Home About us Contact | |||
Thermal Images (thermal + image)
Selected AbstractsThe effect of gravity on surface temperatures of plant leavesPLANT CELL & ENVIRONMENT, Issue 4 2003Y. KITAYA ABSTRACT A fundamental study was conducted to develop a facility having an adequate air circulation system for growing healthy plants over a long-term under microgravity conditions in space. To clarify the effects of gravity on heat exchange between plant leaves and the ambient air, surface temperatures of sweet potato and barley leaves and replica leaves made of wet paper and copper were evaluated at gravity levels of 0.01, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 g for 20 s each during parabolic aeroplane flights. Thermal images were captured using infrared thermography at an air temperature of 26 °C, a relative humidity of 18% and an irradiance of 260 W m,2. Mean leaf temperatures increased by 0.9,1.0 °C with decreasing gravity levels from 1.0 to 0.01 g and decreased by 0.5 °C with increasing gravity levels from 1.0 to 2.0 g. The increase in leaf temperatures was at most 1.9 °C for sweet potato leaves over 20 s as gravity decreased from 1.0 to 0.01 g. The boundary layer conductance to sensible heat exchange decreased by 5% when the gravity decreased from 1.0 to 0.01 g at the air velocity of 0.2 m s,1. The decrease in the boundary layer conductance with decrease in the gravity levels was more significant in a lower air velocity. Heat exchange between leaves and the ambient air was more retarded at lower gravity levels because of less sensible and latent heat transfers with less heat convection. [source] Transport of larval jack mackerel (Trachurus japonicus) estimated from trajectories of satellite-tracked drifters and advective velocity fields obtained from sequential satellite thermal images in the eastern East China SeaFISHERIES OCEANOGRAPHY, Issue 6 2002Hee-Yong Kim Abstract Transport processes of jack mackerel (Trachurus japonicus) larvae in the waters off the west coast of Kyushu in the eastern East China Sea, have been investigated using satellite-tracked surface drifters and consecutive satellite thermal images. Trajectories of drifters describe northward flows over the continental shelf, eastward flows of the Kuroshio south-west of Kyushu, and a weak clockwise gyre off the west coast of Kyushu. In particular, the clockwise gyre causes the entrainment of jack mackerel larvae into the waters off the west coast of Kyushu. Consecutive satellite thermal images help to elucidate the northward warm water intrusion from the Kuroshio front south-west of Kyushu. Particle trajectories using sea surface current fields computed with the Maximum Cross Correlation (MCC) technique also reveal that the transport of jack mackerel larvae into the nursery ground off the west coast of Kyushu caused by the anti-cyclonic gyre and the warm streamers are an important process for successful recruitment. [source] Water savings in mature deciduous forest trees under elevated CO2GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, Issue 12 2007SEBASTIAN LEUZINGER Abstract Stomatal conductance of plants exposed to elevated CO2 is often reduced. Whether this leads to water savings in tall forest-trees under future CO2 concentrations is largely unknown but could have significant implications for climate and hydrology. We used three different sets of measurements (sap flow, soil moisture and canopy temperature) to quantify potential water savings under elevated CO2 in a ca. 35 m tall, ca. 100 years old mixed deciduous forest. Part of the forest canopy was exposed to 540 ppm CO2 during daylight hours using free air CO2 enrichment (FACE) and the Swiss Canopy Crane (SCC). Across species and a wide range of weather conditions, sap flow was reduced by 14% in trees subjected to elevated CO2, yielding ca. 10% reduction in evapotranspiration. This signal is likely to diminish as atmospheric feedback through reduced moistening of the air comes into play at landscape scale. Vapour pressure deficit (VPD)-sap flow response curves show that the CO2 effect is greatest at low VPD, and that sap flow saturation tends to occur at lower VPD in CO2 -treated trees. Matching stomatal response data, the CO2 effect was largely produced by Carpinus and Fagus, with Quercus contributing little. In line with these findings, soil moisture at 10 cm depth decreased at a slower rate under high-CO2 trees than under control trees during rainless periods, with a reversal of this trend during prolonged drought when CO2 -treated trees take advantage from initial water savings. High-resolution thermal images taken at different heights above the forest canopy did detect reduced water loss through altered energy balance only at <5 m distance (0.44 K leaf warming of CO2 -treated Fagus trees). Short discontinuations of CO2 supply during morning hours had no measurable canopy temperature effects, most likely because the stomatal effects were small compared with the aerodynamic constraints in these dense, broad-leaved canopies. Hence, on a seasonal basis, these data suggest a <10% reduction in water consumption in this type of forest when the atmosphere reaches 540% ppm CO2. [source] Spatial near-infrared imaging of hydroxyl band coverage on ceria-based catalystsAICHE JOURNAL, Issue 4 2006Farid Aiouache Abstract High-throughput near-infrared imaging was used to distinguish catalyst activity for low-temperature methane steam-reforming. Geminal hydroxyls of reduced ceria were depicted during methane reforming at 673 K. The changes in absorbance maps under various water partial pressures showed evidence of formate intermediate formations without redox exchanges. Higher resolution was observed in absorbance change images than that of thermal images obtained from catalyst surface self-emissions. The experimental results illustrated higher activity of pure rhodium catalyst than that of bimetallic ones, likely because of the high dispersion of rhodium on the catalyst support. Moreover, the reaction was accelerated when high surface area silica was added because more reduced sites were exposed. Our filter bandwidths limited our interest in band-shift distribution of geminal hydroxyl band during the reduction process. © 2005 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2006 [source] |