmittance map, Moonlight , broken clouds, Site 5 Feb 2 2008 0800 29 24 Cloud Algorithm Results, Moonlight

Build YOUR All-Sky View with Aladin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oberto, A.; Fernique, P.; Boch, T.; Bonnarel, F.

2011-07-01

From the need to extend the display outside the boundaries of a single image, the Aladin team recently developed a new feature to visualize wide areas or even all of the sky. This all-sky view is particularly useful for visualization of very large objects and, with coverage of the whole sky, maps from the Planck satellite. To improve on this capability, some catalogs and maps have been built from many surveys (e.g., DSS, IRIS, GLIMPSE, SDSS, 2MASS) in mixed resolutions, allowing progressive display. The maps are constructed by mosaicing individual images. Now, we provide a new tool to build an all-sky view with your own images. From the images you have selected, it will compose a mosaic with several resolutions (HEALPix tessellation), and organize them to allow their progressive display in Aladin. For convenience, you can export it to a HEALPix map, or share it with the community through Aladin from your web site or eventually from the CDS image collection.

Mapping the Infrared Sky Artist Concept

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-11-17

This artist conception shows NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mapping the whole sky in infrared. The mission will unveil hundreds of thousands of asteroids, and hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies.

Mapping and assessing the environmental impacts of border tactical infrastructure in the Sky Island Region

Treesearch

Caroline Patrick-Birdwell; Sergio Avila-Villegas; Jenny Neeley; Louise Misztal

2013-01-01

In this project we mapped the different types of border barriers, identified impacts of border infrastructure on public and private lands and conducted spatial analyses within the approximately 200 miles of international border in the Sky Island region. The Sky Island region, bisected by the U.S.-Mexico border, is critically important for its biodiversity and...

A new all-sky map of Galactic high-velocity clouds from the 21-cm HI4PI survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Westmeier, Tobias

2018-02-01

High-velocity clouds (HVCs) are neutral or ionized gas clouds in the vicinity of the Milky Way that are characterized by high radial velocities inconsistent with participation in the regular rotation of the Galactic disc. Previous attempts to create a homogeneous all-sky H I map of HVCs have been hampered by a combination of poor angular resolution, limited surface brightness sensitivity and suboptimal sampling. Here, a new and improved H I map of Galactic HVCs based on the all-sky HI4PI survey is presented. The new map is fully sampled and provides significantly better angular resolution (16.2 versus 36 arcmin) and column density sensitivity (2.3 versus 3.7 × 1018 cm-2 at the native resolution) than the previously available LAB survey. The new HVC map resolves many of the major HVC complexes in the sky into an intricate network of narrow H I filaments and clumps that were not previously resolved by the LAB survey. The resulting sky coverage fraction of high-velocity H I emission above a column density level of 2 × 1018 cm-2 is approximately 15 per cent, which reduces to about 13 per cent when the Magellanic Clouds and other non-HVC emission are removed. The differential sky coverage fraction as a function of column density obeys a truncated power law with an exponent of -0.93 and a turnover point at about 5 × 1019 cm-2. H I column density and velocity maps of the HVC sky are made publicly available as FITS images for scientific use by the community.

A Machine-Learning-Driven Sky Model.

PubMed

Satylmys, Pynar; Bashford-Rogers, Thomas; Chalmers, Alan; Debattista, Kurt

2017-01-01

Sky illumination is responsible for much of the lighting in a virtual environment. A machine-learning-based approach can compactly represent sky illumination from both existing analytic sky models and from captured environment maps. The proposed approach can approximate the captured lighting at a significantly reduced memory cost and enable smooth transitions of sky lighting to be created from a small set of environment maps captured at discrete times of day. The author's results demonstrate accuracy close to the ground truth for both analytical and capture-based methods. The approach has a low runtime overhead, so it can be used as a generic approach for both offline and real-time applications.

Motion induced second order temperature and y-type anisotropies after the subtraction of linear dipole in the CMB maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sunyaev, Rashid A.; Khatri, Rishi

2013-03-01

y-type spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background allow us to detect clusters and groups of galaxies, filaments of hot gas and the non-uniformities in the warm hot intergalactic medium. Several CMB experiments (on small areas of sky) and theoretical groups (for full sky) have recently published y-type distortion maps. We propose to search for two artificial hot spots in such y-type maps resulting from the incomplete subtraction of the effect of the motion induced dipole on the cosmic microwave background sky. This dipole introduces, at second order, additional temperature and y-distortion anisotropy on the sky of amplitude few μK which could potentially be measured by Planck HFI and Pixie experiments and can be used as a source of cross channel calibration by CMB experiments. This y-type distortion is present in every pixel and is not the result of averaging the whole sky. This distortion, calculated exactly from the known linear dipole, can be subtracted from the final y-type maps, if desired.

Motion induced second order temperature and y-type anisotropies after the subtraction of linear dipole in the CMB maps

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

Sunyaev, Rashid A.; Khatri, Rishi, E-mail: sunyaev@mpa-garching.mpg.de, E-mail: khatri@mpa-garching.mpg.de

2013-03-01

y-type spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background allow us to detect clusters and groups of galaxies, filaments of hot gas and the non-uniformities in the warm hot intergalactic medium. Several CMB experiments (on small areas of sky) and theoretical groups (for full sky) have recently published y-type distortion maps. We propose to search for two artificial hot spots in such y-type maps resulting from the incomplete subtraction of the effect of the motion induced dipole on the cosmic microwave background sky. This dipole introduces, at second order, additional temperature and y-distortion anisotropy on the sky of amplitude few μKmore » which could potentially be measured by Planck HFI and Pixie experiments and can be used as a source of cross channel calibration by CMB experiments. This y-type distortion is present in every pixel and is not the result of averaging the whole sky. This distortion, calculated exactly from the known linear dipole, can be subtracted from the final y-type maps, if desired.« less

Gamma-sky.net: Portal to the gamma-ray sky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Voruganti, Arjun; Deil, Christoph; Donath, Axel; King, Johannes

2017-01-01

http://gamma-sky.net is a novel interactive website designed for exploring the gamma-ray sky. The Map View portion of the site is powered by the Aladin Lite sky atlas, providing a scalable survey image tesselated onto a three-dimensional sphere. The map allows for interactive pan and zoom navigation as well as search queries by sky position or object name. The default image overlay shows the gamma-ray sky observed by the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray space telescope. Other survey images (e.g. Planck microwave images in low/high frequency bands, ROSAT X-ray image) are available for comparison with the gamma-ray data. Sources from major gamma-ray source catalogs of interest (Fermi-LAT 2FHL, 3FGL and a TeV source catalog) are overlaid over the sky map as markers. Clicking on a given source shows basic information in a popup, and detailed pages for every source are available via the Catalog View component of the website, including information such as source classification, spectrum and light-curve plots, and literature references. We intend for gamma-sky.net to be applicable for both professional astronomers as well as the general public. The website started in early June 2016 and is being developed as an open-source, open data project on GitHub (https://github.com/gammapy/gamma-sky). We plan to extend it to display more gamma-ray and multi-wavelength data. Feedback and contributions are very welcome!

Simulated cosmic microwave background maps at 0.5 deg resolution: Basic results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinshaw, G.; Bennett, C. L.; Kogut, A.

1995-01-01

We have simulated full-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy expected from cold dark matter (CDM) models at 0.5 deg and 1.0 deg angular resolution. Statistical properties of the maps are presented as a function of sky coverage, angular resolution, and instrument noise, and the implications of these results for observability of the Doppler peak are discussed. The rms fluctuations in a map are not a particularly robust probe of the existence of a Doppler peak; however, a full correlation analysis can provide reasonable sensitivity. We find that sensitivity to the Doppler peak depends primarily on the fraction of sky covered, and only secondarily on the angular resolution and noise level. Color plates of the simulated maps are presented to illustrate the anisotropies.

Planck 2015 results. XXVI. The Second Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planck Collaboration; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Argüeso, F.; Arnaud, M.; Ashdown, M.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartolo, N.; Battaner, E.; Beichman, C.; Benabed, K.; Benoît, A.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bielewicz, P.; Bock, J. J.; Böhringer, H.; Bonaldi, A.; Bonavera, L.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Boulanger, F.; Bucher, M.; Burigana, C.; Butler, R. C.; Calabrese, E.; Cardoso, J.-F.; Carvalho, P.; Catalano, A.; Challinor, A.; Chamballu, A.; Chary, R.-R.; Chiang, H. C.; Christensen, P. R.; Clemens, M.; Clements, D. L.; Colombi, S.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Combet, C.; Couchot, F.; Coulais, A.; Crill, B. P.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davies, R. D.; Davis, R. J.; de Bernardis, P.; de Rosa, A.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Désert, F.-X.; Dickinson, C.; Diego, J. M.; Dole, H.; Donzelli, S.; Doré, O.; Douspis, M.; Ducout, A.; Dupac, X.; Efstathiou, G.; Elsner, F.; Enßlin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Falgarone, E.; Fergusson, J.; Finelli, F.; Forni, O.; Frailis, M.; Fraisse, A. A.; Franceschi, E.; Frejsel, A.; Galeotta, S.; Galli, S.; Ganga, K.; Giard, M.; Giraud-Héraud, Y.; Gjerløw, E.; González-Nuevo, J.; Górski, K. M.; Gratton, S.; Gregorio, A.; Gruppuso, A.; Gudmundsson, J. E.; Hansen, F. K.; Hanson, D.; Harrison, D. L.; Helou, G.; Henrot-Versillé, S.; Hernández-Monteagudo, C.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hivon, E.; Hobson, M.; Holmes, W. A.; Hornstrup, A.; Hovest, W.; Huffenberger, K. M.; Hurier, G.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jaffe, T. R.; Jones, W. C.; Juvela, M.; Keihänen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kisner, T. S.; Kneissl, R.; Knoche, J.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lagache, G.; Lähteenmäki, A.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Lattanzi, M.; Lawrence, C. R.; Leahy, J. P.; Leonardi, R.; León-Tavares, J.; Lesgourgues, J.; Levrier, F.; Liguori, M.; Lilje, P. B.; Linden-Vørnle, M.; López-Caniego, M.; Lubin, P. M.; Macías-Pérez, J. F.; Maggio, G.; Maino, D.; Mandolesi, N.; Mangilli, A.; Maris, M.; Marshall, D. J.; Martin, P. G.; Martínez-González, E.; Masi, S.; Matarrese, S.; McGehee, P.; Meinhold, P. R.; Melchiorri, A.; Mendes, L.; Mennella, A.; Migliaccio, M.; Mitra, S.; Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Moneti, A.; Montier, L.; Morgante, G.; Mortlock, D.; Moss, A.; Munshi, D.; Murphy, J. A.; Naselsky, P.; Nati, F.; Natoli, P.; Negrello, M.; Netterfield, C. B.; Nørgaard-Nielsen, H. U.; Noviello, F.; Novikov, D.; Novikov, I.; Oxborrow, C. A.; Paci, F.; Pagano, L.; Pajot, F.; Paladini, R.; Paoletti, D.; Partridge, B.; Pasian, F.; Patanchon, G.; Pearson, T. J.; Perdereau, O.; Perotto, L.; Perrotta, F.; Pettorino, V.; Piacentini, F.; Piat, M.; Pierpaoli, E.; Pietrobon, D.; Plaszczynski, S.; Pointecouteau, E.; Polenta, G.; Pratt, G. W.; Prézeau, G.; Prunet, S.; Puget, J.-L.; Rachen, J. P.; Reach, W. T.; Rebolo, R.; Reinecke, M.; Remazeilles, M.; Renault, C.; Renzi, A.; Ristorcelli, I.; Rocha, G.; Rosset, C.; Rossetti, M.; Roudier, G.; Rowan-Robinson, M.; Rubiño-Martín, J. A.; Rusholme, B.; Sandri, M.; Sanghera, H. S.; Santos, D.; Savelainen, M.; Savini, G.; Scott, D.; Seiffert, M. D.; Shellard, E. P. S.; Spencer, L. D.; Stolyarov, V.; Sudiwala, R.; Sunyaev, R.; Sutton, D.; Suur-Uski, A.-S.; Sygnet, J.-F.; Tauber, J. A.; Terenzi, L.; Toffolatti, L.; Tomasi, M.; Tornikoski, M.; Tristram, M.; Tucci, M.; Tuovinen, J.; Türler, M.; Umana, G.; Valenziano, L.; Valiviita, J.; Van Tent, B.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Wade, L. A.; Walter, B.; Wandelt, B. D.; Wehus, I. K.; Yvon, D.; Zacchei, A.; Zonca, A.

2016-09-01

The Second Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources is a list of discrete objects detected in single-frequency maps from the full duration of the Planck mission and supersedes previous versions. It consists of compact sources, both Galactic and extragalactic, detected over the entire sky. Compact sources detected in the lower frequency channels are assigned to the PCCS2, while at higher frequencies they are assigned to one of two subcatalogues, the PCCS2 or PCCS2E, depending on their location on the sky. The first of these (PCCS2) covers most of the sky and allows the user to produce subsamples at higher reliabilities than the target 80% integral reliability of the catalogue. The second (PCCS2E) contains sources detected in sky regions where the diffuse emission makes it difficult to quantify the reliability of the detections. Both the PCCS2 and PCCS2E include polarization measurements, in the form of polarized flux densities, or upper limits, and orientation angles for all seven polarization-sensitive Planck channels. The improved data-processing of the full-mission maps and their reduced noise levels allow us to increase the number of objects in the catalogue, improving its completeness for the target 80% reliability as compared with the previous versions, the PCCS and the Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC).

Planck intermediate results. XLVIII. Disentangling Galactic dust emission and cosmic infrared background anisotropies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planck Collaboration; Aghanim, N.; Ashdown, M.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Ballardini, M.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartolo, N.; Basak, S.; Benabed, K.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bielewicz, P.; Bonavera, L.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Boulanger, F.; Burigana, C.; Calabrese, E.; Cardoso, J.-F.; Carron, J.; Chiang, H. C.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Comis, B.; Couchot, F.; Coulais, A.; Crill, B. P.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; de Bernardis, P.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Di Valentino, E.; Dickinson, C.; Diego, J. M.; Doré, O.; Douspis, M.; Ducout, A.; Dupac, X.; Dusini, S.; Elsner, F.; Enßlin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Falgarone, E.; Fantaye, Y.; Finelli, F.; Forastieri, F.; Frailis, M.; Fraisse, A. A.; Franceschi, E.; Frolov, A.; Galeotta, S.; Galli, S.; Ganga, K.; Génova-Santos, R. T.; Gerbino, M.; Ghosh, T.; Giraud-Héraud, Y.; González-Nuevo, J.; Górski, K. M.; Gruppuso, A.; Gudmundsson, J. E.; Hansen, F. K.; Helou, G.; Henrot-Versillé, S.; Herranz, D.; Hivon, E.; Huang, Z.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jones, W. C.; Keihänen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kiiveri, K.; Kisner, T. S.; Krachmalnicoff, N.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Langer, M.; Lasenby, A.; Lattanzi, M.; Lawrence, C. R.; Le Jeune, M.; Levrier, F.; Lilje, P. B.; Lilley, M.; Lindholm, V.; López-Caniego, M.; Ma, Y.-Z.; Macías-Pérez, J. F.; Maggio, G.; Maino, D.; Mandolesi, N.; Mangilli, A.; Maris, M.; Martin, P. G.; Martínez-González, E.; Matarrese, S.; Mauri, N.; McEwen, J. D.; Melchiorri, A.; Mennella, A.; Migliaccio, M.; Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Molinari, D.; Moneti, A.; Montier, L.; Morgante, G.; Moss, A.; Natoli, P.; Oxborrow, C. A.; Pagano, L.; Paoletti, D.; Patanchon, G.; Perdereau, O.; Perotto, L.; Pettorino, V.; Piacentini, F.; Plaszczynski, S.; Polastri, L.; Polenta, G.; Puget, J.-L.; Rachen, J. P.; Racine, B.; Reinecke, M.; Remazeilles, M.; Renzi, A.; Rocha, G.; Rosset, C.; Rossetti, M.; Roudier, G.; Rubiño-Martín, J. A.; Ruiz-Granados, B.; Salvati, L.; Sandri, M.; Savelainen, M.; Scott, D.; Sirignano, C.; Sirri, G.; Soler, J. D.; Spencer, L. D.; Suur-Uski, A.-S.; Tauber, J. A.; Tavagnacco, D.; Tenti, M.; Toffolatti, L.; Tomasi, M.; Tristram, M.; Trombetti, T.; Valiviita, J.; Van Tent, F.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Vittorio, N.; Wandelt, B. D.; Wehus, I. K.; Zacchei, A.; Zonca, A.

2016-12-01

Using the Planck 2015 data release (PR2) temperature maps, we separate Galactic thermal dust emission from cosmic infrared background (CIB) anisotropies. For this purpose, we implement a specifically tailored component-separation method, the so-called generalized needlet internal linear combination (GNILC) method, which uses spatial information (the angular powerspectra) to disentangle the Galactic dust emission and CIB anisotropies. We produce significantly improved all-sky maps of Planck thermal dust emission, with reduced CIB contamination, at 353, 545, and 857 GHz. By reducing the CIB contamination of the thermal dust maps, we provide more accurate estimates of the local dust temperature and dust spectral index over the sky with reduced dispersion, especially at high Galactic latitudes above b = ±20°. We find that the dust temperature is T = (19.4 ± 1.3) K and the dust spectral index is β = 1.6 ± 0.1 averaged over the whole sky, while T = (19.4 ± 1.5) K and β = 1.6 ± 0.2 on 21% of the sky at high latitudes. Moreover, subtracting the new CIB-removed thermal dust maps from the CMB-removed Planck maps gives access to the CIB anisotropies over 60% of the sky at Galactic latitudes |b| > 20°. Because they are a significant improvement over previous Planck products, the GNILC maps are recommended for thermal dust science. The new CIB maps can be regarded as indirect tracers of the dark matter and they are recommended for exploring cross-correlations with lensing and large-scale structure optical surveys. The reconstructed GNILC thermal dust and CIB maps are delivered as Planck products.

Planck intermediate results: XLVIII. Disentangling Galactic dust emission and cosmic infrared background anisotropies

DOE PAGES

Aghanim, N.; Ashdown, M.; Aumont, J.; ...

2016-12-12

Using the Planck 2015 data release (PR2) temperature maps, we separate Galactic thermal dust emission from cosmic infrared background (CIB) anisotropies. For this purpose, we implement a specifically tailored component-separation method, the so-called generalized needlet internal linear combination (GNILC) method, which uses spatial information (the angular powerspectra) to disentangle the Galactic dust emission and CIB anisotropies. We produce significantly improved all-sky maps of Planck thermal dust emission, with reduced CIB contamination, at 353, 545, and 857 GHz. By reducing the CIB contamination of the thermal dust maps, we provide more accurate estimates of the local dust temperature and dust spectralmore » index over the sky with reduced dispersion, especially at high Galactic latitudes above b = ±20°. We find that the dust temperature is T = (19.4 ± 1.3) K and the dust spectral index is β = 1.6 ± 0.1 averaged over the whole sky, while T = (19.4 ± 1.5) K and β = 1.6 ± 0.2 on 21% of the sky at high latitudes. Moreover, subtracting the new CIB-removed thermal dust maps from the CMB-removed Planck maps gives access to the CIB anisotropies over 60% of the sky at Galactic latitudes |b| > 20°. Because they are a significant improvement over previous Planck products, the GNILC maps are recommended for thermal dust science. The new CIB maps can be regarded as indirect tracers of the dark matter and they are recommended for exploring cross-correlations with lensing and large-scale structure optical surveys. The reconstructed GNILC thermal dust and CIB maps are delivered as Planck products.« less

Planck intermediate results: XLVIII. Disentangling Galactic dust emission and cosmic infrared background anisotropies

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

Aghanim, N.; Ashdown, M.; Aumont, J.

Using the Planck 2015 data release (PR2) temperature maps, we separate Galactic thermal dust emission from cosmic infrared background (CIB) anisotropies. For this purpose, we implement a specifically tailored component-separation method, the so-called generalized needlet internal linear combination (GNILC) method, which uses spatial information (the angular powerspectra) to disentangle the Galactic dust emission and CIB anisotropies. We produce significantly improved all-sky maps of Planck thermal dust emission, with reduced CIB contamination, at 353, 545, and 857 GHz. By reducing the CIB contamination of the thermal dust maps, we provide more accurate estimates of the local dust temperature and dust spectralmore » index over the sky with reduced dispersion, especially at high Galactic latitudes above b = ±20°. We find that the dust temperature is T = (19.4 ± 1.3) K and the dust spectral index is β = 1.6 ± 0.1 averaged over the whole sky, while T = (19.4 ± 1.5) K and β = 1.6 ± 0.2 on 21% of the sky at high latitudes. Moreover, subtracting the new CIB-removed thermal dust maps from the CMB-removed Planck maps gives access to the CIB anisotropies over 60% of the sky at Galactic latitudes |b| > 20°. Because they are a significant improvement over previous Planck products, the GNILC maps are recommended for thermal dust science. The new CIB maps can be regarded as indirect tracers of the dark matter and they are recommended for exploring cross-correlations with lensing and large-scale structure optical surveys. The reconstructed GNILC thermal dust and CIB maps are delivered as Planck products.« less

Full-Sky Maps of the VHF Radio Sky with the Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long Wavelength Array

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eastwood, Michael W.; Hallinan, Gregg

2018-05-01

21-cm cosmology is a powerful new probe of the intergalactic medium at redshifts 20 >~ z >~ 6 corresponding to the Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization. Current observations of the highly-redshifted 21-cm transition are limited by the dynamic range they can achieve against foreground sources of low-frequency (<200 MHz) of radio emission. We used the Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long Wavelength Array (OVRO-LWA) to generate a series of new modern high-fidelity sky maps that capture emission on angular scales ranging from tens of degrees to ~15 arcmin, and frequencies between 36 and 73 MHz. These sky maps were generated from the application of Tikhonov-regularized m-mode analysis imaging, which is a new interferometric imaging technique that is uniquely suited for low-frequency, wide-field, drift-scanning interferometers.

Astrophotography Basics: Meteors, Comets, Eclipses, Aurorae, Star Trails. Revised.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, NY.

This pamphlet gives an introduction to the principles of astronomical picture-taking. Chapters included are: (1) "Getting Started" (describing stationary cameras, sky charts and mapping, guided cameras, telescopes, brightness of astronomical subjects, estimating exposure, film selection, camera filters, film processing, and exposure for…

NRAO Makes Available VLA Sky Survey Maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1994-06-01

An original and comprehensive data set potentially full of scientific surprises now is available to astronomers, students and the public through the information superhighway. Radio images of the sky produced by the Very Large Array radio telescope -- one of the premier astronomical instruments in the world -- as part of a massive survey now are stored in an electronic repository avail- able over the Internet computer communications network. "Each of these sensitive new sky maps shows about a thou- sand radio-emitting objects, most of which have never been seen before," said Dr. J. J. Condon, leader of the National Radio As- tronomy Observatory (NRAO) survey team. "We are releasing them as soon as they are completed because they contain more data than we could possibly analyze by ourselves." "By using electronic distribution, we can open this tre- mendous resource of information for computer analysis by all as- tronomers immediately, without waiting for traditional publication," Condon added. The radio images are copyright NRAO/ AUI. Permission is granted for use of the material without charge for scholarly, educational and private non-commercial purposes. "It is entirely conceivable -- even probable -- that valuable discoveries will be made by students or amateur astrono- mers who devote the time to study these maps carefully," said team member Dr. W. D. Cotton. "Making this new information available electronically means that more people can participate in adding to its scientific value." The maps are a product of the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS), which began its observational phase in September of 1993 and will cover 82 percent of the sky when completed by the end of 1996. The NVSS is expected to produce a catalog of more than two million ra- dio-emitting objects in the sky, and it is the first sky survey sensitive to linearly polarized emission from radio sources beyond our own Milky Way galaxy. "The NVSS is being made as a service to the entire astronomical community," Condon said. The survey will require about 2,500 hours of VLA observing time to complete. The data from the NVSS will become available in several forms, including complete processed maps, lists of the radio-emit- ting objects found, and data from which astronomers may produce maps tailored to their own interests. The data products are being placed in the public electronic repository as soon as NRAO scien- tists have verified their accuracy. Those interested should contact Condon at Internet address jcondon@nrao.edu for more information about accessing the data. The Very Large Array, in west-central New Mexico, is a radio telescope consisting of 27 dish antennas, each 82 feet in diameter, arranged in the shape of a Y. The arms of the Y are 13 miles long, and the 230-ton antennas are routinely moved into dif- ferent positions along the arms to provide a "zoom lens" capability for the telescope. Dedicated in 1980, the VLA is used annually by more than 600 astronomers from around the world. One of the most versatile instruments available to astronomers, it can observe ob- jects ranging from planets, comets and asteroids in our own solar system out to distant radio galaxies and quasars near the edge of the observable universe. In addition to the NVSS, the VLA also is making another, more detailed, survey of a smaller region of the sky. This survey, called FIRST (Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty centimeters), will yield very accurate positions of radio-emitting objects in the same area of the sky to be surveyed in visible light by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The FIRST survey is headed by Dr. Robert H. Becker of the University of California at Davis and Lawrence Liv- ermore National Laboratory.

a Study of Sasin-Animal Sky Map on Chonmunryucho

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Hong-Jin; Park, Myeong-Gu

2003-03-01

Chon-Mun-Ryu-Cho, written (edited) by Lee Sun-Ji during the period of King Se-Jong, is a representative astronomy book of Cho-Sun (A.D. 1392 -1910) Dynasty. We find and study in the first page of the book; the description of 28 oriental constellations as a Sasin (four mythical oriental animals)-animal sky map which is not widely known yet. The map consists of four groups of constellations, each of which represents the Sasin: Chang-Ryong (dragon), Baek-Ho (tigers with Ki-Rin [Oriental giraffe]), Ju-Jak (Chinese phoenix), Hyun-Mu (a tortoise interwined with a snake). Each group (animals) spans 2˜7 of 28 oriental constellations As we know from the illustration of the Chon-Sang-Yol-Cha-Bun-Ya-Ji-Do a representative sky map of Cho-Sun Dynasty, astronomy in Cho-Sun Dynasty is closely related to that in Go-Gu-Ryer (B.C. 37 -A.D. 668) Dynasty. Since these Sasin-animals appear in most mural paintings of Go-Gu-Ryer tombs, visualization of sky with these animal constellations could have been established as early as in Go-Gu-Ryer Dynasty. We also reconstruct this ''A Sasin-animal Korean sky map'' based on the shapes of the Sasin and Ki-Rin from Go-Gu-Ryer paintings and 28 oriental constellations in Chon-Sang-Yol-Cha-Bun-Ya-Ji-Do.

KSC-03pd0489

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-13

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The solar array panels on the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite are deployed during processing in the Multi-Payload Processing Facility. The GALEX is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

KSC-03pd0488

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-13

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The solar array panels on the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite are deployed during processing in the Multi-Payload Processing Facility. The GALEX is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

KSC-03pd0490

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-13

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The solar array panels on the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite are deployed during processing in the Multi-Payload Processing Facility. The GALEX is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

Origins of the ancient constellations: I. The Mesopotamian traditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rogers, J. H.

1998-02-01

In the sky-map of ancient Babylon, constellations had two different roles, and thus developed into two overlapping traditions. One set of constellations represented the gods and their symbols; the other set represented rustic activities and provided a farming calendar. Many constellations were shared by the two traditions, but in some regions of sky there were alternative divine and rustic figures. These figures developed in stages from ~3200 BC to ~500 BC. Of the divine set, the most important (although the last to be finalised) were the twelve zodiacal signs, plus several associated animals (the serpent, crow, eagle, and fish), which were all transmitted to the classical Greek sky-map that we still use today. Conversely, the rustic constellations of workers and tools and animals were not transmitted to the West. However, a few of them may have survived in Bedouin Arab sky-maps of the first millennium AD.

Observing heliospheric neutral atoms at 1 AU

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heerikhuisen, Jacob; Pogorelov, Nikolai; Florinski, Vladimir; Zank, Gary

2006-09-01

Although in situ observations of distant heliospheric plasma by the Voyagers has proven to be extremely enlightening, such point observations need to be complemented with global measurements taken remotely to obtain a complete picture of the heliosphere and local interstellar environment. Neutral atoms, with their contempt for magnetic fields, provide useful probes of the plasma that generated them. However, there will be a number of ambiguities in neutral atom readings that require a deeper understanding of the plasma processes generating neutral atoms, as well as the loss mechanisms on their flight to the observation point. We introduce a procedure for generating all-sky maps of energetic H-atoms, calculated directly in our Monte-Carlo neutral atom code. Results obtained for a self-consistent axisymmetric MHD-Boltzmann calculation, as well as several non-selfconsistent 3D sky maps, will be presented.

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

Ciuca, Razvan; Hernández, Oscar F., E-mail: razvan.ciuca@mail.mcgill.ca, E-mail: oscarh@physics.mcgill.ca

There exists various proposals to detect cosmic strings from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) or 21 cm temperature maps. Current proposals do not aim to find the location of strings on sky maps, all of these approaches can be thought of as a statistic on a sky map. We propose a Bayesian interpretation of cosmic string detection and within that framework, we derive a connection between estimates of cosmic string locations and cosmic string tension G μ. We use this Bayesian framework to develop a machine learning framework for detecting strings from sky maps and outline how to implement this frameworkmore » with neural networks. The neural network we trained was able to detect and locate cosmic strings on noiseless CMB temperature map down to a string tension of G μ=5 ×10{sup −9} and when analyzing a CMB temperature map that does not contain strings, the neural network gives a 0.95 probability that G μ≤2.3×10{sup −9}.« less

Correlated noise in the COBE DMR sky maps

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lineweaver, C. H.; Smoot, G. F.; Bennett, C. L.; Wright, E. L.; Tenorio, L.; Kogut, A.; Keegstra, P. B.; Hinshaw, G.; Banday, A. J.

1994-01-01

The Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite Differential Radiometer (COBE DMR) sky maps contain low-level correlated noise. We obtain estimates of the amplitude and pattern of the correlated noise from three techniques: angular averages of the covariance matrix, Monte Carlo simulations of two-point correlation functions and direct analysis of the DMR maps. The results from the three methods are mutually consistent. The noise covariance matrix of a DMR sky maps is diagonal to an accuracy of better than 1%. For a given sky pixel, the dominant noise covariance occure with the ring of pixels at an angular separation of 60 deg due to the 60 deg separation of the DMR horns. The mean covariance at 60 deg is 0.45%((sup +0.18)(sub -0.14)) of the mean variance. Additionally, the variance in a given pixel is 0.7% greater than would be expected from a single beam experiment with the same noise properties. Autocorrelation functions suffer from a approximately 1.5 sigma positive bias at 60 deg while cross-correlations have no bias. Published COBE DMR results are not significantly affected by correlated noise.

The Statistical Analysis of Global Oxygen ENAs Sky Maps from IBEX-Lo: Implication on the ENA sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, J.; Kucharek, H.; Moebius, E.; Bochsler, P. A.

2013-12-01

Energetic Neutral Atoms (ENAs) created in the interstellar medium and heliospheric interface have been observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) orbiting the Earth on a highly elliptical trajectory since 2008. The science payload on this small spacecraft consists of two highly sensitive single-pixel ENA cameras: the IBEX-Lo sensor covering the energy ranges from 0.01 to 2 keV and the IBEX-Hi sensor covering the energy ranges from 0.3 to 6 keV. In order to measure the incident ENAs, the IBEX-Lo sensor uses a conversion surface to convert neutrals to negative ions. After passing an electrostatic analyzer, they are separated by species (H and heavier species) via a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. All-sky H ENA maps over three years were completed and show two significant features: the interstellar H and He neutral flow is shown at the low energy ranges (0.01 to 0.11 keV) and the ribbon appears at the higher energies (0.21 to 1.35 keV). Like in the hydrogen sky maps, the interstellar O+Ne neutral flow appears in all-sky O ENA maps at the energy ranges from 0.21 to 0.87 keV The distributed heliospheric Oxygen ENAs over the entire energy ranges is determined from very low counting statistics. In this study, we therefore apply the Cash's C statistics (Cash, 1979) and determine the upper and lower confidence limits (Gehrels, 1986) for the statistical significance among all events in all-sky O ENA maps. These newly created sky maps specifically show the distributed heliospheric O ENA flux surrounding the interstellar O+Ne neutral flow. This enhancement distributed ENA flux will provide us new insights into the ion population creation the ENA emission. It seems that there is no signature of ribbon in all-sky O ENA maps. If one assumes that the generation mechanism of the ribbon is the same for hydrogen and oxygen, the location of source ion population may be closer to the heliosheath. In this poster we will discuss all the results of this study and their implications for the source regions and populations in detail.

Microwave Sky image from the WMAP Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

A detailed full-sky map of the oldest light in the universe. It is a 'baby picture' of the universe. Colors indicate 'warmer' (red) and 'cooler' (blue) spots. The oval shape is a projection to display the whole sky; similar to the way the globe of the earth can be projected as an oval. The microwave light captured in this picture is from 379,000 years after the Big Bang, over 13 billion years ago. For more information, see http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_mm/mr_whatsthat.html

How well does the Rayleigh model describe the E-vector distribution of skylight in clear and cloudy conditions? A full-sky polarimetric study.

PubMed

Suhai, Bence; Horváth, Gábor

2004-09-01

We present the first high-resolution maps of Rayleigh behavior in clear and cloudy sky conditions measured by full-sky imaging polarimetry at the wavelengths of 650 nm (red), 550 nm (green), and 450 nm (blue) versus the solar elevation angle thetas. Our maps display those celestial areas at which the deviation deltaalpha = /alphameas - alphaRyleigh/ is below the threshold alphathres = 5 degrees, where alphameas is the angle of polarization of skylight measured by full-sky imaging polarimetry, and alphaRayleigh is the celestial angle of polarization calculated on the basis of the single-scattering Rayleigh model. From these maps we derived the proportion r of the full sky for which the single-scattering Rayleigh model describes well (with an accuracy of deltaalpha = 5 degrees) the E-vector alignment of skylight. Depending on thetas, r is high for clear skies, especially for low solar elevations (40% < r < 70% for thetas < or = 13 degrees). Depending on the cloud cover and the solar illumination, r decreases more or less under cloudy conditions, but sometimes its value remains remarkably high, especially at low solar elevations (rmax = 69% for thetas = 0 degrees). The proportion r of the sky that follows the Rayleigh model is usually higher for shorter wavelengths under clear as well as cloudy sky conditions. This partly explains why the shorter wavelengths are generally preferred by animals navigating by means of the celestial polarization. We found that the celestial E-vector pattern generally follows the Rayleigh pattern well, which is a fundamental hypothesis in the studies of animal orientation and human navigation (e.g., in aircraft flying near the geomagnetic poles and using a polarization sky compass) with the use of the celestial alpha pattern.

Planck 2015 results: XXVI. The Second Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources

DOE PAGES

Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Argüeso, F.; ...

2016-09-20

The Second Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources is a list of discrete objects detected in single-frequency maps from the full duration of the Planck mission and supersedes previous versions. Also, it consists of compact sources, both Galactic and extragalactic, detected over the entire sky. Compact sources detected in the lower frequency channels are assigned to the PCCS2, while at higher frequencies they are assigned to one of two subcatalogues, the PCCS2 or PCCS2E, depending on their location on the sky. The first of these (PCCS2) covers most of the sky and allows the user to produce subsamples at higher reliabilitiesmore » than the target 80% integral reliability of the catalogue. The second (PCCS2E) contains sources detected in sky regions where the diffuse emission makes it difficult to quantify the reliability of the detections. Both the PCCS2 and PCCS2E include polarization measurements, in the form of polarized flux densities, or upper limits, and orientation angles for all seven polarization-sensitive Planck channels. Finally, the improved data-processing of the full-mission maps and their reduced noise levels allow us to increase the number of objects in the catalogue, improving its completeness for the target 80% reliability as compared with the previous versions, the PCCS and the Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC).« less

Planck 2015 results: XXVI. The Second Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources

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

Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Argüeso, F.

The Second Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources is a list of discrete objects detected in single-frequency maps from the full duration of the Planck mission and supersedes previous versions. Also, it consists of compact sources, both Galactic and extragalactic, detected over the entire sky. Compact sources detected in the lower frequency channels are assigned to the PCCS2, while at higher frequencies they are assigned to one of two subcatalogues, the PCCS2 or PCCS2E, depending on their location on the sky. The first of these (PCCS2) covers most of the sky and allows the user to produce subsamples at higher reliabilitiesmore » than the target 80% integral reliability of the catalogue. The second (PCCS2E) contains sources detected in sky regions where the diffuse emission makes it difficult to quantify the reliability of the detections. Both the PCCS2 and PCCS2E include polarization measurements, in the form of polarized flux densities, or upper limits, and orientation angles for all seven polarization-sensitive Planck channels. Finally, the improved data-processing of the full-mission maps and their reduced noise levels allow us to increase the number of objects in the catalogue, improving its completeness for the target 80% reliability as compared with the previous versions, the PCCS and the Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC).« less

KSC-03pd0487

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-13

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite is ready for deployment of its solar array panels during processing in the Multi-Payload Processing Facility. The GALEX is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

COSMO-SkyMed vs RADARSAT-2 for Monitoring Natural and Anthropogenic Components of the Land Movement in Venice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tosi, Luigi; Da Lio, Cristina; Strozzi, Tazio; Teatini, Pietro

2016-08-01

We present the result of a test aimed at evaluating the capability of RADARSAT-2 and COSMO-SkyMed to map the natural subsidence and ground movements induced by anthropogenic activities in the historical center of Venice. Firstly, ground movements have been retrieved at quite long- and short-term by the Persistent Scattered Interferometry (PSI) on 2008-2015 RADARSA T-2 and 2013-2015 COSMO-SkyMed image stacks, respectively. Secondly, PSI has been calibrated at regional scale using the records of permanent GPS stations. Thirdly, considering that over the last two decades "in the historical center of Venice" natural land movements are primarily ascribed to long- term processes, and those induced by human activities act at short-term, we have properly resampled 83-month RADARSA T-2 C-band and 27-month COSMO- SkyMed X-band interferometric products by a common grid and processed the outcome to estimate the two components of the displacements. Results show that the average natural subsidence is generally in the range of 0.9 - 1.1 mm/yr and the anthropogenic ground movements are up to 2 mm/yr.

The Dunhuang Chinese sky: A comprehensive study of the oldest known star atlas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonnet-Bidaud, Jean-Marc; Praderie, Françoise; Whitfield, Susan

2009-03-01

This paper presents an analysis of the star atlas included in the medieval Chinese manuscript Or.8210/S.3326 discovered in 1907 by the archaeologist Aurel Stein at the Silk Road town of Dunhuang and now housed in the British Library. Although partially studied by a few Chinese scholars, it has never been fully displayed and discussed in the Western world. This set of sky maps (12 hour-angle maps in quasi-cylindrical projection and a circumpolar map in azimuthal projection), displaying the full sky visible from the Northern Hemisphere, is up to now the oldest complete preserved star atlas known from any civilisation. It is also the earliest known pictorial representation of the quasi-totality of Chinese constellations. This paper describes the history of the physical object - a roll of thin paper drawn with ink. We analyse the stellar content of each map (1,339 stars, 257 asterisms) and the texts associated with the maps. We establish the precision with which the maps were drawn (1.5-4° for the brightest stars) and examine the type of projections used. We conclude that precise mathematical methods were used to produce the Atlas. We also discuss the dating of the manuscript and its possible author, and we confirm the date +649-684 (early Tang Dynasty) as most probable based on the available evidence. This is at variance with a prior estimate of around +940. Finally, we present a brief comparison with later sky maps, both from China and Europe.

EGRET Diffuse Gamma Ray Maps Between 30 MeV and 10 GeV

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cillis, A, N.; Hartman, R. C.

2004-01-01

This paper presents all-sky maps of diffuse gamma radiation in various energy ranges between 30 MeV and 10 GeV, based on data collected by the EGRET instrument on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. Although the maps can be used for a variety of applications. the immediate goal is the generation of diffuse gamma-ray maps which can be used as a diffuse background/foreground for point source analysis of the data to be obtained from new high-energy gamma-ray missions like GLAST and AGILE. To generate the diffuse gamma maps from the raw EGRET maps, the point sources in the Third EGRET Catalog were subtracted out using the appropriate point spread function for each energy range. After that, smoothing was performed to minimize the effects of photon statistical noise. A smoothing length of 1 deg vas used for the Galactic plane maps. For the all-sky maps, a procedure was used which resulted in a smoothing length roughly equivalent to 4 deg. The result of this work is 16 maps of different energy intervals for absolute value of b < or equal to 20 deg, and 32 all-sky maps, 16 in equatorial coordinates (J2000) and 16 in Galactic coordinates.

EGRET Diffuse Gamma Ray Maps Between 30 MeV and 10 GeV

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cillis, A. N.; Hartman, R. C.

2004-01-01

This paper presents all-sky maps of diffuse gamma radiation in various energy ranges between 30 MeV and 10 GeV, based on data collected by the EGRET instrument on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. Although the maps can be used for a variety of applications, the immediate goal is the generation of diffuse gamma-ray maps which can be used as a diffuse background/foreground for point source analysis of the data to be obtained from new high-energy gamma-ray missions like GLAST and AGILE. To generate the diffuse gamma maps from the raw EGRET maps, the point sources in the Third EGRET Catalog were subtracted out using the appropriate point spread function for each energy range. After that, smoothing was performed to minimize the effects of photon statistical noise. A smoothing length of 1deg was used for the Galactic plane maps. For the all-sky maps, a procedure was used which resulted in a smoothing length roughly equivalent to 4deg. The result of this work is 16 maps of different energy intervals for [b]less than or equal to 20deg, and 32 all-sky maps, 16 in equatorial coordinates (J2000) and 16 in Galactic coordinates.

Galactic reddening in 3D from stellar photometry - an improved map

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Green, Gregory M.; Schlafly, Edward F.; Finkbeiner, Douglas; Rix, Hans-Walter; Martin, Nicolas; Burgett, William; Draper, Peter W.; Flewelling, Heather; Hodapp, Klaus; Kaiser, Nicholas; Kudritzki, Rolf-Peter; Magnier, Eugene A.; Metcalfe, Nigel; Tonry, John L.; Wainscoat, Richard; Waters, Christopher

2018-07-01

We present a new 3D map of interstellar dust reddening, covering three quarters of the sky (declinations of δ ≳ -30°) out to a distance of several kiloparsecs. The map is based on high-quality stellar photometry of 800 million stars from Pan-STARRS 1 and 2MASS. We divide the sky into sightlines containing a few hundred stars each, and then infer stellar distances and types, along with the line-of-sight dust distribution. Our new map incorporates a more accurate average extinction law and an additional 1.5 yr of Pan-STARRS 1 data, tracing dust to greater extinctions and at higher angular resolutions than our previous map. Out of the plane of the Galaxy, our map agrees well with 2D reddening maps derived from far-infrared dust emission. After accounting for a 25 per cent difference in scale, we find a mean scatter of ˜10 per cent between our map and the Planck far-infrared emission-based dust map, out to a depth of 0.8 mag in E(gP1 - rP1), with the level of agreement varying over the sky. Our map can be downloaded at http://argonaut.skymaps.info, or from the Harvard Dataverse (Green 2017).

The Andromeda Optical and Infrared Disk Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sick, J.; Courteau, S.; Cuillandre, J.-C.

2014-03-01

The Andromeda Optical and Infrared Disk Survey has mapped M31 in u* g' r' i' JKs wavelengths out to R = 40 kpc using the MegaCam and WIRCam wide-field cameras on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Our survey is uniquely designed to simultaneously resolve stars while also carefully reproducing the surface brightness of M31, allowing us to study M31's global structure in the context of both resolved stellar populations and spectral energy distributions. We use the Elixir-LSB method to calibrate the optical u* g' r' i' images by building real-time maps of the sky background with sky-target nodding. These maps are stable to μg ≲ 28.5 mag arcsec-2 and reveal warps in the outer M31 disk in surface brightness. The equivalent WIRCam mapping in the near-infrared uses a combination of sky-target nodding and image-to-image sky offset optimization to produce stable surface brightnesses. This study enables a detailed analysis of the systematics of spectral energy distribution fitting with near-infrared bands where asymptotic giant branch stars impose a significant, but ill-constrained, contribution to the near-infrared light of a galaxy. Here we present panchromatic surface brightness maps and initial results from our near-infrared resolved stellar catalog.

SPIDER: CMB Polarimetry from the Edge of Space

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

Gualtieri, R.; et al.

SPIDER is a balloon-borne instrument designed to map the polarization of the millimeter-wave sky at large angular scales. SPIDER targets the B-mode signature of primordial gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), with a focus on mapping a large sky area with high fidelity at multiple frequencies. SPIDER's first longduration balloon (LDB) flight in January 2015 deployed a total of 2400 antenna-coupled Transition Edge Sensors (TESs) at 90 GHz and 150 GHz. In this work we review the design and in-flight performance of the SPIDER instrument, with a particular focus on the measured performance of the detectors and instrumentmore » in a space-like loading and radiation environment. SPIDER's second flight in December 2018 will incorporate payload upgrades and new receivers to map the sky at 285 GHz, providing valuable information for cleaning polarized dust emission from CMB maps.« less

Revisiting Absolute Radio Backgrounds in Light of Juno Cruise Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Tzu-Ching

Radio backgrounds have played a critical role in recent progress in astronomy and cosmology. Major amongst them, the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is currently our most precise window on the physics of the early universe. Both its near perfect blackbody spectrum and its angular fluctuations led to unique cosmological inferences. Beyond the CMB, radio backgrounds have offered golden insights to Galactic and extragalactic astrophysics. In this proposal, we take note of the recently released "cruise data" collected over five years by the MicroWave Radiometer (MWR) instrument on board the Juno planetary mission to construct new, unprecedented and well-characterized full-sky maps at 6 frequencies ranging from 0.6 to 22 GHz. We propose to generate, validate and release these full-sky maps and investigate their rich and unique astrophysical implications. In particular, we expect the use of Juno data to shed light on the "ARCADE excess" and lead to new insights on Galactic and extragalactic radio signals. Over the past several years, evidence indicating the existence of a significant isotropic radio background has been hinted at by a number of instruments. In 2011, the Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics and Diffuse Emission (ARCADE 2) collaboration reported measurements of the absolute sky temperature at a number of frequencies between 3 and 90 GHz (Fixsen et al. 2011). While these measurements are dominated by the CMB at frequencies above several GHz, they reveal the presence of significant excess power at the lowest measured frequencies (Seiffert et al. 2011). This conclusion is strengthened by a number of observations at lower frequencies, reported at 22 MHz, 45 MHz, 408 MHz and 1.42 GHz: the emission observed by each of these groups appears to be in significant excess to what can be attributed to Galactic emission, or to unresolved members of known extragalactic radio source populations. In addition, it appears to be anomalously spatially smooth to be extragalactic. Six years after the report of this excess, this situation remains unsettled and has not evolved due to the lack of new observations at these frequencies. For this reason, and for the intrinsic value of the unprecedented full-sky maps, the astrophysics impact of MWR Juno cruise observations will be very important. Our program will be articulated along five projects (labeled P1 to P5), loosely corresponding to research papers: (P1) We will generate well characterized full-sky maps at the Juno MWR six frequencies starting from the timestream data, released in September 2016 on the Planetary Data System (PDS) archive. We will validate these maps using cross-correlations with WMAP and Planck public maps at low frequencies. We will release our maps to the community via the NASA LAMBDA archive. This analysis will set the basis for the following projects. (P2) We will investigate the implication of these new maps for foreground modeling with a focus on CMB foreground separation. This analysis will be performed jointly with now standard WMAP and Planck component separation tools and products. (P3) We will investigate the implication of these new maps for foreground modeling with a focus on radio 21 cm intensity mapping signals, extending in the process current community foreground models. This analysis will be improve our understanding and characterization of radio foregrounds, and guide current and future redshifted 21 cm line mapping experiments. (P4) Using the above maps, we will revisit the ARCADE excess and perform absolute temperature measurement of the extragalactic radio backgrounds at multiple frequencies and angular positions over the sky. (P5) Using the above maps, we will revisit the ARCADE excess and perform absolute temperature measurement of the Galactic radio backgrounds at multiple frequencies and angular positions in the Galactic plane, using multiple other line surveys to guide our interpretation.

Evolutionary Maps: A new model for the analysis of conceptual development, with application to the diurnal cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Navarro, Manuel

2014-05-01

This paper presents a model of how children generate concrete concepts from perception through processes of differentiation and integration. The model informs the design of a novel methodology (evolutionary maps or emaps), whose implementation on certain domains unfolds the web of itineraries that children may follow in the construction of concrete conceptual knowledge and pinpoints, for each conception, the architecture of the conceptual change that leads to the scientific concept. Remarkably, the generative character of its syntax yields conceptions that, if unknown, amount to predictions that can be tested experimentally. Its application to the diurnal cycle (including the sun's trajectory in the sky) indicates that the model is correct and the methodology works (in some domains). Specifically, said emap predicts a number of exotic trajectories of the sun in the sky that, in the experimental work, were drawn spontaneously both on paper and a dome. Additionally, the application of the emaps theoretical framework in clinical interviews has provided new insight into other cognitive processes. The field of validity of the methodology and its possible applications to science education are discussed.

High-dynamic-range imaging for cloud segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dev, Soumyabrata; Savoy, Florian M.; Lee, Yee Hui; Winkler, Stefan

2018-04-01

Sky-cloud images obtained from ground-based sky cameras are usually captured using a fisheye lens with a wide field of view. However, the sky exhibits a large dynamic range in terms of luminance, more than a conventional camera can capture. It is thus difficult to capture the details of an entire scene with a regular camera in a single shot. In most cases, the circumsolar region is overexposed, and the regions near the horizon are underexposed. This renders cloud segmentation for such images difficult. In this paper, we propose HDRCloudSeg - an effective method for cloud segmentation using high-dynamic-range (HDR) imaging based on multi-exposure fusion. We describe the HDR image generation process and release a new database to the community for benchmarking. Our proposed approach is the first using HDR radiance maps for cloud segmentation and achieves very good results.

draco: Analysis and simulation of drift scan radio data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shaw, J. Richard

2017-12-01

draco analyzes transit radio data with the m-mode formalism. It is telescope agnostic, and is used as part of the analysis and simulation pipeline for the CHIME (Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment) telescope. It can simulate time stream data from maps of the sky (using the m-mode formalism) and add gain fluctuations and correctly correlated instrumental noise (i.e. Wishart distributed). Further, it can perform various cuts on the data and make maps of the sky from data using the m-mode formalism.

Dark Energy Survey finds more celestial neighbors | News

Science.gov Websites

Energy Survey finds more celestial neighbors August 17, 2015 icon icon icon New dwarf galaxy candidates could mean our sky is more crowded than we thought The Dark Energy Survey has now mapped one-eighth of Survey Collaboration The Dark Energy Survey has now mapped one-eighth of the full sky (red shaded region

A high performance cost-effective digital complex correlator for an X-band polarimetry survey.

PubMed

Bergano, Miguel; Rocha, Armando; Cupido, Luís; Barbosa, Domingos; Villela, Thyrso; Boas, José Vilas; Rocha, Graça; Smoot, George F

2016-01-01

The detailed knowledge of the Milky Way radio emission is important to characterize galactic foregrounds masking extragalactic and cosmological signals. The update of the global sky models describing radio emissions over a very large spectral band requires high sensitivity experiments capable of observing large sky areas with long integration times. Here, we present the design of a new 10 GHz (X-band) polarimeter digital back-end to map the polarization components of the galactic synchrotron radiation field of the Northern Hemisphere sky. The design follows the digital processing trends in radio astronomy and implements a large bandwidth (1 GHz) digital complex cross-correlator to extract the Stokes parameters of the incoming synchrotron radiation field. The hardware constraints cover the implemented VLSI hardware description language code and the preliminary results. The implementation is based on the simultaneous digitized acquisition of the Cartesian components of the two linear receiver polarization channels. The design strategy involves a double data rate acquisition of the ADC interleaved parallel bus, and field programmable gate array device programming at the register transfer mode. The digital core of the back-end is capable of processing 32 Gbps and is built around an Altera field programmable gate array clocked at 250 MHz, 1 GSps analog to digital converters and a clock generator. The control of the field programmable gate array internal signal delays and a convenient use of its phase locked loops provide the timing requirements to achieve the target bandwidths and sensitivity. This solution is convenient for radio astronomy experiments requiring large bandwidth, high functionality, high volume availability and low cost. Of particular interest, this correlator was developed for the Galactic Emission Mapping project and is suitable for large sky area polarization continuum surveys. The solutions may also be adapted to be used at signal processing subsystem levels for large projects like the square kilometer array testbeds.

Planck 2015 results: VII. High Frequency Instrument data processing: Time-ordered information and beams

DOE PAGES

Adam, R.; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; ...

2016-09-20

The Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) has observed the full sky at six frequencies (100, 143, 217, 353, 545, and 857 GHz) in intensity and at four frequencies in linear polarization (100, 143, 217, and 353 GHz). In order to obtain sky maps, the time-ordered information (TOI) containing the detector and pointing samples must be processed and the angular response must be assessed. The full mission TOI is included in the Planck 2015 release. This study describes the HFI TOI and beam processing for the 2015 release. HFI calibration and map making are described in a companion paper. The mainmore » pipeline has been modified since the last release (2013 nominal mission in intensity only), by including a correction for the nonlinearity of the warm readout and by improving the model of the bolometer time response. The beam processing is an essential tool that derives the angular response used in all the Planck science papers and we report an improvement in the effective beam window function uncertainty of more than a factor of 10 relative to the2013 release. Noise correlations introduced by pipeline filtering function are assessed using dedicated simulations. Finally, angular cross-power spectra using data sets that are decorrelated in time are immune to the main systematic effects.« less

Planck 2015 results. VII. High Frequency Instrument data processing: Time-ordered information and beams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planck Collaboration; Adam, R.; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Arnaud, M.; Ashdown, M.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartolo, N.; Battaner, E.; Benabed, K.; Benoît, A.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bertincourt, B.; Bielewicz, P.; Bock, J. J.; Bonavera, L.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Boulanger, F.; Bucher, M.; Burigana, C.; Calabrese, E.; Cardoso, J.-F.; Catalano, A.; Challinor, A.; Chamballu, A.; Chary, R.-R.; Chiang, H. C.; Christensen, P. R.; Clements, D. L.; Colombi, S.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Combet, C.; Couchot, F.; Coulais, A.; Crill, B. P.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davies, R. D.; Davis, R. J.; de Bernardis, P.; de Rosa, A.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Delouis, J.-M.; Désert, F.-X.; Diego, J. M.; Dole, H.; Donzelli, S.; Doré, O.; Douspis, M.; Ducout, A.; Dupac, X.; Efstathiou, G.; Elsner, F.; Enßlin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Falgarone, E.; Fergusson, J.; Finelli, F.; Forni, O.; Frailis, M.; Fraisse, A. A.; Franceschi, E.; Frejsel, A.; Galeotta, S.; Galli, S.; Ganga, K.; Ghosh, T.; Giard, M.; Giraud-Héraud, Y.; Gjerløw, E.; González-Nuevo, J.; Górski, K. M.; Gratton, S.; Gruppuso, A.; Gudmundsson, J. E.; Hansen, F. K.; Hanson, D.; Harrison, D. L.; Henrot-Versillé, S.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hivon, E.; Hobson, M.; Holmes, W. A.; Hornstrup, A.; Hovest, W.; Huffenberger, K. M.; Hurier, G.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jaffe, T. R.; Jones, W. C.; Juvela, M.; Keihänen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kisner, T. S.; Kneissl, R.; Knoche, J.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lagache, G.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Lattanzi, M.; Lawrence, C. R.; Le Jeune, M.; Leahy, J. P.; Lellouch, E.; Leonardi, R.; Lesgourgues, J.; Levrier, F.; Liguori, M.; Lilje, P. B.; Linden-Vørnle, M.; López-Caniego, M.; Lubin, P. M.; Macías-Pérez, J. F.; Maggio, G.; Maino, D.; Mandolesi, N.; Mangilli, A.; Maris, M.; Martin, P. G.; Martínez-González, E.; Masi, S.; Matarrese, S.; McGehee, P.; Melchiorri, A.; Mendes, L.; Mennella, A.; Migliaccio, M.; Mitra, S.; Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Moneti, A.; Montier, L.; Moreno, R.; Morgante, G.; Mortlock, D.; Moss, A.; Mottet, S.; Munshi, D.; Murphy, J. A.; Naselsky, P.; Nati, F.; Natoli, P.; Netterfield, C. B.; Nørgaard-Nielsen, H. U.; Noviello, F.; Novikov, D.; Novikov, I.; Oxborrow, C. A.; Paci, F.; Pagano, L.; Pajot, F.; Paoletti, D.; Pasian, F.; Patanchon, G.; Pearson, T. J.; Perdereau, O.; Perotto, L.; Perrotta, F.; Pettorino, V.; Piacentini, F.; Piat, M.; Pierpaoli, E.; Pietrobon, D.; Plaszczynski, S.; Pointecouteau, E.; Polenta, G.; Pratt, G. W.; Prézeau, G.; Prunet, S.; Puget, J.-L.; Rachen, J. P.; Reinecke, M.; Remazeilles, M.; Renault, C.; Renzi, A.; Ristorcelli, I.; Rocha, G.; Rosset, C.; Rossetti, M.; Roudier, G.; Rowan-Robinson, M.; Rusholme, B.; Sandri, M.; Santos, D.; Sauvé, A.; Savelainen, M.; Savini, G.; Scott, D.; Seiffert, M. D.; Shellard, E. P. S.; Spencer, L. D.; Stolyarov, V.; Stompor, R.; Sudiwala, R.; Sutton, D.; Suur-Uski, A.-S.; Sygnet, J.-F.; Tauber, J. A.; Terenzi, L.; Toffolatti, L.; Tomasi, M.; Tristram, M.; Tucci, M.; Tuovinen, J.; Valenziano, L.; Valiviita, J.; Van Tent, B.; Vibert, L.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Wade, L. A.; Wandelt, B. D.; Watson, R.; Wehus, I. K.; Yvon, D.; Zacchei, A.; Zonca, A.

2016-09-01

The Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) has observed the full sky at six frequencies (100, 143, 217, 353, 545, and 857 GHz) in intensity and at four frequencies in linear polarization (100, 143, 217, and 353 GHz). In order to obtain sky maps, the time-ordered information (TOI) containing the detector and pointing samples must be processed and the angular response must be assessed. The full mission TOI is included in the Planck 2015 release. This paper describes the HFI TOI and beam processing for the 2015 release. HFI calibration and map making are described in a companion paper. The main pipeline has been modified since the last release (2013 nominal mission in intensity only), by including a correction for the nonlinearity of the warm readout and by improving the model of the bolometer time response. The beam processing is an essential tool that derives the angular response used in all the Planck science papers and we report an improvement in the effective beam window function uncertainty of more than a factor of 10 relative to the2013 release. Noise correlations introduced by pipeline filtering function are assessed using dedicated simulations. Angular cross-power spectra using data sets that are decorrelated in time are immune to the main systematic effects.

Planck 2015 results: VII. High Frequency Instrument data processing: Time-ordered information and beams

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

Adam, R.; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.

The Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) has observed the full sky at six frequencies (100, 143, 217, 353, 545, and 857 GHz) in intensity and at four frequencies in linear polarization (100, 143, 217, and 353 GHz). In order to obtain sky maps, the time-ordered information (TOI) containing the detector and pointing samples must be processed and the angular response must be assessed. The full mission TOI is included in the Planck 2015 release. This study describes the HFI TOI and beam processing for the 2015 release. HFI calibration and map making are described in a companion paper. The mainmore » pipeline has been modified since the last release (2013 nominal mission in intensity only), by including a correction for the nonlinearity of the warm readout and by improving the model of the bolometer time response. The beam processing is an essential tool that derives the angular response used in all the Planck science papers and we report an improvement in the effective beam window function uncertainty of more than a factor of 10 relative to the2013 release. Noise correlations introduced by pipeline filtering function are assessed using dedicated simulations. Finally, angular cross-power spectra using data sets that are decorrelated in time are immune to the main systematic effects.« less

HARMONIC IN-PAINTING OF COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND SKY BY CONSTRAINED GAUSSIAN REALIZATION

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

Kim, Jaiseung; Naselsky, Pavel; Mandolesi, Nazzareno, E-mail: jkim@nbi.dk

The presence of astrophysical emissions between the last scattering surface and our vantage point requires us to apply a foreground mask on cosmic microwave background (CMB) sky maps, leading to large cuts around the Galactic equator and numerous holes. Since many CMB analysis, in particular on the largest angular scales, may be performed on a whole-sky map in a more straightforward and reliable manner, it is of utmost importance to develop an efficient method to fill in the masked pixels in a way compliant with the expected statistical properties and the unmasked pixels. In this Letter, we consider the Montemore » Carlo simulation of a constrained Gaussian field and derive it CMB anisotropy in harmonic space, where a feasible implementation is possible with good approximation. We applied our method to simulated data, which shows that our method produces a plausible whole-sky map, given the unmasked pixels, and a theoretical expectation. Subsequently, we applied our method to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe foreground-reduced maps and investigated the anomalous alignment between quadrupole and octupole components. From our investigation, we find that the alignment in the foreground-reduced maps is even higher than the Internal Linear Combination map. We also find that the V-band map has higher alignment than other bands, despite the expectation that the V-band map has less foreground contamination than other bands. Therefore, we find it hard to attribute the alignment to residual foregrounds. Our method will be complementary to other efforts on in-painting or reconstructing the masked CMB data, and of great use to Planck surveyor and future missions.« less

Can You See the Stars? Citizen-Science Programs to Measure Night Sky Brightness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, Constance E.

2009-05-01

For the IYA2009 Dark Skies Awareness Cornerstone Project, partners in dark-sky, astronomy and environmental education are promoting three citizen-scientist programs that measure light pollution at local levels worldwide. These programs take the form of "star hunts", providing people with fun and direct ways to acquire heightened awareness about light pollution through first-hand observations of the night sky. Together the programs are spanning the entire IYA, namely: GLOBE at Night in March, Great World Wide Star Count in October, and How Many Stars during the rest of the year. Citizen-scientists - students, educators, amateur astronomers and the general public - measure the darkness of their local skies and contribute observations online to a world map. Anyone anywhere anytime can look within particular constellations for the faintest stars and match them to one of seven star maps. For more precise measurements, digital sky-brightness meters can be used. Measurements, along with the measurement location, time, and date, are submitted online, and within a few days to weeks a world map showing results is available. These measurements can be compared with data from previous years, as well as with satellite data, population densities, and electrical power-usage maps. Measurements are available online via Google Earth or other tools and as downloadable datasets. Data from multiple locations in one city or region are especially interesting, and can be used as the basis of a class project or science fair experiment, or even to inform the development of public policy. In the last few years these programs successfully conducted campaigns in which more than 35,000 observations were submitted from over 100 countries. The presentation will provide an update, describe how people can become involved and take a look ahead at the program's sustainability. For further information about these and other Dark Skies Awareness programs, please visit www.darkskiesawareness.org.

Spherical Harmonic Analyses of Intensity Mapping Power Spectra

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Adrian; Zhang, Yunfan; Parsons, Aaron R.

2016-12-01

Intensity mapping is a promising technique for surveying the large-scale structure of our universe from z = 0 to z ˜ 150, using the brightness temperature field of spectral lines to directly observe previously unexplored portions of our cosmic timeline. Examples of targeted lines include the 21 cm hyperfine transition of neutral hydrogen, rotational lines of carbon monoxide, and fine-structure lines of singly ionized carbon. Recent efforts have focused on detections of the power spectrum of spatial fluctuations, but have been hindered by systematics such as foreground contamination. This has motivated the decomposition of data into Fourier modes perpendicular and parallel to the line of sight, which has been shown to be a particularly powerful way to diagnose systematics. However, such a method is well-defined only in the limit of a narrow-field, flat-sky approximation. This limits the sensitivity of intensity mapping experiments, as it means that wide surveys must be separately analyzed as a patchwork of smaller fields. In this paper, we develop a framework for analyzing intensity mapping data in a spherical Fourier-Bessel basis, which incorporates curved sky effects without difficulty. We use our framework to generalize a number of techniques in intensity mapping data analysis from the flat sky to the curved sky. These include visibility-based estimators for the power spectrum, treatments of interloper lines, and the “foreground wedge” signature of spectrally smooth foregrounds.

Database of extended radiation maps and its access system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verkhodanov, O. V.; Naiden, Ya. V.; Chernenkov, V. N.; Verkhodanova, N. V.

2014-01-01

We describe the architecture of the developed computing web server http://cmb.sao.ru allowing to synthesize the maps of extended radiation on the full sphere from the spherical harmonics in the GLESP pixelization grid, smooth them with the power beam pattern with various angular resolutions in the multipole space, and identify regions of the sky with given coordinates. We describe the server access and administration systems as well as the technique constructing the sky region maps, organized in Python in the Django web-application development framework.

Mapping the radio sky from 0.1 to 100 MHz with NOIRE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cecconi, B.; Laurens, A.; Briand, C.; Girard, J.; Bucher, M.; Puy, D.; Segret, B.; Bentum, M.

2016-12-01

The goal of the NOIRE study (Nanosats pour un Observatoire Interférométrique Radio dans l'Espace) is to assess the scientific interest and technical feasibility of a space borne radio interferometer operating from a few kHz to a few 10 MHz. Such observatory would be able to build a global sky map with an unprecedented spatial resolution depending on the selected technical implementation. We present a review of our understanding of the Galactic mapping, assessing the instrument requirement for such observations.

Entire Sky

NASA Image and Video Library

1999-12-01

Aitoff projection of the three-color composite JHKs source count map of the entire sky, based on 95,851,173 stars with Ks 13.5. What appears most prominently are the Galactic plane and the Galactic bulge.

RESOLVE: A new algorithm for aperture synthesis imaging of extended emission in radio astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Junklewitz, H.; Bell, M. R.; Selig, M.; Enßlin, T. A.

2016-02-01

We present resolve, a new algorithm for radio aperture synthesis imaging of extended and diffuse emission in total intensity. The algorithm is derived using Bayesian statistical inference techniques, estimating the surface brightness in the sky assuming a priori log-normal statistics. resolve estimates the measured sky brightness in total intensity, and the spatial correlation structure in the sky, which is used to guide the algorithm to an optimal reconstruction of extended and diffuse sources. During this process, the algorithm succeeds in deconvolving the effects of the radio interferometric point spread function. Additionally, resolve provides a map with an uncertainty estimate of the reconstructed surface brightness. Furthermore, with resolve we introduce a new, optimal visibility weighting scheme that can be viewed as an extension to robust weighting. In tests using simulated observations, the algorithm shows improved performance against two standard imaging approaches for extended sources, Multiscale-CLEAN and the Maximum Entropy Method.

Maps of the Southern Millimeter-wave Sky from Combined 2500 deg$^2$ SPT-SZ and Planck Temperature Data

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

Chown, R.; et al.

We present three maps of the millimeter-wave sky created by combining data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and the Planck satellite. We use data from the SPT-SZ survey, a survey of 2540 deg$^2$ of the the sky with arcminute resolution in three bands centered at 95, 150, and 220 GHz, and the full-mission Planck temperature data in the 100, 143, and 217 GHz bands. A linear combination of the SPT-SZ and Planck data is computed in spherical harmonic space, with weights derived from the noise of both instruments. This weighting scheme results in Planck data providing most of themore » large-angular-scale information in the combined maps, with the smaller-scale information coming from SPT-SZ data. A number of tests have been done on the maps. We find their angular power spectra to agree very well with theoretically predicted spectra and previously published results.« less

Peculiar Features in Patterns of Ancient Light

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-03-21

ESA Planck mission has imaged the oldest light in our universe. The top map shows Planck all-sky map of the cosmic microwave background, whereas the bottom map shows the largest-scale features of the map.

Predicting the sky from 30 MHz to 800 GHz: the extended Global Sky Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Adrian

We propose to construct the extended Global Sky Model (eGSM), a software package and associated data products that are capable of generating maps of the sky at any frequency within a broad range (30 MHz to 800 GHz). The eGSM is constructed from archival data, and its outputs will include not only "best estimate" sky maps, but also accurate error bars and the ability to generate random realizations of missing modes in the input data. Such views of the sky are crucial in the practice of precision cosmology, where our ability to constrain cosmological parameters and detect new phenomena (such as B-mode signatures from primordial gravitational waves, or spectral distortions of the Cosmic Microwave Background; CMB) rests crucially on our ability to remove systematic foreground contamination. Doing so requires empirical measurements of the foreground sky brightness (such as that arising from Galactic synchrotron radiation, among other sources), which are typically performed only at select narrow wavelength ranges. We aim to transcend traditional wavelength limits by optimally combining existing data to provide a comprehensive view of the foreground sky at any frequency within the broad range of 30 MHz to 800 GHz. Previous efforts to interpolate between multi-frequency maps resulted in the Global Sky Model (GSM) of de Oliveira-Costa et al. (2008), a software package that outputs foreground maps at any frequency of the user's choosing between 10 MHz and 100 GHz. However, the GSM has a number of shortcomings. First and foremost, the GSM does not include the latest archival data from the Planck satellite. Multi-frequency models depend crucially on data from Planck, WMAP, and COBE to provide high-frequency "anchor" maps. Another crucial shortcoming is the lack of error bars in the output maps. Finally, the GSM is only able to predict temperature (i.e., total intensity) maps, and not polarization information. With the recent release of Planck's polarized data products, the time is ripe for the inclusion of polarization and a general update of the GSM. In its first two phases, our proposed eGSM project will incorporate new data and improve analysis methods to eliminate all of the aforementioned flaws. The eGSM will have broad implications for future cosmological probes, including surveys of the highly redshifted 21 cm line (such as the proposed Dark Ages Radio Explorer satellite mission) and CMB experiments (such as the Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer and the Primordial Inflation Explorer) targeting primordial B-mode polarization or spectral distortions. Forecasting exercises for such future experiments must include polarized foregrounds below current detection limits. The third phase of the eGSM will result in a software package that provides random realizations of dim polarized foregrounds that are below the sensitivities of current instruments. This requires the quantification of non-Gaussian and non-isotropic statistics of existing foreground surveys, adding value to existing archival maps. eGSM data products will be publicly hosted on the Legacy Archive for Microwave Background Data Analysis (LAMBDA) archive, including a publicly released code that enables future foreground surveys (whether ground-based or space-based) to easily incorporate additional data into the existing archive, further refining our model and maximizing the impact of existing archives beyond the lifetime of this proposal.

Bayesian analysis of anisotropic cosmologies: Bianchi VIIh and WMAP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McEwen, J. D.; Josset, T.; Feeney, S. M.; Peiris, H. V.; Lasenby, A. N.

2013-12-01

We perform a definitive analysis of Bianchi VIIh cosmologies with Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies. Bayesian analysis techniques are developed to study anisotropic cosmologies using full-sky and partial-sky masked CMB temperature data. We apply these techniques to analyse the full-sky internal linear combination (ILC) map and a partial-sky masked W-band map of WMAP 9 yr observations. In addition to the physically motivated Bianchi VIIh model, we examine phenomenological models considered in previous studies, in which the Bianchi VIIh parameters are decoupled from the standard cosmological parameters. In the two phenomenological models considered, Bayes factors of 1.7 and 1.1 units of log-evidence favouring a Bianchi component are found in full-sky ILC data. The corresponding best-fitting Bianchi maps recovered are similar for both phenomenological models and are very close to those found in previous studies using earlier WMAP data releases. However, no evidence for a phenomenological Bianchi component is found in the partial-sky W-band data. In the physical Bianchi VIIh model, we find no evidence for a Bianchi component: WMAP data thus do not favour Bianchi VIIh cosmologies over the standard Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmology. It is not possible to discount Bianchi VIIh cosmologies in favour of ΛCDM completely, but we are able to constrain the vorticity of physical Bianchi VIIh cosmologies at (ω/H)0 < 8.6 × 10-10 with 95 per cent confidence.

The Ultraviolet Sky: final catalogs of unique UV sources from GALEX, and characterization of the UV-emitting sources across the sky, and of the Milky Way extinction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bianchi, Luciana; Conti, A.; Shiao, B.; Keller, G. R.; Thilker, D. A.

2014-01-01

The legacy of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), which imaged the sky at Ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths for about 9 years, is its unprecedented database with more than 200 million source measurements in far-UV (FUV) and near-UV (NUV), as well as wide-field imaging of extended objects. GALEX's data, the first substantial sky surveys at UV wavelengths, offer an unprecedented view of the sky and a unique opportunity for an unbiased characterization of several classes of astrophysical objects, such as hot stars, QSOs at red-shift about 1, UV-peculiar QSOs, star-forming galaxies, among others. Bianchi et al. (2013, J. Adv. Space Res. (2013), DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2013.07.045) have constructed final catalogs of UV sources, with homogeneous quality, eliminating duplicate measurements of the same source ('unique' source catalogs), and excluding rim artifacts and bad photometry. The catalogs are constructed improving on the recipe of Bianchi et al. 2011 (MNRAS, 411, 2770, which presented the earlier version of these catalogs) and include all data for the major surveys, AIS and MIS. Considering the fields where both FUV and NUV detectors were exposed, the catalogs contain about 71 and 16.6 million unique sources respectively. We show several maps illustrating the content of UV sources across the sky, globally, and separately for bright/faint, hot, stellar/extragalactic objects. We matched the UV-source catalogs with optical-IR data from the SDSS, GSC2, 2MASS surveys. We are also in the process of matching the catalogs with preliminary PanSTARRS1 (PS1) 3pi survey photometry which already provides twice the sky coverage of SDSS, at slightly fainter magnitude limits. The sources' SED from FUV to optical wavelengths enables classification, derivation of the object physical parameters, and ultimately also a map of the Milky Way extinction. The catalogs will be available on MAST, Vizier (where the previous version already is), and in reduced form (for agile downloading), with related tools, from the author web site " http://dolomiti.pha.jhu.edu/uvsky "

Planck 2013 results. XIII. Galactic CO emission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planck Collaboration; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Alves, M. I. R.; Armitage-Caplan, C.; Arnaud, M.; Ashdown, M.; Atrio-Barandela, F.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartlett, J. G.; Battaner, E.; Benabed, K.; Benoît, A.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bielewicz, P.; Bobin, J.; Bock, J. J.; Bonaldi, A.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Boulanger, F.; Bridges, M.; Bucher, M.; Burigana, C.; Butler, R. C.; Cardoso, J.-F.; Catalano, A.; Chamballu, A.; Chary, R.-R.; Chen, X.; Chiang, H. C.; Chiang, L.-Y.; Christensen, P. R.; Church, S.; Clements, D. L.; Colombi, S.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Combet, C.; Couchot, F.; Coulais, A.; Crill, B. P.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davies, R. D.; de Bernardis, P.; de Rosa, A.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Delouis, J.-M.; Dempsey, J. T.; Désert, F.-X.; Dickinson, C.; Diego, J. M.; Dole, H.; Donzelli, S.; Doré, O.; Douspis, M.; Dupac, X.; Efstathiou, G.; Enßlin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Falgarone, E.; Finelli, F.; Forni, O.; Frailis, M.; Franceschi, E.; Fukui, Y.; Galeotta, S.; Ganga, K.; Giard, M.; Giraud-Héraud, Y.; González-Nuevo, J.; Górski, K. M.; Gratton, S.; Gregorio, A.; Gruppuso, A.; Handa, T.; Hansen, F. K.; Hanson, D.; Harrison, D.; Henrot-Versillé, S.; Hernández-Monteagudo, C.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hily-Blant, P.; Hivon, E.; Hobson, M.; Holmes, W. A.; Hornstrup, A.; Hovest, W.; Huffenberger, K. M.; Hurier, G.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jaffe, T. R.; Jewell, J.; Jones, W. C.; Juvela, M.; Keihänen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kisner, T. S.; Knoche, J.; Knox, L.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lagache, G.; Lähteenmäki, A.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Laureijs, R. J.; Lawrence, C. R.; Leonardi, R.; León-Tavares, J.; Lesgourgues, J.; Liguori, M.; Lilje, P. B.; Linden-Vørnle, M.; López-Caniego, M.; Lubin, P. M.; Macías-Pérez, J. F.; Maffei, B.; Mandolesi, N.; Maris, M.; Marshall, D. J.; Martin, P. G.; Martínez-González, E.; Masi, S.; Massardi, M.; Matarrese, S.; Matthai, F.; Mazzotta, P.; McGehee, P.; Melchiorri, A.; Mendes, L.; Mennella, A.; Migliaccio, M.; Mitra, S.; Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Moneti, A.; Montier, L.; Moore, T. J. T.; Morgante, G.; Morino, J.; Mortlock, D.; Munshi, D.; Murphy, J. A.; Nakajima, T.; Naselsky, P.; Nati, F.; Natoli, P.; Netterfield, C. B.; Nørgaard-Nielsen, H. U.; Noviello, F.; Novikov, D.; Novikov, I.; Okuda, T.; Osborne, S.; Oxborrow, C. A.; Paci, F.; Pagano, L.; Pajot, F.; Paladini, R.; Paoletti, D.; Pasian, F.; Patanchon, G.; Perdereau, O.; Perotto, L.; Perrotta, F.; Piacentini, F.; Piat, M.; Pierpaoli, E.; Pietrobon, D.; Plaszczynski, S.; Pointecouteau, E.; Polenta, G.; Ponthieu, N.; Popa, L.; Poutanen, T.; Pratt, G. W.; Prézeau, G.; Prunet, S.; Puget, J.-L.; Rachen, J. P.; Reach, W. T.; Rebolo, R.; Reinecke, M.; Remazeilles, M.; Renault, C.; Ricciardi, S.; Riller, T.; Ristorcelli, I.; Rocha, G.; Rosset, C.; Roudier, G.; Rowan-Robinson, M.; Rubiño-Martín, J. A.; Rusholme, B.; Sandri, M.; Santos, D.; Savini, G.; Scott, D.; Seiffert, M. D.; Shellard, E. P. S.; Spencer, L. D.; Starck, J.-L.; Stolyarov, V.; Stompor, R.; Sudiwala, R.; Sunyaev, R.; Sureau, F.; Sutton, D.; Suur-Uski, A.-S.; Sygnet, J.-F.; Tauber, J. A.; Tavagnacco, D.; Terenzi, L.; Thomas, H. S.; Toffolatti, L.; Tomasi, M.; Torii, K.; Tristram, M.; Tucci, M.; Tuovinen, J.; Umana, G.; Valenziano, L.; Valiviita, J.; Van Tent, B.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Vittorio, N.; Wade, L. A.; Wandelt, B. D.; Wehus, I. K.; Yamamoto, H.; Yoda, T.; Yvon, D.; Zacchei, A.; Zonca, A.

2014-11-01

Rotational transition lines of CO play a major role in molecular radio astronomy as a mass tracer and in particular in the study of star formation and Galactic structure. Although a wealth of data exists for the Galactic plane and some well-known molecular clouds, there is no available high sensitivity all-sky survey of CO emission to date. Such all-sky surveys can be constructed using the Planck HFI data because the three lowest CO rotational transition lines at 115, 230 and 345 GHz significantly contribute to the signal of the 100, 217 and 353 GHz HFI channels, respectively. Two different component separation methods are used to extract the CO maps from Planck HFI data. The maps obtained are then compared to one another and to existing external CO surveys. From these quality checks the best CO maps, in terms of signal to noise ratio and/or residual contamination by other emission, are selected. Three different sets of velocity-integrated CO emission maps are produced with different trade-offs between signal-to-noise, angular resolution, and reliability. Maps for the CO J = 1 → 0, J = 2 → 1, and J = 3 → 2 rotational transitions are presented and described in detail. They are shown to be fully compatible with previous surveys of parts of the Galactic plane as well as with undersampled surveys of the high latitude sky. The Planck HFI velocity-integrated CO maps for the J = 1 → 0, J = 2 → 1, and J = 3 →2 rotational transitions provide an unprecedented all-sky CO view of the Galaxy. These maps are also of great interest to monitor potential CO contamination of the Planck studies of the cosmological microwave background.

KSC-03pd0476

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-06

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Multi-Payload Processing Facility, the GALEX satellite has been moved to a rotation stand. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

KSC-03pd0481

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-06

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Workers in the Multi-Payload Processing Facility look over the GALEX satellite before solar array testing. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

KSC-03pd0480

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-06

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Workers prepare the GALEX satellite for solar array testing in the Multi-Payload Processing Facility. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

KSC-03pd0479

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-06

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The GALEX satellite is rotated to vertical again for solar array testing in the Multi-Payload Processing Facility. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

KSC-03pd0477

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-06

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Multi-Payload Processing Facility, a worker inspects the GALEX satellite after its rotation on a stand. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

KSC-03pd0478

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-06

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Multi-Payload Processing Facility, a worker checks over the GALEX satellite on a rotation stand. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

Planck 2015 results. VIII. High Frequency Instrument data processing: Calibration and maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planck Collaboration; Adam, R.; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Arnaud, M.; Ashdown, M.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartolo, N.; Battaner, E.; Benabed, K.; Benoît, A.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bertincourt, B.; Bielewicz, P.; Bock, J. J.; Bonavera, L.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Boulanger, F.; Bucher, M.; Burigana, C.; Calabrese, E.; Cardoso, J.-F.; Catalano, A.; Challinor, A.; Chamballu, A.; Chiang, H. C.; Christensen, P. R.; Clements, D. L.; Colombi, S.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Combet, C.; Couchot, F.; Coulais, A.; Crill, B. P.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davies, R. D.; Davis, R. J.; de Bernardis, P.; de Rosa, A.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Delouis, J.-M.; Désert, F.-X.; Diego, J. M.; Dole, H.; Donzelli, S.; Doré, O.; Douspis, M.; Ducout, A.; Dupac, X.; Efstathiou, G.; Elsner, F.; Enßlin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Falgarone, E.; Fergusson, J.; Finelli, F.; Forni, O.; Frailis, M.; Fraisse, A. A.; Franceschi, E.; Frejsel, A.; Galeotta, S.; Galli, S.; Ganga, K.; Ghosh, T.; Giard, M.; Giraud-Héraud, Y.; Gjerløw, E.; González-Nuevo, J.; Górski, K. M.; Gratton, S.; Gruppuso, A.; Gudmundsson, J. E.; Hansen, F. K.; Hanson, D.; Harrison, D. L.; Henrot-Versillé, S.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hivon, E.; Hobson, M.; Holmes, W. A.; Hornstrup, A.; Hovest, W.; Huffenberger, K. M.; Hurier, G.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jaffe, T. R.; Jones, W. C.; Juvela, M.; Keihänen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kisner, T. S.; Kneissl, R.; Knoche, J.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lagache, G.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Lattanzi, M.; Lawrence, C. R.; Le Jeune, M.; Leahy, J. P.; Lellouch, E.; Leonardi, R.; Lesgourgues, J.; Levrier, F.; Liguori, M.; Lilje, P. B.; Linden-Vørnle, M.; López-Caniego, M.; Lubin, P. M.; Macías-Pérez, J. F.; Maggio, G.; Maino, D.; Mandolesi, N.; Mangilli, A.; Maris, M.; Martin, P. G.; Martínez-González, E.; Masi, S.; Matarrese, S.; McGehee, P.; Melchiorri, A.; Mendes, L.; Mennella, A.; Migliaccio, M.; Mitra, S.; Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Moneti, A.; Montier, L.; Moreno, R.; Morgante, G.; Mortlock, D.; Moss, A.; Mottet, S.; Munshi, D.; Murphy, J. A.; Naselsky, P.; Nati, F.; Natoli, P.; Netterfield, C. B.; Nørgaard-Nielsen, H. U.; Noviello, F.; Novikov, D.; Novikov, I.; Oxborrow, C. A.; Paci, F.; Pagano, L.; Pajot, F.; Paoletti, D.; Pasian, F.; Patanchon, G.; Pearson, T. J.; Perdereau, O.; Perotto, L.; Perrotta, F.; Pettorino, V.; Piacentini, F.; Piat, M.; Pierpaoli, E.; Pietrobon, D.; Plaszczynski, S.; Pointecouteau, E.; Polenta, G.; Pratt, G. W.; Prézeau, G.; Prunet, S.; Puget, J.-L.; Rachen, J. P.; Reinecke, M.; Remazeilles, M.; Renault, C.; Renzi, A.; Ristorcelli, I.; Rocha, G.; Rosset, C.; Rossetti, M.; Roudier, G.; Rusholme, B.; Sandri, M.; Santos, D.; Sauvé, A.; Savelainen, M.; Savini, G.; Scott, D.; Seiffert, M. D.; Shellard, E. P. S.; Spencer, L. D.; Stolyarov, V.; Stompor, R.; Sudiwala, R.; Sutton, D.; Suur-Uski, A.-S.; Sygnet, J.-F.; Tauber, J. A.; Terenzi, L.; Toffolatti, L.; Tomasi, M.; Tristram, M.; Tucci, M.; Tuovinen, J.; Valenziano, L.; Valiviita, J.; Van Tent, B.; Vibert, L.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Wade, L. A.; Wandelt, B. D.; Watson, R.; Wehus, I. K.; Yvon, D.; Zacchei, A.; Zonca, A.

2016-09-01

This paper describes the processing applied to the cleaned, time-ordered information obtained from the Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) with the aim of producing photometrically calibrated maps in temperature and (for the first time) in polarization. The data from the entire 2.5-year HFI mission include almost five full-sky surveys. HFI observes the sky over a broad range of frequencies, from 100 to 857 GHz. To obtain the best accuracy on the calibration over such a large range, two different photometric calibration schemes have been used. The 545 and 857 GHz data are calibrated using models of planetary atmospheric emission. The lower frequencies (from 100 to 353 GHz) are calibrated using the time-variable cosmological microwave background dipole, which we call the orbital dipole. This source of calibration only depends on the satellite velocity with respect to the solar system. Using a CMB temperature of TCMB = 2.7255 ± 0.0006 K, it permits an independent measurement of the amplitude of the CMB solar dipole (3364.3 ± 1.5 μK), which is approximatively 1σ higher than the WMAP measurement with a direction that is consistent between the two experiments. We describe the pipeline used to produce the maps ofintensity and linear polarization from the HFI timelines, and the scheme used to set the zero level of the maps a posteriori. We also summarize the noise characteristics of the HFI maps in the 2015 Planck data release and present some null tests to assess their quality. Finally, we discuss the major systematic effects and in particular the leakage induced by flux mismatch between the detectors that leads to spurious polarization signal.

Brute-force mapmaking with compact interferometers: a MITEoR northern sky map from 128 to 175 MHz

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, H.; Tegmark, M.; Dillon, J. S.; Liu, A.; Neben, A. R.; Tribiano, S. M.; Bradley, R. F.; Buza, V.; Ewall-Wice, A.; Gharibyan, H.; Hickish, J.; Kunz, E.; Losh, J.; Lutomirski, A.; Morgan, E.; Narayanan, S.; Perko, A.; Rosner, D.; Sanchez, N.; Schutz, K.; Valdez, M.; Villasenor, J.; Yang, H.; Zarb Adami, K.; Zelko, I.; Zheng, K.

2017-03-01

We present a new method for interferometric imaging that is ideal for the large fields of view and compact arrays common in 21 cm cosmology. We first demonstrate the method with the simulations for two very different low-frequency interferometers, the Murchison Widefield Array and the MIT Epoch of Reionization (MITEoR) experiment. We then apply the method to the MITEoR data set collected in 2013 July to obtain the first northern sky map from 128 to 175 MHz at ∼2° resolution and find an overall spectral index of -2.73 ± 0.11. The success of this imaging method bodes well for upcoming compact redundant low-frequency arrays such as Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array. Both the MITEoR interferometric data and the 150 MHz sky map are available at http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/omniscope.html.

Mapping the CMB with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinshaw, Gary

2007-01-01

The data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite provide detailed full-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy and new full-sky maps of the polarization. Together, the data provide a wealth of cosmological information, including the age of the universe, the epoch when the first stars formed, and the overall composition of baryonic matter, dark matter, and dark energy. The results also provide constraints on the period of inflationary expansion in the very first moments of time. These and other aspects of the mission results will be discussed and commented on.

Preliminary results from the COBE differential microwave radiometers - Large angular scale isotropy of the cosmic microwave background

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smoot, G. F.; Aymon, J.; Bennett, C. L.; Kogut, A.; Backus, C.

1991-01-01

Preliminary but precise micowave maps are presented of the sky, and thus of the early universe, derived as the first results from the Differential Microwave Radiometers experiment aboard COBE. The dipole anisotropy attributed to the motion of the solar system with respect to the CMB reference frame shows strongly in all six sky maps and is consistent with a Doppler-shifted thermal spectrum. The best-fitted dipole has amplitude 3.3 + or - 0.2 mK in the direction (alpha, delta) = 11.2 h + or - 0.2 h, -7 deg + or - 2 deg (J2000) or (l,b) = 265 deg + or - 2 deg, 48 deg + or - 2 deg. There is no clear evidence in the maps for any other large angular-scale feature. Limits on Delta T/T0 of 3 x 10 to the -5th (T0 = 2.735 K), 4 x 10 to the -5th, and 4 x 10 to the -5th are found for the rms quadrupole amplitude, monochromatic fluctuations, and Gaussian fluctuations, respectively. These measurements place the most severe constraints to date on many potential physical processes in the early universe.

ScienceCast 32: 600 Mysteries in the Night Sky

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-10-14

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope recently produced a map of the night sky. Out of 1873 new sources, nearly 600 were complete mysteries. In this week's ScienceCast, researchers speculate on the nature of the mystery objects.

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

Liu, Adrian; Zhang, Yunfan; Parsons, Aaron R., E-mail: acliu@berkeley.edu

Intensity mapping is a promising technique for surveying the large-scale structure of our universe from z  = 0 to z  ∼ 150, using the brightness temperature field of spectral lines to directly observe previously unexplored portions of our cosmic timeline. Examples of targeted lines include the 21 cm hyperfine transition of neutral hydrogen, rotational lines of carbon monoxide, and fine-structure lines of singly ionized carbon. Recent efforts have focused on detections of the power spectrum of spatial fluctuations, but have been hindered by systematics such as foreground contamination. This has motivated the decomposition of data into Fourier modes perpendicular and parallel tomore » the line of sight, which has been shown to be a particularly powerful way to diagnose systematics. However, such a method is well-defined only in the limit of a narrow-field, flat-sky approximation. This limits the sensitivity of intensity mapping experiments, as it means that wide surveys must be separately analyzed as a patchwork of smaller fields. In this paper, we develop a framework for analyzing intensity mapping data in a spherical Fourier–Bessel basis, which incorporates curved sky effects without difficulty. We use our framework to generalize a number of techniques in intensity mapping data analysis from the flat sky to the curved sky. These include visibility-based estimators for the power spectrum, treatments of interloper lines, and the “foreground wedge” signature of spectrally smooth foregrounds.« less

The LWA1 Low Frequency Sky Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dowell, Jayce; Taylor, Gregory B.; LWA Collaboration

2015-01-01

The LWA1 Low Frequency Sky Survey is a survey of the sky visible from the first station of the Long Wavelength Array (LWA1) across the frequency range of 35 to 80 MHz. The primary motivation behind this effort is to improve our understanding of the sky at these frequencies. In particular, an understanding of the low frequency foreground emission is necessary for work on detecting the epoch of reionization and the cosmic dark ages where the foreground signal dwarfs the expected redshifted HI signal by many orders of magnitude (Pritchard & Loeb 2012, Rep. Prog. Phys., 75, 086901). The leading model for the sky in the frequency range of 20 to 200 MHz is the Global Sky Model (GSM) by de Oliveria-Costas et al. (2008, MNRAS, 288, 247). This model is based upon a principle component analysis of 11 sky maps ranging in frequency from 10 MHz to 94 GHz. Of these 11 maps, only four are below 1 GHz; 10 MHz from Caswell (1976, MNRAS, 177, 601), 22 MHz from Roger et al. (1999, A&AS, 137, 7), 45 MHz from Alvarez et al. (1997, A&AS, 124, 315) and Maeda et al. (1999, A&AS, 140, 145), and 408 MHz from Haslam et al. (1982, A&AS, 47, 1). Thus, within this model, the region of interest to both cosmic dawn and the epoch of reionization is largely unconstrained based on the available survey data, and are also limited in terms of the spatial coverage and calibration. A self-consistent collection of maps is necessary for both our understanding of the sky and the removal of the foregrounds that mask the redshifted 21-cm signal.We present the current state of the survey and discuss the imaging and calibration challenges faced by dipole arrays that are capable of imaging nearly 2π steradians of sky simultaneously over a large fractional bandwidth.Construction of the LWA has been supported by the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-07-C-0147. Support for operations and continuing development of the LWA1 is provided by the National Science Foundation under grants AST-1139963 and AST-1139974 of the University Radio Observatory program.

Measuring the color and brightness of artificial sky glow from cities using an all-sky imaging system calibrated with astronomical methods in the Johnson-Cousins B and V photometric systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pipkin, Ashley; Duriscoe, Dan M.; Lughinbuhl, Christian

2017-01-01

Artificial light at night, when observed at some distance from a city, results in a dome of sky glow, brightest at the horizon. The spectral power distribution of electric light utilized will determine its color of the light dome and the amount of light will determine its brightness. Recent outdoor lighting technologies have included blue-rich light emitting diode (LED) sources that may increase the relative amount of blue to green light in sky glow compared to typical high pressure sodium (HPS) sources with warmer spectra. Measuring and monitoring this effect is important to the preservation of night sky visual quality as seen from undeveloped areas outside the city, such as parks or other protected areas, since the dark-adapted human eye is more sensitive to blue and green. We present a method using a wide field CCD camera which images the entire sky in both Johnson V and B photometric bands. Standard stars within the images are used for calibration. The resulting all-sky brightness maps, and a derived B-V color index map, provide a means to assess and track the impact of specific outdoor lighting practices. We also present example data from several cities, including Las Vegas, Nevada, Flagstaff, Arizona, and Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Clear-Sky Narrowband Albedo Datasets Derived from Modis Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Y.; Minnis, P.; Sun-Mack, S.; Arduini, R. F.; Hong, G.

2013-12-01

Satellite remote sensing of clouds requires an accurate estimate of the clear-sky radiances for a given scene to detect clouds and aerosols and to retrieve their microphysical properties. Knowing the spatial and angular variability of clear-sky albedo is essential for predicting the clear-sky radiance at solar wavelengths. The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Project uses the near-infrared (NIR; 1.24, 1.6 or 2.13 μm) and visible (VIS; 0.63 μm) channels available on the Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) to help identify clouds and retrieve their properties. Generally, clear-sky albedo for a given surface type is determined for conditions when the vegetation is either thriving or dormant and free of snow. The clear-sky albedos are derived using a radiative transfer parameterization of the impact of the atmosphere, including aerosols, on the observed reflectances. This paper presents the method of generating monthly clear-sky overhead albedo maps for both snow-free and snow-covered surfaces of these channels using one year of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) CERES products. Maps of 1.24 and 1.6 μm are being used as the background to help retrieve cloud properties (e.g., effective particle size, optical depth) in CERES cloud retrievals in both snow-free and snow-covered conditions.

Google Sky: A Digital View of the Night Sky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Connolly, A. Scranton, R.; Ornduff, T.

2008-11-01

From its inception Astronomy has been a visual science, from careful observations of the sky using the naked eye, to the use of telescopes and photographs to map the distribution of stars and galaxies, to the current era of digital cameras that can image the sky over many decades of the electromagnetic spectrum. Sky in Google Earth (http://earth.google.com) and Google Sky (http://www.google.com/sky) continue this tradition, providing an intuitive visual interface to some of the largest astronomical imaging surveys of the sky. Streaming multi-color imagery, catalogs, time domain data, as well as annotating interesting astronomical sources and events with placemarks, podcasts and videos, Sky provides a panchromatic view of the universe accessible to anyone with a computer. Beyond a simple exploration of the sky Google Sky enables users to create and share content with others around the world. With an open interface available on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows, and translations of the content into over 20 different languages we present Sky as the embodiment of a virtual telescope for discovery and sharing the excitement of astronomy and science as a whole.

KSC-03pd0512

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-19

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Pegasus launch vehicle enters the Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) at KSC. There it will be mated to the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). The Pegasus will carry into orbit the GALEX, a space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25.

KSC-03pd0484

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-06

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Multi-Payload Processing Facility, workers check the deployment of the cover of the telescope on the GALEX satellite. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

KSC-03pd0483

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-06

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Multi-Payload Processing Facility, workers check the deployment of the cover of the telescope on the GALEX satellite. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

KSC-03pd0492

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-13

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Workers in the Multi-Payload Processing Facility check the solar array panels on the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite after they were deployed. The GALEX is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

KSC-03pd0511

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-19

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - As darkness falls, the Pegasus launch vehicle arrives at the Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) at KSC. There it will be mated to the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). The Pegasus will carry into orbit the GALEX, a space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25.

KSC-03pd0485

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-06

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Multi-Payload Processing Facility, workers check the deployment of the cover of the telescope on the GALEX satellite. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

KSC-03pd0482

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-06

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Multi-Payload Processing Facility, workers check the deployment of the cover of the telescope on the GALEX satellite. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

KSC-03pd0486

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-06

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Multi-Payload Processing Facility, workers check the deployment of the cover of the telescope on the GALEX satellite. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

KSC-03pd0491

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-13

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Workers in the Multi-Payload Processing Facility check the solar array panels on the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite after they were deployed. The GALEX is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25 via a Pegasus rocket.

KSC-03pd0513

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-19

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Pegasus launch vehicle is inside the Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) at KSC. There it will be mated to the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). The Pegasus will carry into orbit the GALEX, a space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25.

Kilohoku Ho`okele Wa`a--- Na `Ohana Hoku `Eha (The Astronomy of the Hawaiian Navigators--- The Four Star Families)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slater, Stephanie; Slater, Timothy F.; Baybayan, Kalepa C.

2016-01-01

This paper documents the complete modern Hawaiian navigational full-sky. Over eight years of field notes, observations, and interviews with cultural leaders, historians, and ho`okele wa`a (navigators) were used to construct and validate Kilohoku Ho`okele Wa`a, the Astronomy of the Hawaiian Navigators. In contrast to the various historical sky maps designed by different practitioners and local groups in pre-colonial times, this sky-map depicts the four whole-sky constellations used by present day wayfinders. Designed by a loosely bound group of cultural leaders and navigators as a tool to use in modern non-instrumental navigation, Kilohoku Ho`okele Wa`a is a pragmatic fusion of ancient Hawaiian tradition, traditions of greater Polynesia, and modern-day Indigenous cultural forces. Like a very small number of cultures who use the sky for non-instrumental navigation, the ho`okele wa`a conceive of each season's visible sky as a whole image, using a single constellation that stretches from the northern to the southern horizon as a tool that facilitates direction finding in skies that are often very cloudy, and that chunks the sky into sections that decrease the cognitive load placed on the navigator. Moving through the seasons, beginning in Winter, Na `Ohana Hoku `Eha (The Four Star Families) are Kekaomakali`I (The Bailer), Kaiwikuamo`o (The Backbone), Manaiakalani (The Fishhook), and Kalupekawelo (The Kite). The whole-sky character of each of the four "star families," combines with that star family's mo`olelo (purposeful story) to further facilitate navigation, employing the emotional component of moral and familial associations to enhance memorization and to provide wayfinders with encouragement on their long journeys.

Investigating Galactic Structure with COBE/DIRBE and Simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cohen, Martin

1999-01-01

In this work I applied the current version of the SKY model of the point source sky to the interpretation of the diffuse all-sky emission observed by COBE/DIRBE (Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite/Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment). The goal was to refine the SKY model using the all-sky DIRBE maps of the Galaxy, in order that a search could be made for an isotropic cosmic background."Faint Source Model" [FSM] was constructed to remove Galactic fore ground stars from the ZSMA products. The FSM mimics SKY version 1 but it was inadequate to seek cosmic background emission because of the sizeable residual emission in the ZSMA products after this starlight subtraction. At this point I can only support that such models are currently inadequate to reveal a cosmic background. Even SKY5 yields the same disappointing result.

Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results: curved-sky weak lensing mass map

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, C.; Pujol, A.; Mawdsley, B.; Bacon, D.; Elvin-Poole, J.; Melchior, P.; Kovács, A.; Jain, B.; Leistedt, B.; Giannantonio, T.; Alarcon, A.; Baxter, E.; Bechtol, K.; Becker, M. R.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bernstein, G. M.; Bonnett, C.; Busha, M. T.; Rosell, A. Carnero; Castander, F. J.; Cawthon, R.; da Costa, L. N.; Davis, C.; De Vicente, J.; DeRose, J.; Drlica-Wagner, A.; Fosalba, P.; Gatti, M.; Gaztanaga, E.; Gruen, D.; Gschwend, J.; Hartley, W. G.; Hoyle, B.; Huff, E. M.; Jarvis, M.; Jeffrey, N.; Kacprzak, T.; Lin, H.; MacCrann, N.; Maia, M. A. G.; Ogando, R. L. C.; Prat, J.; Rau, M. M.; Rollins, R. P.; Roodman, A.; Rozo, E.; Rykoff, E. S.; Samuroff, S.; Sánchez, C.; Sevilla-Noarbe, I.; Sheldon, E.; Troxel, M. A.; Varga, T. N.; Vielzeuf, P.; Vikram, V.; Wechsler, R. H.; Zuntz, J.; Abbott, T. M. C.; Abdalla, F. B.; Allam, S.; Annis, J.; Bertin, E.; Brooks, D.; Buckley-Geer, E.; Burke, D. L.; Kind, M. Carrasco; Carretero, J.; Crocce, M.; Cunha, C. E.; D'Andrea, C. B.; Desai, S.; Diehl, H. T.; Dietrich, J. P.; Doel, P.; Estrada, J.; Neto, A. Fausti; Fernandez, E.; Flaugher, B.; Frieman, J.; García-Bellido, J.; Gruendl, R. A.; Gutierrez, G.; Honscheid, K.; James, D. J.; Jeltema, T.; Johnson, M. W. G.; Johnson, M. D.; Kent, S.; Kirk, D.; Krause, E.; Kuehn, K.; Kuhlmann, S.; Lahav, O.; Li, T. S.; Lima, M.; March, M.; Martini, P.; Menanteau, F.; Miquel, R.; Mohr, J. J.; Neilsen, E.; Nichol, R. C.; Petravick, D.; Plazas, A. A.; Romer, A. K.; Sako, M.; Sanchez, E.; Scarpine, V.; Schubnell, M.; Smith, M.; Smith, R. C.; Soares-Santos, M.; Sobreira, F.; Suchyta, E.; Tarle, G.; Thomas, D.; Tucker, D. L.; Walker, A. R.; Wester, W.; Zhang, Y.

2018-04-01

We construct the largest curved-sky galaxy weak lensing mass map to date from the DES first-year (DES Y1) data. The map, about 10 times larger than the previous work, is constructed over a contiguous ≈1500 deg2, covering a comoving volume of ≈10 Gpc3. The effects of masking, sampling, and noise are tested using simulations. We generate weak lensing maps from two DES Y1 shear catalogues, METACALIBRATION and IM3SHAPE, with sources at redshift 0.2 < z < 1.3, and in each of four bins in this range. In the highest signal-to-noise map, the ratio between the mean signal to noise in the E-mode map and the B-mode map is ˜1.5 (˜2) when smoothed with a Gaussian filter of σG = 30 (80) arcmin. The second and third moments of the convergence κ in the maps are in agreement with simulations. We also find no significant correlation of κ with maps of potential systematic contaminants. Finally, we demonstrate two applications of the mass maps: (1) cross-correlation

Planck CMB Anomalies: Astrophysical and Cosmological Secondary Effects and the Curse of Masking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rassat, Anais

2016-07-01

Large-scale anomalies have been reported in CMB data with both WMAP and Planck data. These could be due to foreground residuals and or systematic effects, though their confirmation with Planck data suggests they are not due to a problem in the WMAP or Planck pipelines. If these anomalies are in fact primordial, then understanding their origin is fundamental to either validate the standard model of cosmology or to explore new physics. We investigate three other possible issues: 1) the trade-off between minimising systematics due to foreground contamination (with a conservative mask) and minimising systematics due to masking, 2) astrophysical secondary effects (the kinetic Doppler quadrupole and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect), and 3) secondary cosmological signals (the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect). We address the masking issue by considering new procedures that use both WMAP and Planck to produce higher quality full-sky maps using the sparsity methodology (LGMCA maps). We show the impact of masking is dominant over that of residual foregrounds, and the LGMCA full-sky maps can be used without further processing to study anomalies. We consider four official Planck PR1 and two LGMCA CMB maps. Analysis of the observed CMB maps shows that only the low quadrupole and quadrupole-octopole alignment seem significant, but that the planar octopole, Axis of Evil, mirror parity and cold spot are not significant in nearly all maps considered. After subtraction of astrophysical and cosmological secondary effects, only the low quadrupole may still be considered anomalous, meaning the significance of only one anomaly is affected by secondary effect subtraction out of six anomalies considered. In the spirit of reproducible research all reconstructed maps and codes are available online.

Planck CMB anomalies: astrophysical and cosmological secondary effects and the curse of masking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rassat, A.; Starck, J.-L.; Paykari, P.; Sureau, F.; Bobin, J.

2014-08-01

Large-scale anomalies have been reported in CMB data with both WMAP and Planck data. These could be due to foreground residuals and or systematic effects, though their confirmation with Planck data suggests they are not due to a problem in the WMAP or Planck pipelines. If these anomalies are in fact primordial, then understanding their origin is fundamental to either validate the standard model of cosmology or to explore new physics. We investigate three other possible issues: 1) the trade-off between minimising systematics due to foreground contamination (with a conservative mask) and minimising systematics due to masking, 2) astrophysical secondary effects (the kinetic Doppler quadrupole and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect), and 3) secondary cosmological signals (the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect). We address the masking issue by considering new procedures that use both WMAP and Planck to produce higher quality full-sky maps using the sparsity methodology (LGMCA maps). We show the impact of masking is dominant over that of residual foregrounds, and the LGMCA full-sky maps can be used without further processing to study anomalies. We consider four official Planck PR1 and two LGMCA CMB maps. Analysis of the observed CMB maps shows that only the low quadrupole and quadrupole-octopole alignment seem significant, but that the planar octopole, Axis of Evil, mirror parity and cold spot are not significant in nearly all maps considered. After subtraction of astrophysical and cosmological secondary effects, only the low quadrupole may still be considered anomalous, meaning the significance of only one anomaly is affected by secondary effect subtraction out of six anomalies considered. In the spirit of reproducible research all reconstructed maps and codes will be made available for download here http://www.cosmostat.org/anomaliesCMB.html.

Star Maps, Planispheres, and Celestial Calendars : Engaging Students, Educators, and Communities with Multicultural STEM/STEAM Visual Resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Annette S.; Wilson, William; Tibbetts, Jeffrey; Gawboy, Carl

2017-06-01

Aim:Designed by A. Lee, the Native Skywatchers initiative seeks to remember and revitalize indigenous star and earth knowledge, promoting the native voice as the lead voice. The overarching goal of Native Skywatchers is to communicate the knowledge that indigenous people practiced a sustainable way of living and sustainable engineering through a living and participatory relationship with the above and below, sky and earth. We aim to improve current inequities in education for native young people, to inspire increased cultural pride, and promote community wellness. We hope to inspire all participants towards a rekindling of the excitement and curiosity that causes us to look up at the sky in wonder generation after generation.Results:Presented here are several Native Skywatchers initiatives under the broad categories of: 1.) star maps, 2.) planispheres, and 3.) celestial calendars. In 2012 two indigenous star maps were created: the Ojibwe Giizhig Anung Masinaaigan-Ojibwe Sky Star Map (A. Lee, W. Wilson, C. Gawboy), and the D(L)akota star map, Makoce Wicanhpi Wowapi (A. Lee, J. Rock). More recently, a collaboration with W. Buck, science educator, at the Manitoba First Nations Resource Centre (MFNRC), in Winnipeg, Manitoba produced a third indigenous star map: Ininew Achakos Masinikan-Cree Star Map Book. Having star maps that are rooted in astronomical knowledge and cultural wisdoms has allowed communities multiple and ongoing opportunities for inclusive culture-based STEM learning. Next, planispheres were created based on the indigenous star maps. A learning and teaching hands-on tool, the planispheres, help partakers understand the patterns of motion in the night sky in addition to simply identifying the constellations. Most recently, calendar-paintings of the yearly motion of the Sun, the phases of the Moon, and the Venus-year have all been added to the growing list of Native Skywatchers resources. Working collaboratively with regional schools, educators, museums, liaisons, and communities this work offers a solid example of how community based participatory programs can be the spark for effective culture-based STEM learning.

Dark Skies Ahead? Activities to Raise Awareness during the International Year of Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, Constance E.; Isbell, D.; Pompea, S.

2007-12-01

"Dark Skies as a Universal Resource” is one of 7 themes targeted for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. The theme's goal is to raise public awareness of the impact of artificial lighting on local environments and the ongoing loss of a dark night sky as a natural resource for much of the world's population. To reach this goal, activities are being developed which highlight dark skies preservation issues 1) through new technology (e.g., programs at planetaria, blogging, podcasting); 2) at events such as star parties and observatory open houses; 3) in arts, entertainment and storytelling (e.g., art competitions, documentaries, lectures, native American traditions); 4) through unaided-eye and digital-meter star count programs involving citizen-scientists; and 5) by relating them to public health, economic issues, ecological consequences, energy conservation, safety and security. A centerpiece of the Dark Skies theme is the unaided-eye and digital-meter versions of the GLOBE at Night program. The unaided-eye version directs citizen-scientists on how to observe and record the brightness of the night sky by matching its appearance toward the constellation of Orion with one of 7 stellar maps of different limiting magnitudes. For the "digital” version, low-cost meters are used by citizen-scientists to measure the integrated sky brightness. Data sets and maps of both versions are supplied on-line for further capstone activities. In the presentation, we will outline the activities being developed as well as plans for funding, implementation, marketing and the connections to the global cornerstone IYA project, "Dark Skies Awareness".

Stereoscopic determination of all-sky altitude map of aurora using two ground-based Nikon DSLR cameras

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kataoka, R.; Miyoshi, Y.; Shigematsu, K.; Hampton, D.; Mori, Y.; Kubo, T.; Yamashita, A.; Tanaka, M.; Takahei, T.; Nakai, T.; Miyahara, H.; Shiokawa, K.

2013-09-01

A new stereoscopic measurement technique is developed to obtain an all-sky altitude map of aurora using two ground-based digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras. Two identical full-color all-sky cameras were set with an 8 km separation across the Chatanika area in Alaska (Poker Flat Research Range and Aurora Borealis Lodge) to find localized emission height with the maximum correlation of the apparent patterns in the localized pixels applying a method of the geographical coordinate transform. It is found that a typical ray structure of discrete aurora shows the broad altitude distribution above 100 km, while a typical patchy structure of pulsating aurora shows the narrow altitude distribution of less than 100 km. Because of its portability and low cost of the DSLR camera systems, the new technique may open a unique opportunity not only for scientists but also for night-sky photographers to complementarily attend the aurora science to potentially form a dense observation network.

The Planck Catalogue of Galactic Cold Clumps : Looking at the early stages of star-formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Montier, Ludovic

2015-08-01

The Planck satellite has provided an unprecedented view of the submm sky, allowing us to search for the dust emission of Galactic cold sources. Combining Planck-HFI all-sky maps in the high frequency channels with the IRAS map at 100um, we built the Planck catalogue of Galactic Cold Clumps (PGCC, Planck 2015 results XXVIII 2015), counting 13188 sources distributed over the whole sky, and following mainly the Galactic structures at low and intermediate latitudes. This is the first all-sky catalogue of Galactic cold sources obtained with a single instrument at this resolution and sensitivity, which opens a new window on star-formation processes in our Galaxy.I will briefly describe the colour detection method used to extract the Galactic cold sources, i.e., the Cold Core Colour Detection Tool (CoCoCoDeT, Montier et al. 2010), and its application to the Planck data. I will discuss the statistical distribution of the properties of the PGCC sources (in terms of dust temperature, distance, mass, density and luminosity), which illustrates that the PGCC catalogue spans a large variety of environments and objects, from molecular clouds to cold cores, and covers various stages of evolution. The Planck catalogue is a very powerful tool to study the formation and the evolution of prestellar objects and star-forming regions.I will finally present an overview of the Herschel Key Program Galactic Cold Cores (PI. M.Juvela), which allowed us to follow-up about 350 Planck Galactic Cold Clumps, in various stages of evolution and environments. With this program, the nature and the composition of the 5' Planck sources have been revealed at a sub-arcmin resolution, showing very different configurations, such as starless cold cores or multiple Young Stellar objects still embedded in their cold envelope.

Characterizing the zenithal night sky brightness in large territories: how many samples per square kilometre are needed?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bará, Salvador

2018-01-01

A recurring question arises when trying to characterize, by means of measurements or theoretical calculations, the zenithal night sky brightness throughout a large territory: how many samples per square kilometre are needed? The optimum sampling distance should allow reconstructing, with sufficient accuracy, the continuous zenithal brightness map across the whole region, whilst at the same time avoiding unnecessary and redundant oversampling. This paper attempts to provide some tentative answers to this issue, using two complementary tools: the luminance structure function and the Nyquist-Shannon spatial sampling theorem. The analysis of several regions of the world, based on the data from the New world atlas of artificial night sky brightness, suggests that, as a rule of thumb, about one measurement per square kilometre could be sufficient for determining the zenithal night sky brightness of artificial origin at any point in a region to within ±0.1 magV arcsec-2 (in the root-mean-square sense) of its true value in the Johnson-Cousins V band. The exact reconstruction of the zenithal night sky brightness maps from samples taken at the Nyquist rate seems to be considerably more demanding.

A Multiscale pipeline for the search of string-induced CMB anisotropies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vafaei Sadr, A.; Movahed, S. M. S.; Farhang, M.; Ringeval, C.; Bouchet, F. R.

2018-03-01

We propose a multiscale edge-detection algorithm to search for the Gott-Kaiser-Stebbins imprints of a cosmic string (CS) network on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies. Curvelet decomposition and extended Canny algorithm are used to enhance the string detectability. Various statistical tools are then applied to quantify the deviation of CMB maps having a CS contribution with respect to pure Gaussian anisotropies of inflationary origin. These statistical measures include the one-point probability density function, the weighted two-point correlation function (TPCF) of the anisotropies, the unweighted TPCF of the peaks and of the up-crossing map, as well as their cross-correlation. We use this algorithm on a hundred of simulated Nambu-Goto CMB flat sky maps, covering approximately 10 per cent of the sky, and for different string tensions Gμ. On noiseless sky maps with an angular resolution of 0.9 arcmin, we show that our pipeline detects CSs with Gμ as low as Gμ ≳ 4.3 × 10-10. At the same resolution, but with a noise level typical to a CMB-S4 phase II experiment, the detection threshold would be to Gμ ≳ 1.2 × 10-7.

Sky and Elemental Planetary Mapping Via Gamma Ray Emissions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roland, John M.

2011-01-01

Low-energy gamma ray emissions ((is) approximately 30keV to (is) approximately 30MeV) are significant to astrophysics because many interesting objects emit their primary energy in this regime. As such, there has been increasing demand for a complete map of the gamma ray sky, but many experiments to do so have encountered obstacles. Using an innovative method of applying the Radon Transform to data from BATSE (the Burst And Transient Source Experiment) on NASA's CGRO (Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory) mission, we have circumvented many of these issues and successfully localized many known sources to 0.5 - 1 deg accuracy. Our method, which is based on a simple 2-dimensional planar back-projection approximation of the inverse Radon transform (familiar from medical CAT-scan technology), can thus be used to image the entire sky and locate new gamma ray sources, specifically in energy bands between 200keV and 2MeV which have not been well surveyed to date. Samples of these results will be presented. This same technique can also be applied to elemental planetary surface mapping via gamma ray spectroscopy. Due to our method's simplicity and power, it could potentially improve a current map's resolution by a significant factor.

Comparison of Measured Galactic Background Radiation at L-Band with Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

LeVine, David M.; Abraham, Saji; Kerr, Yann H.; Wilson, William J.; Skou, Niels; Sobjaerg, Sten

2004-01-01

Radiation from the celestial sky in the spectral window at 1.413 GHz is strong and an accurate accounting of this background radiation is needed for calibration and retrieval algorithms. Modern radio astronomy measurements in this window have been converted into a brightness temperature map of the celestial sky at L-band suitable for such applications. This paper presents a comparison of the background predicted by this map with the measurements of several modern L-band remote sensing radiometer Keywords-Galactic background, microwave radiometry; remote sensing;

Making maps of cosmic microwave background polarization for B-mode studies: the POLARBEAR example

DOE PAGES

Poletti, Davide; Fabbian, Giulio; Le Jeune, Maude; ...

2017-03-30

Analysis of cosmic microwave background (CMB) datasets typically requires some filtering of the raw time-ordered data. For instance, in the context of ground-based observations, filtering is frequently used to minimize the impact of low frequency noise, atmospheric contributions and/or scan synchronous signals on the resulting maps. In this paper, we have explicitly constructed a general filtering operator, which can unambiguously remove any set of unwanted modes in the data, and then amend the map-making procedure in order to incorporate and correct for it. We show that such an approach is mathematically equivalent to the solution of a problem in whichmore » the sky signal and unwanted modes are estimated simultaneously and the latter are marginalized over. We investigated the conditions under which this amended map-making procedure can render an unbiased estimate of the sky signal in realistic circumstances. We then discuss the potential implications of these observations on the choice of map-making and power spectrum estimation approaches in the context of B-mode polarization studies. Specifically, we have studied the effects of time-domain filtering on the noise correlation structure in the map domain, as well as impact it may haveon the performance of the popular pseudo-spectrum estimators. We conclude that although maps produced by the proposed estimators arguably provide the most faithful representation of the sky possible given the data, they may not straightforwardly lead to the best constraints on the power spectra of the underlying sky signal and special care may need to be taken to ensure this is the case. By contrast, simplified map-makers which do not explicitly correct for time-domain filtering, but leave it to subsequent steps in the data analysis, may perform equally well and be easier and faster to implement. We focused on polarization-sensitive measurements targeting the B-mode component of the CMB signal and apply the proposed methods to realistic simulations based on characteristics of an actual CMB polarization experiment, POLARBEAR. Finally, our analysis and conclusions are however more generally applicable.« less

Making maps of cosmic microwave background polarization for B-mode studies: the POLARBEAR example

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

Poletti, Davide; Fabbian, Giulio; Le Jeune, Maude

Analysis of cosmic microwave background (CMB) datasets typically requires some filtering of the raw time-ordered data. For instance, in the context of ground-based observations, filtering is frequently used to minimize the impact of low frequency noise, atmospheric contributions and/or scan synchronous signals on the resulting maps. In this paper, we have explicitly constructed a general filtering operator, which can unambiguously remove any set of unwanted modes in the data, and then amend the map-making procedure in order to incorporate and correct for it. We show that such an approach is mathematically equivalent to the solution of a problem in whichmore » the sky signal and unwanted modes are estimated simultaneously and the latter are marginalized over. We investigated the conditions under which this amended map-making procedure can render an unbiased estimate of the sky signal in realistic circumstances. We then discuss the potential implications of these observations on the choice of map-making and power spectrum estimation approaches in the context of B-mode polarization studies. Specifically, we have studied the effects of time-domain filtering on the noise correlation structure in the map domain, as well as impact it may haveon the performance of the popular pseudo-spectrum estimators. We conclude that although maps produced by the proposed estimators arguably provide the most faithful representation of the sky possible given the data, they may not straightforwardly lead to the best constraints on the power spectra of the underlying sky signal and special care may need to be taken to ensure this is the case. By contrast, simplified map-makers which do not explicitly correct for time-domain filtering, but leave it to subsequent steps in the data analysis, may perform equally well and be easier and faster to implement. We focused on polarization-sensitive measurements targeting the B-mode component of the CMB signal and apply the proposed methods to realistic simulations based on characteristics of an actual CMB polarization experiment, POLARBEAR. Finally, our analysis and conclusions are however more generally applicable.« less

Multitracer CMB delensing maps from Planck and WISE data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Byeonghee; Hill, J. Colin; Sherwin, Blake D.

2017-12-01

Delensing, the removal of the limiting lensing B -mode background, is crucial for the success of future cosmic microwave background (CMB) surveys in constraining inflationary gravitational waves (IGWs). In recent work, delensing with large-scale structure tracers has emerged as a promising method both for improving constraints on IGWs and for testing delensing methods for future use. However, the delensing fractions (i.e., the fraction of the lensing-B mode power removed) achieved by recent efforts have been only 20%-30%. In this work, we provide a detailed characterization of a full-sky, dust-cleaned cosmic infrared background (CIB) map for delensing and construct a further-improved delensing template by adding additional tracers to increase delensing performance. In particular, we build a multitracer delensing template by combining the dust-cleaned Planck CIB map with a reconstructed CMB lensing map from Planck and a galaxy number density map from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite. For this combination, we calculate the relevant weightings by fitting smooth templates to measurements of all the cross-spectra and autospectra of these maps. On a large fraction of the sky (fsky=0.43 ), we demonstrate that our maps are capable of providing a delensing factor of 43 ±1 % ; using a more restrictive mask (fsky=0.11 ), the delensing factor reaches 48 ±1 % . For low-noise surveys, our delensing maps, which cover much of the sky, can thus improve constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio (r ) by nearly a factor of 2. The delensing tracer maps are made publicly available, and we encourage their use in ongoing and upcoming B -mode surveys.

Improved Diffuse Foreground Subtraction with the ILC Method: CMB Map and Angular Power Spectrum Using Planck and WMAP Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sudevan, Vipin; Aluri, Pavan K.; Yadav, Sarvesh Kumar; Saha, Rajib; Souradeep, Tarun

2017-06-01

We report an improved technique for diffuse foreground minimization from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) maps using a new multiphase iterative harmonic space internal-linear-combination (HILC) approach. Our method nullifies a foreground leakage that was present in the old and usual iterative HILC method. In phase 1 of the multiphase technique, we obtain an initial cleaned map using the single iteration HILC approach over the desired portion of the sky. In phase 2, we obtain a final CMB map using the iterative HILC approach; however, now, to nullify the leakage, during each iteration, some of the regions of the sky that are not being cleaned in the current iteration are replaced by the corresponding cleaned portions of the phase 1 map. We bring all input frequency maps to a common and maximum possible beam and pixel resolution at the beginning of the analysis, which significantly reduces data redundancy, memory usage, and computational cost, and avoids, during the HILC weight calculation, the deconvolution of partial sky harmonic coefficients by the azimuthally symmetric beam and pixel window functions, which in a strict mathematical sense, are not well defined. Using WMAP 9 year and Planck 2015 frequency maps, we obtain foreground-cleaned CMB maps and a CMB angular power spectrum for the multipole range 2≤slant {\\ell }≤slant 2500. Our power spectrum matches the published Planck results with some differences at different multipole ranges. We validate our method by performing Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, we show that the weights for HILC foreground minimization have the intrinsic characteristic that they also tend to produce a statistically isotropic CMB map.

Fermi Sees the Gamma Ray Sky

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-10-30

This view of the gamma-ray sky constructed from one year of Fermi LAT observations is the best view of the extreme universe to date. The map shows the rate at which the LAT detects gamma rays with energies above 300 million electron volts -- about 120 million times the energy of visible light -- from different sky directions. Brighter colors equal higher rates. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration Full story: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/first_year.html

KSC-03pd0510

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-19

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Pegasus launch vehicle is moved from the Skid Strip, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, to the Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) at KSC. There it will be mated to the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). The Pegasus will carry into orbit the GALEX, a space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25.

KSC-03pd0509

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-19

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Pegasus launch vehicle is moved from the Skid Strip, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, to the Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) at KSC. There it will be mated to the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). The Pegasus will carry into orbit the GALEX, a space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25.

Cross-correlation between the 170 GHz survey map and the COBE differential microwave radiometer first-year maps

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ganga, Ken; Cheng, ED; Meyer, Stephan; Page, Lyman

1993-01-01

This letter describes results of a cross-correlation between the 170 GHz partial-sky survey, made with a 3.8 deg beam balloon-borne instrument, and the COBE DMR 'Fit Technique' reduced galaxy all-sky map with a beam of 7 deg. The strong correlation between the data sets implies that the observed structure is consistent with thermal variations in a 2.7 K emitter. A chi-square analysis applied to the correlation function rules out the assumption that there is no structure in either of the two maps. A second test shows that if the DMR map has structure but the 170 GHz map does not, the probability of obtaining the observed correlation is small. Further analyses support the assumption that both maps have structure and that the 170 GHz-DMR cross-correlation is consistent with the analogous DMR correlation function. Maps containing various combinations of noise and Harrison-Zel'dovich power spectra are simulated and correlated to reinforce the result. The correlation provides compelling evidence that both instruments have observed fluctuations consistent with anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background.

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Development and preliminary results of point source observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fisher, Ryan P.

2009-06-01

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) is a six meter diameter telescope designed to measure the millimeter sky with arcminute angular resolution. The instrument is currently conducting its third season of observations from Cerro Toco in the Chilean Andes. The primary science goal of the experiment is to expand our understanding of cosmology by mapping the temperature fluctuations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) at angular scales corresponding to multipoles up to [cursive l] ~ 10000. The primary receiver for current ACT observations is the Millimeter Bolometer Array Camera (MBAC). The instrument is specially designed to observe simultaneously at 148 GHz, 218 GHz and 277 GHz. To accomplish this, the camera has three separate detector arrays, each containing approximately 1000 detectors. After discussing the ACT experiment in detail, a discussion of the development and testing of the cold readout electronics for the MBAC is presented. Currently, the ACT collaboration is in the process of generating maps of the microwave sky using our first and second season observations. The analysis used to generate these maps requires careful data calibration to produce maps of the arcminute scale CMB temperature fluctuations. Tests and applications of several elements of the ACT calibrations are presented in the context of the second season observations. Scientific exploration has already begun on preliminary maps made using these calibrations. The final portion of this thesis is dedicated to discussing the point sources observed by the ACT. A discussion of the techniques used for point source detection and photometry is followed by a presentation of our current measurements of point source spectral indices.

Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Curved-Sky Weak Lensing Mass Map

DOE PAGES

Chang, C.; Sheldon, E.; Pujol, A.; ...

2018-01-04

We construct the largest curved-sky galaxy weak lensing mass map to date from the DES firstyear (DES Y1) data. The map, about 10 times larger than previous work, is constructed over a contiguous ≈1;500 deg 2, covering a comoving volume of ≈10 Gpc 3. The effects of masking, sampling, and noise are tested using simulations. We generate weak lensing maps from two DES Y1 shear catalogs, METACALIBRATION and IM3SHAPE, with sources at redshift 0:2 < z < 1:3; and in each of four bins in this range. In the highest signal-to-noise map, the ratio between the mean signal-to-noise in themore » E-mode and the B-mode map is ~1.5 (~2) when smoothed with a Gaussian filter of sG =30 (80) arcminutes. The second and third moments of the convergence k in the maps are in agreement with simulations. We also find no significant correlation of k with maps of potential systematic contaminants. Finally, we demonstrate two applications of the mass maps: (1) cross-correlation with different foreground tracers of mass and (2) exploration of the largest peaks and voids in the maps.« less

Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Curved-Sky Weak Lensing Mass Map

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

Chang, C.; Sheldon, E.; Pujol, A.

We construct the largest curved-sky galaxy weak lensing mass map to date from the DES firstyear (DES Y1) data. The map, about 10 times larger than previous work, is constructed over a contiguous ≈1;500 deg 2, covering a comoving volume of ≈10 Gpc 3. The effects of masking, sampling, and noise are tested using simulations. We generate weak lensing maps from two DES Y1 shear catalogs, METACALIBRATION and IM3SHAPE, with sources at redshift 0:2 < z < 1:3; and in each of four bins in this range. In the highest signal-to-noise map, the ratio between the mean signal-to-noise in themore » E-mode and the B-mode map is ~1.5 (~2) when smoothed with a Gaussian filter of sG =30 (80) arcminutes. The second and third moments of the convergence k in the maps are in agreement with simulations. We also find no significant correlation of k with maps of potential systematic contaminants. Finally, we demonstrate two applications of the mass maps: (1) cross-correlation with different foreground tracers of mass and (2) exploration of the largest peaks and voids in the maps.« less

Data annotation, recording and mapping system for the US open skies aircraft

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

Brown, B.W.; Goede, W.F.; Farmer, R.G.

1996-11-01

This paper discusses the system developed by Northrop Grumman for the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA), US Air Force, and the On-Site Inspection Agency (OSIA) to comply with the data annotation and reporting provisions of the Open Skies Treaty. This system, called the Data Annotation, Recording and Mapping System (DARMS), has been installed on the US OC-135 and meets or exceeds all annotation requirements for the Open Skies Treaty. The Open Skies Treaty, which will enter into force in the near future, allows any of the 26 signatory countries to fly fixed wing aircraft with imaging sensors over any of themore » other treaty participants, upon very short notice, and with no restricted flight areas. Sensor types presently allowed by the treaty are: optical framing and panoramic film cameras; video cameras ranging from analog PAL color television cameras to the more sophisticated digital monochrome and color line scanning or framing cameras; infrared line scanners; and synthetic aperture radars. Each sensor type has specific performance parameters which are limited by the treaty, as well as specific annotation requirements which must be achieved upon full entry into force. DARMS supports U.S. compliance with the Opens Skies Treaty by means of three subsystems: the Data Annotation Subsytem (DAS), which annotates sensor media with data obtained from sensors and the aircraft`s avionics system; the Data Recording System (DRS), which records all sensor and flight events on magnetic media for later use in generating Treaty mandated mission reports; and the Dynamic Sensor Mapping Subsystem (DSMS), which provides observers and sensor operators with a real-time moving map displays of the progress of the mission, complete with instantaneous and cumulative sensor coverages. This paper will describe DARMS and its subsystems in greater detail, along with the supporting avionics sub-systems. 7 figs.« less

Piero della Francesca's Sky in The Dream of Constantine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valerio, V.

2011-06-01

The recent restoration of the frescoes by Piero della Francesca in the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo has made to appear on the background of the scene of Constantine's dream a number of stars. They are clearly painted with the intention to illustrate a sort of "natural" sky. In 2001 Anna Maria Maetzke recognized in a group of stars the constellation of the Ursa Minor, but so far no further study has been carried on to find any relation between the painted and the true sky. In this paper I show the existence of more constellations in the fresco, which are hardly detectable due to the mirror representation of the starry sky. Such a mirror image, as the Universe was seen from the outside, has a Greek origin and this kind of representation was introduced in Western Europe not only in celestial globes but also in star maps. This discovery leads to consider that Piero had at his disposal either a globe or a map which he reproduced on the fresco. My hypothesis is that a star map might be supplied to Piero by the astronomer Regiomontanus who was in Italy since 1461 following the Cardinal Bessarion in his journey from Wien to Rome. In 1463, Cardinal Bessarion was named papal legate to Venice and in July of the same year he leaved Rome together with Regiomontanus to reach Ferrara and Venice. The road to Venice crossed Umbria nearby Sansepolcro, Piero's birthplace not far from Arezzo. The trip took more than two weeks due to a stop before crossing the Apennines because the plague in Ferrara. Bessarion and Regiomontanus might have met Piero who was painting the cycle of frescoes in Arezzo and supplied him with a star map. Unfortunately, due to the lack of the horizon and any right line in the scene it is not possible to detect the latitude of the place corresponding to the painted sky.

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wright, E. L.

2009-12-01

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) will map the whole sky in the thermal infrared, filling a gap in sensitive all-sky surveys between the 2MASS near infrared survey and the AKARI Far-Infrared Survey. WISE will survey the sky in 6 months following its launch and in-orbit checkout. Launch is currently scheduled for November, 2009. WISE should cover more than 95% of sky with sensitivities of 120, 160, 650 & 2600 μJy or better in bands centered at 3.3, 4.7, 12 & 23 μm wavelength. The angular resolution should be 6 arcsec except at 23 μm where diffraction gives 12 arcsec.

Map of low-frequency electromagnetic noise in the sky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Füllekrug, Martin; Mezentsev, Andrew; Watson, Robert; Gaffet, Stéphane; Astin, Ivan; Smith, Nathan; Evans, Adrian

2015-06-01

The Earth's natural electromagnetic environment is disturbed by anthropogenic electromagnetic noise. Here we report the first results from an electromagnetic noise survey of the sky. The locations of electromagnetic noise sources are mapped on the hemisphere above a distributed array of wideband receivers that operate in a small aperture configuration. It is found that the noise sources can be localized at elevation angles up to ˜60° in the sky, well above the horizon. The sky also exhibits zones with little or no noise that are found toward the local zenith and the southwest of the array. These results are obtained by a rigorous analysis of the residuals from the classic dispersion relation for electromagnetic waves using an array analysis of electric field measurements in the frequency range from ˜20 to 250 kHz. The observed locations of the noise sources enable detailed observations of ionospheric modification, for example, caused by particle precipitation and lightning discharges, while the observed exclusion zones enable the detection of weak natural electromagnetic emissions, for example, from streamers in transient luminous events above thunderclouds.

An efficient method for removing point sources from full-sky radio interferometric maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berger, Philippe; Oppermann, Niels; Pen, Ue-Li; Shaw, J. Richard

2017-12-01

A new generation of wide-field radio interferometers designed for 21-cm surveys is being built as drift scan instruments allowing them to observe large fractions of the sky. With large numbers of antennas and frequency channels, the enormous instantaneous data rates of these telescopes require novel, efficient, data management and analysis techniques. The m-mode formalism exploits the periodicity of such data with the sidereal day, combined with the assumption of statistical isotropy of the sky, to achieve large computational savings and render optimal analysis methods computationally tractable. We present an extension to that work that allows us to adopt a more realistic sky model and treat objects such as bright point sources. We develop a linear procedure for deconvolving maps, using a Wiener filter reconstruction technique, which simultaneously allows filtering of these unwanted components. We construct an algorithm, based on the Sherman-Morrison-Woodbury formula, to efficiently invert the data covariance matrix, as required for any optimal signal-to-noise ratio weighting. The performance of our algorithm is demonstrated using simulations of a cylindrical transit telescope.

A radio spectral index map and catalogue at 147-1400 MHz covering 80 per cent of the sky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Gasperin, F.; Intema, H. T.; Frail, D. A.

2018-03-01

The radio spectral index is a powerful probe for classifying cosmic radio sources and understanding the origin of the radio emission. Combining data at 147 MHz and 1.4 GHz from the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS) and the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS), we produced a large-area radio spectral index map of ˜80 per cent of the sky (Dec. > - 40 deg), as well as a radio spectral index catalogue containing 1396 515 sources, of which 503 647 are not upper or lower limits. Almost every TGSS source has a detected counterpart, while this is true only for 36 per cent of NVSS sources. We released both the map and the catalogue to the astronomical community. The catalogue is analysed to discover systematic behaviours in the cosmic radio population. We find a differential spectral behaviour between faint and bright sources as well as between compact and extended sources. These trends are explained in terms of radio galaxy evolution. We also confirm earlier reports of an excess of steep-spectrum sources along the galactic plane. This corresponds to 86 compact and steep-spectrum source in excess compared to expectations. The properties of this excess are consistent with normal non-recycled pulsars, which may have been missed by pulsation searches due to larger than average scattering along the line of sight.

Global Sky Model (GSM): A Model of Diffuse Galactic Radio Emission from 10 MHz to 100 GHz

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Oliveira-Costa, Angelica; Tegmark, Max; Gaensler, B. M.; Jonas, Justin; Landecker, T. L.; Reich, Patricia

2010-11-01

Understanding diffuse Galactic radio emission is interesting both in its own right and for minimizing foreground contamination of cosmological measurements. Cosmic Microwave Background experiments have focused on frequencies > 10 GHz, whereas 21 cm tomography of the high redshift universe will mainly focus on < 0.2 GHz, for which less is currently known about Galactic emission. Motivated by this, we present a global sky model derived from all publicly available total power large-area radio surveys, digitized with optical character recognition when necessary and compiled into a uniform format, as well as the new Villa Elisa data extending the 1.4 GHz map to the entire sky. We quantify statistical and systematic uncertainties in these surveys by comparing them with various global multi-frequency model fits. We find that a principal component based model with only three components can fit the 11 most accurate data sets (at 10, 22, 45 & 408 MHz and 1.4, 2.3, 23, 33, 41, 61, 94 GHz) to an accuracy around 1%-10% depending on frequency and sky region. The data compilation and software returning a predicted all-sky map at any frequency from 10 MHz to 100 GHz are publicly available at the link below.

A satellite AOT derived from the ground sky transmittance measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lim, H. S.; MatJafri, M. Z.; Abdullah, K.; Tan, K. C.; Wong, C. J.; Saleh, N. Mohd.

2008-10-01

The optical properties of aerosols such as smoke from burning vary due to aging processes and these particles reach larger sizes at high concentrations. The objectives of this study are to develop and evaluate an algorithm for estimating atmospheric optical thickness from Landsat TM image. This study measured the sky transmittance at the ground using a handheld spectroradiometer in a wide wavelength spectrum to retrieve atmospheric optical thickness. The in situ measurement of atmospheric transmittance data were collected simultaneously with the acquisition of remotely sensed satellite data. The digital numbers for the three visible bands corresponding to the in situ locations were extracted and then converted into reflectance values. The reflectance measured from the satellite was subtracted by the amount given by the surface reflectance to obtain the atmospheric reflectance. These atmospheric reflectance values were used for calibration of the AOT algorithm. This study developed an empirical method to estimate the AOT values from the sky transmittance values. Finally, a AOT map was generated using the proposed algorithm and colour-coded for visual interpretation.

Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer. Long look at the next window

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maran, Stephen P.

1991-01-01

The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) will map the entire sky to determine the existence, direction, brightness, and temperature of thousands of objects that are sources of so-called extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation. The EUV spectral region is located between the x-ray and ultraviolet regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. From the sky survey by EUVE, astronomers will determine the nature of sources of EUV light in our galaxy, and infer the distribution of interstellar gas for hundreds of light years around the solar system. It is from this gas and the accompanying dust in space that new stars and solar systems are born and to which evolving and dying stars return much of their material in an endless cosmic cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Besides surveying the sky, astronomers will make detailed studies of selected objects with EUVE to determine their physical properties and chemical compositions. Also, they will learn about the conditions that prevail and the processes at work in stars, planets, and other sources of EUV radiation, maybe even quasars. The EUVE mission and instruments are described. The objects that EUVE will likely find are described.

Evidence of Cross-correlation between the CMB Lensing and the γ-Ray Sky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fornengo, Nicolao; Perotto, Laurence; Regis, Marco; Camera, Stefano

2015-03-01

We report the measurement of the angular power spectrum of cross-correlation between the unresolved component of the Fermi-LAT γ-ray sky maps and the cosmic microwave background lensing potential map reconstructed by the Planck satellite. The matter distribution in the universe determines the bending of light coming from the last scattering surface. At the same time, the matter density drives the growth history of astrophysical objects, including their capability at generating non-thermal phenomena, which in turn give rise to γ-ray emissions. The Planck lensing map provides information on the integrated distribution of matter, while the integrated history of γ-ray emitters is imprinted in the Fermi-LAT sky maps. We report here the first evidence of their correlation. We find that the multipole dependence of the cross-correlation measurement is in agreement with current models of the γ-ray luminosity function for active galactic nuclei and star-forming galaxies, with a statistical evidence of 3.0σ. Moreover, its amplitude can in general be matched only assuming that these extragalactic emitters are also the bulk contribution of the measured isotopic γ-ray background (IGRB) intensity. This leaves little room for a big contribution from galactic sources to the IGRB measured by Fermi-LAT, pointing toward direct evidence of the extragalactic origin of the IGRB.

Recent Results from the 2015 flight of Spider

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jones, William C.

2016-06-01

Spider is a balloon borne mm-wave polarimeter designed to provide high fidelity measurements of the large scale polarization of the microwave sky. Spider flew a 17 day mission in January 2015, mapping roughly 10% of the full sky (4500 square degrees) in the southern Galactic hemisphere at each of 94 and 150 GHz. Spider achieved an instrumental sensitivity of 4 μ K_{CMB}√{s}, providing maps that exceed the sensitivity of the Planck data. We discuss these data, the current status of our science analysis, and our understanding of the Galacticforeground emission in this high latitude region.

Taking the Measure of the Universe: Cosmology from the WMAP Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinshaw, Gary F.

2007-01-01

The data from the first three years of operation of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite provide detailed full-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy and new full-sky maps of the polarization. Together, the data provide a wealth of cosmological information, including the age of the universe, the epoch when the first stars formed, and the overall composition of baryonic matter, dark matter, and dark energy. The results also provide constraints on the period of inflationary expansion in the very first moments of time. These and other aspects of the mission will be discussed.

eGSM: A extended Sky Model of Diffuse Radio Emission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Doyeon; Liu, Adrian; Switzer, Eric

2018-01-01

Both cosmic microwave background and 21cm cosmology observations must contend with astrophysical foreground contaminants in the form of diffuse radio emission. For precise cosmological measurements, these foregrounds must be accurately modeled over the entire sky Ideally, such full-sky models ought to be primarily motivated by observations. Yet in practice, these observations are limited, with data sets that are observed not only in a heterogenous fashion, but also over limited frequency ranges. Previously, the Global Sky Model (GSM) took some steps towards solving the problem of incomplete observational data by interpolating over multi-frequency maps using principal component analysis (PCA).In this poster, we present an extended version of GSM (called eGSM) that includes the following improvements: 1) better zero-level calibration 2) incorporation of non-uniform survey resolutions and sky coverage 3) the ability to quantify uncertainties in sky models 4) the ability to optimally select spectral models using Bayesian Evidence techniques.

A Comparison of Maps and Power Spectra Determined from South Pole Telescope and Planck Data

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

Hou, Z.; Aylor, K.; Benson, B. A.

We study the consistency of 150 GHz data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and 143 GHz data from the Planck satellite over the patch of sky covered by the SPT-SZ survey. Here, we first visually compare the maps and find that the residuals appear consistent with noise after accounting for differences in angular resolution and filtering. We then calculate (1) the cross-spectrum between two independent halves of SPT data, (2) the cross-spectrum between two independent halves of Planck data, and (3) the cross-spectrum between SPT and Planck data. We find that the three cross-spectra are well fit (PTE =more » 0.30) by the null hypothesis in which both experiments have measured the same sky map up to a single free calibration parameter—i.e., we find no evidence for systematic errors in either data set. As a by-product, we improve the precision of the SPT calibration by nearly an order of magnitude, from 2.6% to 0.3% in power. Finally, we compare all three cross-spectra to the full-sky Planck power spectrum and find marginal evidence for differences between the power spectra from the SPT-SZ footprint and the full sky. We model these differences as a power law in spherical harmonic multipole number. The best-fit value of this tilt is consistent among the three cross-spectra in the SPT-SZ footprint, implying that the source of this tilt is a sample variance fluctuation in the SPT-SZ region relative to the full sky. Lastly, the consistency of cosmological parameters derived from these data sets is discussed in a companion paper.« less

KSC-03pd0507

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-19

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Pegasus launch vehicle is on a transporter, ready to be moved from the Skid Strip, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, to the Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) at KSC. There it will be mated to the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). The Pegasus will carry the GALEX, an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history, into orbit. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25.

KSC-03pd0508

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-19

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Pegasus launch vehicle is on a transporter, ready to be moved from the Skid Strip, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, to the Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) at KSC. There it will be mated to the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). The Pegasus will carry into orbit the GALEX, an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding of how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25.

The Montage Image Mosaic Toolkit As A Visualization Engine.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berriman, G. Bruce; Lerias, Angela; Good, John; Mandel, Eric; Pepper, Joshua

2018-01-01

The Montage toolkit has since 2003 been used to aggregate FITS images into mosaics for science analysis. It is now finding application as an engine for image visualization. One important reason is that the functionality developed for creating mosaics is also valuable in image visualization. An equally important (though perhaps less obvious) reason is that Montage is portable and is built on standard astrophysics toolkits, making it very easy to integrate into new environments. Montage models and rectifies the sky background to a common level and thus reveals faint, diffuse features; it offers an adaptive image stretching method that preserves the dynamic range of a FITS image when represented in PNG format; it provides utilities for creating cutouts of large images and downsampled versions of large images that can then be visualized on desktops or in browsers; it contains a fast reprojection algorithm intended for visualization; and it resamples and reprojects images to a common grid for subsequent multi-color visualization.This poster will highlight these visualization capabilities with the following examples:1. Creation of down-sampled multi-color images of a 16-wavelength Infrared Atlas of the Galactic Plane, sampled at 1 arcsec when created2. Integration into web-based image processing environment: JS9 is an interactive image display service for web browsers, desktops and mobile devices. It exploits the flux-preserving reprojection algorithms in Montage to transform diverse images to common image parameters for display. Select Montage programs have been compiled to Javascript/WebAssembly using the Emscripten compiler, which allows our reprojection algorithms to run in browsers at close to native speed.3. Creation of complex sky coverage maps: an multicolor all-sky map that shows the sky coverage of the Kepler and K2, KELT and TESS projects, overlaid on an all-sky 2MASS image.Montage is funded by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number ACI-1642453. JS9 is funded by the Chandra X-ray Center (NAS8-03060) and NASA's Universe of Learning (STScI-509913).

Planck intermediate results: XLI. A map of lensing-induced B-modes

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

Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Ashdown, M.

The secondary cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-modes stem from the post-decoupling distortion of the polarization E-modes due to the gravitational lensing effect of large-scale structures. These lensing-induced B-modes constitute both a valuable probe of the dark matter distribution and an important contaminant for the extraction of the primary CMB B-modes from inflation. Planck provides accurate nearly all-sky measurements of both the polarization E-modes and the integrated mass distribution via the reconstruction of the CMB lensing potential. By combining these two data products, we have produced in this paper an all-sky template map of the lensing-induced B-modes using a real-space algorithmmore » that minimizes the impact of sky masks. The cross-correlation of this template with an observed (primordial and secondary) B-mode map can be used to measure the lensing B-mode power spectrum at multipoles up to 2000. In particular, when cross-correlating with the B-mode contribution directly derived from the Planck polarization maps, we obtain lensing-induced B-mode power spectrum measurement at a significance level of 12σ, which agrees with the theoretical expectation derived from the Planck best-fit Λ cold dark matter model. This unique nearly all-sky secondary B-mode template, which includes the lensing-induced information from intermediate to small (10 ≲ ℓ ≲ 1000) angular scales, is delivered as part of the Planck 2015 public data release. Finally, it will be particularly useful for experiments searching for primordial B-modes, such as BICEP2/Keck Array or LiteBIRD, since it will enable an estimate to be made of the lensing-induced contribution to the measured total CMB B-modes.« less

Planck intermediate results. XLI. A map of lensing-induced B-modes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planck Collaboration; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Ashdown, M.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartolo, N.; Basak, S.; Battaner, E.; Benabed, K.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bielewicz, P.; Bock, J. J.; Bonaldi, A.; Bonavera, L.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Boulanger, F.; Burigana, C.; Butler, R. C.; Calabrese, E.; Cardoso, J.-F.; Catalano, A.; Chiang, H. C.; Christensen, P. R.; Clements, D. L.; Colombi, S.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Combet, C.; Crill, B. P.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davis, R. J.; de Bernardis, P.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Dickinson, C.; Diego, J. M.; Doré, O.; Ducout, A.; Dupac, X.; Elsner, F.; Enßlin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Finelli, F.; Forni, O.; Frailis, M.; Fraisse, A. A.; Franceschi, E.; Galeotta, S.; Galli, S.; Ganga, K.; Ghosh, T.; Giard, M.; Giraud-Héraud, Y.; Gjerløw, E.; González-Nuevo, J.; Górski, K. M.; Gruppuso, A.; Gudmundsson, J. E.; Harrison, D. L.; Hernández-Monteagudo, C.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hornstrup, A.; Hovest, W.; Hurier, G.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jones, W. C.; Keihänen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kisner, T. S.; Knoche, J.; Knox, L.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lagache, G.; Lähteenmäki, A.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Lattanzi, M.; Leonardi, R.; Levrier, F.; Lilje, P. B.; Linden-Vørnle, M.; López-Caniego, M.; Lubin, P. M.; Macías-Pérez, J. F.; Maffei, B.; Maggio, G.; Maino, D.; Mandolesi, N.; Mangilli, A.; Maris, M.; Martin, P. G.; Martínez-González, E.; Masi, S.; Matarrese, S.; Meinhold, P. R.; Melchiorri, A.; Mennella, A.; Migliaccio, M.; Mitra, S.; Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Moneti, A.; Montier, L.; Morgante, G.; Mortlock, D.; Moss, A.; Munshi, D.; Murphy, J. A.; Naselsky, P.; Nati, F.; Natoli, P.; Netterfield, C. B.; Nørgaard-Nielsen, H. U.; Novikov, D.; Novikov, I.; Pagano, L.; Pajot, F.; Paoletti, D.; Pasian, F.; Patanchon, G.; Perdereau, O.; Perotto, L.; Pettorino, V.; Piacentini, F.; Piat, M.; Pierpaoli, E.; Pointecouteau, E.; Polenta, G.; Pratt, G. W.; Rachen, J. P.; Reinecke, M.; Remazeilles, M.; Renault, C.; Renzi, A.; Ristorcelli, I.; Rocha, G.; Rosset, C.; Rossetti, M.; Roudier, G.; Rubiño-Martín, J. A.; Rusholme, B.; Sandri, M.; Santos, D.; Savelainen, M.; Savini, G.; Scott, D.; Spencer, L. D.; Stolyarov, V.; Stompor, R.; Sudiwala, R.; Sunyaev, R.; Sutton, D.; Suur-Uski, A.-S.; Sygnet, J.-F.; Tauber, J. A.; Terenzi, L.; Toffolatti, L.; Tomasi, M.; Tristram, M.; Tucci, M.; Tuovinen, J.; Valenziano, L.; Valiviita, J.; Van Tent, B.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Wade, L. A.; Wandelt, B. D.; Wehus, I. K.; Yvon, D.; Zacchei, A.; Zonca, A.

2016-12-01

The secondary cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-modes stem from the post-decoupling distortion of the polarization E-modes due to the gravitational lensing effect of large-scale structures. These lensing-induced B-modes constitute both a valuable probe of the dark matter distribution and an important contaminant for the extraction of the primary CMB B-modes from inflation. Planck provides accurate nearly all-sky measurements of both the polarization E-modes and the integrated mass distribution via the reconstruction of the CMB lensing potential. By combining these two data products, we have produced an all-sky template map of the lensing-induced B-modes using a real-space algorithm that minimizes the impact of sky masks. The cross-correlation of this template with an observed (primordial and secondary) B-mode map can be used to measure the lensing B-mode power spectrum at multipoles up to 2000. In particular, when cross-correlating with the B-mode contribution directly derived from the Planck polarization maps, we obtain lensing-induced B-mode power spectrum measurement at a significance level of 12σ, which agrees with the theoretical expectation derived from the Planck best-fit Λ cold dark matter model. This unique nearly all-sky secondary B-mode template, which includes the lensing-induced information from intermediate to small (10 ≲ ℓ ≲ 1000) angular scales, is delivered as part of the Planck 2015 public data release. It will be particularly useful for experiments searching for primordial B-modes, such as BICEP2/Keck Array or LiteBIRD, since it will enable an estimate to be made of the lensing-induced contribution to the measured total CMB B-modes.

Planck intermediate results: XLI. A map of lensing-induced B-modes

DOE PAGES

Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Ashdown, M.; ...

2016-12-12

The secondary cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-modes stem from the post-decoupling distortion of the polarization E-modes due to the gravitational lensing effect of large-scale structures. These lensing-induced B-modes constitute both a valuable probe of the dark matter distribution and an important contaminant for the extraction of the primary CMB B-modes from inflation. Planck provides accurate nearly all-sky measurements of both the polarization E-modes and the integrated mass distribution via the reconstruction of the CMB lensing potential. By combining these two data products, we have produced in this paper an all-sky template map of the lensing-induced B-modes using a real-space algorithmmore » that minimizes the impact of sky masks. The cross-correlation of this template with an observed (primordial and secondary) B-mode map can be used to measure the lensing B-mode power spectrum at multipoles up to 2000. In particular, when cross-correlating with the B-mode contribution directly derived from the Planck polarization maps, we obtain lensing-induced B-mode power spectrum measurement at a significance level of 12σ, which agrees with the theoretical expectation derived from the Planck best-fit Λ cold dark matter model. This unique nearly all-sky secondary B-mode template, which includes the lensing-induced information from intermediate to small (10 ≲ ℓ ≲ 1000) angular scales, is delivered as part of the Planck 2015 public data release. Finally, it will be particularly useful for experiments searching for primordial B-modes, such as BICEP2/Keck Array or LiteBIRD, since it will enable an estimate to be made of the lensing-induced contribution to the measured total CMB B-modes.« less

Land Surface Properties near Terra Nova Bay, East Antarctica, Analyzed by Time-series Height, Coherence and Amplitude Maps Derived from COSMO-SkyMed One-day Tandem Pairs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ji, Y.; Han, H.; Lee, H.

2014-12-01

Analysis of the surface properties of Antarctica is very important to study the change of environment and climate in the polar region. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has been widely used to study Antarctic surface properties because it is independent of sun altitude and atmospheric conditions. Interferometric SAR (InSAR) observes surface topography and deformation, by calculating the phase differences between two or more SAR images obtained over same area. InSAR technique can be used for height mapping in stable areas with a few meter accuracy. However, the InSAR-derived height map can have errors if the phase differences due to surface deformation or change of the scattering center by microwave penetration into snow are misinterpreted as the elevation. In this study, we generated the height maps around Terra Nova Bay in East Antarctica from 13 COSMO-SkyMed one-day tandem InSAR pairs obtained from December 2010 to January 2012. By analyzing the height maps averaged over the 13 interferograms and its standard deviation (STD) map, we could classify the surface types into glacier, mountains and basin areas covered with snow. The mountain areas showed very small STD because its surface property is unchanged with time, except for the small STD values caused by the errors from the unwrapping processing, satellite orbit or atmospheric phase distortion. Over the basin areas, however, the STD of the height was much larger than the mountain area due to the variation of scattering center either from the change in surface property such as snowfall and sublimation or by the surface displacement of snow mass that are too slow. A year-long constant motion of such slow-creeping snow body was positively identified by its linear relationship between the misinterpreted elevation and the baseline perpendicular component of InSAR pair. Analysis of time-series coherence maps and amplitude maps have also contributed to clarify the surface properties and its changes due to various environmental factors such as snow fall, wind, sublimation, and the freezing-thawing processes in this Antarctic land surface. Acknowledgement - This research was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea through NRF-2013R1A1A2008062 and NRF-2013M1A3A3A02041853.

An All-Sky Portable (ASP) Optical Catalogue

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flesch, Eric Wim

2017-06-01

This optical catalogue combines the all-sky USNO-B1.0/A1.0 and most-sky APM catalogues, plus overlays of SDSS optical data, into a single all-sky map presented in a sparse binary format that is easily downloaded at 9 Gb zipped. Total count is 1 163 237 190 sources and each has J2000 astrometry, red and blue magnitudes with PSFs and variability indicator, and flags for proper motion, epoch, and source survey and catalogue for each of the photometry and astrometry. The catalogue is available on http://quasars.org/asp.html, and additional data for this paper is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.4225/50/5807fbc12595f.

A simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duriscoe, Dan M.; Anderson, Sharolyn J.; Luginbuhl, Christian B.; Baugh, Kimberly E.

2018-07-01

We present a simplified method using geographic analysis tools to predict the average artificial luminance over the hemisphere of the night sky, expressed as a ratio to the natural condition. The VIIRS Day/Night Band upward radiance data from the Suomi NPP orbiting satellite was used for input to the model. The method is based upon a relation between sky glow brightness and the distance from the observer to the source of upward radiance. This relationship was developed using a Garstang radiative transfer model with Day/Night Band data as input, then refined and calibrated with ground-based all-sky V-band photometric data taken under cloudless and low atmospheric aerosol conditions. An excellent correlation was found between observed sky quality and the predicted values from the remotely sensed data. Thematic maps of large regions of the earth showing predicted artificial V-band sky brightness may be quickly generated with modest computing resources. We have found a fast and accurate method based on previous work to model all-sky quality. We provide limitations to this method. The proposed model meets requirements needed by decision makers and land managers of an easy to interpret and understand metric of sky quality.

Best Map Ever of the Universe

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-03-21

This map shows the oldest light in our universe, as detected with the greatest precision yet by ESA Planck mission. The ancient light, called the cosmic microwave background, was imprinted on the sky when the universe was 370,000 years old.

Wiener filtering of the COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bunn, Emory F.; Fisher, Karl B.; Hoffman, Yehuda; Lahav, Ofer; Silk, Joseph; Zaroubi, Saleem

1994-01-01

We derive an optimal linear filter to suppress the noise from the cosmic background explorer satellite (COBE) Differential Microwave Radiometer (DMR) sky maps for a given power spectrum. We then apply the filter to the first-year DMR data, after removing pixels within 20 deg of the Galactic plane from the data. We are able to identify particular hot and cold spots in the filtered maps at a level 2 to 3 times the noise level. We use the formalism of constrained realizations of Gaussian random fields to assess the uncertainty in the filtered sky maps. In addition to improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the map as a whole, these techniques allow us to recover some information about the cosmic microwave background anisotropy in the missing Galactic plane region. From these maps we are able to determine which hot and cold spots in the data are statistically significant, and which may have been produced by noise. In addition, the filtered maps can be used for comparison with other experiments on similar angular scales.

Large-Scale Structure Behind The Milky Way with ALFAZOA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sanchez Barrantes, Monica; Henning, Patricia A.; Momjian, Emmanuel; McIntyre, Travis; Minchin, Robert F.

2018-06-01

The region of the sky behind the Milky Way (the Zone of Avoidance; ZOA) is not well studied due to high obscuration from gas and dust in our galaxy as well as stellar confusion, which results in low detection rate of galaxies in this region. Because of this, little is known about the distribution of galaxies in the ZOA, and other all sky redshift surveys have incomplete maps (e.g. the 2MASS Redshift survey in NIR has a gap of 5-8 deg around the Galactic plane). There is still controversy about the dipole anisotropy calculated from the comparison between the CMB and galaxy and redshift surveys, in part due to the incomplete sky mapping and redshift depth of these surveys. Fortunately, there is no ZOA at radio wavelengths because such wavelengths can pass unimpeded through dust and are not affected by stellar confusion. Therefore, we can detect and make a map of the distribution of obscured galaxies that contain the 21cm neutral hydrogen emission line, and trace the large-scale structure across the Galactic plane. The Arecibo L-Band Feed Array Zone of Avoidance (ALFAZOA) survey is a blind HI survey for galaxies behind the Milky Way that covers more than 1000 square degrees of the sky, conducted in two phases: shallow (completed) and deep (ongoing). We show the results of the finished shallow phase of the survey, which mapped a region between the galactic longitude l=30-75 deg, and latitude b <|10 deg|, and detected 418 galaxies to about 12,000 km/s, including galaxy properties and mapped large-scale structure. We do the same for new results from the deep phase, which is ongoing and covers 30 < l < 75 deg and b < |2| deg for the inner galaxy and 175 < l < 207 deg, with -2 < b < 1 for the outer galaxy.

Mapping and simulating systematics due to spatially-varying observing conditions in DES science verification data

DOE PAGES

Leistedt, B.; Peiris, H. V.; Elsner, F.; ...

2016-10-17

Spatially-varying depth and characteristics of observing conditions, such as seeing, airmass, or sky background, are major sources of systematic uncertainties in modern galaxy survey analyses, in particular in deep multi-epoch surveys. We present a framework to extract and project these sources of systematics onto the sky, and apply it to the Dark Energy Survey (DES) to map the observing conditions of the Science Verification (SV) data. The resulting distributions and maps of sources of systematics are used in several analyses of DES SV to perform detailed null tests with the data, and also to incorporate systematics in survey simulations. Wemore » illustrate the complementarity of these two approaches by comparing the SV data with the BCC-UFig, a synthetic sky catalogue generated by forward-modelling of the DES SV images. We then analyse the BCC-UFig simulation to construct galaxy samples mimicking those used in SV galaxy clustering studies. We show that the spatially-varying survey depth imprinted in the observed galaxy densities and the redshift distributions of the SV data are successfully reproduced by the simulation and well-captured by the maps of observing conditions. The combined use of the maps, the SV data and the BCC-UFig simulation allows us to quantify the impact of spatial systematics on N(z), the redshift distributions inferred using photometric redshifts. We conclude that spatial systematics in the SV data are mainly due to seeing fluctuations and are under control in current clustering and weak lensing analyses. However, they will need to be carefully characterised in upcoming phases of DES in order to avoid biasing the inferred cosmological results. The framework presented is relevant to all multi-epoch surveys, and will be essential for exploiting future surveys such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which will require detailed null-tests and realistic end-to-end image simulations to correctly interpret the deep, high-cadence observations of the sky.« less

MAPPING AND SIMULATING SYSTEMATICS DUE TO SPATIALLY VARYING OBSERVING CONDITIONS IN DES SCIENCE VERIFICATION DATA

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

Leistedt, B.; Peiris, H. V.; Elsner, F.

Spatially varying depth and the characteristics of observing conditions, such as seeing, airmass, or sky background, are major sources of systematic uncertainties in modern galaxy survey analyses, particularly in deep multi-epoch surveys. We present a framework to extract and project these sources of systematics onto the sky, and apply it to the Dark Energy Survey (DES) to map the observing conditions of the Science Verification (SV) data. The resulting distributions and maps of sources of systematics are used in several analyses of DES-SV to perform detailed null tests with the data, and also to incorporate systematics in survey simulations. Wemore » illustrate the complementary nature of these two approaches by comparing the SV data with BCC-UFig, a synthetic sky catalog generated by forward-modeling of the DES-SV images. We analyze the BCC-UFig simulation to construct galaxy samples mimicking those used in SV galaxy clustering studies. We show that the spatially varying survey depth imprinted in the observed galaxy densities and the redshift distributions of the SV data are successfully reproduced by the simulation and are well-captured by the maps of observing conditions. The combined use of the maps, the SV data, and the BCC-UFig simulation allows us to quantify the impact of spatial systematics on N(z), the redshift distributions inferred using photometric redshifts. We conclude that spatial systematics in the SV data are mainly due to seeing fluctuations and are under control in current clustering and weak-lensing analyses. However, they will need to be carefully characterized in upcoming phases of DES in order to avoid biasing the inferred cosmological results. The framework presented here is relevant to all multi-epoch surveys and will be essential for exploiting future surveys such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which will require detailed null tests and realistic end-to-end image simulations to correctly interpret the deep, high-cadence observations of the sky« less

Mapping and simulating systematics due to spatially-varying observing conditions in DES science verification data

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

Leistedt, B.; Peiris, H. V.; Elsner, F.

Spatially-varying depth and characteristics of observing conditions, such as seeing, airmass, or sky background, are major sources of systematic uncertainties in modern galaxy survey analyses, in particular in deep multi-epoch surveys. We present a framework to extract and project these sources of systematics onto the sky, and apply it to the Dark Energy Survey (DES) to map the observing conditions of the Science Verification (SV) data. The resulting distributions and maps of sources of systematics are used in several analyses of DES SV to perform detailed null tests with the data, and also to incorporate systematics in survey simulations. Wemore » illustrate the complementarity of these two approaches by comparing the SV data with the BCC-UFig, a synthetic sky catalogue generated by forward-modelling of the DES SV images. We then analyse the BCC-UFig simulation to construct galaxy samples mimicking those used in SV galaxy clustering studies. We show that the spatially-varying survey depth imprinted in the observed galaxy densities and the redshift distributions of the SV data are successfully reproduced by the simulation and well-captured by the maps of observing conditions. The combined use of the maps, the SV data and the BCC-UFig simulation allows us to quantify the impact of spatial systematics on N(z), the redshift distributions inferred using photometric redshifts. We conclude that spatial systematics in the SV data are mainly due to seeing fluctuations and are under control in current clustering and weak lensing analyses. However, they will need to be carefully characterised in upcoming phases of DES in order to avoid biasing the inferred cosmological results. The framework presented is relevant to all multi-epoch surveys, and will be essential for exploiting future surveys such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which will require detailed null-tests and realistic end-to-end image simulations to correctly interpret the deep, high-cadence observations of the sky.« less

THE BLUE TIP OF THE STELLAR LOCUS: MEASURING REDDENING WITH THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY

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

Schlafly, Edward F.; Finkbeiner, Douglas P.; Juric, Mario

2010-12-10

We present measurements of reddening due to dust using the colors of stars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We measure the color of main-sequence turnoff stars by finding the 'blue tip' of the stellar locus: the prominent blue edge in the distribution of stellar colors. The method is sensitive to color changes of order 18, 12, 7, and 8 mmag of reddening in the colors u - g, g - r, r - i, and i - z, respectively, in regions measuring 90' by 14'. We present maps of the blue tip colors in each of these bandsmore » over the entire SDSS footprint, including the new dusty southern Galactic cap data provided by the SDSS-III. The results disfavor the best-fit O'Donnell and Cardelli et al. reddening laws, but are described well by a Fitzpatrick reddening law with R{sub V} = 3.1. The Schlegel et al. (SFD) dust map is found to trace the dust well, but overestimates reddening by factors of 1.4, 1.0, 1.2, and 1.4 in u - g, g - r, r - i, and i - z largely due to the adopted reddening law. In select dusty regions of the sky, we find evidence for problems in the SFD temperature correction. A dust map normalization difference of 15% between the Galactic north and south sky may be due to these dust temperature errors.« less

Session Overview and AzTEC Instrument Performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, Grant; Ade, P. A.; Aretxaga, I.; Austermann, J.; Bock, J. J.; Hughes, D.; Kang, Y.; Kim, S.; Lowenthal, J.; Mauskopf, P.; Scott, K.; Yun, M.

2006-12-01

AzTEC is a new 144 element bolometer receiver destined as a first-generation instrument for the Large Millimeter Telescope. >From November 2005 and through January 2006, AzTEC made science observations at the 15m James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Approximately 1/2 of the available time was spent mapping the submillimeter galaxy population in blank and biased fields. Overall, over 1 square degree of sky was mapped with uniform coverage in each of five primary fields making this the largest set of surveys of the submillimeter galaxy population ever performed. Hundreds of new submillimeter galaxies have been detected. Here we discuss the instrument, our mapping technique, and a brief summary of the data reduction process. We conclude with a brief summary of the overall impact of these surveys on our understanding of the submillimeter galaxy population.

Large-angle correlations in the cosmic microwave background

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Efstathiou, George; Ma, Yin-Zhe; Hanson, Duncan

2010-10-01

It has been argued recently by Copi et al. 2009 that the lack of large angular correlations of the CMB temperature field provides strong evidence against the standard, statistically isotropic, inflationary Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmology. We compare various estimators of the temperature correlation function showing how they depend on assumptions of statistical isotropy and how they perform on the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 5-yr Internal Linear Combination (ILC) maps with and without a sky cut. We show that the low multipole harmonics that determine the large-scale features of the temperature correlation function can be reconstructed accurately from the data that lie outside the sky cuts. The reconstructions are only weakly dependent on the assumed statistical properties of the temperature field. The temperature correlation functions computed from these reconstructions are in good agreement with those computed from the ILC map over the whole sky. We conclude that the large-scale angular correlation function for our realization of the sky is well determined. A Bayesian analysis of the large-scale correlations is presented, which shows that the data cannot exclude the standard ΛCDM model. We discuss the differences between our results and those of Copi et al. Either there exists a violation of statistical isotropy as claimed by Copi et al., or these authors have overestimated the significance of the discrepancy because of a posteriori choices of estimator, statistic and sky cut.

Multipole vectors: A new representation of the CMB sky and evidence for statistical anisotropy or non-Gaussianity at 2⩽l⩽8

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Copi, Craig J.; Huterer, Dragan; Starkman, Glenn D.

2004-08-01

We propose a novel representation of cosmic microwave anisotropy maps, where each multipole order l is represented by l unit vectors pointing in directions on the sky and an overall magnitude. These “multipole vectors and scalars” transform as vectors under rotations. Like the usual spherical harmonics, multipole vectors form an irreducible representation of the proper rotation group SO(3). However, they are related to the familiar spherical harmonic coefficients alm in a nonlinear way and are therefore sensitive to different aspects of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy. Nevertheless, it is straightforward to determine the multipole vectors for a given CMB map and we present an algorithm to compute them. A code implementing this algorithm is available at http://www.phys.cwru.edu/projects/mpvectors/. Using the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) full-sky maps, we perform several tests of the hypothesis that the CMB anisotropy is statistically isotropic and Gaussian random. We find that the result from comparing the oriented area of planes defined by these vectors between multipole pairs 2⩽l1≠l2⩽8 is inconsistent with the isotropic Gaussian hypothesis at the 99.4% level for the internal linear combination map and at 98.9% level for the cleaned map of Tegmark et al. A particular correlation is suggested between the l=3 and l=8 multipoles, as well as several other pairs. This effect is entirely different from the now familiar planarity and alignment of the quadrupole and octupole: while the aforementioned is fairly unlikely, the multipole vectors indicate correlations not expected in Gaussian random skies that make them unusually likely. The result persists after accounting for pixel noise and after assuming a residual 10% dust contamination in the cleaned WMAP map. While the definitive analysis of these results will require more work, we hope that multipole vectors will become a valuable tool for various cosmological tests, in particular those of cosmic isotropy.

6.7 radio sky mapping from satellites at very low frequencies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Storey, L. R. O.

1991-01-01

Wave Distribution Function (WDF) analysis is a procedure for making sky maps of the sources of natural electromagnetic waves in space plasmas, given local measurements of some or all of the three magnetic and three electric field components. The work that still needs to be done on this subject includes solving basic methodological problems, translating the solution into efficient algorithms, and embodying the algorithms in computer software. One important scientific use of WDF analysis is to identify the mode of origin of plasmaspheric hiss. Some of the data from the Japanese satellite Akebono (EXOS D) are likely to be suitable for this purpose.

Radio sky mapping from satellites at very low frequencies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Storey, L. R. O.

1991-01-01

Wave Distribution Function (WDF) analysis is a procedure for making sky maps of the sources of natural electromagnetic waves in space plasmas, given local measurements of some or all of the three magnetic and three electric field components. The work that still needs to be done on this subject includes solving basic methodological problems, translating the solution into efficient algorithms, and embodying the algorithms in computer software. One important scientific use of WDF analysis is to identify the mode of origin of plasmaspheric hiss. Some of the data from the Japanese satellite Akebono (EXOS D) are likely to be suitable for this purpose.

The Angular Power Spectrum of BATSE 3B Gamma-Ray Bursts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tegmark, Max; Hartmann, Dieter H.; Briggs, Michael S.; Meegan, Charles A.

1996-01-01

We compute the angular power spectrum C(sub l) from the BATSE 3B catalog of 1122 gamma-ray bursts and find no evidence for clustering on any scale. These constraints bridge the entire range from small scales (which probe source clustering and burst repetition) to the largest scales (which constrain possible anisotropics from the Galactic halo or from nearby cosmological large-scale structures). We develop an analysis technique that takes the angular position errors into account. For specific clustering or repetition models, strong upper limits can be obtained down to scales l approx. equal to 30, corresponding to a couple of degrees on the sky. The minimum-variance burst weighting that we employ is visualized graphically as an all-sky map in which each burst is smeared out by an amount corresponding to its position uncertainty. We also present separate bandpass-filtered sky maps for the quadrupole term and for the multipole ranges l = 3-10 and l = 11-30, so that the fluctuations on different angular scales can be inspected separately for visual features such as localized 'hot spots' or structures aligned with the Galactic plane. These filtered maps reveal no apparent deviations from isotropy.

A New, Large-scale Map of Interstellar Reddening Derived from H I Emission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lenz, Daniel; Hensley, Brandon S.; Doré, Olivier

2017-09-01

We present a new map of interstellar reddening, covering the 39% of the sky with low H I column densities ({N}{{H}{{I}}}< 4× {10}20 cm-2 or E(B-V)≈ 45 mmag) at 16\\buildrel{ \\prime}\\over{.} 1 resolution, based on all-sky observations of Galactic H I emission by the HI4PI Survey. In this low-column-density regime, we derive a characteristic value of {N}{{H}{{I}}}/E(B-V)=8.8 × {10}21 {{cm}}2 {{mag}}-1 for gas with | {v}{LSR}| < 90 km s-1 and find no significant reddening associated with gas at higher velocities. We compare our H I-based reddening map with the Schlegel et al. (SFD) reddening map and find them consistent to within a scatter of ≃ 5 mmag. Further, the differences between our map and the SFD map are in excellent agreement with the low-resolution (4\\buildrel{\\circ}\\over{.} 5) corrections to the SFD map derived by Peek and Graves based on observed reddening toward passive galaxies. We therefore argue that our H I-based map provides the most accurate interstellar reddening estimates in the low-column-density regime to date. Our reddening map is made publicly available at doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AFJNWJ.

2MASS extended sources in the zone of avoidance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jarrett, T.; Chester, T.; Cutri, R.; Schneider, S.; Rosenberg, J.; Huchra, J.; Mader, J.

2000-01-01

A new high-resolution near-infrared mapping effort, the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), is now underway and will provide a complete census of galaxies as faint as 13.5 mag (3 mJy) at 2.2 mu m for most of the sky, and similar to 12.1 mag (10 mJy) for regions veiled by the Milky Way.

Measurement of CIB power spectra over large sky areas from Planck HFI maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mak, Daisy Suet Ying; Challinor, Anthony; Efstathiou, George; Lagache, Guilaine

2017-04-01

We present new measurements of the power spectra of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) anisotropies using the Planck 2015 full-mission High frequency instrument data at 353, 545 and 857 GHz over 20 000 deg2. We use techniques similar to those applied for the cosmological analysis of Planck, subtracting dust emission at the power spectrum level. Our analysis gives stable solutions for the CIB power spectra with increasing sky coverage up to about 50 per cent of the sky. These spectra agree well with H I-cleaned spectra from Planck measured on much smaller areas of sky with low Galactic dust emission. At 545 and 857 GHz, our CIB spectra agree well with those measured from Herschel data. We find that the CIB spectra at ℓ ≳ 500 are well fitted by a power-law model for the clustered CIB, with a shallow index γcib = 0.53 ± 0.02. This is consistent with the CIB results at 217 GHz from the cosmological parameter analysis of Planck. We show that a linear combination of the 545 and 857 GHz Planck maps is dominated by the CIB fluctuations at multipoles ℓ ≳ 300.

A Comparison of Maps and Power Spectra Determined from South Pole Telescope and Planck Data

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

Hou, Z.; Aylor, K.; Benson, B. A.

We study the consistency of 150 GHz data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and 143 GHz data from the \\textit{Planck} satellite over the 2540more » $$\\text{deg}^2$$ patch of sky covered by the SPT-SZ survey. We first visually compare the maps and find that the map residuals appear consistent with noise after we account for differences in angular resolution and filtering. To make a more quantitative comparison, we calculate (1) the cross-spectrum between two independent halves of SPT 150 GHz data, (2) the cross-spectrum between two independent halves of \\textit{Planck} 143 GHz data, and (3) the cross-spectrum between SPT 150 GHz and \\textit{Planck} 143 GHz data. We find the three cross-spectra are well-fit (PTE = 0.30) by the null hypothesis in which both experiments have measured the same sky map up to a single free parameter characterizing the relative calibration between the two. As a by-product of this analysis, we improve the calibration of SPT data by nearly an order of magnitude, from 2.6\\% to 0.3\\% in power; the best-fit power calibration factor relative to the most recent published SPT calibration is $$1.0174 \\pm 0.0033$$. Finally, we compare all three cross-spectra to the full-sky \\textit{Planck} $$143 \\times 143$$ power spectrum and find a hint ($$\\sim$$1.5$$\\sigma$$) for differences in the power spectrum of the SPT-SZ footprint and the full-sky power spectrum, which we model and fit as a power law in the spectrum. The best-fit value of this tilt is consistent between the three cross-spectra in the SPT-SZ footprint, implying that the source of this tilt---assuming it is real---is a sample variance fluctuation in the SPT-SZ region relative to the full sky. Despite the precision of our tests, we find no evidence for systematic errors in either data set. The consistency of cosmological parameters derived from these datasets is discussed in a companion paper.« less

A Comparison of Maps and Power Spectra Determined from South Pole Telescope and Planck Data

DOE PAGES

Hou, Z.; Aylor, K.; Benson, B. A.; ...

2018-01-17

We study the consistency of 150 GHz data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and 143 GHz data from the \\textit{Planck} satellite over the 2540more » $$\\text{deg}^2$$ patch of sky covered by the SPT-SZ survey. We first visually compare the maps and find that the map residuals appear consistent with noise after we account for differences in angular resolution and filtering. To make a more quantitative comparison, we calculate (1) the cross-spectrum between two independent halves of SPT 150 GHz data, (2) the cross-spectrum between two independent halves of \\textit{Planck} 143 GHz data, and (3) the cross-spectrum between SPT 150 GHz and \\textit{Planck} 143 GHz data. We find the three cross-spectra are well-fit (PTE = 0.30) by the null hypothesis in which both experiments have measured the same sky map up to a single free parameter characterizing the relative calibration between the two. As a by-product of this analysis, we improve the calibration of SPT data by nearly an order of magnitude, from 2.6\\% to 0.3\\% in power; the best-fit power calibration factor relative to the most recent published SPT calibration is $$1.0174 \\pm 0.0033$$. Finally, we compare all three cross-spectra to the full-sky \\textit{Planck} $$143 \\times 143$$ power spectrum and find a hint ($$\\sim$$1.5$$\\sigma$$) for differences in the power spectrum of the SPT-SZ footprint and the full-sky power spectrum, which we model and fit as a power law in the spectrum. The best-fit value of this tilt is consistent between the three cross-spectra in the SPT-SZ footprint, implying that the source of this tilt---assuming it is real---is a sample variance fluctuation in the SPT-SZ region relative to the full sky. Despite the precision of our tests, we find no evidence for systematic errors in either data set. The consistency of cosmological parameters derived from these datasets is discussed in a companion paper.« less

Continuing Long Term Optical and Infrared Reverberation Mapping of 17 Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gorjian, Varoujan; Barth, Aaron; Brandt, Niel; Dawson, Kyle; Green, Paul; Ho, Luis; Horne, Keith; Jiang, Linhua; McGreer, Ian; Schneider, Donald; Shen, Yue; Tao, Charling

2018-05-01

Previous Spitzer reverberation monitoring projects searching for UV/optical light absorbed and re-emitted in the IR by dust have been limited to low luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGN) that could potentially show reverberation within a single cycle ( 1 year). Cycle 11-12's two year baseline allowed for the reverberation mapping of 17 high-luminosity quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping project. We continued this monitoring in Cycle 13 and now propose to extend this program in Cycle 14. By combining ground-based monitoring from Pan-STARRS, CFHT, and Steward Observatory telescopes with Spitzer data we have for the first time detected dust reverberation in quasars. By continuing observations with this unqiue combination of resources we should detect reverberation in more objects and reduce the uncertainties for the remaining sources.

Multipole Vectors: Decomposing Functions on a Sphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Copi, C. J.; Huterer, D.; Starkman, G. D.

2011-09-01

We propose a novel representation of cosmic microwave anisotropy maps, where each multipole order l is represented by l unit vectors pointing in directions on the sky and an overall magnitude. These "multipole vectors and scalars" transform as vectors under rotations. Like the usual spherical harmonics, multipole vectors form an irreducible representation of the proper rotation group SO(3). However, they are related to the familiar spherical harmonic coefficients, alm, in a nonlinear way, and are therefore sensitive to different aspects of the CMB anisotropy. Nevertheless, it is straightforward to determine the multipole vectors for a given CMB map and we present an algorithm to compute them. Using the WMAP full-sky maps, we perform several tests of the hypothesis that the CMB anisotropy is statistically isotropic and Gaussian random. We find that the result from comparing the oriented area of planes defined by these vectors between multipole pairs 2<=l1!=l2<=8 is inconsistent with the isotropic Gaussian hypothesis at the 99.4% level for the ILC map and at 98.9% level for the cleaned map of Tegmark et al. A particular correlation is suggested between the l=3 and l=8 multipoles, as well as several other pairs. This effect is entirely different from the now familiar planarity and alignment of the quadrupole and octupole: while the aforementioned is fairly unlikely, the multipole vectors indicate correlations not expected in Gaussian random skies that make them unusually likely. The result persists after accounting for pixel noise and after assuming a residual 10% dust contamination in the cleaned WMAP map. While the definitive analysis of these results will require more work, we hope that multipole vectors will become a valuable tool for various cosmological tests, in particular those of cosmic isotropy.

LSST Data Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Mullane, William; LSST Data Management Team

2018-01-01

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is an 8-m optical ground-based telescope being constructed on Cerro Pachon in Chile. LSST will survey half the sky every few nights in six optical bands. The data will be transferred to the data center in North America and within 60 seconds it will be reduced using difference imaging and an alert list be generated for the community. Additionally, annual data releases will be constructed from all the data during the 10-year mission, producing catalogs and deep co-added images with unprecedented time resolution for such a large region of sky. In the paper we present the current status of the LSST stack including the data processing components, Qserv database and data visualization software, describe how to obtain it, and provide a summary of the development road map. We are also discuss the move to Python3 and timeline for dropping Python2.

Lyman-α Models for LRO LAMP from MESSENGER MASCS and SOHO SWAN Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pryor, Wayne R.; Holsclaw, Gregory M.; McClintock, William E.; Snow, Martin; Vervack, Ronald J.; Gladstone, G. Randall; Stern, S. Alan; Retherford, Kurt D.; Miles, Paul F.

From models of the interplanetary Lyman-α glow derived from observations by the Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) interplanetary Lyman-α data obtained in 2009-2011 on the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft mission, daily all-sky Lyman-α maps were generated for use by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) LAMP Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) experiment. These models were then compared with Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) Solar Wind ANistropy (SWAN) Lyman-α maps when available. Although the empirical agreement across the sky between the scaled model and the SWAN maps is adequate for LAMP mapping purposes, the model brightness values best agree with the SWAN values in 2008 and 2009. SWAN's observations show a systematic decline in 2010 and 2011 relative to the model. It is not clear if the decline represents a failure of the model or a decline in sensitivity in SWAN in 2010 and 2011. MESSENGER MASCS and SOHO SWAN Lyman-α calibrations systematically differ in comparison with the model, with MASCS reporting Lyman-α values some 30 % lower than SWAN.

Location of Nearest Rocky Exoplanet Known

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-07-30

This sky map shows the location of the star HD 219134 (circle), host to the nearest confirmed rocky planet found to date outside of our solar system. The star lies just off the "W" shape of the constellation Cassiopeia and can be seen with the naked eye in dark skies. It actually has multiple planets, none of which are habitable. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19832

Observation of Planetary Motion Using a Digital Camera

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meyn, Jan-Peter

2008-01-01

A digital SLR camera with a standard lens (50 mm focal length, f/1.4) on a fixed tripod is used to obtain photographs of the sky which contain stars up to 8[superscript m] apparent magnitude. The angle of view is large enough to ensure visual identification of the photograph with a large sky region in a stellar map. The resolution is sufficient to…

Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy Measurement from Python V

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coble, K.; Dodelson, S.; Dragovan, M.; Ganga, K.; Knox, L.; Kovac, J.; Ratra, B.; Souradeep, T.

2003-02-01

We analyze observations of the microwave sky made with the Python experiment in its fifth year of operation at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. After modeling the noise and constructing a map, we extract the cosmic signal from the data. We simultaneously estimate the angular power spectrum in eight bands ranging from large (l~40) to small (l~260) angular scales, with power detected in the first six bands. There is a significant rise in the power spectrum from large to smaller (l~200) scales, consistent with that expected from acoustic oscillations in the early universe. We compare this Python V map to a map made from data taken in the third year of Python. Python III observations were made at a frequency of 90 GHz and covered a subset of the region of the sky covered by Python V observations, which were made at 40 GHz. Good agreement is obtained both visually (with a filtered version of the map) and via a likelihood ratio test.

Rapid Damage Mapping for the 2015 M7.8 Gorkha Earthquake using Synthetic Aperture Radar Data from COSMO-SkyMed and ALOS-2 Satellites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yun, S. H.; Hudnut, K. W.; Owen, S. E.; Webb, F.; Simons, M.; Macdonald, A.; Sacco, P.; Gurrola, E. M.; Manipon, G.; Liang, C.; Fielding, E. J.; Milillo, P.; Hua, H.; Coletta, A.

2015-12-01

The April 25, 2015 M7.8 Gorkha earthquake caused more than 8,000 fatalities and widespread building damage in central Nepal. Four days after the earthquake, the Italian Space Agency's (ASI's) COSMO-SkyMed Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite acquired data over Kathmandu area. Nine days after the earthquake, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA's) ALOS-2 SAR satellite covered larger area. Using these radar observations, we rapidly produced damage proxy maps derived from temporal changes in Interferometric SAR (InSAR) coherence. These maps were qualitatively validated through comparison with independent damage analyses by National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the UNITAR's (United Nations Institute for Training and Research's) Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT), and based on our own visual inspection of DigitalGlobe's WorldView optical pre- vs. post-event imagery. Our maps were quickly released to responding agencies and the public, and used for damage assessment, determining inspection/imaging priorities, and reconnaissance fieldwork.

Isotropy analyses of the Planck convergence map

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marques, G. A.; Novaes, C. P.; Bernui, A.; Ferreira, I. S.

2018-01-01

The presence of matter in the path of relic photons causes distortions in the angular pattern of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature fluctuations, modifying their properties in a slight but measurable way. Recently, the Planck Collaboration released the estimated convergence map, an integrated measure of the large-scale matter distribution that produced the weak gravitational lensing (WL) phenomenon observed in Planck CMB data. We perform exhaustive analyses of this convergence map calculating the variance in small and large regions of the sky, but excluding the area masked due to Galactic contaminations, and compare them with the features expected in the set of simulated convergence maps, also released by the Planck Collaboration. Our goal is to search for sky directions or regions where the WL imprints anomalous signatures to the variance estimator revealed through a χ2 analyses at a statistically significant level. In the local analysis of the Planck convergence map, we identified eight patches of the sky in disagreement, in more than 2σ, with what is observed in the average of the simulations. In contrast, in the large regions analysis we found no statistically significant discrepancies, but, interestingly, the regions with the highest χ2 values are surrounding the ecliptic poles. Thus, our results show a good agreement with the features expected by the Λ cold dark matter concordance model, as given by the simulations. Yet, the outliers regions found here could suggest that the data still contain residual contamination, like noise, due to over- or underestimation of systematic effects in the simulation data set.

Mapping lightning in the sky with a mini array

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Füllekrug, Martin; Liu, Zhongjian; Koh, Kuang; Mezentsev, Andrew; Pedeboy, Stéphane; Soula, Serge; Enno, Sven-Erik; Sugier, Jacqueline; Rycroft, Michael J.

2016-10-01

Mini arrays are commonly used for infrasonic and seismic studies. Here we report for the first time the detection and mapping of distant lightning discharges in the sky with a mini array. The array has a baseline to wavelength ratio ˜4.2·10-2 to record very low frequency electromagnetic waves from 2 to 18 kHz. It is found that the mini array detects ˜69 lightning pulses per second from cloud-to-ground and in-cloud discharges, even though the parent thunderstorms are ˜900-1100 km away and a rigorous selection criterion based on the quality of the wavefront across the array is used. In particular, lightning pulses that exhibit a clockwise phase progression are found at larger elevation angles in the sky as the result of a birefringent subionospheric wave propagation attributed to ordinary and extraordinary waves. These results imply that long range lightning detection networks might benefit from an exploration of the wave propagation conditions with mini arrays.

Derivation of Sky-View Factors from LIDAR Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kidd, Christopher; Chapman, Lee

2013-01-01

The use of Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging), an active light-emitting instrument, is becoming increasingly common for a range of potential applications. Its ability to provide fine resolution spatial and vertical resolution elevation data makes it ideal for a wide range of studies. This paper demonstrates the capability of Lidar data to measure sky view factors (SVF). The Lidar data is used to generate a spatial map of SVFs which are then compared against photographically-derived SVF at selected point locations. At each location three near-surface elevations measurements were taken and compared with collocated Lidar-derived estimated. It was found that there was generally good agreement between the two methodologies, although with decreasing SVF the Lidar-derived technique tended to overestimate the SVF: this can be attributed in part to the spatial resolution of the Lidar sampling. Nevertheless, airborne Lidar systems can map sky view factors over a large area easily, improving the utility of such data in atmospheric and meteorological models.

Design and application of star map simulation system for star sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Feng; Shen, Weimin; Zhu, Xifang; Chen, Yuheng; Xu, Qinquan

2013-12-01

Modern star sensors are powerful to measure attitude automatically which assure a perfect performance of spacecrafts. They achieve very accurate attitudes by applying algorithms to process star maps obtained by the star camera mounted on them. Therefore, star maps play an important role in designing star cameras and developing procession algorithms. Furthermore, star maps supply significant supports to exam the performance of star sensors completely before their launch. However, it is not always convenient to supply abundant star maps by taking pictures of the sky. Thus, star map simulation with the aid of computer attracts a lot of interests by virtue of its low price and good convenience. A method to simulate star maps by programming and extending the function of the optical design program ZEMAX is proposed. The star map simulation system is established. Firstly, based on analyzing the working procedures of star sensors to measure attitudes and the basic method to design optical system by ZEMAX, the principle of simulating star sensor imaging is given out in detail. The theory about adding false stars and noises, and outputting maps is discussed and the corresponding approaches are proposed. Then, by external programming, the star map simulation program is designed and produced. Its user interference and operation are introduced. Applications of star map simulation method in evaluating optical system, star image extraction algorithm and star identification algorithm, and calibrating system errors are presented completely. It was proved that the proposed simulation method provides magnificent supports to the study on star sensors, and improves the performance of star sensors efficiently.

Three-Point Correlations in the COBE DMR 2 Year Anisotropy Maps

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinshaw, G.; Banday, A. J.; Bennett, C. L.; Gorski, K. M.; Kogut, A.

1995-01-01

We compute the three-point temperature correlation function of the COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer (DMR) 2 year sky maps to search for evidence of non-Gaussian temperature fluctuations. We detect three-point correlations in our sky with a substantially higher signal-to-noise ratio than from the first-year data. However, the magnitude of the signal is consistent with the level of cosmic variance expected from Gaussian fluctuations, even when the low-order multipole moments, up to l = 9, are filtered from the data. These results do not strongly constrain most existing models of structure formation, but the absence of intrinsic three-point correlations on large angular scales is an important consistency test for such models.

SPIDER: Listening for the echoes of inflation from above the clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filippini, Jeffrey; Spider Collaboration

2016-03-01

We report on the status of SPIDER, a balloon-borne instrument to map the polarization of the cosmic microwave background at large angular scales. SPIDER targets the B-mode signature of primordial gravitational waves, with a focus on mapping a large sky area at multiple frequencies. SPIDER's six monochromatic refracting telescopes (three each at 95 and 150 GHz) feed a total of more than 2000 antenna-coupled superconducting transition-edge sensors. A sapphire half-wave plate at the aperture of each telescope modulates sky polarization for control of systematics. We discuss SPIDER's first long-duration balloon flight in January 2015, as well as the status of data analysis and development toward a second flight.

A Survey of Variable Extragalactic Sources with XTE's All Sky Monitor (ASM)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jernigan, Garrett

1998-01-01

The original goal of the project was the near real-time detection of AGN utilizing the SSC 3 of the ASM on XTE which does a deep integration on one 100 square degree region of the sky. While the SSC never performed sufficiently well to allow the success of this goal, the work on the project has led to the development of a new analysis method for coded aperture systems which has now been applied to ASM data for mapping regions near clusters of galaxies such as the Perseus Cluster and the Coma Cluster. Publications are in preparation that describe both the new method and the results from mapping clusters of galaxies.

The ISOPHOT 170 μm Serendipity Survey. IV. The far-infrared sky atlas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stickel, M.; Krause, O.; Klaas, U.; Lemke, D.

2007-05-01

Aims:To further increase the scientific utilization of the strip scanning measurements of the ISOPHOT Serendipity Survey (ISOSS), the slew data has been assembled to a sky atlas with ≈15% sky coverage in the hitherto unobserved far-infrared wavelength band around 170 μm. Methods: The redundant information of the brightnesses at slew crossings has been used to globally rescale and homogenize the slew brightnesses, leading to significantly increased photometric accuracy and reproducibility as well as the homogeneity of the maps. The corrected slew data were mapped with a constant grid size of 22.4 arcsec and are presented in 124 maps in galactic coordinates. Results: The collection of image plates represents the ISOSS Sky Atlas, which will become available from major data archives. Exemplary scientific results are described, which show the scientific potential of the data set combined with far-infrared imaging data from previous and upcoming missions. Based on observations with ISO, an ESA project with instruments funded by ESA Member States (especially the PI countries: France, Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom) and with the participation of ISAS and NASA. Members of the Consortium on the ISOPHOT Serendipity Survey (CISS) are MPIA Heidelberg, ESAC Villafranca, AIP Potsdam, IPAC Pasadena, Imperial College London. Image files (FITS files) are 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/466/1205 and the ISO Data Archive www.iso.vilspa.esa.es/

Testing the association between anomalous microwave emission and PAHs in the diffuse ISM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berkeley, Matthew R.; Chuss, David; Kogut, Al

2018-01-01

Testing cosmic inflation is currently a primary focus of the Cosmology community. In order to verify the theory and to determine the energy scale of inflation, it is necessary to identify the characteristic B-mode polarization signal in the CMB. This signal, predicted by inflation theory, is expected to be very faint. It is therefore important to accurately characterize and remove foreground polarization components such as thermal dust and synchrotron emission.Some of these components have already been accurately characterized, but there are others that are not so well understood. In 1996, a new galactic foreground emission component was discovered. Dubbed 'anomalous microwave emission' (AME), this new foreground has yet to be identified. Though its physical origin remains uncertain, the leading hypothesis for the origin of this foreground proposes that the emission comes from rapidly rotating small dust grains called Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), or 'spinning dust'. PAHs are a family of hydrocarbon molecules with characteristic bending and stretching modes that have identifiable emission spectra in the mid-infrared region. The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is a satellite that was launched in 2010 into a polar orbit, enabling it to take images of the entire sky at four different mid-infrared wavelengths. These wavelengths cover the spectral region with the aforementioned PAH emission features in the mid-infrared. WISE archival data therefore makes it possible to construct a full-sky map of PAH emission.We present full sky maps using WISE data as a preliminary result towards creating a full sky PAH map.

CMB Polarization B-mode Delensing with SPTpol and Herschel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manzotti, A.; Story, K. T.; Wu, W. L. K.; Austermann, J. E.; Beall, J. A.; Bender, A. N.; Benson, B. A.; Bleem, L. E.; Bock, J. J.; Carlstrom, J. E.; Chang, C. L.; Chiang, H. C.; Cho, H.-M.; Citron, R.; Conley, A.; Crawford, T. M.; Crites, A. T.; de Haan, T.; Dobbs, M. A.; Dodelson, S.; Everett, W.; Gallicchio, J.; George, E. M.; Gilbert, A.; Halverson, N. W.; Harrington, N.; Henning, J. W.; Hilton, G. C.; Holder, G. P.; Holzapfel, W. L.; Hoover, S.; Hou, Z.; Hrubes, J. D.; Huang, N.; Hubmayr, J.; Irwin, K. D.; Keisler, R.; Knox, L.; Lee, A. T.; Leitch, E. M.; Li, D.; McMahon, J. J.; Meyer, S. S.; Mocanu, L. M.; Natoli, T.; Nibarger, J. P.; Novosad, V.; Padin, S.; Pryke, C.; Reichardt, C. L.; Ruhl, J. E.; Saliwanchik, B. R.; Sayre, J. T.; Schaffer, K. K.; Smecher, G.; Stark, A. A.; Vanderlinde, K.; Vieira, J. D.; Viero, M. P.; Wang, G.; Whitehorn, N.; Yefremenko, V.; Zemcov, M.

2017-09-01

We present a demonstration of delensing the observed cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode polarization anisotropy. This process of reducing the gravitational-lensing-generated B-mode component will become increasingly important for improving searches for the B modes produced by primordial gravitational waves. In this work, we delens B-mode maps constructed from multi-frequency SPTpol observations of a 90 deg2 patch of sky by subtracting a B-mode template constructed from two inputs: SPTpol E-mode maps and a lensing potential map estimated from the Herschel 500 μm map of the cosmic infrared background. We find that our delensing procedure reduces the measured B-mode power spectrum by 28% in the multipole range 300< {\\ell }< 2300; this is shown to be consistent with expectations from simulations and to be robust against systematics. The null hypothesis of no delensing is rejected at 6.9σ . Furthermore, we build and use a suite of realistic simulations to study the general properties of the delensing process and find that the delensing efficiency achieved in this work is limited primarily by the noise in the lensing potential map. We demonstrate the importance of including realistic experimental non-idealities in the delensing forecasts used to inform instrument and survey-strategy planning of upcoming lower-noise experiments, such as CMB-S4.

Cloudy Earth

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-05-08

Decades of satellite observations and astronaut photographs show that clouds dominate space-based views of Earth. One study based on nearly a decade of satellite data estimated that about 67 percent of Earth’s surface is typically covered by clouds. This is especially the case over the oceans, where other research shows less than 10 percent of the sky is completely clear of clouds at any one time. Over land, 30 percent of skies are completely cloud free. Earth’s cloudy nature is unmistakable in this global cloud fraction map, based on data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite. While MODIS collects enough data to make a new global map of cloudiness every day, this version of the map shows an average of all of the satellite’s cloud observations between July 2002 and April 2015. Colors range from dark blue (no clouds) to light blue (some clouds) to white (frequent clouds).

Radio Source Contributions to the Microwave Sky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boughn, S. P.; Partridge, R. B.

2008-03-01

Cross-correlations of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) full sky K-, Ka-, Q-, V-, and W-band maps with the 1.4 GHz NVSS source count map and the HEAO I A2 2-10 keV full sky X-ray flux map are used to constrain rms fluctuations due to unresolved microwave sources in the WMAP frequency range. In the Q band (40.7 GHz), a lower limit, taking account of only those fluctuations correlated with the 1.4 GHz radio source counts and X-ray flux, corresponds to an rms Rayleigh-Jeans temperature of ˜2 μK for a solid angle of 1 deg2 assuming that the cross-correlations are dominated by clustering, and ˜1 μK if dominated by Poisson fluctuations. The correlated fluctuations at the other bands are consistent with a β = -2.1 ± 0.4 frequency spectrum. If microwave sources are distributed similarly in redshift to the radio and X-ray sources and are similarly clustered, then the implied total rms microwave fluctuations correspond to ˜5 μK. While this value should be considered no more than a plausible estimate, it is similar to that implied by the excess, small angular scale fluctuations observed in the Q band by WMAP and is consistent with estimates made by extrapolating low-frequency source counts.

Fast neutron background characterization with the Radiological Multi-sensor Analysis Platform (RadMAP)

DOE PAGES

Davis, John R.; Brubaker, Erik; Vetter, Kai

2017-03-29

In an effort to characterize the fast neutron radiation background, 16 EJ-309 liquid scintillator cells were installed in the Radiological Multi-sensor Analysis Platform (RadMAP) to collect data in the San Francisco Bay Area. Each fast neutron event was associated with specific weather metrics (pressure, temperature, absolute humidity) and GPS coordinates. Furthermore, the expected exponential dependence of the fast neutron count rate on atmospheric pressure was demonstrated and event rates were subsequently adjusted given the measured pressure at the time of detection. Pressure adjusted data was also used to investigate the influence of other environmental conditions on the neutron background rate.more » Using National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) coastal area lidar data, an algorithm was implemented to approximate sky-view factors (the total fraction of visible sky) for points along RadMAPs route. In the three areas we analyzed, San Francisco, Downtown Oakland, and Berkeley, all demonstrated a suppression in the background rate of over 50% for the range of sky-view factors measured. This effect, which is due to the shielding of cosmic-ray produced neutrons by surrounding buildings, was comparable to the pressure influence which yielded a 32% suppression in the count rate over the range of pressures measured.« less

Component separation for cosmic microwave background radiation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernández-Cobos, R.; Vielva, P.; Barreiro, R. B.; Martínez-González, E.

2011-11-01

Cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation data obtained by different experiments contains, besides the desired signal, a superposition of microwave sky contributions mainly due to, on the one hand, synchrotron radiation, free-free emission and re-emission of dust clouds in our galaxy; and, on the other hand, extragalactic sources. We present an analytical method, using a wavelet decomposition on the sphere, to recover the CMB signal from microwave maps. Being applied to both temperature and polarization data, it is shown as a significant powerful tool when it is used in particularly polluted regions of the sky. The applied wavelet has the advantages of requiring little computering time in its calculations being adapted to the HEALPix pixelization scheme (which is the format that the community uses to report the CMB data) and offering the possibility of multi-resolution analysis. The decomposition is implemented as part of a template fitting method, minimizing the variance of the resulting map. The method was tested with simulations of WMAP data and results have been positive, with improvements up to 12% in the variance of the resulting full sky map and about 3% in low contaminate regions. Finally, we also present some preliminary results with WMAP data in the form of an angular cross power spectrum C_ℓ^{TE}, consistent with the spectrum offered by WMAP team.

Realistic Real-Time Outdoor Rendering in Augmented Reality

PubMed Central

Kolivand, Hoshang; Sunar, Mohd Shahrizal

2014-01-01

Realistic rendering techniques of outdoor Augmented Reality (AR) has been an attractive topic since the last two decades considering the sizeable amount of publications in computer graphics. Realistic virtual objects in outdoor rendering AR systems require sophisticated effects such as: shadows, daylight and interactions between sky colours and virtual as well as real objects. A few realistic rendering techniques have been designed to overcome this obstacle, most of which are related to non real-time rendering. However, the problem still remains, especially in outdoor rendering. This paper proposed a much newer, unique technique to achieve realistic real-time outdoor rendering, while taking into account the interaction between sky colours and objects in AR systems with respect to shadows in any specific location, date and time. This approach involves three main phases, which cover different outdoor AR rendering requirements. Firstly, sky colour was generated with respect to the position of the sun. Second step involves the shadow generation algorithm, Z-Partitioning: Gaussian and Fog Shadow Maps (Z-GaF Shadow Maps). Lastly, a technique to integrate sky colours and shadows through its effects on virtual objects in the AR system, is introduced. The experimental results reveal that the proposed technique has significantly improved the realism of real-time outdoor AR rendering, thus solving the problem of realistic AR systems. PMID:25268480

Realistic real-time outdoor rendering in augmented reality.

PubMed

Kolivand, Hoshang; Sunar, Mohd Shahrizal

2014-01-01

Realistic rendering techniques of outdoor Augmented Reality (AR) has been an attractive topic since the last two decades considering the sizeable amount of publications in computer graphics. Realistic virtual objects in outdoor rendering AR systems require sophisticated effects such as: shadows, daylight and interactions between sky colours and virtual as well as real objects. A few realistic rendering techniques have been designed to overcome this obstacle, most of which are related to non real-time rendering. However, the problem still remains, especially in outdoor rendering. This paper proposed a much newer, unique technique to achieve realistic real-time outdoor rendering, while taking into account the interaction between sky colours and objects in AR systems with respect to shadows in any specific location, date and time. This approach involves three main phases, which cover different outdoor AR rendering requirements. Firstly, sky colour was generated with respect to the position of the sun. Second step involves the shadow generation algorithm, Z-Partitioning: Gaussian and Fog Shadow Maps (Z-GaF Shadow Maps). Lastly, a technique to integrate sky colours and shadows through its effects on virtual objects in the AR system, is introduced. The experimental results reveal that the proposed technique has significantly improved the realism of real-time outdoor AR rendering, thus solving the problem of realistic AR systems.

Interpretation of the Cosmo-SkyMed observations of the 2009 Tanaro river flood

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pulvirenti, L.; Pierdicca, N.; Chini, M.; Guerriero, L.

2010-09-01

The potentiality of spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) for flood mapping was demonstrated by several past investigations. The synoptic view and the capability to operate in almost all-weather conditions and during both day and night are the key features that make the SAR images useful for monitoring inundation events. In addition, their high spatial resolution allows a fairly accurate delineation of the flood extent. The Cosmo-SkyMed (COnstellation of small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation) mission offers a unique opportunity to obtain radar images characterized by short revisit time, so that an operational use of Cosmo-SkyMed data in flood management systems can be envisaged. However, the interpretation of SAR images of flooded areas might be complex, because of the dependence of the radar response from flooded pixels on land cover, system parameters and environmental conditions. An example of radar data whose interpretation is not straightforward is represented by the Cosmo-SkyMed observations of the overflowing of the Tanaro river, close to the city of Alessandria (Northern Italy), occurred on April, 27-28 2009. Within the framework of a study, funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), aiming at evaluating the usefulness of Earth Observation techniques into operational flood prediction and assessment chains (named OPERA, civil protection from floods), ASI provided a number of Cosmo-SkyMed images of the Tanaro basin. In this study, we use three images that were acquired during three days in succession: from April, 29 to May, 1 2009, as well as other two acquisitions performed two weeks later (May, 16 and May, 17 2009), when the effects of the flood were disappeared. In this work, we firstly extract information on the spatial extension of homogeneous objects present in the scene through a segmentation procedure. In this way we cope with the speckle noise characteristic of SAR images and produce, from the multi-temporal series of five imagery we employ, a map formed by homogeneous regions. Among these regions we single out some areas presenting a fairly complex temporal evolution of the radar return. To correctly explain the multi-temporal radar signature of these segments, we use of a well-established electromagnetic model. Some reference multi-temporal backscattering trends are analyzed with the aid of the theoretical model to associate the segments to the classes of flooded or non-flooded areas. Using these reference trends as a training set, a classification algorithm is also developed to generate a map of the flood evolution. This study aims at demonstrating the importance and the feasibility of a method based on a joint use of a well-established electromagnetic scattering model and an advanced image processing technique to reliably interpreting SAR observations of floods.

Reliable aerial thermography for energy conservation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jack, J. R.; Bowman, R. L.

1981-01-01

A method for energy conservation, the aerial thermography survey, is discussed. It locates sources of energy losses and wasteful energy management practices. An operational map is presented for clear sky conditions. The map outlines the key environmental conditions conductive to obtaining reliable aerial thermography. The map is developed from defined visual and heat loss discrimination criteria which are quantized based on flat roof heat transfer calculations.

Comparing Planck and WMAP: Maps, Spectra, and Parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Larson, D.; Weiland, J. L.; Hinshaw, G.; Bennett, C. L.

2015-03-01

We examine the consistency of the 9 yr WMAP data and the first-release Planck data. We specifically compare sky maps, power spectra, and the inferred Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmological parameters. Residual dipoles are seen in the WMAP and Planck sky map differences, but their amplitudes are consistent within the quoted uncertainties, and they are not large enough to explain the widely noted differences in angular power spectra at higher l. We remove the residual dipoles and use templates to remove residual Galactic foregrounds; after doing so, the residual difference maps exhibit a quadrupole and other large-scale systematic structure. We identify this structure as possibly originating from Planck’s beam sidelobe pick-up, but note that it appears to have insignificant cosmological impact. We develop an extension of the internal linear combination technique to find the minimum-variance difference between the WMAP and Planck sky maps; again we find features that plausibly originate in the Planck data. Lacking access to the Planck time-ordered data we cannot further assess these features. We examine ΛCDM model fits to the angular power spectra and conclude that the ˜2.5% difference in the spectra at multipoles greater than l˜ 100 is significant at the 3-5σ level, depending on how beam uncertainties are handled in the data. We revisit the analysis of WMAP’s beam data to address the power spectrum differences and conclude that previously derived uncertainties are robust and cannot explain the power spectrum differences. In fact, any remaining WMAP errors are most likely to exacerbate the difference. Finally, we examine the consistency of the ΛCDM parameters inferred from each data set taking into account the fact that both experiments observe the same sky, but cover different multipole ranges, apply different sky masks, and have different noise. We find that, while individual parameter values agree within the uncertainties, the six parameters taken together are discrepant at the ˜6σ level, with {χ }2}=56 for 6 degrees of freedom (probability to exceed, PTE = 3× {{10}-10}). The nature of this discrepancy is explored: of the six parameters, {{χ }2} is best improved by marginalizing over {{{Ω}c}{{h}2}, giving {χ }2}=5.2 for 5 degrees of freedom. As an exercise, we find that perturbing the WMAP window function by its dominant beam error profile has little effect on {{{Ω}c}{{h}2}, while perturbing the Planck window function by its corresponding error profile has a much greater effect on {{Ω}c}{{h}2}.

"Let There Be Night" Advocates Dark Skies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bueter, Chuck

2008-05-01

Let There Be Night is an interactive planetarium program that supports a community-wide experiment to quantify local sky glow. In the planetarium, visitors will experience three aspects of light pollution--glare, sky glow, and light trespass--and decide whether and how to confront dark sky issues. Planetarians can select optional recorded stories and lessons to complement live demonstrations or star talks. As a companion experiment, students in grades 3-8 from one school district will then submit their backyard observations of Orion's limiting magnitude to the 2009 Globe at Night star hunt while small student teams concurrently quantify sky glow from each schoolyard with hand-held meters. After mapping their results and having classroom discussions, students will present their findings to the School Board. Material compiled and created for the program will be available for other dark sky advocates at www.LetThereBeNight.com, while large digital files will be distributed on disk through two planetarium associations. A 2008 Toyota TAPESTRY grant has enticed significant professional support, additional funding, and in-kind contributions.

Night Sky Brightness Measurement by the Public through a Mobile Phone App

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamegai, Kazuhisa; Tsukada, Ken; Inoue, Hiroki

2015-08-01

The darkness of night sky is important naturally for astronomy researchers, and also for the public people. Particularly, it is meaningful for those who begin to have an interest in gazing stars. Some previous studies suggest that light pollution may affect human health and ecosystem in various ways. Furthermore, it causes a lot of waste of electric energy for lighting.In Japan, the night sky brightness had been measured by Ministry of Environment for a few decades. Recently some global efforts have been also conducted. However the number of measured position is limited because the measurement needs some apparatus and takes long time.Here we show a result of quick and easy measurements of night sky brightness by the public people through a mobile phone app. The measurements were conducted in cooperation between some members of the Tenpla project and a weather forecasting company. The app has been developed by the company and has been installed by over 6.5 million people, which allow us to get a large number of data. Our purposes are (1) making map of night sky brightness all over Japan and (2) providing an opportunity to enjoy gazing star for those who are not usually interested in astronomy.As an interactive function of the app, we put a questionnaire of four choices in which we ask users how many stars are visible in a part of the constellation of Orion. When users answer the question, we get the answer and the position where they are. Depending on the answer, we can roughly recognize the sky brightness of the position.We opened the measurements for several nights. As a result, we could get 4000 - 5000 data all over the country per night. The map of each night is a snapshot of sky brightness of the night including effect of the weather. For example we can recognize that the sky is getting darker as a function of distance from the metropolitan area of Tokyo. We will show the detail results in the presentation.

No evidence for dust B -mode decorrelation in Planck data

DOE PAGES

Sheehy, Christopher; Slosar, Anze

2018-02-20

Constraints on inflationary B modes using cosmic microwave background polarization data commonly rely on either template cleaning or cross-spectra between maps at different frequencies to disentangle Galactic foregrounds from the cosmological signal. Assumptions about how the foregrounds scale with frequency are therefore crucial to interpreting the data. Recent results from the Planck satellite collaboration claim significant evidence for a decorrelation in the polarization signal of the spatial pattern of Galactic dust between 217 and 353 GHz. Such a decorrelation would suppress power in the cross-spectrum between high-frequency maps, where the dust is strong, and lower-frequency maps, where the sensitivity tomore » cosmological B modes is strongest. Alternatively, it would leave residuals in lower-frequency maps cleaned with a template derived from the higher-frequency maps. If not accounted for, both situations would result in an underestimate of the dust contribution and thus an upward bias on measurements of the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r. In this paper, we revisit this measurement and find that the no-decorrelation hypothesis cannot be excluded with the Planck data. There are three main reasons for this: (i) There is significant noise bias in cross-spectra between Planck data splits that needs to be accounted for. (ii) There is strong evidence for unknown instrumental systematics, the amplitude of which we estimate using alternative Planck data splits. (iii) There are significant correlations between measurements in different sky patches that need to be taken into account when assessing the statistical significance. Finally, between ℓ = 55-90 and over 72% of the sky, the dust BB correlation between 217 and 353 GHz is 1.001 +.004/.021 -.004/.000 (68% stat/syst.) and shows no significant trend with the sky fraction.« less

No evidence for dust B -mode decorrelation in Planck data

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

Sheehy, Christopher; Slosar, Anze

Constraints on inflationary B modes using cosmic microwave background polarization data commonly rely on either template cleaning or cross-spectra between maps at different frequencies to disentangle Galactic foregrounds from the cosmological signal. Assumptions about how the foregrounds scale with frequency are therefore crucial to interpreting the data. Recent results from the Planck satellite collaboration claim significant evidence for a decorrelation in the polarization signal of the spatial pattern of Galactic dust between 217 and 353 GHz. Such a decorrelation would suppress power in the cross-spectrum between high-frequency maps, where the dust is strong, and lower-frequency maps, where the sensitivity tomore » cosmological B modes is strongest. Alternatively, it would leave residuals in lower-frequency maps cleaned with a template derived from the higher-frequency maps. If not accounted for, both situations would result in an underestimate of the dust contribution and thus an upward bias on measurements of the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r. In this paper, we revisit this measurement and find that the no-decorrelation hypothesis cannot be excluded with the Planck data. There are three main reasons for this: (i) There is significant noise bias in cross-spectra between Planck data splits that needs to be accounted for. (ii) There is strong evidence for unknown instrumental systematics, the amplitude of which we estimate using alternative Planck data splits. (iii) There are significant correlations between measurements in different sky patches that need to be taken into account when assessing the statistical significance. Finally, between ℓ = 55-90 and over 72% of the sky, the dust BB correlation between 217 and 353 GHz is 1.001 +.004/.021 -.004/.000 (68% stat/syst.) and shows no significant trend with the sky fraction.« less

No evidence for dust B -mode decorrelation in Planck data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheehy, Christopher; Slosar, Anže

2018-02-01

Constraints on inflationary B modes using cosmic microwave background polarization data commonly rely on either template cleaning or cross-spectra between maps at different frequencies to disentangle Galactic foregrounds from the cosmological signal. Assumptions about how the foregrounds scale with frequency are therefore crucial to interpreting the data. Recent results from the Planck satellite collaboration claim significant evidence for a decorrelation in the polarization signal of the spatial pattern of Galactic dust between 217 and 353 GHz. Such a decorrelation would suppress power in the cross-spectrum between high-frequency maps, where the dust is strong, and lower-frequency maps, where the sensitivity to cosmological B modes is strongest. Alternatively, it would leave residuals in lower-frequency maps cleaned with a template derived from the higher-frequency maps. If not accounted for, both situations would result in an underestimate of the dust contribution and thus an upward bias on measurements of the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r . In this paper, we revisit this measurement and find that the no-decorrelation hypothesis cannot be excluded with the Planck data. There are three main reasons for this: (i) There is significant noise bias in cross-spectra between Planck data splits that needs to be accounted for. (ii) There is strong evidence for unknown instrumental systematics, the amplitude of which we estimate using alternative Planck data splits. (iii) There are significant correlations between measurements in different sky patches that need to be taken into account when assessing the statistical significance. Between ℓ=55 - 90 and over 72% of the sky, the dust B B correlation between 217 and 353 GHz is 1.001-.004/.000 +.004 /.021 (68 % stat /syst .) and shows no significant trend with the sky fraction.

Geometric compatibility of IceCube TeV-PeV neutrino excess and its galactic dark matter origin

DOE PAGES

Bai, Yang; Lu, Ran; Salvado, Jordi

2016-01-27

Here, we perform a geometric analysis for the sky map of the IceCube TeV-PeV neutrino excess and test its compatibility with the sky map of decaying dark matter signals in our galaxy. Furthermore, we have found that a galactic decaying dark matter component in general improve the goodness of the fit of our model, although the pure isotropic hypothesis has a better fit than the pure dark matter one. Finally, we also consider several representative decaying dark matter, which can provide a good t to the observed spectrum at IceCube with a dark matter lifetime of around 12 orders ofmore » magnitude longer than the age of the universe.« less

The topology of large-scale structure. V - Two-dimensional topology of sky maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gott, J. R., III; Mao, Shude; Park, Changbom; Lahav, Ofer

1992-01-01

A 2D algorithm is applied to observed sky maps and numerical simulations. It is found that when topology is studied on smoothing scales larger than the correlation length, the topology is approximately in agreement with the random phase formula for the 2D genus-threshold density relation, G2(nu) varies as nu(e) exp-nu-squared/2. Some samples show small 'meatball shifts' similar to those seen in corresponding 3D observational samples and similar to those produced by biasing in cold dark matter simulations. The observational results are thus consistent with the standard model in which the structure in the universe today has grown from small fluctuations caused by random quantum noise in the early universe.

Mapping the Heavens: Probing Cosmology with Large Surveys

ScienceCinema

Frieman, Joshua [Fermilab

2017-12-09

This talk will provide an overview of recent and on-going sky surveys, focusing on their implications for cosmology. I will place particular emphasis on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the most ambitious mapping of the Universe yet undertaken, showing a virtual fly-through of the survey that reveals the large-scale structure of the galaxy distribution. Recent measurements of this large-scale structure, in combination with observations of the cosmic microwave background, have provided independent evidence for a Universe dominated by dark matter and dark energy as well as insights into how galaxies and larger-scale structures formed. Future planned surveys will build on these foundations to probe the history of the cosmic expansion--and thereby the dark energy--with greater precision.

New characterization techniques for LSST sensors

DOE PAGES

Nomerotski, A.

2015-06-18

Fully depleted, thick CCDs with extended infra-red response have become the sensor of choice for modern sky surveys. The charge transport effects in the silicon and associated astrometric distortions could make mapping between the sky coordinates and sensor coordinates non-trivial, and limit the ultimate precision achievable with these sensors. Two new characterization techniques for the CCDs, which both could probe these issues, are discussed: x-ray flat fielding and imaging of pinhole arrays.

PRIMORDIAL GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTABILITY WITH DEEP SMALL-SKY COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND EXPERIMENTS

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

Farhang, M.; Bond, J. R.; Netterfield, C. B.

2013-07-01

We use the Bayesian estimation on direct T - Q - U cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization maps to forecast errors on the tensor-to-scalar power ratio r, and hence on primordial gravitational waves, as a function of sky coverage f{sub sky}. This map-based likelihood filters the information in the pixel-pixel space into the optimal combinations needed for r detection for cut skies, providing enhanced information over a first-step linear separation into a combination of E, B, and mixed modes, and ignoring the latter. With current computational power and for typical resolutions appropriate for r detection, the large matrix inversions requiredmore » are accurate and fast. Our simulations explore two classes of experiments, with differing bolometric detector numbers, sensitivities, and observational strategies. One is motivated by a long duration balloon experiment like Spider, with pixel noise {proportional_to}{radical}(f{sub sky}) for a specified observing period. This analysis also applies to ground-based array experiments. We find that, in the absence of systematic effects and foregrounds, an experiment with Spider-like noise concentrating on f{sub sky} {approx} 0.02-0.2 could place a 2{sigma}{sub r} Almost-Equal-To 0.014 boundary ({approx}95% confidence level), which rises to 0.02 with an l-dependent foreground residual left over from an assumed efficient component separation. We contrast this with a Planck-like fixed instrumental noise as f{sub sky} varies, which gives a Galaxy-masked (f{sub sky} = 0.75) 2{sigma}{sub r} Almost-Equal-To 0.015, rising to Almost-Equal-To 0.05 with the foreground residuals. Using as the figure of merit the (marginalized) one-dimensional Shannon entropy of r, taken relative to the first 2003 WMAP CMB-only constraint, gives -2.7 bits from the 2012 WMAP9+ACT+SPT+LSS data, and forecasts of -6 bits from Spider (+ Planck); this compares with up to -11 bits for CMBPol, COrE, and PIXIE post-Planck satellites and -13 bits for a perfectly noiseless cosmic variance limited experiment. We thus confirm the wisdom of the current strategy for r detection of deeply probed patches covering the f{sub sky} minimum-error trough with balloon and ground experiments.« less

Reflective all-sky thermal infrared cloud imager.

PubMed

Redman, Brian J; Shaw, Joseph A; Nugent, Paul W; Clark, R Trevor; Piazzolla, Sabino

2018-04-30

A reflective all-sky imaging system has been built using a long-wave infrared microbolometer camera and a reflective metal sphere. This compact system was developed for measuring spatial and temporal patterns of clouds and their optical depth in support of applications including Earth-space optical communications. The camera is mounted to the side of the reflective sphere to leave the zenith sky unobstructed. The resulting geometric distortion is removed through an angular map derived from a combination of checkerboard-target imaging, geometric ray tracing, and sun-location-based alignment. A tape of high-emissivity material on the side of the reflector acts as a reference that is used to estimate and remove thermal emission from the metal sphere. Once a bias that is under continuing study was removed, sky radiance measurements from the all-sky imager in the 8-14 μm wavelength range agreed to within 0.91 W/(m 2 sr) of measurements from a previously calibrated, lens-based infrared cloud imager over its 110° field of view.

Full-sky Gravitational Lensing Simulation for Large-area Galaxy Surveys and Cosmic Microwave Background Experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takahashi, Ryuichi; Hamana, Takashi; Shirasaki, Masato; Namikawa, Toshiya; Nishimichi, Takahiro; Osato, Ken; Shiroyama, Kosei

2017-11-01

We present 108 full-sky gravitational lensing simulation data sets generated by performing multiple-lens plane ray-tracing through high-resolution cosmological N-body simulations. The data sets include full-sky convergence and shear maps from redshifts z = 0.05 to 5.3 at intervals of 150 {h}-1{Mpc} comoving radial distance (corresponding to a redshift interval of {{Δ }}z≃ 0.05 at the nearby universe), enabling the construction of a mock shear catalog for an arbitrary source distribution up to z = 5.3. The dark matter halos are identified from the same N-body simulations with enough mass resolution to resolve the host halos of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) CMASS and luminous red galaxies (LRGs). Angular positions and redshifts of the halos are provided by a ray-tracing calculation, enabling the creation of a mock halo catalog to be used for galaxy-galaxy and cluster-galaxy lensing. The simulation also yields maps of gravitational lensing deflections for a source redshift at the last scattering surface, and we provide 108 realizations of lensed cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps in which the post-Born corrections caused by multiple light scattering are included. We present basic statistics of the simulation data, including the angular power spectra of cosmic shear, CMB temperature and polarization anisotropies, galaxy-galaxy lensing signals for halos, and their covariances. The angular power spectra of the cosmic shear and CMB anisotropies agree with theoretical predictions within 5% up to {\\ell }=3000 (or at an angular scale θ > 0.5 arcmin). The simulation data sets are generated primarily for the ongoing Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam survey, but are freely available for download at http://cosmo.phys.hirosaki-u.ac.jp/takahasi/allsky_raytracing/.

Full-sky Gravitational Lensing Simulation for Large-area Galaxy Surveys and Cosmic Microwave Background Experiments

DOE PAGES

Takahashi, Ryuichi; Hamana, Takashi; Shirasaki, Masato; ...

2017-11-14

We present 108 full-sky gravitational lensing simulation data sets generated by performing multiple-lens plane ray-tracing through high-resolution cosmological N-body simulations. The data sets include full-sky convergence and shear maps from redshifts z = 0.05 to 5.3 at intervals ofmore » $$150\\,{h}^{-1}\\mathrm{Mpc}$$ comoving radial distance (corresponding to a redshift interval of $${\\rm{\\Delta }}z\\simeq 0.05$$ at the nearby universe), enabling the construction of a mock shear catalog for an arbitrary source distribution up to z = 5.3. The dark matter halos are identified from the same N-body simulations with enough mass resolution to resolve the host halos of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) CMASS and luminous red galaxies (LRGs). Angular positions and redshifts of the halos are provided by a ray-tracing calculation, enabling the creation of a mock halo catalog to be used for galaxy–galaxy and cluster–galaxy lensing. The simulation also yields maps of gravitational lensing deflections for a source redshift at the last scattering surface, and we provide 108 realizations of lensed cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps in which the post-Born corrections caused by multiple light scattering are included. We present basic statistics of the simulation data, including the angular power spectra of cosmic shear, CMB temperature and polarization anisotropies, galaxy–galaxy lensing signals for halos, and their covariances. The angular power spectra of the cosmic shear and CMB anisotropies agree with theoretical predictions within 5% up to $${\\ell }=3000$$ (or at an angular scale $$\\theta \\gt 0.5$$ arcmin). The simulation data sets are generated primarily for the ongoing Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam survey, but are freely available for download at http://cosmo.phys.hirosaki-u.ac.jp/takahasi/allsky_raytracing/.« less

Full-sky Gravitational Lensing Simulation for Large-area Galaxy Surveys and Cosmic Microwave Background Experiments

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

Takahashi, Ryuichi; Hamana, Takashi; Shirasaki, Masato

We present 108 full-sky gravitational lensing simulation data sets generated by performing multiple-lens plane ray-tracing through high-resolution cosmological N-body simulations. The data sets include full-sky convergence and shear maps from redshifts z = 0.05 to 5.3 at intervals ofmore » $$150\\,{h}^{-1}\\mathrm{Mpc}$$ comoving radial distance (corresponding to a redshift interval of $${\\rm{\\Delta }}z\\simeq 0.05$$ at the nearby universe), enabling the construction of a mock shear catalog for an arbitrary source distribution up to z = 5.3. The dark matter halos are identified from the same N-body simulations with enough mass resolution to resolve the host halos of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) CMASS and luminous red galaxies (LRGs). Angular positions and redshifts of the halos are provided by a ray-tracing calculation, enabling the creation of a mock halo catalog to be used for galaxy–galaxy and cluster–galaxy lensing. The simulation also yields maps of gravitational lensing deflections for a source redshift at the last scattering surface, and we provide 108 realizations of lensed cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps in which the post-Born corrections caused by multiple light scattering are included. We present basic statistics of the simulation data, including the angular power spectra of cosmic shear, CMB temperature and polarization anisotropies, galaxy–galaxy lensing signals for halos, and their covariances. The angular power spectra of the cosmic shear and CMB anisotropies agree with theoretical predictions within 5% up to $${\\ell }=3000$$ (or at an angular scale $$\\theta \\gt 0.5$$ arcmin). The simulation data sets are generated primarily for the ongoing Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam survey, but are freely available for download at http://cosmo.phys.hirosaki-u.ac.jp/takahasi/allsky_raytracing/.« less

Operational SAR Data Processing in GIS Environments for Rapid Disaster Mapping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bahr, Thomas

2014-05-01

The use of SAR data has become increasingly popular in recent years and in a wide array of industries. Having access to SAR can be highly important and critical especially for public safety. Updating a GIS with contemporary information from SAR data allows to deliver a reliable set of geospatial information to advance civilian operations, e.g. search and rescue missions. SAR imaging offers the great advantage, over its optical counterparts, of not being affected by darkness, meteorological conditions such as clouds, fog, etc., or smoke and dust, frequently associated with disaster zones. In this paper we present the operational processing of SAR data within a GIS environment for rapid disaster mapping. For this technique we integrated the SARscape modules for ENVI with ArcGIS®, eliminating the need to switch between software packages. Thereby the premier algorithms for SAR image analysis can be directly accessed from ArcGIS desktop and server environments. They allow processing and analyzing SAR data in almost real time and with minimum user interaction. This is exemplified by the November 2010 flash flood in the Veneto region, Italy. The Bacchiglione River burst its banks on Nov. 2nd after two days of heavy rainfall throughout the northern Italian region. The community of Bovolenta, 22 km SSE of Padova, was covered by several meters of water. People were requested to stay in their homes; several roads, highways sections and railroads had to be closed. The extent of this flooding is documented by a series of Cosmo-SkyMed acquisitions with a GSD of 2.5 m (StripMap mode). Cosmo-SkyMed is a constellation of four Earth observation satellites, allowing a very frequent coverage, which enables monitoring using a very high temporal resolution. This data is processed in ArcGIS using a single-sensor, multi-mode, multi-temporal approach consisting of 3 steps: (1) The single images are filtered with a Gamma DE-MAP filter. (2) The filtered images are geocoded using a reference DEM without the need of ground control points. This step includes radiometric calibration. (3) A subsequent change detection analysis generates the final map showing the extent of the flash flood on Nov. 5th 2010. The underlying algorithms are provided by three different sources: Geocoding & radiometric calibration (2) is a standard functionality from the commercial SARscape Toolbox for ArcGIS. This toolbox is extended by the filter tool (1), which is called from the SARscape modules in ENVI. The change detection analysis (3) is based on ENVI processing routines and scripted with IDL. (2) and (3) are integrated with ArcGIS using a predefined Python interface. These 3 processing steps are combined using the ArcGIS ModelBuilder to create a new model for rapid disaster mapping in ArcGIS, based on SAR data. Moreover, this model can be dissolved from its desktop environment and published to users across the ArcGIS Server enterprise. Thus disaster zones, e.g. after severe flooding, can be automatically identified and mapped to support local task forces - using an operational workflow for SAR image analysis, which can be executed by the responsible operators without SAR expert knowledge.

Solar Wind Charge Exchange Contribution to the ROSAT All Sky Survey Maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uprety, Y.; Chiao, M.; Collier, M. R.; Cravens, T.; Galeazzi, M.; Koutroumpa, D.; Kuntz, K. D.; Lallement, R.; Lepri, S. T.; Liu, W.; McCammon, D.; Morgan, K.; Porter, F. S.; Prasai, K.; Snowden, S. L.; Thomas, N. E.; Ursino, E.; Walsh, B. M.

2016-10-01

DXL (Diffuse X-ray emission from the Local Galaxy) is a sounding rocket mission designed to estimate the contribution of solar wind charge eXchange (SWCX) to the diffuse X-ray background and to help determine the properties of the Local Hot Bubble. The detectors are large area thin-window proportional counters with a spectral response that is similar to that of the PSPC used in the ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS). A direct comparison of DXL and RASS data for the same part of the sky viewed from quite different vantage points in the solar system, and the assumption of approximate isotropy for the solar wind, allowed us to quantify the SWCX contribution to all six RASS bands (R1-R7, excluding R3). We find that the SWCX contribution at l=140^\\circ ,b=0^\\circ , where the DXL path crosses the Galactic plane, is 33 % +/- 6 % ({statistical})+/- 12 % ({systematic}) for R1, 44 % +/- 6 % +/- 5 % for R2, 18 % +/- 12 % +/- 11 % for R4, 14 % +/- 11 % +/- 9 % for R5, and negligible for the R6 and R7 bands. Reliable models for the distribution of neutral H and He in the solar system permit estimation of the contribution of interplanetary SWCX emission over the the whole sky and correction of the RASS maps. We find that the average SWCX contribution in the whole sky is 26 % +/- 6 % +/- 13 % for R1, 30 % +/- 4 % +/- 4 % for R2, 8 % +/- 5 % +/- 5 % for R4, 6 % +/- 4 % +/- 4 % for R5, and negligible for R6 and R7.

A 1400 MHz sky survey. II - Confusion-limited maps covering ascension between 19 H 30 M and 7 H 30 m, declination between -5 deg and +82 deg

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Condon, J. J.; Broderick, J. J.

1986-05-01

The NRAO 91 m transit telescope and rebuilt four-feed receiver were used to make a 1400 MHz continuum survey with 12.7 arcmin x 11.1 arcmin resolution. New maps covering ascension between 19 h 30 m and 7 h 30 m supplement those in the right ascension range between 7 h 30 m and 19 h 30 m (Condon and Broderick, 1985) to complete the roughly 6.8 sr declination band between -5 deg and +82 deg. Both sets of maps are confusion-limited and contain roughly 3000 sources per sr stronger than 0.15 Jy. They are available on FITS tapes and can be displayed and analyzed with standard AIPS programs. A procedure for making radio 'identifications' automatically from the map tapes is given. A 1400 MHz radio sky atlas of contour plots and coordinate-grid overlays covering declination between -5 deg and +82 deg with a roughly 200 arcsec/mm scale was also produced.

Observation of Anisotropy in the Galactic Cosmic-Ray Arrival Directions at 400 TeV with IceCube

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abbasi, R.; Abdou, Y.; Abu-Zayyad, T.; Ackermann, M.; Adams, J.; Aguilar, J. A.; Ahlers, M.; Allen, M. M.; Altmann, D.; Andeen, K.; Auffenberg, J.; Bai, X.; Baker, M.; Barwick, S. W.; Bay, R.; Bazo Alba, J. L.; Beattie, K.; Beatty, J. J.; Bechet, S.; Becker, J. K.; Becker, K.-H.; Benabderrahmane, M. L.; BenZvi, S.; Berdermann, J.; Berghaus, P.; Berley, D.; Bernardini, E.; Bertrand, D.; Besson, D. Z.; Bindig, D.; Bissok, M.; Blaufuss, E.; Blumenthal, J.; Boersma, D. J.; Bohm, C.; Bose, D.; Böser, S.; Botner, O.; Brown, A. M.; Buitink, S.; Caballero-Mora, K. S.; Carson, M.; Chirkin, D.; Christy, B.; Clevermann, F.; Cohen, S.; Colnard, C.; Cowen, D. F.; Cruz Silva, A. H.; D'Agostino, M. V.; Danninger, M.; Daughhetee, J.; Davis, J. C.; De Clercq, C.; Degner, T.; Demirörs, L.; Descamps, F.; Desiati, P.; de Vries-Uiterweerd, G.; DeYoung, T.; Díaz-Vélez, J. C.; Dierckxsens, M.; Dreyer, J.; Dumm, J. P.; Dunkman, M.; Eisch, J.; Ellsworth, R. W.; Engdegård, O.; Euler, S.; Evenson, P. A.; Fadiran, O.; Fazely, A. R.; Fedynitch, A.; Feintzeig, J.; Feusels, T.; Filimonov, K.; Finley, C.; Fischer-Wasels, T.; Fox, B. D.; Franckowiak, A.; Franke, R.; Gaisser, T. K.; Gallagher, J.; Gerhardt, L.; Gladstone, L.; Glüsenkamp, T.; Goldschmidt, A.; Goodman, J. A.; Góra, D.; Grant, D.; Griesel, T.; Groß, A.; Grullon, S.; Gurtner, M.; Ha, C.; Haj Ismail, A.; Hallgren, A.; Halzen, F.; Han, K.; Hanson, K.; Heinen, D.; Helbing, K.; Hellauer, R.; Hickford, S.; Hill, G. C.; Hoffman, K. D.; Hoffmann, B.; Homeier, A.; Hoshina, K.; Huelsnitz, W.; Hülß, J.-P.; Hulth, P. O.; Hultqvist, K.; Hussain, S.; Ishihara, A.; Jacobi, E.; Jacobsen, J.; Japaridze, G. S.; Johansson, H.; Kampert, K.-H.; Kappes, A.; Karg, T.; Karle, A.; Kenny, P.; Kiryluk, J.; Kislat, F.; Klein, S. R.; Köhne, J.-H.; Kohnen, G.; Kolanoski, H.; Köpke, L.; Kopper, S.; Koskinen, D. J.; Kowalski, M.; Kowarik, T.; Krasberg, M.; Kroll, G.; Kurahashi, N.; Kuwabara, T.; Labare, M.; Laihem, K.; Landsman, H.; Larson, M. J.; Lauer, R.; Lünemann, J.; Madsen, J.; Marotta, A.; Maruyama, R.; Mase, K.; Matis, H. S.; Meagher, K.; Merck, M.; Mészáros, P.; Meures, T.; Miarecki, S.; Middell, E.; Milke, N.; Miller, J.; Montaruli, T.; Morse, R.; Movit, S. M.; Nahnhauer, R.; Nam, J. W.; Naumann, U.; Nygren, D. R.; Odrowski, S.; Olivas, A.; Olivo, M.; O'Murchadha, A.; Panknin, S.; Paul, L.; Pérez de los Heros, C.; Petrovic, J.; Piegsa, A.; Pieloth, D.; Porrata, R.; Posselt, J.; Price, C. C.; Price, P. B.; Przybylski, G. T.; Rawlins, K.; Redl, P.; Resconi, E.; Rhode, W.; Ribordy, M.; Richman, M.; Rodrigues, J. P.; Rothmaier, F.; Rott, C.; Ruhe, T.; Rutledge, D.; Ruzybayev, B.; Ryckbosch, D.; Sander, H.-G.; Santander, M.; Sarkar, S.; Schatto, K.; Schmidt, T.; Schönwald, A.; Schukraft, A.; Schultes, A.; Schulz, O.; Schunck, M.; Seckel, D.; Semburg, B.; Seo, S. H.; Sestayo, Y.; Seunarine, S.; Silvestri, A.; Spiczak, G. M.; Spiering, C.; Stamatikos, M.; Stanev, T.; Stezelberger, T.; Stokstad, R. G.; Stößl, A.; Strahler, E. A.; Ström, R.; Stüer, M.; Sullivan, G. W.; Swillens, Q.; Taavola, H.; Taboada, I.; Tamburro, A.; Tepe, A.; Ter-Antonyan, S.; Tilav, S.; Toale, P. A.; Toscano, S.; Tosi, D.; van Eijndhoven, N.; Vandenbroucke, J.; Van Overloop, A.; van Santen, J.; Vehring, M.; Voge, M.; Walck, C.; Waldenmaier, T.; Wallraff, M.; Walter, M.; Weaver, Ch.; Wendt, C.; Westerhoff, S.; Whitehorn, N.; Wiebe, K.; Wiebusch, C. H.; Williams, D. R.; Wischnewski, R.; Wissing, H.; Wolf, M.; Wood, T. R.; Woschnagg, K.; Xu, C.; Xu, D. L.; Xu, X. W.; Yanez, J. P.; Yodh, G.; Yoshida, S.; Zarzhitsky, P.; Zoll, M.; IceCube Collaboration

2012-02-01

In this paper we report the first observation in the Southern hemisphere of an energy dependence in the Galactic cosmic-ray anisotropy up to a few hundred TeV. This measurement was performed using cosmic-ray-induced muons recorded by the partially deployed IceCube observatory between 2009 May and 2010 May. The data include a total of 33 × 109 muon events with a median angular resolution of ~3°. A sky map of the relative intensity in arrival direction over the Southern celestial sky is presented for cosmic-ray median energies of 20 and 400 TeV. The same large-scale anisotropy observed at median energies around 20 TeV is not present at 400 TeV. Instead, the high-energy sky map shows a different anisotropy structure including a deficit with a post-trial significance of -6.3σ. This anisotropy reveals a new feature of the Galactic cosmic-ray distribution, which must be incorporated into theories of the origin and propagation of cosmic rays.

Evaluation of WRF model-derived direct irradiance for solar thermal resource assessment over South Korea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Jin-Young; Yun, Chang-Yeol; Kim, Chang Ki; Kang, Yong-Heack; Kim, Hyun-Goo; Lee, Sang-Nam; Kim, Shin-Young

2017-06-01

The South Korean government has been started monitoring and reassessment for new and renewable resource under greenhouse reduction related with the climate agreement in Paris. This study investigated characteristics of the model-derived direct normal irradiance(DNI) using ten-minute data of the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF) model with 1 km grid spacing. First, ground horizontal irradiance(GHI) and direct normal irradiance(DNI) from the model was compared with those of ground stations throughout South Korea to evaluate the uncertainty of the GHI-derived DNI. Then solar thermal resource potential was assessed using a DNI map. Uncertainty of irradiances appeared highly dependent on sky conditions. Root mean square errors in DNI(GHI) was 45.39%(18.06%) for all sky with the range of 9.92˜51.93%(14.49˜51.47%) for clear to overcast sky. These indicate DNI is further sensitive to cloud condition in Korea which is around 72% of cloud days during a whole year. Finally DNI maps showed high value over most areas except southeastern areas and Jeju island which is humid regions in South Korea.

Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Bayesian Estimation of Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dunkley, J.; Spergel, D. N.; Komatsu, E.; Hinshaw, G.; Larson, D.; Nolta, M. R.; Odegard, N.; Page, L.; Bennett, C. L.; Gold, B.; Hill, R. S.; Jarosik, N.; Weiland, J. L.; Halpern, M.; Kogut, A.; Limon, M.; Meyer, S. S.; Tucker, G. S.; Wollack, E.; Wright, E. L.

2009-08-01

We describe a sampling method to estimate the polarized cosmic microwave background (CMB) signal from observed maps of the sky. We use a Metropolis-within-Gibbs algorithm to estimate the polarized CMB map, containing Q and U Stokes parameters at each pixel, and its covariance matrix. These can be used as inputs for cosmological analyses. The polarized sky signal is parameterized as the sum of three components: CMB, synchrotron emission, and thermal dust emission. The polarized Galactic components are modeled with spatially varying power-law spectral indices for the synchrotron, and a fixed power law for the dust, and their component maps are estimated as by-products. We apply the method to simulated low-resolution maps with pixels of side 7.2 deg, using diagonal and full noise realizations drawn from the WMAP noise matrices. The CMB maps are recovered with goodness of fit consistent with errors. Computing the likelihood of the E-mode power in the maps as a function of optical depth to reionization, τ, for fixed temperature anisotropy power, we recover τ = 0.091 ± 0.019 for a simulation with input τ = 0.1, and mean τ = 0.098 averaged over 10 simulations. A "null" simulation with no polarized CMB signal has maximum likelihood consistent with τ = 0. The method is applied to the five-year WMAP data, using the K, Ka, Q, and V channels. We find τ = 0.090 ± 0.019, compared to τ = 0.086 ± 0.016 from the template-cleaned maps used in the primary WMAP analysis. The synchrotron spectral index, β, averaged over high signal-to-noise pixels with standard deviation σ(β) < 0.25, but excluding ~6% of the sky masked in the Galactic plane, is -3.03 ± 0.04. This estimate does not vary significantly with Galactic latitude, although includes an informative prior. WMAP is the result of a partnership between Princeton University and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Scientific guidance is provided by the WMAP Science Team.

Antenna Design and Foreground Characterization for Improved Detection of the Redshifted 21 cm Global Signature During the Epoch of Reionization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mozdzen, Thomas J.; Bowman, Judd D.; Monsalve, Raul A.; Rogers, Alan E. E.

2018-01-01

The Experiment to Detect the Global Epoch of Reionization (EoR) Signature (EDGES) is an effort to measure the sky-averaged redshifted 21 cm difference temperature, Tb, with a single wide field-of-view well-calibrated antenna placed in Western Australia. Tb is due to interactions of the hyperfine ground state of HI with the CMB and is four to five orders of magnitude dimmer than the foreground synchrotron radiation whose removal requires very low systematic errors in data collection. I analyzed two different antenna designs, a rectangular blade-shaped antenna and a fourpoint-shaped antenna, by comparing and quantifying the impact of the chromatic nature of the antenna beam directivity. Foreground removal of simulated antenna temperatures, formed by convolving a frequency scaled Haslam 408 MHz sky map with each of the antenna’s chromatic beams, resulted in a factor of 10 lower rms error for the blade antenna when using a five term polynomial for the sky foreground. The signal to noise ratio was at a maximum when five terms were used to represent the sky foreground and was superior for the blade antenna by factors between 1.35 and 1.95. These results led to the conversion of all EDGES antenna designs to the blade design. The spectral index, β, of the sky was measured, using 211 nights of data, to be ‑2.60 > β > ‑2.62 in lower LST regions, increasing to ‑2.50 near the Galactic plane. I compared our measurements with spectral index simulations derived from two published sky maps and found good agreement at the transit of the Galactic Center, but at other LST values tended to overpredict by at most by Δβ < 0.05 for one map and by Δβ < 0.12 for the other. The EDGES instrument is shown to be very stable throughout the observations as the data scatter is very low, σβ < 0.003, and the total systematic uncertainty in β is 0.02. The improved systematic error enhances our ability to detect EoR signatures. I present preliminary results that show an EoR model by Kaurov & Gnedin (2016) is inconsistent with measured EDGES data at a significance of 1.9σ.

Status and expected perfomance of the MAXI mission for the JEM/ISS

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

Kataoka, J.; Kawai, N.

2008-12-24

MAXI (Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image) is the first payload to be attached on JEM-EF (Kibo exposed facility) of ISS. It provides an all sky X-ray image every ISS orbit. Only with a few weeks scan, MAXI is expected to make a milli-Crab X-ray all sky map excluding bright region around the sun. Thus, MAXI does not only inform X-ray novae and transients rapidly to world astronomers if once they occur, but also observes long-term variability of Galact ic and extra-Galactic X-ray sources. MAXI also provides an X-ray source catalogue at that time with diffuse cosmic X-ray background. MAXI consistsmore » of two kinds of detectors, position sensitive gas-proportional counters for 2-30 keV X-rays and CCD cameras for 0.5-10 keV X-rays. All instruments of MAXI are now in final phase of pre-launching tests of their flight modules. We are also carrying out performance tests for X-ray detectors and collimators. Data processing and analysis software including alert system on ground are being developed by mission team. In this paper we report an overview of final instruments of MAXI and capability of MAXI.« less

Scientific Goals and Objectives of the Probe of Inflation and Cosmic Origins

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wen, Qi; Hanany, Shaul; Young, Karl S.; PICO Team

2018-01-01

The Probe of Inflation and Cosmic Origins (PICO) is a space mission concept that is being studied in preparation for the 2020 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey. PICO will conduct a polarimetric full sky survey in 21 frequency bands between 20 and 800 GHz with 70 times the sensitivity of the Planck satellite. Using the data from 8 redundant full sky surveys PICO will detect or place new limits on the energy scale of inflation and the physics of quantum gravity; it will determine the effective number of light degrees of freedom in the early universe and the sum of neutrino masses; it will measure the optical depth to reionization up to cosmic variance limits; it will provide a full sky catalog of thousands of strongly lensed high-z infrared sources, of proto clusters, and of low-z low-mass galaxies extending our understanding of structure formation to populations not yet observed; it will find tens of thousands of new clusters across cosmic time, information that will further constrain cosmological parameters; and it will make sensitive maps of the galactic magnetic field, which will clarify its role in the process of star formation.We present an overview of the mission’s scientific goals, its design, and the current status of the study.

A likely detection of a local interplanetary dust cloud passing near the Earth in the AKARI mid-infrared all-sky map

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishihara, D.; Kondo, T.; Kaneda, H.; Suzuki, T.; Nakamichi, K.; Takaba, S.; Kobayashi, H.; Masuda, S.; Ootsubo, T.; Pyo, J.; Onaka, T.

2017-07-01

Context. We are creating the AKARI mid-infrared all-sky diffuse maps. Through a foreground removal of the zodiacal emission, we serendipitously detected a bright residual component whose angular size is about 50° × 20° at a wavelength of 9 μm. Aims: We investigate the origin and the physical properties of the residual component. Methods: We measured the surface brightness of the residual component in the AKARI mid-infrared all-sky maps. Results: The residual component was significantly detected only in 2007 January, even though the same region was observed in 2006 July and 2007 July, which shows that it is not due to the Galactic emission. We suggest that this may be a small cloud passing near the Earth. By comparing the observed intensity ratio of I9 μm/I18 μm with the expected intensity ratio assuming thermal equilibrium of dust grains at 1 AU for various dust compositions and sizes, we find that dust grains in the moving cloud are likely to be much smaller than typical grains that produce the bulk of the zodiacal light. Conclusions: Considering the observed date and position, it is likely that it originates in the solar coronal mass ejection (CME) which took place on 2007 January 25.

General-relativistic pulsar magnetospheric emission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pétri, J.

2018-06-01

Most current pulsar emission models assume photon production and emission within the magnetosphere. Low-frequency radiation is preferentially produced in the vicinity of the polar caps, whereas the high-energy tail is shifted to regions closer but still inside the light cylinder. We conducted a systematic study of the merit of several popular radiation sites like the polar cap, the outer gap, and the slot gap. We computed sky maps emanating from each emission site according to a prescribed distribution function for the emitting particles made of an electron/positron mixture. Calculations are performed using a three-dimensional integration of the plasma emissivity in the vacuum electromagnetic field of a rotating and centred general-relativistic dipole. We compare Newtonian electromagnetic fields to their general-relativistic counterpart. In the latter case, light bending is also taken into account. As a typical example, light curves and sky maps are plotted for several power-law indices of the particle distribution function. The detailed pulse profiles strongly depend on the underlying assumption about the fluid motion subject to strong electromagnetic fields. This electromagnetic topology enforces the photon propagation direction directly, or indirectly, from aberration effects. We also discuss the implication of a net stellar electric charge on to sky maps. Taking into account, the electric field strongly affects the light curves originating close to the light cylinder, where the electric field strength becomes comparable to the magnetic field strength.

Northern Sky Galactic Cosmic Ray Anisotropy between 10 and 1000 TeV with the Tibet Air Shower Array

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

Amenomori, M.; Bi, X. J.; Chen, W. Y.

2017-02-20

We report on the analysis of the 10–1000 TeV large-scale sidereal anisotropy of Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) with the data collected by the Tibet Air Shower Array from 1995 October to 2010 February. In this analysis, we improve the energy estimate and extend the decl. range down to −30°. We find that the anisotropy maps above 100 TeV are distinct from that at a multi-TeV band. The so-called tail-in and loss-cone features identified at low energies get less significant, and a new component appears at ∼100 TeV. The spatial distribution of the GCR intensity with an excess (7.2 σ pre-trial,more » 5.2 σ post-trial) and a deficit (−5.8 σ pre-trial) are observed in the 300 TeV anisotropy map, in close agreement with IceCube’s results at 400 TeV. Combining the Tibet results in the northern sky with IceCube’s results in the southern sky, we establish a full-sky picture of the anisotropy in hundreds of TeV band. We further find that the amplitude of the first order anisotropy increases sharply above ∼100 TeV, indicating a new component of the anisotropy. All these results may shed new light on understanding the origin and propagation of GCRs.« less

CMB Polarization B-mode Delensing with SPTpol and Herschel

DOE PAGES

Manzotti, A.; et al.

2017-08-30

We present a demonstration of delensing the observed cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode polarization anisotropy. This process of reducing the gravitational-lensing-generated B-mode component will become increasingly important for improving searches for the B modes produced by primordial gravitational waves. In this work, we delens B-mode maps constructed from multi-frequency SPTpol observations of a 90 deg(2) patch of sky by subtracting a B-mode template constructed from two inputs: SPTpol E-mode maps and a lensing potential map estimated from the Herschel 500 μm map of the cosmic infrared background. We find that our delensing procedure reduces the measured B-mode power spectrum bymore » $28$% in the multipole range $$300\\lt {\\ell }\\lt 2300,$$ this is shown to be consistent with expectations from simulations and to be robust against systematics. The null hypothesis of no delensing is rejected at $$6.9\\sigma $$. Furthermore, we build and use a suite of realistic simulations to study the general properties of the delensing process and find that the delensing efficiency achieved in this work is limited primarily by the noise in the lensing potential map. We demonstrate the importance of including realistic experimental non-idealities in the delensing forecasts used to inform instrument and survey-strategy planning of upcoming lower-noise experiments, such as CMB-S4.« less

CMB Polarization B -mode Delensing with SPTpol and Herschel

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

Manzotti, A.; Story, K. T.; Wu, W. L. K.

2017-08-30

Here, we present a demonstration of delensing the observed cosmic microwave background (CMB) Bmode polarization anisotropy. This process of reducing the gravitational-lensing generated B-mode component will become increasingly important for improving searches for the B modes produced by primordial gravitational waves. In this work, we delens B-mode maps constructed from multi-frequency SPTpol observations of a 90 deg 2 patch of sky by subtracting a B-mode template constructed from two inputs: SPTpol E-mode maps and a lensing potential map estimated from the Herschel 500 µm map of the CIB. We find that our delensing procedure reduces the measured B-mode power spectrummore » by 28% in the multipole range 300 < ℓ< 2300; this is shown to be consistent with expectations from theory and simulations and to be robust against systematics. Furthermore, the null hypothesis of no delensing is rejected at 6.9σ. Furthermore, we build and use a suite of realistic simulations to study the general properties of the delensing process and find that the delensing efficiency achieved in this work is limited primarily by the noise in the lensing potential map. We also demonstrate the importance of including realistic experimental non-idealities in the delensing forecasts used to inform instrument and survey-strategy planning of upcoming lower-noise experiments, such as CMB-S4.« less

Exploitation of the Intermittent SBAS (ISBAS) algorithm with COSMO-SkyMed data for landslide inventory mapping in north-western Sicily, Italy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Novellino, A.; Cigna, F.; Sowter, A.; Ramondini, M.; Calcaterra, D.

2017-03-01

A large scale study of landslide processes was undertaken by coupling conventional geomorphological field surveys with aerial photographs along with an advanced Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) analysis of ground instability in north-western Sicily. COSMO-SkyMed satellite images for the period between 2008 and 2011 were processed using the Intermittent Small BAseline Subset (ISBAS) technique, recently developed at the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Nottingham. The use of ISBAS allowed the derivation of ground surface displacements across non-urbanized areas, thus overcoming one of the main limitations of conventional interferometric techniques. ISBAS provides ground motion information not only for urban but also for rural, woodland, grassland and agricultural terrains, which cover > 60% of north-western Sicily, thereby improving by 40 times in some cases, the slope instability investigation capabilities of InSAR methods. ISBAS ground motion data enabled the updating of the landslide inventory for the areas of Piana degli Albanesi and Marineo (over 130 km2), which encompass a number of active, dormant and inactive landslides according to the pre-existing landslide inventory maps produced through aerial photo-interpretation and local field checks. An average of ∼ 7000 ISBAS pixels km- 2 allowed the detection of small displacements in regions difficult to access. In particular, 226 landslides - mainly slides, flows and creep and four badlands were identified, comprising a total area of 25.3 km2. When compared to the previous landslide inventory maps, 84 phenomena were confirmed, 67 new events were detected and 79 previously mapped events were re-assessed, modifying their typology, boundary and/or state of activity. Because the InSAR method used here is designed to measure slow rates of velocity and therefore may not detect fast-moving, events such as falls and topples, the results for Piana degli Albanesi and Marineo demonstrate the validity of this method to support land management, underlying the time and cost benefits of a combined approach using traditional monitoring procedures and satellite InSAR methods especially if slow-moving slope movements prevail.

MaNGA: Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weijmans, A.-M.; MaNGA Team

2016-10-01

MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO) is a galaxy integral-field spectroscopic survey within the fourth generation Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV). It will be mapping the composition and kinematics of gas and stars in 10,000 nearby galaxies, using 17 differently sized fiber bundles. MaNGA's goal is to provide new insights in galaxy formation and evolution, and to deliver a local benchmark for current and future high-redshift studies.

CORRELATION ANALYSIS BETWEEN TIBET AS-γ TeV COSMIC RAY AND WMAP NINE-YEAR DATA

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

Yin, Qian-Qing; Zhang, Shuang-Nan, E-mail: zhangsn@ihep.ac.cn

2015-08-01

The WMAP team subtracted template-based foreground models to produce foreground-reduced maps, and masked point sources and uncertain sky regions directly; however, whether foreground residuals exist in the WMAP foreground-reduced maps is still an open question. Here, we use Pearson correlation coefficient analysis with AS-γ TeV cosmic ray (CR) data to probe possible foreground residuals in the WMAP nine-year data. The correlation results between the CR and foreground-contained maps (WMAP foreground-unreduced maps, WMAP template-based, and Maximum Entropy Method foreground models) suggest that: (1) CRs can trace foregrounds in the WMAP data; (2) at least some TeV CRs originate from the Milkymore » Way; (3) foregrounds may be related to the existence of CR anisotropy (loss-cone and tail-in structures); (4) there exist differences among different types of foregrounds in the decl. range of <15°. Then, we generate 10,000 mock cosmic microwave background (CMB) sky maps to describe the cosmic variance, which is used to measure the effect of the fluctuations of all possible CMB maps to the correlations between CR and CMB maps. Finally, we do correlation analysis between the CR and WMAP foreground-reduced maps, and find that: (1) there are significant anticorrelations; and (2) the WMAP foreground-reduced maps are credible. However, the significant anticorrelations may be accidental, and the higher signal-to-noise ratio Planck SMICA map cannot reject the hypothesis of accidental correlations. We therefore can only conclude that the foreground residuals exist with ∼95% probability.« less

Clear-Sky Probability for the August 21, 2017, Total Solar Eclipse Using the NREL National Solar Radiation Database

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

Habte, Aron M; Roberts, Billy J; Kutchenreiter, Mark C

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and collaborators have created a clear-sky probability analysis to help guide viewers of the August 21, 2017, total solar eclipse, the first continent-spanning eclipse in nearly 100 years in the United States. Using cloud and solar data from NREL's National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB), the analysis provides cloudless sky probabilities specific to the date and time of the eclipse. Although this paper is not intended to be an eclipse weather forecast, the detailed maps can help guide eclipse enthusiasts to likely optimal viewing locations. Additionally, high-resolution data are presented for the centerline of themore » path of totality, representing the likelihood for cloudless skies and atmospheric clarity. The NSRDB provides industry, academia, and other stakeholders with high-resolution solar irradiance data to support feasibility analyses for photovoltaic and concentrating solar power generation projects.« less

The S201 far-ultraviolet imaging survey - A summary of results and implications for future surveys

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carruthers, G. R.; Page, T.

1984-01-01

The results from all-sky surveys with the S201 FUV camera/spectrograph from the moon during the Apollo 16 mission are summarized with respect to implications for future UV all-sky surveys. The scans provided imagery of 10 fields, each 20 deg in diameter, in the wavelength ranges 1050-1600 A and 1250-1600 A. Best detection thresholds were obtained with 10 and 30 min exposures at 1400 A. Only 7 percent sky coverage was recorded, and then only down to 11th mag. A Mark II camera may be flown on the Shuttle on the Spartan 3 mission, as may be an all-reflector Schmidt telescope. An additional 20 percent of the sky will be mapped and microchannel intensification will increase the diffuse source sensitivity by two orders of magnitude. Several objects sighted with the S201 will be reviewed with the Mark II.

The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE): Mission Description and Initial On-Orbit Performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wright, Edward L.; Eisenhardt, Peter R. M.; Mainzer, Amy; Ressler, Michael E.; Cutri, Roc M.; Jarrett, Thomas; Kirkpatrick, J. Davy; Padgett, Deborah; McMillan, Robert S.; Skrutskie,Michael;

Mapping the CMB with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinshaw, Gary F.

2007-01-01

The data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite provide detailed full-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy and new full-sky maps of the polarization. Together, the data provide a wealth of cosmological information, including the age of the universe, the epoch when the first stars formed, and the overall composition of baryonic matter, dark matter, and dark energy. The results also provide constraints on the period of inflationary expansion in the very first moments of time. These and other aspects of the mission results will be discussed and commented on. WMAP, part of NASA's Explorers program, was launched on June 30,200 1. The WMAP satellite was produced in a partnership between the Goddard Space Flight Center and Princeton University. The WMAP team also includes researchers at the Johns Hopkins University; the Canadian Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics; University of Texas; University of Chicago; Brown University; University of British Columbia; and University of California, Los Angeles.

ON THE GEOMETRY OF THE IBEX RIBBON

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

Sylla, Adama; Fichtner, Horst

2015-10-01

The Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) full-sky maps obtained with the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) show an unexpected bright narrow band of increased intensity. This so-called ENA ribbon results from charge exchange of interstellar neutral atoms with protons in the outer heliosphere or beyond. Among other hypotheses it has been argued that this ribbon may be related to a neutral density enhancement, or H-wave, in the local interstellar medium. Here we quantitatively demonstrate, on the basis of an analytical model of the principal large-scale heliospheric structure, that this scenario for the ribbon formation leads to results that are fully consistent withmore » the observed location of the ribbon in the full-sky maps at all energies detected with high-energy sensor IBEX-Hi.« less

An Empirical Decomposition of Near-IR Emission into Galactic and Extragalactic Components

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dwek, Eli; Arendt, Richard G.

2002-01-01

We decompose the COBE/DIRBE observations of the near-IR sky brightness (minus zodiacal light) into Galactic stellar and interstellar medium (ISM) components and an extragalactic background. This empirical procedure allows us to estimate the 4.9 micron cosmic infrared background (CIB) as a function of the CIB intensity at shorter wavelengths. A weak indication of a rising CIB intensity at wavelengths greater than 3.5$ microns hints at interesting astrophysics in the CIB spectrum, or warns that the foreground zodiacal emission may be incompletely subtracted. Subtraction of only the stellar component from the zodiacal-light-subtracted all--sky map reveals the clearest 3.5 micron ISM emission map, which is found to be tightly correlated with the ISM emission at far-IR wavelengths.

Planck 2013 results. VI. High Frequency Instrument data processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planck Collaboration; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Armitage-Caplan, C.; Arnaud, M.; Ashdown, M.; Atrio-Barandela, F.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Battaner, E.; Benabed, K.; Benoît, A.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bielewicz, P.; Bobin, J.; Bock, J. J.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Boulanger, F.; Bowyer, J. W.; Bridges, M.; Bucher, M.; Burigana, C.; Cardoso, J.-F.; Catalano, A.; Chamballu, A.; Chary, R.-R.; Chen, X.; Chiang, H. C.; Chiang, L.-Y.; Christensen, P. R.; Church, S.; Clements, D. L.; Colombi, S.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Combet, C.; Couchot, F.; Coulais, A.; Crill, B. P.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davies, R. D.; Davis, R. J.; de Bernardis, P.; de Rosa, A.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Delouis, J.-M.; Désert, F.-X.; Dickinson, C.; Diego, J. M.; Dole, H.; Donzelli, S.; Doré, O.; Douspis, M.; Dunkley, J.; Dupac, X.; Efstathiou, G.; Enßlin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Finelli, F.; Forni, O.; Frailis, M.; Fraisse, A. A.; Franceschi, E.; Galeotta, S.; Ganga, K.; Giard, M.; Giardino, G.; Girard, D.; Giraud-Héraud, Y.; González-Nuevo, J.; Górski, K. M.; Gratton, S.; Gregorio, A.; Gruppuso, A.; Gudmundsson, J. E.; Hansen, F. K.; Hanson, D.; Harrison, D.; Helou, G.; Henrot-Versillé, S.; Herent, O.; Hernández-Monteagudo, C.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hivon, E.; Hobson, M.; Holmes, W. A.; Hornstrup, A.; Hou, Z.; Hovest, W.; Huffenberger, K. M.; Hurier, G.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jaffe, T. R.; Jones, W. C.; Juvela, M.; Keihänen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kisner, T. S.; Kneissl, R.; Knoche, J.; Knox, L.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lagache, G.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Laureijs, R. J.; Lawrence, C. R.; Le Jeune, M.; Leonardi, R.; Leroy, C.; Lesgourgues, J.; Liguori, M.; Lilje, P. B.; Linden-Vørnle, M.; López-Caniego, M.; Lubin, P. M.; Macías-Pérez, J. F.; MacTavish, C. J.; Maffei, B.; Mandolesi, N.; Maris, M.; Marleau, F.; Marshall, D. J.; Martin, P. G.; Martínez-González, E.; Masi, S.; Massardi, M.; Matarrese, S.; Matthai, F.; Mazzotta, P.; McGehee, P.; Meinhold, P. R.; Melchiorri, A.; Melot, F.; Mendes, L.; Mennella, A.; Migliaccio, M.; Mitra, S.; Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Moneti, A.; Montier, L.; Morgante, G.; Mortlock, D.; Mottet, S.; Munshi, D.; Murphy, J. A.; Naselsky, P.; Nati, F.; Natoli, P.; Netterfield, C. B.; Nørgaard-Nielsen, H. U.; North, C.; Noviello, F.; Novikov, D.; Novikov, I.; Orieux, F.; Osborne, S.; Oxborrow, C. A.; Paci, F.; Pagano, L.; Pajot, F.; Paladini, R.; Paoletti, D.; Pasian, F.; Patanchon, G.; Perdereau, O.; Perotto, L.; Perrotta, F.; Piacentini, F.; Piat, M.; Pierpaoli, E.; Pietrobon, D.; Plaszczynski, S.; Pointecouteau, E.; Polenta, G.; Ponthieu, N.; Popa, L.; Poutanen, T.; Pratt, G. W.; Prézeau, G.; Prunet, S.; Puget, J.-L.; Rachen, J. P.; Racine, B.; Reach, W. T.; Rebolo, R.; Reinecke, M.; Remazeilles, M.; Renault, C.; Ricciardi, S.; Riller, T.; Ristorcelli, I.; Rocha, G.; Rosset, C.; Roudier, G.; Rowan-Robinson, M.; Rusholme, B.; Sanselme, L.; Santos, D.; Sauvé, A.; Savini, G.; Scott, D.; Shellard, E. P. S.; Spencer, L. D.; Starck, J.-L.; Stolyarov, V.; Stompor, R.; Sudiwala, R.; Sureau, F.; Sutton, D.; Suur-Uski, A.-S.; Sygnet, J.-F.; Tauber, J. A.; Tavagnacco, D.; Techene, S.; Terenzi, L.; Tomasi, M.; Tristram, M.; Tucci, M.; Umana, G.; Valenziano, L.; Valiviita, J.; Van Tent, B.; Vibert, L.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Vittorio, N.; Wade, L. A.; Wandelt, B. D.; White, S. D. M.; Yvon, D.; Zacchei, A.; Zonca, A.

2014-11-01

Wedescribe the processing of the 531 billion raw data samples from the High Frequency Instrument (HFI), which we performed to produce six temperature maps from the first 473 days of Planck-HFI survey data. These maps provide an accurate rendition of the sky emission at 100, 143, 217, 353, 545, and 857GHz with an angular resolution ranging from 9.´7 to 4.´6. The detector noise per (effective) beam solid angle is respectively, 10, 6 , 12, and 39 μK in the four lowest HFI frequency channels (100-353GHz) and 13 and 14 kJy sr-1 in the 545 and 857 GHz channels. Relative to the 143 GHz channel, these two high frequency channels are calibrated to within 5% and the 353 GHz channel to the percent level. The 100 and 217 GHz channels, which together with the 143 GHz channel determine the high-multipole part of the CMB power spectrum (50 <ℓ < 2500), are calibrated relative to 143 GHz to better than 0.2%.

The SPHEREx All-Sky Spectral Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bock, James; SPHEREx Science Team

2018-01-01

SPHEREx, a mission in NASA's Medium Explorer (MIDEX) program that was selected for Phase A in August 2017, is an all-sky survey satellite designed to address all three science goals in NASA's astrophysics division, with a single instrument, a wide-field spectral imager. SPHEREx will probe the physics of inflation by measuring non-Gaussianity by studying large-scale structure, surveying a large cosmological volume at low redshifts, complementing high-z surveys optimized to constrain dark energy. The origin of water and biogenic molecules will be investigated in all phases of planetary system formation - from molecular clouds to young stellar systems with protoplanetary disks - by measuring ice absorption spectra. We will chart the origin and history of galaxy formation through a deep survey mapping large-scale spatial power in two deep fields located near the ecliptic poles. Following in the tradition of all-sky missions such as IRAS, COBE and WISE, SPHEREx will be the first all-sky near-infrared spectral survey. SPHEREx will create spectra (0.75 – 4.2 um at R = 41; and 4.2 – 5 um at R = 135) with high sensitivity making background-limited observations using a passively-cooled telescope with a wide field-of-view for large mapping speed. During its two-year mission, SPHEREx will produce four complete all-sky maps that will serve as a rich archive for the astronomy community. With over a billion detected galaxies, hundreds of millions of high-quality stellar and galactic spectra, and over a million ice absorption spectra, the archive will enable diverse scientific investigations including studies of young stellar systems, brown dwarfs, high-redshift quasars, galaxy clusters, the interstellar medium, asteroids and comets. All aspects of the instrument and spacecraft have high heritage. SPHEREx requires no new technologies and carries large technical and resource margins on every aspect of the design. SPHEREx is a partnership between Caltech and JPL, following the successful management structure of the NuSTAR and GALEX missions. The spacecraft will be supplied by Ball Aerospace. The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute will contribute test hardware and scientific analysis.

SAGE II

Atmospheric Science Data Center

2016-02-16

... the spatial distributions of stratospheric aerosols, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, water vapor and cloud occurrence by mapping vertical profiles ... Clouds Clouds in a Clear Sky Clouds in the Balance Stars Clouds Crops Volcanoes and Climate Change ...

GRO/EGRET data analysis software: An integrated system of custom and commercial software using standard interfaces

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Laubenthal, N. A.; Bertsch, D.; Lal, N.; Etienne, A.; Mcdonald, L.; Mattox, J.; Sreekumar, P.; Nolan, P.; Fierro, J.

1992-01-01

The Energetic Gamma Ray Telescope Experiment (EGRET) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory has been in orbit for more than a year and is being used to map the full sky for gamma rays in a wide energy range from 30 to 20,000 MeV. Already these measurements have resulted in a wide range of exciting new information on quasars, pulsars, galactic sources, and diffuse gamma ray emission. The central part of the analysis is done with sky maps that typically cover an 80 x 80 degree section of the sky for an exposure time of several days. Specific software developed for this program generates the counts, exposure, and intensity maps. The analysis is done on a network of UNIX based workstations and takes full advantage of a custom-built user interface called X-dialog. The maps that are generated are stored in the FITS format for a collection of energies. These, along with similar diffuse emission background maps generated from a model calculation, serve as input to a maximum likelihood program that produces maps of likelihood with optional contours that are used to evaluate regions for sources. Likelihood also evaluates the background corrected intensity at each location for each energy interval from which spectra can be generated. Being in a standard FITS format permits all of the maps to be easily accessed by the full complement of tools available in several commercial astronomical analysis systems. In the EGRET case, IDL is used to produce graphics plots in two and three dimensions and to quickly implement any special evaluation that might be desired. Other custom-built software, such as the spectral and pulsar analyses, take advantage of the XView toolkit for display and Postscript output for the color hard copy. This poster paper outlines the data flow and provides examples of the user interfaces and output products. It stresses the advantages that are derived from the integration of the specific instrument-unique software and powerful commercial tools for graphics and statistical evaluation. This approach has several proven advantages including flexibility, a minimum of development effort, ease of use, and portability.

Zodiacal light and the asteroid belt - The view from Pioneer 10

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hanner, M. S.; Weinberg, J. L.; Deshields, L. M., II; Green, B. A.; Toller, G. N.

1974-01-01

Brightnesses measured by the Pioneer 10 imaging photopolarimeter in two regions of sky were compared on sky maps at sun-spacecraft distances from 2.4 to 4.8 AU to determine the spatial extent of the zodiacal light. Data in the ecliptic at elongations greater than 90 deg show negligible contribution to the zodiacal light beyond 3.3 AU, the 2:1 Jupiter resonance. The zodiacal light brightness at 2.4 AU is less than 10% of that observed at 1 AU.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: X-Ray source properties for NGC 2207/IC 2163 (Mineo+, 2014)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mineo, S.; Rappaport, S.; Levine, A.; Pooley, D.; Steinhorn, B.; Homan, J.

2017-08-01

We analyzed four Chandra ACIS-S observations of the galaxy pair NGC 2207/IC 2163. The data reduction was done following the standard CIAO threads (CIAO version 4.6, CALDB version 4.5.9) for soft (0.5-2 keV), hard (2-8 keV), and broad (0.5-8.0 keV) energy bands. All Chandra data sets were reprocessed using chandra_repro, a script that automates the recommended data-processing steps presented in the CIAO analysis threads. Using the script fluximage, we computed a monochromatic exposure map for the mean photon energy of each band: 1.25 keV, 5.0 keV, and 4.25 keV for the soft, hard, and broad band, respectively. fluximage outputs both the instrument map for the center of each energy band using the tool mkinstmap and the exposure maps in sky coordinates for each energy band using mkexpmap. (5 data files).

Alaska Athabascan stellar astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cannon, Christopher M.

2014-01-01

Stellar astronomy is a fundamental component of Alaska Athabascan cultures that facilitates time-reckoning, navigation, weather forecasting, and cosmology. Evidence from the linguistic record suggests that a group of stars corresponding to the Big Dipper is the only widely attested constellation across the Northern Athabascan languages. However, instruction from expert Athabascan consultants shows that the correlation of these names with the Big Dipper is only partial. In Alaska Gwich'in, Ahtna, and Upper Tanana languages the Big Dipper is identified as one part of a much larger circumpolar humanoid constellation that spans more than 133 degrees across the sky. The Big Dipper is identified as a tail, while the other remaining asterisms within the humanoid constellation are named using other body part terms. The concept of a whole-sky humanoid constellation provides a single unifying system for mapping the night sky, and the reliance on body-part metaphors renders the system highly mnemonic. By recognizing one part of the constellation the stargazer is immediately able to identify the remaining parts based on an existing mental map of the human body. The circumpolar position of a whole-sky constellation yields a highly functional system that facilitates both navigation and time-reckoning in the subarctic. Northern Athabascan astronomy is not only much richer than previously described; it also provides evidence for a completely novel and previously undocumented way of conceptualizing the sky---one that is unique to the subarctic and uniquely adapted to northern cultures. The concept of a large humanoid constellation may be widespread across the entire subarctic and have great antiquity. In addition, the use of cognate body part terms describing asterisms within humanoid constellations is similarly found in Navajo, suggesting a common ancestor from which Northern and Southern Athabascan stellar naming strategies derived.

All-Sky Observational Evidence for An Inverse Correlation Between Dust Temperature and Emissivity Spectral Index

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liang, Z.; Fixsen, D. J.; Gold, B.

2012-01-01

We show that a one-component variable-emissivity-spectral-index model (the free- model) provides more physically motivated estimates of dust temperature at the Galactic polar caps than one- or two-component fixed-emissivity-spectral-index models (fixed- models) for interstellar dust thermal emission at far-infrared and millimeter wavelengths. For the comparison we have fit all-sky one-component dust models with fixed or variable emissivity spectral index to a new and improved version of the 210-channel dust spectra from the COBE-FIRAS, the 100-240 micrometer maps from the COBE-DIRBE and the 94 GHz dust map from the WMAP. The best model, the free-alpha model, is well constrained by data at 60-3000 GHz over 86 per cent of the total sky area. It predicts dust temperature (T(sub dust)) to be 13.7-22.7 (plus or minus 1.3) K, the emissivity spectral index (alpha) to be 1.2-3.1 (plus or minus 0.3) and the optical depth (tau) to range 0.6-46 x 10(exp -5) with a 23 per cent uncertainty. Using these estimates, we present all-sky evidence for an inverse correlation between the emissivity spectral index and dust temperature, which fits the relation alpha = 1/(delta + omega (raised dot) T(sub dust) with delta = -.0.510 plus or minus 0.011 and omega = 0.059 plus or minus 0.001. This best model will be useful to cosmic microwave background experiments for removing foreground dust contamination and it can serve as an all-sky extended-frequency reference for future higher resolution dust models.

SETI prototype system for NASA's Sky Survey microwave observing project - A progress report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Klein, M. J.; Gulkis, S.; Wilck, H. C.

1990-01-01

Two complementary search strategies, a Targeted Search and a Sky Survey, are part of NASA's SETI microwave observing project scheduled to begin in October of 1992. The current progress in the development of hardware and software elements of the JPL Sky Survey data processing system are presented. While the Targeted Search stresses sensitivity allowing the detection of either continuous or pulsed signals over the 1-3 GHz frequency range, the Sky Survey gives up sensitivity to survey the 99 percent of the sky that is not covered by the Targeted Search. The Sky Survey spans a larger frequency range from 1-10 GHz. The two searches will deploy special-purpose digital signal processing equipment designed and built to automate the observing and data processing activities. A two-million channel digital wideband spectrum analyzer and a signal processor system will serve as a prototype for the SETI Sky Survey processor. The design will permit future expansion to meet the SETI requirement that the processor concurrently search for left and right circularly polarized signals.

Airborne geophysical surveys conducted in western Nebraska, 2010: contractor reports and data

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

2014-01-01

This report contains three contractor reports and data files for an airborne electromagnetic survey flown from June 28 to July 7, 2010. The first report; “SkyTEM Survey: Nebraska, USA, Data” describes data aquisition and processing from a time-domain electromagnetic and magnetic survey performed by SkyTEM Canada, Inc. (the North American SkyTEM subsidiary), in western Nebraska, USA. Digital data for this report are given in Appendix 1. The airborne geophysical data from the SkyTEM survey subsequently were processed and inverted by Aarhus Geophysics ApS, Aarhus, Denmark, to produce resistivity depth sections along each flight line. The result of that processing is described in two reports presented in Appendix 2, “Processing and inversion of SkyTEM data from USGS Area UTM–13” and “Processing and inversion of SkyTEM data from USGS Area UTM–14.” Funding for these surveys was provided by the North Platte Natural Resources District, the South Platte Natural Resources District, and the Twin Platte Natural Resources District, in Scottsbluff, Sidney, and North Platte, Nebraska, respectively. Any additional information concerning the geophysical data may be obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey Crustal Geophysics and Geochemistry Science Center, Denver Colorado.

Parallelization and Algorithmic Enhancements of High Resolution IRAS Image Construction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cao, Yu; Prince, Thomas A.; Tereby, Susan; Beichman, Charles A.

1996-01-01

The Infrared Astronomical Satellite caried out a nearly complete survey of the infrared sky, and the survey data are important for the study of many astrophysical phenomena. However, many data sets at other wavelengths have higher resolutions than that of the co-added IRAS maps, and high resolution IRAS images are strongly desired both for their own information content and their usefulness in correlation. The HIRES program was developed by the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) to produce high resolution (approx. 1') images from IRAS data using the Maximum Correlation Method (MCM). We describe the port of HIRES to the Intel Paragon, a massively parallel supercomputer, other software developments for mass production of HIRES images, and the IRAS Galaxy Atlas, a project to map the Galactic plane at 60 and 100(micro)m.

Reflective all-sky thermal infrared cloud imager

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

Redman, Brian J.; Shaw, Joseph A.; Nugent, Paul W.

A reflective all-sky imaging system has been built using a long-wave infrared microbolometer camera and a reflective metal sphere. This compact system was developed for measuring spatial and temporal patterns of clouds and their optical depth in support of applications including Earth-space optical communications. The camera is mounted to the side of the reflective sphere to leave the zenith sky unobstructed. The resulting geometric distortion is removed through an angular map derived from a combination of checkerboard-target imaging, geometric ray tracing, and sun-location-based alignment. A tape of high-emissivity material on the side of the reflector acts as a reference thatmore » is used to estimate and remove thermal emission from the metal sphere. In conclusion, once a bias that is under continuing study was removed, sky radiance measurements from the all-sky imager in the 8-14 μm wavelength range agreed to within 0.91 W/(m 2 sr) of measurements from a previously calibrated, lens-based infrared cloud imager over its 110° field of view.« less

Reflective all-sky thermal infrared cloud imager

DOE PAGES

Redman, Brian J.; Shaw, Joseph A.; Nugent, Paul W.; ...

2018-04-17

A reflective all-sky imaging system has been built using a long-wave infrared microbolometer camera and a reflective metal sphere. This compact system was developed for measuring spatial and temporal patterns of clouds and their optical depth in support of applications including Earth-space optical communications. The camera is mounted to the side of the reflective sphere to leave the zenith sky unobstructed. The resulting geometric distortion is removed through an angular map derived from a combination of checkerboard-target imaging, geometric ray tracing, and sun-location-based alignment. A tape of high-emissivity material on the side of the reflector acts as a reference thatmore » is used to estimate and remove thermal emission from the metal sphere. In conclusion, once a bias that is under continuing study was removed, sky radiance measurements from the all-sky imager in the 8-14 μm wavelength range agreed to within 0.91 W/(m 2 sr) of measurements from a previously calibrated, lens-based infrared cloud imager over its 110° field of view.« less

The Python Sky Model: software for simulating the Galactic microwave sky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thorne, B.; Dunkley, J.; Alonso, D.; Næss, S.

2017-08-01

We present a numerical code to simulate maps of Galactic emission in intensity and polarization at microwave frequencies, aiding in the design of cosmic microwave background experiments. This python code builds on existing efforts to simulate the sky by providing an easy-to-use interface and is based on publicly available data from the WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) and Planck satellite missions. We simulate synchrotron, thermal dust, free-free and anomalous microwave emission over the whole sky, in addition to the cosmic microwave background, and include a set of alternative prescriptions for the frequency dependence of each component, for example, polarized dust with multiple temperatures and a decorrelation of the signals with frequency, which introduce complexity that is consistent with current data. We also present a new prescription for adding small-scale realizations of these components at resolutions greater than current all-sky measurements. The usefulness of the code is demonstrated by forecasting the impact of varying foreground complexity on the recovered tensor-to-scalar ratio for the LiteBIRD satellite. The code is available at: https://github.com/bthorne93/PySM_public.

A daytime measurement of the lunar contribution to the night sky brightness in LSST's ugrizy bands-initial results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coughlin, Michael; Stubbs, Christopher; Claver, Chuck

2016-06-01

We report measurements from which we determine the spatial structure of the lunar contribution to night sky brightness, taken at the LSST site on Cerro Pachon in Chile. We use an array of six photodiodes with filters that approximate the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope's u, g, r, i, z, and y bands. We use the sun as a proxy for the moon, and measure sky brightness as a function of zenith angle of the point on sky, zenith angle of the sun, and angular distance between the sun and the point on sky. We make a correction for the difference between the illumination spectrum of the sun and the moon. Since scattered sunlight totally dominates the daytime sky brightness, this technique allows us to cleanly determine the contribution to the (cloudless) night sky from backscattered moonlight, without contamination from other sources of night sky brightness. We estimate our uncertainty in the relative lunar night sky brightness vs. zenith and lunar angle to be between 0.3-0.7 mags depending on the passband. This information is useful in planning the optimal execution of the LSST survey, and perhaps for other astronomical observations as well. Although our primary objective is to map out the angular structure and spectrum of the scattered light from the atmosphere and particulates, we also make an estimate of the expected number of scattered lunar photons per pixel per second in LSST, and find values that are in overall agreement with previous estimates.

Analysis of building deformation in landslide area using multisensor PSInSAR™ technique.

PubMed

Ciampalini, Andrea; Bardi, Federica; Bianchini, Silvia; Frodella, William; Del Ventisette, Chiara; Moretti, Sandro; Casagli, Nicola

2014-12-01

Buildings are sensitive to movements caused by ground deformation. The mapping both of spatial and temporal distribution, and of the degree of building damages represents a useful tool in order to understand the landslide evolution, magnitude and stress distribution. The high spatial resolution of space-borne SAR interferometry can be used to monitor displacements related to building deformations. In particular, PSInSAR technique is used to map and monitor ground deformation with millimeter accuracy. The usefulness of the above mentioned methods was evaluated in San Fratello municipality (Sicily, Italy), which was historically affected by landslides: the most recent one occurred on 14th February 2010. PSInSAR data collected by ERS 1/2, ENVISAT, RADARSAT-1 were used to study the building deformation velocities before the 2010 landslide. The X-band sensors COSMO-SkyMed and TerraSAR-X were used in order to monitor the building deformation after this event. During 2013, after accurate field inspection on buildings and structures, damage assessment map of San Fratello were created and then compared to the building deformation velocity maps. The most interesting results were obtained by the comparison between the building deformation velocity map obtained through COSMO-SkyMed and the damage assessment map. This approach can be profitably used by local and Civil Protection Authorities to manage the post-event phase and evaluate the residual risks.

X-Shaped Bulge in the Milky Way

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-07-19

In 2010, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission observed the entire sky twice. Astronomers used these data to point out the X-shaped structure in the bulge of the Milky Way, contained in the small circle at center, as well as the inset image. The circled central portion covers roughly the area of sky that would be blocked by a basketball when held out at arm's length. Dustin Lang, an astronomer at the Dunlap Institute of the University of Toronto, used these data to make this map, which shows the full 360-degree panorama of the sky as seen by WISE. Lang collaborated with Melissa Ness, postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20699

Guide star catalogue data retrieval software 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smirnov, O. M.; Malkov, O. YU.

1992-01-01

The Guide Star Catalog (GSC), being the largest astronomical catalog to date, is widely used by the astronomical community for all sorts of applications, such as statistical studies of certain sky regions, searches for counterparts to observational phenomena, and generation of finder charts. It's format (2 CD-ROM's) requires minimum hardware and is ideally suited for all sorts of conditions, especially observations. Unfortunately, the actual GSC data is not easily accessible. It takes the form of FITS tables, and the coordinates of the objects are given in one coordinate system (equinox 2000). The included reading software is rudimentary at best. Thus, even generation of a simple finder chart is not a trivial undertaking. To solve this problem, at least for PC users, GUIDARES was created. GUIDARES is a user-friendly program that lets you look directly at the data in the GSC, either as a graphical sky map or as a text table. GUIDARES can read a sampling of GSC data from a given sky region, store this sampling in a text file, and display a graphical map of the sampled region in projected celestial coordinates (perfect for finder charts). GUIDARES supports rectangular and circular regions defined by coordinates in the equatorial, ecliptic (any equinox) or galactic systems.

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

Davis, John R.; Brubaker, Erik; Vetter, Kai

In an effort to characterize the fast neutron radiation background, 16 EJ-309 liquid scintillator cells were installed in the Radiological Multi-sensor Analysis Platform (RadMAP) to collect data in the San Francisco Bay Area. Each fast neutron event was associated with specific weather metrics (pressure, temperature, absolute humidity) and GPS coordinates. Furthermore, the expected exponential dependence of the fast neutron count rate on atmospheric pressure was demonstrated and event rates were subsequently adjusted given the measured pressure at the time of detection. Pressure adjusted data was also used to investigate the influence of other environmental conditions on the neutron background rate.more » Using National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) coastal area lidar data, an algorithm was implemented to approximate sky-view factors (the total fraction of visible sky) for points along RadMAPs route. In the three areas we analyzed, San Francisco, Downtown Oakland, and Berkeley, all demonstrated a suppression in the background rate of over 50% for the range of sky-view factors measured. This effect, which is due to the shielding of cosmic-ray produced neutrons by surrounding buildings, was comparable to the pressure influence which yielded a 32% suppression in the count rate over the range of pressures measured.« less

Utilizing field-aligned current profiles derived from Swarm to estimate the peak emission height of 630 nm auroral arcs: a comparison of methods and discussion of associated error estimates in the ASI data.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gillies, D. M.; Knudsen, D. J.; Donovan, E.; Jackel, B. J.; Gillies, R.; Spanswick, E.

2017-12-01

We compare field-aligned currents (FACs) measured by the Swarm constellation of satellites with the location of red-line (630 nm) auroral arcs observed by all-sky imagers (ASIs) to derive a characteristic emission height for the optical emissions. In our 10 events we find that an altitude of 200 km applied to the ASI maps gives optimal agreement between the two observations. We also compare the new FAC method against the traditional triangulation method using pairs of all-sky imagers (ASIs), and against electron density profiles obtained from the Resolute Bay Incoherent Scatter Radar-Canadian radar (RISR-C), both of which are consistent with a characteristic emission height of 200 km. We also present the spatial error associated with georeferencing REdline Geospace Observatory (REGO) and THEMIS all-sky imagers (ASIs) and how it applies to altitude projections of the mapped image. Utilizing this error we validate the estimated altitude of redline aurora using two methods: triangulation between ASIs and field-aligned current profiles derived from magnetometers on-board the Swarm satellites.

Cooperative Autonomous Observation of Volcanic Environments with sUAS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ravela, S.

2015-12-01

The Cooperative Autonomous Observing System Project (CAOS) at the MIT Earth Signals and Systems Group has developed methodology and systems for dynamically mapping coherent fluids such as plumes using small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS). In the CAOS approach, two classes of sUAS, one remote the other in-situ, implement a dynamic data-driven mapping system by closing the loop between Modeling, Estimation, Sampling, Planning and Control (MESPAC). The continually gathered measurements are assimilated to produce maps/analyses which also guide the sUAS network to adaptively resample the environment. Rather than scan the volume in fixed Eulerian or Lagrangian flight plans, the adaptive nature of the sampling process enables objectives for efficiency and resilience to be incorporated. Modeling includes realtime prediction using two types of reduced models, one based on nowcasting remote observations of plume tracer using scale-cascaded alignment, and another based on dynamically-deformable EOF/POD developed for coherent structures. Ensemble-based Information-theoretic machine learning approaches are used for the highly non-linear/non-Gaussian state/parameter estimation, and for planning. Control of the sUAS is based on model reference control coupled with hierarchical PID. MESPAC is implemented in part on a SkyCandy platform, and implements an airborne mesh that provides instantaneous situational awareness and redundant communication to an operating fleet. SkyCandy is deployed on Itzamna Aero's I9X/W UAS with low-cost sensors, and is currently being used to study the Popocatepetl volcano. Results suggest that operational communities can deploy low-cost sUAS to systematically monitor whilst optimizing for efficiency/maximizing resilience. The CAOS methodology is applicable to many other environments where coherent structures are present in the background. More information can be found at caos.mit.edu.

The International Globe at Night Citizen-Science Campaign: Shedding Light on Light Pollution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, C. E.; Pompea, S. M.

2013-12-01

For 8 years now, the Globe at Night campaign has invited citizen-scientists worldwide to measure and record the brightness of their night sky by hunting for the faintest stars in a particular constellation. Students for science projects and scientists for research use the data to monitor levels of brightness or 'light pollution' around the world. They also use the Globe at Night data to understand light pollution's effects on energy consumption, plants, wildlife and human health, as well as our ability to enjoy a starry night sky. The dates of the campaign for 2014 have been extended to every month during the year. Ten days each month (when the Moon is not up between 8pm and 10pm) are the recommended times to take measurements for the campaign. However, one can participate at other times and dates, as long as the Moon is not in the night sky and it is more than an hour after sunset or more than an hour before sunrise. New in 2014 will be an Android app that will allow you to input visual measurements anytime the Moon is not up. Also possibly included will be an iPhone app that will take sky brightness measurements. The campaign dates and the 5 easy steps to participating in the campaign are listed at www.globeatnight.org. You do not need to register. Once on the report page, you enter your location, date and time (automatic for a smart device). You find the constellation of the month in the night sky. (Help is on the website.) Then you choose which chart looks most like what you see toward the constellation. Choose the icon for how clear or cloudy it is and hit the submit button and you are done! The fifth step is returning later to the website to compare your observations on the world map to others from around the globe. Included on the Globe at Night website are many helpful resources and tools from finding the constellations used in the campaign, to understanding concepts like light pollution, to games that test your expertise in choosing 'limiting magnitudes'. The map app at www.globeatnight.org/mapapp/ provides an easy way to map data points for any area in the world. 'Dark Skies Rangers' activities used in grades 4-14 provide a foundational basis for and extensions to the campaign, if educators so choose (www.globeatnight.org/dsr/). In this presentation, we will address how Globe at Night is evolving to improve upon recruitment, incentivization, enactment, science standards, assessment and sustainability.

A New Method to Cross Calibrate and Validate TOMS, SBUV/2, and SCIAMACHY Measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ahmad, Ziauddin; Hilsenrath, Ernest; Einaudi, Franco (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

A unique method to validate back scattered ultraviolet (buv) type satellite data that complements the measurements from existing ground networks is proposed. The method involves comparing the zenith sky radiance measurements from the ground to the nadir radiance measurements taken from space. Since the measurements are compared directly, the proposed method is superior to any other method that involves comparing derived products (for example, ozone), because comparison of derived products involve inversion algorithms which are susceptible to several type of errors. Forward radiative transfer (RT) calculations show that for an aerosol free atmosphere, the ground-based zenith sky radiance measurement and the satellite nadir radiance measurements can be predicted with an accuracy of better than 1 percent. The RT computations also show that for certain values of the solar zenith angles, the radiance comparisons could be better than half a percent. This accuracy is practically independent of ozone amount and aerosols in the atmosphere. Experiences with the Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SSBUV) program show that the accuracy of the ground-based zenith sky radiance measuring instrument can be maintained at a level of a few tenth of a percent. This implies that the zenith sky radiance measurements can be used to validate Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS), Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV/2), and The SCanning Imaging Absorption SpectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) radiance data. Also, this method will help improve the long term precision of the measurements for better trend detection and the accuracy of other BUV products such as tropospheric ozone and aerosols. Finally, in the long term, this method is a good candidate to inter-calibrate and validate long term observations of upcoming operational instruments such as Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME-2), Ozone Mapping Instrument (OMI), Ozone Dynamics Ultraviolet Spectrometer (ODUS), and Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS).

Two-component Thermal Dust Emission Model: Application to the Planck HFI Maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meisner, Aaron M.; Finkbeiner, Douglas P.

2014-06-01

We present full-sky, 6.1 arcminute resolution maps of dust optical depth and temperature derived by fitting the Finkbeiner et al. (1999) two-component dust emission model to the Planck HFI and IRAS 100 micron maps. This parametrization of the far infrared thermal dust SED as the sum of two modified blackbodies serves as an important alternative to the commonly adopted single modified blackbody dust emission model. We expect our Planck-based maps of dust temperature and optical depth to form the basis for a next-generation, high-resolution extinction map which will additionally incorporate small-scale detail from WISE imaging.

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.

SkyQuery - A Prototype Distributed Query and Cross-Matching Web Service for the Virtual Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thakar, A. R.; Budavari, T.; Malik, T.; Szalay, A. S.; Fekete, G.; Nieto-Santisteban, M.; Haridas, V.; Gray, J.

2002-12-01

We have developed a prototype distributed query and cross-matching service for the VO community, called SkyQuery, which is implemented with hierarchichal Web Services. SkyQuery enables astronomers to run combined queries on existing distributed heterogeneous astronomy archives. SkyQuery provides a simple, user-friendly interface to run distributed queries over the federation of registered astronomical archives in the VO. The SkyQuery client connects to the portal Web Service, which farms the query out to the individual archives, which are also Web Services called SkyNodes. The cross-matching algorithm is run recursively on each SkyNode. Each archive is a relational DBMS with a HTM index for fast spatial lookups. The results of the distributed query are returned as an XML DataSet that is automatically rendered by the client. SkyQuery also returns the image cutout corresponding to the query result. SkyQuery finds not only matches between the various catalogs, but also dropouts - objects that exist in some of the catalogs but not in others. This is often as important as finding matches. We demonstrate the utility of SkyQuery with a brown-dwarf search between SDSS and 2MASS, and a search for radio-quiet quasars in SDSS, 2MASS and FIRST. The importance of a service like SkyQuery for the worldwide astronomical community cannot be overstated: data on the same objects in various archives is mapped in different wavelength ranges and looks very different due to different errors, instrument sensitivities and other peculiarities of each archive. Our cross-matching algorithm preforms a fuzzy spatial join across multiple catalogs. This type of cross-matching is currently often done by eye, one object at a time. A static cross-identification table for a set of archives would become obsolete by the time it was built - the exponential growth of astronomical data means that a dynamic cross-identification mechanism like SkyQuery is the only viable option. SkyQuery was funded by a grant from the NASA AISR program.

Validation of a Climate-Data Record of the "Clear-Sky" Surface Temperature of the Greenland Ice Sheet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, Dorothy K.; Box, Jason E.; Koenig, Lora S.; DiGirolamo, Nicolo E.; Comiso, Josefino C.; Shuman, Christopher A.

2011-01-01

Surface temperatures on the Greenland Ice Sheet have been studied on the ground, using automatic weather station (AWS) data from the Greenland-Climate Network (GC-Net), and from analysis of satellite sensor data. Using Advanced Very High Frequency Radiometer (AVHRR) weekly surface temperature maps, warming of the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet has been documented since 1981. We extended and refined this record using higher-resolution Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from March 2000 to the present. We developed a daily and monthly climate-data record (CDR) of the "clear-sky" surface temperature of the Greenland Ice Sheet using an ice-surface temperature (1ST) algorithm developed for use with MODIS data. Validation of this CDR is ongoing. MODIS Terra swath data are projected onto a polar stereographic grid at 6.25-km resolution to develop binary, gridded daily and mean-monthly 1ST maps. Each monthly map also has a color-coded image map that is available to download. Also included with the monthly maps is an accompanying map showing number of days in the month that were used to calculate the mean-monthly 1ST. This is important because no 1ST decision is made by the algorithm for cells that are considered cloudy by the internal cloud mask, so a sufficient number of days must be available to produce a mean 1ST for each grid cell. Validation of the CDR consists of several facets: 1) comparisons between ISTs and in-situ measurements; 2) comparisons between ISTs and AWS data; and 3) comparisons of ISTs with surface temperatures derived from other satellite instruments such as the Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+). Previous work shows that Terra MODIS ISTs are about 3 C lower than in-situ temperatures measured at Summit Camp, during the winter of 2008-09 under clear skies. In this work we begin to compare surface temperatures derived from AWS data with ISTs from the MODIS CDR.

THE FIRST PUBLIC RELEASE OF SOUTH POLE TELESCOPE DATA: MAPS OF A 95 deg{sup 2} FIELD FROM 2008 OBSERVATIONS

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

Schaffer, K. K.; Crawford, T. M.; Benson, B. A.

2011-12-10

The South Pole Telescope (SPT) has nearly completed a 2500 deg{sup 2} survey of the southern sky in three frequency bands. Here, we present the first public release of SPT maps and associated data products. We present arcminute-resolution maps at 150 GHz and 220 GHz of an approximately 95 deg{sup 2} field centered at R.A. 82.{sup 0}7, decl. -55 Degree-Sign . The field was observed to a depth of approximately 17 {mu}K arcmin at 150 GHz and 41 {mu}K arcmin at 220 GHz during the 2008 austral winter season. Two variations on map filtering and map projection are presented, onemore » tailored for producing catalogs of galaxy clusters detected through their Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect signature and one tailored for producing catalogs of emissive sources. We describe the data processing pipeline, and we present instrument response functions, filter transfer functions, and map noise properties. All data products described in this paper are available for download at http://pole.uchicago.edu/public/data/maps/ra5h30dec-55 and from the NASA Legacy Archive for Microwave Background Data Analysis server. This is the first step in the eventual release of data from the full 2500 deg{sup 2} SPT survey.« less

Source Detection with Bayesian Inference on ROSAT All-Sky Survey Data Sample

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guglielmetti, F.; Voges, W.; Fischer, R.; Boese, G.; Dose, V.

2004-07-01

We employ Bayesian inference for the joint estimation of sources and background on ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS) data. The probabilistic method allows for detection improvement of faint extended celestial sources compared to the Standard Analysis Software System (SASS). Background maps were estimated in a single step together with the detection of sources without pixel censoring. Consistent uncertainties of background and sources are provided. The source probability is evaluated for single pixels as well as for pixel domains to enhance source detection of weak and extended sources.

Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, Patrick

On a clear, starry night, the jewelled beauty and unimaginable immensity of our Universe is awe-inspiring. Star-gazing with binoculars is rewarding and may begin a lifelong hobby! Patrick Moore has painstakingly researched Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars to describe how to use binoculars for astronomical observation. He explains basic astronomy and the selection of binoculars, then discusses the stars, clusters, nebulae and galaxies that await the observer. The sky seen from northern and southern hemispheres is charted season by season, with detailed maps of all the constellations. The reader can also observe the Sun, Moon, planets, comets and meteors. With many beautiful illustrations, this handbook will be helpful and encouraging to casual observers and those cultivating a more serious interest. The enjoyment of amateur astronomy is now available to everybody.

Rapid damage mapping for the 2015 M7.8 Gorkha earthquake using synthetic aperture radar data from COSMO-SkyMed and ALOS-2 satellites

USGS Publications Warehouse

Yun, Sang-Ho; Hudnut, Kenneth W.; Owen, Susan; Webb, Frank; Simons, Mark; Sacco, Patrizia; Gurrola, Eric; Manipon, Gerald; Liang, Cunren; Fielding, Eric; Milillo, Pietro; Hua, Hook; Coletta, Alessandro

2015-01-01

The 25 April 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake caused more than 8000 fatalities and widespread building damage in central Nepal. The Italian Space Agency’s COSMO–SkyMed Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite acquired data over Kathmandu area four days after the earthquake and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 SAR satellite for larger area nine days after the mainshock. We used these radar observations and rapidly produced damage proxy maps (DPMs) derived from temporal changes in Interferometric SAR coherence. Our DPMs were qualitatively validated through comparison with independent damage analyses by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research’s United Nations Operational Satellite Applications Programme, and based on our own visual inspection of DigitalGlobe’s WorldView optical pre- versus postevent imagery. Our maps were quickly released to responding agencies and the public, and used for damage assessment, determining inspection/imaging priorities, and reconnaissance fieldwork.

Constraints on Cosmological Parameters from the Angular Power Spectrum of a Combined 2500 deg$^2$ SPT-SZ and Planck Gravitational Lensing Map

DOE PAGES

Simard, G.; et al.

2018-06-20

We report constraints on cosmological parameters from the angular power spectrum of a cosmic microwave background (CMB) gravitational lensing potential map created using temperature data from 2500 degmore » $^2$ of South Pole Telescope (SPT) data supplemented with data from Planck in the same sky region, with the statistical power in the combined map primarily from the SPT data. We fit the corresponding lensing angular power spectrum to a model including cold dark matter and a cosmological constant ($$\\Lambda$$CDM), and to models with single-parameter extensions to $$\\Lambda$$CDM. We find constraints that are comparable to and consistent with constraints found using the full-sky Planck CMB lensing data. Specifically, we find $$\\sigma_8 \\Omega_{\\rm m}^{0.25}=0.598 \\pm 0.024$$ from the lensing data alone with relatively weak priors placed on the other $$\\Lambda$$CDM parameters. In combination with primary CMB data from Planck, we explore single-parameter extensions to the $$\\Lambda$$CDM model. We find $$\\Omega_k = -0.012^{+0.021}_{-0.023}$$ or $$M_{\

Constraints on Cosmological Parameters from the Angular Power Spectrum of a Combined 2500 deg$^2$ SPT-SZ and Planck Gravitational Lensing Map

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

Simard, G.; et al.

We report constraints on cosmological parameters from the angular power spectrum of a cosmic microwave background (CMB) gravitational lensing potential map created using temperature data from 2500 degmore » $^2$ of South Pole Telescope (SPT) data supplemented with data from Planck in the same sky region, with the statistical power in the combined map primarily from the SPT data. We fit the corresponding lensing angular power spectrum to a model including cold dark matter and a cosmological constant ($$\\Lambda$$CDM), and to models with single-parameter extensions to $$\\Lambda$$CDM. We find constraints that are comparable to and consistent with constraints found using the full-sky Planck CMB lensing data. Specifically, we find $$\\sigma_8 \\Omega_{\\rm m}^{0.25}=0.598 \\pm 0.024$$ from the lensing data alone with relatively weak priors placed on the other $$\\Lambda$$CDM parameters. In combination with primary CMB data from Planck, we explore single-parameter extensions to the $$\\Lambda$$CDM model. We find $$\\Omega_k = -0.012^{+0.021}_{-0.023}$$ or $$M_{\

Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP1) Observations: Galactic Foreground Emission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gold, B.; Bennett, C.L.; Larson, D.; Hill, R.S.; Odegard, N.; Weiland, J.L.; Hinshaw, G.; Kogut, A.; Wollack, E.; Page, L.;

Summer Crop Classification by Multi-Temporal COSMO-SkyMed® Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guarini, Rocchina; Bruzzone, Lorenzo; Santoni, Massimo; Vuolo, Francesco; Luigi, Dini

2016-08-01

In this study, we propose a multi-temporal and multi- polarization approach to discriminate different crop types in the Marchefel region, Austria. The sensitivity of X-band COSMO-SkyMed® (CSK®) data with respect to five crop classes, namely carrot, corn, potato, soybean and sugarbeet is investigated. In particular, the capabilities of dual-polarization (StripMap PingPong) HH/HV, and single-polarization (StripMap Himage), HH and VH, in distinguishing among the five crop types are evaluated. A total of twenty-one Himage and ten PingPong images were acquired in a seven-months period, from April to October 2014. Therefore, the backscattering coefficient was extracted for each dataset and the classification was performed using a pixel-based support vector machine (SVM) approach. The accuracy of the obtained crop classifications was assessed by comparing them with ground truth. The dual-polarization results are contrasted between the HH and HV polarization, and with single-polarization ones (HH and VH polarizations). The best accuracy is obtained by using time-series of StripMap Himage data, at VH polarization, covering the whole season period.

A CMB foreground study in WMAP data: Extragalactic point sources and zodiacal light emission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Xi

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation is the remnant heat from the Big Bang. It serves as a primary tool to understand the global properties, content and evolution of the universe. Since 2001, NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite has been napping the full sky anisotropy with unprecedented accuracy, precision and reliability. The CMB angular power spectrum calculated from the WMAP full sky maps not only enables accurate testing of cosmological models, but also places significant constraints on model parameters. The CMB signal in the WMAP sky maps is contaminated by microwave emission from the Milky Way and from extragalactic sources. Therefore, in order to use the maps reliably for cosmological studies, the foreground signals must be well understood and removed from the maps. This thesis focuses on the separation of two foreground contaminants from the WMAP maps: extragalactic point sources and zodiacal light emission. Extragalactic point sources constitute the most important foreground on small angular scales. Various methods have been applied to the WMAP single frequency maps to extract sources. However, due to the limited angular resolution of WMAP, it is possible to confuse positive CMB excursions with point sources or miss sources that are embedded in negative CMB fluctuations. We present a novel CMB-free source finding technique that utilizes the spectrum difference of point sources and CMB to form internal linear combinations of multifrequency maps to suppress the CMB and better reveal sources. When applied to the WMAP 41, 64 and 94 GHz maps, this technique has not only enabled detection of sources that are previously cataloged by independent methods, but also allowed disclosure of new sources. Without the noise contribution from the CMB, this method responds rapidly with the integration time. The number of detections varies as 0( t 0.72 in the two-band search and 0( t 0.70 in the three-band search from one year to five years, separately, in comparison to t 0.40 from the WMAP catalogs. Our source catalogs are a good supplement to the existing WMAP source catalogs, and the method itself is proven to be both complementary to and competitive with all the current source finding techniques in WMAP maps. Scattered light and thermal emission from the interplanetary dust (IPD) within our Solar System are major contributors to the diffuse sky brightness at most infrared wavelengths. For wavelengths longer than 3.5 mm, the thermal emission of the IPD dominates over scattering, and the emission is often referred to as the Zodiacal Light Emission (ZLE). To set a limit of ZLE contribution to the WMAP data, we have performed a simultaneous fit of the yearly WMAP time-ordered data to the time variation of ZLE predicted by the DIRBE IPD model (Kelsallet al. 1998) evaluated at 240 mm, plus [cursive l] = 1 - 4 CMB components. It is found that although this fitting procedure can successfully recover the CMB dipole to a 0.5% accuracy, it is not sensitive enough to determine the ZLE signal nor the other multipole moments very accurately.

Probabilistic cosmological mass mapping from weak lensing shear

DOE PAGES

Schneider, M. D.; Ng, K. Y.; Dawson, W. A.; ...

2017-04-10

Here, we infer gravitational lensing shear and convergence fields from galaxy ellipticity catalogs under a spatial process prior for the lensing potential. We demonstrate the performance of our algorithm with simulated Gaussian-distributed cosmological lensing shear maps and a reconstruction of the mass distribution of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 781 using galaxy ellipticities measured with the Deep Lens Survey. Given interim posterior samples of lensing shear or convergence fields on the sky, we describe an algorithm to infer cosmological parameters via lens field marginalization. In the most general formulation of our algorithm we make no assumptions about weak shear ormore » Gaussian-distributed shape noise or shears. Because we require solutions and matrix determinants of a linear system of dimension that scales with the number of galaxies, we expect our algorithm to require parallel high-performance computing resources for application to ongoing wide field lensing surveys.« less

Probabilistic Cosmological Mass Mapping from Weak Lensing Shear

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

Schneider, M. D.; Dawson, W. A.; Ng, K. Y.

2017-04-10

We infer gravitational lensing shear and convergence fields from galaxy ellipticity catalogs under a spatial process prior for the lensing potential. We demonstrate the performance of our algorithm with simulated Gaussian-distributed cosmological lensing shear maps and a reconstruction of the mass distribution of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 781 using galaxy ellipticities measured with the Deep Lens Survey. Given interim posterior samples of lensing shear or convergence fields on the sky, we describe an algorithm to infer cosmological parameters via lens field marginalization. In the most general formulation of our algorithm we make no assumptions about weak shear or Gaussian-distributedmore » shape noise or shears. Because we require solutions and matrix determinants of a linear system of dimension that scales with the number of galaxies, we expect our algorithm to require parallel high-performance computing resources for application to ongoing wide field lensing surveys.« less

LEE VINING INTAKE LOOKING SOUTH. (MOTTLED SKY FROM CONDENSED MOISTURE ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

LEE VINING INTAKE LOOKING SOUTH. (MOTTLED SKY FROM CONDENSED MOISTURE ON NEGATIVE AFFECTING EVEN PROCESSING OF SKY, SAVED FOR DOCUMENTARY PURPOSES) - Los Angeles Aqueduct, Lee Vining Intake Structure, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA

Our Light or Starlight? Citizen Science, Public Involvement and You

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, Constance E.

2010-10-01

With half of the world's population now living in cities, many urban dwellers have never experienced the wonderment of pristinely dark skies and maybe never will. Light pollution is obscuring people's long-standing natural heritage to view stars. The GLOBE at Night program (www.globeatnight.org) is an international citizen-science campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by encouraging everyone everywhere to measure local levels of night sky brightness and contribute observations online to a world map. In the last 5 years, GLOBE at Night has been the most productive public light pollution monitoring campaign, collecting over 52,000 observations in a two-week period annually. This year, during the moonless two weeks in March, the campaign set a record high of over 17,800 measurements from people in 86 countries. Foundational resources are available to facilitate the public's participation in promoting dark skies awareness. The GLOBE at Night website explains clearly the simple-to-participate-in 5 step program and offers background information and interactive games on key concepts. The program has been expanded to include trainings of the general public, but especially educators in schools, museums and science centers, in unique ways. Education kits for dark skies awareness have been distributed at the training workshops. The kit includes material for a light shielding demonstration, a digital Sky Quality Meter and ``Dark Skies Rangers'' activities. The activities are on how unshielded light wastes energy, how light pollution affects wildlife and how you can participate in a citizen-science star-hunt like GLOBE at Night. In addition, projects are being developed for what to do with the data once it is taken. The GLOBE at Night data from different years can be compared to look for trends over time or with population density maps. The data can also be used to search for dark sky oases or to monitor lighting ordinance compliance. Most recently the data has been compared with telemetry of the Lesser Long-Nose Bat near Tucson, Arizona to examine whether or not the bats are preferentially staying in darker areas. The presentation will highlight the education and outreach value of the program's resources and outcomes in communicating awareness with the public and attracting young people to study science.

GLOBE at Night: Raising Public Awareness and Involvement through Citizen Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, C. E.; Pompea, S. M.; Sparks, R. T.

2010-12-01

With half of the world’s population now living in cities, many urban dwellers have never experienced the wonderment of pristinely dark skies and maybe never will. Light pollution is obscuring people’s long-standing natural heritage to view stars. The GLOBE at Night program (www.globeatnight.org) is an international citizen-science campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by encouraging everyone everywhere to measure local levels of night sky brightness and contribute observations online to a world map. In the last 5 years, GLOBE at Night has been the most productive public light pollution monitoring campaign, collecting over 52,000 observations in a two-week period annually. This year, during the moonless two weeks in March, the campaign set a record high of over 17,800 measurements from people in 86 countries. Foundational resources are available to facilitate the public’s participation in promoting dark skies awareness. The GLOBE at Night website explains clearly the simple-to-participate-in 5 step program and offers background information and interactive games on key concepts. The program has been expanded to include trainings of the general public, but especially educators in schools, museums and science centers, in unique ways. Education kits for dark skies awareness have been distributed at the training workshops. The kit includes material for a light shielding demonstration, a digital Sky Quality Meter and “Dark Skies Rangers” activities. The activities are on how unshielded light wastes energy, how light pollution affects wildlife and how you can participate in a citizen-science star-hunt like GLOBE at Night. In addition, projects are being developed for what to do with the data once it is taken. The GLOBE at Night data from different years can be compared to look for trends over time or with population density maps. The data can also be used to search for dark sky oases or to monitor lighting ordinance compliance. Most recently the data has been compared with telemetry of the Lesser Long-Nose Bat near Tucson, Arizona to examine whether or not the bats are preferentially staying in darker areas. The presentation will highlight the education and outreach value of the program’s resources and outcomes in communicating awareness with the public and attracting young people to study science.

Light Pollution Awareness through Globe at Night & IYL2015

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, Constance E.

2015-01-01

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) will be coordinating extensive activities to raise awareness of light pollution through running the Cosmic Light theme of the International Year of Light (IYL2015) and by partnering in particular with the popular Globe at Night program.Globe at Night (www.globeatnight.org) is an international campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by having people measure night-sky brightness and submit observations in real-time with smart phone or later with a computer. In 2015, Globe at Night will run for 10-nights each month, an hour after sunset til before the Moon rises. Students can use the data to monitor levels of light pollution around the world, as well as understand light pollution's effects on energy consumption, plants, wildlife, human health and our ability to enjoy a starry night sky.Since its inception in 2006, more than 115,000 measurements from 115 countries have been reported. The last 9 years of data can be explored with Globe at Night's interactive world map or with the 'map app' to view a particular area. A spreadsheet of the data is downloadable from any year. One can compare Globe at Night data with a variety of other databases to see, for example, how light pollution affects the foraging habits of bats.To encourage public participation in Globe at Night during IYL2015, each month will target an area of the world that habitually contributes during that time. Special concerns for how light pollution affects that area and solutions will be featured on the Globe at Night website (www.globeatnight.org), through its Facebook page, in its newsletter or in the 365DaysofAstronomy.org podcasts.Twice during IYL there will be a global Flash Mob event, one on Super Pi Day (March 14, 2015) and a second in mid-September, where the public will be invited to take night-sky brightness measurements en masse. In April, the International Dark-Sky Week hosted by the International Dark-Sky Association will be featured (www.darksky.org/int-l-dark-sky-week-main) and The World at Night will co-host the sixth annual International Earth and Sky Photo Contest (www.TWANight.org/contest).The poster will provide further updates.

First of Many Asteroid Finds

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-01-23

The red dot at the center of this image is the first near-Earth asteroid discovered by NASA Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE -- an all-sky mapping infrared mission designed to see all sorts of cosmic objects.

Clumps of Cold Stuff Across the Sky

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-01-11

This map illustrates the numerous star-forming clouds, called cold cores, that European Space Agency Planck observed throughout our Milky Way galaxy. Planck detected around 10,000 of these cores, thousands of which had never been seen before.

TW Hydrae Family of Stars

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-04-19

A sky map taken by NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, shows the location of the TW Hydrae family, or association, of stars, which lies about 175 light-years from Earth and is centered in the Hydra constellation.

A map of the cosmic background radiation at 3 millimeters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lubin, P.; Villela, T.; Epstein, G.; Smoot, G.

1985-01-01

Data from a series of balloon flights covering both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, measuring the large angular scale anisotropy in the cosmic background radiation at 3.3 mm wavelength are presented. The data cover 85 percent of the sky to a limiting sensitivity of 0.7 mK per 7 deg field of view. The data show a 50-sigma (statistical error only) dipole anisotropy with an amplitude of 3.44 + or - 0.17 mK and a direction of alpha = 11.2 h + or - 0.1 h, and delta = -6.0 deg + or - 1.5 deg. A 90 percent confidence level upper limit of 0.00007 is obtained for the rms quadrupole amplitude. Flights separated by 6 months show the motion of earth around the sun. Galactic contamination is very small, with less than 0.1 mK contribution to the dipole quadrupole terms. A map of the sky has been generated from the data.

Semi-blind Bayesian inference of CMB map and power spectrum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vansyngel, Flavien; Wandelt, Benjamin D.; Cardoso, Jean-François; Benabed, Karim

2016-04-01

We present a new blind formulation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) inference problem. The approach relies on a phenomenological model of the multifrequency microwave sky without the need for physical models of the individual components. For all-sky and high resolution data, it unifies parts of the analysis that had previously been treated separately such as component separation and power spectrum inference. We describe an efficient sampling scheme that fully explores the component separation uncertainties on the inferred CMB products such as maps and/or power spectra. External information about individual components can be incorporated as a prior giving a flexible way to progressively and continuously introduce physical component separation from a maximally blind approach. We connect our Bayesian formalism to existing approaches such as Commander, spectral mismatch independent component analysis (SMICA), and internal linear combination (ILC), and discuss possible future extensions.

New atlas of open star clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seleznev, Anton F.; Avvakumova, Ekaterina; Kulesh, Maxim; Filina, Julia; Tsaregorodtseva, Polina; Kvashnina, Alvira

2017-11-01

Due to numerous new discoveries of open star clusters in the last two decades, astronomers need an easy-touse resource to get visual information on the relative position of clusters in the sky. Therefore we propose a new atlas of open star clusters. It is based on a table compiled from the largest modern cluster catalogues. The atlas shows the positions and sizes of 3291 clusters and associations, and consists of two parts. The first contains 108 maps of 12 by 12 degrees with an overlapping of 2 degrees in three strips along the Galactic equator. The second one is an online web application, which shows a square field of an arbitrary size, either in equatorial coordinates or in galactic coordinates by request. The atlas is proposed for the sampling of clusters and cluster stars for further investigation. Another use is the identification of clusters among overdensities in stellar density maps or among stellar groups in images of the sky.

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Source Catalog

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wright, E.L.; Chen, X.; Odegard, N.; Bennett, C.L.; Hill, R.S.; Hinshaw, G.; Jarosik, N.; Komatsu, E.; Nolta, M.R.; Page, L.;

Gaussian statistics of the cosmic microwave background: Correlation of temperature extrema in the COBE DMR two-year sky maps

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kogut, A.; Banday, A. J.; Bennett, C. L.; Hinshaw, G.; Lubin, P. M.; Smoot, G. F.

1995-01-01

We use the two-point correlation function of the extrema points (peaks and valleys) in the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) Differential Microwave Radiometers (DMR) 2 year sky maps as a test for non-Gaussian temperature distribution in the cosmic microwave background anisotropy. A maximum-likelihood analysis compares the DMR data to n = 1 toy models whose random-phase spherical harmonic components a(sub lm) are drawn from either Gaussian, chi-square, or log-normal parent populations. The likelihood of the 53 GHz (A+B)/2 data is greatest for the exact Gaussian model. There is less than 10% chance that the non-Gaussian models tested describe the DMR data, limited primarily by type II errors in the statistical inference. The extrema correlation function is a stronger test for this class of non-Gaussian models than topological statistics such as the genus.

An investigation of multispectral imaging for the mapping of pigments in paintings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Yonghui; Berns, Roy S.; Taplin, Lawrence A.; Coddington, James

2008-02-01

Compared with colorimetric imaging, multispectral imaging has the advantage of retrieving spectral reflectance factor of each pixel of a painting. Using this spectral information, pigment mapping is concerned with decomposing the spectrum into its constituent pigments and their relative contributions. The output of pigment mapping is a series of spatial concentration maps of the pigments comprising the painting. This approach was used to study Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night. The artist's palette was approximated using ten oil pigments, selected from a large database of pigments used in oil paintings and a priori analytical research on one of his self portraits, executed during the same time period. The pigment mapping was based on single-constant Kubelka-Munk theory. It was found that the region of blue sky where the stars were located contained, predominantly, ultramarine blue while the swirling sky and region surrounding the moon contained, predominantly, cobalt blue. Emerald green, used in light bluish-green brushstrokes surrounding the moon, was not used to create the dark green in the cypresses. A measurement of lead white from Georges Seurat's La Grande Jatte was used as the white when mapping The Starry Night. The absorption and scattering properties of this white were replaced with a modern dispersion of lead white in linseed oil and used to simulate the painting's appearance before the natural darkening and yellowing of lead white oil paint. Pigment mapping based on spectral imaging was found to be a viable and practical approach for analyzing pigment composition, providing new insight into an artist's working method, the possibility for aiding in restorative inpainting, and lighting design.

The Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer: Science from Circular Polarization Measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Switzer, Eric; Ade, P.; Benford, D. J.; Bennett, C. L.; Chuss, D. T.; Dotson, J. L.; Eimer, J.; Fixsen, D. J.; Halpern, M.; Hinshaw, G. F.; Irwin, K.; Jhabvala, C.; Johnson, B.; Kogut, A. J.; Lazear, J.; Mirel, P.; Moseley, S. H.; Staguhn, J.; Tucker, C. E.; Weston, A.; Wollack, E.

2014-01-01

The Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer (PIPER) is a balloon-borne CMB polarimeter designed to constrain the B-mode signature of cosmological inflation. Sequential one-day flights from Northern- and Southern- Hemisphere sites will yield maps of Stokes I, Q, U and V at 200, 270, 350 and 600 GHz over 85% of the sky. The full optical path is cooled to 1.5 K by liquid helium in the ARCADE bucket dewar, and a variable-delay polarization modulator (VPM) at the front of the optics modulates the polarization response. Independent Q and U cameras each have two 32x40 Transition Edge Sensor array receivers. In addition to its primary inflationary science goal, PIPER will also measure the circular (Stokes V) polarization to a depth similar to that of the primary linear polarization. The circular polarization has received relatively little attention in large-area surveys, with constraints from the 1980’s and recent results by the Milan Polarimeter. Astrophysical circular polarization is generally tied to the presence of magnetic fields, either in relativistic plasmas or Zeeman splitting of resonances. These effects are thought to be undetectable at PIPER's frequencies and resolution, despite the depth. The expectation of a null result makes the deep Stokes V map a good cross-check for experimental systematics. More fundamentally, the fact that the sky is expected to be dark in Stokes V makes it a sector sensitive to processes such as Lorentz-violating terms in the standard model or magnetic fields in the CMB era.

Herschel-PACS photometry of faint stars for sensitivity performance assessment and establishment of faint FIR primary photometric standards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klaas, U.; Balog, Z.; Nielbock, M.; Müller, T. G.; Linz, H.; Kiss, Cs.

2018-05-01

Aims: Our aims are to determine flux densities and their photometric accuracy for a set of seventeen stars that range in flux from intermediately bright (≲2.5 Jy) to faint (≳5 mJy) in the far-infrared (FIR). We also aim to derive signal-to-noise dependence with flux and time, and compare the results with predictions from the Herschel exposure-time calculation tool. Methods: We obtain aperture photometry from Herschel-PACS high-pass-filtered scan maps and chop/nod observations of the faint stars. The issues of detection limits and sky confusion noise are addressed by comparison of the field-of-view at different wavelengths, by multi-aperture photometry, by special processing of the maps to preserve extended emission, and with the help of large-scale absolute sky brightness maps from AKARI. This photometry is compared with flux-density predictions based on photospheric models for these stars. We obtain a robust noise estimate by fitting the flux distribution per map pixel histogram for the area around the stars, scaling it for the applied aperture size and correcting for noise correlation. Results: For 15 stars we obtain reliable photometry in at least one PACS filter, and for 11 stars we achieve this in all three PACS filters (70, 100, 160 μm). Faintest fluxes, for which the photometry still has good quality, are about 10-20 mJy with scan map photometry. The photometry of seven stars is consistent with models or flux predictions for pure photospheric emission, making them good primary standard candidates. Two stars exhibit source-intrinsic far-infrared excess: β Gem (Pollux), being the host star of a confirmed Jupiter-size exoplanet, due to emission of an associated dust disk, and η Dra due to dust emission in a binary system with a K1 dwarf. The investigation of the 160 μm sky background and environment of four sources reveals significant sky confusion prohibiting the determination of an accurate stellar flux at this wavelength. As a good model approximation, for nine stars we obtain scaling factors of the continuum flux models of four PACS fiducial standards with the same or quite similar spectral type. We can verify a linear dependence of signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) with flux and with square root of time over significant ranges. At 160 μm the latter relation is, however, affected by confusion noise. Conclusions: The PACS faint star sample has allowed a comprehensive sensitivity assessment of the PACS photometer. Accurate photometry allows us to establish a set of five FIR primary standard candidates, namely α Ari, ɛ Lep, ω Cap, HD 41047 and 42 Dra, which are 2-20 times fainter than the faintest PACS fiducial standard (γ Dra) with absolute accuracy of <6%. For three of these primary standard candidates, essential stellar parameters are known, meaning that a dedicated flux model code may be run. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.Tables A.3 to A.5 and B.1 to B.3 are only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/613/A40

A large-scale extinction map of the Galactic Anticentre from 2MASS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Froebrich, D.; Murphy, G. C.; Smith, M. D.; Walsh, J.; Del Burgo, C.

2007-07-01

We present a 127 × 63-deg2 extinction map of the Anticentre of the Galaxy, based on < J - H > and < H - K > colour excess maps from the Two-Micron All-Sky Survey. This 8001-deg2 map with a resolution of 4 arcmin is provided as online material. The colour excess ratio < J - H >/< H - K > is used to determine the power-law index of the reddening law (β) for individual regions contained in the area (e.g. Orion, Perseus, Taurus, Auriga, Monoceros, Camelopardalis, Cassiopeia). On average we find a dominant value of β = 1.8 +/- 0.2 for the individual clouds, in agreement with the canonical value for the interstellar medium. We also show that there is an internal scatter of β values in these regions, and that in some areas more than one dominant β values are present. This indicates large-scale variations in the dust properties. The analysis of the AV values within individual regions shows a change in the slope of the column density distribution with distance. This can be attributed either to a change in the governing physical processes in molecular clouds on spatial scales of about 1pc or to an AV dilution with distance in our map.

COSMO-SkyMed and GIS applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Milillo, Pietro; Sole, Aurelia; Serio, Carmine

2013-04-01

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing have become key technology tools for the collection, storage and analysis of spatially referenced data. Industries that utilise these spatial technologies include agriculture, forestry, mining, market research as well as the environmental analysis . Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a coherent active sensor operating in the microwave band which exploits relative motion between antenna and target in order to obtain a finer spatial resolution in the flight direction exploiting the Doppler effect. SAR have wide applications in Remote Sensing such as cartography, surface deformation detection, forest cover mapping, urban planning, disasters monitoring , surveillance etc… The utilization of satellite remote sensing and GIS technology for this applications has proven to be a powerful and effective tool for environmental monitoring. Remote sensing techniques are often less costly and time-consuming for large geographic areas compared to conventional methods, moreover GIS technology provides a flexible environment for, analyzing and displaying digital data from various sources necessary for classification, change detection and database development. The aim of this work si to illustrate the potential of COSMO-SkyMed data and SAR applications in a GIS environment, in particular a demostration of the operational use of COSMO-SkyMed SAR data and GIS in real cases will be provided for what concern DEM validation, river basin estimation, flood mapping and landslide monitoring.

Imaging and mapping the impact of clouds on skyglow with all-sky photometry.

PubMed

Jechow, Andreas; Kolláth, Zoltán; Ribas, Salvador J; Spoelstra, Henk; Hölker, Franz; Kyba, Christopher C M

2017-07-27

Artificial skyglow is constantly growing on a global scale, with potential ecological consequences ranging up to affecting biodiversity. To understand these consequences, worldwide mapping of skyglow for all weather conditions is urgently required. In particular, the amplification of skyglow by clouds needs to be studied, as clouds can extend the reach of skyglow into remote areas not affected by light pollution on clear nights. Here we use commercial digital single lens reflex cameras with fisheye lenses for all-sky photometry. We track the reach of skyglow from a peri-urban into a remote area on a clear and a partly cloudy night by performing transects from the Spanish town of Balaguer towards Montsec Astronomical Park. From one single all-sky image, we extract zenith luminance, horizontal and scalar illuminance. While zenith luminance reaches near-natural levels at 5 km distance from the town on the clear night, similar levels are only reached at 27 km on the partly cloudy night. Our results show the dramatic increase of the reach of skyglow even for moderate cloud coverage at this site. The powerful and easy-to-use method promises to be widely applicable for studies of ecological light pollution on a global scale also by non-specialists in photometry.

Finding Comet Halley.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glenn, William H.

1985-01-01

Provides background information and references on Comet Halley (which will be observable by telescope in October 1985 and reach its most brilliant appearance in March and April of 1986). Suggestions for equipment and maps of its path through the sky are included. (DH)

Globe At Night: A Dark-skies Awareness Campaign During The International Year Of Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, Constance E.; Isbell, D.; Pompea, S. M.; Smith, D. A.; Baker, T.

2009-01-01

GLOBE at Night is an international citizen-science event encouraging everyone, scientists, non-scientists, students and the general public, to measure local levels of light pollution and contribute the observations online to a world map. This program is a centerpiece of the Dark Skies Awareness Global Cornerstone Project for the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) as well as the US IYA "Dark Skies are a Universal Resource” theme for 2009. Its goal is to raise public awareness of the impact of artificial lighting on local environments by getting people involved. Utilizing the international networks of its hosts, the GLOBE program at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the Environmental Systems Research Institute, along with the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the Association of Science and Technology Centers, the Astronomical League and the International Dark-Sky Association, GLOBE at Night is able to engage people from around the world. Data collection and online reporting is simple and user-friendly. During a 13-day campaign in each spring, citizen-scientists take data on light pollution levels by comparing observations with stellar maps of limiting magnitudes toward the constellation, Orion. For more precise measurements, citizen-scientists use digital sky brightness meters. During the campaign period over the last 3 years, 20,000 measurements from 100 countries have been logged. The collected data is available online in a variety of formats and for comparison with data from previous years, Earth at Night satellite data and population density data. We will discuss how students and scientists worldwide can explore and analyze these results. We will provide the "know-how” and the means for session participants to become community advocates for GLOBE at Night in their hometowns. We will also discuss lessons learned, best practices and campaign plans during IYA (March 16-28, 2009). For more information, visit http://www.globe.gov/GaN/.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: The VLA Low-frequency Sky Survey at 74MHz (Perley+ 2006)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perley, R. A.; Condon, J. J.; Cotton, W. D.; Cohen, A. S.; Lane, W. M.; Kassim, N. E.; Lazio, T. J. W.; Erickson, W. C.

2006-08-01

The VLA Low-Frequency Sky Survey (VLSS) is a 74MHz (4m) continuum survey covering the entire sky north of -30{deg} declination. Using the VLA in B- and BnA-configurations, we will map the entire survey region at a resolution of 80" and with an average rms noise of 0.1 Jy/beam. For a detailed description of the survey and its scientific motivations, please see the original proposal to the NRAO skeptical review committee. The VLSS is being made as a service to the astronomical community, and the principal data products are being released to the public as soon as they are produced and verified. Details and access to the images can be found at http://lwa.nrl.navy.mil/VLSS/ (1 data file).

A walk through the heavens : a guide to stars and constellations and their legends

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heifetz, Milton D.; Tirion, Wil

What star is that? Where's the Great Bear? Who was Andromeda? A Walk through the Heavens is your guide to the pathways of the night sky, answering the commonest questions about what you can see up there. There are simplified maps of the constellations, together with instructions on how to gauge their sizes and the distances between them. With this information you can find the constellations easily, and make a journey by eye from one constellation to the next. Ancient myths surrounding the constellations are retold, enriching our understanding of how historical peoples saw the awe-inspiring spectacle of a sky sprinkled with stars. This book, magically illustrated by Wil Tirion, does not require any instrument or telescope. It is an ideal introduction to launch a young astronomer on a journey across starlit skies.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: The VLA Low-frequency Sky Survey at 74MHz (Cohen+ 2007)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cohen, A. S.; Lane, W. M.; Cotton, W. D.; Kassim, N. E.; Lazio, T. J. W.; Perley, R. A.; Condon, J. J.; Erickson, W. C.

2006-08-01

The VLA Low-Frequency Sky Survey (VLSS) is a 74MHz (4m) continuum survey covering the entire sky north of -30{deg} declination. Using the VLA in B- and BnA-configurations, we will map the entire survey region at a resolution of 80" and with an average rms noise of 0.1 Jy/beam. For a detailed description of the survey and its scientific motivations, please see the original proposal to the NRAO skeptical review committee. The VLSS is being made as a service to the astronomical community, and the principal data products are being released to the public as soon as they are produced and verified. Details and access to the images can be found at http://lwa.nrl.navy.mil/VLSS/ (1 data file).

Modeling Illumination Conditions on the Moon: Applications to LRO-LAMP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Byron, B. D.; Mazarico, E. M.; Retherford, K. D.; Mandt, K. E.; Greathouse, T.; Gladstone, R.

2017-12-01

LRO-LAMP is a UV spectrograph which uses illumination from Lyman-α sky glow along with UV light from bright stars to image the dark, permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) of the lunar surface. Accurate modeling of this UV illumination is essential to creating albedo maps of the lunar surface, which can shed light on lunar regolith processes and help to constrain the distribution of water ice in polar PSRs. In this study, the variation in reflected intensity received by the LAMP detector was modeled for South Pole crater Amundsen using the illumination program IllumNG. Amundsen was chosen for study due to the PSR in its Northern side and its highly illuminated equator-facing slopes on the Southern wall. The model works by tracing a ray from each LAMP detector pixel along its boresight until the point where it intersects the lunar surface, and calculating the percentage of the total source flux visible above the horizon. In this study, the three main illumination sources used are the Sun, Interplanetary Lyman-α sky glow, and bright UV starlight in the On Band (130-155 nm) and Off Band (155-190 nm) wavelength ranges. The model also has the capability to calculate incident flux received at the surface, as well as intensity reflected from the surface and received by the LAMP detector along each boresight. The study found a noticeable variation in received intensity between six month stretches for the year of 2010. Over the period of January through July, about 6% more IPM Lyman-α flux was reflected from the surface of Amundsen than for July through December. For stellar flux in the On Band, a 13% difference in flux was reflected between the six month periods. In comparing the monthly intensity maps created by the model with LAMP measured monthly brightness maps, similar crater features are apparent. Though the model brightness is generally higher than the LAMP brightness, after accounting for albedo ( 0.05 for the South Pole region) the values are in closer agreement. In the future, inclusion of the model results during pipeline processing could enable better calibration and analysis of LAMP data.

Songlines and navigation in Wardaman and other Australian Aboriginal cultures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Norris, Ray P.; Harney, Bill Yidumdum

2014-07-01

We discuss the songlines and navigation of the Wardaman people, and place them in context by comparing them with corresponding practices in other Aboriginal Australian language groups, using previously-unpublished information and also information drawn from the literature. Songlines are effectively oral maps of the landscape, enabling the transmission of oral navigational skills in cultures that do not have a written language. In many cases, songlines on the Earth are mirrored by songlines in the sky, enabling the sky to be used as a navigational tool, both by using it as a compass and by using it as a mnemonic.

COBE DMR-normalized open inflation cold dark matter cosmogony

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gorski, Krzysztof M.; Ratra, Bharat; Sugiyama, Naoshi; Banday, Anthony J.

1995-01-01

A cut-sky orthogonal mode analysis of the 2 year COBE DMR 53 and 90 GHz sky maps (in Galactic coordinates) is used to determine the normalization of an open inflation model based on the cold dark matter (CDM) scenario. The normalized model is compared to measures of large-scale structure in the universe. Although the DMR data alone does not provide sufficient discriminative power to prefer a particular value of the mass density parameter, the open model appears to be reasonably consistent with observations when Omega(sub 0) is approximately 0.3-0.4 and merits further study.

Detection of Galaxy Cluster Motions with the Kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hand, Nick; Addison, Graeme E.; Aubourg, Eric; Battaglia, Nick; Battistelli, Elia S.; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Bond, J. Richard; Brewington, Howard; Brinkmann, Jon; Brown, Benjamin R.;

Estimate of the cosmological bispectrum from the MAXIMA-1 cosmic microwave background map.

PubMed

Santos, M G; Balbi, A; Borrill, J; Ferreira, P G; Hanany, S; Jaffe, A H; Lee, A T; Magueijo, J; Rabii, B; Richards, P L; Smoot, G F; Stompor, R; Winant, C D; Wu, J H P

2002-06-17

We use the measurement of the cosmic microwave background taken during the MAXIMA-1 flight to estimate the bispectrum of cosmological perturbations. We propose an estimator for the bispectrum that is appropriate in the flat sky approximation, apply it to the MAXIMA-1 data, and evaluate errors using bootstrap methods. We compare the estimated value with what would be expected if the sky signal were Gaussian and find that it is indeed consistent, with a chi(2) per degree of freedom of approximately unity. This measurement places constraints on models of inflation.

Ten days of astronomy for 50 children

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Godier, Stéphanie; Mathias, Katia

2011-06-01

We present a 10 day-long astronomical discovery class for children from 10 up to 12 years old. ``Classical'' workshops dealing with constellations, sky maps, sundiala, rocket construction and launching, Sun and deep sky observations are proposed to children. In addition, we present our own workshops that can be achieved by children as research projects in a scientific, literary or in an artistic way. In this context, the rôle of astronomy is both educational and social for children. Scientific rudiments are passed on from scientific educators to pupils and from pupils to their families. Astronomy is an unifying science for everyone.

Diagnostics of the Solar Wind and Global Heliosphere with Lyman-α Emission Measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Provornikova, E. P.; Izmodenov, V. V.; Laming, J. M.; Strachan, L.; Wood, B. E.; Katushkina, O. A.; Ko, Y.-K.; Tun Beltran, S.; Chakrabarti, S.

2018-02-01

We propose to develop an instrument measuring full sky intensity maps and spectra of interplanetary Lyman-α emission to reveal the global solar wind variability and the nature of the heliosphere and the local interstellar medium.

Light Pollution Surveys around the Seoul Capital Area: Results from 2009 and 2014

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Jinhee; An, Sung-Ho; Bae, Hyun-Jin; Roh, Eunji; Chiang, Howoo; Kim, Jinhyub; Kim, Seongjoong; Park, Songyoun

2015-08-01

We conducted a series of light pollution surveys in the periods of 2009/2010 and 2014/2015 at ~130 sites within the Seoul Capital Area of South Korea. We quantitatively measured the night sky brightness in the unit of mag/arcsec2 with the ‘SQM (Sky Quality Meter)-L’ by considering the following conditions: 1) fully dark sky after astronomical twilight, 2) good weather with the cloud amount less than 10%, and 3) ensure no contaminations from nearby street lights to the measured value. We find that the night sky is getting darker from the center of Seoul to the outskirts of Gyeonggi-do by a factor of ~40. In both surveys, for example, the brightest site is Namsan Elementary School (Jung-gu, Seoul: 16.3 and 16.5 mag/arcsec2 in 2009/2010 and 2014/2015, respectively), located nearly at the middle of Seoul. Also, the darkest site is Goseong-ri (Gapyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do: 20.1 and 20.6 mag/arcsec2 in 2009/2010 and 2014/2015, respectively), situated ~50 km northeast of the brightest site. In addition, the night sky brightness in 2014/2015 is on average darker by ~0.4 mag/arcsec2 compared to the brightness in 2009/2010, which indicates the reduced light pollution in the Seoul Capital Area. In this contribution, we will present the maps of the night sky brightness in the capital region of Korea from both surveys, and discuss the possible reasons for the changes in night sky brightness within 5 years.

CONCAM's Fuzzy-Logic All-Sky Star Recognition Algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shamir, L.; Nemiroff, R. J.

2004-05-01

One of the purposes of the global Night Sky Live (NSL) network of fisheye CONtinuous CAMeras (CONCAMs) is to monitor and archive the entire bright night sky, track stellar variability, and search for transients. The high quality of raw CONCAM data allows automation of stellar object recognition, although distortions of the fisheye lens and frequent slight shifts in CONCAM orientations can make even this seemingly simple task formidable. To meet this challenge, a fuzzy logic based algorithm has been developed that transforms (x,y) image coordinates in the CCD frame into fuzzy right ascension and declination coordinates for use in matching with star catalogs. Using a training set of reference stars, the algorithm statically builds the fuzzy logic model. At runtime, the algorithm searches for peaks, and then applies the fuzzy logic model to perform the coordinate transformation before choosing the optimal star catalog match. The present fuzzy-logic algorithm works much better than our first generation, straightforward coordinate transformation formula. Following this essential step, algorithms dealing with the higher level data products can then provide a stream of photometry for a few hundred stellar objects visible in the night sky. Accurate photometry further enables the computation of all-sky maps of skyglow and opacity, as well as a search for uncataloged transients. All information is stored in XML-like tagged ASCII files that are instantly copied to the public domain and available at http://NightSkyLive.net. Currently, the NSL software detects stars and creates all-sky image files from eight different locations around the globe every 3 minutes and 56 seconds.

Planck 2015 results: XXII. A map of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect

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

Aghanim, N.; Arnaud, M.; Ashdown, M.

In this article, we have constructed all-sky Compton parameters maps, y-maps, of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect by applying specifically tailored component separation algorithms to the 30 to 857 GHz frequency channel maps from the Planck satellite. These reconstructed y-maps are delivered as part of the Planck 2015 release. The y-maps are characterized in terms of noise properties and residual foreground contamination, mainly thermal dust emission at large angular scales, and cosmic infrared background and extragalactic point sources at small angular scales. Specific masks are defined to minimize foreground residuals and systematics. Using these masks, we compute the y-map angularmore » power spectrum and higher order statistics. From these we conclude that the y-map is dominated by tSZ signal in the multipole range, 20« less

Planck 2015 results: XXII. A map of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect

DOE PAGES

Aghanim, N.; Arnaud, M.; Ashdown, M.; ...

2016-09-20

In this article, we have constructed all-sky Compton parameters maps, y-maps, of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect by applying specifically tailored component separation algorithms to the 30 to 857 GHz frequency channel maps from the Planck satellite. These reconstructed y-maps are delivered as part of the Planck 2015 release. The y-maps are characterized in terms of noise properties and residual foreground contamination, mainly thermal dust emission at large angular scales, and cosmic infrared background and extragalactic point sources at small angular scales. Specific masks are defined to minimize foreground residuals and systematics. Using these masks, we compute the y-map angularmore » power spectrum and higher order statistics. From these we conclude that the y-map is dominated by tSZ signal in the multipole range, 20« less

After SDSS-IV: Pioneering Panoptic Spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kollmeier, Juna; AS4 Collaboration

2018-01-01

I will describe the current plans for a next generation sky survey that will begin After SDSS-IV --- AS4. AS4 will be an unprecedented all-sky spectroscopic survey of over six million objects. It is designed to decode the history of the Milky Way galaxy, trace the emergence of the chemical elements, reveal the inner workings of stars, the growth of black holes, and investigate the origin of planets. It will provide the most comprehensive all-sky spectroscopy to multiply the science from the Gaia, TESS and eROSITA missions. AS4 will also create a contiguous spectroscopic map of the interstellar gas in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies that is 1,000 times larger than the state of the art, uncovering the self-regulation mechanisms of Galactic ecosystems. It will pioneer systematic, spectroscopic monitoring across the whole sky, revealing changes on timescales from 20 minutes to 20 years. The project is now developing new hardware to build on the SDSS-IV infrastructure, designing the detailed survey strategy, and actively seeking to complete its consortium of institutional and individual members.

First-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Galactic Signal Contamination from Sidelobe Pickup

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnes, C.; Hill, R. S.; Hinshaw, G.; Page, L.; Bennett, C. L.; Halpern, M.; Jarosik, N.; Kogut, A.; Limon, M.; Meyer, S. S.; Tucker, G. S.; Wollack, E.; Wright, E. L.

2003-09-01

Since the Galactic center is ~1000 times brighter than fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), CMB experiments must carefully account for stray Galactic pickup. We present the level of contamination due to sidelobes for the first-year CMB maps produced by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) observatory. For each radiometer, full 4π sr antenna gain patterns are determined from a combination of numerical prediction and ground-based and space-based measurements. These patterns are convolved with the WMAP first-year sky maps and observatory scan pattern to generate the expected sidelobe signal contamination, for both intensity and polarized microwave sky maps. When the main beams are outside of the Galactic plane, we find rms values for the expected sidelobe pickup of 15, 2.1, 2.0, 0.3, and 0.5 μK for the K, Ka, Q, V, and W bands, respectively. Except for at the K band, the rms polarized contamination is <<1 μK. Angular power spectra of the Galactic pickup are presented. WMAP is the result of a partnership between Princeton University and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Scientific guidance is provided by the WMAP Science Team.

A measurement of the large-scale cosmic microwave background anisotropy at 1.8 millimeter wavelength

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meyer, Stephan S.; Cheng, Edward S.; Page, Lyman A.

1991-01-01

This measurement of the large-scale cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) anisotropy places the most stringent constraints to date on fluctuations in the CMBR on angular scales greater than about 4 deg. Using a four-channel bolometric radiometer operating at 1.8, 1.1, 0.63, and 0.44 mm, the diffuse sky brightness over half of the northern hemisphere has been mapped with an angular resolution of 3.8 deg. Analysis of the sky map at the longest wavelength for Galactic latitudes of 15 deg or more yields a 95-percent confidence level upper limit on fluctuations of the CMBR at Delta T/T of 1.6 x 10 to the -5th with a statistical power of 92 percent for Gaussian fluctuations at a correlation angle of 13 deg. Between 3 deg and 22 deg, the upper limit of fluctuations is 4.0 x 10 to the -5th . An anisotropy is detected in the map, but it cannot yet be attributed to primordial sources. The ultimate sensitivity for this experiment is 7 x 10 to the -6th over this angular range for Gaussian fluctuations.

GLOBE at Night: a Citizen-Science, Dark Skies Awareness Star Hunt during the International Year of Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, C. E.; Pompea, S. M.

2008-12-01

GLOBE at Night is an international citizen-science event encouraging everyone, students, the general public, scientists and non-scientists, to measure local levels of light pollution and contribute observations online to a world map. This program is part of the Dark Skies Awareness Global Cornerstone Project for the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) in 2009. Its goal is to raise public awareness of the impact of artificial lighting on local environments by getting people involved. Utilizing the international networks of its hosts, the GLOBE program at UCAR and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, as well as Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the Association of Science and Technology Centers, the Astronomical League and the International Dark-Sky Association, GLOBE at Night is able to engage people from around the world. Data collection and online reporting is simple and user-friendly. During a 13-day campaign in February or March, citizen-scientists take data on light pollution levels by comparing observations with stellar maps of limiting magnitudes toward the constellation, Orion. For more precise measurements, citizen-scientists use digital sky brightness meters. During the campaign period over the last 3 years, 20,000 measurements from 100 countries have been logged. The collected data is available online in a variety of formats and for comparison with data from previous years, Earth at Night satellite data and population density data. We will discuss how students and scientists worldwide can explore and analyze these results. We will provide the "know-how" and the means for session participants to become community advocates for GLOBE at Night in their hometowns. We will also discuss lessons learned, best practices and campaign plans during IYA (March 16-28, 2009). For more information, visit http://www.globe.gov/GaN/.

A cross-correlation study of the Fermi-LAT γ-ray diffuse extragalactic signal

DOE PAGES

Xia, Jun -Qing; Cuoco, Alessandro; Branchini, Enzo; ...

2011-09-12

In this work, starting from 21 months of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), we derive maps of the residual isotropic γ-ray emission, a relevant fraction of which is expected to be contributed by the extragalactic diffuse γ-ray background (EGB). We search for the auto-correlation signals in the above γ-ray maps and for the cross-correlation signal with the angular distribution of different classes of objects that trace the large-scale structure of the Universe. We compute the angular two-point auto-correlation function of the residual Fermi-LAT maps at energies E > 1 GeV, E > 3 GeV and E >more » 30 GeV well above the Galactic plane and find no significant correlation signal. This is, indeed, what is expected if the EGB were contributed by BL Lacertae (BLLacs), Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs) or star-forming galaxies, since, in this case, the predicted signal is very weak. Then, we search for the Integrated Sachs–Wolfe (ISW) signature by cross-correlating the Fermi-LAT maps with the 7-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe ( WMAP7) cosmic microwave background map. We find a cross-correlation consistent with zero, even though the expected signal is larger than that of the EGB auto-correlation. Lastly, in an attempt to constrain the nature of the γ-ray background, we cross-correlate the Fermi-LAT maps with the angular distributions of objects that may contribute to the EGB: quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6 (SDSS-DR6) catalogue, NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) galaxies, Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) galaxies and Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) in the SDSS catalogue. The cross-correlation is always consistent with zero, in agreement with theoretical expectations, but we find (with low statistical significance) some interesting features that may indicate that some specific classes of objects contribute to the EGB. A χ 2 analysis confirms that the correlation properties of the 21-month data do not provide strong constraints of the EGB origin. However, the results suggest that the situation will significantly improve with the 5- and 10-yr Fermi-LAT data. In future, the EGB analysis will then allow placing significant constraints on the nature of the EGB and might provide, in addition, a detection of the ISW signal.« less

Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Observations: Data Processing, Sky Maps, and Basic Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinshaw, G.; Weiland, J. L.; Hill, R. S.; Odegard, N.; Larson, D.; Bennett, C. L.; Dunkley, J.; Gold, B.; Greason, M. R.; Jarosik, N.;

Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Observations: Data Processing, Sky Maps, and Basic Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hinshaw, G.; Weiland, J. L.; Hill, R. S.; Odegard, N.; Larson, D.; Bennett, C. L.; Dunkley, J.; Gold, B.; Greason, M. R.; Jarosik, N.; Komatsu, E.; Nolta, M. R.; Page, L.; Spergel, D. N.; Wollack, E.; Halpern, M.; Kogut, A.; Limon, M.; Meyer, S. S.; Tucker, G. S.; Wright, E. L.

2009-02-01

We present new full-sky temperature and polarization maps in five frequency bands from 23 to 94 GHz, based on data from the first five years of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) sky survey. The new maps are consistent with previous maps and are more sensitive. The five-year maps incorporate several improvements in data processing made possible by the additional years of data and by a more complete analysis of the instrument calibration and in-flight beam response. We present several new tests for systematic errors in the polarization data and conclude that W-band polarization data is not yet suitable for cosmological studies, but we suggest directions for further study. We do find that Ka-band data is suitable for use; in conjunction with the additional years of data, the addition of Ka band to the previously used Q- and V-band channels significantly reduces the uncertainty in the optical depth parameter, τ. Further scientific results from the five-year data analysis are presented in six companion papers and are summarized in Section 7 of this paper. With the five-year WMAP data, we detect no convincing deviations from the minimal six-parameter ΛCDM model: a flat universe dominated by a cosmological constant, with adiabatic and nearly scale-invariant Gaussian fluctuations. Using WMAP data combined with measurements of Type Ia supernovae and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the galaxy distribution, we find (68% CL uncertainties): Ω b h 2 = 0.02267+0.00058 -0.00059, Ω c h 2 = 0.1131 ± 0.0034, ΩΛ = 0.726 ± 0.015, ns = 0.960 ± 0.013, τ = 0.084 ± 0.016, and Δ_{R}^2 = (2.445± 0.096)× 10^{-9} at k = 0.002 Mpc-1. From these we derive σ8 = 0.812 ± 0.026, H 0 = 70.5 ± 1.3 km s-1 Mpc-1, Ω b = 0.0456 ± 0.0015, Ω c = 0.228 ± 0.013, Ω m h 2 = 0.1358+0.0037 -0.0036, z reion = 10.9 ± 1.4, and t 0 = 13.72 ± 0.12 Gyr. The new limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio is r < 0.22(95%CL), while the evidence for a running spectral index is insignificant, dns /dln k = -0.028 ± 0.020 (68% CL). We obtain tight, simultaneous limits on the (constant) dark energy equation of state and the spatial curvature of the universe: -0.14 < 1 + w < 0.12(95%CL) and -0.0179 < Ω k < 0.0081(95%CL). The number of relativistic degrees of freedom, expressed in units of the effective number of neutrino species, is found to be N eff = 4.4 ± 1.5 (68% CL), consistent with the standard value of 3.04. Models with N eff = 0 are disfavored at >99.5% confidence. Finally, new limits on physically motivated primordial non-Gaussianity parameters are -9 < f local NL < 111 (95% CL) and -151 < f equil NL < 253 (95% CL) for the local and equilateral models, respectively. WMAP is the result of a partnership between Princeton University and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Scientific guidance is provided by the WMAP Science Team.

Air Shower Detection and Sky Survey with the ARGO-YBJ Experiment

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

Bleve, C.; Sezione INFN di Lecce, via per Arnesano, 73100 Lecce

2006-02-08

The ARGO-YBJ detector, located in Tibet at 4300 m a.s.l., is a full-coverage Extensive Air-Shower Array consisting of a single layer of Resistive Plate Chambers. The main scientific goals of the experiment are the study of cosmic rays and the detection of astrophysical {gamma} radiation at few hundreds GeV energy threshold. About 30% of the foreseen active area is in stable data taking since December 2004. The analysis of first data shows that the detector is working properly and that ARGO-YBJ has the capability to image extensive air showers with unprecedented granularity and to monitor continuously the Northern Sky searchingmore » for steady and transient sources of {gamma}-rays. In this paper we report some results about the air shower detection and the first sky map covering the declination band -20 deg. < {delta} <80 deg.« less

Citizen Science Provides Valuable Data for Monitoring Global Night Sky Luminance

PubMed Central

Kyba, Christopher C. M.; Wagner, Janna M.; Kuechly, Helga U.; Walker, Constance E.; Elvidge, Christopher D.; Falchi, Fabio; Ruhtz, Thomas; Fischer, Jürgen; Hölker, Franz

2013-01-01

The skyglow produced by artificial lights at night is one of the most dramatic anthropogenic modifications of Earth's biosphere. The GLOBE at Night citizen science project allows individual observers to quantify skyglow using star maps showing different levels of light pollution. We show that aggregated GLOBE at Night data depend strongly on artificial skyglow, and could be used to track lighting changes worldwide. Naked eye time series can be expected to be very stable, due to the slow pace of human eye evolution. The standard deviation of an individual GLOBE at Night observation is found to be 1.2 stellar magnitudes. Zenith skyglow estimates from the “First World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness” are tested using a subset of the GLOBE at Night data. Although we find the World Atlas overestimates sky brightness in the very center of large cities, its predictions for Milky Way visibility are accurate. PMID:23677222

Analysis of Induced Polarization effects in airborne TEM data - a case study from central East Greenland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maack Rasmussen, Thorkild; Brethes, Anaïs; Pierpaolo Guarnieri, Pierpaolo; Bauer, Tobias

2017-04-01

Data from a high-resolution airborne SkyTEM time-domain electromagnetic survey conducted in central East Greenland were analysed. An analysis based on utilization of a Self Organizing Map procedure for response curve characterization and analyses based on data inversion and modelling are presented. The survey was flown in 2013 along the eastern margin of the Jameson Land basin with the purpose of base metal exploration and with sulphide mineralization as target. The survey area comprises crystalline basement to the East and layered Early Triassic to Jurassic sediments to the West. The layers are dipping a few degrees towards West. The Triassic sequence is 1 to 2 km thick and mostly of continental origin. The fluviatile Early Triassic arkoses and conglomerates, the Upper Triassic grey limestone and black shale beds and overlying gypsiferous sandstones and mudstones are known to host disseminated sulphides. E-W oriented lines were flown with an average terrain clearance of 30m and a separation of 300m. The data were initially processed and inverted by SkyTEM Aps. The conductivity models showed some conductive layers as well as induced polarization (IP) effects in the data. IP effects in TEM data reflect the relaxation of polarized charges in the ground which can be good indicators of the presence of metallic particles. Some of these locations were drilled during the following field season but unfortunately did not reveal the presence of mineralization. The aim of this study is therefore to understand the possible causes of these IP effects. Electrical charge accumulation in the ground can be related to the presence of sulphides, oxides or graphite or to the presence of clays or fibrous minerals. Permafrost may also cause IP effects and is then expected to be associated with a highly resistive subsurface. Several characteristics of the transient curves (IP indicators) of the SkyTEM survey were extracted and analysed by using the Kohonen Self-Organizing Map (SOM) technique. SOM is a type of neural network algorithm developed for analysis of non-linear relationships in multivariate data. The basic idea of SOM is to provide a method for easy visualizing of multi-dimensional data. The SOM may be viewed as a two-dimensional grid onto which multi-dimensional input data are projected or mapped from a multi-dimensional space. The space dimension is equal to the number of analysed variables containing the geo-referenced IP indicators that characterise the transient curves. Input data that are similar or close to each other, irrespectively of their geographic location, are mapped to the same or adjacent position in the SOM. Data that belongs to a particular cluster in the SOM space are afterwards mapped into a geographical space. Characteristics of the IP effects can therefore be mapped and spatially compared with the geology of the area. Once IP were identified and located, Cole-Cole parameters were recovered from the airborne TEM data in specific locations by inversion of the TEM data. An interpretation of the derived models is discussed in relation to possible causes of the observed IP effects.

Spherical Panorama Visualization of Astronomical Data with Blender and Python

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kent, Brian R.

2016-06-01

We describe methodology to generate 360 degree spherical panoramas of both 2D and 3D data. The techniques apply to a variety of astronomical data types - all sky maps, 2D and 3D catalogs as well as planetary surface maps. The results can be viewed in a desktop browser or interactively with a mobile phone or tablet. Static displays or panoramic video renderings of the data can be produced. We review the Python code and usage of the 3D Blender software for projecting maps onto 3D surfaces and the various tools for distributing visualizations.

Explanatory Supplement to the AllWISE Data Release Products

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cutri, R. M.; Wright, E. L.; Conrow, T.; Fowler, J. W.; Eisenhardt, P. R. M.; Grillmair, C.; Kirkpatrick, J. D.; Masci, F.; McCallon, H. L.; Wheelock, S. L.; Fajardo-Acosta, S.; Yan, L.; Benford, D.; Harbut, M.; Jarrett, T.; Lake, S.; Leisawitz, D.; Ressler, M. E.; Stanford, S. A.; Tsai, C. W.; Liu, F.; Helou, G.; Mainzer, A.; Gettings, D.; Gonzalez, A.; Hoffman, D.; Marsh, K. A.; Padgett, D.; Skrutskie, M. F.; Beck, R. P.; Papin, M.; Wittman, M.

2013-11-01

The AllWISE program builds upon the successful Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE; Wright et al. 2010) mission by combining data from all WISE and NEOWISE (Mainzer et al. 2011) survey phases to form the most comprehensive view of the mid-infrared sky currently available. By combining the data from two complete sky coverage epochs in an advanced data processing system, AllWISE has generated new products that have enhanced photometric sensitivity and accuracy, and improved astrometric precision compared with the earlier WISE All-Sky Data Release. Exploiting the 6 month baseline between the WISE sky coverage epochs enables AllWISE to measure source motions for the first time, and to compute improved flux variability statistics. AllWISE data release products include: a Source Catalog that contains 4-band fluxes, positions, apparent motion measurements, and flux variability statistics for over 747 million objects detected at SNR>5 in the combined exposures; a Multiepoch Photometry Database containing over 42 billion time-tagged, single-exposure fluxes for each object detected on the combined exposures; and an Image Atlas of 18,240 4-band calibrated FITS images, depth-of-coverage and noise maps that cover the sky produced by coadding nearly 7.9 million single-exposure images from the cryogenic and post-cryogenic survey phases. The Explanatory Supplement to the AllWISE Data Release Products is a general guide for users of the AllWISE data. The Supplement contains detailed descriptions of the format and characteristics of the AllWISE data products, as well as a summary of cautionary notes that describe known limitations. The Supplement is an on-line document that is updated frequently to provide the most current information for users of the AllWISE data products. The Explanatory Supplement is maintained at: http://wise2.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/release/allwise/expsup/index.html AllWISE makes use of data from WISE, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, and NEOWISE, which is a project of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology. WISE and NEOWISE are funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Planck intermediate results: XXXII. The relative orientation between the magnetic field and structures traced by interstellar dust

DOE PAGES

Adam, R.; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; ...

2016-02-09

The role of the magnetic field in the formation of the filamentary structures observed in the interstellar medium (ISM) is a debated topic owing to the paucity of relevant observations needed to test existing models. The Planck all-sky maps of linearly polarized emission from dust at 353 GHz provide the required combination of imaging and statistics to study the correlation between the structures of the Galactic magnetic field and of interstellar matter over the whole sky, both in the diffuse ISM and in molecular clouds. The data reveal that structures, or ridges, in the intensity map have counterparts in themore » Stokes Q and/or U maps. In this paper, we focus our study on structures at intermediate and high Galactic latitudes, which cover two orders of magnitude in column density, from 10 20 to 10 22 cm -2. We measure the magnetic field orientation on the plane ofthe sky from the polarization data, and present an algorithm to estimate the orientation of the ridges from the dust intensity map. We use analytical models to account for projection effects. Comparing polarization angles on and off the structures, we estimate the mean ratio between the strengths of the turbulent and mean components of the magnetic field to be between 0.6 and 1.0, with a preferred value of 0.8. We find that the ridges are usually aligned with the magnetic field measured on the structures. This statistical trend becomes more striking for increasing polarization fraction and decreasing column density. There is no alignment for the highest column density ridges. We interpret the increase in alignment with polarization fraction as a consequence of projection effects. We present maps to show that the decrease in alignment for high column density is not due to a loss of correlation between the distribution of matter and the geometry of the magnetic field. In molecular complexes, we also observe structures perpendicular to the magnetic field, which, statistically, cannot be accounted for by projection effects. This first statistical study of the relative orientation between the matter structures and the magnetic field in the ISM points out that, at the angular scales probed by Planck, the field geometry projected on the plane of the sky is correlated with the distribution of matter. In the diffuse ISM, the structures of matter are usually aligned with the magnetic field, while perpendicular structures appear in molecular clouds. Finally, we discuss our results in the context of models and MHD simulations, which attempt to describe the respective roles of turbulence, magnetic field, and self-gravity in the formation of structures in the magnetized ISM.« less

Planck intermediate results. XXXII. The relative orientation between the magnetic field and structures traced by interstellar dust

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planck Collaboration; Adam, R.; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Alves, M. I. R.; Arnaud, M.; Arzoumanian, D.; Ashdown, M.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartolo, N.; Battaner, E.; Benabed, K.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bielewicz, P.; Bonaldi, A.; Bonavera, L.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Boulanger, F.; Bracco, A.; Burigana, C.; Butler, R. C.; Calabrese, E.; Cardoso, J.-F.; Catalano, A.; Chamballu, A.; Chiang, H. C.; Christensen, P. R.; Colombi, S.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Combet, C.; Couchot, F.; Crill, B. P.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davies, R. D.; Davis, R. J.; de Bernardis, P.; de Rosa, A.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Dickinson, C.; Diego, J. M.; Dole, H.; Donzelli, S.; Doré, O.; Douspis, M.; Ducout, A.; Dupac, X.; Efstathiou, G.; Elsner, F.; Enßlin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Falgarone, E.; Ferrière, K.; Finelli, F.; Forni, O.; Frailis, M.; Fraisse, A. A.; Franceschi, E.; Frejsel, A.; Galeotta, S.; Galli, S.; Ganga, K.; Ghosh, T.; Giard, M.; Gjerløw, E.; González-Nuevo, J.; Górski, K. M.; Gregorio, A.; Gruppuso, A.; Guillet, V.; Hansen, F. K.; Hanson, D.; Harrison, D. L.; Henrot-Versillé, S.; Hernández-Monteagudo, C.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hivon, E.; Hobson, M.; Holmes, W. A.; Hovest, W.; Huffenberger, K. M.; Hurier, G.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jaffe, T. R.; Jones, W. C.; Juvela, M.; Keihänen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kisner, T. S.; Kneissl, R.; Knoche, J.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lagache, G.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Lattanzi, M.; Lawrence, C. R.; Leonardi, R.; Levrier, F.; Liguori, M.; Lilje, P. B.; Linden-Vørnle, M.; López-Caniego, M.; Lubin, P. M.; Macías-Pérez, J. F.; Maffei, B.; Maino, D.; Mandolesi, N.; Maris, M.; Marshall, D. J.; Martin, P. G.; Martínez-González, E.; Masi, S.; Matarrese, S.; Mazzotta, P.; Melchiorri, A.; Mendes, L.; Mennella, A.; Migliaccio, M.; Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Moneti, A.; Montier, L.; Morgante, G.; Mortlock, D.; Munshi, D.; Murphy, J. A.; Naselsky, P.; Natoli, P.; Nørgaard-Nielsen, H. U.; Noviello, F.; Novikov, D.; Novikov, I.; Oppermann, N.; Oxborrow, C. A.; Pagano, L.; Pajot, F.; Paoletti, D.; Pasian, F.; Perdereau, O.; Perotto, L.; Perrotta, F.; Pettorino, V.; Piacentini, F.; Piat, M.; Plaszczynski, S.; Pointecouteau, E.; Polenta, G.; Ponthieu, N.; Popa, L.; Pratt, G. W.; Prunet, S.; Puget, J.-L.; Rachen, J. P.; Reach, W. T.; Reinecke, M.; Remazeilles, M.; Renault, C.; Ristorcelli, I.; Rocha, G.; Roudier, G.; Rubiño-Martín, J. A.; Rusholme, B.; Sandri, M.; Santos, D.; Savini, G.; Scott, D.; Soler, J. D.; Spencer, L. D.; Stolyarov, V.; Sudiwala, R.; Sunyaev, R.; Sutton, D.; Suur-Uski, A.-S.; Sygnet, J.-F.; Tauber, J. A.; Terenzi, L.; Toffolatti, L.; Tomasi, M.; Tristram, M.; Tucci, M.; Umana, G.; Valenziano, L.; Valiviita, J.; Van Tent, B.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Wade, L. A.; Wandelt, B. D.; Wehus, I. K.; Wiesemeyer, H.; Yvon, D.; Zacchei, A.; Zonca, A.

2016-02-01

The role of the magnetic field in the formation of the filamentary structures observed in the interstellar medium (ISM) is a debated topic owing to the paucity of relevant observations needed to test existing models. The Planck all-sky maps of linearly polarized emission from dust at 353 GHz provide the required combination of imaging and statistics to study the correlation between the structures of the Galactic magnetic field and of interstellar matter over the whole sky, both in the diffuse ISM and in molecular clouds. The data reveal that structures, or ridges, in the intensity map have counterparts in the Stokes Q and/or U maps. We focus our study on structures at intermediate and high Galactic latitudes, which cover two orders of magnitude in column density, from 1020 to 1022 cm-2. We measure the magnetic field orientation on the plane ofthe sky from the polarization data, and present an algorithm to estimate the orientation of the ridges from the dust intensity map. We use analytical models to account for projection effects. Comparing polarization angles on and off the structures, we estimate the mean ratio between the strengths of the turbulent and mean components of the magnetic field to be between 0.6 and 1.0, with a preferred value of 0.8. We find that the ridges are usually aligned with the magnetic field measured on the structures. This statistical trend becomes more striking for increasing polarization fraction and decreasing column density. There is no alignment for the highest column density ridges. We interpret the increase in alignment with polarization fraction as a consequence of projection effects. We present maps to show that the decrease in alignment for high column density is not due to a loss of correlation between the distribution of matter and the geometry of the magnetic field. In molecular complexes, we also observe structures perpendicular to the magnetic field, which, statistically, cannot be accounted for by projection effects. This first statistical study of the relative orientation between the matter structures and the magnetic field in the ISM points out that, at the angular scales probed by Planck, the field geometry projected on the plane of the sky is correlated with the distribution of matter. In the diffuse ISM, the structures of matter are usually aligned with the magnetic field, while perpendicular structures appear in molecular clouds. We discuss our results in the context of models and MHD simulations, which attempt to describe the respective roles of turbulence, magnetic field, and self-gravity in the formation of structures in the magnetized ISM.

Planck intermediate results: XXXII. The relative orientation between the magnetic field and structures traced by interstellar dust

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

Adam, R.; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.

The role of the magnetic field in the formation of the filamentary structures observed in the interstellar medium (ISM) is a debated topic owing to the paucity of relevant observations needed to test existing models. The Planck all-sky maps of linearly polarized emission from dust at 353 GHz provide the required combination of imaging and statistics to study the correlation between the structures of the Galactic magnetic field and of interstellar matter over the whole sky, both in the diffuse ISM and in molecular clouds. The data reveal that structures, or ridges, in the intensity map have counterparts in themore » Stokes Q and/or U maps. In this paper, we focus our study on structures at intermediate and high Galactic latitudes, which cover two orders of magnitude in column density, from 10 20 to 10 22 cm -2. We measure the magnetic field orientation on the plane ofthe sky from the polarization data, and present an algorithm to estimate the orientation of the ridges from the dust intensity map. We use analytical models to account for projection effects. Comparing polarization angles on and off the structures, we estimate the mean ratio between the strengths of the turbulent and mean components of the magnetic field to be between 0.6 and 1.0, with a preferred value of 0.8. We find that the ridges are usually aligned with the magnetic field measured on the structures. This statistical trend becomes more striking for increasing polarization fraction and decreasing column density. There is no alignment for the highest column density ridges. We interpret the increase in alignment with polarization fraction as a consequence of projection effects. We present maps to show that the decrease in alignment for high column density is not due to a loss of correlation between the distribution of matter and the geometry of the magnetic field. In molecular complexes, we also observe structures perpendicular to the magnetic field, which, statistically, cannot be accounted for by projection effects. This first statistical study of the relative orientation between the matter structures and the magnetic field in the ISM points out that, at the angular scales probed by Planck, the field geometry projected on the plane of the sky is correlated with the distribution of matter. In the diffuse ISM, the structures of matter are usually aligned with the magnetic field, while perpendicular structures appear in molecular clouds. Finally, we discuss our results in the context of models and MHD simulations, which attempt to describe the respective roles of turbulence, magnetic field, and self-gravity in the formation of structures in the magnetized ISM.« less

Gender Issues.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ilfeld, Ellen M., Ed.; Hanssen, Elizabeth, Ed.

1997-01-01

This issue of "Coordinators' Notebook" focuses on gender issues in early childhood. The first article, "Both Halves of the Sky: Gender Socialization in the Early Years," focuses on the arguments that have led to an international call for increased participation of girls in education, an introduction to studies which map young…

Carrier-phase multipath corrections for GPS-based satellite attitude determination

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Axelrad, A.; Reichert, P.

2001-01-01

This paper demonstrates the high degree of spatial repeatability of these errors for a spacecraft environment and describes a correction technique, termed the sky map method, which exploits the spatial correlation to correct measurements and improve the accuracy of GPS-based attitude solutions.

SUPPLEMENT: “GOING THE DISTANCE: MAPPING HOST GALAXIES OF LIGO AND VIRGO SOURCES IN THREE DIMENSIONS USING LOCAL COSMOGRAPHY AND TARGETED FOLLOW-UP” (2016, ApJL, 829, L15)

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

Singer, Leo P.; Cenko, S. Bradley; Gehrels, Neil

This is a supplement to the Letter of Singer et al., in which we demonstrated a rapid algorithm for obtaining joint 3D estimates of sky location and luminosity distance from observations of binary neutron star mergers with Advanced LIGO and Virgo. We argued that combining the reconstructed volumes with positions and redshifts of possible host galaxies can provide large-aperture but small field of view instruments with a manageable list of targets to search for optical or infrared emission. In this Supplement, we document the new HEALPix-based file format for 3D localizations of gravitational-wave transients. We include Python sample code tomore » show the reader how to perform simple manipulations of the 3D sky maps and extract ranked lists of likely host galaxies. Finally, we include mathematical details of the rapid volume reconstruction algorithm.« less

The diffuse infrared background - COBE and other observations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hauser, M. G.; Kelsall, T.; Moseley, S. H., Jr.; Silverberg, R. F.; Murdock, T.; Toller, G.; Spiesman, W.; Weiland, J.

1991-01-01

The Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite is designed to conduct a sensitive search for an isotropic cosmic infrared background radiation over the spectral range from 1 to 300 micrometers. The cumulative emissions of pregalactic, protogalactic, and evolving galactic systems are expected to be recorded in this background. The DIRBE instrument, a 10 spectral band absolute photometer with an 0.7 deg field of view, maps the full sky with high redundancy at solar elongation angles ranging from 64 to 124 degrees to facilitate separation of interplanetary, Galactic, and extragalactic sources of emission. Initial sky maps show the expected character of the foreground emissions, with relative minima at wavelengths of 3.4 micrometers and longward of 100 micrometers. Extensive modelling of the foregrounds, just beginning, will be required to isolate the extragalactic component. In this paper, we summarize the status of diffuse infrared background observations from the DIRBE, and compare preliminary results with those of recent rocket and satellite instruments.

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

Simard, G.; et al.

We report constraints on cosmological parameters from the angular power spectrum of a cosmic microwave background (CMB) gravitational lensing potential map created using temperature data from 2500 degmore » $^2$ of South Pole Telescope (SPT) data supplemented with data from Planck in the same sky region, with the statistical power in the combined map primarily from the SPT data. We fit the corresponding lensing angular power spectrum to a model including cold dark matter and a cosmological constant ($$\\Lambda$$CDM), and to models with single-parameter extensions to $$\\Lambda$$CDM. We find constraints that are comparable to and consistent with constraints found using the full-sky Planck CMB lensing data. Specifically, we find $$\\sigma_8 \\Omega_{\\rm m}^{0.25}=0.598 \\pm 0.024$$ from the lensing data alone with relatively weak priors placed on the other $$\\Lambda$$CDM parameters. In combination with primary CMB data from Planck, we explore single-parameter extensions to the $$\\Lambda$$CDM model. We find $$\\Omega_k = -0.012^{+0.021}_{-0.023}$$ or $$M_{\

Taking the Measure of the Universe: Cosmology from the WMAP Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hinshaw, Gary F.

2006-01-01

The data from the first three years of operation of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite provide detailed full-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy and new full-sky maps of the polarization. Together, the data provide a wealth of cosmological information, including the age of the universe, the epoch when the first stars formed, and the overall composition of baryonic matter, dark matter, and dark energy. The results also provide constraints on the period of inflationary expansion in the very first moments of time. These and other aspects of the mission will be discussed. WMAP, part of NASA's Explorers program, was launched on June 30,2001. The WMAP satellite was produced in a partnership between the Goddard Space Flight Center and Princeton University. The WMAP team also includes researchers at the Johns Hopkins University; the Canadian Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics; University of Texas; Cornel1 University; University of Chicago; Brown University; University of British Columbia; University of Pennsylvania; and University of California, Los Angeles

The search for TeV-scale dark matter with the HAWC observatory

DOE PAGES

Harding, J. Patrick

2015-01-01

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory is a wide field-of-view detector sensitive to 100 GeV - 100 TeV gamma rays and cosmic rays. Located at an elevation of 4100 m on the Sierra Negra mountain in Mexico, HAWC observes extensive air showers from gamma and cosmic rays with an array of water tanks which produce Cherenkov light in the presence of air showers. With a field-of-view capable of observing 2/3 of the sky each day, and a sensitivity of 1 Crab/day, HAWC will be able to map out the sky in gamma and cosmic rays in detail. In thismore » paper, we discuss the capabilities of HAWC to map out the directions and spectra of TeV gamma rays and cosmic rays coming from sources of dark matter annihilation. We discuss the HAWC sensitivity to multiple extended sources of dark matter annihilation and the possibility of HAWC observations of annihilations in nearby dark matter subhalos.« less

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Wisconsin soft X-ray diffuse background all-sky Survey (McCammon+ 1983)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCammon, D.; Burrows, D. N.; Sanders, W. T.; Kraushaar, W. L.

1997-10-01

The catalog contains all-sky survey of the soft X-ray diffuse background and the count-rate data from which the maps were made for the ten flights included in the survey. It contains 40 files in the machine-readable version and includes documentation and utility subroutines. The data files contain different band maps (B, C, M, M1, M2, I, J, 2-6 keV) in a 0 degree-centered Aitoff projection, in a 180-degree-centered Aitoff projection, in a north polar projection, and in a south polar projection. Lookup tables in the form of FITS images are provided for conversion between pixel coordinates and Galactic coordinates for the various projections. The bands are: B = 130-188eV C = 160-284eV M1 = 440-930eV M2 = 600-1100eV I = 770-1500eV J = 1100-2200eV 2-6keV = 1800-6300eV (51 data files).

Correlation of 1.65 and 2.15 micron airglow emissions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kieffaber, L. M.

1974-01-01

The intense infrared airglow is due primarily to vibration-rotation bands of the OH molecule. This airglow has been observed with a 24-in. scanning photometer at two wavelengths. Narrow-band interference filters are used to limit observations to the (9,7) band at 2.15 microns and the (4,2) and (5,3) bands at 1.65 microns. If OH emission results from creation of the excited OH molecule in the v = 9 vibrational state and subsequent cascading through lower vibrational levels, the 1.65 and 2.15 micron radiation will be well correlated in space and time. However, if several mechanisms are involved in producing OH in a variety of initial excitation levels, there is no reason to expect good correlation. Sky maps obtained simultaneously at 1.65 and 2.15 microns show strongly correlated intensity fluctuations. Quantitative analysis of these maps and other investigations of smaller areas of the sky yield correlation coefficients typically in excess of 0.8.

Why is the sunny side always up? Explaining the spatial mapping of concepts by language use.

PubMed

Goodhew, Stephanie C; McGaw, Bethany; Kidd, Evan

2014-10-01

Humans appear to rely on spatial mappings to represent and describe concepts. The conceptual cuing effect describes the tendency for participants to orient attention to a spatial location following the presentation of an unrelated cue word (e.g., orienting attention upward after reading the word sky). To date, such effects have predominately been explained within the embodied cognition framework, according to which people's attention is oriented on the basis of prior experience (e.g., sky → up via perceptual simulation). However, this does not provide a compelling explanation for how abstract words have the same ability to orient attention. Why, for example, does dream also orient attention upward? We report on an experiment that investigated the role of language use (specifically, collocation between concept words and spatial words for up and down dimensions) and found that it predicted the cuing effect. The results suggest that language usage patterns may be instrumental in explaining conceptual cuing.

The Citizen-Scientist as Data Collector: GLOBE at Night, Part 2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, C. E.; Pompea, S. M.; Ward, D.; Henderson, S.; Meymaris, K.; Gallagher, S.; Salisbury, D.

2006-12-01

An innovative program to realize light pollution education on two continents via Internet 2-based videoconferencing was begun 4 years ago by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. Bilingual science teachers and their students in Arizona and Chile recorded the brightness of the night sky by matching its appearance toward the constellation Orion with one of 6 stellar maps of limiting magnitude. Students from both hemispheres would report their findings via videoconferences. In the last year the program has evolved in collaboration with UCAR and other partners into an international, user-friendly, web-based science event open to anyone in the world, known as GLOBE at Night. GLOBE at Night uses the same design to observe and record the visible stars toward Orion, as a means of measuring light pollution in a given location. The inaugural event occurred over 11 nights last March, when 18,000 citizen- scientists made over 4,500 observations from 96 countries. Analysis of the GLOBE at Night data set found that the brighter skies corresponded to areas with higher population density, and that most observations were taken in a location with some light pollution. The data also tended to confirm that satellite data is reliable in assessing light pollution. This session will describe our program to incorporate more technology into the GLOBE at Night program. Citizen-scientists will use sky quality meters (visible light photometers), calibrated digital photography, and GPS as a means to measure and map more accurately the brightness of the sky at selected urban and rural sites. This extension of the program is designed to aid further in teaching about the impact of artificial lighting on local environments and the ongoing loss of a dark night sky as a natural resource. We will also describe how detailed maps of selected urban areas can be used to assess lighting design, safety considerations and energy usage. Given the widespread interest in the inaugural GLOBE at Night event, the GLOBE at Night team is eager to offer it again from March 8-21, 2007. For more information, see www.globe.gov/GaN or contact globeatnight@globe.gov or outreach@noao.edu. GLOBE at Night is a collaboration between The GLOBE Program, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), Centro de Apoyo a la Didactica de la Astronomia (CADIAS), Windows to the Universe, and Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI). NOAO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc. under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.

Testing statistical isotropy in cosmic microwave background polarization maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rath, Pranati K.; Samal, Pramoda Kumar; Panda, Srikanta; Mishra, Debesh D.; Aluri, Pavan K.

2018-04-01

We apply our symmetry based Power tensor technique to test conformity of PLANCK Polarization maps with statistical isotropy. On a wide range of angular scales (l = 40 - 150), our preliminary analysis detects many statistically anisotropic multipoles in foreground cleaned full sky PLANCK polarization maps viz., COMMANDER and NILC. We also study the effect of residual foregrounds that may still be present in the Galactic plane using both common UPB77 polarization mask, as well as the individual component separation method specific polarization masks. However, some of the statistically anisotropic modes still persist, albeit significantly in NILC map. We further probed the data for any coherent alignments across multipoles in several bins from the chosen multipole range.

Intensity mapping the Universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Croft, Rupert

Intensity mapping (IM) is the use of one or more emission lines to trace out the structure of the Universe without needing to resolve individual objects (such as galaxies or gas clouds). It is one of the most promising ways to radically extend the sky survey revolution in cosmology. By making spectra of the entire sky, rather than the one part in one million captured by current fiber spectrographs, one would be sensitive to all structure. There are potentially huge discoveries to be made in the vast majority of the sky that is currently spectrally unmapped, and also great gains in signal to noise of cosmological clustering measurements. Intensity mapping with the 21cm radio line has been explored theoretically by many and instruments are being built, particularly targeting the epoch of reionization. In the UV, visible and infrared, however other lines have enormous promise, and will be exploited by a range of future NASA missions including WFIRST, Euclid, and the proposed SPHEREx instrument, a dedicated intensity mapping satellite. The first measurement of large-scale structure outside the radio (using Lyman-alpha emission) was recently made by the PI and collaborators. The Ly-a absorption line also traces a continuous cosmological field, the Lyman-alpha forest, and the enormous recent increase in the number of observed quasar spectra have made it possible to interpolate between quasar sightlines to create three-dimensional maps. Being able to trace the same cosmic structure in emission and absorption offers huge advantages when we seek to understand the processes involved. It will help us make comprehensive maps of the Universe's contents and offer us the opportunity to create new powerful cosmological tests. In our proposed work we will explore the possibilities afforded by taking grism and integral field spectra of large volumes of the Universe, using state-of-the-art cosmological hydrodynamic simulations. We will make use of analysis techniques developed for the Lyman-alpha forest, as well as forest data itself to test them. Our aim is to develop intensity mapping as a cosmological tool and show how it can be used to answer questions about the contents of the Universe and the formation of structure that are not accessible to traditional techniques. The project will involve both direct sampling of cosmic structure and cross-correlations of line intensity and objects (including galaxies, quasars and absorption lines). Emission (e.g., H-alpha emission) and absorption (Ly alpha forest) will be viewed as continuous fields. Using large volume cosmological simulations combined with population synthesis techniques we will make simulated spectral data sets. The techniques to analyse these cosmological data cubes will be developed. The expected outcomes are the following: (a) Predictions for the large-scale structure of strong emission lines (including Ha, Hb, Lya, OII, OIII) in the Universe using hydrodynamic simulations including the contribution from all components, from quasars to diffuse emssion. (b) Simulations of realistic examples of the use of IM as a cosmological probe, including Baryon Oscillations and weak gravitational lensing. (c) Tests of techniques to detection and quantify the low surface brightness Universe, leading to a complete census of the cosmic intensity in specific lines such as OII and Ha. (d) Development of techniques to extract redshifts for individual galaxies from low angular resolution IM spectroscopy. (e) Mock catalogs for SPHEREx, Euclid and WFIRST spectroscopy of diffuse emission, as well as for the Galex grism survey and tests of analysis techniques on data from the latter.

PePSS - A portable sky scanner for measuring extremely low night-sky brightness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kocifaj, Miroslav; Kómar, Ladislav; Kundracik, František

2018-05-01

A new portable sky scanner designed for low-light-level detection at night is developed and employed in night sky brightness measurements in a rural region. The fast readout, adjustable sensitivity and linear response guaranteed in 5-6 orders of magnitude makes the device well suited for narrow-band photometry in both dark areas and bright urban and suburban environments. Quasi-monochromatic night-sky brightness data are advantageous in the accurate characterization of spectral power distribution of scattered and emitted light and, also allows for the possibility to retrieve light output patterns from whole-city light sources. The sky scanner can operate in both night and day regimes, taking advantage of the complementarity of both radiance data types. Due to its inherent very high sensitivity the photomultiplier tube could be used in night sky radiometry, while the spectrometer-equipped system component capable of detecting elevated intensities is used in daylight monitoring. Daylight is a source of information on atmospheric optical properties that in turn are necessary in processing night sky radiances. We believe that the sky scanner has the potential to revolutionize night-sky monitoring systems.

New Satellite Damage Maps Assist Italy Earthquake Disaster Response

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-09-01

Italy earthquake. The quake has caused significant damage in the historic town of Amatrice. To assist in the disaster response efforts, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI), generated this image of the earthquake's hardest-hit region. The 40-by-75 mile (65-by-120 kilometer) Damage Proxy Map (DPM) was derived from two consecutive frames of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA's) L-band interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data from the ALOS-2 satellite (cyan rectangles), and the 25-by-31 mile (40-by-50 kilometer) DPM was derived from InSAR data from the Agenzia Spaciale Italiana's (ASI's) X-band COSMO-SkyMed satellite (red rectangle). Both DPMs cover the historic town of Amatrice, revealing severe damage in the western side of the town (right panels). The time span of the data for the change is Jan. 27, 2016 to Aug. 24, 2016 for ALOS-2 and Aug. 20, 2016 to Aug. 28, 2016 for COSMO-SkyMed. Each pixel in the damage proxy map is about 100 feet (30 meters) across. The SAR data were processed by the Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at JPL and Caltech. The technique uses a prototype algorithm to rapidly detect surface changes caused by natural or human-produced damage. The assessment technique is most sensitive to destruction of the built environment. When the radar images areas with little to no destruction, its image pixels are transparent. Increased opacity of the radar image pixels reflects damage, with areas in red reflecting the heaviest damage to cities and towns. The color variations from yellow to red indicate increasingly more significant ground surface change. Preliminary validation was done by comparing the DPMs to a damage assessment map produced by the Copernicus Emergency Management Service, which is based on visual inspection of before and after high-resolution aerial imagery -- the extent indicated with gray boxes in the left panel. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20897

Influence of Sky Conditions on Estimation of Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density for Agricultural Ecosystem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamashita, M.; Yoshimura, M.

2018-04-01

Photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD: µmol m-2 s-1) is indispensable for plant physiology processes in photosynthesis. However, PPFD is seldom measured, so that PPFD has been estimated by using solar radiation (SR: W m-2) measured in world wide. In method using SR, there are two steps: first to estimate photosynthetically active radiation (PAR: W m-2) by the fraction of PAR to SR (PF) and second: to convert PAR to PPFD using the ratio of quanta to energy (Q / E: µmol J-1). PF and Q/E usually have been used as the constant values, however, recent studies point out that PF and Q / E would not be constants under various sky conditions. In this study, we use the numeric data of sky-conditions factors such cloud cover, sun appearance/hiding and relative sky brightness derived from whole-sky image processing and examine the influences of sky-conditions factors on PF and Q / E of global and diffuse PAR. Furthermore, we discuss our results by comparing with the existing methods.

Mössbauer analysis of the firing process of the sky-green glaze of the imitative ancient Chinese Ru porcelain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Songhua, Chen; Zhengyao, Gao; Guoju, Hu; Xiande, Chen

1994-12-01

The variation of the Mössbauer parameters of the imitative ancient Ru porcelain skygreen glaze with the firing conditions is studied in detail in the present paper. The Mössbauer spectra show that the sky-green glaze contains three kinds of iron minerals, i.e. the structural iron (Fe2+ and Fe3+); Fe2O3 and Fe3O4. The relative intensity of the paramagnetic peak Fe2+ increases and the magnetic ratio of the magnetic peak decreases with increasing temperature. Based on the variation of the quadrupole splitting ( QS) of the paramagnetic peak Fe2+, the phase transformation characteristics of the sky-green glaze in the firing process is discussed. The coloring mechanism of the sky-green glaze and the variation of its magnetism in the firing process are also investigated in the present paper.

Mapping the Fresh-Salt Water Interaction in the Coastal Zone Using High Resolution Airborne Electromagnetics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Auken, E.; Pedersen, J. B. B.; Christiansen, A. V.; Foged, N.; Schaars, F.; Rolf, H.

2016-12-01

During the last decade airborne electromagnetics (AEM) and the accompanying data processing and inversion algorithms have undergone huge developments in terms of technology, costs, and reliability. This has expanded the scope of AEM from mainly mineral exploration to geotechnical applications and groundwater resource mapping. In this abstract we present a case with generally applicable results where AEM is used to map saltwater intrusion as well as outflow of fresh water to the sea. The survey took place on the Dutch coast in 2011 and is composed of a detailed inland coastal mapping as well as lines extending kilometres into the North Sea. It adds further complications that the area has a dense infrastructure and rapid varying dune topography causing the need for cautious data processing. We use the high resolution AEM system SkyTEM and data processing and inversion in the Aarhus Workbench. On the inland side, the results show a high resolution image of the fresh water interface and the interaction with clay layers acting as barriers. On the sea side they show a picture of freshwater plumes being pushed several hundred meters under the sea. The last mentioned information was actually the main purpose of the survey as this information could hardly be obtained by other methods and it is decisive for the total water balance of the system. The case shows an example of an AEM survey resulting in a high resolution image of the entire coastal zone. The technology is applicable in all coastal zones in the world and if applied it would lead to much improved management of the water resources in these landscapes.

THE MILKY WAY TOMOGRAPHY WITH SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY. IV. DISSECTING DUST

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

Berry, Michael; Ivezic, Zeljko; Brooks, Keira J.

2012-10-01

We use Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) photometry of 73 million stars to simultaneously constrain best-fit main-sequence stellar spectral energy distribution (SED) and amount of dust extinction along the line of sight toward each star. Using a subsample of 23 million stars with Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) photometry, whose addition enables more robust results, we show that SDSS photometry alone is sufficient to break degeneracies between intrinsic stellar color and dust amount when the shape of extinction curve is fixed. When using both SDSS and 2MASS photometry, the ratio of the total to selective absorption, R{sub V} ,more » can be determined with an uncertainty of about 0.1 for most stars in high-extinction regions. These fits enable detailed studies of the dust properties and its spatial distribution, and of the stellar spatial distribution at low Galactic latitudes (|b| < 30 Degree-Sign ). Our results are in good agreement with the extinction normalization given by the Schlegel et al. (SFD) dust maps at high northern Galactic latitudes, but indicate that the SFD extinction map appears to be consistently overestimated by about 20% in the southern sky, in agreement with recent study by Schlafly et al. The constraints on the shape of the dust extinction curve across the SDSS and 2MASS bandpasses disfavor the reddening law of O'Donnell, but support the models by Fitzpatrick and Cardelli et al. For the latter, we find a ratio of the total to selective absorption to be R{sub V} = 3.0 {+-} 0.1(random){+-}0.1 (systematic) over most of the high-latitude sky. At low Galactic latitudes (|b| < 5 Degree-Sign ), we demonstrate that the SFD map cannot be reliably used to correct for extinction because most stars are embedded in dust, rather than behind it, as is the case at high Galactic latitudes. We analyze three-dimensional maps of the best-fit R{sub V} and find that R{sub V} = 3.1 cannot be ruled out in any of the 10 SEGUE stripes at a precision level of {approx}0.1-0.2. Our best estimate for the intrinsic scatter of R{sub V} in the regions probed by SEGUE stripes is {approx}0.2. We introduce a method for efficient selection of candidate red giant stars in the disk, dubbed 'dusty parallax relation', which utilizes a correlation between distance and the extinction along the line of sight. We make these best-fit parameters, as well as all the input SDSS and 2MASS data, publicly available in a user-friendly format. These data can be used for studies of stellar number density distribution, the distribution of dust properties, for selecting sources whose SED differs from SEDs for high-latitude main-sequence stars, and for estimating distances to dust clouds and, in turn, to molecular gas clouds.« less

Deep Full-sky Coadds from Three Years of WISE and NEOWISE Observations

DOE PAGES

Meisner, A. M.; Lang, D.; Schlegel, D. J.

2017-09-26

Here, we have reprocessed over 100 terabytes of single-exposure Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)/NEOWISE images to create the deepest ever full-sky maps at 3-5 microns. We include all publicly available W1 and W2 imaging - a total of ~8 million exposures in each band - from ~37 months of observations spanning 2010 January to 2015 December. Our coadds preserve the native WISE resolution and typically incorporate ~3× more input frames than those of the AllWISE Atlas stacks. Our coadds are designed to enable deep forced photometry, in particular for the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) and Mayall z-Band Legacymore » Survey (MzLS), both of which are being used to select targets for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. We describe newly introduced processing steps aimed at leveraging added redundancy to remove artifacts, with the intent of facilitating uniform target selection and searches for rare/exotic objects (e.g., high-redshift quasars and distant galaxy clusters). Forced photometry depths achieved with these coadds extend 0.56 (0.46) magnitudes deeper in W1 (W2) than is possible with only pre-hibernation WISE imaging.« less

Deep Full-sky Coadds from Three Years of WISE and NEOWISE Observations

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

Meisner, A. M.; Lang, D.; Schlegel, D. J., E-mail: ameisner@lbl.gov

We have reprocessed over 100 terabytes of single-exposure Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer ( WISE )/NEOWISE images to create the deepest ever full-sky maps at 3–5 microns. We include all publicly available W1 and W2 imaging—a total of ∼8 million exposures in each band—from ∼37 months of observations spanning 2010 January to 2015 December. Our coadds preserve the native WISE resolution and typically incorporate ∼3× more input frames than those of the AllWISE Atlas stacks. Our coadds are designed to enable deep forced photometry, in particular for the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) and Mayall z-Band Legacy Survey (MzLS), bothmore » of which are being used to select targets for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. We describe newly introduced processing steps aimed at leveraging added redundancy to remove artifacts, with the intent of facilitating uniform target selection and searches for rare/exotic objects (e.g., high-redshift quasars and distant galaxy clusters). Forced photometry depths achieved with these coadds extend 0.56 (0.46) magnitudes deeper in W1 (W2) than is possible with only pre-hibernation WISE imaging.« less

Deep Full-sky Coadds from Three Years of WISE and NEOWISE Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meisner, A. M.; Lang, D.; Schlegel, D. J.

2017-10-01

We have reprocessed over 100 terabytes of single-exposure Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)/NEOWISE images to create the deepest ever full-sky maps at 3-5 microns. We include all publicly available W1 and W2 imaging—a total of ˜8 million exposures in each band—from ˜37 months of observations spanning 2010 January to 2015 December. Our coadds preserve the native WISE resolution and typically incorporate ˜3× more input frames than those of the AllWISE Atlas stacks. Our coadds are designed to enable deep forced photometry, in particular for the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) and Mayall z-Band Legacy Survey (MzLS), both of which are being used to select targets for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. We describe newly introduced processing steps aimed at leveraging added redundancy to remove artifacts, with the intent of facilitating uniform target selection and searches for rare/exotic objects (e.g., high-redshift quasars and distant galaxy clusters). Forced photometry depths achieved with these coadds extend 0.56 (0.46) magnitudes deeper in W1 (W2) than is possible with only pre-hibernation WISE imaging.

Deep Full-sky Coadds from Three Years of WISE and NEOWISE Observations

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

Meisner, A. M.; Lang, D.; Schlegel, D. J.

Here, we have reprocessed over 100 terabytes of single-exposure Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)/NEOWISE images to create the deepest ever full-sky maps at 3-5 microns. We include all publicly available W1 and W2 imaging - a total of ~8 million exposures in each band - from ~37 months of observations spanning 2010 January to 2015 December. Our coadds preserve the native WISE resolution and typically incorporate ~3× more input frames than those of the AllWISE Atlas stacks. Our coadds are designed to enable deep forced photometry, in particular for the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) and Mayall z-Band Legacymore » Survey (MzLS), both of which are being used to select targets for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. We describe newly introduced processing steps aimed at leveraging added redundancy to remove artifacts, with the intent of facilitating uniform target selection and searches for rare/exotic objects (e.g., high-redshift quasars and distant galaxy clusters). Forced photometry depths achieved with these coadds extend 0.56 (0.46) magnitudes deeper in W1 (W2) than is possible with only pre-hibernation WISE imaging.« less

SEPARATION OF THE RIBBON FROM GLOBALLY DISTRIBUTED ENERGETIC NEUTRAL ATOM FLUX USING THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF IBEX OBSERVATIONS

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

Schwadron, N. A.; Moebius, E.; Kucharek, H.

2014-11-01

The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) observes the IBEX ribbon, which stretches across much of the sky observed in energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). The ribbon covers a narrow (∼20°-50°) region that is believed to be roughly perpendicular to the interstellar magnetic field. Superimposed on the IBEX ribbon is the globally distributed flux that is controlled by the processes and properties of the heliosheath. This is a second study that utilizes a previously developed technique to separate ENA emissions in the ribbon from the globally distributed flux. A transparency mask is applied over the ribbon and regions of high emissions. We thenmore » solve for the globally distributed flux using an interpolation scheme. Previously, ribbon separation techniques were applied to the first year of IBEX-Hi data at and above 0.71 keV. Here we extend the separation analysis down to 0.2 keV and to five years of IBEX data enabling first maps of the ribbon and the globally distributed flux across the full sky of ENA emissions. Our analysis shows the broadening of the ribbon peak at energies below 0.71 keV and demonstrates the apparent deformation of the ribbon in the nose and heliotail. We show global asymmetries of the heliosheath, including both deflection of the heliotail and differing widths of the lobes, in context of the direction, draping, and compression of the heliospheric magnetic field. We discuss implications of the ribbon maps for the wide array of concepts that attempt to explain the ribbon's origin. Thus, we present the five-year separation of the IBEX ribbon from the globally distributed flux in preparation for a formal IBEX data release of ribbon and globally distributed flux maps to the heliophysics community.« less

A 2MASS Analysis of the Stability and Star Formation in Southern Bok Globules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Racca, G. A.; de La Reza, R.

2006-06-01

Bok globules are the simplest molecular clouds in which the study of low-mass star formation is not affected by disruptive phenomena that occur in other clouds that are actively forming low- and high-mass stars. The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) offer a great possibility to survey these clouds in the near-infrared distributed along the Galaxy. In this work we present extinction maps of Southern Bok globules from the catalog of Bourke, Hyland & Robinson (1995) constructed from extincted background stars in the 2MASS JHK_s bands. The radial distribution of column density obtained from these maps are then modeled with different solutions that arise from several models of the gravitational collapse of molecular clouds cores. We adjust these profiles with Bonnor-Ebert spheres, negative-index polytropes and a simple power-law. This work will help constrain the early stages of the process of isolated star formation of low-mass stars.

Cold Gas in Quenched Dwarf Galaxies using HI-MaNGA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonilla, Alaina

2017-01-01

MaNGA (Mapping of Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory) is a 6-year Sloan Digital Sky Survey fourth generation (SDSS-IV) project that will obtain integral field spectroscopy of a catalogue of 10,000 nearby galaxies. In this study, we explore the properties of the passive dwarf galaxy sample presented in Penny et al. 2016, making use of MaNGA IFU (Integral Field Unit) data to plot gas emission, stellar velocity, and flux maps. In addition, HI-MaNGA, a legacy radio-survey of MaNGA, collects single dish HI data retrieved from the GBT (Green Bank Telescope), which we use to study the the 21cm emission lines present in HI detections. Studying the HI content of passive dwarves will help us reveal the processes that are preventing star formation, such as possible AGN feedback. This work was supported by the SDSS Research Experience for Undergraduates program, which is funded by a grant from the Sloan Foundation to the Astrophysical Research Consortium.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Hα and Hβ Reverberation Measurements from First-year Spectroscopy and Photometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grier, C. J.; Trump, J. R.; Shen, Yue; Horne, Keith; Kinemuchi, Karen; McGreer, Ian D.; Starkey, D. A.; Brandt, W. N.; Hall, P. B.; Kochanek, C. S.; Chen, Yuguang; Denney, K. D.; Greene, Jenny E.; Ho, L. C.; Homayouni, Y.; I-Hsiu Li, Jennifer; Pei, Liuyi; Peterson, B. M.; Petitjean, P.; Schneider, D. P.; Sun, Mouyuan; AlSayyad, Yusura; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Brinkmann, Jonathan; Brownstein, Joel R.; Bundy, Kevin; Dawson, K. S.; Eftekharzadeh, Sarah; Fernandez-Trincado, J. G.; Gao, Yang; Hutchinson, Timothy A.; Jia, Siyao; Jiang, Linhua; Oravetz, Daniel; Pan, Kaike; Paris, Isabelle; Ponder, Kara A.; Peters, Christina; Rogerson, Jesse; Simmons, Audrey; Smith, Robyn; Wang, Ran

2017-12-01

We present reverberation mapping results from the first year of combined spectroscopic and photometric observations of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project. We successfully recover reverberation time delays between the g+i band emission and the broad Hβ emission line for a total of 44 quasars, and for the broad Hα emission line in 18 quasars. Time delays are computed using the JAVELIN and CREAM software and the traditional interpolated cross-correlation function (ICCF): using well-defined criteria, we report measurements of 32 Hβ and 13 Hα lags with JAVELIN, 42 Hβ and 17 Hα lags with CREAM, and 16 Hβ and eight Hα lags with the ICCF. Lag values are generally consistent among the three methods, though we typically measure smaller uncertainties with JAVELIN and CREAM than with the ICCF, given the more physically motivated light curve interpolation and more robust statistical modeling of the former two methods. The median redshift of our Hβ-detected sample of quasars is 0.53, significantly higher than that of the previous reverberation mapping sample. We find that in most objects, the time delay of the Hα emission is consistent with or slightly longer than that of Hβ. We measure black hole masses using our measured time delays and line widths for these quasars. These black hole mass measurements are mostly consistent with expectations based on the local {M}{BH}-{σ }* relationship, and are also consistent with single-epoch black hole mass measurements. This work increases the current sample size of reverberation-mapped active galaxies by about two-thirds and represents the first large sample of reverberation mapping observations beyond the local universe (z < 0.3).

Reconstructing daily clear-sky land surface temperature for cloudy regions from MODIS data

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Land surface temperature (LST) is a critical parameter in environmental studies and resource management. The MODIS LST data product has been widely used in various studies, such as drought monitoring, evapotranspiration mapping, soil moisture estimation and forest fire detection. However, cloud cont...

A New 3D Map of Milky Way Dust

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Green, Gregory Maurice; Schlafly, Edward; Finkbeiner, Douglas

2018-01-01

Interstellar dust is an important foreground for observations across a wide range of wavelengths. Dust grains scatter and absorb UV, optical and near-infrared light. These processes heat dust grains, causing them to radiate in the far-infrared. As a tracer of mass in the interstellar medium, dust correlates strongly with diffuse gamma-ray emission generated by cosmic-ray pion production. Thus, while dust makes up just 1% of the mass of the interstellar medium, it plays an outsize role in our efforts to address questions as diverse as the chemical evolution of the Milky Way galaxy and the existence of primordial B-mode polarizations in the CMB.We present a new 3D map of Milky Way dust, covering three-quarters of the sky (δ > -30°). The map is based on high-quality photometry of more than 800 million stars observed by Pan-STARRS 1, with matched photometry from 2MASS for approximately 200 million stars. We infer the distribution of dust vs. distance along sightlines with a typical angular scale of 6'. Out of the midplane of the Galaxy, our map agrees well with 2D maps based on far-infrared dust emission. After accounting for a 15% difference in scale, we find a mean scatter of approximately 10% between our map and the Planck 2D dust map, out to a depth of 0.8 mag in E(r-z). Our map can be downloaded at http://argonaut.skymaps.info.In order to extend our map, we have surveyed the southern Galactic plane with DECam, which is mounted on the 4m Blanco telescope on Cerro Tololo. The resulting survey, the Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey (DECaPS), is now publicly available. See Edward Schlafly's poster for more information on DECaPS.

The artificial object detection and current velocity measurement using SAR ocean surface images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alpatov, Boris; Strotov, Valery; Ershov, Maksim; Muraviev, Vadim; Feldman, Alexander; Smirnov, Sergey

2017-10-01

Due to the fact that water surface covers wide areas, remote sensing is the most appropriate way of getting information about ocean environment for vessel tracking, security purposes, ecological studies and others. Processing of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images is extensively used for control and monitoring of the ocean surface. Image data can be acquired from Earth observation satellites, such as TerraSAR-X, ERS, and COSMO-SkyMed. Thus, SAR image processing can be used to solve many problems arising in this field of research. This paper discusses some of them including ship detection, oil pollution control and ocean currents mapping. Due to complexity of the problem several specialized algorithm are necessary to develop. The oil spill detection algorithm consists of the following main steps: image preprocessing, detection of dark areas, parameter extraction and classification. The ship detection algorithm consists of the following main steps: prescreening, land masking, image segmentation combined with parameter measurement, ship orientation estimation and object discrimination. The proposed approach to ocean currents mapping is based on Doppler's law. The results of computer modeling on real SAR images are presented. Based on these results it is concluded that the proposed approaches can be used in maritime applications.

Using NASA Earth Observations to Assist the National Park Service in Assessing Snow Cover Distribution and Persistence Changes in the Sky Islands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bayat, F.; Barrow, C., III; Gonsoroski, E.; Dutta, S.; Lynn, T.; Harville, K.; Spruce, J.

2017-12-01

Saguaro National Park in southeastern Arizona occupies one of several unique mountain ranges known collectively as the Sky Islands or the Madrean Archipelago. The Sky Islands are biodiversity hotspots and host different ecosystems, ranging from arid deserts to temperate forests. Snowmelt provides a source of water during the dry season for various flora and fauna inhabiting the region. Climate change and its effect on snow cover is of growing concern by resource managers in this location. Currently, the National Park Service (NPS) monitors water presence via stream gauges, but a synoptic record of snow presence does not exist due to the remote and rugged topography of the region. As a result, it is difficult to study how climate change has affected water resources in the Sky Islands and what effect this has on wildlife and vegetation. This project used NASA Earth observations (e.g., Landsat data) and GIS technology to help the NPS in understanding the role of snow cover in the Sky Islands. Historical snow cover maps were compiled using a combination of snow detection indices to provide spatio-temporal information on snow presence and phenology. With a more complete understanding of snow cover trends in the park, the NPS can further analyze snow cover impacts to improve future land management decisions.

Technology for detecting spectral radiance by a snapshot multi-imaging spectroradiometer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zuber, Ralf; Stührmann, Ansgar; Gugg-Helminger, Anton; Seckmeyer, Gunther

2017-12-01

Technologies to determine spectral sky radiance distributions have evolved in recent years and have enabled new applications in remote sensing, for sky radiance measurements, in biological/diagnostic applications and luminance measurements. Most classical spectral imaging radiance technologies are based on mechanical and/or spectral scans. However, these methods require scanning time in which the spectral radiance distribution might change. To overcome this limitation, different so-called snapshot spectral imaging technologies have been developed that enable spectral and spatial non-scanning measurements. We present a new setup based on a facet mirror that is already used in imaging slicing spectrometers. By duplicating the input image instead of slicing it and using a specially designed entrance slit, we are able to select nearly 200 (14 × 14) channels within the field of view (FOV) for detecting spectral radiance in different directions. In addition, a megapixel image of the FOV is captured by an additional RGB camera. This image can be mapped onto the snapshot spectral image. In this paper, the mechanical setup, technical design considerations and first measurement results of a prototype are presented. For a proof of concept, the device is radiometrically calibrated and a 10 mm × 10 mm test pattern measured within a spectral range of 380 nm-800 nm with an optical bandwidth of 10 nm (full width at half maximum or FWHM). To show its potential in the UV spectral region, zenith sky radiance measurements in the UV of a clear sky were performed. Hence, the prototype was equipped with an entrance optic with a FOV of 0.5° and modified to obtain a radiometrically calibrated spectral range of 280 nm-470 nm with a FWHM of 3 nm. The measurement results have been compared to modeled data processed by UVSPEC, which showed deviations of less than 30%. This is far from being ideal, but an acceptable result with respect to available state-of-the-art intercomparisons.

Camera characterization for all-sky polarization measurements during the 2017 solar eclipse

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hashimoto, Taiga; Dahl, Laura M.; Laurie, Seth A.; Shaw, Joseph A.

2017-08-01

A solar eclipse provides a rare opportunity to observe skylight polarization during conditions that are fundamentally different than what we see every day. On 21 August 2017 we will measure the skylight polarization during a total solar eclipse in Rexburg, Idaho, USA. Previous research has shown that during totality the sky polarization pattern is altered significantly to become nominally symmetric about the zenith. However, there are still questions remaining about the details of how surface reflectance near the eclipse observation site and optical properties of aerosols in the atmosphere influence the totality sky polarization pattern. We will study how skylight polarization in a solar eclipse changes through each phase and how surface and atmospheric features affect the measured polarization signatures. To accomplish this, fully characterizing the cameras and fisheye lenses is critical. This paper reports measurements that include finding the camera sensitivity and its relationship to the required short exposure times, measuring the camera's spectral response function, mapping the angles of each camera pixel with the fisheye lens, and taking test measurements during daytime and twilight conditions. The daytime polarimetric images were compared to images from an existing all-sky polarization imager and a polarimetric radiative transfer model.

Probing magnetic helicity with synchrotron radiation and Faraday rotation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oppermann, N.; Junklewitz, H.; Robbers, G.; Enßlin, T. A.

2011-06-01

We present a first application of the recently proposed LITMUS test for magnetic helicity, as well as a thorough study of its applicability under different circumstances. In order to apply this test to the galactic magnetic field, the newly developed critical filter formalism is used to produce an all-sky map of the Faraday depth. The test does not detect helicity in the galactic magnetic field. To understand the significance of this finding, we made an applicability study, showing that a definite conclusion about the absence of magnetic helicity in the galactic field has not yet been reached. This study is conducted by applying the test to simulated observational data. We consider simulations in a flat sky approximation and all-sky simulations, both with assumptions of constant electron densities and realistic distributions of thermal and cosmic ray electrons. Our results suggest that the LITMUS test does indeed perform very well in cases where constant electron densities can be assumed, both in the flat-sky limit and in the galactic setting. Non-trivial distributions of thermal and cosmic ray electrons, however, may complicate the scenario to the point where helicity in the magnetic field can escape detection.

Solar Wind Charge Exchange Contribution To The ROSAT Sky Survey Maps

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Uprety, Y.; Chiao, M.; Collier, M. R.; Cravens, T.; Galeazzi, M.; Koutroumpa, D.; Kuntz, K. D.; Lallement, R.; Lepri, S. T.; Liu, W.;

Teaching with Technology. CD Learning Adventures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Denise

1996-01-01

Reviews three geography and history CD-ROMs: "GeoSafari Platinum Edition," a multimedia game on history, geography, and science; "Destination: Time Trip USA," which allows students to create an interactive electronic book while exploring a fictional town; and "SkyTrip America," with which students fly across America, reviewing maps, time lines,…

yourSky: Custom Sky-Image Mosaics via the Internet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jacob, Joseph

2003-01-01

yourSky (http://yourSky.jpl.nasa.gov) is a computer program that supplies custom astronomical image mosaics of sky regions specified by requesters using client computers connected to the Internet. [yourSky is an upgraded version of the software reported in Software for Generating Mosaics of Astronomical Images (NPO-21121), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 25, No. 4 (April 2001), page 16a.] A requester no longer has to engage in the tedious process of determining what subset of images is needed, nor even to know how the images are indexed in image archives. Instead, in response to a requester s specification of the size and location of the sky area, (and optionally of the desired set and type of data, resolution, coordinate system, projection, and image format), yourSky automatically retrieves the component image data from archives totaling tens of terabytes stored on computer tape and disk drives at multiple sites and assembles the component images into a mosaic image by use of a high-performance parallel code. yourSky runs on the server computer where the mosaics are assembled. Because yourSky includes a Web-interface component, no special client software is needed: ordinary Web browser software is sufficient.

Nine-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Final Maps and Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bennett, C. L.; Larson, D.; Weiland, J. L.; Jaorsik, N.; Hinshaw, G.; Odegard, N.; Smith, K. M.; Hill, R. S.; Gold, B.; Halpern, M;

A Far-ultraviolet Fluorescent Molecular Hydrogen Emission Map of the Milky Way Galaxy

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

Jo, Young-Soo; Min, Kyoung-Wook; Seon, Kwang-Il

We present the far-ultraviolet (FUV) fluorescent molecular hydrogen (H{sub 2}) emission map of the Milky Way Galaxy obtained with FIMS/SPEAR covering ∼76% of the sky. The extinction-corrected intensity of the fluorescent H{sub 2} emission has a strong linear correlation with the well-known tracers of the cold interstellar medium (ISM), including color excess E(B–V) , neutral hydrogen column density N (H i), and H α emission. The all-sky H{sub 2} column density map was also obtained using a simple photodissociation region model and interstellar radiation fields derived from UV star catalogs. We estimated the fraction of H{sub 2} ( f {submore » H2}) and the gas-to-dust ratio (GDR) of the diffuse ISM. The f {sub H2} gradually increases from <1% at optically thin regions where E(B–V) < 0.1 to ∼50% for E(B–V)  = 3. The estimated GDR is ∼5.1 × 10{sup 21} atoms cm{sup −2} mag{sup −1}, in agreement with the standard value of 5.8 × 10{sup 21} atoms cm{sup −2} mag{sup −1}.« less

Wild Fire Emissions for the NOAA Operational HYSPLIT Smoke Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, H. C.; ONeill, S. M.; Ruminski, M.; Shafran, P.; McQueen, J.; DiMego, G.; Kondragunta, S.; Gorline, J.; Huang, J. P.; Stunder, B.; Stein, A. F.; Stajner, I.; Upadhayay, S.; Larkin, N. K.

2015-12-01

Particulate Matter (PM) generated from forest fires often lead to degraded visibility and unhealthy air quality in nearby and downstream areas. To provide near-real time PM information to the state and local agencies, the NOAA/National Weather Service (NWS) operational HYSPLIT (Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model) smoke modeling system (NWS/HYSPLIT smoke) provides the forecast of smoke concentration resulting from fire emissions driven by the NWS North American Model 12 km weather predictions. The NWS/HYSPLIT smoke incorporates the U.S. Forest Service BlueSky Smoke Modeling Framework (BlueSky) to provide smoke fire emissions along with the input fire locations from the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS)'s Hazard Mapping System fire and smoke detection system. Experienced analysts inspect satellite imagery from multiple sensors onboard geostationary and orbital satellites to identify the location, size and duration of smoke emissions for the model. NWS/HYSPLIT smoke is being updated to use a newer version of USFS BlueSky. The updated BlueSky incorporates the Fuel Characteristic Classification System version 2 (FCCS2) over the continental U.S. and Alaska. FCCS2 includes a more detailed description of fuel loadings with additional plant type categories. The updated BlueSky also utilizes an improved fuel consumption model and fire emission production system. For the period of August 2014 and June 2015, NWS/HYSPLIT smoke simulations show that fire smoke emissions with updated BlueSky are stronger than the current operational BlueSky in the Northwest U.S. For the same comparisons, weaker fire smoke emissions from the updated BlueSky were observed over the middle and eastern part of the U.S. A statistical evaluation of NWS/HYSPLIT smoke predicted total column concentration compared to NOAA NESDIS GOES EAST Aerosol Smoke Product retrievals is underway. Preliminary results show that using the newer version of BlueSky leads to improved performance of NWS/HYSPLIT-smoke for June 2015. These results are partially due to the default fuel loading selected for Canadian fires that lead to stronger fire emissions there. The use of more realistic Canadian fuel loading may improve NWS/HYSPLIT smoke forecast.

An atlas of high-resolution IRAS maps on nearby galaxies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rice, Walter

1993-01-01

An atlas of far-infrared IRAS maps with near 1 arcmin angular resolution of 30 optically large galaxies is presented. The high-resolution IRAS maps were produced with the Maximum Correlation Method (MCM) image construction and enhancement technique developed at IPAC. The MCM technique, which recovers the spatial information contained in the overlapping detector data samples of the IRAS all-sky survey scans, is outlined and tests to verify the structural reliability and photometric integrity of the high-resolution maps are presented. The infrared structure revealed in individual galaxies is discussed. The atlas complements the IRAS Nearby Galaxy High-Resolution Image Atlas, the high-resolution galaxy images encoded in FITS format, which is provided to the astronomical community as an IPAC product.

GLOBE at Night: a Worldwide Citizen-Science Program to Increase Awareness of Light Pollution by Measuring Night Sky Brightness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, C. E.; Pompea, S. M.

2011-12-01

The emphasis in the international citizen-science, star-hunting campaign, GLOBE at Night, is in bringing awareness to the public on issues of light pollution. Light pollution threatens not only observatory sites and our "right to starlight", but can affect energy consumption, wildlife and health. GLOBE at Night has successfully reached a few 100,000 citizen-scientists. What has contributed to its success? Foundational resources are available to facilitate the public's participation in promoting dark skies awareness. The GLOBE at Night website explains clearly the simple-to-participate-in 5 step program and offers background information and interactive games on key concepts. To promote the campaign via popular social media, GLOBE at Night created Facebook and Twitter pages. The program has been expanded to include trainings of the general public, but especially educators in schools, museums and science centers, in unique ways. Education kits for dark skies awareness have been distributed at the training workshops. The kit includes material for a light shielding demonstration, a digital Sky Quality Meter and "Dark Skies Rangers" activities. The activities are on how unshielded light wastes energy, how light pollution affects wildlife and how one can participate in a citizen-science star-hunt like GLOBE at Night. To increase participation in the 2011 campaign, children and adults submitted their sky brightness measurements in real time with smart phones or tablets using the web application at www.globeatnight.org/webapp/. With smart phones and tablets, the location, date and time register automatically. For those without smart mobile devices, user-friendly tools on the GLOBE at Night report page were reconfigured to determine latitude and longitude more easily and accurately. As a proto-type for taking multiple measurements, people in Tucson found it easy to adopt a street and take measurements every mile for the length of the street. The grid of measurements canvassed the town, allowing for comparisons of light levels over time (hours, days, years) or searching for dark sky oases or light polluted areas. The increase to 2 campaigns in 2011 re-enforces these studies. The intent is to offer the program year-round for seasonal studies. The data can also be used to compare with datasets on wildlife, health, and energy consumption. Recently, NOAO and the Arizona Game and Fish Department have started a project with GLOBE at Night data and bat telemetry to examine a dark skies corridor in Tucson where the endangered bats fly. In addition, a 2nd new Web application (www.globeatnight.org/mapapp/) allows for mapping GLOBE at Night data points within a specified distance around a city or an area of choice. The resulting maps are bookmarkable and shareable. The presentation will highlight the education and outreach value of the program's resources and outcomes, lessons learned, successes and pitfalls in communicating awareness with the public and attracting young people to study science.

Inter-comparison of hydrological model simulations with dense time series of SAR-derived soil moisture maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iacobellis, V.; Gioia, A.; Milella, P.; Satalino, G.; Balenzano, A.; Mattia, F.

2012-04-01

Over the last years, a vast number of experimental and theoretical studies has widely demonstrated the sensitivity of SAR data to soil moisture content, however, operational services integrating SAR measurements into land process models are not yet available. Important progresses in this field are expected, on the one hand, from SAR missions characterized by a short revisiting time, such as the COSMO-SkyMed or the forthcoming Sentinel-1 and ALOS-2 missions, on the other hand, from a strong effort in implementing hydrological models able to reproduce the dynamic of soil moisture content of the top layer (5 cm depth) of soil. With this latter purpose, we used the DREAM model [Manfreda et al., 2005], realized in a GIS-based approach, that explicitly takes into account the spatial heterogeneity of hydrological processes. The DREAM model carries out continuous hydrological simulations using the daily and the hourly scales. The distinctive feature of the model, which consists of evaluating the lateral flow through a water content redistribution weighted by the topographic index, was preserved. The latter provided the basis for the nested implementation of the Richard equation which has been used for evaluating vertical flows in the top soil layer (5cm).The Richard routine exploits the numerical solution proposed by Simunek et al. [2009] and runs, for each cell of the river basin, in a sub-module of 60 minutes with a vertical (i.e. depth) and temporal resolution of 1 cm and 1 s, respectively. The model was applied to the portion of the Celone at Foggia San Severo river basin downstream the San Giusto Dam, which is a tributary of the Candelaro river, in Puglia region (Southern Italy). Over this area quasi-dense time series of ALOS/PALSAR ScanSAR WB1 and COSMO-SkyMedStripMap images were acquired in 2007 and 2010, respectively. The SAR data have been used to derive time-series of soil moisture maps by means of the SMOSAR software developed for Sentinel-1 data [Balenzano et al., 2011; Mattia et al., 2011; Balenzano et al., 2012] and adapted to the X- [Mattia et al., 2012] and L-band [Satalino et al., 2010]. First results are promising, showing that the model is able to reproduce the general trend and has a good sensitivity to rainfall inputs. Such a kind of results open wide perspectives for model calibration/validation with external data as well as for assessing the proposed modelling structure, providing strong enhancements in terms of model scientific validation [e.g. Biondi et al. 2011]. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The research in this paper is supported by the Italian Space Agency under contract n. I/051/09/0. COSMO-SkyMed data were provided by ©ASI in the framework of ©CSK AO 2161,PALSAR data were supplied in the framework of JAXA RA 13 & ESA ALOS ADEN AO 3597.

Neutrino tomography - Tevatron mapping versus the neutrino sky. [for X-rays of earth interior

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, T. L.

1984-01-01

The feasibility of neutrino tomography of the earth's interior is discussed, taking the 80-GeV W-boson mass determined by Arnison (1983) and Banner (1983) into account. The opacity of earth zones is calculated on the basis of the preliminary reference earth model of Dziewonski and Anderson (1981), and the results are presented in tables and graphs. Proposed tomography schemes are evaluated in terms of the well-posedness of the inverse-Radon-transform problems involved, the neutrino generators and detectors required, and practical and economic factors. The ill-posed schemes are shown to be infeasible; the well-posed schemes (using Tevatrons or the neutrino sky as sources) are considered feasible but impractical.

The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malina, R. F.; Battel, S. J.

1989-01-01

The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) mission will be the first user of NASA's new Explorer platform. The instrumentation included on this mission consists of three grazing incidence scanning telescopes, a deep survey instrument and an EUV spectrometer. The bandpass covered is 80 to 900 A. During the first six months of the mission, the scanning telescopes will be used to make all-sky maps in four bandpasses; astronomical sources wil be detected and their positions determined to an accuracy of 0.1 deg. The deep survey instrument will survey the sky with higher sensitivity along the ecliptic in two bandpasses between 80 and 500 A. Engineering and design aspects of the science payload and features of the instrument design are described.

Minimizing the Threat of Light Pollution on Observatories through Education: Globe at Night Citizen-Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, Constance E.; M, Pompea, Stephen

2018-01-01

Citizen-science is a rewardingly inclusive way to bring awareness to the public on the disappearance of the starry night sky, its cause and solutions. Globe at Night (GaN) encourages citizen-scientists worldwide to record the brightness of the night sky. During ten-days per month of moonless evenings, children and adults match the appearance of a specified constellation with 7 star maps of progressively fainter stars found at www.globeatnight.org. They then submit their choice of star map in-situ with the “webapp” by smart device to add to a light pollution map worldwide. In the eleven years of the program, over 170,000 observations from 180 countries have been contributed to the campaign.The Globe at Night (open) database is a source of research projects, even with other disciplines. For example, students conducted research to understand the lesser long-nosed bats’ avoidance of city center at night. On-the-fly mapping enables citizen-scientists to see contributed observations immediately. The 12 campaigns per year offer 4 ways of taking measurements. The online app for data submission is in 28 languages. STEM activities for young children and problem-based learning activities for older students were created to experience real-life scenarios: role-playing sea turtles hatching (misdirected by lights on shore) or analyzing an ISS image of Houston to estimate the wasted energy, cost and carbon footprint. In-situ and on-line workshops have been given on using GaN in all its capacities, as well as for the activities. Our Facebook page exists to encourage dialogue and bring cutting edge news. To entice interest, we had monthly newsletters and serial podcasts starring the Dark Skies Crusader. GaN has been part of special campaigns like with the National Park Service, the National Geographic BioBlitz and Tucson in 2011. Partnerships also include SciStarter (working with participants), Fieldscope (working with data analysis), and STARS4ALL (working with other light polllution initiatives). We have built a community of practitioners in various ways worldwide and plan to continue to help reduce the effects of one of the threats to observational astronomy through awareness and action.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: HI4PI spectra and column density maps (HI4PI team+, 2016)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hi4PI Collaboration; Ben Bekhti, N.; Floeer, L.; Keller, R.; Kerp, J.; Lenz, D.; Winkel, B.; Bailin, J.; Calabretta, M. R.; Dedes, L.; Ford, H. A.; Gibson, B. K.; Haud, U.; Janowiecki, S.; Kalberla, P. M. W.; Lockman, F. J.; McClure-Griffiths, N. M.; Murphy, T.; Nakanishi, H.; Pisano, D. J.; Staveley-Smith, L.

2016-09-01

The HI4PI data release comprises 21-cm neutral atomic hydrogen data of the Milky Way (-600km/s0°; -470km/s

Processing techniques for global land 1-km AVHRR data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Eidenshink, Jeffery C.; Steinwand, Daniel R.; Wivell, Charles E.; Hollaren, Douglas M.; Meyer, David

1993-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center (EDC) in cooperation with several international science organizations has developed techniques for processing daily Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) 1-km data of the entire global land surface. These techniques include orbital stitching, geometric rectification, radiometric calibration, and atmospheric correction. An orbital stitching algorithm was developed to combine consecutive observations acquired along an orbit by ground receiving stations into contiguous half-orbital segments. The geometric rectification process uses an AVHRR satellite model that contains modules for forward mapping, forward terrain correction, and inverse mapping with terrain correction. The correction is accomplished by using the hydrologic features coastlines and lakes from the Digital Chart of the World. These features are rasterized into the satellite projection and are matched to the AVHRR imagery using binary edge correlation techniques. The resulting coefficients are related to six attitude correction parameters: roll, roll rate, pitch, pitch rate, yaw, and altitude. The image can then be precision corrected to a variety of map projections and user-selected image frames. Because the AVHRR lacks onboard calibration for the optical wavelengths, a series of time-variant calibration coefficients derived from vicarious calibration methods and are used to model the degradation profile of the instruments. Reducing atmospheric effects on AVHRR data is important. A method has been develop that will remove the effects of molecular scattering and absorption from clear sky observations, using climatological measurements of ozone. Other methods to remove the effects of water vapor and aerosols are being investigated.

Large area robust identification of snow cover from multitemporal COSMO-SkyMed images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pettinato, S.; Santi, E.; Paloscia, S.; Aiazzi, B.; Baronti, S.; Palchetti, E.; Garzelli, A.

2015-10-01

This paper investigates the ability of the Information Theoretic Snow Detection Algorithm (ITSDA) in detecting changes due to snow cover between summer and winter seasons on large area images acquired by COSMO-SkyMed constellation. ITSDA is a method for change detection in multitemporal SAR images, which has been recently applied by the authors to a subset of Cosmo-SkyMed data. The proposed technique is based on a nonparametric approach in the framework of Shannon's information theory, and in particular it features the conditional probability of the local means between the two images taken at different times. Such an unsupervised approach does not require any preliminary despeckling procedure to be performed before the calculation of the change map. In the case of a low quantity of anomalous changes in relatively small-size images, a mean shift procedure can be utilized for refining the map. However, in the present investigation, the changes to be identified are pervasive in large size images. Consequently, for computational issues, the mean shift refinement has been omitted in the present work. However, a simplified implementation of mean shift procedure to save time will be possibly considered in future submissions. In any case, the present version of ITSDA method preserve its characteristics of flexibility and sensibility to backscattering changes, thanks to the possibility of setting up the number of quantization levels in the estimation of the conditional probability between the amplitude values at the two acquisition dates.

The Origin of the Excess Near-Infrared Diffuse Sky Brightness: Population III Stars or Zodiacal Light?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dwek, Eli

2006-01-01

The intensity of the diffuse 1 to 5 micron sky emission from which solar system and Galactic foregrounds have been subtracted is in excess of that expected from energy released by galaxies and stars that formed during the z < 5 redshift interval. The spectral signature of this excess near-infrared background light (NIRBL) component is almost identical to that of reflected sunlight from the interplanetary dust cloud, and could therefore be the result of the incomplete subtraction of this foreground emission component from the diffuse sky maps. Alternatively, this emission component could be extragalactic. Its spectral signature is consistent with that of redshifted continuum and recombination line emission from H-II regions formed by the first generation of very massive stars. In this talk I will present the implications of this excess emission for our understanding of the zodiacal dust cloud, the formation rate of Pop III stars, and the TeV gamma-ray opacity to nearby blazars.

Centaurus Star-Forming Field Revisited

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaltcheva, Nadia; Golev, V.; Moran, K.

2013-01-01

We analyze the structure of the star-forming field in Centaurus based on intermediate-band uvbyβ photometry of a large sample of O-B9 -stars. The derived precise homogeneous photometric distances and color excesses allow us to reveal spatially coherent groups and layers and to revise the membership and distance of the Cen OB1 association. In particular, we are seeking a correlation between the distribution of the massive OB-stars and that of ionized and neutral interstellar material that would allow a better understanding of the interactions among various ISM components in the Galactic stars-forming fields. For the purpose we combine the photometric findings with several multi-wavelength surveys (Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper Northern Sky Survey, Southern H-Alpha Sky Survey Atlas, MSX Galactic Plane Survey, WISE All-Sky Data Release, CO survey of the Milky Way, and Southern Galactic Plane Survey). This allows us to map the OB-star distribution together with the super-shells of neutral and ionized material located toward Centaurus. Acknowledgments. This work was supported by NSF grant AST-0708950.

Carbon monoxide column retrieval for clear-sky and cloudy atmospheres: a full-mission data set from SCIAMACHY 2.3 µm reflectance measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borsdorff, Tobias; aan de Brugh, Joost; Hu, Haili; Nédélec, Philippe; Aben, Ilse; Landgraf, Jochen

2017-05-01

We discuss the retrieval of carbon monoxide (CO) vertical column densities from clear-sky and cloud contaminated 2311-2338 nm reflectance spectra measured by the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) from January 2003 until the end of the mission in April 2012. These data were processed with the Shortwave Infrared CO Retrieval algorithm (SICOR) that we developed for the operational data processing of the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) that will be launched on ESA's Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) mission. This study complements previous work that was limited to clear-sky observations over land. Over the oceans, CO is estimated from cloudy-sky measurements only, which is an important addition to the SCIAMACHY clear-sky CO data set as shown by NDACC and TCCON measurements at coastal sites. For Ny-Ålesund, Lauder, Mauna Loa and Reunion, a validation of SCIAMACHY clear-sky retrievals is not meaningful because of the high retrieval noise and the few collocations at these sites. The situation improves significantly when considering cloudy-sky observations, where we find a low mean bias b = ±6. 0 ppb and a strong correlation between the validation and the SCIAMACHY results with a mean Pearson correlation coefficient r = 0. 7. Also for land observations, cloudy-sky CO retrievals present an interesting complement to the clear-sky data set. For example, at the cities Tehran and Beijing the agreement of SCIAMACHY clear-sky CO observations with MOZAIC/IAGOS airborne measurements is poor with a mean bias of b = 171. 2 ppb and 57.9 ppb because of local CO pollution, which cannot be captured by SCIAMACHY. For cloudy-sky retrievals, the validation improves significantly. Here the retrieved column is mainly sensitive to CO above the cloud and so not affected by the strong local surface emissions. Adjusting the MOZAIC/IAGOS measurements to the vertical sensitivity of the retrieval, the mean bias adds up to b = 52. 3 ppb and 5.0 ppb for Tehran and Beijing. At the less urbanised region around the airport Windhoek, local CO pollution is less prominent and so MOZAIC/IAGOS measurements agree well with SCIAMACHY clear-sky retrievals with a mean bias of b = 15. 5 ppb, but can be even further improved for cloudy SCIAMACHY observations with a mean bias of b = 0. 2 ppb. Overall the cloudy-sky CO retrievals from SCIAMACHY short-wave infrared measurements present a major extension of the clear-sky-only data set, which more than triples the amount of data and adds unique observations over the oceans. Moreover, the study represents the first application of the S5P algorithm for operational CO data processing on cloudy observations prior to the launch of the S5P mission.

Planck 2015 results. XXII. A map of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planck Collaboration; Aghanim, N.; Arnaud, M.; Ashdown, M.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartlett, J. G.; Bartolo, N.; Battaner, E.; Battye, R.; Benabed, K.; Benoît, A.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bielewicz, P.; Bock, J. J.; Bonaldi, A.; Bonavera, L.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Burigana, C.; Butler, R. C.; Calabrese, E.; Cardoso, J.-F.; Catalano, A.; Challinor, A.; Chiang, H. C.; Christensen, P. R.; Churazov, E.; Clements, D. L.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Combet, C.; Comis, B.; Coulais, A.; Crill, B. P.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davies, R. D.; Davis, R. J.; de Bernardis, P.; de Rosa, A.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Désert, F.-X.; Dickinson, C.; Diego, J. M.; Dolag, K.; Dole, H.; Donzelli, S.; Doré, O.; Douspis, M.; Ducout, A.; Dupac, X.; Efstathiou, G.; Elsner, F.; Enßlin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Fergusson, J.; Finelli, F.; Forni, O.; Frailis, M.; Fraisse, A. A.; Franceschi, E.; Frejsel, A.; Galeotta, S.; Galli, S.; Ganga, K.; Génova-Santos, R. T.; Giard, M.; González-Nuevo, J.; Górski, K. M.; Gregorio, A.; Gruppuso, A.; Gudmundsson, J. E.; Hansen, F. K.; Harrison, D. L.; Henrot-Versillé, S.; Hernández-Monteagudo, C.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hivon, E.; Holmes, W. A.; Hornstrup, A.; Huffenberger, K. M.; Hurier, G.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jones, W. C.; Juvela, M.; Keihänen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kneissl, R.; Knoche, J.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lacasa, F.; Lagache, G.; Lähteenmäki, A.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Lattanzi, M.; Leonardi, R.; Lesgourgues, J.; Levrier, F.; Liguori, M.; Lilje, P. B.; Linden-Vørnle, M.; López-Caniego, M.; Macías-Pérez, J. F.; Maffei, B.; Maggio, G.; Maino, D.; Mandolesi, N.; Mangilli, A.; Maris, M.; Martin, P. G.; Martínez-González, E.; Masi, S.; Matarrese, S.; Melchiorri, A.; Melin, J.-B.; Migliaccio, M.; Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Moneti, A.; Montier, L.; Morgante, G.; Mortlock, D.; Munshi, D.; Murphy, J. A.; Naselsky, P.; Nati, F.; Natoli, P.; Noviello, F.; Novikov, D.; Novikov, I.; Paci, F.; Pagano, L.; Pajot, F.; Paoletti, D.; Pasian, F.; Patanchon, G.; Perdereau, O.; Perotto, L.; Pettorino, V.; Piacentini, F.; Piat, M.; Pierpaoli, E.; Pietrobon, D.; Plaszczynski, S.; Pointecouteau, E.; Polenta, G.; Ponthieu, N.; Pratt, G. W.; Prunet, S.; Puget, J.-L.; Rachen, J. P.; Reinecke, M.; Remazeilles, M.; Renault, C.; Renzi, A.; Ristorcelli, I.; Rocha, G.; Rossetti, M.; Roudier, G.; Rubiño-Martín, J. A.; Rusholme, B.; Sandri, M.; Santos, D.; Sauvé, A.; Savelainen, M.; Savini, G.; Scott, D.; Spencer, L. D.; Stolyarov, V.; Stompor, R.; Sunyaev, R.; Sutton, D.; Suur-Uski, A.-S.; Sygnet, J.-F.; Tauber, J. A.; Terenzi, L.; Toffolatti, L.; Tomasi, M.; Tramonte, D.; Tristram, M.; Tucci, M.; Tuovinen, J.; Valenziano, L.; Valiviita, J.; Van Tent, B.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Wade, L. A.; Wandelt, B. D.; Wehus, I. K.; Yvon, D.; Zacchei, A.; Zonca, A.

2016-09-01

We have constructed all-sky Compton parameters maps, y-maps, of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect by applying specifically tailored component separation algorithms to the 30 to 857 GHz frequency channel maps from the Planck satellite. These reconstructed y-maps are delivered as part of the Planck 2015 release. The y-maps are characterized in terms of noise properties and residual foreground contamination, mainly thermal dust emission at large angular scales, and cosmic infrared background and extragalactic point sources at small angular scales. Specific masks are defined to minimize foreground residuals and systematics. Using these masks, we compute the y-map angular power spectrum and higher order statistics. From these we conclude that the y-map is dominated by tSZ signal in the multipole range, 20 <ℓ< 600. We compare the measured tSZ power spectrum and higher order statistics to various physically motivated models and discuss the implications of our results in terms of cluster physics and cosmology.

A map of dust reddening to 4.5 kpc from Pan-STARRS1

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

Schlafly, E. F.; Rix, H.-W.; Martin, N. F.

2014-07-01

We present a map of the dust reddening to 4.5 kpc derived from Pan-STARRS1 stellar photometry. The map covers almost the entire sky north of declination –30° at a resolution of 7'-14', and is based on the estimated distances and reddenings to more than 500 million stars. The technique is designed to map dust in the Galactic plane, where many other techniques are stymied by the presence of multiple dust clouds at different distances along each line of sight. This reddening-based dust map agrees closely with the Schlegel et al. (SFD) far-infrared emission-based dust map away from the Galactic plane,more » and the most prominent differences between the two maps stem from known limitations of SFD in the plane. We also compare the map with Planck, finding likewise good agreement in general at high latitudes. The use of optical data from Pan-STARRS1 yields reddening uncertainty as low as 25 mmag E(B – V).« less

Under soggy skies on a Sunday morning, the Space Shuttle Endeavour is encased in the Mate-DeMate gantry during turnaround processing at NASA DFRC

NASA Image and Video Library

2008-12-07

Under soggy skies on a Sunday morning, the Space Shuttle Endeavour is encased in the Mate-DeMate gantry during turnaround processing at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center following its STS-126 landing at Edwards Air Force Base a week earlier.

Neurological evidence linguistic processes precede perceptual simulation in conceptual processing.

PubMed

Louwerse, Max; Hutchinson, Sterling

2012-01-01

There is increasing evidence from response time experiments that language statistics and perceptual simulations both play a role in conceptual processing. In an EEG experiment we compared neural activity in cortical regions commonly associated with linguistic processing and visual perceptual processing to determine to what extent symbolic and embodied accounts of cognition applied. Participants were asked to determine the semantic relationship of word pairs (e.g., sky - ground) or to determine their iconic relationship (i.e., if the presentation of the pair matched their expected physical relationship). A linguistic bias was found toward the semantic judgment task and a perceptual bias was found toward the iconicity judgment task. More importantly, conceptual processing involved activation in brain regions associated with both linguistic and perceptual processes. When comparing the relative activation of linguistic cortical regions with perceptual cortical regions, the effect sizes for linguistic cortical regions were larger than those for the perceptual cortical regions early in a trial with the reverse being true later in a trial. These results map upon findings from other experimental literature and provide further evidence that processing of concept words relies both on language statistics and on perceptual simulations, whereby linguistic processes precede perceptual simulation processes.

Neurological Evidence Linguistic Processes Precede Perceptual Simulation in Conceptual Processing

PubMed Central

Louwerse, Max; Hutchinson, Sterling

2012-01-01

There is increasing evidence from response time experiments that language statistics and perceptual simulations both play a role in conceptual processing. In an EEG experiment we compared neural activity in cortical regions commonly associated with linguistic processing and visual perceptual processing to determine to what extent symbolic and embodied accounts of cognition applied. Participants were asked to determine the semantic relationship of word pairs (e.g., sky – ground) or to determine their iconic relationship (i.e., if the presentation of the pair matched their expected physical relationship). A linguistic bias was found toward the semantic judgment task and a perceptual bias was found toward the iconicity judgment task. More importantly, conceptual processing involved activation in brain regions associated with both linguistic and perceptual processes. When comparing the relative activation of linguistic cortical regions with perceptual cortical regions, the effect sizes for linguistic cortical regions were larger than those for the perceptual cortical regions early in a trial with the reverse being true later in a trial. These results map upon findings from other experimental literature and provide further evidence that processing of concept words relies both on language statistics and on perceptual simulations, whereby linguistic processes precede perceptual simulation processes. PMID:23133427

Cone of Darkness: Finding Blank-sky Positions for Multi-object Wide-field Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lorente, N. P. F.

2014-05-01

We present the Cone of Darkness, an application to automatically configure blank-sky positions for a series of stacked, wide-field observations, such as those carried out by the SAMI instrument on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). The Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI) uses a plug-plate to mount its 13×61 core imaging fibre bundles (hexabundles) in the optical plane at the telescope's prime focus. To make the most efficient use of each plug-plate, several observing fields are typically stacked to produce a single plate. When choosing blank-sky positions for the observations it is most effective to select these such that one set of 26 holes gives valid sky positions for all fields on the plate. However, when carried out manually this selection process is tedious and includes a significant risk of error. The Cone of Darkness software aims to provide uniform blank-sky position coverage over the field of observation, within the limits set by the distribution of target positions and the chosen input catalogs. This will then facilitate the production of the best representative median sky spectrum for use in sky subtraction. The application, written in C++, is configurable, making it usable for a range of instruments. Given the plate characteristics and the positions of target holes, the software segments the unallocated space on the plate and determines the position which best fits the uniform distribution requirement. This position is checked, for each field, against the selected catalog using a TAP ADQL search. The process is then repeated until the desired number of sky positions is attained.

COBE - Cosmic Background Explorer

Science.gov Websites

with that from a precise blackbody. Data from the full four years of COBE observations continue to be stages in the COBE project. DIRBE (Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment) DIRBE has mapped the absolute sky brightness in 10 wavelength bands ranging from 1.25 microns to 240 microns. These data contain the

The scientific results of the low energy portion of A-2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garmire, G.

1979-01-01

Galactic phenomena observed using the HEAO 1 detectors are discussed. A source map of the soft X-ray sky is presented. Specific topics covered include the optical outburst of U Geminorum, low energy RS CVn stars, and the dwarf nova SS Cygni. Aspects of the SS Cygni pulsations are analyzed.

Spica-Safari reference optical design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pastor, Carmen; Zuluaga, Pablo; Jellema, Willem; González Fernández, Luis Miguel; Belenguer, Tomas; Torres Redondo, Josefina; Kooijman, Peter Paul; Najarro, Francisco; Eggens, Martin; Roelfsema, Peter; Nakagawa, Takao

2017-11-01

SpicA FAR infrared Instrument, SAFARI, is an imaging spectrometer which is being designed to map large areas of the sky in the far infrared. The SPICA mission, having a large cold telescope cooled to 6K above absolute zero, will provide an optimum environment where instruments are limited only by the cosmic background itself.

A green flash from the Moon; BOSS measures the distant universe in 3D; Cuts in Parliament; When asteroids collide; SpaceX to beat China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2011-06-01

The biggest 3D map of the distant universe, based on the intergalactic hydrogen distribution as well as on the distribution of visible galaxies, has been produced by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III).

The Monthly Sky Guide: Sixth Edition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ridpath, Ian; Tirion, Wil

2003-06-01

The latest edition of Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion's popular guide to the night sky is updated for planet positions and forthcoming eclipses up to the end of the year 2007. With one chapter for each month of the year, this is an easy-to-use handbook for anyone wanting to identify constellations, star clusters, nebulae, to plot the movement of planets, or witness solar and lunar eclipses. Most of the features discussed are visible to the naked eye and all can be seen with a small telescope or binoculars. Ian Ridpath has been a full-time writer, broadcaster and lecturer on astronomy and space for more than twenty-five years. He has written and edited more than 40 books, including A Comet Called Haley (Cambridge, 1985). Wil Tirion made his first star map in 1977. It showed stars to the magnitude of 6.5 and was issued as a set of maps by the British Astronomical Association in 1981. He has illustrated numerous books and magazines, including The Cambridge Star Atlas (Cambridge, 2001). Previous Edition Pb (1999): 0-521-66771-2

The isotropic radio background revisited

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fornengo, Nicolao; Lineros, Roberto A.; Regis, Marco; Taoso, Marco

2014-04-01

We present an extensive analysis on the determination of the isotropic radio background. We consider six different radio maps, ranging from 22 MHz to 2.3 GHz and covering a large fraction of the sky. The large scale emission is modeled as a linear combination of an isotropic component plus the Galactic synchrotron radiation and thermal bremsstrahlung. Point-like and extended sources are either masked or accounted for by means of a template. We find a robust estimate of the isotropic radio background, with limited scatter among different Galactic models. The level of the isotropic background lies significantly above the contribution obtained by integrating the number counts of observed extragalactic sources. Since the isotropic component dominates at high latitudes, thus making the profile of the total emission flat, a Galactic origin for such excess appears unlikely. We conclude that, unless a systematic offset is present in the maps, and provided that our current understanding of the Galactic synchrotron emission is reasonable, extragalactic sources well below the current experimental threshold seem to account for the majority of the brightness of the extragalactic radio sky.

Mapping diffuse photosynthetically active radiation from satellite data in Thailand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choosri, P.; Janjai, S.; Nunez, M.; Buntoung, S.; Charuchittipan, D.

2017-12-01

In this paper, calculation of monthly average hourly diffuse photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) using satellite data is proposed. Diffuse PAR was analyzed at four stations in Thailand. A radiative transfer model was used for calculating the diffuse PAR for cloudless sky conditions. Differences between the diffuse PAR under all sky conditions obtained from the ground-based measurements and those from the model are representative of cloud effects. Two models are developed, one describing diffuse PAR only as a function of solar zenith angle, and the second one as a multiple linear regression with solar zenith angle and satellite reflectivity acting linearly and aerosol optical depth acting in logarithmic functions. When tested with an independent data set, the multiple regression model performed best with a higher coefficient of variance R2 (0.78 vs. 0.70), lower root mean square difference (RMSD) (12.92% vs. 13.05%) and the same mean bias difference (MBD) of -2.20%. Results from the multiple regression model are used to map diffuse PAR throughout the country as monthly averages of hourly data.

COSMOG: Cosmology Oriented Sub-mm Modeling of Galactic Foregrounds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kashlinsky, A.; Leisawitz, D.

2004-01-01

With upcoming missions in mid- and far-Infrared there is a need for software packages to reliably simulate the planned observations. This would help in both planning the observation and scanning strategy and in developing the concepts of the far-off missions. As this workshop demonstrated, many of the new missions are to be in the far-IR range of the electromagnetic spectrum and at the same time will map the sky with a sub-arcsec angular resolution. We present here a computer package for simulating foreground maps for the planned sub-mm and far-IR missions. such as SPECS. The package allows to study confusion limits and simulate cosmological observations for specified sky location interactively and in real time. Most of the emission at wavelengths long-ward of approximately 50 microns is dominated by Galactic cirrus and Zodiacal dust emission. Stellar emission at these wavelengths is weak and is for now neglected. Cosmological sources (distant and not-so-distant) galaxies for specified cosmologies will be added. Briefly, the steps that the algorithm goes through is described.

Potential Impact of Global Navigation Satellite Services on Total Power HI Intensity Mapping Surveys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harper, Stuart E.; Dickinson, Clive

2018-06-01

Future total-power single-dish HI intensity mapping (HI IM) surveys have the potential to provide unprecedented insight into late time (z < 1) cosmology that are competitive with Stage IV dark energy surveys. However, redshifts between 0 < z < 0.2 lie within the transmission bands of global navigation satellite services (GNSS), and even at higher redshifts out-of-band leakage from GNSS satellites may be problematic. We estimate the impact of GNSS satellites on future single-dish HI IM surveys using realistic estimates of both the total power and spectral structure of GNSS signals convolved with a model SKA beam. Using a model of the SKA phase one array with 200 dishes we simulate a HI IM survey covering 30000 sq. deg. of sky. We compare the integrated GNSS emission on the sky with the expected HI signal. It is found that for frequencies >950 MHz the emission from GNSS satellites will exceed the expected HI signal for all angular scales to which the SKA is sensitive when operating in single-dish mode.

Stability and subsidence across Rome (Italy) in 2011-2013 based on COSMO-SkyMed Persistent Scatterer Interferometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Francesca, Cigna; Lasaponara, Rosa; Nicola, Masini; Pietro, Milillo; Deodato, Tapete

2015-04-01

Ground stability of the built environment of the city of Rome in central Italy has been extensively investigated in the last years by using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), with focus on deformation of both the monuments of the historic centre (e.g., [1-2]) and the southern residential quarters (e.g., [3]). C-band ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT ASAR time series deformation analyses brought evidence of overall stability across the town centre, except for localized deformation concentrated in areas geologically susceptible to instability (e.g. western slope of the Palatine Hill), whereas clear subsidence patterns were detected over the compressible alluvial deposits lying in proximity of the Tiber River. To retrieve an updated picture of stability and subsidence across the city, we analysed a time series of 32 COSMO-SkyMed StripMap HIMAGE, right-looking, ascending mode scenes with an image swath of 40 km, 3-m resolution and HH polarization, acquired between 21 March 2011 and 10 June 2013, with repeat cycle mostly equal to 16 days. Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) processing was undertaken by using the Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers (StaMPS) as detailed in [4], and more than 310,000 radar targets (i.e. PS) were identified, with an average target density of over 2,800 PS/km2. The performance of StaMPS to retrieve satisfactory PS coverage over the urban features of interest was assessed against their orientation and visibility to the satellite Line-Of-Sight, as well as their conservation history throughout the biennial investigated (2011-2013). In this work we discuss effects due to local land cover and land use by exploiting the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) European Urban Atlas (IT001L) of Rome at 1:10,000 scale, thereby also evaluating the capability of the X-band to spatially resolve targets coinciding with man-made structures in vegetated areas. Based on this assessment, our PSI results highlight those environmental constraints that can prevent, even at such high spatial resolution, obtaining satisfactory PS densities in peri-urban areas with high vegetation coverage. With regard to recent deformation patterns, COSMO-SkyMed time series confirm the persistence of subsidence processes in southern Rome. In areas of recent urbanization, such as that surrounding the Basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls, the estimated vertical motion velocity reaches values higher than -7.0 mm/yr. Further proof of the potentiality of COSMO-SkyMed constellation to extend almost seamlessly ground motion time series from previous SAR missions is offered by the deformation detected at the single-monument scale over the archaeological ruins of the Oppian Hill, the monuments and historical building in the riverside quarter of Trastevere, and the Basilica di San Saba within the Aurelian Walls. References [1] Tapete, D.; Fanti, R.; Cecchi, R.; Petrangeli, P.; Casagli, N. Satellite radar interferometry for monitoring and early-stage warning of structural instability in archaeological sites. J. Geophys. Eng. 2012, 9 S10-S25. [2] Tapete, D.; Casagli, N.; Fanti, R. Radar interferometry for early stage warning on monuments at risk. In Landslide Science and Practice; Margottini, C., Canuti, P., Sassa, K., Eds.; Springer: Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany, 2013; Volume 1, pp. 619-625. [3] Stramondo, S.; Bozzano, F.; Marra, F.; Wegmuller, U.; Cinti, F.R.; Moro, M.; Saroli, M. Subsidence induced by urbanisation in the city of Rome detected by advanced InSAR technique and geotechnical investigations. Remote Sens. Environ. 2008, 112, 3160-3172. [4] Cigna, F.; Lasaponara, R.; Masini, N.; Milillo, P.; Tapete, D. Persistent Scatterer Interferometry Processing of COSMO-SkyMed StripMap HIMAGE Time Series to Depict Deformation of the Historic Centre of Rome, Italy. Remote Sens. 2014, 6, 12593-12618.

ESASky: All the sky you need

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Marchi, Guido; ESASky Team

2018-06-01

ESASky is a discovery portal giving to all astronomers, professional and amateur alike, an easy way to access high-quality scientific data from their computer, tablet, or mobile device. It includes over half a million images, 300,000 spectra, and more than a billion catalogue sources. From gamma rays to radio wavelengths, it allows users to explore the cosmos with data from a dozen space missions from the astronomical archives of ESA, NASA, and JAXA and does not require prior knowledge of any particular mission. ESASky features an all-sky exploration interface, letting users easily zoom in for stars as single targets or as part of a whole galaxy, visualise them and retrieve the relevant data taken in an area of the sky with just a few clicks. Users can easily compare observations of the same source obtained by different space missions at different times and wavelengths. They can also use ESASky to plan future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope, comparing the relevant portion of the sky as observed by Hubble and other missions. We will illustrate the many options to visualise and access astronomical data: interactive footprints for each instrument, tree-maps, filters, and solar-system object trajectories can all be combined and displayed. The most recent version of ESASky, released in February, also includes access to scientific publications, allowing users to visualise on the sky all astronomical objects with associated scientific publications and to link directly back to the papers in the NASA Astrophysics Data System.

Evaluation of a wildfire smoke forecasting system as a tool for public health protection.

PubMed

Yao, Jiayun; Brauer, Michael; Henderson, Sarah B

2013-10-01

Exposure to wildfire smoke has been associated with cardiopulmonary health impacts. Climate change will increase the severity and frequency of smoke events, suggesting a need for enhanced public health protection. Forecasts of smoke exposure can facilitate public health responses. We evaluated the utility of a wildfire smoke forecasting system (BlueSky) for public health protection by comparing its forecasts with observations and assessing their associations with population-level indicators of respiratory health in British Columbia, Canada. We compared BlueSky PM2.5 forecasts with PM2.5 measurements from air quality monitors, and BlueSky smoke plume forecasts with plume tracings from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hazard Mapping System remote sensing data. Daily counts of the asthma drug salbutamol sulfate dispensations and asthma-related physician visits were aggregated for each geographic local health area (LHA). Daily continuous measures of PM2.5 and binary measures of smoke plume presence, either forecasted or observed, were assigned to each LHA. Poisson regression was used to estimate the association between exposure measures and health indicators. We found modest agreement between forecasts and observations, which was improved during intense fire periods. A 30-μg/m3 increase in BlueSky PM2.5 was associated with an 8% increase in salbutamol dispensations and a 5% increase in asthma-related physician visits. BlueSky plume coverage was associated with 5% and 6% increases in the two health indicators, respectively. The effects were similar for observed smoke, and generally stronger in very smoky areas. BlueSky forecasts showed modest agreement with retrospective measures of smoke and were predictive of respiratory health indicators, suggesting they can provide useful information for public health protection.

An all-sky catalogue of solar-type dwarfs for exoplanetary transit surveys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nascimbeni, V.; Piotto, G.; Ortolani, S.; Giuffrida, G.; Marrese, P. M.; Magrin, D.; Ragazzoni, R.; Pagano, I.; Rauer, H.; Cabrera, J.; Pollacco, D.; Heras, A. M.; Deleuil, M.; Gizon, L.; Granata, V.

2016-12-01

Most future surveys designed to discover transiting exoplanets, including TESS and PLATO, will target bright (V ≲ 13) and nearby solar-type stars having a spectral type later than F5. In order to enhance the probability of identifying transits, these surveys must cover a very large area on the sky, because of the intrinsically low areal density of bright targets. Unfortunately, no existing catalogue of stellar parameters is both deep and wide enough to provide a homogeneous input list. As the first Gaia data release exploitable for this purpose is expected to be released not earlier than late 2017, we have devised an improved reduced-proper-motion (RPM) method to discriminate late field dwarfs and giants by combining the fourth U.S. Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC4) proper motions with AAVSO Photometric All-Sky Survey DR6 photometry, and relying on Radial Velocity Experiment DR4 as an external calibrator. The output, named UCAC4-RPM, is a publicly available, complete all-sky catalogue of solar-type dwarfs down to V ≃ 13.5, plus an extension to log g > 3.0 subgiants. The relatively low amount of contamination (defined as the fraction of false positives; <30 per cent) also makes UCAC4-RPM a useful tool for the past and ongoing ground-based transit surveys, which need to discard candidate signals originating from early-type or giant stars. As an application, we show how UCAC4-RPM may support the preparation of the TESS (that will map almost the entire sky) input catalogue and the input catalogue of PLATO, planned to survey more than half of the whole sky with exquisite photometric precision.

Planck 2015 results. XXV. Diffuse low-frequency Galactic foregrounds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planck Collaboration; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Alves, M. I. R.; Arnaud, M.; Ashdown, M.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartlett, J. G.; Bartolo, N.; Battaner, E.; Benabed, K.; Benoît, A.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bielewicz, P.; Bock, J. J.; Bonaldi, A.; Bonavera, L.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Boulanger, F.; Bucher, M.; Burigana, C.; Butler, R. C.; Calabrese, E.; Cardoso, J.-F.; Catalano, A.; Challinor, A.; Chamballu, A.; Chary, R.-R.; Chiang, H. C.; Christensen, P. R.; Colombi, S.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Combet, C.; Couchot, F.; Coulais, A.; Crill, B. P.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davies, R. D.; Davis, R. J.; de Bernardis, P.; de Rosa, A.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Delouis, J.-M.; Désert, F.-X.; Dickinson, C.; Diego, J. M.; Dole, H.; Donzelli, S.; Doré, O.; Douspis, M.; Ducout, A.; Dupac, X.; Efstathiou, G.; Elsner, F.; Enßlin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Falgarone, E.; Fergusson, J.; Finelli, F.; Forni, O.; Frailis, M.; Fraisse, A. A.; Franceschi, E.; Frejsel, A.; Galeotta, S.; Galli, S.; Ganga, K.; Ghosh, T.; Giard, M.; Giraud-Héraud, Y.; Gjerløw, E.; González-Nuevo, J.; Górski, K. M.; Gratton, S.; Gregorio, A.; Gruppuso, A.; Gudmundsson, J. E.; Hansen, F. K.; Hanson, D.; Harrison, D. L.; Helou, G.; Henrot-Versillé, S.; Hernández-Monteagudo, C.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hivon, E.; Hobson, M.; Holmes, W. A.; Hornstrup, A.; Hovest, W.; Huffenberger, K. M.; Hurier, G.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jaffe, T. R.; Jones, W. C.; Juvela, M.; Keihänen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kisner, T. S.; Kneissl, R.; Knoche, J.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lagache, G.; Lähteenmäki, A.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Lattanzi, M.; Lawrence, C. R.; Leahy, J. P.; Leonardi, R.; Lesgourgues, J.; Levrier, F.; Liguori, M.; Lilje, P. B.; Linden-Vørnle, M.; López-Caniego, M.; Lubin, P. M.; Macías-Pérez, J. F.; Maggio, G.; Maino, D.; Mandolesi, N.; Mangilli, A.; Maris, M.; Marshall, D. J.; Martin, P. G.; Martínez-González, E.; Masi, S.; Matarrese, S.; McGehee, P.; Meinhold, P. R.; Melchiorri, A.; Mendes, L.; Mennella, A.; Migliaccio, M.; Mitra, S.; Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Moneti, A.; Montier, L.; Morgante, G.; Mortlock, D.; Moss, A.; Munshi, D.; Murphy, J. A.; Nati, F.; Natoli, P.; Netterfield, C. B.; Nørgaard-Nielsen, H. U.; Noviello, F.; Novikov, D.; Novikov, I.; Orlando, E.; Oxborrow, C. A.; Paci, F.; Pagano, L.; Pajot, F.; Paladini, R.; Paoletti, D.; Partridge, B.; Pasian, F.; Patanchon, G.; Pearson, T. J.; Peel, M.; Perdereau, O.; Perotto, L.; Perrotta, F.; Pettorino, V.; Piacentini, F.; Piat, M.; Pierpaoli, E.; Pietrobon, D.; Plaszczynski, S.; Pointecouteau, E.; Polenta, G.; Pratt, G. W.; Prézeau, G.; Prunet, S.; Puget, J.-L.; Rachen, J. P.; Reach, W. T.; Rebolo, R.; Reinecke, M.; Remazeilles, M.; Renault, C.; Renzi, A.; Ristorcelli, I.; Rocha, G.; Rosset, C.; Rossetti, M.; Roudier, G.; Rubiño-Martín, J. A.; Rusholme, B.; Sandri, M.; Santos, D.; Savelainen, M.; Savini, G.; Scott, D.; Seiffert, M. D.; Shellard, E. P. S.; Spencer, L. D.; Stolyarov, V.; Stompor, R.; Strong, A. W.; Sudiwala, R.; Sunyaev, R.; Sutton, D.; Suur-Uski, A.-S.; Sygnet, J.-F.; Tauber, J. A.; Terenzi, L.; Toffolatti, L.; Tomasi, M.; Tristram, M.; Tucci, M.; Tuovinen, J.; Umana, G.; Valenziano, L.; Valiviita, J.; Van Tent, F.; Vidal, M.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Wade, L. A.; Wandelt, B. D.; Watson, R.; Wehus, I. K.; Wilkinson, A.; Yvon, D.; Zacchei, A.; Zonca, A.

2016-09-01

We discuss the Galactic foreground emission between 20 and 100 GHz based on observations by Planck and WMAP. The total intensity in this part of the spectrum is dominated by free-free and spinning dust emission, whereas the polarized intensity is dominated by synchrotron emission. The Commander component-separation tool has been used to separate the various astrophysical processes in total intensity. Comparison with radio recombination line templates verifies the recovery of the free-free emission along the Galactic plane. Comparison of the high-latitude Hα emission with our free-free map shows residuals that correlate with dust optical depth, consistent with a fraction (≈30%) of Hα having been scattered by high-latitude dust. We highlight a number of diffuse spinning dust morphological features at high latitude. There is substantial spatial variation in the spinning dust spectrum, with the emission peak (in Iν) ranging from below 20 GHz to more than 50 GHz. There is a strong tendency for the spinning dust component near many prominent H II regions to have a higher peak frequency, suggesting that this increase in peak frequency is associated with dust in the photo-dissociation regions around the nebulae. The emissivity of spinning dust in these diffuse regions is of the same order as previous detections in the literature. Over the entire sky, the Commander solution finds more anomalous microwave emission (AME) than the WMAP component maps, at the expense of synchrotron and free-free emission. This can be explained by the difficulty in separating multiple broadband components with a limited number of frequency maps. Future surveys, particularly at 5-20 GHz, will greatly improve the separation by constraining the synchrotron spectrum. We combine Planck and WMAP data to make the highest signal-to-noise ratio maps yet of the intensity of the all-sky polarized synchrotron emission at frequencies above a few GHz. Most of the high-latitude polarized emission is associated with distinct large-scale loops and spurs, and we re-discuss their structure. We argue that nearly all the emission at 40deg > l > -90deg is part of the Loop I structure, and show that the emission extends much further in to the southern Galactic hemisphere than previously recognised, giving Loop I an ovoid rather than circular outline. However, it does not continue as far as the "Fermi bubble/microwave haze", making it less probable that these are part of the same structure. We identify a number of new faint features in the polarized sky, including a dearth of polarized synchrotron emission directly correlated with a narrow, roughly 20deg long filament seen in Hα at high Galactic latitude. Finally, we look for evidence of polarized AME, however many AME regions are significantly contaminated by polarized synchrotron emission, and we find a 2σ upper limit of 1.6% in the Perseus region.

Planck 2015 results: XXV. Diffuse low-frequency Galactic foregrounds

DOE PAGES

Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Alves, M. I. R.; ...

2016-09-20

In this paper, we discuss the Galactic foreground emission between 20 and 100 GHz based on observations by Planck and WMAP. The total intensity in this part of the spectrum is dominated by free-free and spinning dust emission, whereas the polarized intensity is dominated by synchrotron emission. The Commander component-separation tool has been used to separate the various astrophysical processes in total intensity. Comparison with radio recombination line templates verifies the recovery of the free-free emission along the Galactic plane. Comparison of the high-latitude Hα emission with our free-free map shows residuals that correlate with dust optical depth, consistent withmore » a fraction (≈30%) of Hα having been scattered by high-latitude dust. We highlight a number of diffuse spinning dust morphological features at high latitude. There is substantial spatial variation in the spinning dust spectrum, with the emission peak (in I ν) ranging from below 20 GHz to more than 50 GHz. There is a strong tendency for the spinning dust component near many prominent H ii regions to have a higher peak frequency, suggesting that this increase in peak frequency is associated with dust in the photo-dissociation regions around the nebulae. The emissivity of spinning dust in these diffuse regions is of the same order as previous detections in the literature. Over the entire sky, the Commander solution finds more anomalous microwave emission (AME) than the WMAP component maps, at the expense of synchrotron and free-free emission. This can be explained by the difficulty in separating multiple broadband components with a limited number of frequency maps. Future surveys, particularly at 5–20 GHz, will greatly improve the separation by constraining the synchrotron spectrum. We combine Planck and WMAP data to make the highest signal-to-noise ratio maps yet of the intensity of the all-sky polarized synchrotron emission at frequencies above a few GHz. Most of the high-latitude polarized emission is associated with distinct large-scale loops and spurs, and we re-discuss their structure. We argue that nearly all the emission at 40deg > l > -90deg is part of the Loop I structure, and show that the emission extends much further in to the southern Galactic hemisphere than previously recognised, giving Loop I an ovoid rather than circular outline. However, it does not continue as far as the “Fermi bubble/microwave haze”, making it less probable that these are part of the same structure. We identify a number of new faint features in the polarized sky, including a dearth of polarized synchrotron emission directly correlated with a narrow, roughly 20deg long filament seen in Hα at high Galactic latitude. In conclusion, we look for evidence of polarized AME, however many AME regions are significantly contaminated by polarized synchrotron emission, and we find a 2σ upper limit of 1.6% in the Perseus region.« less

Planck 2015 results: XXV. Diffuse low-frequency Galactic foregrounds

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

Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Alves, M. I. R.

In this paper, we discuss the Galactic foreground emission between 20 and 100 GHz based on observations by Planck and WMAP. The total intensity in this part of the spectrum is dominated by free-free and spinning dust emission, whereas the polarized intensity is dominated by synchrotron emission. The Commander component-separation tool has been used to separate the various astrophysical processes in total intensity. Comparison with radio recombination line templates verifies the recovery of the free-free emission along the Galactic plane. Comparison of the high-latitude Hα emission with our free-free map shows residuals that correlate with dust optical depth, consistent withmore » a fraction (≈30%) of Hα having been scattered by high-latitude dust. We highlight a number of diffuse spinning dust morphological features at high latitude. There is substantial spatial variation in the spinning dust spectrum, with the emission peak (in I ν) ranging from below 20 GHz to more than 50 GHz. There is a strong tendency for the spinning dust component near many prominent H ii regions to have a higher peak frequency, suggesting that this increase in peak frequency is associated with dust in the photo-dissociation regions around the nebulae. The emissivity of spinning dust in these diffuse regions is of the same order as previous detections in the literature. Over the entire sky, the Commander solution finds more anomalous microwave emission (AME) than the WMAP component maps, at the expense of synchrotron and free-free emission. This can be explained by the difficulty in separating multiple broadband components with a limited number of frequency maps. Future surveys, particularly at 5–20 GHz, will greatly improve the separation by constraining the synchrotron spectrum. We combine Planck and WMAP data to make the highest signal-to-noise ratio maps yet of the intensity of the all-sky polarized synchrotron emission at frequencies above a few GHz. Most of the high-latitude polarized emission is associated with distinct large-scale loops and spurs, and we re-discuss their structure. We argue that nearly all the emission at 40deg > l > -90deg is part of the Loop I structure, and show that the emission extends much further in to the southern Galactic hemisphere than previously recognised, giving Loop I an ovoid rather than circular outline. However, it does not continue as far as the “Fermi bubble/microwave haze”, making it less probable that these are part of the same structure. We identify a number of new faint features in the polarized sky, including a dearth of polarized synchrotron emission directly correlated with a narrow, roughly 20deg long filament seen in Hα at high Galactic latitude. In conclusion, we look for evidence of polarized AME, however many AME regions are significantly contaminated by polarized synchrotron emission, and we find a 2σ upper limit of 1.6% in the Perseus region.« less

Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Likelihoods and Parameters from the WMAP Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dunkey, J.; Komatsu, E.; Nolta, M.R.; Spergel, D.N.; Larson, D.; Hinshaw, G.; Page, L.; Bennett, C.L.; Gold, B.; Jarosik, N.;

A Comprehensive Approach to Dark Skies Research and Education at NOAO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, Constance E.; Pompea, S. M.; Sparks, R. T.

2013-01-01

NOAO and its Education and Public Outreach group play an important role locally, nationally, and internationally in raising dark skies awareness. For the past 3 years NOAO has co-hosted the international “Earth and Sky” photo contest. In 2012 there were over 600 entries contributed within 3 weeks. NOAO also created a series of audio podcasts based on serial-type skits featuring a caped dark-skies hero who typically “saves the night” by mitigating upward directed lights with shields, thereby saving sea turtles, minimizing health effects, conserving energy, or keeping the public safe. To help understand the effects of light pollution, a citizen-science campaign called GLOBE at Night was started seven years ago. The worldwide campaign involves the public in recording night sky brightness data by matching the view of a constellation like Orion with maps of progressively fainter stars. Every year, NOAO adds more opportunities for participation: more campaigns during the year, Web applications for smart phones, objective measurements with sky brightness meters, and a GLOBE at Night Facebook page. Campaigns will run roughly the first 10 days of January through May in 2013. The EPO group created “Dark Skies Rangers”, a suite of well-tested and evaluated hands-on, minds-on activities that have children building star-brightness “readers,” creating glow-in-the-dark tracings to visualize constellations, and role-playing confused sea turtles. They also created a model city with shielded lights to stop upward light, examine different kinds of bulbs for energy efficiency, and perform an outdoor lighting audit of their school or neighborhood to determine ways to save energy. In the REU program at NOAO North, the undergraduate students have been doing research over the last 3 summers on effect of light pollution on endangered bats and characterizing the behavior of sky brightness over time across Tucson and on nearby astronomical mountaintops. For more information, come to our talk.

Andromeda (M31) optical and infrared disk survey. I. Insights in wide-field near-IR surface photometry

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

Sick, Jonathan; Courteau, Stéphane; Cuillandre, Jean-Charles

We present wide-field near-infrared J and K{sub s} images of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) taken with WIRCam at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope as part of the Andromeda Optical and Infrared Disk Survey. This data set allows simultaneous observations of resolved stars and near-infrared (NIR) surface brightness across M31's entire bulge and disk (within R = 22 kpc), permitting a direct test of the stellar composition of near-infrared light in a nearby galaxy. Here we develop NIR observation and reduction methods to recover a uniform surface brightness map across the 3° × 1° disk of M31 with 27 WIRCam fields. Two sky-targetmore » nodding strategies are tested, and we find that strictly minimizing sky sampling latency cannot improve background subtraction accuracy to better than 2% of the background level due to spatio-temporal variations in the NIR skyglow. We fully describe our WIRCam reduction pipeline and advocate using flats built from night-sky images over a single night, rather than dome flats that do not capture the WIRCam illumination field. Contamination from scattered light and thermal background in sky flats has a negligible effect on the surface brightness shape compared to the stochastic differences in background shape between sky and galaxy disk fields, which are ∼0.3% of the background level. The most dramatic calibration step is the introduction of scalar sky offsets to each image that optimizes surface brightness continuity. Sky offsets reduce the mean surface brightness difference between observation blocks from 1% to <0.1% of the background level, though the absolute background level remains statistically uncertain to 0.15% of the background level. We present our WIRCam reduction pipeline and performance analysis to give specific recommendations for the improvement of NIR wide-field imaging methods.« less

The MICE Grand Challenge light-cone simulation - III. Galaxy lensing mocks from all-sky lensing maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fosalba, P.; Gaztañaga, E.; Castander, F. J.; Crocce, M.

2015-02-01

In Paper I of this series, we presented a new N-body light-cone simulation from the MICE Collaboration, the MICE Grand Challenge (MICE-GC), containing about 70 billion dark-matter particles in a (3 h-1 Gpc)3 comoving volume, from which we built halo and galaxy catalogues using a Halo Occupation Distribution and Halo Abundance Matching technique, as presented in the companion Paper II. Given its large volume and fine mass resolution, the MICE-GC simulation also allows an accurate modelling of the lensing observables from upcoming wide and deep galaxy surveys. In the last paper of this series (Paper III), we describe the construction of all-sky lensing maps, following the `Onion Universe' approach, and discuss their properties in the light-cone up to z = 1.4 with sub-arcminute spatial resolution. By comparing the convergence power spectrum in the MICE-GC to lower mass-resolution (i.e. particle mass ˜1011 h-1 M⊙) simulations, we find that resolution effects are at the 5 per cent level for multipoles ℓ ˜ 103 and 20 per cent for ℓ ˜ 104. Resolution effects have a much lower impact on our simulation, as shown by comparing the MICE-GC to recent numerical fits by Takahashi. We use the all-sky lensing maps to model galaxy lensing properties, such as the convergence, shear, and lensed magnitudes and positions, and validate them thoroughly using galaxy shear auto and cross-correlations in harmonic and configuration space. Our results show that the galaxy lensing mocks here presented can be used to accurately model lensing observables down to arcminute scales. Accompanying this series of papers, we make a first public data release of the MICE-GC galaxy mock, the MICECAT v1.0, through a dedicated web-portal for the MICE simulations, http://cosmohub.pic.es, to help developing and exploiting the new generation of astronomical surveys.

Light Pollution Around Tucson, AZ And Its Effect On The Spatial Distribution Of Lesser Long-nosed Bats

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fersch, Alisa; Walker, C.

2012-01-01

Light pollution is a well-known problem for astronomers. It is also gaining attention as an ecological issue. The federally endangered Lesser Long-Nosed Bat (Leptonycteris cursoae) resides for part of the year near Tucson, Arizona. It is possible that this species tends to avoid light. Excess artificial light would therefore interfere with the bats’ flight patterns and foraging habits. In order to test this hypothesis, we quantified night sky brightness with data from the citizen-science campaign GLOBE at Night. Using direct measurements taken with a Sky Quality Meter (SQM), we created a contour map of the artificial night sky brightness around Tucson. When this map is compared to the approximate flight paths of the lesser long-nosed bat, we can see that the bats do appear to be avoiding the brightest area of Tucson. We also used logistic regression to analyze what combination of ecological variables (ecoregion, vegetation cover, landform and light) best describes the observed spatial distribution of lesser long-nosed bats. Of the models that were tested, light alone was not a good predictor of the bat presence or absence. However, light in addition to vegetation and ecoregion was the best model. This information can be useful for making decisions about lighting codes in areas of the city that the bats tend to traverse. The contour map of light pollution in Tucson will be useful for both future astronomy and ecology studies and can also be used for public outreach about light pollution. Fersch was supported by the NOAO/KPNO Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program which is funded by the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program and the Department of Defense ASSURE program through Scientific Program Order No. 13 (AST-0754223) of the Cooperative Agreement No. AST-0132798 between the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and the NSF.

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Science Requirements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tyson, J. A.; LSST Collaboration

2004-12-01

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is a wide-field telescope facility that will add a qualitatively new capability in astronomy and will address some of the most pressing open questions in astronomy and fundamental physics. The 8.4-meter telescope and 3 billion pixel camera covering ten square degrees will reach sky in less than 10 seconds in each of 5-6 optical bands. This is enabled by advances in microelectronics, software, and large optics fabrication. The unprecedented optical throughput drives LSST's ability to go faint-wide-fast. The LSST will produce time-lapse digital imaging of faint astronomical objects across the entire visible sky with good resolution. For example, the LSST will provide unprecedented 3-dimensional maps of the mass distribution in the Universe, in addition to the traditional images of luminous stars and galaxies. These weak lensing data can be used to better understand the nature of Dark Energy. The LSST will also provide a comprehensive census of our solar system. By surveying deeply the entire accessible sky every few nights, the LSST will provide large samples of events which we now only rarely observe, and will create substantial potential for new discoveries. The LSST will produce the largest non-proprietary data set in the world. Several key science drivers are representative of the LSST system capabilities: Precision Characterization of Dark Energy, Solar System Map, Optical Transients, and a map of our Galaxy and its environs. In addition to enabling all four of these major scientific initiatives, LSST will make it possible to pursue many other research programs. The community has suggested a number of exciting programs using these data, and the long-lived data archives of the LSST will have the astrometric and photometric precision needed to support entirely new research directions which will inevitably develop during the next several decades.

SkySat-1: very high-resolution imagery from a small satellite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murthy, Kiran; Shearn, Michael; Smiley, Byron D.; Chau, Alexandra H.; Levine, Josh; Robinson, M. Dirk

2014-10-01

This paper presents details of the SkySat-1 mission, which is the first microsatellite-class commercial earth- observation system to generate sub-meter resolution panchromatic imagery, in addition to sub-meter resolution 4-band pan-sharpened imagery. SkySat-1 was built and launched for an order of magnitude lower cost than similarly performing missions. The low-cost design enables the deployment of a large imaging constellation that can provide imagery with both high temporal resolution and high spatial resolution. One key enabler of the SkySat-1 mission was simplifying the spacecraft design and instead relying on ground- based image processing to achieve high-performance at the system level. The imaging instrument consists of a custom-designed high-quality optical telescope and commercially-available high frame rate CMOS image sen- sors. While each individually captured raw image frame shows moderate quality, ground-based image processing algorithms improve the raw data by combining data from multiple frames to boost image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and decrease the ground sample distance (GSD) in a process Skybox calls "digital TDI". Careful qual-ity assessment and tuning of the spacecraft, payload, and algorithms was necessary to generate high-quality panchromatic, multispectral, and pan-sharpened imagery. Furthermore, the framing sensor configuration en- abled the first commercial High-Definition full-frame rate panchromatic video to be captured from space, with approximately 1 meter ground sample distance. Details of the SkySat-1 imaging instrument and ground-based image processing system are presented, as well as an overview of the work involved with calibrating and validating the system. Examples of raw and processed imagery are shown, and the raw imagery is compared to pre-launch simulated imagery used to tune the image processing algorithms.

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.

An XMM-Newton Science Archive for next decade, and its integration into ESASky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loiseau, N.; Baines, D.; Rodriguez, P.; Salgado, J.; Sarmiento, M.; Colomo, E.; Merin, B.; Giordano, F.; Racero, E.; Migliari, S.

2016-06-01

We will present a roadmap for the next decade improvements of the XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA), as planned for an always faster and more user friendly access to all XMM-Newton data. This plan includes the integration of the Upper Limit server, an interactive visualization of EPIC and RGS spectra, on-the-fly data analysis, among other advanced features. Within this philosophy XSA is also being integrated into ESASky, the science-driven discovery portal for all the ESA Astronomy Missions. A first public beta release of the ESASky service has been already released at the end of 2015. It is currently featuring an interface for exploration of the multi-wavelength sky and for single and/or multiple target searches of science-ready data. The system offers progressive multi-resolution all-sky projections of full mission datasets using a new generation of HEALPix projections called HiPS, developed at the CDS; detailed geometrical footprints to connect the all-sky mosaics to individual observations; and direct access to science-ready data at the underlying mission-specific science archives. New XMM-Newton EPIC and OM all-sky HiPS maps, catalogues and links to the observations are available through ESASky, together with INTEGRAL, HST, Herschel, Planck and other future data.

Sparse estimation of model-based diffuse thermal dust emission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Irfan, Melis O.; Bobin, Jérôme

2018-03-01

Component separation for the Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) data is primarily concerned with the estimation of thermal dust emission, which requires the separation of thermal dust from the cosmic infrared background (CIB). For that purpose, current estimation methods rely on filtering techniques to decouple thermal dust emission from CIB anisotropies, which tend to yield a smooth, low-resolution, estimation of the dust emission. In this paper, we present a new parameter estimation method, premise: Parameter Recovery Exploiting Model Informed Sparse Estimates. This method exploits the sparse nature of thermal dust emission to calculate all-sky maps of thermal dust temperature, spectral index, and optical depth at 353 GHz. premise is evaluated and validated on full-sky simulated data. We find the percentage difference between the premise results and the true values to be 2.8, 5.7, and 7.2 per cent at the 1σ level across the full sky for thermal dust temperature, spectral index, and optical depth at 353 GHz, respectively. A comparison between premise and a GNILC-like method over selected regions of our sky simulation reveals that both methods perform comparably within high signal-to-noise regions. However, outside of the Galactic plane, premise is seen to outperform the GNILC-like method with increasing success as the signal-to-noise ratio worsens.

The Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE): A Nulling Polarimeter for Cosmic Microwave Background Observations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kogut, Alan J.; Fixsen, D. J.; Chuss, D. T.; Dotson, J.; Dwek, E.; Halpern, M.; Hinshaw, G. F.; Meyer, S. M.; Moseley, S. H.; Seiffert, M. D.;

The Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE) Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kogut, Alan J.; Chuss, David T.; Dotson, Jessie L.; Fixsen, Dale J.; Halpern, Mark; Hinshaw, Gary F.; Meyer, Stephan M.; Moseley, S. Harvey; Seiffert, Michael D.; Spergel, David N.;

SED16 autonomous star tracker night sky testing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foisneau, Thierry; Piriou, Véronique; Perrimon, Nicolas; Jacob, Philippe; Blarre, Ludovic; Vilaire, Didier

2017-11-01

The SED16 is an autonomous multi-missions star tracker which delivers three axis satellite attitude in an inertial reference frame and the satellite angular velocity with no prior information. The qualification process of this star sensor includes five validation steps using optical star simulator, digitized image simulator and a night sky tests setup. The night sky testing was the final step of the qualification process during which all the functions of the star tracker were used in almost nominal conditions : Autonomous Acquisition of the attitude, Autonomous Tracking of ten stars. These tests were performed in Calern in the premises of the OCA (Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur). The test set-up and the test results are described after a brief review of the sensor main characteristics and qualification process.

Mapping gravitational-wave backgrounds using methods from CMB analysis: Application to pulsar timing arrays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gair, Jonathan; Romano, Joseph D.; Taylor, Stephen; Mingarelli, Chiara M. F.

2014-10-01

We describe an alternative approach to the analysis of gravitational-wave backgrounds, based on the formalism used to characterize the polarization of the cosmic microwave background. In contrast to standard analyses, this approach makes no assumptions about the nature of the background and so has the potential to reveal much more about the physical processes that generated it. An arbitrary background can be decomposed into modes whose angular dependence on the sky is given by gradients and curls of spherical harmonics. We derive the pulsar timing overlap reduction functions for the individual modes, which are given by simple combinations of spherical harmonics evaluated at the pulsar locations. We show how these can be used to recover the components of an arbitrary background, giving explicit results for both isotropic and anisotropic uncorrelated backgrounds. We also find that the response of a pulsar timing array to curl modes is identically zero, so half of the gravitational-wave sky will never be observed using pulsar timing, no matter how many pulsars are included in the array. An isotropic, unpolarized and uncorrelated background can be accurately represented using only three modes, and so a search of this type will be only slightly more complicated than the standard cross-correlation search using the Hellings and Downs overlap reduction function. However, by measuring the components of individual modes of the background and checking for consistency with isotropy, this approach has the potential to reveal much more information. Each individual mode on its own describes a background that is correlated between different points on the sky. A measurement of the components that indicates the presence of correlations in the background on large angular scales would suggest startling new physics.

KSC-03pd0506

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Orbital Sciences Corp.'s L-1011 aircraft sits on the Skid Strip, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, with the Pegasus rocket attached below. The Pegasus will carry into space the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25.

KSC-03pd0505

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Orbital Sciences Corp.'s L-1011 aircraft arrives at the Skid Strip, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, with the Pegasus rocket attached below. The Pegasus will carry into space the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission, GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25.

KSC-03pd0504

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Orbital Sciences Corp.'s L-1011 aircraft arrives at the Skid Strip, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, with the Pegasus rocket attached below. The Pegasus will carry ito orbit the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GALEX will conduct several first-of-a-kind sky surveys, including an extra-galactic (beyond our galaxy) ultraviolet all-sky survey. During its 29-month mission, GALEX will produce the first comprehensive map of a Universe of galaxies under construction, bringing more understanding how galaxies like the Milky Way were formed. GALEX is due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station March 25.

Acute monocytic leukemia and multiple abnormalities in a child with duplication of 1q detected by GTG-banding and SKY.

PubMed

Scrideli, Carlos A; Baruffi, Marcelo R; Squire, Jeremy A; Ramos, Ester S; Karaskova, Jana; Heck, Benjamin; Tone, Luiz G

2005-12-01

Patients with 1q duplication have demonstrated a wide range of multiple congenital abnormalities. Alterations involving this chromosomal region have being described in hematopoietic malignancies and a series of candidate genes that may be associated with neoplasias have been mapped in this region. We describe a case of partial trisomy 1q "syndrome" and acute monocytic leukemia. Cytogenetic study of the bone marrow cells by GTG-banding and spectral karyotyping (SKY) showed dup(1)(q23q44) in all cells analyzed. The dismorphological features with the dup(1q) suggest a constitutional chromosome alteration and the first, in our knowledge, association of a trisomy 1q "syndrome" with AML.

Concept of a small satellite for sub-MeV and MeV all sky survey: the CAST mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nakazawa, Kazuhiro; Takahashi, Tadayuki; Ichinohe, Yuto; Takeda, Shin'ichiro; Tajima, Hiroyasu; Kamae, Tuneyoshi; Kokubun, Motohide; Takashima, Takeshi; Tashiro, Makoto; Tamagawa, Toru; Terada, Yukikatsu; Nomachi, Masaharu; Fukazawa, Yasushi; Makishima, Kazuo; Mizuno, Tsunefumi; Mitani, Takefumi; Yoshimitsu, Tetsuo; Watanabe, Shin

2012-09-01

MeV and sub-MeV energy band from ~200 keV to ~2 MeV contains rich information of high-energy phenomena in the universe. The CAST (Compton Telescope for Astro and Solar Terrestrial) mission is planned to be launched at the end of 2010s, and aims at providing all-sky map in this energy-band for the first time. It is made of a semiconductor Compton telescope utilizing Si as a scatterer and CdTe as an absorber. CAST provides allsky sub-MeV polarization map for the first time, as well. The Compton telescope technology is based on the design used in the Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) onboard ASTRO-H, characterized by its tightly stacked semiconductor layers to obtain high Compton reconstruction efficiency. The CAST mission is currently planned as a candidate for the small scientific satellite series in ISAS/JAXA, weighting about 500 kg in total. Scalable detector design enables us to consider other options as well. Scientific outcome of CAST is wide. It will provide new information from high-energy sources, such as AGN and/or its jets, supernova remnants, magnetors, blackhole and neutron-star binaries and others. Polarization map will tell us about activities of jets and reflections in these sources, as well. In addition, CAST will simultaneously observe the Sun, and depending on its attitude, the Earth.

Cloudy Earth

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-05-08

Decades of satellite observations and astronaut photographs show that clouds dominate space-based views of Earth. One study based on nearly a decade of satellite data estimated that about 67 percent of Earth’s surface is typically covered by clouds. This is especially the case over the oceans, where other research shows less than 10 percent of the sky is completely clear of clouds at any one time. Over land, 30 percent of skies are completely cloud free. Earth’s cloudy nature is unmistakable in this global cloud fraction map, based on data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite. While MODIS collects enough data to make a new global map of cloudiness every day, this version of the map shows an average of all of the satellite’s cloud observations between July 2002 and April 2015. Colors range from dark blue (no clouds) to light blue (some clouds) to white (frequent clouds). Read more here: 1.usa.gov/1P6lbMU Credit: NASA Earth Observatory NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Mapping Gnss Restricted Environments with a Drone Tandem and Indirect Position Control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cledat, E.; Cucci, D. A.

2017-08-01

The problem of autonomously mapping highly cluttered environments, such as urban and natural canyons, is intractable with the current UAV technology. The reason lies in the absence or unreliability of GNSS signals due to partial sky occlusion or multi-path effects. High quality carrier-phase observations are also required in efficient mapping paradigms, such as Assisted Aerial Triangulation, to achieve high ground accuracy without the need of dense networks of ground control points. In this work we consider a drone tandem in which the first drone flies outside the canyon, where GNSS constellation is ideal, visually tracks the second drone and provides an indirect position control for it. This enables both autonomous guidance and accurate mapping of GNSS restricted environments without the need of ground control points. We address the technical feasibility of this concept considering preliminary real-world experiments in comparable conditions and we perform a mapping accuracy prediction based on a simulation scenario.

Probing the statistical properties of CMB B-mode polarization through Minkowski functionals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santos, Larissa; Wang, Kai; Zhao, Wen

2016-07-01

The detection of the magnetic type B-mode polarization is the main goal of future cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. In the standard model, the B-mode map is a strong non-gaussian field due to the CMB lensing component. Besides the two-point correlation function, the other statistics are also very important to dig the information of the polarization map. In this paper, we employ the Minkowski functionals to study the morphological properties of the lensed B-mode maps. We find that the deviations from Gaussianity are very significant for both full and partial-sky surveys. As an application of the analysis, we investigate the morphological imprints of the foreground residuals in the B-mode map. We find that even for very tiny foreground residuals, the effects on the map can be detected by the Minkowski functional analysis. Therefore, it provides a complementary way to investigate the foreground contaminations in the CMB studies.

AFRC2016-0054-528

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-02-27

Sam Choi and Naiara Pinto observe Google Earth overlaid with in almost real time what the synthetic aperture radar is mapping from the C-20A aircraft. Researchers were in the sky and on the ground to take measurements of plant mass, distribution of trees, shrubs and ground cover and the diversity of plants and how much carbon is absorbed by them.

SDSS Masterclass

Science.gov Websites

systems puts your robotics skills to the test. Questions: Contact Carol Angarola, 630-840-3929 or canga the Sloan Digital Sky Survey make a comprehensive map of the Universe. The Galaxy Zoo we created is a measure their properties to help researchers around the world understand what makes galaxies tick. Robots

The Application of Synoptic Weather Forecasting Rules to Selected Weather Situations in the United States.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kohler, Fred E.

The document describes the use of weather maps and data in teaching introductory college courses in synoptic meteorology. Students examine weather changes at three-hour intervals from data obtained from the "Monthly Summary of Local Climatological Data." Weather variables in the local summary include sky cover, air temperature, dew point, relative…

Exploring the Nature of Galaxies with Abundance Gradient Anomalies in the SDSS-IV/MaNGA Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keith, Celeste; Tremonti, Christy; Pace, Zach; Schaefer, Adam

2018-01-01

Disk galaxies are known to have radial oxygen abundance gradients with their centers being more chemically enriched than their outskirts. The steepness of the abundance gradient has recently been shown to correlate with galaxy stellar mass, on average. However, individual galaxies sometimes show pronounced deviations from the expected trends, such as flatter or steeper slopes than expected for their mass, abrupt changes in slope, or azimuthal asymmetries. Here we report on a systematic search for galaxies with abundance gradient anomalies using 2-D spectroscopy from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV MaNGA. We construct nebular oxygen and nitrogen abundance maps for 300 moderately inclined non-interacting disk galaxies and use visual inspection to identify the most interesting cases. We use this training set to develop an automated pipeline to flag galaxies with abundance anomalies from the larger MaNGA dataset for visual inspection. We combine the metallicity maps with kinematic data and measurements of the galaxies' local environments to better understand the processes that shape the radial abundance gradients of disk galaxies.

Constructing a WISE High Resolution Galaxy Atlas

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jarrett, T. H.; Masci, F.; Tsai, C. W.; Petty, S.; Cluver, M.; Assef, Roberto J.; Benford, D.; Blain, A.; Bridge, C.; Donoso, E.;

Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Data Processing, Sky Maps, and Basic Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weiland, J.L.; Hill, R.S.; Odegard, 3.; Larson, D.; Bennett, C.L.; Dunkley, J.; Jarosik, N.; Page, L.; Spergel, D.N.; Halpern, M.;

GISMO, a 2 mm Bolometer Camera Optimized for the Study of High Redshift Galaxies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Staguhn, J.

2007-01-01

The 2mm spectral range provides a unique terrestrial window enabling ground based observations of the earliest active dusty galaxies in the universe and thereby allowing a better constraint on the star formation rate in these objects. We present a progress report for our bolometer camera GISMO (the Goddard-IRAM Superconducting 2-Millimeter Observer), which will obtain large and sensitive sky maps at this wavelength. The instrument will be used at the IRAM 30 m telescope and we expect to install it at the telescope in 2007. The camera uses an 8 x 16 planar array of multiplexed TES bolometers, which incorporates our recently designed Backshort Under Grid (BUG) architecture. GISMO will be very efficient at detecting sources serendipitously in large sky surveys. With the background limited performance of the detectors, the camera provides significantly greater imaging sensitivity and mapping speed at this wavelength than has previously been possible. The major scientific driver for the instrument is to provide the IRAM 30 m telescope with the capability to rapidly observe galactic and extragalactic dust emission, in particular from high-zeta ULI RGs and quasar s, even in the summer season. The instrument will fill in the SEDs of high redshift galaxies at the Rayleigh-Jeans part of the dust emission spectrum, even at the highest redshifts. Our source count models predict that GISMO will serendipitously detect one galaxy every four hours on the blank sky, and that one quarter of these galaxies will be at a redshift of zeta 6.5.

The Next Generation of the Montage Image Mopsaic Engine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berriman, G. Bruce; Good, John; Rusholme, Ben; Robitaille, Thomas

2016-01-01

We have released a major upgrade of the Montage image mosaic engine (http://montage.ipac.caltech.edu) , as part of a program to develop the next generation of the engine in response to the rapid changes in the data processing landscape in Astronomy, which is generating ever larger data sets in ever more complex formats . The new release (version 4) contains modules dedicated to creating and managing mosaics of data stored as multi-dimensional arrays ("data cubes"). The new release inherits the architectural benefits of portability and scalability of the original design. The code is publicly available on Git Hub and the Montage web page. The release includes a command line tool that supports visualization of large images, and the beta-release of a Python interface to the visualization tool. We will provide examples on how to use these these features. We are generating a mosaic of the Galactic Arecibo L-band Feed Array HI (GALFA-HI) Survey maps of neutral hydrogen in and around our Milky Way Galaxy, to assess the performance at scale and to develop tools and methodologies that will enable scientists inexpert in cloud processing to exploit could platforms for data processing and product generation at scale. Future releases include support for an R-tree based mechanism for fast discovery of and access to large data sets and on-demand access to calibrated SDSS DR9 data that exploits it; support for the Hierarchical Equal Area isoLatitude Pixelization (HEALPix) scheme, now standard for projects investigating cosmic background radiation (Gorski et al 2005); support fort the Tessellated Octahedral Adaptive Subdivision Transform (TOAST), the sky partitioning sky used by the WorldWide Telescope (WWT); and a public applications programming interface (API) in C that can be called from other languages, especially Python.

Applying machine learning classification techniques to automate sky object cataloguing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fayyad, Usama M.; Doyle, Richard J.; Weir, W. Nick; Djorgovski, Stanislav

1993-08-01

We describe the application of an Artificial Intelligence machine learning techniques to the development of an automated tool for the reduction of a large scientific data set. The 2nd Mt. Palomar Northern Sky Survey is nearly completed. This survey provides comprehensive coverage of the northern celestial hemisphere in the form of photographic plates. The plates are being transformed into digitized images whose quality will probably not be surpassed in the next ten to twenty years. The images are expected to contain on the order of 107 galaxies and 108 stars. Astronomers wish to determine which of these sky objects belong to various classes of galaxies and stars. Unfortunately, the size of this data set precludes analysis in an exclusively manual fashion. Our approach is to develop a software system which integrates the functions of independently developed techniques for image processing and data classification. Digitized sky images are passed through image processing routines to identify sky objects and to extract a set of features for each object. These routines are used to help select a useful set of attributes for classifying sky objects. Then GID3 (Generalized ID3) and O-B Tree, two inductive learning techniques, learns classification decision trees from examples. These classifiers will then be applied to new data. These developmnent process is highly interactive, with astronomer input playing a vital role. Astronomers refine the feature set used to construct sky object descriptions, and evaluate the performance of the automated classification technique on new data. This paper gives an overview of the machine learning techniques with an emphasis on their general applicability, describes the details of our specific application, and reports the initial encouraging results. The results indicate that our machine learning approach is well-suited to the problem. The primary benefit of the approach is increased data reduction throughput. Another benefit is consistency of classification. The classification rules which are the product of the inductive learning techniques will form an objective, examinable basis for classifying sky objects. A final, not to be underestimated benefit is that astronomers will be freed from the tedium of an intensely visual task to pursue more challenging analysis and interpretation problems based on automatically catalogued data.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Second ROSAT all-sky survey (2RXS) source catalog (Boller+, 2016)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boller, T.; Freyberg, M. J.; Truemper, J.; Haberl, F.; Voges, W.; Nandra, K.

2016-03-01

We have re-analysed the photon event files from the ROSAT all-sky survey. The main goal was to create a catalogue of point-like sources, which is referred to as the 2RXS source catalogue. We improved the reliability of detections by an advanced detection algorithm and a complete screening process. New data products were created to allow timing and spectral analysis. Photon event files with corrected astrometry and Moon rejection (RASS-3.1 processing) were made available in FITS format. The 2RXS catalogue will serve as the basic X-ray all-sky survey catalogue until eROSITA data become available. (2 data files).

The Palomar Transient Factory: Introduction and Data Release

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Surace, Jason Anthony

2015-08-01

The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) is a synoptic sky survey in operation since 2009. PTF utilizes a 7.1 square degree camera on the Palomar 48-inch Schmidt telescope to survey the sky primarily at a single wavelength (R-band) at a rate of 1000-3000 square degrees a night, to a depth of roughly 20.5. The data are used to detect and study transient and moving objects such as gamma ray bursts, supernovae and asteroids, as well as variable phenomena such as quasars and Galactic stars. The data processing system handles realtime processing and detection of transients, solar system object processing, high photometric precision processing and light curve generation, and long-term archiving and curation. Although a significant scientific installation in of itself, PTF also serves as the prototype for our next generation project, the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). Beginning operations in 2017, ZTF will feature a 50 square degree camera which will enable scanning of the entire northern visible sky every night. ZTF in turn will serve as a stepping stone to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).We announce the availability of the second PTF public data release, which includes epochal images and catalogs, as well as deep (coadded) reference images and associated catalogs, for the majority of the northern sky. The epochal data span the time period from 2009 through 2012, with various cadences and coverages, typically in the tens or hundreds for most points on the sky. The data are available through both a GUI and software API portal at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. The PTF and current iPTF projects are multi-partner multi-national collaborations.

The BlueSky Smoke Modeling Framework: Recent Developments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sullivan, D. C.; Larkin, N.; Raffuse, S. M.; Strand, T.; ONeill, S. M.; Leung, F. T.; Qu, J. J.; Hao, X.

2012-12-01

BlueSky systems—a set of decision support tools including SmartFire and the BlueSky Framework—aid public policy decision makers and scientific researchers in evaluating the air quality impacts of fires. Smoke and fire managers use BlueSky systems in decisions about prescribed burns and wildland firefighting. Air quality agencies use BlueSky systems to support decisions related to air quality regulations. We will discuss a range of recent improvements to the BlueSky systems, as well as examples of applications and future plans. BlueSky systems have the flexibility to accept basic fire information from virtually any source and can reconcile multiple information sources so that duplication of fire records is eliminated. BlueSky systems currently apply information from (1) the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Hazard Mapping System (HMS), which represents remotely sensed data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES); (2) the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) interagency project, which derives fire perimeters from Landsat 30-meter burn scars; (3) the Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination Group (GeoMAC), which produces helicopter-flown burn perimeters; and (4) ground-based fire reports, such as the ICS-209 reports managed by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group. Efforts are currently underway to streamline the use of additional ground-based systems, such as states' prescribed burn databases. BlueSky systems were recently modified to address known uncertainties in smoke modeling associated with (1) estimates of biomass consumption derived from sparse fuel moisture data, and (2) models of plume injection heights. Additional sources of remotely sensed data are being applied to address these issues as follows: - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis Real-Time (TMPA-RT) data set is being used to improve dead fuel moisture estimates. - EastFire live fuel moisture estimates, which are derived from NASA's MODIS direct broadcast, are being used to improve live fuel moisture estimates. - NASA's Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) stereo heights are being used to improve estimates of plume injection heights. Further, the Fire Location and Modeling of Burning Emissions (FLAMBÉ) model was incorporated into the BlueSky Framework as an alternative means of calculating fire emissions. FLAMBÉ directly estimates emissions on the basis of fire detections and radiance measures from NASA's MODIS and NOAA's GOES satellites. (The authors gratefully acknowledge NASA's Applied Sciences Program [Grant Nos. NN506AB52A and NNX09AV76G)], the USDA Forest Service, and the Joint Fire Science Program for their support.)

Astronomy in the Cloud: Using MapReduce for Image Co-Addition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiley, K.; Connolly, A.; Gardner, J.; Krughoff, S.; Balazinska, M.; Howe, B.; Kwon, Y.; Bu, Y.

2011-03-01

In the coming decade, astronomical surveys of the sky will generate tens of terabytes of images and detect hundreds of millions of sources every night. The study of these sources will involve computation challenges such as anomaly detection and classification and moving-object tracking. Since such studies benefit from the highest-quality data, methods such as image co-addition, i.e., astrometric registration followed by per-pixel summation, will be a critical preprocessing step prior to scientific investigation. With a requirement that these images be analyzed on a nightly basis to identify moving sources such as potentially hazardous asteroids or transient objects such as supernovae, these data streams present many computational challenges. Given the quantity of data involved, the computational load of these problems can only be addressed by distributing the workload over a large number of nodes. However, the high data throughput demanded by these applications may present scalability challenges for certain storage architectures. One scalable data-processing method that has emerged in recent years is MapReduce, and in this article we focus on its popular open-source implementation called Hadoop. In the Hadoop framework, the data are partitioned among storage attached directly to worker nodes, and the processing workload is scheduled in parallel on the nodes that contain the required input data. A further motivation for using Hadoop is that it allows us to exploit cloud computing resources: i.e., platforms where Hadoop is offered as a service. We report on our experience of implementing a scalable image-processing pipeline for the SDSS imaging database using Hadoop. This multiterabyte imaging data set provides a good testbed for algorithm development, since its scope and structure approximate future surveys. First, we describe MapReduce and how we adapted image co-addition to the MapReduce framework. Then we describe a number of optimizations to our basic approach and report experimental results comparing their performance.

First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Foreground Emission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bennett, C. L.; Hill, R. S.; Hinshaw, G.; Nolta, M. R.; Odegard, N.; Page, L.; Spergel, D. N.; Weiland, J. L.; Wright, E. L.; Halpern, M.

2003-01-01

The WMAP mission has mapped the full sky to determine the geometry, content, and evolution of the universe. Full sky maps are made in five microwave frequency bands to separate the temperature anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from foreground emission, including diffuse Galactic emission and Galactic and extragalactic point sources. We define masks that excise regions of high foreground emission, so CMB analyses can became out with minimal foreground contamination. We also present maps and spectra of the individual emission components, leading to an improved understanding of Galactic astrophysical processes. The effectiveness of template fits to remove foreground emission from the WMAP data is also examined. These efforts result in a CMB map with minimal contamination and a demonstration that the WMAP CMB power spectrum is insensitive to residual foreground emission. We use a Maximum Entropy Method to construct a model of the Galactic emission components. The observed total Galactic emission matches the model to less than 1% and the individual model components are accurate to a few percent. We find that the Milky Way resembles other normal spiral galaxies between 408 MHz and 23 GHz, with a synchrotron spectral index that is flattest (beta(sub s) approx. -2.5) near star-forming regions, especially in the plane, and steepest (beta(sub s) approx. -3) in the halo. This is consistent with a picture of relativistic cosmic ray electron generation in star-forming regions and diffusion and convection within the plane. The significant synchrotron index steepening out of the plane suggests a diffusion process in which the halo electrons are trapped in the Galactic potential long enough to suffer synchrotron and inverse Compton energy losses and hence a spectral steepening. The synchrotron index is steeper in the WMAP bands than in lower frequency radio surveys, with a spectral break near 20 GHz to beta(sub s) less than -3. The modeled thermal dust spectral index is also steep in the WMAP bands, with beta(sub d) approx. = 2.2. Our model is driven to these conclusions by the low level of total foreground contamination at approx. 60 GHz. Microwave and Ha measurements of the ionized gas agree well with one another at about the expected levels. Spinning dust emission is limited to less than 5% of the Ka-band foreground emission. A catalog of 208 point sources is presented. The reliability of the catalog is 98%, i.e., we expect five of the 208 sources to be statistically spurious. The mean spectral index of the point sources is alpha approx. 0(beta approx. -2). Derived source counts suggest a contribution to the anisotropy power from unresolved sources of (15.0 +/- 1.4) x 10(exp -3)micro sq K sr at Q-band and negligible levels at V-band and W-band. The Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect is shown to be a negligible "contamination" to the maps.

Exploring cosmic origins with CORE: Cluster science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Melin, J.-B.; Bonaldi, A.; Remazeilles, M.; Hagstotz, S.; Diego, J. M.; Hernández-Monteagudo, C.; Génova-Santos, R. T.; Luzzi, G.; Martins, C. J. A. P.; Grandis, S.; Mohr, J. J.; Bartlett, J. G.; Delabrouille, J.; Ferraro, S.; Tramonte, D.; Rubiño-Martín, J. A.; Macìas-Pérez, J. F.; Achúcarro, A.; Ade, P.; Allison, R.; Ashdown, M.; Ballardini, M.; Banday, A. J.; Banerji, R.; Bartolo, N.; Basak, S.; Basu, K.; Battye, R. A.; Baumann, D.; Bersanelli, M.; Bonato, M.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F.; Boulanger, F.; Brinckmann, T.; Bucher, M.; Burigana, C.; Buzzelli, A.; Cai, Z.-Y.; Calvo, M.; Carvalho, C. S.; Castellano, M. G.; Challinor, A.; Chluba, J.; Clesse, S.; Colafrancesco, S.; Colantoni, I.; Coppolecchia, A.; Crook, M.; D'Alessandro, G.; de Bernardis, P.; de Gasperis, G.; De Petris, M.; De Zotti, G.; Di Valentino, E.; Errard, J.; Feeney, S. M.; Fernández-Cobos, R.; Finelli, F.; Forastieri, F.; Galli, S.; Gerbino, M.; González-Nuevo, J.; Greenslade, J.; Hanany, S.; Handley, W.; Hervias-Caimapo, C.; Hills, M.; Hivon, E.; Kiiveri, K.; Kisner, T.; Kitching, T.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lamagna, L.; Lasenby, A.; Lattanzi, M.; Le Brun, A. M. C.; Lesgourgues, J.; Lewis, A.; Liguori, M.; Lindholm, V.; Lopez-Caniego, M.; Maffei, B.; Martinez-Gonzalez, E.; Masi, S.; Mazzotta, P.; McCarthy, D.; Melchiorri, A.; Molinari, D.; Monfardini, A.; Natoli, P.; Negrello, M.; Notari, A.; Paiella, A.; Paoletti, D.; Patanchon, G.; Piat, M.; Pisano, G.; Polastri, L.; Polenta, G.; Pollo, A.; Poulin, V.; Quartin, M.; Roman, M.; Salvati, L.; Tartari, A.; Tomasi, M.; Trappe, N.; Triqueneaux, S.; Trombetti, T.; Tucker, C.; Väliviita, J.; van de Weygaert, R.; Van Tent, B.; Vennin, V.; Vielva, P.; Vittorio, N.; Weller, J.; Young, K.; Zannoni, M.

2018-04-01

We examine the cosmological constraints that can be achieved with a galaxy cluster survey with the future CORE space mission. Using realistic simulations of the millimeter sky, produced with the latest version of the Planck Sky Model, we characterize the CORE cluster catalogues as a function of the main mission performance parameters. We pay particular attention to telescope size, key to improved angular resolution, and discuss the comparison and the complementarity of CORE with ambitious future ground-based CMB experiments that could be deployed in the next decade. A possible CORE mission concept with a 150 cm diameter primary mirror can detect of the order of 50,000 clusters through the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (SZE). The total yield increases (decreases) by 25% when increasing (decreasing) the mirror diameter by 30 cm. The 150 cm telescope configuration will detect the most massive clusters (>1014 Msolar) at redshift z>1.5 over the whole sky, although the exact number above this redshift is tied to the uncertain evolution of the cluster SZE flux-mass relation; assuming self-similar evolution, CORE will detect 0~ 50 clusters at redshift z>1.5. This changes to 800 (200) when increasing (decreasing) the mirror size by 30 cm. CORE will be able to measure individual cluster halo masses through lensing of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies with a 1-σ sensitivity of 4×1014 Msolar, for a 120 cm aperture telescope, and 1014 Msolar for a 180 cm one. From the ground, we estimate that, for example, a survey with about 150,000 detectors at the focus of 350 cm telescopes observing 65% of the sky would be shallower than CORE and detect about 11,000 clusters, while a survey with the same number of detectors observing 25% of sky with a 10 m telescope is expected to be deeper and to detect about 70,000 clusters. When combined with the latter, CORE would reach a limiting mass of M500 ~ 2‑3 × 1013 Msolar and detect 220,000 clusters (5 sigma detection limit). Cosmological constraints from CORE cluster counts alone are competitive with other scheduled large scale structure surveys in the 2020's for measuring the dark energy equation-of-state parameters w0 and wa (σw0=0.28, σwa=0.31). In combination with primary CMB constraints, CORE cluster counts can further reduce these error bars on w0 and wa to 0.05 and 0.13 respectively, and constrain the sum of the neutrino masses, Σ mν, to 39 meV (1 sigma). The wide frequency coverage of CORE, 60–600 GHz, will enable measurement of the relativistic thermal SZE by stacking clusters. Contamination by dust emission from the clusters, however, makes constraining the temperature of the intracluster medium difficult. The kinetic SZE pairwise momentum will be extracted with 0S/N=7 in the foreground-cleaned CMB map. Measurements of TCMB(z) using CORE clusters will establish competitive constraints on the evolution of the CMB temperature: (1+z)1‑β, with an uncertainty of σβ lesssim 2.7× 10‑3 at low redshift (z lesssim 1). The wide frequency coverage also enables clean extraction of a map of the diffuse SZE signal over the sky, substantially reducing contamination by foregrounds compared to the Planck SZE map extraction. Our analysis of the one-dimensional distribution of Compton-y values in the simulated map finds an order of magnitude improvement in constraints on σ8 over the Planck result, demonstrating the potential of this cosmological probe with CORE.

Meteor reporting made easy- The Fireballs in the Sky smartphone app

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sansom, E.; Ridgewell, J.; Bland, P.; Paxman, J.

2016-01-01

Using smartphone technology, the award-winning 'Fireballs in the Sky' app provides a new approach to public meteor reporting. Using the internal GPS and sensors of a smartphone, a user can record the start and end position of a meteor sighting with a background star field as reference. Animations are used to visualize the duration and characteristics of the meteor. The intuitive application can be used in situ, providing a more accurate eye witness account than after-the-fact reports (although reports may also be made through a website interface). Since its launch in 2013, the app has received over 2000 submissions, including 73 events which were reported by multiple users. The app database is linked to the Desert Fireball Network in Australia (DFN), meaning app reports can be confirmed by DFN observatories. Supporting features include an integrated meteor shower tool that provides updates on active showers, their visibility based on moon phase, as well as a tool to point the user toward the radiant. The locations of reports are also now shown on a live map on the Fireballs in the Sky webpage.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: AKARI NEP Survey sources at 18um (Pearson+, 2014)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pearson, C. P.; Serjeant, S.; Oyabu, S.; Matsuhara, H.; Wada, T.; Goto, T.; Takagi, T.; Lee, H. M.; Im, M.; Ohyama, Y.; Kim, S. J.; Murata, K.

2015-04-01

The NEP-Deep survey at 18u in the IRC-L18W band is constructed from a total of 87 individual pointed observations taken between May 2006 to August 2007, using the IRC Astronomical Observing Template (AOT) designed for deep observations (IRC05), with approximately 2500 second exposures per IRC filter in all mid-infrared bands. The deep imaging IRC05 AOT has no explicit dithering built into the AOT operation, therefore dithering is achieved by layering separate pointed observations on at least three positions on a given piece of sky. The NEP-Wide survey consists of 446 pointed observations with .300 second exposures for each filter. The NEP-Wide survey uses the shallower IRC03 AOT optimized for large area multi-band mapping with the dithering included within the AOT. Note that for both surveys, although images are taken simultaneously in all three IRC channels, the target area of sky in the MIR-L channel is offset from the corresponding area of sky in the NIR/MIR-S channel by ~20arcmin. (2 data files).

Euclid Mission: Mapping the Geometry of the Dark Universe. Mission and Consortium Status

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rhodes, Jason

2011-01-01

Euclid concept: (1) High-precision survey mission to map the geometry of the Dark Universe (2) Optimized for two complementary cosmological probes: (2a) Weak Gravitational Lensing (2b) Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (2c) Additional probes: clusters, redshift space distortions, ISW (3) Full extragalactic sky survey with 1.2m telescope at L2: (3a) Imaging: (3a-1) High precision imaging at visible wavelengths (3a-2) Photometry/Imaging in the near-infrared (3b) Near Infrared Spectroscopy (4) Synergy with ground based surveys (5) Legacy science for a wide range of in astronomy

A simple algorithm to estimate the effective regional atmospheric parameters for thermal-inertia mapping

USGS Publications Warehouse

Watson, K.; Hummer-Miller, S.

1981-01-01

A method based solely on remote sensing data has been developed to estimate those meteorological effects which are required for thermal-inertia mapping. It assumes that the atmospheric fluxes are spatially invariant and that the solar, sky, and sensible heat fluxes can be approximated by a simple mathematical form. Coefficients are determined from least-squares method by fitting observational data to our thermal model. A comparison between field measurements and the model-derived flux shows the type of agreement which can be achieved. An analysis of the limitations of the method is also provided. ?? 1981.

CFHT's SkyProbe: a real-time sky-transparency monitor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cuillandre, Jean-Charles; Magnier, Eugene A.; Isani, Sidik; Sabin, Daniel; Knight, Wiley; Kras, Simon; Lai, Kamson

2002-12-01

We have developed a system at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), SkyProbe, which allows for the direct measurement of the true attenuation by clouds once per minute, within a percent, directly on the field pointed by the telescope. It has been possible to make this system relatively inexpensively due to the low-cost CCD cameras from the amateur market. A crucial addition to this hardware is the quite recent availability of a full-sky photometry catalog at the appropriate depth: the Tycho catalog, from the Hipparcos mission. The central element is the automatic data analysis pipeline developed at CFHT, Elixir, for the improved operation of the CFHT wide-field imagers, CFH12K and MegaCam. SkyProbe"s FITS images are processed in real-time and the pipeline output (a zero point attenuation) provides the current sky transmission to the observers and helps immediate decision making. These measurements are also attached to the archived data, adding a key criteria for future use by other astronomers.

Baryon acoustic oscillation intensity mapping of dark energy.

PubMed

Chang, Tzu-Ching; Pen, Ue-Li; Peterson, Jeffrey B; McDonald, Patrick

2008-03-07

The expansion of the Universe appears to be accelerating, and the mysterious antigravity agent of this acceleration has been called "dark energy." To measure the dynamics of dark energy, baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) can be used. Previous discussions of the BAO dark energy test have focused on direct measurements of redshifts of as many as 10(9) individual galaxies, by observing the 21 cm line or by detecting optical emission. Here we show how the study of acoustic oscillation in the 21 cm brightness can be accomplished by economical three-dimensional intensity mapping. If our estimates gain acceptance they may be the starting point for a new class of dark energy experiments dedicated to large angular scale mapping of the radio sky, shedding light on dark energy.

COBE - New sky maps of the early universe

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smoot, G. F.

1991-01-01

This paper presents early results obtained from the first six months of measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by instruments aboard NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite and discusses the implications for cosmology. The three instruments: FIRAS, DMR, and DIRBE have operated well and produced significant new results. The FIRAS measurement of the CMB spectrum supports the standard big bang nucleosynthesis model. The maps made from the DMR instrument measurements show a surprisingly smooth early universe. The measurements are sufficiently precise that we must pay careful attention to potential systematic errors. The maps of galactic and local emission produced by the DIRBE instrument will be needed to identify foregrounds from extragalactic emission and thus to interpret the terms of events in the early universe.

The Effect of Topography on the Exposure of Airless Bodies to Space Radiation: Phobos Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stubbs, T. J.; Wang, Y.; Guo, J.; Schwadron, N.; Cooper, J. F.; Wimmer-Schweingruber, R. F.; Spence, H. E.; Jordan, A.; Sturner, S. J.; Glenar, D. A.; Wilson, J. K.

2017-12-01

The surfaces of airless bodies, such as the Moon and Phobos (innermost Martian moon), are directly exposed to the surrounding space environment, including energetic particle radiation from both the ever-present flux of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) and episodic bursts of solar energetic particles (SEPs). Characterizing this radiation exposure is critical to our understanding of the evolution of these bodies from space weathering processes, such as radiation damage of regolith, radiolysis of organics and volatiles, and dielectric breakdown. Similarly, this also has important implications for the long-term radiation exposure of future astronauts and equipment on the surface. In this study, the focus is the influence of Phobian topography on the direct exposure of Phobos to space radiation. For a given point on its surface, this exposure depends on: (i) the solid angle subtended by the sky, (ii) the solid angle of the sky blocked by Mars, and (iii) the energy and angular distributions of ambient energetic particle populations. The sky solid angle, determined using the elevation of the local horizon calculated from a digital elevation model (DEM), can be significantly reduced around topographic lows, such as crater floors, or increased near highs like crater rims. The DEM used in this study was produced using images from the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), and has the highest available spatial resolution ( 100m). The proximity of Phobos to Mars means the Martian disk appears large in the Phobian sky, but this only effects the moon's near side due its tidally locked orbit. Only isotropic distributions of energetic particles are initially considered, which is typically a reasonable assumption for GCRs and sometimes for SEPs. Observations of the radiation environments on Mars by Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD), and the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) at the Moon, will be used to estimate the average, annual radiation dose at the orbit of Phobos. These three elements will be combined to produce a map of radiation exposure on the surface of Phobos, which will be used to assess the implications for space weathering and future human exploration.

Globe at Night Citizen Science: Reaching for the Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, C. E.; Pompea, S. M.

2017-12-01

Citizen-science is a rewardingly inclusive way to bring awareness to the public on the disappearance of the starry night sky, its cause and solutions. Globe at Night (GaN) encourages citizen-scientists worldwide to record the brightness of the night sky. During ten-days per month of moonless evenings, children and adults match the appearance of a specific constellation with 7 star maps of progressively fainter stars found at www.globeatnight.org. They then submit their choice of star map in-situ using the "webapp" on a smart device. In eleven years of the program, over 160,000 observations from 180 countries have been contributed to a light pollution map. The GaN (open) database is a source of research projects. For example, students conducted research to understand the lesser long-nosed bats' avoidance of city center at night. With its analytical tools, Fieldscope will be a conduit for comparing GaN to other databases. On-the-fly mapping enables citizen-scientists to see observations immediately. There are 4 ways of taking measurements. The online app for data reporting is in 26 languages. STEM activities for young children and problem-based learning activities for older students were created to experience real-life scenarios: role-playing sea turtles hatching (misdirected by lights on shore) or analyzing an ISS image of Houston to estimate the wasted energy, cost and carbon footprint. In-situ and on-line workshops have been given on using GaN, as well as the activities. Our Facebook page exists to encourage dialogue and bring cutting edge news. To entice interest, we had monthly newsletters and serial podcasts starring the Dark Skies Crusader. GaN has been part of special campaigns like with the National Park Service, the National Geographic BioBlitz and Tucson in 2011. We have built a community of practitioners in various ways worldwide and have metrics on behavioral changes. To maintain the community and create new partnerships, we have teamed with SciStarter to track participants via a dashboard, with the Girl Scouts and SciStarter in "Think Like a Citizen Scientist", and with STARS4ALL's Light Pollution Initiatives. A recent highlight: in 2015 GaN was an official citizen-science program for the International Year of Light; GaN exceeded all records that year. Learn more on how using GaN can benefit your audiences.

Automatic Georeferencing of Astronaut Auroral Photography: Providing a New Dataset for Space Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riechert, Maik; Walsh, Andrew P.; Taylor, Matt

2014-05-01

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have taken tens of thousands of photographs showing the aurora in high temporal and spatial resolution. The use of these images in research though is limited as they often miss accurate pointing and scale information. In this work we develop techniques and software libraries to automatically georeference such images, and provide a time and location-searchable database and website of those images. Aurora photographs very often include a visible starfield due to the necessarily long camera exposure times. We extend on the proof-of-concept of Walsh et al. (2012) who used starfield recognition software, Astrometry.net, to reconstruct the pointing and scale information. Previously a manual pre-processing step, the starfield can now in most cases be separated from earth and spacecraft structures successfully using image recognition. Once the pointing and scale of an image are known, latitudes and longitudes can be calculated for each pixel corner for an assumed auroral emission height. As part of this work, an open-source Python library is developed which automates the georeferencing process and aids in visualization tasks. The library facilitates the resampling of the resulting data from an irregular to a regular coordinate grid in a given pixel per degree density, it supports the export of data in CDF and NetCDF formats, and it generates polygons for drawing graphs and stereographic maps. In addition, the THEMIS all-sky imager web archive has been included as a first transparently accessible imaging source which in this case is useful when drawing maps of ISS passes over North America. The database and website are in development and will use the Python library as their base. Through this work, georeferenced auroral ISS photography is made available as a continously extended and easily accessible dataset. This provides potential not only for new studies on the aurora australis, as there are few all-sky imagers in the southern hemisphere, but also for multi-point observations of the aurora borealis by combining with THEMIS and other imager arrays.

Rheticus Displacement: an Automatic Geo-Information Service Platform for Ground Instabilities Detection and Monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiaradia, M. T.; Samarelli, S.; Agrimano, L.; Lorusso, A. P.; Nutricato, R.; Nitti, D. O.; Morea, A.; Tijani, K.

2016-12-01

Rheticus® is an innovative cloud-based data and services hub able to deliver Earth Observation added-value products through automatic complex processes and a minimum interaction with human operators. This target is achieved by means of programmable components working as different software layers in a modern enterprise system which relies on SOA (service-oriented-architecture) model. Due to its architecture, where every functionality is well defined and encapsulated in a standalone component, Rheticus is potentially highly scalable and distributable allowing different configurations depending on the user needs. Rheticus offers a portfolio of services, ranging from the detection and monitoring of geohazards and infrastructural instabilities, to marine water quality monitoring, wildfires detection or land cover monitoring. In this work, we outline the overall cloud-based platform and focus on the "Rheticus Displacement" service, aimed at providing accurate information to monitor movements occurring across landslide features or structural instabilities that could affect buildings or infrastructures. Using Sentinel-1 (S1) open data images and Multi-Temporal SAR Interferometry techniques (i.e., SPINUA), the service is complementary to traditional survey methods, providing a long-term solution to slope instability monitoring. Rheticus automatically browses and accesses (on a weekly basis) the products of the rolling archive of ESA S1 Scientific Data Hub; S1 data are then handled by a mature running processing chain, which is responsible of producing displacement maps immediately usable to measure with sub-centimetric precision movements of coherent points. Examples are provided, concerning the automatic displacement map generation process, as well as the integration of point and distributed scatterers, the integration of multi-sensors displacement maps (e.g., Sentinel-1 IW and COSMO-SkyMed HIMAGE), the combination of displacement rate maps acquired along both ascending and descending passes. ACK: Study carried out in the framework of the FAST4MAP project and co-funded by the Italian Space Agency (Contract n. 2015-020-R.0). Sentinel-1A products provided by ESA. CSK® Products, ASI, provided by ASI under a license to use. Rheticus® is a registered trademark of Planetek Italia srl.

The cosmic infrared backgroung at 1.25 and 2.2 and microns using DIRBE and 2mass: a contribution not due to galaxies?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cambresy, L.; Reach, W.; Beichman, C.; Jarrett, T.

2001-01-01

Using the 2MASS second incremental data release and the zodiacal subtracted mission average maps of COBE/DIRBE, the authors estimate the cosmic background in the J (1.25 mu m) and K (2.2 mu m) bands using selected areas representing 550 deg/sup 2/ of sky.

Multiple Shells Around Wolf-Rayet Stars: Space Based Astrometric Observing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marston, Anthony P.

1995-01-01

The completion of a complementary optical emission-line survey of the nebulae associated with Wolf-Rayet stars in the southern sky is reported, along with the completion of a survey the large-scale environments of Wolf-Rayet stars using IRAS Skyflux data. HIRES IRAS maps in the four IRAS wavebands for appoximately half of all galactic Wolf-Rayet stars are created.

Mapping vegetation structure in the Pinaleno Mountains using lidar-phase 3: Forest inventory modeling

Treesearch

Brent Mitchell; Mike Walterman; Tom Mellin; Craig Wilcox; Ann M. Lynch; John Anhold; Donald A. Falk; John Koprowski; Denise Laes; Don Evans; Haans Fisk

2012-01-01

Understanding forest structure and how it is affected by management practices and natural events is a critical part of managing natural resources within the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Pinaleno Mountains of southeastern Arizona represent a Madrean sky island ecosystem and the last remaining habitat for the Mt. Graham red squirrel. This unique...

Baby Pictures of the Universe

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bennett, Charles

2004-01-01

The first findings from a year of WMAP satellite operations provide a detailed full sky map of the cosmic microwave background radiation. The observed temperature anisotropy, combined with the associated polarization information, encodes a wealth of cosmological information. The results have implications for the history, content, and evolution of the universe, and its large scale properties. These and other aspects of the mission will be discussed.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: The C IV Blueshift, Its Variability, and Its Dependence Upon Quasar Properties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Mouyuan; Xue, Yongquan; Richards, Gordon T.; Trump, Jonathan R.; Shen, Yue; Brandt, W. N.; Schneider, D. P.

2018-02-01

We use the multi-epoch spectra of 362 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping project to investigate the dependence of the blueshift of C IV relative to Mg II on quasar properties. We confirm that high-blueshift sources tend to have low C IV equivalent widths (EWs), and that the low-EW sources span a range of blueshift. Other high-ionization lines, such as He II, also show similar blueshift properties. The ratio of the line width (measured as both the full width at half maximum and the velocity dispersion) of C IV to that of Mg II increases with blueshift. Quasar variability enhances the connection between the C IV blueshift and quasar properties (e.g., EW). The variability of the Mg II line center (i.e., the wavelength that bisects the cumulative line flux) increases with blueshift. In contrast, the C IV line center shows weaker variability at the extreme blueshifts. Quasars with the high-blueshift C IV lines tend to have less variable continuum emission, when controlling for EW, luminosity, and redshift. Our results support the scenario that high-blueshift sources tend to have large Eddington ratios.

Results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Komatsu, E.; Bennett, Charles L.; Komatsu, Eiichiro

2015-01-01

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) mapped the distribution of temperature and polarization over the entire sky in five microwave frequency bands. These full-sky maps were used to obtain measurements of temperature and polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background with the unprecedented accuracy and precision. The analysis of two-point correlation functions of temperature and polarization data gives determinations of the fundamental cosmological parameters such as the age and composition of the universe, as well as the key parameters describing the physics of inflation, which is further constrained by three-point correlation functions. WMAP observations alone reduced the flat ? cold dark matter (Lambda Cold Dark Matter) cosmological model (six) parameter volume by a factor of > 68, 000 compared with pre-WMAP measurements. The WMAP observations (sometimes in combination with other astrophysical probes) convincingly show the existence of non-baryonic dark matter, the cosmic neutrino background, flatness of spatial geometry of the universe, a deviation from a scale-invariant spectrum of initial scalar fluctuations, and that the current universe is undergoing an accelerated expansion. The WMAP observations provide the strongest ever support for inflation; namely, the structures we see in the universe originate from quantum fluctuations generated during inflation.

Optical Design and Sensitivity of the Probe of Inflation and Cosmic Origins

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Young, Karl S.; Hanany, Shaul; Wen, Qi

2018-01-01

The Probe of Inflation and Cosmic Origins (PICO) is a NASA probe-class mission concept being studied in preparation for the 2020 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey. PICO will detect, or place new limits on, the energy scale of inflation and the physics of quantum gravity, determine the effective number of neutrino species and constrain the sum of neutrino masses, measure the optical depth to reionization to the cosmic variance limit, and shed new light on the role of magnetic fields in galactic evolution and star formation by making polarimetric maps of the full mm-wave sky with sensitivity 70 times higher than the Planck space mission. The maps made by PICO will provide a catalog of thousands of new proto clusters and infrared galaxies as well as tens of thousands of galaxy clusters which will further constrain cosmological parameters.PICO will have a 1.4 meter aperture telescope with 21 bands from 20 to 800 Ghz. We show the current PICO optics and discuss trade-offs between types of optical systems, limits imposed by scan strategies, and maximizing the number of detectors on sky. We present the instrument’s focal plane and the expected mission sensitivity.

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

Park, Jeewoo; Kucharek, Harald; Möbius, Eberhard

In this study, we investigate the directional distributions of the secondary interstellar neutral (ISN) He and O populations at Earth's orbit. The secondary populations are created by charge exchange between ISN atoms and interstellar ions in the outer heliosheath. Using the IBEX -Lo He and O observations during the winter–spring seasons (early December to early June) in 2009–2011, we produced all-sky maps for He and O atoms with sputtering corrections. These sky maps include the directional distributions of the primary ISN gas and secondary populations. Our investigations reveal that the secondary He and O populations are observed in the eclipticmore » longitude range 160°–210°. The peak longitudes of the secondary He and O appear to be 14°–34° and 38°–43° away from the peak longitude of the primary interstellar gas flow, respectively. These results indicate that the secondary populations have lower bulk speeds relative to the Sun and their flow directions deviate from the primary gas flow. These results may indicate that one side of the outer heliosheath is thicker than the other side relative to the flow direction of the primary interstellar gas flow.« less

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

Rotti, Aditya; Huffenberger, Kevin, E-mail: adityarotti@gmail.com, E-mail: khuffenberger@fsu.edu

Isotropy-violation statistics can highlight polarized galactic foregrounds that contaminate primordial B -modes in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). We propose a particular isotropy-violation test and apply it to polarized Planck 353 GHz data, constructing a map that indicates B -mode foreground dust power over the sky. We build our main isotropy test in harmonic space via the bipolar spherical harmonic basis, and our method helps us to identify the least-contaminated directions. By this measure, there are regions of low foreground in and around the BICEP field, near the South Galactic Pole, and in the Northern Galactic Hemisphere. There is alsomore » a possible foreground feature in the BICEP field. We compare our results to those based on the local power spectrum, which is computed on discs using a version of the method of Planck Int. XXX (2016). The discs method is closely related to our isotropy-violation diagnostic. We pay special care to the treatment of noise, including chance correlations with the foregrounds. Currently we use our isotropy tool to assess the cleanest portions of the sky, but in the future such methods will allow isotropy-based null tests for foreground contamination in maps purported to measure primordial B -modes, particularly in cases of limited frequency coverage.« less

Chemical Cartography. I. A Carbonicity Map of the Galactic Halo

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

Lee, Young Sun; Kim, Young Kwang; Beers, Timothy C.

We present the first map of carbonicity, [C/Fe], for the halo system of the Milky Way, based on a sample of over 100,000 main-sequence turnoff stars with available spectroscopy from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This map, which explores distances up to 15 kpc from the Sun, reveals clear evidence for the dual nature of the Galactic halo, based on the spatial distribution of stellar carbonicity. The metallicity distribution functions of stars in the inner- and outer-halo regions of the carbonicity map reproduce those previously argued to arise from contributions of the inner- and outer-halo populations, with peaks at [Fe/H]more » = −1.5 and −2.2, respectively. From consideration of the absolute carbon abundances for our sample, A (C), we also confirm that the carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars in the outer-halo region exhibit a higher frequency of CEMP-no stars (those with no overabundances of heavy neutron-capture elements) than of CEMP- s stars (those with strong overabundances of elements associated with the s -process), whereas the stars in the inner-halo region exhibit a higher frequency of CEMP- s stars. We argue that the contrast in the behavior of the CEMP-no and CEMP- s fractions in these regions arises from differences in the mass distributions of the mini-halos from which the stars of the inner- and outer-halo populations formed, which gives rise in turn to the observed dichotomy of the Galactic halo.« less

Mapping the solar wind HI outflow velocity in the inner heliosphere by coronagraphic ultraviolet and visible-light observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dolei, S.; Susino, R.; Sasso, C.; Bemporad, A.; Andretta, V.; Spadaro, D.; Ventura, R.; Antonucci, E.; Abbo, L.; Da Deppo, V.; Fineschi, S.; Focardi, M.; Frassetto, F.; Giordano, S.; Landini, F.; Naletto, G.; Nicolini, G.; Nicolosi, P.; Pancrazzi, M.; Romoli, M.; Telloni, D.

2018-05-01

We investigated the capability of mapping the solar wind outflow velocity of neutral hydrogen atoms by using synergistic visible-light and ultraviolet observations. We used polarised brightness images acquired by the LASCO/SOHO and Mk3/MLSO coronagraphs, and synoptic Lyα line observations of the UVCS/SOHO spectrometer to obtain daily maps of solar wind H I outflow velocity between 1.5 and 4.0 R⊙ on the SOHO plane of the sky during a complete solar rotation (from 1997 June 1 to 1997 June 28). The 28-days data sequence allows us to construct coronal off-limb Carrington maps of the resulting velocities at different heliocentric distances to investigate the space and time evolution of the outflowing solar plasma. In addition, we performed a parameter space exploration in order to study the dependence of the derived outflow velocities on the physical quantities characterising the Lyα emitting process in the corona. Our results are important in anticipation of the future science with the Metis instrument, selected to be part of the Solar Orbiter scientific payload. It was conceived to carry out near-sun coronagraphy, performing for the first time simultaneous imaging in polarised visible-light and ultraviolet H I Lyα line, so providing an unprecedented view of the solar wind acceleration region in the inner corona. The movie (see Sect. 4.2) is available at https://www.aanda.org

GALEX 1st Light Far Ultraviolet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

This image was taken May 21 and 22 by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The image was made from data gathered by the far ultraviolet channel of the spacecraft camera during the mission's 'first light' milestone. It shows about 400 celestial objects, appearing in blue, detected over a 3-minute, 20-second period in the constellation Hercules.

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer's first light images are dedicated to the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. The Hercules region was directly above Columbia when it made its last contact with NASA Mission Control on February 1, over the skies of Texas.

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer launched on April 28 on a mission to map the celestial sky in the ultraviolet and determine the history of star formation in the universe over the last 10 billion years.

Lobster eye X-ray optics: Data processing from two 1D modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nentvich, O.; Urban, M.; Stehlikova, V.; Sieger, L.; Hudec, R.

2017-07-01

The X-ray imaging is usually done by Wolter I telescopes. They are suitable for imaging of a small part of the sky, not for all-sky monitoring. This monitoring could be done by a Lobster eye optics which can theoretically have a field of view up to 360 deg. All sky monitoring system enables a quick identification of source and its direction. This paper describes the possibility of using two independent one-dimensional Lobster Eye modules for this purpose instead of Wolter I and their post-processing into an 2D image. This arrangement allows scanning with less energy loss compared to Wolter I or two-dimensional Lobster Eye optics. It is most suitable especially for very weak sources.

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma - High-Resolution Flood Mapping and Monitoring from Sentinel SAR with the Depolarization Reduction Algorithm for Global Observations of InundatioN (DRAGON)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nghiem, S. V.; Brakenridge, G. R.; Nguyen, D. T.

2017-12-01

Hurricane Harvey inflicted historical catastrophic flooding across extensive regions around Houston and southeast Texas after making landfall on 25 August 2017. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requested urgent supports for flood mapping and monitoring in an emergency response to the extreme flood situation. An innovative satellite remote sensing method, called the Depolarization Reduction Algorithm for Global Observations of inundatioN (DRAGON), has been developed and implemented for use with Sentinel synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite data at a resolution of 10 meters to identify, map, and monitor inundation including pre-existing water bodies and newly flooded areas. Results from this new method are hydrologically consistent and have been verified with known surface waters (e.g., coastal ocean, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, etc.), with clear-sky high-resolution WorldView images (where waves can be seen on surface water in inundated areas within a small spatial coverage), and with other flood maps from the consortium of Global Flood Partnership derived from multiple satellite datasets (including clear-sky Landsat and MODIS at lower resolutions). Figure 1 is a high-resolution (4K UHD) image of a composite inundation map for the region around Rosharon (in Brazoria County, south of Houston, Texas). This composite inundation map reveals extensive flooding on 29 August 2017 (four days after Hurricane Harvey made landfall), and the inundation was still persistent in most of the west and south of Rosharon one week later (5 September 2017) while flooding was reduced in the east of Rosharon. Hurricane Irma brought flooding to a number of areas in Florida. As of 10 September 2017, Sentinel SAR flood maps reveal inundation in the Florida Panhandle and over lowland surfaces on several islands in the Florida Keys. However, Sentinel SAR results indicate that flooding along the Florida coast was not extreme despite Irma was a Category-5 hurricane that might have inflicted a potentially strong storm surge. DRAGON flood mapping products over various regions in Texas and in Florida were provided to FEMA. Figure 1. Composite inundation map derived from Sentinel SAR data for the region around Rosharon on 9/5/2017 (orange), inundation on 8/29/2017 (yellow), and pre-existing surface waters on 8/5/2017 (blue).

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Ensemble Spectroscopic Variability of Quasar Broad Emission Lines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Mouyuan; Trump, Jonathan R.; Shen, Yue; Brandt, W. N.; Dawson, Kyle; Denney, Kelly D.; Hall, Patrick B.; Ho, Luis C.; Horne, Keith; Jiang, Linhua; Richards, Gordon T.; Schneider, Donald P.; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Kinemuchi, Karen; Oravetz, Daniel; Pan, Kaike; Simmons, Audrey

2015-09-01

We explore the variability of quasars in the Mg ii and {{H}}β broad emission lines and ultraviolet/optical continuum emission using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping project (SDSS-RM). This is the largest spectroscopic study of quasar variability to date: our study includes 29 spectroscopic epochs from SDSS-RM over 6 months, containing 357 quasars with Mg ii and 41 quasars with {{H}}β . On longer timescales, the study is also supplemented with two-epoch data from SDSS-I/II. The SDSS-I/II data include an additional 2854 quasars with Mg ii and 572 quasars with {{H}}β . The Mg ii emission line is significantly variable ({{Δ }}f/f∼ 10% on ∼100-day timescales), a necessary prerequisite for its use for reverberation mapping studies. The data also confirm that continuum variability increases with timescale and decreases with luminosity, and the continuum light curves are consistent with a damped random-walk model on rest-frame timescales of ≳ 5 days. We compare the emission-line and continuum variability to investigate the structure of the broad-line region. Broad-line variability shows a shallower increase with timescale compared to the continuum emission, demonstrating that the broad-line transfer function is not a δ-function. {{H}}β is more variable than Mg ii (roughly by a factor of ∼1.5), suggesting different excitation mechanisms, optical depths and/or geometrical configuration for each emission line. The ensemble spectroscopic variability measurements enabled by the SDSS-RM project have important consequences for future studies of reverberation mapping and black hole mass estimation of 1\\lt z\\lt 2 quasars.

Planck 2015 results. XVI. Isotropy and statistics of the CMB

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planck Collaboration; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Akrami, Y.; Aluri, P. K.; Arnaud, M.; Ashdown, M.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartolo, N.; Basak, S.; Battaner, E.; Benabed, K.; Benoît, A.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bielewicz, P.; Bock, J. J.; Bonaldi, A.; Bonavera, L.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Boulanger, F.; Bucher, M.; Burigana, C.; Butler, R. C.; Calabrese, E.; Cardoso, J.-F.; Casaponsa, B.; Catalano, A.; Challinor, A.; Chamballu, A.; Chiang, H. C.; Christensen, P. R.; Church, S.; Clements, D. L.; Colombi, S.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Combet, C.; Contreras, D.; Couchot, F.; Coulais, A.; Crill, B. P.; Cruz, M.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davies, R. D.; Davis, R. J.; de Bernardis, P.; de Rosa, A.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Désert, F.-X.; Diego, J. M.; Dole, H.; Donzelli, S.; Doré, O.; Douspis, M.; Ducout, A.; Dupac, X.; Efstathiou, G.; Elsner, F.; Enßlin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Fantaye, Y.; Fergusson, J.; Fernandez-Cobos, R.; Finelli, F.; Forni, O.; Frailis, M.; Fraisse, A. A.; Franceschi, E.; Frejsel, A.; Frolov, A.; Galeotta, S.; Galli, S.; Ganga, K.; Gauthier, C.; Ghosh, T.; Giard, M.; Giraud-Héraud, Y.; Gjerløw, E.; González-Nuevo, J.; Górski, K. M.; Gratton, S.; Gregorio, A.; Gruppuso, A.; Gudmundsson, J. E.; Hansen, F. K.; Hanson, D.; Harrison, D. L.; Henrot-Versillé, S.; Hernández-Monteagudo, C.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hivon, E.; Hobson, M.; Holmes, W. A.; Hornstrup, A.; Hovest, W.; Huang, Z.; Huffenberger, K. M.; Hurier, G.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jaffe, T. R.; Jones, W. C.; Juvela, M.; Keihänen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kim, J.; Kisner, T. S.; Knoche, J.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lagache, G.; Lähteenmäki, A.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Lattanzi, M.; Lawrence, C. R.; Leonardi, R.; Lesgourgues, J.; Levrier, F.; Liguori, M.; Lilje, P. B.; Linden-Vørnle, M.; Liu, H.; López-Caniego, M.; Lubin, P. M.; Macías-Pérez, J. F.; Maggio, G.; Maino, D.; Mandolesi, N.; Mangilli, A.; Marinucci, D.; Maris, M.; Martin, P. G.; Martínez-González, E.; Masi, S.; Matarrese, S.; McGehee, P.; Meinhold, P. R.; Melchiorri, A.; Mendes, L.; Mennella, A.; Migliaccio, M.; Mikkelsen, K.; Mitra, S.; Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Molinari, D.; Moneti, A.; Montier, L.; Morgante, G.; Mortlock, D.; Moss, A.; Munshi, D.; Murphy, J. A.; Naselsky, P.; Nati, F.; Natoli, P.; Netterfield, C. B.; Nørgaard-Nielsen, H. U.; Noviello, F.; Novikov, D.; Novikov, I.; Oxborrow, C. A.; Paci, F.; Pagano, L.; Pajot, F.; Pant, N.; Paoletti, D.; Pasian, F.; Patanchon, G.; Pearson, T. J.; Perdereau, O.; Perotto, L.; Perrotta, F.; Pettorino, V.; Piacentini, F.; Piat, M.; Pierpaoli, E.; Pietrobon, D.; Plaszczynski, S.; Pointecouteau, E.; Polenta, G.; Popa, L.; Pratt, G. W.; Prézeau, G.; Prunet, S.; Puget, J.-L.; Rachen, J. P.; Rebolo, R.; Reinecke, M.; Remazeilles, M.; Renault, C.; Renzi, A.; Ristorcelli, I.; Rocha, G.; Rosset, C.; Rossetti, M.; Rotti, A.; Roudier, G.; Rubiño-Martín, J. A.; Rusholme, B.; Sandri, M.; Santos, D.; Savelainen, M.; Savini, G.; Scott, D.; Seiffert, M. D.; Shellard, E. P. S.; Souradeep, T.; Spencer, L. D.; Stolyarov, V.; Stompor, R.; Sudiwala, R.; Sunyaev, R.; Sutton, D.; Suur-Uski, A.-S.; Sygnet, J.-F.; Tauber, J. A.; Terenzi, L.; Toffolatti, L.; Tomasi, M.; Tristram, M.; Trombetti, T.; Tucci, M.; Tuovinen, J.; Valenziano, L.; Valiviita, J.; Van Tent, B.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Wade, L. A.; Wandelt, B. D.; Wehus, I. K.; Yvon, D.; Zacchei, A.; Zibin, J. P.; Zonca, A.

2016-09-01

We test the statistical isotropy and Gaussianity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies using observations made by the Planck satellite. Our results are based mainly on the full Planck mission for temperature, but also include some polarization measurements. In particular, we consider the CMB anisotropy maps derived from the multi-frequency Planck data by several component-separation methods. For the temperature anisotropies, we find excellent agreement between results based on these sky maps over both a very large fraction of the sky and a broad range of angular scales, establishing that potential foreground residuals do not affect our studies. Tests of skewness, kurtosis, multi-normality, N-point functions, and Minkowski functionals indicate consistency with Gaussianity, while a power deficit at large angular scales is manifested in several ways, for example low map variance. The results of a peak statistics analysis are consistent with the expectations of a Gaussian random field. The "Cold Spot" is detected with several methods, including map kurtosis, peak statistics, and mean temperature profile. We thoroughly probe the large-scale dipolar power asymmetry, detecting it with several independent tests, and address the subject of a posteriori correction. Tests of directionality suggest the presence of angular clustering from large to small scales, but at a significance that is dependent on the details of the approach. We perform the first examination of polarization data, finding the morphology of stacked peaks to be consistent with the expectations of statistically isotropic simulations. Where they overlap, these results are consistent with the Planck 2013 analysis based on the nominal mission data and provide our most thorough view of the statistics of the CMB fluctuations to date.

Planck 2015 results. III. LFI systematic uncertainties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planck Collaboration; Ade, P. A. R.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartolo, N.; Basak, S.; Battaglia, P.; Battaner, E.; Benabed, K.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bielewicz, P.; Bonaldi, A.; Bonavera, L.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Burigana, C.; Butler, R. C.; Calabrese, E.; Catalano, A.; Christensen, P. R.; Colombo, L. P. L.; Cruz, M.; Curto, A.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davies, R. D.; Davis, R. J.; de Bernardis, P.; de Rosa, A.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Dickinson, C.; Diego, J. M.; Doré, O.; Ducout, A.; Dupac, X.; Elsner, F.; Enßlin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Finelli, F.; Frailis, M.; Franceschet, C.; Franceschi, E.; Galeotta, S.; Galli, S.; Ganga, K.; Ghosh, T.; Giard, M.; Giraud-Héraud, Y.; Gjerløw, E.; González-Nuevo, J.; Górski, K. M.; Gregorio, A.; Gruppuso, A.; Hansen, F. K.; Harrison, D. L.; Hernández-Monteagudo, C.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hivon, E.; Hobson, M.; Hornstrup, A.; Hovest, W.; Huffenberger, K. M.; Hurier, G.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jaffe, T. R.; Keihänen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kiiveri, K.; Kisner, T. S.; Knoche, J.; Krachmalnicoff, N.; Kunz, M.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lagache, G.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Lattanzi, M.; Lawrence, C. R.; Leahy, J. P.; Leonardi, R.; Levrier, F.; Liguori, M.; Lilje, P. B.; Linden-Vørnle, M.; Lindholm, V.; López-Caniego, M.; Lubin, P. M.; Macías-Pérez, J. F.; Maffei, B.; Maggio, G.; Maino, D.; Mandolesi, N.; Mangilli, A.; Maris, M.; Martin, P. G.; Martínez-González, E.; Masi, S.; Matarrese, S.; Meinhold, P. R.; Mennella, A.; Migliaccio, M.; Mitra, S.; Montier, L.; Morgante, G.; Mortlock, D.; Munshi, D.; Murphy, J. A.; Nati, F.; Natoli, P.; Noviello, F.; Paci, F.; Pagano, L.; Pajot, F.; Paoletti, D.; Partridge, B.; Pasian, F.; Pearson, T. J.; Perdereau, O.; Pettorino, V.; Piacentini, F.; Pointecouteau, E.; Polenta, G.; Pratt, G. W.; Puget, J.-L.; Rachen, J. P.; Reinecke, M.; Remazeilles, M.; Renzi, A.; Ristorcelli, I.; Rocha, G.; Rosset, C.; Rossetti, M.; Roudier, G.; Rubiño-Martín, J. A.; Rusholme, B.; Sandri, M.; Santos, D.; Savelainen, M.; Scott, D.; Stolyarov, V.; Stompor, R.; Suur-Uski, A.-S.; Sygnet, J.-F.; Tauber, J. A.; Tavagnacco, D.; Terenzi, L.; Toffolatti, L.; Tomasi, M.; Tristram, M.; Tucci, M.; Umana, G.; Valenziano, L.; Valiviita, J.; Van Tent, B.; Vassallo, T.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Wade, L. A.; Wandelt, B. D.; Watson, R.; Wehus, I. K.; Yvon, D.; Zacchei, A.; Zibin, J. P.; Zonca, A.

2016-09-01

We present the current accounting of systematic effect uncertainties for the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) that are relevant to the 2015 release of the Planck cosmological results, showing the robustness and consistency of our data set, especially for polarization analysis. We use two complementary approaches: (I) simulations based on measured data and physical models of the known systematic effects; and (II) analysis of difference maps containing the same sky signal ("null-maps"). The LFI temperature data are limited by instrumental noise. At large angular scales the systematic effects are below the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature power spectrum by several orders of magnitude. In polarization the systematic uncertainties are dominated by calibration uncertainties and compete with the CMB E-modes in the multipole range 10-20. Based on our model of all known systematic effects, we show that these effects introduce a slight bias of around 0.2σ on the reionization optical depth derived from the 70GHz EE spectrum using the 30 and 353GHz channels as foreground templates. At 30GHz the systematic effects are smaller than the Galactic foreground at all scales in temperature and polarization, which allows us to consider this channel as a reliable template of synchrotron emission. We assess the residual uncertainties due to LFI effects on CMB maps and power spectra after component separation and show that these effects are smaller than the CMB amplitude at all scales. We also assess the impact on non-Gaussianity studies and find it to be negligible. Some residuals still appear in null maps from particular sky survey pairs, particularly at 30 GHz, suggesting possible straylight contamination due to an imperfect knowledge of the beam far sidelobes.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Composite Lags at z ≤ 1

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

Li, Jennifer; Shen, Yue; Horne, Keith

We present composite broad-line region (BLR) reverberation mapping lag measurements for H α , H β , He ii λ 4686, and Mg ii for a sample of 144, z ≲ 1 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping (SDSS-RM) project. Using only the 32-epoch spectroscopic light curves in the first six-month season of SDSS-RM observations, we compile correlation function measurements for individual objects and then coadd them to allow the measurement of the average lags for our sample at mean redshifts of 0.4 (for H α ) and ∼0.65 (for the other lines). At similar quasar luminositiesmore » and redshifts, the sample-averaged lag decreases in the order of Mg ii, H α , H β , and He ii. This decrease in lags is accompanied by an increase in the mean line width of the four lines, and is roughly consistent with the virialized motion for BLR gas in photoionization equilibrium. These are among the first RM measurements of stratified BLR structure at z > 0.3. Dividing our sample by luminosity, H α shows clear evidence of increasing lags with luminosity, consistent with the expectation from the measured BLR size–luminosity relation based on H β . The other three lines do not show a clear luminosity trend in their average lags due to the limited dynamic range of luminosity probed and the poor average correlation signals in the divided samples, a situation that will be improved with the incorporation of additional photometric and spectroscopic data from SDSS-RM. We discuss the utility and caveats of composite lag measurements for large statistical quasar samples with reverberation mapping data.« less

The SCUBA-2 Ambitious Sky Survey: a catalogue of beam-sized sources in the Galactic longitude range 120°-140°

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nettke, Will; Scott, Douglas; Gibb, Andy G.; Thompson, Mark; Chrysostomou, Antonio; Evans, A.; Hill, Tracey; Jenness, Tim; Joncas, Gilles; Moore, Toby; Serjeant, Stephen; Urquhart, James; Vaccari, Mattia; Weferling, Bernd; White, Glenn; Zhu, Ming

2017-06-01

The SCUBA-2 Ambitious Sky Survey (SASSy) is composed of shallow 850-μm imaging using the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array 2 (SCUBA-2) on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Here we describe the extraction of a catalogue of beam-sized sources from a roughly 120 deg2 region of the Galactic plane mapped uniformly (to an rms level of about 40 mJy), covering longitude 120° < l < 140° and latitude |b| < 2.9°. We used a matched-filtering approach to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) in these noisy maps and tested the efficiency of our extraction procedure through estimates of the false discovery rate, as well as by adding artificial sources to the real images. The primary catalogue contains a total of 189 sources at 850 μm, down to an S/N threshold of approximately 4.6. Additionally, we list 136 sources detected down to S/N = 4.3, but recognize that as we go lower in S/N, the reliability of the catalogue rapidly diminishes. We perform follow-up observations of some of our lower significance sources through small targeted SCUBA-2 images and list 265 sources detected in these maps down to S/N = 5. This illustrates the real power of SASSy: inspecting the shallow maps for regions of 850-μm emission and then using deeper targeted images to efficiently find fainter sources. We also perform a comparison of the SASSy sources with the Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources and the IRAS Point Source Catalogue, to determine which sources discovered in this field might be new, and hence potentially cold regions at an early stage of star formation.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Composite Lags at z ≤ 1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jennifer; Shen, Yue; Horne, Keith; Brandt, W. N.; Greene, Jenny E.; Grier, C. J.; Ho, Luis C.; Kochanek, Chris; Schneider, Donald P.; Trump, Jonathan R.; Dawson, Kyle S.; Pan, Kaike; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Oravetz, Daniel; Simmons, Audrey; Malanushenko, Elena

2017-09-01

We present composite broad-line region (BLR) reverberation mapping lag measurements for Hα, Hβ, He II λ4686, and Mg II for a sample of 144, z ≲ 1 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping (SDSS-RM) project. Using only the 32-epoch spectroscopic light curves in the first six-month season of SDSS-RM observations, we compile correlation function measurements for individual objects and then coadd them to allow the measurement of the average lags for our sample at mean redshifts of 0.4 (for Hα) and ˜0.65 (for the other lines). At similar quasar luminosities and redshifts, the sample-averaged lag decreases in the order of Mg II, Hα, Hβ, and He II. This decrease in lags is accompanied by an increase in the mean line width of the four lines, and is roughly consistent with the virialized motion for BLR gas in photoionization equilibrium. These are among the first RM measurements of stratified BLR structure at z > 0.3. Dividing our sample by luminosity, Hα shows clear evidence of increasing lags with luminosity, consistent with the expectation from the measured BLR size-luminosity relation based on Hβ. The other three lines do not show a clear luminosity trend in their average lags due to the limited dynamic range of luminosity probed and the poor average correlation signals in the divided samples, a situation that will be improved with the incorporation of additional photometric and spectroscopic data from SDSS-RM. We discuss the utility and caveats of composite lag measurements for large statistical quasar samples with reverberation mapping data.

Planck 2015 results: XVI. Isotropy and statistics of the CMB

DOE PAGES

Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Akrami, Y.; ...

2016-09-20

In this paper, we test the statistical isotropy and Gaussianity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies using observations made by the Planck satellite. Our results are based mainly on the full Planck mission for temperature, but also include some polarization measurements. In particular, we consider the CMB anisotropy maps derived from the multi-frequency Planck data by several component-separation methods. For the temperature anisotropies, we find excellent agreement between results based on these sky maps over both a very large fraction of the sky and a broad range of angular scales, establishing that potential foreground residuals do not affect ourmore » studies. Tests of skewness, kurtosis, multi-normality, N-point functions, and Minkowski functionals indicate consistency with Gaussianity, while a power deficit at large angular scales is manifested in several ways, for example low map variance. The results of a peak statistics analysis are consistent with the expectations of a Gaussian random field. The “Cold Spot” is detected with several methods, including map kurtosis, peak statistics, and mean temperature profile. We thoroughly probe the large-scale dipolar power asymmetry, detecting it with several independent tests, and address the subject of a posteriori correction. Tests of directionality suggest the presence of angular clustering from large to small scales, but at a significance that is dependent on the details of the approach. We perform the first examination of polarization data, finding the morphology of stacked peaks to be consistent with the expectations of statistically isotropic simulations. Finally, where they overlap, these results are consistent with the Planck 2013 analysis based on the nominal mission data and provide our most thorough view of the statistics of the CMB fluctuations to date.« less

CONSTRAINTS ON THE SHAPE OF THE MILKY WAY DARK MATTER HALO FROM JEANS EQUATIONS APPLIED TO SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY DATA

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

Loebman, Sarah R.; Ivezic, Zeljko; Quinn, Thomas R.

2012-10-10

We search for evidence of dark matter in the Milky Way by utilizing the stellar number density distribution and kinematics measured by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to heliocentric distances exceeding {approx}10 kpc. We employ the cylindrically symmetric form of Jeans equations and focus on the morphology of the resulting acceleration maps, rather than the normalization of the total mass as done in previous, mostly local, studies. Jeans equations are first applied to a mock catalog based on a cosmologically derived N-body+SPH simulation, and the known acceleration (gradient of gravitational potential) is successfully recovered. The same simulation is alsomore » used to quantify the impact of dark matter on the total acceleration. We use Galfast, a code designed to quantitatively reproduce SDSS measurements and selection effects, to generate a synthetic stellar catalog. We apply Jeans equations to this catalog and produce two-dimensional maps of stellar acceleration. These maps reveal that in a Newtonian framework, the implied gravitational potential cannot be explained by visible matter alone. The acceleration experienced by stars at galactocentric distances of {approx}20 kpc is three times larger than what can be explained by purely visible matter. The application of an analytic method for estimating the dark matter halo axis ratio to SDSS data implies an oblate halo with q{sub DM} = 0.47 {+-} 0.14 within the same distance range. These techniques can be used to map the dark matter halo to much larger distances from the Galactic center using upcoming deep optical surveys, such as LSST.« less

Constraints on Cosmological Parameters from the Angular Power Spectrum of a Combined 2500 deg2 SPT-SZ and Planck Gravitational Lensing Map

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simard, G.; Omori, Y.; Aylor, K.; Baxter, E. J.; Benson, B. A.; Bleem, L. E.; Carlstrom, J. E.; Chang, C. L.; Cho, H.-M.; Chown, R.; Crawford, T. M.; Crites, A. T.; de Haan, T.; Dobbs, M. A.; Everett, W. B.; George, E. M.; Halverson, N. W.; Harrington, N. L.; Henning, J. W.; Holder, G. P.; Hou, Z.; Holzapfel, W. L.; Hrubes, J. D.; Knox, L.; Lee, A. T.; Leitch, E. M.; Luong-Van, D.; Manzotti, A.; McMahon, J. J.; Meyer, S. S.; Mocanu, L. M.; Mohr, J. J.; Natoli, T.; Padin, S.; Pryke, C.; Reichardt, C. L.; Ruhl, J. E.; Sayre, J. T.; Schaffer, K. K.; Shirokoff, E.; Staniszewski, Z.; Stark, A. A.; Story, K. T.; Vanderlinde, K.; Vieira, J. D.; Williamson, R.; Wu, W. L. K.

2018-06-01

We report constraints on cosmological parameters from the angular power spectrum of a cosmic microwave background (CMB) gravitational lensing potential map created using temperature data from 2500 deg2 of South Pole Telescope (SPT) data supplemented with data from Planck in the same sky region, with the statistical power in the combined map primarily from the SPT data. We fit the lensing power spectrum to a model including cold dark matter and a cosmological constant ({{Λ }}{CDM}), and to models with single-parameter extensions to {{Λ }}{CDM}. We find constraints that are comparable to and consistent with those found using the full-sky Planck CMB lensing data, e.g., {σ }8{{{Ω }}}{{m}}0.25 = 0.598 ± 0.024 from the lensing data alone with weak priors placed on other parameters. Combining with primary CMB data, we explore single-parameter extensions to {{Λ }}{CDM}. We find {{{Ω }}}k =-{0.012}-0.023+0.021 or {M}ν < 0.70 eV at 95% confidence, in good agreement with results including the lensing potential as measured by Planck. We include two parameters that scale the effect of lensing on the CMB: {A}L, which scales the lensing power spectrum in both the lens reconstruction power and in the smearing of the acoustic peaks, and {A}φ φ , which scales only the amplitude of the lensing reconstruction power spectrum. We find {A}φ φ × {A}L = 1.01 ± 0.08 for the lensing map made from combined SPT and Planck data, indicating that the amount of lensing is in excellent agreement with expectations from the observed CMB angular power spectrum when not including the information from smearing of the acoustic peaks.

A 100-3000 GHz model of thermal dust emission observed by Planck, DIRBE and IRAS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meisner, Aaron M.; Finkbeiner, Douglas P.

2015-01-01

We apply the Finkbeiner et al. (1999) two-component thermal dust emission model to the Planck HFI maps. This parametrization of the far-infrared dust spectrum as the sum of two modified blackbodies serves as an important alternative to the commonly adopted single modified blackbody (MBB) dust emission model. Analyzing the joint Planck/DIRBE dust spectrum, we show that two-component models provide a better fit to the 100-3000 GHz emission than do single-MBB models, though by a lesser margin than found by Finkbeiner et al. (1999) based on FIRAS and DIRBE. We also derive full-sky 6.1' resolution maps of dust optical depth and temperature by fitting the two-component model to Planck 217-857 GHz along with DIRBE/IRAS 100μm data. Because our two-component model matches the dust spectrum near its peak, accounts for the spectrum's flattening at millimeter wavelengths, and specifies dust temperature at 6.1' FWHM, our model provides reliable, high-resolution thermal dust emission foreground predictions from 100 to 3000 GHz. We find that, in diffuse sky regions, our two-component 100-217 GHz predictions are on average accurate to within 2.2%, while extrapolating the Planck Collaboration (2013) single-MBB model systematically underpredicts emission by 18.8% at 100 GHz, 12.6% at 143 GHz and 7.9% at 217 GHz. We calibrate our two-component optical depth to reddening, and compare with reddening estimates based on stellar spectra. We find the dominant systematic problems in our temperature/reddening maps to be zodiacal light on large angular scales and the cosmic infrared background anistropy on small angular scales. We have recently released maps and associated software utilities for obtaining thermal dust emission and reddening predictions using our Planck-based two-component model.

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

Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Akrami, Y.

In this paper, we test the statistical isotropy and Gaussianity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies using observations made by the Planck satellite. Our results are based mainly on the full Planck mission for temperature, but also include some polarization measurements. In particular, we consider the CMB anisotropy maps derived from the multi-frequency Planck data by several component-separation methods. For the temperature anisotropies, we find excellent agreement between results based on these sky maps over both a very large fraction of the sky and a broad range of angular scales, establishing that potential foreground residuals do not affect ourmore » studies. Tests of skewness, kurtosis, multi-normality, N-point functions, and Minkowski functionals indicate consistency with Gaussianity, while a power deficit at large angular scales is manifested in several ways, for example low map variance. The results of a peak statistics analysis are consistent with the expectations of a Gaussian random field. The “Cold Spot” is detected with several methods, including map kurtosis, peak statistics, and mean temperature profile. We thoroughly probe the large-scale dipolar power asymmetry, detecting it with several independent tests, and address the subject of a posteriori correction. Tests of directionality suggest the presence of angular clustering from large to small scales, but at a significance that is dependent on the details of the approach. We perform the first examination of polarization data, finding the morphology of stacked peaks to be consistent with the expectations of statistically isotropic simulations. Finally, where they overlap, these results are consistent with the Planck 2013 analysis based on the nominal mission data and provide our most thorough view of the statistics of the CMB fluctuations to date.« less

Integrating hydrodynamic models and COSMO-SkyMed derived products for flood damage assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giuffra, Flavio; Boni, Giorgio; Pulvirenti, Luca; Pierdicca, Nazzareno; Rudari, Roberto; Fiorini, Mattia

2015-04-01

Floods are the most frequent weather disasters in the world and probably the most costly in terms of social and economic losses. They may have a strong impact on infrastructures and health because the range of possible damages includes casualties, loss of housing and destruction of crops. Presently, the most common approach for remotely sensing floods is the use of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Key features of SAR data for inundation mapping are the synoptic view, the capability to operate even in cloudy conditions and during both day and night time and the sensitivity of the microwave radiation to water. The launch of a new generation of instruments, such as TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) allows producing near real time flood maps having a spatial resolution in the order of 1-5 m. Moreover, the present (CSK) and upcoming (Sentinel-1) constellations permit the acquisition of radar data characterized by a short revisit time (in the order of some hours for CSK), so that the production of frequent inundation maps can be envisaged. Nonetheless, gaps might be present in the SAR-derived flood maps because of the limited area imaged by SAR; moreover, the detection of floodwater may be complicated by the presence of very dense vegetation or urban settlements. Hence the need to complement SAR-derived flood maps with the outputs of physical models. Physical models allow delivering to end users very useful information for a complete flood damage assessment, such as data on water depths and flow directions, which cannot be directly derived from satellite remote sensing images. In addition, the flood extent predictions of hydraulic models can be compared to SAR-derived inundation maps to calibrate the models, or to fill the aforementioned gaps that can be present in the SAR-derived maps. Finally, physical models enable the construction of risk scenarios useful for emergency managers to take their decisions and for programming additional SAR acquisitions in order to observe the temporal evolution of the event (e.g. the water receding). In this paper, the first outcomes of a study aiming at combining COSMO-SkyMed derived flood maps with hydrodynamic models are presented. The study is carried out within the framework of the EO-based CHange detection for Operational Flood Management (ECHO-FM) project, funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) as part of the research activities agreed in the cooperation between ASI and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The flood that hit the region of Shkodër, in Albania, on January 2010, is considered as test case. The work focuses on the utility of a dense temporal series of SAR data, such as that available through CSK for this case study, used in combination with a hydrodynamic model to monitor over a long time (in the order of 3 weeks) the natural drainage of the Shkodër floodplain. It is shown that by matching the outputs of the model to SAR observations, the hydrodynamic inconsistencies in CSK estimates can be corrected.

The use of a laser ceilometer for sky condition determination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nadolski, Vickie L.; Bradley, James T.

The use of a laser ceilometer for determining sky condition is presented, with emphasis on the operation of the ceilometer, the sky-condition-reporting algorithm, and how the laser ceilometer and the sky-condition algorithm are used to give a report suitable for aircraft operations and meteorological application. The sampling and processing features of the Vaisala ceilometer produced a detailed and accurate cloud base 'signature' by taking 254 measurement samples of the energy scattered back from a single laser pulse as the pulse traveled from the surface to 12,000 ft. The transmit time from the projection of the laser pulse to its backscattering from a cloud element and subsequent return to a collocated receiver is measured and a cloud height element computed. Attention is given to the development of a vertical visibility concept and of a vertical-visibility algorithm, as well as the strengths and limitations of the sky condition report.

Evaluation of a Wildfire Smoke Forecasting System as a Tool for Public Health Protection

PubMed Central

Brauer, Michael; Henderson, Sarah B.

2013-01-01

Background: Exposure to wildfire smoke has been associated with cardiopulmonary health impacts. Climate change will increase the severity and frequency of smoke events, suggesting a need for enhanced public health protection. Forecasts of smoke exposure can facilitate public health responses. Objectives: We evaluated the utility of a wildfire smoke forecasting system (BlueSky) for public health protection by comparing its forecasts with observations and assessing their associations with population-level indicators of respiratory health in British Columbia, Canada. Methods: We compared BlueSky PM2.5 forecasts with PM2.5 measurements from air quality monitors, and BlueSky smoke plume forecasts with plume tracings from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hazard Mapping System remote sensing data. Daily counts of the asthma drug salbutamol sulfate dispensations and asthma-related physician visits were aggregated for each geographic local health area (LHA). Daily continuous measures of PM2.5 and binary measures of smoke plume presence, either forecasted or observed, were assigned to each LHA. Poisson regression was used to estimate the association between exposure measures and health indicators. Results: We found modest agreement between forecasts and observations, which was improved during intense fire periods. A 30-μg/m3 increase in BlueSky PM2.5 was associated with an 8% increase in salbutamol dispensations and a 5% increase in asthma-related physician visits. BlueSky plume coverage was associated with 5% and 6% increases in the two health indicators, respectively. The effects were similar for observed smoke, and generally stronger in very smoky areas. Conclusions: BlueSky forecasts showed modest agreement with retrospective measures of smoke and were predictive of respiratory health indicators, suggesting they can provide useful information for public health protection. Citation: Yao J, Brauer M, Henderson SB. 2013. Evaluation of a wildfire smoke forecasting system as a tool for public health protection. Environ Health Perspect 121:1142–1147; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1306768 PMID:23906969

Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: Mapping the Milky Way, nearby galaxies, and the distant universe

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

Blanton, Michael R.; Bershady, Matthew A.; Abolfathi, Bela

Here, we describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) is observing hundreds of thousands of Milky Way stars at high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratios in the near-infrared. The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies (medianmore » $$z\\sim 0.03$$). The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is mapping the galaxy, quasar, and neutral gas distributions between $$z\\sim 0.6$$ and 3.5 to constrain cosmology using baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and the shape of the power spectrum. Within eBOSS, we are conducting two major subprograms: the SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS), investigating X-ray AGNs and galaxies in X-ray clusters, and the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), obtaining spectra of variable sources. All programs use the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory; observations there began in Summer 2014. APOGEE-2 also operates a second near-infrared spectrograph at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, with observations beginning in early 2017. Observations at both facilities are scheduled to continue through 2020. In keeping with previous SDSS policy, SDSS-IV provides regularly scheduled public data releases; the first one, Data Release 13, was made available in 2016 July.« less

Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: Mapping the Milky Way, nearby galaxies, and the distant universe

DOE PAGES

Blanton, Michael R.; Bershady, Matthew A.; Abolfathi, Bela; ...

2017-06-29

Here, we describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) is observing hundreds of thousands of Milky Way stars at high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratios in the near-infrared. The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies (medianmore » $$z\\sim 0.03$$). The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is mapping the galaxy, quasar, and neutral gas distributions between $$z\\sim 0.6$$ and 3.5 to constrain cosmology using baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and the shape of the power spectrum. Within eBOSS, we are conducting two major subprograms: the SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS), investigating X-ray AGNs and galaxies in X-ray clusters, and the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), obtaining spectra of variable sources. All programs use the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory; observations there began in Summer 2014. APOGEE-2 also operates a second near-infrared spectrograph at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, with observations beginning in early 2017. Observations at both facilities are scheduled to continue through 2020. In keeping with previous SDSS policy, SDSS-IV provides regularly scheduled public data releases; the first one, Data Release 13, was made available in 2016 July.« less

Where and When: Optimal Scheduling of the Electromagnetic Follow-up of Gravitational-wave Events Based on Counterpart Light-curve Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salafia, Om Sharan; Colpi, Monica; Branchesi, Marica; Chassande-Mottin, Eric; Ghirlanda, Giancarlo; Ghisellini, Gabriele; Vergani, Susanna D.

2017-09-01

The electromagnetic (EM) follow-up of a gravitational-wave (GW) event requires scanning a wide sky region, defined by the so-called “skymap,” to detect and identify a transient counterpart. We propose a novel method that exploits the information encoded in the GW signal to construct a “detectability map,” which represents the time-dependent (“when”) probability of detecting the transient at each position of the skymap (“where”). Focusing on the case of a neutron star binary inspiral, we model the associated short gamma-ray burst afterglow and macronova emission using the probability distributions of binary parameters (sky position, distance, orbit inclination, mass ratio) extracted from the GW signal as inputs. The resulting family of possible light curves is the basis for constructing the detectability map. As a practical example, we apply the method to a simulated GW signal produced by a neutron star merger at 75 Mpc whose localization uncertainty is very large (˜1500 deg2). We construct observing strategies for optical, infrared, and radio facilities based on the detectability maps, taking VST, VISTA, and MeerKAT as prototypes. Assuming limiting fluxes of r˜ 24.5, J˜ 22.4 (AB magnitudes), and 500 μ {Jy} (1.4 {GHz}) for ˜1000 s of exposure each, the afterglow and macronova emissions are successfully detected with a minimum observing time of 7, 15, and 5 hr respectively.

Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: Mapping the Milky Way, Nearby Galaxies, and the Distant Universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blanton, Michael R.; Bershady, Matthew A.; Abolfathi, Bela; Albareti, Franco D.; Allende Prieto, Carlos; Almeida, Andres; Alonso-García, Javier; Anders, Friedrich; Anderson, Scott F.; Andrews, Brett; Aquino-Ortíz, Erik; Aragón-Salamanca, Alfonso; Argudo-Fernández, Maria; Armengaud, Eric; Aubourg, Eric; Avila-Reese, Vladimir; Badenes, Carles; Bailey, Stephen; Barger, Kathleen A.; Barrera-Ballesteros, Jorge; Bartosz, Curtis; Bates, Dominic; Baumgarten, Falk; Bautista, Julian; Beaton, Rachael; Beers, Timothy C.; Belfiore, Francesco; Bender, Chad F.; Berlind, Andreas A.; Bernardi, Mariangela; Beutler, Florian; Bird, Jonathan C.; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Blanc, Guillermo A.; Blomqvist, Michael; Bolton, Adam S.; Boquien, Médéric; Borissova, Jura; van den Bosch, Remco; Bovy, Jo; Brandt, William N.; Brinkmann, Jonathan; Brownstein, Joel R.; Bundy, Kevin; Burgasser, Adam J.; Burtin, Etienne; Busca, Nicolás G.; Cappellari, Michele; Delgado Carigi, Maria Leticia; Carlberg, Joleen K.; Carnero Rosell, Aurelio; Carrera, Ricardo; Chanover, Nancy J.; Cherinka, Brian; Cheung, Edmond; Gómez Maqueo Chew, Yilen; Chiappini, Cristina; Doohyun Choi, Peter; Chojnowski, Drew; Chuang, Chia-Hsun; Chung, Haeun; Cirolini, Rafael Fernando; Clerc, Nicolas; Cohen, Roger E.; Comparat, Johan; da Costa, Luiz; Cousinou, Marie-Claude; Covey, Kevin; Crane, Jeffrey D.; Croft, Rupert A. C.; Cruz-Gonzalez, Irene; Garrido Cuadra, Daniel; Cunha, Katia; Damke, Guillermo J.; Darling, Jeremy; Davies, Roger; Dawson, Kyle; de la Macorra, Axel; Dell'Agli, Flavia; De Lee, Nathan; Delubac, Timothée; Di Mille, Francesco; Diamond-Stanic, Aleks; Cano-Díaz, Mariana; Donor, John; Downes, Juan José; Drory, Niv; du Mas des Bourboux, Hélion; Duckworth, Christopher J.; Dwelly, Tom; Dyer, Jamie; Ebelke, Garrett; Eigenbrot, Arthur D.; Eisenstein, Daniel J.; Emsellem, Eric; Eracleous, Mike; Escoffier, Stephanie; Evans, Michael L.; Fan, Xiaohui; Fernández-Alvar, Emma; Fernandez-Trincado, J. G.; Feuillet, Diane K.; Finoguenov, Alexis; Fleming, Scott W.; Font-Ribera, Andreu; Fredrickson, Alexander; Freischlad, Gordon; Frinchaboy, Peter M.; Fuentes, Carla E.; Galbany, Lluís; Garcia-Dias, R.; García-Hernández, D. A.; Gaulme, Patrick; Geisler, Doug; Gelfand, Joseph D.; Gil-Marín, Héctor; Gillespie, Bruce A.; Goddard, Daniel; Gonzalez-Perez, Violeta; Grabowski, Kathleen; Green, Paul J.; Grier, Catherine J.; Gunn, James E.; Guo, Hong; Guy, Julien; Hagen, Alex; Hahn, ChangHoon; Hall, Matthew; Harding, Paul; Hasselquist, Sten; Hawley, Suzanne L.; Hearty, Fred; Gonzalez Hernández, Jonay I.; Ho, Shirley; Hogg, David W.; Holley-Bockelmann, Kelly; Holtzman, Jon A.; Holzer, Parker H.; Huehnerhoff, Joseph; Hutchinson, Timothy A.; Hwang, Ho Seong; Ibarra-Medel, Héctor J.; da Silva Ilha, Gabriele; Ivans, Inese I.; Ivory, KeShawn; Jackson, Kelly; Jensen, Trey W.; Johnson, Jennifer A.; Jones, Amy; Jönsson, Henrik; Jullo, Eric; Kamble, Vikrant; Kinemuchi, Karen; Kirkby, David; Kitaura, Francisco-Shu; Klaene, Mark; Knapp, Gillian R.; Kneib, Jean-Paul; Kollmeier, Juna A.; Lacerna, Ivan; Lane, Richard R.; Lang, Dustin; Law, David R.; Lazarz, Daniel; Lee, Youngbae; Le Goff, Jean-Marc; Liang, Fu-Heng; Li, Cheng; Li, Hongyu; Lian, Jianhui; Lima, Marcos; Lin, Lihwai; Lin, Yen-Ting; Bertran de Lis, Sara; Liu, Chao; de Icaza Lizaola, Miguel Angel C.; Long, Dan; Lucatello, Sara; Lundgren, Britt; MacDonald, Nicholas K.; Deconto Machado, Alice; MacLeod, Chelsea L.; Mahadevan, Suvrath; Geimba Maia, Marcio Antonio; Maiolino, Roberto; Majewski, Steven R.; Malanushenko, Elena; Malanushenko, Viktor; Manchado, Arturo; Mao, Shude; Maraston, Claudia; Marques-Chaves, Rui; Masseron, Thomas; Masters, Karen L.; McBride, Cameron K.; McDermid, Richard M.; McGrath, Brianne; McGreer, Ian D.; Medina Peña, Nicolás; Melendez, Matthew; Merloni, Andrea; Merrifield, Michael R.; Meszaros, Szabolcs; Meza, Andres; Minchev, Ivan; Minniti, Dante; Miyaji, Takamitsu; More, Surhud; Mulchaey, John; Müller-Sánchez, Francisco; Muna, Demitri; Munoz, Ricardo R.; Myers, Adam D.; Nair, Preethi; Nandra, Kirpal; Correa do Nascimento, Janaina; Negrete, Alenka; Ness, Melissa; Newman, Jeffrey A.; Nichol, Robert C.; Nidever, David L.; Nitschelm, Christian; Ntelis, Pierros; O'Connell, Julia E.; Oelkers, Ryan J.; Oravetz, Audrey; Oravetz, Daniel; Pace, Zach; Padilla, Nelson; Palanque-Delabrouille, Nathalie; Alonso Palicio, Pedro; Pan, Kaike; Parejko, John K.; Parikh, Taniya; Pâris, Isabelle; Park, Changbom; Patten, Alim Y.; Peirani, Sebastien; Pellejero-Ibanez, Marcos; Penny, Samantha; Percival, Will J.; Perez-Fournon, Ismael; Petitjean, Patrick; Pieri, Matthew M.; Pinsonneault, Marc; Pisani, Alice; Poleski, Radosław; Prada, Francisco; Prakash, Abhishek; Queiroz, Anna Bárbara de Andrade; Raddick, M. Jordan; Raichoor, Anand; Barboza Rembold, Sandro; Richstein, Hannah; Riffel, Rogemar A.; Riffel, Rogério; Rix, Hans-Walter; Robin, Annie C.; Rockosi, Constance M.; Rodríguez-Torres, Sergio; Roman-Lopes, A.; Román-Zúñiga, Carlos; Rosado, Margarita; Ross, Ashley J.; Rossi, Graziano; Ruan, John; Ruggeri, Rossana; Rykoff, Eli S.; Salazar-Albornoz, Salvador; Salvato, Mara; Sánchez, Ariel G.; Aguado, D. S.; Sánchez-Gallego, José R.; Santana, Felipe A.; Santiago, Basílio Xavier; Sayres, Conor; Schiavon, Ricardo P.; da Silva Schimoia, Jaderson; Schlafly, Edward F.; Schlegel, David J.; Schneider, Donald P.; Schultheis, Mathias; Schuster, William J.; Schwope, Axel; Seo, Hee-Jong; Shao, Zhengyi; Shen, Shiyin; Shetrone, Matthew; Shull, Michael; Simon, Joshua D.; Skinner, Danielle; Skrutskie, M. F.; Slosar, Anže; Smith, Verne V.; Sobeck, Jennifer S.; Sobreira, Flavia; Somers, Garrett; Souto, Diogo; Stark, David V.; Stassun, Keivan; Stauffer, Fritz; Steinmetz, Matthias; Storchi-Bergmann, Thaisa; Streblyanska, Alina; Stringfellow, Guy S.; Suárez, Genaro; Sun, Jing; Suzuki, Nao; Szigeti, Laszlo; Taghizadeh-Popp, Manuchehr; Tang, Baitian; Tao, Charling; Tayar, Jamie; Tembe, Mita; Teske, Johanna; Thakar, Aniruddha R.; Thomas, Daniel; Thompson, Benjamin A.; Tinker, Jeremy L.; Tissera, Patricia; Tojeiro, Rita; Hernandez Toledo, Hector; de la Torre, Sylvain; Tremonti, Christy; Troup, Nicholas W.; Valenzuela, Octavio; Martinez Valpuesta, Inma; Vargas-González, Jaime; Vargas-Magaña, Mariana; Vazquez, Jose Alberto; Villanova, Sandro; Vivek, M.; Vogt, Nicole; Wake, David; Walterbos, Rene; Wang, Yuting; Weaver, Benjamin Alan; Weijmans, Anne-Marie; Weinberg, David H.; Westfall, Kyle B.; Whelan, David G.; Wild, Vivienne; Wilson, John; Wood-Vasey, W. M.; Wylezalek, Dominika; Xiao, Ting; Yan, Renbin; Yang, Meng; Ybarra, Jason E.; Yèche, Christophe; Zakamska, Nadia; Zamora, Olga; Zarrouk, Pauline; Zasowski, Gail; Zhang, Kai; Zhao, Gong-Bo; Zheng, Zheng; Zheng, Zheng; Zhou, Xu; Zhou, Zhi-Min; Zhu, Guangtun B.; Zoccali, Manuela; Zou, Hu

2017-07-01

We describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) is observing hundreds of thousands of Milky Way stars at high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratios in the near-infrared. The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies (median z˜ 0.03). The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is mapping the galaxy, quasar, and neutral gas distributions between z˜ 0.6 and 3.5 to constrain cosmology using baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and the shape of the power spectrum. Within eBOSS, we are conducting two major subprograms: the SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS), investigating X-ray AGNs and galaxies in X-ray clusters, and the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), obtaining spectra of variable sources. All programs use the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory; observations there began in Summer 2014. APOGEE-2 also operates a second near-infrared spectrograph at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, with observations beginning in early 2017. Observations at both facilities are scheduled to continue through 2020. In keeping with previous SDSS policy, SDSS-IV provides regularly scheduled public data releases; the first one, Data Release 13, was made available in 2016 July.

UGC Galaxies Stronger than 25 MJy at 4.85 GHz

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Condon, J. J.; Frayer, D. T.; Broderick, J. J.

1995-11-01

UGC galaxies in the declination band +5 degrees < delta < +75 degrees were identified by position coincidence with radio sources stronger than 25 mJy on the Green Bank 4.85 GHz sky maps. Candidate identifications were confirmed or rejected with the aid of published aperture-synthesis maps (including those in the companion directory UGC20CM.DIR) and new 4.86 GHz VLA D-array maps having 15 or 18 arcsec FWHM resolution. The 4.86 GHz maps in this directory cover both confirmed identifications and candidates rejected because of confusion, low flux density, etc. For more information on this study, please see the following references: Condon, J. J., Frayer, D. T., and Broderick, J. J. 1991, AJ, 101, 362. The image(s) and related TeX file come from the NRAO CDROM "Images From the Radio Universe" (c. 1992 National Radio Astronomy Observatory, used with permission).

Extinction map of Chamaeleon I molecular cloud with DENIS star counts.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cambresy, L.; Epchtein, N.; Copet, E.; de Batz, B.; Kimeswenger, S.; Le Bertre, T.; Rouan, D.; Tiphene, D.

1997-08-01

Massive, large scale star counts in the J (1.25μm) band provided by the Deep Near Infrared Survey of the Southern Sky (DENIS) are used for the first time to draw out an extinction map of the Chamaeleon I dark cloud. We derived a 2' resolution map of the cloud from J star counts within an area of 1.5°x3° around the centre of the cloud using an adaptive grid method and applying a wavelet decomposition. Possible contaminating young stellar objects within the cloud are removed, although they are shown to have a negligible effect on the counts. A comparison of our extinction map with the cold contribution of the IRAS 100μm emission shows an almost perfect matching. It is shown that J star counts supersede optical counts on Schmidt plate where A_V_>4.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (Oliver+, 2012)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oliver, S. J.; Bock, J.; Altieri, B.; Amblard, A.; Arumugam, V.; Aussel, H.; Babbedge, T.; Beelen, A.; Bethermin, M.; Blain, A.; Boselli, A.; Bridge, C.; Brisbin, D.; Buat, V.; Burgarella, D.; Castro-Rodriguez, N.; Cava, A.; Chanial, P.; Cirasuolo, M.; Clements, D. L.; Conley, A.; Conversi, L.; Cooray, A.; Dowell, C. D.; Dubois, E. N.; Dwek, E.; Dye, S.; Eales, S.; Elbaz, D.; Farrah, D.; Feltre, A.; Ferrero, P.; Fiolet, N.; Fox, M.; Franceschini, A.; Gear, W.; Giovannoli, E.; Glenn, J.; Gong, Y.; Gonzalez Solares, E. A.; Griffin, M.; Halpern, M.; Harwit, M.; Hatziminaoglou, E.; Heinis, S.; Hurley, P.; Hwang, H. S.; Hyde, A.; Ibar, E.; Ilbert, O.; Isaak, K.; Ivison, R. J.; Lagache, G.; Le Floc'h, E.; Levenson, L.; Faro, B. L.; Lu, N.; Madden, S.; Maffei, B.; Magdis, G.; Mainetti, G.; Marchetti, L.; Marsden, G.; Marshall, J.; Mortier, A. M. J.; Nguyen, H. T.; O'Halloran, B.; Omont, A.; Page, M. J.; Panuzzo, P.; Papageorgiou, A.; Patel, H.; Pearson, C. P.; Perez-Fournon, I.; Pohlen, M.; Rawlings, J. I.; Raymond, G.; Rigopoulou, D.; Riguccini, L.; Rizzo, D.; Rodighier!, O. G.; Ros Eboom, I. G.; Rowan-Robinson, M.; Sanchez Portal, M.; Schulz, B.; Scott, D.; Seymour, N.; Shupe, D. L.; Smith, A. J.; Stevens, J. A.; Symeonidis, M.; Trichas, M.; Tugwell, K. E.; Vaccari, M.; Valtchanov, I.; Vieira, J. D.; Viero, M.; Vigroux, L.; Wang, L.; Ward, R.; Wardlow, J.; Wright, G.; Xu, C. K.; Zemcov, M.

2017-03-01

SPIRE maps (250, 350 and 500 microns) and PACS maps (100 and 160 microns) covering an area of more than 385 square degrees in the sky resulting from observations taken as part of HerMES (KPGTsoliver1), a Herschel Key Project whose main objective was to chart the formation and evolution of infrared galaxies throughout cosmic history, measuring the bolometric emission of infrared galaxies and their clustering properties. The associated catalogues extracted from these maps include over 1,200,000 entries representing over 340,000 galaxies. They consist of 'blind extraction' catalogues containing photometric information derived directly from these maps, 'band merged' catalogues extracted at SPIRE 250 micron positions plus 'cross-identification' catalogues based on prior Spitzer MIPS 24 micron source positions. The latest data releases contain also information derived from the complementary Herschel programmes HeLMS (GT2mviero1) and HeRS (OT2mviero2). (4 data files).

Validation and results of a scale model of dew deposition in urban environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Richards, K.; Oke, T. R.

2002-12-01

There is growing interest in urban dew and its significance in questions of urban climate and air pollution deposition, but little research has been undertaken to study it. In this study, a generic, urban residential neighbourhood is modelled out-of-doors at a scale of 0.125, using three wooden houses (1.08 m tall), a concrete pavement (1.0 m in width), a grassed park (7.5 m in half-width) and several small trees (up to 1.5 m tall). The thermal inertia of each house is inflated, according to the internal thermal mass (ITM) approach, so that nocturnal surface temperatures are conserved. First-order validation was achieved through comparison with data collected at nearby full-scale sites in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Moisture accumulation (measured by blotting on grass and by lysimetry) is found to be primarily controlled by nocturnal weather conditions and the intrinsic nature of each substrate, e.g. dewfall is abundant on nights with few clouds and light winds, and on surfaces such as grass and asphalt-shingle roofs, which cool rapidly after sunset. However, these responses are modified by location effects related to the net radiation balance of the surface, which itself is strongly linked to site geometry as expressed by sky view factor and whether surfaces are isolated from heat sources. The dominant mechanism is argued to be the systematic increase in longwave radiation loss that is associated with increased sky view. Results agree with those observed at the full scale and suggest that maps of sky view factor, and knowledge of dew at an open site, can potentially be used to create maps of dew distribution in urban and other complex environments.

Genomic analysis of CD8+ NK/T cell line, ‘SRIK-NKL’, with array-based CGH (aCGH), SKY/FISH and molecular mapping

PubMed Central

Rossi, Michael; LaDuca, Jeff; Cowell, John; Srivastava, Bejai I.S.; Matsui, Sei-ichi

2010-01-01

We performed aCGH, SKY /FISH, molecular mapping and expression analyses on a permanent CD8+ NK/T cell line, ‘SRIK-NKL’ established from a lymphoma (ALL) patient, in attempt to define the fundamental genetic profile of its unique NK phenotypes. aCGH revealed hemizygous deletion of 6p containing genes responsible for hematopoietic functions. The SKY demonstrated that a constitutive reciprocal translocation, rcpt(5;14)(p13.2;q11) is a stable marker. Using somatic hybrids containing der(5) derived from SRIK-NKL, we found that the breakpoint in one homologue of no. 5 is located upstream of IL7R and also that the breakpoint in no. 14 is located within TRA@. The FISH analysis using BAC which contains TRA@ and its flanking region further revealed a ~231 kb deletion within 14q11 in the der(5) but not in the normal homologue of no. 14. The RT-PCR analysis detected mRNA for TRA@ transcripts which were extending across, but not including, the deleted region. IL7R was detected at least at mRNA levels. These findings were consistent with the immunological findings that TRA@ and IL7R are both expressed at mRNA levels and TRA@ at cytoplasmic protein levels in SRIK-NKL cells. In addition to rept(5;14), aCGH identified novel copy number abnormalities suggesting that the unique phenotype of the SRIK-NKL cell line is not solely due to the TRA@ rearrangement. These findings provide supportive evidence for the notion that SRIK-NKL cells may be useful for studying not only the function of NK cells but also genetic deregulations associated with leukemiogenesis. PMID:17640729

SCUBA-2: The next generation wide-field imager for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holland, W. S.; Duncan, W. D.; Kelly, B. D.; Peacocke, T.; Robson, E. I.; Irwin, K. D.; Hilton, G.; Rinehart, S.; Ade, P. A. R.; Griffin, M. J.

2000-12-01

We describe SCUBA-2 - the next generation continuum imaging camera for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The instrument will capitalise on the success of the current SCUBA camera, by having a much larger field-of- view and improved sensitivity. SCUBA-2 will be able to map the submillimetre sky several hundred times faster than SCUBA to the same noise level. Many areas of astronomy are expected to benefit - from large scale cosmological surveys to probe galaxy formation and evolution to studies of the earliest stages of star formation in our own Galaxy. Perhaps the most exciting prospect that SCUBA-2 will offer is in the statistical significance of wide-field surveys. The key science requirements of the new camera are the ability to make very deep images - reaching background confusion levels in only a couple of hours; to generate high fidelity images at two wavelengths simultaneously; to map large areas of sky (tens of degrees) to a reasonable depth in only a few hours; carry out photometry of known-position point-sources to a high accuracy. The technical design of SCUBA-2 will incorporate new technology transition-edge sensors as the detecting element, with signals being read out using multiplexed SQUID amplifiers. As in SCUBA there will be two arrays operating at 450 and 850 microns simultaneously. Fully-sampling a field-of-voew of 8 arcminutes square will require 25,600 and 6,400 pixels at 450 and 850 microns respectively (cf 91 and 37 pixels with SCUBA!). Each pixel will have diffraction-limited resolution on the sky and a sensitivity dominated by the background photon noise. SCUBA-2 is a collaboration between a number of institutions. We anticipate delivery of the final instrument to the telescope before the end of 2005.

The Eighty Six Hα Spectra from the Orion Nebula (M42, Sh2-281) with DEFPOS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sahan, M.; Yegingil, I.

2017-12-01

In this study, eighty six Hα (6563 Å) emission line spectra from the central region (˜ 40^' }× 40^' }) of the Orion Nebula (NGC1976, M42, Sh2-281) have been obtained using DEFPOS spectrometer with a circular field of view of 4^' } at TUBITAK National Observatory (TUG, Antalya, Turkey). Measurements provide information about the intensities, line widths, and radial velocities of the gas surrounding the Sh2-281 HII-region. The intensities, the radial velocities and the line widths of the Hα emission line were found in the range of from 319.85 R to 6009.08 R (mean 2006 ± 400 R), from -14.91 km s^{-1} to + 5.40 km s^{-1} (mean -4.51± 3.80 km s^{-1}), and from 27.83 km s^{-1} to 49.60 km s^{-1} (mean 41.09± 7.74 km s^{-1}), respectively. Moreover, the mean emission measure (EM) calculated from {I_{H{α }}} values was obtained as 4513.02 cm^{-6} pc. The mean LSR velocity of the nebula was found to be -4.51 km s^{-1} and was compared with some previous works. The intensity values of DEFPOS data were also compared with the data obtained from VTSS, SkyView, and SHASSA maps using APER and SKY codes. We found that our results were approximately the similar variation with VTSS (mean 2002.04 R), SkyView (mean 2680.05 R), and SHASSA (mean 2400.06 R) maps. We believe that DEFPOS spectrometer with a 4' diameter field of view is able to provide a powerful tool for the study of diffuse ionized gas and this new results may have significant contribution to the literature.

A Thermal Infrared Cloud Mapper

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mallama, A.; Degnan, J. J.

2001-12-01

A thermal infrared imager for mapping the changing cloud cover over a ground based observing site has been developed. There are two main components to our instrument. One is a commercially made uncooled 10 micron thermal infrared detector that outputs a 120x120 pixel thermogram. The other is a convex electroplated reflector, which is situated beneath the detector and in its field of view. The resulting image covers the sky from zenith down to about 10 degrees elevation. The self-reflection of the camera and supporting vanes is removed by interpolation. Atmospheric transparency is distinguished by the difference between the sky temperature and the ambient air temperature. Clear sky is indicated by pixels having a difference of about 20 degrees C or more. The qualitative results 'clear, haze and cloud' have proven to be very reliable during two years of development and testing. Quantitative information, such as the extinction coefficient, is also available though it is not exact. The uncertainty is probably due to variability of the lapse rate under different atmospheric conditions. Software has been written for PC/DOS and VME/LynxOS (similar to Linux) systems in the C programming language. Functionality includes serial communication with the detector, analysis of the thermogram, mapping of cloud cover, data display, and file I/O. The main elements of cost in this system were for the thermal infrared detector and for the machining of an 18-inch diameter stainless steel mandrel. The latter is needed to produce an electroplated reflector. We have had good success with the gold and rhodium reflectors that have been generated. The reflectors themselves are relatively inexpensive now that the mandrel is available.

Joint analysis of BICEP2/keck array and Planck Data.

PubMed

Ade, P A R; Aghanim, N; Ahmed, Z; Aikin, R W; Alexander, K D; Arnaud, M; Aumont, J; Baccigalupi, C; Banday, A J; Barkats, D; Barreiro, R B; Bartlett, J G; Bartolo, N; Battaner, E; Benabed, K; Benoît, A; Benoit-Lévy, A; Benton, S J; Bernard, J-P; Bersanelli, M; Bielewicz, P; Bischoff, C A; Bock, J J; Bonaldi, A; Bonavera, L; Bond, J R; Borrill, J; Bouchet, F R; Boulanger, F; Brevik, J A; Bucher, M; Buder, I; Bullock, E; Burigana, C; Butler, R C; Buza, V; Calabrese, E; Cardoso, J-F; Catalano, A; Challinor, A; Chary, R-R; Chiang, H C; Christensen, P R; Colombo, L P L; Combet, C; Connors, J; Couchot, F; Coulais, A; Crill, B P; Curto, A; Cuttaia, F; Danese, L; Davies, R D; Davis, R J; de Bernardis, P; de Rosa, A; de Zotti, G; Delabrouille, J; Delouis, J-M; Désert, F-X; Dickinson, C; Diego, J M; Dole, H; Donzelli, S; Doré, O; Douspis, M; Dowell, C D; Duband, L; Ducout, A; Dunkley, J; Dupac, X; Dvorkin, C; Efstathiou, G; Elsner, F; Enßlin, T A; Eriksen, H K; Falgarone, E; Filippini, J P; Finelli, F; Fliescher, S; Forni, O; Frailis, M; Fraisse, A A; Franceschi, E; Frejsel, A; Galeotta, S; Galli, S; Ganga, K; Ghosh, T; Giard, M; Gjerløw, E; Golwala, S R; González-Nuevo, J; Górski, K M; Gratton, S; Gregorio, A; Gruppuso, A; Gudmundsson, J E; Halpern, M; Hansen, F K; Hanson, D; Harrison, D L; Hasselfield, M; Helou, G; Henrot-Versillé, S; Herranz, D; Hildebrandt, S R; Hilton, G C; Hivon, E; Hobson, M; Holmes, W A; Hovest, W; Hristov, V V; Huffenberger, K M; Hui, H; Hurier, G; Irwin, K D; Jaffe, A H; Jaffe, T R; Jewell, J; Jones, W C; Juvela, M; Karakci, A; Karkare, K S; Kaufman, J P; Keating, B G; Kefeli, S; Keihänen, E; Kernasovskiy, S A; Keskitalo, R; Kisner, T S; Kneissl, R; Knoche, J; Knox, L; Kovac, J M; Krachmalnicoff, N; Kunz, M; Kuo, C L; Kurki-Suonio, H; Lagache, G; Lähteenmäki, A; Lamarre, J-M; Lasenby, A; Lattanzi, M; Lawrence, C R; Leitch, E M; Leonardi, R; Levrier, F; Lewis, A; Liguori, M; Lilje, P B; Linden-Vørnle, M; López-Caniego, M; Lubin, P M; Lueker, M; Macías-Pérez, J F; Maffei, B; Maino, D; Mandolesi, N; Mangilli, A; Maris, M; Martin, P G; Martínez-González, E; Masi, S; Mason, P; Matarrese, S; Megerian, K G; Meinhold, P R; Melchiorri, A; Mendes, L; Mennella, A; Migliaccio, M; Mitra, S; Miville-Deschênes, M-A; Moneti, A; Montier, L; Morgante, G; Mortlock, D; Moss, A; Munshi, D; Murphy, J A; Naselsky, P; Nati, F; Natoli, P; Netterfield, C B; Nguyen, H T; Nørgaard-Nielsen, H U; Noviello, F; Novikov, D; Novikov, I; O'Brient, R; Ogburn, R W; Orlando, A; Pagano, L; Pajot, F; Paladini, R; Paoletti, D; Partridge, B; Pasian, F; Patanchon, G; Pearson, T J; Perdereau, O; Perotto, L; Pettorino, V; Piacentini, F; Piat, M; Pietrobon, D; Plaszczynski, S; Pointecouteau, E; Polenta, G; Ponthieu, N; Pratt, G W; Prunet, S; Pryke, C; Puget, J-L; Rachen, J P; Reach, W T; Rebolo, R; Reinecke, M; Remazeilles, M; Renault, C; Renzi, A; Richter, S; Ristorcelli, I; Rocha, G; Rossetti, M; Roudier, G; Rowan-Robinson, M; Rubiño-Martín, J A; Rusholme, B; Sandri, M; Santos, D; Savelainen, M; Savini, G; Schwarz, R; Scott, D; Seiffert, M D; Sheehy, C D; Spencer, L D; Staniszewski, Z K; Stolyarov, V; Sudiwala, R; Sunyaev, R; Sutton, D; Suur-Uski, A-S; Sygnet, J-F; Tauber, J A; Teply, G P; Terenzi, L; Thompson, K L; Toffolatti, L; Tolan, J E; Tomasi, M; Tristram, M; Tucci, M; Turner, A D; Valenziano, L; Valiviita, J; Van Tent, B; Vibert, L; Vielva, P; Vieregg, A G; Villa, F; Wade, L A; Wandelt, B D; Watson, R; Weber, A C; Wehus, I K; White, M; White, S D M; Willmert, J; Wong, C L; Yoon, K W; Yvon, D; Zacchei, A; Zonca, A

2015-03-13

We report the results of a joint analysis of data from BICEP2/Keck Array and Planck. BICEP2 and Keck Array have observed the same approximately 400  deg^{2} patch of sky centered on RA 0 h, Dec. -57.5°. The combined maps reach a depth of 57 nK deg in Stokes Q and U in a band centered at 150 GHz. Planck has observed the full sky in polarization at seven frequencies from 30 to 353 GHz, but much less deeply in any given region (1.2  μK deg in Q and U at 143 GHz). We detect 150×353 cross-correlation in B modes at high significance. We fit the single- and cross-frequency power spectra at frequencies ≥150  GHz to a lensed-ΛCDM model that includes dust and a possible contribution from inflationary gravitational waves (as parametrized by the tensor-to-scalar ratio r), using a prior on the frequency spectral behavior of polarized dust emission from previous Planck analysis of other regions of the sky. We find strong evidence for dust and no statistically significant evidence for tensor modes. We probe various model variations and extensions, including adding a synchrotron component in combination with lower frequency data, and find that these make little difference to the r constraint. Finally, we present an alternative analysis which is similar to a map-based cleaning of the dust contribution, and show that this gives similar constraints. The final result is expressed as a likelihood curve for r, and yields an upper limit r_{0.05}<0.12 at 95% confidence. Marginalizing over dust and r, lensing B modes are detected at 7.0σ significance.

Amsterdam-ASTRON radio transient facility and analysis centre: towards a 24 x 7, all-sky monitor for the low-frequency array (LOFAR).

PubMed

Prasad, Peeyush; Wijnholds, Stefan J

2013-06-13

The Amsterdam-ASTRON Radio Transient Facility And Analysis Centre (AARTFAAC) project aims to implement an all-sky monitor (ASM), using the low-frequency array (LOFAR) telescope. It will enable real-time, 24 × 7 monitoring for low-frequency radio transients over most of the sky locally visible to the LOFAR at time scales ranging from seconds to several days, and rapid triggering of follow-up observations with the full LOFAR on detection of potential transient candidates. These requirements pose several implementation challenges: imaging of an all-sky field of view, low latencies of processing, continuous availability and autonomous operation of the ASM. The first of these has already resulted in the correlator for the ASM being the largest in the world in terms of the number of input data streams. We have carried out test observations using existing LOFAR infrastructure, in order to quantify and constrain crucial instrumental design criteria for the ASM. In this study, we present an overview of the AARTFAAC data-processing pipeline and illustrate some of the aforementioned challenges by showing all-sky images obtained from one of the test observations. These results provide quantitative estimates of the capabilities of the instrument.

Topographic Correction Module at Storm (TC@Storm)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaksek, K.; Cotar, K.; Veljanovski, T.; Pehani, P.; Ostir, K.

2015-04-01

Different solar position in combination with terrain slope and aspect result in different illumination of inclined surfaces. Therefore, the retrieved satellite data cannot be accurately transformed to the spectral reflectance, which depends only on the land cover. The topographic correction should remove this effect and enable further automatic processing of higher level products. The topographic correction TC@STORM was developed as a module within the SPACE-SI automatic near-real-time image processing chain STORM. It combines physical approach with the standard Minnaert method. The total irradiance is modelled as a three-component irradiance: direct (dependent on incidence angle, sun zenith angle and slope), diffuse from the sky (dependent mainly on sky-view factor), and diffuse reflected from the terrain (dependent on sky-view factor and albedo). For computation of diffuse irradiation from the sky we assume an anisotropic brightness of the sky. We iteratively estimate a linear combination from 10 different models, to provide the best results. Dependent on the data resolution, we mask shades based on radiometric (image) or geometric properties. The method was tested on RapidEye, Landsat 8, and PROBA-V data. Final results of the correction were evaluated and statistically validated based on various topography settings and land cover classes. Images show great improvements in shaded areas.

Automatic Galaxy Classification via Machine Learning Techniques: Parallelized Rotation/Flipping INvariant Kohonen Maps (PINK)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Polsterer, K. L.; Gieseke, F.; Igel, C.

2015-09-01

In the last decades more and more all-sky surveys created an enormous amount of data which is publicly available on the Internet. Crowd-sourcing projects such as Galaxy-Zoo and Radio-Galaxy-Zoo used encouraged users from all over the world to manually conduct various classification tasks. The combination of the pattern-recognition capabilities of thousands of volunteers enabled scientists to finish the data analysis within acceptable time. For up-coming surveys with billions of sources, however, this approach is not feasible anymore. In this work, we present an unsupervised method that can automatically process large amounts of galaxy data and which generates a set of prototypes. This resulting model can be used to both visualize the given galaxy data as well as to classify so far unseen images.

A Study of E+A Galaxies Through SDSS-MaNGA Integral Field Spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wally, Muhammad; Weaver, Olivia A.; Anderson, Miguel Ricardo; Liu, Allen; Falcone, Julia; Wallack, Nicole Lisa; James, Olivia; Liu, Charles

2017-01-01

We outline the selection process and analysis of sixteen E+A galaxies observed by the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at the Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey as a part of the fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV). We present their Integral field spectroscopy and analyze their spatial distribution of stellar ages, metallicities and other stellar population properties. We can potentially study the variation in these properties as a function of redshift. This work was supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation via the SDSS-IV Faculty and Student Team (FAST) initiative, ARC Agreement #SSP483 to the CUNY College of Staten Island. This work was also supported by grants to The American Museum of Natural History, and the CUNY College of Staten Island through The National Science Foundation.

Solar UV dose patterns in Italy.

PubMed

Meloni, D; Casale, G R; Siani, A M; Palmieri, S; Cappellani, F

2000-06-01

Since 1992 solar ultraviolet (UV) spectral irradiance (290-325 nm) has been measured at two Italian stations of Rome (urban site) and Ispra (semirural site) using Brewer spectrophotometry. The data collected under all sky conditions, are compared with the output of a sophisticated radiative transfer model (System for Transfer of Atmospheric Radiation--STAR model). The STAR multiple scattering scheme is able to cope with all physical processes relevant to the UV transfer through the atmosphere. The experience so far acquired indicates that, in spite of the unavoidable uncertainties in the input parameters (ozone, aerosol, surface albedo, pressure, temperature, relative humidity, cloud cover), measured and computed clear sky iradiances are in reasonable agreement. The STAR model is applied to build up the solar UV geographic patterns in Italy: the daily dose in the range 290-325 nm is computed at about 70 sites where a thorough and homogeneous climatology is available. For each month the concept of an idealized "standard day" is introduced and the surface distribution of solar UV field determined. The map of solar UV patterns for Italy, available for the first time, meets the study requirements in the field of skin and eye epidemiology, as well as in other investigations dealing with the impact of UV on the biosphere. The results are interpreted in terms of atmospheric and meteorological parameters modulating UV radiation reaching the ground.

The Austrian UV monitoring network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blumthaler, Mario; Klotz, Barbara; Schwarzmann, Michael; Schreder, Josef

2017-02-01

The Austrian UV Monitoring network is operational since 1998 providing a large data set of erythemally weighted UV irradiance recorded with broadband UV biometer at 12 stations distributed all over Austria. In order to obtain high quality data all biometer are recalibrated once a year, the detectors are checked regularly for humidity and quality control is done routinely. The collected data are processed and then published on the website http://www.uv-index.at where the UV-Index of all measurement sites is presented in near real time together with a map of the distribution of the UV-Index over Austria. These UV-Index data together with measurements of global radiation and ozone levels from OMI are used to study long term trends for the stations of the monitoring network. Neither for all weather conditions nor for clear sky conditions is a statistically significant trend found for the UV-Index (with one exception) and for ozone. Furthermore, the radiation amplification factor (RAF) is determined experimentally from the power law correlation between UV-Index and ozone level for the site Innsbruck (577 m above sea level, 47.26°N, 11.38°E) for 19°solar elevation. A value of 0.91 ± 0.05 is found for the RAF for clear sky days with low ground albedo and a value of 1.03 ± 0.08 for days with high ground albedo (snow cover).

Application of asymmetric mapping and selective filtering (AM and SF) method to Cosmo/SkyMed images by implementation of a selective blocks approach for ship detection optimization in SEASAFE framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loreggia, D.; Tataranni, F.; Trivero, P.; Biamino, W.; Di Matteo, L.

2017-10-01

We present the implementation of a procedure to adapt an Asymmetric Wiener Filtering (AWF) methodology aimed to detect and discard ghost signal due to azimuth ambiguities in SAR images to the case for X-band Cosmo Sky Med (CSK) images in the framework of SEASAFE (Slick Emissions And Ship Automatic Features Extraction) project, developed at the Department of Science and Technology Innovation of the University of Piemonte Orientale, Alessandria, Italy. SAR is a useful tool to daily and nightly monitoring of the sea surface in all weather conditions. SEASAFE project is a software platform developed in IDL language able to process data in C- Land X-band SAR images with enhanced algorithm modules for land masking, sea pollution (oil spills) and ship detection; wind and wave evaluation are also available. In this contest, the need to individuate and discard false alarms is a critical requirement. The azimuth ambiguity is one of the main causes that generate false alarm in the ship detection procedure. Many methods to face with this problem were proposed and presented in recent literature. After a review of different approach to this problem, we describe the procedure to adapt the AWF approach presented in [1,2] to the case of X-band CSK images by implementing a selective blocks approach.

Early Results from the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper Southern Sky Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haffner, L. Matthew; Reynolds, R. J.; Madsen, G. J.; Hill, A. S.; Barger, K. A.; Jaehnig, K. P.; Mierkiewicz, E. J.; Percival, J. W.

2010-01-01

After a successful eleven-year campaign at Kitt Peak, we moved the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) to Cerro Tololo in early 2009. Here we present some of the early data after the first nine months under southern skies. These maps begin to complete the first all-sky, kinematic survey of the diffuse Hα emission from the Milky Way. Much of this emission arises from the Warm Ionized Medium (WIM), a significant component of the ISM that extends a few kiloparsecs above the Galactic disk. The WHAM instrument consists of a 0.6 m primary lens housed in a steerable siderostat coupled to a 15 cm dual-etalon Fabry-Perot spectrometer. The optical configuration delivers a spatially integrated spectrum from a one-degree beam on the sky covering 200 km/s with 12 km/s spectral resolution. Short, 30-second exposures allow us to cover the observable sky in about two years at sensitivity levels of about 0.1 R (EM 0.2 pc cm-6). While this first look at the data focuses on the Hα survey, WHAM is also capable of observing many other optical emission lines, revealing fascinating trends in the temperature and ionization state of the WIM. Our ongoing studies of the physical conditions of diffuse ionized gas will continue in the south following the Hα survey. In addition, future observations using our survey mode will cover the full velocity range of the Magellanic Stream, Bridge, and Clouds to trace the ionized gas associated with these neighboring systems. WHAM is supported by NSF award AST-0607512 and has made this smooth relocation south due to the excellent staff at KPNO and CTIO.

CONSTRAINING THE MILKY WAY POTENTIAL WITH A SIX-DIMENSIONAL PHASE-SPACE MAP OF THE GD-1 STELLAR STREAM

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

Koposov, Sergey E.; Rix, Hans-Walter; Hogg, David W., E-mail: koposov@ast.cam.ac.u

2010-03-20

The narrow GD-1 stream of stars, spanning 60{sup 0} on the sky at a distance of {approx}10 kpc from the Sun and {approx}15 kpc from the Galactic center, is presumed to be debris from a tidally disrupted star cluster that traces out a test-particle orbit in the Milky Way halo. We combine Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) photometry, USNO-B astrometry, and SDSS and Calar Alto spectroscopy to construct a complete, empirical six-dimensional (6D) phase-space map of the stream. We find that an eccentric orbit in a flattened isothermal potential describes this phase-space map well. Even after marginalizing over the streammore » orbital parameters and the distance from the Sun to the Galactic center, the orbital fit to GD-1 places strong constraints on the circular velocity at the Sun's radius V{sub c} = 224 +- 13 km s{sup -1} and total potential flattening q{sub P}HI = 0.87{sup +0.07}{sub -0.04}. When we drop any informative priors on V{sub c} , the GD-1 constraint becomes V{sub c} = 221 +- 18 km s{sup -1}. Our 6D map of GD-1, therefore, yields the best current constraint on V{sub c} and the only strong constraint on q{sub P}HI at Galactocentric radii near R {approx} 15 kpc. Much, if not all, of the total potential flattening may be attributed to the mass in the stellar disk, so the GD-1 constraints on the flattening of the halo itself are weak: q{sub P}HI{sub ,halo} > 0.89 at 90% confidence. The greatest uncertainty in the 6D map and the orbital analysis stems from the photometric distances, which will be obviated by GAIA.« less

HIRAX: a probe of dark energy and radio transients

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Newburgh, L. B.; Bandura, K.; Bucher, M. A.; Chang, T.-C.; Chiang, H. C.; Cliche, J. F.; Davé, R.; Dobbs, M.; Clarkson, C.; Ganga, K. M.; Gogo, T.; Gumba, A.; Gupta, N.; Hilton, M.; Johnstone, B.; Karastergiou, A.; Kunz, M.; Lokhorst, D.; Maartens, R.; Macpherson, S.; Mdlalose, M.; Moodley, K.; Ngwenya, L.; Parra, J. M.; Peterson, J.; Recnik, O.; Saliwanchik, B.; Santos, M. G.; Sievers, J. L.; Smirnov, O.; Stronkhorst, P.; Taylor, R.; Vanderlinde, K.; Van Vuuren, G.; Weltman, A.; Witzemann, A.

2016-08-01

The Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX) is a new 400{800MHz radio interferometer under development for deployment in South Africa. HIRAX will comprise 1024 six meter parabolic dishes on a compact grid and will map most of the southern sky over the course of four years. HIRAX has two primary science goals: to constrain Dark Energy and measure structure at high redshift, and to study radio transients and pulsars. HIRAX will observe unresolved sources of neutral hydrogen via their redshifted 21-cm emission line (`hydrogen intensity mapping'). The resulting maps of large-scale structure at redshifts 0.8{2.5 will be used to measure Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO). BAO are a preferential length scale in the matter distribution that can be used to characterize the expansion history of the Universe and thus understand the properties of Dark Energy. HIRAX will improve upon current BAO measurements from galaxy surveys by observing a larger cosmological volume (larger in both survey area and redshift range) and by measuring BAO at higher redshift when the expansion of the universe transitioned to Dark Energy domination. HIRAX will complement CHIME, a hydrogen intensity mapping experiment in the Northern Hemisphere, by completing the sky coverage in the same redshift range. HIRAX's location in the Southern Hemisphere also allows a variety of cross-correlation measurements with large-scale structure surveys at many wavelengths. Daily maps of a few thousand square degrees of the Southern Hemisphere, encompassing much of the Milky Way galaxy, will also open new opportunities for discovering and monitoring radio transients. The HIRAX correlator will have the ability to rapidly and efficiently detect transient events. This new data will shed light on the poorly understood nature of fast radio bursts (FRBs), enable pulsar monitoring to enhance long-wavelength gravitational wave searches, and provide a rich data set for new radio transient phenomena searches. This paper discusses the HIRAX instrument, science goals, and current status.

Stray light field dependence for large astronomical space telescopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lightsey, Paul A.; Bowers, Charles W.

2017-09-01

Future large astronomical telescopes in space will have architectures that expose the optics to large angular extents of the sky. Options for reducing stray light coming from the sky range from enclosing the telescope in a tubular baffle to having an open telescope structure with a large sunshield to eliminate solar illumination. These two options are considered for an on-axis telescope design to explore stray light considerations. A tubular baffle design will limit the sky exposure to the solid angle of the cone in front of the telescope set by the aspect ratio of the baffle length to Primary Mirror (PM) diameter. Illumination from this portion of the sky will be limited to the PM and structures internal to the tubular baffle. Alternatively, an open structure design will allow a large portion of the sky to directly illuminate the PM and Secondary Mirror (SM) as well as illuminating sunshield and other structure surfaces which will reflect or scatter light onto the PM and SM. Portions of this illumination of the PM and SM will be scattered into the optical train as stray light. A Radiance Transfer Function (RTF) is calculated for the open architecture that determines the ratio of the stray light background radiance in the image contributed by a patch of sky having unit radiance. The full 4π steradian of sky is divided into a grid of patches, with the location of each patch defined in the telescope coordinate system. By rotating the celestial sky radiance maps into the telescope coordinate frame for a given pointing direction of the telescope, the RTF may be applied to the sky brightness and the results integrated to get the total stray light from the sky for that pointing direction. The RTF data generated for the open architecture may analyzed as a function of the expanding cone angle about the pointing direction. In this manner, the open architecture data may be used to directly compare to a tubular baffle design parameterized by allowed cone angle based on the aspect ratio of the tubular baffle length to PM diameter. Additional analysis has been done to examine the stray light implications for the fields near the image of a bright source. This near field stray light is shown to be dependent on the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) characteristics of the mirrors in the optical train. The near field stray light contribution is dominated by those mirrors closer to the focal plane compared to the contributions from the PM and SM. Hence the near field stray light is independent of the exterior telescope baffle geometry. Contributions from self-emission from the telescope have been compared to natural background for telescopes operating at infrared wavelengths.