Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 was launched on the Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) Satellite by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), to observe microwaves naturally emitted from the atmosphere, land surface, sea... more
Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 was launched on the Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) Satellite by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), to observe microwaves naturally emitted from the atmosphere, land surface, sea surface and cryosphere. In this paper, we have presented the evaluative study about the usefulness of the soil moisture product of AMSR 2 for places having mixed land cover characteristics. While performing our experiments, we observed that AMSR 2 gives inaccurate values of soil moisture for places having large areas of open water bodies. The results are also validated by measurement of dielectric constant variation of the soil samples collected.
This paper is a result of the experimental study of determining soil moisture using a moisture sensor circuit. The technique reviewed here involves the use of a simple oscillator circuit along with a capacitor and application of ANN for... more
This paper is a result of the experimental study of determining soil moisture using a moisture sensor circuit. The technique reviewed here involves the use of a simple oscillator circuit along with a capacitor and application of ANN for automatic detection and optimization. The sensor circuit was calibrated using low and high permittivity material i.e. dry soil and saturated soils respectively. The sensitivity of the circuit was also changed by changing the potentiometer value or capacitance value. The measurements obtained were recorded and used to train the ANN which could then be used to yield the output of the circuit for other input values. This proves to be a novel approach for measuring soil moisture using simple techniques, involving low cost.
Microwave Remote Sensing is used to detect different land cover types such as, bare soil, water bodies, vegetation cover, forest cover etc., and using different procedures. In this paper, we have targeted on a methodology to detect... more
Microwave Remote Sensing is used to detect different land cover types such as, bare soil, water bodies, vegetation cover, forest cover etc., and using different procedures. In this paper, we have targeted on a methodology to detect difference between land and water by using brightness temperature at different frequencies during the flooding period. Disastrous flood occurred in Kashmir (India) during 2014, and passive microwave remote sensing data are utilized for detection and monitoring of floods. For Kashmir, Special Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS) brightness temperature (Tb) data at 37 GHz in both vertical and horizontal polarizations are used to detect and monitor flood occurrences. Polarization difference (T=Tbv – Tbh) is used as a parameter to calculate these effects. Also, SSMIS Tb data at 19 and 91 GHz with both horizontal and vertical polarizations are used to apply the existing methodology and develop a new one. Flood affected areas are mapped using these three methods f...
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Apertures of electrically driven antenna arrays can be reconfigured for optimized power distribution. The benefit is dynamically controlled power availability, which makes the system efficient. In this paper we describe such a dynamic... more
Apertures of electrically driven antenna arrays can be reconfigured for optimized power distribution. The benefit is dynamically controlled power availability, which makes the system efficient. In this paper we describe such a dynamic mechanism based on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) which formulates a dynamic regulatory scheme for an electrically driven antenna array. An ANN in feed-forward structure called Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) is trained to track the non-linear relationship between antenna geometry and distance between target and receiver antenna. This ANN based arrangement designed for an antenna optimizes the power usage and leads to energy saving with dynamic aperture reconfiguration. The advantage of the system is its adaptive processing which leads to considerable amount of saving of design time compared to traditional optimization techniques.
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This paper investigates change in backscattering response due to variation of soil moisture, in the X-band, with the purpose of providing a reliable method for soil moisture monitoring using satellite X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR)... more
This paper investigates change in backscattering response due to variation of soil moisture, in the X-band, with the purpose of providing a reliable method for soil moisture monitoring using satellite X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. The study is based on the ground-based scatterometer experiment conducted on the fields at the remote sensing test site of International Centre for Radio Science (ICRS), Jodhpur, India. During the month of July 2013, a number of experiments were carried out and a large amount of in situ data could be collected at a range of incident angles. Synchronously, the gravimetric soil moisture values were determined for the sandy soil of the test site. This paper describes these experiments and highlights the backscattering response characteristics at X-band observed in different incident angles due to variation of soil moisture.
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This paper presents the design of a novel optical sensor for detection of anions such as Fluoride present in ground water of Guwahati city of the North Eastern India. The penetrating property of laser is taken as the base to perform the... more
This paper presents the design of a novel optical sensor for detection of anions such as Fluoride present in ground water of Guwahati city of the North Eastern India. The penetrating property of laser is taken as the base to perform the experiments for designing of the sensor. The experimental set up is made with a laser source, detector and the sample of ground water used in between the source and the detector. The partially absorbed light from the sample is detected using a photo detector and simulated using labVIEW. The complete setup is based on the intensity-voltage relationship obtained at the photo detector.
Flood occurs most commonly from heavy rainfall but it can also result from storm surge associated with a tropical cyclone, a tsunami or a high tide coinciding with higher than normal river levels. Rainfall in the upstream of a river can... more
Flood occurs most commonly from heavy rainfall but it can also result from storm surge associated with a tropical cyclone, a tsunami or a high tide coinciding with higher than normal river levels. Rainfall in the upstream of a river can also cause inundation in the downstream side of a river. Reliable and timely information is essential for appropriate flood management system. This paper explains the use of precipitation data obtained from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) 2 for the detection of flood. The data obtained, if timely utilized helps in the mitigation of floods and aids to decrease the mortality rate. (AMSR) 2 is a passive microwave sensor and it can record microwave energy emitted by the atmosphere, reflected from the surface, emitted from the surface or transmitted from the subsurface. Algorithms were developed to assess the precipitation values of southern part of Assam and along the upstream and downstream side of river Brahmaputra for the month of August...
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Soil moisture is an important factor that is of immense importance in the field of engineering, agriculture and ecology. The permittivity of soil is dependent on the water level present in the soil. Development of weather patterns and the... more
Soil moisture is an important factor that is of immense importance in the field of engineering, agriculture and ecology. The permittivity of soil is dependent on the water level present in the soil. Development of weather patterns and the production of precipitation depend on soil moisture. A number of soil moisture measurement techniques are being developed by various researchers. This paper reviews the various electrical methods of measuring soil moisture, such as the dielectric method, electrical resistance method and electrical capacitance method.
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Cloudburst refers to the extreme form of precipitation, with a high amount of rainfall within a short span of time. It often leads to flash flood, landslide and damage of infrastructure due to heavy rainfall. The loss of lives is also not... more
Cloudburst refers to the extreme form of precipitation, with a high amount of rainfall within a short span of time. It often leads to flash flood, landslide and damage of infrastructure due to heavy rainfall. The loss of lives is also not very uncommon. Hence a prediction mechanism of extreme precipitation is the need of the hour. The present paper presents a mechanism of prediction of cloudburst by detecting the formation of cumulonimbus type cloud, using the brightness temperature (TB) difference between 19 and 91 GHz TB values in horizontal polarization and descending passes of the SSMI satellite of NASA. This simple mechanism based on the Tb difference threshold value has been tested for several places in India, during 2013-2016. It is found that the prediction of cloudburst is possible with a lead time of 1-4 days using this algorithm.
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Soil Moisture is an important parameter that is of immense importance in the field of civil engineering, agriculture and ecology. Development of weather patterns and intake of nutrient by plants depend on soil moisture. In this paper, the... more
Soil Moisture is an important parameter that is of immense importance in the field of civil engineering, agriculture and ecology. Development of weather patterns and intake of nutrient by plants depend on soil moisture. In this paper, the design of sensor is described that uses the electrical resistance attribute of soil moisture. The soil moisture product of Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 on board GCOM satellite of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is then compared with the soil moisture obtained from the designed sensor. Analysis shows the variability of the soil moisture values measured by both the satellite as well as the actual soil moisture measured by gravimetric method for the samples collected from different locations. The designed sensor shows similar variations in its output. Hence, the designed sensor can be used for checking the variations happening in soil moisture values instantaneously and can be used to validate the soil moisture product of remote ...
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Micro wind turbines play an important role in becoming the alternative technology in the generation of electricity because of the increase in fossil fuel prices and the increase in demand for renewable energy sources. Similarly, Wind... more
Micro wind turbines play an important role in becoming the alternative technology in the generation of electricity because of the increase in fossil fuel prices and the increase in demand for renewable energy sources. Similarly, Wind energy is becoming one of the best renewable sources of energy for generation of electricity because of the fact that wind is a clean and unbounded source of renewable energy. This paper presents the ideas of designing a horizontal axis small-sized wind turbine or horizontal axis micro wind turbine for low wind speed areas to produce electricity. A small-sized wind turbine or micro wind turbine is a type of turbine that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy and it is used to generate power for small power needs. It can also be used in many applications like homes, villages, and so on, requiring a very low cost for installation and maintenance.
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Modern power system energy management system involves generation scheduling as one of the core components. Generation scheduling function has to satisfy the main objective of economics, which involves an optimization of cost over a future... more
Modern power system energy management system involves generation scheduling as one of the core components. Generation scheduling function has to satisfy the main objective of economics, which involves an optimization of cost over a future period of time. Also it depends on the availability of the various types of generation. The present paper describes an artificial neural network (ANN) based method for scheduling of generation for the national grid of Belgium. The supervised multilayer perceptron based training produces satisfactory results in scheduling of non-renewable energy sources, with prior information on the availability of renewable energy sources. Keywords:Artificial neural network, generation scheduling, non-renewable energy, renewable sources
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This paper presents the method of design of a cable fault location sensor for underground cable fault detection. The aim was to detect the fault location from transmitting or receiving station up to few meters accuracy using an Arduino... more
This paper presents the method of design of a cable fault location sensor for underground cable fault detection. The aim was to detect the fault location from transmitting or receiving station up to few meters accuracy using an Arduino based kit. The underground cable-based supply system is a common practice in urban areas. As explained in the paper, the system uses the principle of a Varley loop to determine the exact distance of the fault in the underground cable up to the accuracy of a meter. When any fault, e.g. short circuit and earth fault occurs, the length of the fault of the cable can be determined from the fault resistance using the bridge in the Varley loop. A microcontroller is used to make the necessary calculations and display the fault distance after that. After necessary calibration and testing, an accuracy of about 85% is achieved in locating the fault using the method.
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Space based flood monitoring can provide a systematic and timely solution to the problem of flood mapping. This paper presents a way to detect as well as monitor flood by using passive microwave remote sensing (MRS). The method is based... more
Space based flood monitoring can provide a systematic and timely solution to the problem of flood mapping. This paper presents a way to detect as well as monitor flood by using passive microwave remote sensing (MRS). The method is based on the use of brightness temperature taken from Passive MRS Satellite. A case study from October 2012 to September 2013 on Dhemaji district of Assam, India shows that the brightness temperature (T b ) ratios of measured and calibrated places for the same days can be used for discriminating the flooded and non-flooded areas efficiently. In comparison to conventional methods used in the same field, the proposed method is more accurate, which uses a threshold value of the T b ratio for detection of flooding and non-flooding conditions. Keywords: Microwave Remote Sensing, Flood detection, Brightness Temperature, SSM/I
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This paper describes the possibilities of the application of DC Microgrids to solve the energy problem in the country. DC Microgrids open a gateway for integration of solar energy which is efficient and cleaner way of renewable energy... more
This paper describes the possibilities of the application of DC Microgrids to solve the energy problem in the country. DC Microgrids open a gateway for integration of solar energy which is efficient and cleaner way of renewable energy generation, which can be integrated into the power distribution network. DC microgrid is an intelligent mix of smart grid and renewable source with increase in the efficiency of energy. Therefore, very little energy is wasted during distribution and transmission. It has several other advantages, which include - reduction in transmission losses, improvement in power quality & reliability, reduction in emissions and even it is cost effective. The circuit for solar power availability sensing and switching to battery supply is done on hardware. Design of DC microgrid from the solar energy is done in MATLAB/SIMULINK. The most important characteristic is that it provides a possibility for electrification of remote villages which are far from the reach of the...
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Soil moisture is a derived product of passive microwave remote sensors. But the soil moisture data from passive microwave sensors is often not correct for the places having large open water bodies. The present paper describes a technique... more
Soil moisture is a derived product of passive microwave remote sensors. But the soil moisture data from passive microwave sensors is often not correct for the places having large open water bodies. The present paper describes a technique of soil moisture determination from passive microwave brightness temperature values, by using ANN. Two ANNs are trained using either brightness temperature values or Polarization Index (PI) values as input with measured actual soil moisture values as target. The trained ANNs are then capable of estimating the soil moisture values with fair accuracy. The technique using PI and two brightness temperature values as input is found to be a better technique, due to less data requirement for both training and estimation.
With the increase in fossil fuel prices and the increase in demand for renewable energy sources, wind turbines play an important role in becoming the alternative technology in the generation of electricity. Since wind is clean and... more
With the increase in fossil fuel prices and the increase in demand for renewable energy sources, wind turbines play an important role in becoming the alternative technology in the generation of electricity. Since wind is clean and unbounded, wind energy is one of the best renewable sources of energy for the generation of electricity. This paper presents the ideas of designing a small-sized wind turbine or micro wind turbine for low wind speed areas which can be used in many applications like homes, villages, and so on to produce electricity. A small-sized wind turbine or micro wind turbine is a type of turbine that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy and it is used to generate power for small power needs. Additionally, this type of micro wind turbine can be used in rural areas, requiring a very low cost for installation.
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This paper describes the possibilities of the application of DC microgrids to solve the rural areas, energy problem in the country (India). DC Microgrids open a gateway for integration of solar and wind energies which together are an... more
This paper describes the possibilities of the application of DC microgrids to solve the rural areas, energy problem in the country (India). DC Microgrids open a gateway for integration of solar and wind energies which together are an efficient and cleaner way of renewable energy generation, which can be integrated into the power distribution network. They have several other advantages, which include - reduction in transmission losses, improvement in power quality & reliability, reduction in emissions and even they are cost effective. The most important characteristic is that it provides a possibility for electrification of remote villages, which are far from the reach of the conventional grid. This paper presents a detailed discussion on the possibility of application of DC microgrids for rural areas in India.
The objective of the work presented here is to detect the exact location of fault or insulation flaw in electrical cables. As described in this report, the system uses two methods. The first one is the principle of a Varley loop to... more
The objective of the work presented here is to detect the exact location of fault or insulation flaw in electrical cables. As described in this report, the system uses two methods. The first one is the principle of a Varley loop to determine the exact distance of the fault in the underground cable up to the accuracy of a meter. When any fault like short circuit and earth fault occurs, the length of the fault of the cable can be determined from the fault resistance using the bridge in the Varley loop. The other method is based on electromagnetic sensing and finds the exact location of the fault. When the current flows through the cable, an electromagnetic field is induced, which is sensed by an inductive coil connected to the electronic amplifier circuit. The microcontroller is used to make the necessary calculations and display the fault distance after that. It also captures the signal from the amplifier and shows a fault or no-fault condition based on the program. This method is a ...
Soil Moisture (SM) data are often a derived product of Microwave Remote Sensing (MRS) satellites. The brightness temperature (T b ) however, is a basic quantity associated with the satellites in the Microwave range and is available as a... more
Soil Moisture (SM) data are often a derived product of Microwave Remote Sensing (MRS) satellites. The brightness temperature (T b ) however, is a basic quantity associated with the satellites in the Microwave range and is available as a common data product from all MRS satellites. In this paper an attempt has been made to develop an algorithm to retrieve SM information directly from the T b values obtained from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on Earth Observing (AMSR-E) System. Analysis of T b and SM data is done to find the most suitable frequency band and polarization at which the conversion from T b to SM is possible. Out of all the frequencies from the satellite, the T b values at 6 GHz frequency with horizontal polarization have been found to be most suitable for SM retrieval. The algorithm designed is found to be applicable for T b to SM conversion for any season. Keywords : Microwave remote sensing, soil moisture, AMSR-E, brightness temperature, passive sensors.
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With the increasing demand of power and energy, energy conservation and use of renewable resources have become a crucial necessity. Solar energy will become the ultimate and prime source of energy in near future. Therefore, highly... more
With the increasing demand of power and energy, energy conservation and use of renewable resources have become a crucial necessity. Solar energy will become the ultimate and prime source of energy in near future. Therefore, highly efficient and low energy consuming solar-powered equipment and applications will soon be a major requirement. In this paper, solar charge controller using Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) and Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) have been analyzed and compared, which is needed in all solar powered systems that utilize batteries. Its role is to regulate the power going from the solar panel to the batteries. Most of the modern charge controllers include PWM and MPPT. These charge controllers are designed such that the solar battery gets recharged quickly and does not get over discharged, thereby ensuring the prolonged lifespan of the battery.