bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
OpenSearch API for Earth observation DataHub service
Authors: Gulicoska Jovanka , Panda Koushik , Caumont Hervé
Published: March 2020

OpenSearch is a de-facto standard specification and a collection of technologies that allow publishing of search results in a format suitable for syndication and aggregation. It is a way for websites and search engines to publish search results in a standard and accessible format.

Evolved through extensions within an international standards organisation, the Open Geospatial Consortium, OpenSearch has become a reference to make queries to a repository that contains Earth Observation information, to send and receive structured, standardized search requests and results, and to allow syndication of repositories. It is in this evolved form a shared API used by many applications, tools, portals and sites in the Earth sciences community. The OGC OpenSearch extensions that have been implemented for the NextGEOSS DataHub, following the OGC standards and validated to be fully compatible with the standard.

The OGC OpenSearch extensions implemented for CKAN, the open source software solution supporting the NextGEOSS Datahub, add the standardized metadata models and the OpenSearch API endpoints that allow the indexing of distributed EO data sources (currently over 110 data collections), and makes these available to client applications to perform queries and get the results. It allowed to develop a simple user interface as part of the NextGEOSS DataHub Portal, which implements the two-step search mechanism (leveraging data collections metadata and data products metadata) and translates the filtering done by users to an OpenSearch matching query. The user interface can render a general description document, that contains information about the collections available on the NextGEOSS DataHub, and then get a more detailed description document for each collection separately.

For generating the structure of the description documents and the result feed, we are using CKAN’s templates, and on top of that we are using additional files which are responsible for listing all available parameters and their options and perform validation on the query before executing. The search endpoint for getting the results feed, uses already existing CKANs API calls in order to perform the validation and get the filtered results taking into consideration the parameters of the user search.

The current NextGEOSS DataHub implementation therefore provides a user interface for users who are not familiar with Earth observation data collections and products, so they can easily create queries and access its results. Moreover, the NextGEOSS project partners are constantly adding additional data connectors and collecting new data sources that will become available through the OGC OpenSearch Extensions API. This will allow NextGEOSS to provide a variety of data for the users and accommodate their needs.

 

NextGEOSS is a H2020 Research and Development Project from the European Community under grant agreement 730329.
A critical examination of the flooding and its impact on the Munro Island in Southwest India
Authors: Nair L Sheela , Krishna P. S. Swathy , Ravindran Prasad , I Varghese Tiju
Published: March 2020

Munro Thuruth (Island) is an island group comprising of 8 medium size and a few tiny islands located in the backwaters of the famous Ashtamudi lake in Kerala, South India. The Munro Island with an area of 13.4 sq.km is situated at the confluence of the Ashtamudi Lake and the Kallada river (9oN Latitude and 76o 37’ E Longitude). It is an artificial island built during the 18th Century by reclamation of the Kallada river delta on the downstream side, where it debouches into the Arabian Sea. The individual islands of the Munro group, with an elevation of 3.3m (approx.) above MSL, remained more or less stable till 1965. However, during the last two decades media reports on sinking/subsidence of the individual islands have drawn attention of scientists, politicians, administrators as well as the government.  As per the reports, the subsidence or rise in surrounding water level has been rather alarming and this is quite evident from the perennial inundation observed at certain critical low-lying areas in the island. Speculations on the causative factors responsible for the permanent/alarming rates of inundation witnessed in the island are linked to both local and global changes in the environmental conditions. According to one school of thought it is land subsidence due to tectonic activity combined with sea level rise due to global warming that has contributed to the sinking of the Munroe Island.  But there is another group that advocates that the flooding/inundation reached the critical level after the 26 December, 2004 Tsunami which struck the Kerala coast.  In this study, the various causative factors and their respective roles in the rise in water level/ subsidence reported at various locations is being critically reviewed and the salient conclusions that emanated from the analysis are presented. The analysis reveals that the flooding in the Munro Island can be attributed to a multitude of factors like rise in sea level linked to climate change, wave setup and wind setup which act individually or in combination under favourable conditions;  changes in morphology (post Tsunami) of the Ashtamudi estuary and changes in the inlet geometry over a period of time; land subsidence due to primary and secondary (creep) consolidation as well as the impact of ground vibration due to the movement of high speed trains ; groundwater drawdown due to excessive water extraction and reduction in fresh water flow from the Kallada river; sand mining from the river and reduced sediment inflow to the system because of the Kallada dam construction. The importance of carrying out numerical model studies to understand the tidal dynamics as well as the combined effect of tides, wind and waves on the water surrounding the islands which are located at varying distances of 8-10km from the Ashtamudi tidal inlet is also emphasized.
Investigating the crustal reflections of Taiwan from autocorrelation of seismic noise
Authors: Guan Zhuo-Kang , Kuo-Chen Hao
Published: March 2020

Seismic interferometry is widely applied in various scales to reconstruct seismic signals for investigating Earth interior. The method of Phase Cross Correlation (PCC) takes less pre-processing and is more stable for retrieving of crustal signals than that of the conventional cross correlations by using amplitude information. In order to obtain the crustal reflectors in Taiwan, we applied auto-correlation with PCC to two independent datasets, (1) temporary seismic array in eastern Taiwan with 110 short period seismometers and (2) broadband seismic arrays (BATS and TAIGER) in Taiwan. As a result, the retrieved crustal reflectors, such as Moho reflectors, are stable with different recording time periods and instruments: temporal and spatial signal consistencies in the same site and neighborhood stations, respectively, and also high waveform similarities between short period and broadband seismometers.

Comparing the results with previous studies of velocity model and receiver function, the reflections at 10-12 seconds (roughly 30-40 km) are often observed in most of the results which are correlated to the Moho depths inferred from the receiver function and tomography studies. It is interesting to note that, besides the Moho reflections, some inter-crustal reflectors beneath the Central Range are revealed. The results show that the autocorrelation method has the potential to investigate some signals that are difficult to observe in the past by using other methods.

Another interesting observation from a dense seismic array in eastern Taiwan shows that the chimei fault serves as a sharp boundary to separate the reflectional signals into the northern and southern parts. In the southern part few reflections can be observed and also lack high frequency energies from autocorrelation comparing with those in the northern part. It implies that the distribution of ambient sources or near surface materials could influence the results. After examining the PCC’s feasibility and stability in this study, it is necessary to verify the reliability of results by understanding the source’s properties and local geological situations before interpretation.
Influence of initial aperture field under varied in-situ stress conditions on incipient karst formation in carbonate rocks
Authors: Wang Xiaoguang , Aliouache Mohammed , Lei Qinghua , Jourde Hervé
Published: March 2020

We use numerical simulations to investigate the role of initial aperture heterogeneity under varied in-situ stress loadings in the early-time karstification in an anisotropic natural fracture network. We found that the importance of the stress-dependent initial aperture effect on karstification depends on the relative relationship between the flow direction and structural hierarchy/anisotropy of the fracture network. When the flow occurs in the direction of the dominant fracture set with more through-going discontinuities, karst conduits only develop locally along a few large fractures with a preferential orientation for frictional sliding under the differential stress due to enhanced transmissivity caused by the important shear-induced dilation. In contrast, when flow is in the direction transverse to the dominant fracture set, the far-field stress loading has a negligible impact on the emergent dissolution pattern while only somewhat impact on the onset time of breakthrough. In this case, the developed conduits are much more tortuous with numerous branches. In both cases, the presence of initial aperture variability enhances the stress effects and significantly changes the dissolution pattern and delays the breakthrough time. Our results demonstrate that the flow heterogeneity induced by geometrical complexities and in-situ stress conditions seems to play an essential role in the karstification processes in fractured rocks.

The proposed reactive transport model based on realistic fracture networks may be used to investigate the spatial relationship between tectonic structures and karst cavities. Our results demonstrate that the heterogeneity induced by geometrical complexities and in-situ stress conditions may play a decisive role in the karstification processes in fractured rocks. Thus, they must be properly considered in reactive transport simulations to make reliable designs for practical engineering applications.

Keywords: discrete fracture network, karst, network topology, reactive flow, in-situ stress
The space-wise approach for cold-atom interferometry geodetic data analysis: the MOCASS study
Authors: Migliaccio Federica , Reguzzoni Mirko , Batsukh Khulan
Published: March 2020

In recent years, an innovative mission concept has been proposed for gravity measurements with the aim of continuously monitoring the Earth gravity and its changes. The concept is based on a satellite-borne interferometer exploiting ultra-cold atom technology. Among other studies, a team of researchers from Italian universities and research institutions proposed and carried out the MOCASS project, to investigate the performance of a cold atom interferometer flying on a low Earth orbiter and its impact on the modeling of different geophysical phenomena.

In this study, the basic idea was that of a GOCE follow-on mission, with a unique spacecraft carrying an instrument capable of measuring functionals of the Earth gravitational potential. The geodetic data analysis of the gravity gradient data attainable by such a mission was carried out following the space-wise approach developed at Politecnico di Milano. The mathematical model for the processing of the MOCASS data was formulated, including the filtering strategy applied to take into account the cold atom interferometer transfer function. Numerical simulations were performed, with different configurations of the satellite orbit and pointing mode of the interferometer; data were simulated for two cases: (i) a single-arm gradiometer observing Txx or Tyy or Tzz gradients; (ii) a double-arm gradiometer observing Txx and Tzz gradients or Tyy and Tzz gradients. The results of the simulations will be illustrated, showing the applicability of the proposed concept and the neat improvement in modeling the static gravity field with respect to GOCE.

Moreover, a new study called MOCAST+ has been lately started proposing an enhanced cold atom interferometer which can deliver not only gravity gradients but also time measurements. The study will investigate whether this could give the possibility of improving the estimation of gravity models even at low harmonic degrees, with inherent advantages in the modeling of mass transport and its global variations: this will represent fundamental information, e.g. in the study of variations in the hydrological cycle and relative mass exchange between atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere and solid Earth.
EMO-5: Copernicus pan-European high-resolution meteorological data set for large-scale hydrological modelling
Authors: Thiemig Vera , Salamon Peter , Gomes Goncalo N. , Skøien Jon O. , Ziese Markus , Rauthe-Schöch Armin , Rehfeldt Kira , Pichon Damien , Schweim Christoph
Published: March 2020

We present EMO-5, a Pan-European high-resolution (5 km), (sub-)daily, multi-variable meteorological data set especially developed to the needs of an operational, pan-European hydrological service (EFAS; European Flood Awareness System). The data set is built on historic and real-time observations coming from 18,964 meteorological in-situ stations, collected from 24 data providers, and 10,632 virtual stations from four high-resolution regional observational grids (CombiPrecip, ZAMG - INCA, EURO4M-APGD and CarpatClim) as well as one global reanalysis product (ERA-Interim-land). This multi-variable data set covers precipitation, temperature (average, min and max), wind speed, solar radiation and vapor pressure; all at daily resolution and in addition 6-hourly resolution for precipitation and average temperature. The original observations were thoroughly quality controlled before we used the Spheremap interpolation method to estimate the variable values for each of the 5 x 5 km grid cells and their affiliated uncertainty. EMO-5 v1 grids covering the time period from 1990 till 2019 will be released as a free and open Copernicus product mid-2020 (with a near real-time release of the latest gridded observations in future). We would like to present the great potential EMO-5 holds for the hydrological modelling community.

 

footnote: EMO = European Meteorological Observations
The added value of high-resolution river runoff forcing for simulating long-term ecosystem dynamics and biogeochemical cycling in northern European shelf seas
Authors: Werner Fabian , Daewel Ute , Hagemann Stefan , Kumar Rohini , Rakovec Oldrich , Weber Michael , Attinger Sabine , Schrum Corinna
Published: March 2020

Regional climate change and anthropogenic activities are altering land-based freshwater runoff and nutrient loads to northern European shelf seas, which both leave their imprint on the hydrography and biogeochemistry of coastal ecosystems on annual to multi-decadal timescales. Long-term simulations forced by regional climate models have been proven as powerful tools to identify these impacts on the variability of the North Sea and Baltic Sea ecosystems. However, the simulations are prone to substantial biases concerning the land-sea coupling. Long-term river discharge forcing for regional ocean models usually needs to be compiled from different data sources and climatologies. Typically resulting in patchy, inconsistent datasets. Additionally, the contribution of smaller river catchments and day-to-day discharge variability is not adequately resolved. In this study, we used two novel high-resolution river runoff datasets to simulate 66-years ecosystem hindcasts with the 3D coupled physical-biogeochemical NPZD-model ECOSMO II, to study the role of river discharge forcing for the quality of the ecosystem simulation. The forcing datasets are based on consistent long-term reconstructions of the hydrological discharge model (HD) at 5 min. resolution and the mesoscale hydrological model (mHm) at 0.0625° resolution, both covering the entire northern European catchment region. We compare long-term seasonal and annual statistics of salinity, oxygen, inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus from the model simulations to those from a reference simulation with standard runoff, compiled from various data sources, and to those estimated from observations. Furthermore, potential bottom-up effects on lower-tropic-level dynamics are investigated, by comparatively analyzing long-term variability in phytoplankton biomass and primary production in model simulations forced by different runoff products.
MASCON versus spherical harmonic solutions to global monthly time varying gravity field
Authors: Janák Juraj , Novák Adam , Korekáčová Barbora
Published: March 2020

Satellite missions Gravity Field and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and its successor (GRACE-FO) plays very important role in nowadays research in geodesy, geophysics, hydrology, oceanography, glaciology and climatology. Various research centres adopted different procedures for processing the GRACE/GRACE-FO measurements in order to get the main final product – the global monthly gravity field model. Until now there have been developed and published two fundamentally different approaches to this problem. The first is well-known approach of spherical harmonic analysis and the second is more recent and more direct approach called in literature MASCON (Mass Concentration). The purpose of this contribution is to compare existing MASCON global monthly gravity field models with the selected models based on spherical harmonic approach. Comparison is performed in selected river basins and also in selected polar region. Chosen river basins differ both in size and seasonal changes of continental water storage to cover more situations. Comparison of different filtered versions of spherical harmonic solutions (DDK1 – DDK7) with MASCON solution is also performed in one of the analysed river basins. Differences are analysed and advantages and drawbacks of two approaches and of particular models are discussed.
The Effect of Forests on the Amount of Incoming Precipitation over Europe
Authors: Meier Ronny , Davin Edouard , Schwaab Jonas , Seneviratne Sonia
Published: March 2020

Numerous studies have demonstrated that forests considerably alter temperatures at the land surface. These alterations vary in space and time due to a complex interplay of several modified energy fluxes at the land surface. The effect of forests on the amount and pattern of precipitation has gained less attention, despite its high socio-economic relevance. Previous work has demonstrated that the high precipitation amounts in tropical rain forests are self-sustained by the abundance of those forests itself. Yet, the impact of forests on precipitation in extra-tropical regions has gained only little attention. This study attempts to identify a relationship between the amount of precipitation and the abundance of forests over the European continent. Such a relationship can originate from two kinds of interactions: (1) The amount of precipitation can drive the abundance of forests, as water is a crucial resource for forests ecosystems. (2) The energy and water redistribution at the land surface associated with forests can alter processes in the atmospheric air column, which in term could affect the amount of precipitation at the location of the forest. Here, we aim to isolate the second kind of effects, as those are more relevant for human decision making.

Establishing a causal relationship between the abundance of forests and the amount of precipitation is complex due this two-way interaction. Hence, three different data sources are employed to advance our understanding of how forests influence precipitation patterns. Firstly, a geographically weighted regression is applied to the spatially-continuous, observation-based precipitation data set MSWEP2.2 (Beck et al., 2017). Besides the forest fraction, a number of topographical variables are considered as predictor variables to account for potential confounding factors (i.e, to assure that interactions of the first kind are not misinterpreted as interactions of the second kind). Secondly, closely-located, paired sites that resemble in topography, but differ in forest fraction are identified in the GHCN (Menne et al., 2012) and the GSDR (Lewis et al., 2019) rain gauge data sets. This allows to evaluate the results based on MSWEP2.2. Thirdly, the same geographically weighted regression is applied to convection-resolving regional climate simulations. By artificially defining the forest fraction distribution in model simulations, interactions of the first kind can be disabled, further fostering the understanding about the causality on the relations identified using the observations. Further sensitivity experiments could be conducted, to improve the process understanding on interactions of the second kind. Overall, our results indicate, that the abundance of a forest increases the amount of precipitation in the order of 100 mm/yr in many locations of Europe. This increased amount of precipitation is more pronounced during the winter months, while the summer signal is more close to zero.
Flood Monitoring using ACube - An Austrian Data Cube Solution
Authors: Navacchi Claudio , Bauer-Marschallinger Bernhard , Wagner Wolfgang
Published: March 2020

Geospatial data come in various formats and originate from different sensors and data providers. This poses a challenge to users when aiming to combine or simultaneously access them. To overcome these obstacles, an easy-to-use data cube solution was designed for the Austrian user community and gathers various relevant and near real-time datasets. Here we show how such a system can be used for flood monitoring. 

In 2018, a joint project between the Earth Observation Data Centre for Water Resource Monitoring (EODC), TU Wien and BOKU has led to the emergence of the Austrian Data Cube (ACube). ACube implements the generic Python software from Open Data Cube, but further tailors it to national needs of Austrian ministries, universities or smaller companies. With user-driven input coming from all these partners, datasets and metadata attributes have been defined to facilitate query operations and data analysis. A focus was put on high-resolution remote sensing data from the Copernicus programme. This includes C-band radar backscatter, various optical bands, Surface Soil Moisture (SSM), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fAPAR), and monthly composites with pixel spacings varying between 10 and 500m. Static data like a digital elevation model (DEM), i.e. the EU-DEM, also reside next to the aforementioned dynamic datasets. Moreover, ACube offers different possibilities for data visualisation through QGIS or JupyterHub and, most importantly, enables access to a High Performance Computing (HPC) environment connected to a Petabyte-scale storage.

The ACube, as a centralised platform and interface to high-resolution datasets, prepares ground for many applications, e.g., land cover classification, snow melt monitoring, grassland yield estimation, land slide and flood detection. With a focus on the latter use case, first analyses based on Sentinel-1 radar backscatter data have already shown promising results. A near real-time fusion of radar, optical and ancillary data (DEM, land cover, etc.) through machine learning techniques could further improve an indication of flood events. Building a dedicated web service is foreseen as an upcoming action, relying on the latest data and the HPC environment in the background. Such an emergency service would provide much potential for authorities and users to assess damages, and also to determine vulnerability to progressing flooding.

The study received funding from the cooperative R&D FFG ASAP 14 project 865999 "Austrian Data Cube".
The long-term variation of the Intermediate Water in the Philippines Sea
Authors: Zang Nan
Published: March 2020

The dimensional and temporal distribution of Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) and North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW) in the Philippines Sea were explored using Argo profiles. As the salinity minimum of intermediate water from mid-high latitude of the southern and northern hemisphere of the Pacific Ocean, the properties of AAIW and NPIW merges at about 10°N with different properties in the Philippine Sea. The core of AAIW is located below 600dbar with potential density of 27≤σθ≤27.3 kg m-3 and salinity of 34.5≤S≤34.55 psu. The core of NPIW is located between 300-700dbar with potential density of 26.2≤σθ≤27 kg m-3 and salinity of 34≤S≤34.4 psu. The volume of AAIW and NPIW during January 2004 to December 2017 is negative correlated.  The time series of AAIW and NPIW is dominated by semi-annual signals. The variations of AAIW and NPIW was mainly affected by volume transport through 130°E section by North Equatorial Current (NEC) and North Equatorial Undercurrent (NEUC).
A Hydro-Economic Modeling Framework for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Assessment in Thailand with Multi-Sectoral Linkages and Multi-Scale Vulnerability
Authors: Putthividhya Aksara , Bumbudsanpharoke Khamkanya Wimolpat , Prajamwong Somkiat
Published: March 2020

Recent research has demonstrated the multidimensional and multi-sectoral impacts of climate change, evidencing the need to develop national and sub-national integrated tools and policies for the analysis of impacts and adaptation, especially central to local policy recommendation and implementation. This framework combines an area-based economic optimization model with the hydrological model WEAP, and represents the socio-economic, agronomic, and hydrologic systems in a spatially explicit manner covering dimensions and scales relevant to downscaled climate change impacts.  Simulated scenarios are setup to incorporate climate scenario, prior-historic dependence to adaptation conformity, and two policy-based adaptation scenarios. Preliminary results indicate that climate change may impact severely in rain-fed agricultural area and also to irrigation systems reducing water availability and security and crop yields, and increasing in more efficient irrigation water allocation.  The adaptation strategies analysis based on socio-economic, agronomic, and hydrologic dimensions capitalizes the key role of Thailand supply- and demand-side management policy in facilitating adaptation. The under developing framework is currently anticipated to be a useful tool for supporting water resources and climate change policy making.  It can contribute to improve understanding on potential impacts of climate change, multi-sectoral linkages, multi-scale vulnerability, and adaptation programs.   
Lessons learned from injection into sedimentary geothermal aquifers
Authors: Brehme Maren , Marko Abel , Aldaz Santiago , Blöcher Guido , Huenges Ernst
Published: March 2020

Reasons for injectivity decline were investigated at different geothermal sites in Europe. Due to low injectivities, production rates have to be reduced and the site faces negative commercial implications. In addition to historical operation data, fluid and rock samples were investigated in the laboratory. Analysis and experiments focus on physical, chemical and biological processes and their interaction. Results show different processes being responsible for injection-triggered occlusion of flow pathways, e.g. fines migration, precipitation, micro-biological activity, aquifer properties, corrosion or O2 inflow.

Lessons learned will be shown, from preparation of large-scale projects, from monitoring programmes towards sustainable operation.

Activities are taking place in the frame of the DESTRESS project. The DESTRESS project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 691728.
Source apportionment of time- and size-resolved particulate matter over two sites in New Delhi & NCR
Authors: Mishra Suneeti , Tripathi Sachchida , Thamban Navaneeth , Lalchandani Vipul , Kumar Varun , Rai Pragati , Tiwari Shashi , Ganguly Dilip , Bhattu Deepika , Slowik Jay , Prevot Andre
Published: March 2020

Size resolved data of chemical species carries a lot of latent information about the sources and atmospheric processes which lead to their formation and growth. Source apportionment techniques on organic or inorganic aerosols provide a fair amount of information about the sources but this analysis only provides a partial picture owing to the complicated nature of the ambient aerosols which may contain both, organic as well as inorganic particulate matter. Traditionally, potential emission sources are distinguished by either the organic or inorganic tracers present in ambient aerosol, but recently several studies have performed PMF on both the species (Sun et al, 2012). However, it tells more about the final transformed products which could be formed from different pathways but not much about the transformation pathways. Insights about the source and the atmospheric processes involved can be derived from the analysis of size-resolved data of the ambient aerosol. PMF on Size-resolved information helps us to narrow down the possible pathways of the transformed products.

However, there is very limited literature available to help us understand more about size-resolved bulk particulate matter. In this manuscript, a novel approach to perform Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) on real-time size-resolved Unit Mass Resolution (UMR) data from Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) is presented. Both size- and time-resolved PMF is performed on non-refractory particle composition (organic & inorganic) on the UMR PTOF data of two sites in one of the most polluted cities in the world. The sampling through Long Time of flight mass spectrometer (LToF-AMS) was carried out at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi which is located in Hauz Khaz area, at the heart of Delhi NCR, whereas parallel sampling through High-resolution Time of flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) was carried out at Manav Rachna University which is located in Faridabad within Delhi NCR at a downwind location. PMF was performed on the data by using Multi-linear Engine (ME-2) on PMF model by SoFi (Source Finder) tool. A seven-factor solution was chosen based on the factor profiles, time series, diurnals and correlation with the external factors obtained by supplementary instruments. The size-resolved spectra of the species at an individual site was studied and the difference between the sites was compared.
A semi-Lagrangian perspective of the lifecycle and interactions of deep convective clouds in geostationary satellite observations
Authors: Jones William , Heikenfeld Max , Christensen Matthew , Stier Philip
Published: March 2020

The disparity in the increase in atmospheric water vapour and in the global energy budget with global warming is expected to lead to a greater contribution of precipitation from deep convective clouds (DCCs) to total precipitation. How this increase occurs is uncertain however; while many climate models predict that the intensity of precipitation in individual storms will increase while occurring at the same frequency, satellite observations of tropical cloud clusters have shown that the frequency of organised deep convective precipitation events is increasing. By studying the interactions between deep convective precipitation and the energy and water budgets, we aim to achieve a better understanding of how these budgets affect the intensity, frequency and organisation of deep convective clouds and the cloud feedbacks on subsequent convection.

 

The new generation of geostationary imaging satellites provides greatly improved observations of dynamic processes. Using optical-flow techniques, we show how a semi-Lagrangian perspective can be applied to GOES advanced baseline imager observations in the thermal IR spectrum, and how this perspective can improve our observations of the dynamics of DCCs. In this new perspective we are able to robustly track DCCs over their entire lifecycle. As a result, the interactions between energy budgets, organisation and growing convection can be linked to subsequent precipitation and radiative feedbacks over the entire lifetime of the DCC.

 

In a case study over the continental US, we observe a suppression of convective strength in the days following large, organised convective storms. Compared to similar DCCs prior to the large organised events, the subsequent DCCs develop more slowly and, despite having a similar maximum anvil cloud extent, have a shorter overall lifetime. Furthermore, the later anvil clouds and convective cores have warmer cloud top brightness temperatures by 10 K and up to 20 K respectively. We hope to gain a greater understanding of whether these changes are due to large scale dynamics associated with the large, organised convection or can instead be attributed to local cloud and thermodynamic feedbacks.
Hot spots - cold spots - what dots? A critical reflection on integrated climate risk assessments – example flood risk in Austria
Authors: Kienberger Stefan , Leis Jutta-Lucia
Published: March 2020

Climate risk, and related impacts, are determined by a variety of natural, climatological and socio-economic factors. In its fifth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has adapted the concept and terminology in this respect. The challenge is: How can relevant influencing factors be identified and integrated? And, how can these factors be represented spatially and integratively in order to provide decision makers with a sound basis for adaptation measures? The central starting question is: Where do I do what (and when)? Within the Austrian ACRP project 'RESPECT', a novel climate change risk analysis for the natural hazard 'flooding' was developed. Special attention is paid to the modelling of socio-economic and physical vulnerability and its integration into a spatially explicit climate risk analysis. As a result, spatial and thematic hotspots of social and physical vulnerability and climate risk for Austria are identified, which serve as a basis for the identification of adaptation measures.

As a result, climate risk maps are available for Austria, which show risk and vulnerability hotspots as homogeneous spatial regions, independent from administrative boundaries and traditional raster-based approaches. These hotspots are quantitatively evaluated by an index value as a measure of climate risk. In addition to the purely quantitative evaluation, it is also possible to characterise and present the spatial units qualitatively, in terms of 'problem areas' and contributing factors. This is a significant development compared to 'traditional' spatial units (grid cell based; based on administrative units). Thus the question mentioned at the beginning can be answered - where are which intervention measures necessary. The results are available for socio-economic and physical climate risk, which are flanked by corresponding hazard and vulnerability maps. Results for the present and the future have been produced using proxy indicators from the high-resolution Austrian climate change scenario data (ÖKS15). This makes it possible to identify future hot spots under the assumption of different climate scenarios. The presentations presents the adapted risk concept and methodological approach, respectively, and reflects critically on the opportunities and challenges of climate risk analysis in Austria and in general for the planning of climate change adaptation measures.  
Present temperature, precipitation and rain-on-snow climate in Svalbard
Authors: Wickström Siiri , Jonassen Marius O. , Cassano John , Vihma Timo , Kristiansen Jørn
Published: March 2020

Potentially high-impact warm and wet winter conditions have become increasingly common in recent decades in the arctic archipelago of Svalbard. In this study, we document present 2m temperature, precipitation and rain-on-snow (ROS) climate conditions in Svalbard and relate them to different atmospheric circulation (AC) types. For this purpose, we utilise a set of observations together with output from the high resolution numerical weather prediction model AROME-Arctic. We find that 2m median temperatures vary the most across AC types in winter and spring, and the least in summer. Southerly and southwesterly flow is associated with 10th percentile 2m temperatures above freezing in all seasons. In terms of precipitation, we find the highest amounts and intensities with onshore flow over open water. Sea ice appears to play a strong role in the local variability in both 2m temperature and precipitation. ROS is a frequent phenomenon in the study period, in particular below 250 m ASL. In winter, ROS only occurs with AC types from the southerly sector or during the passage of a low pressure centre or trough. Most of these events occur during southwesterly flow, with a low pressure center west of Svalbard.

 
Analysis of the impact of urbanization on the microbiological, chemical and morphological properties of the soil in the recreational areas of the New Moscow with a different land-use history
Authors: Mahinya Ksenia , Demina Sofiya , Vasenev Viacheslav , Brianskaia Inna
Published: March 2020

In conditions of on-going urbanization, urban parks play a key role in the sustainable development of urban space. New Moscow, the territory attached to Moscow in 2012, is currently the largest area in Russia experiencing rapid and intensive urban development. New Moscow is a unique area in which over the past five years, starting in 2012, rapid urbanization has been observed, including the formation of new recreational areas in the former forest, fallow and arable territories. There are currently more than 70 parks with a different land use history on this territory. Most of them have been created or reconstructed in the last 7 years. The aim of our study is to study the state of soils and green spaces of the recreational zones of New Moscow and the impact of anthropogenic factors on them, taking into account the different history of land use. For analysis, we selected 4 parks. Two parks are formed on the site of the former arable territory, and two parks in the forest zone. At the same time, one park from a couple was closer to the old borders of Moscow, and the second at a distance of more than 15 km. In the selected territories, we conduct physical, chemical and microbiological analysis of soils, as well as assess the state of green spaces. In each of the parks, 9 or 10 points were selected in various functional areas (territories near sports and playgrounds, in the walking area, barbecue area, etc.). The selection was carried out to a depth of 50-100 cm. The top layer (0-10 cm) was selected for analysis of the carbon content in the microbial biomass (Cmic), basal respiration (BR) and CO2 production. To carry out the pH, C / N analysis, as well as the content of heavy metals in the soil, the samples were taken horizontally to a depth of 100 cm. The second stage of the study was to assess the state of woody vegetation within a radius of 20 meters from each point selected for soil analysis. Thus, we plan to obtain a comprehensive analysis of the physical, chemical and microbiological condition of the soils of the recreational zones and green spaces with a different land use history and to identify the influence of the anthropogenic factor on them.
Hydrological effects triggered by large-scale forest restoration in catchment scale, a case study in Daqing River Basin, North China
Authors: Li Ruonan , Zheng Hua , Pan Ying , Lu Fei
Published: March 2020

Human activities have had a dramatic impact on the forest ecosystem, which has changed from initial overexploitation to the current regional restoration. Such kind of human interference with forest ecosystem aggravates the uncertainty on regional hydrology in the contest of global climate change. Here we analyze the hydrology variation over 30 years in Daqing River Basin covered by the ecological restoration project, North China. We identified the influence of climate and human disturbance (ecological restoration project) on surface runoff and soil water. In addition, combined with the future plan of ecological restoration projects in the upper reaches and Xiong’an New Central Area construction in the lower reaches, regional hydrological effects and water demand gaps in the lower reaches under different restoration scenarios were analyzed. The results showed that since 1980's, the surface and soil water in Daqing River Basin had a sudden change in 1999, and the influence of human interference after the change was significantly higher than before, among which the influence of forest area and quality was the dominant contributors. The results of the scenario analysis show that under the existing regional ecological restoration projects and climate change trends, there will be about 1/6 water resource gap in the lower reaches of the basin by 2050, of which about 35% will be caused by ecological projects. Our research results show that changes in forest area and quality brought about by basin-level ecological restoration projects will significantly increase upstream evaporation and water conservation, thereby affecting the regional hydrological cycle and aggravating the conflict between supply and demand of water resources downstream.
Recently exposed subglacial carbonate deposits at the retreating Triglav Glacier, Slovenia
Authors: Lipar Matej , Martín Pérez Andrea , Tičar Jure , Pavšek Miha , Gabrovec Matej , Hrvatin Mauro , Komac Blaž , Zorn Matija , Zupan Hajna Nadja , Zhao Jian-xin , Drysdale Russell , Ferk Mateja
Published: March 2020

Subglacial carbonate deposits have been exposed on the lee sides of small protuberances on a bare polished and striated limestone bedrock surface in the immediate vicinity of the retreating Triglav Glacier in southeastern Alps. They are fluted and furrowed crust-like deposits generally around 5 mm thick and characterized by brownish, greyish or yellowish colour. The deposits are generally around 0.5 cm in thickness and internally laminated. They offer a unique opportunity to gain additional knowledge of the past glacier’s behaviour and consequently the characteristics of the past climate which is essential to understand and predict future changes. Currently, the known extent and behaviour of the Triglav Glacier spans from the present to the Little Ice Age, the cool-climate anomaly between the Late Middle Ages and the mid-19th century, and is based on geomorphological remnants, historical records, and systematic monitoring. However, the preliminary uranium-thorium (U-Th) ages of the subglacial carbonates yielded considerably old ages: 23.62 ka ± 0.78 ka, 18.45 ka ± 0.70 ka and 12.72 ka ± 0.28 ka; the results indicate that these subglacial carbonate dates fall within the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Younger Dryas (YD).

The Triglav Glacier has generally been viewed as relict of the LIA, with discontinuous presence due to the Holocene Climatic Optimum, a period of high insolation and generally warmer climate between 11,000 and 5,000 years BP. Present chemical denudation rates of carbonate rocks in Alpine and temperate climate vary from ca. 0.009 to 0.140 mm/year. Taking the low and high extreme values for, e.g., 6 ka during the Holocene Climatic Optimum, the denudation in the Triglav area would be between 54 and 840 mm, so the exposed 5 mm thick subglacial carbonate would have already been denuded if exposed in the past. In addition, carbonate surfaces in periglacial areas are additionally exposed to frost weathering, promoting disintegration of depositional features. And lastly, glaciers cause pronounced erosion and in case of just a short-term retreat beyond the subglacial carbonates, the re-advance of the glacier would likely abrade the deposits. Therefore, had the subglacial carbonate deposits been exposed in the past, they should have been eroded by chemical denudation, frost weathering, or erosion at the onset of individual Holocene glacial expansion episodes, such as the LIA. May the presence of subglacial carbonates dated to the LGM and the YD at the Triglav Glacier suggest the continuous existence of the glacier throughout all but the latest Holocene?
Mapping crop distribution in China between 2000 and 2015 by fusing remote-sensing derived cropping seasons and knowledge-based crop phenology
Authors: Wang Yue , Zuo Lijun , zhang Zengxiang
Published: March 2020

Crop mapping is necessary for a variety of application in food security and agricultural monitoring. An innovative phenology-based crop mapping method was developed to map 14 crops between 2000 and 2015. Unlike traditional mapping methods mainly based on remote-sensing data and statistic data, our method takes crop phenology as the input. Phenological metrics represent crop characteristics related to crop calendar and progress such as the timing of emergence, maturity, harvest, etc. Phenological characteristics of each crop are relatively consistent for a long period of time. Combing crop phenology, we allocated the statistical harvest areas on cropland through matching different crops to different cropping seasons in each agroecological regions, which were extracted from 16-day composite MODIS EVI (MOD13Q1) time series data in 250m spatial resolution. Here we obtained the distribution of 14 crops at the spatial resolution of 1km by 1km in 2000, 2010 and 2015, which had higher spatial resolution and higher accuracy when compared with other products. By comparing the data recorded crop types in each meteorological station, we found our method achieved higher accuracies than other methods at the same resolution. As for winter crops, the relevance between total statistical crop area and the area of different cropping seasons that extracted by remote sensing in each agroecological region was higher than 70%. Obviously, the use of crop phenology as the mapping method input improve the accuracy of crop mapping, which are convenient for analyzing the spatial and temporal change of our crops. We found that the center of gravity migration of all crops fell into three directions when analyzing the center of gravity distribution change. In addition, declining Shannon diversity index reflected that the crop richness of the same plot was decreasing.

 
Modelling water flow dynamics using image spectral data
Authors: Varvaris Ioannis , Pittaki-Chrysodonta Zampela , D. Børgesen Christen , V. Iversen Bo
Published: March 2020

Fertilizers and pesticides are intensively applied in agriculture. However, their use has been documented as a source of contamination of groundwater and surface water. Therefore, it is important to be able to assess the fate and transport of pesticides and nitrates in agricultural soils. Before simulating solute transport and considering chemical species, accurate water flow models for understanding the internal flow pathways are essential. The HYDRUS-2D software package was used to develop a hydrogeological model for simulating the drainage dynamics in a tile-drained agricultural field. A two-dimensional single porosity model was used to simulate the water flow dynamics. The initial parameterization of the hydraulic properties in model relied on in situ and laboratory measurements and satellite data. For estimating the soil water release characteristics, the Campbell function was used. Specifically, the field average Campbell soil-water retention curve (SWRC) was predicted using an existing satellite image model. The estimated SWRC was validated using laboratory data. The suggested approach gave a satisfactory fit to the hydrograph features presenting the potential of remote to be used as an alternative for initial parameterization.