Naval Postgraduate School

About: Naval Postgraduate School is a education organization based out in Monterey, California, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Tropical cyclone & Nonlinear system. The organization has 5246 authors who have published 11614 publications receiving 298300 citations. The organization is also known as: NPS & U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.

Ocean circulation and exchanges through the northern Bering Sea—1979–2001 model results

Abstract: We have developed and run a model with sufficiently high resolution (∼9 km and 45 levels) and a large enough spatial domain to allow for realistic representation of flow through the narrow and shallow straits in the northern Bering Sea. This is potentially important for quantification of long-term mean and time-dependent ocean circulation, and water mass and property exchanges between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans. Over a 23 year interval (1979–2001), mean transport through Bering Strait is estimated to be 0.65 Sv. Comparison of our model results with published observations indicates that ocean circulation is not only variable at seasonal to interdecadal scales but it is also responsive to short-term atmospheric forcing. One of such events occurred during the winter of 2000–2001 with reversed oceanic flow in some areas and much reduced sea-ice cover. Analyses of eddy kinetic energy fields identify some high biological productivity regions of the Chirikov Basin coincident with persistent high energy (up to 2700 cm 2 s −2 in the surface layer and up to 2600 cm 2 s −2 at mid-depth) throughout the annual cycle. Model output in the Bering Strait region is validated against several time series of moored observations of water mass properties. Comparison with shipboard observations of near-bottom salinity from late winter through autumn indicates that the model reasonably represents the major water-mass properties in the region. The modeled vertical water-column structure in the northern Bering Sea allows increased understanding of the mechanisms of water transformation and transport northward through Bering Strait into the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. We conclude that the long-term model results for the northern Bering Sea provide important insights into the ocean circulation and fluxes and they are a useful frame of reference for limited observations that are short-term and/or cover only a small geographic region.

Variability of sea ice simulations assessed with RGPS kinematics

Abstract: [1] Sea ice drift and deformation from coupled ice-ocean models are compared with high-resolution ice motion from the RADARSAT Geophysical Processor System (RGPS). In contrast to buoy drift, the density and extent of the RGPS coverage allows a more extensive assessment and understanding of model simulations at spatial scales from ∼10 km to near basin scales and from days to seasonal timescales. This work illustrates the strengths of the RGPS data set as a basis for examining model ice drift and its gradients. As it is not our intent to assess relative performance, we have selected four models with a range of attributes and grid resolution. Model fields are examined in terms of ice drift, export, deformation, deformation-related ice production, and spatial deformation patterns. Even though the models are capable of reproducing large-scale drift patterns, variability among model behavior is high. When compared to the RGPS kinematics, the characteristics shared by the models are (1) ice drift along coastal Alaska and Siberia is slower, (2) the skill in explaining the time series of regional divergence of the ice cover is poor, and (3) the deformation-related volume production is consistently lower. Attribution of some of these features to specific causes is beyond our current scope because of the complex interplay between model processes, parameters, and forcing. The present work suggests that high-resolution ice drift observations, like those from the RGPS, would be essential for future model developments, improvements, intercomparisons, and especially for evaluation of the small-scale behavior of models with finer grid spacing.

Microelectromechanical systems bimaterial terahertz sensor with integrated metamaterial absorber

Abstract: This Letter describes the fabrication of a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) bimaterial terahertz (THz) sensor operating at 3.8 THz. The incident THz radiation is absorbed by a metamaterial structure integrated with the bimaterial. The absorber was designed with a resonant frequency matching the quantum cascade laser illumination source while simultaneously providing structural support, desired thermomechanical properties and optical readout access. Measurement showed that the fabricated absorber has nearly 90% absorption at 3.8 THz. A responsivity of 0.1°/μW and a time constant of 14 ms were observed. The use of metamaterial absorbers allows for tuning the sensor response to the desired frequency to achieve high sensitivity for potential THz imaging applications.

The Minimalization of Tree Automata

Abstract: A tree automaton is a system ( Q , f 1 , …, f k , F ) where Q is a set of states, f 1 , …, f k are operations on Q of arbitrary finite index, and F ⊆ Q is a set of final states. The input to a tree automaton is a tree structure and thus the behavior of a tree automaton is a set of trees. These automata are generalizations of ordinary automata, in which all f 's are unary. An algorithm for constructing a minimal tree automaton is given.