Search results for "satellite"
showing 10 items of 1031 documents
Calibration of the XRT-SOLARB flight filters at the XACT facility of INAF-OAPA
2004
The X-Ray Telescope (XRT) experiment on-board the Japanese satellite SOLAR-B (launch in 2006) aimed at providing full Sun field of view at ~ 1.5" angular resolution, will be equipped with two wheels of focal-plane filters to select spectral features of X-ray emission from the Solar corona, and a front-end filter to significantly reduce the visible light contamination. We present the results of the X-ray calibrations of the XRT flight filters performed at the X-ray Astronomy Calibration and Testing (XACT) facility of INAF-OAPA. We describe the instrumental set-up, the adopted measurement technique, and present the transmission vs. energy and position measurements.
Calibration of the Lunar Orbital X-ray Fluorescence Imaging Spectrometer (LOXIA) of Chang'E-1 satellite at INAF-OAPA
2007
The Lunar Orbital X-ray Fluorescence Imaging Spectrometer (LOXIA) designed and constructed at the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to perform chemical composition analysis of the Moon surface will operate on-board the Chang'E-1 mission, the first Chinese lunar spacecraft to be launched in 2007. We report the main results of the calibration measurements that we have performed using the X-ray beamline of the XACT facility of INAFOsservatorio Astronomico di Palermo G.S. Vaiana to determine the quantum efficiency of the XRS detector in the soft X-rays as a function of photon energy and angle of incidence.
Detecting filamentary pattern in the cosmic web : a catalogue of filaments for the SDSS
2014
The main feature of the spatial large-scale galaxy distribution is its intricate network of galaxy filaments. This network is spanned by the galaxy locations that can be interpreted as a three-dimensional point distribution. The global properties of the point process can be measured by different statistical methods, which, however, do not describe directly the structure elements. The morphology of the large scale structure, on the other hand, is an important property of the galaxy distribution. Here we apply an object point process with interactions (the Bisous model) to trace and extract the filamentary network in the presently largest galaxy redshift survey, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (…
SATELLITES AROUND MASSIVE GALAXIES SINCE z ∼ 2: CONFRONTING THE MILLENNIUM SIMULATION WITH OBSERVATIONS
2012
Minor merging has been postulated as the most likely evolutionary path to produce the increase in size and mass observed in the massive galaxies since z$\sim$2. In this Letter, we test directly this hypothesis comparing the population of satellites around massive galaxies in cosmological simulations versus the observations. We use state-of-the-art, publically available, Millennium I and II simulations and the associated semi-analytical galaxy catalogues to explore the time evolution of the fraction of massive galaxies that have satellites, the number of satellites per galaxy, the projected distance at which the satellite locate from the host galaxy, and the mass ratio between the host galax…
M Stars in the TW Hya Association: Stellar X-rays and Disk Dissipation
2016
To investigate the potential connection between the intense X-ray emission from young, low-mass stars and the lifetimes of their circumstellar, planet-forming disks, we have compiled the X-ray luminosities ($L_X$) of M stars in the $\sim$8 Myr-old TW Hya Association (TWA) for which X-ray data are presently available. Our investigation includes analysis of archival Chandra data for the TWA binary systems TWA 8, 9, and 13. Although our study suffers from poor statistics for stars later than M3, we find a trend of decreasing $L_X/L_{bol}$ with decreasing $T_{eff}$ for TWA M stars wherein the earliest-type (M0--M2) stars cluster near $\log{(L_X/L_{bol})} \approx -3.0$ and then $\log{(L_X/L_{bol…
A new self-compatibility haplotype in the sweet cherry 'Kronio', S5' attributable to a pollen-part mutation in the SFB gene
2008
‘Kronio’ is a Sicilian cultivar of sweet cherry (Prunus avium), nominally with the incompatibility genotype S 5 S 6 , that is reported to be naturally self-compatible. In this work the cause of its self-compatibility was investigated. Test selfing confirmed self-compatibility and provided embryos for analysis; PCR with consensus primers designed to amplify S-RNase and SFB alleles showed that the embryos were of two types, S 5 S 5 and S 5 S 6 , indicating that S 6 pollen failed, but S 5 succeeded, perhaps because of a mutation in the pollen or stylar component. Stylar RNase analysis indicated active S-RNases for both S 5 and S 6 . The S-RNase alleles were cloned and sequenced; and sequences …
Gridding artifacts on medium-resolution satellite image time series: MERIS case study
2011
Earth observation satellites provide a valuable source of data which when conveniently processed can be used to better understand the Earth system dynamics. In this regard, one of the prerequisites for the analysis of satellite image time series is that the images are spatially coregistered so that the resulting multitemporal pixel entities offer a true temporal view of the area under study. This implies that all the observations must be mapped to a common system of grid cells. This process is known as gridding and, in practice, two common grids can be used as a reference: 1) a grid defined by some kind of external data set (e.g., an existing land-cover map) or 2) a grid defined by one of t…
Spatial analysis of the homogeneity of the land surface temperature in three Spanish test sites
2015
Calibration and validation cal/val are key activities to test the data quality acquired from satellite-based instruments, as well as to report the accuracy of derived products such as the land surface temperature LST. Calibration of thermal infrared TIR data and validation of LST products at low spatial resolution requires the identification of large and homogeneous areas, which is a difficult task. In this work, spatial and temporal homogeneity of LST was analysed over three Spanish regions: the agricultural area of Barrax, Donana National Park, and Cabo de Gata Natural Park. For this purpose, very high spatial resolution approximately 3 m imagery acquired with the Airborne Hyperspectral S…
Slewing mirror telescope of the UFFO-pathfinder: first report on performance in space
2017
To observe the early optical emissions from gamma ray bursts (GRBs), we built the Slew Mirror Telescope. It utilizes a 150 mm motorized mirror to redirect incoming photons from astrophysical objects within seconds and to track them as compensating satellite movements. The SMT is a major component of the UFFO-pathfinder payload, which was launched on April 28, 2016, onboard the Lomonosov satellite. For the first time, the slewing mirror system has been proven for the precision tracking of astrophysical objects during space operation. We confirmed that the SMT has 1.4 seconds of response time to the X-gamma-ray trigger, and is able to compensate for satellite drift and to track astrophysical …
Combining hectometric and decametric satellite observations to provide near real time decametric FAPAR product
2017
Abstract A wide range of ecological, agricultural, hydrological and meteorological applications at local to regional scales requires decametric biophysical data. However, before the launch of SENTINEL-2A, only few decametric products are produced and most of them remain limited by the small number of available observations, mostly due to a moderate revisit frequency combined with cloud occurrence. Conversely, kilometric and hectometric biophysical products are now widely available with almost complete and continuous coverage, but the associated spatial resolution limits the application over heterogeneous landscapes. The objective of this study is to combine unfrequent decametric spatial res…