In this paper I will discuss future synergies between the Japanese MAXI X-ray all-sky monitor, to be placed on the International Space Station in 2009, and the next-generation radio astronomy array LOFAR, currenlty under construction in The Netherlands. The wide fields of view and multiple beams of LOFAR will allow, in combination with MAXI, simultaneous all-sky monitoring of the sky in both th...

SkyMapper is amongst the first of a new generation of dedicated, widefield survey telescopes. The 1.3m SkyMapper telescope features a 5.7 square degree field-of-view Cassegrain imager and will see first light in late 2007. The primary goal of the facility is to conduct the Southern Sky Survey a six colour, six epoch survey of the southern sky. The survey will provide photometry for objects betw...

Openness is proposed as a visualization technique for the archaeological interpretation of digital terrain models derived from airborne laser scanning. In contrast to various shading techniques, openness is not subject to directional bias and relief features highlighted by openness do not contain any horizontal displacement. Additionally, it offers a clear distinction between relief features an...

An urban heat island (UHI) is a climate phenomenon that results in an increased air temperature in cities when compared to their rural surroundings. In this Letter, the dependence of an UHI on urban geometry is studied. Multiyear urban-rural temperature differences and building footprints data combined with a heat radiation scaling model are used to demonstrate for more than 50 cities worldwide...

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is the largest ongoing sky survey. It regularly makes data releases to the astronomical community. From a macroscopic point of view, a profound question is: what is the role of SDSS data releases in the evolution of the relevant scientific fields? In this paper, we introduce an integrated approach by combining statistical, information-theoretical, and symboli...

We present 3 methods for the subtraction of non-cosmic and unresolved cosmic backgrounds observed by the Low-Energy Concentrator Spectrometer (LECS) on-board BeppoSAX. Removal of these backgrounds allows a more accurate modeling of the spectral data from point and small-scale extended sources. At high (>|25|) galactic latitudes, subtraction using a standard background spectrum works well. At lo...

The pattern-matching algorithms originally developed for Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) (flying on the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra platform) cloud retrieval have also proven useful in independently providing quality assurance of the coregistration of multiangle measurements with the nadir view. Two new techniques developed to test the coregistration are described in this pa...

Orbital detectors without pointing capability have to keep their field of view axis laying on their orbital plane, to observe the largest sky fraction. A general approach to estimate the exposure of each sky element for such detectors is a valuable tool in the R&D phase of a project, when the detector characteristics are still to be fixed. An analytical method to estimate the sky exposure is de...