Uncertainty of Slope Length Derived from Digital Elevation Models of the Loess Plateau, China

Although many studies have investigated slope gradient uncertainty derived from Digital Elevation Models(DEMs), the research concerning slope length uncertainty is far from mature. This discrepancy affects the availability and accuracy of soil erosion as well as hydrological modeling. This study investigates the formation and distribution of existing errors and uncertainties in slope length derivation based on 5-m resolution DEMs of the Loess Plateau in the middle of China. The slope length accuracy in three different landform areas is examined to analyse algorithm effects. The experiments indicate that the accuracy of the flat test area is lower than that of the rougher areas. The value from the specific contributing area(SCA) method is greater than the cumulative slope length(CSL), and the differences between these two methods arise from the shape of the upslope area. The variation of mean slope length derived from various DEM resolutions and landforms. The slope length accuracy decreases with increasing grid size and terrain complexity at the six test sites. A regression model is built to express the relationship of mean slope length with DEM resolution less than 85 m and terrain complexity represented by gully density. The results support the understanding of the slope length accuracy, thereby aiding in the effective evaluation of the modeling effect of surface process.

A 5-bit time to digital converter using time to voltage conversion and integrating techniques for agricultural products analysis by Raman spectroscopy

Time to digital converter(TDC)is a key block for time-gated single photon avalanche diode(SPAD)arrays for Raman spectroscopy that applicable in the agricultural products and food analysis.In this paper a new dual slope time to digital converter that employs the time to voltage conversion and integrating techniques for digitizing the time interval input signals is presented.The reference clock frequency of the TDC is 100 MHz and the input range is theoretically unlimited.The proposed converter features high accuracy,very small average error and high linear range.Also this converter has some advantages such as low circuit complexity,low power consumption and low sensitive to the temperature,power supply and process changes(PVT)compared with the time to digital converters that used preceding conversion techniques.The proposed converter uses an indirect time to digital conversion method.Therefore,our converter has the appropriate linearity without extra elements.In order to evaluate the proposed idea,an integrating time to digital converter is designed in 0.18 lm CMOS technology and was simulated by Hspice.Comparison of the theoretical and simulation results confirms the proposed TDC operation;therefore,the proposed converter is very convenient for applications which have average speed and low variations in the signal amplitude such as biomedical signals.