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EM ACADEMY

PIERS 2002

Workshop description:
 

1)	"Recent Developments in Atmospheric Physics", proposed by Gopa Dutta, Anwarul-uloom College.  [return]
2)	"Optics and photonics, lasers, gyrotrons", proposed by Ao Farliang, Guilin Institute of Technology. This workshop will mainly discuss the Optical Space Communication (OSC), its realization technology and gyrotrons. Typical topics will be: The overview of Space Communication; The realization technology of OSC; The channel characteristics about OSC; The relative devices for OSC and optical technology; The high reflectivity of Simulated Brillouin-Enhanced Four Wave Mixing and its applications; The high power microwave tube (gyrotrons) and its relative technology.  [return]
3)	"WindSat mission: sensor design and expected performance", proposed by Nahid Khazenie, ONR -- The Navy. This half-day workshop will focus on the science issues related to Navy's WindSat Program. WindSat is a satellite-based multi-frequency polarimetric microwave radiometer being developed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) for the U.S. Navy and the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Integrated Program Office (IPO). The objective of the WindSat mission is to demonstrate the capability of polarimetric microwave radiometry to measure the ocean surface wind vector from space. It is the primary payload on the Air Force Coriolis satellite, which is scheduled to launch in autumn 2002. The WindSat radiometer operates in discrete bands at 6.8, 10.7, 18.7, 23.8, and 37.0 GHz.  The 10.7, 18.7 and 37.0 GHz channels are fully polarimetric, while the 6.8 and 23.8 GHz channels are dual polarized only (vertical and horizontal).  It uses a 1.8 m offset reflector antenna and will be launched into an 830-km sun-synchronous orbit.  The WindSat design and ground processing algorithms focus on the primary mission of measuring the sea surface wind vector.  However, it will produce a unique data set with numerous environmental remote sensing applications. At this workshop scientists and engineers from the WindSat team will present an overview of the WindSat mission, sensor design and expected performance.  Data flow, calibration/validation and data availability will also be discussed.  Lastly, the workshop will discuss the status and plans for retrieving environmental data products.   Presentations and list of participants:   1) "WindSat - Space Borne Remote Sensing of Ocean Surface Winds", by P.W. Gaiser and D. Spencer. 2) "WindSat - Sensor Design and Expected Performance", by P.W. Gaiser and E.M. Twarog. 3) "Fourth order small slope theory of thermal emission from the sea surface", by M.A. Demir and J.T. Johnson. 4) "Effects of Foam on the Four Stokes Parameters of Passive Microwave Remote Sensing of Ocean", by L. Zhou, L. Tsang and Q. Li. 5) "The WindSat Ocean/Atmosphere Retrieval Algorithm: Methodology and Results", by C.K. Smith, R.M. Bevilacqua, P.W. Gaiser, K.M. St. Germain and N.-Y. Wang. 6) "The Effect of Surface Roughness and Whitecaps on Sea Surface Microwave Emissivity", by W.E. Asher, S.C. Reising and L.A. Rose. 7) "Windsat Atmospheric Forward Model Comparisons", by N.-Y. Wang, P.S. Chang, R.M. Bevilacqua, C.K. Smith and P.W. Gaiser. 8) "WindSat On-Orbit Radiometric Calibration" by W.L. Jones, K.M. St. Germain and P.W. Gaiser. 9) "Rainfall and WindSat", by T.T. Wilheit. 10) "Effects of Large Scale Ocean Waves on Polarimetric Sea Foam Emission ", by T. M. Grzegorczyk, C. O. Ao, Y. Zhang and J. A. Kong. [return]
4)	" Remote Systems for Forest Fires Early Warning ", proposed by Nedialko M. Nedeltchev, Bulg. Acad. of Sciences The vital role of forests is indisputable. They provide clean water, habitat for rare and threatened with extinction species, preserve the biodiversity on our planet. Forests are recognized as the most important ecological system, which contains 90% of world's land- based species. On the other hand forests are a potential sinks for the greenhouse gas, the carbon dioxide. Therefore there is a straightforward relationship between climate, global warming, sea level rise and forests. Presently 2/3 of mankind lives in a shore zone of 100 km. The sea level change is a consequence of the greenhouse effect. Thus the sea level rise is equally dangerous for industrialized and developing countries. Forests fires are an important factor of climate change. For example the logging and burning in worldwide forests areas are accompanied by release of carbon dioxide and methane, which are recognized as the principal greenhouse gases. This quantity is about 20-25% of the total carbon emission in the atmosphere (1600 million tones of carbon per year). It was shown that forests fires in Indonesia, the Amazon and Siberia contributed to carbon emissions in the atmosphere as much as all burning of coal, gasoline and oil in Western Europe as a whole. Natural fires are often caused by lightning and rarely cause irrecoverable damages. More dangerous are fires caused by human activities having considerable socio-economic effect, and strong influence on biodiversity and ecology. Between 75% and 90% of all forests fires are caused by human interference. The long- lasting fires can cause soil erosion and subsequent soil loss due to slow combustion of organic material and humus in the surface layer of soil. Also the wood smoke is carcinogenic and more noxiuos than tobacco. Some examples are given below.       In 1998 in the Russian Far East 1262 fires devastated over 1.5 million hectares of forest lands, having as result of woodstock loss of about 154.3 million cubic meters. In other areas of the world serious forest fires caused similar destructions. In United States in the summer 2000 nearly 1 million hectares of forests and grassland were destroyed, e.g. in West Idaho- 9200 ha, in Montana- 182000 ha. In the same period of time huge forest fires were burning in France, Italy, Corsica, Bulgaria.       Until now about 80% of original forests on the Earth has been cleared, damaged, degraded.   The main aims of the workshop are: To discuss possibilities and performances of remote systems for early warning of fires in a global range; To delineate the role of environmental remote sensing in worldwide management of forests.  [return]