VARIATIONAL DATA ASSIMILATION USING WAVELET BACKGROUND ERROR COVARIANCE: INITIALIZATION OF TYPHOON KAEMI (2006)

Background error covariance plays an important role in any variational data assimilation system, because it determines how information from observations is spread in model space and between different model variables. In this paper, the use of orthogonal wavelets in representation of background error covariance over a limited area is studied. Based on the WRF model and its 3D-VAR system, an algorithm using orthogonal wavelets to model background error covariance is developed. Because each wavelet function contains information on both position and scale, using a diagonal correlation matrix in wavelet space gives the possibility to represent some anisotropic and inhomogeneous characteristics of background error covariance. The experiments show that local correlation functions are better modeled than spectral methods. The formulation of wavelet background error covariance is tested with the typhoon Kaemi (2006). The results of experiments indicate that the subsequent forecasts of typhoon Kaemi’s track and intensity are significantly improved by the new method.

Glaciers One-TimemThe Society Protagonist of the Research

Glaciers one-time involves the citizenship in the development of a popular scientific project, which, among its objectives, aims to make the society conscious of the glacial retreat in action and to quantify the changes in the mountain landscape. All are invited to take photographs of the modern Italian glaciers with the exact points of view of historical photographs, and to make photographic comparisons. Glaciers one-time is carried out in collaboration with institutions that carry out glaciological activities. The institutional network so has the goal to cooperate together for the promotion of research within the society and the understanding of the landscape changes due to retreat of the glaciers. With the active participation of citizenship, it was possible to do a picture of glaciation to publicize the awareness of the state of health of the glaciers and to disseminate the importance of the cryosphere.

A modeling method for virtual scene based on multi-view image sequence

Through the analysis and comparison of shortcomings and advantages of existing technologies on object modeling in 3D applications,we propose a new modeling method for virtual scene based on multi-view image sequence to model irregular objects efficiently in 3D application.In 3D scene,this method can get better visual effect by tracking the viewer's real-time perspective position and projecting the photos from different perspectives dynamically.The philosophy of design,the steps of development and some other relevant topics are discussed in details,and the validity of the algorithm is analyzed.The results demonstrate that this method represents more superiority on simulating irregular objects by applying it to the modeling of virtual museum.

Large second-harmonic vortex beam generation with quasi-nonlinear spin–orbit interaction

A harmonic vortex beam is a typical vector beam with a helical wavefront at harmonic frequencies(e.g.,second and third harmonics). It provides an additional degree of freedom beyond spin-and orbitalangular momentum, which may greatly increase the capacity for communicating and encoding information. However, conventional harmonic vortex beam generators suffer from complex designs and a low nonlinear conversion efficiency. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate the generation of a large second-harmonic(SH) vortex beam with quasi-nonlinear spin–orbit interaction(SOI). Highquality SH vortex beams with large topological charges up to 28 are realized experimentally. This indicated that the quasi-angular-momentum of a plasmonic spiral phase plate at the excitation wavelength(topological charge, q) could be imprinted on the harmonic signals from the attached WS2 monolayer. The generated harmonic vortex beam has a topological charge of l_(n)= 2 nq(n is the harmonic order). The results may open new avenues for generating harmonic optical vortices for optical communications and enables novel multi-functional hybrid metasurface devices to manipulate harmonic beams.