An Artificial Neural Network based approach for estimation of rain intensity from spectral moments of a Doppler Weather Radar

By using a Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) at Shriharikota (13.66°N & 80.23°E), an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based technique is proposed to improve the accuracy of rain intensity estimation. Three spectral moments of a Doppler spectra are utilized as an input data to an ANN. Rain intensity, as measured by the tipping bucket rain gauges around the DWR station, are considered as a target values for the given inputs. Rain intensity as estimated by the developed ANN model is validated by the rain gauges measurements. With the help of a developed technique, reasonable improvement in the estimation of rain intensity is observed. By using the developed technique, root mean square error and bias are reduced in the range of 34–18% and 17–3% respectively, compared to Z–R approach.     

Normalized ionization yield function for various nuclei obtained with full Monte Carlo simulations

Several recent results important for production of ion pairs in the Earth atmosphere by various primary cosmic ray nuclei are presented. The direct ionization by various primary cosmic ray nuclei is explicitly obtained. The longitudinal profile of atmospheric cascades is sensitive to the energy and mass (charge) of the primary particle. In this study different cosmic ray nuclei are considered as primaries, namely Helium, Oxygen and Iron nuclei. The cosmic ray induced ionization is obtained on the basis of CORSIKA 6.52 code simulations using FLUKA 2006 and QGSJET II hadronic interaction models. The energy of the primary particles is normalized to GeV per nucleon. In addition, the ionization yield function Y is normalized as ion pair production per nucleon. The obtained ionization yield functions Y for various primaries are compared. The presented results and their application are discussed.     

Improved rainfall estimation over the Indian region using satellite infrared technique

The GOES Precipitation Index (GPI) technique (Arkin, 1979) for rainfall estimation has been in operation for the last three decades. However, its applications are limited to the larger temporal and spatial scales. The present study focuses on the augmentation on GPI technique by incorporating a moisture factor for the environmental correction developed by Vicente et al. (1998). It consists of two steps; in the first step the GPI technique is applied to the Kalpana-IR data for rainfall estimation over the Indian land and oceanic region and in the second step an environmental moisture correction factor is applied to the GPI-based rainfall to estimate the final rainfall. Detailed validation with rain gauges and comparison with Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) merged data product (3B42) are performed and it is found that the present technique is able to estimate the rainfall with better accuracy than the GPI technique over higher temporal and spatial domains for many operational applications in and around the Indian regions using Indian geostationary satellite data. Further comparison with the Doppler Weather Radar shows that the present technique is able to retrieve the rainfall with reasonably good accuracy.     

Changes in hyperspectral reflectance signatures of lettuce leaves in response to macronutrient deficiencies

The adaptation of specific remote sensing and hyperspectral analysis techniques for the determination of incipient nutrient stress in plants could allow early detection and precision supplementation for remediation, important considerations for minimizing mass of advanced life support systems on space station and long term missions. This experiment was conducted to determine if hyperspectral reflectance could be used to detect nutrient stress in Lactuca sativa L. cv. Black Seeded Simpson. Lettuce seedlings were grown for 90 days in a greenhouse or growth chamber in vermiculite containing modified Hoagland’s nutrient solution with key macronutrient elements removed in order to induce a range of nutrient stresses, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Leaf tissue nutrient concentrations were compared with corresponding spectral reflectances taken at the end of 90 days. Spectral reflectances varied with growing location, position on the leaf, and nutrient deficiency treatment. Spectral responses of lettuce leaves under macronutrient deficiency conditions showed an increase in reflectance in the red, near red, and infrared wavelength ranges. The data obtained suggest that spectral reflectance shows the potential as a diagnostic tool in predicting nutrient deficiencies in general. Overlapping of spectral signatures makes the use of wavelengths of narrow bandwidths or individual bands for the discrimination of specific nutrient stresses difficult without further data processing.     

Clouds and Earth Radiant Energy System (CERES), a review: Past,present and future

The Clouds and Earth Radiant Energy System (CERES) project’s objectives are to measure the reflected solar radiance (shortwave) and Earth-emitted (longwave) radiances and from these measurements to compute the shortwave and longwave radiation fluxes at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) and the surface and radiation divergence within the atmosphere. The fluxes at TOA are to be retrieved to an accuracy of 2%. Improved bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (BRDFs) have been developed to compute the fluxes at TOA from the measured radiances with errors reduced from ERBE by a factor of two or more. Instruments aboard the Terra and Aqua spacecraft provide sampling at four local times. In order to further reduce temporal sampling errors, data are used from the geostationary meteorological satellites to account for changes of scenes between observations by the CERES radiometers.     

A regional tropospheric model for airborne GPS applications

A regional tropospheric model can be constructed using surveys from GPS ground networks. Using this model the tropospheric delays of a kinematic station within the region can be interpolated. However, such a model is generally not suitable for an airborne platform high above the ground networks. In this paper, a method of constructing a regional tropospheric model for airborne GPS applications is described. First, the kinematic station in the air is projected onto the ground. Then the tropospheric delays at projected point are interpolated from those of the ground networks. Finally, the tropospheric delays at projected point are extended upward to the airborne platform using pressure and temperature gradients and humidity exponential function. For validation of this method, the data of airborne campaign carried out by BKG in cooperation with GFZ and BGR 2008 in the northern Alps are used. The results show that GPS kinematic positioning precision in height component can be improved using this method.     

Potential of salt-accumulating and salt-secreting halophytic plants for recycling sodium chloride in human urine in bioregenerative life support systems

This study addresses the possibility of growing different halophytic plants on mineralized human urine as a way to recycle NaCl from human wastes in a bioregenerative life support system (BLSS). Two halophytic plant species were studied: the salt-accumulating Salicornia europaea and the salt-secreting Limonium gmelinii. During the first two weeks, plants were grown on Knop’s solution, then an average daily amount of urine produced by one human, which had been preliminarily mineralized, was gradually added to the experimental solutions. Nutrient solutions simulating urine mineral composition were gradually added to control solutions. NaCl concentrations in the stock solutions added to the experimental and control solutions were 9 g/L in the first treatment and 20 g/L in the second treatment. The mineralized human urine showed some inhibitory effects on S. europaea and L. gmelinii. The biomass yield of experimental plants was lower than that of control ones. If calculated for the same time period (120 d) and area (1 m²), the amount of sodium chloride taken up by S. europaea plants would be 11.7 times larger than the amount taken up by L. gmelinii plants (486 g/m² vs. 41 g/m²). Thus, S. europaea is the better choice of halophyte for recycling sodium chloride from human wastes in BLSS.     

Pre-storm behaviour of NmF2 and TEC (GPS) over equatorial and low latitude stations in the Indian sector

The pre-storm behavior of NmF₂ and TEC over an equatorial station, Trivandrum (8.47°N, 76.91°E, dip 0.6°S) and a low latitude station, Waltair (17.7°N,83.3°E, dip 20°N) has been studied for a total of 18 strong geomagnetic storms with DST ? −100 nT. The simultaneous measurements of GPS-TEC and NmF₂ over Trivandrum and Waltair during the period 2000–2005 have been considered for the present study. It is found that there is a substantial increase in NmF₂ and TEC before the onset of the storm over Waltair, while the increase is not present at Trivandrum. The origin of pre-storm enhancements in electron density still remains unresolved owing to several conditions in their potential sources and occurrence mechanisms. In the present study an attempt is made to identify the possible mechanisms responsible for such enhancements in electron density of the F-region.     

Soil moisture estimation by using multipolarization SAR image

In the past studies, different soil moisture estimation models were developed for bare soil areas by using remotely-sensed data. However, there are few models that can be used to estimate soil moisture in vegetated areas. Water Cloud Model (WCM) model is a widely used soil moisture estimation model has been developed for vegetated areas. In this study, the WCM model was extended to take soil roughness parameter into consideration. The modeling and its accuracy assessment were done by using multi-polarization Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) images and ground data collected during field Soil Moisture Experiments.     

Moderate geomagnetic storms and their ionospheric effects at middle and low latitudes

This paper reports the global response of the mid high and low latitude ionosphere in four longitudinal sectors to two moderate geomagnetic storms that occurred during 2007 (the more intense storms occurred that year). The results obtained during these storms show that the ionospheric effects in general are not moderate in magnitude, showing an important degree of complexity as during intense storms. The outstanding features produced during the storms are significant positive storm effects at mid-high latitudes during the main phase/first part of the recovery, positive effects after the onset of the storm followed by negatives effects at middle latitudes and delayed positive effects during the night-time hours in the trough of the equatorial anomaly (“dusk” effect). Possible physical mechanisms for controlling the morphology of the ionosphere during these events are considered.