SUBCONSCIOUS MIND : A MAGIC WAND FOR YOUR SUCCESS

Have U ever believed in telepathy ? Yes, If U had done it so, this poem would be a real rejuvenation for you. Yes, my readers, sometimes miracles happen in life when we never think of them. But if something goes into your subconscious mind, its difficult to throw it out even if U wish. It resides in Ur mind; directs you and orients your thoughts until you reach your goal. As Swami Vivekanandha puts it
" Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is how great spiritual giants are produced"

This would be another motivating poem ;Infact a true story which I read.

Not more than three short years ago
I was abandoned and alone
Without a penny to my name
So very young and so afraid
No proper shoes upon my feet
Sometimes I couldn't even eat
I often cried myself to sleep
But still I had to keep on going
Never knowing if I could take it
If I would make it through the night
I held on to my faith
I struggled and I prayed
And now I've found my way

Chorus:
If you believe in yourself enough
And know what you want
You're gonna make it happen
Make it happen
And if you get down on your
knees at night
And pray to the Lord
He's gonna make it happen
Make it happen

I know life can be so tough
And you feel like giving up
But you must be strong
Baby just hold on
You'll never find the answers
if you throw your life away
I used to feel the way you do
Still I have to keep on going
Never knowing if I could take it
If I would make it through the night
I held on to my faith
I struggled and I prayed
And now I've finally found my way

Chorus

I once was lost
But now I'm found
I got my feet on solid ground
Thank you Lord
If you believe within your soul
Just hold on tight
And don't let go
You can make it
Make it happen

Chorus

ENVISAGING CHENNAI...

It is strange how images shape our thoughts and take us to the bottom of deeply incised canyons of thinking.

Yes, I'm going to give you a free Horoscope of Chennai City. Gee!! The transit period , when the urbanisation is going to be at its pinnacle;Infrastructure will transcend the limits of existing and visualised! With Skyscrapers getting ready to pierce the Sky,Sophisticated Bridges challenging the Developed countries, Chennai would soon soon be a mini-Texas. The govt of Tamilnadu is planning to open the Buckingham canal again which would enormously increase the benefits reaped through sea-trading.

Imperfect roads, stagnated water, mid-rise buildings.. Hold on ! Perhaps you would see all these archaic symbols of Chennai for very few days. Soon will the things change.. High-rise buildings , non-stop moving traffic,mammoth lounges- Perhaps this would be Chennai for us in 2020. Chennai is sure to achieve a pyrrhic victory.

The horoscope continues...Pals, seeing through the transit period, I wonder if there would dawn a day when we would all become Thomas Hood , pin pointing the current locations and searching for our houses in the future Chennai Map!

"I remember I remember
The school where I had studied,
The broken roads I trod"

There ends the free Horoscope. Friends these words are not just a prediction of future. It was all put forth by a technocrat from L&T . Yes, it was a lucid presentation on the Infrastructre development in Chennai. I was pleasntly surprised when he showed us these images of Chennai. I have a hunch that we would have many Burj-Khalifas and Petronas towers. The Chennai Secretariat which is presently under construction is the best quintessence for our Infrastructural growth.

My spirit flies in feathers, envisaging Chennai at its epitome of Pulchritude...

An Ode to my Solitude

That was just hours before my Satellite Geodesy assessment , when I was sitting alone in my classroom, staring the empty chairs and gloomy walls , thoughts flashed in my mind.. With one more year to go; To remain as a student of IRS. With my usual diary beside, I started expressing my thoughts. Though not a professional writer , I do write poems occasionally . They may not be fraught with excellent rhythmic phrases, yet go a long way in conveying my emotions.

And here goes my words for my beloved classroom , a block in IRS.

"Besoted in the solitude,
With the minds wandering far and wide,
Cloud of thoughts clobbered me.
The empty chairs humbled before
The silent walls waiting to bid me
Adieu in a couple of months.
In vain do I long for a time machine
The chance of my days to repeat again;
These happier hours will fly at present
yet remain to rehearse in future."


Ha! An assessment after this poem; Taking up a role of a technocrat after being a poet for a short time.

STREAMS OF BRYCE CANYON : A MISSING LINK IN GROUND TRUTH

Every tale has more than one side or perspective. And so it is with NASA, which studies Earth science from different angles – from satellites, from aircraft, and sometimes from the ground. But somehow, no matter how many ways there are to view a place, there’s nothing better than being there.

Case in point: Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. The interlocking peaks of the canyon rim can top 9,000 feet – high enough that year-round flurries created this snow-capped winter wonderland captured by photographer James Van Gundy. The spectacular oranges, browns, reds, and yellows of the limestone and the unique rain- and frost-carved stone make the park a destination for more than 1.5 million tourists each year.

Those peaks offer breathtaking views of three states and 200 miles of visibility.

In contrast, a Landsat satellite image of the park, taken in 2006, tells a top-side story of streams and rivers and valleys that stretch out like the fingers of a child’s hand print. A host of new colors emerge, not apparent from the ground view. The greens of coniferous forests. The blues of lakes and the Tropic Reservoir.

GEOINFORMATICS : IN AN ENGINEERING PERSPECTIVE

Knowing the earth by its dimensions and imaging the natural processes on earth through the geospatial technologies are the prime goals of Geo-Informatics. The tell-tale stories of ancient cartographers and their handmade paper maps, large scale techniques of triangulation, stereoscopic principles and earth observation satellites speak in volumes about Geo-Informatics as a technology. Much water has run under the bridge since then. The potential of this technology has aggrandized from Earth science and cartographers to Geo-Informatics engineers. Construction of geospatial solutions as a conglomeration of scientific principles and Engineering innovations is the need of the hour.

Geomatics engineering is based on the framework of applied mathematic, physics, remotesensing ,computerscience, integration of satellite communication systems , design and management of complex hardware and data system. Probing the earth and its atmosphere from space provides an efficient, cost effective and rapid approach to discover natural resources, understand the climate system and monitor ocean circulation. Hence it requires complete understanding of the physical principles which go behind the remotely sensed images and complex mathematical principles involved in excellent geospatial softwares which process those imageries.

Geomatics engineering is a modern dicipline which integrates acquisition, modelling analysis and management of spatially referenced data. i.e data identified according to locations. Based on the scientific frame work of geodesy, it uses terrestial marine airborne, and sattelite based sensors to acquire spatial and other data. Also it includes the process of transforming spatially referenced data from different sources into common information system with well defined accuracy characteristics.

By and large the nuances of geomatics Engineering has increased manifold. The advent of hyperspectral remote sensing is one of the most significant breakthroughs in Geomatics. The capability of distinguishing different features and describing the same ground objects in various levels of details enhanced greatly.

The contribution of a Geomatics Engineer starts even before the satellite is launched into orbit. It is imperative to decide the sensor configuration and the typical wavelenghts of the sensor which can sense radiometrically and geometrically different features on Earth in a distinct manner. Hence the verdict of the Geomatics Engineer is extremely important while designing the spectral resolution of a sensor. Once the satellite is put into orbit it becomes highly essential to know the pertubing forces due to earth’s asphericity,solar Radiation, Tidal forces and third body perturbations which can alter the image characteristics of the Remote sensing satellites. Here the regular corrections to be made to the imagery for various perturbing effects must be studied and modelling of these variations must be handled by a Geomatics Engineer.

After the satellite starts transmitting data to ground station , scene –wise storage and management of data is carried becomes his responsibilty. The various levels of Geometric and Radiometric corections are then performed. The data is imported into a GIS or image processing software for data analysis and classification. Finally the Geomatics Engineer disseminates the data according to user requirements , there by bringing the process in to its consummation.

But, its ironical that the softwares which were actually introduced to perceive the technology in a better way hinders the real understanding of its principles.The extent of analysis must not be bound by the modules available. Thus what’s needed is to fathom the concepts of Geoinformatics running behind the screen rather than laying our hands just on the ‘mouse clicks’.

Thus, the burgeoning multifacted arena of Ge-Informatics Engineering enables the scientists to achieve credible Geospatial solutions not only for processes happening on Earth but also for umpteen unanswered mysteries in other planets. Proud to be a Geomatics Engineer!

EARTH IN SATURN'S SHADOW

This beautiful image of Saturn and its rings looks more like an artist’s creation than a real image, but in fact, the image is a composite (layered image) made from 165 images taken by the wide-angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft over nearly three hours on September 15, 2006. Scientists created the color in the image by digitally compositing ultraviolet, infrared, and clear-filter images and then adjusting the final image to resemble natural color. (A clear filter is one that allows in all the wavelengths of light the sensor is capable of detecting.) The bottom image is a closeup view of the upper left quadrant of the rings, through which Earth is visible in the far, far distance.

On this day, Saturn interceded between the Sun and Cassini, shielding Cassini from the Sun’s glare. As the spacecraft lingered in Saturn’s shadow, it viewed the planet’s rings as never before, revealing previously unknown faint rings and even glimpsing its home world. Seen from more than a billion kilometers (almost a billion miles) away, through the ice and dust particles of Saturn’s rings, Earth appears as a tiny, bright dot to the left and slightly behind Saturn.

Although it might appear that Earth is located within Saturn’s outermost rings, that positioning is just an illusion created by the enormous distance between Cassini and Earth. When Cassini took this image, the spacecraft was looking back at Saturn from a distance of about 2.2.million kilometers (about 1.3 million miles). The Sun was millions of additional miles beyond, hidden behind Saturn. On September 15, Earth’s orbit had brought our home planet to a location slightly behind and to the left of the Sun from Cassini’s perspective.

Here is the website to get more enthralled!
http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=2230&js=1

The STEREO Ahead spacecraft kept a close eye on two active regions on Feb. 12, 2010. The one on the left popped off a small flare. The still shows the bright flash of the flare in UV light at 195 Angstroms. The active region near the center shows a lot of magnetic struggles within it, and it bursts out a small coronal mass ejection (CME) after the arch of particles is seen rising up. Flares are intense explosions on the Sun that blast out radiation into space. CMEs are larger and longer lasting solar storms that carry a larger cloud of particles and magnetic field into space. Both can create what we call "space weather" effects such as power disruptions, satellite problems, and aurora if aimed at Earth.

IMAGE FUSION

PROBLEM :

HOW DO WE GO ABOUT FUSING A MICROWAVE IMAGE AND OPTICAL IMAGE OF A SAME AREA ?

The conventional style of Georeferencing always exists. But what if we are not microwave specialists and could not identify features just by seeing?
If we go for a path and row we can find only a scene and not a specific point which we would require to georeference an image and thus fuse them. Further its a critical situation if we use a fusing of an Interfereogram.

A new dimension to GPS through SONAR

GPS does not work underwater-the radio signals on which it depends cannot pass through water. So submariners have yet to benefit from the revolution in navigation that it allows.

Now engineers working for the US Office of Naval Research think they have found a simple way to let submarines and divers get an accurate GPS fix.

A base station is tethered to the sea bed at known depth and known GPS location. A submersible anywhere in the area sends out a sonar request pulse to which the base station replies with a signal which gives its GPS position and depth as well as the bearing angle from which the submersible?s request arrived.

The submersible then uses its own depth, which is easily measured, plus the round trip pulse time and the bearing angle sent by the base, to calculate its own position. Simple.

Reference :
http://www.divespots.com/pdf/DiveSpots_article_uwgps.pdf

NATURE : RESILIENT IN ITS PULCHRITUDE

The sky Stood staring at me ;

Scattering its Red and Yellow.

Much have i Longed ,

For this unabated exhilaration

There fell my heart for the God made Earth!

When the dew dropped and

The Sun hid itself behind the horizon,

Soon did I realize

The departing trees and smoke emitting chimneys

which refelected the try-catch game

With those coterie of men

who architect the signboard

"A Tree- The Last natural specimen on Earth;

Tresspassers will be prosecuted."

MESOSCALE THERMAL FRONTS AND EVAPORATION RATES

I would like to brief one of my ideas which would certainly have a great say in limiting climate change if not curb it completely. Any coup for limiting this issue must involve the complete understanding of atmospheric parameters. So my idea also revolves around comprehending certain land and oceanic parameters which can alleviate climate change. Climate change in a broad sense means anomalous behavior of atmospheric parameters due to some natural or anthropogenic activity.

Sea level rise as we all know is a major effect of climate change. Through out my write up I’m going to focus on this oceanic parameter which is the need of the hour. Mesoscale thermal fronts and sinks are areas of thermal discontinuities where absorption of CO2 by ocean from atmosphere is relatively high. I am currently working in a paper where I am trying to map these regions from satellite images like AVHRR and NOAA.

But why these sinks are important? Yes, these regions absorb co2 and increase their boundaries and thereby aggrandizing the total ocean temperature. So as ocean heat increases the evaporation in that region alone starts increasing and the winds driven from that region bring heavy rainfall. So, at one part where there are sinks the rainfall decreases and another part the evaporation is high resulting in heavy showers. This causes heavy cyclones in some regions and draught in other regions. And when the thermal fronts spread, the regions under high rate of evaporation increase drastically, giving rise to more and more cyclones. So we have to control the high rate of evaporation in places of thermal fronts. Hence identification of these places is the prime goal.

1. Map the regions using MODIS thermal bands.
2. Using image processing techniques we can find out the areas of thermal fronts and sinks.
3. On knowing the lat long of those areas we can control the rate of evaporation at those places alone.
4. Cetyl alcohol is found to be the chemical which is strong, flexible to wind and ocean currents. This can be sent through undersea pipelines as we send the liquid co2 into oceans. But the foremost thing here is to monitor the lat long in which it has to be spread. Here comes the geospatial technology.
5. Next we have to validate the results because these chemicals can also have alternative impacts.
6. So we need a marine geospatial system which can monitor the latitude. Longitude, SST and wind speed in that area in daily timescale to see if there is any change in SST after the Cetyl alcohol is sent.
7. This system must comprise a GPS, a thermal sensor for estimation of SST, an antenna for immediate transfer of information to the land system.
8. The land system must have a MARINE GIS application to create buffer around thermal fronts, increase or decrease the buffer once the SST information is transferred, make simulations for increase in Cetyl alcohol content by generating DEM layers.
9. Here Generation of DEM is necessary in order to know the level at which Cetyl alcohol must be supplied. Also DEM must be created fro sea continental shelf region.
10. On the whole it should function as a real time monitoring system.

So in compendium I can say that the whole operation involves Geospatial technology in oceans for limiting climate change.