ASAR imaging for coastal upwelling in the Baltic Sea

Analysis of Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) and Aqua/Terra Moderate Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) infrared (IR) imagery of coastal upwelling in the southeastern Baltic Sea is presented. It is found that upwelling features are well distinct in the SAR images, and the leading imaging mechanism appears to be the change of the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) stratification over the sea surface temperature (SST) front. This finding is supported by model calculations of the MABL transformation supplemented with the SAR backscatter calculations based on the CMOD4 model. In addition an empirical dependence of the SAR contrasts over the upwelling region on the wind speed and the SST drop is suggested. Finally, surface slicks accumulated in the sea surface current convergence zones generate additional distinct features in SAR imagery. This effect is interpreted within the framework of the coastal current circulation model based on analysis of the SST snapshot.     

Potential interference sources to GPS and solutions appropriate forapplications to civil aviation

When the GPS (Global Positioning System) is subjected to interference, the system performance gradually deteriorates as the interfering levels increase. Two modes of interference are discussed in detail, namely, that from transmissions at frequencies close to the GPS frequencies and that from transmissions with a harmonic in the GPS band. It is argued that the former requires RF filtering in the receiver with a quality better than that generally specified. The latter cannot be dealt with in such a way. Measurements carried out on the harmonic levels transmitted by one UK TV transmitter and several hundred aircraft VHF transmitters are reported. The measurements show there is a measurable level of harmonics in the GPS band. The UK TV transmitter does not, however, represent a threat to aviation unless the aircraft is so close as to represent a physical danger. The probability that one aircraft's VHF transmitter will interfere with the GPS receiver on another aircraft is tolerably small, but there is a significant probability that a GPS receiver can suffer when there is a VHF transmission from the same aircraft. Several recommendations are made, including an international effort to ensure that spurious emissions are both quantified and kept at a level significantly lower than that achieved today