The University of Wisconsin–Madison Space Science and Engineering Center is providing fast turn-around satellite data to NASA as part of apush for timelier tracking and monitoring of wildfires.The“low-latency data”is sent within aminute of observation Aspecialized satellite ground station on the UW–Madison campus receives data,and SSEC Distinguished Scientist Liam Gumley is leading the program.“We’ve refined our ability to obtain data directly from the satellite and receive it on the ground,a process known as direct broadcast,”says Gumley.“Now,from Earth observation to wildfire detection is less than 60 seconds.”Four other ground stations across the U.S.also receive satellite data for wildfire monitoring.These low-latency data–information processed quickly to speed decision making–from U.S.Earth observation satellites are anew addition to the NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System.NASA developed FIRMS to provide satellite-based detections of active fires in the U.S.and Canada.Once afire is detected,NASA can coordinate with decision makers at other agencies to respond to and continuously monitor the fire and inform the public.An expert in satellite data,including algorithm development and real-time data receiving and processing,Gumley has been on the leading edge of efforts to get satellite-derived information to those who need it sooner. 查看详细>>

A university-industry collaboration has successfully run aquantum algorithm on atype of quantum computer known as acold atom quantum computer for the first time.The achievement by the team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin­–Madison,ColdQuanta and Riverlane brings quantum computing one step closer to being used in real-world applications.Why it matters Practical quantum computers could solve complex problems,known as algorithms,that classical computers cannot.This could be beneficial for many applications,such as logistics,drug discovery and computational modeling of quantum processes.Running aquantum algorithm on the cold atom style of computer is aproof of concept that this approach could work.“There’s arace to build auseful quantum computer,and there’s ahandful of different approaches that are being developed to that end,”says Mark Saffman,a physics professor at UW–Madison,director of the Wisconsin Quantum Institute,and chief scientist for quantum information at ColdQuanta.“Cold atom qubits is one of the five approaches that are actively being developed,and this paper presents for the first time the capability of running quantum circuits and quantum algorithms using cold atom qubits.”The details The team,headed by Saffman,demonstrated two key achievements in astudy published April 20 in the journal Nature.Entangled up to six neutral atoms with long lifetimes.Previous neutral atom quantum computers have used atoms in ashorter-lived state.“One of the benefits[of our approach]is that it’s alonger-lived state,”says Trent Graham,a scientist at UW–Madison and lead author of the study.“We showed that we have coherence remaining in these states on the order of up to milliseconds,whereas in the[previously-demonstrated state],it decayed three to four hundred times faster.”Successfully ran two quantum algorithms on their quantum computer.The first,a quantum phase estimation algorithm,is acommon problem in chemistry that measures the molecular energy of an atom.The second is astrategy problem known as MaxCut,which has applications in logistics deployment and pattern recognition.One advantage of neutral atom qubits used in this approach is that they do not naturally interact with each other,so it is easier to control when they are“on”or“off.”The collaboration was key to the team’s success.The UW–Madison group conceived of and performed much of the work,ColdQuanta engineers in collaboration with the UW team designed and fabricated key subsystems of the quantum computer,and Riverlane staff contributed to circuit design,optimization and simulation.The catch?The quantum algorithms were very basic.But the work suggests that quantum computers that outcompete traditional ones are on the horizon.“These were very simple computations,but as you go to higher and higher circuit depth and more qubits,then it is actually possible to get to the regime where these problems can’t easily be calculated by classical computers,”Graham says.As is common with other classes of quantum computers,there is no error correction mechanism in place with this team’s computer. 查看详细>>