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At least 19 records

Greater Sage-Grouse Habitat Use and Population Demographics at the Simpson Ridge Wind Resource Area, Carbon County, Wyoming

This study was conducted to obtain baseline data on use of the proposed Simpson Ridge Wind Resource Area (SRWRA) in Carbon County, Wyoming by greater sage-grouse. The first two study years were designed to determine pre-construction seasonally selected habitats and population-level vital rates (productivity and survival). The presence of an existing wind energy facility in the project area, the PacifiCorp Seven Mile Hill (SMH) project, allowed us to obtain some information on initial sage-grouse response to wind turbines the first two years following construction. To our knowledge these are the first quantitative data on sage-grouse response to an existing wind energy development. This report presents results of the first two study years (April 1, 2009 through March 30, 2011). This study was selected for continued funding by the National Wind Coordinating Collaborative Sage-Grouse Collaborative (NWCC-SGC) and has been ongoing since March 30, 2011. Future reports summarizing results of this research will be distributed through the NWCC-SGC. To investigate population trends through time, we determined the distribution and numbers of males using leks throughout the study area, which included a 4-mile radius buffer around the SRWRA. Over the 2-year study, 116 female greater sage-grouse were captured by spotlighting and use of hoop nets on roosts surrounding leks during the breeding period. Radio marked birds were located anywhere from twice a week to once a month, depending on season. All radio-locations were classified to season. We developed predictor variables used to predict success of fitness parameters and relative probability of habitat selection within the SRWRA and SMH study areas. Anthropogenic features included paved highways, overhead transmission lines, wind turbines and turbine access roads. Environmental variables included vegetation and topography features. Home ranges were estimated using a kernel density estimator. We developed resource selection functions (RSF) to estimate probability of selection within the SRWRA and SMH. Fourteen active greater sage-grouse leks were documented during lek surveys Mean lek size decreased from 37 in 2008 to 22 in 2010. Four leks located 0.61, 1.3, 1.4 and 2.5 km from the nearest wind turbine remained active throughout the study, but the total number of males counted on these four leks decreased from 162 the first year prior to construction (2008), to 97 in 2010. Similar lek declines were noted in regional leks not associated with wind energy development throughout Carbon County. We obtained 2,659 sage-grouse locations from radio-equipped females, which were used to map use of each project area by season. The sage-grouse populations within both study areas are relatively non-migratory, as radio-marked sage-grouse used similar areas during all annual life cycles. Potential impacts to sage-grouse from wind energy infrastructure are not well understood. The data rom this study provide insight into the early interactions of wind energy infrastructure and sage-grouse. Nest success and brood-rearing success were not statistically different between areas with and without wind energy development in the short-term. Nest success also was not influenced by anthropogenic features such as turbines in the short-term. Additionally, female survival was similar among both study areas, suggesting wind energy infrastructure was not impacting female survival in the short-term; however, further analysis is needed to identify habitats with different levels of risk to better understand the impact of wind energy development on survival. Nest and brood-rearing habitat selection were not influenced by turbines in the short-term; however, summer habitat selection occurred within habitats closer to wind turbines. Major roads were avoided in both study areas and during most of the seasons. The impact of transmission lines varied among study areas, suggesting other landscape features may be influencing selection. The data provided in this report are preliminary and are not meant to provide a basis for forming any conclusions regarding potential impacts of wind energy development on sage-grouse. Although the data collected during the initial phases of this study indicate that greater sage-grouse may continue to use habitats near wind-energy facilities, research conducted on greater sage-grouse response to oil and gas development has found population declines may not occur until 2-10 years after development. Therefore, long-term data from several geographic areas within the range of the sage-grouse will likely be required to adequately assess impacts of wind-energy development on greater sage-grouse.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Greater sage-grouse apparent nest productivity and chick survival in Carbon County, Wyoming

Greater sage-grouse Centrocercus urophasianus populations across North America have been declining due to degradation and fragmentation of sagebrush habitat. As part of a study quantifying greater sage-grouse demographics prior to construction of a wind energy facility, we estimated apparent net nest productivity and survival rate of chicks associated with radio-equipped female sage-grouse in Carbon County, Wyoming, USA. We estimated apparent net nest productivity using a weighted mean of the average brood size and used a modified logistic-exposure method to estimate daily chick survival over a 70-day time period. Apparent nest productivity was 2.79 chicks per female (95% CI: 1.46–4.12) in 2011, 2.00 chicks per female (95% CI: 1.00–3.00) in 2012, and 1.54 chick per female (95% CI: 0.62–2.46) in 2013. Chick survival to 70 days post-hatch was 19.10% (95% CI: 6.22–37.42%) in 2011, 4.20% (95% CI: 0.84–12.31%) in 2012, and 16.05% (95% CI: 7.67–27.22%) in 2013. These estimates were low, yet within the range of other published survival rates. Chick survival was primarily associated with year and chick age, with minor effects of average temperature between surveys and hatch date. The variability in chick survival rates across years of our study suggests annual weather patterns may have large impacts on chick survival. Thus, management actions that increase the availability of food and cover for chicks may be necessary, especially during years with drought and above-average spring temperatures.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Injection Locking Techniques for Spectrum Analysis

Wideband spectrum analysis supports future communication systems that reconfigure and adapt to the capacity of the spectral environment. While test equipment manufacturers offer wideband spectrum analyzers with excellent sensitivity and resolution, these spectrum analyzers typically cannot offer acceptable size, weight, and power (SWAP). CMOS integrated circuits offer the potential to fully integrate spectrum analysis capability with analog front-end circuitry and digital signal processing on a single chip. Unfortunately, CMOS lacks high-Q passives and wideband resonator tunability that is necessary for heterodyne implementations of spectrum analyzers. As an alternative to the heterodyne receiver architectures, two nonlinear methods for performing wideband, low-power spectrum analysis are presented. The first method involves injecting the spectrum of interest into an array of injection-locked oscillators. The second method employs the closed loop dynamics of both injection locking and phase locking to independently estimate the injected frequency and power.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Simulations of cm-wavelength Sunyaev-Zel'dovich galaxy cluster and point source blind sky surveys and predictions for the RT32/OCRA-f and the Hevelius 100-m radio telescope

We investigate the effectiveness of blind surveys for radio sources and galaxy cluster thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effects (TSZEs) using the four-pair, beam-switched OCRA-f radiometer on the 32-m radio telescope in Poland. The predictions are based on mock maps that include the cosmic microwave background, TSZEs from hydrodynamical simulations of large scale structure formation, and unresolved radio sources. We validate the mock maps against observational data, and examine the limitations imposed by simplified physics. We estimate the effects of source clustering towards galaxy clusters from NVSS source counts around Planck-selected cluster candidates, and include appropriate correlations in our mock maps. The study allows us to quantify the effects of halo line-of-sight alignments, source confusion, and telescope angular resolution on the detections of TSZEs. We perform a similar analysis for the planned 100-m Hevelius radio telescope (RTH) equipped with a 49-beam radio camera and operating at frequencies up to 22 GHz.We find that RT32/OCRA-f will be suitable for small-field blind radio source surveys, and will detect 33{sup +17}{sub −11} new radio sources brighter than 0.87 mJy at 30 GHz in a 1 deg{sup 2} field at > 5σ CL during a one-year, non-continuous, observing campaign, taking account of Polish weather conditions. It is unlikely that any galaxy cluster will be detected at 3σ CL in such a survey. A 60-deg{sup 2} survey, with field coverage of 2{sup 2} beams per pixel, at 15 GHz with the RTH, would find <1.5 galaxy clusters per year brighter than 60 μJy (at 3σ CL), and would detect about 3.4 × 10{sup 4} point sources brighter than 1 mJy at 5σ CL, with confusion causing flux density errors ∼< 2% (20%) in 68% (95%) of the detected sources.A primary goal of the planned RTH will be a wide-area (π sr) radio source survey at 15 GHz. This survey will detect nearly 3 × 10{sup 5} radio sources at 5σ CL down to 1.3 mJy, and tens of galaxy clusters, in one year of operation with typical weather conditions. Confusion will affect the measured flux densities by ∼< 1.5% (16%) for 68% (95%) of the point sources. We also gauge the impact of the RTH by investigating its performance if equipped with the existing RT32 receivers, and the performance of the RT32 equipped with the RTH radio camera.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

CONSECUTIVE BRIGHT PULSES IN THE VELA PULSAR

We report on the discovery of consecutive bright radio pulses from the Vela pulsar, a new phenomenon that may lead to a greater understanding of the pulsar emission mechanism. This results from a total of 345 hr worth of observations of the Vela pulsar using the University of Tasmania's 26 m radio telescope to study the frequency and statistics of abnormally bright pulses and sub-pulses. The bright pulses show a tendency to appear consecutively. The observations found two groups of six consecutive bright pulses and many groups of two to five bright pulses in a row. The strong radio emission process that produces the six bright pulses lasts between 0.4 and 0.6 s. The numbers of bright pulses in sequence far exceed what would be expected if individual bright pulses were independent random events. Consecutive bright pulses must be generated by an emission process that is long lived relative to the rotation period of the neutron star.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Monitoring critical facilities by using advanced RF devices

The ability to monitor critical environment parameters of nuclear plants at all times, particularly during and after a disruptive accident, is vital for the safety of plant personnel, rescue and recovery crews, and the surrounding communities. Conventional hard-wired assets that depend on supplied power may be decimated as a result of such events, as witnessed in the Japanese Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 2011. Self-powered monitoring devices operating on a wireless platform, on the other hand, may survive such calamity and remain functional. The devices would be pre-positioned at strategic locations, particularly where the dangerous build-up of contamination and radiation may preclude subsequent manned entrance and surveillance. Equipped with sensors for β-γ radiation, neutrons, hydrogen gas, temperature, humidity, pressure, and water level, as well as with criticality alarms and imaging equipment for heat, video, and other capabilities, these devices can provide vital surveillance information for assessing the extent of plant damage, mandating responses (e.g., evacuation before impending hydrogen explosion), and enabling overall safe and efficient recovery in a disaster. A radio frequency identification (RFID)-based system - called ARG-US - may be modified and adapted for this task. Developed by Argonne for DOE, ARG-US (meaning 'watchful guardian') has been used successfully to monitor and track sensitive nuclear materials packages at DOE sites. It utilizes sensors in the tags to continuously monitor the state of health of the packaging and promptly disseminates alarms to authorized users when any of the preset sensor thresholds is violated. By adding plant-specific monitoring sensors to the already strong sensor suite and adopting modular hardware, firmware, and software subsystems that are tailored for specific subsystems of a plant, a Remote Area Modular Monitoring (RAMM) system, built on a wireless sensor network (WSN) platform, is being developed by Argonne National Laboratory. ARG-US RAMM, powered by on-board battery, can sustain extended autonomous surveillance operation during and following an incident. The benefits could be invaluable to such critical facilities as nuclear power plants, research and test reactors, fuel cycle manufacturing centers, spent-fuel dry-cask storage facilities, and other nuclear installations. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

LONG-TERM MONITORING OF MODE SWITCHING FOR PSR B0329+54

The mode-switching phenomenon of PSR B0329+54 is investigated based on the long-term monitoring from 2003 September to 2009 April made with the Urumqi 25 m radio telescope at 1540 MHz. At that frequency, the change of relative intensity between the leading and trailing components is the predominant feature of mode switching. The intensity ratios between the leading and trailing components are measured for the individual profiles averaged over a few minutes. It is found that the ratios follow normal distributions, where the abnormal mode has a greater typical width than the normal mode, indicating that the abnormal mode is less stable than the normal mode. Our data show that 84.9% of the time for PSR B0329+54 was in the normal mode and 15.1% was in the abnormal mode. From the two passages of eight-day quasi-continuous observations in 2004, supplemented by the daily data observed with the 15 m telescope at 610 MHz at Jodrell Bank Observatory, the intrinsic distributions of mode timescales are constrained with the Bayesian inference method. It is found that the gamma distribution with the shape parameter slightly smaller than 1 is favored over the normal, log-normal, and Pareto distributions. The optimal scale parameters of the gamma distribution are 31.5 minutes for the abnormal mode and 154 minutes for the normal mode. The shape parameters have very similar values, i.e., 0.75{sup +0.22}{sub -0.17} for the normal mode and 0.84{sup +0.28}{sub -0.22} for the abnormal mode, indicating that the physical mechanisms in both modes may be the same. No long-term modulation of the relative intensity ratios was found for either mode, suggesting that the mode switching was stable. The intrinsic timescale distributions, constrained for this pulsar for the first time, provide valuable information to understand the physics of mode switching.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Assessing the accuracy of microwave radiometers and radio acoustic sounding systems for wind energy applications

To assess current remote-sensing capabilities for wind energy applications, a remote-sensing system evaluation study, called XPIA (eXperimental Planetary boundary layer Instrument Assessment), was held in the spring of 2015 at NOAA's Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO) facility. Several remote-sensing platforms were evaluated to determine their suitability for the verification and validation processes used to test the accuracy of numerical weather prediction models. The evaluation of these platforms was performed with respect to well-defined reference systems: the BAO's 300 m tower equipped at six levels (50, 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300 m) with 12 sonic anemometers and six temperature ( T ) and relative humidity (RH) sensors; and approximately 60 radiosonde launches. In this study we first employ these reference measurements to validate temperature profiles retrieved by two co-located microwave radiometers (MWRs) as well as virtual temperature ( T v ) measured by co-located wind profiling radars equipped with radio acoustic sounding systems (RASSs). Results indicate a mean absolute error (MAE) in the temperature retrieved by the microwave radiometers below 1.5 K in the lowest 5?km of the atmosphere and a mean absolute error in the virtual temperature measured by the radio acoustic sounding systems below 0.8 K in the layer of the atmosphere covered by these measurements (up to approximately 1.6-2 km). We also investigated the benefit of the vertical velocity correction applied to the speed of sound before computing the virtual temperature by the radio acoustic sounding systems. We find that using this correction frequently increases the RASS error, and that it should not be routinely applied to all data. Water vapor density (WVD) profiles measured by the MWRs were also compared with similar measurements from the soundings, showing the capability of MWRs to follow the vertical profile measured by the sounding and finding a mean absolute error below 0.5 g m -3 in the lowest 5 km of the atmosphere. However, the relative humidity profiles measured by the microwave radiometer lack the high-resolution details available from radiosonde profiles. Furthermore, an encouraging and significant finding of this study was that the coefficient of determination between the lapse rate measured by the microwave radiometer and the tower measurements over the tower levels between 50 and 300 m ranged from 0.76 to 0.91, proving that these remote-sensing instruments can provide accurate information on atmospheric stability conditions in the lower boundary layer.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Technical Basis for Electromagnetic Compatibility Regulatory Guidance Update

The objective of this report is to serve as the technical basis document for the next, planned revision of this RG that highlights and provides the rationale for the recommended changes. The structure of this document follows and summarizes the several assessment activities undertaken during the course of this project to evaluate new and updated electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) standards, testing methods and limits, and relevant technology developments being incorporated into plant activities that may have EMI/RFI implications, as well as other specific issues, including impacts of electrostatic discharge (ESD) on safety equipment and impacts on increased usage of wireless devices in nuclear power plants.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

A TECHNIQUE FOR PRIMARY BEAM CALIBRATION OF DRIFT-SCANNING, WIDE-FIELD ANTENNA ELEMENTS

We present a new technique for calibrating the primary beam of a wide-field, drift-scanning antenna element. Drift-scan observing is not compatible with standard beam calibration routines, and the situation is further complicated by difficult-to-parameterize beam shapes and, at low frequencies, the sparsity of accurate source spectra to use as calibrators. We overcome these challenges by building up an interrelated network of source 'crossing points'-locations where the primary beam is sampled by multiple sources. Using the single assumption that a beam has 180 Degree-Sign rotational symmetry, we can achieve significant beam coverage with only a few tens of sources. The resulting network of crossing points allows us to solve for both a beam model and source flux densities referenced to a single calibrator source, circumventing the need for a large sample of well-characterized calibrators. We illustrate the method with actual and simulated observations from the Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Detection of global phenomena of technogenic ultraviolet and infrared nightglows onboard the Vernov satellite

The generation of transients in the Earth’s upper atmosphere under the action of electron fluxes and high- and low-frequency electromagnetic waves has been studied onboard the small Vernov spacecraft (solar synchronous orbit, 98° inclination, height 640–830 km). The studies were carried out with ultraviolet (UV, 240–380 nm), red–infrared (IR, 610–800 nm), gamma-ray (0.01–3 MeV), and electron (0.2–15 MeV) detectors as well as with high-frequency (0.05–15 MHz) and low-frequency (0.1 Hz–40 kHz) radio receivers. Artificial optical signals distributed along the meridian in an extended region of latitudes in the Earth’s Northern and Southern Hemispheres modulated by a low frequency were recorded during the nadir observations at nighttime. Examples of the oscillograms of such signals in the UV and IR spectral ranges and their global distribution are presented. The emission generation altitude and the atmospheric components that can be the sources of this emission are discussed. Particular attention is given to the technogenic causes of this glow in the ionosphere under the action of powerful low- and high-frequency radio stations on the ionosphere.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DISCOVERY OF TWO MILLISECOND PULSARS IN FERMI SOURCES WITH THE NANCAY RADIO TELESCOPE

We report the discovery of two millisecond pulsars in a search for radio pulsations at the positions of Fermi-Large Area Telescope sources with no previously known counterparts, using the Nancay Radio Telescope. The two millisecond pulsars, PSRs J2017+0603 and J2302+4442, have rotational periods of 2.896 and 5.192 ms and are both in binary systems with low-eccentricity orbits and orbital periods of 2.2 and 125.9 days, respectively, suggesting long recycling processes. Gamma-ray pulsations were subsequently detected for both objects, indicating that they power the associated Fermi sources in which they were found. The gamma-ray light curves and spectral properties are similar to those of previously detected gamma-ray millisecond pulsars. Detailed modeling of the observed radio and gamma-ray light curves shows that the gamma-ray emission seems to originate at high altitudes in their magnetospheres. Additionally, X-ray observations revealed the presence of an X-ray source at the position of PSR J2302+4442, consistent with thermal emission from a neutron star. These discoveries along with the numerous detections of radio-loud millisecond pulsars in gamma rays suggest that many Fermi sources with no known counterpart could be unknown millisecond pulsars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

INTEGRATED POLARIZATION OF SOURCES AT {lambda} {approx} 1 m AND NEW ROTATION MEASURE AMBIGUITIES

We present an analysis of the polarization of compact radio sources from six pointings of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope at 350 MHz with 35% coverage in {lambda}{sup 2}. After correcting for the off-axis instrumental polarization with a simple analytical model, only a small number of 585 strong sources have significant polarizations at these wavelengths. The median depolarization ratio from 1.4 GHz for the strongest sources is <0.2, reinforcing the likelihood that radio galaxies are found in magnetized environments, even outside of rich clusters. Seven sources with significant 350 MHz polarization were selected for a more in-depth Faraday structure analysis. We fit the observed values Q/I and U/I as a function of {lambda}{sup 2} using both a depolarizing screen and two-component models. We also performed rotation measure (RM) Synthesis/Clean and standard fitting of polarization angle versus {lambda}{sup 2}. We find that a single RM, as found using polarization angle fitting or simple screen models, commonly provides a poor fit when the solutions are translated back into Q, U space. Thus, although a single 'characteristic' RM may be found using these techniques, the Faraday structure of the source may not be adequately represented. We also demonstrate that RM Synthesis may yield an erroneous Faraday structure in the presence of multiple, interfering RM components, even when cleaning of the Faraday spectrum is performed. We briefly explore the conditions under which RMs and Faraday structure results can be reliable. Many measurements in the literature do not meet these criteria; we discuss how these influence the resulting scientific conclusions and offer a prescription for obtaining reliable RMs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Installation and Initial Operation of DOE's 449-MHz Wind Profiling Radars on the U.S. West Coast

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has recently completed the installation of three new wind profiling radars on the Washington and Oregon coasts. These systems operate at a frequency of 449 MHz and provide mean wind profiles to a height of roughly 8 km, with the maximum measurement height depending on time-varying atmospheric conditions. This is roughly half the depth of the troposphere at these latitudes. Each system is also equipped with a radio acoustic sounding system (RASS), which provides a measure of the temperature profile to heights of approximately 2 km. Other equipment deployed alongside the radar includes a surface meteorological station and GPS for column water vapor. This project began in fiscal year 2014, starting with equipment procurements and site selection. In addition, environmental reviews, equipment assembly and testing, site access agreements, and infrastructure preparations have been performed. Finally, with equipment deployment with data collection and dissemination, the primary tasks of this project have been completed. The three new wind profiling radars have been deployed at airports near Coos Bay, OR, and Astoria, OR, and at an industrial park near Forks, WA. Data are available through the NOAA Earth Systems Research Laboratory Data Display website, and will soon be made available through the DOE Atmosphere to Electrons data archive and portal as well.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

A COMBINED LOW-RADIO FREQUENCY/X-RAY STUDY OF GALAXY GROUPS. I. GIANT METREWAVE RADIO TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS AT 235 MHz AND 610 MHz

We present new Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope observations at 235 MHz and 610 MHz of 18 X-ray bright galaxy groups. These observations are part of an extended project, presented here and in future papers, which combines low-frequency radio and X-ray data to investigate the interaction between central active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and the intra-group medium (IGM). The radio images show a very diverse population of group-central radio sources, varying widely in size, power, morphology, and spectral index. Comparison of the radio images with Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray images shows that groups with significant substructure in the X-ray band and marginal radio emission at {approx}>1 GHz host low-frequency radio structures that correlate with substructures in IGM. Radio-filled X-ray cavities, the most evident form of AGN/IGM interaction in our sample, are found in half of the systems and are typically associated with small, low-, or mid-power double radio sources. Two systems, NGC5044 and NGC4636, possess multiple cavities, which are isotropically distributed around the group center, possibly due to group weather. In other systems the radio/X-ray correlations are less evident. However, the AGN/IGM interaction can manifest itself through the effects of the high-pressure medium on the morphology, spectral properties, and evolution of the radio-emitting plasma. In particular, the IGM can confine fading radio lobes in old/dying radio galaxies and prevent them from dissipating quickly. Evidence for radio emission produced by former outbursts that co-exist with current activity is found in six groups of the sample.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

THE UBIQUITOUS RADIO CONTINUUM EMISSION FROM THE MOST MASSIVE EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES

We have measured the radio continuum emission of 396 early-type galaxies brighter than K = 9, using 1.4 GHz imagery from the NRAO Very Large Array Sky Survey, Green Bank 300 ft Telescope, and 64 m Parkes Radio Telescope. For M{sub K} < -24 early-type galaxies, the distribution of radio powers at fixed absolute magnitude spans four orders of magnitude and the median radio power is proportional to K-band luminosity to the power 2.78 {+-} 0.16. The measured flux densities of M{sub K} < -25.5 early-type galaxies are greater than zero in all cases. It is thus highly likely that the most massive galaxies always host an active galactic nucleus or have recently undergone star formation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗