MY IMAGE PROCESSING TEAM IN K! 2011

“It was a day with my Image processing team” This is how I wish to start my Blog post. Though many things come to my mind when I think of our workshop, I would put them all aside; my team made my day! This complete blogpost is dedicated to them.

There were people whom I have known for 8 months, two months, two days and even two hours. Still, everyone surprised me by their immense team coordination. They just blew me away by their sincerity, extraordinary zeal and complete dedication with heart and soul put into the work. I was astounded by their tenacity! Although my heart yearns to list their names, I’m afraid if I would unknowingly leave someone.

I only listed the tasks for them. They gave it a form, worked on it and brought my dreams right in front of my eyes. They were real strategic thinkers. For instance, I only gave them a digital camera. They finally gave me 9.7 Mb data with complete documentation of the entire workshop! It was a pleasant experience with them. Right from the second years to my peers, everyone steered the ship amazingly well. I only showed them the door; they walked or rather fought through it! Honestly, I take inspiration in their success!

Hats off to them! Well, even from the number of exclamatory marks in my post, I’m certain my readers would understand the efforts of my dynamic team whose scintillating activities would inspire anyone. Last but not least, I would express my sincere thanks to Sivani and Archana – my 3d evolution team in k! 2010. Their comments were of immense help to correct the pitfalls and make a coherent framework this year. This day would stay in my heart forever. Thank you all, I wish we meet again and work together.

PRL CONFERENCE ON PLANETARY ATMOSPHERES DURING JULY 12,13th 2010

“The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment."
(Johannes Kepler)

One of the most wondrous and noble questions in this world is whether we are alone in this Universe or we are just one example of a much vaster and more varied tapestry. It seems desirable for us to inquire about exoplanets and civilisations outside our solar system. The thirst for planetary Observation and astronomy started with refracting telescopes when scientists pointed their telescopes to the sky and said “O telescope! Instrument of knowledge, more precious than any sceptre!”. Such dearest illusions took a dynamic form when men first set foot on Moon and enjoyed the Magnificent Desolation. From the days of Apollo to the current Mars science Laboratory and Kepler mission, we have studied and identified planets of many masses, varied atmospheres and extremely different Climatic conditions. Though we couldn’t conclude on life outside our Planet Earth or anywhere in our solar system, the data from these missions have made a big difference in how we look for evidence to answer the question of life. Thanks to Kepler team which has archived its data for the researchers around the world.

I had been enduring to write about a conference which I attended on ‘Planetary Atmospheres’ in Physical Research Laboratory, India during July 2010. It’s been very long, still, worth preserving the ideas. It was a wonderful and constructive meet which triggered the dream charge of many young researches to work in ‘Planetary science’. I have discussed here the crux of some striking lectures which engaged my interests during this conference.

First day of the conference was focussed on Terrestrial Planets, their evolution, present state of Knowledge, Atmospheric Escape and Magnetic field in those planets. The discussion on Colonization of Mars by Prof.U.R.Rao by melting the Polar Ice was my favourite lecture during this session. Martian Ionosphere was the most spoken topic. MARSIS sounding techniques revealed the peak electron density variations in Martian Upper Atmosphere due to dust storms in the neutral Atmosphere. The radio occultation experiments have derived a direct proportionality between peak electron density and solar zenith angle.

Comparative studies fostered both exploration and synthesis within diverse settings of Mars, Venus and Earth. Some fascinating similarities amongst these terrestrial planets include O+ ion flow, hot oxygen Corona and common dominant photo electron peak in Mars and Venus. The Photo e- peaks in Mars and Venus occur near tail unlike Earth where it occurs in Magnetosphere. The dominant composition of Martian Atmosphere and Venusian Atmosphere is Carbon-di-oxide. Yet, the current extreme and contradicting temperature in these planets digs questions about their Evolution and Primary Atmospheres which they inherited from Solar Nebula.

The last session on the first day was the most fascinating part as it spoke in volumes about India’s future Mars missions and Life on Mars. It was a lucid lecture by Prof.Murthy from PRL on Accretion, evolution, geochemistry and surface processes on Mars. Till now, we have had 4 orbiters, 3 rovers and 1 lander in Mars. Future Indian missions will carry Gamma Ray Spectrometers for studying the volatile chemistry, LASER sensors for terrain mapping, ultrasensitive magnetometers, and Hyperspectral imager for mineral analyses and Geological mapping camera. Another invigorating lecture was from Prof.B.C.Bhatt from Indian Institute of Astrophysics illustrated the telescopic observations which are being performed in India for analysing the Venusian cloud movement. He concentrated on the 2.3 window for cloud emissions and cloud opacity.

Day 2 was replete with lectures on diversified topics like Interplanetary Magnetic field, Heliospheric Physics, Outer planets, Aeronomy of Earth’s Atmosphere and Geomagnetic storms. Production of Sodium and water in Mercury is substantiated by proton sputtering of sodium bearing silicates by chemical spattering mechanisms (Ion spattering: Ion gives energy to target and releases neutrons). Craters can sustain magnetic field. When objects greater than Curie temperature when affected by impacts after cooling, can sustain permanent magnetic field.

Another mind blowing lecture series were about Saturn’s moon Titan. Titan , the only natural satellite ever found to possess dense Atmosphere with 1.5 bars of pressure dominated by Nitrogen and Methane. The nitrogen found in Titan is found to be of secondary origin. Ideal range of temperature in Titan is 150-250K. Methane has been evident in Titan through the process of Serpentinisation. RADAR data have revealed vast expanse of Methane lakes in northern Hemisphere and also specular reflection from these liquid bodies. Titan’s Atmosphere also contains Ethane clouds, Acetylene and uniform mixing ratio of Hydrogen. Titan’s methane cycle is similar to Hydrological cycle on Earth. In short, surface is the key to Titan’s mysteries.
The concluding lecture was about ‘Lightening in Planetary Atmosphere’. Dust storms in Venus stimulate turbo electric processes which cause lightening due to frictional charges. This electric field is similar to Earth’s electric field’. Though lightening in venus has been a matter of question, Lightening processes in Saturn and Jupiter has been confirmed.

I have only mentioned a few lectures which were fascinating me. Still, there were many on Jupiter’s moon, Mercury’s Magnetic field and Exoplanets. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Prof. Haider who gave us an opportunity to attend this conference.

When I started walking out of PRL after the conference, words of Dr. Lasio (Radio Astronomer, NASA, JPL) silently echoed in my ears, “Because nature is more clever than we are, it's quite possible that we will discover something we haven't thought of!” I continued walking saying to myself, ‘Yes, someday, the incredible will be known and we would be in other planets looking for some signals from living beings on Earth’.

A GEOENGINEERING SOLUTION TO GLOBAL WARMING

Seldom are the remedies for Global Warming and Climate Change clobbered unequivocally and brought into light. Much have been spoken on alleviating pollution. The continuum looks endless!

Ruminating on the interior of cloud physics and atmospheric circulation, a Geo-Engineering solution has been recently discovered to increase the cooling effect and thereby increase rainfall.



(This was published in HINDU Final page dated 22-7-1990)

UNDERSTANDING VENUS

Beginning with the space exploration in 1960, the probes have revealed many remarkable and uncanny facts about the planetary diversity and their satellites. It was a astounding truth that despite the formation of all planets from the solar nebula, each planet exhibits its own geological, atmospheric and seasonal changes. The scientists discovered and reasoned numerous exacting processes on Earth through comparative studies with other extra terrestrial planets. This broke much new ground and made us realize that it takes more than instrument to make an orchestra.

For a scientist enduring to perpend over the truth, the mystery of retreating glaciers and green house effect would be more intriguing than the most thrilling pages of a novel. But, when the victim turned out to be our own planet, the scientific community was alarmed! Bewildering concepts of global warming and threatening statistics of sea level rise brought into limelight, the intrepid discussions on our ‘Next Hospitable Planet’.

Terraforming on Extra terrestrial planets gained momentum. We understood that we are just an example of a ‘much vaster and more varied tapestry’. The whole Universe opened before us t find our next destination. It was a joy to behold those scores of creative ideas gave mankind, the unseen yet existing zones of our Solar System.

Even years of work can go for naught if the concepts and results do not reach the common man! Hence I would like to share some seminal facts on Venus from one of the discussions I recently attended.

Venus, much known as the sister planet of Earth is often visualized as a morning star or an Evening star in the sky. Walking down the history of our nearest neighbor, We can see how this planet was traced and viewed in the past. Galileo saw the phases of Venus through his amateur telescope. Captain Hookes and his team finalized the drawings of the phases of Venus. But the time or the split second when the limb of Venus actually passed in front of the Sun was still unanswered. The planet was found to have had a moderate temperature in the past with liquid water on its surface and active ‘Intra plate tectonics’. The planet became a scientific labyrinth due to its abnormal East to west spin unike the West to East spin of Planets housing solid rocks(Only three planets in the solar system have been found to have this negative spin ; Venus, Uranus and Pluto(gaseous comp). The length of a sidereal day was -243.0187. One solar day on Venus is equal to 116 solar days on Earth! Due to its spin axis of 177.8 degree, the seasons on Northern and Southern Hemisphere of Venus was almost symmetrical. The near surface temperature was same everywhere on the planet.

Mariner 2 was the first mission which flew by venus in 1962. Magelan gave high resolution images of Venus in 1986. Venera 6 was a hard lander to study the winds in the deep space. Venera 8 was a soft lander . Such missions gave us mind boggling results about the surface pressure (92 bars), Air temperature(737K) , density (65Kg/m3 ) and wind speed (0.3-1m/s – Though Similar to Earth,the pressure makes the huge difference). Ratio of dueterium to hydrogen was found to be higher than Earth which made the remote sensing Hydrologists to ponder over the existence of water. The atmospheric composition was almost similar to Mars (96.5co2 and 3.5 N2).
The UV spectra showed absorptions bands at specific wavelengths. But tracing the compounds which absorbed UV rays remained a tangential question. Venus had convective clouds similar to Earth but the composition was of H2SO4. Hypotheses predict the existence of condensed Co2 clouds on Venus.


Due to very high scattering and presence of thick H2SO4 clouds, the visible and infrared imaging may be futile. The Microwave window is predominantly used to study the wind patterns and their speeds. The lack of magnetic field stands to hamstring the method of retrieval of directions in this less understood planet. Venus Express launched in 2005 gave an idea on the active volcanoes on Venus(A paper published in science states the eruption of volcano a year back ). Venus Express had devices same as the Mars Express except the OMEGA( Here it was SPICA’P’ instead of SPICA’M’ on MARS EXPRESS).


It also concluded the vortex circulations on Venus similar to Earth. The hurricane formation was also not different from the Earth. Magellan imaged the panoramic view of the planet replete with basaltic rocks ( This conjecture is taken from the existing volcano).
Still, the doubts linger; questions remain.

* How does this planet lose its heat?
* What is the triggering factor for Green house effect?
* Were there fluidized flows of sulphuric acid on this inhospitable planet?
* Is it currently geologically active?
* Does it really hold a intra plate tectonics?



FUTURE MISSIONS TO VENUS:

1. Venus Climate Orbiter – 21 May 2010(AKATSUKI).
2. EVE- An European balloon FALL 2010
3. Venera D 2016
4. Design Reference mission


AKATSUKI:

* Wavelength bands in UV-IR
* 30 Hr Equatorial orbit
* Radio occultation for atm profiles
* 5 cameras
* It will move with clouds and will be highly geosynchronous.


Another 5.5 prototype superpressure balloon is being designed by JPL/NASA. It is made of canvas coated with film. It will image from 55km from surface of Venus for about 1 MONTH.


With such scintillating breakthrough in space applications, I’m sure that the day is not too far when we will hear the voices of Extra terrestrials through Interstellar and Interplanetary communication. Let’s tune our minds to welcome them.

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.