Diffraction grating parameter retrieval using non-paraxial structured beams in coherent Fourier scatterometry

In recent years, a lot of works have been published that use parameter retrieval using Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) beams. Most make use of the OAM of different Laguerre-Gauss modes. However, those specific optical beams are paraxial beams and this limits the regime in which they can be used. In this paper, we report on the first results on retrieving the geometric parameters of a diffraction grating by analysing the corresponding complex-valued (i.e., amplitude and phase) Helmholtz Natural Modes (HNM) spectra containing both the azimuthal (i.e., n) and radial (i.e., m) indices. HNMs are a set of orthogonal, non-paraxial beams with finite energy carrying OAM. We use the coherent Fourier scatterometry (CFS) setup to calculate the field scattered from the diffraction grating. The amplitude and phase contributions of each HNM are then obtained by numerically calculating the overlap integral of the scattered field with the different modes. We show results on the sensitivity of the HNMs to several grating parameters.

Development of multi-input multi-output virtual tuned mass damper controls for the vibration suppression of structures

This study is concerned with the development of multi-input multi-output control algorithms for the active vibration suppression of structures using accelerometer signals and force-type actuators. The concept of the single-input single-output virtual tuned mass damper control algorithm developed in the previous study was extended to cope with multiple natural modes of structure equipped with a limited number of sensors and actuators. Two control algorithms were developed based on the assumption of collocated control. One is the decentralized virtual tuned mass damper control that produces the actuator signal using only the accelerometer signal of that actuator position. The other is the centralized virtual tuned mass damper control that is designed in modal-space, and produces the modal control force using the modal coordinate. Both the theoretical and experimental results show that the proposed control algorithms are effective in suppressing multiple natural modes with a lesser number of sensors and actuators. However, the decentralized virtual tuned mass damper control can be designed and implemented more easily than the centralized virtual tuned mass damper control.

Dominant Controls of Cold-Season Precipitation Variability Over the High Mountains of Asia

A robust understanding of the sub-seasonal cold season (November–March) precipitation variability over the High Mountains of Asia (HMA) is currently lacking. Here, we identify dynamic and thermodynamic pathways through which natural modes of climate variability establish their teleconnections over the HMA. First, we identify evaporative sources that contribute to the cold season precipitation over the HMA and surroundings areas. The predominant moisture contribution comes from the mid-latitude regions including Mediterranean/Caspian Seas and Mediterranean land. Second, we establish that several tropical and extratropical forcing display a sub-seasonally fluctuating influence on the cold season precipitation distribution over the region, and given that many of them varyingly interact with each other, their impacts cannot be explained exclusively or at seasonal timescales. Lastly, a single set of evaporative sources cannot always be identified as the only determinant in propagating a remote teleconnection, because nature of moisture anomalies and its sources depend on the pattern of sub-seasonally varying dynamical forcing in the atmosphere.

Adiabatic and diabatic signatures of ocean temperature variability

Anthropogenically induced radiative imbalances in the climate system lead to a slow accumulation of heat in the ocean. This warming is often obscured by natural modes of climate variability such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which drive substantial ocean temperature changes as a function of depth and latitude. The use of watermass coordinates has been proposed to help isolate forced signals and filter out fast adiabatic processes associated with modes of variability. However, how much natural modes of variability project into these different coordinate systems has not been quantified. Here we apply a rigorous framework to quantify ocean temperature variability using both a quasi-Lagrangian, watermass-based temperature coordinate and Eulerian depth and latitude coordinates in a free-running climate model under pre-industrial conditions. The temperature-based coordinate removes the adiabatic component of ENSO-dominated interannual variability by definition, but a substantial diabatic signal remains. At slower (decadal to centennial) frequencies, variability in the temperature- and depth-based coordinates is comparable. Spectral analysis of temperature tendencies reveals the dominance of advective processes in latitude and depth coordinates while the variability in temperature coordinates is related closely to the surface forcing. Diabatic mixing processes play an important role at slower frequencies where quasi steady-state balances emerge between forcing and mixing in temperature, advection and mixing in depth, and forcing and advection in latitude. While watermass-based analyses highlight diabatic effects by removing adiabatic variability, our work shows that natural variability has a strong diabatic component and cannot be ignored in the analysis of long term trends.

Multimodal Estimation of Sine Dwell Vibrational Responses from Aeroelastic Flutter Flight Tests

Aircraft envelope expansion during new underwing stores installation is a challenging problem, mainly related to the aeroelastic flutter phenomenon. Aeroelastic models are usually very hard to model, and therefore flight tests are usually required to validate the aeroelastic model predictions, which given the catastrophic consequences of reaching the flutter point pose an important problem. This constraint favors using short time excitations like Sine Dwell to perform the flight tests, so that the aircraft stays close to the flutter point as little time as possible, but short time data implies a poor spectrum resolution and therefore leads to inaccurate and non repetitive results. The present paper will address the problem related to processing Sine Dwell signals from aeroelastic Flutter Flight Tests, characterized by very short data length (less than 5 s) and low frequency (less than 10 Hz) and used to identify the natural modes associated with the structure. In particular, a new robust technique, the PRESTO algorithm, will be presented and compared to a Matching Pursuit estimation based on Laplace Wavelet. Both techniques have demonstrated to be very accurate and robust procedures on very short time (Sine Dwell) signals, with the particularity that the Laplace Wavelet estimation has already been validated over F-18 real Flutter Flight Test data as described in different papers. However, the PRESTO algorithm improves the performance and accuracy of the Laplace Wavelet processing while keeping its robustness, both on real and simulated data.

Assessment of Antenna Mounting Building Structural Strength using Microtremor Analysis

Any satellite tracking ground station requires fully steerable dish shaped antenna for fixed satellite services. Antenna foundations require special consideration, because they transmit dynamic loads to soil and foundation system, in addition to static loads due to self-weight of foundation, antenna and its accessories. Antenna foundations are of ground foundation or roof top i.e on buildings based on Radio Frequency requirements. To install antennas on existing building, the building should have required strength. To assess the building strength, building natural frequency and damping ratios are determined using Microtremor recorded data. For rotating Antennas, the required building frequency should be more than 8 Hz to avoid resonance effect of antenna structure natural frequency with servo frequency. In this study, the data is collected for building located at National Remote Sensing Centre, ISRO, Shadnagar, Hyderabad by mounting sensor at 3 locations of building. The data collected is analyzed using View 2002 software. FFT analysis is carried out to identify predominant natural modes and frequencies of the Building.

Parallel functional subnetworks embedded in the macaque face patch system

During normal vision, our eyes provide the brain with a continuous stream of useful information about the world. How visually specialized areas of the cortex, such as face-selective patches, operate under natural modes of behavior is poorly understood. Here we report that, during the free viewing of videos, cohorts of face-selective neurons in the macaque cortex fractionate into distributed and parallel subnetworks that carry distinct information. We classified neurons into functional groups based on their video-driven coupling with fMRI time courses across the brain. Neurons from each group were distributed across multiple face patches but intermixed locally with other groups at each recording site. These findings challenge prevailing views about functional segregation in the cortex and underscore the importance of naturalistic paradigms for cognitive neuroscience.

Analysis of the Scattering from a Two Stacked Thin Resistive Disks Resonator by Means of the Helmholtz–Galerkin Regularizing Technique

In this paper, the scattering of a plane wave from a lossy Fabry–Perót resonator, realized with two equiaxial thin resistive disks with the same radius, is analyzed by means of the generalization of the Helmholtz–Galerkin regularizing technique recently developed by the author. The disks are modelled as 2-D planar surfaces described in terms of generalized boundary conditions. Taking advantage of the revolution symmetry, the problem is equivalently formulated as a set of independent systems of 1-D equations in the vector Hankel transform domain for the cylindrical harmonics of the effective surface current densities. The Helmholtz decomposition of the unknowns, combined with a suitable choice of the expansion functions in a Galerkin scheme, lead to a fast-converging Fredholm second-kind matrix operator equation. Moreover, an analytical technique specifically devised to efficiently evaluate the integrals of the coefficient matrix is adopted. As shown in the numerical results section, near-field and far-field parameters are accurately and efficiently reconstructed even at the resonance frequencies of the natural modes, which are searched for the peaks of the total scattering cross-section and the absorption cross-section. Moreover, the proposed method drastically outperforms the general-purpose commercial software CST Microwave Studio in terms of both CPU time and memory occupation.