Speaker: Nicholas Lederer, Applied Mathematics

Title:

Time: 2:30 - 3:20pm

Place: Condon Room 311 (next to the Design Coffee Shop)

Abstract. Radar backscatter off the sea surface is thought to be dependent on the local geometry of ocean waves. These waves are due to local environmental parameters, such as wind speed, significant wave height, and temperature. Alpha-stable distributions are heavy-tailed and are named after the first of four parameters. The value of alpha determines how heavy-tailed the distribution is. The distribution function only has an explicit formula for alpha = 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0. When alpha = 2.0 we have the Gaussian (Normal) distribution.

We investigate whether radar backscatter signals exhibit an alpha-stable distribution structure and whether the value of alpha can be correlated to environmental parameters. We also use wavelets to investigate what down-sampling schemes are appropriate.

This talk was presented in July to satisfy a Master's degree requirement for the Department of Applied Mathematics.