Optical turbulence profiling at the Table Mountain Facility with the Laser Communication Relay Demonstration GEO downlink.

We report the first measurement of the atmospheric optical turbulence profile using the transmitted beam from a satellite laser communication terminal. A ring image next generation scintillation sensor (RINGSS) instrument for turbulence profiling, as described in Tokovinin [MNRAS502, 747 (2021)10.1093/mnras/staa4049], was deployed at the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Table Mountain Facility (TMF) in California.

Reflective all-sky thermal infrared cloud imager.

A reflective all-sky imaging system has been built using a long-wave infrared microbolometer camera and a reflective metal sphere. This compact system was developed for measuring spatial and temporal patterns of clouds and their optical depth in support of applications including Earth-space optical communications. The camera is mounted to the side of the reflective sphere to leave the zenith sky unobstructed.

Recurrent duplications of 17q12 associated with variable phenotypes.

The ability to identify the clinical nature of the recurrent duplication of chromosome 17q12 has been limited by its rarity and the diverse range of phenotypes associated with this genomic change. In order to further define the clinical features of affected patients, detailed clinical information was collected in the largest series to date (30 patients and 2 of their siblings) through a multi-institutional collaborative effort. The majority of patients presented with developmental delays varying from mild to severe.

Mild ring 17 syndrome shares common phenotypic features irrespective of the chromosomal breakpoints location.

Ring 17 syndrome is a rare disorder with clinical features influenced by the presence or deletion of the Miller-Dieker critical region (MDCR). Presence of the MDCR is associated with a mild phenotype, including growth delay (GD), mental retardation (MR), seizures, cafè au lait skin (CALS) spots and minor facial dysmorphisms. Previous studies have been mainly focused on this locus providing poor information about the role of other genes located on the p- and q-arms.

Infrared cloud imaging in support of Earth-space optical communication.

The increasing need for high data return from near-Earth and deep-space missions is driving a demand for the establishment of Earth-space optical communication links. These links will require a nearly obstruction-free path to the communication platform, so there is a need to measure spatial and temporal statistics of clouds at potential ground-station sites. A technique is described that uses a ground-based thermal infrared imager to provide continuous day-night cloud detection and classification according to the cloud optical depth and potential communication channel attenuation.