Editing Tutorial (Part 1)

Introduction to the Editing tutorial

The easiest way to learn how to edit in ArcMap is to complete the exercises in this tutorial. Most of these exercises can be completed with an ArcView license—the exception is the geodatabase topology exercise, which requires an ArcEditor or ArcInfo license.

The first portion of the tutorial (Exercises 1–3) uses data from Utah's Zion National Park, which contains such geologic wonders as red and tan sandstone rocks, steep cliffs, and multitudes of canyons. You will use the editing environment in ArcMap to create and modify spatial features to represent various natural and human-made phenomena in the park. After completing these exercises, you are able to create different types of new features, including points, lines, polygons, and text; assign attribute values; edit shapes; and build and use feature templates. You will also become familiar with many of the tools

and parts of the user interface available to you when editing.

The remaining exercises (Exercises 4–5) show you how to edit data. You will learn how to maintain spatial integrity through topology and how to integrate new data with existing datasets using spatial adjustment.

You should complete the tutorial in sequence, since the software methods build on those introduced in earlier exercises and assume you understand those concepts. For exercises 1–3, you should complete the all subparts (such as a, b, c, and d) at the same time, then only stop after completing a whole exercise. For exercises 4–5, you can restart the tutorial again on either the next exercise or subpart without any difficulty since the maps and data are independent in these exercises.

Overview of the tutorial exercises

The tutorial is divided into a series of exercises and subparts:

• Exercise 1 introduces the editing environment, including the terminology and ArcMap user interface. You learn how to create new points, digitize lines and polygons on the map, change editing tools, utilize snapping while creating features, and use feature templates.

 

• Exercise 2 builds on these skills. You learn how to create features from existing features and how to edit existing features.

 

• Exercise 3 is all about text on your map. You convert labels to geodatabase annotation, place the text on the map, and create new annotation features using the editing tools.

 

• Exercise 4 shows you how to edit features to maintain spatial integrity. You use map topology to edit shared features and geodatabase topology to ensure that your line features connect properly. An ArcEditor or ArcInfo license is required to complete exercise 4b on geodatabase topology.

 

• Exercise 5 uses spatial adjustment to transform and align your spatial data and transfer attributes among features.

Note: The tutorial assumes that you are using the default settings for the editing environment. If you have customized your options, you may need to reset them to match the steps in the tutorial. For example, by default, angular measurements are entered in degrees using the polar system, which is the format of the values provided in the tutorial. You can change the settings for

Data credits

Zion National Park datasets are courtesy of the National Park Service and the United States Geological Survey.

Map topology datasets are courtesy of the United States Geological Survey. The world imagery is a Web-based layer being served from ArcGIS.com.

 

Exercise 1a: Creating new points

About creating new points

In this exercise, you will use an aerial photograph to create a new point feature representing a park ranger station in Zion National Park. Once the feature is created, you will then add attribute values to the point. You are introduced to the Editor toolbar, the Create Features window, and the Attributes window, which are the main elements of the ArcMap user interface when editing.

To start this exercise, you first need to zoom the map to your area of interest. A spatial bookmark, which is similar to a bookmark in a Web browser, is a way to save frequently used locations on your map so you can easily access them. A bookmark has been created for you containing the map extent in which you will be working.

Note: This exercise requires an active Internet connection since it uses imagery served from the Web. If you do not have an Internet connection or if the imagery is loading slowly, you can still perform the tutorial using an image that is installed with the tutorial data. You need to turn on the DOQQ imagery (local) layer in the table of contents, then you can turn off the World imagery (Web) layer.

Prerequisite:

Start ArcMap.

Steps:

1. Click the Open button on the Standard toolbar.

 

2. Navigate to the Exercise1.mxd map document in the Editing directory where you installed the

tutorial data. (C:\ArcGIS\ArcTutor is the default location.) If the Getting Started window opens, choose to browse for an existing map and navigate to Exercise1.mxd.

 

3. Click the map and click Open.

 

4. If you are prompted to enable hardware acceleration to improve performance, click Yes.

 

5. Click the Bookmarks menu and click Visitor center to zoom you to the area around a visitor center ranger station at the south entrance of Zion National Park.

 

6. Click the Editor Toolbar button on the Standard toolbar.

 

7. Click the Editor menu on the Editor toolbar and click Start Editing.

 

8. In the Create Features window, click the Ranger stations point feature template. This sets up the editing environment so that you will be creating new point features in the Ranger stations layer.

These feature templates were created for you and saved in the tutorial map document. In a later tutorial exercise, you will create feature templates yourself and modify their properties.

 

9. Click the Point tool on the Create Features window.

 

10. Using the aerial imagery, click the map to place a point directly over the visitor center building in the center of the display. Since you are creating points, clicking the map once adds the feature. If you were drawing lines or polygons, however, you would need to use more than one click so you could create segments in between vertices.

Notice that the center of the symbol contains a solid, cyan-colored (light, bright blue) circle. By default, as soon as you create new features when editing, they are selected. This allows you to easily identify the new feature and add attribute values to it.

 

11. Click the Attributes button on the Editor toolbar.

Using the Attributes window is a quick way of updating the attribute values of one or more selected features when you are editing. The top of the window shows a hierarchy of the name of the layer and, underneath it, an identifier for the individual feature from that layer. The bottom of the window shows the field (a column in a table) names and the attribute values (a row in a table) for the feature.

 

12. Click inside the box for the Location property value, which is currently <Null>.

 

13. Type Visitor Center and press ENTER. This action stores the attribute values for that feature. Notice that the entry for the feature on the top of the window is no longer a generic number but has been replaced with the more descriptive Visitor Center.

14. Close the Attributes window.

 

15. To continue to the next exercise, Exercise 1b: Digitizing lines and snapping.

You have now completed the first exercise and created a new point feature. In the next exercises, you will

learn how to create new lines and polygons.

Exercise 1b: Digitizing lines and snapping

About digitizing with snapping

In the first exercise, you digitized a point over an aerial photograph; in this one, you will trace over the image to create a new line representing a road.

Because part of the road has already been created, you should use snapping to help ensure the new road feature connects to the existing roads. When snapping is turned on, your pointer will jump, or snap to, edges, vertices, and other geometric elements when it is near them. This enables you to position a feature easily in relation to the locations of other features. All the settings you need to work with snapping are located on the Snapping toolbar.

Note: This exercise requires an active Internet connection since it uses imagery served from the Web. If you do not have an Internet connection or if the imagery is loading slowly, you can still perform the tutorial using an image that is installed with the tutorial data. You need to turn on the DOQQ imagery (local) layer in the table of contents, then you can turn off the World imagery (Web) layer.

Setting options for snapping

Prerequisite:

The Exercise1.mxd is open and you are in an edit session.

Steps:

1. Navigate to the Digitizing roads bookmark. The extent is just south of the point feature you created in the previous exercise.

 

2. Add the Snapping toolbar to ArcMap. You can add a toolbar by clicking the Customize menu, pointing to Toolbars, then clicking the toolbar's name in the list. You can also add the Snapping toolbar by clicking the Editor menu, pointing to Snapping, the clicking Snapping Toolbar.

 

3. On the Snapping toolbar, click the Snapping menu and confirm that Use Snapping is checked.

If it is already checked, do not click it again, since that will turn off snapping. If Use Snapping is not checked, click it to enable snapping.

 

4. Look on the Snapping toolbar and confirm that End , Vertex , and Edge snapping types are active. When enabled, the buttons are highlighted. If they are not enabled, click each button to enable those agents.

 

5. Click the Snapping menu and click Options. From this dialog box, you can specify settings for snapping in ArcMap.

 

6. Ensure the snap tolerance is at least 10 pixels.

The snapping tolerance is the distance within which the pointer or a feature is snapped to another location. If the element being snapped to—such as a vertex or edge—is within the distance you set, the pointer automatically snaps to the location.

 

7. Check the boxes for Show Tips, Layer Name, Snap Type, and Background. Most likely, you only need to check on Background, as the others are turned on by default. A SnapTip is a small piece of text that pops up to indicate the layer you are snapped to and with which snap type (edge, end, vertex, and so on). The background is useful to help you see the SnapTip when working over an image.

8. Optionally, you can change the color used for the snap symbol and set SnapTip display options, such as the size or font of the tip.

 

9. Click OK to close the Snapping Options dialog box.

 

Digitizing a line

Steps:

1. You are now ready to begin digitizing the new road. In the Create Features window, click the Local road line template, which is grouped under Roads. This feature template was created for you and saved in the tutorial map document.

The list of available construction tools at the bottom of the window changes to those used to create lines. Since the Line tool is the default tool for this template, it is activated automatically.

 

2. Rest your pointer over the endpoint of the existing line in the western portion of the map display, but do not click yet. Notice that the pointer icon changes to a square snap symbol and a SnapTip appears with the name of the layer (Roads) and the snap type (Endpoint) in use. You can zoom or pan closer if you need to do so.

 

3. Click once.

  

You digitize, or sketch, a new line or polygon by defining the feature's shape. You see a preview with the actual symbology used for that feature, with vertices symbolized as green and red boxes.

As you are digitizing, the Feature Construction toolbar appears near your pointer. It is a small, semitransparent toolbar that allows quick access to some of the most common tools and commands used when editing. If you find that the toolbar gets in the way of where you want to add a vertex, press the TAB key to reposition it. You will use the Feature Construction toolbar more in a later exercise.

 

4. Using the aerial photo as a guide, digitize the new line by clicking the map each place you want to add a vertex.

  

5. Once you have digitized the new line, snap to the end of the existing feature and click to place a vertex there.

 

6. Press the F2 key, which finishes the sketch to turn your shape into an actual feature in the geodatabase. You can finish a sketch in one of several ways: pressing F2, double-clicking, or using the right-click shortcut menu or the pop-up Feature Construction toolbar.

 

7. To continue to the next exercise, Exercise 1c: Creating new feature templates.

In this exercise, you learned how to set up snapping and use it to help you digitize a new road that connects to existing roads.

Exercise 1c: Creating new feature templates

About creating feature templates

In the first exercises, you used feature templates that were already created for you. Now, you will make your own template using a wizard.

You will create a template for a polygon layer representing private landownership.

Prerequisite:

The Exercise1.mxd is open and you are in an edit session.

Steps:

1. Click Organize Templates on the Create Features window.

 

2. Click Tracts on the left side of the Organize Feature Templates dialog box. If this layer had any existing templates, they would be listed on the right.

 

3. Click New Template.

The Create New Templates Wizard opens. The first page shows you a list of all the layers in your map that are currently being edited.

 

4. Because the Tracts polygon layer was selected when you started the wizard, only this layer should be checked. Otherwise, check it and uncheck any other layers.

  

5. Click Finish.

When layers are symbolized by categories, you are able to click Next and choose the categories for which you want to make feature templates. Since the Tracts layer is symbolized as a single symbol, the wizard is finished in one step.

 

6. A template for Tracts appears in the Organize Feature Templates dialog box. Click the Tracts

template and click Properties.

  

The Template Properties dialog box allows you to review and change the template settings. For example, you can rename a template, provide a description, set the default construction tool, and specify the attribute values that should be assigned to new features created with this template.

 

7. In the Description box, type Private lands in Zion. The description appears when you rest your pointer over a template in the Create Features window.

  

You can also use tags to identify and help search for templates in the future. A tag representing the layer type—Polygon—is added automatically.

 

8. Click in the Tags box immediately after Polygon, type a semicolon (;), add a space, then type Zion. Type another semicolon, add a space, and type landownership.

The Tags box should look like this when the tags are entered: Polygon; Zion; landownership.

 

9. The default tool should be Polygon. If it is not, click the Default Tool arrow and click Polygon.

This ensures that the Polygon tool activates each time you choose the Tracts template.

  

10. Click the Ownership field in the grid. System information about the field is listed at the bottom of the dialog box.

 

11. Click <Null> for the value on the right side to clear the text and type Private, which will assign the attribute value Private. This sets Private as the default attribute value for that field for all new features created with this template.

  

12. Click OK.

 

13. Close the Organize Feature Templates dialog box. Notice that the new template is listed in the Create Features window. When you rest your pointer on the template, you see the text you entered for the description.

 

You can also access the properties of a template by double-clicking it in the Create Features window. By default, the templates are grouped and sorted by layer name. If you want to group them differently or filter to hide some of them, you can do so from the Arrange menu at the top of the Create Features window.

 

14. To continue to the next exercise, Exercise 1d: Creating new polygon features.

You are now ready to create features using the properties specified in this feature template.

 

Exercise 1d: Creating new polygon features

About creating polygons

Since you have been exposed to the basic concepts and user interface elements of editing and creating features, you are now ready to learn advanced feature creation techniques. You will use several different

methods to construct the polygon tract boundaries, including snapping, entering measurements, and drawing rectangles. You also will use keyboard shortcuts and right-click menus to improve productivity while creating features.

When Zion National Park became a protected area in the early 1900s, multiple owners held the land that became the park. Although Zion is mostly United States federal government land now, there are some areas within the park that are still owned privately. In this exercise, you will create some boundary lines

representing the privately held features.

Note: The values, shapes, measurements, and attributes in this exercise are for demonstration purposes only and do not reflect the actual property records.

Creating polygons using different construction methods

Prerequisite:

The Exercise1.mxd is open and you are in an edit session.

Choosing a template sets up the editing environment for the settings in that template. This action sets the target layer in which your new features will be stored, activates a feature construction tool at the bottom of the Create Features window, and prepares to assign the default attributes to the new feature. Since the layer's template is set up so the Polygon tool is the default feature construction tool, the Polygon tool becomes active.

By default, the Line and Polygon tools create straight segments between the vertices you click. These tools also have additional ways to define a feature's shape, such as creating curved lines or tracing existing features. These are known as construction methods and are located on the Editor toolbar.

Steps:

1. Turn off the World imagery (Web) layer in the table of contents.

 

2. Zoom to the Tracts bookmark.

 

3. In the Create Features window, click the Tracts template. This activates the Polygon construction tool , which you set as the default tool using the Template Properties.

Since the tracts share an edge with the park boundary and an adjacent tract, you can use them to help you construct the shape of the polygon.

 

4. Click the Straight Segment construction method on the Editor toolbar.

With the Straight Segment construction method, a vertex is placed each time you click, with the segments between vertices being straight lines.

 

5. Snap to the intersection of the park boundary polygon and the tract line feature and click once.

  

6. Move your pointer up (to the north), snap at the corner of the tract and the park boundary, then click again. You now have created two vertices with a straight line connecting them to define the eastern boundary of this tract.

 

7. Click Midpoint on the palette on the Feature Construction mini toolbar, which appeared onscreen near your pointer after you placed the first vertex of the polygon. This changes the active segment construction method from Straight Segment to Midpoint, which creates a vertex in the center of two locations you click. You will use Midpoint to create a vertex between two corners of the existing tract.

  

The buttons to choose a segment construction method on the Feature Construction toolbar are also found on the Editor toolbar, but it is often easier to access them on the Feature Construction toolbar since it is closer to your pointer. If you click a segment construction method on the Feature Construction toolbar, it then becomes active on the Editor toolbar, and vice versa. Two of the most common segment construction methods, Straight Segment and Endpoint Arc Segment, are located directly on the toolbar, but there is a palette to the right of these buttons containing additional methods.

 

8. Move the pointer to the right and click the eastern corner of the tract (the previous vertex you added). As you move the pointer, notice a black line with a small square in the middle. The square indicates where the new vertex will be added.

 

9. Move your pointer to the left and click the western corner of the existing tract. The new vertex is added where the square was located as soon as you click the second point.

  

10. Click the Straight Segment construction method on the Feature Construction mini toolbar.

This changes the active segment construction method back to Straight Segment rather than Midpoint.

 

11. To enter the final measurement for the corner, you need to type a specific coordinate.

 

12. Press the F6 key. This is the keyboard shortcut for Absolute XY, which allows you to type an exact x,y coordinate for the next vertex. By default, the values you enter are in map units, which are meters for this map. If you want to enter values in decimal degrees or other formats, you can click the arrow to change the input boxes.

   

Tip: If you make a mistake and want to cancel out of a sketch constraint, which is a command that limits the placement of the next vertex, you can press the ESC key. Once a vertex is added, you can delete it by pressing the Undo button on either the Feature Construction toolbar or the Standard toolbar.

13. Type 314076.3 in the X: box, type 4138384.9 in the Y: box, then press ENTER. A new vertex is automatically created in that location.

 

14. Click Finish Sketch on the Feature Construction mini toolbar.

You have created the first polygon lot feature. You could also use the F2 key, double-click the map, or right-click to finish the sketch.

 

15. Click the Identify tool on the Tools toolbar.

 

16. Click the new feature and notice that the attribute value for the Ownership field is Private, which is the default value you set in the template's properties.

If you identified a different layer, click the Identify from arrow, click the Tracts layer, then try clicking the feature again.

 

17. Close the Identify window.

Creating rectangular polygons

Sometimes you need to create rectangular polygons. Rather than clicking each vertex individually as you have been doing, you can use the Rectangle construction tool. The first click with the Rectangle tool creates the first vertex, then the second click establishes the "angle" of the rectangle, and the final click adds the remaining corner vertices. In addition, the Rectangle tool allows you to enter x,y coordinates for the vertices, as well as directions and lengths for the sides.

Steps:

1. Click the Pan tool on the Tools toolbar and pan the map slightly to the west so the J-shaped polygon is centered in the display.

 

2. Click the Tracts template, then the Rectangle tool on the Create Features window to make it the active construction tool.

 

3. Snap to the upper left corner of the J-shaped polygon and click to set the first corner of the rectangle.

  

4. Press the D key, type 179 (as in 179 degrees), then press ENTER. This establishes the angle for the rectangle. As you move your pointer around the map, you see a rectangle preview of the feature.

By default, angles are entered in degrees using the polar system, which is measured counterclockwise from the positive x-axis. You can specify a different direction measuring system or unit on the Editing Options dialog box > Units tab.

 

5. Press the W key, type 400, then press ENTER. This is the shortcut to set a width of 400 meters, which are the map units.

  

6. Move your pointer up and to the left so the rectangle is created in the correct position in relation to the existing feature. Press the L key, type 800, then press ENTER. This is the shortcut to set a length of 800 meters.

Tip: In addition to using these keyboard shortcuts, you can right-click to access a menu containing commands for the direction, length, width, and other settings for creating a rectangle.

Creating adjoining polygons

You now need to create one more polygon to fill in the space between these two polygons. You could snap to every vertex, but an easier way is to use the Auto-Complete Polygon tool, which uses the geometry of existing polygons to create new adjacent polygons that do not overlap or have gaps.

Steps:

1. Click the Tracts template, then the Auto-Complete Polygon tool on the Create Features window to make it the active construction tool.

 

2. Snap to the lower left corner of the rectangle you just created and click.

 

3. Move southward, snap to the corner of the original existing J-shaped polygon, and click to add a vertex.

 

4. Click Finish Sketch on the Feature Construction mini toolbar.

When using the Auto-Complete Polygon tool, ArcMap automatically uses the shapes of the surrounding polygons in that layer to create the geometry for the new polygon.

 

5. Click the Editor menu on the Editor toolbar and click Stop Editing.

 

6. Click Yes to save your edits.

 

7. Close ArcMap if you are done working with the tutorial. You do not need to save the map document

 

8. To continue to the next exercise, Exercise 2a: Defining new types of features to create.

The new features have been created with the default attribute values (Private) specified in the template. If you wanted to add other information, such as ID numbers, select the features and type the values into the

Attributes window.

Read More

Electromagnetic Radiation

Electromagnetic energy is a term used to describe all the different kinds of energies released into space by stars such as the Sun. These kinds of energies include some that you will recognize and some that will sound strange. They include:

[ Radio Waves ]

Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum longer than infrared light. Radio waves have frequencies from 300 GHz to as low as 3 kHz, and corresponding wavelengths from 1 millimeter to 100 kilometers. Like all other electromagnetic waves, they travel at the speed of light. Naturally occurring radio waves are made by lightning, or by astronomical objects. Artificially generated radio waves are used for fixed and mobile radio communication, broadcasting, radar and other navigation systems, communications satellites, computer networks and innumerable other applications. Different frequencies of radio waves have different propagation characteristics in the Earth's atmosphere; long waves may cover a part of the Earth very consistently, shorter waves can reflect off the ionosphere and travel around the world, and much shorter wavelengths bend or reflect very little and travel on a line of sight. Radio waves travel at the speed of light in a vacuum. If radio waves strike an electrically conductive object of any size, they are slowed according to that object's permeability and permittivity.
The wavelength is the distance from one 'peak' of magnetic flux to the next, or the peak of one 'wave' to the next, and is inversely proportional to the frequency. The distance a radio wave travels in one second, in a vacuum, is 299,792,458 meters which is the wavelength of a 1 hertz radio signal. A 1 megahertz radio signal has a wavelength of 299.8 meters. Radio frequency (RF) energy has been used in medical treatments for over 75 years generally for minimally invasive surgeries and coagulation, including the treatment of sleep apnea. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses radio frequency waves to generate images of the human body.

Diagram of the electric fields (E) and magnetic fields (H) of radio waves emitted by a monopole radio transmitting antenna (small dark vertical line in the center). The E and H fields are perpendicular as implied by the phase diagram in the lower right.

 

[ TV Waves ]

[ Radar Waves ]

[ Heat (infrared radiation) ]

Infrared (IR) light is electromagnetic radiation with longer wavelengths than those of visible light, extending from the nominal red edge of the visible spectrum at 0.74 micrometres (µm) to 300 µm. This range of wavelengths corresponds to a frequency range of approximately 1 to 400 THz, and includes most of the thermal radiation emitted by objects near room temperature. Infrared light is emitted or absorbed by molecules when they change their rotational-vibrational movements. The existence of infrared radiation was first discovered in 1800 by astronomer William Herschel.

 

An image of two people in mid-infrared ("thermal") light (false-color

Much of the energy from the Sun arrives on Earth in the form of infrared radiation. Sunlight at zenith provides an irradiance of just over 1 kilowatt per square meter at sea level. Of this energy, 527 watts is infrared radiation, 445 watts is visible light, and 32 watts is ultraviolet radiation. The balance between absorbed and emitted infrared radiation has a critical effect on the Earth's climate. Infrared light is used in industrial, scientific, and medical applications. Night-vision  devices using infrared illumination allow people or animals to be observed without the observer being detected. In astronomy, imaging at infrared wavelengths allows observation of objects obscured by interstellar dust. Infrared imaging cameras are used to detect heat loss in insulated systems, to observe changing blood flow in the skin, and to detect overheating of electrical apparatus. Infrared imaging is used extensively for military and civilian purposes. Military applications include target acquisition, surveillance, night vision, homing and tracking. Non-military uses include thermal efficiency analysis, environmental monitoring, industrial facility inspections, remote temperature sensing, short-ranged wireless communication, spectroscopy, and weather forecasting. Infrared astronomy uses sensor-equipped telescopes to penetrate dusty regions of space, such as molecular clouds; detect objects such as planets, and to view highly red-shifted objects from the early days of the universe.

Humans at normal body temperature radiate chiefly at wavelengths around 10 μm (micrometers), as shown by Wien's displacement law. At the atomic level, infrared energy elicits vibrational modes in a molecule through a change in the dipole moment, making it a useful frequency range for study of these energy states for molecules of the proper symmetry. Infrared spectroscopy examines absorption and transmission of photons in the infrared energy range, based on their frequency and intensity.

Light Comparison
Name	Wavelength	Frequency (Hz)	Photon Energy (eV)
Gamma ray	less than 0.01 nm	more than 10 EHZ	100 keV - 300+ GeV
X-Ray	0.01 nm to 10 nm	30 EHz - 30 PHZ	120 eV to 120 keV
Ultraviolet	10 nm - 390 nm	30 PHZ - 790 THz	3 eV to 124 eV
Visible	390 nm - 750 nm	790 THz - 405 THz	1.7 eV - 3.3 eV
Infrared	750 nm - 1 mm	405 THz - 300 GHz	1.24 meV - 1.7 eV
Microwave	1 mm - 1 meter	300 GHz - 300 MHz	1.24 µeV - 1.24 meV
Radio	1 mm - 100,000 km	300 GHz - 3 Hz	12.4 feV - 1.24 meV

 

[ Light ]

The Sun is Earth's primary source of light. About 44% of the sun's electromagnetic radiation that reaches the ground is in the visible light range.

 

 

Visible light (commonly referred to simply as light) is electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye, and is responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light has a wavelength in the range of about 380 nanometres to about 740 nm – between the invisible infrared, with longer wavelengths and the invisible ultraviolet, with shorter wavelengths. Primary properties of visible light are intensity, propagation direction, frequency or wavelength spectrum, and polarisation, while its speed in a vacuum, 299,792,458 meters per second (about 300,000 kilometers per second), is one of the fundamental constants of nature. Visible light, as with all types of electromagnetic radiation (EMR), is experimentally found to always move at this speed in vacuum. In common with all types of EMR, visible light is emitted and absorbed in tiny "packets" called photons, and exhibits properties of both waves and particles. This property is referred to as the wave–particle duality. The study of light, known as optics, is an important research area in modern physics.

In physics, the term light sometimes refers to electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength, whether visible or not. The speed of light in a vacuum is defined to be exactly 299,792,458 m/s (approximately 186,282 miles per second). The fixed value of the speed of light in SI units results from the fact that the metre is now defined in terms of the speed of light. All forms of electromagnetic radiation are believed to move at exactly this same speed in vacuum. Different physicists have attempted to measure the speed of light throughout history. Galileo attempted to measure the speed of light in the seventeenth century. An early experiment to measure the speed of light was conducted by Ole Rømer, a Danish physicist, in 1676. Using a telescope, Rømer observed the motions of Jupiter and one of its moons, Io. Noting discrepancies in the apparent period of Io's orbit, he calculated that light takes about 22 minutes to traverse the diameter of Earth's orbit. However, its size was not known at that time. If Rømer had known the diameter of the Earth's orbit, he would have calculated a speed of 227,000,000 m/s. Another, more accurate, measurement of the speed of light was performed in Europe by Hippolyte Fizeau in 1849. Fizeau directed a beam of light at a mirror several kilometers away. A rotating cog wheel was placed in the path of the light beam as it traveled from the source, to the mirror and then returned to its origin. Fizeau found that at a certain rate of rotation, the beam would pass through one gap in the wheel on the way out and the next gap on the way back. Knowing the distance to the mirror, the number of teeth on the wheel, and the rate of rotation, Fizeau was able to calculate the speed of light as 313,000,000 m/s. Léon Foucault used an experiment which used rotating mirrors to obtain a value of 298,000,000 m/s in 1862. Albert A. Michelson conducted experiments on the speed of light from 1877 until his death in 1931. He refined Foucault's methods in 1926 using improved rotating mirrors to measure the time it took light to make a round trip from Mt. Wilson to Mt. San Antonio in California. The precise measurements yielded a speed of 299,796,000 m/s. The effective velocity of light in various transparent substances containing ordinary matter, is less than in vacuum. For example the speed of light in water is about 3/4 of that in vacuum. However, the slowing process in matter is thought to result not from actual slowing of particles of light, but rather from their absorption and re-emission from charged particles in matter. As an extreme example of the nature of light-slowing in matter, two independent teams of physicists were able to bring light to a "complete standstill" by passing it through a Bose-Einstein Condensate of the element rubidium, one team at Harvard University and the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, Mass., and the other at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, also in Cambridge. However, the popular description of light being "stopped" in these experiments refers only to light being stored in the excited states of atoms, then re-emitted at an arbitrary later time, as stimulated by a second laser pulse. During the time it had "stopped" it had ceased to be light.

[ Ultraviolet Light (this is what causes sunburn) ]

Electric arcs produce UV light, and arc welders must wear eye protection to prevent welder's flash.

 

Ultraviolet (UV) light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, that is, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, corresponding to photon energies from 3 eV to 124 eV. It is so-named because the spectrum consists of electromagnetic waves with frequencies higher than those that humans identify as the colour violet. These frequencies are invisible to humans, but visible to a number of insects and birds. UV light is found in sunlight (where it constitutes about 10% of the energy in vacuum) and is emitted by electric arcs and specialized lights such as black lights. It can cause chemical reactions, and causes many substances to glow or fluoresce. Most ultraviolet is classified as non-ionizing radiation. The higher energies of the ultraviolet spectrum from wavelengths about 10 nm to 120 nm ('extreme' ultraviolet) are ionizing, but this type of ultraviolet in sunlight is blocked by normal dioxygen in air, and does not reach the ground. However, the entire spectrum of ultraviolet radiation has some of the biological features of ionizing radiation, in doing far more damage to many molecules in biological systems than is accounted for by simple heating effects (an example is sunburn). 

 

False-color image of the Sun's corona as seen in extreme ultraviolet (at 17.1 nm) by the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope

 

These properties derive from the ultraviolet photon's power to alter chemical bonds in molecules, even without having enough energy to ionize atoms. Although ultraviolet radiation is invisible to the human eye, most people are aware of the effects of UV on the skin, called suntan and sunburn. In addition to short wave UV blocked by oxygen, a great deal (>97%) of mid-range ultraviolet (almost all UV above 280 nm and most above 315 nm) is blocked by the ozone layer, and like ionizing short wave UV, would cause much damage to living organisms if it penetrated the atmosphere. After atmospheric filtering, only about 3% of the total energy of sunlight at the zenith is ultraviolet, and this fraction decreases at other sun angles. Much of it is near-ultraviolet that does not cause sunburn. An even smaller fraction of ultraviolet that reaches the ground is responsible for sunburn and also the formation of vitamin D (peak production occurring between 295 and 297 nm) in all organisms that make this vitamin (including humans). The UV spectrum thus has many effects, both beneficial and damaging, to human health.

[ X-rays ]

X-rays are part of the electromagnetic spectrum, with wavelength shorter than visible light. Different applications use different parts of the X-ray spectrum.

 

X-radiation (composed of X-rays) is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz (3×10¹⁶ Hz to 3×10¹⁹ Hz) and energies in the range 100 eV to 100 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma rays. In many languages, X-radiation is called Rontgen radiation, after Wilhelm Röntgen, who is usually credited as its discoverer, and who had named it X-radiation to signify an unknown type of radiation. Correct spelling of X-ray(s) in the English language includes the variants x-ray(s) and X ray(s). X-rays with photon energies above 5-10 keV (below 0.2-0.1 nm wavelength), are called hard X-rays, while those with lower energy are called soft X-rays. Due to their penetrating ability hard X-rays are widely used to image the inside of objects e.g. in medical radiography and airport security. As a result, the term X-ray is metonymically used to refer to a radiographic image produced using this method, in addition to the method itself. Since the wavelength of hard X-rays are similar to the size of atoms they are also useful for determining crystal structures by X-ray crystallography. By contrast, soft X-rays are easily absorbed in air and the attenuation length of 600 eV (~2 nm) X-rays in water is less than 1 micrometer.

The distinction between X-rays and gamma rays is somewhat arbitrary. The most frequent method of distinguishing between X- and gamma radiation is the basis of wavelength, with radiation shorter than some arbitrary wavelength, such as 10⁻¹¹ m, defined as gamma rays. The electromagnetic radiation emitted by X-ray tubes generally has a longer wavelength than the radiation emitted by radioactive nuclei. Historically, therefore, an alternative means of distinguishing between the two types of radiation has been by their origin: X-rays are emitted by electrons outside the nucleus, while gamma rays are emitted by the nucleus. There is overlap between the wavelength bands of photons emitted by electrons outside the nucleus, and photons emitted by the nucleus. Like all electromagnetic radiation, the properties of X-rays (or gamma rays) depend only on their wavelength and polarization (or, in a polychromatic beam, the distributions of wavelength and polarization).

[ Short waves ]

[ Microwaves, like in microwave oven ]

The atmospheric attenuation of microwaves in dry air with a precipitable water vapor level of 0.001 mm. The downward spikes in the graph correspond to frequencies at which microwaves are absorbed more strongly. The right half of this graph includes the lower ranges of infrared by some standards

 

Microwaves are radio waves with wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimetre, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz (0.3 GHz) and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF (millimeter waves), and various sources use different boundaries. In all cases, microwave includes the entire SHF band (3 to 30 GHz, or 10 to 1 cm) at minimum, with RF engineering often putting the lower boundary at 1 GHz (30 cm), and the upper around 100 GHz (3 mm).

Apparatus and techniques may be described qualitatively as "microwave" when the wavelengths of signals are roughly the same as the dimensions of the equipment, so that lumped-element circuit theory is inaccurate. As a consequence, practical microwave technique tends to move away from the discrete resistors, capacitors, and inductors used with lower-frequency radio waves. Instead, distributed circuit elements and transmission-line theory are more useful methods for design and analysis. Open-wire and coaxial transmission lines give way to waveguides and stripline, and lumped-element tuned circuits are replaced by cavity resonators or resonant lines. Effects of reflection, polarization, scattering, diffraction, and atmospheric absorption usually associated with visible light are of practical significance in the study of microwave propagation. The same equations of electromagnetic theory apply at all frequencies.

 

A microwave telecommunications tower

 The prefix "micro-" in "microwave" is not meant to suggest a wavelength in the micrometer range. It indicates that microwaves are "small" compared to waves used in typical radio broadcasting, in that they have shorter wavelengths. The boundaries between far infrared light, terahertz radiation, microwaves, and ultra-high-frequency radio waves are fairly arbitrary and are used variously between different fields of study.

Microwave technology is extensively used for point-to-point telecommunications (i.e., non broadcast uses). Microwaves are especially suitable for this use since they are more easily focused into narrow beams than radio waves, and also their comparitively higher frequencies allow broad bandwidth and high data flow. Microwaves are the principal means by which data, TV, and telephone communications are transmitted between ground stations and to and from satellites. Microwaves are also employed in microwave ovens and in radar technology. At about 20 GHz, decreasing microwave transmission through air is seen, due at lower frequencies from absorption from water and at higher frequencies from oxygen. A spectral band structure causes fluctuations in this behavior (see graph at right). Above 300 GHz, the absorption of microwave electromagnetic radiation by Earth's atmosphere is so great that it is in effect opaque, until the atmosphere becomes transparent again in the so-called infrared and optical window frequency ranges. Natural sources of gamma rays on Earth include gamma decay from naturally occurring radioisotopes such as potassium-40, and also as a secondary radiation from various atmospheric interactions with cosmic ray particles. Some rare terrestrial natural sources that produce gamma rays that are not of a nuclear origin, are lightning strikes and terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, which produce high energy emissions from natural high-energy voltages. Gamma rays are produced by a number of astronomical processes in which very high-energy electrons are produced. Such electrons produce secondary gamma rays by the mechanisms of bremsstrahlung, inverse Compton scattering and synchrotron radiation. A large fraction of such astronomical gamma rays are screened by Earth's atmosphere and must be detected by spacecraft. Notable artificial sources of gamma rays include fission such as occurs in nuclear reactors, and high energy physics experiments, such as neutral pion decay and nuclear fusion.

[ Gamma rays ]

Gamma radiation, also known as gamma rays or hyphenated as gamma-rays and denoted as γ, is electromagnetic radiation of high frequency and therefore high energy. Gamma rays are ionizing radiation and are thus biologically hazardous. They are classically produced by the decay from high energy states of atomic nuclei (gamma decay), but are also created by other processes. Paul Villard, a French chemist and physicist, discovered gamma radiation in 1900, while studying radiation emitted from radium during its gamma decay. Villard's radiation was named "gamma rays" by Ernest Rutherford in 1903.

Gamma-ray image of a truck with two stowaways taken with a VACIS (vehicle and container imaging system)

  

Natural sources of gamma rays on Earth include gamma decay from naturally occurring radioisotopes, and secondary radiation from atmospheric interactions with cosmic ray particles. Rare terrestrial natural sources produce gamma rays that are not of a nuclear origin, such as lightning strikes and terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. Gamma rays are produced by a number of astronomical processes in which very high-energy electrons are produced, that in turn cause secondary gamma rays by the mechanisms of bremsstrahlung, inverse Compton scattering and synchrotron radiation. A large fraction of such astronomical gamma rays are screened by Earth's atmosphere and must be detected by spacecraft.

Gamma rays typically have frequencies above 10 exahertz (or >10¹⁹ Hz), and therefore have energies above 100 keV and wavelengths less than 10 picometers (less than the diameter of an atom). However, this is not a hard and fast definition, but rather only a rule-of-thumb description for natural processes. Gamma rays from radioactive decay are defined as gamma rays no matter what their energy, so that there is no lower limit to gamma energy derived from radioactive decay. Gamma decay commonly produces energies of a few hundred keV, and almost always less than 10 MeV. In astronomy, gamma rays are defined by their energy, and no production process need be specified. The energies of gamma rays from astronomical sources range over 10 TeV, at a level far too large to result from radioactive decay. A notable example is extremely powerful bursts of high-energy radiation normally referred to as long duration gamma-ray bursts, which produce gamma rays by a mechanism not compatible with radioactive decay. These bursts of gamma rays, thought to be due to the collapse of stars called hypernovas, are the most powerful events so far discovered in the cosmos.

Waves

Any wave is essentially just a way of shifting energy from one place to another - whether the fairly obvious transfer of energy in waves on the sea or in the much more difficult-to-imagine waves in light. In waves on water, the energy is transferred by the movement of water molecules. But a particular water molecule doesn't travel all the way across the Atlantic - or even all the way across a pond. Depending on the depth of the water, water molecules follow a roughly circular path. As they move up to the top of the circle, the wave builds to a crest; as they move down again, you get a trough. The energy is transferred by relatively small local movements in the environment. With water waves it is fairly easy to draw diagrams to show this happening with real molecules. With light it is more difficult. The energy in light travels because of local fluctuating changes in electrical and magnetic fields - hence "electromagnetic" radiation.
All these waves do different things (for example, light waves make things visible to the human eye, while heat waves make molecules move and warm up, and x rays can pass through a person and land on film, allowing us to take a picture inside someone's body) but they have some things in common. They all travel in waves, like the waves at a beach or like sound waves, and also are made of tiny particles. Scientists are unsure of exactly how the waves and the particles relate to each other. The fact that electromagnetic radiation travels in waves lets us measure the different kind by wavelength or how long the waves are. That is one way we can tell the kinds of radiation apart from each other.
Although all kinds of electromagnetic radiation are released from the Sun, our atmosphere stops some kinds from getting to us. For example, the ozone layer stops a lot of harmful ultraviolet radiation from getting to us, and that's why people are so concerned about the hole in it. We humans have learned uses for a lot of different kinds of electromagnetic radiation and have learned how to make it using other kinds of energy when we need to. DS1 would not be able to communicate with Earth, for example, if it could not produce radio waves.

An electromagnetic wave has a few important properties:

1. Speed: how fast is each ripple moving?
2. Frequency: if you point at the water with your finger, how many ripples pass by your finger every second?
3. Wavelength: the distance between two adjacent ripples.

The speed is easy. It turns out that all electromagnetic waves have the same speed, which scientists represent with the letter c. This speed, the speed of light, is equal to 670 million miles per hour.

The frequency can be any number. It is measured in Hertz, which means "One ripple per second." If two ripples pass by your finger every second, that's 2 Hertz. Most electromagnetic radiation has frequencies much larger than 1 Hertz. So we use larger units to measure the frequency:

 

kHz	kiloHertz, one thousand Hertz. (1,000)
MHz	MegaHertz, one million Hertz. (1,000,000)
GHz	GigaHertz, one billion Hertz. (1,000,000,000)

 

For numbers that are too large to express this way, we use "scientific notation", which is just a way of saying how many zeroes are after a number. For instance, 1 MegaHertz could be written 1E6 Hertz, meaning 1 with 6 zeroes after it. 2 GigaHertz is 2E9 Hertz. And 8,000,000,000,000 Hertz is 8E12 Hertz.

Here are some examples of frequencies of electromagnetic waves: *

 

long-wave AM radio	200 kHz
medium-wave AM radio	1 MHz
short-wave AM radio	10 MHz
FM Radio waves	100 MHz
Microwaves in a microwave oven	2.4 GHz
Infrared light	3E12 Hz
Red light	4E14 Hz
Green light	6E14 Hz
Blue light	7E14 Hz
Ultraviolet light	1E15 Hz
X-rays	3E18 Hz
Gamma rays	3E20 Hz

 

"Frequency" means the same thing for electromagnetic waves that it does for sound waves. In a sound wave, the frequency is the number of sound ripples that pass by in one second. For instance, the "A 440" note, which orchestras use to tune up, has a frequency of 440 Hz. The difference is that in an electromagnetic wave, the ripples are made of electric and magnetic fields, whereas in a sound wave, the ripples are made of moving air. Both Astropulse and the original SETI@home use frequencies around 1,420 MHz, ranging from 1,417.5 MHz from 1422.5 MHz.

 
* In fact, each of these waves actually has a range of frequencies. For instance, FM radio waves actually range from 87.5 to 108.0 MHz.

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Alpha PSP

 

Thai Rice for Better Life

Rice is well known to the Thais (and most Asians) from the day they are weaned from breast-feeding, and has played an important role especially to the Thai people’s way of life since olden Times. It can be said Thai rice is the product originated from the endeavor and the industrious aspects of the ancient Thai people. Rice has been the bloodstream, nourishing Thailand from The past. In addition, rice has also inherited the nation’s valuable legends, passing on from generation to generation. Therefore all The Thai people have always realized the essential value of rice.
The effectiveness of using Thai rice to treat various ailments dates back many centuries, when ancient Thai folk medicine doctors successfully treated their patients with a liquid concoction containing natural herbs and native rice gruel. These ancient healers knew that the human body has a natural power to heal itself when it is fed the right quality of nutrients that the body can recognize as food for the production of cellular energy. Presently, many leading scientists, physicians and biochemists in academic sectors are investigating the health benefits of certain cultivated rice as functional food.
Thai Rice Won Prizes in World Rice Contest since 1933In fact, thanks to the ancestors of Thai people for having chosen this current geographical location for Thailand, because Thailand is now situated in the diversity of both wild and cultivated rice, as Thailand today has more than 3,500 varieties, names and characters of rice. Even though there are at least 23 kinds of rice in the world, only two are cultivated for consumption, i.e., Asia rice (Oryza Staiva Linn.) and Africa rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud) have various genetic diversities that have at least 120,000 varieties with different names and characters.
Compliments should go to the Thai ancestors who have chosen the right variety of rice for each particular environment order to obtain premium quality rice and seeds. This has enhanced the Thai rice to its world-class excellence today. In fact, Thai rice won the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd plus another 8 prizes in The World Rice Contests in 1933, held in Regina, Canada, where 150 rice items participated in the competition.

 

  

Description

Substance Name: Alpha-PSP Main Source: Native Strains of Brown Rice, Short Grain Rice and Fragrant Rice Grown in the Siam Valley of Thailand Active Components: Polysaccharides, Peptides, Essential Vitamins and Minerals Usage: Functional Food for applications in the prevention of disease, degenerative diseases and metabolic disorders. 

Rice, is a kind of cereal well-known to the Thais and to all of Asia as a staple food for centuries, has played an essential role in nutrition and to the health of people worldwide. Over half the world population, especially the Asians, consume rice as their major source of dietary intake. It can be said that rice is the product originated from the endeavour and the industrious aspects of the Thai people. Rice has been the bloodstream, nourishing Thailand from the past and into the future. In addition to this, rice has also inherited the nations' valuable legends, passing from generation to generation. Therefore all the Thai people have always realized the values of rice.

Until recently, rice has been the basis of daily food sustenance. The National Innovation Agency [NIA] and the Macrofood Tech Co., Ltd. through innovative collaboration for the continued research with Thai scientists, biochemists and researchers who have developed Alpha-PSP from native strains of rice that has demonstrated significant results in applications as a functional food for the prevention and alleviation of most degenerative diseases and metabolic disorders. It is known that over 90% of degenerative diseases are related to Syndrome X, a metabolic disorder which may be overcome through the ingestion of Alpha-PSP. By utilizing a proprietary process of mechanical hydrolyzation, under high pressure using an advanced biotechnology, selected fractions of rice grains harvested at the right age and grown in the organic matter rich, alkaline soils in the Siam Valley of Thailand, scientists have been able to isolate the polysaccharide-peptides (PSP) into a hypoallergenic, dry powder form to create the Alpha-PSP.

Alpha-PSP Sayamrice contains a unique functional and cellular food formulation made up of specific polysaccharides, amino acid patterns, organic minerals, natural vitamin B-complex, and more than 50 antioxidants. These nutrients are essential for body functions. Nevertheless, ancient Thai healers knew that the body had its own power to heal itself when The patient had The correct amount and quality of food for cellular nutrition and energy production, contained good patterns of amino acids for hormone and enzyme production, and had complete trace minerals and vitamins which worked as catalysts for antioxidants to combat free radicals which are present in illness afflicted individuals.

Alpha-PSP contains all these naturally derived nutrients in “alpha” form:

• Polysaccharide available as biological fuel 
• Polypeptide, the amino acids available in the right quantity and ratios to be used as raw materials to the cells to perform their functions effectively 
• Natural Vitamins from plants 
• Organic natural minerals 
• Phytonutrients from plants 

From Alzheimer’s brain cell model (Sawatsri et al), this functional food may exhibit either anti-aging, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory properties, neuro-protective and neuro-regenerative actions. The data from clinical trial (Toan et al) showed the benefits of Alpha-PSP in reducing cardiac risk factors. Observational evidence from clinical practices (personal communication) demonstrated the benefits of Alpha-PSP on allergies, asthma and other respiratory conditions, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s diseases. Studies have shown this functional food enhances the body's defense mechanism, preventing tiredness and fatigue, thus resulting in improved vitality. Many medical doctors around the world have used Alpha-PSP both in conjunction with pharmaceutical drugs and individually for practically all metabolic and degenerative disorders afflicting humankind. 

Thailand performs more research on rice than any other country, working in conjunction with the international Rice Research Institute (lRRl), and is one of the leading exporters of rice in the world. This Strategic innovative Alpha-PSP project is a joint effort between the National Innovation Agency [NIA], Ministry of Science and Technology, University Research Facilities, Government Hospitals, and a leading functional food manufacturer in Thailand with the goal of expanded exportation of functional food products to both local and global markets.

Both NIA and the Ministry of Science and Technology/s objectives are to utilize the research to develop new solutions for applications in alleviating the escalating epidemics and levels of degenerative disease and promoting good health around the world. 

100,000 years of natural, organic mineral accumulation in Thai soil, and 10,000 years of natural Spirulina accumulation & production, which enables Thailand to cultivate highly nutritious, quality rice as an exceptional functional food.
Thailand is therefore considered as one of the largest collectors and providers of natural energy in the form of rice grains to enhance the healing power of humankind. Thailand’s natural, organic resources are also considered the largest plantation treasure in the world. Thailand, in association with the |international Rice Research institute (IRRI), is known to be leading the world in rice research with the aim to produce rice to feed the world's rapidly expanding human population. Since the early l990’s, scientists and doctors at Macro Food Tech Company in Thailand have successfully combined the Thai folk medicine techniques and theory with modern sophisticated mechanical hydrolysis, without using enzymes, acids or chemicals. Instead, it uses the power of indirect heat at controlled temperature coupled with high pressure to process selected fractions of specific strains of rice to obtain Alpha-PSP, a nutrient compound in the form of a pulverized functional food supplement. This Alpha-PSP has demonstrated in clinical practices its ability to aid thousands of individuals in the alleviation from unnecessary metabolic disorders and chronic illnesses, which are the main causes of premature ageing and death among men and women living in today’s industrialized societies.

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