Search results for "Optica"
showing 10 items of 7696 documents
An integrated approach for high spatial resolution mapping of water and carbon fluxes using multi-sensor satellite data
2012
In the last years, modeling of surface processes - such as water, energy and carbon budgets, as well as vegetation growth- seems to be focused on integrated approaches that combine aspects of hydrology, biology and meteorology into unified analyses. In this context, remotely sensed data often have a core role due to the cross-cutting impact of this novel source of spatially distributed information on all these research areas. However, several applications - such as drought monitoring, yield forecasting and crop management - require spatially detailed products at sub-field scales, which can be obtained only with support of adequately fine resolution remote sensing data (< 100 m). In particul…
L-band vegetation optical depth seasonal metrics for crop yield assessment
2018
Attenuation of surface microwave emission due to the overlying vegetation is proportional to the density of the canopy and to its water content. The vegetation optical depth (VOD) parameter measures this attenuation. VOD could be a valuable source of information on agroecosystems, especially at lower frequencies for which greater portion of the vegetation canopy contributes to the observed brightness temperature. In the past, visible-infrared indices have been used to provide yield estimates based on measuring the photosynthetic activity from the surface canopy layer. These indices are affected by clouds and apply only in the presence of solar illumination. In this study we instead use the …
Effects of temperature and pressure on microcantilever resonance response.
2003
Abstract The variation in resonance response of microcantilevers was investigated as a function of pressure (10 −2 –10 6 Pa) and temperature (290–390 K) in atmospheres of helium (He) and dry nitrogen (N 2 ). Our results for a silicon cantilever under vacuum show that the frequency varies in direct proportion to the temperature. The linear response is explained by the decrease in Young's modulus with increasing the temperature. However, when the cantilever is bimaterial, the response is nonlinear due to differential thermal expansion. Resonance response as a function of pressure shows three different regions, which correspond to molecular flow regime, transition regime, and viscous regime. …
Monitoring the chemical changes in Pd induced by hydrogen absorption using microcantilevers.
2003
Abstract The reactivity of the palladium shaped as a microcantilever is investigated as a function of the hydrogen stoichiometry. A small cell holding the microcantilever is designed to monitor the deflection and the flexural resonance response from high vacuum to a hydrogen gas pressure of several bars. The measurements show that the Young's modulus is accurate if the cantilever is thick enough to be described by a continuum mechanics approach. The orientation distribution function of the palladium grains determined by X-ray diffraction enables to correlate Young's modulus measured using microcantilevers with the elastic constant tensor issued from the literature. The surface stress induce…
Detection of gas trace of hydrofluoric acid using microcantilever
2004
Abstract Microcantilevers have been used as a gas sensor in order to detect Hydrofluoric acid (HF) in the concentration range of 0.26–13 ppm. Silicon derived elements (Si 3 N 4 , SiO x ) were chosen to serve as chemical sensitive layer. Cantilever deflection and frequency shift were analyzed and compared as a function of the flow rate and the concentration of the HF molecules. The stoichiometry and roughness of the sensitive layer were found to be of major importance. Results show that the most appropriate signal at the lowest concentration ( x surface by HF. The frequency shift that is mainly governed by the loss in cantilever mass can be used at higher concentration.
Dynamic thermal expansivity near the glass transition
2000
Dielectric techniques were used to investigate the thermal expansivity of polystyrene films. Capacitive scanning dilatometry (CSD) employs temperature ramping in order to monitor the non-linear structural relaxation in the glass transformation range and to quantify liquid fragility. In the linear response regime, the complex thermal expansivity is obtained as a function of the temperature cycling frequency and is observed to reflect the structural relaxation.
Real-time microfluorescence studies of Langmuir-Blodgett deposition: Monolayer adsorption and desorption
1990
Abstract Observations of the meniscus region in a typical Langmuir-Blodgett configuration are obtained using fluorescence microscopy. Studies of the meniscus position as a function of pH demonstrate that the meniscus height increases upon charging the monolayer owing to the repulsive interaction between monolayer and substrate surfaces. Through the correspondence between meniscus height and contact angle the adhesion forces between monolayer and substrate as a function of monolayer charge are assessed. The phenomenon of desorption upon resubmerging a deposited film is described and it is shown that the meniscus height at the onset of the desorption is greater for higher pH.
Pore Size Analysis of MCM-41 Type Adsorbents by Means of Nitrogen and Argon Adsorption
1998
Methods of nonlocal density functional theory (NLDFT), proposed recently for predictions of adsorption equilibrium and calculations of pore size distributions in micro- and mesoporous materials, were tested on reference MCM-41 materials. Five newly synthesized MCM-41 adsorbents with presumably uniform pore channels varying from 32 to 45 Å were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption at 77 K, and argon adsorption at 77 and 87 K. New sets of intermolecular interaction parameters of the NLDFT model for N2 and Ar adsorption on MCM-41 were determined. The parameters were specified to reproduce the bulk liquid-gas equilibrium densities and pressures, liquid-gas interfacial t…
Phase diagram of polymer blends in confined geometry
2001
Within self-consistent field theory we study the phase behavior of a symmetrical binary AB polymer blend confined into a thin film. The film surfaces interact with the monomers via short range potentials. One surface attracts the A component and the corresponding smei-infinite system exhibits a first order wetting transition. The surface interaction of the opposite surface is varied as to study the crossover from capillary condensation for symmetric surfaces fields to the interface localization/delocalization transition for antisymmetric surface fields. In the former case the phase diagram has a single critical point close to the bulk critical point. In the latter case the phase diagram exh…
Effects of finite thickness on interfacial widths in confined thin films of coexisting phases
1999
The capillary broadening of a 2-phase interface is investigated both experimentally and theoretically. When a binary mixture in a thin film with thickness D segregates into two coexisting phases the interface between the two phases may form parallel to the substrate due to preferential surface attraction of one of the components. We show that the interfacial profile (of intrinsic width w0) is broadened due to capillary waves, which lead to fluctuations, of correlation length of the local interface positions in the directions parallel to the confining walls. We postulate that acts as an upper cutoff for the spectrum of capillary waves on the interface, so that the effective mean square inter…