Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Citizen Science Sensor Development - Smap | Soil Moisture Active Passive, Hagop Hovhannesian

STAR Program Research Presentations

“Detailed monitoring of soil moisture provides a view of how our whole Earth system works.”

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite mission was launched in January 2015; its main purpose is to acquire global measurements of soil moisture. SMAP partnered with the GLOBE program (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment), which is an international program where students collect environmental variables in a scientifically methodical way. SMAP readings and maps have various uses in various fields, which include monitoring drought, predicting floods, assisting in crop productivity, and linking water, energy and carbon cycles. The goal of this project …

Thermally Induced Aggregation Of Rigid Spheres On A Liquid Surface, Eric Forgoston, Leo Hentschker, Siobhan Soltau, Patrick Truitt, Ashuwin Vaidya

Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Fluids provide the optimal setting to explore natural patterns far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Experiments suggest that randomly dispersed particles on a liquid surface tend to aggregate on the surface of liquid over time, and the process is enhanced by an increase in the temperature of the liquid. We show that the agglomeration radii increases monotonically with temperature up until the point where all particles in the system form a single, large aggregate. The aggregation dynamics is related to changes in the material properties of the liquid including its viscosity and surface tension as well as the convection driven flow generated …