Persistent Scatterers Interferometry detects and measures ground subsidence in Lisbon

Results from the application of Persistent Scatterers Interferometry in Lisbon Metropolitan Area revealed two previously unknown subsiding urban areas: one (Laranjeiras) is located in the center of Lisbon; another (Vialonga) is to be found toward the North, in an industrial region crossed by Lisbon's main highway and railway lines. The two subsiding sectors are bordered by sharp velocity gradients, and the subsidence pattern appears partially delimited by mapped geologic faults. Surface geology and urbanization alone are unable to explain the phenomena. In the Vialonga area, the historical record of water pore pressure shows a clear decline of the levels (up to 65 m in 27 years), providing evidence of over-exploitation of groundwater resources. Limited information from wells drilled inside and outside the subsidence area points to a spatial correlation between the subsidence and the water pressure levels, and suggests that faults could be acting as hydraulic barriers in the aquifer system. The surface subsidence detected is probably caused by compaction of a clay-rich Oligocene-aged aquitard, led by over-exploitation of adjacent aquifers. The same Oligocene aquitard layer is present in the Laranjeiras area, immediately bellow a multi-layered sand-clay-limestone Miocene aquifer, but further work is needed to diagnose the possibility of over-exploitation of groundwater here. In this work we were able to independently confirm the PSI results, by comparing autonomous PSI results processed for the same geographical areas, and by comparing PSI with leveling and continuous GPS derived subsidence velocities, whose close match provided further ground validation of the space-borne PSI technique.     

Mapping arctic landfast ice extent using L-band synthetic aperture radar interferometry

In recent years methods have been developed to extract the seaward landfast ice edge from series of remote sensing images, with most of them relying on incoherent change detection in optical, infrared, or radar amplitude imagery. While such approaches provide valuable results, some still lack the required level of robustness and all lack the ability to fully automate the detection and mapping of landfast ice over large areas and long time spans. This paper introduces an alternative approach to mapping landfast ice extent that is based on coherent processing of interferometric L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. The approach is based on a combined interpretation of interferometric phase pattern and interferometric coherence images to extract the extent and stability of landfast ice. Due to the low complexity of the base imagery used for landfast ice extraction, significant improvements in automation and reduction of required manual interactions by operators can be achieved. A performance analysis shows that L-band interferometric SAR (InSAR) data enable the mapping of landfast ice with high robustness and accuracy for a wide range of environmental conditions.     

Uniting Local and Global Controllers with Robustness to Vanishing Noise

We consider control systems for which we know two stabilizing controllers. One is globally asymptotically stabilizing, the other one is only locally asymptotically stabilizing but for some reason we insist on using it in a neighborhood of the origin. We look for a uniting control law being equal to the local feedback on a neighborhood of the origin, equal to the global one outside of a larger neighborhood and being a globally stabilizing controller. We study several solutions based on continuous, discontinuous, hybrid, time-varying controllers. One criterion of the selection of a controller is the robustness of the stability to vanishing noise. This leads us in particular to consider a kind of generalization of Krasovskii trajectories for hybrid systems. Date received: November 29, 1999. Date revised: August 7, 2000.     

Virtual spectrophotometric measurements for biologically and physically based rendering

Published online: 18 September 2001     

Evaluation of thermal conductivity from temperature profiles

A new dynamic technique for the measurement of thermal conductivity is being developed at IMGC. The experiment consists in bringing the specimen to high temperatures with a current pulse and in measuring the temperature profiles during the free cooling period. Different techniques can be used to extract the information on thermal conductivity from the profiles. The numerical computation of thermal conductivity from the experimental temperature profiles in absolute space is possible, but it is difficult and cumbersome because one must know and take into the account the exact position of the infinitesimal elements of the specimen in different profiles. Computations in tube-space (a fictitious space where no thermal expansion occurs) are simpler and lead to less complex numerical computations. Complementary techniques to evaluate thermal conductivity as a function of temperature or at constant temperature are presented with a discussion of advantages and disadvantages of each method. Computer simulations have tested the precision of the complex software. Numerically generated temperature profiles from known thermophysical properties have been obtained and thermal conductivity has been recomputed from the profiles. The relative difference using different computational approaches and different fitting functions is always less than 0.1%.Paper presented at the Third Workshop on Subsecond Thermophysics, September 17–18, 1992, Graz, Austria.     

The transient regime of a multiwavelength pyrometer

The transient operation of a new multiwavelength pyrometer based on a dispersing prism and a Si photodiode array is presented. After calibration, transient tests were performed using a tungsten strip lamp, supplied by a current pulse of 0.3-s duration. Measurements were carried out with a data acquisition system consisting of a FET multiplexer, a DVM (14 bit, 100 kHz), and a buffer memory (64 kbytes). Pyrometer signals are processed off-line, and temperature vs time is displayed. With the present arrangement, temperature measurements at 20 wavelengths may be performed with 200s resolution. Faster measurements are possible with a reduced number of channels.Paper presented at the Third Workshop on Subsecond Thermophysics, September 17–18, 1992, Graz, Austria.Deceased     

Thermal conductivity of hydrogen for temperatures between 78 and 310 K with pressures to 70 MPa

The paper presents new experimental measurements of the thermal conductivity of hydrogen. The ortho-para compositions covered are normal, near normal, para, and para-rich. The measurements were made with a transient hot wire apparatus. The temperatures covered the range from 78 to 310 K with pressures to 70 MPa and densities from 0 to a maximum of 40 mol · L^–1. For compositions normal and near normal, the isotherms cover the entire range of pressure, and the temperatures are 78, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200, 225, 250, 275, 294, 300, and 310K. The para measurements include eight isotherms at temperatures from 100 to 275 K with intervals of 25 K, pressures to 12 MPa, and densities from 0 to 12 mol · L^–1. Three additional isotherms at 150, 250, and 275 K cover para-rich compositions with para percentages varying from 85 to 72%. For these three isotherms the pressures reach 70 MPa and the density a maximum of 30 mol · L^–1. The data for all compositions are represented by a single thermal conductivity surface. The data are compared with the experimental measurements of others through the new correlation. The precision (2) of the hydrogen measurements is between 0.5 and 0.8% for wire temperature transients of 4 to 5 K, while the accuracy is estimated to be 1.5%.     

地方中小水利水电工程建设安全工作不容忽视

针对当前地方中小水利水电工程施工中存在的各类安全问题,分析归纳了安全事故产生的原因,提出加强政府监管、规范监理执业行为、加强监理岗前准入制和执法监管力度等解决施工安全问题的措施。     

直升机纵向系统鲁棒滑模控制律设计

在建立系统全包线T-S模糊模型的基础上,基于系统品质要求和可测状态约束条件,采用参数鲁棒设计方法,确定反馈控制参数的可用集合,实现等效控制律,相应确定系统的滑模面参数,给出了直升机纵向控制系统的全包线滑模控制律设计结果。仿真结果显示,系统具有较强的抗外界干扰能力,动态品质满足指标要求,表明文中提出的设计方法可行且有效。     

基于线性回归分析的视频质量评估方法

文章提出了一种利用线性回归分析方法的无参考视频序列质量评估算法。该算法主要利用帧间编码帧的比特数和该帧与其参考帧的差异两个参数进行线性回归分析来评估视频质量。该方法不需要原始参考视频,算法简单。通过对标准视频序列的仿真实验,该算法可有效评价不同视频的编码质量,使用该质量评估方法测得的失真视频客观质量评分与其主观质量评分有很好的一致性。