Sky polarization patterns can be used both as indicators of atmospheric turbidity and as a sun compass for navigation. The objective of this study is to improve the precision of sky light polarization measurements by optimal design of the device used. The central part of the system is composed of a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) camera; a fish-eye lens and a linear polarizer. Algorithms for estima...

The solar radiation intercepted at a given location on the earth's surface is influenced by surface orientation and sky obstruction by surrounding topographic features. Viewshed models can be used to calculate sky obstruction for any given location on or above a complex topographic surface. We have developed an algorithm for rapid calculation of intercepted solar radiation using a combination o...

Photovoltaic production is mostly driven by the solar irradiance received at ground level. Forecasting surface solar irradiance remains to predict the cloudiness and combine it with the value of the irradiance modeled under a clear sky for the same area at the same forecast horizon. Thus, uncertainty of irradiance under clear sky can affect significantly the photovoltaic production forecast. Cl...

OBJECTIVE Examine whether there are unique patterns of brain activation associated with exposure to photographic sky compositions (representing nature stimuli) as compared with other positive, negative, and neutral images. BACKGROUND The positive impact of nature images on health outcomes traditionally has been measured using behavioral and physiological indicators. However, there is a lack o...

The BATSE mission aboard CGRO monitored the whole sky in the 20 keV 1 MeV energy band continuously from April 1991 until June 2000. Although BATSE had very poor intrinsic angular resolution, the data can be used to survey the entire soft gamma-ray sky with < 1◦ angular resolution and ∼mCrab sensitivity by using the Earth occultation method. This method determines flux by measuring the step in t...

In this paper we pursue the origin of the non-Gaussianity determined by a bispec-trum analysis of the COBE-DMR 4-year sky maps. The robustness of the statistic is demonstrated by the rebinning of the data into 12 coordinate systems. By computing the bispectrum statistic as a function of various data partitions – by channel, frequency, and time interval, we show that the observed non-Gaussian si...

We study the contamination of the B–mode of the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization (CMBP) by Galactic synchrotron in the lowest emission regions of the sky. The 22.8-GHz polarization map of the 3-years WMAP data release is used to identify and analyse such regions. Two areas are selected with signal-to-noise ratio S/N < 2 and S/N < 3, covering ∼ 16% and ∼ 26% fraction of the sky, respecti...