Longitude and Latitude Based Received Signal Strength Difference Localization Models

In order to use the latitude and longitude coordinates for received signal strength difference (RSSD) localization, the errors of several spherical distance calculation methods and the error of arc length relative to string length were compared. The distance-calculation RSSD localization equations were established, including spherical accurate calculation RSSD, spherical approximate calculation RSSD, and normal cylindrical projection RSSD. And then, the optimization RSSD localization models based on geodetic coordinates and corresponding to the above equations were established, and the models were verified using the point by point search method with good convergence. The numerical results show there are a lot of weak localization areas for the RSSD localization networks lack of central stations with 4,5,6 stations. Among networks with central stations, there are only a small number of weak-localization areas for the concave 4 stations network, while there are no weak-localization areas for the networks composed of more stations. When the measurement errors and the additional losses of radio wave propagation are not considered, the localization errors of the spherical accurate model, the spherical approximate model and the equianglular projection model are very small, among which the second model has the shortest localization time. The localization errors of equidistance projection model and equal-area projection model are large, neither of which is suitable for the middle latitude and high latitude areas.

Impacts of Orbital and Constellation Parameters on the Number and Spatiotemporal Coverage of LEO-LEO Occultation Events

The development of small-satellite technologies allows the low Earth orbit intersatellite link (LEO-LEO) occultation method to observe the Earth’s atmosphere with global coverage and acceptable costs using electromagnetic signals, in which the L/X/K/M band and short-wave infrared band signals have been well demonstrated to be suitable. We hence need to investigate the impacts of orbital and constellation parameters on the number and spatiotemporal distribution of LEO-LEO occultation events for best-possible LEO-LEO occultation mission design and optimization at the targeted mission size. In this study, firstly, an occultation events location simulation model accounting for the right ascension of the ascending node (RAAN) precession was set up and the concept of a time-dependent global coverage fraction of occultation events was defined. Secondly, numerical experiments were designed to investigate the orbital parameters’ impacts and to assess the performance of LEO-LEO occultation constellations, in which the Earth is divided into 5° × 5° latitude and longitude cells. Finally, the number, timeliness, and global coverage fraction of occultation events for two-orbit and multi-orbit LEO-LEO constellations were calculated and analyzed. The results show that: ① the orbit inclination and RAAN are the main impacting parameters followed by orbital height, while the RAAN precession is a relevant modulation factor; ② co-planar counter-rotating receiving and transmitting satellite orbits are confirmed to be ideal for a two-satellite LEO-LEO constellation; ③ polar and near-polar orbit constellations most readily achieve global coverage of occultation events; near-equator orbit constellations with supplementary receiving and transmitting satellite orbit planes also readily form the occultation event geometry, though the occultation events are mainly distributed over low and low-to-middle latitude zones; and ④ a well-designed larger LEO-LEO occultation constellation, composed of 36–72 satellites, can meet the basic requirements of global numerical weather prediction for occultation numbers and timeliness, yielding 23,000–38,000 occultation events per day and achieving 100% global coverage in 12–18 h.

Influence of upper level troughs and ridges on the formation of post-monsoon cyclones in the Bay of Bengal

The upper air conditions at the formative stages of several depressions and cyclones in the Indian seas were studied by Desai and Rao in the light of Riehl model for the formation of tropical cyclones. The recent introduction of twice daily radiosonde-rawin ascents at some stations in India provided additional facilities for similar studies in this area. The available upper air conditions associated with the formation of two post-monsoon cyclones of 1955 in the Bay of Bengal were accordingly studied with the idea of finding how far Riehl's theory of tropical cyclones could be applied in these cases. The present study of the post-monsoon cyclones of 1955 reveals that two radiosonde ascents a day from a reasonable network of stations should be minimum requirement for studies of this kind, Time cross-sections showing 24-hour changes of heights at intervals of 12 hours are presented to illustrate the sequence of movement of upper troughs and ridges. As postulated by Riehl, the formation of both the cyclones was apparently associated with the passage of troughs in the westerlies across northeast India, i.e., to the north of the area of cyclogenesis. But the upper air data from the available network of stations were too inadequate for drawing any definite conclusion as to whether the initial mass divergence at upper level was caused by the southward extension of the westerly trough and the superposition of its forward portion over the surface incipient low, or by the in-phase superposition of the upper trough in the westerlies with the upper tropospheric vortices moving across the Bay of pour Bengal, Dynamical development to the south of a confluent trough in the westerlies is suggested as a possible , contributory factor for the cyclogenesis in the south Bay of Bengal. The influence of the middle-latitude trough on the recurvature of one of the cyclones while out at sea and of 453474 another similar cyclone of October 1949 which had recurved only after crossing the coast, and the unexpected weakening of the former while out at sea, have been discussed.

On the numerical solution of diabatic quasi-geostrophic Omega equation

The quasi-geostrophic omega equation has been numerically solved to get the vertical velocity distribution in a typical westerly disturbance. The effects of sensible heat and latent heat of condensation are also for a 4-layer model. The computations were performed on HITAC 5020. The numerically obtained vertical velocity field is in good agreement with the observed weather pattern associated with the middle latitude large-scale disturbance, i.e., ascending motion in front of the trough and downward motion in the rear of the trough.

Westward Drift of Ionospheric Plasma Irregularities over a Low to Mid-latitude Transition Region in Indian Sector

We report the observation of plasma depletions/plumes in the F region ionosphere over a low to middle latitude transition region in the Indian sector. The observation of these plasma depletions is based on the data obtained in May 2019 through the all-sky airglow CCD imager installed in the campus of University of Kashmir, Srinagar (34.12 °N, 74.83 °E, magnetic latitude 25.91 °N). The depletions on the two consecutive nights of 05 and 06 May 2019 are aligned along the North-South (N-S) direction and drift westward. Several depletion bands along with some enhancement bands are seen in the 630-nm airglow images throughout the two nights. The observed structures show certain characteristics similar to Medium Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (MSTIDs) but these airglow features are not completely periodic. Further, in the observed depletion bands some East-West asymmetries are observed along with the structured tree-like branches of the airglow depletions. Some depletion bands even bifurcate leading to the inference that the structures are signatures of plasma irregularities rather than the usual MSTIDs observed in low-mid latitude transition region. The westward drift of the depletions especially during geomagnetic quiet times over this region makes this study significant since it offers a possible evidence that shows extension of spread F irregularities from the mid latitude region to the low-mid latitude transition region. In this paper, we point out some possible mechanisms related to the occurrence of plasma depletions at this region and their westward movement during geomagnetic quiet times.

Remote Sensing and Data Mining Techniques for Assessing the Urban Fabric Vulnerability to Heat Waves and UHI

Densely urbanized areas, with a low percentage of green vegetation, are highly exposed to Heat Waves (HW) which nowadays are increasing in terms of frequency and intensity also in the middle-latitude regions, due to ongoing Climate Change (CC). Their negative effects may combine with those of the UHI (Urban Heat Island), a local phenomenon where air temperatures in the compact built up cores of towns increase more than those in the surrounding rural areas, with significant impact on the quality of urban environment, on citizens health and energy consumption and transport, as it has occurred in the summer of 2003 on France and Italian central-northern areas. In this context this work aims at designing and developing a methodology based on aero-spatial remote sensing (EO) at medium-high resolution and most recent GIS techniques, for the extensive characterization of the urban fabric response to these climatic impacts related to the temperature within the general framework of supporting local and national strategies and policies of adaptation to CC. Due to its extension and variety of built-up typologies, the municipality of Rome was selected as test area for the methodology development and validation. First of all, we started by operating through photointerpretation of cartography at detailed scale (CTR 1: 5000) on a reference area consisting of a transect of about 5x20 km, extending from the downtown to the suburbs and including all the built-up classes of interest. The reference built-up vulnerability classes found inside the transect were then exploited as training areas to classify the entire territory of Rome municipality. To this end, the satellite EO HR (High Resolution) multispectral data, provided by the Landsat sensors were used within a on purpose developed "supervised" classification procedure, based on data mining and “object-classification” techniques. The classification results were then exploited for implementing a calibration method, based on a typical UHI temperature distribution, derived from MODIS satellite sensor LST (Land Surface Temperature) data of the summer 2003, to obtain an analytical expression of the vulnerability model, previously introduced on a semi-empirical basis.

Development and Demonstration of a Method for GEO-to-LEO NDVI Transformation

This study presents a new method that mitigates biases between the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from geostationary (GEO) and low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites for Earth observation. The method geometrically and spectrally transforms GEO NDVI into LEO-compatible GEO NDVI, in which GEO’s off-nadir view is adjusted to a near-nadir view. First, a GEO-to-LEO NDVI transformation equation is derived using a linear mixture model of anisotropic vegetation and nonvegetation endmember spectra. The coefficients of the derived equation are a function of the endmember spectra of two sensors. The resultant equation is used to develop an NDVI transformation method in which endmember spectra are automatically computed from each sensor’s data independently and are combined to compute the coefficients. Importantly, this method does not require regression analysis using two-sensor NDVI data. The method is demonstrated using Himawari 8 Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) data at off-nadir view and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data at near-nadir view in middle latitude. The results show that the magnitudes of the averaged NDVI biases between AHI and MODIS for five test sites (0.016–0.026) were reduced after the transformation (<0.01). These findings indicate that the proposed method facilitates the combination of GEO and LEO NDVIs to provide NDVIs with smaller differences, except for cases in which the fraction of vegetation cover (FVC) depends on the view angle. Further investigations should be conducted to reduce the remaining errors in the transformation and to explore the feasibility of using the proposed method to predict near-real-time and near-nadir LEO vegetation index time series using GEO data.

Investigation on the characteristics of the South Atlantic Anomaly

The South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) is known for its weak Earth’s magnetic field strength. In this research, power spectrum analysis method was applied on the Horizontal intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field with data sample rate used at 1 min. Four active periods on 18 March 2012, 10 March 2012, 25 April 2012, and 30 June 2013 which represent the occurrence of geomagnetic storms and 4 normal periods on 25 March 2012, 21 March 2012, 4 April 2012, and 15 June 2013 which indicate no geomagnetic storm event were examined. Research was conducted by analyzing the SAA region where comparisons were made between the middle latitude region and the high latitude region. The results indicate that the SAA region tends to be persistent, and this may be due to the ring current. The middle latitude region experienced a mixture of persistent and antipersistent characteristics and this may be due to the transportation of plasma and seasonal weather variations. The high latitude region tends to be antipersistent. This may indicate that the high latitude region is influenced by geomagnetic storms and the aurora.