Quantum, classical, and hybrid QM/MM calculations in solution: General implementation of the ddCOSMO linear scaling strategy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lipparini, Filippo, E-mail: flippari@uni-mainz.de [Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, UMR 7598, Laboratoire Jacques-Louis Lions, F-75005 Paris (France); Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, UMR 7616, Laboratoire de Chimie Théorique, F-75005 Paris (France); Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, Institut du Calcul et de la Simulation, F-75005 Paris (France); Scalmani, Giovanni; Frisch, Michael J. [Gaussian, Inc., 340 Quinnipiac St. Bldg. 40, Wallingford, Connecticut 06492 (United States); Lagardère, Louis [Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, Institut du Calcul et de la Simulation, F-75005 Paris (France); Stamm, Benjamin [Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, UMR 7598, Laboratoire Jacques-Louis Lions, F-75005 Paris (France); CNRS, UMR 7598 and 7616, F-75005 Paris (France); Cancès, Eric [Université Paris-Est, CERMICS, Ecole des Ponts and INRIA, 6 and 8 avenue Blaise Pascal, 77455 Marne-la-Vallée Cedex 2 (France); Maday, Yvon [Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, UMR 7598, Laboratoire Jacques-Louis Lions, F-75005 Paris (France); Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France and Division of Applied Maths, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912 (United States); Piquemal, Jean-Philip [Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, UMR 7616, Laboratoire de Chimie Théorique, F-75005 Paris (France); CNRS, UMR 7598 and 7616, F-75005 Paris (France); Mennucci, Benedetta [Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, Università di Pisa, Via Risorgimento 35, 56126 Pisa (Italy)

2014-11-14

We present the general theory and implementation of the Conductor-like Screening Model according to the recently developed ddCOSMO paradigm. The various quantities needed to apply ddCOSMO at different levels of theory, including quantum mechanical descriptions, are discussed in detail, with a particular focus on how to compute the integrals needed to evaluate the ddCOSMO solvation energy and its derivatives. The overall computational cost of a ddCOSMO computation is then analyzed and decomposed in the various steps: the different relative weights of such contributions are then discussed for both ddCOSMO and the fastest available alternative discretization to the COSMO equations. Finally, the scaling of the cost of the various steps with respect to the size of the solute is analyzed and discussed, showing how ddCOSMO opens significantly new possibilities when cheap or hybrid molecular mechanics/quantum mechanics methods are used to describe the solute.

The COronal Solar Magnetism Observatory (COSMO) Large Aperture Coronagraph

Science.gov (United States)

Tomczyk, Steve; Gallagher, Dennis; Wu, Zhen; Zhang, Haiying; Nelson, Pete; Burkepile, Joan; Kolinksi, Don; Sutherland, Lee

2013-04-01

The COSMO is a facility dedicated to observing coronal and chromospheric magnetic fields. It will be located on a mountaintop in the Hawaiian Islands and will replace the current Mauna Loa Solar Observatory (MLSO). COSMO will provide unique observations of the global coronal magnetic fields and its environment to enhance the value of data collected by other observatories on the ground (e.g. SOLIS, BBO NST, Gregor, ATST, EST, Chinese Giant Solar Telescope, NLST, FASR) and in space (e.g. SDO, Hinode, SOHO, GOES, STEREO, Solar-C, Solar Probe+, Solar Orbiter). COSMO will employ a fleet of instruments to cover many aspects of measuring magnetic fields in the solar atmosphere. The dynamics and energy flow in the corona are dominated by magnetic fields. To understand the formation of CMEs, their relation to other forms of solar activity, and their progression out into the solar wind requires measurements of coronal magnetic fields. The large aperture coronagraph, the Chromospheric and Prominence Magnetometer and the K-Coronagraph form the COSMO instrument suite to measure magnetic fields and the polarization brightness of the low corona used to infer electron density. The large aperture coronagraph will employ a 1.5 meter fuse silica singlet lens, birefringent filters, and a spectropolarimeter to cover fields of view of up to 1 degree. It will observe the corona over a wide range of emission lines from 530.3 nm through 1083.0 nm allowing for magnetic field measurements over a wide range of coronal temperatures (e.g. FeXIV at 530.3 nm, Fe X at 637.4 nm, Fe XIII at 1074.7 and 1079.8 nm. These lines are faint and require the very large aperture. NCAR and NSF have provided funding to bring the large aperture coronagraph to a preliminary design review state by the end of 2013. As with all data from Mauna Loa, the data products from COSMO will be available to the community via the Mauna Loa website: http://mlso.hao.ucar.edu

Mitigation of Volcanic Risk: The COSMO-SkyMed Contribution

Science.gov (United States)

Sacco, Patrizia; Daraio, Maria Girolamo; Battagliere, Maria Libera; Coletta, Alessandro

2015-05-01

The Italian Space Agency (ASI) promotes Earth Observation (EO) applications related to themes such as the prediction, monitoring, management and mitigation of natural and anthropogenic hazards. The approach generally followed is the development and demonstration of prototype services, using currently available data from space missions, in particular the COSMO-SkyMed (Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean basin observation) mission, which represents the largest Italian investment in Space System for EO and thanks to which Italy plays a key role worldwide. Projects funded by ASI provide the convergence of various national industry expertise, research and institutional reference users. In this context a significant example is represented by the ASI Pilot Projects, recently concluded, dealing with various thematic, such as volcanoes. In this paper a special focus will be addressed to the volcanic risk management and the contribution provided in this field by COSMO-SkyMed satellite constellation during the last years. A comprehensive overview of the various national and international projects using COSMO-SkyMed data for the volcanic risk mitigation will be given, highlighting the Italian contribution provided worldwide in this operational framework.

CosmoSIS: A System for MC Parameter Estimation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zuntz, Joe [Manchester U.; Paterno, Marc [Fermilab; Jennings, Elise [Chicago U., EFI; Rudd, Douglas [U. Chicago; Manzotti, Alessandro [Chicago U., Astron. Astrophys. Ctr.; Dodelson, Scott [Chicago U., Astron. Astrophys. Ctr.; Bridle, Sarah [Manchester U.; Sehrish, Saba [Fermilab; Kowalkowski, James [Fermilab

2015-01-01

Cosmological parameter estimation is entering a new era. Large collaborations need to coordinate high-stakes analyses using multiple methods; furthermore such analyses have grown in complexity due to sophisticated models of cosmology and systematic uncertainties. In this paper we argue that modularity is the key to addressing these challenges: calculations should be broken up into interchangeable modular units with inputs and outputs clearly defined. We present a new framework for cosmological parameter estimation, CosmoSIS, designed to connect together, share, and advance development of inference tools across the community. We describe the modules already available in Cosmo- SIS, including camb, Planck, cosmic shear calculations, and a suite of samplers. We illustrate it using demonstration code that you can run out-of-the-box with the installer available at http://bitbucket.org/joezuntz/cosmosis.

CosmoQuest: Better Citizen Science Through Education

Science.gov (United States)

Gay, P. L.; Lehan, C.; Bracey, G.; Yamani, A.; Francis, M.; Durrell, P.; Spivey, C.; Noel-Storr, J.; Buxner, S.; Cobb, W.;

Prediction of solubilities for ginger bioactive compounds in hot water by the COSMO-RS method

Science.gov (United States)

Zaimah Syed Jaapar, Syaripah; Azian Morad, Noor; Iwai, Yoshio

2013-04-01

The solubilities in water of four main ginger bioactives, 6-gingerol, 6-shogaol, 8-gingerol and 10-gingerol, were predicted using a conductor-like screening model for real solvent (COSMO-RS) calculations. This study was conducted since no experimental data are available for ginger bioactive solubilities in hot water. The σ-profiles of these selected molecules were calculated using Gaussian software and the solubilities were calculated using the COSMO-RS method. The solubilities of these ginger bioactives were calculated at 50 to 200 °C. In order to validate the accuracy of the COSMO-RS method, the solubilities of five hydrocarbon molecules were calculated using the COSMO-RS method and compared with the experimental data in the literature. The selected hydrocarbon molecules were 3-pentanone, 1-hexanol, benzene, 3-methylphenol and 2-hydroxy-5-methylbenzaldehyde. The calculated results of the hydrocarbon molecules are in good agreement with the data in the literature. These results confirm that the solubilities of ginger bioactives can be predicted using the COSMO-RS method. The solubilities of the ginger bioactives are lower than 0.0001 at temperatures lower than 130 °C. At 130 to 200 °C, the solubilities increase dramatically with the highest being 6-shogaol, which is 0.00037 mole fraction, and the lowest is 10-gingerol, which is 0.000039 mole fraction at 200 °C.

Prediction of solubilities for ginger bioactive compounds in hot water by the COSMO-RS method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jaapar, Syaripah Zaimah Syed; Iwai, Yoshio; Morad, Noor Azian

2013-01-01

The solubilities in water of four main ginger bioactives, 6-gingerol, 6-shogaol, 8-gingerol and 10-gingerol, were predicted using a conductor-like screening model for real solvent (COSMO-RS) calculations. This study was conducted since no experimental data are available for ginger bioactive solubilities in hot water. The σ-profiles of these selected molecules were calculated using Gaussian software and the solubilities were calculated using the COSMO-RS method. The solubilities of these ginger bioactives were calculated at 50 to 200 °C. In order to validate the accuracy of the COSMO-RS method, the solubilities of five hydrocarbon molecules were calculated using the COSMO-RS method and compared with the experimental data in the literature. The selected hydrocarbon molecules were 3-pentanone, 1-hexanol, benzene, 3-methylphenol and 2-hydroxy-5-methylbenzaldehyde. The calculated results of the hydrocarbon molecules are in good agreement with the data in the literature. These results confirm that the solubilities of ginger bioactives can be predicted using the COSMO-RS method. The solubilities of the ginger bioactives are lower than 0.0001 at temperatures lower than 130 °C. At 130 to 200 °C, the solubilities increase dramatically with the highest being 6-shogaol, which is 0.00037 mole fraction, and the lowest is 10-gingerol, which is 0.000039 mole fraction at 200 °C.

Cosmic Ray Results from the CosmoALEPH Experiment

CERN Document Server

Grupen, C; Jost, B; Maciuc, F; Luitz, S; Mailov, A; Müller, A S; Putzer, A; Rensch, B; Sander, H G; Schmeling, S; Schmelling, M; Tcaciuc, R; Wachsmuth, H; Ziegler, T; Zuber, K

2008-01-01

CosmoALEPH is an experiment operated in conjunction with the ALEPH detector. The ALEPH experiment took data from 1989 until the year 2000 at the Large Electron Positron Collider (LEP) at CERN. It provides, among others, high resolution tracking and calorimetry. CosmoALEPH used this e+e− detector for cosmic ray studies. In addition, six scintillator telescopes were installed in the ALEPH pit and the LEP tunnel. The whole experiment operated underground at a vertical depth of 320 meter water equivalent. Data from ALEPH and the scintillator telescopes provide informaton on the lateral distribution of energetic cosmic ray muons in extensive air showers. The decoherence curve of these remnant air shower muons is sensitive to the chemical composition of primary cosmic rays and to the interaction characteristics of energetic hadrons in the atmosphere. An attempt is made to extract the various interdependencies in describing the propagation of primary and secondary cosmic rays through the atmosphere and the rock ov...

CosmoQuest Transient Tracker: Opensource Photometry & Astrometry software

Science.gov (United States)

Myers, Joseph L.; Lehan, Cory; Gay, Pamela; Richardson, Matthew; CosmoQuest Team

2018-01-01

CosmoQuest is moving from online citizen science, to observational astronomy with the creation of Transient Trackers. This open source software is designed to identify asteroids and other transient/variable objects in image sets. Transient Tracker’s features in final form will include: astrometric and photometric solutions, identification of moving/transient objects, identification of variable objects, and lightcurve analysis. In this poster we present our initial, v0.1 release and seek community input.This software builds on the existing NIH funded ImageJ libraries. Creation of this suite of opensource image manipulation routines is lead by Wayne Rasband and is released primarily under the MIT license. In this release, we are building on these libraries to add source identification for point / point-like sources, and to do astrometry. Our materials released under the Apache 2.0 license on github (http://github.com/CosmoQuestTeam) and documentation can be found at http://cosmoquest.org/TransientTracker.

CosmoQuest: Making the public your students and collaborators

Science.gov (United States)

Gay, Pamela; Buxner, Sanlyn; Grier, Jennifer; Richardson, Matthew; CosmoQuest Team

2018-01-01

CosmoQuest is a second generation citizen science project that makes it possible for NASA Subject Matter Experts to engage the public as both learners and collaborators in research. Engaging the public in publishable science is termed “Citizen Science.” This is a powerful technique for accomplishing research projects and tasks that require many minds and eyes to complete. While some projects may use undergraduates for help, others simply have too many images or too much data for a small population to sort through. CosmoQuest is a platform that enables scientists to take advantage of already existing science tools to engage the public in their research and to acquire the data analysis they need. Citizen scientists, like students, need their experience properly scaffolded to their understanding, and they require mentoring and training to succeed.This presentation focuses on methods for focusing research projects for successful citizen science engagement, and determining what scaffolding must be built to support citizen education and engagement.This presentation will help you understand how to transform your research project into a successful citizen science engagement. We will also present a flowchart to help you define: what is required, how to focus on what science does and doesn’t work, and what support your project requires. The content presented will allow you to successfully implement a project within the CosmoQuest facility, and determine what educational support you should provide or request aid to provide.

On the COSMO-SkyMed Exploitation for Interferometric DEM Generation

Science.gov (United States)

Teresa, C. M.; Raffaele, N.; Oscar, N. D.; Fabio, B.

2011-12-01

DEM products for Earth observation space-borne applications are being to play a role of increasing importance due to the new generation of high resolution sensors (both optical and SAR). These new sensors demand elevation data for processing and, on the other hand, they provide new possibilities for DEM generation. Till now, for what concerns interferometric DEM, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) has been the reference product for scientific applications all over the world. SRTM mission [1] had the challenging goal to meet the requirements for a homogeneous and reliable DEM fulfilling the DTED-2 specifications. However, new generation of high resolution sensors (including SAR) pose new requirements for elevation data in terms of vertical precision and spatial resolution. DEM are usually used as ancillary input in different processing steps as for instance geocoding and Differential SAR Interferometry. In this context, the recent SAR missions of DLR (TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X) and ASI (COSMO-SkyMed) can play a promising role thanks to their high resolution both in space and time. In particular, the present work investigates the potentialities of the COSMO/SkyMed (CSK) constellation for ground elevation measurement with particular attention devoted to the impact of the improved spatial resolution wrt the previous SAR sensors. The recent scientific works, [2] and [3], have shown the advantages of using CSK in the monitoring of terrain deformations caused by landslides, earthquakes, etc. On the other hand, thanks to the high spatial resolution, CSK appears to be very promising in monitoring man-made structures, such as buildings, bridges, railways and highways, thus enabling new potential applications (urban applications, precise DEM, etc.). We present results obtained by processing both SPOTLIGHT and STRIPMAP acquisitions through standard SAR Interferometry as well as multi-pass interferometry [4] with the aim of measuring ground elevation. Acknowledgments

The cosmic web in CosmoGrid void regions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rieder, Steven; van de Weygaert, Rien; Cautun, Marius; Beygu, Burcu; Portegies Zwart, Simon

2016-01-01

We study the formation and evolution of the cosmic web, using the high-resolution CosmoGrid ΛCDM simulation. In particular, we investigate the evolution of the large-scale structure around void halo groups, and compare this to observations of the VGS-31 galaxy group, which consists of three

CosmoQuest: Building a Community of Skilled Citizen Science Contributors

Science.gov (United States)

Gay, P.; Lehan, C.; Bracey, G.; Durrell, P.; Komatsu, T.; Yamani, A.; Francis, M. R.

2016-12-01

The CosmoQuest Virtual Research Facility invites the public to participate in NASA Science Mission Directorate related research that leads to publishable results and data catalogues. CosmoQuest projects range in difficulty from simple crater and transient marking tasks to more complicated mapping tasks. To successfully engage contributors in creating usable results, training and validation are required. This is accomplished through activities that are designed to mirror the experiences students would have in a university, and include mentoring by team scientists, feedback on contributor efforts, seminars to learn about new science, and even formal classes to provide needed background. Recruitment is accomplished using new and social media, and planetarium and Science on the Sphere™ trailers and shows, and community is built through online and real-world collaboration spaces and events. In this presentation, we detail CosmoQuest's four-pronged approach of media recruitment, science education, citizen science, and community collaboration. We also discuss how it is leveraged to create a skilled collaboration of citizen scientists. Training and data validation activities will be be emphasized, with examples of both what can go right and lessons learned from when things go wrong. We conclude with strategies on how to utilize best practices in user interface design to create virtual experiences that allow major citizen science efforts to be scalable to large audiences.

COSMO: a conceptual framework for service modelling and refinement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Quartel, Dick; Steen, Maarten W.A.; Pokraev, S.; van Sinderen, Marten J.

This paper presents a conceptual framework for service modelling and refinement, called the COSMO (COnceptual Service MOdelling) framework. This framework provides concepts to model and reason about services, and to support operations, such as composition and discovery, which are performed on them

COSMO-SkyMed and GIS applications

Science.gov (United States)

Milillo, Pietro; Sole, Aurelia; Serio, Carmine

2013-04-01

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing have become key technology tools for the collection, storage and analysis of spatially referenced data. Industries that utilise these spatial technologies include agriculture, forestry, mining, market research as well as the environmental analysis . Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a coherent active sensor operating in the microwave band which exploits relative motion between antenna and target in order to obtain a finer spatial resolution in the flight direction exploiting the Doppler effect. SAR have wide applications in Remote Sensing such as cartography, surface deformation detection, forest cover mapping, urban planning, disasters monitoring , surveillance etc… The utilization of satellite remote sensing and GIS technology for this applications has proven to be a powerful and effective tool for environmental monitoring. Remote sensing techniques are often less costly and time-consuming for large geographic areas compared to conventional methods, moreover GIS technology provides a flexible environment for, analyzing and displaying digital data from various sources necessary for classification, change detection and database development. The aim of this work si to illustrate the potential of COSMO-SkyMed data and SAR applications in a GIS environment, in particular a demostration of the operational use of COSMO-SkyMed SAR data and GIS in real cases will be provided for what concern DEM validation, river basin estimation, flood mapping and landslide monitoring.

CosmoQuest: Training Educators and Engaging Classrooms in Citizen Science through a Virtual Research Facility

Science.gov (United States)

Buxner, Sanlyn; Bracey, Georgia; Summer, Theresa; Cobb, Whitney; Gay, Pamela L.; Finkelstein, Keely D.; Gurton, Suzanne; Felix-Strishock, Lisa; Kruse, Brian; Lebofsky, Larry A.; Jones, Andrea J.; Tweed, Ann; Graff, Paige; Runco, Susan; Noel-Storr, Jacob; CosmoQuest Team

2016-10-01

CosmoQuest is a Citizen Science Virtual Research Facility that engages scientists, educators, students, and the public in analyzing NASA images. Often, these types of citizen science activities target enthusiastic members of the public, and additionally engage students in K-12 and college classrooms. To support educational engagement, we are developing a pipeline in which formal and informal educators and facilitators use the virtual research facility to engage students in real image analysis that is framed to provide meaningful science learning. This work also contributes to the larger project to produce publishable results. Community scientists are being solicited to propose CosmoQuest Science Projects take advantage of the virtual research facility capabilities. Each CosmoQuest Science Project will result in formal education materials, aligned with Next Generation Science Standards including the 3-dimensions of science learning; core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices. Participating scientists will contribute to companion educational materials with support from the CosmoQuest staff of data specialists and education specialists. Educators will be trained through in person and virtual workshops, and classrooms will have the opportunity to not only work with NASA data, but interface with NASA scientists. Through this project, we are bringing together subject matter experts, classrooms, and informal science organizations to share the excitement of NASA SMD science with future citizen scientists. CosmoQuest is funded through individual donations, through NASA Cooperative Agreement NNX16AC68A, and through additional grants and contracts that are listed on our website, cosmoquest.org.

Structures of Ionic Liquids Dictate the Conversion and Selectivity of Enzymatic Glycerolysis: Theoretical Characterization by COSMO-RS

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Guo, Zheng

2008-01-01

be quantitatively associated with the structural characteristics of the IL by means of quantum chemical and COSMO-RS calculation. Misfit interaction, Van der Waals interaction and chemical potential, etc. derived from COSMO-RS calculation are shown to be effective measures to delineate multiple interactions of ILs...

A novel convective-scale regional reanalysis COSMO-REA2: Improving the representation of precipitation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sabrina Wahl

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Atmospheric reanalyses are a state-of-the-art tool to generate consistent and realistic state estimates of the atmospheric system. They provide a synthesis of various heterogeneous observational systems and model simulations using a physical model together with a data assimilation scheme. Current reanalyses are mainly global, while regional reanalyses are emerging for North America, the polar region, and most recently for Europe. However, deep convection is still parameterized even in the regional reanalyses. A novel convective-scale regional reanalysis system for Central Europe (COSMO-REA2 has been developed by the Hans-Ertel Center for Weather Research – Climate Monitoring Branch. The system is based on the COSMO model and uses observational nudging for regional data assimilation. In addition to conventional observations, radar-derived rain rates are assimilated using latent heat nudging. With a horizontal grid-spacing of 2 km, the model runs without parameterization of deep moist convection. COSMO-REA2 produces horizontal wind fields that represent a realistic energy spectrum for horizontal scales above 14 km. COSMO-REA2 is currently available for seven years from 2007 to 2013.This study illustrates the improved representation of local precipitation over Germany by the convective-scale reanalysis COSMO-REA2 compared to coarser gridded European and global reanalyses. A systematic verification using rain gauge data reveals the added value of high-resolution regional atmospheric reanalyses on different time scales. On monthly to annual time scales, regional reanalyses yield better estimates of the spatial variability of precipitation patterns which can not be provided by coarser gridded global models. On hourly to daily time scales, the convective-scale reanalysis substantially improves the representation of local precipitation in two ways. On the one hand, COSMO-REA2 shows an enhanced representation of observed frequencies of local

Solubility of water in fluorocarbons: Experimental and COSMO-RS prediction results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Freire, Mara G.; Carvalho, Pedro J.; Santos, Luis M.N.B.F.; Gomes, Ligia R.; Marrucho, Isabel M.; Coutinho, Joao A.P.

2010-01-01

This work aims at providing experimental and theoretical information about the water-perfluorocarbon molecular interactions. For that purpose, experimental solubility results for water in cyclic and aromatic perfluorocarbons (PFCs), over the temperature range between (288.15 and 318.15) K, and at atmospheric pressure, were obtained and are presented. From the experimental solubility dependence on temperature, the partial molar solution and solvation thermodynamic functions such as Gibbs free energy, enthalpy and entropy were determined and are discussed. The process of dissolution of water in PFCs is shown to be spontaneous for cyclic and aromatic compounds. It is demonstrated that the interactions between the non-aromatic PFCs and water are negligible while those between aromatic PFCs and water are favourable. The COSMO-RS predictive capability was explored for the description of the water solubility in PFCs and others substituted fluorocompounds. The COSMO-RS is shown to be a useful model to provide reasonable predictions of the solubility values, as well as to describe their temperature and structural modifications dependence. Moreover, the molar Gibbs free energy and molar enthalpy of solution of water are predicted remarkably well by COSMO-RS while the main deviations appear for the prediction of the molar entropy of solution.

Forecasting the atmospheric composition of southern West Africa with COSMO-ART during the DACCIWA measurement campaign

Science.gov (United States)

Deetz, Konrad; Vogel, Bernhard

2017-04-01

The Dynamics-aerosol-chemistry-cloud interactions in West Africa (DACCIWA) project (Knippertz et al., 2015) investigates the influence of anthropogenic and natural emissions on the atmospheric composition over Southern West Africa (SWA). Between 1 June and 31 July 2016 the DACCIWA measurement campaign took place in SWA, including ground based and airborne observations. By using the regional scale comprehensive model system COSMO-ART (Vogel et al., 2009), operational numerical forecasts of the atmospheric composition including aerosols and gas phase compounds were conducted between 8 May and 31 July 2016. The forecasts cover the domain 25°W to 35°E and 20°S to 30°N with a grid mesh size of 28km and a lead time of 57h. The primary assignment of the forecasts was to support the DACCIWA aircraft campaign (27 June to 17 July 2016) in terms of the decision making of the flight routes of the research aircrafts. Visualizations of the forecast results were daily uploaded to the public available server dacciwa.sedoo.fr. Apart from the support of the DACCIWA measurement campaign, the COSMO-ART model dataset is highly valuable for identifying time periods feasible for post-campaign case study simulations, the extensive validation of COSMO-ART with observational data and the derivation of model climatologies to raise knowledge in meteorological and the atmospheric composition characteristics of SWA. The presentation will show validation results of the COSMO-ART forecasts with ground based and airborne measurements from the DACCIWA campaign as well as remote sensing observations. COSMO-ART well reproduces the diurnal cycle of the observed ozone concentration at Savé site and shows very good agreement of mineral dust AOD compared to CAMS model results whereas the anthropogenic aerosol seems to be overestimated by COSMO-ART compared to MODIS AOD and AERONET observations. We will present model climatologies of the NLLS characteristics and the spatial structure of the pollution

The urban land use in the COSMO-CLM model: a comparison of three parameterizations for Berlin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kristina Trusilova

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The regional non-hydrostatic climate model COSMO-CLM is increasingly being used on fine spatial scales of 1–5 km. Such applications require a detailed differentiation between the parameterization for natural and urban land uses. Since 2010, three parameterizations for urban land use have been incorporated into COSMO-CLM. These parameterizations vary in their complexity, required city parameters and their computational cost. We perform model simulations with the COSMO-CLM coupled to these three parameterizations for urban land in the same model domain of Berlin on a 1-km grid and compare results with available temperature observations. While all models capture the urban heat island, they differ in spatial detail, magnitude and the diurnal variation.

CosmoQuest - Mapping Surface Features Across the Inner Solar System

Science.gov (United States)

Grier, Jennifer A.; Richardson, Matthew; Gay, Pamela L.; Lehan, Cory; Owens, Ryan; Robbins, Stuart J.; DellaGiustina, Daniella; Bennett, Carina; Runco, Susan; Graff, Paige

2017-10-01

The CosmoQuest Virtual Research Facility allows research scientists to work together with citizen scientists in ‘big data’ investigations. Some research requires the examination of vast numbers of images - partnering with engaged and trained citizen scientists allows for that research to be completed in a thorough and timely manner. The techniques used by CosmoQuest to collect impact crater data have been validated to ensure robustness (Robbins et al., 2014), and include software tools that accurately identify crater clusters, and multiple crater identifications. CosmoQuest has current or up-and-coming projects that span much of the inner solar system. “Moon Mappers” gives the public a chance to learn about the importance of cratered surfaces, and investigate factors that effect the identification and measurement of impact craters such as incidence angle. In the “Mars Mappers” program citizens map small craters in valley networks. These will be used to estimate times of ancient water flow. In “Mercury Mappers” the public learns about other issues related to crater counting, such as secondaries. On Mercury, secondaries appear to dominate counts up to 10km. By mapping these craters, we will be able to better understand the maximum diameter of secondaries relative to the parent primary. The public encounters Vesta in “Vesta Mappers,” a project that contributes data to the overall crater counting efforts on that body. Asteroid investigations do not end there - the OSIRIS-REx team is collaborating with CosmoQuest to create a science campaign to generate boulder and crater counting datasets of the asteroid Bennu. This “Bennu Mappers” project will inform the final selection of the sample return site. The Earth is the target for the “Image Detective” project, which uses the 2 million images returned from crewed space flight. These images are rich in information about our changing Earth, as well as phenomena like aurora. Citizens tag these images

Prediction of environmental parameters of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with COSMO-RS

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schröder, B.; Santos, L.M.N.B.F.; Alves da Rocha, M.A.; Oliveira, M.B.; Marrucho, I.M.; Coutinho, J.A.P.

2010-01-01

The methodology for the prediction of properties of environmental relevance of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons based on the conductor-like screening model for real solvents (COSMO-RS/COSMOtherm) is presented and evaluated, with a special focus on the aqueous solubility of polycyclic aromatic

Predictions of flavonoid solubility in ionic liquids by COSMO-RS: experimental verification, structural elucidation, and solvation characterization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Guo, Zheng; Lue, Bena-Marie; Thomsen, Kaj

2007-01-01

Predictions of the solubility of flavonoids in a large variety of ionic liquids (ILs) with over 1800 available structures were examined based on COSMO-RS computation. The results show that the solubilities of flavonoids are strongly anion-dependent. Experimental measurement of the solubilities...... of esculin and rutin in 12 ILs with varying anions and cations show that predicted and experimental results generally have a good agreement. Based on the sound physical basis of COSMO-RS, the solubility changes of flavonoids were quantitatively associated with solvation interactions and structural...... characteristics of ILs. COSMO-RS derived parameters, i.e. misfit, H-bonding and van der Waals interaction energy, are shown to be capable of characterizing the complicated multiple interactions in the IL system effectively. H-bonding interaction is the most dominant interaction for ILs (followed by misfit and van...

CosmoQuest: Measuring Audience Needs to Obtain Better Science

Science.gov (United States)

Buxner, Sanlyn; Bakerman, Maya; Gay, Pamela; Reiheld, Alison; CosmoQuest Team

2018-01-01

The CosmoQuest Virtual Research Facility provides a place for scientists to recruit people to aid in their science projects via citizen science. Just as students need training to be effective researchers, so do citizen scientists, but their needs are different. In this presentation, we present the results of surveys of members of the CosmoQuest community, including both citizen scientists and educators using citizen science in their classrooms. For all members of the community, we investigated the types of projects that respondents enjoyed doing, the level of difficulty they were willing to engage in, and the amount of time they spent doing citizen science projects. We also investigated what other science-related activities respondents were engaged in, other opportunities they were interested in, and what support and resources they needed to be successful in completing projects. For educators, we investigated the types of projects they wanted to engage in with their students, the ideal length of time for citizen science projects to be used in their classrooms, and the resources they needed to be able to engage students in citizen science projects effectively.

Dal cosmo immutabile all'universo in evoluzione

CERN Document Server

Bergia, Silvio

1995-01-01

L'esplorazione dell'universo è una delle più grandi avventure intellettuali dell'ultimo mezzo secolo. Con il suo saggio Bergia vuole ricostruire il senso e il fascino di questa avventura intellettuale, raccontandone gli eventi e i personaggi. La vera rivoluzione concettuale nel modo di concepire l'universo fu il passaggio da una concezione statica a una dinamica dell'universo. Questo è il punto di partenza della cosmologia contemporanea che ha scardinato un intero sistema di concezioni introducendo l'idea dell'evoluzione. Rispetto all'immagine del cosmo immutabile è un vero sovvertimento di valori.

COSMO-RS-based extractant screening for phenol extraction as model system

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Burghoff, B.; Goetheer, E.L.V.; Haan, A.B. de

2008-01-01

The focus of this investigation is the development of a fast and reliable extractant screening approach. Phenol extraction is selected as the model process. A quantum chemical conductor-like screening model for real solvents (COSMO-RS) is combined with molecular design considerations. For this

Predicting CO2-H2O Interfacial Tension Using COSMO-RS

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Silvestri, Alessandro; Stipp, Susan Louise Svane; Andersson, Martin Peter

2017-01-01

us interpret results and gain insight under conditions where experiments are difficult or impossible. Here, we report predictions for CO2–water interfacial tension performed using density functional theory (DFT) combined with the COSMO-RS implicit solvent model. We predicted the IFT dependence...

CENTIMETER COSMO-SKYMED RANGE MEASUREMENTS FOR MONITORING GROUND DISPLACEMENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. Fratarcangeli

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery are widely used in order to monitor displacements impacting the Earth surface and infrastructures. The main remote sensing technique to extract sub-centimeter information from SAR imagery is the Differential SAR Interferometry (DInSAR, based on the phase information only. However, it is well known that DInSAR technique may suffer for lack of coherence among the considered stack of images. New Earth observation SAR satellite sensors, as COSMO-SkyMed, TerraSAR-X, and the coming PAZ, can acquire imagery with high amplitude resolutions too, up to few decimeters. Thanks to this feature, and to the on board dual frequency GPS receivers, allowing orbits determination with an accuracy at few centimetres level, the it was proven by different groups that TerraSAR-X imagery offer the capability to achieve, in a global reference frame, 3D positioning accuracies in the decimeter range and even better just exploiting the slant-range measurements coming from the amplitude information, provided proper corrections of all the involved geophysical phenomena are carefully applied. The core of this work is to test this methodology on COSMO-SkyMed data acquired over the Corvara area (Bolzano – Northern Italy, where, currently, a landslide with relevant yearly displacements, up to decimeters, is monitored, using GPS survey and DInSAR technique. The leading idea is to measure the distance between the satellite and a well identifiable natural or artificial Persistent Scatterer (PS, taking in account the signal propagation delays through the troposphere and ionosphere and filtering out the known geophysical effects that induce periodic and secular ground displacements. The preliminary results here presented and discussed indicate that COSMO-SkyMed Himage imagery appear able to guarantee a displacements monitoring with an accuracy of few centimetres using only the amplitude data, provided few (at least one stable PS’s are

Leveraging CosmoQuest: Quantitative Analysis of Audience Interests and Behaviors

Science.gov (United States)

Buxner, S.; Gay, P.; Bakerman, M. N.; Graziano, N.; Murph, S.; Reiheld, A.

2017-12-01

Online science education projects have the potential to reach larger audiences than any other form of public engagement. For this potential to be realized, educators and communicators must get their message heard above the roar of competing content - the news, memes, games, and gossip that dominate online spaces. Once heard, projects must further inspire engagement, and that engagement needs to be meaningful so that it motivates and supports learning. The CosmoQuest project, launched in 2012, has been collecting data on what factors trigger engagement, and how social media in particular can be used to learn about audiences interests, and measure what kinds of messages trigger interaction. This study examines the interplay between social media frequency and messaging, and user engagement in educational content and citizen science. It further data mines Twitter to directly measure the interests of people who follow CosmoQuest on social media. This information will allow us to effectively recruit new people from space science adjacent interests, and to effectively engage them through research validated strategies.

Model developments in TERRA_URB, the upcoming standard urban parametrization of the atmospheric numerical model COSMO(-CLM)

Science.gov (United States)

Wouters, Hendrik; Blahak, Ulrich; Helmert, Jürgen; Raschendorfer, Matthias; Demuzere, Matthias; Fay, Barbara; Trusilova, Kristina; Mironov, Dmitrii; Reinert, Daniel; Lüthi, Daniel; Machulskaya, Ekaterina

2015-04-01

In order to address urban climate at the regional scales, a new efficient urban land-surface parametrization TERRA_URB has been developed and coupled to the atmospheric numerical model COSMO-CLM. Hereby, several new advancements for urban land-surface models are introduced which are crucial for capturing the urban surface-energy balance and its seasonal dependency in the mid-latitudes. This includes a new PDF-based water-storage parametrization for impervious land, the representation of radiative absorption and emission by greenhouse gases in the infra-red spectrum in the urban canopy layer, and the inclusion of heat emission from human activity. TERRA_URB has been applied in offline urban-climate studies during European observation campaigns at Basel (BUBBLE), Toulouse (CAPITOUL), and Singapore, and currently applied in online studies for urban areas in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Helsinki, Singapore, and Melbourne. Because of its computational efficiency, high accuracy and its to-the-point conceptual easiness, TERRA_URB has been selected to become the standard urban parametrization of the atmospheric numerical model COSMO(-CLM). This allows for better weather forecasts for temperature and precipitation in cities with COSMO, and an improved assessment of urban outdoor hazards in the context of global climate change and urban expansion with COSMO-CLM. We propose additional extensions to TERRA_URB towards a more robust representation of cities over the world including their structural design. In a first step, COSMO's standard EXTernal PARarameter (EXTPAR) tool is updated for representing the cities into the land cover over the entire globe. Hereby, global datasets in the standard EXTPAR tool are used to retrieve the 'Paved' or 'sealed' surface Fraction (PF) referring to the presence of buildings and streets. Furthermore, new global data sets are incorporated in EXTPAR for describing the Anthropogenic Heat Flux (AHF) due to human activity, and optionally the

CosmoQuest: Supporting Subject Matter Experts in Broadening the Impacts of their Work beyond their Institutional Walls.

Science.gov (United States)

Noel-Storr, J.; Buxner, S.; Grier, J.; Gay, P.

2016-12-01

CosmoQuest is a virtual research facility, which, like its physical counterparts, provides tools for scientists to acquire reduced data products (thanks to our cadre of citizen scientists working to analyze images and produce results online), and also to participate in education and outreach activities either directly through CosmoQuest activities (such as CosmoAcademy and the Educators' Zone) or with the support of CosmoQuest. Here, we present our strategies to inspire, engage and support Subject Matter Experts (SMEs - Scientists, Engineers, Technologists and Mathematicians) in activities outside of their institutions, and beyond college classroom teaching. We provide support for SMEs who are interested in increasing the impacts of their science knowledge and expertise by interacting with people online, or in other venues outside of their normal work environment. This includes a broad spectrum of opportunities for those interested in hosting webinars; running short courses for the public; using Facebook, Twitter or other social media to communicate science; or other diverse activities such as supporting an open house, science fair, or star party. As noted by Katheryn Woods-Townsend and colleagues, "...face-to-face interactions with scientists allowed students to view scientists as approachable and normal people, and to begin to understand the range of scientific areas and careers that exist. Scientists viewed the scientist-student interactions as a vehicle for science communication" (2015). As CosmoQuest fosters these relationships, it We present a framework for SMEs which combine opportunities for continuing professional development (virtually and in person at conferences) with ongoing online support, creating a dynamic professional learning network. The goal of this is to deepen SME capacity-knowledge, attitudes and behaviors-both encouraging and empowering them to connect to broader audiences in new ways.

Evaluation of the coupled COSMO-CLM+NEMO-Nordic model with focus on North and Baltic seas

Science.gov (United States)

Lenhardt, J.; Pham, T. V.; Früh, B.; Brauch, J.

2017-12-01

The region east of the Baltic Sea has been identified as a hot-spot of climate change by Giorgi, 2006, on the base of temperature and precipitation variability. For this purpose, the atmosphere model COSMO-CLM has been coupled to the ocean model NEMO, including the sea ice model LIM3, via the OASIS3-MCT coupler (Pham et al., 2014). The coupler interpolates heat, fresh water, momentum fluxes, sea level pressure and the fraction of sea ice at the interface in space and time. Our aim is to find an optimal configuration of the already existing coupled regional atmospheric-ocean model COSMO-CLM+NEMO-Nordic. So far results for the North- and Baltic seas show that the coupled run has large biases compared with the E-OBS reference data. Therefore, additional simulation evaluations are planned by the use of independent satellite observation data (e.g. Copernicus, EURO4M). We have performed a series of runs with the coupled COSMO-CLM+NEMO-Nordic model to find out about differences of model outputs due to different coupling time steps. First analyses of COSMO-CLM 2m temperatures let presume that different coupling time steps have an impact on the results of the coupled model run. Additional tests over a longer period of time are conducted to understand whether the signal-to-noise ratio could influence the bias. The results will be presented in our poster.

Sensitivity analysis with the regional climate model COSMO-CLM over the CORDEX-MENA domain

Science.gov (United States)

Bucchignani, E.; Cattaneo, L.; Panitz, H.-J.; Mercogliano, P.

2016-02-01

The results of a sensitivity work based on ERA-Interim driven COSMO-CLM simulations over the Middle East-North Africa (CORDEX-MENA) domain are presented. All simulations were performed at 0.44° spatial resolution. The purpose of this study was to ascertain model performances with respect to changes in physical and tuning parameters which are mainly related to surface, convection, radiation and cloud parameterizations. Evaluation was performed for the whole CORDEX-MENA region and six sub-regions, comparing a set of 26 COSMO-CLM runs against a combination of available ground observations, satellite products and reanalysis data to assess temperature, precipitation, cloud cover and mean sea level pressure. The model proved to be very sensitive to changes in physical parameters. The optimized configuration allows COSMO-CLM to improve the simulated main climate features of this area. Its main characteristics consist in the new parameterization of albedo, based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data, and the new parameterization of aerosol, based on NASA-GISS AOD distributions. When applying this configuration, Mean Absolute Error values for the considered variables are as follows: about 1.2 °C for temperature, about 15 mm/month for precipitation, about 9 % for total cloud cover, and about 0.6 hPa for mean sea level pressure.

COSMO: a decision-support system for the central open space, the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Harms, W.B.; Knaapen, J.P.; Roos-Klein-Lankhorst sic, J.

1995-01-01

To evaluate scenarios for nature restoration, a landscape ecological decision-support system has been developed, a knowledge-based system integrated in a geographical information system. The grid-based application in the Central Open Space of the Netherlands (the COSMO model) is presented here. Four

The COSMO solution to the SWS challenge mediation problem scenarios: an evaluation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Asuncion, C.H.; van Sinderen, Marten J.; Quartel, Dick; Blake, Brian; Cabral, Liliana; Köning-Ries, Birgitta; Küster, Ulrich; Martin, David

2012-01-01

During the course of our participation in the Semantic Web Services (SWS) Challenge, we have shown how the concepts defined in the COnceptual Services MOdeling (COSMO) framework for the modeling, reasoning and analysis of services can be used to solve the Mediation Problem Scenarios of the

Simulations with COSMO-CLM over Turin including TERRA-URB parameterization

Science.gov (United States)

Bucchignani, Edoardo; Mercogliano, Paola; Milelli, Massimo; Raffa, Mario

2017-04-01

The increase of built surfaces constitutes the main reason for the formation of Urban Heat Islands (UHIs), since urban canyons block the release of the reflected radiation. The main contribution to the formation of UHIs is the missing night-cooling of horizontal surfaces, together with cloudless sky and light winds. Of course, there is also a contribution from indoor heating, vehicles presence, and waste heat from air conditioning and refrigeration systems. The COSMO-CLM model, even at high resolution, is currently not able to cope with this effect. Nevertheless, the increase of applications in which a high number of grid points is located over urban areas, requires that COSMO-CLM becomes able to take into account also urban climate features. In fact, they are crucial for better forecast of temperature and for a better characterization of the local patterns of several atmospherical variables (wind, surface fluxes). Recently TERRA-URB, a bulk parameterisation scheme with a prescribed anthropogenic heat flux, has been incorporated into COSMO-CLM for the standard land-surface module TERRA-ML. It offers an intrinsic representation of the urban physics with modifications of input data, soil module and land atmospheric interactions. In the first half of July 2015, Piemonte region and Turin in particular experienced extreme temperature values and uncomfortable conditions for the population. In Turin, the maximum temperature since 1990 (38.5°) has been recorded in July 2015. Ground stations data highlighted the presence of a UHI effect over Turin. This is the reason why this area and this period represent a suitable benchmark to test the capabilities of COSMO-CLM, and in particular of the urban parameterization. The computational domain considered is centered over Turin, discretized with 100 x 100 grid-points, employing a spatial resolution of 0.009° (about 1 km). The ECMWF IFS analysis at 0.075° have been used as forcing data. Two simulations have been performed over

COSMO-SkyMed Spotlight interometry over rural areas: the Slumgullion landslide in Colorado, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Milillo, Pietro; Fielding, Eric J.; Schulz, William H.; Delbridge, Brent; Burgmann, Roland

2014-01-01

In the last 7 years, spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data with resolution of better than a meter acquired by satellites in spotlight mode offered an unprecedented improvement in SAR interferometry (InSAR). Most attention has been focused on monitoring urban areas and man-made infrastructure exploiting geometric accuracy, stability, and phase fidelity of the spotlight mode. In this paper, we explore the potential application of the COSMO-SkyMed® Spotlight mode to rural areas where decorrelation is substantial and rapidly increases with time. We focus on the rapid repeat times of as short as one day possible with the COSMO-SkyMed® constellation. We further present a qualitative analysis of spotlight interferometry over the Slumgullion landslide in southwest Colorado, which moves at rates of more than 1 cm/day.

X-band COSMO-SkyMed wind field retrieval, with application to coastal circulation modeling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Montuori

2013-02-01

Full Text Available In this paper, X-band COSMO-SkyMed^© synthetic aperture radar (SAR wind field retrieval is investigated, and the obtained data are used to force a coastal ocean circulation model. The SAR data set consists of 60 X-band Level 1B Multi-Look Ground Detected ScanSAR Huge Region COSMO-SkyMed^© SAR data, gathered in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea during the summer and winter seasons of 2010. The SAR-based wind vector field estimation is accomplished by resolving both the SAR-based wind speed and wind direction retrieval problems independently. The sea surface wind speed is retrieved by means of a SAR wind speed algorithm based on the azimuth cut-off procedure, while the sea surface wind direction is provided by means of a SAR wind direction algorithm based on the discrete wavelet transform multi-resolution analysis. The obtained wind fields are compared with ground truth data provided by both ASCAT scatterometer and ECMWF model wind fields. SAR-derived wind vector fields and ECMWF model wind data are used to construct a blended wind product regularly sampled in both space and time, which is then used to force a coastal circulation model of a southern Tyrrhenian coastal area to simulate wind-driven circulation processes. The modeling results show that X-band COSMO-SkyMed^© SAR data can be valuable in providing effective wind fields for coastal circulation modeling.

CosmoBon, tree research team, for studying utilization of woody plant in space environment

Science.gov (United States)

Tomita-Yokotani, Kaori; Yamashita, Masamichi; Hashimoto, Hirofumi; Sato, Seigo; Baba, Keiichi; Chida, Yukari

2012-07-01

We are proposing to raise woody plants in space for several applications and plant science, as Tree research team, TRT. Trees produce excess oxygen, wooden materials for living cabin, and provide biomass for cultivating mushroom and insect as for the space agriculture. Excellent tree shapes which would be deeply related to wood formation improve quality of life under stressful environment in outer space. We have the serious problem about their size. Bonsai is one of the Japanese traditional arts. We have been investigating the tension wood formation under exotic gravitational environment using Bonsai. CosmoBon is the small tree Bonsai for our space experiment. The tension wood formation in CosmoBon was confirmed as the same as that in the natural trees. Our goal is to examine feasibility to grow various species of trees in space as bioresource for space agriculture.

CosmoQuest: Training Students, Teachers and the Public to do NASA Science

Science.gov (United States)

Buxner, S.; Bracey, G.; Noel-Storr, J.; Murph, S.; Francis, M. R.; Strishock, L.; Cobb, W. H.; Lebofsky, L. A.; Jones, A. P.; Finkelstein, K.; Gay, P.

2016-12-01

Engaging individuals in science who have not been formally trained as research scientists can both capture a wider audiences in the process of science as well as crowdsource data analysis that gets more science done. CosmoQuest is a virtual research facility that leverages these benefits through citizen science projects that has community members to analyze NASA data that contributes to publishable science results. This is accomplished through an inviting experience that recruits members of the public (including students), meets their needs and motivations, and provides them the education they want so they can to be contributing members of the community. Each research project in CosmoQuest presents new training opportunities that are designed to meet the personal needs of the engaged individuals, while also leading to the production of high-quality data that meets the needs of the research teams. These educational opportunities extend into classrooms, where both teachers and students engage in analysis. Training for teachers is done through in-person and online professional development, and through conference workshops for both scientists and educators. Curricular products are available to support students' understanding of citizen science and how to engage in CosmoQuest projects. Professional development for all audiences is done through online tutorials and courses, with social media support. Our goal is to instill expertise in individuals not formally trained as research scientists. This allows them to work with and provide genuine scientific support to practicing experts in a community that benefits all stakeholders. Training focuses on increasing and supporting individuals' core content knowledge as well as building the specific skills necessary to engage in each project. These skills and knowledge are aligned with the 3-dimensional learning of the Next Generation Science Standards, and support lifelong learning opportunities for those in and out of school.

Evaluation of high-resolution climate simulations for West Africa using COSMO-CLM

Science.gov (United States)

Dieng, Diarra; Smiatek, Gerhard; Bliefernicht, Jan; Laux, Patrick; Heinzeller, Dominikus; Kunstmann, Harald; Sarr, Abdoulaye; Thierno Gaye, Amadou

2017-04-01

The climate change modeling activities within the WASCAL program (West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use) concentrate on the provisioning of future climate change scenario data at high spatial and temporal resolution and quality in West Africa. Such information is highly required for impact studies in water resources and agriculture for the development of reliable climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. In this study, we present a detailed evaluation of high simulation runs based on the regional climate model, COSMO model in CLimate Mode (COSMO-CLM). The model is applied over West Africa in a nested approach with two simulation domains at 0.44° and 0.11° resolution using reanalysis data from ERA-Interim (1979-2013). The models runs are compared to several state-of-the-art observational references (e.g., CRU, CHIRPS) including daily precipitation data provided by national meteorological services in West Africa. Special attention is paid to the reproduction of the dynamics of the West African Monsoon (WMA), its associated precipitation patterns and crucial agro-climatological indices such as the onset of the rainy season. In addition, first outcomes of the regional climate change simulations driven by MPI-ESM-LR are presented for a historical period (1980 to 2010) and two future periods (2020 to 2050, 2070 to 2100). The evaluation of the reanalysis runs shows that COSMO-CLM is able to reproduce the observed major climate characteristics including the West African Monsoon within the range of comparable RCM evaluations studies. However, substantial uncertainties remain, especially in the Sahel zone. The added value of the higher resolution of the nested run is reflected in a smaller bias in extreme precipitation statistics with respect to the reference data.

Lateral distribution of cosmic ray muons underground. Results from the CosmoALEPH experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tcaciuc, R.

2006-01-01

The CosmoALEPH experiment, located underground at the LEP e + e - storage ring at CERN at a depth of 320 m water equivalent, was used to study the chemical composition of primary cosmic rays up to 10 PeV energies from the measurement of high energy muons, created in extensive air showers by interactions of primary nuclei in the atmosphere. The Time Projection Chamber (TPC) and the Hadron Calorimeter of the ALEPH detector and six scintillator stations located at distances up to 1 km from each other were used to analyse the decoherence curve, multiplicity and transverse momentum distributions of energetic cosmic muons. The experimental data were compared with predictions from different Monte Carlo (MC) models and mass composition approaches. From a comparison between the measured decoherence distribution with CosmoALEPH and the MC predicted decoherence curves for proton, helium and iron, a primary composition of (77±11) % protons and (23±11) % iron nuclei with a χ 2 -probability of 84 % was determined, based on the predictions of the VENUS model with the constant mass composition approach. The analysis of the decoherence curve, with consideration of correlations between the measured CosmoALEPH parameters, leads to a composition of (88±8) % protons and (12±8) % iron nuclei for cosmic rays with a χ 2 -probability of 53 %. The absolute comparison between the measured multiplicity and transverse momentum distributions in the TPC and those predicted by different Monte Carlo models results also in a dominant light composition. The experimental data are in a good agreement with MC data lying between proton and helium primaries. The results obtained for the primary composition of cosmic rays up to the knee region are consistent with the results from other experiments. (orig.)

Lateral distribution of cosmic ray muons underground. Results from the CosmoALEPH experiment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tcaciuc, R.

2006-07-01

The CosmoALEPH experiment, located underground at the LEP e{sup +}e{sup -} storage ring at CERN at a depth of 320 m water equivalent, was used to study the chemical composition of primary cosmic rays up to 10 PeV energies from the measurement of high energy muons, created in extensive air showers by interactions of primary nuclei in the atmosphere. The Time Projection Chamber (TPC) and the Hadron Calorimeter of the ALEPH detector and six scintillator stations located at distances up to 1 km from each other were used to analyse the decoherence curve, multiplicity and transverse momentum distributions of energetic cosmic muons. The experimental data were compared with predictions from different Monte Carlo (MC) models and mass composition approaches. From a comparison between the measured decoherence distribution with CosmoALEPH and the MC predicted decoherence curves for proton, helium and iron, a primary composition of (77{+-}11) % protons and (23{+-}11) % iron nuclei with a {chi}{sup 2}-probability of 84 % was determined, based on the predictions of the VENUS model with the constant mass composition approach. The analysis of the decoherence curve, with consideration of correlations between the measured CosmoALEPH parameters, leads to a composition of (88{+-}8) % protons and (12{+-}8) % iron nuclei for cosmic rays with a {chi}{sup 2} -probability of 53 %. The absolute comparison between the measured multiplicity and transverse momentum distributions in the TPC and those predicted by different Monte Carlo models results also in a dominant light composition. The experimental data are in a good agreement with MC data lying between proton and helium primaries. The results obtained for the primary composition of cosmic rays up to the knee region are consistent with the results from other experiments. (orig.)

CosmoQuest - Scientist Engagement with the Public and Schools via a Virtual Research Facility

Science.gov (United States)

Noel-Storr, Jacob; Buxner, Sanlyn; Gay, Pamela L.; Grier, Jennifer A.; Lehan, Cory; CosmoQuest Team

2016-06-01

CosmoQuest is a virtual research facility where science data can be analyzed by teams of interested citizen scientists from across the world. Scientists can apply to have their data analyzed through crowdsourcing in our online observatory, which generates validated and publishable results (Robbins et al 2014). Scientists have the opportunity to provide connections to teachers in classrooms so that students can analyze original data and understand the process that astronomers go through from image to result. Scientists can also teach online classes for different audiences including formal classroom teachers, informal educators, and lifelong learners to further the broader impacts of their work and increase engagement in their scientific endeavors. We provide training, through online and in-person workshops, on how to incorporate your datasets into the observatory and how to deliver online classes through our CosmoAcademy. This work is funded in part by NASA Cooperative Agreement Notice number NNX16AC68A. For more information, visit http://cosmoquest.org/.

Lateral distribution of cosmic ray muons underground: Results from the CosmoALEPH experiment

CERN Document Server

Tcaciuc, Rodica

2006-01-01

The CosmoALEPH experiment, located underground at the LEP e + e − storage ring at CERN at a depth of 320 m water equivalent, was used to study the chemical composition of primary cosmic rays up to 10 PeV e nergies from the measurement of high energy muons, created in extensive a ir showers by interactions of primary nuclei in the atmosphere. The Time Projection Chamber (TPC) and the Hadron Calorimete r of the ALEPH detector and six scintillator stations located at dis tances up to 1 km from each other were used to analyse the decoherence curve, m ultiplicity and transverse momentum distributions of energetic cosmic muo ns. The experimental data were compared with predictions from d ifferent Monte Carlo (MC) models and mass composition approaches. From a comparison between the measured decoherence distrib ution with CosmoALEPH and the MC predicted decoherence curves for prot on, helium and iron, a primary composition of (77 ± 11) % protons and (23 ± 11) % iron nuclei with a χ 2 - probability of 84 % was d...

A comparison between the ECMWF and COSMO Ensemble Prediction Systems applied to short-term wind power forecasting on real data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Alessandrini, S.; Sperati, S.; Pinson, Pierre

2013-01-01

together with a single forecast power value for each future time horizon. A comparison between two different ensemble forecasting models, ECMWF EPS (Ensemble Prediction System in use at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) and COSMO-LEPS (Limited-area Ensemble Prediction System developed...... ahead forecast horizon. A statistical calibration of the ensemble wind speed members based on the use of past wind speed measurements is explained. The two models are compared using common verification indices and diagrams. The higher horizontal resolution model (COSMO-LEPS) shows slightly better...

The high-resolution regional reanalysis COSMO-REA6

Science.gov (United States)

Ohlwein, C.

2016-12-01

Reanalyses gain more and more importance as a source of meteorological information for many purposes and applications. Several global reanalyses projects (e.g., ERA, MERRA, CSFR, JMA9) produce and verify these data sets to provide time series as long as possible combined with a high data quality. Due to a spatial resolution down to 50-70km and 3-hourly temporal output, they are not suitable for small scale problems (e.g., regional climate assessment, meso-scale NWP verification, input for subsequent models such as river runoff simulations). The implementation of regional reanalyses based on a limited area model along with a data assimilation scheme is able to generate reanalysis data sets with high spatio-temporal resolution. Within the Hans-Ertel-Centre for Weather Research (HErZ), the climate monitoring branch concentrates efforts on the assessment and analysis of regional climate in Germany and Europe. In joint cooperation with DWD (German Meteorological Service), a high-resolution reanalysis system based on the COSMO model has been developed. The regional reanalysis for Europe matches the domain of the CORDEX EURO-11 specifications, albeit at a higher spatial resolution, i.e., 0.055° (6km) instead of 0.11° (12km) and comprises the assimilation of observational data using the existing nudging scheme of COSMO complemented by a special soil moisture analysis with boundary conditions provided by ERA-Interim data. The reanalysis data set covers the past 20 years. Extensive evaluation of the reanalysis is performed using independent observations with special emphasis on precipitation and high-impact weather situations indicating a better representation of small scale variability. Further, the evaluation shows an added value of the regional reanalysis with respect to the forcing ERA Interim reanalysis and compared to a pure high-resolution dynamical downscaling approach without data assimilation.

CosmoQuest: A Virtual Facility for Learning and Doing Science

Science.gov (United States)

Gay, P.; Lehan, C.; Bracey, G.; Gugiucci, N.

2012-09-01

CosmoQuest is a new online citizen science project designed to bring to the public the facilities typically enjoyed by professional researchers working in academic environments. Research is enabled through a series of online interfaces that guide individuals through tasks that professional collaborators need completed. Seminars, star parties, and other professional development is conducted through online video conferencing using the Google Hangouts on Air technology. Additional learning materials are maintained online using wiki software, and social interactions and collaboration are facilitated via online forums and social media.

Development of LISP 1. 9 on Mecom Cosmo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Unemi, T

1982-01-01

LISP has already been well known as a programming language suitable for conducting the theoretical pursuit of artificial intelligence or cognitive science. However, the availability of LISP for this usage in Japan has not yet been prepared well enough for any computers. The recently developed LISP 1.9 system which is structured to the operation of the Melcom-Cosmo 7000III computer is a variation of LISP 2.0 defined on the Tosbac 5600 machine. The purpose of developing this system is to structure the LISP system operative as a practical tool for working on artificial intelligence and cognitive science. This report is made on characteristic features of this system and on distinction among other LISP systems. 14 references.

High-speed vector-processing system of the MELCOM-COSMO 900II

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Masuda, K; Mori, H; Fujikake, J; Sasaki, Y

1983-01-01

Progress in scientific and technical calculations has lead to a growing demand for high-speed vector calculations. Mitsubishi electric has developed an integrated array processor and automatic-vectorizing fortran compiler as an option for the MELCOM-COSMO 900II computer system. This facilitates the performance of vector calculations and matrix calculations, achieving significant gains in cost-effectiveness. The article outlines the high-speed vector system, includes discussion of compiler structuring, and cites examples of effective system application. 1 reference.

Evaluation of ionic liquids as solvent for aromatic extraction: Experimental, correlation and COSMO-RS predictions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Calvar, Noelia; Domínguez, Irene; Gómez, Elena; Palomar, Jose; Domínguez, Ángeles

2013-01-01

Highlights: • BMimMSO 4 and BMimNTf 2 were studied as solvents to extract aromatic from aliphatic hydrocarbons. • Liquid + liquid equilibrium data were measured at 298.15 K and atmospheric pressure. • Selectivity and solute distribution ratio were obtained and compared with literature. • Experimental data were satisfactorily correlated using NRTL and UNIQUAC models. • COSMO-RS model was used as a predictive tool to describe the experimental LLE data for the studied ternary systems. -- Abstract: For the study of the separation of benzene or toluene from octane, nonane and cyclooctane, the ionic liquids 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium methylsulfate, BMimMSO 4 , and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, BMimNTf 2 , were used as solvents. The (liquid + liquid) equilibria of the ternary systems {octane, or nonane, or (cyclooctane + benzene + BMimMSO 4 )}, and {(nonane + toluene + BMimMSO 4 ) or BMimNTf 2 } at T = 298.15 K were determined, and an analysis of the influence of the structure of each compound was carried out. Besides, the experimental data have been compared with literature data with sulfolane as solvent. The experimental results obtained have been correlated using NRTL and UNIQUAC models. Finally, COSMO-RS has been used to predict the (liquid + liquid) equilibrium of the systems studied. The differences between the predicted and experimental values were used to evaluate the ability of the COSMO-RS model to describe the impact of the structure of the alkane, aromatic and ionic liquid on the (liquid + liquid) equilibria

A new service support tool for COSMO-SkyMed: civil user coordination service and civil request management optimization

Science.gov (United States)

Daraio, M. G.; Battagliere, M. L.; Sacco, P.; Fasano, L.; Coletta, A.

2015-10-01

COSMO-SkyMed is a dual-use program for both civilian and defense provides user community (institutional and commercial) with SAR data in several environmental applications. In the context of COSMO-SkyMed data and User management, one of the aspects carefully monitored is the user satisfaction level, it is links to satisfaction of submitted user requests. The operational experience of the first years of operational phase, and the consequent lessons learnt by the COSMO-SkyMed data and user management, have demonstrated that a lot of acquisition rejections are due to conflicts (time conflicts or system conflicts) among two or more civilian user requests, and they can be managed and solved implementing an improved coordination of users and their requests on a daily basis. With this aim a new Service Support Tool (SST) has been designed and developed to support the operators in the User Request coordination. The Tool allow to analyze conflicts among Acquisition Requests (ARs) before the National Rankization phase and to elaborate proposals for conflict resolution. In this paper the most common causes of the occurred rejections will be showed, for example as the impossibility to aggregate different orders, and the SST functionalities will be described, in particular how it works to remove or minimize the conflicts among different orders.

The 1-way on-line coupled atmospheric chemistry model system MECO(n – Part 1: Description of the limited-area atmospheric chemistry model COSMO/MESSy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Kerkweg

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The numerical weather prediction model of the Consortium for Small Scale Modelling (COSMO, maintained by the German weather service (DWD, is connected with the Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy. This effort is undertaken in preparation of a new, limited-area atmospheric chemistry model. Limited-area models require lateral boundary conditions for all prognostic variables. Therefore the quality of a regional chemistry model is expected to improve, if boundary conditions for the chemical constituents are provided by the driving model in consistence with the meteorological boundary conditions. The new developed model is as consistent as possible, with respect to atmospheric chemistry and related processes, with a previously developed global atmospheric chemistry general circulation model: the ECHAM/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC model. The combined system constitutes a new research tool, bridging the global to the meso-γ scale for atmospheric chemistry research. MESSy provides the infrastructure and includes, among others, the process and diagnostic submodels for atmospheric chemistry simulations. Furthermore, MESSy is highly flexible allowing model setups with tailor made complexity, depending on the scientific question. Here, the connection of the MESSy infrastructure to the COSMO model is documented and also the code changes required for the generalisation of regular MESSy submodels. Moreover, previously published prototype submodels for simplified tracer studies are generalised to be plugged-in and used in the global and the limited-area model. They are used to evaluate the TRACER interface implementation in the new COSMO/MESSy model system and the tracer transport characteristics, an important prerequisite for future atmospheric chemistry applications. A supplementary document with further details on the technical implementation of the MESSy interface into COSMO with a complete list of modifications to the COSMO code is provided.

A Comparison of Predictive Thermo and Water Solvation Property Prediction Tools and Experimental Data for Selected Traditional Chemical Warfare Agents and Simulants II: COSMO RS and COSMOTherm

Science.gov (United States)

2017-04-01

SELECTED TRADITIONAL CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS AND SIMULANTS II: COSMO-RS AND COSMOTHERM ECBC-TR-1454 Jerry B. Cabalo RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY...Traditional Chemical Warfare Agents and Simulants II: COSMO-RS and COSMOTherm 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER CB10115...in the ADF 2012 suite of programs for the physico- chemical properties of a set of traditional chemical warfare agents and selected simulants. To

Simulations of the influence of lake area on local temperature with the COSMO NWP model

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Bartůňková, Kristýna; Sokol, Zbyněk; Pop, Lukáš

147-148, 1-15 Oct (2014), s. 51-67 ISSN 0169-8095 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-34856S; GA TA ČR TA01020592 Institutional support: RVO:68378289 Keywords : ALAKE * COSMO NWP model * modeling * microclimate * lake Subject RIV: DG - Athmosphere Sciences, Meteorology Impact factor: 2.844, year: 2014 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169809514002038

Multiscale Analysis of the Water Content Output the NWP Model COSMO Over Switzerland and Comparison With Radar Data

Science.gov (United States)

Wolfensberger, D.; Gires, A.; Berne, A.; Tchiguirinskaia, I.; Schertzer, D. J. M.

2015-12-01

The resolution of operational numerical prediction models is typically of the order of a few kilometres meaning that small-scale features of precipitation can not be resolved explicitly. This creates the need for representative parametrizations of microphysical processes whose properties should be carefully analysed. In this study we will focus on the COSMO model which is a non-hydrostatic limited-area model, initially developed as the Lokal Model and used operationally in Switzerland and Germany. In its operational version, cloud microphysical processes are simulated with a one-moment bulk scheme where five hydrometeor classes are considered: cloud droplets, rain, ice crystals, snow, and graupel. A more sophisticated two-moment scheme is also available. The study will focus on two case studies: one in Payerne in western Switzerland in a relatively flat region and one in Davos in the eastern Swiss Alps in a more complex terrain.The objective of this work is to characterize the ability of the COSMO NWP model to reproduce the microphysics of precipitation across temporal and spatial scales as well as scaling variability. The characterization of COSMO outputs will rely on the Universal Multifractals framework, which allows to analyse and simulate geophysical fields extremely variabile over a wide range of scales with the help of a reduced number of parameters. First COSMO outputs are analysed; spatial multifractal analysis of 2D maps at various altitudes for each time steps are carried out for simulated solid, liquid, vapour and total water content. In general the fields exhibit a good quality of scaling on the whole range of available scales (2 km - 250 km), but some loss of scaling quality corresponding to the emergence of a scaling break are sometimes visible. This behaviour is not found at the same time or at the same altitude according to the water state and does not necessarily spread to the total water content. It is interpreted with the help of the underlying

A Space View of Radar Archaeological Marks: First Applications of COSMO-SkyMed X-Band Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fulong Chen

2014-12-01

Full Text Available With the development of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR in terms of multi-band, multi-polarization and high-resolution data, space radar remote sensing for archaeology has become a potential field for research. Nevertheless, the archaeological detection capability of this technology has so far not been fully assessed. This paper is a pioneering effort to assess the potential of satellite SAR X-band data in the detection of archaeological marks. We focus on the results obtained from a collaborative contribution jointly carried out by archaeologists and remote sensing experts in order to test the use of COSMO-SkyMed data in different contexts and environmental conditions. The methodological approaches we adopted are based on two different feature-enhancement procedures: (i multi-temporal analysis performed to reduce noise and highlight archaeological marks; (ii single-date analysis to assess the ability of the single SAR scene to detect archaeological features like with optical remote sensing. Results from multi-temporal data analysis, conducted using 40 scenes from COSMO-SkyMed X-band Stripmap data (27 February to 17 October 2013, enable us to detect unknown archaeological crop, soil, and shadow marks representing Luoyang city, dating from the Eastern-Han to Northern-Wei Dynasties. Single-date analyses were conducted using COSMO-SkyMed Spotlight scenes acquired for Sabratha (Libya and Metapontum (southern Italy. These case studies were selected because they are characterized by diverse superficial conditions (desert and Mediterranean area and archaeological marks (crop, soil and shadow. The results we obtained for both of them show that even a single SAR X-band acquisition is a feasible and effective approach for archaeological prospection. Overall, the methodological approach adopted demonstrated that both multi-temporal and single-date analysis are suitable for the enhancement of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental features.

Analysis of turbulent natural convection heat transfer in a lower plenum during external cooling using the COSMO code

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Noguchi, H. [Nuclear Power Engineering Corp., Tokyo (Japan); Sawatari, Y.; Imada, T. [Fuji Research Institute Corporation, Tokyo (Japan)

2000-11-01

The behavior of a large volumetrically heated melt pool is important to evaluate the feasibility of in-vessel retention by external flooding as an accident management. The COSMO (Coolability Simulation of Molten corium during severe accident) code has been developed at NUPEC to simulate turbulent natural convection heat transfer with internal heat source. The COSMO code solves thermal hydraulic conservation equations with turbulent model and can simulate melting and solidification process. The standard k-{epsilon} model has a limitation to describe the turbulent natural convection in the very high Rayleigh number condition (10{sup 16}-10{sup 17}) assumed to occur in a lower plenum of RPV during a severe accident. This limitation results from the assumption of an analogy of momentum and energy transfer phenomena in the standard model. In this paper the modified turbulent model in which the turbulent number is treated, as a function of the flux Richardson number derived from the experiment, has been incorporated and verified by using the BALI experiments. It was found that the prediction of averaged Nusselt number became better than that of the standard model. In order to extend the COSMO code to the actual scale analysis under the external flooding conditions, more realistic boundary condition derived from the experiments should be treated. In this work the CHF correlation from ULPU experiment or the heat transfer coefficient correlation from CYBL experiment have been applied. The preliminary analysis of an actual scale analysis has been carried out under the condition of the TMI-2 accident. (author)

Analysis of turbulent natural convection heat transfer in a lower plenum during external cooling using the COSMO code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noguchi, H.; Sawatari, Y.; Imada, T.

2000-01-01

The behavior of a large volumetrically heated melt pool is important to evaluate the feasibility of in-vessel retention by external flooding as an accident management. The COSMO (Coolability Simulation of Molten corium during severe accident) code has been developed at NUPEC to simulate turbulent natural convection heat transfer with internal heat source. The COSMO code solves thermal hydraulic conservation equations with turbulent model and can simulate melting and solidification process. The standard k-ε model has a limitation to describe the turbulent natural convection in the very high Rayleigh number condition (10 16 -10 17 ) assumed to occur in a lower plenum of RPV during a severe accident. This limitation results from the assumption of an analogy of momentum and energy transfer phenomena in the standard model. In this paper the modified turbulent model in which the turbulent number is treated, as a function of the flux Richardson number derived from the experiment, has been incorporated and verified by using the BALI experiments. It was found that the prediction of averaged Nusselt number became better than that of the standard model. In order to extend the COSMO code to the actual scale analysis under the external flooding conditions, more realistic boundary condition derived from the experiments should be treated. In this work the CHF correlation from ULPU experiment or the heat transfer coefficient correlation from CYBL experiment have been applied. The preliminary analysis of an actual scale analysis has been carried out under the condition of the TMI-2 accident. (author)

Evaluation of COSMO-ART in the Framework of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII)

Science.gov (United States)

Giordano, Lea; Brunner, Dominik; Im, Ulas; Galmarini, Stefano

2014-05-01

The Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII) coordinated by the EC-JRC and US-EPA, promotes since 2008 research on regional air quality model evaluation across the atmospheric modelling communities of Europe and North America. AQMEII has now reached its Phase 2 that is dedicated to the evaluation of on-line coupled chemistry-meteorology models as opposed to Phase 1 where only off-line models were considered. At European level, AQMEII collaborates with the COST Action "European framework for on-line integrated air quality and meteorology modelling" (EuMetChem). All European groups participating in AQMEII performed simulations over the same spatial domain (Europe at a resolution of about 20 km) and using the same simulation strategy (e.g. no nudging allowed) and the same input data as much as possible. The initial and boundary conditions (IC/BC) were shared between all groups. Emissions were provided by the TNO-MACC database for anthropogenic emissions and the FMI database for biomass burning emissions. Chemical IC/BC data were taken from IFS-MOZART output, and meteorological IC/BC from the ECWMF global model. Evaluation data sets were collected by the Joint Research Center (JRC) and include measurements from surface in situ networks (AirBase and EMEP), vertical profiles from ozone sondes and aircraft (MOZAIC), and remote sensing (AERONET, satellites). Since Phase 2 focuses on on-line coupled models, a special effort is devoted to the detailed speciation of particulate matter components, with the goal of studying feedback processes. For the AQMEII exercise, COSMO-ART has been run with 40 levels of vertical resolution, and a chemical scheme that includes the SCAV module of Knote and Brunner (ACP 2013) for wet-phase chemistry and the SOA treatment according to VBS (volatility basis set) approach (Athanasopoulou et al., ACP 2013). The COSMO-ART evaluation shows that, next to a good performance in the meteorology, the gas phase chemistry is well

Nowcasting of hailstorms simulated by the NWP model COSMO for the area of the Czech Republic

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Sokol, Zbyněk; Bližňák, Vojtěch; Zacharov, Petr, jr.; Skripniková, Kateřina

2016-01-01

Roč. 171, 1 May (2016), s. 66-76 ISSN 0169-8095 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-34856S; GA ČR(CZ) GPP209/12/P701 Institutional support: RVO:68378289 Keywords : hail * numerical weather prediction * COSMO * nowcasting Subject RIV: DG - Athmosphere Sciences, Meteorology Impact factor: 3.778, year: 2016 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169809515003968

CosmoTransitions: Computing cosmological phase transition temperatures and bubble profiles with multiple fields

Science.gov (United States)

Wainwright, Carroll L.

2012-09-01

I present a numerical package (CosmoTransitions) for analyzing finite-temperature cosmological phase transitions driven by single or multiple scalar fields. The package analyzes the different vacua of a theory to determine their critical temperatures (where the vacuum energy levels are degenerate), their supercooling temperatures, and the bubble wall profiles which separate the phases and describe their tunneling dynamics. I introduce a new method of path deformation to find the profiles of both thin- and thick-walled bubbles. CosmoTransitions is freely available for public use.Program summaryProgram Title: CosmoTransitionsCatalogue identifier: AEML_v1_0Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEML_v1_0.htmlProgram obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. IrelandLicensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.htmlNo. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 8775No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 621096Distribution format: tar.gzProgramming language: Python.Computer: Developed on a 2009 MacBook Pro. No computer-specific optimization was performed.Operating system: Designed and tested on Mac OS X 10.6.8. Compatible with any OS with Python installed.RAM: Approximately 50 MB, mostly for loading plotting packages.Classification: 1.9, 11.1.External routines: SciPy, NumPy, matplotLibNature of problem: I describe a program to analyze early-Universe finite-temperature phase transitions with multiple scalar fields. The goal is to analyze the phase structure of an input theory, determine the amount of supercooling at each phase transition, and find the bubble-wall profiles of the nucleated bubbles that drive the transitions.Solution method: To find the bubble-wall profile, the program assumes that tunneling happens along a fixed path in field space. This reduces the equations of motion to one dimension, which can then be solved using the overshoot

Analysis of the radiation budget in regional climate simulations with COSMO-CLM for Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steffen Kothe

2014-09-01

Full Text Available This study analysed two regional climate simulations for Africa regarding the radiation budgets with particular focus on the contribution of potentially influential parameters on uncertainties in the radiation components. The ERA-Interim driven simulations have been performed with the COSMO-CLM (grid-spacings of 0.44 ° or 0.22 °. The simulated budgets were compared to the satellite-based Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment Surface Radiation Budget and ERA-Interim data sets. The COSMO-CLM tended to underestimate the net solar radiation and the outgoing long-wave radiation, and showed a regionally varying over- or underestimation in all budget components. An increase in horizontal resolution from 0.44 ° to 0.22 ° slightly reduced the mean errors by up to 5 %. Especially over sea regions, uncertainties in cloud fraction were the main influencing parameter on errors in the simulated radiation fluxes. Compared to former simulations the introduction of a new bare soil albedo treatment reduced the influence of uncertainties in surface albedo significantly. Over the African continent errors in aerosol optical depth and skin temperature were regionally important sources for the discrepancies within the simulated radiation. In a sensitivity test it was shown that the use of aerosol optical depth values from the MACC reanalysis product improved the simulated surface radiation substantially.

Fully automatic oil spill detection from COSMO-SkyMed imagery using a neural network approach

Science.gov (United States)

Avezzano, Ruggero G.; Del Frate, Fabio; Latini, Daniele

2012-09-01

The increased amount of available Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images acquired over the ocean represents an extraordinary potential for improving oil spill detection activities. On the other side this involves a growing workload on the operators at analysis centers. In addition, even if the operators go through extensive training to learn manual oil spill detection, they can provide different and subjective responses. Hence, the upgrade and improvements of algorithms for automatic detection that can help in screening the images and prioritizing the alarms are of great benefit. In the framework of an ASI Announcement of Opportunity for the exploitation of COSMO-SkyMed data, a research activity (ASI contract L/020/09/0) aiming at studying the possibility to use neural networks architectures to set up fully automatic processing chains using COSMO-SkyMed imagery has been carried out and results are presented in this paper. The automatic identification of an oil spill is seen as a three step process based on segmentation, feature extraction and classification. We observed that a PCNN (Pulse Coupled Neural Network) was capable of providing a satisfactory performance in the different dark spots extraction, close to what it would be produced by manual editing. For the classification task a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) Neural Network was employed.

Evaluation of ionic liquids as absorbents for ammonia absorption refrigeration cycles using COSMO-based process simulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ruiz, E.; Ferro, V.R., E-mail: victor.ferro@uam.es; Riva, J. de; Moreno, D.; Palomar, J.

2014-06-01

Highlights: • NH{sub 3}–IL absorption cycles are modeled by COSMO-based Aspen simulations. • Proposed a priori computational approach is validated using experimental data. • Cycle performance was analyzed for conventional and task-specific ILs. • IL solvents with high NH{sub 3} absorption capacity improve the cycle performance. • Using IL mixtures is revealed as promising alternative in NH{sub 3} absorption applications. - Abstract: COSMO-based process simulations with Aspen Plus/Aspen HYSYS are used, for the first time, to a priori estimate the thermodynamic performance of ammonia absorption refrigeration cycles using ionic liquids as absorbents. This allows not only broadening the criteria set used to select/design ionic liquids with optimized properties to be used in that role, but also evaluating innovative strategies to improve the cycle’s performances. COSMO-RS method provides the information required for both creating the ionic liquid non-database components and specifying the COSMOSAC property model to perform Aspen Plus calculations. The computational procedure used here gives at the same time reasonable good property predictions of the vapor (refrigerant) and the condensed (ammonia + ionic liquid) phases as well as physically consistent estimations of the cycle’s performance under different conditions. Current results agree with those previously reported in the literature for several ionic liquid-based systems taken for comparison. In addition, task-specific ionic liquids, with improved properties for ammonia absorption, and also binary ionic liquid mixtures are considered in the analysis. It is obtained that ionic liquids showing higher ammonia absorption capacity among the considered absorbents simultaneously provide the best cycle’s performances. The cycle performances vary in relatively wide intervals depending on the ammonia concentration in the (refrigerant + absorbent) solutions. This behavior is strongly modulated by the ammonia

Evaluation of ionic liquids as absorbents for ammonia absorption refrigeration cycles using COSMO-based process simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruiz, E.; Ferro, V.R.; Riva, J. de; Moreno, D.; Palomar, J.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • NH 3 –IL absorption cycles are modeled by COSMO-based Aspen simulations. • Proposed a priori computational approach is validated using experimental data. • Cycle performance was analyzed for conventional and task-specific ILs. • IL solvents with high NH 3 absorption capacity improve the cycle performance. • Using IL mixtures is revealed as promising alternative in NH 3 absorption applications. - Abstract: COSMO-based process simulations with Aspen Plus/Aspen HYSYS are used, for the first time, to a priori estimate the thermodynamic performance of ammonia absorption refrigeration cycles using ionic liquids as absorbents. This allows not only broadening the criteria set used to select/design ionic liquids with optimized properties to be used in that role, but also evaluating innovative strategies to improve the cycle’s performances. COSMO-RS method provides the information required for both creating the ionic liquid non-database components and specifying the COSMOSAC property model to perform Aspen Plus calculations. The computational procedure used here gives at the same time reasonable good property predictions of the vapor (refrigerant) and the condensed (ammonia + ionic liquid) phases as well as physically consistent estimations of the cycle’s performance under different conditions. Current results agree with those previously reported in the literature for several ionic liquid-based systems taken for comparison. In addition, task-specific ionic liquids, with improved properties for ammonia absorption, and also binary ionic liquid mixtures are considered in the analysis. It is obtained that ionic liquids showing higher ammonia absorption capacity among the considered absorbents simultaneously provide the best cycle’s performances. The cycle performances vary in relatively wide intervals depending on the ammonia concentration in the (refrigerant + absorbent) solutions. This behavior is strongly modulated by the ammonia absorption

I sei numeri dell'universo le forze profonde che spiegano il cosmo

CERN Document Server

Rees, Martin

2002-01-01

È possibile che sei semplici numeri, sei costanti universali, diano conto dell'infinita varietà e della stupefacente complessità del cosmo? L'astrofisico Martin Rees ci mostra che non soltano ciò è possibile, ma in quei sei numeri sono scritti la storia, la struttura e il futuro dell'universo, e che perfino la comparsa della vita sulla terra, e dunque la nostra stessa esistenza, non sarebbe concepibile se uno solo di quei valori numerici, definiti nell'istante che segnò la nascita del mondo, fosse differente. I sei numeri dell'universo ci introducono così ad alcune delle questioni più profonde su cui si interroga oggi la scienza.

Comparison of Predicted pKa Values for Some Amino-Acids, Dipeptides and Tripeptides, Using COSMO-RS, ChemAxon and ACD/Labs Methods Comparaison des valeurs de pKa de quelques acides aminés, dipeptides et tripeptides, prédites en utilisant les méthodes COSMO-RS, ChemAxon et ACD/Labs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Toure O.

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Liquid-phase pKa values play a key role in food science. Chemical properties of molecules depend largely on whether they are ionized or not. Most organic molecules are capable of gaining and/or losing a proton in aqueous solutions. Proton transfer most. frequently occurs between water and any ionizable atom of the organic molecule. The molecule’s response to profanation or deprotonation depends significantly on the site that was disturbed by proton transfer. Partial charge distribution in the molecule also varies with protonation of the acidlbase active sites. Then it can he used to determine the pKa of a molecule. First, we use the COSMO-RS method, a combination of the quantum chemical dielectric continuum solvation model COSMO with a statistical thermodynamics treatment fin- more Realistic Solvation (RS simulations, for the direct prediction of pKa constants of about 50 molecules (amino-acids, dipeptides and tripeptides. Then, we compare our results with experimental data and the pKa values predicted using two other methods. We used respectively the ChemAxon method using a program based on the calculation of partial charge of atoms in the molecule and the ACD/Labs method that enables to calculate single pKa values. for all possible dissociation centers when the rest of the molecule is considered neutral, using an internal database containing chemical structures and their experimental pKa values. The averaged Root Mean Square Error (RMSE of the predicted pKa values for each method compared to experimental results were respectively 0.596 for COSMO-RS, 0.445 for ChemAxon and 0.490 for ACD/Labs. While ACDILabs and ChemAxon are parameterized using a large set ofexperimental data (including several of the studied molecules, the COSMO- RS method was used in a fully predictive way. Regarding these results, COSMO-RS appears as a promising method to predict the pKa values of molecules of interest in food science with scarce available pKa values such

CosmoBon for studying wood formation under exotic gravitational environment for future space agriculture

Science.gov (United States)

Tomita-Yokotani, Kaori; Baba, Keiichi; Suzuki, Toshisada; Funada, Ryo; Nakamura, Teruko; Hashimoto, Hirofumi; Yamashita, Masamichi; Cosmobon, Jstwg

We are proposing to raise woody plants in space for several applications and plant science. Japanese flowering cherry tree is one of a candidate for these studies. Mechanism behind sensing gravity and controlling shape of tree has been studied quite extensively. Even molecular mechanism for the response of plant against gravity has been investigated quite intensively for various species, woody plants are left behind. Morphology of woody branch growth is different from that of stem growth in herbs. Morphology in tree is strongly dominated by the secondary xylem formation. Nobody knows the tree shape grown under the space environment. If whole tree could be brought up to space as research materials, it might provide important scientific knowledge. Furthermore, trees produce excess oxygen, wooden materials for living cabin, and provide biomass for cultivating mushroom and insect as for the space agriculture. Excellent tree shapes which would be deeply related to wood formation improve quality of life under stressful environment in outer space. The serious problem would be their size. Bonsai is one of the Japanese traditional arts. We can study secondly xylem formation, wood formation, under exotic gravitational environment using Bonsai. "CosmoBon" is the small tree Bonsai for our space experiment. It has been recognized that the reaction wood in CosmoBon is formed similar to natural trees. Our goal is to examine feasibility to grow various species of trees in space as bioresource for space agriculture.

COSMO-skymed, TerraSAR-X, and RADARSAT-2 geolocation accuracy after compensation for earth-system effects

OpenAIRE

Schubert, Adrian; Small, David; Jehle, Michael; Meier, Erich

2012-01-01

A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensor with high geolocation accuracy greatly simplifies the task of combining multiple data takes within a common geodetic reference system or Geographic Information System (GIS), and is a critical enabler for many applications such as near-real-time disaster mapping. In this study, the geolocation accuracy was estimated using the same methodology for products from three SAR sensors: TerraSAR-X (two identical satellites), COSMO-SkyMed (four identical satellit...

CosmoQuest: Virtual Star Parties as a Conduit to Citizen Science Research

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Scott; Gugliucci, N. E.; Gay, P. L.; Amateur Astronomer Team; Commentator Team

2013-01-01

CosmoQuest has created an environment that actively engages the public through online star parties while building a growing virtual research center that allows individuals anywhere in the world to participate in and contribute to scientific research. Utilizing the infrastructure of Google+ and YouTube, CosmoQuest has brought optical observational astronomy into homes across the world. Every week astronomers - amateur and professional - meet to share live sky images and to discuss the science behind their beauty during Virtual Star parties. A wide array of optics and digital detectors from varied locations collaborate in a fashion not possible in the standard public star party. Every viewer is able to virtually look through the imaging telescope simultaneously while the equipment owner doesn’t need to worry about accidental mishandling by the public. Digital cameras and CCDs also allow longer exposures of deep-sky objects, something not typical in a standard star party event. Our diversity of equipment - ranging from hand-guided Dobsonian telescopes to 16” Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes on Paramounts - give viewers the opportunity to experience the sky through different systems. Additional Star Parties focus on special astronomical events, such as eclipses and transits. The annular eclipse of 20 May, 2012 brought together astronomers, space enthusiasts and a curious public into a Google+ Hangout On Air to celebrate the event while advocating safe observing methods and explaining the science behind the phenomenon. Public photos of the eclipse were shared live in the broadcast while video of the event was streamed for thousands of viewers to enjoy. Other special event star parties have focused on the Super Moon, Eros Opposition, and the Venus Transit. In this poster we review the technology behind star parties and the reach of these events.

COSMO OIL is the series station of 700 store reduction; Kosumo, keiretsu kyuyujo 700 ten sakugen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1999-10-01

Past petroleum each sale company accelerates the reduction of the franchise gas station. 700 stores in which COSMO OIL corresponds to whole 11% further than the end the preceding fiscal year including the transfer to other company by the 99 fiscal year end are reduced. In this other, Idemitsu Kosan also reduces 600 stores which correspond to whole 9%. As the profit deteriorates in prolonging sale competition, and as the unprofitability store can not be maintained, be. (translated by NEDO)

Synthesis, thermophysical properties and COSMO-RS study of DBU based protic ionic liquids

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Losetty, Venkatramana; Matheswaran, Pranesh; Wilfred, Cecilia Devi

2017-01-01

Graphical abstract: Three dimensional representation of experimental density (ρ kg·m −3 ), viscosity (η mPa·s) and surface tension (10 2 × σ mN·m −1 ) of [DBU][Tfa]. - Highlights: • Thermophysical properties have been measured for synthesized DBU based protic ILs. • The experimental viscosity is fitted to Vogel-Tammann-Fulcher and Arrhenius equations. • Measured surface tension data was used to calculate the thermodynamic surface properties. • COSMO-Rs helpful to understand the ionic interactions. - Abstract: In the present work, a new series of DBU based protic ionic liquids has been synthesized. The anions were generated from acetic acid, trifluoro acetic acid, methane sulfonic acid and trifluoro methanesulfonic acid. The obtained [DBU][Ac], [DBU][Tfa], [DBU][Msa] and [DBU][Tfmsa] ionic liquids were characterized by 1 H NMR and 13 C NMR. The neat ILs were used to determine thermophysical properties namely density (ρ), viscosity (η) surface tension (γ) at various temperature ranges and atmospheric pressure (0.1 MPa). The experimental density and viscosity values were correlated using the linear and Vogel-Tammann-Fulcher (VTF) equations, respectively. Furthermore, thermal expansion coefficient (α) molar volume (V m ), thermodynamic surface properties and critical temperatures were estimated from experimental results. The lattice potential energy (U POT ) of the ILs was calculated to estimate the strength of ionic interactions between ions. In addition, the effect of water content on experimental results was measured and also estimated. The theoretical model namely COSMO-RS was used to study the ionic interactions in synthesized ionic liquids. Finally, the experimental and calculated results were discussed to understand the effect of temperature and moiety of ionic liquid on the thermophysical properties studied.

A Multi-Polarization Study on Ship Detection over X-Band Full-Resolution COSMO SkyMed SAR Data

Science.gov (United States)

Migliaccio, Maurizio; Nunziata, Ferdinando; Sorrentio, Antonio; Ferrara, Giuseppe

2011-03-01

Ship detection over marine Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images is a key application for global monitoring for environment and security. In this paper, a physically-based filter which exploits a proper combination of GK parameters is conceived to unambiguously observe ships over sea surface in HV-polarized Single Look Complex (SLC) SAR data. Experiments accomplished over a meaningful set of X-band SLC CosmoSkyMed StripMap SAR data confirm the physical soundness of the proposed approach.

COSMO-SkyMed Very High Resolution Data in support of Key Site Monitoring: A novel approach for characterization of sensitive areas and change direction based on VHR-SAR Coherent Multi-temporal Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Britti, F.; Cesarano, L.; Costantini, M.; Gentile, V.; Minati, F.; Pietranera, L.

2013-01-01

The COSMO-SkyMed Constellation, four VHR Earth Observation SAR satellites, can be an extremely useful source of information for monitoring programs, and in particular for monitoring of nuclear facilities safeguards, ranging from environmental analysis to human activity characterization. Thanks to its very high revisit coupled with the all weather capability and its dawn to dusk operations, the COSMO-SkyMed constellation is an ideal tool for improving already existing VHR (Very High Resolution) optical satellites monitoring by enhancing classical change detection activities. Thanks to its multi-mode acquisition capability with resolution up to one meter, the COSMO-SkyMed constellation can cover large areas in a very short time to monitor nuclear sites and surrounding areas, thereby providing additional information for the potential detection of undeclared nuclear activities. In particular, thanks to the interferometric capabilities of the SAR sensor, coherence analysis introduces additional information closely related to the changes occurred and occurring over the area of interest within the desired time interval (up to one day at best conditions). Indeed, thanks to the high sensitivity to variations of this added-value product, available only with SAR data, guaranteed by the wavelength used by COSMO-SkyMed sensors (3 cm), in-time analysis through coherence can be a strong indicator of human activity, particularly over areas characterized by a stable environment (i.e. coherent areas), such as deserts/arid zones or ice or snow-covered areas. The aim of this work is to provide a detailed description of how COSMO-SkyMed data and e-GEOS added-value products are able to improve intelligence analysis over critical sites (and their surrounding areas), allowing: -) enhanced change detection through both amplitude and coherence information, -) high frequency site monitoring, -) data integration with other sources of information (optical or on-ground measurements). e-GEOS, a

Evaluating the suitability of the SWAN/COSMO-2 model system to simulate short-crested surface waves for a narrow lake with complex bathymetry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Graf

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The spectral wave model SWAN (Simulating Waves Nearshore was applied to Lake Zurich, a narrow pre-Alpine lake in Switzerland. The aim of the study is to investigate whether the model system consisting of SWAN and the numerical weather prediction model COSMO-2 is a suitable tool for wave forecasts for the pre-Alpine Lake Zurich. SWAN is able to simulate short-crested wind-generated surface waves. The model was forced with a time varying wind field taken from COSMO-2 with hourly outputs. Model simulations were compared with measured wave data at one near-shore site during a frontal passage associated with strong on-shore winds. The overall course of the measured wave height is well captured in the SWAN simulation: the wave amplitude significantly increases during the frontal passage followed by a transient drop in amplitude. The wave pattern on Lake Zurich is quite complex. It strongly depends on the inherent variability of the wind field and on the external forcing due to the surrounding complex topography. The influence of the temporal wind resolution is further studied with two sensitivity experiments. The first one considers a low-pass filtered wind field, based on a 2-h running mean of COSMO-2 output, and the second experiment uses simple synthetic gusts, which are implemented into the SWAN model and take into account short-term fluctuations of wind speed at 1-sec resolution. The wave field significantly differs for the 1-h and 2-h simulations, but is only negligibly affected by the gusts.

Investigating the Relationship between X-Band SAR Data from COSMO-SkyMed Satellite and NDVI for LAI Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonino Maltese

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Monitoring spatial and temporal variability of vegetation is important to manage land and water resources, with significant impact on the sustainability of modern agriculture. Cloud cover noticeably reduces the temporal resolution of retrievals based on optical data. COSMO-SkyMed (the new Italian Synthetic Aperture RADAR-SAR opened new opportunities to develop agro-hydrological applications. Indeed, it represents a valuable source of data for operational use, due to the high spatial and temporal resolutions. Although X-band is not the most suitable to model agricultural and hydrological processes, an assessment of vegetation development can be achieved combing optical vegetation indices (VIs and SAR backscattering data. In this paper, a correlation analysis has been performed between the crossed horizontal-vertical (HV backscattering (s°HV and optical VIs (VIopt on several plots. The correlation analysis was based on incidence angle, spatial resolution and polarization mode. Results have shown that temporal changes of s°HV (Δs°HV acquired with high angles (off nadir angle; θ > 40° best correlates with variations of VIopt (ΔVI. The correlation between ΔVI and Δs°HV has been shown to be temporally robust. Based on this experimental evidence, a model to infer a VI from s° (VISAR at the time, ti + 1, once known, the VIopt at a reference time, ti, and Δs°HV between times, ti + 1 and ti, was implemented and verified. This approach has led to the development and validation of an algorithm for coupling a VIopt derived from DEIMOS-1 images and s°HV. The study was carried out over the Sele plain (Campania, Italy, which is mainly characterized by herbaceous crops. In situ measurements included leaf area index (LAI, which were collected weekly between August and September 2011 in 25 sites, simultaneously to COSMO-SkyMed (CSK and DEIMOS-1 imaging. Results confirm that VISAR obtained using the combined model is able to increase the feasibility

A first comparison of Cosmo-Skymed and TerraSAR-X data over Chamonix Mont-Blanc test-site

OpenAIRE

Nicolas , Jean-Marie; Trouvé , Emmanuel; Fallourd , Renaud; Vernier , Flavien; Tupin , Florence; Harant , Olivier; Gay , Michel; Moreau , Luc

2012-01-01

International audience; This paper presents the first results obtained with satellite im- age time series (SITS) acquired by Cosmo-SkyMed (CSK) over the Chamonix Mont-Blanc test-site. A CSK SITS made of 39 images is merged with a TerraSAR-X SITS made of 26 images by using the orbital information and co-registration tools developed in the EFIDIR project. The results are illus- trated by the computation of speckle-free images by temporal averaging, by the generation and comparison of topographi...

Polydimethylsiloxane-air partition ratios for semi-volatile organic compounds by GC-based measurement and COSMO-RS estimation: Rapid measurements and accurate modelling.

Science.gov (United States)

Okeme, Joseph O; Parnis, J Mark; Poole, Justen; Diamond, Miriam L; Jantunen, Liisa M

2016-08-01

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) shows promise for use as a passive air sampler (PAS) for semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs). To use PDMS as a PAS, knowledge of its chemical-specific partitioning behaviour and time to equilibrium is needed. Here we report on the effectiveness of two approaches for estimating the partitioning properties of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), values of PDMS-to-air partition ratios or coefficients (KPDMS-Air), and time to equilibrium of a range of SVOCs. Measured values of KPDMS-Air, Exp' at 25 °C obtained using the gas chromatography retention method (GC-RT) were compared with estimates from a poly-parameter free energy relationship (pp-FLER) and a COSMO-RS oligomer-based model. Target SVOCs included novel flame retardants (NFRs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs). Significant positive relationships were found between log KPDMS-Air, Exp' and estimates made using the pp-FLER model (log KPDMS-Air, pp-LFER) and the COSMOtherm program (log KPDMS-Air, COSMOtherm). The discrepancy and bias between measured and predicted values were much higher for COSMO-RS than the pp-LFER model, indicating the anticipated better performance of the pp-LFER model than COSMO-RS. Calculations made using measured KPDMS-Air, Exp' values show that a PDMS PAS of 0.1 cm thickness will reach 25% of its equilibrium capacity in ∼1 day for alpha-hexachlorocyclohexane (α-HCH) to ∼ 500 years for tris (4-tert-butylphenyl) phosphate (TTBPP), which brackets the volatility range of all compounds tested. The results presented show the utility of GC-RT method for rapid and precise measurements of KPDMS-Air. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Radiative and temperature effects of aerosol simulated by the COSMO-Ru model for different atmospheric conditions and their testing against ground-based measurements and accurate RT simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Chubarova, Nataly; Poliukhov, Alexei; Shatunova, Marina; Rivin, Gdali; Becker, Ralf; Muskatel, Harel; Blahak, Ulrich; Kinne, Stefan; Tarasova, Tatiana

2017-04-01

We use the operational Russian COSMO-Ru weather forecast model (Ritter and and Geleyn, 1991) with different aerosol input data for the evaluation of radiative and temperature effects of aerosol in different atmospheric conditions. Various aerosol datasets were utilized including Tegen climatology (Tegen et al., 1997), updated Macv2 climatology (Kinne et al., 2013), Tanre climatology (Tanre et al., 1984) as well as the MACC data (Morcrette et al., 2009). For clear sky conditions we compare the radiative effects from the COSMO-Ru model over Moscow (55.7N, 37.5E) and Lindenberg/Falkenberg sites (52.2N, 14.1E) with the results obtained using long-term aerosol measurements. Additional tests of the COSMO RT code were performed against (FC05)-SW model (Tarasova T.A. and Fomin B.A., 2007). The overestimation of about 5-8% of COSMO RT code was obtained. The study of aerosol effect on temperature at 2 meters has revealed the sensitivity of about 0.7-1.1 degree C per 100 W/m2 change in shortwave net radiation due to aerosol variations. We also discuss the radiative impact of urban aerosol properties according to the long-term AERONET measurements in Moscow and Moscow suburb as well as long-term aerosol trends over Moscow from the measurements and Macv2 dataset. References: Kinne, S., O'Donnel D., Stier P., et al., J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., 5, 704-740, 2013. Morcrette J.-J.,O. Boucher, L. Jones, eet al, J.GEOPHYS. RES.,VOL. 114, D06206, doi:10.1029/2008JD011235, 2009. Ritter, B. and Geleyn, J., Monthly Weather Review, 120, 303-325, 1992. Tanre, D., Geleyn, J., and Slingo, J., A. Deepak Publ., Hampton, Virginia, 133-177, 1984. Tarasova, T., and Fomin, B., Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 24, 1157-1162, 2007. Tegen, I., Hollrig, P., Chin, M., et al., Journal of Geophysical Research- Atmospheres, 102, 23895-23915, 1997.

Prediction of aliphatic and aromatic oil-water interfacial tension at temperatures >100 °C using COSMO-RS

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersson, Martin Peter; Eckert, F.; Reinisch, J.

2017-01-01

As a contribution to the 9th Industrial Fluid Property Simulation Challenge on predicting interfacial tension between water and a set of non-polar oils at temperatures up to 170 °C we have used our first-principles based model, which is based on density functional theory and uses COSMO-RS implicit...... solvent model thermodynamics. Our calculations predict that the oil-water interfacial tension starts to drop significantly for alkanes at temperatures above ∼100 °C, and the oil-water interfacial tension drops significantly with increased temperature already above ∼25 °C for aromatic oils. In the range...

Pramana – Journal of Physics | Indian Academy of Sciences

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Pramana – Journal of Physics; Volume 58; Issue 5-6. The growth of a single crystal of Sr3CuIrO6 and its magnetic behavior compared to polycrystals. Asad Niazi P L Paulose E V Sampathkumaran Ute Ch Rodewald W Jeitschko. Colossal Magnetoresistance & Other Materials Volume 58 Issue 5-6 May-June ...

CosmoQuest Year 1.5: Citizen Scientist Behaviors and Site Usage Across Multiple Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Gugliucci, Nicole E.; Gay, P. L.; Bracey, G.; CosmoQuest Team

2013-06-01

CosmoQuest launched as a citizen science portal in January 2012 and has since expanded to include three projects in planetary surface mapping, one completed project searching for KBOs, and several more on the way with various astrophysical science goals. We take a close look at how our users move through the site, how much time they spend on various tasks, project retention rate, and how many use multiple projects on the site. We are also piloting a citizen science motivation survey given to random site users to find out why citizen scientists join new projects and continue to participate. This is part of a larger project using online and real-life interactions to study citizen scientist behaviors, motivations, and learning with a goal of building better community with researchers, volunteers, educators, and developers.

Mapping Tropical Rainforest Canopy Disturbances in 3D by COSMO-SkyMed Spotlight InSAR-Stereo Data to Detect Areas of Forest Degradation

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Manuela Hirschmugl

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Assessment of forest degradation has been emphasized as an important issue for emission calculations, but remote sensing based detecting of forest degradation is still in an early phase of development. The use of optical imagery for degradation assessment in the tropics is limited due to frequent cloud cover. Recent studies based on radar data often focus on classification approaches of 2D backscatter. In this study, we describe a method to detect areas affected by forest degradation from digital surface models derived from COSMO-SkyMed X-band Spotlight InSAR-Stereo Data. Two test sites with recent logging activities were chosen in Cameroon and in the Republic of Congo. Using the full resolution COSMO-SkyMed digital surface model and a 90-m resolution Shuttle Radar Topography Mission model or a mean filtered digital surface model we calculate difference models to detect canopy disturbances. The extracted disturbance gaps are aggregated to potential degradation areas and then evaluated with respect to reference areas extracted from RapidEye and Quickbird optical imagery. Results show overall accuracies above 75% for assessing degradation areas with the presented methods.

Enhanced free energy of extraction of Eu3+ and Am3+ ions towards diglycolamide appended calix[4]arene: insights from DFT-D3 and COSMO-RS solvation models.

Science.gov (United States)

Ali, Sk Musharaf

2017-08-22

Density functional theory in conjunction with COSMO and COSMO-RS solvation models employing dispersion correction (DFT-D3) has been applied to gain an insight into the complexation of Eu 3+ /Am 3+ with diglycolamide (DGA) and calix[4]arene appended diglycolamide (CAL4DGA) in ionic liquids by studying structures, energetics, thermodynamics and population analysis. The calculated Gibbs free energy for both Eu 3+ and Am 3+ ions with DGA was found to be smaller than that with CAL4DGA. The entropy of complexation was also found to be reduced to a large extent with DGA compared to complexation with CAL4DGA. The solution phase free energy was found to be negative and was higher for Eu 3+ ion. The entropy of complexation was not only found to be further reduced but also became negative in the case of DGA alone. Though the entropy was found to be negative it could not outweigh the high negative enthalpic contribution. The same trend was observed in the solution where the free energy of extraction, ΔG, for Eu 3+ ions was shown to be higher than that for Am 3+ ions towards free DGA. But the values of ΔG and ΔΔG(= ΔG Eu -ΔG Am ) were found to be much higher with CAL4DGA (-12.58 kcal mol -1 ) in the presence of nitrate ions compared to DGA (-1.69 kcal mol -1 ) due to enhanced electronic interaction and positive entropic contribution. Furthermore, both the COSMO and COSMO-RS models predict very close values of ΔΔΔG (= ΔΔG CAL4DGA - ΔΔG nDGA ), indicating that both solvation models could be applied for evaluating the metal ion selectivity. The value of the reaction free energy was found to be higher after dispersion correction. The charge on the Eu and Am atoms for the complexes with DGA and CAL4DGA indicates the charge-dipole type interaction leading to strong binding energy. The present theoretical results support the experimental findings and thus might be of importance in the design of functionalized ligands.

Stability and subsidence across Rome (Italy) in 2011-2013 based on COSMO-SkyMed Persistent Scatterer Interferometry

Science.gov (United States)

Francesca, Cigna; Lasaponara, Rosa; Nicola, Masini; Pietro, Milillo; Deodato, Tapete

2015-04-01

Ground stability of the built environment of the city of Rome in central Italy has been extensively investigated in the last years by using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), with focus on deformation of both the monuments of the historic centre (e.g., [1-2]) and the southern residential quarters (e.g., [3]). C-band ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT ASAR time series deformation analyses brought evidence of overall stability across the town centre, except for localized deformation concentrated in areas geologically susceptible to instability (e.g. western slope of the Palatine Hill), whereas clear subsidence patterns were detected over the compressible alluvial deposits lying in proximity of the Tiber River. To retrieve an updated picture of stability and subsidence across the city, we analysed a time series of 32 COSMO-SkyMed StripMap HIMAGE, right-looking, ascending mode scenes with an image swath of 40 km, 3-m resolution and HH polarization, acquired between 21 March 2011 and 10 June 2013, with repeat cycle mostly equal to 16 days. Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) processing was undertaken by using the Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers (StaMPS) as detailed in [4], and more than 310,000 radar targets (i.e. PS) were identified, with an average target density of over 2,800 PS/km2. The performance of StaMPS to retrieve satisfactory PS coverage over the urban features of interest was assessed against their orientation and visibility to the satellite Line-Of-Sight, as well as their conservation history throughout the biennial investigated (2011-2013). In this work we discuss effects due to local land cover and land use by exploiting the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) European Urban Atlas (IT001L) of Rome at 1:10,000 scale, thereby also evaluating the capability of the X-band to spatially resolve targets coinciding with man-made structures in vegetated areas. Based on this assessment, our PSI results highlight those environmental

Analysis of dual polarization images of precipitating clouds collected by the COSMO SkyMed constellation

Science.gov (United States)

Baldini, Luca; Roberto, Nicoletta; Gorgucci, Eugenio; Fritz, Jason; Chandrasekar, V.

2014-07-01

Currently, several satellite missions are employing X-band synthetic aperture radars (SAR) with polarimetric capabilities. In images collected over land by X-band SAR, precipitation results mainly in evident attenuation of the surface returns. Effects of precipitation in polarimetric SAR images and how to exploit them for precipitation studies are emerging topics of interest. This paper investigates polarimetric signatures of precipitation in images collected by the X-band SARs of the Italian Space Agency COSMO SkyMed constellation using the HH-VV alternate polarimetric mode. Analyzed images were collected in 2010 when the constellation was composed of three satellites and operated in the “tandem like” interferometric configuration, which allowed acquisition of the same scene with the same viewing geometry and a minimum decorrelation time of one day. Observations collected in Piedmont (Italy) and Tampa Bay (Florida, US) have been analyzed along with coincident observations collected by operational weather radars, used to reconstruct the component of SAR returns due to precipitation at horizontal and vertical polarization states. Different techniques are used depending on the different characteristics of terrestrial radars. SAR observations reconstructed from terrestrial measurements are in fairly good agreement with actual SAR observations. Results confirm that the attenuation signature in SAR images collected over land is particularly pronounced in the presence of precipitation cells and can be related to the radar reflectivity integrated along the same path. The difference between copolar HH and VV power measurements reveals a differential attenuation due to anisotropy of precipitation, whose range is limited when the SAR incidence angle is low. A specific feature observed in the CosmoSkyMed alternate polarization implementation is the presence of the scalloping effect, a periodic effect along the azimuth direction that cannot always be removed by standard de

DSM GENERATION FROM HIGH RESOLUTION COSMO-SKYMED IMAGERY WITH RADARGRAMMETRIC MODEL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Capaldo

2012-09-01

Full Text Available The availability of new high resolution radar spaceborne sensors offers new interesting potentialities for the geomatics application: spatial and temporal change detection, features extraction, generation of Digital Surface (DSMs. As regards the DSMs generation from new high resolution data (as SpotLight imagery, the development and the accuracy assessment of method based on radargrammetric approach are topics of great interest and relevance. The aim of this investigation is the DSM generation from a COSMO-SkyMed Spotlight stereo pair with the radargrammetric technique. DSM generation procedure consists of two basic steps: the stereo pair orientation and the image matching. The suite for radargrammetric approach has been implemented in SISAR (Software per Immagini Satellitari ad Alta Risoluzione, a scientific software developed at the Geodesy and Geomatic Institute of the University of Rome "La Sapienza". As regard the image matching the critical issue is the definition of a strategy to search the corresponding points; in SISAR software, an original matching procedure has been developed, based on a coarse-to-fine hierarchical solution with an effective combination of geometrical constrains and an Area Base Matching (ABM algorithm.

Tracking Human-Induced Landscape Disturbance at the Nasca Lines UNESCO World Heritage Site in Peru with COSMO-SkyMed InSAR

OpenAIRE

Francesca Cigna; Deodato Tapete

2018-01-01

The “Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa” in Peru are among the most well-known UNESCO World Heritage Sites globally, and an exemplar of site where heritage assets cannot be separated from their natural and anthropogenic environment. The site is exposed to interactions with natural processes, as well as human presence. In this work, 3-m resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) StripMap HIMAGE HH-polarised scenes acquired by the X-band COSMO-SkyMed constellation are exploited to track two ...

Persistent Scatterer Interferometry Processing of COSMO-SkyMed StripMap HIMAGE Time Series to Depict Deformation of the Historic Centre of Rome, Italy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesca Cigna

2014-12-01

Full Text Available We processed X-band COSMO-SkyMed 3-m resolution StripMap HIMAGE time series (March 2011–June 2013 with the Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers (StaMPS, to retrieve an updated picture of the condition and structural health of the historic centre of Rome, Italy, and neighbouring quarters. Taking advantage of an average target density of over 2800 PS/km2, we analysed the spatial distribution of more than 310,000 radar targets against: (1 land cover; (2 the location of archaeological ruins and restoration activities; and (3 the size, orientation and morphology of historical buildings. Radar interpretation was addressed from the perspective of conservators, and the deformation estimates were correlated to local geohazards and triggering factors of structural collapse. In the context of overall stability, deformation was identified at the single-monument scale, e.g., for the Roman cistern and exedra in the Oppian Hill. Comparative assessment against InSAR processing of C-band imagery (1992–2010 published in the literature confirms the persistence of ground motions affecting monuments and subsidence in southern residential quarters adjacent to the Tiber River, due to the consolidation of compressible deposits. Vertical velocity estimated from COSMO-SkyMed PS exceeds −7.0 mm/y in areas of recent urbanization.

On the use of COSMO-SkyMed time series for the identification of Archaeological traces dating from the Eastern-Han to Northern-Wei Dynasties in Luoyang city.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Fulong; Masini, Nicola; Yang, Ruixia; Feng, Dexian; Lasaponara, Rosa

2015-04-01

The availability of Very High Resolution (VHR) Synthetic Aperture SAR (SAR) data (Lasaponara and Masini 2013, Tapete et al. 2013), such as TerraSAR-X and Cosmo Sky Med launched in 2007, opened a new era in the spaceborne SAR remote sensing, including archaeology remote sensing previous mainly based on optical data (see for example Lasaponara and Masini 2012, Ciminale et al. 2009, Masini and Lasaponara 2006). They provide powerful tools, based on active sensors from space operating in the microwave frequency range, which are useful to extract information about the contemporary landscape and make possible, in some conditions, to infer changes in the former environment and to detect archaeological remains. Nevertheless, the capability of satellite radar technology in archaeology has so far not been fully assessed. This paper (Chen et al 2015) is a pioneering effort to assess the potential of satellite SAR X-band data in the detection of archaeological marks. We focus on the results obtained from a collaborative contribution jointly carried out by archaeologists and remote sensing experts in order to test the use of COSMO-SkyMed data in different contexts and environmental conditions. The methodological approach we adopted is based on multi-temporal analysis performed to reduce noise and highlight archaeological marks. Results from multi-temporal data analysis, conducted using 40 scenes from COSMO-SkyMed X-band Stripmap data (27 February to 17 October 2013), enable us to detect unknown archaeological crop, soil, and shadow marks representing Luoyang city, dating from the Eastern-Han to Northern-Wei Dynasties. Reference Chen F., Masini N., Yang R., Milillo P., Feng D., Lasaponara R., 2015 A Space View of Radar Archaeological Marks: First Applications of COSMO-SkyMed X-Band Data. Remote Sens. 2015, 7, 24-50; doi:10.3390/rs70100024. Lasaponara R., Masini N. 2013, Satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar in Archaeology and Cultural Landscape: An Overview. Archaeological

Vessel and oil spill early detection using COSMO satellite imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Revollo, Natalia V.; Delrieux, Claudio A.

2017-10-01

Oil spillage is one of the most common sources of environmental damage in places where coastal wild life is found in natural reservoirs. This is especially the case in the Patagonian coast, with a littoral more than 5000 km long and a surface above a million and half square km. In addition, furtive fishery activities in Argentine waters are depleting the food supplies of several species, altering the ecological equilibrium. For this reason, early oil spills and vessel detection is an imperative surveillance task for environmental and governmental authorities. However, given the huge geographical extension, human assisted monitoring is unfeasible, and therefore real time remote sensing technologies are the only operative and economically feasible solution. In this work we describe the theoretical foundations and implementation details of a system specifically designed to take advantage of the SAR imagery delivered by two satellite constellations (the SAOCOM mission, developed by the Argentine Space Agency, and the COSMO mission, developed by the Italian Space Agency), to provide real-time detection of vessels and oil spills. The core of the system is based on pattern recognition over a statistical characterization of the texture patterns arising in the positive and negative conditions (i.e., vessel, oil, or plain sea surfaces). Training patterns were collected from a large number of previously reported contacts tagged by experts in the National Commission on Space Activities (CONAE). The resulting system performs well above the sensitivity and specificity of other avalilable systems.

Tracking Human-Induced Landscape Disturbance at the Nasca Lines UNESCO World Heritage Site in Peru with COSMO-SkyMed InSAR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesca Cigna

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The “Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Palpa” in Peru are among the most well-known UNESCO World Heritage Sites globally, and an exemplar of site where heritage assets cannot be separated from their natural and anthropogenic environment. The site is exposed to interactions with natural processes, as well as human presence. In this work, 3-m resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR StripMap HIMAGE HH-polarised scenes acquired by the X-band COSMO-SkyMed constellation are exploited to track two events of human-induced landscape disturbance that occurred in December 2014 and January 2018. Pre-, cross-, and post-event interferometric SAR (InSAR pairs characterised by small temporal and normal baselines allow the detection of temporal decorrelation associated with the two events, the extent and time reference of which match with online photographic and video evidence, published literature, web news, and press releases by the Ministry of Culture in Peru. Further elements enhancing the understanding of the 2018 event come from 10-m resolution Sentinel-2B satellite data that reveal the occurrence of apparent changes of surface reflectance due to uncovering of the light grey-yellow clay underneath the darker pebble constituting the fragile surface of the Pampa de Jumana. This scientific study confirms that SAR imagery archives, such as those being built by COSMO-SkyMed for Nasca, prove valuable for the retrospective analysis and digital recording of human-induced landscape disturbance events from space. These archives therefore act as essential sources of geospatial information on the conservation history of heritage sites and assets.

COSMO-SkyMed Image Investigation of Snow Features in Alpine Environment

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Simonetta Paloscia

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In this work, X band images acquired by COSMO-SkyMed (CSK on alpine environment have been analyzed for investigating snow characteristics and their effect on backscattering variations. Preliminary results confirmed the capability of simultaneous optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR images (Landsat-8 and CSK in separating snow/no-snow areas and in detecting wet snow. The sensitivity of backscattering to snow depth has not always been confirmed, depending on snow characteristics related to the season. A model based on Dense Media Radiative Transfer theory (DMRT-QMS was applied for simulating the backscattering response on the X band from snow cover in different conditions of grain size, snow density and depth. By using DMRT-QMS and snow in-situ data collected on Cordevole basin in Italian Alps, the effect of grain size and snow density, beside snow depth and snow water equivalent, was pointed out, showing that the snow features affect the backscatter in different and sometimes opposite ways. Experimental values of backscattering were correctly simulated by using this model and selected intervals of ground parameters. The relationship between simulated and measured backscattering for the entire dataset shows slope >0.9, determination coefficient, R2 = 0.77, and root mean square error, RMSE = 1.1 dB, with p-value <0.05.

The U.S. Air Service in World War I. Volume IV. Postwar Review,

Science.gov (United States)

1979-01-01

Brereton ............... ... .. ... 281 Ophthalmological room of a medical research laboratory .. ... ... 285-2136 Testing visual fields with a Hall...the vehicles. Unfortunately this condition has been prevalent through the motor transport of the A.E.F. which for many reasons has not reached the...34familiarity breeds contempt" and the iespect due the noncommissioned officers by the other men is missing. Unless the noncommissioned officer happens to te a

The COSMO-SkyMed Constellation Monitors the Costa Concordia Wreck

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Federico Raspini

2014-05-01

Full Text Available On 13 January 2012, the Italian vessel, Costa Concordia, wrecked offshore Giglio Island, along the coast of Tuscany (Italy. The ship partially sunk, lying on the starboard side on a 22° steep rocky seabed, making the stability conditions of the ship critically in danger of sliding, shifting and settling. The tilted position of the ship created also pernicious conditions for the divers involved in the search and rescue operations. It became immediately clear that a continuous monitoring of the position and movements of the ship was of paramount importance to guarantee the security of the people working around and within the wreck. Starting from January 19, the Italian constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR satellites, COSMO-SkyMed (CSK, was tasked to acquire high resolution images of the wreck. Thanks to CSK’s short response and revisiting time and its capability to acquire high resolution images in Spotlight mode, satellite data were integrated within the real time, ground-based monitoring system implemented to provide the civil protection authorities with a regular update on the ship stability. Exploitation of both the phase (satellite radar interferometry, InSAR and amplitude (speckle tracking information from CSK images, taken along the acquisition orbit, Enhanced Spotlight (ES-29, revealed a general movement of the translation of the vessel, consistent with sliding toward the east of the hull on the seabed. A total displacement, with respect to the coastline, of 1666 mm and 345 mm of the bow and stern, respectively, was recorded, over the time period of 19 January–23 March 2012.

Simulations of Moscow megacity heat island with the COSMO-CLM model using two different urban canopy schemes and realistic building parameters, derived from OpenStreetMap data

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Varentsov, Mikhail; Wouters, Hendrik; Trusilova, Kristina; Samsonov, Timofey; Konstantinov, Pavel

2017-04-01

In this study we present the application of the regional climate model COSMO-CLM to simulate urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon for Moscow megacity, which is the biggest agglomeration in Europe (with modern population of more than 17 million people). Significant differences of Moscow from the cities of Western Europe are related with much more continental climate with higher diurnal and annual temperature variations, and with specific building features such as its high density and almost total predominance of high-rise and low-rise blocks of flats on the private low-rise houses. Because of these building and climate features, the UHI of Moscow megacity is stronger than UHIs of many other cities of the similar size, with a mean intensity is about 2 °C and maximum intensity reaching up to 13 °C (Lokoschenko, 2014). Such a pronounced UHI together with the existence of an extensive observation network (more than 50 weather and air quality monitoring stations and few microwave temperature profilers) within the city and its surrounding make Moscow an especially interesting place for urban climate researches and good testbed for urban canopy models. In our numerical experiments, regional climate model firstly was adapted for investigated region with aim to improve quality of its simulations of rural areas. Then, to take into account urban canopy effects on thermal regime of the urbanized areas, we used two different versions of COSMO-CLM model. First is coupled with TEB (Town Energy Balance) single layer urban canopy model (Trusilova, 2013), and second is extended with bulk urban canopy scheme TERRA_URB using the Semi-empircal URban-canopY dependency parametriation SURY (Wouters et. al, 2016). Numerical experiments with these two versions of the model were run with spatial resolution about 1 km for several summer and winter months. To provide specific parameters, required for urban parameterizations, such as urban fraction, building height and street canyon aspect ratio

Activation of the SIGRIS monitoring system for ground deformation mapping during the Emilia 2012 seismic sequence, using COSMO-SkyMed InSAR data

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Stefano Salvi

2012-10-01

Full Text Available On May 20, 2012, at 02:03 UTC, a moderate earthquake of local magnitude, Ml 5.9 started a seismic sequence in the central Po Plain of northern Italy The mainshock occurred in an area where seismicity of comparable magnitude has neither been recorded nor reported in the historical record over the last 1,000 years. The aftershock sequence evolved rapidly near the epicenter, with diminishing magnitudes until May 29, 2012, when at 07:00 UTC a large earthquake of Ml 5.8 occurred 12 km WSW of the mainshock, starting a new seismic sequence in the western area; a total of seven earthquakes with Ml >5 occurred in the area between May 20 and June 3, 2012. Immediately after the mainshock, the Italian Department of Civil Protection requested the Italian Space Agency to activate the Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean Basin Observation (COSMO-SkyMed to provide Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR coverage of the area. COSMO-SkyMed consists of four satellites in a 16-day repeat-pass cycle, with each carrying the same SAR payload. In the current orbital configuration, within each 16-day cycle, image pairs with temporal baselines of 1, 3, 4 and 8 days can be formed from the images acquired by the four different sensors. Combined with the availability of a wide range of electronically steered antenna beams with incidence angles ranging from about 16˚ to 50˚ at near-range, this capability allows trade-offs between temporal and spatial coverage to be exploited during acquisition planning. A joint team involving the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV and the Istituto per il Rilevamento Elettromagnetico dell'Ambiente (IREA-CNR was activated to generate InSAR-based scientific products to support the emergency management. In this framework, the ASI and DPC requested that INGV activated the Space-based Monitoring System for Seismic Risk Management (SIGRIS. SIGRIS consists of a hardware/software infrastructure that is

Rationalization and Prediction of the Equivalent Alkane Carbon Number (EACN) of Polar Hydrocarbon Oils with COSMO-RS σ-Moments.

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Lukowicz, Thomas; Benazzouz, Adrien; Nardello-Rataj, Véronique; Aubry, Jean-Marie

2015-10-20

The equivalent alkane carbon numbers (EACNs) of 20 polar hydrocarbon oils are determined by the fishtail method. These values supplemented by 43 already reported EACNs of other hydrocarbons are rationalized by using the COSMO-RS σ-moments as descriptors for a QSPR analysis. A reliable model, with only two meaningful physicochemical parameters, namely the surface area (M0(X)) and the overall polarity (M2(X)) of the oil X, is able to predict the EACN values of a large variety of oils including (cyclo)alkanes, (cyclo)alkenes, terpenes, aromatics, alkynes, and chloroalkanes and to rationalize structural effects on EACNs. Furthermore, the dependence of the EACN of homologous oils on the chain length provides some molecular insight into how the different oils penetrate into the interfacial film of surfactants.

Integrating hydrodynamic models and COSMO-SkyMed derived products for flood damage assessment

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Giuffra, Flavio; Boni, Giorgio; Pulvirenti, Luca; Pierdicca, Nazzareno; Rudari, Roberto; Fiorini, Mattia

2015-04-01

Floods are the most frequent weather disasters in the world and probably the most costly in terms of social and economic losses. They may have a strong impact on infrastructures and health because the range of possible damages includes casualties, loss of housing and destruction of crops. Presently, the most common approach for remotely sensing floods is the use of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Key features of SAR data for inundation mapping are the synoptic view, the capability to operate even in cloudy conditions and during both day and night time and the sensitivity of the microwave radiation to water. The launch of a new generation of instruments, such as TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) allows producing near real time flood maps having a spatial resolution in the order of 1-5 m. Moreover, the present (CSK) and upcoming (Sentinel-1) constellations permit the acquisition of radar data characterized by a short revisit time (in the order of some hours for CSK), so that the production of frequent inundation maps can be envisaged. Nonetheless, gaps might be present in the SAR-derived flood maps because of the limited area imaged by SAR; moreover, the detection of floodwater may be complicated by the presence of very dense vegetation or urban settlements. Hence the need to complement SAR-derived flood maps with the outputs of physical models. Physical models allow delivering to end users very useful information for a complete flood damage assessment, such as data on water depths and flow directions, which cannot be directly derived from satellite remote sensing images. In addition, the flood extent predictions of hydraulic models can be compared to SAR-derived inundation maps to calibrate the models, or to fill the aforementioned gaps that can be present in the SAR-derived maps. Finally, physical models enable the construction of risk scenarios useful for emergency managers to take their decisions and for programming additional SAR acquisitions in order to

CosmoQuest:Using Data Validation for More Than Just Data Validation

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Lehan, C.; Gay, P.

2016-12-01

It is often taken for granted that different scientists completing the same task (e.g. mapping geologic features) will get the same results, and data validation is often skipped or under-utilized due to time and funding constraints. Robbins et. al (2014), however, demonstrated that this is a needed step, as large variation can exist even among collaborating team members completing straight-forward tasks like marking craters. Data Validation should be much more than a simple post-project verification of results. The CosmoQuest virtual research facility employs regular data-validation for a variety of benefits, including real-time user feedback, real-time tracking to observe user activity while it's happening, and using pre-solved data to analyze users' progress and to help them retain skills. Some creativity in this area can drastically improve project results. We discuss methods of validating data in citizen science projects and outline the variety of uses for validation, which, when used properly, improves the scientific output of the project and the user experience for the citizens doing the work. More than just a tool for scientists, validation can assist users in both learning and retaining important information and skills, improving the quality and quantity of data gathered. Real-time analysis of user data can give key information in the effectiveness of the project that a broad glance would miss, and properly presenting that analysis is vital. Training users to validate their own data, or the data of others, can significantly improve the accuracy of misinformed or novice users.

Integration of X-SAR observations with data of other remote sensing techniques: preliminary results achieved with Cosmo/SkyMed announcement of opportunity projects

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Vespe, Francesco; Baldini, Luca; Notarnicola, Claudia; Prati, Claudio; Zerbini, Susanna; Celidonio, G.

2011-11-01

The Italian Space Agency is funding 27 scientific projects in the framework of Cosmo/Skymed program (hereafter CSK) . A subset of them are focusing on the improvements of the quality and quantity of information which can be extracted from X-SAR data if integrated with other independent techniques like GPS or SAR imagery in L and C bands. The GPS observations, namely zenith total delays estimated by means of GPS ground stations, could be helpful to estimate the troposphere bias to remove from IN-SAR imagery. Another contribution of GPS could be the improvements of the orbits of Cosmo/SkyMed satellites. In particular the GPS navigation data of the CSK satellites could serve to improve the atmospheric drag models acting on them. The integration of SAR data in L and C bands on the other hand are helpful to investigate land hydrogeology parameters as well as to improve global precipitation observations. The combined use of L, C and X SAR data with different penetration depth could give profiles of land surface properties, especially in forest and snow/ice-packs. For what concern the use of X-SAR imagery for rain precipitation monitoring, particular attention will be paid to its polarimetric properties that we plan to determine aligning the CSK observations with those obtained with ground L and C radars. Anyway the study goals, the approaches proposed, the test sites identified and the external data selected for the development and validation will be described for each project. Particular attention will be paid to single the advantages that the research activities can benefit from the added potentials of CSK system: the more frequent revisiting time and the higher resolution capabilities.

Astroecology, cosmo-ecology, and the future of life

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Michael N. Mautner

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Astroecology concerns the relations between life and space resources, and cosmo-ecology extrapolates these relations to cosmological scales. Experimental astroecology can quantify the amounts of life that can be derived from space resources. For this purpose, soluble carbon and electrolyte nutrients were measured in asteroid/meteorite materials. Microorganisms and plant cultures were observed to grow on these materials, whose fertilities are similar to productive agricultural soils. Based on measured nutrient contents, the 1022 kg carbonaceous asteroids can yield 1018 kg biomass with N and P as limiting nutrients (compared with the estimated 1015 kg biomass on Earth. These data quantify the amounts of life that can be derived from asteroids in terms of time-integrated biomass [BIOTAint = biomass (kg × lifetime (years], as 1027 kg-years during the next billion years of the Solar System (a thousand times the 1024 kg-years to date. The 1026 kg cometary materials can yield biota 10 000 times still larger. In the galaxy, potential future life can be estimated based on stellar luminosities. For example, the Sun will develop into a white dwarf star whose 1015 W luminosity can sustain a BIOTAint of 1034 kg-years over 1020 years. The 1012 main sequence and white and red dwarf stars can sustain 1046 kg-years of BIOTAint in the galaxy and 1057 kg-years in the universe. Life has great potentials in space, but the probability of present extraterrestrial life may be incomputable because of biological and ecological complexities. However, we can establish and expand life in space with present technology, by seeding new young solar systems. Microbial representatives of our life-form can be launched by solar sails to new planetary systems, including extremophiles suited to diverse new environments, autotrophs and heterotrophs to continually form and recycle biomolecules, and simple multicellulars to jump-start higher evolution. These programs can be motivated

Assessing COSMO-SkyMed capability for crops identification and monitoring

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Guarini, R.; Dini, L.

2015-12-01

In the last decade, it has been possible to better understand the impact of agricultural human practices on the global environmental change at different spatial (from local to global) and time (from seasonal to decadal) scales. This has been achieved thanks to: big dataset continuously acquired by Earth Observation (EO) satellites; the improved capabilities of remote sensing techniques in extracting valuable information from the EO datasets; the new EO data policy which allowed unrestricted data usage; the net technologies which allowed to quickly and easily share national, international and market-derived information; an increasingly performing computing technology which allows to massively process large amount of data easier and at decreasing costs. To better understand the environmental impacts of agriculture and to monitor the consequences of human agricultural activities on the biosphere, scientists require to better identify crops and monitor crop conditions over time and space. Traditionally, NDVI time series maps derived from optical sensors have been used to this aim. As well-known this important source of information is conditioned by cloud cover. Unlike passive systems, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) ones are almost insensitive to atmospheric influences; thus, they are especially suitable for crop identification and condition monitoring. Among the other SAR systems currently in orbit, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) COSMO Sky-Med® (CSK®) constellation (X-band, frequency 9.6 GHz, wavelength 3.1 cm), especially for its peculiar high revisit capability (up to four images in 16 days with same acquisition geometry) seems to be particular suitable for providing information in addition and/or in alternative to other optical EO systems. To assess the capability of the CSK® constellation in identifying crops and in monitoring crops condition in 2013 ASI started the "AGRICIDOT" project. Some of the main project achievements will be presented at the congress.

Acute toxicity and sublethal effects of the mixture glyphosate (Roundup® Active and Cosmo-Flux®411F to anuran embryos and tadpoles of four Colombian species

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Liliana Marcela Henao Muñoz

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the world with application in agriculture, forestry, industrial weed control, garden and aquatic environments. However, its use is highly controversial for the possible impact on not-target organisms, such as amphibians, which are vanishing at an alarming and rapid rate. Due to the high solubility in water and ionic nature, the glyphosate requires of surfactants to increase activity. In addition, for the control of coca (Erythroxylum coca and agricultural weeds in Colombia, formulated glyphosate is mixed and sprayed with the adjuvant Cosmo-Flux®411F to increase the penetration and activity of the herbicide. This study evaluates the acute toxic and sublethal effects (embryonic development, tadpole body size, tadpole swimming performance of the mixture of the formulated glyphosate Roundup® Active and Cosmo-Flux®411F to anuran embryos and tadpoles of four Colombian species under 96h laboratory standard tests and microcosms, which are more similar to field conditions as they include soil, sand and macrophytes. In the laboratory, embryos and tadpoles of Engystomops pustulosus were the most tolerant (LC50=3 904µg a.e./L; LC50=2 799µg a.e./L, respectively, while embryos and tadpoles of Hypsiboas crepitans (LC50=2 203µg a.e./L; LC50=1 424µg a.e./L, respectively were the most sensitive. R. humboldti and R. marina presented an intermediate toxicity. Embryos were significantly more tolerant to the mixture than tadpoles, which could be likely attributed to the exclusion of chemicals by the embryonic membranes and the lack of organs, such as gills, which are sensitive to surfactants. Sublethal effects were observed for the tadpole body size, but not for the embryonic development and tadpole swimming performance. In microcosms, no toxicity (LC50 could not be estimated, or sublethal responses were observed at concentrations up to fourfold (14.76kg glyphosate a.e./ha the highest field application rate of 3

Wind Speed Retrieval by Means of X-Band Cosmo-Skymed SAR Data with Application to Coastel Circulation Modeling

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Montuori, Antonio; de Ruggiero, Paola; Migliaccio, Maurizio; Pierini, Stefano

2012-03-01

In this paper, the capabilities of X-band COSMOSkyMed SAR data are investigated for both wind speed estimation purposes and for the improvement of coastal circulation modeling. The data set consists of 60 X-band Level 1B Multi-Look Ground Detected ScanSAR HugeRegion COSMO-SkyMed SAR data, gathered in the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea during the summer and winter seasons of 2010. Wind speed is estimated by means of a SAR wind speed retrieval based on the azimuth cut-off procedure. Wind direction is provided by means of a SAR retrieval approach based on Discrete Wavelet Transform. After comparison with the provided ground truth data, SAR-derived wind fields and ECMWF data are used to construct a blended wind product regularly sampled in both space and time. The resulting wind field will be used to force the Princeton Ocean Model, which has been implemented in a Southern Tyrrhenian Sea coastal area to simulate wind-driven costal circulation processes.

Screen-level data assimilation of observations and pseudo-observations in COSMO-I2

Science.gov (United States)

Milelli, Dr.; Turco, Dr.; Cane, Dr.; Oberto, Dr.; Pelosini, Dr.

2009-09-01

The COSMO model has been developed by the COnsortium for Small-scale MOdelling, an over-national consortium coordinating the cooperation of the national and regional weather services of Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Poland and Romania. Its operational version does not make use of the 2m temperature, since it has been shown to have potentially adverse effects on the stability of the planetary boundary layer. Moreover, in pre-operational tests, it has been showed to degrade the low-tropospheric thermal structure of the model. The 2m temperature is at the moment only used in the soil moisture analysis, where it has the potential to modify the surface fluxes and to improve the prediction of 2m temperature during the forecast time. Despite these facts, there is an option in the model for the inclusion of 2m temperature in the assimilation cycle. For this reason, considering the great number of non-GTS stations in the ARPA Piemonte ground network, it has been decided to try the assimilation of 2m temperature in the COSMO-I2 version of the model, which has a horizontal resolution of about 3 km more similar to the average resolution of the thermometers. Two different test periods have been considered, from 1 to 15 September 2008 (summer-like weather) and from 3 to 17 January 2009 (winter-like weather). Every day we have run two simulations up to +24h, starting at 00UTC and 12UTC in order to investigate also the dependence on the initial state of the PBL. The aim of the work is to investigate the assimilation of the non-GTS data in the first 12h of the simulations in order to create an operational very high-resolution analysis, but also to test the option of running in the future a very short-range forecast (+12h to +18h) starting from these analyses. The results, in terms of RMSE, Mean Error (ME) and diurnal cycle of some surface variables such as 2m temperature, 2m relative humidity and 10m wind intensity, and in terms of vertical profile of temperature, show in

Evaluation of daily maximum and minimum 2-m temperatures as simulated with the Regional Climate Model COSMO-CLM over Africa

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Stefan Krähenmann

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The representation of the diurnal 2-m temperature cycle is challenging because of the many processes involved, particularly land-atmosphere interactions. This study examines the ability of the regional climate model COSMO-CLM (version 4.8 to capture the statistics of daily maximum and minimum 2-m temperatures (Tmin/Tmax over Africa. The simulations are carried out at two different horizontal grid-spacings (0.22° and 0.44°, and are driven by ECMWF ERA-Interim reanalyses as near-perfect lateral boundary conditions. As evaluation reference, a high-resolution gridded dataset of daily maximum and minimum temperatures (Tmin/Tmax for Africa (covering the period 2008–2010 is created using the regression-kriging-regression-kriging (RKRK algorithm. RKRK applies, among other predictors, the remotely sensed predictors land surface temperature and cloud cover to compensate for the missing information about the temperature pattern due to the low station density over Africa. This dataset allows the evaluation of temperature characteristics like the frequencies of Tmin/Tmax, the diurnal temperature range, and the 90th percentile of Tmax. Although the large-scale patterns of temperature are reproduced well, COSMO-CLM shows significant under- and overestimation of temperature at regional scales. The hemispheric summers are generally too warm and the day-to-day temperature variability is overestimated over northern and southern extra-tropical Africa. The average diurnal temperature range is underestimated by about 2°C across arid areas, yet overestimated by around 2°C over the African tropics. An evaluation based on frequency distributions shows good model performance for simulated Tmin (the simulated frequency distributions capture more than 80% of the observed ones, but less well performance for Tmax (capture below 70%. Further, over wide parts of Africa a too large fraction of daily Tmax values exceeds the observed 90th percentile of Tmax, particularly

Evaluation of daily maximum and minimum 2-m temperatures as simulated with the regional climate model COSMO-CLM over Africa

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kraehenmann, Stefan; Kothe, Steffen; Ahrens, Bodo [Frankfurt Univ. (Germany). Inst. for Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences; Panitz, Hans-Juergen [Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen (Germany)

2013-10-15

The representation of the diurnal 2-m temperature cycle is challenging because of the many processes involved, particularly land-atmosphere interactions. This study examines the ability of the regional climate model COSMO-CLM (version 4.8) to capture the statistics of daily maximum and minimum 2-m temperatures (Tmin/Tmax) over Africa. The simulations are carried out at two different horizontal grid-spacings (0.22 and 0.44 ), and are driven by ECMWF ERA-Interim reanalyses as near-perfect lateral boundary conditions. As evaluation reference, a high-resolution gridded dataset of daily maximum and minimum temperatures (Tmin/Tmax) for Africa (covering the period 2008-2010) is created using the regression-kriging-regression-kriging (RKRK) algorithm. RKRK applies, among other predictors, the remotely sensed predictors land surface temperature and cloud cover to compensate for the missing information about the temperature pattern due to the low station density over Africa. This dataset allows the evaluation of temperature characteristics like the frequencies of Tmin/Tmax, the diurnal temperature range, and the 90{sup th} percentile of Tmax. Although the large-scale patterns of temperature are reproduced well, COSMO-CLM shows significant under- and overestimation of temperature at regional scales. The hemispheric summers are generally too warm and the day-to-day temperature variability is overestimated over northern and southern extra-tropical Africa. The average diurnal temperature range is underestimated by about 2 C across arid areas, yet overestimated by around 2 C over the African tropics. An evaluation based on frequency distributions shows good model performance for simulated Tmin (the simulated frequency distributions capture more than 80% of the observed ones), but less well performance for Tmax (capture below 70%). Further, over wide parts of Africa a too large fraction of daily Tmax values exceeds the observed 90{sup th} percentile of Tmax, particularly across

A Performance Comparison Of A CFAR Ship Detection Algorithm Using Envisat, RadarSat, COSMO-SkyMed and Terra SAR-X Images

Science.gov (United States)

Lorenzzetti, Joao A.; Paes, Rafael L.; Gheradi, Douglas M.

2010-04-01

In this paper we discuss the results of a CFAR ship detection algorithm for a series of SAR images of the Brazilian coast. The following configuration for the CFAR target/buffer/background windows gave the best results: 3x3/5x5/13x13 for a PFA of 0.1% for pixel spacing greater than 50m. For pixel spacing less than 50m, best results were achieved for PFA of 1% and windows sizes of 5x5/7x7/15x15. Results indicate that CFAR as implemented gave good results as measured by the Figure of Merit, as defined by Foulkes and Booth (2000), which varied from 0.79 for CosmoSkymed to 0.88 for Envisat. Results obtained should be taken so far only as an indication of the performance of the implemented CFAR due to the limited sample of images.

(Liquid + liquid) equilibrium in binary systems of isomeric C8 aliphatic monoethers with acetonitrile and its interpretation by the COSMO-SAC model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reda, Mateusz; Ruszczyński, Łukasz; Gliński, Marek; Hofman, Tadeusz

2015-01-01

The (liquid + liquid) solubility curves have been determined by a synthetic method for six binary mixtures of [acetonitrile + {heptyl methyl ether CH 3 O n C 7 H 15 , or ethyl hexyl ether C 2 H 5 O n C 6 H 13 , or pentyl propyl ether n C 3 H 7 O n C 5 H 11 , or isopentyl propyl ether n C 3 H 7 O i C 5 H 11 , or dibutyl ether n C 4 H 9 O n C 4 H 9 , or butyl isobutyl ether n C 4 H 9 O i C 4 H 9 }]. The possibility of the COSMO-SAC model to account for the thermodynamic differences between these systems has been tested and the discussion on the influence of screening charge of ethers on the system properties was undertaken

ESTIMATION OF SHIE GLACIER SURFACE MOVEMENT USING OFFSET TRACKING TECHNIQUE WITH COSMO-SKYMED IMAGES

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Q. Wang

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Movement is one of the most important characteristics of glaciers which can cause serious natural disasters. For this reason, monitoring this massive blocks is a crucial task. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR can operate all day in any weather conditions and the images acquired by SAR contain intensity and phase information, which are irreplaceable advantages in monitoring the surface movement of glaciers. Moreover, a variety of techniques like DInSAR and offset tracking, based on the information of SAR images, could be applied to measure the movement. Sangwang lake, a glacial lake in the Himalayas, has great potentially danger of outburst. Shie glacier is situated at the upstream of the Sangwang lake. Hence, it is significant to monitor Shie glacier surface movement to assess the risk of outburst. In this paper, 6 high resolution COSMO-SkyMed images spanning from August to December, 2016 are applied with offset tracking technique to estimate the surface movement of Shie glacier. The maximum velocity of Shie glacier surface movement is 51 cm/d, which was observed at the end of glacier tongue, and the velocity is correlated with the change of elevation. Moreover, the glacier surface movement in summer is faster than in winter and the velocity decreases as the local temperature decreases. Based on the above conclusions, the glacier may break off at the end of tongue in the near future. The movement results extracted in this paper also illustrate the advantages of high resolution SAR images in monitoring the surface movement of small glaciers.

Estimation of Shie Glacier Surface Movement Using Offset Tracking Technique with Cosmo-Skymed Images

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Q.; Zhou, W.; Fan, J.; Yuan, W.; Li, H.; Sousa, J. J.; Guo, Z.

2017-09-01

Movement is one of the most important characteristics of glaciers which can cause serious natural disasters. For this reason, monitoring this massive blocks is a crucial task. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) can operate all day in any weather conditions and the images acquired by SAR contain intensity and phase information, which are irreplaceable advantages in monitoring the surface movement of glaciers. Moreover, a variety of techniques like DInSAR and offset tracking, based on the information of SAR images, could be applied to measure the movement. Sangwang lake, a glacial lake in the Himalayas, has great potentially danger of outburst. Shie glacier is situated at the upstream of the Sangwang lake. Hence, it is significant to monitor Shie glacier surface movement to assess the risk of outburst. In this paper, 6 high resolution COSMO-SkyMed images spanning from August to December, 2016 are applied with offset tracking technique to estimate the surface movement of Shie glacier. The maximum velocity of Shie glacier surface movement is 51 cm/d, which was observed at the end of glacier tongue, and the velocity is correlated with the change of elevation. Moreover, the glacier surface movement in summer is faster than in winter and the velocity decreases as the local temperature decreases. Based on the above conclusions, the glacier may break off at the end of tongue in the near future. The movement results extracted in this paper also illustrate the advantages of high resolution SAR images in monitoring the surface movement of small glaciers.

An organic cosmo-barometer: Distinct pressure and temperature effects for methyl substituted polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Montgomery, Wren; Watson, Jonathan S.; Sephton, Mark A.

2014-01-01

There are a number of key structures that can be used to reveal the formation and modification history of organic matter in the cosmos. For instance, the susceptibility of organic matter to heat is well documented and the relative thermal stabilities of different isomers can be used as cosmothermometers. Yet despite being an important variable, no previously recognized organic marker of pressure exists. The absence of a pressure marker is unfortunate considering our ability to effectively recognize extraterrestrial organic structures both remotely and in the laboratory. There are a wide variety of pressures in cosmic settings that could potentially be reflected by organic structures. Therefore, to develop an organic cosmic pressure marker, we have used state-of-the-art diamond anvil cell (DAC) and synchrotron-source Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to reveal the effects of pressure on the substitution patterns for representatives of the commonly encountered methyl substituted naphthalenes, specifically the dimethylnaphthalenes. Interestingly, although temperature and pressure effects are concordant for many isomers, pressure appears to have the opposite effect to heat on the final molecular architecture of the 1,5-dimethylnaphthalene isomer. Our data suggest the possibility of the first pressure parameter or 'cosmo-barometer' (1,5-dimethylnaphthalene/total dimethylnaphthalenes) that can distinguish pressure from thermal effects. Information can be obtained from the new pressure marker either remotely by instrumentation on landers or rovers or directly by laboratory measurement, and its use has relevance for all cases where organic matter, temperature, and pressure interplay in the cosmos.

Do lateral boundary condition update frequency and the resolution of the boundary data affect the regional model COSMO-CLM? A sensitivity study.

Science.gov (United States)

Pankatz, K.; Kerkweg, A.

2014-12-01

The work presented is part of the joint project "DecReg" ("Regional decadal predictability") which is in turn part of the project "MiKlip" ("Decadal predictions"), an effort funded by the german Federal Ministry of Education and Research to improve decadal predictions on a global and regional scale. In regional climate modeling it is common to update the lateral boundary conditions (LBC) of the regional model every six hours. This is mainly due to the fact, that reference data sets like ERA are only available every six hours. Additionally, for offline coupling procedures it would be too costly to store LBC data in higher temporal resolution for climate simulations. However, theoretically, the coupling frequency could be as high as the time step of the driving model. Meanwhile, it is unclear if a more frequent update of the LBC has a significant effect on the climate in the domain of the regional model (RCM). This study uses the RCM COSMO-CLM/MESSy (Kerkweg and Jöckel, 2012) to couple COSMO-CLM offline to the GCM ECHAM5. One study examines a 30 year time slice experiment for three update frequencies of the LBC, namely six hours, one hour and six minutes. The evaluation of means, standard deviations and statistics of the climate in regional domain shows only small deviations, some stastically significant though, of 2m temperature, sea level pressure and precipitaion.The second scope of the study assesses parameters linked to cyclone activity, which is affected by the LBC update frequency. Differences in track density and strength are found when comparing the simulations.The second study examines the quality of decadal hind-casts of the decade 2001-2010 when the horizontal resolution of the driving model, namely T42, T63, T85, T106, from which the LBC are calculated, is altered. Two sets of simulations are evaluated. For the first set of simulations, the GCM simulations are performed at different resolutions using the same boundary conditions for GHGs and SSTs, thus

Predicción del volumen molar y la entalpía molar de vaporización de moléculas orgánicas usando variables determinadas mediante el modelo de apantallamiento tipo conductor (COSMO

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José G. Parra

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Using the method of solvation Conductor-like Screening Model (COSMO and the method of Amovilli-Menucci GAMESS program content, we estimated the free energies of van der Waals and electrostatic of organic molecules in their dielectric medium. With these energy and volume of the solute cavity, we designed two models of structure-property relationship (QSPR to determine the molar volume and enthalpy of vaporization to the ebullition temperature of organic molecules. The best obtained model using the molecular volume presents a correlation equal to 0.9949 and the correlation of the model using the enthalpy of vaporization was 0. 9895.

Classification of Vessels in Single-Pol COSMO-SkyMed Images Based on Statistical and Structural Features

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Fan Wu

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Vessel monitoring is one of the most important maritime applications of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR data. Because of the dihedral reflections between the vessel hull and sea surface and the trihedral reflections among superstructures, vessels usually have strong backscattering in SAR images. Furthermore, in high-resolution SAR images, detailed information on vessel structures can be observed, allowing for vessel classification in high-resolution SAR images. This paper focuses on the feature analysis of merchant vessels, including bulk carriers, container ships and oil tankers, in 3 m resolution COSMO-SkyMed stripmap HIMAGE mode images and proposes a method for vessel classification. After preprocessing, a feature vector is estimated by calculating the average value of the kernel density estimation, three structural features and the mean backscattering coefficient. Support vector machine (SVM classifier is used for the vessel classification, and the results are compared with traditional methods, such as the K-nearest neighbor algorithm (K-NN and minimum distance classifier (MDC. In situ investigations are conducted during the SAR data acquisition. Corresponding Automatic Identification System (AIS reports are also obtained as ground truth to evaluate the effectiveness of the classifier. The preliminary results show that the combination of the average value of the kernel density estimation and mean backscattering coefficient has good ability for classifying the three types of vessels. When adding the three structural features, the results slightly improve. The result of the SVM classifier is better than that of K-NN and MDC. However, the SVM requires more time, when the parameters of the kernel are estimated.

An approach for flood monitoring by the combined use of Landsat 8 optical imagery and COSMO-SkyMed radar imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Tong, Xiaohua; Luo, Xin; Liu, Shuguang; Xie, Huan; Chao, Wei; Liu, Shuang; Liu, Shijie; Makhinov, A. N.; Makhinova, A. F.; Jiang, Yuying

2018-02-01

Remote sensing techniques offer potential for effective flood detection with the advantages of low-cost, large-scale, and real-time surface observations. The easily accessible data sources of optical remote sensing imagery provide abundant spectral information for accurate surface water body extraction, and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems represent a powerful tool for flood monitoring because of their all-weather capability. This paper introduces a new approach for flood monitoring by the combined use of both Landsat 8 optical imagery and COSMO-SkyMed radar imagery. Specifically, the proposed method applies support vector machine and the active contour without edges model for water extent determination in the periods before and during the flood, respectively. A map difference method is used for the flood inundation analysis. The proposed approach is particularly suitable for large-scale flood monitoring, and it was tested on a serious flood that occurred in northeastern China in August 2013, which caused immense loss of human lives and properties. High overall accuracies of 97.46% for the optical imagery and 93.70% for the radar imagery are achieved by the use of the techniques presented in this study. The results show that about 12% of the whole study area was inundated, corresponding to 5466 km2 of land surface.

Statistical characterisation of COSMO Sky-Med X-SAR retrieved precipitation fields by scale-invariance analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Deidda, Roberto; Mascaro, Giuseppe; Hellies, Matteo; Baldini, Luca; Roberto, Nicoletta

2013-04-01

COSMO Sky-Med (CSK) is an important programme of the Italian Space Agency aiming at supporting environmental monitoring and management of exogenous, endogenous and anthropogenic risks through X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (X-SAR) on board of 4 satellites forming a constellation. Most of typical SAR applications are focused on land or ocean observation. However, X-band SAR can be detect precipitation that results in a specific signature caused by the combination of attenuation of surface returns induced by precipitation and enhancement of backscattering determined by the hydrometeors in the SAR resolution volume. Within CSK programme, we conducted an intercomparison between the statistical properties of precipitation fields derived by CSK SARs and those derived by the CNR Polar 55C (C-band) ground based weather radar located in Rome (Italy). This contribution presents main results of this research which was aimed at the robust characterisation of rainfall statistical properties across different scales by means of scale-invariance analysis and multifractal theory. The analysis was performed on a dataset of more two years of precipitation observations collected by the CNR Polar 55C radar and rainfall fields derived from available images collected by the CSK satellites during intense rainfall events. Scale-invariance laws and multifractal properties were detected on the most intense rainfall events derived from the CNR Polar 55C radar for spatial scales from 4 km to 64 km. The analysis on X-SAR retrieved rainfall fields, although based on few images, leaded to similar results and confirmed the existence of scale-invariance and multifractal properties for scales larger than 4 km. These outcomes encourage investigating SAR methodologies for future development of meteo-hydrological forecasting models based on multifractal theory.

Sc, Y, La-Lu. Rare earth elements. Vol. A6b. Y, La, and the lanthanoids. Geochemistry: Hydrosphere, atmosphere. Cosmo- and geochemical cycles. Balance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sarbas, B; Toepper, W

1988-01-01

The present volume 'Rare earth elements' A6b describes in its first part the origin, mode of occurrence, and behavior of Y and/or RE elements in the hydrosphere and atmosphere. Separately for marine and non-marine environments (surface, subsurface, mineral, and thermal waters), the behavior of RE (including Y) in the hydrosphere comprises especially the relationship between content/composition and the chemistry of water, and the processes acting during migration, removal, and precipitation are outlined; the influence of biological material is mentioned. Behavior of RE in the atmosphere involves mainly transport, regional differences, and temporal variations as well as removal by precipitation; the anthropogenic influence is only outlined. The second part of this volume treats, partly in a more summary manner, the cosmo- and geochemical cycles and the balance of Y and/or RE elements. The relationship between geodynamic position and type of magmatism, as well as the geochemical variations in the geospheres, especially mantle and crust of the earth, are described in greater detail. With 2 figs..

Freezing Point Determination of Water–Ionic Liquid Mixtures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Yanrong; Meyer, Anne S.; Nie, Yi

2017-01-01

.841 K in thefirst system and at a water mole fraction of 0.657 and 202.565 K inthe second system. Water activities in aqueous IL solutions were predictedby COSMO-RS and COSMO-SAC and compared to water activities derivedfrom the experimentally determined freezing points. The COSMO-RS predictionswere...... closer to the experimental water activities than the COSMO-SACpredictions. The experimental results indicate that the freezing pointsof IL+H2O systems are affected by the nature of both cationsand anions. However, according to the COSMO-RS excess enthalpy predictionresults, the anions have a relatively...

Regional climate simulations with COSMO-CLM over MENA-CORDEX domain

Science.gov (United States)

Galluccio, Salvatore; Bucchignani, Edoardo; Mercogliano, Paola; Montesarchio, Myriam

2014-05-01

In the frame of WCRP Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX), a set of common Regional Climate Downscaling (RCD) domains has been defined, as a prerequisite for the development of model evaluation and climate projection frameworks. CORDEX domains encompass the majority of land areas of the world. In this work, climate simulations have been performed over MENA-CORDEX domain, which includes North-Africa, southern Europe and the whole Arabian peninsula. The non-hydrostatic regional climate model COSMO-CLM has been used. At CMCC, regional climate modelling is a part of an integrated simulation system and it has been used in different European and African projects to provide qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the hydrogeological and public health risks. A series of simulations has been conducted over the MENA-CORDEX area at spatial resolution of 0.44°. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to adjust the model configuration to better reproduce the observed climate data. The numerical simulations were driven by ERA-Interim reanalysis (horizontal resolution of 0.703°) for the period 1979-1984; the first year, was considered as a spin up period. The validation was performed by using several data sets: CRU data set was used to validate temperature, precipitation and cloud cover; MERRA data set was used to validate temperature and precipitation and GPCP for precipitation. The model sensitivity to the external parameters was tested considering two different configurations for the surface albedo. In the first one, albedo is only function of soil-type whereas in the second configuration it is prescribed by two external fields for dry and saturated soil based on MODIS data. Moreover, we tested two aerosol distributions as well, namely the default Tanre aerosol distribution and aerosol maps according to Tegen (NASA/GISS). We found, as expected, a significant sensitivity, in particular on the African region. We also varied tuning and physical parameters, such

Pasture Monitoring Using SAR with COSMO-SkyMed, ENVISAT ASAR, and ALOS PALSAR in Otway, Australia

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Xiaojing Li

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Because of all-weather working ability, sensitivity to biomass and moisture, and high spatial resolution, Synthetic aperture radar (SAR satellite images can perfectly complement optical images for pasture monitoring. This paper aims to examine the potential of the integration of COnstellation of small Satellites for the Mediterranean basin Observasion (COSMO-SkyMed, Environmental Satellite Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ENVISAT ASAR, and Advanced Land Observing Satellite Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (ALOS PALSAR radar signals at horizontally emitted and received polarization (HH for pasture monitoring at the paddock scale in order to guide farmers for better management. The pasture site is selected, in Otway, Victoria, Australia. The biomass, water content of grass, and soil moisture over this site were analyzed with these three bands of SAR images, through linear relationship between SAR backscattering coefficient, and vegetation indices Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI, Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI, Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI, together with soil moisture index (MI. NDVI, NDWI, and MI are considered as proxy of pasture biomass, plant water content, and soil moisture, respectively, and computed from optical images and climate data. SAR backscattering coefficient and vegetation indices are computed within a grass zone, defined by classification with MODIS data. The grass condition and grazing activities for specific paddocks are detectable, based on SAR backscatter, with all three wavelengths datasets. Both temporal and spatial analysis results show that the X-band SAR has the highest correlation to the vegetation indices. However, its accuracy can be affected by wet weather due to its sensitivity to the water on leaves. The C-band HH backscattering coefficient showed moderate reliability to evaluate biomass and water content of grass, with limited influence from rainfall in the dry season

Prediction of pK_a values for druglike molecules using semiempirical quantum chemical methods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Jan Halborg; Swain, Christopher J; Olsen, Lars

2017-01-01

Rapid yet accurate pKa prediction for druglike molecules is a key challenge in computational chemistry. This study uses PM6-DH+/COSMO, PM6/COSMO, PM7/COSMO, PM3/COSMO, AM1/COSMO, PM3/SMD, AM1/SMD, and DFTB3/SMD to predict the pKa values of 53 amine groups in 48 druglike compounds. The approach uses...... uncertainties of ±0.2-0.3 pH units, which make them statistically equivalent. However, for all but PM3/SMD and AM1/SMD the RMSEs are dominated by a single outlier, cefadroxil, caused by proton transfer in the zwitterionic protonation state. If this outlier is removed, the RMSE values for PM3/COSMO and AM1/COSMO...... drop to 1.0 ± 0.2 and 1.1 ± 0.3, whereas PM3/SMD and AM1/SMD remain at 1.5 ± 0.3 and 1.6 ± 0.3/0.4 pH units, making the COSMO-based predictions statistically better than the SMD-based predictions. For pKa calculations where a zwitterionic state is not involved or proton transfer in a zwitterionic state...

Potential of X-Band TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed SAR Data for the Assessment of Physical Soil Parameters

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Azza Gorrab

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to analyze the potential of X-band SAR measurements (COSMO-SkyMed and TerraSAR-X made over bare soils for the estimation of soil moisture and surface geometry parameters at a semi-arid site in Tunisia (North Africa. Radar signals acquired with different configurations (HH and VV polarizations, incidence angles of 26° and 36° are statistically compared with ground measurements (soil moisture and roughness parameters. The radar measurements are found to be highly sensitive to the various soil parameters of interest. A linear relationship is determined for the radar signals as a function of volumetric soil moisture, and a logarithmic correlation is observed between the radar signals and three surface roughness parameters: the root mean square height (Hrms, the parameter Zs = Hrms2/l (where l is the correlation length and the parameter Zg = Hrms × (Hrms/lα (where α is the power of the surface height correlation function. The highest dynamic sensitivity is observed for Zg at high incidence angles. Finally, the performance of different physical and semi-empirical backscattering models (IEM, Baghdadi-calibrated IEM and Dubois models is compared with SAR measurements. The results provide an indication of the limits of validity of the IEM and Dubois models, for various radar configurations and roughness conditions. Considerable improvements in the IEM model performance are observed using the Baghdadi-calibrated version of this model.

Prediction of pKa Values for Druglike Molecules Using Semiempirical Quantum Chemical Methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Jensen, Jan H; Swain, Christopher J; Olsen, Lars

2017-01-26

Rapid yet accurate pK a prediction for druglike molecules is a key challenge in computational chemistry. This study uses PM6-DH+/COSMO, PM6/COSMO, PM7/COSMO, PM3/COSMO, AM1/COSMO, PM3/SMD, AM1/SMD, and DFTB3/SMD to predict the pK a values of 53 amine groups in 48 druglike compounds. The approach uses an isodesmic reaction where the pK a value is computed relative to a chemically related reference compound for which the pK a value has been measured experimentally or estimated using a standard empirical approach. The AM1- and PM3-based methods perform best with RMSE values of 1.4-1.6 pH units that have uncertainties of ±0.2-0.3 pH units, which make them statistically equivalent. However, for all but PM3/SMD and AM1/SMD the RMSEs are dominated by a single outlier, cefadroxil, caused by proton transfer in the zwitterionic protonation state. If this outlier is removed, the RMSE values for PM3/COSMO and AM1/COSMO drop to 1.0 ± 0.2 and 1.1 ± 0.3, whereas PM3/SMD and AM1/SMD remain at 1.5 ± 0.3 and 1.6 ± 0.3/0.4 pH units, making the COSMO-based predictions statistically better than the SMD-based predictions. For pK a calculations where a zwitterionic state is not involved or proton transfer in a zwitterionic state is not observed, PM3/COSMO or AM1/COSMO is the best pK a prediction method; otherwise PM3/SMD or AM1/SMD should be used. Thus, fast and relatively accurate pK a prediction for 100-1000s of druglike amines is feasible with the current setup and relatively modest computational resources.

Activity coefficients at infinite dilution of organic solutes in the ionic liquid PEG-5 cocomonium methylsulfate at T = (313.15, 323.15, 333.15, and 343.15) K: Experimental results and COSMO-RS predictions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reddy, Prashant; Aslam Siddiqi, M.; Atakan, Burak; Diedenhofen, Michael; Ramjugernath, Deresh

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► γ 13 ∞ values reported for 25 organic solutes in the ionic liquid PEG-5 cocomonium methylsulfate. ► Measurements undertaken using the g.l.c. technique at T = (313.15, 323.15, 333.15, and 343.15) K. ► Sound speed, density and refractive index data for ionic liquid PEG-5 cocomonium methylsulfate also reported. ► Measured γ 13 ∞ values compared to COSMO-RS predictions. -- Abstract: Activity coefficients at infinite dilution γ 13 ∞ have been determined for 25 polar and non-polar organic solutes (alkanes, cycloalkanes, alk-1-enes, alk-1-ynes, aromatic compounds, alcohols, and ketones) in the ionic liquid PEG-5 cocomonium methylsulfate with gas–liquid chromatography at four different temperatures, T = (313.15, 323.15, 333.15, and 343.15) K. Packed columns with phase loadings of 0.28 and 0.34 ionic liquid mass fraction in the stationary phase were employed to obtain γ 13 ∞ values at each temperature investigated. Speed of sound, density, and refractive index values have also been measured for the pure ionic liquid at P = 0.1 MPa and T = (303.15, 313.15, 323.15, 333.15, and 343.15) K. The uncertainties in the sound speeds, densities, and refractive indices are estimated to be values of 0.9 m · s −1 , 0.00003 g · cm −3 , and 0.00002, respectively. Partial molar excess enthalpies at infinite dilution ΔH 1 E,∞ were calculated for the solutes from the temperature dependency of the γ 13 ∞ values for the temperature range of this study. The uncertainties in the determinations of γ 13 ∞ and ΔH 1 E,∞ values are 5% and 10%, respectively. Selectivity values at infinite dilution S 12 ∞ for hexane/benzene, cyclohexane/benzene, hexane/hex-1-ene, and hexane/ethanol separations have been calculated. These have been compared against values obtained from COSMO-RS predictions

DSMS GENERATION FROM COSMO-SKYMED, RADARSAT-2 AND TERRASAR-X IMAGERY ON BEAUPORT (CANADA TEST SITE: EVALUATION AND COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT RADARGRAMMETRIC APPROACHES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Capaldo

2013-04-01

Full Text Available This work is focused on the analysis of potentialities of the radargrammetric DSMs generation using high resolution SAR imagery acquired by three different platforms (COSMO-SkyMed, TerraSAR-X and Radarsat-2 with particular attention to geometric orientation models. Two orientation models have been tested in this work: the rigorous Toutin’s model, developed at the Canada Center for Remote Sensing (CCRS and implemented in the commercial software package PCI Geomatica, and the radargrammetric model developed at University of Rome La Sapienza and implemented in the scientific software SISAR. A full comparison and analysis has been carried out over Beauport test site (Quebec, Canada, where a LIDAR ground truth and a dense set of GNSS CPs (Check points are available. Moreover, a preliminary comparison between the DSMs extracted, respectively with SISAR and PCI-Geomatica has been performed. The accuracy of the generated DSMs has been evaluated through the scientific software DEMANAL developed by Prof. K. Jacobsen of University of Hannover. As regards orientation models, the results shown that the Toutin’s model accuracy is slightly better than the SISAR one, even if it is important to underline that the SISAR model is computed without using a priori ground truth information. As concern DSMs assessment, the global DSMs accuracy in term of RMSE is around 4 meter and the two radargrammetric approaches show similar performances.

InSAR Reveals Land Deformation at Guangzhou and Foshan, China between 2011 and 2017 with COSMO-SkyMed Data

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Alex Hay-Man Ng

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Subsidence from groundwater extraction and underground tunnel excavation has been known for more than a decade in Guangzhou and Foshan, but past studies have only monitored the subsidence patterns as far as 2011 using InSAR. In this study, the deformation occurring during the most recent time-period between 2011 and 2017 has been measured using COSMO-SkyMed (CSK to understand if changes in temporal and spatial patterns of subsidence rates occurred. Using InSAR time-series analysis (TS-InSAR, we found that significant surface displacement rates occurred in the study area varying from −35 mm/year (subsidence to 10 mm/year (uplift. The 2011–2017 TS-InSAR results were compared to two separate TS-InSAR analyses (2011–2013, and 2013–2017. Our CSK TS-InSAR results are in broad agreement with previous ENVISAT results and levelling data, strengthening our conclusion that localised subsidence phenomena occurs at different locations in Guangzhou and Foshan. A comparison between temporal and spatial patterns of deformations from our TS-InSAR measurements and different land use types in Guangzhou shows that there is no clear relationship between them. Many local scale deformation zones have been identified related to different phenomena. The majority of deformations is related to excessive groundwater extraction for agricultural and industrial purposes but subsidence in areas of subway construction also occurred. Furthermore, a detailed analysis on the sinkhole collapse in early 2018 has been conducted, suggesting that surface loading may be a controlling factor of the subsidence, especially along the road and highway. Roads and highways with similar subsidence phenomenon are identified. Continuous monitoring of the deforming areas identified by our analysis is important to measure the magnitude and spatial pattern of the evolving deformations in order to minimise the risk and hazards of land subsidence.

Moving People from Science Adjacent to Science Doers with Twitch.tv

Science.gov (United States)

Gay, Pamela L.; CosmoQuest

2017-10-01

The CosmoQuest community is testing the ability to attract people from playing online videogames to doing fully online citizen science by engaging people through the Twitch.tv streaming platform. Twitch.tv launched in 2011 as an online platform for video gamers to stream their gameplay while providing narrative. In its six years of regular growth, the platform has added support for people playing non-video games, and for those participating in non-game activities. As part of their expansion, in April 2017, Twitch.tv hosted a science week during which they streamed the Cosmos series and allowed different feeds provide real-time commentary. They also hosted panel discussions on a variety of science topics. CosmoQuest participated in this event and used it as a jumping off point for beginning to interact with Twitch.tv community members online. With CosmoQuest’s beta launch of Image Detectives, they expanded their use of this streaming platform to include regular “office hours”, during which team members did science with CosmoQuest’s online projects, took questions from community members, and otherwise promoted the CosmoQuest community. This presentation examines this case study, and looks at how well different kinds of Twitter engagements attracted audiences, the conversion rate from viewer to subscriber, and at how effectively CosmoQuest was able to migrate users from viewing citizen science on Twitch.tv to participating in citizen science on CosmoQuest.org.This project was supported through NASA cooperative agreement NNX17AD20A.

A high-resolution regional reanalysis for the European CORDEX region

Science.gov (United States)

Bollmeyer, Christoph; Keller, Jan; Ohlwein, Christian; Wahl, Sabrina

2015-04-01

Within the Hans-Ertel-Centre for Weather Research (HErZ), the climate monitoring branch concentrates efforts on the assessment and analysis of regional climate in Germany and Europe. In joint cooperation with DWD (German Weather Service), a high-resolution reanalysis system based on the COSMO model has been developed. Reanalyses gain more and more importance as a source of meteorological information for many purposes and applications. Several global reanalyses projects (e.g., ERA, MERRA, CSFR, JMA9) produce and verify these data sets to provide time series as long as possible combined with a high data quality. Due to a spatial resolution down to 50-70km and 3-hourly temporal output, they are not suitable for small scale problems (e.g., regional climate assessment, meso-scale NWP verification, input for subsequent models such as river runoff simulations, renewable energy applications). The implementation of regional reanalyses based on a limited area model along with a data assimilation scheme is able to generate reanalysis data sets with high spatio-temporal resolution. The work presented here focuses on two regional reanalyses for Europe and Germany. The European reanalysis COSMO-REA6 matches the CORDEX EURO-11 specifications, albeit at a higher spatial resolution, i.e., 0.055° (6km) instead of 0.11° (12km). Nested into COSMO-REA6 is COSMO-REA2, a convective-scale reanalysis with 2km resolution for Germany. COSMO-REA6 comprises the assimilation of observational data using the existing nudging scheme of COSMO and is complemented by a special soil moisture analysis and boundary conditions given by ERA-Interim data. COSMO-REA2 also uses the nudging scheme complemented by a latent heat nudging of radar information. The reanalysis data set currently covers 17 years (1997-2013) for COSMO-REA6 and 4 years (2010-2013) for COSMO-REA2 with a very large set of output variables and a high temporal output step of hourly 3D-fields and quarter-hourly 2D-fields. The evaluation

Effects of forest cover changes in European Russia on regional weather conditions: results of numerical experiments with the COSMO-CLM model

Science.gov (United States)

Olchev, Alexander; Kuzmina, Ekaterina; Rozinkina, Inna; Nikitin, Mikhail; Rivin, Gdaly S.

2017-04-01

The forests have a significant effect on the climatic system. They capture CO2 from the atmosphere, regulate the surface evaporation and runoff, and influence the radiation and thermal conditions of the land surface. It is obvious, that their influence depends on many different factors including regional climate conditions, land use and vegetation structure, surface topography, etc. The main goal of the study is to assess the possible influence of forest cover changes (under deforestation and/or afforestation) on regional weather conditions in the central part of European Russia using the results of modeling experiments provided by the meso-scale COSMO-CLM model. The need of the study lies in a lack of the experimental and modeling data characterizing the influence of the forest and land-use changes on regional weather conditions in European part of Russia. The forest ecosystems in the study region play a very important biosphere role that is significantly increased in the last decades due to considerable strengthening of anthropogenic activity in the area of European Russia. The area selected for the study is located in the central part of European Russia between 55 and 59N and 28 and 37E. It comprises several geographical zones including dark-coniferous forests of the South-European taiga in the north, the mixed forests in the central part and the broad-leaved forests in the south. The forests within the study area are very heterogeneous. The total area covered by forests according to recent remote sensing data is about 50%. The numerical experiments were provided using the COSMO-CLM model with the spatial resolution 13.2 km. As initial and boundary conditions for the numerical experiments the global reanalysis ERA Interim (with the 6-hour resolution in time and 0.75° × 0.75° in space) were used. The weather conditions were simulated in a continuous cycle for several months for the entire area of European Russia using the results of global reanalysis on

Assessing the reliability of predictive activity coefficient models for molecules consisting of several functional groups

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. P. Gerber

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Currently, the most successful predictive models for activity coefficients are those based on functional groups such as UNIFAC. In contrast, these models require a large amount of experimental data for the determination of their parameter matrix. A more recent alternative is the models based on COSMO, for which only a small set of universal parameters must be calibrated. In this work, a recalibrated COSMO-SAC model was compared with the UNIFAC (Do model employing experimental infinite dilution activity coefficient data for 2236 non-hydrogen-bonding binary mixtures at different temperatures. As expected, UNIFAC (Do presented better overall performance, with a mean absolute error of 0.12 ln-units against 0.22 for our COSMO-SAC implementation. However, in cases involving molecules with several functional groups or when functional groups appear in an unusual way, the deviation for UNIFAC was 0.44 as opposed to 0.20 for COSMO-SAC. These results show that COSMO-SAC provides more reliable predictions for multi-functional or more complex molecules, reaffirming its future prospects.

Moon Zoo - Examples of Interesting Lunar Morphology

Science.gov (United States)

Cook, A. C.; Wilkinson, J.

2012-09-01

The MoonMappers citizen science project is part of CosmoQuest, a virtual research facility designed for the public. CosmoQuest seeks to take the best aspects of a research center - research, seminars, journal clubs, and community discussions - and provide them to a community of citizen scientists through a virtual facility. MoonMappers was the first citizen science project within CosmoQuest, and is being used to define best practices in getting the public to effectively learn and do science.

Irrigated Grassland Monitoring Using a Time Series of TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed X-Band SAR Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad El Hajj

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study was to analyze the sensitivity of radar signals in the X-band in irrigated grassland conditions. The backscattered radar signals were analyzed according to soil moisture and vegetation parameters using linear regression models. A time series of radar (TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed and optical (SPOT and LANDSAT images was acquired at a high temporal frequency in 2013 over a small agricultural region in southeastern France. Ground measurements were conducted simultaneously with the satellite data acquisitions during several grassland growing cycles to monitor the evolution of the soil and vegetation characteristics. The comparison between the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI computed from optical images and the in situ Leaf Area Index (LAI showed a logarithmic relationship with a greater scattering for the dates corresponding to vegetation well developed before the harvest. The correlation between the NDVI and the vegetation parameters (LAI, vegetation height, biomass, and vegetation water content was high at the beginning of the growth cycle. This correlation became insensitive at a certain threshold corresponding to high vegetation (LAI ~2.5 m2/m2. Results showed that the radar signal depends on variations in soil moisture, with a higher sensitivity to soil moisture for biomass lower than 1 kg/m². HH and HV polarizations had approximately similar sensitivities to soil moisture. The penetration depth of the radar wave in the X-band was high, even for dense and high vegetation; flooded areas were visible in the images with higher detection potential in HH polarization than in HV polarization, even for vegetation heights reaching 1 m. Lower sensitivity was observed at the X-band between the radar signal and the vegetation parameters with very limited potential of the X-band to monitor grassland growth. These results showed that it is possible to track gravity irrigation and soil moisture variations from SAR

Railway infrastructure monitoring with COSMO/SkyMed imagery and multi-temporal SAR interferometry

Science.gov (United States)

Chiaradia, M.; Nutricato, R.; Nitti, D. O.; Bovenga, F.; Guerriero, L.

2012-12-01

For all the European Countries, the rail network represents a key critical infrastructure, deserving protection in view of its continuous structure spread over the whole territory, of the high number of European citizens using it for personal and professional reasons, and of the large volume of freight moving through it. Railway system traverses a wide variety of terrains and encounters a range of geo-technical conditions. The interaction of these factors together with climatic and seismic forcing, may produce ground instabilities that impact on the safety and efficiency of rail operations. In such context, a particular interest is directed to the development of technologies regarding both the prevention of mishaps of infrastructures and the fast recovery of their normal working conditions after the occurrence of accidents (disaster managing). Both these issues are of strategic interest for EU Countries, and in particular for Italy, since, more than other countries, it is characterized by a geo-morphological and hydro-geological structure complexity that increases the risk of natural catastrophes due to landslides, overflowings and floods. The present study has been carried out in the framework of a scientific project aimed at producing a diagnostic system, capable to foresee and monitor landslide events along railway networks by integrating in situ data, detected from on board sophisticated innovative measuring systems, with Earth Observation (EO) techniques. Particular importance is devoted to the use of advanced SAR interferometry, thanks to their all-weather, day-night capability to detect and measure with sub-centimeter accuracy ground surface displacements that, in such context, can occur before a landslide event or after that movements . Special attention is directed to the use of SAR images acquired by COSMO/SkyMed (ASI) constellation capable to achieve very high spatial resolution and very short revisit and response time. In this context, a stack of 57 CSK

Application of a COSMO Mesoscale Model to Assess the Influence of Forest Cover Changes on Regional Weather Conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Olchev, A.; Rozinkina, I.; Kuzmina, E.; Nikitin, M.; Rivin, G. S.

2017-12-01

Modern changes in land use and forest cover have a significant influence on local, regional, and global weather and climate conditions. In this study, the mesoscale model COSMO is used to estimate the possible influence of forest cover change in the central part of the East European Plain on regional weather conditions. The "model region" of the study is surrounded by geographical coordinates 55° and 59°N and 28° and 37°E and situated in the central part of a large modeling domain (50° - 70° N and 15° 55° E), covering almost the entire East European Plain in Northern Eurasia. The forests cover about 50% of the area of the "model region". The modeling study includes 3 main numerical experiments. The first assumes total deforestation of the "model region" and replacement of forests by grasslands. The second is represented by afforestation of the "model region." In the third, weather conditions are simulated with present land use and vegetation structures of the "model region." Output of numerical experiments is at 13.2 km grid resolution, and the ERA-Interim global atmospheric reanalysis (with 6-h resolution in time and 0.75°×0.75° in space) is used to quantify initial and boundary conditions. Numerical experiments for the warm period of 2010 taken as an example show that deforestation and afforestation processes in the selected region can lead to significant changes in weather conditions. Deforestation processes in summer conditions can result in increased air temperature and wind speed, reduction of precipitation, lower clouds, and relative humidity. The afforestation process can result in opposite effects (decreased air temperature, increased precipitation, higher air humidity and fog frequency, and strengthened storm winds). Maximum meteorological changes under forest cover changes are projected for the summer months (July and August). It was also shown that changes of some meteorological characteristics (e.g., air temperature) is observed in the

Application of asymmetric mapping and selective filtering (AM and SF) method to Cosmo/SkyMed images by implementation of a selective blocks approach for ship detection optimization in SEASAFE framework

Science.gov (United States)

Loreggia, D.; Tataranni, F.; Trivero, P.; Biamino, W.; Di Matteo, L.

2017-10-01

We present the implementation of a procedure to adapt an Asymmetric Wiener Filtering (AWF) methodology aimed to detect and discard ghost signal due to azimuth ambiguities in SAR images to the case for X-band Cosmo Sky Med (CSK) images in the framework of SEASAFE (Slick Emissions And Ship Automatic Features Extraction) project, developed at the Department of Science and Technology Innovation of the University of Piemonte Orientale, Alessandria, Italy. SAR is a useful tool to daily and nightly monitoring of the sea surface in all weather conditions. SEASAFE project is a software platform developed in IDL language able to process data in C- Land X-band SAR images with enhanced algorithm modules for land masking, sea pollution (oil spills) and ship detection; wind and wave evaluation are also available. In this contest, the need to individuate and discard false alarms is a critical requirement. The azimuth ambiguity is one of the main causes that generate false alarm in the ship detection procedure. Many methods to face with this problem were proposed and presented in recent literature. After a review of different approach to this problem, we describe the procedure to adapt the AWF approach presented in [1,2] to the case of X-band CSK images by implementing a selective blocks approach.

Detailed climate-change projections for urban land-use change and green-house gas increases for Belgium with COSMO-CLM coupled to TERRA_URB

Science.gov (United States)

Wouters, Hendrik; Vanden Broucke, Sam; van Lipzig, Nicole; Demuzere, Matthias

2016-04-01

Recent research clearly show that climate modelling at high resolution - which resolve the deep convection, the detailed orography and land-use including urbanization - leads to better modelling performance with respect to temperatures, the boundary-layer, clouds and precipitation. The increasing computational power enables the climate research community to address climate-change projections with higher accuracy and much more detail. In the framework of the CORDEX.be project aiming for coherent high-resolution micro-ensemble projections for Belgium employing different GCMs and RCMs, the KU Leuven contributes by means of the downscaling of EC-EARTH global climate model projections (provided by the Royal Meteorological Institute of the Netherlands) to the Belgian domain. The downscaling is obtained with regional climate simulations at 12.5km resolution over Europe (CORDEX-EU domain) and at 2.8km resolution over Belgium (CORDEX.be domain) using COSMO-CLM coupled to urban land-surface parametrization TERRA_URB. This is done for the present-day (1975-2005) and future (2040 → 2070 and 2070 → 2100). In these high-resolution runs, both GHG changes (in accordance to RCP8.5) and urban land-use changes (in accordance to a business-as-usual urban expansion scenario) are taken into account. Based on these simulations, it is shown how climate-change statistics are modified when going from coarse resolution modelling to high-resolution modelling. The climate-change statistics of particular interest are the changes in number of extreme precipitation events and extreme heat waves in cities. Hereby, it is futher investigated for the robustness of the signal change between the course and high-resolution and whether a (statistical) translation is possible. The different simulations also allow to address the relative impact and synergy between the urban expansion and increased GHG on the climate-change statistics. Hereby, it is investigated for which climate-change statistics the

Infrastructure Innovation: Case Study of the Gautrain

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

van der Merwe, J

2017-10-01

Full Text Available ROODEPOORT NALEDI COSMO RUIMSIG BLUE HILLS SAMRAND LAKEVIEW RHODESFIELD BOKSBURG RANDBURG HONEYDEW EAST RAND MALL OR TAMBO LANSERIA K: Additional Rolling Stock (The Future) Capacity Constraints – Gautrain Project Background Need... RHODESFIELD O.R. TAMBO SAMRAND IRENE TSHWANE EAST HAZELDEAN MAMELODI OLIEVENHOUTSBOSCH SUNNINGHILL FOURWAYS COSMO LITTLE FALLS ROODEPOORT JABULANI RANDBURG LANSERIA EAST RAND MALL BOKSBURG SANDTON 2 LEGEND North – South Commuter East...

Predicting hydration energies for multivalent ions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersson, Martin Peter; Stipp, Susan Louise Svane

2014-01-01

We have predicted the free energy of hydration for 40 monovalent and multivalent cations and anions using density functional theory and the implicit solvent model COnductor like Screening MOdel for Real Solvents (COSMO-RS) at the Becke-Perdew (BP)/Triple zeta valence with polarization functions...... (TZVP) level. Agreement with experimental data for monovalent and divalent ions is good and shows no significant systematic errors. Predictions are noticeably better than with standard COSMO. The agreement with experimental data for trivalent and tetravalent ions is slightly worse and shows systematic...... errors. Our results indicate that quantum chemical calculations combined with COSMO-RS solvent treatment is a reliable method for treating multivalent ions in solution, provided one hydration shell of explicit water molecules is included for metal cations. The accuracy is not high enough to allow...

On discontinuous Galerkin approach for atmospheric flow in the mesoscale with and without moisture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dieter Schuster

2014-09-01

Full Text Available We present and discuss discontinuous Galerkin (DG schemes for dry and moist atmospheric flows in the mesoscale. We derive terrain-following coordinates on the sphere in strong-conservation form, which makes it possible to perform the computation on a Cartesian grid and yet conserves the momentum density on an f$f$-plane. A new DG model, i.e. DG-COSMO, is compared to the operational model COSMO of the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD. A simplified version of the suggested terrain-following coordinates is implemented in DG-COSMO and is compared against the DG dynamical core implemented within the DUNE framework, which uses unstructured grids to capture orography. Finally, a few idealised test cases, including 3d and moisture, are used for validation. In addition an estimate of efficiency for locally adaptive grids is derived for locally and non-locally occurring phenomena.

A Central European precipitation climatology – Part II: Application of the high-resolution HYRAS data for COSMO-CLM evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susanne Brienen

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The horizontal resolution of regional climate model (RCM simulations is increasing constantly in the last years. For the evaluation of these simulations and the further development of the models, adequate observational data sets are required, in particular with respect to the spatial scales. The aim of this paper is to investigate the value of a new high-resolution precipitation climatology, the HYRAS-PRE v.2.0 data set, for the evaluation of RCM output. HYRAS-PRE is available for the time period 1951–2006 at daily resolution and covers ten river catchments in Germany and neighbouring countries at a spatial grid spacing of 5 km. A set of simulations with the regional climate model COSMO-CLM with three different grid spacings (~7$\\sim7$, 14 and 28 km is used for this model evaluation study. In addition, three other data sets with different horizontal resolution are considered in the comparisons: the E‑OBS v.8.0 gridded observations (~25$\\sim25$ km grid spacing, the ERA-Interim reanalysis (~79$\\sim79$ km and the analysis of the driving model GME (~40$\\sim40$–60 km. For three selected years, different spatial and temporal characteristics of daily precipitation are investigated. In all the analyzed precipitation characteristics, it is found that the variability between the data sets is very large. The benefit of an evaluation with HYRAS-PRE compared to coarser-resolved observations becomes visible especially in the representation of the frequency of occurrence distribution of daily precipitation amounts and in the spatial variability of different precipitation indices. A second goal of this study was to estimate the error when comparing a high resolution simulated precipitation field with coarser resolved observations. Comparing the HYRAS-PRE average over an area of 5×5$5\\times5$ grid points with the original HYRAS-PRE data results in a systematic underestimation of high values of all indices considered and an overestimation

Prediction of the vapor pressure and vaporization enthalpy of 1-n-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium-bis-(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) amide ionic liquids.

Science.gov (United States)

Diedenhofen, Michael; Klamt, Andreas; Marsh, Kenneth; Schäfer, Ansgar

2007-09-07

The vapor pressures and vaporization enthalpies of a series of 1-n-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium-bis-(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) amide ionic liquids have been predicted with two different approaches using the COSMO-RS method and quantum chemical gas phase calculations. While the calculated enthalpies are in good agreement with the experimental data, COSMO-RS seems to underestimate the vapor pressures by roughly 0.5-4 log units dependent on the IL and approach used.

Model simulations with COSMO-SPECS: impact of heterogeneous freezing modes and ice nucleating particle types on ice formation and precipitation in a deep convective cloud

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Diehl

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In deep convective clouds, heavy rain is often formed involving the ice phase. Simulations were performed using the 3-D cloud resolving model COSMO-SPECS with detailed spectral microphysics including parameterizations of homogeneous and three heterogeneous freezing modes. The initial conditions were selected to result in a deep convective cloud reaching 14 km of altitude with strong updrafts up to 40 m s−1. At such altitudes with corresponding temperatures below −40 °C the major fraction of liquid drops freezes homogeneously. The goal of the present model simulations was to investigate how additional heterogeneous freezing will affect ice formation and precipitation although its contribution to total ice formation may be rather low. In such a situation small perturbations that do not show significant effects at first sight may trigger cloud microphysical responses. Effects of the following small perturbations were studied: (1 additional ice formation via immersion, contact, and deposition modes in comparison to solely homogeneous freezing, (2 contact and deposition freezing in comparison to immersion freezing, and (3 small fractions of biological ice nucleating particles (INPs in comparison to higher fractions of mineral dust INP. The results indicate that the modification of precipitation proceeds via the formation of larger ice particles, which may be supported by direct freezing of larger drops, the growth of pristine ice particles by riming, and by nucleation of larger drops by collisions with pristine ice particles. In comparison to the reference case with homogeneous freezing only, such small perturbations due to additional heterogeneous freezing rather affect the total precipitation amount. It is more likely that the temporal development and the local distribution of precipitation are affected by such perturbations. This results in a gradual increase in precipitation at early cloud stages instead of a strong increase at

La vita del cosmo

CERN Document Server

Smolin, Lee

1998-01-01

Secondo l'autore, la fisica contemporanea dovrebbe superare la vecchia impostazione newtoniana, e il pensiero fisico dovrebbe tener conto a tutti i livelli dei più recenti sviluppi teorici: l'universo si comporta come se fosse soggetto alle leggi dell'evoluzione e della selezione naturale. E' tutto plastico, e le sue leggi non sono immutabili; esiste addirittura una "competizione tra universi possibili", che dà come risultato la realtà in cui viviamo.

An assessment of urban heat island effect adopting urban parameterizations in COSMO-CLM simulations over big cities in Northern Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Montesarchio, Myriam; Rianna, Guido; Mercogliano, Paola; Castellari, Sergio; Schiano, Pasquale

2015-04-01

In Europe, about 80% of people live in urban areas, which most of them can be particularly vulnerable to climate impacts (e.g. high air temperatures along with heat waves, flooding due to intense precipitation events, water scarcity and droughts). In fact, the density of people and assets within relatively small geographic areas, such as an urban settlements, mean more risk exposure than in rural areas. Therefore, reliable numerical climate models are needed for elaborating climate risk assessment at urban scale. These models must take into account the effects of the complex three-dimensional structure of urban settlements, combined with the mixture of surface types with contrasting radiative, thermal and moisture characteristics. In this respect, previous studies (e.g. Trusilova et al., 2013) have already assessed the importance to consider urban properties in very high resolution regional climate modeling to better reproduce the features of urban climate, especially in terms of urban heat island effect. In this work, two different configurations of the regional climate model COSMO-CLM at the horizontal resolution of 0.02° (about 2.2km), one including urban parameterization scheme and another without including them, have been applied in order to perform two different climate simulations covering the entire northern Italy. In particular, the present study is focused on large urban settlements such as Milan and Turin. Due to high computational cost required to run very high resolution simulations, the results of the two simulations have been compared over a period of ten years, from 1980 to 1989. Preliminary results indicate that the modification of climate conditions, due to the presence of urban areas, is present mainly in the areas covered by big cities and surrounding them, or rather the presence of urban areas induces modification mainly in their local climate. Other evidences are that the simulation including urban parameterization scheme shows, in general

Cosmological measurements with forthcoming radio continuum surveys

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Raccanelli, A

2012-08-01

Full Text Available is to measure the cosmo- logical parameters of particular current interest. Among the biggest challenges in cosmology is to determine whether the standard � cold dark matter (CDM) model and its general relativity (GR) con- text are correct, or whether we need a... as a function of redshift and the bias of different source populations as a function of red- shift. These are required in order to make predictions for cosmo- logical probes, such as the autocorrelation function and the cross- correlation of radio...

Constraints in using Cerium-animaly of bulk sediments as an indicator of paleo bottom water redox environment: A case study from the Central Indian Ocean Basin

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Pattan, J.N.; Pearce, N.J.G.; Mislankar, P.G.

for paleo-oceanic redox conditions. Geochem. Cosmo- chim. Acta 5, 1361–1371. Lyle, M., Dymond, J., Heath, G.R., 1977. Copper–nickel enriched ferromanganese nodules and associated crusts from the Baur Basin, northwest Nazca plate. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 35.... Cosmo- chim. Acta 61, 2375–2388. Nozaki, Y., Horible, Y., Tsubota, H., 1981. The water column distribution of thorium isotopes in the western North Pacific. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 66, 73–90. Pattan, J.N., Banakar, V.K., 1997. Diagenetic remobilization...

IMPACTUL DIMENSIUNILOR CULTURALE ASUPRA REACȚIEI CONSUMATORILOR LA PUBLICITATEA OFENSATOARE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tatiana GAUGAŞ

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Tot mai multe companii încearcă să fie cât mai unice și diferite de concurenții lor, utilizând tactici de șoc și elemente ofensatoare în reclamă. Pe de altă parte, companiile încearcă să utilizeze în diferite țări mesaje de publicitate standar­di­zate. În acest articol este analizată importanţa dimensiunilor culturale în perceperea și acceptarea mesajului de reclamă, punându-se accent pe revista studiilor existente și a teoriilor culturale ale lui Hofstede și Hall.THE IMPACT OF CULTURAL DIMENSIONS ON THE CONSUMERS REACTION TO OFFENSIVE ADVERTISINGModern companies try to differentiate among competitors by using shock tactics and offensive elements in advertising. From other point of view firms are more often using standardized advertisng strategy in different countries. This article describes the importance of cultural dimensions in consumers perceptions and acceptance of the advertising message. It focuses on the review of existing studies and Hofstede’s and Hall’s cultural theories.

Impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C on precipitation patterns in China by regional climate model (COSMO-CLM)

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Hemin; Wang, Anqian; Zhai, Jianqing; Huang, Jinlong; Wang, Yanjun; Wen, Shanshan; Zeng, Xiaofan; Su, Buda

2018-05-01

Regional precipitation patterns may change in a warmer climate, thereby increasing flood and drought risks. In this paper, annual, annual maximum, intense, heavy, moderate, light, and trace precipitation are employed as indicators to assess changes in precipitation patterns under two scenarios in which the global mean temperature increases by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C relative to pre-industrial levels using the regional climate model COSMO-CLM (CCLM). The results show that annual precipitation in China will be approximately 2.5% higher under 1.5 °C warming relative to the present-day baseline (1980-2009), although it will decrease by approximately 4.0% under an additional 0.5 °C increase in global mean temperature. This trend is spatially consistent for regions with annual precipitation of 400-800 mm, which has experienced a drying trend during the past half century; thus, limiting global warming to 1.5 °C may mitigate these drying conditions. The annual maximum precipitation continues to increase from present day levels to the 2.0 °C warming scenario. Relative to the baseline period, the frequency of trace and light precipitation days exhibits a negative trend, while that of moderate, heavy, and intense precipitation days has a positive trend under the 1.5 °C warming scenario. For the 2.0 °C warming world, the frequency of days is projected to decrease for all precipitation categories, although the intensity of intense precipitation increases. Spatially, a decrease in the number of precipitation days is expected to continue in central and northern China, where a drying trend has persisted over the past half century. Southeastern China, which already suffers greatly from flooding, is expected to face more heavy and intense precipitation with an additional 0.5 °C increase in global mean temperature. Meanwhile, the intensity of intense precipitation is expected to increase in northern China, and the contribution of light and moderate precipitation to the annual

The A Priori Design and Selection of Ionic Liquids as Solvents for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kunov-Kruse, Andreas Jonas; Weber, Cameron C.; Rogers, Robin D.

2017-01-01

In this paper we derive a straightforward computational approach to predict the optimal ionic liquid (IL) solvent for a given compound, based on COSMO-RS calculations. These calculations were performed on 18 different active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) using a matrix of 210 hypothetical ILs...... on the N-alkylguanidinium cation were prepared and characterized. The solubility of the APIs in each of these classes was found to be qualitatively consistent with the predictions of the COSMO-RS model. The suitability of these novel guanidinium salts as crystallization solvents was demonstrated by the use...

Particle backscatter and relative humidity measured across cirrus clouds and comparison with microphysical cirrus modelling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Brabec

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Advanced measurement and modelling techniques are employed to estimate the partitioning of atmospheric water between the gas phase and the condensed phase in and around cirrus clouds, and thus to identify in-cloud and out-of-cloud supersaturations with respect to ice. In November 2008 the newly developed balloon-borne backscatter sonde COBALD (Compact Optical Backscatter and AerosoL Detector was flown 14 times together with a CFH (Cryogenic Frost point Hygrometer from Lindenberg, Germany (52° N, 14° E. The case discussed here in detail shows two cirrus layers with in-cloud relative humidities with respect to ice between 50% and 130%. Global operational analysis data of ECMWF (roughly 1° × 1° horizontal and 1 km vertical resolution, 6-hourly stored fields fail to represent ice water contents and relative humidities. Conversely, regional COSMO-7 forecasts (6.6 km × 6.6 km, 5-min stored fields capture the measured humidities and cloud positions remarkably well. The main difference between ECMWF and COSMO data is the resolution of small-scale vertical features responsible for cirrus formation. Nevertheless, ice water contents in COSMO-7 are still off by factors 2–10, likely reflecting limitations in COSMO's ice phase bulk scheme. Significant improvements can be achieved by comprehensive size-resolved microphysical and optical modelling along backward trajectories based on COSMO-7 wind and temperature fields, which allow accurate computation of humidities, homogeneous ice nucleation, resulting ice particle size distributions and backscatter ratios at the COBALD wavelengths. However, only by superimposing small-scale temperature fluctuations, which remain unresolved by the numerical weather prediction models, can we obtain a satisfying agreement with the observations and reconcile the measured in-cloud non-equilibrium humidities with conventional ice cloud microphysics. Conversely, the model-data comparison provides no evidence that additional

Results of Needs Assessments Related to Citizen Science Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Buxner, Sanlyn; Bracey, Georgia; Glushko, Anna; Bakerman, Maya; Gay, Pamela L.; CosmoQuest Team

2017-01-01

The CosmoQuest Virtual Research Facility invites the public and classrooms to participate in NASA Science Mission Directorate related research that leads to publishable results and data catalogues. One of the main goals of the project is to support professional scientists in doing science and the general public--including parents, children, teachers, and students--in learning and doing science. Through the effort, the CosmoQuest team is developing a variety of supports and opportunities to support the doing and teaching of science. To inform our efforts, we have implemented a set of needs surveys to assess the needs of our different audiences. These surveys are being used to understand the interests, motivations, resources, challenges and demographics of our growing CosmoQuest community and others interested in engaging in citizen science projects. The surveys include those for teachers, parents, adult learners, planetarium professionals, subject matter experts (SMEs), and the general public. We will share the results of these surveys and discuss the implications of the results for broader education and outreach programs.

No evidence for extensions to the standard cosmological model

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Heavens, A

2017-09-01

Full Text Available , the Bayesian evidence depends on the priors chosen. Here we have used uniform box priors (in addition, cosmoMCexcludes some physically impossible subregions) based on the 2015 Planck analysis (Antony Lewis), and these are listed in Table I. For parameter... density today ωc ≡ Ωch2 [0.001, 0.99] … Cold dark matter density today 100θMC [0.5, 10] … 100× approximation to r�=DA (CosmoMC) τ [0.01, 0.8] … Thomson scattering optical depth due to reionization lnð1010AsÞ [2, 4] … Log power of the primordial curvature...

The on-line coupled atmospheric chemistry model system MECO(n) - Part 5: Expanding the Multi-Model-Driver (MMD v2.0) for 2-way data exchange including data interpolation via GRID (v1.0)

Science.gov (United States)

Kerkweg, Astrid; Hofmann, Christiane; Jöckel, Patrick; Mertens, Mariano; Pante, Gregor

2018-03-01

As part of the Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy), the Multi-Model-Driver (MMD v1.0) was developed to couple online the regional Consortium for Small-scale Modeling (COSMO) model into a driving model, which can be either the regional COSMO model or the global European Centre Hamburg general circulation model (ECHAM) (see Part 2 of the model documentation). The coupled system is called MECO(n), i.e., MESSy-fied ECHAM and COSMO models nested n times. In this article, which is part of the model documentation of the MECO(n) system, the second generation of MMD is introduced. MMD comprises the message-passing infrastructure required for the parallel execution (multiple programme multiple data, MPMD) of different models and the communication of the individual model instances, i.e. between the driving and the driven models. Initially, the MMD library was developed for a one-way coupling between the global chemistry-climate ECHAM/MESSy atmospheric chemistry (EMAC) model and an arbitrary number of (optionally cascaded) instances of the regional chemistry-climate model COSMO/MESSy. Thus, MMD (v1.0) provided only functions for unidirectional data transfer, i.e. from the larger-scale to the smaller-scale models.Soon, extended applications requiring data transfer from the small-scale model back to the larger-scale model became of interest. For instance, the original fields of the larger-scale model can directly be compared to the upscaled small-scale fields to analyse the improvements gained through the small-scale calculations, after the results are upscaled. Moreover, the fields originating from the two different models might be fed into the same diagnostic tool, e.g. the online calculation of the radiative forcing calculated consistently with the same radiation scheme. Last but not least, enabling the two-way data transfer between two models is the first important step on the way to a fully dynamical and chemical two-way coupling of the various model instances.In MMD (v1

The on-line coupled atmospheric chemistry model system MECO(n – Part 5: Expanding the Multi-Model-Driver (MMD v2.0 for 2-way data exchange including data interpolation via GRID (v1.0

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Kerkweg

2018-03-01

Full Text Available As part of the Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy, the Multi-Model-Driver (MMD v1.0 was developed to couple online the regional Consortium for Small-scale Modeling (COSMO model into a driving model, which can be either the regional COSMO model or the global European Centre Hamburg general circulation model (ECHAM (see Part 2 of the model documentation. The coupled system is called MECO(n, i.e., MESSy-fied ECHAM and COSMO models nested n times. In this article, which is part of the model documentation of the MECO(n system, the second generation of MMD is introduced. MMD comprises the message-passing infrastructure required for the parallel execution (multiple programme multiple data, MPMD of different models and the communication of the individual model instances, i.e. between the driving and the driven models. Initially, the MMD library was developed for a one-way coupling between the global chemistry–climate ECHAM/MESSy atmospheric chemistry (EMAC model and an arbitrary number of (optionally cascaded instances of the regional chemistry–climate model COSMO/MESSy. Thus, MMD (v1.0 provided only functions for unidirectional data transfer, i.e. from the larger-scale to the smaller-scale models.Soon, extended applications requiring data transfer from the small-scale model back to the larger-scale model became of interest. For instance, the original fields of the larger-scale model can directly be compared to the upscaled small-scale fields to analyse the improvements gained through the small-scale calculations, after the results are upscaled. Moreover, the fields originating from the two different models might be fed into the same diagnostic tool, e.g. the online calculation of the radiative forcing calculated consistently with the same radiation scheme. Last but not least, enabling the two-way data transfer between two models is the first important step on the way to a fully dynamical and chemical two-way coupling of the various model

COSMO - SkyMed Mission Overview

Science.gov (United States)

2000-10-01

antenna with range and cross-range steering capabilities; The SAR Payload is an X-band Radar which 0 development and qualification of low mass ...summarised as follows: * Swaths: 20 Kmn to 300 Km SIlfale sflos" Swaccs: regKion: t 350 (a) to support the Payload mass (on ground,"• Access region: -/+ 35...real-time product is requested); situ" product delivery. This raises the problem of the size of the data to be transmitted and the geo- Customisation

High resolution modelling of wind fields for optimization of empirical storm flood predictions

Science.gov (United States)

Brecht, B.; Frank, H.

2014-05-01

High resolution wind fields are necessary to predict the occurrence of storm flood events and their magnitude. Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) created a catalogue of detailed wind fields of 39 historical storms at the German North Sea coast from the years 1962 to 2011. The catalogue is used by the Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Wasser-, Küsten- und Naturschutz (NLWKN) coastal research center to improve their flood alert service. The computation of wind fields and other meteorological parameters is based on the model chain of the DWD going from the global model GME via the limited-area model COSMO with 7 km mesh size down to a COSMO model with 2.2 km. To obtain an improved analysis COSMO runs are nudged against observations for the historical storms. The global model GME is initialised from the ERA reanalysis data of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). As expected, we got better congruency with observations of the model for the nudging runs than the normal forecast runs for most storms. We also found during the verification process that different land use data sets could influence the results considerably.

Diurnal variability of heat fluxes over the coastal waters off Visakhapatnam during post-monsoon and winter seasons

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Ramu, Ch V.; Bharathi, G.; Sadhuram, Y.; Prasad, K.V.S.R.

by De Cosmo et al.9 are used in this computation. τ = ρa CD U2 (3) QSH = ρa Cp CH (Ts-Ta) U (4) QLH = ρa L CE (es-ea) U (5) where ρa is the density of air (kg/m3), Cp is the specific heat of air at constant pressure, CH is the Stanton number..., Energy budget studies, water-loss Investigations: Lake Hefner studies, U.S. Geol. Surv. CIRC., 229, (1952) 71-88. 9 DeCosmo J, Katsaros K B, Smith S D, Anderson R J, Oost W A, Bumke K & Chadwick H M, Air-sea exchange of water vapor and sensible heat...

The 1-way on-line coupled atmospheric chemistry model system MECO(n – Part 2: On-line coupling with the Multi-Model-Driver (MMD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Kerkweg

2012-01-01

Full Text Available A new, highly flexible model system for the seamless dynamical down-scaling of meteorological and chemical processes from the global to the meso-γ scale is presented. A global model and a cascade of an arbitrary number of limited-area model instances run concurrently in the same parallel environment, in which the coarser grained instances provide the boundary data for the finer grained instances. Thus, disk-space intensive and time consuming intermediate and pre-processing steps are entirely avoided and the time interpolation errors of common off-line nesting approaches are minimised. More specifically, the regional model COSMO of the German Weather Service (DWD is nested on-line into the atmospheric general circulation model ECHAM5 within the Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy framework. ECHAM5 and COSMO have previously been equipped with the MESSy infrastructure, implying that the same process formulations (MESSy submodels are available for both models. This guarantees the highest degree of achievable consistency, between both, the meteorological and chemical conditions at the domain boundaries of the nested limited-area model, and between the process formulations on all scales.

The on-line nesting of the different models is established by a client-server approach with the newly developed Multi-Model-Driver (MMD, an additional component of the MESSy infrastructure. With MMD an arbitrary number of model instances can be run concurrently within the same message passing interface (MPI environment, the respective coarser model (either global or regional is the server for the nested finer (regional client model, i.e. it provides the data required to calculate the initial and boundary fields to the client model. On-line nesting means that the coupled (client-server models exchange their data via the computer memory, in contrast to the data exchange via files on disk in common off-line nesting approaches. MMD consists of a library

Tailored high-resolution numerical weather forecasts for energy efficient predictive building control

Science.gov (United States)

Stauch, V. J.; Gwerder, M.; Gyalistras, D.; Oldewurtel, F.; Schubiger, F.; Steiner, P.

2010-09-01

The high proportion of the total primary energy consumption by buildings has increased the public interest in the optimisation of buildings' operation and is also driving the development of novel control approaches for the indoor climate. In this context, the use of weather forecasts presents an interesting and - thanks to advances in information and predictive control technologies and the continuous improvement of numerical weather prediction (NWP) models - an increasingly attractive option for improved building control. Within the research project OptiControl (www.opticontrol.ethz.ch) predictive control strategies for a wide range of buildings, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and representative locations in Europe are being investigated with the aid of newly developed modelling and simulation tools. Grid point predictions for radiation, temperature and humidity of the high-resolution limited area NWP model COSMO-7 (see www.cosmo-model.org) and local measurements are used as disturbances and inputs into the building system. The control task considered consists in minimizing energy consumption whilst maintaining occupant comfort. In this presentation, we use the simulation-based OptiControl methodology to investigate the impact of COSMO-7 forecasts on the performance of predictive building control and the resulting energy savings. For this, we have selected building cases that were shown to benefit from a prediction horizon of up to 3 days and therefore, are particularly suitable for the use of numerical weather forecasts. We show that the controller performance is sensitive to the quality of the weather predictions, most importantly of the incident radiation on differently oriented façades. However, radiation is characterised by a high temporal and spatial variability in part caused by small scale and fast changing cloud formation and dissolution processes being only partially represented in the COSMO-7 grid point predictions. On the

Surface Runoff Estimation Using SMOS Observations, Rain-gauge Measurements and Satellite Precipitation Estimations. Comparison with Model Predictions

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia Leal, Julio A.; Lopez-Baeza, Ernesto; Khodayar, Samiro; Estrela, Teodoro; Fidalgo, Arancha; Gabaldo, Onofre; Kuligowski, Robert; Herrera, Eddy

Surface runoff is defined as the amount of water that originates from precipitation, does not infiltrates due to soil saturation and therefore circulates over the surface. A good estimation of runoff is useful for the design of draining systems, structures for flood control and soil utilisation. For runoff estimation there exist different methods such as (i) rational method, (ii) isochrone method, (iii) triangular hydrograph, (iv) non-dimensional SCS hydrograph, (v) Temez hydrograph, (vi) kinematic wave model, represented by the dynamics and kinematics equations for a uniforme precipitation regime, and (vii) SCS-CN (Soil Conservation Service Curve Number) model. This work presents a way of estimating precipitation runoff through the SCS-CN model, using SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) mission soil moisture observations and rain-gauge measurements, as well as satellite precipitation estimations. The area of application is the Jucar River Basin Authority area where one of the objectives is to develop the SCS-CN model in a spatial way. The results were compared to simulations performed with the 7-km COSMO-CLM (COnsortium for Small-scale MOdelling, COSMO model in CLimate Mode) model. The use of SMOS soil moisture as input to the COSMO-CLM model will certainly improve model simulations.

Projection of actual evapotranspiration using the COSMO-CLM regional climate model under global warming scenarios of 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C in the Tarim River basin, China

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Buda; Jian, Dongnan; Li, Xiucang; Wang, Yanjun; Wang, Anqian; Wen, Shanshan; Tao, Hui; Hartmann, Heike

2017-11-01

Actual evapotranspiration (ETa) is an important component of the water cycle. The goals for limiting global warming to below 2.0 °C above pre-industrial levels and aspiring to 1.5 °C were negotiated in the Paris Agreement in 2015. In this study, outputs from the regional climate model COSMO-CLM (CCLM) for the Tarim River basin (TRB) were used to calculate ETa with an advection-aridity model, and changes in ETa under global warming scenarios of 1.5 °C (2020 to 2039) and 2.0 °C (2040 to 2059) were analyzed. Comparison of warming at the global and regional scale showed that regional 1.5 °C warming would occur later than the global average, while regional 2.0 °C warming would occur earlier than the global average. For global warming of 1.5 °C, the average ETa in the TRB is about 222.7 mm annually, which represents an increase of 6.9 mm relative to the reference period (1986-2005), with obvious increases projected for spring and summer. The greatest increases in ETa were projected for the northeast and southwest. The increment in the annual ETa across the TRB considering a warming of 1.5 °C was 4.3 mm less than that for a warming of 2.0 °C, and the reduction between the two levels of warming was most pronounced in the summer, when ETa was 3.4 mm smaller. The reduction in the increment of annual ETa for warming of 1.5 °C relative to warming of 2.0 °C was most pronounced in the southwest and northeast, where it was projected to be 8.2 mm and 9.3 mm smaller, respectively. It is suggested that the higher ETa under a warming of 2.0 °C mainly results from an increase in the sunshine duration (net radiation) in the southwestern basin and an increase in precipitation in the northeastern basin. Vapor is removed from the limited surface water supplies by ETa. The results of this study are therefore particularly relevant for water resource planning in the TRB.

Changes in Extreme Maximum Temperature Events and Population Exposure in China under Global Warming Scenarios of 1.5 and 2.0°C: Analysis Using the Regional Climate Model COSMO-CLM

Science.gov (United States)

Zhan, Mingjin; Li, Xiucang; Sun, Hemin; Zhai, Jianqing; Jiang, Tong; Wang, Yanjun

2018-02-01

We used daily maximum temperature data (1986-2100) from the COSMO-CLM (COnsortium for Small-scale MOdeling in CLimate Mode) regional climate model and the population statistics for China in 2010 to determine the frequency, intensity, coverage, and population exposure of extreme maximum temperature events (EMTEs) with the intensity-area-duration method. Between 1986 and 2005 (reference period), the frequency, intensity, and coverage of EMTEs are 1330-1680 times yr-1, 31.4-33.3°C, and 1.76-3.88 million km2, respectively. The center of the most severe EMTEs is located in central China and 179.5-392.8 million people are exposed to EMTEs annually. Relative to 1986-2005, the frequency, intensity, and coverage of EMTEs increase by 1.13-6.84, 0.32-1.50, and 15.98%-30.68%, respectively, under 1.5°C warming; under 2.0°C warming, the increases are 1.73-12.48, 0.64-2.76, and 31.96%-50.00%, respectively. It is possible that both the intensity and coverage of future EMTEs could exceed the most severe EMTEs currently observed. Two new centers of EMTEs are projected to develop under 1.5°C warming, one in North China and the other in Southwest China. Under 2.0°C warming, a fourth EMTE center is projected to develop in Northwest China. Under 1.5 and 2.0°C warming, population exposure is projected to increase by 23.2%-39.2% and 26.6%-48%, respectively. From a regional perspective, population exposure is expected to increase most rapidly in Southwest China. A greater proportion of the population in North, Northeast, and Northwest China will be exposed to EMTEs under 2.0°C warming. The results show that a warming world will lead to increases in the intensity, frequency, and coverage of EMTEs. Warming of 2.0°C will lead to both more severe EMTEs and the exposure of more people to EMTEs. Given the probability of the increased occurrence of more severe EMTEs than in the past, it is vitally important to China that the global temperature increase is limited within 1.5°C.

Extensive Evaluation of the Conductor-like Screening Model for Real Solvents Method in Predicting Liquid-Liquid Equilibria in Ternary Systems of Ionic Liquids with Molecular Compounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Paduszyński, Kamil

2018-04-12

A conductor-like screening model for real solvents (COSMO-RS) is nowadays one of the most popular and commonly applied tools for the estimation of thermodynamic properties of complex fluids. The goal of this work is to provide a comprehensive review and analysis of the performance of this approach in calculating liquid-liquid equilibrium (LLE) phase diagrams in ternary systems composed of ionic liquid and two molecular compounds belonging to diverse families of chemicals (alkanes, aromatics, S/N-compounds, alcohols, ketones, ethers, carboxylic acid, esters, and water). The predictions are presented for extensive experimental database, including 930 LLE data sets and more than 9000 data points (LLE tie lines) reported for 779 unique ternary mixtures. An impact of the type of molecular binary subsystem on the accuracy of predictions is demonstrated and discussed on the basis of representative examples. The model's capability of capturing qualitative trends in the LLE distribution ratio and selectivity is also checked for a number of structural effects. Comparative analysis of two levels of quantum chemical theory (BP-TZVP-COSMO vs BP-TZVPD-FINE) for the input molecular data for COSMO-RS is presented. Finally, some general recommendations for the applicability of the model are indicated based on the analysis of the global performance as well as on the results obtained for systems relevant from the point of view of important separation problems.

Interactions of ionic liquids and acetone: thermodynamic properties, quantum-chemical calculations, and NMR analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruiz, Elia; Ferro, Victor R; Palomar, Jose; Ortega, Juan; Rodriguez, Juan Jose

2013-06-20

The interactions between ionic liquids (ILs) and acetone have been studied to obtain a further understanding of the behavior of their mixtures, which generally give place to an exothermic process, mutual miscibility, and negative deviation of Raoult's law. COSMO-RS was used as a suitable computational method to systematically analyze the excess enthalpy of IL-acetone systems (>300), in terms of the intermolecular interactions contributing to the mixture behavior. Spectroscopic and COSMO-RS results indicated that acetone, as a polar compound with strong hydrogen bond acceptor character, in most cases, establishes favorable hydrogen bonding with ILs. This interaction is strengthened by the presence of an acidic cation and an anion with dispersed charge and non-HB acceptor character in the IL. COSMO-RS predictions indicated that gas-liquid and vapor-liquid equilibrium data for IL-acetone systems can be finely tuned by the IL selection, that is, acting on the intermolecular interactions between the molecular and ionic species in the liquid phase. NMR measurements for IL-acetone mixtures at different concentrations were also carried out. Quantum-chemical calculations by using molecular clusters of acetone and IL species were finally performed. These results provided additional evidence of the main role played by hydrogen bonding in the behavior of systems containing ILs and HB acceptor compounds, such as acetone.

Tutti i colori dell'universo

CERN Multimedia

Battiston, Roberto

2009-01-01

A partire dal 27 ottobre, una mostra sull'osservazione e lo studio dell'universo affronta la sfida di avvicinare il grande pubblico alle conoscenze scientifiche raccolte decrifrando l'alfabeto del cosmo. (4 pages)

A High-resolution Reanalysis for the European CORDEX Region

Science.gov (United States)

Bentzien, Sabrina; Bollmeyer, Christoph; Crewell, Susanne; Friederichs, Petra; Hense, Andreas; Keller, Jan; Keune, Jessica; Kneifel, Stefan; Ohlwein, Christian; Pscheidt, Ieda; Redl, Stephanie; Steinke, Sandra

2014-05-01

A High-resolution Reanalysis for the European CORDEX Region Within the Hans-Ertel-Centre for Weather Research (HErZ), the climate monitoring branch concentrates efforts on the assessment and analysis of regional climate in Germany and Europe. In joint cooperation with DWD (German Meteorological Service), a high-resolution reanalysis system based on the COSMO model has been developed. Reanalyses gain more and more importance as a source of meteorological information for many purposes and applications. Several global reanalyses projects (e.g., ERA, MERRA, CSFR, JMA9) produce and verify these data sets to provide time series as long as possible combined with a high data quality. Due to a spatial resolution down to 50-70km and 3-hourly temporal output, they are not suitable for small scale problems (e.g., regional climate assessment, meso-scale NWP verification, input for subsequent models such as river runoff simulations). The implementation of regional reanalyses based on a limited area model along with a data assimilation scheme is able to generate reanalysis data sets with high spatio-temporal resolution. The work presented here focuses on the regional reanalysis for Europe with a domain matching the CORDEX-EURO-11 specifications, albeit at a higher spatial resolution, i.e., 0.055° (6km) instead of 0.11° (12km). The COSMO reanalysis system comprises the assimilation of observational data using the existing nudging scheme of COSMO and is complemented by a special soil moisture analysis and boundary conditions given by ERA-interim data. The reanalysis data set currently covers 6 years (2007-2012). The evaluation of the reanalyses is done using independent observations with special emphasis on precipitation and high-impact weather situations. The development and evaluation of the COSMO-based reanalysis for the CORDEX-Euro domain can be seen as a preparation for joint European activities on the development of an ensemble system of regional reanalyses for Europe.

Does participating in the development of Medium-Density Mixed Housing projects make a difference in the residents’ satisfaction with the quality of their environment?

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Sebake, N

2010-09-01

Full Text Available of mix involved. The case studies are presented below:  Brickfields, Carr Gardens, Pennyville and Cosmo City (City of Johannesburg);  Amalinda (Buffalo City Municipality);  Sakhasonke (Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality);  The Hull...

The Hubble Relation for a Comprehensive Sample of QSOs

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

R. Narasimhan (Krishtel eMaging) 1461 1996 Oct 15 13:05:22

sought. Such a correlation exists for galaxies whose redshifts are of cosmo- ... The debate over the origin of redshifts of Quasi Stellar Objects (QSOs) still con- ... However, analyses of possible evolution of luminosity functions of QSOs have so.

Nuovi strumenti di Telerilevamento da satellite per il controllo del territorio

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michele Dussi

2008-03-01

Full Text Available New instruments for land management utilizing satellite remote sensingWe are at the beginning of a new Earth Observation age comprised of large amounts of data, high revisit times as well as high resolution images. All these characteristics were “dream-requirements” for E.O. operators in the past years. Today a new solution dubbed Cosmo-Skymed is being developed which will be operational in the coming months. Cosmo-Skymed is a dual-use end-to-end global data providing system. It makes use of an innovative constellation of 4 sun-synchronous satellites equipped with multimodal high-res synthetic aperture radar (SAR. It operates in X-band and is supported by a wide G/S infrastructure to meet high performance data acquisition and distribution service requirements. It is a made in Italy solution.

Nuovi strumenti di Telerilevamento da satellite per il controllo del territorio

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michele Dussi

2008-03-01

Full Text Available New instruments for land management utilizing satellite remote sensing We are at the beginning of a new Earth Observation age comprised of large amounts of data, high revisit times as well as high resolution images. All these characteristics were “dream-requirements” for E.O. operators in the past years. Today a new solution dubbed Cosmo-Skymed is being developed which will be operational in the coming months. Cosmo-Skymed is a dual-use end-to-end global data providing system. It makes use of an innovative constellation of 4 sun-synchronous satellites equipped with multimodal high-res synthetic aperture radar (SAR. It operates in X-band and is supported by a wide G/S infrastructure to meet high performance data acquisition and distribution service requirements. It is a made in Italy solution.

Dal caos... alla coscienza

CERN Document Server

Prattico, Franco

1989-01-01

Attraverso i domini della fisica, della genetica e della biologia, fino alle neuroscienze, alla ricerca dei percorsi che hanno portato alla nascita del cervello umano : frutto di una singolare serie casuale o di una necessità inscritta nelle leggi del Cosmo?

Active Galactic Nucleus Feedback with the Square Kilometre Array ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

ASIF IQBAL

2017-11-27

Nov 27, 2017 ... structure formation and in our understanding of cosmo- logical model. The future ... inflow of cool gas called cooling flow is expected to occur (Cowie .... arcsec will be enough to separate the AGN emission of the radio-quiet ...

Heterogeneous Embedded Real-Time Systems Environment

Science.gov (United States)

2003-12-01

AFRL-IF-RS-TR-2003-290 Final Technical Report December 2003 HETEROGENEOUS EMBEDDED REAL - TIME SYSTEMS ENVIRONMENT Integrated...HETEROGENEOUS EMBEDDED REAL - TIME SYSTEMS ENVIRONMENT 6. AUTHOR(S) Cosmo Castellano and James Graham 5. FUNDING NUMBERS C - F30602-97-C-0259

Mesoscale atmospheric modelling technology as a tool for the long-term meteorological dataset development

Science.gov (United States)

Platonov, Vladimir; Kislov, Alexander; Rivin, Gdaly; Varentsov, Mikhail; Rozinkina, Inna; Nikitin, Mikhail; Chumakov, Mikhail

2017-04-01

The detailed hydrodynamic modelling of meteorological parameters during the last 30 years (1985 - 2014) was performed for the Okhotsk Sea and the Sakhalin island regions. The regional non-hydrostatic atmospheric model COSMO-CLM used for this long-term simulation with 13.2, 6.6 and 2.2 km horizontal resolutions. The main objective of creation this dataset was the outlook of the investigation of statistical characteristics and the physical mechanisms of extreme weather events (primarily, wind speed extremes) on the small spatio-temporal scales. COSMO-CLM is the climate version of the well-known mesoscale COSMO model, including some modifications and extensions adapting to the long-term numerical experiments. The downscaling technique was realized and developed for the long-term simulations with three consequent nesting domains. ERA-Interim reanalysis ( 0.75 degrees resolution) used as global forcing data for the starting domain ( 13.2 km horizontal resolution), then these simulation data used as initial and boundary conditions for the next model runs over the domain with 6.6 km resolution, and similarly, for the next step to 2.2 km domain. Besides, the COSMO-CLM model configuration for 13.2 km run included the spectral nudging technique, i.e. an additional assimilation of reanalysis data not only at boundaries, but also inside the whole domain. Practically, this computational scheme realized on the SGI Altix 4700 supercomputer system in the Main Computer Center of Roshydromet and used 2,400 hours of CPU time total. According to modelling results, the verification of the obtained dataset was performed on the observation data. Estimations showed the mean error -0.5 0C, up to 2 - 3 0C RMSE in temperature, and overestimation in wind speed (RMSE is up to 2 m/s). Overall, analysis showed that the used downscaling technique with applying the COSMO-CLM model reproduced the meteorological conditions, spatial distribution, seasonal and synoptic variability of temperature and

Kõrged kontsad, kokteilid ja Cosmo / Laurence Lumiere

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Lumiere, Laurence

2008-01-01

Menutelesarja "Seks ja linn" peategelastega samanimelisest mängufilmist (režissöör Michael Patrick King). Seriaali sünniloost, alates ideest produtsent Darren Stari peas ning filmi ja seriaali võrdlusest

Uomo, cosmo, cultura: l'Umanesimo di Gerberto

Science.gov (United States)

Paladino, Laura C.

Gerbert d'Aurillac, astronomer, musician, logical, Pope, is an outstanding figure of pre-humanist: many aspects of his intellectual activity, science and literature, and his role as religious and Pope put him as an example of a search that wants to put the man in the middle, his intelligence and creativity, and that wants to achieve a real synthesis between Faith and Science. At the dawn of the third millennium, it is strongly present the model of the Pope who drove the Church over the year 1000, an authoritative example that we like to discover, and to whom we like to pay attention and relevance.

Particle Reduction Strategies - PAREST. A meteorology comparision for better understanding of different pollutant concentration simulations with different chemistry transport models. Sub-report; Strategien zur Verminderung der Feinstaubbelastung - PAREST. Ein Meteorologievergleich zum besseren Verstaendnis der unterschiedlichen Schadstoffkonzentrationssimulationen mit verschiedenen Chemie-Transport-Modellen. Teilbericht

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kerschbaumer, Andreas [Freie Univ. Berlin (Germany). Inst. fuer Meteorologie, Troposphaerische Umweltforschung

2013-06-15

In this study, input variables for chemical transport models were compared from different meteorological drivers each with other and with the measured friction velocities in one place. Friction velocities are used as a measure of the mechanical turbulence, but are made available neither by numerical weather models nor routinely available observations: so they must either recalculate or estimated. In this study, friction velocities (u{sup *}), which is measured for years by the DWD in Lindenberg near Berlin, averaged over 30 minutes and have been made available to FU Berlin, compared with modeled values. The considered models are firstly the diagnostic interpolation model TRAMPER, on the other the prognostic models of the DWD COSMO-EU and the EZMWF. The boundary layer relevant parameters from the NWM were recalculated from the involved groups, which has been made for the COSMO-EU the one from the FU Berlin, the other from IfT in Leipzig. The boundary layer variables in the EZMWF model, however, were determined by TNO Netherlands. The measurements have shown that u{sup *} in the forest twice as high as above the meadow. [German] In dieser Studie wurden Eingangsvariablen fuer Chemie-Transport-Modelle aus verschiedenen meteorologischen Treibern miteinander und mit an einem Ort gemessenen Schubspannungsgeschwindigkeiten verglichen. Schubspannungsgeschwindigkeiten werden als Mass fuer die mechanische Turbulenz benutzt, werden aber weder von numerischen Wettermodellen noch routinemaessig von Beobachtungen zur Verfuegung gestellt: sie muessen also entweder nachgerechnet oder abgeschaetzt werden. In dieser Arbeit wurden Schubspannungsgeschwindigkeiten (u{sup *}), die vom DWD in Lindenberg bei Berlin ueber Jahre gemessen, gemittelt ueber 30 Minuten, und der FUBerlin zur Verfuegung gestellt worden sind, mit modellierten Werten verglichen. Die beruecksichtigten Modelle sind zum einen das diagnostische Interpolationsmodell TRAMPER, zum anderen die prognostischen Modelle des DWD

Dynamical Downscaling over Siberia: Is there an added value in representing recent climate conditions?

Science.gov (United States)

Klehmet, K.; Rockel, B.

2012-04-01

The analysis of long-term changes and variability of climate variables for the large areal extent of Siberia - covering arctic, subarctic and temperate northern latitudes - is hampered by the sparseness of in-situ observations. To counteract this deficiency we aimed to provide a reconstruction of regional climate for the period 1948-2010 getting homogenous, consistent fields of various terrestrial and atmospheric parameters for Siberia. In order to obtain in addition a higher temporal and spatial resolution than global datasets can provide, we performed the reconstruction using the regional climate model COSMO-CLM (climate mode of the limited area model COSMO developed by the German weather service). However, the question arises whether the dynamically downscaled data of reanalysis can improve the representation of recent climate conditions. As global forcing for the initialization and the regional boundaries we use NCEP-1 Reanalysis of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction since it has the longest temporal data coverage among the reanalysis products. Additionally, spectral nudging is applied to prevent the regional model from deviating from the prescribed large-scale circulation within the whole simulation domain. The area of interest covers a region in Siberia, spanning from the Laptev Sea and Kara Sea to Northern Mongolia and from the West Siberian Lowland to the border of Sea of Okhotsk. The current horizontal resolution is of about 50 km which is planned to be increased to 25 km. To answer the question, we investigate spatial and temporal characteristics of temperature and precipitation of the model output in comparison to global reanalysis data (NCEP-1, ERA40, ERA-Interim). As reference Russian station data from the "Global Summary of the Day" data set, provided by NCDC, is used. Temperature is analyzed with respect to its climatologically spatial patterns across the model domain and its variability of extremes based on climate indices derived

Viaje a los ultimos secretos del universo El experimento que cambiara la historia

CERN Multimedia

Garrido, Gloria

2007-01-01

From what is made the universe? Why is the cosmo like that? What happened immadiately after the big bang? Seven thousands from 80 countries, in the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), in Switzerland, the biggest particle accelerator in the world. (5 pages)

Data Validation and Modelling of Thermodynamic Properties of Systems with Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in Complex Media for Skin Absorption Processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ruszczynski, Lukasz; Zubov, Alexandr; Sin, Gürkan

2017-01-01

This study presents methods for prediction of thermodynamic properties required in development of models for drug skin permeation processes, such as drug solubilities and partition coefficients. For evaluation of these properties, ab initio models such as COSMO-SAC can assist in providing...

Modelling of channel transmission loss processes in semi-arid catchments of southern Africa using the Pitman Model

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mvandaba, Vuyelwa

2018-05-01

Full Text Available (ECHS052). Edited by: Hodson Makurira Reviewed by: Cosmo Ngongondo and one anonymous referee References Boroto, R. A. J. and Görgens, A. H. M.: Hydrological Modelling of the Limpopo River Main Stem, report by: Department of Civil Engineering, University...

Combining goal-oriented and model-driven approaches to solve the Payment Problem Scenario

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Asuncion, C.H.; Quartel, Dick; Pokraev, S.; Iacob, Maria Eugenia; van Sinderen, Marten J.

2010-01-01

Motivated by the objective to provide an improved participation of business domain experts in the design of service-oriented integration solutions, we extend our previous work on using the COSMO methodology for service mediation by introducing a goal-oriented approach to requirements engineering.

Numerical modeling of a downwind-developing mesoscale convective system over the Masurian Lake District

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wójcik Damian K.

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Meteorological data concerning the severe convective system from the 21 August 2007 are analyzed in this study. Compiled information allows to understand the reason for the storm development and to identify its fundamental convective mode. Next, the EULAG model is utilized to perform an idealized test that shows a downwind–developing storm growth in an environment comparable to the one that was observed on the 21 August 2007 in the Masurian Lake District. Finally, the COSMO numerical weather prediction model is applied to reconstruct the storm development. The experiment is carried out for various computational grids having the horizontal grid length between 7.0 and 0.55 km. It turns out that the COSMO model is capable in simulating storms of that type. Since the model is used for operational weather forecasting in Poland the evaluation of this skill contributes to the increase of public safety.

Predictive model for ionic liquid extraction solvents for rare earth elements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grabda, Mariusz; Oleszek, Sylwia; Panigrahi, Mrutyunjay; Kozak, Dmytro; Shibata, Etsuro; Nakamura, Takashi; Eckert, Franck

2015-01-01

The purpose of our study was to select the most effective ionic liquid extraction solvents for dysprosium (III) fluoride using a theoretical approach. Conductor-like Screening Model for Real Solvents (COSMO-RS), based on quantum chemistry and the statistical thermodynamics of predefined DyF 3 -ionic liquid systems, was applied to reach the target. Chemical potentials of the salt were predicted in 4,400 different ionic liquids. On the base of these predictions set of ionic liquids’ ions, manifesting significant decrease of the chemical potentials, were selected. Considering the calculated physicochemical properties (hydrophobicity, viscosity) of the ionic liquids containing these specific ions, the most effective extraction solvents for liquid-liquid extraction of DyF 3 were proposed. The obtained results indicate that the COSMO-RS approach can be applied to quickly screen the affinity of any rare earth element for a large number of ionic liquid systems, before extensive experimental tests

Transitioning NWChem to the Next Generation of Manycore Machines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bylaska, Eric J.; Apra, Edoardo; Kowalski, Karol; Jacquelin, Mathias; De Jong, Wibe A.; Vishnu, Abhinav; Palmer, Bruce J.; Daily, Jeffrey A.; Straatsma, Tjerk P.; Hammond, Jeff R.; Klemm, Michael

2017-11-09

The NorthWest Chemistry (NWChem) modeling software is a popular molecular chemistry simulation software that was designed from the start to work on massively parallel processing supercomputers[6, 28, 49]. It contains an umbrella of modules that today includes Self Consistent Field (SCF), second order Mller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2), Coupled Cluster, multi-conguration selfconsistent eld (MCSCF), selected conguration interaction (CI), tensor contraction engine (TCE) many body methods, density functional theory (DFT), time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), real time time-dependent density functional theory, pseudopotential plane-wave density functional theory (PSPW), band structure (BAND), ab initio molecular dynamics, Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics, classical molecular dynamics (MD), QM/MM, AIMD/MM, GIAO NMR, COSMO, COSMO-SMD, and RISM solvation models, free energy simulations, reaction path optimization, parallel in time, among other capabilities[ 22]. Moreover new capabilities continue to be added with each new release.

Solubility and physical properties of sugars in pressurized water

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saldaña, Marleny D.A.; Alvarez, Víctor H.; Haldar, Anupam

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► Sugar solubility in pressurized water and density at high pressures were measured. ► Glucose solubility was higher than that of lactose as predicted by their σ-profiles. ► Sugar aqueous solubility decreased with an increase in pressure from 15 to 120 bar. ► Aqueous glucose molecular packing shows high sensitivity to pressure. ► The COSMO-SAC model qualitatively predicted the sugar solubility data. - Abstract: In this study, the solubility, density, and refractive index of glucose and lactose in water as a function of temperature were measured. For solubility of sugars in pressurized water, experimental data were obtained at pressures of (15 to 120) bar and temperatures of (373 to 433) K using a dynamic flow high pressure system. Density data for aqueous sugar solutions were obtained at pressures of (1 to 300) bar and temperatures of (298 to 343) K. The refractive index of aqueous sugar solutions was obtained at 293 K and atmospheric pressure. Activity coefficient models, Van Laar and the Conductor-like Screening Model-Segment Activity Coefficient (COSMO-SAC), were used to fit and predict the experimental solubility data, respectively. The results obtained showed that the solubility of both sugars in pressurized water increase with an increase in temperature. However, with the increase of pressure from 15 bar to 120 bar, the solubility of both sugars in pressurized water decreased. The Van Laar model fit the experimental aqueous solubility data with deviations lower than 13 and 53% for glucose and lactose, respectively. The COSMO-SAC model predicted qualitatively the aqueous solubility of these sugars.

Isobaric (vapor + liquid) equilibria of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethylsulfate plus (propionaldehyde or valeraldehyde): Experimental data and prediction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alvarez, Victor H.; Mattedi, Silvana; Aznar, Martin

2011-01-01

Research highlights: → We report density, refraction index, and VLE for (propionaldehyde or valeraldehyde) + [emim][EtSO 4 ]. → The Peng -Robinson + Wong -Sandler + COSMO-SAC model was used to predict density and VLE. → The densities were predicted with deviations below than 2.3%. → The experimental VLE was predicted with deviations below than 1.6%. - Abstract: This paper reports the density, refraction index, and (vapor + liquid) equilibria (VLE) for binary systems {aldehyde + 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethylsulfate ([emim][EtSO 4 ])}: {propionaldehyde + [emim][EtSO 4 ]} and {valeraldehyde + [emim][EtSO 4 ]}. The uncertainties for the temperature, pressure, and compositions measurements for the phase equilibria are ±0.1 K, ±0.01 kPa and ±0.0004, respectively. A qualitative analysis of the variation of the properties with changes in solvent and temperature was performed. The Peng-Robinson equation of state (PR EoS), coupled with the Wong-Sandler mixing rule (WS), is used to describe the experimental data. To calculate activity coefficients we used three different models: NRTL, UNIQUAC, and COSMO-SAC. Since the predictive liquid activity coefficient model COSMO-SAC is used in the Wong-Sandler mixing rule, the resulting thermodynamic model is a completely predictive one. The prediction results for the density and for the (vapor + liquid) equilibria have a deviation lower than 2.3% and 1.6%, respectively. The (vapor + liquid) equilibria predictions show a good description for the propionaldehyde system and only a qualitative description for the valeraldehyde system.

Il progetto Virgo, Einstein e i computer

CERN Multimedia

2003-01-01

"Virgo sta accendendo i suoi laser: mercoledi e stato inaugurato a Pisa il piu potente rivelatore di onde gravitazionali al mondo, capace eventualmente di segnalare l'arrivo di un'onda dal cosmo, con una sensibilita di un miliardesimo di miliardesimo di metro" (1/2 page)

Oxygen and hydrogen isotope ratios in tree rings: how well do models predict observed values?

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Waterhouse, JS

2002-07-30

Full Text Available . Cosmo- chim. Acta 46 (1982) 955^965. [35] W.M. Buhay, T.W.D. Edwards, Climate in southwestern Ontario, Canada, between AD 1610 and 1885 inferred from oxygen and hydrogen isotopic measurements of wood cellulose from trees in di?erent hydrological set...

Momenti nella vita di uno scienziato

CERN Document Server

Rossi, Bruno

1987-01-01

Nel giro di pochi decenni, la nostra visione del mondo fisico, dal mond subatomico al mondo del cosmo, ha subito una profonda evoluzione. In questo libro, uno degli scienziati che hanno contribuito a tale sviluppo narra la storia della sua vita e del suo lavoro.

Lagrangian evaluation of convective shower characteristics in a convection-permitting model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erwan Brisson

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Convection-permitting models (CPMs have proven their usefulness in representing precipitation on a sub-daily scale. However, investigations on sub-hourly scales are still lacking, even though these are the scales for which showers exhibit the most variability. A Lagrangian approach is implemented here to evaluate the representation of showers in a CPM, using the limited-area climate model COSMO-CLM. This approach consists of tracking 5‑min precipitation fields to retrieve different features of showers (e.g., temporal pattern, horizontal speed, lifetime. In total, 312 cases are simulated at a resolution of 0.01 ° over Central Germany, and among these cases, 78 are evaluated against a radar dataset. The model is able to represent most observed features for different types of convective cells. In addition, the CPM reproduced well the observed relationship between the precipitation characteristics and temperature indicating that the COSMO-CLM model is sophisticated enough to represent the climatological features of showers.

PSP SAR interferometry monitoring of ground and structure deformations in the archeological site of Pompeii

Science.gov (United States)

Costantini, Mario; Francioni, Elena; Paglia, Luca; Minati, Federico; Margottini, Claudio; Spizzichino, Daniele; Trigila, Alessandro; Iadanza, Carla; De Nigris, Bruno

2016-04-01

The "Major Project Pompeii" (MPP) is a great collective commitment of different institututions and people to set about solving the serious problem of conservation of the largest archeological sites in the world. The ancient city of Pompeii with its 66 hectares, 44 of which are excaveted, is divided into 9 regiones (district), subdivided in 118 insulae (blocks) and almost 1500 domus (houses), and is Unesco site since 1996. The Italian Ministry for Heritage and Cultural Activities and Tourism (MiBACT) and Finmeccanica Group have sealed an agreement whereby the Finmeccanica Group will donate innovative technologies and services for monitoring and protecting the archaeological site of Pompeii. Moreover, the Italian Institute for Environment Protection and Research (ISPRA) - Geological Survey of Italy, was also involved to support the ground based analysis and interpretation of the measurements provided by the industrial team, in order to promote an interdisciplinary approach. In this work, we will focus on ground deformation measurements obtained by satellite SAR interferometry and on their interpretation. The satellite monitoring service is based on the processing of COSMO-SkyMed Himage data by the e-Geos proprietary Persistent Scatterer Pair (PSP) SAR interferometry technology. The PSP technique is a proven SAR interferometry method characterized by the fact of exploiting in the processing only the relative properties between close points (pairs) in order to overcome atmospheric artifacts (which are one of the main problems of SAR interferometry). Validations analyses showed that this technique applied to COSMO-SkyMed Himage data is able to retrieve very dense (except of course on vegetated or cultivated areas) millimetric deformation measurements with sub-metric localization. By means of the COSMO-SkyMed PSP SAR interferometry processing, a historical analysis of the ground and structure deformations occurred over the entire archaeological site of Pompeii in the

A debate on open inflation

Science.gov (United States)

Hawking, S. W.

1999-07-01

This is a reproduction of Professor Stephen Hawking's part in a debate, which took place at the COSMO 98 Coference, in Monterey, California. Two other physicists, Andrei Linde and Alexander Villenkin, also took part. Professor Hawking is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, in England.

Equazioni: le icone del sapere

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bais, S.

2009-01-01

Il mistero del cosmo è scritto nel linguaggio della matematica, e le equazioni sono le frasi che ne esprimono la bellezza e la profondità. Cercare di spiegare la scienza senza equazioni è come cercare di spiegare l’arte senza illustrazioni: partendo da questo presupposto, Sander Bais presenta una

McEducation Marginalized: Multiverse of Learning-Living in Grassroots Commons

Science.gov (United States)

Prakash, Madhu Suri; Stuchul, Dana; Madhu, Suri; Stuchul, Dana

2004-01-01

Fast food explored both as metaphor and social reality help us challenge the assumptions about education as a universal good transformed into a universal human right. Relations between education, development, and "one world" discourses expose the incommensurability of Western liberal ideals with diverse cosmo-visions now flourishing among…

GROUND SUBSIDENCE ALONG SHANGHAI METRO LINE 6 BY PS-InSAR METHOD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Wu

2018-04-01

Full Text Available With the rapid development of urban economy, convenient, safe, and efficient urban rail transit has become the preferred method for people to travel. In order to ensure the safety and sustainable development of urban rail transit, the PS-InSAR technology with millimeter deformation measurement accuracy has been widely applied to monitor the deformation of urban rail transit. In this paper, 32 scenes of COSMO-SkyMed descending images and 23 scenes of Envisat ASAR images covering the Shanghai Metro Line 6 acquired from 2008 to 2010 are used to estimate the average deformation rate along line-of-sight (LOS direction by PS-InSAR method. The experimental results show that there are two main subsidence areas along the Shanghai Metro Line 6, which are located between Wuzhou Avenue Station to Wulian Road Station and West Gaoke Road Station to Gaoqing Road Station. Between Wuzhou Avenue Station and Wulian Road Station, the maximum displacement rate in the vertical direction of COSMO-SkyMed images is −9.92 mm/year, and the maximum displacement rate in the vertical direction of Envisat ASAR images is −8.53 mm/year. From the West Gaoke Road Station to the Gaoqing Road Station, the maximum displacement rate in the vertical direction of COSMO-SkyMed images is −15.53 mm/year, and the maximum displacement rate in the vertical direction of Envisat ASAR images is −17.9 mm/year. The results show that the ground deformation rates obtained by two SAR platforms with different wavelengths, different sensors and different incident angles have good consistence with each other, and also that of spirit leveling.

The data assimilation method ''Latent Heat Nudging'' assessed with the Dynamic State Index

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Claussnitzer, Antje [Freie Univ. Berlin (Germany). Inst. fuer Meteorologie; Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach (Germany); Schartner, Thomas; Nevir, Peter; Cubasch, Ulrich [Freie Univ. Berlin (Germany). Inst. fuer Meteorologie; Stephan, Klaus [Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach (Germany)

2011-04-15

In April 2007, the German Weather Service (DWD) added the non-hydrostatic limited area model COSMODE to its model chain. COSMO-DE covers mainly Germany and bordering countries and has a horizontal resolution of 2.8 km (0.025 ). An advantage of the COSMO-DE is that deep convection is expected to be resolved explicitly. In order to improve the initial state of COSMO-DE an assimilation of radar derived precipitation rates is applied by using ''Latent Heat Nudging'' (LHN). The aim of LHN is to adjust the model state so that the model will respond by producing a rain rate close to the observed value. In this study, the influence of LHN on diabatic processes is investigated by evaluation of the Dynamic State Index (DSI). The DSI is calculated on both isentropic (DSI{sub {theta}}) and model levels (DSI{sub {sigma}}). To analyse the influence of LHN, model analyses with and without LHN are examined for summer 2009 (June to August). The influence of LHN is also examined in more detail in a case study of a heavy rainfall event on July 18, 2009 where a strong rainfall area was developed on the front side of a trough. Results, based on a statistical investigation and the case study, show that the model with LHN can reproduce the observed rainfall better than the runs without LHN. This is also suggested by a higher correlation between DSI and observed precipitation. The release of latent heat enhances the diabatic processes associated with the formation of additional potential vorticity anomalies resulting in stronger DSI -signals. (orig.)

An operational hydrological ensemble prediction system for the city of Zurich (Switzerland: skill, case studies and scenarios

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Addor

2011-07-01

Full Text Available The Sihl River flows through Zurich, Switzerland's most populated city, for which it represents the largest flood threat. To anticipate extreme discharge events and provide decision support in case of flood risk, a hydrometeorological ensemble prediction system (HEPS was launched operationally in 2008. This model chain relies on limited-area atmospheric forecasts provided by the deterministic model COSMO-7 and the probabilistic model COSMO-LEPS. These atmospheric forecasts are used to force a semi-distributed hydrological model (PREVAH, coupled to a hydraulic model (FLORIS. The resulting hydrological forecasts are eventually communicated to the stakeholders involved in the Sihl discharge management. This fully operational setting provides a real framework with which to compare the potential of deterministic and probabilistic discharge forecasts for flood mitigation.

To study the suitability of HEPS for small-scale basins and to quantify the added-value conveyed by the probability information, a reforecast was made for the period June 2007 to December 2009 for the Sihl catchment (336 km². Several metrics support the conclusion that the performance gain can be of up to 2 days lead time for the catchment considered. Brier skill scores show that overall COSMO-LEPS-based hydrological forecasts outperforms their COSMO-7-based counterparts for all the lead times and event intensities considered. The small size of the Sihl catchment does not prevent skillful discharge forecasts, but makes them particularly dependent on correct precipitation forecasts, as shown by comparisons with a reference run driven by observed meteorological parameters. Our evaluation stresses that the capacity of the model to provide confident and reliable mid-term probability forecasts for high discharges is limited. The two most intense events of the study period are investigated utilising a novel graphical representation of probability forecasts, and are used

Interfacing knowledge systems: Local knowledge and science in Africa

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In this article, with reference to Ghana and Zimbabwe, we explore the traditional African worldview, life-world, belief systems and ways of thinking and reasoning. This discourse captures the rich combination of spirituality, materiality and the social in a concept referred to here as Cosmo vision. Nowadays this worldview ...

Ionic Liquids for Absorption and Separation of Gases: An Extensive Database and a Systematic Screening Method

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhao, Yongsheng; Gani, Rafiqul; Afzal, Raja Muhammad

2017-01-01

requirements remains a challenging task. In this study, an extensive database of estimated Henry's law constants of twelve gases in more than ten thousand ILs at 313.15 K is established using the COSMO-RS method. Based on the database, a new systematic and efficient screening method for IL selection...

Model-driven service integration using the COSMO framework

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Quartel, Dick A.C.; Pokraev, Stanislav; Dirgahayu, Teduh; Mantovaneli Pessoa, Rodrigo; van Sinderen, Marten J.; Petrie, Charles

2009-01-01

The goal of the SWS Challenge is to explore the trade-offs of various existing technologies that aim at automation of mediation, choreography and discovery of Web Services. For that reason, the SWS Challenge defines a number of scenarios providing a standard set of problems, based on industrial

La trama del cosmo spazio, tempo, realtà

CERN Document Server

Greene, Brian

2004-01-01

Dal regno immutabile di Newton, dove lo spazio e il tempo sono assoluti, alla concezione fluida dello spazio-tempo di Einstein, alle tesi della meccanica quantistica, il fisico americano mostra come il mondo sia molto diverso da quello che l'esperienza comune potrebbe far pensare. Concentrandosi sull'enigma del tempo, Greene stabilisce che nessuna regola fisica conferma l'idea che esso scorra in una particolare direzione. Attraverso l'analisi della teoria del big bang, dimostra quanto le recenti teorie delle superstringhe e la M-teoria possano conciliare ogni cosa, dalla più piccola particella al più grande buco nero. Una visione che culmina in un "multiverso" dove spazio e tempo possono dissolversi in entità più sottili e fondamentali.

O COSMO SEGUNDO OS YANOMAMI: HUTUKARA E URIHI

OpenAIRE

R. Gomes, Ana Maria; Kopenawa, Davi

2016-01-01

O artigo é a transcrição de parte das conferências proferidas na UFMG em 2013 por Davi Kopenawa, líder e xamã Yanomami, como convidado do Instituto de Estudos Avançados Transdisciplinares (IEAT/UFMG). Na primeira parte, o xamã apresenta alguns elementos da cosmologia yanomami – Hutukara e Urihi – para tentar comunicar a centralidade e importância que os Yanomami atribuem a essas entidades em nossas vidas, cuja aproximação semântica indica os termos mundo-universo e terra-floresta. Na segunda ...

Luksust ja ruumi / Aimo Niemi, Jyri Ajomaa, Pekka Aromaa, Jari Pitkäjärvi

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

2010-01-01

TM võrdleb diiselmootoriga universaale: Citroën C5 1,6 Hdi Tourer; Ford Mondeo 2,0 TDCi DPF Wagon; Opel Insignia 2,0 CDTi Sports Tourer Cosmo; Renault Laguna Sport Tourer 1,5 dCi; Toyota Avensis D-4D DPF Linea Sol Wagon; Volkswagen Passat Variant 2,0 TDI

Change detection in a short time sequence of polarimetric C-band SAR data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg; Conradsen, Knut; Skriver, Henning

2016-01-01

in the covariance matrix representation is carried out. The omnibus test statistic and its factorization detect if and when change(s) occur. The technique is demonstrated on airborne EMISAR C-band data but may be applied to ALOS, COSMO-SkyMed, RadarSat-2 Sentinel-1, TerraSAR-X, and Yaogan data also....

UV-vis light transmittance through tinted contact lenses and the effect of color on values.

Science.gov (United States)

Osuagwu, Uchechukwu L; Ogbuehi, Kelechi C

2014-06-01

To assess the transmittance, in the 200-700nm electromagnetic radiation spectrum, by popularly used tinted soft contact lenses (CLs). The spectra transmittances of ultraviolet (UV)-blocking (I Day Acuvue Define, Freshlook ONE DAY) and non-UV-blocking (Durasoft 3, Tutti, and NeoCosmo) tinted soft CLs were tested. The transmittance of each lens, including nine different colors of Freshlook CL was recorded on spectrophotometer, and the data used to also calculate a UV protection factor (PF) for each lens brand tested, with a higher value indicating a higher level of protection. The UV-blocking CLs significantly reduced UVC, UVB & UVA transmission and thereby meet the American National Standards Institution standard for class 2 UV blockers: a maximum of 30% transmittance of UVA and 5% transmittance of UVB wavelengths. In contrast, the Durasoft 3, Tutti, and NeoCosmo CLs demonstrated negligible UV-blockage. The Acuvue Define CL offered the greatest protection from UVC (PF=69) and UVB (PF=55), but with only 35% luminous transmittance, while the Freshlook CL (especially gemstone green) offered the best protection from UVA (PF=24) and showed about 55% translucency. Overall, the UV-blocking CLs performed equally well across the UV spectrum. Different colors of Freshlook CL transmitted statistically and clinically significantly different amounts of visible light but similar amounts of UVR. Freshlook and Acuvue Define CLs which are designated as UV-blockers significantly reduced UVR transmission to safe levels whereas Tutti, NeoCosmo and Durasoft 3 did not. Transmission within the Freshlook CL family was more dependent on color in the visible light spectrum, but not in the UV-spectrum, where the gemstone green performing best among the tested colors. Copyright © 2013 British Contact Lens Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The benefit of limb cloud imaging for infrared limb sounding of tropospheric trace gases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Heinemann

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Advances in detector technology enable a new generation of infrared limb sounders to measure 2-D images of the atmosphere. A proposed limb cloud imager (LCI mode will detect clouds with a spatial resolution unprecedented for limb sounding. For the inference of temperature and trace gas distributions, detector pixels of the LCI have to be combined into super-pixels which provide the required signal-to-noise and information content for the retrievals. This study examines the extent to which tropospheric coverage can be improved in comparison to limb sounding using a fixed field of view with the size of the super-pixels, as in conventional limb sounders. The study is based on cloud topographies derived from (a IR brightness temperatures (BT of geostationary weather satellites in conjunction with ECMWF temperature profiles and (b ice and liquid water content data of the Consortium for Small-scale Modeling-Europe (COSMO-EU of the German Weather Service. Limb cloud images are simulated by matching the cloud topography with the limb sounding line of sight (LOS. The analysis of the BT data shows that the reduction of the spatial sampling along the track has hardly any effect on the gain in information. The comparison between BT and COSMO-EU data identifies the strength of both data sets, which are the representation of the horizontal cloud extent for the BT data and the reproduction of the cloud amount for the COSMO-EU data. The results of the analysis of both data sets show the great advantage of the cloud imager. However, because both cloud data sets do not present the complete fine structure of the real cloud fields in the atmosphere it is assumed that the results tend to underestimate the increase in information. In conclusion, real measurements by such an instrument may result in an even higher benefit for tropospheric limb retrievals.

Improving efficiency and value in health care. Intravenous iron management for anaemia associated with chronic kidney disease: linking treatment to an outpatient clinic, optimizing service provision and patient choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhandari, Sunil; Naudeer, Sarah

2008-12-01

The National Service Framework advocates correction of anaemia in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Oral iron is insufficient, while intravenous (IV) supplementation replenishes and maintains iron stores. In Yorkshire numerous peripheral clinics exist to reduce travel for patients, but patients must travel to the main unit for IV iron therapy. Therefore an outpatient service in tandem with a routine clinic for administration of IV CosmoFer was created. To evaluate the feasibility and benefits of IV iron therapy in the outpatient clinic during active patient review for CKD patients. A cross-sectional study of patients attending for total dose IV iron (n = 57) at a peripheral clinic. Iron was administered and monitored according to protocol by one of the clinic nurses with medical staff available in the adjoining room. Haemoglobin, ferritin and renal function were recorded pre-infusion and after 4-6 months. Results are given as medians/means +/- standard error. A total of 76 IV infusions were carried out with no reported side effects or haemodynamic instability. Haemoglobin (median 10.9 vs. 11.3 g dL(-1), P = NS), creatinine and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) over the 6-month period remained stable. Serum ferritin rose significantly [80.9 +/- 6.2 vs. 186.4 +/- 18.2 g L(-1) (P Hospital time saved 380 day case bed hours, doctor hours saved 76 hours, and patient hours saved 3 hours/patient. Cost savings for TDI CosmoFer in peripheral clinic versus in centre therapy and versus sucrose, respectively, for 76 treatments was pound 5749.40 and pound 46,320.80 respectively. We have demonstrated, in a resource-limited service, the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of a management care pathway for patients with CKD, in a peripheral clinic, to receive total dose IV CosmoFer without disruption of a functioning renal clinic.

Towards a probabilistic regional reanalysis system for Europe: evaluation of precipitation from experiments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liselotte Bach

2016-11-01

Full Text Available A new development in the field of reanalyses is the incorporation of uncertainty estimation capabilities. We have developed a probabilistic regional reanalysis system for the CORDEX-EUR11 domain that is based on the numerical weather prediction model COSMO at a 12-km grid spacing. The lateral boundary conditions of all ensemble members are provided by the global reanalysis ERA-Interim. In the basic implementation of the system, uncertainties due to observation errors are estimated. Atmospheric assimilation of conventional observations perturbed by means of random samples of observation error yields estimates of the reanalysis uncertainty conditioned to observation errors. The data assimilation employed is a new scheme based on observation nudging that we denote ensemble nudging. The lower boundary of the atmosphere is regularly updated by external snow depth, sea surface temperature and soil moisture analyses. One of the most important purposes of reanalyses is the estimation of so-called essential climate variables. For regional reanalyses, precipitation has been identified as one of the essential climate variables that are potentially better represented than in other climate data sets. For that reason, we assess the representation of precipitation in our system in a pilot study. Based on two experiments, each of which extends over one month, we conduct a preliminary comparison to the global reanalysis ERA-Interim, a dynamical downscaling of the latter and the high-resolution regional reanalysis COSMO-REA6. In a next step, we assess our reanalysis system's probabilistic capabilities versus the ECMWF-EPS in terms of six-hourly precipitation sums. The added value of our probabilistic regional reanalysis system motivates the current production of a 5-year-long test reanalysis COSMO-EN-REA12 in the framework of the FP7-funded project Uncertainties in Ensembles of Regional Re-Analyses (UERRA.

Construction of Meaningful Contexts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Kirsten

2008-01-01

The article deals with the use of animals in 1 Kgs 20-22 and argues that these texts are not well-suited as historical sources for Israel's history. On the other hand, they can be used to reconstruct the world of ideas, the cosmo-ontology of the Old Testament. Jahweh is connected with lions, while...

Parents' Appraisals of the Animacy and Likability of Socially Interactive Robots for Intervening with Young Children with Disabilities. Social Robots Research Reports, Number 2

Science.gov (United States)

Dunst, Carl J.; Trivette, Carol M.; Prior, Jeremy; Hamby, Deborah W.; Embler, Davon

2013-01-01

Findings from a survey of parents' ratings of seven different human-like qualities of four socially interactive robots are reported. The four robots were Popchilla, Keepon, Kaspar, and CosmoBot. The participants were 96 parents and other primary caregivers of young children with disabilities 1 to 12 years of age. Results showed that Popchilla, a…

Transitioning NWChem to the Next Generation of Manycore Machines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bylaska, Eric J. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL); Apra, E [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL); Kowalski, Karol [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL); Jacquelin, Mathias [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL); De Jong, Bert [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL); Vishnu, Abhinav [ORNL; Palmer, Bruce [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL); Daily, Jeff [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL); Straatsma, T.P. [ORNL; Hammond, Jeffrey R. [ORNL; Klemm, Michael [Intel Corporation

2017-11-01

The NorthWest chemistry (NWChem) modeling software is a popular molecular chemistry simulation software that was designed from the start to work on massively parallel processing supercomputers [1-3]. It contains an umbrella of modules that today includes self-consistent eld (SCF), second order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2), coupled cluster (CC), multiconguration self-consistent eld (MCSCF), selected conguration interaction (CI), tensor contraction engine (TCE) many body methods, density functional theory (DFT), time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), real-time time-dependent density functional theory, pseudopotential plane-wave density functional theory (PSPW), band structure (BAND), ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD), Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics (MD), classical MD, hybrid quantum mechanics molecular mechanics (QM/MM), hybrid ab initio molecular dynamics molecular mechanics (AIMD/MM), gauge independent atomic orbital nuclear magnetic resonance (GIAO NMR), conductor like screening solvation model (COSMO), conductor-like screening solvation model based on density (COSMO-SMD), and reference interaction site model (RISM) solvation models, free energy simulations, reaction path optimization, parallel in time, among other capabilities [4]. Moreover, new capabilities continue to be added with each new release.

Study of Citizen Scientist Motivations and Effectiveness of Social Media Campaigns

Science.gov (United States)

Gugliucci, Nicole E.; Gay, P. L.; Bracey, G.; Lehan, C.; Lewis, S.; Moore, J.; Rhea, J.

2013-01-01

CosmoQuest is an online citizen science and astronomy education portal that invites users to explore the universe. Since its launch in January 2012, several thousand citizen scientists have participated in mapping and discovery projects involving the Moon, the Kuiper Belt, and asteroid Vesta. Since our goal is to support community building as well as involving users with citizen science tasks, we are interested in what motivates users to join the site, participate in the science, participate in the forums, and come back to the site over a period of time. We would also like to efficiently target our social media interactions towards activities that are more likely to bring new and existing users to the site. With those goals in mind, we analyze site usage statistics and correlate them with specific, targeted social media campaigns to highlight events or projects that CosmoQuest has hosted in its first year. We also survey our users to get a more detailed look at citizen scientist motivations and the efficacy of our community building activities.

On evaluation of ensemble precipitation forecasts with observation-based ensembles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Jaun

2007-04-01

Full Text Available Spatial interpolation of precipitation data is uncertain. How important is this uncertainty and how can it be considered in evaluation of high-resolution probabilistic precipitation forecasts? These questions are discussed by experimental evaluation of the COSMO consortium's limited-area ensemble prediction system COSMO-LEPS. The applied performance measure is the often used Brier skill score (BSS. The observational references in the evaluation are (a analyzed rain gauge data by ordinary Kriging and (b ensembles of interpolated rain gauge data by stochastic simulation. This permits the consideration of either a deterministic reference (the event is observed or not with 100% certainty or a probabilistic reference that makes allowance for uncertainties in spatial averaging. The evaluation experiments show that the evaluation uncertainties are substantial even for the large area (41 300 km2 of Switzerland with a mean rain gauge distance as good as 7 km: the one- to three-day precipitation forecasts have skill decreasing with forecast lead time but the one- and two-day forecast performances differ not significantly.

Density, refraction index and vapor–liquid equilibria of N-methyl-2-hydroxyethylammonium butyrate plus (methyl acetate or ethyl acetate or propyl acetate) at several temperatures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alvarez, V.H.; Mattedi, S.; Aznar, M.

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► Densities, refraction indices and VLE were measured for ester + m-2-HEAB mixtures. ► V E , apparent molar volumes and thermal expansion coefficients were calculated. ► Peng–Robinson EoS + Wong–Sandler mixing rule + COSMO-SAC predicted the data. -- Abstract: This paper reports the densities, refraction indices, and vapor liquid equilibria for binary systems ester + N-methyl-2-hydroxyethylammonium butyrate (m-2-HEAB): methyl acetate (1) + m-2-HEAB (2), ethyl acetate (1) + m-2-HEAB and propyl acetate (1) + m-2-HEAB (2). The excess molar volumes, deviations in the refraction index, apparent molar volumes, and thermal expansion coefficients for the binary systems were fitted to polynomial equations. The Peng–Robinson equation of state, coupled with the Wong–Sandler mixing rule, is used to describe the experimental data. Since the predictive activity coefficient model COSMO-SAC is used in the Wong–Sandler mixing rule, the resulting thermodynamic model is a completely predictive one. The prediction results for the density and for the vapor–liquid equilibria have a deviation lower than 1.0% and 1.1%, respectively

Omnibus test for change detection in a time sequence of polarimetric SAR data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg; Conradsen, Knut; Skriver, Henning

2016-01-01

in the covariance matrix representation is carried out. The omnibus test statistic and its factorization detect if and when change(s) occur. The technique is demonstrated on airborne EMISAR C-band data but may be applied to ALOS, COSMO-SkyMed, RadarSat-2, Sentinel-1, TerraSAR-X, and Yoagan or other dual- and quad...

The SQM/COSMO filter: reliable native pose identification based on the quantum-mechanical description of protein-ligand interactions and implicit COSMO solvation

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Pecina, Adam; Meier, R.; Fanfrlík, Jindřich; Lepšík, Martin; Řezáč, Jan; Hobza, Pavel; Baldauf, C.

2016-01-01

Roč. 52, č. 16 (2016), s. 3312-3315 ISSN 1359-7345 R&D Projects: GA ČR GBP208/12/G016 Institutional support: RVO:61388963 Keywords : empirical scoring functions * density functional theory * binding affinity Subject RIV: CF - Physical ; Theoretical Chemistry Impact factor: 6.319, year: 2016 http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2016/cc/c5cc09499b

Dark matter search with CaF sub 2 scintillators in Osaka

CERN Document Server

Ogawa, I; Hazama, R; Ajimura, S; Matsuoka, K; Suzuki, N; Nitta, T; Miyawaki, H; Shiomi, S; Tanaka, Y; Ejiri, H; Kudomi, N; Kume, K; Ohsumi, H; Fushimi, K

2000-01-01

A detector system which consists of CaF sub 2 scintillators surrounded by active and passive shields, is developed to search for spin coupled dark matter. The whole system is in operation at the underground laboratory located in Nara (Oto Cosmo Observatory) which has effectively 1.2 km water equivalent shield. In this article our current status of the investigation is described.

Solid-Liquid Equilibria in Systems [Cxmim][Tf2N] with Diethylamine

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Rotrekl, Jan; Vrbka, P.; Sedláková, Zuzana; Wagner, Zdeněk; Jacquemin, J.; Bendová, Magdalena

2015-01-01

Roč. 87, č. 5 (2015), s. 453-460 ISSN 0033-4545. [International Symposium on Solubility Phenomena 2014. Karlsruhe, 20.07.2014-24.07.2014] R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LD14094; GA MŠk LG13060 Institutional support: RVO:67985858 Keywords : ionic liquids * solid-liquid equilibria * COSMO-RS Subject RIV: CF - Physical ; Theoretical Chemistry Impact factor: 2.615, year: 2015

Modelling and analysing interoperability in service compositions using COSMO

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Quartel, Dick; van Sinderen, Marten J.

2008-01-01

A service composition process typically involves multiple service models. These models may represent the composite and composed services from distinct perspectives, e.g. to model the role of some system that is involved in a service, and at distinct abstraction levels, e.g. to model the goal,

Così l'antimateria scomparve dal cosmo, Aug 2004

CERN Multimedia

Durante, Elisabetta

2004-01-01

The matter has a minor decay probability and therefore, had the upper hand - A miliare stone of physics. The international experiment BaBar explained why after the Big Bang an assymetrical Universe is born

Are mixed explicit/implicit solvation models reliable for studying phosphate hydrolysis? A comparative study of continuum, explicit and mixed solvation models.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kamerlin, Shina C. L.; Haranczyk, Maciej; Warshel, Arieh

2009-05-01

Phosphate hydrolysis is ubiquitous in biology. However, despite intensive research on this class of reactions, the precise nature of the reaction mechanism remains controversial. In this work, we have examined the hydrolysis of three homologous phosphate diesters. The solvation free energy was simulated by means of either an implicit solvation model (COSMO), hybrid quantum mechanical / molecular mechanical free energy perturbation (QM/MM-FEP) or a mixed solvation model in which N water molecules were explicitly included in the ab initio description of the reacting system (where N=1-3), with the remainder of the solvent being implicitly modelled as a continuum. Here, both COSMO and QM/MM-FEP reproduce Delta Gobs within an error of about 2kcal/mol. However, we demonstrate that in order to obtain any form of reliable results from a mixed model, it is essential to carefully select the explicit water molecules from short QM/MM runs that act as a model for the true infinite system. Additionally, the mixed models tend to be increasingly inaccurate the more explicit water molecules are placed into the system. Thus, our analysis indicates that this approach provides an unreliable way for modelling phosphate hydrolysis in solution.

Designing a Virtual Research Facility to motivate Professional-Citizen Collaboration

Science.gov (United States)

Gay, Pamela

In order to handle the onslaught of data spilling from telescopes on the Earth and on orbit, CosmoQuest has created a virtual research facility that allows the public to collaborate with science teams on projects that would otherwise lack the necessary human resources. This second-generation citizen science site goes beyond asking people to click on images to also engaging them in taking classes, attending virtual seminars, and participating in virtual star parties. These features were introduced to try and expand the diversity of motivations that bring people to the project and to keep them engaged overtime - just as a research center seeks to bring a diversity of people together to work and learn over time. In creating the CosmoQuest Virtual Research Facility, we sought to answer the question, “What would happen if we provided the public with the same kinds of facilities scientists have, and invite them to be our collaborators?” It had already been observed that the public readily attends public science lectures, open houses at science facilities, and education programs such as star parties. It was hoped that by creating a central facility, we could build a community of people learning and doing science in a productive manner. In order to be successful, we needed to first create the facility, then test if people were coming both to learn and to do science, and finally to verify that people were doing legitimate science. During the past 18 months of operations, we have continued to work through each of these stages, as discussed talk. At this early date, progress is on-going, and much research remains to be done, but all indications show that we are on our way to building a community of people learning and doing science. During 2013-2014, a series of studies looked at the motivations of CosmoQuest users, as well as their forms of site interactions. During this talk, we will review these results, as well as the demographics of our user population.

Against all odds -- Probabilistic forecasts and decision making

Science.gov (United States)

Liechti, Katharina; Zappa, Massimiliano

2015-04-01

In the city of Zurich (Switzerland) the setting is such that the damage potential due to flooding of the river Sihl is estimated to about 5 billion US dollars. The flood forecasting system that is used by the administration for decision making runs continuously since 2007. It has a time horizon of max. five days and operates at hourly time steps. The flood forecasting system includes three different model chains. Two of those are run by the deterministic NWP models COSMO-2 and COSMO-7 and one is driven by the probabilistic NWP COSMO-Leps. The model chains are consistent since February 2010, so five full years are available for the evaluation for the system. The system was evaluated continuously and is a very nice example to present the added value that lies in probabilistic forecasts. The forecasts are available on an online-platform to the decision makers. Several graphical representations of the forecasts and forecast-history are available to support decision making and to rate the current situation. The communication between forecasters and decision-makers is quite close. To put it short, an ideal situation. However, an event or better put a non-event in summer 2014 showed that the knowledge about the general superiority of probabilistic forecasts doesn't necessarily mean that the decisions taken in a specific situation will be based on that probabilistic forecast. Some years of experience allow gaining confidence in the system, both for the forecasters and for the decision-makers. Even if from the theoretical point of view the handling during crisis situation is well designed, a first event demonstrated that the dialog with the decision-makers still lacks of exercise during such situations. We argue, that a false alarm is a needed experience to consolidate real-time emergency procedures relying on ensemble predictions. A missed event would probably also fit, but, in our case, we are very happy not to report about this option.

Operational applications of a process-based runoff generation module on the Swiss Plateau and Prealps

Science.gov (United States)

Horat, Christoph; Antonetti, Manuel; Wernli, Heini; Zappa, Massimiliano

2017-04-01

Flash floods evolve rapidly during and after heavy precipitation events and represent a risk for society, especially in mountainous areas. Knowledge on meteorological variables and their temporal development is often not sufficient to predict their occurrence. Therefore, information about the state of the hydrological system derived from hydrological models is used. These models rely however on strong simplifying assumptions and need therefore to be calibrated. This prevents their application on catchments, where no runoff data is available. Here we present a flash-flood forecasting chain including: (i) a nowcasting product which combines radar and rain gauge rainfall data (CombiPrecip), (ii) meteorological data from numerical weather prediction models at currently finest available resolution (COSMO-1, COSMO-E), (iii) operationally available soil moisture estimations from the PREVAH hydrological model, and (iv) a process-based runoff generation module with no need for calibration (RGM-PRO). This last component uses information on the spatial distribution of dominant runoff processes (DRPs) which can be derived with different mapping approaches, and is parameterised a priori based on expert knowledge. First, we compared the performance of RGM-PRO with the one of a traditional conceptual runoff generation module for several events on Swiss Emme catchment, as well as on their nested catchments. Different DRP-maps are furthermore tested to evaluate the sensitivity of the forecasting chain to the mapping approaches. Then, we benchmarked the new forecasting chain with the traditional chain used on the Swiss Verzasca catchment. The results show that RGM-PRO performs similarly or even better than the traditional calibrated conceptual module on the investigated catchments. The use of strongly simplified DRP mapping approaches still leads to satisfying results, due mainly to the fact that the largest uncertainty source is represented by the meteorological input data. On the

Quantile forecast discrimination ability and value

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ben Bouallègue, Zied; Pinson, Pierre; Friederichs, Petra

2015-01-01

While probabilistic forecast verification for categorical forecasts is well established, some of the existing concepts and methods have not found their equivalent for the case of continuous variables. New tools dedicated to the assessment of forecast discrimination ability and forecast value are ...... is illustrated based on synthetic datasets, as well as for the case of global radiation forecasts from the high resolution ensemble COSMO-DE-EPS of the German Weather Service....

Feasibility of bio-based lactate esters as extractant for biobutanol recovery: (Liquid + liquid) equilibria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zheng, Shaohua; Cheng, Hongye; Chen, Lifang; Qi, Zhiwen

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Lactate esters were studied as solvent to remove butanol from aqueous media. • (Liquid + liquid) equilibrium data were measured at T = 298.15 K and 1 atm. • Selectivity and 1-butanol partition coefficient were calculated. • COSMO-based study of separation efficiency on solvent structure was conducted. - Abstract: As bio-based solvents, lactate esters can be used as extractant for removing 1-butanol from the aqueous fermentation broths. In order to evaluate the separation efficiency of butyl lactate and 2-ethylhexyl lactate for the extraction of 1-butanol from its mixture with water, the (liquid + liquid) equilibrium for the ternary systems {water (1) + 1-butanol (2) + lactate ester (3)} were measured at T = 298.15 K. The 1-butanol partition coefficient varied in the range of 4.46 to 10.29, and the solvent selectivity within 32.12 to 108.18. For the separation of low-concentration butanol from fermentation broths, butyl lactate exhibits higher partition coefficient and lower selectivity than 2-ethylhexyl lactate. The NRTL model was employed to correlate the experimental data, and the COSMO-RS theory was utilized to predict the (liquid + liquid) equilibria and to analyze the influence of lactate esters on extraction efficiency.

A cross-cultural content-analytic comparison of the hookup culture in U.S. and Dutch teen girl magazines.

Science.gov (United States)

Joshi, Suchi Pradyumn; Peter, Jochen; Valkenburg, Patti M

2014-01-01

This quantitative content analysis investigated the hookup culture in U.S. and Dutch teen girl magazines. Using Hofstede's cultural dimension of masculinity/femininity, the hookup culture (i.e., the relational context of sex, emotional context of sex, specific sexual activities, and contraceptives) was examined in 2,496 stories from all 2006 through 2008 issues of the three most popular U.S. (i.e., Seventeen, CosmoGirl! U.S. edition, and Teen) and Dutch teen girl magazines (i.e., Fancy, CosmoGirl! Netherlands edition, and Girlz!). Regarding the relational context of sex, stories about casual sex occurred more often in U.S. magazines, and Dutch magazines focused more on committed sex. Dutch magazines also emphasized sex within the emotional context of love more often than did U.S. magazines. In terms of sexual activities, coital sex was mentioned more often in U.S. coverage, while petting was mentioned more frequently in Dutch coverage. Condoms were covered more positively in U.S. magazines than in Dutch magazines. Overall, the hookup culture seems to be more visible in U.S. magazines for the occurrence of casual sex and lack of love stories, whereas it does not emerge in Dutch magazines due to the presence of committed sex and love-related articles.

Theorizing Pō: Embodied Cosmogony and Polynesian National Narratives

OpenAIRE

Warren, Joyce Lindsay Pualani

2017-01-01

Polynesian epistemology and cosmogony dictate that all life and existence come from Pō, the generative, liminal darkness. Pō can be temporally expansive, producing a view of time that is spiral rather than linear. Within Pō, time and space are not necessarily discrete categories.In this dissertation, I argue that literary depictions of Pō can represent and articulate notions of political and cultural sovereignty throughout contemporary Polynesia. These forms of sovereignty are rooted in cosmo...

Depth profiles of 230Th excess, transition metals and mineralogy of ferromanganese crusts of the Central Indian Ocean basin and implications for palaeoceanographic influence on crust genesis

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Banakar, V.K.; Borole, D.V.

any pdstdeposi- tional redistribution over the dating interval (Krishnaswami and Cochran, 1978). The re- lationship used for growth rates estimation is: d In C/dz= -I/S where C= concentration of radionuclide; A=decay constant of the nuclide; s.... Ferromanganese de- posits from the central Pacific Ocean, I. Encrustations from the Line Island archipelago. Geochim. Cosmo- chim. Acta, 49: 427-436. Banakar, V.K., 1988. Chemical, radioisotopic and geo- chronological studies of polymetallic nodules...

French days on stable isotopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-01-01

These first French days on stable isotopes took place in parallel with the 1. French days of environmental chemistry. Both conferences had common plenary sessions. The conference covers all aspects of the use of stable isotopes in the following domains: medicine, biology, environment, tracer techniques, agronomy, food industry, geology, petroleum geochemistry, cosmo-geochemistry, archaeology, bio-geochemistry, hydrology, climatology, nuclear and particle physics, astrophysics, isotope separations etc.. Abstracts available on CD-Rom only. (J.S.)

COSMO-SkyMed sensor constellation and GPS data to study the source responsible of ground deformation beneath the urban area of Naples (Southern Italy) in 2012-2013.

Science.gov (United States)

Pepe, Susi

2016-04-01

To understand uplift phenomenon occurred during the April 2012 - January 2013 time interval at Campi Flegrei caldera, we exploited the displacement time series obtained by processing 90 SAR images acquired from the COSMO-SkyMed sensor constellation along ascending orbits via the well-known DInSAR algorithm referred to as SBAS algorithm, and the measurements provided by 14 continuous GPS stations deployed within the caldera and belonging to the permanent INGV-OV monitoring network. In particular, the caldera has shown a rapid uplift of about 6 cm with a peak rate of about 3 cm/month in December 2012. This event led the Italian Civil Protection to raise the alert level of the volcano from green to yellow. Using a novel geodetic inversion technique we imaged the kinematics of the intrusion of a magmatic sill beneath the town of Pozzuoli at a depth of about 3100 m. The retrieved kinematics was then used as input to infer the dynamics of the sill intrusion using a recently developed numerical model. The best fit obtained by non-linear inverse approach that consider a time-varying deformation field is a penny-shaped source located at a depth of 3100 m. To study the detail of the intrusion process we have applied a geodetic imaging technique to determine the spatial and temporal kinematics of the ground deformation source in the selected period. The retrieved temporal pattern of the source geometry reflects that of a growing sill that, at the end of the considered period, has a roughly elliptical geometry with an extension of about 6 km in the EW direction and about 4 km in the NS one. The maximum aperture of the sill is of about 30 cm at its center. To understand the dynamics of this phenomenon we used a numerical model of the emplacement of a magmatic sill, to fit the retrieved geometry. The parameters to be determined are: the average magma viscosity, the amount of magma already present in the sill before the 2012-2013 episode and the magma injection rate. Results show

Coherent Change Detection with COSMO SkyMed Data-experimental Results

OpenAIRE

A. Mishra; D. Chaudhuri; C. Bhattacharya; Y.S. Rao

2013-01-01

Change detection is a technique in which we try to find changes between two acquisitions. These acquisitions can be from different platforms and sensors. Acquisition from satellite using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is of immense interest to military applications. Satellite has the ability to peep into the enemy territory while SAR has the capability of day and night operations, being an active sensor. Coherent change detection (CCD) can be used to detect minute changes between two images. ...

Macrocycle Conformational Sampling by DFT-D3/COSMO-RS Methodology

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Gutten, Ondrej; Bím, Daniel; Řezáč, Jan; Rulíšek, Lubomír

2018-01-01

Roč. 58, č. 1 (2018), s. 48-60 ISSN 1549-9596 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA17-24155S Institutional support: RVO:61388963 Keywords : reduction potentials * correlation energy * aqueous solution Subject RIV: CF - Physical ; Theoretical Chemistry OBOR OECD: Physical chemistry Impact factor: 3.760, year: 2016

Model-driven Development of Mediation for Business Services Using COSMO

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Quartel, Dick; Pokraev, S.; Dirgahayu, T.; Mantovaneli Pessoa, Rodrigo; Steen, Maarten W.A.; van Sinderen, Marten J.

2009-01-01

Although service-oriented architectures offer real benefits when pursuing business integration and flexibility, there are still no satisfactory solutions to accomplish cooperation between services of existing systems that have no perfect match. In the case of incompatible services, a 'mediator' may

A new framework for the analysis of continental-scale convection-resolving climate simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Leutwyler, D.; Charpilloz, C.; Arteaga, A.; Ban, N.; Di Girolamo, S.; Fuhrer, O.; Hoefler, T.; Schulthess, T. C.; Christoph, S.

2017-12-01

High-resolution climate simulations at horizontal resolution of O(1-4 km) allow explicit treatment of deep convection (thunderstorms and rain showers). Explicitly treating convection by the governing equations reduces uncertainties associated with parametrization schemes and allows a model formulation closer to physical first principles [1,2]. But kilometer-scale climate simulations with long integration periods and large computational domains are expensive and data storage becomes unbearably voluminous. Hence new approaches to perform analysis are required. In the crCLIM project we propose a new climate modeling framework that allows scientists to conduct analysis at high spatial and temporal resolution. We tackle the computational cost by using the largest available supercomputers such as hybrid CPU-GPU architectures. For this the COSMO model has been adapted to run on such architectures [2]. We then alleviate the I/O-bottleneck by employing a simulation data-virtualizer (SDaVi) that allows to trade-off storage (space) for computational effort (time). This is achieved by caching the simulation outputs and efficiently launching re-simulations in case of cache misses. All this is done transparently from the analysis applications [3]. For the re-runs this approach requires a bit-reproducible version of COSMO. That is to say a model that produces identical results on different architectures to ensure coherent recomputation of the requested data [4]. In this contribution we present a version of SDaVi, a first performance model, and a strategy to obtain bit-reproducibility across hardware architectures.[1] N. Ban, J. Schmidli, C. Schär. Evaluation of the convection-resolving regional climate modeling approach in decade-long simulations. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 7889-7907, 2014.[2] D. Leutwyler, O. Fuhrer, X. Lapillonne, D. Lüthi, C. Schär. Towards European-scale convection-resolving climate simulations with GPUs: a study with COSMO 4.19. Geosci. Model Dev, 3393

Predictive ability of severe rainfall events over Catalonia for the year 2008

Science.gov (United States)

Comellas, A.; Molini, L.; Parodi, A.; Sairouni, A.; Llasat, M. C.; Siccardi, F.

2011-07-01

This paper analyses the predictive ability of quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPF) and the so-called "poor-man" rainfall probabilistic forecasts (RPF). With this aim, the full set of warnings issued by the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC) for potentially-dangerous events due to severe precipitation has been analysed for the year 2008. For each of the 37 warnings, the QPFs obtained from the limited-area model MM5 have been verified against hourly precipitation data provided by the rain gauge network covering Catalonia (NE of Spain), managed by SMC. For a group of five selected case studies, a QPF comparison has been undertaken between the MM5 and COSMO-I7 limited-area models. Although MM5's predictive ability has been examined for these five cases by making use of satellite data, this paper only shows in detail the heavy precipitation event on the 9-10 May 2008. Finally, the "poor-man" rainfall probabilistic forecasts (RPF) issued by SMC at regional scale have also been tested against hourly precipitation observations. Verification results show that for long events (>24 h) MM5 tends to overestimate total precipitation, whereas for short events (≤24 h) the model tends instead to underestimate precipitation. The analysis of the five case studies concludes that most of MM5's QPF errors are mainly triggered by very poor representation of some of its cloud microphysical species, particularly the cloud liquid water and, to a lesser degree, the water vapor. The models' performance comparison demonstrates that MM5 and COSMO-I7 are on the same level of QPF skill, at least for the intense-rainfall events dealt with in the five case studies, whilst the warnings based on RPF issued by SMC have proven fairly correct when tested against hourly observed precipitation for 6-h intervals and at a small region scale. Throughout this study, we have only dealt with (SMC-issued) warning episodes in order to analyse deterministic (MM5 and COSMO-I7) and probabilistic (SMC

A green process for recovery of 1-propanol/2-propanol from their aqueous solutions: Experimental and MD simulation studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gupta, Bhupender S.; Taha, Mohamed; Lee, Ming-Jer

2017-01-01

Highlights: • A green conceptual design for separating propanols from their aqueous solutions is proposed. • TRIS is biocompatible and non-volatile and can be used as an auxiliary agent for the separation. • Isobaric VLE data for 1-propanol/2-propanol + water + TRIS were measured at 101.3 kPa. • The azeotropic compositions are significantly shifted in the presence of TRIS. • Intermolecular interactions were studied with fluorescence, COSMO-RS, and MD simulation. - Abstract: In the present study, we have found that a common and relatively inexpensive biological buffer tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (TRIS) is potentially applicable to shift the azeotrope compositions of aqueous solutions of 1-propanol and 2-propanol. By taking the advantage of our findings, we are proposing a green process for the recovery of these organics from their respective aqueous solutions. In order to confirm the effect of TRIS buffer on vapor–liquid equilibrium behavior of the aqueous propanol systems, we measured the isobaric vapor–liquid equilibrium (VLE) data at 101.3 kPa for the 1-proponol + water + TRIS and 2-propanol + water + TRIS systems over the azeotropic range with various concentrations of TRIS (0.02, 0.04, 0.08, and 0.12 in mole fraction). The binary interaction parameters were obtained for TRIS with water, TRIS with 1-propanol, and TRIS with 2-propanol by correlating the new VLE data with the NRTL model. The isobaric VLE properties for the investigated propanol + water mixtures in the presence of various concentrations of TRIS were also predicted with the conductor-like screening model COSMO-RS. Based on the predicted excess molar enthalpies (H E m ) from the COSMO-RS, the interactions between all constituent pairs of molecules were estimated. To explore the mechanism of TRIS-based separation of 1-propanol/2-propanol from their aqueous solutions, the interactions between different pairs of molecules were also investigated by using fluorescence analysis and

Mass spectrometric analysis for nuclear safeguards

OpenAIRE

BOULYGA S.; KONEGGER-KAPPEL S.; RICHTER Stephan; SANGELY L.

2014-01-01

Mass spectrometry is currently being implemented in a wide spectrum of research and industrial areas, such as material sciences, cosmo- and geochemistry, biology and medicine, to name just a few. Research and development in nuclear safeguards is closely related to the general field of “Peace Research”; representing a specific application area for analytical sciences in general and for mass spectrometry in particular. According to Albert Einstein “peace cannot be kept by force. It only can be ...

PS-InSAR monitoring of the landslide activity in Montescaglioso, Italy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gracchi, T.; Batorova, K.

2015-01-01

In the article we present results from the remote sensing of the Earth, technique used for monitoring deformations of the ground surface. PSInSAR technique what was used for processing satellite data captured by the COSMO-SkyMed satellites to monitoring the deformation produced by the 3 December 2013 in Montescaglioso landslide, southern Italy. Deep-sealed landslide in Montescaglioso area exceeded 10 m and caused the disruption the main road and some buildings were demolished. (authors)

Medicanes in an ocean-atmosphere coupled regional climate model

Science.gov (United States)

Akhtar, N.; Brauch, J.; Dobler, A.; Béranger, K.; Ahrens, B.

2014-08-01

So-called medicanes (Mediterranean hurricanes) are meso-scale, marine, and warm-core Mediterranean cyclones that exhibit some similarities to tropical cyclones. The strong cyclonic winds associated with medicanes threaten the highly populated coastal areas around the Mediterranean basin. To reduce the risk of casualties and overall negative impacts, it is important to improve the understanding of medicanes with the use of numerical models. In this study, we employ an atmospheric limited-area model (COSMO-CLM) coupled with a one-dimensional ocean model (1-D NEMO-MED12) to simulate medicanes. The aim of this study is to assess the robustness of the coupled model in simulating these extreme events. For this purpose, 11 historical medicane events are simulated using the atmosphere-only model, COSMO-CLM, and coupled model, with different setups (horizontal atmospheric grid spacings of 0.44, 0.22, and 0.08°; with/without spectral nudging, and an ocean grid spacing of 1/12°). The results show that at high resolution, the coupled model is able to not only simulate most of medicane events but also improve the track length, core temperature, and wind speed of simulated medicanes compared to the atmosphere-only simulations. The results suggest that the coupled model is more proficient for systemic and detailed studies of historical medicane events, and that this model can be an effective tool for future projections.

A Decade-Long European-Scale Convection-Resolving Climate Simulation on GPUs

Science.gov (United States)

Leutwyler, D.; Fuhrer, O.; Ban, N.; Lapillonne, X.; Lüthi, D.; Schar, C.

2016-12-01

Convection-resolving models have proven to be very useful tools in numerical weather prediction and in climate research. However, due to their extremely demanding computational requirements, they have so far been limited to short simulations and/or small computational domains. Innovations in the supercomputing domain have led to new supercomputer designs that involve conventional multi-core CPUs and accelerators such as graphics processing units (GPUs). One of the first atmospheric models that has been fully ported to GPUs is the Consortium for Small-Scale Modeling weather and climate model COSMO. This new version allows us to expand the size of the simulation domain to areas spanning continents and the time period up to one decade. We present results from a decade-long, convection-resolving climate simulation over Europe using the GPU-enabled COSMO version on a computational domain with 1536x1536x60 gridpoints. The simulation is driven by the ERA-interim reanalysis. The results illustrate how the approach allows for the representation of interactions between synoptic-scale and meso-scale atmospheric circulations at scales ranging from 1000 to 10 km. We discuss some of the advantages and prospects from using GPUs, and focus on the performance of the convection-resolving modeling approach on the European scale. Specifically we investigate the organization of convective clouds and on validate hourly rainfall distributions with various high-resolution data sets.

Analysis of building deformation in landslide area using multisensor PSInSAR™ technique.

Science.gov (United States)

Ciampalini, Andrea; Bardi, Federica; Bianchini, Silvia; Frodella, William; Del Ventisette, Chiara; Moretti, Sandro; Casagli, Nicola

2014-12-01

Buildings are sensitive to movements caused by ground deformation. The mapping both of spatial and temporal distribution, and of the degree of building damages represents a useful tool in order to understand the landslide evolution, magnitude and stress distribution. The high spatial resolution of space-borne SAR interferometry can be used to monitor displacements related to building deformations. In particular, PSInSAR technique is used to map and monitor ground deformation with millimeter accuracy. The usefulness of the above mentioned methods was evaluated in San Fratello municipality (Sicily, Italy), which was historically affected by landslides: the most recent one occurred on 14th February 2010. PSInSAR data collected by ERS 1/2, ENVISAT, RADARSAT-1 were used to study the building deformation velocities before the 2010 landslide. The X-band sensors COSMO-SkyMed and TerraSAR-X were used in order to monitor the building deformation after this event. During 2013, after accurate field inspection on buildings and structures, damage assessment map of San Fratello were created and then compared to the building deformation velocity maps. The most interesting results were obtained by the comparison between the building deformation velocity map obtained through COSMO-SkyMed and the damage assessment map. This approach can be profitably used by local and Civil Protection Authorities to manage the post-event phase and evaluate the residual risks.

Basicities of Strong Bases in Water: A Computational Study

OpenAIRE

Kaupmees, Karl; Trummal, Aleksander; Leito, Ivo

2014-01-01

Aqueous pKa values of strong organic bases – DBU, TBD, MTBD, different phosphazene bases, etc – were computed with CPCM, SMD and COSMO-RS approaches. Explicit solvent molecules were not used. Direct computations and computations with reference pKa values were used. The latter were of two types: (1) reliable experimental aqueous pKa value of a reference base with structure similar to the investigated base or (2) reliable experimental pKa value in acetonitrile of the investigated base itself. ...

Muon bundles from the Universe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kankiewicz P.

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Recently the CERN ALICE experiment, in its dedicated cosmic ray run, observed muon bundles of very high multiplicities, thereby confirming similar findings from the LEP era at CERN (in the CosmoLEP project. Significant evidence for anisotropy of arrival directions of the observed high multiplicity muonic bundles is found. Estimated directionality suggests their possible extragalactic provenance. We argue that muonic bundles of highest multiplicity are produced by strangelets, hypothetical stable lumps of strange quark matter infiltrating our Universe.

Climate justice : three roads towards a sustainable future

OpenAIRE

Sundqvist, Max

2017-01-01

In this I will explore the ethical challenge of global climate change by analysing three accounts of how responsibility for climate change should be distributed. I explore why it is valuable to view climate change as part of a bigger ethical problem of resources, distribution and global justice. Furthermore, I will argue that a road towards change by a cosmo political theory of justice is the most reasonable option. The theme of my argumentation is that the challenge of global climate change ...

Nuovi strumenti di telerilevamento da satellite nel controllo del territorio

OpenAIRE

Michele Dussi

2008-01-01

New satellite remote sensing instruments for land managementCOSMO-Skymed remote sensing images, as well as other SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) missions, have their specific features, partly similar to optical system products.Pre-processing activities, allow the user to exploit the systems capabilites fairly easily after a focused training. SAR imaging's applications range from mission-critical applications (i.e. civil and military security applications) to simple user-driven ones (i.e. quali...

Cosmoparticle physics

CERN Document Server

Khlopov, M Yu

1999-01-01

Since the 1980s the cross-disciplinary, multidimensional field of links between cosmology and particle physics has been widely recognised by theorists, studying cosmology, particle and nuclear physics, gravity, as well as by astrophysicists, astronomers, space physicists, experimental particle and nuclear physicists, mathematicians and engineers.The relationship between cosmology and particle physics is now one of the important topics of discussion at any scientific meeting both on astrophysics and high energy physics.Cosmoparticle physics is the result of the mutual relationship between cosmo

Thermodynamic study of (alkyl esters + α,ω-alkyl dihalides) VII. HmE and VmE for 20 binary mixtures {xCu-1H2u-1CO2C3H7 + (1 - x)α,ω-ClCH2(CH2)v-2CH2Cl}, where u = 1 to 4, α = 1 and v = ω = 2 to 6. An analysis of behavior using the COSMO-RS methodology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marrero, E.; Ortega, J.; Palomar, J.

2009-01-01

Summary: Excess enthalpies H m E and excess volumes V m E obtained at a temperature of 298.15 K and atmospheric pressure are presented for a set of 20 binary mixtures comprised of the first four propyl esters, C u-1 H 2u-1 COOC 3 H 7 (u = 1 to 4), and five α,ω-dichloroalkanes, ClCH 2 (CH 2 ) v-2 CH 2 Cl (v = 2 to 6). All the mixtures are exothermic except for those corresponding to propyl methanoate with v ≥ 4. The V m E are positive in most mixtures except for those where v = 4, 5, 6, for V m E m E with v, while the increase in u produces a greater exothermicity in the mixing process, which becomes inverted for propyl butanoate. The variation in V m E with the chain length of the compounds of the mixtures studied is not regular since both the enthalpic and the volumetric effects are due to interactions of different nature, positive and negative. Interpretation of the behavior was assisted by applying the quantum-chemistry method COSMO-RS. This method describes qualitatively and quantitatively the contribution of the different types of interactions, electrostatic, van der Waals, and those due to the (Cl, Cl) bond in the dihalide, and the influence of the ester and dichloroalkane chains. This information was also useful to adequately modify the application of the UNIFAC group contribution model, proposing parameters for the Cl, Cl/carboxylate interaction that vary with the chain length of the compounds involved. With this modification, the results estimated by UNIFAC model can be considered good

DSM GENERATION FROM HIGH RESOLUTION COSMO-SKYMED IMAGERY WITH RADARGRAMMETRIC MODEL

OpenAIRE

P. Capaldo; M. Crespi; F. Fratarcangeli; A. Nascetti; F. Pieralice

2012-01-01

The availability of new high resolution radar spaceborne sensors offers new interesting potentialities for the geomatics application: spatial and temporal change detection, features extraction, generation of Digital Surface (DSMs). As regards the DSMs generation from new high resolution data (as SpotLight imagery), the development and the accuracy assessment of method based on radargrammetric approach are topics of great interest and relevance. The aim of this investigation is the DSM generat...

The cosmic ray muon spectrum and charge ratio in CosmoALEPH

CERN Document Server

Zimmermann, D; Kotaidis, V; Luitz, S; Mailov, A; Müller, A S; Putzer, A; Rensch, B; Sander, H G; Schmeling, S; Schmelling, M; Wachsmuth, H W; Tcaciuc, R; Ziegler, T; Zuber, K

2004-01-01

The ALEPH experiment at the LEP e**+e**- storage ring at CERN has been used to measure the momentum spectrum of cosmic ray muons. ALEPH is located at a vertical depth of 320 m.w.e. underground close to the Jura mountains. The high resolution of the time projection chamber (TPC) of ALEPH allows to reconstruct muon tracks with momenta up to the TeV region. The measured muon momentum spectrum and the charge ratio in the range from 80 to 2500 GeV are presented. After corrections for energy loss in the overburden the sea level muon spectrum at nearly vertical incidence is obtained. The experimental data are compared to theoretical expectations and results from other experiments.

Model-driven design, simulation and implementation of service compositions in COSMO

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Quartel, Dick; Dirgahayu, T.; van Sinderen, Marten J.

2009-01-01

The success of software development projects to a large extent depends on the quality of the models that are produced in the development process, which in turn depends on the conceptual and practical support that is available for modelling, design and analysis. This paper focuses on model-driven

187Re-187Os systematics in meteorites and cosmo-chemical consequences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luck, J.-M.; Allegre, C.J.

1983-01-01

Using a recently published technique (Luck et al. Nature; 283:256 (1980)) based on isotope dilution, 187 Re- 187 Os systematics in meteorites have been measured with an improved analytical procedure and a recalibrated osmium spike. Using previous results, corrected for this change in spike calibration, in addition to the present data from analyses of irons and the iron phases of 10 chondrites and of one mesosiderite, a revised and more precise value is proposed for the rhenium decay constant, together with a new estimate for the age of the Galaxy. (U.K.)

Effect of room temperature ionic liquid structure on the enzymatic acylation of flavonoids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lue, Bena-Marie; Guo, Zheng; Xu, Xuebing

2010-01-01

Enzymatic acylation reactions of flavonoids (rutin, esculin) with long chain fatty acids (palmitic, oleic acids) were carried out in 14 different ionic liquid media containing a range of cation and anion structures. Classification of RTILs according to flavonoid solubility (using COSMO...... must be struck that maximized flavonoid solubility with minimum negative impact on lipase activity. The process also benefitted from an increased reaction temperature which may have helped to reduced mass transfer limitations. Keywords: Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs); Biosynthesis; Acylation......; Flavonoids; Lipase; Long chain fatty acids...

Calibration activity in support of GIADA, part of the ESA/Rosetta Spacecraft payload.

OpenAIRE

Sordini, Roberto

2014-01-01

Comets formed about 4.6 billion years ago from the Pre-Solar Nebula and spent most of their existence in the outer and colder regions of the Solar System, beyond the Neptune’s orbit. These small celestial bodies, with masses ranging between 1014g and 1021g, could be considered the cosmo-chemical record of the primordial Solar Nebula. Therefore studying comets means investigating the physic-chemical properties of the material that formed the Solar System. With the aim of exploring the nature a...

Coca and poppy eradication in Colombia: environmental and human health assessment of aerially applied glyphosate.

Science.gov (United States)

Solomon, Keith R; Anadón, Arturo; Carrasquilla, Gabriel; Cerdeira, Antonio L; Marshall, Jon; Sanin, Luz-Helena

2007-01-01

The production of coca and poppy as well as the processing and production of cocaine and heroin involve significant environmental impacts. Both coca and poppy are grown intensively in a process that involves the clearing of land in remote areas, the planting of the crop, and protection against pests such as weeds, insects, and pathogens. The aerial spray program to control coca and poppy production in Colombia with the herbicide glyphosate is conducted with modern state-of-the-art aircraft and spray equipment. As a result of the use of best available spray and navigation technology, the likelihood of accidental off-target spraying is small and is estimated to be less than 1% of the total area sprayed. Estimated exposures in humans resulting from direct overspray, contact with treated foliage after reentry to fields, inhalation, diet, and drinking water were small and infrequent. Analyses of surface waters in five watersheds showed that, on most occasions, glyphosate was not present at measurable concentrations; only two samples had residues just above the method detection limit of 25 microg/L. Concentrations of glyphosate in air were predicted to be very small because of negligible volatility. Glyphosate in soils that are directly sprayed will be tightly bound and biologically unavailable and have no residual activity. Concentrations of glyphosate plus Cosmo-Flux will be relatively large in shallow surface waters that are directly oversprayed (maximum instantaneous concentration of 1,229microgAE/L in water 30cm deep); however, no information was available on the number of fields in close proximity to surface waters, and thus it was not possible to estimate the likelihood of such contamination. The formulation used in Colombia, a mixture of glyphosate and Cosmo-Flux, has low toxicity to mammals by all routes of exposure, although some temporary eye irritation may occur. Published epidemiological studies have not suggested a strong or consistent linkage between

Predictive ability of severe rainfall events over Catalonia for the year 2008

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Comellas

2011-07-01

Full Text Available This paper analyses the predictive ability of quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPF and the so-called "poor-man" rainfall probabilistic forecasts (RPF. With this aim, the full set of warnings issued by the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC for potentially-dangerous events due to severe precipitation has been analysed for the year 2008. For each of the 37 warnings, the QPFs obtained from the limited-area model MM5 have been verified against hourly precipitation data provided by the rain gauge network covering Catalonia (NE of Spain, managed by SMC. For a group of five selected case studies, a QPF comparison has been undertaken between the MM5 and COSMO-I7 limited-area models. Although MM5's predictive ability has been examined for these five cases by making use of satellite data, this paper only shows in detail the heavy precipitation event on the 9–10 May 2008. Finally, the "poor-man" rainfall probabilistic forecasts (RPF issued by SMC at regional scale have also been tested against hourly precipitation observations. Verification results show that for long events (>24 h MM5 tends to overestimate total precipitation, whereas for short events (≤24 h the model tends instead to underestimate precipitation. The analysis of the five case studies concludes that most of MM5's QPF errors are mainly triggered by very poor representation of some of its cloud microphysical species, particularly the cloud liquid water and, to a lesser degree, the water vapor. The models' performance comparison demonstrates that MM5 and COSMO-I7 are on the same level of QPF skill, at least for the intense-rainfall events dealt with in the five case studies, whilst the warnings based on RPF issued by SMC have proven fairly correct when tested against hourly observed precipitation for 6-h intervals and at a small region scale.

Throughout this study, we have only dealt with (SMC-issued warning episodes in order to analyse deterministic (MM5 and COSMO-I7

Ionic Liquid Design and Process Simulation for Decarbonization of Shale Gas

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Xinyan; Huang, Ying; Zhao, Yongsheng

2016-01-01

suitable ILs based on the COSMO-RS (conductor-like screening model for real solvents) model, an absorption mechanism, and experimental data. Besides the Henry's constant, the viscosity and toxicity of ILs should also be taken into consideration for an industrial decarbonization process. Furthermore......, process simulation was performed to evaluate the new IL-based decarbonization technology. Considering CO2 solubility, CO2/CH4 selectivity and toxicity and viscosity of ILs, [bmim][NTf2] has been screened to be the potential solvent among 90 classes of ILs. Based on reliable experimental data, a rigorous...

Problems of radio-nuclear risks and radioecological safety, caused by migration and contamination of seas and Arctic Ocean waters in Northern regions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koupri, K.

1997-01-01

Northern Russian radio-ecological and nuclear risks are connected with several objective factors: disposal, exploitation, supplying of the cycle of atomic military and ice-breaking fleets; disposal of enterprises and bases for maintenance of ships with nuclear-power installations (NPI) in Murmansk and Archangel regions; place the State Atomic Shipbuilding Center (RSASBC) enterprises in Archangel and partly in Murmansk regions; exploitation of the Kola Atomic Station (APS); functioning of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago nuclear range; functioning Russian Plesetsk cosmo-drome. Technical proposals and projects for radio-ecology in the North are outlined. (R.P.)

Explicit treatment of active-site waters enhances quantum mechanical/implicit solvent scoring: Inhibition of CDK2 by new pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines.

Science.gov (United States)

Hylsová, Michaela; Carbain, Benoit; Fanfrlík, Jindřich; Musilová, Lenka; Haldar, Susanta; Köprülüoğlu, Cemal; Ajani, Haresh; Brahmkshatriya, Pathik S; Jorda, Radek; Kryštof, Vladimír; Hobza, Pavel; Echalier, Aude; Paruch, Kamil; Lepšík, Martin

2017-01-27

We present comprehensive testing of solvent representation in quantum mechanics (QM)-based scoring of protein-ligand affinities. To this aim, we prepared 21 new inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) with the pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine core, whose activities spanned three orders of magnitude. The crystal structure of a potent inhibitor bound to the active CDK2/cyclin A complex revealed that the biphenyl substituent at position 5 of the pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine scaffold was located in a previously unexplored pocket and that six water molecules resided in the active site. Using molecular dynamics, protein-ligand interactions and active-site water H-bond networks as well as thermodynamics were probed. Thereafter, all the inhibitors were scored by the QM approach utilizing the COSMO implicit solvent model. Such a standard treatment failed to produce a correlation with the experiment (R 2  = 0.49). However, the addition of the active-site waters resulted in significant improvement (R 2  = 0.68). The activities of the compounds could thus be interpreted by taking into account their specific noncovalent interactions with CDK2 and the active-site waters. In summary, using a combination of several experimental and theoretical approaches we demonstrate that the inclusion of explicit solvent effects enhance QM/COSMO scoring to produce a reliable structure-activity relationship with physical insights. More generally, this approach is envisioned to contribute to increased accuracy of the computational design of novel inhibitors. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

International Observe the Moon Night: Eight Years of Engaging Scientists, Educators, and Citizen Enthusiasts in NASA Science

Science.gov (United States)

Buxner, Sanlyn; Jones, Andrea; Bleacher, Lora; Wasser, Molly; Day, Brian; Bakerman, Maya; Shaner, Andrew; Joseph, Emily; International Observe the Moon Night Coordinating Committee

2018-01-01

International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN) is an annual worldwide event, held in the fall, that celebrates lunar and planetary science and exploration. InOMN is sponsored by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in collaboration with NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), the NASA’s Heliophysics Education Consortium, CosmoQuest, Night Sky Network, and Science Festival Alliance. Other key partners include the NASA Museum Alliance, Night Sky Network, and NASA Solar System Ambassadors.In 2017 InOMN will be held on October 28th, and will engage thousands of people across the globe to observe and learn about the Moon and its connection to planetary science. This year, we have partnered with the NASA Science Mission Directorate total solar eclipse team to highlight InOMN as an opportunity to harness and sustain the interest and momentum in space science and observation following the August 21st eclipse. Since 2010, over 3,800 InOMN events have been registered engaging over 550,000 visitors worldwide. Most InOMN events are held in the United States, with strong representation from many other countries. We will present current results from the 2017 InOMN evaluation.Through InOMN, we annually provide resources such as event-specific Moon maps, presentations, advertising materials, and certificates of participation. Additionally, InOMN highlights partner resources such as online interfaces including Moon Trek (https://moontrek.jpl.nasa.gov) and CosmoQuest (https://cosmoquest.org/x/) to provide further opportunities to engage with NASA science.Learn more about InOMN at http://observethemoonnight.org.

Satellite-based assessment of grassland yields

Science.gov (United States)

Grant, K.; Siegmund, R.; Wagner, M.; Hartmann, S.

2015-04-01

Cutting date and frequency are important parameters determining grassland yields in addition to the effects of weather, soil conditions, plant composition and fertilisation. Because accurate and area-wide data of grassland yields are currently not available, cutting frequency can be used to estimate yields. In this project, a method to detect cutting dates via surface changes in radar images is developed. The combination of this method with a grassland yield model will result in more reliable and regional-wide numbers of grassland yields. For the test-phase of the monitoring project, a study area situated southeast of Munich, Germany, was chosen due to its high density of managed grassland. For determining grassland cutting robust amplitude change detection techniques are used evaluating radar amplitude or backscatter statistics before and after the cutting event. CosmoSkyMed and Sentinel-1A data were analysed. All detected cuts were verified according to in-situ measurements recorded in a GIS database. Although the SAR systems had various acquisition geometries, the amount of detected grassland cut was quite similar. Of 154 tested grassland plots, covering in total 436 ha, 116 and 111 cuts were detected using CosmoSkyMed and Sentinel-1A radar data, respectively. Further improvement of radar data processes as well as additional analyses with higher sample number and wider land surface coverage will follow for optimisation of the method and for validation and generalisation of the results of this feasibility study. The automation of this method will than allow for an area-wide and cost efficient cutting date detection service improving grassland yield models.

Thermophysical properties of binary mixtures of {l_brace}ionic liquid 2-hydroxy ethylammonium acetate + (water, methanol, or ethanol){r_brace}

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alvarez, Victor H. [School of Chemical Engineering, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), P.O. Box 6066, 13083-970 Campinas-SP (Brazil); Chemical Engineering Department, ETSE, University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), P.O. Box 15782, Santiago de Compostela (Spain); Mattedi, Silvana [Chemical Engineering Department, Polytechnic School, Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), 40210-630 Salvador-BA (Brazil); Martin-Pastor, Manuel [Unidade de Resonancia Magnetica, RIAIDT, edif. CACTUS, University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), P.O. Box 15706, Santiago de Compostela (Spain); Aznar, Martin [School of Chemical Engineering, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), P.O. Box 6066, 13083-970 Campinas-SP (Brazil); Iglesias, Miguel, E-mail: miguel.iglesias@usc.es [Chemical Engineering Department, ETSE, University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), P.O. Box 15782, Santiago de Compostela (Spain)

2011-07-15

Research highlights: > This paper reports the density and speed of sound data of binary mixtures {l_brace}2-hydroxy ethylammonium acetate + (water, or methanol, or ethanol){r_brace} measured between the temperatures (298.15 and 313.15) K at atmospheric pressure. > The aggregation, dynamic behavior, and hydrogen-bond network were studied using thermo-acoustic, X-ray, and NMR techniques. > The Peng-Robinson equation of state, coupled with the Wong-Sandler mixing rule using the COSMO-SAC model predicted the density of the solutions with relative mean deviations below than 3.0%. - Abstract: In this work, density and speed of sound data of binary mixtures of an ionic liquid consisting of {l_brace}2-hydroxy ethylammonium acetate (2-HEAA) + (water, methanol, or ethanol){r_brace} have been measured throughout the entire concentration range, from the temperature of (288.15 to 323.15) K at atmospheric pressure. The excess molar volumes, variations of the isentropic compressibility, the apparent molar volume, isentropic apparent molar compressibility, and thermal expansion coefficient were calculated from the experimental data. The excess molar volumes were negative throughout the whole composition range. Compressibility data in combination with low angle X-ray scattering and NMR measurements proved that the presence of micelles formed due to ion pair interaction above a critical concentration of the ionic liquid in the mixtures. The Peng-Robinson equation of state coupled with the Wong-Sandler mixing rule and COSMO-SAC model was used to predict densities and the calculated deviations were lower than 3%, for binary mixtures in all composition range.

Combining L- and X-Band SAR Interferometry to Assess Ground Displacements in Heterogeneous Coastal Environments: The Po River Delta and Venice Lagoon, Italy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luigi Tosi

2016-04-01

Full Text Available From leveling to SAR-based interferometry, the monitoring of land subsidence in coastal transitional environments significantly improved. However, the simultaneous assessment of the ground movements in these peculiar environments is still challenging. This is due to the presence of relatively small built-up zones and infrastructures, e.g., coastal infrastructures, bridges, and river embankments, within large natural or rural lands, e.g., river deltas, lagoons, and farmland. In this paper we present a multi-band SAR methodology to integrate COSMO-SkyMed and ALOS-PALSAR images. The method consists of a proper combination of the very high-resolution X-band Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI, which achieves high-density and precise measurements on single structures and constructed areas, with L-band Short-Baseline SAR Interferometry (SBAS, properly implemented to raise its effectiveness in retrieving information in vegetated and wet zones. The combined methodology is applied on the Po River Delta and Venice coastland, Northern Italy, using 16 ALOS-PALSAR and 31 COSMO-SkyMed images covering the period between 2007 and 2011. After a proper calibration of the single PSI and SBAS solution using available GPS records, the datasets have been combined at both the regional and local scales. The measured displacements range from ~0 mm/yr down to −35 mm/yr. The results reveal the variable pattern of the subsidence characterizing the more natural and rural environments without losing the accuracy in quantifying the sinking of urban areas and infrastructures. Moreover, they allow improving the interpretation of the natural and anthropogenic processes responsible for the ongoing subsidence.

Thermophysical properties of binary mixtures of {ionic liquid 2-hydroxy ethylammonium acetate + (water, methanol, or ethanol)}

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alvarez, Victor H.; Mattedi, Silvana; Martin-Pastor, Manuel; Aznar, Martin; Iglesias, Miguel

2011-01-01

Research highlights: → This paper reports the density and speed of sound data of binary mixtures {2-hydroxy ethylammonium acetate + (water, or methanol, or ethanol)} measured between the temperatures (298.15 and 313.15) K at atmospheric pressure. → The aggregation, dynamic behavior, and hydrogen-bond network were studied using thermo-acoustic, X-ray, and NMR techniques. → The Peng-Robinson equation of state, coupled with the Wong-Sandler mixing rule using the COSMO-SAC model predicted the density of the solutions with relative mean deviations below than 3.0%. - Abstract: In this work, density and speed of sound data of binary mixtures of an ionic liquid consisting of {2-hydroxy ethylammonium acetate (2-HEAA) + (water, methanol, or ethanol)} have been measured throughout the entire concentration range, from the temperature of (288.15 to 323.15) K at atmospheric pressure. The excess molar volumes, variations of the isentropic compressibility, the apparent molar volume, isentropic apparent molar compressibility, and thermal expansion coefficient were calculated from the experimental data. The excess molar volumes were negative throughout the whole composition range. Compressibility data in combination with low angle X-ray scattering and NMR measurements proved that the presence of micelles formed due to ion pair interaction above a critical concentration of the ionic liquid in the mixtures. The Peng-Robinson equation of state coupled with the Wong-Sandler mixing rule and COSMO-SAC model was used to predict densities and the calculated deviations were lower than 3%, for binary mixtures in all composition range.

Gli incerti confini del cosmo dai buchi neri alle macchine del tempo

CERN Document Server

De Felice, Fernando

2000-01-01

Il libro mostra come la gravitazione abbia un ruolo determinante nei fenomeni cosmici che più ci impressionano, da quelli relativamente vicini alla nostra esperienza (come la formazione delle stelle) a quelli meno intuibili (come la formazione dei buchi neri), alla struttura dell'Universo nel suo insieme. Oltre a spiegare, in modo qualitativo, concetti come la geometria dello spazio-tempo, la relatività del tempo e i coni di luce, l'autore formula un'ipotesi innovativa tendente a spiegare l'origine della gravitazione e con essa quella dei fenomeni circondati ancora da un alone di mistero: la materia oscura dell'Universo e il destino della materia alla fine del collasso gravitazionale.

[The religious convictions in the argumentation bioethics. Two different secularists perspectives: Sádaba and Habermas-Rawls].

Science.gov (United States)

Burgos Velasco, Juan Manuel

2008-01-01

This article analyses the position of two secularized theories on the role of religious beliefs in bioethical reasoning. The excluding laicism of Sádaba rejects the rationality of religious fact and extend a general suspicion about the bioethical reasoning of believer. Contrary, the open position of Habermas-Rawls considers reasonable religions as one of the typical comprehensive views of liberal State, encourage secularized citizens to value his contributions and urge to secular and, then, neutral, State not to impose to all citizens a secularized cosmo-vision. Only the second perspective put the bases for a fruitful and calm dialogue in the bioethical area.

Generation of scenarios from calibrated ensemble forecasts with a dual ensemble copula coupling approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ben Bouallègue, Zied; Heppelmann, Tobias; Theis, Susanne E.

2016-01-01

the original ensemble forecasts. Based on the assumption of error stationarity, parametric methods aim to fully describe the forecast dependence structures. In this study, the concept of ECC is combined with past data statistics in order to account for the autocorrelation of the forecast error. The new...... approach, called d-ECC, is applied to wind forecasts from the high resolution ensemble system COSMO-DE-EPS run operationally at the German weather service. Scenarios generated by ECC and d-ECC are compared and assessed in the form of time series by means of multivariate verification tools and in a product...

Nuclear interactions of cosmic rays with the Mars atmosphere and rocks according to data of the Mars-5 space vehicle

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Surkov, Yu A; Moskaleva, L P; Kharyukova, V P; Borodin, A M [AN SSSR, Moscow. Inst. Geokhimii i Analiticheskoj Khimii

1976-03-01

Gamma-spectra of Mars have been analyzed measured by the ''Mars-5'' interplanetary station at the altitude of approximately 200 km over the planet. A model spectrum of the Mars atmosphere gamma-radiation obtained earlier has been employed for obtaining cosmo-chemical information of the Mars rocks. In the energy range of gamma radiation Esub(..gamma..)(>=)2.6 MeV, in which no contribution of gamma radiation of natural radioisotopes is present, the best agreement has been obtained for the spectrum of gamma-radiation induced by cosmic rays in rocks of the type of earthly basalts.

An omnibus likelihood test statistic and its factorization for change detection in time series of polarimetric SAR data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg; Conradsen, Knut; Skriver, Henning

2016-01-01

Based on an omnibus likelihood ratio test statistic for the equality of several variance-covariance matrices following the complex Wishart distribution with an associated p-value and a factorization of this test statistic, change analysis in a short sequence of multilook, polarimetric SAR data...... in the covariance matrix representation is carried out. The omnibus test statistic and its factorization detect if and when change(s) occur. The technique is demonstrated on airborne EMISAR L-band data but may be applied to Sentinel-1, Cosmo-SkyMed, TerraSAR-X, ALOS and RadarSat-2 or other dual- and quad...

Change detection in a time series of polarimetric SAR data by an omnibus test statistic and its factorization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg; Conradsen, Knut; Skriver, Henning

2016-01-01

Based on an omnibus likelihood ratio test statistic for the equality of several variance-covariance matrices following the complex Wishart distribution with an associated p-value and a factorization of this test statistic, change analysis in a short sequence of multilook, polarimetric SAR data...... in the covariance matrix representation is carried out. The omnibus test statistic and its factorization detect if and when change(s) occur. The technique is demonstrated on airborne EMISAR L-band data but may be applied to Sentinel-1, Cosmo-SkyMed, TerraSAR-X, ALOS and RadarSat-2 or other dual- and quad...

Formalizing WS-BPEL and Higher Order Mobile Embedded Business Processes in the Bigraphical Programming Languages (BPL) Tool

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bundgaard, Mikkel; Glenstrup, Arne John; Hildebrandt, Thomas

is the starting point of an endeavor to provide a completely formalized and extensible business process engine within the Computer Supported Mobile Adaptive Business Processes (CosmoBiz) research project at the IT University of Copenhagen. Building upon the formalization of WS-BPEL we propose and formalize Home......BPEL, a higher-order WS-BPEL-like business process execution language where processes are first-class values that can be stored in variables, passed as messages, and activated as embedded sub-instances. A sub-instance is similar to a WS-BPEL scope, except that it can be dynamically frozen and stored as a process...

Parameterisation of sea and lake ice in numerical weather prediction models of the German Weather Service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dmitrii Mironov

2012-04-01

Full Text Available A bulk thermodynamic (no rheology sea-ice parameterisation scheme for use in numerical weather prediction (NWP is presented. The scheme is based on a self-similar parametric representation (assumed shape of the evolving temperature profile within the ice and on the integral heat budget of the ice slab. The scheme carries ordinary differential equations (in time for the ice surface temperature and the ice thickness. The proposed sea-ice scheme is implemented into the NWP models GME (global and COSMO (limited-area of the German Weather Service. In the present operational configuration, the horizontal distribution of the sea ice is governed by the data assimilation scheme, no fractional ice cover within the GME/COSMO grid box is considered, and the effect of snow above the ice is accounted for through an empirical temperature dependence of the ice surface albedo with respect to solar radiation. The lake ice is treated similarly to the sea ice, except that freeze-up and break-up of lakes occurs freely, independent of the data assimilation. The sea and lake ice schemes (the latter is a part of the fresh-water lake parameterisation scheme FLake show a satisfactory performance in GME and COSMO. The ice characteristics are not overly sensitive to the details of the treatment of heat transfer through the ice layer. This justifies the use of a simplified but computationally efficient bulk approach to model the ice thermodynamics in NWP, where the ice surface temperature is a major concern whereas details of the temperature distribution within the ice are of secondary importance. In contrast to the details of the heat transfer through the ice, the cloud cover is of decisive importance for the ice temperature as it controls the radiation energy budget at the ice surface. This is particularly true for winter, when the long-wave radiation dominates the surface energy budget. During summer, the surface energy budget is also sensitive to the grid-box mean ice

Assessment of current effect on waves in a semi-enclosed basin

Science.gov (United States)

Benetazzo, A.; Carniel, S.; Sclavo, M.; Bergamasco, A.

2012-04-01

The wave-current interaction process in the semi-enclosed Adriatic Sea is studied using the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport (COAWST) modeling system, which is used to exchange data fields between the ocean model ROMS (Regional Ocean Modeling System) and the wave model SWAN (Simulating WAves Nearshore). The 2-way data transfer between circulation and wave models is synchronous with ROMS providing current fields, free surface elevation, and bathymetry to SWAN. In particular, the 3-D current profiles are averaged using a formulation that integrates the near-surface velocity over a depth controlled by the spectral mean wave number. This coupling procedure is carried out up to coastal areas by means of an offline grid nesting. The parent grid covers the whole Adriatic Sea and has a horizontal resolution of 2.0 km, whereas the child grid resolution increases to 0.5 km but it is limited to the northern Adriatic Sea (Gulf of Venice), where the current effect on waves is investigated. The most frequent winds blowing on the Adriatic Sea are the so-called Bora and Sirocco which cause high waves in the Adriatic Sea, although Bora waves are generally fetch-limited. In fact, Bora winds blow orthogonal to the main basin axis (approximately aligned with the NW-SE direction), while Sirocco has large spatial scale being a southeasterly wind. For the numerical simulations, the meteorological forcings are provided by the operational meteorological model COSMO-I7, which is the Italian version of the COSMO Model, a mesoscale model developed in the framework of the COSMO Consortium. During the analysis period, the simulated wind, current and wave are compared with observations at the ISMAR oceanographic tower located off the Venice littoral. Wave heights and sea surface winds are also compared with satellite-derived data. To account for the variability of sea states during a storm, the expected maximum individual wave height in a sea storm with a given history is also

An assessment of wind energy potential in Iberia under climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Liberato, Margarida L. R.; Santos, João A.; Rochinha, Carlos; Reyers, Mark; Pinto, Joaquim G.

2015-04-01

Wind energy potential in Iberia is assessed for recent-past (1961-2000) and future (2041-2070) climates. For recent-past, a COSMO-CLM simulation driven by ERA-40 is used. COSMO-CLM simulations driven by ECHAM5 following the A1B scenario are used for future projections. A 2 MW rated power wind turbine is selected. Mean potentials, inter-annual variability and irregularity are discussed on annual/seasonal scales and on a grid resolution of 20 km. For detailed regional assessments eight target sites are considered. For recent-past conditions, the highest daily mean potentials are found in winter over northern and eastern Iberia, particularly on high-elevation or coastal regions. In northwestern Iberia, daily potentials frequently reach maximum wind energy output (50 MWh day-1), particularly in winter. Southern Andalucía reveals high potentials throughout the year, whereas the Ebro valley and central-western coast show high potentials in summer. The irregularity in annual potentials is moderate (2 MWh day-1). The northward displacement of North Atlantic westerly winds (autumn-spring) and the strengthening of easterly flows (summer) are key drivers of future projections. Santos, J.A.; Rochinha, C.; Liberato, M.L.R.; Reyers, M.; Pinto, J.G. (2015) Projected changes in wind energy potentials over Iberia. Renewable Energy, 75, 1: 68-80. doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2014.09.026 Acknowledgements: This work was partially supported by FEDER (Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional) funds through the COMPETE (Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade) and by national funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal) under project STORMEx FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-019524 (PTDC/AAC-CLI/121339/2010).

Near-surface wind variability over the broader Adriatic region: insights from an ensemble of regional climate models

Science.gov (United States)

Belušić, Andreina; Prtenjak, Maja Telišman; Güttler, Ivan; Ban, Nikolina; Leutwyler, David; Schär, Christoph

2018-06-01

Over the past few decades the horizontal resolution of regional climate models (RCMs) has steadily increased, leading to a better representation of small-scale topographic features and more details in simulating dynamical aspects, especially in coastal regions and over complex terrain. Due to its complex terrain, the broader Adriatic region represents a major challenge to state-of-the-art RCMs in simulating local wind systems realistically. The objective of this study is to identify the added value in near-surface wind due to the refined grid spacing of RCMs. For this purpose, we use a multi-model ensemble composed of CORDEX regional climate simulations at 0.11° and 0.44° grid spacing, forced by the ERA-Interim reanalysis, a COSMO convection-parameterizing simulation at 0.11° and a COSMO convection-resolving simulation at 0.02° grid spacing. Surface station observations from this region and satellite QuikSCAT data over the Adriatic Sea have been compared against daily output obtained from the available simulations. Both day-to-day wind and its frequency distribution are examined. The results indicate that the 0.44° RCMs rarely outperform ERA-Interim reanalysis, while the performance of the high-resolution simulations surpasses that of ERA-Interim. We also disclose that refining the grid spacing to a few km is needed to properly capture the small-scale wind systems. Finally, we show that the simulations frequently yield the accurate angle of local wind regimes, such as for the Bora flow, but overestimate the associated wind magnitude. Finally, spectral analysis shows good agreement between measurements and simulations, indicating the correct temporal variability of the wind speed.

Assessing uncertainties in flood forecasts for decision making: prototype of an operational flood management system integrating ensemble predictions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Dietrich

2009-08-01

Full Text Available Ensemble forecasts aim at framing the uncertainties of the potential future development of the hydro-meteorological situation. A probabilistic evaluation can be used to communicate forecast uncertainty to decision makers. Here an operational system for ensemble based flood forecasting is presented, which combines forecasts from the European COSMO-LEPS, SRNWP-PEPS and COSMO-DE prediction systems. A multi-model lagged average super-ensemble is generated by recombining members from different runs of these meteorological forecast systems. A subset of the super-ensemble is selected based on a priori model weights, which are obtained from ensemble calibration. Flood forecasts are simulated by the conceptual rainfall-runoff-model ArcEGMO. Parameter uncertainty of the model is represented by a parameter ensemble, which is a priori generated from a comprehensive uncertainty analysis during model calibration. The use of a computationally efficient hydrological model within a flood management system allows us to compute the hydro-meteorological model chain for all members of the sub-ensemble. The model chain is not re-computed before new ensemble forecasts are available, but the probabilistic assessment of the output is updated when new information from deterministic short range forecasts or from assimilation of measured data becomes available. For hydraulic modelling, with the desired result of a probabilistic inundation map with high spatial resolution, a replacement model can help to overcome computational limitations. A prototype of the developed framework has been applied for a case study in the Mulde river basin. However these techniques, in particular the probabilistic assessment and the derivation of decision rules are still in their infancy. Further research is necessary and promising.

Discrete and continuum modeling of solvent effects in a twisted intramolecular charge transfer system: The 4-N,N-dimethylaminobenzonitrile (DMABN) molecule.

Science.gov (United States)

Modesto-Costa, Lucas; Borges, Itamar

2018-08-05

The 4-N,N-dimethylaminobenzonitrile (DMABN) molecule is a prototypical system displaying twisted intramolecular (TICT) charge transfer effects. The ground and the first four electronic excited states (S 1 -S 4 ) in gas phase and upon solvation were studied. Charge transfer values as function of the torsion angle between the donor group (dimethylamine) and the acceptor moiety (benzonitrile) were explicitly computed. Potential energy curves were also obtained. The algebraic diagrammatic construction method at the second-order [ADC(2)] ab initio wave function was employed. Three solvents of increased polarities (benzene, DMSO and water) were investigated using discrete (average solvent electrostatic configuration - ASEC) and continuum (conductor-like screening model - COSMO) models. The results for the S 3 and S 4 excited states and the S 1 -S 4 charge transfer curves were not previously available in the literature. Electronic gas phase and solvent vertical spectra are in good agreement with previous theoretical and experimental results. In the twisted (90°) geometry the optical oscillator strengths have negligible values even for the S 2 bright state. Potential energy curves show two distinct pairs of curves intersecting at decreasing angles or not crossing in the more polar solvents. Charge transfer and electric dipole values allowed the rationalization of these results. The former effects are mostly independent of the solvent model and polarity. Although COSMO and ASEC solvent models mostly lead to similar results, there is an important difference: some crossings of the excitation energy curves appear only in the ASEC solvation model, which has important implications to the photochemistry of DMABN. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Adsorption of volatile sulphur compounds onto modified activated carbons: Effect of oxygen functional groups

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vega, Esther; Lemus, Jesús; Anfruns, Alba; Gonzalez-Olmos, Rafael; Palomar, José; Martin, María J.

2013-01-01

Highlights: • HNO 3 oxidation incorporates a higher amount of functionalities than O 3 oxidation. • The loss of porosity is compensated by the massive incorporation of oxygen groups. • HNO 3 oxidation increases OH groups in AC and the ETM and DMS adsorption capacities. • The oxygen functional groups in the AC surface did not affect the DMDS adsorption. • COSMO-RS predicts the important role of OH groups for VSC adsorption. -- Abstract: The effect of physical and chemical properties of activated carbon (AC) on the adsorption of ethyl mercaptan, dimethyl sulphide and dimethyl disulphide was investigated by treating a commercial AC with nitric acid and ozone. The chemical properties of ACs were characterised by temperature programme desorption and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. AC treated with nitric acid presented a larger amount of oxygen functional groups than materials oxidised with ozone. This enrichment allowed a significant improvement on adsorption capacities for ethyl mercaptan and dimethyl sulphide but not for dimethyl disulphide. In order to gain a deeper knowledge on the effect of the surface chemistry of AC on the adsorption of volatile sulphur compounds, the quantum-chemical COSMO-RS method was used to simulate the interactions between AC surface groups and the studied volatile sulphur compounds. In agreement with experimental data, this model predicted a greater affinity of dimethyl disulphide towards AC, unaffected by the incorporation of oxygen functional groups in the surface. Moreover, the model pointed out to an increase of the adsorption capacity of AC by the incorporation of hydroxyl functional groups in the case of ethyl mercaptan and dimethyl sulphide due to the hydrogen bond interactions

Adsorption of volatile sulphur compounds onto modified activated carbons: Effect of oxygen functional groups

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vega, Esther, E-mail: esther@lequia.udg.cat [LEQUIA, Institute of the Environment, University of Girona, Campus Montilivi, Girona, Catalonia E-17071 (Spain); Lemus, Jesús [Universidad de Madrid, Sección de Ingeniería Química, Cantoblanco, Madrid E-28049 (Spain); Anfruns, Alba; Gonzalez-Olmos, Rafael [LEQUIA, Institute of the Environment, University of Girona, Campus Montilivi, Girona, Catalonia E-17071 (Spain); Palomar, José [Universidad de Madrid, Sección de Ingeniería Química, Cantoblanco, Madrid E-28049 (Spain); Martin, María J. [LEQUIA, Institute of the Environment, University of Girona, Campus Montilivi, Girona, Catalonia E-17071 (Spain)

2013-08-15

Highlights: • HNO{sub 3} oxidation incorporates a higher amount of functionalities than O{sub 3} oxidation. • The loss of porosity is compensated by the massive incorporation of oxygen groups. • HNO{sub 3} oxidation increases OH groups in AC and the ETM and DMS adsorption capacities. • The oxygen functional groups in the AC surface did not affect the DMDS adsorption. • COSMO-RS predicts the important role of OH groups for VSC adsorption. -- Abstract: The effect of physical and chemical properties of activated carbon (AC) on the adsorption of ethyl mercaptan, dimethyl sulphide and dimethyl disulphide was investigated by treating a commercial AC with nitric acid and ozone. The chemical properties of ACs were characterised by temperature programme desorption and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. AC treated with nitric acid presented a larger amount of oxygen functional groups than materials oxidised with ozone. This enrichment allowed a significant improvement on adsorption capacities for ethyl mercaptan and dimethyl sulphide but not for dimethyl disulphide. In order to gain a deeper knowledge on the effect of the surface chemistry of AC on the adsorption of volatile sulphur compounds, the quantum-chemical COSMO-RS method was used to simulate the interactions between AC surface groups and the studied volatile sulphur compounds. In agreement with experimental data, this model predicted a greater affinity of dimethyl disulphide towards AC, unaffected by the incorporation of oxygen functional groups in the surface. Moreover, the model pointed out to an increase of the adsorption capacity of AC by the incorporation of hydroxyl functional groups in the case of ethyl mercaptan and dimethyl sulphide due to the hydrogen bond interactions.

Combining frozen-density embedding with the conductor-like screening model using Lagrangian techniques for response properties.

Science.gov (United States)

Schieschke, Nils; Di Remigio, Roberto; Frediani, Luca; Heuser, Johannes; Höfener, Sebastian

2017-07-15

We present the explicit derivation of an approach to the multiscale description of molecules in complex environments that combines frozen-density embedding (FDE) with continuum solvation models, in particular the conductor-like screening model (COSMO). FDE provides an explicit atomistic description of molecule-environment interactions at reduced computational cost, while the outer continuum layer accounts for the effect of long-range isotropic electrostatic interactions. Our treatment is based on a variational Lagrangian framework, enabling rigorous derivations of ground- and excited-state response properties. As an example of the flexibility of the theoretical framework, we derive and discuss FDE + COSMO analytical molecular gradients for excited states within the Tamm-Dancoff approximation (TDA) and for ground states within second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) and a second-order approximate coupled cluster with singles and doubles (CC2). It is shown how this method can be used to describe vertical electronic excitation (VEE) energies and Stokes shifts for uracil in water and carbostyril in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), respectively. In addition, VEEs for some simplified protein models are computed, illustrating the performance of this method when applied to larger systems. The interaction terms between the FDE subsystem densities and the continuum can influence excitation energies up to 0.3 eV and, thus, cannot be neglected for general applications. We find that the net influence of the continuum in presence of the first FDE shell on the excitation energy amounts to about 0.05 eV for the cases investigated. The present work is an important step toward rigorously derived ab initio multilayer and multiscale modeling approaches. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Late-time acceleration with steep exponential potentials

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shahalam, M. [Zhejiang University of Technology, Institute for Advanced Physics and Mathematics, Hangzhou (China); Yang, Weiqiang [Liaoning Normal University, Department of Physics, Dalian (China); Myrzakulov, R. [Eurasian National University, Department of General and Theoretical Physics, Eurasian International Center for Theoretical Physics, Astana (Kazakhstan); Wang, Anzhong [Zhejiang University of Technology, Institute for Advanced Physics and Mathematics, Hangzhou (China); Baylor University, GCAP-CASPER, Department of Physics, Waco, TX (United States)

2017-12-15

In this letter, we study the cosmological dynamics of steeper potential than exponential. Our analysis shows that a simple extension of an exponential potential allows to capture late-time cosmic acceleration and retain the tracker behavior. We also perform statefinder and Om diagnostics to distinguish dark energy models among themselves and with ΛCDM. In addition, to put the observational constraints on the model parameters, we modify the publicly available CosmoMC code and use an integrated data base of baryon acoustic oscillation, latest Type Ia supernova from Joint Light Curves sample and the local Hubble constant value measured by the Hubble Space Telescope. (orig.)

Late-time acceleration with steep exponential potentials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shahalam, M.; Yang, Weiqiang; Myrzakulov, R.; Wang, Anzhong

2017-01-01

In this letter, we study the cosmological dynamics of steeper potential than exponential. Our analysis shows that a simple extension of an exponential potential allows to capture late-time cosmic acceleration and retain the tracker behavior. We also perform statefinder and Om diagnostics to distinguish dark energy models among themselves and with ΛCDM. In addition, to put the observational constraints on the model parameters, we modify the publicly available CosmoMC code and use an integrated data base of baryon acoustic oscillation, latest Type Ia supernova from Joint Light Curves sample and the local Hubble constant value measured by the Hubble Space Telescope. (orig.)

Modern trends in activation analysis. Vols. 1 and 2

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Henkelmann, R; Kim, J I; Lux, F; Staerk, H; Zeisler, R [eds.

1976-01-01

Two volumes contain 164 special papers presented at the international conference on activation analysis, including five plenary lectures which give a general survey of modern trends and possibilities of applications in fields where activation analysis is capable of solving problems which are hitherto unsolved. The emphasis during this meeting is put on applications, though other subjects (e.g. sampling, homogeneity of samples, instrumental development, computer evaluation of gamma spectra, comparisons with other analytical methods) are also dealt with. The proceedings contain lectures on applications in the fields of biology, biomedicine, archaeology, the arts, forensic sciences, environmental research, ecology, materials research, geo- and cosmo-sciences, and other individual applications.

Turning big bang into big bounce: II. Quantum dynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Malkiewicz, Przemyslaw; Piechocki, Wlodzimierz, E-mail: pmalk@fuw.edu.p, E-mail: piech@fuw.edu.p [Theoretical Physics Department, Institute for Nuclear Studies, Hoza 69, 00-681 Warsaw (Poland)

2010-11-21

We analyze the big bounce transition of the quantum Friedmann-Robertson-Walker model in the setting of the nonstandard loop quantum cosmology (LQC). Elementary observables are used to quantize composite observables. The spectrum of the energy density operator is bounded and continuous. The spectrum of the volume operator is bounded from below and discrete. It has equally distant levels defining a quantum of the volume. The discreteness may imply a foamy structure of spacetime at a semiclassical level which may be detected in astro-cosmo observations. The nonstandard LQC method has a free parameter that should be fixed in some way to specify the big bounce transition.

/sup 187/Re-/sup 187/Os systematics in meteorites and cosmo-chemical consequences

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Luck, J M; Allegre, C J [Paris-6 Univ., 75 (France). Inst. de Physique du Globe

1983-03-10

Using a recently published technique (Luck et al. Nature; 283:256 (1980)) based on isotope dilution, /sup 187/Re-/sup 187/Os systematics in meteorites have been measured with an improved analytical procedure and a recalibrated osmium spike. Using previous results, corrected for this change in spike calibration, in addition to the present data from analyses of irons and the iron phases of 10 chondrites and of one mesosiderite, a revised and more precise value is proposed for the rhenium decay constant, together with a new estimate for the age of the Galaxy.

Tambos de Filosofía Indígenas: la perspectiva de la nosotridad

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guillermo Meza Salcedo

2017-08-01

Full Text Available La existencia de una filosofía al interior de las culturas ancestrales en América Latina ha sido una cuestión hasta hoy debatida, desde que se planteó la interrogante sobre el filosofar de estos pueblos originarios. La colonización epistemológica de la cultura occidental ha llevado a invisibilizar y/o negar la existencia de otros saberes y formas de vivir la vida de diferentes comunidades indígenas. La filosofía como ejercicio racional para responder a los grandes interrogantes de la vida, no es sólo una, no tiene patria, ni época, sino que son múltiples, multiculturales, y algunas de ellas comunales. Entre los indígenas hay una cosmovivencia y un pensamiento nosótrico que puede mejorar la calidad de vida en todos los ámbitos de la misma, que en esencia son relacionales. Dos tópicos darán la pauta en este trabajo: primero el de las cosmovisiones y filosofías amerindias y en segundo lugar el de la nosotridad entre los incas y mayas-tojolabales. Palabras clave: filosofía indígena, nosotridad, cosmovisión, América Latina. Tambos das filosofias indígena: a perspectiva da nosotridad Resumo A existência de uma filosofia dentro das culturas ancestrais da América Latina tem sido uma questão amplamente discutida até os últimos dias, desde que a questão sobre o filosofar dessas populações aumentou. A colonização epistemológica da cultura ocidental levou à negação da existência de outros meios de conhecimento e formas diferentes de viver a vida nas comunidades indígenas. Filosofia como exercício racional para responder a grandes questões na vida, não é apenas uma, não tem pátria ou tempo, mas são múltiplas, multiculturais e algumas delas são comunais. Entre a população indígena há uma experiência da cosmo -cosmovivencia- e um pensamento nosotrico que podem melhorar a qualidade de vida em todos os aspectos, que em essência são relacionais.. Dois tópicos principais são o ponto de partida deste trabalho

Evaluation of a High-Resolution Regional Reanalysis for Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Ohlwein, C.; Wahl, S.; Keller, J. D.; Bollmeyer, C.

2014-12-01

Reanalyses gain more and more importance as a source of meteorological information for many purposes and applications. Several global reanalyses projects (e.g., ERA, MERRA, CSFR, JMA9) produce and verify these data sets to provide time series as long as possible combined with a high data quality. Due to a spatial resolution down to 50-70km and 3-hourly temporal output, they are not suitable for small scale problems (e.g., regional climate assessment, meso-scale NWP verification, input for subsequent models such as river runoff simulations). The implementation of regional reanalyses based on a limited area model along with a data assimilation scheme is able to generate reanalysis data sets with high spatio-temporal resolution. Within the Hans-Ertel-Centre for Weather Research (HErZ), the climate monitoring branch concentrates efforts on the assessment and analysis of regional climate in Germany and Europe. In joint cooperation with DWD (German Meteorological Service), a high-resolution reanalysis system based on the COSMO model has been developed. The regional reanalysis for Europe matches the domain of the CORDEX EURO-11 specifications, albeit at a higher spatial resolution, i.e., 0.055° (6km) instead of 0.11° (12km) and comprises the assimilation of observational data using the existing nudging scheme of COSMO complemented by a special soil moisture analysis with boundary conditions provided by ERA-Interim data. The reanalysis data set covers 6 years (2007-2012) and is currently extended to 16 years. Extensive evaluation of the reanalysis is performed using independent observations with special emphasis on precipitation and high-impact weather situations indicating a better representation of small scale variability. Further, the evaluation shows an added value of the regional reanalysis with respect to the forcing ERA Interim reanalysis and compared to a pure high-resolution dynamical downscaling approach without data assimilation.

A high-resolution regional reanalysis for Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Ohlwein, C.

2015-12-01

Reanalyses gain more and more importance as a source of meteorological information for many purposes and applications. Several global reanalyses projects (e.g., ERA, MERRA, CSFR, JMA9) produce and verify these data sets to provide time series as long as possible combined with a high data quality. Due to a spatial resolution down to 50-70km and 3-hourly temporal output, they are not suitable for small scale problems (e.g., regional climate assessment, meso-scale NWP verification, input for subsequent models such as river runoff simulations). The implementation of regional reanalyses based on a limited area model along with a data assimilation scheme is able to generate reanalysis data sets with high spatio-temporal resolution. Within the Hans-Ertel-Centre for Weather Research (HErZ), the climate monitoring branch concentrates efforts on the assessment and analysis of regional climate in Germany and Europe. In joint cooperation with DWD (German Meteorological Service), a high-resolution reanalysis system based on the COSMO model has been developed. The regional reanalysis for Europe matches the domain of the CORDEX EURO-11 specifications, albeit at a higher spatial resolution, i.e., 0.055° (6km) instead of 0.11° (12km) and comprises the assimilation of observational data using the existing nudging scheme of COSMO complemented by a special soil moisture analysis with boundary conditions provided by ERA-Interim data. The reanalysis data set covers the past 20 years. Extensive evaluation of the reanalysis is performed using independent observations with special emphasis on precipitation and high-impact weather situations indicating a better representation of small scale variability. Further, the evaluation shows an added value of the regional reanalysis with respect to the forcing ERA Interim reanalysis and compared to a pure high-resolution dynamical downscaling approach without data assimilation.

Analysis of X-Band Very High Resolution Persistent Scatterer Interferometry Data Over Urban Areas

Science.gov (United States)

Crosetto, M.; Monserrat, O.; Cuevas-González, M.; Devanthéry, N.; Crippa, B.

2013-04-01

Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) is a satellite-based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) remote sensing technique used to measure and monitor land deformation from a stack of interferometric SAR images. This work concerns X-band PSI and, in particular, PSI based on very high resolution (VHR) StripMap CosmoSkyMed and TerraSAR-X SAR imagery. In fact, it mainly focuses on the technical aspects of deformation measurement and monitoring over urban areas. A key technical aspect analysed in this paper is the thermal expansion component of PSI observations, which is a result of temperature differences in the imaged area between SAR acquisitions. This component of PSI observations is particularly important in the urban environment. This is an interesting feature of PSI, which can be surely used to illustrate the high sensitivity of X-band PSI to very subtle displacements. Thermal expansion can have a strong impact on the PSI products, especially on the deformation velocity maps and deformation time series, if not properly handled during the PSI data processing and analysis, and a comprehensive discussion of this aspect will be provided in this paper. The importance of thermal expansion is related to the fact that the PSI analyses are often performed using limited stacks of images, which may cover a limited time period, e.g. several months only. These two factors (limited number of images and short period) make the impact of a non-modelled thermal expansion particularly critical. This issue will be illustrated considering different case studies based on TerraSAR-X and CosmoSkyMed PSI data. Besides, an extended PSI model which alleviates this problem will be described and case studies from the Barcelona metropolitan area will demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.

ANALYSIS OF X-BAND VERY HIGH RESOLUTION PERSISTENT SCATTERER INTERFEROMETRY DATA OVER URBAN AREAS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Crosetto

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI is a satellite-based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR remote sensing technique used to measure and monitor land deformation from a stack of interferometric SAR images. This work concerns X-band PSI and, in particular, PSI based on very high resolution (VHR StripMap CosmoSkyMed and TerraSAR-X SAR imagery. In fact, it mainly focuses on the technical aspects of deformation measurement and monitoring over urban areas. A key technical aspect analysed in this paper is the thermal expansion component of PSI observations, which is a result of temperature differences in the imaged area between SAR acquisitions. This component of PSI observations is particularly important in the urban environment. This is an interesting feature of PSI, which can be surely used to illustrate the high sensitivity of X-band PSI to very subtle displacements. Thermal expansion can have a strong impact on the PSI products, especially on the deformation velocity maps and deformation time series, if not properly handled during the PSI data processing and analysis, and a comprehensive discussion of this aspect will be provided in this paper. The importance of thermal expansion is related to the fact that the PSI analyses are often performed using limited stacks of images, which may cover a limited time period, e.g. several months only. These two factors (limited number of images and short period make the impact of a non-modelled thermal expansion particularly critical. This issue will be illustrated considering different case studies based on TerraSAR-X and CosmoSkyMed PSI data. Besides, an extended PSI model which alleviates this problem will be described and case studies from the Barcelona metropolitan area will demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.

The corrosive influence of chloride ions preference adsorption on α-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} (0 0 0 1) surface

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Chuan-Hui, E-mail: zhangch@ustb.edu.cn; Liu, Min; Jin, Ying; Sun, Dong-Bai, E-mail: dbsun@mater.ustb.edu.cn

2015-08-30

Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • The preference adsorption and interaction of Cl{sup −} at increasing monolayer coverage on Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} in solution environment are modeling by DFT with COSMO. • A redefinition critical one plane monolayer of Cl{sup −} is 3/7, and the adsorption energy decrease in three steps, each adsorption energy step only relate to the adsorption site and the morphology. • The weaker interaction between Cl{sup −} and Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} surface but stronger interactions between three Cl{sup −} make the electrons uniformly occupy on the energy levels of three ions. - Abstract: Conductor-like screening model (COSMO), Periodic DFT calculations have been performed on a Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} surface to model the influence of preference adsorption and interaction of chloride ions at increasing monolayer coverage on undefective passive film on Aluminum in solution environment. The results evidence that the critical monolayer of Cl{sup −} is 3/7, which is redefined. With increasing Cl{sup −} adsorption, both the first and second Cl{sup −} move from Al(1) atop and bridge10 sites to O(5) sites, suggesting that the weaker interaction between Cl{sup −} and Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} surface but stronger interactions between three ions make the electrons uniformly occupy on the energy levels of them. More calculations shows that the preference adsorption sites of Cl{sup −} are independent of the surface area of oxide, and the adsorption energy decrease in three steps, each adsorption energy step only relate to the adsorption site and the morphology. On undefective oxide film, low coverage Cl{sup −} adsorption would restrain surface breakdown to happen which is consistent with the experiment results.

Microphysical processing of aerosol particles in orographic clouds

Science.gov (United States)

Pousse-Nottelmann, S.; Zubler, E. M.; Lohmann, U.

2015-08-01

An explicit and detailed treatment of cloud-borne particles allowing for the consideration of aerosol cycling in clouds has been implemented into COSMO-Model, the regional weather forecast and climate model of the Consortium for Small-scale Modeling (COSMO). The effects of aerosol scavenging, cloud microphysical processing and regeneration upon cloud evaporation on the aerosol population and on subsequent cloud formation are investigated. For this, two-dimensional idealized simulations of moist flow over two bell-shaped mountains were carried out varying the treatment of aerosol scavenging and regeneration processes for a warm-phase and a mixed-phase orographic cloud. The results allowed us to identify different aerosol cycling mechanisms. In the simulated non-precipitating warm-phase cloud, aerosol mass is incorporated into cloud droplets by activation scavenging and released back to the atmosphere upon cloud droplet evaporation. In the mixed-phase cloud, a first cycle comprises cloud droplet activation and evaporation via the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen (WBF) process. A second cycle includes below-cloud scavenging by precipitating snow particles and snow sublimation and is connected to the first cycle via the riming process which transfers aerosol mass from cloud droplets to snowflakes. In the simulated mixed-phase cloud, only a negligible part of the total aerosol mass is incorporated into ice crystals. Sedimenting snowflakes reaching the surface remove aerosol mass from the atmosphere. The results show that aerosol processing and regeneration lead to a vertical redistribution of aerosol mass and number. Thereby, the processes impact the total aerosol number and mass and additionally alter the shape of the aerosol size distributions by enhancing the internally mixed/soluble Aitken and accumulation mode and generating coarse-mode particles. Concerning subsequent cloud formation at the second mountain, accounting for aerosol processing and regeneration increases

Microphysical processing of aerosol particles in orographic clouds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Pousse-Nottelmann

2015-08-01

aerosol cycling in clouds has been implemented into COSMO-Model, the regional weather forecast and climate model of the Consortium for Small-scale Modeling (COSMO. The effects of aerosol scavenging, cloud microphysical processing and regeneration upon cloud evaporation on the aerosol population and on subsequent cloud formation are investigated. For this, two-dimensional idealized simulations of moist flow over two bell-shaped mountains were carried out varying the treatment of aerosol scavenging and regeneration processes for a warm-phase and a mixed-phase orographic cloud. The results allowed us to identify different aerosol cycling mechanisms. In the simulated non-precipitating warm-phase cloud, aerosol mass is incorporated into cloud droplets by activation scavenging and released back to the atmosphere upon cloud droplet evaporation. In the mixed-phase cloud, a first cycle comprises cloud droplet activation and evaporation via the Wegener–Bergeron–Findeisen (WBF process. A second cycle includes below-cloud scavenging by precipitating snow particles and snow sublimation and is connected to the first cycle via the riming process which transfers aerosol mass from cloud droplets to snowflakes. In the simulated mixed-phase cloud, only a negligible part of the total aerosol mass is incorporated into ice crystals. Sedimenting snowflakes reaching the surface remove aerosol mass from the atmosphere. The results show that aerosol processing and regeneration lead to a vertical redistribution of aerosol mass and number. Thereby, the processes impact the total aerosol number and mass and additionally alter the shape of the aerosol size distributions by enhancing the internally mixed/soluble Aitken and accumulation mode and generating coarse-mode particles. Concerning subsequent cloud formation at the second mountain, accounting for aerosol processing and regeneration increases the cloud droplet number concentration with possible implications for the ice crystal number

COMODIFICATION OF MAENGKET DANCE IN MINAHASA, NORTH SULAWESI IN THE GLOBALIZATION ERA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivan Ivan

2012-11-01

Full Text Available This research explores Comodification of Maengket Dance in Minahasa (TariMaengket hereon abbreviated to TM in the globalization era. It reveals the empiricalfield reality related to comodification. The influence of global culture in Minahasa hasbeen responsible for the cultural practices of capitalism such as the emergence of culturalindustry which refers to the comodification of cultural forms as amusement industry,mass culture, popular culture and culture of consumerism. The TM has been comodified,commercialized, touristified in such a way that new meanings and forms are created.This research is focused on (1 form of the comodification of the TM inMinahasa, North Sulawesi in the globalization area; (2 the factors which have beenresponsible for the comodification of the TM Minahasa, North Sulawesi, and (3 theeffects and meanings of the comodification of the TM in Minahasa, North Sulawesi in theglobalization era.The related data were collected through interview, observation and documentationand they were descriptively, qualitatively and interpretatively analyzed. The data sourcesare some key informants and some other ordinary ones. The purposive method wasemployed to interview them. The theories used are the theory of comodification(Fairlough, the theory of popular culture (Williams and Agger, the theory ofdeconstruction (Derrida and the theory of representation (Hall.The research findings show that comodifation has tended to the shift of the TMvalues following the pattern of arts organized by the ruler and entrepreneur, the pattern ofdistribution carried out through the inter group or institutional power relationship, andthat the form of comodification has taken place from the process of production to thecommunity of consumers which have been conditioned. It has also been found out thatthe factors of the supporting community, the creativity of the artists, Christianization,industry of culture, mass media and tourism have been responsible for

Thermodynamic study of (alkyl esters + {alpha},{omega}-alkyl dihalides) VII. H{sub m}{sup E} and V{sub m}{sup E} for 20 binary mixtures {l_brace}xC{sub u-1}H{sub 2u-1}CO{sub 2}C{sub 3}H{sub 7} + (1 - x){alpha},{omega}-ClCH{sub 2}(CH{sub 2}){sub v-2}CH{sub 2}Cl{r_brace}, where u = 1 to 4, {alpha} = 1 and v = {omega} = 2 to 6. An analysis of behavior using the COSMO-RS methodology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marrero, E. [Laboratorio de Termodinamica y Fisicoquimica de Fluidos (www.thermo.ulpgc.es), Parque Cientifico-Tecnologico, Campus Universitario de Tafira, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35071 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands (Spain); Ortega, J. [Laboratorio de Termodinamica y Fisicoquimica de Fluidos (www.thermo.ulpgc.es), Parque Cientifico-Tecnologico, Campus Universitario de Tafira, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35071 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands (Spain)], E-mail: jortega@dip.ulpgc.es; Palomar, J. [Seccion de Ingenieria Quimica, Dpto. de Quimica-Fisica Aplicada, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid (Spain)

2009-03-15

Summary: Excess enthalpies H{sub m}{sup E} and excess volumes V{sub m}{sup E} obtained at a temperature of 298.15 K and atmospheric pressure are presented for a set of 20 binary mixtures comprised of the first four propyl esters, C{sub u-1}H{sub 2u-1}COOC{sub 3}H{sub 7} (u = 1 to 4), and five {alpha},{omega}-dichloroalkanes, ClCH{sub 2}(CH{sub 2}){sub v-2}CH{sub 2}Cl (v = 2 to 6). All the mixtures are exothermic except for those corresponding to propyl methanoate with v {>=} 4. The V{sub m}{sup E} are positive in most mixtures except for those where v = 4, 5, 6, for V{sub m}{sup E}<0. There is a regular rise in H{sub m}{sup E} with v, while the increase in u produces a greater exothermicity in the mixing process, which becomes inverted for propyl butanoate. The variation in V{sub m}{sup E} with the chain length of the compounds of the mixtures studied is not regular since both the enthalpic and the volumetric effects are due to interactions of different nature, positive and negative. Interpretation of the behavior was assisted by applying the quantum-chemistry method COSMO-RS. This method describes qualitatively and quantitatively the contribution of the different types of interactions, electrostatic, van der Waals, and those due to the (Cl, Cl) bond in the dihalide, and the influence of the ester and dichloroalkane chains. This information was also useful to adequately modify the application of the UNIFAC group contribution model, proposing parameters for the Cl, Cl/carboxylate interaction that vary with the chain length of the compounds involved. With this modification, the results estimated by UNIFAC model can be considered good.

Scalar Casimir energies in M4≥/sup N/ for even N

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kantowski, R.; Milton, K.A.

1987-01-01

We construct a Green's-function formalism for computing vacuum-fluctuation energies of scalar fields in 4+N dimensions, where the extra N dimensions are compactified into a hypersphere S/sup N/ of radius a. In all cases a leading cosmological energy term u/sub cosmo/proportionala/sup N//b/sup 4+N/ results. Here b is an ultraviolet cutoff at the Planck scale. In all cases an unambiguous Casimir energy is computed. For odd N these energies agree with those calculated by Candelas and Weinberg. For even N, the Casimir energy is logarithmically divergent: u/sub Casimir/--(α/sub N//a 4 )ln(a/b). The coefficients α/sub N/ are computed in terms of Bernoulli numbers

Assay of /sup 32/Si by liquid scintillation counting

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cumming, J B [Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (USA)

1983-10-03

Application of the radioactivity of /sup 32/Si to problems of interest in geo- and cosmo-chemistry has been hampered by uncertainties in the half-life of this nuclide. A procedure for the stimulation assay of /sup 32/Si and its /sup 32/P daughter utilizing a liquid scintillation detector in association with a pulse height analyzer is described. The results indicate that /sup 32/Si can be assayed to an accuracy of a few percent by liquid scintillation counting techniques which do not require the preparation of an organic Si derivative. Combination of the mean specific activity with the /sup 32/Si abundance determined by accelerator-based mass spectrometry gave the reported 101+-18 year half-life.

New possibilities in prompt gamma ray spectrometry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Borderie, B; Barrandon, J N [Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 45 - Orleans-la-Source (France). Lab. du cyclotron; Pinault, J L [Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres (BRGM), 45 - Orleans (France)

1977-01-01

Prompt gamma ray spectrometry has been used as an analytical tool for many years. The high level of background noise does, however, remain a major problem with this technique. From simple theoretical consideration, conditions (particle, energy) were determined to reduce significantly the background noise under irradiation. Alpha particles of 3.5 MeV were chosen. Some fifty elements were studied, of which 24 gave interesting results. The detection limits obtained for a sample of niobium were as follows: approximately 1 ppm (10/sup -6/g/g) for the light elements Li, B, F and Na, and between 50 ppm and 1% for the others. Numerous applications may be envisaged in the geo- and cosmo-sciences.

Assimilation of radar reflectivity into the LM COSMO model with a high horizontal resolution

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Sokol, Zbyněk; Řezáčová, Daniela

2006-01-01

Roč. 13, č. 4 (2006), s. 317-330 ISSN 1350-4827 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA205/04/0114 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z30420517 Keywords : precipitation forecast * assimilation * radar reflectivity * NWP model * local storm Subject RIV: DG - Athmosphere Sciences, Meteorology Impact factor: 0.453, year: 2006

The Cosmo-Skymed Second Generation Sar Antenna Electrical Power Chain and Platform Power Distribution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Scorzafava E.

2017-01-01

The design characteristics of the EPS elements are described. A summary of the main performances is given, including a glance to the EMC aspects, which are very important in the definition and characterization of the design of a high power SAR system.

The forecaster's added value in QPF

Science.gov (United States)

Turco, M.; Milelli, M.

2010-03-01

To the authors' knowledge there are relatively few studies that try to answer this question: "Are humans able to add value to computer-generated forecasts and warnings?". Moreover, the answers are not always positive. In particular some postprocessing method is competitive or superior to human forecast. Within the alert system of ARPA Piemonte it is possible to study in an objective manner if the human forecaster is able to add value with respect to computer-generated forecasts. Every day the meteorology group of the Centro Funzionale of Regione Piemonte produces the HQPF (Human Quantitative Precipitation Forecast) in terms of an areal average and maximum value for each of the 13 warning areas, which have been created according to meteo-hydrological criteria. This allows the decision makers to produce an evaluation of the expected effects by comparing these HQPFs with predefined rainfall thresholds. Another important ingredient in this study is the very dense non-GTS (Global Telecommunication System) network of rain gauges available that makes possible a high resolution verification. In this work we compare the performances of the latest three years of QPF derived from the meteorological models COSMO-I7 (the Italian version of the COSMO Model, a mesoscale model developed in the framework of the COSMO Consortium) and IFS (the ECMWF global model) with the HQPF. In this analysis it is possible to introduce the hypothesis test developed by Hamill (1999), in which a confidence interval is calculated with the bootstrap method in order to establish the real difference between the skill scores of two competitive forecasts. It is important to underline that the conclusions refer to the analysis of the Piemonte operational alert system, so they cannot be directly taken as universally true. But we think that some of the main lessons that can be derived from this study could be useful for the meteorological community. In details, the main conclusions are the following

MINERVE flood warning and management project. What is computed, what is required and what is visualized?

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia Hernandez, J.; Boillat, J.-L.; Schleiss, A.

2010-09-01

During last decades several flood events caused important inundations in the Upper Rhone River basin in Switzerland. As a response to such disasters, the MINERVE project aims to improve the security by reducing damages in this basin. The main goal of this project is to predict floods in advance in order to obtain a better flow control during flood peaks taking advantage from the multireservoir system of the existing hydropower schemes. The MINERVE system evaluates the hydro-meteorological situation on the watershed and provides hydrological forecasts with a horizon from three to five days. It exploits flow measurements, data from reservoirs and hydropower plants as well as deterministic (COSMO-7 and COSMO-2) and ensemble (COSMO-LEPS) meteorological forecast from MeteoSwiss. The hydrological model is based on a semi-distributed concept, dividing the watershed in 239 sub-catchments, themselves decomposed in elevation bands in order to describe the temperature-driven processes related to snow and glacier melt. The model is completed by rivers and hydraulic works such as water intakes, reservoirs, turbines and pumps. Once the hydrological forecasts are calculated, a report provides the warning level at selected control points according to time, being a support to decision-making for preventive actions. A Notice, Alert or Alarm is then activated depending on the discharge thresholds defined by the Valais Canton. Preventive operation scenarios are then generated based on observed discharge at control points, meteorological forecasts from MeteoSwiss, hydrological forecasts from MINERVE and retention possibilities in the reservoirs. An update of the situation is done every time new data or new forecasts are provided, keeping last observations and last forecasts in the warning report. The forecasts can also be used for the evaluation of priority decisions concerning the management of hydropower plants for security purposes. Considering future inflows and reservoir levels

Teología de la evolución (I): La autotrascendencia activa. Karl Rahner, 1961

OpenAIRE

Manuel G. Doncel

2015-01-01

Este artículo es el primero de una tríada en la que se presentarán tres intuiciones que creemos valiosas para elaborar hoy día una rica teología de la «creación en evolución» (las otras dos serán: 2. La llamada creativa trinitaria, según Karl Schmitz-Moormann, 1997, y 3. El Espíritu como fuente de novedad, según Denis Edwards, 2004). Quisiéramos entender, a nivel filosófico y teológico, esa «cosmo-bio-evolución» que es nuestra propia «mega historia». Comenzamos hoy por preguntarnos cómo expli...

High resolution radar satellite imagery analysis for safeguards applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Minet, Christian; Eineder, Michael [German Aerospace Center, Remote Sensing Technology Institute, Department of SAR Signal Processing, Wessling, (Germany); Rezniczek, Arnold [UBA GmbH, Herzogenrath, (Germany); Niemeyer, Irmgard [Forschungszentrum Juelich, Institue of Energy and Climate Research, IEK-6: Nuclear Waste Management and Reactor Safety, Juelich, (Germany)

2011-12-15

For monitoring nuclear sites, the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery shows essential promises. Unlike optical remote sensing instruments, radar sensors operate under almost all weather conditions and independently of the sunlight, i.e. time of the day. Such technical specifications are required both for continuous and for ad-hoc, timed surveillance tasks. With Cosmo-Skymed, TerraSARX and Radarsat-2, high-resolution SAR imagery with a spatial resolution up to 1m has recently become available. Our work therefore aims to investigate the potential of high-resolution TerraSAR data for nuclear monitoring. This paper focuses on exploiting amplitude of a single acquisition, assessing amplitude changes and phase differences between two acquisitions, and PS-InSAR processing of an image stack.

Joint use of multi-orbit high-resolution SAR interferometry for DEM generation in mountainous area

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Lu; Jiang, Houjun; Liao, Mingsheng; Balz, Timo; Wang, Teng

2014-01-01

SAR interferometry has long been regarded as an effective tool for wide-area topographic mapping in hilly and mountainous areas. However, quality of InSAR DEM product is usually affected by atmospheric disturbances and decorrelation-induced voids, especially for data acquired in repeat-pass mode. In this paper, we proposed an approach for improved topographic mapping by optimal fusion of multi-orbit InSAR DEMs with correction of atmospheric phase screen (APS). An experimental study with highresolution TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed datasets covering a mountainous area was carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Validation with a reference DEM of scale 1:50,000 indicated that vertical accuracy of the fused DEM can be better than 5 m.

Joint use of multi-orbit high-resolution SAR interferometry for DEM generation in mountainous area

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Lu

2014-07-01

SAR interferometry has long been regarded as an effective tool for wide-area topographic mapping in hilly and mountainous areas. However, quality of InSAR DEM product is usually affected by atmospheric disturbances and decorrelation-induced voids, especially for data acquired in repeat-pass mode. In this paper, we proposed an approach for improved topographic mapping by optimal fusion of multi-orbit InSAR DEMs with correction of atmospheric phase screen (APS). An experimental study with highresolution TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed datasets covering a mountainous area was carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Validation with a reference DEM of scale 1:50,000 indicated that vertical accuracy of the fused DEM can be better than 5 m.

Subsidence Evaluation of High-Speed Railway in Shenyang Based on Time-Series Insar

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yun; Wei, Lianhuan; Li, Jiayu; Liu, Shanjun; Mao, Yachun; Wu, Lixin

2018-04-01

More and more high-speed railway are under construction in China. The slow settlement along high-speed railway tracks and newly-built stations would lead to inhomogeneous deformation of local area, and the accumulation may be a threat to the safe operation of high-speed rail system. In this paper, surface deformation of the newly-built high-speed railway station as well as the railway lines in Shenyang region will be retrieved by time series InSAR analysis using multi-orbit COSMO-SkyMed images. This paper focuses on the non-uniform subsidence caused by the changing of local environment along the railway. The accuracy of the settlement results can be verified by cross validation of the results obtained from two different orbits during the same period.

Cosmic ray exposure dating of geo-morphic surface features using in situ-produced 10Be: tectonic and climatic implications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siame, L.; Bellier, O.; Sebrier, M.; Braucher, R.; Bourles, D.L.

2001-01-01

The evolution of continental landforms is mainly modulated by the impact of climatic and tectonic processes. Because of their distinctive morphology and the periodicity of their deposition, climatically induced landforms such as alluvial fans or terraces are well suited to infer rates of tectonic and continental climatic processes. Within tectonically active regions, an important step consists in dating displaced geomorphic features to calculate slip rates on active faults. Dating is probably the most critical tool because it is generally much more simpler to measure deformation resulting from tectonic activity than it is to accurately date when that deformation occurred. Recent advances in analytical chemistry and nuclear physics (accelerator mass spectrometry) now allow quantitative abundance measurements of the extremely rare isotopes produced by the interaction of cosmic rays with surface rocks and soils, the so-called in situ-produced cosmogenic nuclides ( 3 He, 10 Be, 21 Ne, 26 Al, 36 Cl), and allow to directly date the duration that a landform has been exposed to cosmic rays at the Earth's surface (Lal, 1991; Nishiizumi et al., 1993; Cerling and Craig, 1994; Clark et al., 1995]. In fact, the abundance of these cosmo-nuclides is proportional to landscape stability and, under favorable circumstances, their abundance within surface rocks can be used as a proxy for erosion rate or exposure age. These cosmo-nuclides thus provide geomorphologists with the opportunity to constrain rates of landscape evolution. This paper presents a new approach that combines cosmic ray exposure (CRE) dating using in situ-produced 10 Be and geomorphic as well as structural analyse. This approach has been applied on two active strike-slip and reverse faults located in the Andean fore-land of western Argentina. These two case studies illustrate how CRE dating using in situ-produced 10 Be is particularly well suited for geomorphic studies that aim to estimate the respective control of

Model evaluation for the prediction of solubility of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs to guide solid–liquid separator design

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kuveneshan Moodley

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The assumptions and models for solubility modelling or prediction in systems using non-polar solvents, or water and complex triterpene and other active pharmaceutical ingredients as solutes aren't well studied. Furthermore, the assumptions concerning heat capacity effects (negligibility, experimental values or approximations are explored, using non-polar solvents (benzene, or water as reference solvents, for systems with solute melting points in the range of 306–528 K and molecular weights in the range of 90–442 g/mol. New empirical estimation methods for the ΔfusCpi of APIs are presented which correlate the solute molecular masses and van der Waals surface areas with ΔfusCpi. Separate empirical parameters were required for oxygenated and non-oxygenated solutes. Subsequently, the predictive capabilities of the various approaches to solubility modelling for complex pharmaceuticals, for which data is limited, are analysed. The solute selection is based on a principal component analysis, considering molecular weights, fusion temperatures, and solubilities in a non-polar solvent, alcohol, and water, where data was available. New NRTL-SAC parameters were determined for selected steroids, by regression. The original UNIFAC, modified UNIFAC (Dortmund, COSMO-RS (OL, and COSMO-SAC activity coefficient predictions are then conducted, based on the availability of group constants and sigma profiles. These are undertaken to assess the predictive capabilities of these models when each assumption concerning heat capacity is employed. The predictive qualities of the models are assessed, based on the mean square deviation and provide guidelines for model selection, and assumptions concerning phase equilibrium, when designing solid–liquid separators for the pharmaceutical industry on process simulation software. The most suitable assumption regarding ΔfusCpi was found to be system specific, with modified UNIFAC (Dortmund performing well in benzene as

Facing the challenge of predicting the standard formation enthalpies of n-butyl-phosphate species with ab initio methods

Science.gov (United States)

Saab, Mohamad; Réal, Florent; Šulka, Martin; Cantrel, Laurent; Virot, François; Vallet, Valérie

2017-06-01

Tributyl-phosphate (TBP), a ligand used in the PUREX liquid-liquid separation process of spent nuclear fuel, can form an explosive mixture in contact with nitric acid that might lead to a violent explosive thermal runaway. In the context of safety of a nuclear reprocessing plant facility, it is crucial to predict the stability of TBP at elevated temperatures. So far, only the enthalpies of formation of TBP are available in the literature with rather large uncertainties, while those of its degradation products, di-(HDBP) and mono-(H2MBP), are unknown. In this goal, we have used state-of-the art quantum chemical methods to compute the formation enthalpies and entropies of TBP and its degradation products di-(HDBP) and mono-(H2MBP) in gas and liquid phases. Comparisons of levels of quantum chemical theory revealed that there are significant effects of correlation on their electronic structures, pushing for the need of not only high level of electronic correlation treatment, namely, local coupled cluster with single and double excitation operators and perturbative treatment of triple excitations, but also extrapolations to the complete basis to produce reliable and accurate thermodynamics data. Solvation enthalpies were computed with the conductor-like screening model for real solvents [COSMO-RS], for which we observe errors not exceeding 22 kJ mol-1. We thus propose with final uncertainty of about 20 kJ mol-1 standard enthalpies of formation of TBP, HDBP, and H2MBP which amounts to -1281.7 ± 24.4, -1229.4 ± 19.6, and -1176.7 ± 14.8 kJ mol-1, respectively, in the gas phase. In the liquid phase, the predicted values are -1367.3 ± 24.4, -1348.7 ± 19.6, and -1323.8± 14.8 kJ mol-1, to which we may add about -22 kJ mol-1 error from the COSMO-RS solvent model. From these data, the complete hydrolysis of TBP is predicted as an exothermic phenomena but showing a slightly endergonic process.

Forecasting skills of the ensemble hydro-meteorological system for the Po river floods

Science.gov (United States)

Ricciardi, Giuseppe; Montani, Andrea; Paccagnella, Tiziana; Pecora, Silvano; Tonelli, Fabrizio

2013-04-01

The Po basin is the largest and most economically important river-basin in Italy. Extreme hydrological events, including floods, flash floods and droughts, are expected to become more severe in the next future due to climate change, and related ground effects are linked both with environmental and social resilience. A Warning Operational Center (WOC) for hydrological event management was created in Emilia Romagna region. In the last years, the WOC faced challenges in legislation, organization, technology and economics, achieving improvements in forecasting skill and information dissemination. Since 2005, an operational forecasting and modelling system for flood modelling and forecasting has been implemented, aimed at supporting and coordinating flood control and emergency management on the whole Po basin. This system, referred to as FEWSPo, has also taken care of environmental aspects of flood forecast. The FEWSPo system has reached a very high level of complexity, due to the combination of three different hydrological-hydraulic chains (HEC-HMS/RAS - MIKE11 NAM/HD, Topkapi/Sobek), with several meteorological inputs (forecasted - COSMOI2, COSMOI7, COSMO-LEPS among others - and observed). In this hydrological and meteorological ensemble the management of the relative predictive uncertainties, which have to be established and communicated to decision makers, is a debated scientific and social challenge. Real time activities face professional, modelling and technological aspects but are also strongly interrelated with organization and human aspects. The authors will report a case study using the operational flood forecast hydro-meteorological ensemble, provided by the MIKE11 chain fed by COSMO_LEPS EQPF. The basic aim of the proposed approach is to analyse limits and opportunities of the long term forecast (with a lead time ranging from 3 to 5 days), for the implementation of low cost actions, also looking for a well informed decision making and the improvement of

Rapid Response to a Typhoon-Induced Flood with an SAR-Derived Map of Inundated Areas: Case Study and Validation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hsiao-Wei Chung

2015-09-01

Full Text Available We report the successful case of a rapid response to a flash flood in I-Lan County of Taiwan with a map of inundated areas derived from COSMO-SkyMed 1 radar satellite imagery within 24 hours. The flood was caused by the intensive precipitation brought by Typhoon Soulik in July 2013. Based on the ensemble forecasts of trajectory, an urgent request of spaceborne SAR imagery was made 24 hours before Typhoon Soulik made landfall. Two COSMO-SkyMed images were successfully acquired when the center of Typhoon Soulik had just crossed the northern part of Taiwan. The standard level-1b product (radiometric-corrected, geometric-calibrated and orthorectified image was generated by using the off-the-shelf SARscape software. Following the same approach used with the Expert Landslide and Shadow Area Delineating System, the regional threshold of each tile image was determined to delineate still water surface and quasi-inundated areas in a fully-automatic manner. The results were overlaid on a digital elevation model, and the same tile was visually compared to an optical image taken by Formosat-2 before this event. With this ancillary information, the inundated areas were accurately and quickly identified. The SAR-derived map of inundated areas was published on a web-based platform powered by Google Earth within 24 hours, with the aim of supporting the decision-making process of disaster prevention and mitigation. A detailed validation was made afterwards by comparing the map with in situ data of the water levels at 17 stations. The results demonstrate the feasibility of rapidly responding to a typhoon-induced flood with a spaceborne SAR-derived map of inundated areas. A standard operating procedure was derived from this work and followed by the Water Hazard Mitigation Center of the Water Resources Agency, Taiwan, in subsequent typhoon seasons, such as Typhoon Trami (August, 2013 and Typhoon Soudelor (August, 2015.

Multi-objective entropy evolutionary algorithm for marine oil spill detection using cosmo-skymed satellite data

OpenAIRE

M. Marghany

2015-01-01

Oil spill pollution has a substantial role in damaging the marine ecosystem. Oil spill that floats on top of water, as well as decreasing the fauna populations, affects the food chain in the ecosystem. In fact, oil spill is reducing the sunlight penetrates the water, limiting the photosynthesis of marine plants and phytoplankton. Moreover, marine mammals for instance, disclosed to oil spills their insulating capacities are reduced, and so making them more v...

Cosmo Cassette: A Microfluidic Microgravity Microbial System For Synthetic Biology Unit Tests and Satellite Missions

Science.gov (United States)

Berliner, Aaron J.

2013-01-01

Although methods in the design-build-test life cycle of the synthetic biology field have grown rapidly, the expansion has been non-uniform. The design and build stages in development have seen innovations in the form of biological CAD and more efficient means for building DNA, RNA, and other biological constructs. The testing phase of the cycle remains in need of innovation. Presented will be both a theoretical abstraction of biological measurement and a practical demonstration of a microfluidics-based platform for characterizing synthetic biological phenomena. Such a platform demonstrates a design of additive manufacturing (3D printing) for construction of a microbial fuel cell (MFC) to be used in experiments carried out in space. First, the biocompatibility of the polypropylene chassis will be demonstrated. The novel MFCs will be cheaper, and faster to make and iterate through designs. The novel design will contain a manifold switchingdistribution system and an integrated in-chip set of reagent reservoirs fabricated via 3D printing. The automated nature of the 3D printing yields itself to higher resolution switching valves and leads to smaller sized payloads, lower cost, reduced power and a standardized platform for synthetic biology unit tests on Earth and in space. It will be demonstrated that the application of unit testing in synthetic biology will lead to the automatic construction and validation of desired constructs. Unit testing methodologies offer benefits of preemptive problem identification, change of facility, simplicity of integration, ease of documentation, and separation of interface from implementation, and automated design.

Simulation of the storm on 15 August, 2010, using a high resolution COSMO NWP model

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Sokol, Zbyněk; Zacharov, Petr, jr.; Skripniková, Kateřina

2014-01-01

Roč. 137, FEB (2014), s. 100-111 ISSN 0169-8095 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-34856S; GA MŠk LD11044 Grant - others:COST Activity(XE) ES0905 Institutional support: RVO:68378289 Keywords : hail * NWP model * radar reflectivity * data assimilation * hail nowcasting Subject RIV: DG - Athmosphere Sciences, Meteorology Impact factor: 2.844, year: 2014 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169809513002676

Cosmic microwave background bispectrum from recombination.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Zhiqi; Vernizzi, Filippo

2013-03-08

We compute the cosmic microwave background temperature bispectrum generated by nonlinearities at recombination on all scales. We use CosmoLib2nd, a numerical Boltzmann code at second order to compute cosmic microwave background bispectra on the full sky. We consistently include all effects except gravitational lensing, which can be added to our result using standard methods. The bispectrum is peaked on squeezed triangles and agrees with the analytic approximation in the squeezed limit at the few percent level for all the scales where this is applicable. On smaller scales, we recover previous results on perturbed recombination. For cosmic-variance limited data to l(max)=2000, its signal-to-noise ratio is S/N=0.47, corresponding to f(NL)(eff)=-2.79, and will bias a local signal by f(NL)(loc) ~/= 0.82.

Geometric registration of remotely sensed data with SAMIR

Science.gov (United States)

Gianinetto, Marco; Barazzetti, Luigi; Dini, Luigi; Fusiello, Andrea; Toldo, Roberto

2015-06-01

The commercial market offers several software packages for the registration of remotely sensed data through standard one-to-one image matching. Although very rapid and simple, this strategy does not take into consideration all the interconnections among the images of a multi-temporal data set. This paper presents a new scientific software, called Satellite Automatic Multi-Image Registration (SAMIR), able to extend the traditional registration approach towards multi-image global processing. Tests carried out with high-resolution optical (IKONOS) and high-resolution radar (COSMO-SkyMed) data showed that SAMIR can improve the registration phase with a more rigorous and robust workflow without initial approximations, user's interaction or limitation in spatial/spectral data size. The validation highlighted a sub-pixel accuracy in image co-registration for the considered imaging technologies, including optical and radar imagery.

Il dito di Galileo le dieci grandi idee della scienza

CERN Document Server

Atkins, Peter

2004-01-01

Domande e risposte per dieci idee che hanno plasmato il mondo di oggi. Possiamo rintracciare l'origine e il divenire del cosmo? Perché spazio e tempo formano una cosa sola? Che cosa significa l'evoluzione del vivente? Perché il DNA è così importante? Perché il mondo ha bisogno di energia? E com'è che l'aumento dell'entropia scandisce il cambiamento dell'intero universo? Cosa sono gli atomi e cosa c'è di più piccolo di essi? Perché la simmetria della natura e dell'arte cattura il nostro senso della bellezza? Cosa sono quegli elusivi quanti alla base della fisica contemporanea? Siamo sicuri che l'aritmetica non ci inganni? Peter Atkins offre una guida chiara e completa all'impresa scientifica, seguendo la via indicata dal dito di Galileo.

Requirements for design of accelerator, beam transport, and target in a study of thermonuclear reaction cross section

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Itahashi, T; Takahisa, K; Fujiwara, M; Toki, H; Ejiri, H [Osaka Univ., Ibaraki (Japan). Research Center for Nuclear Physics; Ohsumi, H; Komori, M

1997-03-01

A compact accelerator with high current ion source, low energy beam transport elements and windowless gas target was designed to investigate the thermonuclear reaction cross section. The idea of this project focused on the cross section measurement of the fusion reaction data {sup 3}He+{sup 3}He-{sup 4}He+p+p at 25keV. The system will be installed in Otoh Cosmo Observatory (1270m.w.e.) to get rid of the huge cosmic and environmental background. It consists of NANOGUN ECR ion source, focusing elements made of permanent magnets window less {sup 3}He gas target and/or He{sup 3} plasma target and detector telescopes with low noise and low background. Requirements for these were discussed technically and various ideas were proposed. (author)

The forecaster's added value

Science.gov (United States)

Turco, M.; Milelli, M.

2009-09-01

To the authors' knowledge there are relatively few studies that try to answer this topic: "Are humans able to add value to computer-generated forecasts and warnings ?". Moreover, the answers are not always positive. In particular some postprocessing method is competitive or superior to human forecast (see for instance Baars et al., 2005, Charba et al., 2002, Doswell C., 2003, Roebber et al., 1996, Sanders F., 1986). Within the alert system of ARPA Piemonte it is possible to study in an objective manner if the human forecaster is able to add value with respect to computer-generated forecasts. Every day the meteorology group of the Centro Funzionale of Regione Piemonte produces the HQPF (Human QPF) in terms of an areal average for each of the 13 regional warning areas, which have been created according to meteo-hydrological criteria. This allows the decision makers to produce an evaluation of the expected effects by comparing these HQPFs with predefined rainfall thresholds. Another important ingredient in this study is the very dense non-GTS network of rain gauges available that makes possible a high resolution verification. In this context the most useful verification approach is the measure of the QPF and HQPF skills by first converting precipitation expressed as continuous amounts into ‘‘exceedance'' categories (yes-no statements indicating whether precipitation equals or exceeds selected thresholds) and then computing the performances for each threshold. In particular in this work we compare the performances of the latest three years of QPF derived from two meteorological models COSMO-I7 (the Italian version of the COSMO Model, a mesoscale model developed in the framework of the COSMO Consortium) and IFS (the ECMWF global model) with the HQPF. In this analysis it is possible to introduce the hypothesis test developed by Hamill (1999), in which a confidence interval is calculated with the bootstrap method in order to establish the real difference between the

Hydrological Assessment of Model Performance and Scenario Analyses of Land Use Change and Climate Change in lowlands of Veneto Region (Italy)

Science.gov (United States)

Pijl, Anton; Brauer, Claudia; Sofia, Giulia; Teuling, Ryan; Tarolli, Paolo

2017-04-01

Growing water-related challenges in lowland areas of the world call for good assessment of our past and present actions, in order to guide our future decisions. The novel Wageningen Lowland Runoff Simulator (WALRUS; Brauer et al., 2014) was developed to simulate hydrological processes and has showed promising performance in recent studies in the Netherlands. Here the model was applied to a coastal basin of 2800 ha in the Veneto Region (northern Italy) to test model performance and evaluate scenario analyses of land use change and climate change. Located partially below sea-level, the reclaimed area is facing persistent land transformation and climate change trends, which alter not only the processes in the catchment but also the demands from it (Tarolli and Sofia, 2016). Firstly results of the calibration (NSE = 0.77; year simulation, daily resolution) and validation (NSE = 0.53; idem) showed that the model is able to reproduce the dominant hydrological processes of this lowland area (e.g. discharge and groundwater fluxes). Land use scenarios between 1951 and 2060 were constructed using demographic models, supported by orthographic interpretation techniques. Climate scenarios were constructed by historical records and future projections by COSMO-CLM regional climate model (Rockel et al., 2008) under the RCP4.5 pathway. WALRUS simulations showed that the land use changes result in a wetter catchment with more discharge, and the climatic changes cause more extremes with longer droughts and stronger rain events. These changes combined show drier summers (-33{%} rainfall, +27{%} soil moisture deficit) and wetter (+13{%} rainfall) and intenser (+30{%} rain intensity) autumn and winters in the future. The simulated discharge regime -particularly peak flow- follows these polarising trends, in good agreement with similar studies in the geographical zone (e.g. Vezzoli et al., 2015). This will increase the pressure on the fully-artificial drainage and agricultural systems

PSP SAR interferometry monitoring of ground and structure deformations applied to archaeological sites

Science.gov (United States)

Costantini, Mario; Francioni, Elena; Trillo, Francesco; Minati, Federico; Margottini, Claudio; Spizzichino, Daniele; Trigila, Alessandro; Iadanza, Carla

2017-04-01

Archaeological sites and cultural heritage are considered as critical assets for the society, representing not only the history of region or a culture, but also contributing to create a common identity of people living in a certain region. In this view, it is becoming more and more urgent to preserve them from climate changes effect and in general from their degradation. These structures are usually just as precious as fragile: remote sensing technology can be useful to monitor these treasures. In this work, we will focus on ground deformation measurements obtained by satellite SAR interferometry and on the methodology adopted and implemented in order to use the results operatively for conservation policies in a Italian archaeological site. The analysis is based on the processing of COSMO-SkyMed Himage data by the e-GEOS proprietary Persistent Scatterer Pair (PSP) SAR interferometry technology. The PSP technique is a proven SAR interferometry technology characterized by the fact of exploiting in the processing only the relative properties between close points (pairs) in order to overcome atmospheric artefacts (which are one of the main problems of SAR interferometry). Validations analyses [Costantini et al. 2015] settled that this technique applied to COSMO-SkyMed Himage data is able to retrieve very dense (except of course on vegetated or cultivated areas) millimetric deformation measurements with sub-metric localization. Considering the limitations of all the interferometric techniques, in particular the fact that the measurement are along the line of sight (LOS) and the geometric distortions, in order to obtain the maximum information from interferometric analysis, both ascending and descending geometry have been used. The ascending analysis allows selecting measurements points over the top and, approximately, South-West part of the structures, while the descending one over the top and the South-East part of the structures. The interferometric techniques needs

Mapping Dark Matter in Simulated Galaxy Clusters

Science.gov (United States)

Bowyer, Rachel

2018-01-01

Galaxy clusters are the most massive bound objects in the Universe with most of their mass being dark matter. Cosmological simulations of structure formation show that clusters are embedded in a cosmic web of dark matter filaments and large scale structure. It is thought that these filaments are found preferentially close to the long axes of clusters. We extract galaxy clusters from the simulations "cosmo-OWLS" in order to study their properties directly and also to infer their properties from weak gravitational lensing signatures. We investigate various stacking procedures to enhance the signal of the filaments and large scale structure surrounding the clusters to better understand how the filaments of the cosmic web connect with galaxy clusters. This project was supported in part by the NSF REU grant AST-1358980 and by the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association.

Celestial Seasonings: Astronomy and Rock Art in the American Southwest

Science.gov (United States)

Krupp, E. C.

1994-12-01

Astronomical interpretations of prehistoric rock art have played a significant part in the development of modern archaeoastronomy since 1975, when interest was renewed in the possibility that the Crab supernova explosion of 1054 A.D. was represented in rock art of the American Southwest. (This hypothesis was actually first formulated in 1955.) In the last two decades, a variety of astronomical functions for rock art have been proposed and investigated. These include representation of specific historical celestial events, symbolic representation of elements of celestial myths, star maps, markers for astronomical observing stations markers for celestially tempered shrines, images intended to invoke and exploit cosmo-magical power, seasonally significant light-and-shadow displays. Examples of astronomical connotations in prehistoric rock art from the Southwest and California illustrate the necessity of understanding the culture in any attempt to understand its astronomy.

OPERATIONAL SAR DATA PROCESSING IN GIS ENVIRONMENTS FOR RAPID DISASTER MAPPING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Meroni

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Having access to SAR data can be highly important and critical especially for disaster mapping. Updating a GIS with contemporary information from SAR data allows to deliver a reliable set of geospatial information to advance civilian operations, e.g. search and rescue missions. Therefore, we present in this paper the operational processing of SAR data within a GIS environment for rapid disaster mapping. This is exemplified by the November 2010 flash flood in the Veneto region, Italy. A series of COSMO-SkyMed acquisitions was processed in ArcGIS® using a single-sensor, multi-mode, multi-temporal approach. The relevant processing steps were combined using the ArcGIS ModelBuilder to create a new model for rapid disaster mapping in ArcGIS, which can be accessed both via a desktop and a server environment.

Synergies Between Grace and Regional Atmospheric Modeling Efforts

Science.gov (United States)

Kusche, J.; Springer, A.; Ohlwein, C.; Hartung, K.; Longuevergne, L.; Kollet, S. J.; Keune, J.; Dobslaw, H.; Forootan, E.; Eicker, A.

2014-12-01

In the meteorological community, efforts converge towards implementation of high-resolution (precipitation, evapotranspiration and runoff data; confirming that the model does favorably at representing observations. We show that after GRACE-derived bias correction, basin-average hydrological conditions prior to 2002 can be reconstructed better than before. Next, comparing GRACE with CLM forced by EURO-CORDEX simulations allows identifying processes needing improvement in the model. Finally, we compare COSMO-EU atmospheric pressure, a proxy for mass corrections in satellite gravimetry, with ERA-Interim over Europe at timescales shorter/longer than 1 month, and spatial scales below/above ERA resolution. We find differences between regional and global model more pronounced at high frequencies, with magnitude at sub-grid scale and larger scale corresponding to 1-3 hPa (1-3 cm EWH); relevant for the assessment of post-GRACE concepts.

La scienza delle serie tv

CERN Document Server

Gentile, Andrea

2016-01-01

Un professore di chimica potrebbe davvero fabbricare droga come Walter White in "Breaking Bad"? Tra quanto avremo il teletrasporto di "Star Trek"? E qual è il modo migliore di reagire a un'epidemia zombie come quella di "The Walking Dead"? Si può parlare di scienza anche stando comodamente in poltrona di fronte alla televisione. Le serie tv sono diventate prodotti di culto, e le più celebri sono proprio quelle fantascientifiche, mediche o di investigazione, che al loro interno raccontano molta scienza. Cosa c'è di vero in ciò che mostrano? Dalla nascita del cosmo in "The Big Bang Theory", passando per le fantadiagnosi del "Dr. House", i complotti alieni di "X-Files" e la natura del tempo in "True Detective", Andrea Gentile svela il lato nascosto dei nostri show preferiti, con un linguaggio semplice e spiegazioni alla portata di tutti.

Testing cosmology with galaxy clusters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rapetti Serra, David Angelo

2011-01-01

PASCOS 2011 will be held in Cambridge UK. The conference will be hosted by the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology (DAMTP) at the Mathematical Sciences site in the University of Cambridge. The aim of the conference is to explore and develop synergies between particle physics, string theory and cosmo......PASCOS 2011 will be held in Cambridge UK. The conference will be hosted by the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology (DAMTP) at the Mathematical Sciences site in the University of Cambridge. The aim of the conference is to explore and develop synergies between particle physics, string theory...... and cosmology. There will be an emphasis on timely interdisciplinary topics: • critical tests of inflationary cosmology • advances in fundamental cosmology • applications of string theory (AdS/CMT) • particle and string phenomenology • new experimental particle physics results • and cosmological probes...

Retention of Root Canal Posts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sahafi, A; Benetti, Ana Raquel; Flury, S

2015-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the cement film thickness of a zinc phosphate or a resin cement on retention of untreated and pretreated root canal posts. Prefabricated zirconia posts (CosmoPost: 1.4 mm) and two types of luting cements (a zinc phosphate cement [DeTrey Zinc...... received tribochemical silicate coating according to the manufacturer's instructions. Posts were then luted in the prepared root canals (n=30 per group). Following water storage at 37°C for seven days, retention of the posts was determined by the pull-out method. Irrespective of the luting cement......, pretreatment with tribochemical silicate coating significantly increased retention of the posts. Increased cement film thickness resulted in decreased retention of untreated posts and of pretreated posts luted with zinc phosphate cement. Increased cement film thickness had no influence on retention...

Regime-dependent forecast uncertainty of convective precipitation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Keil, Christian; Craig, George C. [Muenchen Univ. (Germany). Meteorologisches Inst.

2011-04-15

Forecast uncertainty of convective precipitation is influenced by all scales, but in different ways in different meteorological situations. Forecasts of the high resolution ensemble prediction system COSMO-DE-EPS of Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) are used to examine the dominant sources of uncertainty of convective precipitation. A validation with radar data using traditional as well as spatial verification measures highlights differences in precipitation forecast performance in differing weather regimes. When the forecast uncertainty can primarily be associated with local, small-scale processes individual members run with the same variation of the physical parameterisation driven by different global models outperform all other ensemble members. In contrast when the precipitation is governed by the large-scale flow all ensemble members perform similarly. Application of the convective adjustment time scale confirms this separation and shows a regime-dependent forecast uncertainty of convective precipitation. (orig.)

Ensemble Data Assimilation of Photovoltaic Power Information in the Convection-permitting High-Resolution Model COSMO-DE

Science.gov (United States)

Declair, Stefan; Saint-Drenan, Yves-Marie; Potthast, Roland

2017-04-01

Determining the amount of weather dependent renewable energy is a demanding task for transmission system operators (TSOs) and wind and photovoltaic (PV) prediction errors require the use of reserve power, which generate costs and can - in extreme cases - endanger the security of supply. In the project EWeLiNE funded by the German government, the German Weather Service and the Fraunhofer Institute on Wind Energy and Energy System Technology develop innovative weather- and power forecasting models and tools for grid integration of weather dependent renewable energy. The key part in energy prediction process chains is the numerical weather prediction (NWP) system. Irradiation forecasts from NWP systems are however subject to several sources of error. For PV power prediction, weaknesses of the NWP model to correctly forecast i.e. low stratus, absorption of condensed water or aerosol optical depths are the main sources of errors. Inaccurate radiation schemes (i.e. the two-stream parametrization) are also known as a deficit of NWP systems with regard to irradiation forecast. To mitigate errors like these, latest observations can be used in a pre-processing technique called data assimilation (DA). In DA, not only the initial fields are provided, but the model is also synchronized with reality - the observations - and hence forecast errors are reduced. Besides conventional observation networks like radiosondes, synoptic observations or air reports of wind, pressure and humidity, the number of observations measuring meteorological information indirectly by means of remote sensing such as satellite radiances, radar reflectivities or GPS slant delays strongly increases. Numerous PV plants installed in Germany potentially represent a dense meteorological network assessing irradiation through their power measurements. Forecast accuracy may thus be enhanced by extending the observations in the assimilation by this new source of information. PV power plants can provide information on clouds, aerosol optical depth or low stratus in terms of remote sensing: the power output is strongly dependent on perturbations along the slant between sun position and PV panel. Since these data are not limited to the vertical column above or below the detector, it may thus complement satellite data and compensate weaknesses in the radiation scheme. In this contribution, the used DA technique (Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter, LETKF) is shortly sketched. Furthermore, the computation of the model power equivalents is described and first results are presented and discussed.

Operational hydrological forecasting in Bavaria. Part II: Ensemble forecasting

Science.gov (United States)

Ehret, U.; Vogelbacher, A.; Moritz, K.; Laurent, S.; Meyer, I.; Haag, I.

2009-04-01

In part I of this study, the operational flood forecasting system in Bavaria and an approach to identify and quantify forecast uncertainty was introduced. The approach is split into the calculation of an empirical 'overall error' from archived forecasts and the calculation of an empirical 'model error' based on hydrometeorological forecast tests, where rainfall observations were used instead of forecasts. The 'model error' can especially in upstream catchments where forecast uncertainty is strongly dependent on the current predictability of the atrmosphere be superimposed on the spread of a hydrometeorological ensemble forecast. In Bavaria, two meteorological ensemble prediction systems are currently tested for operational use: the 16-member COSMO-LEPS forecast and a poor man's ensemble composed of DWD GME, DWD Cosmo-EU, NCEP GFS, Aladin-Austria, MeteoSwiss Cosmo-7. The determination of the overall forecast uncertainty is dependent on the catchment characteristics: 1. Upstream catchment with high influence of weather forecast a) A hydrological ensemble forecast is calculated using each of the meteorological forecast members as forcing. b) Corresponding to the characteristics of the meteorological ensemble forecast, each resulting forecast hydrograph can be regarded as equally likely. c) The 'model error' distribution, with parameters dependent on hydrological case and lead time, is added to each forecast timestep of each ensemble member d) For each forecast timestep, the overall (i.e. over all 'model error' distribution of each ensemble member) error distribution is calculated e) From this distribution, the uncertainty range on a desired level (here: the 10% and 90% percentile) is extracted and drawn as forecast envelope. f) As the mean or median of an ensemble forecast does not necessarily exhibit meteorologically sound temporal evolution, a single hydrological forecast termed 'lead forecast' is chosen and shown in addition to the uncertainty bounds. This can be

International Observe the Moon Night: A Worldwide Public Observing Event that Annually Engages Scientists, Educators, and Citizen Enthusiasts in NASA Science

Science.gov (United States)

Buxner, S.; Jones, A. P.; Bleacher, L.; Wasser, M. L.; Day, B. H.; Shaner, A. J.; Bakerman, M. N.; Joseph, E.

2017-12-01

International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN) is an annual worldwide event, held in the fall, that celebrates lunar and planetary science and exploration. InOMN is sponsored by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in collaboration with NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), the NASA's Heliophysics Education Consortium, CosmoQuest, Night Sky Network, and Science Festival Alliance. Other key partners include the NASA Museum Alliance, Night Sky Network, and NASA Solar System Ambassadors. In 2017, InOMN will bring together thousands of people across the globe to observe and learn about the Moon and its connection to planetary science. We are partnering with the NASA Science Mission Directorate total solar eclipse team to highlight InOMN as an opportunity to harness and sustain the interest and momentum in space science and observation following the August 21st eclipse. This is part of a new partnership with the Sun-Earth Day team, through the Heliophysics Education Consortium, to better connect the two largest NASA-sponsored public engagement events, increase participation in both events, and share best practices in implementation and evaluation between the teams. Over 3,800 InOMN events have been registered between 2010 and 2016, engaging over 550,000 visitors worldwide. Most InOMN events are held in the United States, with strong representation from many other countries. InOMN events are evaluated to determine the value of the events and to allow us to improve the experience for event hosts and visitors. Our results show that InOMN events are hosted by scientists, educators, and citizen enthusiasts around the world who leverage InOMN to bring communities together, get visitors excited and learn about the Moon - and beyond, and share resources to extend engagement in lunar and planetary science and observation. Through InOMN, we annually provide resources such as event-specific Moon maps, presentations, advertising materials, and

Cosmoeducação: uma proposta para o ensino de astronomia

Science.gov (United States)

Medeiros, L. A. L.; Jafelice, L. C.

2003-08-01

Entende-se por cosmoeducação o desenvolvimento vivencial da unidade homem-cosmo. Este conceito é norteado pela psicologia transpessoal, que estuda o ser humano em sua totalidade, onde suas relações ecológicas e cósmicas são de grande importância. Constata-se uma necessidade latente no ser humano moderno em resgatar uma relação holística com o Universo. Neste trabalho exploramos meios de cultivar a consciência de que o ser humano constitui parte integrante do cosmo e se relaciona com este com o objetivo de promover em si uma percepção ambiental mais ampla. Nossa hipótese de trabalho inicial foi que o ensino de conteúdos básicos em astronomia realizado através de uma abordagem holística, que incorpore práticas vivenciais correlacionadas àqueles conteúdos, pode despertar no indivíduo sua identidade cósmica. O método que utilizamos é o fenomenológico e o universo desta pesquisa é um grupo de estudantes da disciplina de Astronomia (Curso de Licenciatura em Geografia/UFRN), onde realizamos observação participante, entrevistas, depoimentos e as práticas vivenciais mencionadas. Neste caso estamos desenvolvendo e adaptando exercícios de algumas técnicas terapêuticas de psicologia transpessoal, que um de nós (LALM) tem aplicado no contexto clínico, para trabalhar aspectos cognitivos envolvidos naquele processo de conscientização cósmica. Resultados parciais claramente referendam a hipótese inicial. Um resultado a destacar é fruto de uma dinâmica de representação corporal interiorizada do eclipse lunar, envolvendo um pequeno grupo daqueles estudantes, na qual conteúdos míticos afloraram de maneira espontânea e contundente para todos, sugerindo ressonância, ou pelo menos isomorfismo, entre o macro e o microcosmo. Este e outros resultados são discutidos em detalhe neste trabalho. (PPGECNM/UFRN; PRONEX/FINEP; NUPA/USP; Temáticos/FAPESP).

Identification and climatology of Alpine pumping from a regional climate simulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maximilian eGraf

2016-02-01

Full Text Available The thermally driven circulation between the European Alps and the alpine foreland - named Alpine pumping – occurs regularly under clear and calm weather conditions. While previous studies focused on the impact of Alpine pumping on moist convection and transport of air pollutants, this study was motivated by its ventilation effect for Munich, located about 50 km north of the Alps in undulating and only slightly inclined terrain, where local thermal circulations are weak. Hourly data from a reanalysis driven regional climate simulation with COSMO-CLM model for the period 1989 to 2008 were analysed to identify days with Alpine pumping and to determine the mean diurnal characteristics of this regional thermal circulation. Four literature derived combinations of meteorological criteria were tested to identify days favorable for Alpine pumping from COSMO-CLM results. The first criterion selects days with a daily sum of solar radiation ≥20 MJ/m2 and has been used in an earlier observational study. On average 60 d/y are fulfilling the criterion in the model simulation, which compares well to the 67 d/y determined from observations. The other three criteria combinations consider a maximum wind velocity at 850 hPa, a maximum daily precipitation sum, and/or a maximum mean cloud cover. The mean annual number of selected days is lower for these criteria combinations and ranges between 20 and 52. Diurnal wind reversals occur on 77 to 81% of the selected days, depending on the criteria combinationThe daily solar radiation sum of 20 MJ/m2 is only exceeded during April to September, while days satisfying the criteria combinations without the radiation threshold occur all year round. In agreement with observations, the simulated regional thermally driven wind field extends up to ~100 km north of the Alps with average near-surface wind speeds of 0.5-1.5 m/s in the Munich area. With increasing distance from the Alps, the diurnal cycle of Alpine pumping is

Alternative Bio-Based Solvents for Extraction of Fat and Oils: Solubility Prediction, Global Yield, Extraction Kinetics, Chemical Composition and Cost of Manufacturing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anne-Gaëlle Sicaire

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The present study was designed to evaluate the performance of alternative bio-based solvents, more especially 2-methyltetrahydrofuran, obtained from crop’s byproducts for the substitution of petroleum solvents such as hexane in the extraction of fat and oils for food (edible oil and non-food (bio fuel applications. First a solvent selection as well as an evaluation of the performance was made with Hansen Solubility Parameters and the COnductor-like Screening MOdel for Realistic Solvation (COSMO-RS simulations. Experiments were performed on rapeseed oil extraction at laboratory and pilot plant scale for the determination of lipid yields, extraction kinetics, diffusion modeling, and complete lipid composition in term of fatty acids and micronutrients (sterols, tocopherols and tocotrienols. Finally, economic and energetic evaluations of the process were conducted to estimate the cost of manufacturing using 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (MeTHF as alternative solvent compared to hexane as petroleum solvent.

The 21 August 2017 Ischia (Italy) Earthquake Source Model Inferred From Seismological, GPS, and DInSAR Measurements

Science.gov (United States)

De Novellis, V.; Carlino, S.; Castaldo, R.; Tramelli, A.; De Luca, C.; Pino, N. A.; Pepe, S.; Convertito, V.; Zinno, I.; De Martino, P.; Bonano, M.; Giudicepietro, F.; Casu, F.; Macedonio, G.; Manunta, M.; Cardaci, C.; Manzo, M.; Di Bucci, D.; Solaro, G.; Zeni, G.; Lanari, R.; Bianco, F.; Tizzani, P.

2018-03-01

The causative source of the first damaging earthquake instrumentally recorded in the Island of Ischia, occurred on 21 August 2017, has been studied through a multiparametric geophysical approach. In order to investigate the source geometry and kinematics we exploit seismological, Global Positioning System, and Sentinel-1 and COSMO-SkyMed differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar coseismic measurements. Our results indicate that the retrieved solutions from the geodetic data modeling and the seismological data are plausible; in particular, the best fit solution consists of an E-W striking, south dipping normal fault, with its center located at a depth of 800 m. Moreover, the retrieved causative fault is consistent with the rheological stratification of the crust in this zone. This study allows us to improve the knowledge of the volcano-tectonic processes occurring on the Island, which is crucial for a better assessment of the seismic risk in the area.

A high-resolution ocean circulation model of the Gulf of Naples and adjacent areas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Ruggero, P.

2013-01-01

The implementation of a high-resolution circulation model of a southern Tyrrhenian coastal area is discussed. The sigma-coordinate Princeton Ocean Model (POM) is implemented with a 1/144° resolution in a domain that includes highly urbanized coastal areas, such as the Gulf of Naples and the nearby gulfs of Gaeta and Salerno, that are particularly relevant from oceanographic, ecological and social viewpoints. The model takes initial and boundary conditions from a 1/48° resolution POM model of the whole Tyrrhenian Sea. The main forcing is provided by ECMWF wind data, but an alternative wind field obtained from the Italian Space Agency COSMO-SkyMed X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar data is also tested. Fundamental aspects of coastal modeling, such as the relative importance of local and remote forcing in semi-enclosed seas, and the sensitivity to different wind products are discussed.

Are all modes created equal? An analysis of the WMAP 5- and 7-year data without inflationary prejudice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gjerloew, Eirik; Elgaroey, Oystein

2011-01-01

We submit recent claims of hints of primordial tensor perturbations and a scale-dependent spectral index in the WMAP data to a closer scrutiny. Our approach differs in that we use different best-fit values at which to fix the parameters not to be varied, and in that we use CosmoMC, thus incorporating the WMAP likelihood code and EE and BB mode data. We introduce a new parameter to test the claims of a scale-dependent spectral index. While we do find some hints of a scale-dependent spectral index over the multipole range l=2-220, the change in maximum likelihood is too small to justify introducing a new parameter. We conclude that there is no significant detection of primordial tensor perturbations, and that the assumption of a scale-independent spectral index in this multipole range has little effect on the amount of primordial gravitational waves found.

History of the Astronomy in the Century XX: Perspective Cosmo-philosophically of its Advances and their Origenes

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandez Quintano, Jose

The man has for the first time been able to contemplate from the Earth space. For the first time, a cosmological theory, the big-bang, physically explains the origin of the universe. But also, for the first time, the man has seen reunited the origins of this celestial science through the paleolithics antecedents, and just discovered in Mesopotamia. Now, the philosophy proposes through the thinking J. Habermas, an ideal community of speech. Now, astronomy proposes a model that explains the causal origins of all the created one. Of the assembly of recoveries, it excels the recovery of the old cuneiform cultures. Compared vision of assembly and between the assyriologists outstanding work like Epping, Strassmaier and Kugler, goes to der Waerden and Neugebauer, along with the work of eminent physicists and thinkers of this century.

Impact of land use and soil data specifications on COSMO-CLM simulations in the CORDEX-MED area

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Gerhard Smiatek

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The impact of the ECOCLIMAP land use and the Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD data on simulations with the Consortium for Small-scale Modeling model in CLimate Mode (CCLM regional climate model is investigated. ECOCLIMAP has information about vegetation characteristics as monthly data for 215 climatic units. With the HWSD implementation in CCLM, the spatial resolution of the soil data has been increased to 30 arc seconds and has an improved texture definition and handling in the soil model TERRA_ML. Simulations in the MED-CORDEX modeling domain over the period 1986–2000 reveal that differences of up to 1.8 K in the area monthly mean temperature as well as of up to 21 % in the area monthly mean precipitation can be attributed to the differences in the soil data time-invariant boundary input. Differences related to changes in land use are with 0.4 K and 5 % moderate. Differences resulting from the soil data and its processing in CCLM indicate that regional climate model simulations might benefit from further improvements in this area.

A physically interpretable quantum-theoretic QSAR for some carbonic anhydrase inhibitors with diverse aromatic rings, obtained by a new QSAR procedure.

Science.gov (United States)

Clare, Brian W; Supuran, Claudiu T

2005-03-15

A QSAR based almost entirely on quantum theoretically calculated descriptors has been developed for a large and heterogeneous group of aromatic and heteroaromatic carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, using orbital energies, nodal angles, atomic charges, and some other intuitively appealing descriptors. Most calculations have been done at the B3LYP/6-31G* level of theory. For the first time we have treated five-membered rings by the same means that we have used for benzene rings in the past. Our flip regression technique has been expanded to encompass automatic variable selection. The statistical quality of the results, while not equal to those we have had with benzene derivatives, is very good considering the noncongeneric nature of the compounds. The most significant correlation was with charge on the atoms of the sulfonamide group, followed by the nodal orientation and the solvation energy calculated by COSMO and the charge polarization of the molecule calculated as the mean absolute Mulliken charge over all atoms.

Is bicarbonate stable in and on the calcite surface?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersson, Martin Peter; Rodriguez Blanco, Juan Diego; Stipp, Susan Louise Svane

2016-01-01

We have used density functional theory with the COSMO-RS implicit solvent model to predict the pKa for the deprotonation of bicarbonate to carbonate, i.e. HCO3− CO32− + H+, when HCO3− is included in, and adsorbed on, a calcite surface. We have used cluster models (80–100 atoms) to represent...... the flat {10.4} surface, acute steps, obtuse steps, two types of kinks on the acute step and two types of kinks on the obtuse steps. Based on the predicted pKa values, which range from −6.0 to 2.4 depending on the surface site, we conclude that bicarbonate deprotonates to carbonate when it is in calcite...... even when pH in solution is very low. This is true for all surface sites, even for solutions where 2.4 bicarbonate is adsorbed on calcite, the predicted pKa for deprotonation is 7.5, which is ∼3 pH units lower than in aqueous solution...

Los estudiantes de la Licenciatura en Educación Indígena como sujetos epistémicos en su proceso de profesionalización

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Graciela Herrera Labra

2013-01-01

Full Text Available El reconocimiento de los estudiantes de la Licenciatura en Educación Indígena como sujetos epistémicos hace referencia a un sujeto social con procesos históricamente desiguales que enfrentan contradicciones muy complejas entre lo propio y lo ajeno. Dentro del nuevo Plan de Estudio 2011, la línea de Educación Comunitaria hace que los estudiantes se conviertan en sujetos epistémicos que interactúan con su identidad vinculada a su cosmo- visión. Este proceso de profesionalización enfrenta dos problemas de aprendizaje, uno de identidad y otro de conciencia; en ambos procesos se busca que el sujeto interactúe con equidad cultural y lingüística, a partir de sus alcances y contradicciones entre las estrategias didácticas y sus formas de aprehender, ya que tanto su cultura como su lengua reflejan y revelan una identidad que demanda equidad en contextos educativos escolarizados y no escolarizados.

Fisica e filosofia come la scienza contemporanea ha modificato il pensiero dell'uomo

CERN Document Server

Heisenberg, Werner

2003-01-01

Nel corso del Novecento le scoperte della fisica – dalla meccanica quantistica alla teoria della relatività, dalle ricerche sul cosmo all’energia nucleare – hanno travolto le precedenti nozioni di spazio e tempo e rivoluzionato la percezione che l’uomo aveva di sé, investendolo inoltre della responsabilità di una possibile autodistruzione. Figura geniale e controversa, Werner Heisenberg è stato un protagonista assoluto dell’epopea scientifica del secolo scorso, insieme a Bohr e Fermi, Einstein e Planck. Fisica e filosofia esplora la complessità di quello snodo offrendo risposte chiare a domande che non hanno mai perso la loro centralità. Cosa affermano le teorie della fisica contemporanea? In che modo investono la concezione che l’uomo ha di sé? Quali sono i limiti etici delle loro applicazioni tecnologiche? E quale sarà l’influenza politica della scienza su scala planetaria? Affrontando quesiti di portata universale, Heisenberg si dimostra consapevole della necessità di ristabilire la ...

Conferenze scelte

CERN Document Server

Fantappiè, Luigi

1993-01-01

L'opera scientifica di Luigi Fantappiè (1901-1956) si può dividere in tre tappe fondamentali : a) Dal 1923 al 1941 egli si occupò prevalentemente della Teoria dei funzionali analitici, da lui stesso creata. b) Nel 1942 propose la Teoria unitaria del mondo fisico e biologico, completata nel 1947, con l'introduzione del nuovo concetto di "esistenza totale", compatibile con i principi della relatività. c) A partire dal 1952 sviluppò la Teoria degli universi fisici, basata sulla teoria dei gruppi, e nel 1954 dimostrò che la relatività ristretta di Einstein risulta un caso limite di una teoria più perfezionata, la relatività finale. In questo volume vengono presentate alcune conferenze nelle quali Fantappiè espone in forma semplice e divulgativa le sue idee, alla ricerca di una visione armonica ed unitaria del cosmo e della vita. Il lavoro è stato curato dal suo allievo Giuseppe Arcidiacono.

Predicting the pKa and stability of organic acids and bases at an oil-water interface

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersson, Martin Peter; Olsson, Mats Henrik Mikael; Stipp, Susan Louise Svane

2014-01-01

We have used density functional theory and the implicit solvent model, COSMO-RS, to investigate how the acidity constant, pKa, of organic acids and bases adsorbed at the organic compound-aqueous solution interface changes, compared to its value in the aqueous phase. The pKa determine the surface...... phase and the rest remains in the hydrophilic phase. We found that the pKa for acids is shifted by ∼1 pH unit to higher values compared to the bulk water pKa, whereas they are shifted to lower values by a similar amount for bases. Because this pKa shift is similar in magnitude for each of the molecules...... is not the same as in the bulk. For example, species such as carboxylic acids are enriched at the interface, where they can dominate surface properties, even when they are a modest component in the bulk fluid. For high surface concentrations of carboxylic acid groups at an interface, such as a self...

Hybrid coded aperture and Compton imaging using an active mask

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schultz, L.J.; Wallace, M.S.; Galassi, M.C.; Hoover, A.S.; Mocko, M.; Palmer, D.M.; Tornga, S.R.; Kippen, R.M.; Hynes, M.V.; Toolin, M.J.; Harris, B.; McElroy, J.E.; Wakeford, D.; Lanza, R.C.; Horn, B.K.P.; Wehe, D.K.

2009-01-01

The trimodal imager (TMI) images gamma-ray sources from a mobile platform using both coded aperture (CA) and Compton imaging (CI) modalities. In this paper we will discuss development and performance of image reconstruction algorithms for the TMI. In order to develop algorithms in parallel with detector hardware we are using a GEANT4 [J. Allison, K. Amako, J. Apostolakis, H. Araujo, P.A. Dubois, M. Asai, G. Barrand, R. Capra, S. Chauvie, R. Chytracek, G. Cirrone, G. Cooperman, G. Cosmo, G. Cuttone, G. Daquino, et al., IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. NS-53 (1) (2006) 270] based simulation package to produce realistic data sets for code development. The simulation code incorporates detailed detector modeling, contributions from natural background radiation, and validation of simulation results against measured data. Maximum likelihood algorithms for both imaging methods are discussed, as well as a hybrid imaging algorithm wherein CA and CI information is fused to generate a higher fidelity reconstruction.

Interactions of human serum albumin with doxorubicin in different media

Science.gov (United States)

Gun'ko, Vladimir M.; Turov, Vladimir V.; Krupska, Tetyana V.; Tsapko, Magdalina D.

2017-02-01

Interactions of human serum albumin (10 wt% H2O and 0.3 wt% sodium caprylate) with doxorubicin hydrochloride (1 wt%) were studied alone or with addition of HCl (3.6 wt% HCl) using 1H NMR spectroscopy. A model of hydrated HSA/12DOX was calculated using PM7 method with COSMO showing large variations in the binding constant depending on structural features of DOX/HSA complexes. DOX molecules/ions displace bound water from narrow intramolecular voids in HSA that leads to diminution of freezing-melting point depression of strongly bound water (SBW). Structure of weakly bound water (WBW) depends much weaker on the presence of DOX than SBW because a major fraction of DOX is bound to adsorption sites of HSA. Addition of HCl results in strong changes in structure of macromolecules and organization of water in hydration shells of HSA (i.e., mainly SBW) and in the solution (i.e., WBW + non-bound bulk water).

Wake Component Detection in X-Band SAR Images for Ship Heading and Velocity Estimation

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Maria Daniela Graziano

2016-06-01

Full Text Available A new algorithm for ship wake detection is developed with the aim of ship heading and velocity estimation. It exploits the Radon transform and utilizes merit indexes in the intensity domain to validate the detected linear features as real components of the ship wake. Finally, ship velocity is estimated by state-of-the-art techniques of azimuth shift and Kelvin arm wavelength. The algorithm is applied to 13 X-band SAR images from the TerraSAR-X and COSMO/SkyMed missions with different polarization and incidence angles. Results show that the vast majority of wake features are correctly detected and validated also in critical situations, i.e., when multiple wake appearances or dark areas not related to wake features are imaged. The ship route estimations are validated with truth-at-sea in seven cases. Finally, it is also verified that the algorithm does not detect wakes in the surroundings of 10 ships without wake appearances.

Stonehenge's Greater Cursus

Science.gov (United States)

Burley, Paul; Mooers, Howard D.

2016-01-01

Archaeological investigations have emphasized relationships between solar and lunar phenomena and architectural features of prehistoric sites located on the Stonehenge ritual landscape. However, no over-riding landscape design has been identified to explain the purpose of placing hundreds of Neolithic through Iron Age burial sites upon the landscape. Our research and analysis shows the mid-4th millennium BC (mid-Neolithic) landscape represents an 'above, so below' cosmo-geographical relationship. Type, shape, size and orientation of specific elements (such as long barrows, henges, cursus and topography) created a hierotopy representing the Winter Hexagon asterism, Milky Way, ecliptic and other stellar features. The resulting pattern of ritual sites represents translocation of the astronomical Otherworld - the Spirit World - onto the plain. Results of the analysis create a new paradigm of purpose for the built landscape circa 3500 BC, and identifies the reason why Stonehenge is located where it is with respect to other contemorary monuments.

Hydrogen bond basicity of ionic liquids and molar entropy of hydration of salts as major descriptors in the formation of aqueous biphasic systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Passos, Helena; Dinis, Teresa B V; Cláudio, Ana Filipa M; Freire, Mara G; Coutinho, João A P

2018-05-23

Aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) composed of ionic liquids (ILs) and conventional salts have been largely investigated and successfully used in separation processes, for which the determination of the corresponding ternary phase diagrams is a prerequisite. However, due the large number of ILs that can be prepared and their high structural versatility, it is impossible to experimentally cover and characterize all possible combinations of ILs and salts that may form ABS. The development of tools for the prediction and design of IL-based ABS is thus a crucial requirement. Based on a large compilation of experimental data, a correlation describing the formation of IL-based ABS is shown here, based on the hydrogen-bonding interaction energies of ILs (EHB) obtained by the COnductor-like Screening MOdel for Real Solvents (COSMO-RS) and the molar entropy of hydration of the salt ions. The ability of the proposed model to predict the formation of novel IL-based ABS is further ascertained.

Solar cycles in the last centuries in 10Be and delta18O in polar ice and in thermoluminescence signals of a sea sediment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cini Castagnoli, G.; Bonino, G.; Galli, M.; Beer, J.

1984-01-01

The cyclogram method of time series analysis has been used to analyse 10 Be data (1181-1800 AD) and delta 18 O data (1181-1960 AD) from an artic ice core and thermoluminescence data (1181-1960 AD) from a Mediterranean sediment core. The 10 Be concentrations were determined at the ETH Zurich. The delta 18 O values were measured at the University of Copenhagen. The TL measurements were performed at the Istituto di Cosmo-geofisica del C.N.R., Torino. Common mean periodicities of 10.75 y are found for the period 1505 to 1710 AD in TL and 10 Be and of 11.4 y for the period 1715 to 1880 in TL and delta 18 O. This periodicity was found in the solar sunspot (Rsub(z)) series analysed in the same way, from 1825 to 1905. This supports the argument that the common periodicities found in the long-running series are peculiar of the solar activity in the past

Application of Bayesian model averaging to measurements of the primordial power spectrum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parkinson, David; Liddle, Andrew R.

2010-01-01

Cosmological parameter uncertainties are often stated assuming a particular model, neglecting the model uncertainty, even when Bayesian model selection is unable to identify a conclusive best model. Bayesian model averaging is a method for assessing parameter uncertainties in situations where there is also uncertainty in the underlying model. We apply model averaging to the estimation of the parameters associated with the primordial power spectra of curvature and tensor perturbations. We use CosmoNest and MultiNest to compute the model evidences and posteriors, using cosmic microwave data from WMAP, ACBAR, BOOMERanG, and CBI, plus large-scale structure data from the SDSS DR7. We find that the model-averaged 95% credible interval for the spectral index using all of the data is 0.940 s s is specified at a pivot scale 0.015 Mpc -1 . For the tensors model averaging can tighten the credible upper limit, depending on prior assumptions.

La fine dei cieli di cristallo l’astronomia al bivio del '600

CERN Document Server

Buonanno, Roberto

2010-01-01

Questo libro parla del rapporto fra Galileo e alcuni scienziati della sua epoca comunemente considerati come esponenti dello "schieramento avverso". È l’epoca in cui la visione del cosmo cambia radicalmente: la cultura europea non appare più al centro della storia umana, la creazione dell’uomo si sposta all’indietro di una inimmaginabile quantità di anni e, infine, i cieli immutabili della cosmologia aristotelica, i cieli di cristallo, vengono definitivamente superati. L’Autore propone alcuni temi rilevanti per la scienza del ‘600 e sviluppa, all’interno di ogni capitolo, sia il punto di vista dello scienziato pisano che quello di un erudito della cultura barocca. Emerge così un quadro nel quale si comprendono le ragioni e i percorsi di coloro che, davanti allo sconvolgimento di una visione del mondo che era sopravvissuta duemila anni, cercano nelle Sacre Scritture una specie di autorizzazione a credere nelle scoperte di quegli anni. Athanasius Kircher, un gesuita tedesco che arriva a Roma nel...

Advances in Meteoroid and Meteor Science

CERN Document Server

Trigo-Rodríguez, J. M; Llorca, J; Janches, D

2008-01-01

This volume is a compilation of articles that summarize the most recent results in meteor, meteoroid and related fields presented at the Meteoroids 2007 conference held at the impressive CosmoCaixa Science Museum in Barcelona, Spain. The conference took place between the 11th and the 15th of June and was organized by the Institute of Space Sciences (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC) and the Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC). Researchers in meteor science and supporting fields representing more than 20 countries participated at this international conference. The papers contained in this volume underwent the rigorous refereeing process, and they are good examples of the continuous progress being made in this research field. Technological advances in meteor and metoroid detection, the ever-increasing sophistication of computer modeling, and the proliferation of autonomous monitoring stations continue to create new niches for exciting research on meteoroids and their parent bo...

Abstracts book: asia-pacific symposium on radiochemistry-05 (APSORC-05)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

The third asia-pacific symposium on radiochemistry was held in Beijing, China October 17-21, 2005, the major topics of the symposium are as follows: 1. Nuclear reactions (including fission), nuclear decay/structure, and radioactive isotope beams. 2. Sciences of actinide, heavy and superheavy elements. 3. Nuclear analytical techniques using neutrons, ions, X-rays, synchrotron radiation, etc. 4. Applications of nuclear and radiochemical techniques in life sciences; nanomaterial sciences, environmental sciences, archaeological sciences, geo- and cosmo-sciences, isotopic battery, ect. 5. Nuclear probes in new material sciences: Mossbauer, perturbed angular correlations, positron annihilation, etc. 6. Radiopharmaceutical chemistry (including Tc chemistry) and radioisotope production. 7. Nuclear energy chemistry, including fuel reprocessing, nuclear reactor chemistry, uranium conversion, waste management and disposal, etc. 8. Environmental radiochemistry (including nuclides migration) and radioecology. 9. Radiochemical separation methods and chemical speciation; radiation dosimetry and metrology. 10. Issues on education of nuclear and radiochemistry. Total 312 peer-reviewed abstracts were contained in the abstracts book.

Spray droplet size, drift potential, and risks to nontarget organisms from aerially applied glyphosate for coca control in Colombia.

Science.gov (United States)

Hewitt, Andrew J; Solomon, Keith R; Marshall, E J P

2009-01-01

A wind tunnel atomization study was conducted to measure the emission droplet size spectra for water and Glyphos (a glyphosate formulation sold in Colombia) + Cosmo-flux sprays for aerial application to control coca and poppy crops in Colombia. The droplet size spectra were measured in a wind tunnel for an Accu-Flo nozzle (with 16 size 0.085 [2.16 mm] orifices), under appropriate simulated aircraft speeds (up to 333 km/h), using a laser diffraction instrument covering a dynamic size range for droplets of 0.5 to 3,500 microm. The spray drift potential of the glyphosate was modeled using the AGDISP spray application and drift model, using input parameters representative of those occurring in Colombia for typical aerial application operations. The droplet size spectra for tank mixes containing glyphosate and Cosmo-Flux were considerably finer than water and became finer with higher aircraft speeds. The tank mix with 44% glyphosate had a D(v0.5) of 128 microm, while the value at the 4.9% glyphosate rate was 140 microm. These are classified as very fine to fine sprays. Despite being relatively fine, modeling showed that the droplets would not evaporate as rapidly as most similarly sized agricultural sprays because the nonvolatile proportion of the tank mix (active and inert adjuvant ingredients) was large. Thus, longer range drift is small and most drift that does occur will deposit relatively close to the application area. Drift will only occur downwind and, with winds of velocity less than the modeled maximum of 9 km/h, the drift distance would be substantially reduced. Spray drift potential might be additionally reduced through various practices such as the selection of nozzles, tank mix adjuvants, aircraft speeds, and spray pressures that would produce coarser sprays. Species sensitivity distributions to glyphosate were constructed for plants and amphibians. Based on modeled drift and 5th centile concentrations, appropriate no-spray buffer zones (distance from the

Theoretical study about L-arginine complexes formation with thiotriazolin

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L. I. Kucherenko

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Brain vascular diseases are one of the leading causes of morbidity, mortality and disability of population in the industrialized countries of the world. An important element of this problem’s solution is the creation of new highly effective and safe drugs, which would lead to mortality reduction, to increase in life expectancy and quality of life. Therefore it is interesting to create a new combined drug based on L-arginine and thiotriazolin. Purpose of the study: to consider the possible structure and energy characteristics of complexes formed by L-arginine, 3-methyl-1,2,4-triazolyl-5-thioacetate (MTTA and morpholine. Calculation method. The initial approximation to the complex geometry was obtained using molecular docking with the help of AutoDock Vina program. The obtained ternary complexes were pre-optimized by semi-empirical PM7 method with modeling the impact of the environment by COSMO method. The calculations were carried out using MOPAC2012 program. Then they were optimized by B97-D3/SVP + COSMO (Water dispersion-corrected DFT-D with geometrical spreading correction on insufficiency of gCP basis set. A more accurate calculation of the solvation energy was conducted by SMD. The calculations by density functional method were carried out using the ORCA 3.0.3 software. Energy complex formation in solution was calculated as the difference of the Gibbs free energy of the solvated complex and its individual components. Results. Quantum chemical calculations show, that thiotriazolin and L-arginine are able to form ternary complexes, where molecules are linked by multiple hydrogen bonds. The calculation data suggest, that studied complexes are thermodynamically unstable in solution. The energies of them are positive, but rather low despite charge gain of a number of intermolecular hydrogen bonds. Finding. Based on the results of the conducted quantum-chemical study of a three components system (MTTA, morpholine, and L-arginine it is possible

SPIRITUALITY AS PHILOSOPHICAL, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DE-VELOPMENT PROBLEM

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V. E. Gromov

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the article is to regard the essence and phenomenon of spirituality in connection with ontological foundation of human being existence. The author suggests the concept of new cosmo-theocentric paradigm of human world outlook, as a ground of perspective transformation of social life activity on the contrary to anthropocentric view, which dominates in present society consciousness. The author gives the characteristics of the ideal sage and underlines the importance of spiritual teachers in cultural development of society. Methodology. The method of philosophizing is connected with the unity of mind, sensuality, belief, will in integral body and mental organization of a man. Such point of view takes into consideration not only aspects of objective determination, but includes senses of existence and world outlook ideas in culture on particular and universal levels of social experience. The author considers a special ontological disposition of the human being in the world as a “transcendent project” with “metaphysic responsibility”. Scientific novelty. In the history of social culture the problem of its spiritual attitude towards reality is a basic problem, but now it becomes especially up-to-date and important. Now the survival of the civilization depends on the development of spirituality. From metaphysical point of view it means how spiritual the human being may be. The author connects the consideration of spirituality with particular human being ontological status in the world and provides his reflection with speculative character. Conclusions. The transition of modern civilized society to the cosmo-theocentric paradigm is prepared by contradictions of its technological and cultural development. In historical circumstances when the conscious influence of society on itself is growing, the realization of this process depends on spiritual trend of human beings cultural activity and mental quality of social leaders

Using high resolution satellite multi-temporal interferometry for landslide hazard detection in tropical environments: the case of Haiti

Science.gov (United States)

Wasowski, Janusz; Nutricato, Raffaele; Nitti, Davide Oscar; Bovenga, Fabio; Chiaradia, Maria Teresa; Piard, Boby Emmanuel; Mondesir, Philemon

2015-04-01

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) multi-temporal interferometry (MTI) is one of the most promising satellite-based remote sensing techniques for fostering new opportunities in landslide hazard detection and assessment. MTI is attractive because it can provide very precise quantitative information on slow slope displacements of the ground surface over huge areas with limited vegetation cover. Although MTI is a mature technique, we are only beginning to realize the benefits of the high-resolution imagery that is currently acquired by the new generation radar satellites (e.g., COSMO-SkyMed, TerraSAR-X). In this work we demonstrate the potential of high resolution X-band MTI for wide-area detection of slope instability hazards even in tropical environments that are typically very harsh (eg. coherence loss) for differential interferometry applications. This is done by presenting an example from the island of Haiti, a tropical region characterized by dense and rapidly growing vegetation, as well as by significant climatic variability (two rainy seasons) with intense precipitation events. Despite the unfavorable setting, MTI processing of nearly 100 COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) mages (2011-2013) resulted in the identification of numerous radar targets even in some rural (inhabited) areas thanks to the high resolution (3 m) of CSK radar imagery, the adoption of a patch wise processing SPINUA approach and the presence of many man-made structures dispersed in heavily vegetated terrain. In particular, the density of the targets resulted suitable for the detection of some deep-seated and shallower landslides, as well as localized, very slow slope deformations. The interpretation and widespread exploitation of high resolution MTI data was facilitated by Google EarthTM tools with the associated high resolution optical imagery. Furthermore, our reconnaissance in situ checks confirmed that MTI results provided useful information on landslides and marginally stable slopes that can represent a

'CosmoCult Card Game': A Methodological Tool to Understand the Hybrid and Peripheral Cultural Consumption of Young People

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Wilson Roberto Bekesas

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This article discusses the authors’ use of a specially designed card game as part of the survey ‘Youth Cosmopolitanisms in Brazil’, a constituent part of the international project ‘Cultures Juveniles à l’ère de la globalization’, developed in France. As part of the challenges encountered in the process of applying this project in a hybrid and post-colonial context, such as that of Brazil, we experienced different manifestations of what Angela Prysthon (2002 has called ‘peripheral cosmopolitanism’. We propose to present the experiences that resulted as contributory material for research on the cultural consumption of young people in such contexts, and to discuss the value of this research tool as a way to reach and understand spontaneous cultural references, within the subjects’ own conceptions, without the bias that a Western-centered perspective might introduce. Concerning the card game as a research tool, it seems that only recently, and still modestly, have games been thought of in a broader sense of learning and research (Girard, Ecalle & Magnan, 2012; Calvillo Gámez et al., 2011. This moves us to consider the potential that it has for our and others’ research that seeks a methodological tool that reduces cultural biases and borders. Among the examples from the 12- to 24-year-old research subjects, the narratives display their relationships with global and local elements, such as the use of a Brazilian song, ‘Atoladinha’, or Harry Potter characters, used to solve situations proposed in the game.

Ensemble Data Assimilation of Wind and Photovoltaic Power Information in the Convection-permitting High-Resolution Model COSMO-DE

Science.gov (United States)

Declair, Stefan; Saint-Drenan, Yves-Marie; Potthast, Roland

2016-04-01

Determining the amount of weather dependent renewable energy is a demanding task for transmission system operators (TSOs) and wind and photovoltaic (PV) prediction errors require the use of reserve power, which generate costs and can - in extreme cases - endanger the security of supply. In the project EWeLiNE funded by the German government, the German Weather Service and the Fraunhofer Institute on Wind Energy and Energy System Technology develop innovative weather- and power forecasting models and tools for grid integration of weather dependent renewable energy. The key part in energy prediction process chains is the numerical weather prediction (NWP) system. Wind speed and irradiation forecast from NWP system are however subject to several sources of error. The quality of the wind power prediction is mainly penalized by forecast error of the NWP model in the planetary boundary layer (PBL), which is characterized by high spatial and temporal fluctuations of the wind speed. For PV power prediction, weaknesses of the NWP model to correctly forecast i.e. low stratus, the absorption of condensed water or aerosol optical depth are the main sources of errors. Inaccurate radiation schemes (i.e. the two-stream parametrization) are also known as a deficit of NWP systems with regard to irradiation forecast. To mitigate errors like these, NWP model data can be corrected by post-processing techniques such as model output statistics and calibration using historical observational data. Additionally, latest observations can be used in a pre-processing technique called data assimilation (DA). In DA, not only the initial fields are provided, but the model is also synchronized with reality - the observations - and hence the model error is reduced in the forecast. Besides conventional observation networks like radiosondes, synoptic observations or air reports of wind, pressure and humidity, the number of observations measuring meteorological information indirectly such as satellite radiances, radar reflectivities or GPS slant delays strongly increases. The numerous wind farm and PV plants installed in Germany potentially represent a dense meteorological network assessing irradiation and wind speed through their power measurements. The accuracy of the NWP data may thus be enhanced by extending the observations in the assimilation by this new source of information. Wind power data can serve as indirect measurements of wind speed at hub height. The impact on the NWP model is potentially interesting since conventional observation network lacks measurements in this part of the PBL. Photovoltaic power plants can provide information on clouds, aerosol optical depth or low stratus in terms of remote sensing: the power output is strongly dependent on perturbations along the slant between sun position and PV panel. Additionally, since the latter kind of data is not limited to the vertical column above or below the detector. It may thus complement satellite data and compensate weaknesses in the radiation scheme. In this contribution, the DA method (Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter, LETKF) is shortly sketched. Furthermore, the computation of the model power equivalents is described and first assimilation results are presented and discussed.

Molecular and Thermodynamic Properties of Zwitterions versus Ionic Liquids: A Comprehensive Computational Analysis to Develop Advanced Separation Processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Moreno, Daniel; Gonzalez-Miquel, Maria; Ferro, Victor R; Palomar, Jose

2018-04-05

Zwitterion ionic liquids (ZIs) are compounds in which both counterions are covalently tethered, conferring them with unique characteristics; however, most of their properties are still unknown, representing a bottleneck to exploit their practical applications. Herein, the molecular and fluid properties of ZIs and their mixtures were explored by means of quantum chemical analysis based on the density functional theory (DFT) and COSMO-RS method, and compared against homologous ionic liquids (ILs) to provide a comprehensive overview of the effect of the distinct structures on their physicochemical and thermodynamic behavior. Overall, ZIs were revealed as compounds with higher polarity and stronger hydrogen-bonding capacity, implying higher density, viscosity, melting point, and even lower volatility than structurally similar ILs. The phase equilibrium of binary and ternary systems supports stronger attractive interactions between ZIs and polar compounds, whereas higher liquid-liquid immiscibility with nonpolar compounds may be expected. Ultimately, the performance of ZIs in the wider context of separation processes is illustrated, while providing molecular insights to allow their selection and design for relevant applications. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

A density functional theory insight towards the rational design of ionic liquids for SO2 capture.

Science.gov (United States)

García, Gregorio; Atilhan, Mert; Aparicio, Santiago

2015-05-28

A systematic density functional theory (DFT) analysis has been carried out to obtain information at the molecular level on the key parameters related to efficient SO2 capture by ionic liquids (ILs). A set of 55 ILs, for which high gas solubility is expected, has been selected. SO2 solubility of ILs was firstly predicted based on the COSMO-RS (Conductor-like Screening Model for Real Solvents) method, which provides a good prediction of gas solubility data in ILs without prior experimental knowledge of the compounds' features. Then, interactions between SO2 and ILs were deeply analyzed through DFT simulations. This work provides valuable information about required factors at the molecular level to provide high SO2 solubility in ILs, which is crucial for further implementation of these materials in the future. In our opinion, systematic research on ILs for SO2 capture increases our knowledge about those factors which could be controlled at the molecular level, providing an approach for the rational design of task-specific ILs.

Separation of Aeruginosin-865 from Cultivated Soil Cyanobacterium (Nostoc sp.) by Centrifugal Partition Chromatography combined with Gel Permeation Chromatography.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheel, José; Minceva, Mirjana; Urajová, Petra; Aslam, Rabya; Hrouzek, Pavel; Kopecký, Jiří

2015-10-01

Aeruginosin-865 was isolated from cultivated soil cyanobacteria using a combination of centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) and gel permeation chromatography. The solubility of Aer-865 in different solvents was evaluated using the conductor-like screening model for real solvents (COSMO-RS). The CPC separation was performed in descending mode with a biphasic solvent system composed of water-n-BuOH-acetic acid (5:4:1, v/v/v). The upper phase was used as a stationary phase, whereas the lower phase was employed as a mobile phase at a flow rate of 10 mL/min. The revolution speed and temperature of the separation column were 1700 rpm and 25 degrees C, respectively. Preparative CPC separation followed by gel permeation chromatography was performed on 50 mg of crude extract yielding Aer-865 (3.5 mg), with a purity over 95% as determined by HPLC. The chemical identity of the isolated compound was confirmed by comparing its spectroscopic data (UV, HRESI-MS, HRESI-MS/MS) with those of an authentic standard and data available in the literature.

Gas infall into atomic cooling haloes: on the formation of protogalactic disks and supermassive black holes at z > 10

CERN Document Server

Prieto, Joaquin; Haiman, Zoltan

2013-01-01

We have performed cosmo-hydro simulations using the RAMSES code to study atomic cooling (ACHs) haloes at z=10 with masses 5E7Msun10 to date. We examine the morphology, angular momentum (AM), thermodynamic, and turbulence of these haloes, in order to assess the prevalence of disks and supermassive black holes (SMBHs). We find no correlation between either the magnitude or the direction of the AM of the gas and its parent DM halo. Only 3 haloes form rotationally supported cores. Two of the most massive haloes form massive, compact overdense blobs. These blobs have an accretion rate ~0.5 Msun/yr (at a distance of 100 pc), and are possible sites of SMBH formation. Our results suggest that the degree of rotational support and the fate of the gas in a halo is determined by its large-scale environment and merger history. In particular, the two haloes forming blobs are located at knots of the cosmic web, cooled early on, and experienced many mergers. The gas in these haloes is lumpy and highly turbulent, with Mach N....

Coupling SAR X-band and optical data for NDVI retrieval: model calibration and validation on two test areas

Science.gov (United States)

Capodici, Fulvio; D'Urso, Guido; Maltese, Antonino; Ciraolo, Giuseppe

2013-10-01

Sustainability of modern agro-hydrology requires the knowledge of spatial and temporal variability of vegetation biomass to optimize management of land and water resources. Diversely from optical imaging, temporal resolution of active sensors, such as SAR, is not limited by sky cloudiness; thus, they may be combined with optical imageries to provide a more continuous monitoring of land surfaces. Several new SAR missions (e.g., ALOS-PALSAR, COSMO-SkyMed 1 and 2, TerraSAR-X, TerraSAR-X2, Sentinel 1) acquiring at X-, C- and L-bands and dual polarization capability, are characterized by a short revisit time (from 12 h to ~10 days) and high spatial resolution (COSMOSkyMed images and 2 Landsat 7 SLC-off images were acquired in the southwestern part of Sicily (Italy) between 8 and 25 August 2011. Determination coefficients of the validation set were similar to those of the calibration set. Results confirm that VISAR obtained using the combined model is a suitable surrogate of VIopt if estimated at parcel scale.

Inter-seasonal surface deformations of an active rock glacier imaged with radar and lidar remote sensing; Turtmann valley, Switzerland

Science.gov (United States)

Kos, Andrew; Buchli, Thomas; Strozzi, Tazio; Springman, Sarah

2013-04-01

Inter-seasonal changes in surface deformation were imaged using a portable radar interferometer and terrestrial laser scanner during a series of three campaigns that took place in autumn 2011, summer 2012 and autumn 2012 on a rock glacier located in the Turtmann valley, Switzerland. Satellite radar interferometry (ERS 1 & 2, CosmoSkymed) indicate that accelerated downslope movement of the rock glacier commenced during the 1990s. Due to signal decorrelation associated with the satellite repeat pass time interval, continuous ground-based radar interferometry measurements were undertaken. Results show that the rock glacier accelerated significantly in Summer (Vmax = 6.0cm/25hrs), probably in response to the condition of the subsurface hydrology (e.g. post-peak spring snow melt and/or infiltration of rainfall). In autumn, the displacement velocity was reduced (Vmax = 2.0cm/25hrs). A one year surface difference of the glacier topography, derived from terrestrial laser scanning, provided insight into the rock glacier kinematics. Ongoing research is aimed at integrating surface displacement results with an extensive borehole monitoring system consisting of inclinometers and temperature sensors.

Thermochemistry of ionic liquid-catalysed reactions. Isomerisation and transalkylation of tert-alkyl-benzenes. Are these systems ideal?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Verevkin, Sergey P.; Emel'yanenko, Vladimir N.; Hopmann, Elisabeth; Arlt, Wolfgang

2010-01-01

The chemical equilibrium of mutual interconversions of tert-alkyl-benzenes was studied in the temperature range (286 to 423) K using chloroaluminate ionic liquids as a catalyst. The knowledge of the activity coefficients is required in order to obtain the thermodynamic equilibrium constants K a . A well established procedure, COSMO-RS, has been used to assess activity coefficients of the reaction participants in the liquid phase. Enthalpies of five reactions of isomerisation and transalkylation of tert-alkyl-benzenes were obtained from temperature dependences of the corresponding equilibrium constants in the liquid phase. For the sake of comparison, high-level ab initio calculations of the reaction participants have been performed using the Gaussian-03 program package. Absolute electronic energy values of the molecules have been obtained using B3LYP and G3MP2 level. Using these results enthalpies of reaction of isomerisation and transalkylation of tert-alkyl-benzenes in the liquid phase based on the first principles are found to be in good agreement with the data obtained from the thermochemical measurements.

Theoretical investigation of some high-performance novel amine azide propellants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sengupta, Debasis [Computational Fluid Dynamics Research Corp., Huntsville, AL 35805 (United States); Raman, Sumathi [Department of Chemistry, Oakwood College, 2000 Adventist Blvd., Huntsville, AL 35896 (United States)

2007-08-15

Monomethylhydrazine (MMH) is currently the most widely used hypergolic propellant, due to its high performance and low ignition delay. However, its toxicity is a major concern. The present work aims at developing high-performance hypergolic fuels that are based on tertiary amine azide functionality. A number of potential amine azide candidates have been proposed, and some of their physical and chemical properties have been computed using state-of-the-art molecular modeling techniques. Gas-phase heats of formation have been calculated using the CBS-QB3 method, and the first-principle COSMO-RS method has been used to compute heats of vaporization and vapor pressures. A density correlation, based on molecular-volume calculation, has been established to predict the densities of the candidate molecules. Finally, the liquid-phase heats of formation and densities have been used to predict the specific and density impulses of the proposed candidate molecules. The results show that many of the molecules proposed here have much higher density impulse than that of MMH, and may be considered for experimental studies. (Abstract Copyright [2007], Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Loktak Lake, Manipur, northeast India: a Ramsar site with rich rotifer (Rotifera: Eurotatoria diversity and its meta-analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bhushan Kumar Sharma

2016-04-01

Full Text Available A total of 162 species (S of Rotifera belonging to 40 genera and 20 families examined from Loktak Lake, an important floodplain lake of northeast India (NEI that is one of the richest assemblages of the taxon known from the Indian sub-region. It merits biodiversity value as ~40.0% and ~62.0% of species recorded from India and NEI, respectively. One species is new to India, 23 species are new to Manipur and 14 species are new to Loktak basin. Biogeographically interesting elements included three Australasian, five Oriental, ten palaeotropical and one cosmo-subtropical species. Lecanidae > Lepadellidae > Brachionidae > Trichocercidae collectively comprised 65.4% of S; Lecane > Lepadella > Trichocerca are diverse genera; and paucity of Brachionus spp. is distinct. Loktak Rotifera indicated importance of cosmopolitan, the littoral-periphytonic and small-sized species, and ‘tropical character’. ANOVA recorded significant variations of the rotifer richness amongst three sampling sites of Loktak during June 2010–May 2012 survey. The richness followed osscillaring monthly variations and indicated lack of significant influence of any individual abioitic parameter at all three stations.

Development of synthetic gasoline production process

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Imai, T; Fujita, H; Yamada, K; Suzuki, T; Tsuchida, Y

1986-01-01

As oil deposits are limited, it is very important to develop techniques for manufacturing petroleum alternatives as substitute energy sources to brighten the outlook for the future. The Research Association for Petroleum Alternatives Development (RAPAD) in Japan is engaged in the research and development of production techniques for light hydrocarbon oils such as gasoline, kerosene, and light oil from synthesis gas (CO, H/sub 2/) obtained from the raw materials of natural gas, coal, etc. Regarding the MTG process of synthesizing gasoline via methanol from synthesis gas and the STG process of directly synthesizing gasoline from synthesis gas, Cosmo Oil Co., Ltd. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., members of RAPAD, have sought jointly to develop catalysts and processes. As a result of this co-operation, the authors have recently succeeded in developing a new catalyst with a long life span capable of providing a high yield and high selectivity. Additionally, the authors are currently on the verge of putting into effect a unique two-step STG process of synthesizing high octane gasoline via dimethyl ether, referred to as the AMSTG process.

Neutron capture at the s-process branching points $^{171}$Tm and $^{204}$Tl

CERN Multimedia

Branching points in the s-process are very special isotopes for which there is a competition between the neutron capture and the subsequent b-decay chain producing the heavy elements beyond Fe. Typically, the knowledge on the associated capture cross sections is very poor due to the difficulty in obtaining enough material of these radioactive isotopes and to measure the cross section of a sample with an intrinsic activity; indeed only 2 out o the 21 ${s}$-process branching points have ever been measured by using the time-of-flight method. In this experiment we aim at measuring for the first time the capture cross sections of $^{171}$Tm and $^{204}$Tl, both of crucial importance for understanding the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in AGB stars. The combination of both (n,$\\gamma$) measurements on $^{171}$Tm and $^{204}$Tl will allow one to accurately constrain neutron density and the strength of the 13C(α,n) source in low mass AGB stars. Additionally, the cross section of $^{204}$Tl is also of cosmo-chrono...

Effect of Side Chain Functional Group on Interactions in Ionic Liquid Systems: Insights from Infinite Dilution Thermodynamic Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Paduszyński, Kamil; Królikowska, Marta

2017-11-02

Measurements of infinite dilution activity coefficients of 48 molecular solutes (including alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, aromatics, ethers, alcohols, water, ketones, pyridine, thiophene, acetonitrile, and 1-nitropropane) in two ionic liquids (ILs), namely, 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide and 1-(2-chloroethyl)-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide, are reported in the temperature range from T = 308.15 to 358.15 K. Comparative analysis of an effect of OH/Cl substitution of terminal carbon in side chains of imidazolium cations is presented and discussed in terms of different types of intermolecular forces acting between ILs and solutes. The new data also are confronted to those published previously for a "plain" counterpart of the studied ILs, namely, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide. Infinite dilution capacity and selectivity of the studied ILs are presented to evaluate them as separating agents in extraction of aromatics from alkanes and sulfur compounds from alkanes. Three modeling approaches, namely, linear solvation energy relationship (LSER), regular solution theory, and conductor-like screening model for real solvents (COSMO-RS), are tested for their capabilities of capturing the substitution effects detected experimentally.

Natural versus anthropogenic subsidence of Venice.

Science.gov (United States)

Tosi, Luigi; Teatini, Pietro; Strozzi, Tazio

2013-09-26

We detected land displacements of Venice by Persistent Scatterer Interferometry using ERS and ENVISAT C-band and TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SkyMed X-band acquisitions over the periods 1992-2010 and 2008-2011, respectively. By reason of the larger observation period, the C-band sensors was used to quantify the long-term movements, i.e. the subsidence component primarily ascribed to natural processes. The high resolution X-band satellites reveal a high effectiveness to monitor short-time movements as those induced by human activities. Interpolation of the two datasets and removal of the C-band from the X-band map allows discriminating between the natural and anthropogenic components of the subsidence. A certain variability characterizes the natural subsidence (0.9 ± 0.7 mm/yr), mainly because of the heterogeneous nature and age of the lagoon subsoil. The 2008 displacements show that man interventions are responsible for movements ranging from -10 to 2 mm/yr. These displacements are generally local and distributed along the margins of the city islands.

Caching and interpolated likelihoods: accelerating cosmological Monte Carlo Markov chains

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bouland, Adam; Easther, Richard; Rosenfeld, Katherine, E-mail: adam.bouland@aya.yale.edu, E-mail: richard.easther@yale.edu, E-mail: krosenfeld@cfa.harvard.edu [Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven CT 06520 (United States)

2011-05-01

We describe a novel approach to accelerating Monte Carlo Markov Chains. Our focus is cosmological parameter estimation, but the algorithm is applicable to any problem for which the likelihood surface is a smooth function of the free parameters and computationally expensive to evaluate. We generate a high-order interpolating polynomial for the log-likelihood using the first points gathered by the Markov chains as a training set. This polynomial then accurately computes the majority of the likelihoods needed in the latter parts of the chains. We implement a simple version of this algorithm as a patch (InterpMC) to CosmoMC and show that it accelerates parameter estimatation by a factor of between two and four for well-converged chains. The current code is primarily intended as a ''proof of concept'', and we argue that there is considerable room for further performance gains. Unlike other approaches to accelerating parameter fits, we make no use of precomputed training sets or special choices of variables, and InterpMC is almost entirely transparent to the user.

Caching and interpolated likelihoods: accelerating cosmological Monte Carlo Markov chains

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bouland, Adam; Easther, Richard; Rosenfeld, Katherine

2011-01-01

We describe a novel approach to accelerating Monte Carlo Markov Chains. Our focus is cosmological parameter estimation, but the algorithm is applicable to any problem for which the likelihood surface is a smooth function of the free parameters and computationally expensive to evaluate. We generate a high-order interpolating polynomial for the log-likelihood using the first points gathered by the Markov chains as a training set. This polynomial then accurately computes the majority of the likelihoods needed in the latter parts of the chains. We implement a simple version of this algorithm as a patch (InterpMC) to CosmoMC and show that it accelerates parameter estimatation by a factor of between two and four for well-converged chains. The current code is primarily intended as a ''proof of concept'', and we argue that there is considerable room for further performance gains. Unlike other approaches to accelerating parameter fits, we make no use of precomputed training sets or special choices of variables, and InterpMC is almost entirely transparent to the user

The Generalized Gamma-DBN for High-Resolution SAR Image Classification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhiqiang Zhao

2018-06-01

Full Text Available With the increase of resolution, effective characterization of synthetic aperture radar (SAR image becomes one of the most critical problems in many earth observation applications. Inspired by deep learning and probability mixture models, a generalized Gamma deep belief network (g Γ-DBN is proposed for SAR image statistical modeling and land-cover classification in this work. Specifically, a generalized Gamma-Bernoulli restricted Boltzmann machine (gΓB-RBM is proposed to capture high-order statistical characterizes from SAR images after introducing the generalized Gamma distribution. After stacking the g Γ B-RBM and several standard binary RBMs in a hierarchical manner, a gΓ-DBN is constructed to learn high-level representation of different SAR land-covers. Finally, a discriminative neural network is constructed by adding an additional predict layer for different land-covers over the constructed deep structure. Performance of the proposed approach is evaluated via several experiments on some high-resolution SAR image patch sets and two large-scale scenes which are captured by ALOS PALSAR-2 and COSMO-SkyMed satellites respectively.

The implications of cognitive and ethical positions for national climate strategies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Godard, Olivier

2015-01-01

Regardless of the sort of international negotiations on the climate, the results will reflect each country's consent, and hinge on how each country articulates its choices with worldwide climate-related issues and with other countries' actions. The combination of the cognitive and ethical dimensions determines how much a country feels responsible and how much of a commitment it will make for controlling greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Assuming that policies will be based on an assessment of the damage wrought by climate change, a table of the positions that countries might adopt (and of their consequences) is transposed into a set of values to be assigned to discount coefficients and to the avoidance of emitting a ton of CO_2. The 'factor 4' objective in 2050 turns out to be justified only for countries that adopt a 'universalistic' position or a strong version of 'cosmo-political altruism' - choices that lead to a discount rate of no more than 3,25% and to a reference value for the quantity of CO_2 avoided of more than 52 euros per ton in 2010

MoS2 monolayer catalyst doped with isolated Co atoms for the hydrodeoxygenation reaction

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Guoliang; Robertson, Alex W.; Li, Molly Meng-Jung; Kuo, Winson C. H.; Darby, Matthew T.; Muhieddine, Mohamad H.; Lin, Yung-Chang; Suenaga, Kazu; Stamatakis, Michail; Warner, Jamie H.; Tsang, Shik Chi Edman

2017-08-01

The conversion of oxygen-rich biomass into hydrocarbon fuels requires efficient hydrodeoxygenation catalysts during the upgrading process. However, traditionally prepared CoMoS2 catalysts, although efficient for hydrodesulfurization, are not appropriate due to their poor activity, sulfur loss and rapid deactivation at elevated temperature. Here, we report the synthesis of MoS2 monolayer sheets decorated with isolated Co atoms that bond covalently to sulfur vacancies on the basal planes that, when compared with conventionally prepared samples, exhibit superior activity, selectivity and stability for the hydrodeoxygenation of 4-methylphenol to toluene. This higher activity allows the reaction temperature to be reduced from the typically used 300 °C to 180 °C and thus allows the catalysis to proceed without sulfur loss and deactivation. Experimental analysis and density functional theory calculations reveal a large number of sites at the interface between the Co and Mo atoms on the MoS2 basal surface and we ascribe the higher activity to the presence of sulfur vacancies that are created local to the observed Co-S-Mo interfacial sites.

Maurice Echeverría’s Labios: A Disenchanted Story about Lesbians in Guatemala’s Postwar Reality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yajaira M. Padilla

2013-06-01

Full Text Available In the last two decades, lesbian, gay, and queer literary studies have gained significant ground in the broader field of Latin American cultural studies. Within this growing body of critical work, however, the Central American region and its literature have been largely ignored. This article, which focuses on the representation of lesbians and queer desire in the Guatemalan novel Labios (2004 ‘Lips’ by Maurice Echeverría, seeks to contribute to such a lack in Central American perspective. This essay contends, Echeverría’s text, one of a growing number of recent Central American narratives to call attention to and portray gay, lesbian, and/or transgender individuals and their experiences, evinces an alternate and composite form of visibility that can be understood as a visibilidad cosmo-queer . This visibility is an expression of the complex social reality of sexual minorities in postwar Guatemala, one marked by global or cosmopolitan discourses of gay and lesbian identity politics as well as queer modes of self-definition that challenge those same dominant discourses.

Near-global climate simulation at 1 km resolution: establishing a performance baseline on 4888 GPUs with COSMO 5.0

Science.gov (United States)

Fuhrer, Oliver; Chadha, Tarun; Hoefler, Torsten; Kwasniewski, Grzegorz; Lapillonne, Xavier; Leutwyler, David; Lüthi, Daniel; Osuna, Carlos; Schär, Christoph; Schulthess, Thomas C.; Vogt, Hannes

2018-05-01

The best hope for reducing long-standing global climate model biases is by increasing resolution to the kilometer scale. Here we present results from an ultrahigh-resolution non-hydrostatic climate model for a near-global setup running on the full Piz Daint supercomputer on 4888 GPUs (graphics processing units). The dynamical core of the model has been completely rewritten using a domain-specific language (DSL) for performance portability across different hardware architectures. Physical parameterizations and diagnostics have been ported using compiler directives. To our knowledge this represents the first complete atmospheric model being run entirely on accelerators on this scale. At a grid spacing of 930 m (1.9 km), we achieve a simulation throughput of 0.043 (0.23) simulated years per day and an energy consumption of 596 MWh per simulated year. Furthermore, we propose a new memory usage efficiency (MUE) metric that considers how efficiently the memory bandwidth - the dominant bottleneck of climate codes - is being used.

Assimilation of the radar-derived water vapour mixing ratio into the LM COSMO model with a high horizontal resolution

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Sokol, Zbyněk; Řezáčová, Daniela

2009-01-01

Roč. 92, č. 3 (2009), s. 331-342 ISSN 0169-8095. [International workshop on precipitation in urban areas /7./. St. Moritz, 07.12.2006-10.12.2006] R&D Projects: GA ČR GA205/07/0905; GA MŠk OC 112 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z30420517 Keywords : Precipitation * Local convective storm assimilation * Radar reflectivity * NWP model Subject RIV: DG - Athmosphere Sciences, Meteorology Impact factor: 1.811, year: 2009

Rice Crop Monitoring and Yield Estimation Through Cosmo Skymed and TerraSAR-X: A SAR-Based Experience in India

OpenAIRE

Pazhanivelan, S.; Kannan, P.; Christy Nirmala Mary, P.; Subramanian, E.; Jeyaraman, S.; Nelson, A.; Setiyono, T.; Holecz, F.; Barbieri, M.; Yadav, M.

2015-01-01

Rice is the most important cereal crop governing food security in Asia. Reliable and regular information on the area under rice production is the basis of policy decisions related to imports, exports and prices which directly affect food security. Recent and planned launches of SAR sensors coupled with automated processing can provide sustainable solutions to the challenges on mapping and monitoring rice systems. High resolution (3m) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imageries were used...

Theoretical study of the possibility of glycin with thiotriazoline complexes formation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. I. Kucherenko

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Brain strokes are widely spread all over the world and are among the most dangerous for the population. Often it leads to death, complete or partial loss of ability to work. The correction of imbalance of Excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitter systems by activation of natural inhibitory processes is a promising direction of primary neuroprotection in cerebral ischemia. Particular attention is drawn to the natural inhibitory neurotransmitter – glycine and its role in the mechanisms of acute cerebral ischemia. There are data on the ability of the thiotriazoline antioxidant to potentiate the therapeutic effect of neurometabolic cerebroprotectors. Therefore, the creation of new combined preparation based on glycine with thiotriazoline is important today. Objective: to study the structure, and estimate the energy of formation and geometric characteristics of the intermolecular hydrogen bonds for complexes which are formed with glycine, 3-methyl-1,2,4-triazolyl-5-thioacetate (MTTA and morpholine. Method of calculation. The initial approximation to the structure of the complexes was obtained with the help of molecular docking procedure using the AutoDock Vina program. The resulting three-component complexes were preliminarily optimized by the semiempirical PM7 method, taking into account the outward influences, which was simulated by the COSMO method. The calculations were carried out using the MOPAC2012 program. The complexes were optimized using the density functional method with the empirical dispersion correction B97-D3/SVP+COSMO (Water using geometric correction for the incompleteness of the gCP basic set. A more accurate calculation of the solvation energy was carried out by SMD method. Calculations by the density functional method were carried out using the ORCA 3.0.3 program. The energy of formation of complexes in solution was calculated as the difference between the free Gibbs energies of the solvated complex and its individual solvated

A review on regional convection permitting climate modeling

Science.gov (United States)

van Lipzig, Nicole; Prein, Andreas; Brisson, Erwan; Van Weverberg, Kwinten; Demuzere, Matthias; Saeed, Sajjad; Stengel, Martin

2016-04-01

With the increase of computational resources, it has recently become possible to perform climate model integrations where at least part the of convection is resolved. Since convection-permitting models (CPMs) are performing better than models where convection is parameterized, especially for high-impact weather like extreme precipitation, there is currently strong scientific progress in this research domain (Prein et al., 2015). Another advantage of CPMs, that have a horizontal grid spacing climate model COSMO-CLM is frequently applied for CPM simulations, due to its non-hydrostatic dynamics and open international network of scientists. This presentation consists of an overview of the recent progress in CPM, with a focus on COSMO-CLM. It consists of three parts, namely the discussion of i) critical components of CPM, ii) the added value of CPM in the present-day climate and iii) the difference in climate sensitivity in CPM compared to coarser scale models. In terms of added value, the CPMs especially improve the representation of precipitation's, diurnal cycle, intensity and spatial distribution. However, an in depth-evaluation of cloud properties with CCLM over Belgium indicates a strong underestimation of the cloud fraction, causing an overestimation of high temperature extremes (Brisson et al., 2016). In terms of climate sensitivity, the CPMs indicate a stronger increase in flash floods, changes in hail storm characteristics, and reductions in the snowpack over mountains compared to coarser scale models. In conclusion, CPMs are a very promising tool for future climate research. However, additional efforts are necessary to overcome remaining deficiencies, like improving the cloud characteristics. This will be a challenging task due to compensating deficiencies that currently exist in `state-of-the-art' models, yielding a good representation of average climate conditions. In the light of using CPMs to study climate change it is necessary that these deficiencies

SQM/COSMO Scoring Function at the DFTB3-D3H4 Level: Unique Identification of Native Protein-Ligand Poses

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Pecina, Adam; Haldar, Susanta; Fanfrlík, Jindřich; Meier, R.; Řezáč, Jan; Lepšík, Martin; Hobza, Pavel

2017-01-01

Roč. 57, č. 2 (2017), s. 127-132 ISSN 1549-9596 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GBP208/12/G016; GA ČR(CZ) GJ16-11321Y Institutional support: RVO:61388963 Keywords : aldose reductase inhibition * binding affinity * PM6 method Subject RIV: CF - Physical ; Theoretical Chemistry OBOR OECD: Physical chemistry Impact factor: 3.760, year: 2016

Superior Performance of the SQM/COSMO Scoring Functions in Native Pose Recognition of Diverse Protein-Ligand Complexes in Cognate Docking

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Ajani, Haresh; Pecina, Adam; Eyrilmez, Saltuk M.; Fanfrlík, Jindřich; Haldar, Susanta; Řezáč, Jan; Hobza, Pavel; Lepšík, Martin

2017-01-01

Roč. 2, č. 7 (2017), s. 4022-4029 ISSN 2470-1343 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GBP208/12/G016; GA ČR(CZ) GJ16-11321Y Institutional support: RVO:61388963 Keywords : aldose reductase inhibition * biological applications * mechanical calculations Subject RIV: CF - Physical ; Theoretical Chemistry OBOR OECD: Physical chemistry https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsomega.7b00503

IRRIMET: a web 2.0 advisory service for irrigation water management

Science.gov (United States)

De Michele, Carlo; Anzano, Enrico; Colandrea, Marco; Marotta, Luigi; Mula, Ileana; Pelosi, Anna; D'Urso, Guido; Battista Chirico, Giovanni

2016-04-01

Irrigation agriculture is one the biggest consumer of water in Europe, especially in southern regions, where it accounts for up to 70% of the total water consumption. The EU Common Agricultural Policy, combined with the Water Framework Directive, imposes to farmers and irrigation managers a substantial increase of the efficiency in the use of water in agriculture for the next decade. Irrigating according to reliable crop water requirement estimates is one of the most convincing solution to decrease agricultural water use. Here we present an innovative irrigation advisory service, applied in Campania region (Southern Italy), where a satellite assisted irrigation advisory service has been operating since 2006. The advisory service is based on the optimal combination of VIS-NIR high resolution satellite images (Landsat, Deimos, Rapideye) to map crop vigour, and high resolution numerical weather prediction for assessing the meteorological variables driving the crop water needs in the short-medium range. The advisory service is broadcasted with a simple and intuitive web app interface which makes daily real time irrigation and evapotranspiration maps and customized weather forecasts (based on Cosmo Leps model) accessible from desktop computers, tablets and smartphones.

Effect of environmental cyclicity on the manifestation of human brain functional asymmetry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Volchek, O.D.

1995-01-01

The indices of the brain functional asymmetry of 4373 persons, born in 1920-1984 were studied in connection with parameters of the environment during the periods of birth and conception. The trustworthy valuable seasonal and long-term variations of the brain functional asymmetry indices were discovered. Their correlation with the cosmo-physical fluctuations is maximum for the 10-year cycle of the oriental calendar elements and the month of conception. The leading factors of the environment are: the parameters of the interplanetary magnetic field; the long-period part's potential of the high-tide forming strength of the Moon and the Sun G; geomagnetic perturbation K p ; the joined location of the planets in relation of the Moon, the Earth and the Sun. The results trace the distinctly marked sexual dimorphism. The variability of the brain functional asymmetry appears to be the display of the human individuality diversity in time and is attended by the changes in the dominating type of the universe cognition in the society -logical, intuitive, sensual, combined. The long-term and century-old cycles of social development seem to be the consequence of this phenomenon. 36 refs.; 3 figs

FY 1999 report on the survey of the basic cooperation project of enhancement of the international energy consumption efficiency. Project on promotion of exchanges with the persons concerned with government agencies, etc.; 1999 nendo kokusai energy shohi koritsuka nado kyoryoku kiso jigyo, kokusai energy shohi koritsuka chosa nado kyoryoku kiso jigyo chosa hokokusho. Seifu kikan nado kankeisha koryu sokushin jigyo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2001-03-01

For the purpose of promoting the understanding of effective energy utilization and constructing corporative relations between countries, the persons concerned with government agencies of India, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand were invited to Japan, and exchanges of opinions were made on policies, technical development, the state of the introduction, etc. The persons concerned with governments of India, China and Indonesia participate in NEDO Forum 2001 to give lectures on the energy policy of their own. The persons sent from the Vietnamese government paid visits for survey to NEDO, Obayashi Corp., Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., Mitsubishi Materials Corp. and Taiheiyo Cement Corp. as reference of the model project on cement sintering plant power reduction. The persons sent from the Myanmar government paid visits for survey to NEDO, ECCJ, Chiyoda Corp., Yokogawa Electric Corp. and Cosmo Oil Co. as reference of the model project on energy conservation at fertilizer plant. The persons concerned with the Thai government paid visits for survey to the plants concerned with the model project on residue combustion waste heat recovery facilities at paper mills and the model project on waste heat recovery at steel material heating furnace. (NEDO)

Mistaken Worlds: When “Abundance” and “Scarcity” Collide in the Colombian Amazon

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gerard Verschoor

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This article describes and analyzes the effects of artisanal mining on the food security of the community of Andoque del Resguardo Aduche in the Colombian Amazon. In analytical terms, the departure point for this analysis is on the different perspectives regarding the activities of the indigenous populations. Some of these activities- those which are based on the notion of “scarcity”- distort the social life of the indigenous communities. This creates a dilemma which conflicts with the concept of “abundance” in these communities. The paradox of this case is that in a world of “Amazonian abundance” the model of gold mining, based on a notion of scarcity has been introduced. The introduction of gold mining has introduced exogenous elements into these communities that fundamentally change social life. Employing a perspective that rejects cultural uniqueness, this study examines the multiplicity of practices and realities in which the different actors confront dilemmas around the use of common pool resources. The rise of access to “easy” money through artisanal mining is ultimately transforming the local cosmo-vision, which states “one should not touch that which the sun does not illuminate”.

Persistent Scatterer Interferometry using Sentinel-1 Data

Science.gov (United States)

Monserrat, Oriol; Crosetto, Michele; Devanthery, Nuria; Cuevas-Gonzalez, Maria; Qihuan, Huang; Barra, Anna; Crippa, Bruno

2016-04-01

This work will be focused on the deformation measurement and monitoring using SAR imagery from the C-band Sentinel-1, a space mission funded by the European Union and carried out by the European Space Agency (ESA) within the Copernicus Programme. The work will firstly address the data processing and analysis procedure implemented by the authors. This includes both Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) tools to analyse large stacks of SAR images (say, typically more than 20 images), and Differential SAR Interferometry (DInSAR) tools to analyse short SAR image stacks. The work will discuss the characteristics of the main products derived by using Sentinel-1 DInSAR and PSI: deformation maps, deformation velocity maps, deformation time series, residual topographic error, etc. The analysis will be carried out over different types of land use area, e.g. urban, peri-urban and rural areas. The deformation monitoring based on Sentinel-1 data will be compared with the monitoring based on data from pre-existing missions, e.g. C-band ERS and Envisat, X-band TerraSAR-X and CosmoSkyMed, etc. The comparison will concern different study areas, mainly located in Italy and Spain.

Nonlinear waves in viscoelastic magnetized complex astroplasmas with polarized dust-charge variations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Papari Das

2018-01-01

Full Text Available A nonextensive nonthermal magnetized viscoelastic astrofluid, compositionally containing nonthermal electrons and ions together with massive polarized dust micro-spherical grains of variable electric charge, is allowed to endure weakly nonlinear perturbation around its equilibrium. The nonextensivity originating from the large-scale non-local effects is included via the Tsallis thermo-statistical distribution laws describing the lighter species. Assuming the equilibrium as a homogeneous hydrostatic one, the dust polarization effects are incorporated via the conventional homogeneous polarization force law. The perturbed fluid model evolves as a unique conjugate pair of coupled extended Korteweg-de Vries (e-KdV equations. A constructed numerical tapestry shows the collective excitations of a new pair of distinct classes of nonlinear mode structures in new parametric space. The first family indicates periodic electrostatic compressive eigenmodes in the form of soliton-chains. Likewise, the second one reveals gravitational rarefactive solitary patterns. Their microphysical multi-parametric dependencies of the eigen-patterns are illustratively analyzed and bolstered. The paper ends up with some promising implications and applications in the astro-cosmo-plasmic context of wave-induced accretive triggering processes responsible for gravitationally bounded (gravito-condensed astro-structure formation, such as stellesimals, planetsimals, etc.

The diversity of Indian Brachionidae (Rotifera: Eurotatoria: Monogononta and their distribution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B.K. Sharma

2014-11-01

Full Text Available We evaluate diversity status of the Brachionidae of India and present an annotated checklist of 46 species excluding dubious and unconfirmed reports. These merit biodiversity value as ~27% of the global diversity of the taxon and ~81% of its Oriental species. We observed two Australasian elements, two Oriental endemics, one Indian endemic, one paleotropical and one cosmo (sub tropical species. The cold-water Keratella serrulata and Notholca squamula are new records from eastern Himalayas. Maximum brachionid diversity (32 species from Assam state of northeast India (NEI is followed by the reports of 27 and 26 species from Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, respectively; 25 species each from Tripura and Maharashtra; and 24 species from Jammu & Kashmir. Brachionus, the most diverse brachionid genus, is widely distributed in India with low richness in hill states of NEI and coastal waters in particular. The Indian brachionid taxonomy is confounded with unconfirmed reports, misidentifications, invalid taxa, and inconsistent treatment of morphological variants, while analysis of cryptic diversity in Brachionus calyciflorus, B. caudatus, B. forficula, B. plicatilis, B. quadridentatus, B. urceolaris, Keratella cochlearis and K. quadrata species-groups awaits attention.

The Use of C-/X-Band Time-Gapped SAR Data and Geotechnical Models for the Study of Shanghai’s Ocean-Reclaimed Lands through the SBAS-DInSAR Technique

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio Pepe

2016-11-01

Full Text Available In this work, we investigate the temporal evolution of ground deformation affecting the ocean-reclaimed lands of the Shanghai (China megacity, from 2007 to 2016, by applying the Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR technique known as the Small BAseline Subset (SBAS algorithm. For the analysis, we exploited two sets of non-time-overlapped synthetic aperture radar (SAR data, acquired from 2007 to 2010, by the ASAR/ENVISAT (C-band instrument, and from 2014 to 2016 by the X-band COSMO-SkyMed (CSK sensors. The long time gap (of about three years existing between the available C- and X-band datasets made the generation of unique displacement time-series more difficult. Nonetheless, this problem was successfully solved by benefiting from knowledge of time-dependent geotechnical models, which describe the temporal evolution of the expected deformation affecting Shanghai’s ocean-reclaimed platforms. The combined ENVISAT/CSK (vertical deformation time-series were analyzed to gain insight into the future evolution of displacement signals within the investigated area. As an outcome, we find that ocean-reclaimed lands in Shanghai experienced, between 2007 and 2016, average cumulative (vertical displacements extending down to 25 centimeters.

3D OBJECT COORDINATES EXTRACTION BY RADARGRAMMETRY AND MULTI STEP IMAGE MATCHING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Eftekhari

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Nowadays by high resolution SAR imaging systems as Radarsat-2, TerraSAR-X and COSMO-skyMed, three-dimensional terrain data extraction using SAR images is growing. InSAR and Radargrammetry are two most common approaches for removing 3D object coordinate from SAR images. Research has shown that extraction of terrain elevation data using satellite repeat pass interferometry SAR technique due to atmospheric factors and the lack of coherence between the images in areas with dense vegetation cover is a problematic. So the use of Radargrammetry technique can be effective. Generally height derived method by Radargrammetry consists of two stages: Images matching and space intersection. In this paper we propose a multi-stage algorithm founded on the combination of feature based and area based image matching. Then the RPCs that calculate for each images use for extracting 3D coordinate in matched points. At the end, the coordinates calculating that compare with coordinates extracted from 1 meters DEM. The results show root mean square errors for 360 points are 3.09 meters. We use a pair of spotlight TerraSAR-X images from JAM (IRAN in this article.

Performance Analysis of Ship Wake Detection on Sentinel-1 SAR Images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Daniela Graziano

2017-10-01

Full Text Available A novel technique for ship wake detection has been recently proposed and applied on X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar images provided by COSMO/SkyMed and TerraSAR-X. The approach shows that the vast majority of wake features are correctly detected and validated in critical situations. In this paper, the algorithm was applied to 28 wakes imaged by Sentinel-1 mission with different polarizations and incidence angles with the aim of testing the method’s robustness with reference to radar frequency and resolution. The detection process is properly modified. The results show that the features were correctly classified in 78.5% of cases, whereas false confirmations occur mainly on Kelvin cusps. Finally, the results were compared with the algorithm performance on X-band images, showing that no significant difference arises. In fact, the total false confirmations rate was 15.8% on X-band images and 18.5% on C-band images. Moreover, since the main criticality concerns again the false confirmation of Kelvin cusps, the same empirical criterion suggested for the X-band SAR images yielded a negligible 1.5% of false detection rate.

Ionic liquids as entrainers for water + ethanol, water + 2-propanol, and water + THF systems: A quantum chemical approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Verma, Vijay Kumar [Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781 039, Assam (India); Banerjee, Tamal, E-mail: tamalb@iitg.ernet.i [Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781 039, Assam (India)

2010-07-15

Ionic liquids (ILs) are used as entrainers in azeotropic systems such as water + ethanol, water + 2-propanol, and water + tetrahydrofuran (THF). Ionic liquids consisting of a cation and an anion has limitless combinations, thereby making experimentation expensive and time taking. For the prediction of the liquid phase nonidealities resulting from molecular interactions, 'COnductor-like Screening MOdel for Real Solvents' (COSMO-RS) approach is used in this work for the screening of potential ionic liquids. Initially benchmarking has been done on 12 reported isobaric IL based ternary systems with an absolute average deviation of 4.63% in vapor phase mole fraction and 1.07% in temperature. After successful benchmarking, ternary vapor + liquid equilibria for the azeotropic mixture of (a) ethanol + water, (b) 2-propanol + water, and (c) THF + water with combinations involving 10 cations (imidazolium, pyridinium, quinolium) and 24 anions were predicted. The VLE prediction, which gave the relative volatility, showed that the imidazolium based ionic liquid were the best entrainer for the separation of the three systems at their azeotropic point. ILs with [MMIM] cation in combination with acetate [OAc], chloride [Cl], and bromide [Br] anion gave the highest relative volatility.

Influence of emissions on regional atmospheric mercury concentrations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bieser J.

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Mercury is a global pollutant that is rapidly transported in the atmosphere. Unlike the majority of air pollutants the background concentrations of mercury play a major role for the atmospheric concentrations on a hemispheric scale. In this study the influence of regional anthropogenic emissions in comparison to the global emissions on mercury concentrations over Europe are investigated. For this purpose an advanced threedimensional model system is used that consists of three components. The emission model SMOKE-EU, the meteorological model COSMO-CLM, and the chemistry transport model (CTM CMAQ. A variety of sensitivity runs is performed in order to determine the influence of different driving factors (i.e. boundary conditions, anthropogenic and natural emissions, emission factors, meteorological fields on the atmoshperic concentrations of different mercury species. This study is part of the European FP7 project GMOS (Global Mercury Observation System. The aim is to identify the most important drivers for atmospheric mercury in order to optimize future regional modelling studies in the course of the GMOS project. Moreover, the model results are used to determine areas of interest for air-plane based in-situ measurements which are also part of GMOS.

Fundamental thermochemical properties of amino acids: gas-phase and aqueous acidities and gas-phase heats of formation.

Science.gov (United States)

Stover, Michele L; Jackson, Virgil E; Matus, Myrna H; Adams, Margaret A; Cassady, Carolyn J; Dixon, David A

2012-03-08

The gas-phase acidities of the 20 L-amino acids have been predicted at the composite G3(MP2) level. A broad range of structures of the neutral and anion were studied to determine the lowest energy conformer. Excellent agreement is found with the available experimental gas-phase deprotonation enthalpies, and the calculated values are within experimental error. We predict that tyrosine is deprotonated at the CO(2)H site. Cysteine is predicted to be deprotonated at the SH but the proton on the CO(2)H is shared with the S(-) site. Self-consistent reaction field (SCRF) calculations with the COSMO parametrization were used to predict the pK(a)'s of the non-zwitterion form in aqueous solution. The differences in the non-zwitterion pK(a) values were used to estimate the free energy difference between the zwitterion and nonzwitterion forms in solution. The heats of formation of the neutral compounds were calculated from atomization energies and isodesmic reactions to provide the first reliable set of these values in the gas phase. Further calculations were performed on five rare amino acids to predict their heats of formation, acidities, and pK(a) values.

Compound summer temperature and precipitation extremes over central Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Sedlmeier, Katrin; Feldmann, H.; Schädler, G.

2018-02-01

Reliable knowledge of the near-future climate change signal of extremes is important for adaptation and mitigation strategies. Especially compound extremes, like heat and drought occurring simultaneously, may have a greater impact on society than their univariate counterparts and have recently become an active field of study. In this paper, we use a 12-member ensemble of high-resolution (7 km) regional climate simulations with the regional climate model COSMO-CLM over central Europe to analyze the climate change signal and its uncertainty for compound heat and drought extremes in summer by two different measures: one describing absolute (i.e., number of exceedances of absolute thresholds like hot days), the other relative (i.e., number of exceedances of time series intrinsic thresholds) compound extreme events. Changes are assessed between a reference period (1971-2000) and a projection period (2021-2050). Our findings show an increase in the number of absolute compound events for the whole investigation area. The change signal of relative extremes is more region-dependent, but there is a strong signal change in the southern and eastern parts of Germany and the neighboring countries. Especially the Czech Republic shows strong change in absolute and relative extreme events.

[Influence of different types of posts and cores on color of IPS-Empress 2 crown].

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Dong-fang; Yang, Jing-yuan; Yang, Xing-mei; Yang, Liu; Xu, Qiang; Guan, Hong-yu; Wan, Qian-bing

2007-10-01

To evaluate the influence of different types of posts and cores on the final color of the IPS-Emperss 2 crown. Five types of posts and cores (Cerapost with Empress cosmo, Cerapost with composite resin, gilded Ni-Cr alloy, gold alloy and Ni-Cr alloy) were made. The shifts in color of three points of IPS-Empress 2 crown surface (cervical, middle and incisal) with different posts and cores was measured with a spectroradiometer (PR-650). The L* a* b* values of zirconium oxide and gilded Ni-Cr alloy posts and cores with ceramic crown were the highest. The L* a* values of zirconium oxide posts composite cores were higher while the b* values were lower. The L* a* b* values of Ni-Cr alloy were lower than that of gold alloy and were the lowest. In combination with IPS-Empress 2 crown, zirconium oxide posts are suitable for routine use in the anterior dentition, and gilded Ni-Cr alloy and gold alloy posts and cores can be recommended for clinical practice. Ni-Cr alloy posts and cores can not be recommended for clinical practice.

Nonlinear waves in viscoelastic magnetized complex astroplasmas with polarized dust-charge variations

Science.gov (United States)

Das, Papari; Karmakar, Pralay Kumar

2018-01-01

A nonextensive nonthermal magnetized viscoelastic astrofluid, compositionally containing nonthermal electrons and ions together with massive polarized dust micro-spherical grains of variable electric charge, is allowed to endure weakly nonlinear perturbation around its equilibrium. The nonextensivity originating from the large-scale non-local effects is included via the Tsallis thermo-statistical distribution laws describing the lighter species. Assuming the equilibrium as a homogeneous hydrostatic one, the dust polarization effects are incorporated via the conventional homogeneous polarization force law. The perturbed fluid model evolves as a unique conjugate pair of coupled extended Korteweg-de Vries (e-KdV) equations. A constructed numerical tapestry shows the collective excitations of a new pair of distinct classes of nonlinear mode structures in new parametric space. The first family indicates periodic electrostatic compressive eigenmodes in the form of soliton-chains. Likewise, the second one reveals gravitational rarefactive solitary patterns. Their microphysical multi-parametric dependencies of the eigen-patterns are illustratively analyzed and bolstered. The paper ends up with some promising implications and applications in the astro-cosmo-plasmic context of wave-induced accretive triggering processes responsible for gravitationally bounded (gravito-condensed) astro-structure formation, such as stellesimals, planetsimals, etc.

Learn-as-you-go acceleration of cosmological parameter estimates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aslanyan, Grigor; Easther, Richard; Price, Layne C.

2015-01-01

Cosmological analyses can be accelerated by approximating slow calculations using a training set, which is either precomputed or generated dynamically. However, this approach is only safe if the approximations are well understood and controlled. This paper surveys issues associated with the use of machine-learning based emulation strategies for accelerating cosmological parameter estimation. We describe a learn-as-you-go algorithm that is implemented in the Cosmo++ code and (1) trains the emulator while simultaneously estimating posterior probabilities; (2) identifies unreliable estimates, computing the exact numerical likelihoods if necessary; and (3) progressively learns and updates the error model as the calculation progresses. We explicitly describe and model the emulation error and show how this can be propagated into the posterior probabilities. We apply these techniques to the Planck likelihood and the calculation of ΛCDM posterior probabilities. The computation is significantly accelerated without a pre-defined training set and uncertainties in the posterior probabilities are subdominant to statistical fluctuations. We have obtained a speedup factor of 6.5 for Metropolis-Hastings and 3.5 for nested sampling. Finally, we discuss the general requirements for a credible error model and show how to update them on-the-fly

Multiband PSInSAR and long-period monitoring of land subsidence in a strategic detrital aquifer (Vega de Granada, SE Spain): An approach to support management decisions

Science.gov (United States)

Mateos, Rosa María; Ezquerro, Pablo; Luque-Espinar, Juan Antonio; Béjar-Pizarro, Marta; Notti, Davide; Azañón, Jose Miguel; Montserrat, Oriol; Herrera, Gerardo; Fernández-Chacón, Francisca; Peinado, Tomás; Galve, Jorge Pedro; Pérez-Peña, Vicente; Fernández-Merodo, Jose A.; Jiménez, Jorge

2017-10-01

This work integrates detailed geological and hydrogeological information with PSI data to obtain a better understanding of subsidence processes detected in the detrital aquifer of the Vega de Granada (SE Spain) during the past 13 years. Ground motion was monitored by exploiting SAR images from the ENVISAT (2003-2009), Cosmo-SkyMed (2011-2014) and Sentinel-1A (2015-2016) satellites. PSInSAR results show an inelastic deformation in the aquifer and small land surface displacements (up to -55 mm). The most widespread land subsidence is detected during the ENVISAT period (2003-2009), which coincided with a long, dry period in the region. The highest displacement rates recorded during this period (up to 10 mm/yr) were detected in the central part of the aquifer, where many villages are located. For this period, there is a good correlation between groundwater level depletion and the augmentation of the average subsidence velocity and slight hydraulic head changes (account critical levels of groundwater depletion to avoid land subsidence in the areas identified as vulnerable. The European Space Agency satellite Sentinel-1A could be an effective decision-making tool in the near future.

Phase behaviour, interactions, and structural studies of (amines+ionic liquids) binary mixtures.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacquemin, Johan; Bendová, Magdalena; Sedláková, Zuzana; Blesic, Marijana; Holbrey, John D; Mullan, Claire L; Youngs, Tristan G A; Pison, Laure; Wagner, Zdeněk; Aim, Karel; Costa Gomes, Margarida F; Hardacre, Christopher

2012-05-14

We present a study on the phase equilibrium behaviour of binary mixtures containing two 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium bis{(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl}imide-based ionic liquids, [C(n)mim] [NTf(2)] (n=2 and 4), mixed with diethylamine or triethylamine as a function of temperature and composition using different experimental techniques. Based on this work, two systems showing an LCST and one system with a possible hourglass shape are measured. Their phase behaviours are then correlated and predicted by using Flory-Huggins equations and the UNIQUAC method implemented in Aspen. The potential of the COSMO-RS methodology to predict the phase equilibria was also tested for the binary systems studied. However, this methodology is unable to predict the trends obtained experimentally, limiting its use for systems involving amines in ionic liquids. The liquid-state structure of the binary mixture ([C(2)mim] [NTf(2)]+diethylamine) is also investigated by molecular dynamics simulation and neutron diffraction. Finally, the absorption of gaseous ethane by the ([C(2)mim][NTf(2)]+diethylamine) binary mixture is determined and compared with that observed in the pure solvents. Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Collaborative Cyberinfrastructure: Crowdsourcing of Knowledge and Discoveries (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Gay, P.

2013-12-01

The design and implementation of programs to crowdsource science presents a unique set of challenges to system architects, programmers, and designers. In this presentation, one solution, CosmoQuest's Citizen Science Builder (CSB), will be discussed. CSB combines a clean user interface with a powerful back end to allow the quick design and deployment of citizen science sites that meet the needs of both the random Joe Public, and the detail driven Albert Professional. In this talk, the software will be overviewed, and the results of usability testing and accuracy testing with both citizen and professional scientists will be discussed. The software is designed to run on one or more LINUX systems running Apache webserver with MySQL and PHP. The interface is HTML5 and relies on javascript and AJAX to provide a dynamic interactive experience. CosmoQuest currently runs on Amazon Web Services and uses VBulletin for logins. The public-facing aspects of CSB provide a uniform experience that allows citizen scientists to use a simple set of tools to achieve a diversity of tasks. This interface presents users with a large view window for data, a toolbar reminiscent of MS Word or Adobe Photoshop with tools from drawing circles or segmented lines, flagging features from a dropdown menu, or marking specific objects with a set marker. The toolbar also allows users to select checkboxes describing the image as a whole. In addition to the viewer and toolbar, volunteers can also access tooltips, examples, and a video tutorial. The scientist interface for CSB gives the science team the ability to prioritize images, download results, create comparison data to validate volunteer data, and also provides access to downloadable tools for doing data analysis. Both these interfaces are controlled through a simple set of config files, although some tasks require customization of the controlling javascript. These are used to point the software at YouTube tutorials, graphics, and the correct

Direct and semi-direct effects of aerosol climatologies on long-term climate simulations over Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Schultze, Markus; Rockel, Burkhardt

2017-08-01

This study compares the direct and semi-direct aerosol effects of different annual cycles of tropospheric aerosol loads for Europe from 1950 to 2009 using the regional climate model COSMO-CLM, which is laterally forced by reanalysis data and run using prescribed, climatological aerosol optical properties. These properties differ with respect to the analysis strategy and the time window, and are then used for the same multi-decadal period. Five simulations with different aerosol loads and one control simulation without any tropospheric aerosols are integrated and compared. Two common limitations of our simulation strategy, to fully assess direct and semi-direct aerosol effects, are the applied observed sea surface temperatures and sea ice conditions, and the lack of short-term variations in the aerosol load. Nevertheless, the impact of different aerosol climatologies on common regional climate model simulations can be assessed. The results of all aerosol-including simulations show a distinct reduction in solar irradiance at the surface compared with that in the control simulation. This reduction is strongest in the summer season and is balanced primarily by a weakening of turbulent heat fluxes and to a lesser extent by a decrease in longwave emissions. Consequently, the seasonal mean surface cooling is modest. The temperature profile responses are characterized by a shallow near-surface cooling and a dominant warming up to the mid-troposphere caused by aerosol absorption. The resulting stabilization of stratification leads to reduced cloud cover and less precipitation. A decrease in cloud water and ice content over Central Europe in summer possibly reinforce aerosol absorption and thus strengthen the vertical warming. The resulting radiative forcings are positive. The robustness of the results was demonstrated by performing a simulation with very strong aerosol forcing, which lead to qualitatively similar results. A distinct added value over the default aerosol

A virtual remote sensing observation network for continuous, near-real-time monitoring of atmospheric instability

Science.gov (United States)

Toporov, Maria; Löhnert, Ulrich; Potthast, Roland; Cimini, Domenico; De Angelis, Francesco

2017-04-01

remote sensing (i.e. SEVIRI, AMSU) is used to complement observations from a virtual ground-based microwave radiometer network based on the reanalysis of the COSMO model for Europe. In this contribution, we present a synergetic retrieval algorithm of stability indices from satellite observations and ground-based microwave measurements based on the COSMO-DE reanalysis as truth. In order to make the approach feasible for data assimilation applications at national weather services, we simulate satellite observations with the standard RTTOV model and use the newly developed RTTOV-gb (ground-based) for the ground-based radiometers (De Angelis et al., 2016). For the detection of significant instabilities, we show the synergy benefit in terms of uncertainty reduction, probability of detection and other forecast skill scores. The overall goal of ARON is to quantify the impact of ground-based vertical profilers within an integrated forecasting system, which combines short-term and now-casting.

Performance analysis of coupled and uncoupled hydrodynamic and wave models in the northern Adriatic Sea

Science.gov (United States)

Busca, Claudia; Coluccelli, Alessandro; Valentini, Andrea; Benetazzo, Alvise; Bonaldo, Davide; Bortoluzzi, Giovanni; Carniel, Sandro; Falcieri, Francesco; Paccagnella, Tiziana; Ravaioli, Mariangela; Riminucci, Francesco; Sclavo, Mauro; Russo, Aniello

2014-05-01

The complex dynamics of the Adriatic Sea are the result of geographical position, orography and bathymetry, as well as rivers discharge and meteorological conditions that influence, more strongly, the shallow northern part. Such complexity requires a constant monitoring of marine conditions in order to support several activities (marine resources management, naval operations, emergency management, shipping, tourism, as well as scientific ones). Platforms, buoys and mooring located in Adriatic Sea supply almost continuously real time punctual information, which can be spatially extended, with some limitations, by drifters and remote sensing. Operational forecasting systems represent valid tools to provide a complete tridimensional coverage of the area, with a high spatial and temporal resolution. The Hydro-Meteo-Clima Service of the Emilia-Romagna Environmental Agency (ARPA-SIMC, Bologna, Italy) and the Dept. of Life and Environmental Sciences of Università Politecnica delle Marche (DISVA-UNIVPM, Ancona, Italy), in collaboration with the Institute of Marine Science of the National Research Council (ISMAR-CNR, Italy) operationally run several wave and hydrodynamic models on the Adriatic Sea. The main implementations are based on the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS), the wave model Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN), and the coupling of the former two models in the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport (COAWST) system. Horizontal resolutions of the different systems range from the 2 km of AdriaROMS to the 0.5 km of the recently implemented northern Adriatic COAWST. Forecasts are produced every day for the subsequent 72 hour with hourly resolution. All the systems compute the fluxes exchanged through the interface with the atmosphere from the numerical weather prediction system named COSMO-I7, an implementation for Italy of the Consortium for Small-scale Modeling (COSMO) model, at 7 km horizontal resolution. Considering the several operational

Oligomeric models for estimation of polydimethylsiloxane-water partition ratios with COSMO-RS theory: impact of the combinatorial term on absolute error.

Science.gov (United States)

Parnis, J Mark; Mackay, Donald

2017-03-22

A series of 12 oligomeric models for polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) were evaluated for their effectiveness in estimating the PDMS-water partition ratio, K PDMS-w . Models ranging in size and complexity from the -Si(CH 3 ) 2 -O- model previously published by Goss in 2011 to octadeca-methyloctasiloxane (CH 3 -(Si(CH 3 ) 2 -O-) 8 CH 3 ) were assessed based on their RMS error with 253 experimental measurements of log K PDMS-w from six published works. The lowest RMS error for log K PDMS-w (0.40 in log K) was obtained with the cyclic oligomer, decamethyl-cyclo-penta-siloxane (D5), (-Si(CH 3 ) 2 -O-) 5 , with the mixing-entropy associated combinatorial term included in the chemical potential calculation. The presence or absence of terminal methyl groups on linear oligomer models is shown to have significant impact only for oligomers containing 1 or 2 -Si(CH 3 ) 2 -O- units. Removal of the combinatorial term resulted in a significant increase in the RMS error for most models, with the smallest increase associated with the largest oligomer studied. The importance of inclusion of the combinatorial term in the chemical potential for liquid oligomer models is discussed.

Intégration des pluies prévues du système COSMO-DE-EPS dans le système AIGA

OpenAIRE

Demargne, J.; Javelle, P.

2014-01-01

/ Cette étude a été réalisée pour le SCHAPI (Service Central d'Hydrométéorologie et d'Appui à la Prévision des Inondations) pour analyser l'amélioration du système d'avertissement aux crues rapides AIGA en prenant en compte les incertitudes des pluies futures et des paramètres du modèle hydrologique calibré et régionalisé. Le SCHAPI développe actuellement un service d'avertissement automatisé valable sur l'ensemble de la France, qui sera complété par un service expertisé d'avertissement sur d...

Near-global climate simulation at 1 km resolution: establishing a performance baseline on 4888 GPUs with COSMO 5.0

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O. Fuhrer

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The best hope for reducing long-standing global climate model biases is by increasing resolution to the kilometer scale. Here we present results from an ultrahigh-resolution non-hydrostatic climate model for a near-global setup running on the full Piz Daint supercomputer on 4888 GPUs (graphics processing units. The dynamical core of the model has been completely rewritten using a domain-specific language (DSL for performance portability across different hardware architectures. Physical parameterizations and diagnostics have been ported using compiler directives. To our knowledge this represents the first complete atmospheric model being run entirely on accelerators on this scale. At a grid spacing of 930 m (1.9 km, we achieve a simulation throughput of 0.043 (0.23 simulated years per day and an energy consumption of 596 MWh per simulated year. Furthermore, we propose a new memory usage efficiency (MUE metric that considers how efficiently the memory bandwidth – the dominant bottleneck of climate codes – is being used.

Constraining holographic cosmology using Planck data

Science.gov (United States)

Afshordi, Niayesh; Gould, Elizabeth; Skenderis, Kostas

2017-06-01

Holographic cosmology offers a novel framework for describing the very early Universe in which cosmological predictions are expressed in terms of the observables of a three-dimensional quantum field theory (QFT). This framework includes conventional slow-roll inflation, which is described in terms of a strongly coupled QFT, but it also allows for qualitatively new models for the very early Universe, where the dual QFT may be weakly coupled. The new models describe a universe which is nongeometric at early times. While standard slow-roll inflation leads to a (near-) power-law primordial power spectrum, perturbative super-renormalizable QFTs yield a new holographic spectral shape. Here, we compare the two predictions against cosmological observations. We use CosmoMC to determine the best fit parameters, and MultiNest for Bayesian evidence, comparing the likelihoods. We find that the dual QFT should be nonperturbative at the very low multipoles (l ≲30 ), while for higher multipoles (l ≳30 ) the new holographic model, based on perturbative QFT, fits the data just as well as the standard power-law spectrum assumed in Λ CDM cosmology. This finding opens the door to applications of nonperturbative QFT techniques, such as lattice simulations, to observational cosmology on gigaparsec scales and beyond.

Toward seamless high-resolution flash flood forecasting over Europe based on radar nowcasting and NWP: An evaluation with case studies

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Shinju; Berenguer, Marc; Sempere-Torres, Daniel; Baugh, Calum; Smith, Paul

2017-04-01

Flash floods induced by heavy rain are one of the hazardous natural events that significantly affect human lives. Because flash floods are characterized by their rapid onset, forecasting flash flood to lead an effective response requires accurate rainfall predictions with high spatial and temporal resolution and adequate representation of the hydrologic and hydraulic processes within a catchment that determine rainfall-runoff accumulations. We present extreme flash flood cases which occurred throughout Europe in 2015-2016 that were identified and forecasted by two real-time approaches: 1) the European Rainfall-Induced Hazard Assessment System (ERICHA) and 2) the European Runoff Index based on Climatology (ERIC). ERICHA is based on the nowcasts of accumulated precipitation generated from the pan-European radar composites produced by the EUMETNET project OPERA. It has the advantage of high-resolution precipitation inputs and rapidly updated forecasts (every 15 minutes), but limited forecast lead time (up to 8 hours). ERIC, on the other hand, provides 5-day forecasts based on the COSMO-LEPS NWP simulations updated 2 times a day but is only produced at a 7 km resolution. We compare the products from both systems and focus on showing the advantages, limitations and complementarities of ERICHA and ERIC for seamless high-resolution flash flood forecasting.

Permanent Scatterer interferometry: a look at the future

Science.gov (United States)

Ferretti, A.; Novali, F.; Perissin, D.; Prati, C.; Rocca, F.

2006-12-01

In the last six years extensive processing of thousands of SAR scenes acquired by ERS-1/2, ENVISAT and RADARSAT has demonstrated how multi-temporal data-sets can be successfully exploited for terrain monitoring, by identifying objects on the landscape that have a stable, point-like behaviour. These objects, referred to as Permanent Scatterers (PS), can be geo-coded and monitored for movement very accurately, acting as a "natural" geodetic network, possibly integrating continuous GPS data. The paper presents examples of applications of monitoring landslides, seismic faults and subsidence areas, using experience in Europe, US and Canada, and concludes with a discussion on future directions for PSInSAR analysis. This second part will briefly discuss the technical features of the new radar sensors to be launched in the near future (namely: TerraSAR-X, RADARSAT-2, CosmoSkyMed and the new ESA mission) and their impact on PSInSAR analyses, highlighting the importance of data continuity and standardized acquisition policies for almost all DInSAR and PSInSAR applications. Finally, recent advances in the algorithms applied in PS analysis, allowing the detection of "temporary PS", PS characterization and exploitation of distributed scatterers, will be briefly addressed based on the processing of real SAR data.

Retrieving Precise Three-Dimensional Deformation on the 2014 M6.0 South Napa Earthquake by Joint Inversion of Multi-Sensor SAR.

Science.gov (United States)

Jo, Min-Jeong; Jung, Hyung-Sup; Yun, Sang-Ho

2017-07-14

We reconstructed the three-dimensional (3D) surface displacement field of the 24 August 2014 M6.0 South Napa earthquake using SAR data from the Italian Space Agency's COSMO-SkyMed and the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1A satellites. Along-track and cross-track displacements produced with conventional SAR interferometry (InSAR) and multiple-aperture SAR interferometry (MAI) techniques were integrated to retrieve the east, north, and up components of surface deformation. The resulting 3D displacement maps clearly delineated the right-lateral shear motion of the fault rupture with a maximum surface displacement of approximately 45 cm along the fault's strike, showing the east and north components of the trace particularly clearly. These maps also suggested a better-constrained model for the South Napa earthquake. We determined a strike of approximately 338° and dip of 85° by applying the Okada dislocation model considering a single patch with a homogeneous slip motion. Using the distributed slip model obtained by a linear solution, we estimated that a peak slip of approximately 1.7 m occurred around 4 km depth from the surface. 3D modelling using the retrieved 3D maps helps clarify the fault's nature and thus characterize its behaviour.

La Θεογονία de Museo: fragmentos inéditos e intento de reconstrucción

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Roxana Beatriz Martínez Nieto

2001-06-01

Full Text Available Musaeus, author who if he did exist never placed the seal of his signature on his works, has left a cosmo-theogonical work which, although fragmented, shows a great recognition towards the Natural Philosophy which arose in the 6th century B.C. In this essay, some of the poet´s unpublished cosmogonical fragments are presented. These are the ones which here appear as fragments 5, 6, 15 and 19. Also, an attempt to reconstruct his cosmogonical poem is proposed, which helps us to better comprehend mythical tradition and religiousness in ancient Greece. Thus, we may be able to help demonstrate that Museus' writings offer, for themselves, without need to be an annex to the orphic theogonies, new primordial cosmogonical elements, and that they push forward a philosophical conception which will go on to make up the central axis of posterior interpretations in the so-called pre-socratic philosophy. The collection of fragments which are presented here could be the most complete yet known. Moreover, the innovations in the poems attributed to him, with tales and anecdotes about Titanomachy and a whole divine genealogy, make him an introducer of an orphic-eleusinian version, originating from Thrace, in the flourishing Athens of 6th century.

CONTENUTO DI URANIO E TORIO NELLE METEORITI

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M. SANTANGELO

1955-06-01

Full Text Available Molti ricercatori in questi ultimi anni si sono interessati al problema
della composizione delle meteoriti; dai risultati sperimentali si
è cercato trarre elementi circa la genesi di questi materiali, questione
ancora aperta, ed avere informazioni sui processi chimici e termodinamici
cui le meteoriti furono soggette prima della loro caduta sulla
terra.
Uno degli aspetti del problema è quello dell'abbondanza percentuale
degli elementi chimici e della loro composizione isotopica nella
materia meteorica dei diversi tipi : ciò perché esso è connesso con
quello piii generale dell'origine e distribuzione degli elementi nel cosmo
e nella terra, nonché con quello dell'età delle meteoriti (l .
In un recente lavoro Urey e collaboratori (-, esaminando un gran
numero di analisi chimiche effettuate su questi materiali, sono pervenuti
alla formulazione di alcuni criteri di classificazione in base alla
percentuale dei componenti più abbondanti ed alla presenza o meno
di disomogeneità strutturali nella massa fondamentale. Fra gli elementi
meno abbondanti presentano particolare interesse quelli delle due famiglie
radioattive naturali Torio e Uranio; le loro concentrazioni sono
state determinate per alcune meteoriti siliciche (stonv ineteorites e
per qualcuna ferrica (iron meteorites

Urban Aerodynamic Roughness Length Mapping Using Multitemporal SAR Data

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Fengli Zhang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Aerodynamic roughness is very important to urban meteorological and climate studies. Radar remote sensing is considered to be an effective means for aerodynamic roughness retrieval because radar backscattering is sensitive to the surface roughness and geometric structure of a given target. In this paper, a methodology for aerodynamic roughness length estimation using SAR data in urban areas is introduced. The scale and orientation characteristics of backscattering of various targets in urban areas were firstly extracted and analyzed, which showed great potential of SAR data for urban roughness elements characterization. Then the ground truth aerodynamic roughness was calculated from wind gradient data acquired by the meteorological tower using fitting and iterative method. And then the optimal dimension of the upwind sector for the aerodynamic roughness calculation was determined through a correlation analysis between backscattering extracted from SAR data at various upwind sector areas and the aerodynamic roughness calculated from the meteorological tower data. Finally a quantitative relationship was set up to retrieve the aerodynamic roughness length from SAR data. Experiments based on ALOS PALSAR and COSMO-SkyMed data from 2006 to 2011 prove that the proposed methodology can provide accurate roughness length estimations for the spatial and temporal analysis of urban surface.

URBAN MODELLING PERFORMANCE OF NEXT GENERATION SAR MISSIONS

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U. G. Sefercik

2017-09-01

Full Text Available In synthetic aperture radar (SAR technology, urban mapping and modelling have become possible with revolutionary missions TerraSAR-X (TSX and Cosmo-SkyMed (CSK since 2007. These satellites offer 1m spatial resolution in high-resolution spotlight imaging mode and capable for high quality digital surface model (DSM acquisition for urban areas utilizing interferometric SAR (InSAR technology. With the advantage of independent generation from seasonal weather conditions, TSX and CSK DSMs are much in demand by scientific users. The performance of SAR DSMs is influenced by the distortions such as layover, foreshortening, shadow and double-bounce depend up on imaging geometry. In this study, the potential of DSMs derived from convenient 1m high-resolution spotlight (HS InSAR pairs of CSK and TSX is validated by model-to-model absolute and relative accuracy estimations in an urban area. For the verification, an airborne laser scanning (ALS DSM of the study area was used as the reference model. Results demonstrated that TSX and CSK urban DSMs are compatible in open, built-up and forest land forms with the absolute accuracy of 8–10 m. The relative accuracies based on the coherence of neighbouring pixels are superior to absolute accuracies both for CSK and TSX.

Implementing Cargo Movement into Climate Based Risk Assessment of Vector-Borne Diseases

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Stephanie Margarete Thomas

2014-03-01

Full Text Available During the last decades the disease vector Aedes albopictus (Asian tiger mosquito has rapidly spread around the globe. Global shipment of goods contributes to its permanent introduction. Invaded regions are facing novel and serious public health concerns, especially regarding the transmission of formerly non-endemic arboviruses such as dengue and chikungunya. The further development and potential spread to other regions depends largely on their climatic suitability. Here, we have developed a tool for identifying and prioritizing European areas at risk for the establishment of Aedes albopictus by taking into account, for the first time, the freight imports from this mosquito’s endemic countries and the climate suitability at harbors and their surrounding regions. In a second step we consider the further transport of containers by train and inland waterways because these types of transport can be well controlled. We identify European regions at risk, where a huge amount of transported goods meet climatically suitable conditions for the disease vector. The current and future suitability of the climate for Aedes albopictus was modeled by a correlative niche model approach and the Regional Climate Model COSMO-CLM. This risk assessment combines impacts of globalization and global warming to improve effective and proactive interventions in disease vector surveillance and control actions.

Phase Behaviour of 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium Thiocyanate Ionic Liquid with Catalytic Deactivated Compounds and Water at Several Temperatures: Experiments and Theoretical Predictions

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Ramalingam Anantharaj

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Density, surface tension and refractive index were determined for the binary mixture of catalytic deactivated compounds with 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium thiocyanate {[EMIM][SCN]} at temperature of (298.15 to 323.15 K. For all the compounds with ILs, the densities varied linearly in the entire mole fraction with increasing temperature. From the obtained data, the excess molar volume and deviation of surface tension and refractive index have been calculated. A strong interaction was found between similar (cation-thiophene or cation-pyrrole compounds. The interaction of IL with dissimilar compounds such as indoline and quinoline and other multiple ring compounds was found to strongly depend on the composition of IL at any temperatures. For the mixtures, the surface tension decreases in the order of: thiophene > quinoline > pyridine > indoline > pyrrole > water. In general from the excess volume studies, the IL-sulphur/nitrogen mixture has stronger interaction as compared to IL-IL, thiophene-thiophene or pyrrole-pyrrole interaction. The deviation of surface tension was found to be inversely proportional to deviation of refractive index. The quantum chemical based COSMO-RS was used to predict the non-ideal liquid phase activity coefficient for all mixtures. It indicated an inverse relation between activity coefficient and excess molar volumes.

Possible reaction pathways of the lincomycin molecule according to the DFT calculation method

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Eren Bahar

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Human-used antibiotics are eliminated from the body with little or no transformation at all. Traces of eliminated antibiotics enter the receiving environment directly since they cannot be treated in prevalent wastewater treatment facilities. Thus, wastewaters containing traces of antibiotics have to be treated accordingly. Lincomycin is subsequently isolated from Streptomyces lincolnensis. Lincomycin and its derivatives are antibiotics exhibiting biological activity against Gram-positive bacteria, and are natural antibiotics in the environment as pollutants. This study aims to predict the degradation mechanism of lincomycin molecule in the gaseous phase and aqueous media. Probable reaction path of lincomycin molecule with OH radicals was analyzed. Optimized geometry was calculated via Gauss View 5. Subsequently, the lowest energy status was determined through geometric optimization via Gaussian 09 program. Aiming to determine the intermediates in photocatalytic degradation mechanism of lincomycin, geometric optimization of the molecule was realized through DFT method. Activation energy for the probable reaction path was calculated, and their most stable state from the thermodynamic perspective determined for the gaseous phase and aqueous media. Impact of water solvent was investigated using the conductor-like screening solvation model (COSMO. The predicted mechanism was confirmed by comparison with experimental results on simple structures reported in literature.

COMPILATION OF GEOMORPHOLOGICAL MAP FOR RECONSTRUCTING THE DEGLACIATION OF ICE-FREE AREAS IN THE MARTEL INLET, KING GEORGE ISLAND, ANTARCTICA

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Kátia Kellem Rosa

2014-03-01

Full Text Available We compiled a geomorphological map and a reconstruction map of glacier extension and ice-free areas in the Martel Inlet, located in King George Island, South Shetlands, Antarctica. Glacier extension data were derived of the digitized over a orthophotomosaic (2003, SPOT (February, 1988; March, 1995 and 2000, Quickbird (October, 2006 and Cosmo-Skymed (February, 2011 images. This mapping was supported by fieldworks carried out in the summers of 2007, 2010 and 2011, and by topographic surveys and geomorphic map in the proglacial area. Several types of glacial deposits were identified in the study area, such as frontal and lateral moraines, flutes, meltwater channels and erosional features like rock moutonnés, striations and U-shaped valleys. These features allowed reconstructing the evolution of the deglaciation environment in the Martel Inlet ice-free areas, which has been affected by a regional climate warming trend. The mapped data indicated the glaciers in study area lost about 0.71 km² of their ice masses (13.2% of the 50.3 km² total area, without any advances during 1979-2011. Since those years these glaciers receded by an average of 25.9 m a-1. These ice-free areas were susceptible to rapid post-depositional changes.

The Role of Resolution in the Estimation of Fractal Dimension Maps From SAR Data

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Gerardo Di Martino

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This work is aimed at investigating the role of resolution in fractal dimension map estimation, analyzing the role of the different surface spatial scales involved in the considered estimation process. The study is performed using a data set of actual Cosmo/SkyMed Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR images relevant to two different areas, the region of Bidi in Burkina Faso and the city of Naples in Italy, acquired in stripmap and enhanced spotlight modes. The behavior of fractal dimension maps in the presence of areas with distinctive characteristics from the viewpoint of land-cover and surface features is discussed. Significant differences among the estimated maps are obtained in the presence of fine textural details, which significantly affect the fractal dimension estimation for the higher resolution spotlight images. The obtained results show that if we are interested in obtaining a reliable estimate of the fractal dimension of the observed natural scene, stripmap images should be chosen in view of both economic and computational considerations. In turn, the combination of fractal dimension maps obtained from stripmap and spotlight images can be used to identify areas on the scene presenting non-fractal behavior (e.g., urban areas. Along this guideline, a simple example of stripmap-spotlight data fusion is also presented.

Evaluation of Docking Target Functions by the Comprehensive Investigation of Protein-Ligand Energy Minima.

Science.gov (United States)

Oferkin, Igor V; Katkova, Ekaterina V; Sulimov, Alexey V; Kutov, Danil C; Sobolev, Sergey I; Voevodin, Vladimir V; Sulimov, Vladimir B

2015-01-01

The adequate choice of the docking target function impacts the accuracy of the ligand positioning as well as the accuracy of the protein-ligand binding energy calculation. To evaluate a docking target function we compared positions of its minima with the experimentally known pose of the ligand in the protein active site. We evaluated five docking target functions based on either the MMFF94 force field or the PM7 quantum-chemical method with or without implicit solvent models: PCM, COSMO, and SGB. Each function was tested on the same set of 16 protein-ligand complexes. For exhaustive low-energy minima search the novel MPI parallelized docking program FLM and large supercomputer resources were used. Protein-ligand binding energies calculated using low-energy minima were compared with experimental values. It was demonstrated that the docking target function on the base of the MMFF94 force field in vacuo can be used for discovery of native or near native ligand positions by finding the low-energy local minima spectrum of the target function. The importance of solute-solvent interaction for the correct ligand positioning is demonstrated. It is shown that docking accuracy can be improved by replacement of the MMFF94 force field by the new semiempirical quantum-chemical PM7 method.

Evaluation of Docking Target Functions by the Comprehensive Investigation of Protein-Ligand Energy Minima

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Igor V. Oferkin

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The adequate choice of the docking target function impacts the accuracy of the ligand positioning as well as the accuracy of the protein-ligand binding energy calculation. To evaluate a docking target function we compared positions of its minima with the experimentally known pose of the ligand in the protein active site. We evaluated five docking target functions based on either the MMFF94 force field or the PM7 quantum-chemical method with or without implicit solvent models: PCM, COSMO, and SGB. Each function was tested on the same set of 16 protein-ligand complexes. For exhaustive low-energy minima search the novel MPI parallelized docking program FLM and large supercomputer resources were used. Protein-ligand binding energies calculated using low-energy minima were compared with experimental values. It was demonstrated that the docking target function on the base of the MMFF94 force field in vacuo can be used for discovery of native or near native ligand positions by finding the low-energy local minima spectrum of the target function. The importance of solute-solvent interaction for the correct ligand positioning is demonstrated. It is shown that docking accuracy can be improved by replacement of the MMFF94 force field by the new semiempirical quantum-chemical PM7 method.

InSAR Time Series Analysis of Natural and Anthropogenic Coastal Plain Subsidence: The Case of Sibari (Southern Italy

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Giuseppe Cianflone

2015-11-01

Full Text Available We applied the Small Baseline Subset multi-temporal InSAR technique (SBAS to two SAR datasets acquired from 2003 up to 2013 by Envisat (ESA, European Space Agency and COSMO-SkyMed (ASI, Italian Space Agency satellites to investigate spatial and temporal patterns of land subsidence in the Sibari Plain (Southern Italy. Subsidence processes (up to ~20 mm/yr were investigated comparing geological, hydrogeological, and land use information with interferometric results. We suppose a correlation between subsidence and thickness of the Plio-Quaternary succession suggesting an active role of the isostatic compensation. Furthermore, the active back thrusting in the Corigliano Gulf could trigger a flexural subsidence mechanism even if fault activity and earthquakes do not seem play a role in the present subsidence. In this context, the compaction of Holocene deposits contributes to ground deformation. Despite the rapid urbanization of the area in the last 50 years, we do not consider the intensive groundwater pumping and related water table drop as the main triggering cause of subsidence phenomena, in disagreement with some previous publications. Our interpretation for the deformation fields related to natural and anthropogenic factors would be a comprehensive and exhaustive justification to the complexity of subsidence processes in the Sibari Plain.

Building Deformation Assessment by Means of Persistent Scatterer Interferometry Analysis on a Landslide-Affected Area: The Volterra (Italy Case Study

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Silvia Bianchini

2015-04-01

Full Text Available In recent years, space-borne InSAR (interferometric synthetic aperture radar techniques have shown their capabilities to provide precise measurements of Earth surface displacements for monitoring natural processes. Landslides threaten human lives and structures, especially in urbanized areas, where the density of elements at risk sensitive to ground movements is high. The methodology described in this paper aims at detecting terrain motions and building deformations at the local scale, by means of satellite radar data combined with in situ validation campaigns. The proposed approach consists of deriving maximum settlement directions of the investigated buildings from displacement data revealed by radar measurements and then in the cross-comparison of these values with background geological data, constructive features and on-field evidence. This validation permits better understanding whether or not the detected movements correspond to visible and effective damages to buildings. The method has been applied to the southwestern sector of Volterra (Tuscany region, Italy, which is a landslide-affected and partially urbanized area, through the use of COSMO-SkyMed satellite images as input data. Moreover, we discuss issues and possible misinterpretations when dealing with PSI (Persistent Scatterer Interferometry data referring to single manufactures and the consequent difficulty of attributing the motion rate to ground displacements, rather than to structural failures.

Probability Distribution and Projected Trends of Daily Precipitation in China

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

CAO; Li-Ge; ZHONG; Jun; SU; Bu-Da; ZHAI; Jian-Qing; Macro; GEMMER

2013-01-01

Based on observed daily precipitation data of 540 stations and 3,839 gridded data from the high-resolution regional climate model COSMO-Climate Limited-area Modeling(CCLM)for 1961–2000,the simulation ability of CCLM on daily precipitation in China is examined,and the variation of daily precipitation distribution pattern is revealed.By applying the probability distribution and extreme value theory to the projected daily precipitation(2011–2050)under SRES A1B scenario with CCLM,trends of daily precipitation series and daily precipitation extremes are analyzed.Results show that except for the western Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and South China,distribution patterns of the kurtosis and skewness calculated from the simulated and observed series are consistent with each other;their spatial correlation coefcients are above 0.75.The CCLM can well capture the distribution characteristics of daily precipitation over China.It is projected that in some parts of the Jianghuai region,central-eastern Northeast China and Inner Mongolia,the kurtosis and skewness will increase significantly,and precipitation extremes will increase during 2011–2050.The projected increase of maximum daily rainfall and longest non-precipitation period during flood season in the aforementioned regions,also show increasing trends of droughts and floods in the next 40 years.

The artificial object detection and current velocity measurement using SAR ocean surface images

Science.gov (United States)

Alpatov, Boris; Strotov, Valery; Ershov, Maksim; Muraviev, Vadim; Feldman, Alexander; Smirnov, Sergey

2017-10-01

Due to the fact that water surface covers wide areas, remote sensing is the most appropriate way of getting information about ocean environment for vessel tracking, security purposes, ecological studies and others. Processing of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images is extensively used for control and monitoring of the ocean surface. Image data can be acquired from Earth observation satellites, such as TerraSAR-X, ERS, and COSMO-SkyMed. Thus, SAR image processing can be used to solve many problems arising in this field of research. This paper discusses some of them including ship detection, oil pollution control and ocean currents mapping. Due to complexity of the problem several specialized algorithm are necessary to develop. The oil spill detection algorithm consists of the following main steps: image preprocessing, detection of dark areas, parameter extraction and classification. The ship detection algorithm consists of the following main steps: prescreening, land masking, image segmentation combined with parameter measurement, ship orientation estimation and object discrimination. The proposed approach to ocean currents mapping is based on Doppler's law. The results of computer modeling on real SAR images are presented. Based on these results it is concluded that the proposed approaches can be used in maritime applications.

Requirements for design of accelerator, beam transport, and target in a study of thermonuclear reaction cross section

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Itahashi, T.; Takahisa, K.; Ohsumi, H.; Komori, M.; Fujiwara, M.; Toki, H. [Osaka Univ., Suita (Japan)

1997-02-01

The process of pp-de{sup +}{nu} is the basic fusion reaction for hydrogen burning in the sun and the prime reaction in chain producing photons and neutrinos. There are many works of the theoretical estimation of the reaction rate in the reaction chain in the sun. The precise measurement of the nutrinos from the sun is one of the most important current physics issues. The rate of the pp-de{sup +}{nu} is too small to be measured in laboratories. The construction of a compact ion accelerator facility with high current, low energy transport and plasma target is planned at the underground laboratory in Otoh Cosmo Observatory of Research Center for Nuclear Physics. The plasma target by using the EBIS type synthesized plasma was proposed as a bare {sup 3}He target. The production of helium ions of each charge state was tested by using the present NEOMAFIOS ECR ion source, and the obtained current is shown. For noncontaminated, high current beam transport, the strong focusing system was introduced. The design of windowless gas target, plasma target, the detection of the energetic reaction particles of protons, digital calorimeter, the couple of ECR ion source and plasma target, and the underground laboratory are reported. (K.I.)

Multi-Hazard Analysis for the Estimation of Ground Motion Induced by Landslides and Tectonics

Science.gov (United States)

Iglesias, Rubén; Koudogbo, Fifame; Ardizzone, Francesca; Mondini, Alessandro; Bignami, Christian

2016-04-01

applications, which typically occur over vegetated scenarios largely affected by temporal and geometrical phenomena, the number of persistent scatterers (PSs) available is crucial. The better the density and reliability of PSs, the better the delineation and characterization of landslides. In this context, an advanced high-resolution processing based on the use of the Non-Local Interferometric SAR (NL-InSAR) filtering will be evaluated. Finally, since SAR systems are only sensitive to the detection of displacements in the line-of-sight (LOS) direction, the importance of projecting final PSI displacement products along the steepest gradient of the terrain slope will be put forward. The high-resolution COSMO-SkyMed sensor will be used for this application. The test site selected to evaluate the performance of the techniques proposed corresponds to the region of Northern Apennines (Italy), which is affected by both landslides and tectonics displacement phenomena. Sentinel-1 (for tectonics) and COSMO-SkyMed (for landslides) SAR data will be employed for the monitoring of the activity within the area of interest. Users of the DRM (Disaster Risk Management) community have been associated to the project, in order to, once validated the algorithms, further evaluate the proposed solution considering selected trial cases.

Variability of Wind Speeds and Power over Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Tambke, J.; von Bremen, L.; de Decker, J.; Schmidt, M.; Steinfeld, G.; Wolff, J.-O.

2010-09-01

This study comprises two parts: First, we describe the vertical wind speed and turbulence profiles that result from our improved PBL scheme and compare it to observations and 1-dimensional approaches (Monin-Obukhov etc.). Second, we analyse the spatio-temporal correlations in our meso-scale simulations for the years 2004 to 2007 over entire Europe, with special focus on the Irish, North and Baltic Sea. 1.) Vertical Wind Speed Profiles The vertical wind profile above the sea has to be modelled with high accuracy for tip heights up to 160m in order to achieve precise wind resource assessments, to calculate loads and wakes of wind turbines as well as for reliable short-term wind power forecasts. We present an assessment of different models for wind profiles in unstable, neutral and stable thermal stratification. The meso-scale models comprise MM5, WRF and COSMO-EU (LME). Both COSMO-EU from the German Weather Service DWD and WRF use a turbulence closure of 2.5th order - and lead to similar results. Especially the limiting effect of low boundary layer heights on the wind shear in very stable stratification is well captured. In our new WRF-formulation for the mixing length in the Mellor-Yamada-Janjic (MYJ) parameterisation of the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL-scheme), the master length scale itself depends on the Monin-Obukhov-Length as a parameter for the heat flux effects on the turbulent mixing. This new PBL-scheme shows a better performance for all weather conditions than the original MYJ-scheme. Apart from the low-boundary-layer-effect in very stable situations (which are seldom), standard Monin-Obukhov formulations in combination with the Charnock relation for the sea surface roughness show good agreement with the FINO1-data (German Bight). Interesting results were achieved with two more detailed micro-scale approaches: - the parameterization proposed by Pena, Gryning and Hasager [BLM 2008] that depends on the boundary layer height - our ICWP-model, were the flux

A new approach for river flood extent delineation in rural and urban areas combining RADARSAT-2 imagery and flood recurrence interval data

Science.gov (United States)

Tanguy, Marion; Bernier, Monique; Chokmani, Karem

2015-04-01

When a flood hits an inhabited area, managers and services responsible for public safety need precise, reliable and up to date maps of the areas affected by the flood, in order to quickly roll out and to coordinate the adequate intervention and assistance plans required to limit the human and material damages caused by the disaster. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors are now considered as one of the most adapted tool for flood detection and mapping in a context of crisis management. Indeed, due to their capacity to acquire data night and day, in almost all meteorological conditions, SAR sensors allow the acquisition of synoptic but detailed views of the areas affected by the flood, even during the active phases of the event. Moreover, new generation sensors such as RADARSAT-2, TerraSAR-X, COSMO-SkyMed, are providing very high resolution images of the disaster (down to 1m ground resolution). Further, critical improvements have been made on the temporal repetitivity of acquisitions and on data availability, through the development of satellite constellations (i.e the four COSMO-Skymed or the Sentinel-1A and 1B satellites) and thanks to the implementation of the International Charter "Space and Major Disasters", which guarantees high priority images acquisition and delivery with 4 to 12 hours. If detection of open water flooded areas is relatively straightforward with SAR imagery, flood detection in built-up areas is often associated with important issues. Indeed, because of the side looking geometry of the SAR sensors, structures such as tall vegetation and structures parallel to the satellite direction of travel may produce shadow and layover effects, leading to important over and under-detections of flooded pixels. Besides, the numerous permanent water-surfaces like radar response areas present in built-up environments, such as parking lots, roads etc., may be mixed up with flooded areas, resulting in substantial inaccuracies in the final flood map. In spite of

Cosmic non-TEM radiation and synthetic feed array sensor system in ASIC mixed signal technology

Science.gov (United States)

Centureli, F.; Scotti, G.; Tommasino, P.; Trifiletti, A.; Romano, F.; Cimmino, R.; Saitto, A.

2014-08-01

The paper deals with the opportunity to introduce "Not strictly TEM waves" Synthetic detection Method (NTSM), consisting in a Three Axis Digital Beam Processing (3ADBP), to enhance the performances of radio telescope and sensor systems. Current Radio Telescopes generally use the classic 3D "TEM waves" approximation Detection Method, which consists in a linear tomography process (Single or Dual axis beam forming processing) neglecting the small z component. The Synthetic FEED ARRAY three axis Sensor SYSTEM is an innovative technique using a synthetic detection of the generic "NOT strictly TEM Waves radiation coming from the Cosmo, which processes longitudinal component of Angular Momentum too. Than the simultaneous extraction from radiation of both the linear and quadratic information component, may reduce the complexity to reconstruct the Early Universe in the different requested scales. This next order approximation detection of the observed cosmologic processes, may improve the efficacy of the statistical numerical model used to elaborate the same information acquired. The present work focuses on detection of such waves at carrier frequencies in the bands ranging from LF to MMW. The work shows in further detail the new generation of on line programmable and reconfigurable Mixed Signal ASIC technology that made possible the innovative Synthetic Sensor. Furthermore the paper shows the ability of such technique to increase the Radio Telescope Array Antenna performances.

Landslide Mapping in Vegetated Areas Using Change Detection Based on Optical and Polarimetric SAR Data

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Simon Plank

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Mapping of landslides, quickly providing information about the extent of the affected area and type and grade of damage, is crucial to enable fast crisis response, i.e., to support rescue and humanitarian operations. Most synthetic aperture radar (SAR data-based landslide detection approaches reported in the literature use change detection techniques, requiring very high resolution (VHR SAR imagery acquired shortly before the landslide event, which is commonly not available. Modern VHR SAR missions, e.g., Radarsat-2, TerraSAR-X, or COSMO-SkyMed, do not systematically cover the entire world, due to limitations in onboard disk space and downlink transmission rates. Here, we present a fast and transferable procedure for mapping of landslides, based on change detection between pre-event optical imagery and the polarimetric entropy derived from post-event VHR polarimetric SAR data. Pre-event information is derived from high resolution optical imagery of Landsat-8 or Sentinel-2, which are freely available and systematically acquired over the entire Earth’s landmass. The landslide mapping is refined by slope information from a digital elevation model generated from bi-static TanDEM-X imagery. The methodology was successfully applied to two landslide events of different characteristics: A rotational slide near Charleston, West Virginia, USA and a mining waste earthflow near Bolshaya Talda, Russia.

Analysis of a dryline-like feature in northern Germany detected by ground-based microwave profiling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Spaenkuch, Dietrich [Leibniz-Soziaetet der Wissenschaften zu Berlin e.V. (Germany); Gueldner, Juergen [Deutscher Wetterdienst, Lindenberg (Germany). Meteorologisches Observatorium Lindenberg - Richard-Assmann-Observatorium; Bender, Michael [Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam, Potsdam (DE). Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ); Steinhagen, Hans

2011-08-15

Two dryline-like humidity drops without considerable temperature change were detected by the ground-based microwave radiometer profiler (MWRP) at the Richard-Assmann-Observatory Lindenberg (52.21 N, 14.12 E) on April 28, 2007. The detailed analysis of these two events includes cloud radar and radar wind profiler measurements at the site as well as data from the surface synoptic network and from integrated water vapour (IWV) maps derived from GPS. The first more pronounced humidity drop is part of a roughly 200 km long line that meets the criterion of a classical dryline or dewpoint front, namely of a moisture gradient larger 3.5 g m{sup -3} per 100 km. This dewpoint front is ahead of an approaching cold front and is caused by strong downdraft induced by low tropospheric wind shear due to weakening of a midtropospheric high over Germany. It consisted in particular in two kernels of variable size depending on their stage. The fate of the kernels - migration, speed, unification and divorce - is described in detail. Their lifetime was a bit more than 9 hours. The second humidity drop at the site was observed after the passage of the cold front and was caused by dry advection behind the front. Both events are predicted by the numerical weather prediction model COSMO-EU of the German Weather Service to some extent.

Co-eruptive subsidence and post-eruptive uplift associated with the 2011-2012 eruption of Puyehue-Cordón Caulle, Chile, revealed by DInSAR

Science.gov (United States)

Euillades, Pablo Andrés; Euillades, Leonardo Daniel; Blanco, Mauro Hugo; Velez, María Laura; Grosse, Pablo; Sosa, Gustavo Javier

2017-09-01

The 2011-2012 eruption of the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex, southern Andes (Chile), was associated with complex surface deformation affecting an area of roughly 50 by 50 km. We report here differential SAR interferometry (DInSAR) results of pre-, co- and post-eruptive deformation from ENVISAT ASAR, COSMO-Skymed, and ALOS-2/PALSAR scenes acquired between early 2011 and early 2017. No clear pre-eruptive deformation is observed during five months before the eruption, although some patterns could be interpreted as showing inflation occurring between April and May 2011. Co-eruptive interferograms show a complex deformation pattern consisting in a major deflation lobe (120 cm LOS lengthening) centered 10 km NW of the eruption vent accompanied by smaller uplift and subsidence regions in the vicinity of the vent. Re-inflation began immediately after the end of the eruption. A first pulse lasted 3 years between 2012 and 2015, accumulating 70 cm uplift. We detect here a second pulse, beginning in June 2016 and still ongoing in February 2017, reaching 12 cm in half a year. Inverse modeling with spherical cavity and spheroidal sources locates re-inflation sources at a depth ranging between 8 and 11 km under the surface. It suggests re-filling of the reservoir occurring after the draining of a shallow magma chamber during the 2011-2012 eruption.

Multi-temporal InSAR monitoring of landslides in a tropical urban environment: focus on Bukavu (DR Congo)

Science.gov (United States)

Nobile, Adriano; Monsieurs, Elise; Dewitte, Olivier; d'Oreyes, Nicolas; Kervyn, Francois

2016-04-01

The western branch of the East African Rift System, in Central Africa, is characterized by the presence of several geohazards: earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides. Every year, landslides cause fatalities, structural and functional damage to infrastructure and private properties with serious disruptions of the organization of societies and severe impact on the populations. These impacts are particularly important in the city of Bukavu (DR Congo) located within the Rift, on the southern shore of Lake Kivu. Large slow-moving landslides continuously affect highly populated slopes in the city. However little is known about their actual kinematics and the processes at play. Here we use multi-temporal InSAR technique to monitor these ground deformations. Using 50 Cosmo-SkyMed SAR images, acquired between March - October 2015 with a revisiting time of 8 days (ascending and descending orbits), we produce displacement-rate maps and ground deformation time series using the PS technique. Movements with a velocity >5cm/yr are detected, which is consistent with field observations. DGPS measurements, taken at 21 benchmarks in the area during the same period, allow validating the results. Similar ground deformation rates are found for the period 2002-2008 using Envisat ASAR images. Furthermore, comparison with rainfall monitoring data acquire on site should help us to understand the influence of water and the tropical seasonality in the slide mechanisms.

Spaceborne Differential SAR Interferometry: Data Analysis Tools for Deformation Measurement

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Michele Crosetto

2011-02-01

Full Text Available This paper is focused on spaceborne Differential Interferometric SAR (DInSAR for land deformation measurement and monitoring. In the last two decades several DInSAR data analysis procedures have been proposed. The objective of this paper is to describe the DInSAR data processing and analysis tools developed at the Institute of Geomatics in almost ten years of research activities. Four main DInSAR analysis procedures are described, which range from the standard DInSAR analysis based on a single interferogram to more advanced Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI approaches. These different procedures guarantee a sufficient flexibility in DInSAR data processing. In order to provide a technical insight into these analysis procedures, a whole section discusses their main data processing and analysis steps, especially those needed in PSI analyses. A specific section is devoted to the core of our PSI analysis tools: the so-called 2+1D phase unwrapping procedure, which couples a 2D phase unwrapping, performed interferogram-wise, with a kind of 1D phase unwrapping along time, performed pixel-wise. In the last part of the paper, some examples of DInSAR results are discussed, which were derived by standard DInSAR or PSI analyses. Most of these results were derived from X-band SAR data coming from the TerraSAR-X and CosmoSkyMed sensors.

Designing a New Class of Bases for Nucleic Acid Quadruplexes and Quadruplex-Active Ligands.

Science.gov (United States)

Bazzi, Sophia; Novotný, Jan; Yurenko, Yevgen P; Marek, Radek

2015-06-22

A new class of quadruplex nucleobases, derived from 3-deazaguanine, has been designed for various applications as smart quadruplex ligands as well as quadruplex-based aptamers, receptors, and sensors. An efficient strategy for modifying the guanine quadruplex core has been developed and tested by using quantum chemistry methods. Several potential guanine derivatives modified at the 3- or 8-position or both are analyzed, and the results compared to reference systems containing natural guanine. Analysis of the formation energies (BLYP-D3(BJ)/def2-TZVPP level of theory, in combination with the COSMO model for water) in model systems consisting of two and three stacked tetrads with Na(+) /K(+) ion(s) inside the internal channel indicates that the formation of structures with 3-halo-3-deazaguanine bases leads to a substantial gain in energy, as compared to the corresponding reference guanine complexes. The results cast light on changes in the noncovalent interactions (hydrogen bonding, stacking, and ion coordination) in a quadruplex stem upon modification of the guanine core. In particular, the enhanced stability of the modified quadruplexes was shown to originate mainly from increased π-π stacking. Our study suggests the 3-halo-3-deazaguanine skeleton as a potential building unit for quadruplex systems and smart G-quadruplex ligands. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

“Bligh and Dyer” and Folch Methods for Solid–Liquid–Liquid Extraction of Lipids from Microorganisms. Comprehension of Solvatation Mechanisms and towards Substitution with Alternative Solvents

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Cassandra Breil

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Bligh and Dyer (B & D or Folch procedures for the extraction and separation of lipids from microorganisms and biological tissues using chloroform/methanol/water have been used tens of thousands of times and are “gold standards” for the analysis of extracted lipids. Based on the Conductor-like Screening MOdel for realistic Solvatation (COSMO-RS, we select ethanol and ethyl acetate as being potentially suitable for the substitution of methanol and chloroform. We confirm this by performing solid–liquid extraction of yeast (Yarrowia lipolytica IFP29 and subsequent liquid–liquid partition—the two steps of routine extraction. For this purpose, we consider similar points in the ternary phase diagrams of water/methanol/chloroform and water/ethanol/ethyl acetate, both in the monophasic mixtures and in the liquid–liquid miscibility gap. Based on high performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC to obtain the distribution of lipids classes, and gas chromatography coupled with a flame ionisation detector (GC/FID to obtain fatty acid profiles, this greener solvents pair is found to be almost as effective as the classic methanol–chloroform couple in terms of efficiency and selectivity of lipids and non-lipid material. Moreover, using these bio-sourced solvents as an alternative system is shown to be as effective as the classical system in terms of the yield of lipids extracted from microorganism tissues, independently of their apparent hydrophilicity.

GRID-BASED EXPLORATION OF COSMOLOGICAL PARAMETER SPACE WITH SNAKE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mikkelsen, K.; Næss, S. K.; Eriksen, H. K.

2013-01-01

We present a fully parallelized grid-based parameter estimation algorithm for investigating multidimensional likelihoods called Snake, and apply it to cosmological parameter estimation. The basic idea is to map out the likelihood grid-cell by grid-cell according to decreasing likelihood, and stop when a certain threshold has been reached. This approach improves vastly on the 'curse of dimensionality' problem plaguing standard grid-based parameter estimation simply by disregarding grid cells with negligible likelihood. The main advantages of this method compared to standard Metropolis-Hastings Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods include (1) trivial extraction of arbitrary conditional distributions; (2) direct access to Bayesian evidences; (3) better sampling of the tails of the distribution; and (4) nearly perfect parallelization scaling. The main disadvantage is, as in the case of brute-force grid-based evaluation, a dependency on the number of parameters, N par . One of the main goals of the present paper is to determine how large N par can be, while still maintaining reasonable computational efficiency; we find that N par = 12 is well within the capabilities of the method. The performance of the code is tested by comparing cosmological parameters estimated using Snake and the WMAP-7 data with those obtained using CosmoMC, the current standard code in the field. We find fully consistent results, with similar computational expenses, but shorter wall time due to the perfect parallelization scheme

Accounting for baryonic effects in cosmic shear tomography: Determining a minimal set of nuisance parameters using PCA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eifler, Tim; Krause, Elisabeth; Dodelson, Scott; Zentner, Andrew; Hearin, Andrew; Gnedin, Nickolay

2014-05-28

Systematic uncertainties that have been subdominant in past large-scale structure (LSS) surveys are likely to exceed statistical uncertainties of current and future LSS data sets, potentially limiting the extraction of cosmological information. Here we present a general framework (PCA marginalization) to consistently incorporate systematic effects into a likelihood analysis. This technique naturally accounts for degeneracies between nuisance parameters and can substantially reduce the dimension of the parameter space that needs to be sampled. As a practical application, we apply PCA marginalization to account for baryonic physics as an uncertainty in cosmic shear tomography. Specifically, we use CosmoLike to run simulated likelihood analyses on three independent sets of numerical simulations, each covering a wide range of baryonic scenarios differing in cooling, star formation, and feedback mechanisms. We simulate a Stage III (Dark Energy Survey) and Stage IV (Large Synoptic Survey Telescope/Euclid) survey and find a substantial bias in cosmological constraints if baryonic physics is not accounted for. We then show that PCA marginalization (employing at most 3 to 4 nuisance parameters) removes this bias. Our study demonstrates that it is possible to obtain robust, precise constraints on the dark energy equation of state even in the presence of large levels of systematic uncertainty in astrophysical processes. We conclude that the PCA marginalization technique is a powerful, general tool for addressing many of the challenges facing the precision cosmology program.

Rotifer assemblages (Rotifera: Eurotatoria of the floodplain lakes of Majuli River Island, the Brahmaputra river basin, northeast India

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Bhushan Kumar Sharma

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Our plankton and semi-plankton collections from twelve floodplain lakes (beels of Majuli River Island, Upper Assam reveal 124 rotifer species (32 genera and 17 families; these merit biodiversity value as ~52.0% and ~30.0% of species, ~68.0 and ~45.0% of  genera and ~74.0 and ~65.0% of the families of the Phylum known from northeast India (NEI and India, respectively. Two species are new to India with Trichocerca uncinata as new record to the Oriental region.  Eleven species are new to the study area and we provide an updated list (144 species for following meta-analyses of Majuli Rotifera. Biogeographically important elements include one Australasian, four Oriental, four Palaeotropical and one cosmo (sub tropical species while several species are of regional distribution interest. The rotifer fauna is predominantly tropical and Lecanidae > Lepadellidae collectively include ~53.0% species but it records paucity of Brachionus species. Individual beels record total richness of 60-100 (77 ± 12 species, monthly richness between 24 ± 7-34 ± 7 species and maximum up to 54 species/sample. The results are characterized by high community similarities (59.7-90.4% vide Sørensen’s index, more rotifer homogeneity amongst beels, lack of any pattern of temporal richness variations and much limited influence of abiotic parameters.

Low cost, multiscale and multi-sensor application for flooded area mapping

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D. Giordan

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Flood mapping and estimation of the maximum water depth are essential elements for the first damage evaluation, civil protection intervention planning and detection of areas where remediation is needed. In this work, we present and discuss a methodology for mapping and quantifying flood severity over floodplains. The proposed methodology considers a multiscale and multi-sensor approach using free or low-cost data and sensors. We applied this method to the November 2016 Piedmont (northwestern Italy flood. We first mapped the flooded areas at the basin scale using free satellite data from low- to medium-high-resolution from both the SAR (Sentinel-1, COSMO-Skymed and multispectral sensors (MODIS, Sentinel-2. Using very- and ultra-high-resolution images from the low-cost aerial platform and remotely piloted aerial system, we refined the flooded zone and detected the most damaged sector. The presented method considers both urbanised and non-urbanised areas. Nadiral images have several limitations, in particular in urbanised areas, where the use of terrestrial images solved this limitation. Very- and ultra-high-resolution images were processed with structure from motion (SfM for the realisation of 3-D models. These data, combined with an available digital terrain model, allowed us to obtain maps of the flooded area, maximum high water area and damaged infrastructures.

A hybrid convection scheme for use in non-hydrostatic numerical weather prediction models

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Volker Kuell

2008-12-01

Full Text Available The correct representation of convection in numerical weather prediction (NWP models is essential for quantitative precipitation forecasts. Due to its small horizontal scale convection usually has to be parameterized, e.g. by mass flux convection schemes. Classical schemes originally developed for use in coarse grid NWP models assume zero net convective mass flux, because the whole circulation of a convective cell is confined to the local grid column and all convective mass fluxes cancel out. However, in contemporary NWP models with grid sizes of a few kilometers this assumption becomes questionable, because here convection is partially resolved on the grid. To overcome this conceptual problem we propose a hybrid mass flux convection scheme (HYMACS in which only the convective updrafts and downdrafts are parameterized. The generation of the larger scale environmental subsidence, which may cover several grid columns, is transferred to the grid scale equations. This means that the convection scheme now has to generate a net convective mass flux exerting a direct dynamical forcing to the grid scale model via pressure gradient forces. The hybrid convection scheme implemented into the COSMO model of Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD is tested in an idealized simulation of a sea breeze circulation initiating convection in a realistic manner. The results are compared with analogous simulations with the classical Tiedtke and Kain-Fritsch convection schemes.

Groundwater and Subsidence Modeling Combining Geological and Multi-Satellite SAR Data over the Alto Guadalentín Aquifer (SE Spain

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Pablo Ezquerro

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In the current context of climate change, improving groundwater monitoring and management is an important issue for human communities in arid environments. The exploitation of groundwater resources can trigger land subsidence producing damage in urban structures and infrastructures. Alto Guadalentín aquifer system in SE Spain has been exploited since 1960 producing an average piezometric level drop of 150 m. This work presents a groundwater model that reproduces groundwater evolution during 52 years with an average error below 10%. The geometry of the model was improved introducing a layer of less permeable and deformable soft soils derived from InSAR deformation and borehole data. The resulting aquifer system history of the piezometric level has been compared with ENVISAT deformation data to calculate a first-order relationship between groundwater changes, soft soil thickness, and surface deformation. This relationship has been validated with the displacement data from ERS and Cosmo-SkyMed satellites. The resulting regression function is then used as an empirical subsidence model to estimate a first approximation of the deformation of the aquifer system since the beginning of the groundwater extraction, reaching 1 to 5.5 m in 52 years. These rough estimations highlight the limitations of the proposed empirical model, requiring the implementation of a coupled hydrogeomechanical model.

Development of operation control expert system for off-site facilities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Takeuchi, Masaaki

1988-09-01

Concerning off-site facilities of oil refinary, changes of facilities and equipment are frequently made in order to cope flexibly with the market trends and changes of the social environment. In addition, it is desirable to introduce computerization into control and manipulation of off-site facilities for its fast, safe and sure operation. In order to achieve the above, against the existing exclusively control-oriented system, it is necessary to add the processing and generating functions to combinations between valves to be shut and piping as well as equipment to be used along the whole extent of the oil flow in the system and to add the function which makes verification of the above functions easy through a dialogue between users and the system. In order to realize the above, Cosmo Oil and Yokokawa Denki developed jointly an operation control expert system for off-site facilities and the system started its actual operation from October 1986. This article is an outline of the system. The result of its actual operation for one and a half years since its inception showed that the system was operated only by the staff responsible for the operation of the facilities, the workload was reduced to 1/3-1/4 of the workload before the adoption of the system and absolutely no omission of work nor mistake was experienced. (2 figs)

The Intercomparison of X-Band SAR Images from COSMO‑SkyMed and TerraSAR-X Satellites: Case Studies

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Simone Pettinato

2013-06-01

Full Text Available The analysis of experimental data collected by X-band SAR of COSMO-SkyMed (CSK® and TerraSAR-X (TSX images on the same surface types has shown significant differences in the signal level of the two sensors. In order to investigate the possibility of combining data from the two instruments, a study was carried out by comparing images collected with similar orbital and sensor parameters (e.g., incidence angle, polarization, look angle at approximately the same date on two Italian agricultural test sites. Several homogenous agricultural fields within the observed area common to the two sensors were selected. Some forest plots have also been considered and used as a reference target. Direct comparisons were then performed between CSK and TSX images in different acquisition modes. The analysis carried out on the agricultural fields showed that, in general, the backscattering coefficient is higher in TSX Stripmap images with respect to CSK-Himage (about 3 dB, while CSK-Ping Pong data showed values lower than TSX of about 4.8 dB. Finally, a difference in backscattering of about 2.5 dB was pointed out between CSK-Himage and Ping-Pong images on agricultural fields. These results, achieved on bare soils, have also been compared with simulations performed by using the Advanced Integral Equation Model (AIEM.

Detection of sinkhole precursors along the Dead Sea, Israel by SAR interferometry

Science.gov (United States)

Nof, Ran; Baer, Gidon; Ziv, Alon; Eyal, Yehuda; Raz, Eli; Atzori, Simone; Salvi, Stefano

2013-04-01

The water level of the Dead Sea (Israel and Jordan) has been dropping at an increasing rate since the 1960s, exceeding a meter per year during the last decade. This water-level drop has triggered the formation of sinkholes and widespread land subsidence along the Dead Sea shorelines, resulting in severe economic loss and infrastructural damage. In this study, sinkhole-related precursory subsidence and the effects of human activities on sinkhole development are examined through Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) measurements and field surveys conducted in Israel during the year 2012. Interferograms were generated using the COSMO-SkyMed satellite images and a high-resolution (0.5 m/pixel) elevation model that was obtained from airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). Thanks to this unique integration of high-resolution datasets, mm-scale subsidence may be resolved in both undisturbed and human-disturbed environments. A few months long precursory subsidence occurred in all three sinkhole sites reported in this study. The centers of the subsiding areas and successive sinkholes in a specific site show lateral migration, possibly due to progressive dissolution and widening of the underlying cavities. Certain human activities, such as filling of newly formed sinkholes by gravel, or mud injections into nearby drill holes, seem to enhance land subsidence, widen existing sinkholes or even generate new sinkholes.

Aftershocks, groundwater changes and postseismic ground displacements related to pore pressure gradients: Insights from the 2012 Emilia-Romagna earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Albano, Matteo; Barba, Salvatore; Solaro, Giuseppe; Pepe, Antonio; Bignami, Christian; Moro, Marco; Saroli, Michele; Stramondo, Salvatore

2017-07-01

During the 2012 Emilia-Romagna (Italy) seismic sequence, several time-dependent phenomena occurred, such as changes in the groundwater regime and chemistry, liquefaction, and postseismic ground displacements. Because time-dependent phenomena require time-dependent physical mechanisms, we interpreted such events as the result of the poroelastic response of the crust after the main shock. In our study, we performed a two-dimensional poroelastic numerical analysis calibrated with Cosmo-SkyMed interferometric data and measured piezometric levels in water wells. The simulation results are consistent with the observed postseismic ground displacement and water level changes. The simulations show that crustal volumetric changes induced by poroelastic relaxation and the afterslip along the main shock fault are both required to reproduce the amplitude (approximately 4 cm) and temporal evolution of the observed postseismic uplift. Poroelastic relaxation also affects the aftershock distribution. In fact, the aftershocks are correlated with the postseismic Coulomb stress evolution. In particular, a considerably higher fraction of aftershocks occurs when the evolving poroelastic Coulomb stress is positive. These findings highlight the need to perform calculations that adequately consider the time-dependent poroelastic effect when modeling postseismic scenarios, especially for forecasting the temporal and spatial evolution of stresses after a large earthquake. Failing to do so results in an overestimation of the afterslip and an inaccurate definition of stress and strain in the postseismic phase.

Redox properties of biscyclopentadienyl uranium(V) imido-halide complexes: a relativistic DFT study.

Science.gov (United States)

Elkechai, Aziz; Kias, Farida; Talbi, Fazia; Boucekkine, Abdou

2014-06-01

Calculations of ionization energies (IE) and electron affinities (EA) of a series of biscyclopentadienyl imido-halide uranium(V) complexes Cp*2U(=N-2,6-(i)Pr2-C6H3)(X) with X =  F, Cl, Br, and I, related to the U(IV)/U(V) and U(V)/U(VI) redox systems, were carried out, for the first time, using density functional theory (DFT) in the framework of the relativistic zeroth order regular approximation (ZORA) coupled with the conductor-like screening model (COSMO) solvation approach. A very good linear correlation (R(2) =  0.993) was obtained, between calculated ionization energies at the ZORA/BP86/TZP level, and the experimental half-wave oxidation potentials E1/2. A similar linear correlation between the computed electron affinities and the electrochemical reduction U(IV)/U(III) potentials (R(2) =  0.996) is obtained. The importance of solvent effects and of spin-orbit coupling is definitively confirmed. The molecular orbital analysis underlines the crucial role played by the 5f orbitals of the central metal whereas the Nalewajski-Mrozek (N-M) bond indices explain well the bond distances variations following the redox processes. The IE variation of the complexes, i.e., IE(F) uranium charges and E1/2 in the reduction process of the U(V) species.

Critical Discourse Analysis of the Appeals in English Women’s Advertisements

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Cao Shuo

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The improvement of women’s social status has witnessed an increase of products and services specially designed for women and, therefore, an upsurge of related female advertisements. The extant studies mostly concentrate on the pragmatic analysis of advertising discourses and explore the implicit implications of gender and ideology in female advertisements. This research, by putting female advertising discourse in a commercial setting and case-studying the most sellable English fashion magazine, aims to figure out whether reason appeals or emotional appeals are more prevailing. Based on Halliday’s System-Functional Linguistics, advertisement appeals are studied through examining the quantitative relationship of the occurrences of Material process and Mental process. The advertising data are collected from the women magazine COSMO, including 50 pieces of full-page advertisements about fashion and beauty in 2011 and 2012. Firstly, the Wordsmith tool extracts the verbs and calculates the frequency of verbs. The Material process to Mental ratio is 7 to 3, which basically supports that there are more reason appeals in English women advertisements. Then, every sample as well as its context is studied for Critical Discourse Analysis, and the results verify the conclusion that English women’s advertisements employ more reason appeals. In light of the findings, recommendations are offered on how to build successful advertising discourses for women’s products.

Course of cosmology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Desert, F.-Xavier

2004-01-01

After an introduction comprising some definitions, an historical overview, and a discussion of the paradoxical Universe, this course proposes a presentation of fundamental notions and theories, i.e. the restrained relativity and the universal gravitation. The next part addresses the general relativity with the following notions: space-time metrics and principle of generalised covariance, basics of tensor analysis, geodesics, energy-pulse tensor, curvature, Einstein equations, Newtonian limit, Schwarzschild metrics, gravitational waves, gravitational redshift. The next part addresses the standard cosmology with the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metrics and the Friedmann-Lemaitre equations of the evolution of the Universe. The Universe expansion is then addressed: distances and horizons, Hubble law, determination of the Hubble constant. The next chapter deals with the constituents of the Universe: light matter, baryonic dark matter, black matter, supernovae, Universe acceleration and black energy. Then comes the nuclear evolution of the Universe: thermodynamics of the primordial Universe, the matter-antimatter asymmetry, from quarks to atoms, cosmic abundance, neutron cosmological background, matter-radiation equality, cosmo-chronology or the age of the Universe. The next chapter addresses the cosmological background at 3 K: sky electromagnetic spectrum, measurement of CMB anisotropies, interpretation of anisotropies, growth of perturbations. The last chapter addresses the quantum field theory and inflation: paradoxes of the standard Big Bang, the simple inflation, noticeable consequences

Linear free energy relationships between aqueous phase hydroxyl radical reaction rate constants and free energy of activation.

Science.gov (United States)

Minakata, Daisuke; Crittenden, John

2011-04-15

The hydroxyl radical (HO(•)) is a strong oxidant that reacts with electron-rich sites on organic compounds and initiates complex radical chain reactions in aqueous phase advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). Computer based kinetic modeling requires a reaction pathway generator and predictions of associated reaction rate constants. Previously, we reported a reaction pathway generator that can enumerate the most important elementary reactions for aliphatic compounds. For the reaction rate constant predictor, we develop linear free energy relationships (LFERs) between aqueous phase literature-reported HO(•) reaction rate constants and theoretically calculated free energies of activation for H-atom abstraction from a C-H bond and HO(•) addition to alkenes. The theoretical method uses ab initio quantum mechanical calculations, Gaussian 1-3, for gas phase reactions and a solvation method, COSMO-RS theory, to estimate the impact of water. Theoretically calculated free energies of activation are found to be within approximately ±3 kcal/mol of experimental values. Considering errors that arise from quantum mechanical calculations and experiments, this should be within the acceptable errors. The established LFERs are used to predict the HO(•) reaction rate constants within a factor of 5 from the experimental values. This approach may be applied to other reaction mechanisms to establish a library of rate constant predictions for kinetic modeling of AOPs.

C/X-band SAR interferometry applied to ground monitoring: examples and new potential

Science.gov (United States)

Nutricato, Raffaele; Nitti, Davide O.; Bovenga, Fabio; Refice, Alberto; Wasowski, Janusz; Chiaradia, Maria T.

2013-10-01

Classical applications of the MTInSAR techniques have been carried out in the past on medium resolution data acquired by the ERS, Envisat (ENV) and Radarsat sensors. The new generation of high-resolution X-Band SAR sensors, such as TerraSAR-X (TSX) and the COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) constellation allows acquiring data with spatial resolution reaching metric/submetric values. Thanks to the finer spatial resolution with respect to C-band data, X-band InSAR applications result very promising for monitoring single man-made structures (buildings, bridges, railways and highways), as well as landslides. This is particularly relevant where C-band data show low density of coherent scatterers. Moreover, thanks again to the higher resolution, it is possible to infer reliable estimates of the displacement rates with a number of SAR scenes significantly lower than in C-band within the same time span or by using more images acquired in a narrower time span. We present examples of the application of a Persistent Scatterers Interferometry technique, namely the SPINUA algorithm, to data acquired by ENV, TSX and CSK on selected number of sites. Different cases are considered concerning monitoring of both instable slopes and infrastructure. Results are compared and commented with particular attention paid to the advantages provided by the new generation of X-band high resolution space-borne SAR sensors.

Assessing potential changes of chestnut productivity in Europe under future climate conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Calheiros, T.; Pereira, M. G.; Pinto, J. G.; Caramelo, L.; Gomes-Laranjo, J.; Dacamara, C. C.

2012-04-01

The European chestnut is cultivated for its nuts and wood. Several studies point to the dependency of chestnut productivity on specific soil and climate characteristics. For instance, this species dislikes chalky and poorly drained soils, appreciates sedimentary, siliceous and acidic to neutral soils. Chestnut trees also seems to appreciate annual mean values of sunlight spanning between 2400 and 2600 h, rainfall ranging between 600 and 1500 mm, mean annual temperature between 9 and 13°C, 27°C being the mean of the maximum temperature (Heiniger and Conedera, 1992; Gomes-Laranjo et al.,2008). The amount of heat between May and October must range between 1800°D and 2400°D (Dinis et al., 2011) . In Poland, the growing season is defined as the period of time when the mean 24-h temperature is greater than 5°C (Wilczynski and Podalski, 2007). In Portugal, maximum photosynthetic activity occurs at 24-28°C for adult trees, but exhibits more than 50% of termoinhibition when the air temperature is above 32°C, which is frequent during summer (Gomes- Laranjo et al., 2006, 2008). Recently Pereira et al (2011) identified a set of meteorological variables/parameters with high impact on chestnut productivity. The main purpose of this work is to assess the potential impacts of future climate change on chestnut productivity in Portugal as well as on European chestnut orchards. First, observed data from the European Climate assessment (ECA) and simulations with the Regional Circulation Model (RCM) COSMO-CLM for recent climate conditions are used to assess the ability of the RCM to model the actual meteorological conditions. Then, ensemble projections from the ECHAM5/COSMO-CLM model chain for two climate scenarios (A1B and B1) are used to estimate the values of relevant meteorological variables and parameters und future climate conditions. Simulated values are then compared with those obtained for present climate. Results point to changes in the spatial and temporal

SAR interferometry monitoring along the ancient Rome City Walls -the PROTHEGO project case study

Science.gov (United States)

Carta, Cristina; Cimino, Maria gabriella; Leoni, Gabriele; Marcelli, Marina; Margottini, Claudio; Spizzichino, Daniele

2017-04-01

. More than thirty events were collected. The most frequent damages refers to human impacts, detachment of brick outer surface and wall collapse. The resulting damage layer was compared with different local hazard maps (e.g. landslide; subsidence; seismic) and also with the PS (monitored point) coming from the satellite analysis. The satellite monitoring data and analysis was based on the processing of COSMO-SkyMed image data (from 2011 to 2014). The data were obtained from the Extraordinary Monitoring Project Plan, implemented by the Italian Environmental Ministry. The preliminary analysis did not show large areas affected by deformations. A wide area affected by subsidence phenomena was detected in the south portion of the walls (close to the Ostiense district). While smaller and localized detachments were detected in the northern sector. Starting from these firsts results, COSMO-SkyMed SAR interferometry analysis seems to be very efficient due to its capability of providing a large number of deformation measurements over the whole site and structures with relatively small cost and without any impact. Cross analysis between interferometric results, natural hazard and historical data of the site (e.g. collapses, works) is still in progress in order to define a forecasting model aiming at an early identification of areas subjected to potential instability or sudden collapse

The Parallel SBAS-DInSAR algorithm: an effective and scalable tool for Earth's surface displacement retrieval

Science.gov (United States)

Zinno, Ivana; De Luca, Claudio; Elefante, Stefano; Imperatore, Pasquale; Manunta, Michele; Casu, Francesco

2014-05-01

Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR) is an effective technique to estimate and monitor ground displacements with centimetre accuracy [1]. In the last decade, advanced DInSAR algorithms, such as the Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) [2] one that is aimed at following the temporal evolution of the ground deformation, showed to be significantly useful remote sensing tools for the geoscience communities as well as for those related to hazard monitoring and risk mitigation. DInSAR scenario is currently characterized by the large and steady increasing availability of huge SAR data archives that have a broad range of diversified features according to the characteristics of the employed sensor. Indeed, besides the old generation sensors, that include ERS, ENVISAT and RADARSAT systems, the new X-band generation constellations, such as COSMO-SkyMed and TerraSAR-X, have permitted an overall study of ground deformations with an unprecedented detail thanks to their improved spatial resolution and reduced revisit time. Furthermore, the incoming ESA Sentinel-1 SAR satellite is characterized by a global coverage acquisition strategy and 12-day revisit time and, therefore, will further contribute to improve deformation analyses and monitoring capabilities. However, in this context, the capability to process such huge SAR data archives is strongly limited by the existing DInSAR algorithms, which are not specifically designed to exploit modern high performance computational infrastructures (e.g. cluster, grid and cloud computing platforms). The goal of this paper is to present a Parallel version of the SBAS algorithm (P-SBAS) which is based on a dual-level parallelization approach and embraces combined parallel strategies [3], [4]. A detailed description of the P-SBAS algorithm will be provided together with a scalability analysis focused on studying its performances. In particular, a P-SBAS scalability analysis with respect to the number of exploited CPUs has

Operational SAR Data Processing in GIS Environments for Rapid Disaster Mapping

Science.gov (United States)

Bahr, Thomas

2014-05-01

The use of SAR data has become increasingly popular in recent years and in a wide array of industries. Having access to SAR can be highly important and critical especially for public safety. Updating a GIS with contemporary information from SAR data allows to deliver a reliable set of geospatial information to advance civilian operations, e.g. search and rescue missions. SAR imaging offers the great advantage, over its optical counterparts, of not being affected by darkness, meteorological conditions such as clouds, fog, etc., or smoke and dust, frequently associated with disaster zones. In this paper we present the operational processing of SAR data within a GIS environment for rapid disaster mapping. For this technique we integrated the SARscape modules for ENVI with ArcGIS®, eliminating the need to switch between software packages. Thereby the premier algorithms for SAR image analysis can be directly accessed from ArcGIS desktop and server environments. They allow processing and analyzing SAR data in almost real time and with minimum user interaction. This is exemplified by the November 2010 flash flood in the Veneto region, Italy. The Bacchiglione River burst its banks on Nov. 2nd after two days of heavy rainfall throughout the northern Italian region. The community of Bovolenta, 22 km SSE of Padova, was covered by several meters of water. People were requested to stay in their homes; several roads, highways sections and railroads had to be closed. The extent of this flooding is documented by a series of Cosmo-SkyMed acquisitions with a GSD of 2.5 m (StripMap mode). Cosmo-SkyMed is a constellation of four Earth observation satellites, allowing a very frequent coverage, which enables monitoring using a very high temporal resolution. This data is processed in ArcGIS using a single-sensor, multi-mode, multi-temporal approach consisting of 3 steps: (1) The single images are filtered with a Gamma DE-MAP filter. (2) The filtered images are geocoded using a reference

The Impact of Three-Dimensional Effects on the Simulation of Turbulence Kinetic Energy in a Major Alpine Valley

Science.gov (United States)

Goger, Brigitta; Rotach, Mathias W.; Gohm, Alexander; Fuhrer, Oliver; Stiperski, Ivana; Holtslag, Albert A. M.

2018-07-01

The correct simulation of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is crucial for reliable weather forecasts in truly complex terrain. However, common assumptions for model parametrizations are only valid for horizontally homogeneous and flat terrain. Here, we evaluate the turbulence parametrization of the numerical weather prediction model COSMO with a horizontal grid spacing of Δ x = 1.1 km for the Inn Valley, Austria. The long-term, high-resolution turbulence measurements of the i-Box measurement sites provide a useful data pool of the ABL structure in the valley and on slopes. We focus on days and nights when ABL processes dominate and a thermally-driven circulation is present. Simulations are performed for case studies with both a one-dimensional turbulence parametrization, which only considers the vertical turbulent exchange, and a hybrid turbulence parametrization, also including horizontal shear production and advection in the budget of turbulence kinetic energy (TKE). We find a general underestimation of TKE by the model with the one-dimensional turbulence parametrization. In the simulations with the hybrid turbulence parametrization, the modelled TKE has a more realistic structure, especially in situations when the TKE production is dominated by shear related to the afternoon up-valley flow, and during nights, when a stable ABL is present. The model performance also improves for stations on the slopes. An estimation of the horizontal shear production from the observation network suggests that three-dimensional effects are a relevant part of TKE production in the valley.

Performance Analysis of Satellite Missions for Multi-Temporal SAR Interferometry.

Science.gov (United States)

Bovenga, Fabio; Belmonte, Antonella; Refice, Alberto; Pasquariello, Guido; Nutricato, Raffaele; Nitti, Davide O; Chiaradia, Maria T

2018-04-27

Multi-temporal InSAR (MTI) applications pose challenges related to the availability of coherent scattering from the ground surface, the complexity of the ground deformations, atmospheric artifacts, and visibility problems related to ground elevation. Nowadays, several satellite missions are available providing interferometric SAR data at different wavelengths, spatial resolutions, and revisit time. A new and interesting opportunity is provided by Sentinel-1, which has a spatial resolution comparable to that of previous ESA C-band sensors, and revisit times improved by up to 6 days. According to these different SAR space-borne missions, the present work discusses current and future opportunities of MTI applications in terms of ground instability monitoring. Issues related to coherent target detection, mean velocity precision, and product geo-location are addressed through a simple theoretical model assuming backscattering mechanisms related to point scatterers. The paper also presents an example of a multi-sensor ground instability investigation over Lesina Marina, a village in Southern Italy lying over a gypsum diapir, where a hydration process, involving the underlying anhydride, causes a smooth uplift and the formation of scattered sinkholes. More than 20 years of MTI SAR data have been processed, coming from both legacy ERS and ENVISAT missions, and latest-generation RADARSAT-2, COSMO-SkyMed, and Sentinel-1A sensors. Results confirm the presence of a rather steady uplift process, with limited to null variations throughout the whole monitored time-period.

GRID-BASED EXPLORATION OF COSMOLOGICAL PARAMETER SPACE WITH SNAKE

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mikkelsen, K.; Næss, S. K.; Eriksen, H. K., E-mail: kristin.mikkelsen@astro.uio.no [Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1029, Blindern, NO-0315 Oslo (Norway)

2013-11-10

We present a fully parallelized grid-based parameter estimation algorithm for investigating multidimensional likelihoods called Snake, and apply it to cosmological parameter estimation. The basic idea is to map out the likelihood grid-cell by grid-cell according to decreasing likelihood, and stop when a certain threshold has been reached. This approach improves vastly on the 'curse of dimensionality' problem plaguing standard grid-based parameter estimation simply by disregarding grid cells with negligible likelihood. The main advantages of this method compared to standard Metropolis-Hastings Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods include (1) trivial extraction of arbitrary conditional distributions; (2) direct access to Bayesian evidences; (3) better sampling of the tails of the distribution; and (4) nearly perfect parallelization scaling. The main disadvantage is, as in the case of brute-force grid-based evaluation, a dependency on the number of parameters, N{sub par}. One of the main goals of the present paper is to determine how large N{sub par} can be, while still maintaining reasonable computational efficiency; we find that N{sub par} = 12 is well within the capabilities of the method. The performance of the code is tested by comparing cosmological parameters estimated using Snake and the WMAP-7 data with those obtained using CosmoMC, the current standard code in the field. We find fully consistent results, with similar computational expenses, but shorter wall time due to the perfect parallelization scheme.

The relative impact of baryons and cluster shape on weak lensing mass estimates of galaxy clusters

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, B. E.; Le Brun, A. M. C.; Haq, M. E.; Deering, N. J.; King, L. J.; Applegate, D.; McCarthy, I. G.

2018-05-01

Weak gravitational lensing depends on the integrated mass along the line of sight. Baryons contribute to the mass distribution of galaxy clusters and the resulting mass estimates from lensing analysis. We use the cosmo-OWLS suite of hydrodynamic simulations to investigate the impact of baryonic processes on the bias and scatter of weak lensing mass estimates of clusters. These estimates are obtained by fitting NFW profiles to mock data using MCMC techniques. In particular, we examine the difference in estimates between dark matter-only runs and those including various prescriptions for baryonic physics. We find no significant difference in the mass bias when baryonic physics is included, though the overall mass estimates are suppressed when feedback from AGN is included. For lowest-mass systems for which a reliable mass can be obtained (M200 ≈ 2 × 1014M⊙), we find a bias of ≈-10 per cent. The magnitude of the bias tends to decrease for higher mass clusters, consistent with no bias for the most massive clusters which have masses comparable to those found in the CLASH and HFF samples. For the lowest mass clusters, the mass bias is particularly sensitive to the fit radii and the limits placed on the concentration prior, rendering reliable mass estimates difficult. The scatter in mass estimates between the dark matter-only and the various baryonic runs is less than between different projections of individual clusters, highlighting the importance of triaxiality.

Sc, Y, La-Lu. Rare earth elements. Vol. A 6a. 8. rev. ed.

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ditz, R.; Sarbas, B.; Schubert, P.; Toepper, W.

1988-01-01

The present volume 'Rare Earth Elements' A 6a describes origin, mode of occurrence, and behavior of Y and RE elements in the sedimentary and metamorphic cycles, and completes the series of volumes describing cosmo- and geochemistry of these elements. In the chapter 'Sedimentary Cycle', the behavior of Y and RE during the weathering process is first outlined under both marine and terrestrial conditions, including a short compilation for migration and precipitation in surficial weathering and oxidation zones. The main part of the chapter treats, in addition to the mode of occurrence, predominantly the distribution of Y and RE in the different types of sedimentary rocks in relation to genetic processes (comprising physical and/or spatial factors such as geological age of the deposition). A concluding part gives a description of mobilization, migration, and precipitation of Y and RE during the diagenetic transformation of sediments, especially in relation to the various types of ferromanganese concretions. In the chapter 'Metamorphic Cycle', the first, extensive part gives examples of mode of occurrence and behavior of Y and RE during both the contact-metamorphic and prograde and retrograde regional-metamorphic processes affecting sedimentary and igeneous source rocks. The second part briefly describes behaviour of Y and RE during ultrametamorphism of metamorphic rocks, and during metamorphic processes in connection with special types of geologic events (as, e.g., subduction of crustal material into the earth's mantle and impact of extraterrestrial material). (orig.) With 4 figs

Multi-temporal InSAR Datastacks for Surface Deformation Monitoring: a Review

Science.gov (United States)

Ferretti, A.; Novali, F.; Prati, C.; Rocca, F.

2009-04-01

In the last decade extensive processing of thousands of satellite radar scenes acquired by different sensors (e.g. ERS-1/2, ENVISAT and RADARSAT) has demonstrated how multi-temporal data-sets can be successfully exploited for surface deformation monitoring, by identifying objects on the terrain that have a stable, point-like behaviour. These objects, referred to as Permanent or Persistent Scatterers (PS), can be geo-coded and monitored for movement very accurately, acting as a "natural" geodetic network, integrating successfully continuous GPS data. After a brief analysis of both advantages and drawbacks of InSAR datastacks, the paper presents examples of applications of PS measurements for detecting and monitoring active faults, aquifers and oil/gas reservoirs, using experience in Europe, North America and Japan, and concludes with a discussion on future directions for PSInSAR analysis. Special attention is paid to the possibility of creating deformation maps over wide areas using historical archives of data already available. This second part of the paper will briefly discuss the technical features of the new radar sensors recently launched (namely: TerraSAR-X, RADARSAT-2, and CosmoSkyMed) and their impact on space geodesy, highlighting the importance of data continuity and standardized acquisition policies for almost all InSAR and PSInSAR applications. Finally, recent advances in the algorithms applied in PS analysis, such as detection of "temporary PS", PS characterization and exploitation of distributed scatterers, will be briefly discussed based on the processing of real data.

High Resolution Satellite Remote Sensing of the 2013-2014 Eruption of Sinabung Volcano, Sumatra, Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Wessels, R. L.; Griswold, J. P.

2014-12-01

Satellite remote sensing provided timely observations of the volcanic unrest and several months-long eruption at Sinabung Volcano, Indonesia. Visible to thermal optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems provided frequent observations of Sinabung. High resolution image data with spatial resolutions from 0.5 to 1.5m offered detailed measurements of early summit deformation and subsequent lava dome and lava flow extrusion. The high resolution data were captured by commercial satellites such as WorldView-1 and -2 visible to near-infrared (VNIR) sensors and by CosmoSkyMed, Radarsat-2, and TerraSar-X SAR systems. Less frequent 90 to 100m spatial resolution night time thermal infrared (TIR) observations were provided by ASTER and Landsat-8. The combination of data from multiple sensors allowed us to construct a more complete timeline of volcanic activity than was available via only ground-based observations. This satellite observation timeline documents estimates of lava volume and effusion rates and major explosive and lava collapse events. Frequent, repeat volume estimates suggest at least three high effusion rate pulses of up to 20 m3/s occurred during the first three months of lava effusion with an average effusion rate of 6m3/s from January 2014 to August 2014. Many of these rates and events show some correlation to variations in the Real-time Seismic-Amplitude Measurement (RSAM) documented by the Indonesian Center for Volcanology and Geologic Hazard Mitigation (CVGHM).

Calcium Isotope Analysis by Mass Spectrometry

Science.gov (United States)

Boulyga, S.; Richter, S.

2010-12-01

The variations in the isotopic composition of calcium caused by fractionation in heterogeneous systems and by nuclear reactions can provide insight into numerous biological, geological, and cosmic processes, and therefore isotopic analysis finds a wide spectrum of applications in cosmo- and geochemistry, paleoclimatic, nutritional, and biomedical studies. The measurement of calcium isotopic abundances in natural samples has challenged the analysts for more than three decades. Practically all Ca isotopes suffer from significant isobaric interferences, whereas low-abundant isotopes can be particularly affected by neighboring major isotopes. The extent of natural variations of stable isotopes appears to be relatively limited, and highly precise techniques are required to resolve isotopic effects. Isotope fractionation during sample preparation and measurements and instrumental mass bias can significantly exceed small isotope abundance variations in samples, which have to be investigated. Not surprisingly, a TIMS procedure developed by Russell et al. (Russell et al., 1978. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 42: 1075-1090) for Ca isotope measurements was considered as revolutionary for isotopic measurements in general, and that approach is used nowadays (with small modifications) for practically all isotopic systems and with different mass spectrometric techniques. Nevertheless, despite several decades of calcium research and corresponding development of mass spectrometers, the available precision and accuracy is still not always sufficient to achieve the challenging goals. This presentation discusses figures of merits of presently used analytical methods and instrumentation, and attempts to critically assess their limitations. Additionally, the availability of Ca isotope reference materials will be discussed.

The contribution of woody plant materials on the several conditions in a space environment

Science.gov (United States)

Tomita-Yokotani, Kaori; Baba, Keiichi; Suzuki, Toshisada; Kimura, Shunta; Sato, Seigo; Katoh, Hiroshi; Abe, Yusuke; Katayama, Takeshi

Woody plant materials have several utilization elements in our habitation environment on earth. The studies of woody plants under a space-environment in the vegetable kingdom have a high contribution to the study of various and exotic environmental responses, too. Woody plants can produce an excess oxygen, woody materials for the living cabin, and provide a biomass by cultivating crops and other species of creatures. Tree material would become to be a tool in closed bio-ecosystems such as an environment in a space. We named the trees used as material for the experiment related to space environments “CosmoBon”, small tree bonsai. Japanese cherry tree, “Sakura”, is famous and lovely tree in Japan. One species of “Sakura”, “Mamezakura, Prunus incisa”, is not only lovely tree species, but also suitable tree for the model tree of our purpose. The species of Prunus incisa is originally grown in volcano environment. That species of Sakura is originally grown on Mt. Fuji aria, oligotrophic place. We will try to build the best utilization usage of woody plant under the space environment by “Mamezakura” as a model tree. Here, we will show the importance of uniformity of materials when we will use the tree materials in a space environment. We will also discuss that tree has a high possibility of utilization under the space environments by using our several results related to this research.

An application and verification of ensemble forecasting on wind power to assess operational risk indicators in power grids

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alessandrini, S.; Ciapessoni, E.; Cirio, D.; Pitto, A.; Sperati, S. [Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico RSE S.p.A., Milan (Italy). Power System Development Dept. and Environment and Sustainable Development Dept.; Pinson, P. [Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby (Denmark). DTU Informatics

2012-07-01

Wind energy is part of the so-called not schedulable renewable sources, i.e. it must be exploited when it is available, otherwise it is lost. In European regulation it has priority of dispatch over conventional generation, to maximize green energy production. However, being variable and uncertain, wind (and solar) generation raises several issues for the security of the power grids operation. In particular, Transmission System Operators (TSOs) need as accurate as possible forecasts. Nowadays a deterministic approach in wind power forecasting (WPF) could easily be considered insufficient to face the uncertainty associated to wind energy. In order to obtain information about the accuracy of a forecast and a reliable estimation of its uncertainty, probabilistic forecasting is becoming increasingly widespread. In this paper we investigate the performances of the COnsortium for Small-scale MOdelling Limited area Ensemble Prediction System (COSMO-LEPS). First the ensemble application is followed by assessment of its properties (i.e. consistency, reliability) using different verification indices and diagrams calculated on wind power. Then we provide examples of how EPS based wind power forecast can be used in power system security analyses. Quantifying the forecast uncertainty allows to determine more accurately the regulation reserve requirements, hence improving security of operation and reducing system costs. In particular, the paper also presents a probabilistic power flow (PPF) technique developed at RSE and aimed to evaluate the impact of wind power forecast accuracy on the probability of security violations in power systems. (orig.)