The lower boundary condition of sea surface temperature (SST) and sea-ice concentration (sic) is a critical forcing of the lower frequencies in multi-decadal global atmospheric reanalyses such as ERA-40. Partly in response to the ERA-40 project, new SST/sic data sets have been developed that are considerably improved over those available to the first-generation reanalyses. This paper documents the input SST/sic data sets and the processing that created the daily SST/sic specification for the ERA-40 period 1956-2001. The source data are: (1) the monthly mean HadISST data set from the UKMO Hadley Centre for 1956-1981; and (2) the weekly NCEP 2DVAR data for 1982-present. Both data sets are reanalyses of satellite and conventional SST/sic observations. The principal reason for the higher quality of these source data sets is the use of a common consensus sic and a common sic-SST relationship in the sea ice margins. The use of a common sic resulted in a very smooth transition between HadISST and NCEP 2DVAR, despite differences in data assimilation techniques and monthly versus weekly analyses. No special action was required to insure consistency at the transition unlike as was necessary for the AMIP II experiment (Fiorino, 1997). The only special processing was application …

The ''Symposium on Microscale Separations and Analysis'' event, held as a section of the American Chemical Society Annual meeting on 27 August 2001, brought together engineers, physicists, and chemists from both academia and industry to discuss the latest research in the area of biomolecule analysis on microfluidic devices for genomic and proteomic applications.

This report describes the work performed to develop and test a new switching system and communications network that is useful for economically switching lighting circuits in existing commercial buildings. The first section of the report provides the general background of the IBECS (Integrated Building Environmental Communications System) research and development work as well as the context for the development of the new switching system. The research and development effort that went into producing the first proof-of-concept (the IBECS Addressable Power Switch or APS) and the physical prototype of that concept is detailed in the second section. In the third section of the report, we detail the refined Powerline Carrier Based IBECS Title 24 Wall Switch system that evolved from the APS prototype. The refined system provided a path for installing IBECS switching technology in existing buildings that may not be already wired for light level switching control. The final section of the report describes the performance of the IBECS Title 24 Switch system as applied to a small demonstration in two offices at LBNL's Building 90. We learned that the new Powerline Carrier control systems (A-10 technology) that have evolved from the early X-10 systems have solved most of the …

Mid-infrared gas laser technology promises to become a unique tool for research in strong-field relativistic physics. The degree to which physics is relativistic is determined by a ponderomotive potential. At a given intensity, a 10 {micro}m wavelength CO{sub 2} laser reaches a 100 times higher ponderomotive potential than the 1 {micro}m wavelength solid state lasers. Thus, we can expect a proportional increase in the throughput of such processes as laser acceleration, x-ray production, etc. These arguments have been confirmed in proof-of-principle Thomson scattering and laser acceleration experiments conducted at BNL and UCLA where the first terawatt-class CO{sub 2} lasers are in operation. Further more, proposals for the 100 TW, 100 fs CO{sub 2} lasers based on frequency-chirped pulse amplification have been conceived. Such lasers can produce physical effects equivalent to a hypothetical multi-petawatt solid state laser. Ultra-fast mid-infrared lasers will open new routes to the next generation electron and ion accelerators, ultra-bright monochromatic femtosecond x-ray and gamma sources, allow to attempt the study of Hawking-Unruh radiation, and explore relativistic aspects of laser-matter interactions. We review the present status and experiments with terawatt-class CO{sub 2} lasers, sub-petawatt projects, and prospective applications in strong-field science.

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The U. S. Air Force Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS) which includes a 941 actuator adaptive optics system on a 3.7m telescope has recently been made available for astronomical programs. Operating at a wavelength of 750 nm, the diffraction-limited angular resolution of the system is 0.04 inches; currently, the magnitude limit is V {approx} 7 mag. At the distances of nearby open clusters, diffraction-limited images should resolve companions with separations as small as 4-6 AU--comparable to the Sun-Jupiter distance. The ability to study such close separations is critical, since most companions are expected to have separations in the few AU to tens of AU range. With the exceptional angular resolution of the current AEOS setup, but restricted target magnitude range, we are conducting a companion search of a large, well-defined sample of bright early-type stars in nearby open clusters and in the field. Our data set will both characterize this relatively new adaptive optics system and answer questions in binary star formation and stellar X-ray activity. We will discuss our experience using AEOS, the data analysis involved, and our initial results.

A spatial variation of temperature in the sodium film on the surface of the grazing incidence liquid metal mirror (GILMM) will give rise to convection due to the temperature dependent variation in surface tension. This is called thermal capillary convection or the Marangoni effect and causes the surface to have ripples or waves. This note estimates the magnitude of this effect and finds, with care, design parameters can be chosen to make the resulting ripples sufficiently small so that a laser beam can be focused on a target of 1/4 mm spot size at 30 m distance, for example. Smaller spot sizes are discussed.

The authors have developed tools for the efficient preparation of CAD geometries for mesh generation. Geometries are read from IGES files and then maintained in a boundary-representation consisting of a patchwork of trimmed and untrimmed surfaces. Gross errors in the geometry can be identified and removed automatically while a user interface is provided for manipulating the geometry (such as correcting invalid trimming curves or removing unwanted details). Modifying the geometry by adding or deleting surfaces and/or sectioning it by arbitrary planes (e.g. symmetry planes) is also supported. These tools are used for robust and accurate geometry models for initial mesh generation and will be applied to in situ mesh generation requirements of moving and adaptive grid simulations.

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was conducted on these four Beam Enclosure Assembly drawings: (1) AAA97-108954 (Quad); (2) AAA97-108981 (Quad Intermediate); (3) AAA98-101193 (Bundle); and (4) AAA97-108982 (Double Quad). Each drawing chosen represents one of the four enclosure types: Quad, Quad Intermediate, Bundle, and Double Quad. They were chosen because they have the longest length between supports for their type and are therefore the worse case condition from the standpoint of seismic induced stress. The purpose of the analysis was to find the maximum acceleration that each enclosure assembly can withstand and with this value determine the safety factor.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Alvin, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Tri-weekly student newspaper from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

B-roll video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Newsletter of the Texas Department of Health discussing the news, activities, and events of the organization and other information related to health in Texas.

This brief news article provides preliminary evidence that global warming may have sped up the pace at which grasslands are being overtaken by mesquite, creosote and other shrubs at desert sites around the world.

Daily newspaper from Sapulpa, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) sponsored a project to help accelerate the large-scale use of wind energy technologies in Mongolia through the development of a wind energy resource atlas of Mongolia. DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) administered and conducted this project in collaboration with USAID and Mongolia. The Mongolian organizations participating in this project were the Scientific, Production, and Trade Corporation for Renewable Energy (REC) and the Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (IMH). The primary goals of the project were to develop detailed wind resource maps for all regions of Mongolia for a comprehensive wind resource atlas, and to establish a wind-monitoring program to identify prospective sites for wind energy projects and help validate some of the wind resource estimates.

Run 2 at Fermilab began in March 2001. CDF will collect data at a maximum rate of 20 MByte/sec during the run. The offline reconstruction of this data must keep up with the data taking rate. This reconstruction occurs on a large PC farm, which must have the capacity for quasi-real time data reconstruction, for reprocessing of some data and for generation and processing of Monte Carlo samples. In this paper they give the design requirements for the farm, describe the hardware and software design used to meet those requirements, describe the early experiences with Run 2 data processing, and discuss future prospects for the farm, including some ideas about Run 2b processing.