Planetary Climate Dynamics

Abstract:

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a non-invasive technique of functional imaging which measures weak magnetic fields in the brain due to the currents generated from neural synapses. MEG systems contain a couple of hundred channels, making it difficult to visualize the raw measurements directly. As an alternative to rendering epileptic data, we demonstrate how MEG measurements can be mapped to a cortical surface by using a software package called FreeSurfer. We fuse MEG data with Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) by plotting the MEG amplitude on top of the MRI images of gray matter surface. In addition to the surface, we render the MEG intensity in the convoluted regions, e.g. sulci, by computationally "inflating" the brain. These techniques are utilized for experimental study currently, and can be extended for diagnostic purposes in the future. © 2006 IEEE.

Abstract:

Detailed measurements of the vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature, water vapour, dust and condensates in the Martian atmosphere are needed to characterize the present-day Martian climate and to understand the intricately related processes upon which it depends. Among the most important of these are accurate and extensive temperature measurements. Progress to date, key problems still to be addressed and upcoming new approaches to the measurement task are briefly reviewed, and expectations for the Mars Climate Sounder experiment on the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are described. Some even more advanced methods for temperature, humidity and condensate sounding in the decade beyond MCS/MRO, and promising approaches to achieving these are also considered. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of COSPAR.