bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Variations in aerosol size distributions and deposition fractions in human body based on long-term observations (2007 to 2018)
Authors: An ChanJung , Kim Sang-woo , Choi Wonsik
Published: March 2020

Fine particles can reach deeply into various tracts in the human body, causing adverse health effects. In addition, particulate matter affects earth energy balance directly, scattering solar radiation, and indirectly, forming clouds and changing cloud properties. In these respects, understanding the variations of aerosol concentrations in each mode of aerosol size distributions and the factors affecting those variations, is important.

In this study, we attempted to separate each mode from the aerosol size distributions obtained from long-term observations with scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) (December 2007 to October 2018) in Jeju Island (Gosan, national background concentration network, 33.17˚N, 126.12˚E).

The particle number size distributions (54 channels, from 10.4 nm to 469.8 nm) were separated into three modes using a fitting method based on the multiple lognormal distribution function. We then attempted to examine how these modes of particles have changed in time, and what factors (air trajectories, meteorology, other pollutants, and others) were related to the variations in each mode. We also calculated the deposition fractions of inhaled aerosols in each human respiratory tract from the observed size distributions using the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) deposition model, and we examined how these deposition fractions vary in different air quality conditions.

More details in the discussion concerning temporal variations in aerosol size distributions, the factors affecting those variations, and variations in deposition fractions in the human body are presented.

Keywords: aerosol, size distribution, deposition fraction, lognormal distribution mode.

 
Global observation of iodic acid (HIO3)
Authors: He Xucheng , Jokinen Tuija , Sarnela Nina , Beck Lisa , Junninen Heikki , Rissanen Matti , Nie Wei , Yan Chao , Kemppainen Deniz , Worsnop Douglas , Sipilä Mikko , Kulmala Markku
Published: March 2020

Trace iodine vapours have a significant impact on atmospheric chemistry, influencing catalytic ozone destruction and the HOx / NOx cycles. Oxidized iodine species also form aerosols in coastal and polar regions (O’Dowd et al, 2002), playing a direct role in Earth’s radiation balance. It was recently shown that iodic acid (HIO3) has a significant impact on coastal new particle formation processes (Sipilä et al., 2016). However, neutral HIO3 molecules have only been measured in two sites (Sipilä et al., 2016).

In this study, a global observation of HIO3 has been carried out in ten sites around the globe, including city sites, Arctic and Antarctica sites, a remote island site, a coastal site and a boreal forest site. While the existence of HIO3 is unambiguously revealed in all of the sites, its concentration varies significantly among them. Dedicated laboratory experiments are required to examine the particle formation rates from iodine-containing species to be able to predict their global importance in particle formation, and further, in cloud condensation nuclei formation.

 

O’Dowd, C. D. et al. Marine aerosol formation from biogenic iodine emissions. Nature 417, 632–6 (2002)

Sipilä, M. et al. Molecular-scale evidence of aerosol particle formation via sequential addition of HIO3. Nature 537, 532–534 (2016).

 
Estimation of hydraulic parameter from geoelectrical measurements : A case study of the western Pingtung Plain in Taiwan
Authors: Chu Yi-Chen , Chen Chien-Chih
Published: March 2020

In Taiwan, most of the rivers in the Pingtung Plain are ephemeral stream. In the dry season, the water source is unstable and cannot be used all the year round. Due to the uneven distribution of time and space, the supply and demand of water resources are often imbalanced. In order to provide a stable groundwater source strategy, it is necessary to understand the geologic characteristics of groundwater.

Electrical resistivity surveying methods have been widely used to determine the thickness and resistivity of layered media for the purpose of assessing groundwater potential and siting boreholes in fractured unconfined aquifers. In this study, we used CP configuration on the Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) monitoring system at two study sites. One is the surface-borehole survey line at the Dashu, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, and the other is the surface survey line at the Daliao, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Both of sites located on Quaternary alluvium of Pingtung Plain which composed of coarse sand and gravel.

The resistivity difference might be caused by the dynamic of the groundwater. We analyzed the change in the electrical properties of the gravel layer during the rainfall season at the Dashu site and analyzed the groundwater level change by ERT method during the pumping event at the Daliao site which is the pumping station to understand the groundwater replenishment situation. The ERT result can be calculated Relative Water Saturation (RWS) of the shallow formation fluid, and it reveal the permeability of the gravel layer and the hydrogeological characteristics of the sites. Furthermore, we assumed the different particle size and porosity to estimate the resistivity and the hydraulic conductivity coefficient theoretical trend line, compare the observation well data is used to estimate the actual porosity and the actual hydraulic conductivity range. Finally, for the groundwater conditions in the large area of the Pingtung Plain, we use the theoretical trend line to analyze the data of WRG’s 34 wells in western Pingtung Plain. The results show (i) the well logging resistivity is positively correlated with the hydraulic conductivity. (ii) the sandstone and mudstones with small variables have smaller well-measured resistivity and a lower hydraulic conductivity. (iii) affected by compaction, the porosity tends to decrease with increasing depth. (iv) on the west side of the Pingtung Plain, the particle sizes are relatively consistent, and the hydraulic conductivity is 10 -3~10 -4 m/s.

This study is using ERT to provide hydrological data analysis on small areas and large areas in the Pingtung Plain, and also contributes to groundwater operations and management
Harvesting Energy from Buried Infrastructure: current UKCRIC research
Authors: Loveridge Fleur , Shepley Paul , Stirling Ross , Yildiz Anil
Published: March 2020

The UK Government has a commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Because 70% of heating comes from direct burning of natural gas, this target cannot be achieved without decarbonising the gas network. One of the best routes to decarbonise heating is through use of ground thermal energy storage coupled with ground source heat pump systems. However, heat pump systems retain high investments costs, mainly due to the expense of drilling dedicated ground heat exchangers (GHE) such as deep boreholes. One route to reducing these costs is to use buried infrastructure for simultaneous structural function and ground heat exchange. In the past deep foundations, embedded retaining walls and trial tunnels have all been used as GHE.  However, there is increasing interest in extending this approach to other shallow buried infrastructure, such as waste and drinking water distribution networks, and green infrastructure such as sustainable urban drainage and swales. 

The UK Collabatorium for Research in Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC) is a consortium founded by thirteen universities to provide an integrated research capability with a mission to underpin the renewal, sustainment and improvement of infrastructure and cities in the UK and elsewhere. Under the auspices of UKCRIC, a pump priming project called PLEXUS has been carried out. One of the research challenges of PLEXUS has been to consider how much heating and cooling capacity can be obtained from using civil engineering infrastructure as GHE, and whether there are any risks to original structural function from the GHE operation.  The project has included trial experiments for (i) soil element thermo-mechanical and thermo-hydraulic behaviour, (ii) the operation of sustainable urban drainage under heat injection, (iii) heat transfer characteristics of a near full scale water pipe segment, (iv) effects of temperature change on the formation of fats, oils and greases in waste water treatment systems. This paper will present a summary of key findings from the project and identify challenges for implementation of this valuable thermal resource. 
Global rates of continental volcanism on Earth
Authors: Papale Paolo , Marzocchi Warner , Garg Deepak
Published: March 2020

Knowledge of the rates of Earth volcanism and their variability is critical in many fields involving global assessments, such as plate tectonics and associated rates of crustal formation and consumption, large-scale volcanic hazards, climate change, etc. Global rates also provide the base rate to which regional or individual volcano data can be compared, in order to quantify differences and similarities providing guidance in the identification of volcanoes with overall analogue behaviors. While global volcanic eruption databases, such as the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Project database or the Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions database at BGS, provide the required basic knowledge, substantial deterioration of the geologic information with age has been a serious obstacle to a comprehensive picture. Recent understanding that global eruption inter-event times are exponentially distributed, that being the essential character of Poisson distributed events, is leading to a general model for the global eruption behavior of the Earth. Exponential distributions are entirely characterized by one single rate parameter. Comparing the rate parameters for different VEI classes of eruptions, as well as analyzing the distribution of individual eruption volumes within and across different VEI classes, reveals that relative frequencies for the explosive eruptions with VEI higher than 2 distribute as a power law. This knowledge is employed a) to quantify the global volcanic hazard, in particular in relation to the occurrence of globally impacting eruptions, comparing with known hazards from many well-known adverse events; and b) within a Monte Carlo simulation of the eruptive history of the Earth, allowing us to quantify the distribution of volcanic eruption rates, both in number and volume, and globally or for each given VEI class or group of VEI classes, over different observational time windows from 1 to 100,000 years.
Upper mantle discontinuities beneath Australia from trans-dimensional hierarchical Bayesian inversions using receiver functions and multi-mode surface waves
Authors: Yoshizawa Kazunori , Taira Toru
Published: March 2020

Upper mantle structures under cratons have recently been investigated by many researchers using receiver functions and surface waves to clarify the nature of the Lithosphere-Asthenosphere Boundary (LAB) and Mid-Lithosphere Discontinuity (MLD). Majority of seismological studies of joint inversions using receiver functions and surface waves have employed dispersion curves of fundamental-mode only, but higher-mode information is essential for resolving the whole depth range of thick continental lithosphere (over 200 km) and its underlying asthenosphere.

In this study, we reconstructed radially anisotropic S wave models including multiple discontinuities in the upper mantle under seismic stations in Australia, using multi-mode surface waves and receiver functions in the framework of the Bayesian inference. We employed a fully nonlinear method of joint inversions incorporating P-to-S receiver functions and multi-mode Rayleigh and Love waves, based on the trans-dimensional hierarchical Bayesian formulation. The method allows us to estimate a probabilistic Earth model taking account of the complexity and uncertainty of Earth structure, by treating the model parameters and data errors as unknowns. The Parallel Tempering algorithm is incorporated for the effective parameter search based on the reversible-jump Markov Chain Monte Carlo method.

Multi-mode phase speed maps of surface waves developed by Yoshizawa (2014) are used to extract localized multi-mode dispersion curves. The use of higher-mode surface waves enables us to enhance the sensitivity to the depth below the continental asthenosphere, while the receiver functions allows us to better constrain the depths of discontinuities and velocity jumps. Synthetic experiments indicate the importance of higher-mode information for the better recovery of radial anisotropy in the whole depth range of the upper mantle.

The method has been applied to Global Seismographic Network stations in Australia. While the S-wave models in eastern Australia show shallow LAB above 100 km depth, those in central and western Australia exhibit both MLD and LAB. Also, seismic velocity jumps equivalent to the Lehmann Discontinuity (LD) are found in all seismic stations in Australia. The LDs under the Australian continents are found at the depth of around 200 - 300 km, depending on locations. Radial anisotropy in the depth range between LAB and LD tends to show faster SH anomalies, which may indicate the effects of horizontal shear underneath the fast-moving Australian plate.
2015 Nepal Earthquake: A Mass Wasting Balance
Authors: Frattini Paolo , Valagussa Andrea , Valbuzzi Elena , Crosta Giovanni B.
Published: March 2020

Following the 7.8 Mw earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25th, 2015, a high-resolution earthquake-induced landslide inventory was prepared. 21,151 landslides have been mapped using Google Earth’s pre- and post-earthquake images, helicopter footage and Google Crisis data. For a representative subset of landslides (~7%), the main scar area was manually distinguished from the landslide transport and deposition areas. Starting from this subset of scar areas, six different relationships between scar area and total landslide area were attained for six different intervals of the landslide aspect ratio (AR, i.e. ratio between landslide length and width) which is used as a proxy of landslide mobility. These relationships were used to estimate the scar area for the entire dataset. For landslides with AR lower than 3 (i.e. low-mobility landslides) the total volume was calculated with the equations proposed by Larsen et al. (2010) by using the total landslide area values. For landslides with an AR larger than 3 (i.e. high-mobility landslides) the volume was computed by applying the equation by Larsen et al. (2010) to landslide scar area only, and considering a constant thickness for the runout area (1m based on field activities). By comparing the landslide denudation and mass wasting to uplift and subsidence measured by InSAR (ALOS-2 satellite data) following the Nepal earthquake, the net volume change in the earthquake-affected area was calculated.
The Spire TEC Environment Assimilation Model (STEAM)
Authors: Angling Matthew , Bocquet Francois-Xavier , Olivares-Pulido German , Vetra-Carvalho Sanita , Nordstrom Karl , Melville Stacey , Savastano Giorgio
Published: March 2020

The ionosphere can affect a wide range of radio frequency (RF) systems operating below 2 GHz. One option for mitigating these effects is to produce assimilative models of the ionospheric density from which products can be derived for specific systems. Such models aim to optimally combine a background model of the ionospheric state with measurements of the ionosphere. This approach is analogous to the use of numerical weather prediction in the meteorological community, and has been evolving for ionospheric use for the last 10 to 15 years.

Published research has demonstrated the utility of this approach. However, obstacles to providing effective data products remain due to the sparseness of ionospheric data over large parts of the world and the timeliness with which data are available. Spire is working to overcome these issues through the use of its large constellation of satellites that can measure Total Electron Content (TEC) data in both zenith looking and radio occultation (RO) geometries and its large ground station network that will allow low data latency.

Spire data will be combined with an innovative data assimilation model (the Spire TEC Environment Assimilation Model, STEAM) to provide accurate and actionable ionospheric products. Data assimilation is required to overcome the limitations and assumptions of the traditional Abel Transform analysis of RO data (i.e., spherical symmetry; transmitter and receiver in free space and the same plane) and to effectively combine RO data, topside data, ground-based GNSS data, and other sources of ionospheric information (i.e., ionosondes).

STEAM uses a 4D Local ensemble transform Kalman Filter (LETKF). As with other ensemble methods, the LETKF uses an ensemble of models to approximate the background error covariance matrix. However, the LETKF provides a more efficient way to solve the ensemble equations. Furthermore, 4D operation permits the use of data with varying latency. Localisation means that grid points are only modified by data within a local volume; this restricts spurious long-range spatial correlations and means that the ensemble only has to span the space locally. The LETKF transforms the problem into ensemble space which makes each grid point independent, resulting in an algorithm that is easily parallelised.

This paper will describe the data collection and processing chain, the data assimilation model, and plans for the ongoing development of the combined system. 
Exploration of the characteristics of landslide triggering rainfall using rain gauge and numerical weather prediction for Yogyakarta and Central Java, Indonesia
Authors: Satyaningsih Ratna , Sopaheluwakan Ardhasena , Nuryanto Danang Eko , Nuraini Tri Astuti , Mulyana Arif Rahmat , Hidayat Rokhmat , Munir Mohammad Dedi , Jetten Victor
Published: March 2020

The existing Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS) for Indonesia was developed using rainfall thresholds, which were derived from the relationship between rainfall inducing landslides and landslide events in the past. The system utilized the median values of 1-day and 3-day cumulative observed rainfall for determining the threshold and a relatively limited number of landslide events throughout Indonesia during the period of the system development. The system employed a single set of threshold values for all regions despite the possibility of differences in rainfall intensity characteristics for each region. For prediction, the system used rainfall data derived from satellite products and rainfall forecast data with a spatial resolution of 0.25° x 0.25°, which is not adequate for catchment-scale landslide analysis.

 

We attempt to improve the LEWS by applying a statistical approach based on rainfall intensity and duration for a longer time-series of data set. Instead of determining the thresholds for national scale, we focus on the Special Region of Yogyakarta and surrounding cities in Central Java which are prone to landslides but have high population density. In addition to that, we also perform preliminary exploration of the potential of the output of high-resolution numerical weather prediction in simulating the rainfall inducing the landslides for several historical landslide events. This study is part of a project called BILEWS, a Blueprint for an Indonesian Landslide Early Warning System, which aims to develop threshold for landslides and debris flows as the basis for early warning to be applied at several test sites in Java, using tailored rainfall data, combined with empirical and physically-based hydrological and landslide models, as well as historical landslide data.
Seismology at School in Nepal: a network and program for education and citizen seismology
Authors: Hetényi György , Subedi Shiba , Denton Paul , Sauron Anne
Published: March 2020

Nepal, located above the convergent India-Eurasia plate boundary, has repeatedly experienced devastating earthquakes. During the 2015 magnitude 7.8 Gorkha earthquake, an often-reported experience was that people were not aware of the threatening seismic hazard and have insufficient level of preparedness. An important source of the problem is that earthquake-related topics are not part of the school curriculum. Earthquake education reaching a broad group of the population early in their lives is therefore strongly needed.

We established an initiative in Nepal to introduce seismology in schools, with focus on education and citizen seismology. We have prepared educational materials adapted to the Nepali school system, which we distributed and also share on our program’s website: . In selected schools, we also installed a low-cost seismometer to record seismicity and to allow learning-by-doing classroom activities. Our approach was very well received and we hope it will help making earthquake-safe communities across Nepal.

The seismic sensor installed in schools is a Raspberry Shake 1D (RS1D), selected based on performance in laboratory tests and adequacy to field conditions. At a test site in Switzerland we were able to record magnitude 1.0 events up to 50 km distance with a RS1D. In Nepal, 22 such seismometers installed in schools create the Nepal School Seismology Network providing online data openly. The seismometer in each school allows students to be informed of earthquakes, visualize the respective waveforms, and estimate distance and magnitude of the event. For significant local and regional events, we provide record sections and network instrumental intensity maps on our program’s website.

In 6 months of network operation, more than 194 local and teleseismic earthquakes of M≥4 have been recorded. From a local and a global catalogue, complemented with our own visual identifications, we provide an earthquake wave detectability graph in distance—magnitude space. Based on our observations, we calibrate a new magnitude equation for Nepal, related to the epicentral distance D[km] and to the observed peak ground velocity PGV[µm/s]. The calibration is done to best fit local catalogue magnitudes, and we will present the updated parameters at the conference.
Nutrient budgets in Southern Ocean mode waters controlled by nitrification
Authors: Buchanan Pearse , Tuerena Robyn , Tagliabue Alessandro , Mahaffey Claire , Ganeshram Raja
Published: March 2020

Southern Ocean mode and intermediate waters supply nitrate-rich but silicate-poor waters to the lower latitudes, impeding diatom growth throughout the extra-polar ocean and weakening the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This silicate deficiency is widely attributed to high silicate to nitrate uptake by iron-limited diatoms. Here, we show that nitrification, by rapidly regenerating nitrate in shallow waters, drives the silicate deficiency. Measurements of nitrate dual isotopes and complementary modelling independently suggest that 15-35% of the nitrate within mode waters is generated by nitrification. Our results reveal that without nitrification, the silicate deficiency would disappear, which would allow the diatomaceous niche to expand. Nitrification therefore provides a key buffering service that mitigates against change in the silicate deficit and subsequently restricts diatom dominance to the polar ocean. This insight highlights the critical importance for understanding Southern Ocean processes, such that the large-scale effects of ongoing environmental change may be realised.
FP_ILM: Extremely fast volcanic SO2 plume height retrieval based on S5P/TROPOMI data using inverse learning machines
Authors: Efremenko Dmitry , Hedelt Pascal , Loyola Diego , Spurr Robert
Published: March 2020

We present here a novel method for the precise and extremely fast retrieval of volcanic SO2 layer height (LH) based on S5P/TROPOMI data. We have developed the Full-Physics Inverse Learning Machine (FP_ILM) algorithm using a combined principal components analysis (PCA) and neural network approach (NN) to extract the information about the volcanic SO2 LH from high-resolution UV backscatter measurement of TROPOMI aboard Sentinel-5 Precursor.

The SO2 LH is essential for accurate determination of SO2 emitted by volcanic eruptions. So far UV based SO2 plume height retrieval algorithms are very time-consuming and therefore not suitable for near-real-time applications. The FP_ILM approach however enables for the first time to extract the SO2 LH information in a matter of seconds for an entire S5P orbit and thus applicable in NRT application.

The FP_ILM SO2 LH product is developed as part of ESA’s ‘Sentinel-5p+ Innovation - SO2 Layer Height project’ (S5P+I: SO2 LH) project, dedicated to the generation of an SO2 LH product and its extensive verification with collocated ground- and space-born measurements.
Outcrop Fracture Pattern and Paleostress Analysis of the Ghumanwan Dome, Hazara Basin, NW Himalayas, Pakistan
Authors: Ahsan Naveed , Armaghan Faisal Miraj Muhammad , Tariq Hamza , Qayyum Abdul
Published: March 2020

 Hazara Basin is a NE-SW trending fold and thrust belt, emerged as a consequence of ongoing collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates. Hazara Basin is bounded by Panjal Thrust (PT) in the North and Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) is located in the South. The present work deals with the paleostresses and outcrop fracture pattern (orientations, opening, fracture density) in different rock units exposed in Ghumanwan area located in the vicinity of Abbottabad, in Hazara Basin. PT and MBT juxtapose various lithological units along the Hazara Kashmir Syntaxes (HKS). The imbricate fault system between these two faults indicates a sinistral relative movement. We adopted circle inventory method in the field and collected data (fracture length, width, orientations and dip azimuth) from diverse rock units at 11 visited outcrop stations of the Ghumanwan Dome. These rock units include Upper Cretaceous (Kawagarh Formation) and Paleogene carbonates (Lockhart Formation and Margalla Hill Limestone). We observed highly dense, non-systematic fracture pattern in which mostly fractures are oriented in N-W direction normal to the bedding. Moreover, MOVETM 2018 (Midland Valley) Stress Analysis module (Stereonet Plot) was used for paleostresses analysis. The results show that the Slip Tendency (ratio of shear stress to normal stress) magnitude of σ2 lies closer to the σ3 (on Stereonet) and suggests compressional stresses in which NW-SE oriented fractures developed. The N-S compressive stresses which have mainly affected the concerned area are presumably linked to be late Eocene-Oligocene tectonic event.
Understanding the Dynamics of Denitrification with high-resolution Simulations
Authors: Ippisch Olaf , Zawallich Jan , Dörsch Peter , Schlüter Steffen , Horn Marcus A. , Vogel Hans-Jörg
Published: March 2020

Denitrification in unsaturated soils is widely assumed to be a result a result of the formation of so-called hot spots. However, this is a hypothesis, which is hard to test experimentally. Furthermore a better understanding of the microscale dynamics might be very helpful to derive better models at the macroscale.

Experiments have been conducted, where artificial aggregates from sintered glas have been inocculated with microorganisms and been placed in environments with different oxygen availabilities. Very high-resolution simulations are conducted to reproduce the dynamic of the generation of nitric and nitrous oxide based on a model of microbial growth parametrised with experimental data from batch experiments. The simulations allow a detailed analysis of the local and temporal dynamics of denitrification inside the aggregates.
Emergent Constraints on Climate-Carbon Cycle Projections
Authors: Cox Peter
Published: March 2020

Earth System Models (ESMs) are designed to project changes in the climate-carbon cycle system over the coming centuries. These models agree that the climate will change significantly under feasible scenarios of future CO2emissions. However, model projections still cover a wide range for any given scenario, which impedes progress on tackling climate change. Estimates of the Transient Climate Response to Emissions (TCRE), and therefore of remaining carbon budgets, are affected by uncertainties in the response of land and ocean carbon sinks to changes in climate and CO2, and also by continuing uncertainties in the sensitivity of climate to radiative forcing. Over the last 7 years Emergent Constraints have been proposed on many of the key uncertainties. Emergent constraints use the full range of model behaviours to find relationships between measureable aspects of present and past climates, and future climate projections. This presentation will summarise proposed emergent constraints of relevance to future climate-carbon cycle projections, and discuss the implications for the remaining carbon budgets for stabilisation at 1.5K and 2K.
Alluvial farming in Ayeyarwady floodplains. Spatio-temporal dynamics of a complex human-water system
Authors: Evers Prof. Mariele , Taft Linda , Zülich Michelle , Almoradie Adrian
Published: March 2020

Floodplains are important locations for agricultural production in many regions of the world. In monsoon-dominated regions with a pronounced rainy season, the floodplains are often used seasonally, which can improve food security and the income of poor households in particular. Alluvial farming benefits from fertile sediment deposits, residual moisture in the soil and good access to water from the river or groundwater. At the same time, farmers have to deal with flood risks and highly dynamic hydromorphological and hydrological conditions.
Agriculture is the main economic activity in Myanmar and accounts for 38% of the Gross domestic product. The most important production areas are the central drying zone (CDZ) and the Ayeyarwady Delta. The CDZ, however, is particularly characterized by irregular rainfall, significantly rising temperatures, droughts, a shift in the onset of the rainy season and extreme flood events, which makes agricultural production very challenging and difficult.
By using the Plural Water Research framework the physical and human boundary conditions of a research area in a floodplain in the CDZ were studied in order to identify relevant components which are shaping this complex human-water system. With the help of satellite images, hydrological data, on-site mapping and surveying farmers, the spatio-temporal dynamics of the alluvial farming system was examined and the interactions between hydrological variabilities and extremes and the handling of farmers within this complex system were examined and adaptation strategies were identified.
Landslide recognition by deep learning of non-standard multi-source images
Authors: Catani Filippo
Published: March 2020

The recent development of mobile surveying platforms and crowd-sourced information has produced a huge amount of non-validated data 
that are now available for research. In the field of landscape analysis, with particular reference to geomorphology and engineering geology, images generated by autonomous platforms (such as UAVs, ground-based acquisition systems, satellite sensors) and pictures obtained from web data-mining can be easily gathered and contribute to the fast surge in the amount of non-organised information that engulf data storage facilities. The high potential impact of such methods, however, may be severely impacted by the need of a massive amount of Human Intelligent Tasks (HIT), which is necessary to filter and classify the data, whatever the final purpose.
In landslide hazard analysis, both UAV-surveys and the gathering of crowd-sourced information generate big-data that would require HITs before becoming usable in early warning, vulnerability assessment, residual risk estimation, model parametrisation and mapping. Very often, this an important limitation to the real-world applications that are actually feasible with the support of such systems. Examples of such HITs are the intelligent guidance of drones, the classification of fake news, the validation of post-disaster information.
Computer vision can be of great help in fostering the autonomous capability of intelligent systems to complement, or completely substitute, HITs. Image and object recognition are at the forefront of this research field. They are based on a number of computer-aided methods that rely on different degrees of interaction with the user, ranging from semi-automated object-based detection to deep learning by neural networks. 
In this work, we present a new set of convolutional neural networks specifically designed for the automated recognition of landslides and mass movements in non-standard pictures that can be used for supporting UAV automated guidance and data-mining filtering. The deep learning has been accomplished by resorting to transfer learning of some of the top-performers CNNs available in the literature. Results show that the deep learning machines, calibrated on a relevant dataset of validated images of landforms, are able to supply reliable predictions with computational time and resource requirements compatible with most of the UAV platforms and web data-mining applications for landslide hazard studies.

 
The albedo-climate penalty of hydropower
Authors: Hammerle Albin , Tomelleri Enrico , Wohlfahrt Georg
Published: March 2020

Limiting global warming to less than 2°C relative to preindustrial times by the end of this century requires a rapid and long-lasting decarbonization. In contrast to the other major renewable energy sources, solar and wind, hydropower reservoirs allow storing energy and releasing it when required, a significant advantage for stabilizing electrical grids. The establishment of hydropower reservoirs typically involves a land-use change when formerly terrestrial ecosystems are inundated. One, hitherto overlooked, consequence of this land-use change is a decrease in surface albedo, as waterbodies are characterized by a lower albedo compared to most terrestrial ecosystems. The main objective of this study is to quantify the positive radiative forcing resulting from this albedo change and to oppose it with the negative radiative forcing resulting from the fossil fuel displacement by the hydropower electricity generation. To that end, we compiled, on the basis of publicly available datasets, a global database of hydropower reservoirs. The hypothetical change in albedo associated with their construction was assessed on the basis of the difference in remotely sensed albedo (MODIS MCD43A1) between the hydropower reservoir and the surrounding landscape. We then calculated the break-even point, that is the time required for the time-integrated negative radiative resulting from the fossil fuel displacement to offset the positive radiative forcing from the albedo difference. The major result from this study is that break-even times range from less than a year up to several years and even a few decades. The key metric governing these differences is the annual electricity generation to reservoir surface area ratio, low ratios resulting in unfavorably long break-even times. Additional influence factors having a modulating influence are latitude, governing the incident solar radiation, and the magnitude of the albedo difference. We conclude that the displacement of fossil fuels by hydropower wins over the albedo penalty in the long-term. In the short-term, and thus for contributing towards the goal of a rapid decarbonization, the albedo penalty may be dominating and needs to be considered in the design of hydropower plants.
Ecosystem services provided by groundwater dependent wetlands (turloughs) in karst areas
Authors: Delle Grazie Fabio , Gill Laurence , Naughton Owen
Published: March 2020

Ecosystem services provided by groundwater dependent wetlands (turloughs) in karst areas

Fabio Massimo Delle Grazie1, Owen Naughton1,2, Laurence Gill1

1 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

2 Carlow Institute of Technology, Carlow, Ireland

 

E-mail: dellegrf@tcd.ie

 

 

According to the Irish National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), Ireland hosts twenty-one types of Groundwater Dependent Terrestrial Ecosystems (GWDTEs). They include ecosystems like alkaline fens, transition mires, active raised bogs and turloughs.

Turloughs, the focus of this study, are ephemeral lakes which are present mostly in Ireland and have been compared hydrologically to polje for the period inundation and lacustrine deposits. They are flooded for some periods across the year (typically in the winter) but usually dry up in summer months. Turloughs are defined as Groundwater Dependent Terrestrial Ecosystems (GWDTEs) and as such they are protected under the Water Framework Directive (WFD, Directive 2000/60/EC). As they host protected fauna and flora, they are also designated as a Priority Habitat in Annex 1 of the EU Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC). As hydrology is the main driver of their ecosystem, a thorough understanding of their hydrological regime is crucial. The water-bodies supporting GWDTE’s are also protected under the WFD and it is important to establish whether the status of these groundwater bodies is impacting on the functioning of the GWDTE’s and if so, what measures can be introduced to mitigate this impact.

Ecosystem services can be defined as the conditions and processes through which natural ecosystems sustain and fulfil human life. These can be classified as provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural and examples of them are water and raw materials production, flood risk attenuation, carbon sequestration (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). The determination of the ecosystem services can help analyse different scenarios linked to pressures like road drainage schemes, water supply and wastewater disposal.

Previous data and field studies (including soil and water sampling and greenhouse gas emission measurements) were performed on seven turloughs. The ecosystem services of the turloughs were determined through appropriate models and software packages and quantified in appropriate biophysical units as well as in monetary terms.

 
Numerical modeling of mesospheric mountain wave propagation observed in Southern Argentina during the SOUTHTRAC campaign
Authors: Mixa Tyler , Dörnbrack Andreas , Kaifler Bernd , Rapp Markus
Published: March 2020

We present numerical simulations of a deep orographic gravity wave (GW) event observed by the ALIMA airborne lidar on 11-12 September 2019 over Southern Argentina. The measurements are taken from the 2019 SOUTHTRAC Campaign, employing a comprehensive suite of remote sensing and in-situ instruments onboard the HALO research aircraft to study the stratospheric GW hotspot over Tierra del Fuego and the Antarctic Peninsula. Wind conditions on 11-12 September exhibit local and large-scale directional shear from the ground to the polar night jet, creating a complex propagation environment supporting multiple orientations of GW propagation and strong potential for local GW breaking and secondary GW generation. Using high resolution numerical models, we simulate the 3D evolution of the orographic GW field to analyze the remote sensing and in-situ measurements from the event.
Urban carbon dioxide flux monitoring using Eddy Covariance and Earth Observation: An introduction to diFUME project
Authors: Stagakis Stavros , Feigenwinter Christian , Vogt Roland
Published: March 2020

Monitoring CO2 emissions originating from urban areas has become a necessity to support sustainable urban planning strategies and climate change mitigation efforts. Integrative decision support, where net effects of various emission/sink components are considered and compared, is now an increasingly relevant part of urban planning processes. The current emission inventories rely on indirect approaches that use fuel and electricity consumption statistics for determining CO2 emissions. The consistency of such approaches is questionable and they usually neglect the contribution of the biogenic components of the urban carbon cycle (i.e. vegetation, soil). Moreover, their spatial and temporal scales are restricted because consumption statistics are often available in coarse spatial scales (national, provincial/state, municipal) and usually scaled down using proxy data (e.g. population density) to city-scale annual estimates. The diFUME project (https://mcr.unibas.ch/difume/) is developing a methodology for mapping and monitoring the actual urban CO2 flux at optimum spatial and temporal scales, meaningful for urban design decisions. The goal is to develop, apply and evaluate independent models, capable to estimate all the different components of the urban carbon cycle (i.e. building emissions, traffic emissions, human metabolism, photosynthetic uptake, plant respiration, soil respiration), combining mainly Eddy Covariance (EC) with Earth Observation (EO) data. EC provides continuous in-situ measurements of CO2 flux at the local scale. Processing, analysis and interpretation of urban EC measurements is challenging due to the inherent spatial complexity of CO2 source and sink configurations of the urban structure. The diFUME methodology is using multiple EO datasets to achieve multi-scale monitoring of urban cover, morphology and vegetation phenology in order to characterize the urban source/sink configurations and parameterize turbulent flux source area models. Such combination of EC and EO provides enhanced interpretation of the measured CO2 flux, analysis of its controlling factors and therefore the potential of fine scale mapping and monitoring. The diFUME methodology is being developed and applied in the city of Basel, exploiting the available long-term database (> 15 years) of urban EC measurements. The first results highlight the potential of EO-derived geospatial data to interpret the complexity of urban EC measurements. Seasonal and land cover related trends in the EC-measured CO2 flux are recognized, while the use of environmental, census and mobility datasets are increasing the interpretation capabilities and the modelling potential of the urban CO2 flux patterns.
Doubling of future Greenland Ice Sheet surface melt revealed by the new CMIP6 high-emission scenario
Authors: Hofer Stefan , Lang Charlotte , Amory Charles , Kittel Christoph , Delhasse Alison , Tedstone Andrew , Alexander Patrick , Smith Robin , Fettweis Xavier
Published: March 2020

Future climate projections show a marked increase in Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) runoff
during the 21st century, a direct consequence of the Polar Amplification signal. Regional
climate models (RCMs) are a widely used tool to downscale ensembles of projections from
global climate models (GCMs) to assess the impact of global warming on GrIS melt and
sea level rise contribution. Initial results of the CMIP6 GCM model intercomparison
project have revealed a greater 21st century temperature rise than in CMIP5 models.
However, so far very little is known about the subsequent impacts on the future GrIS
surface melt and therefore sea level rise contribution. Here, we show that the total GrIS
melt during the 21st century almost doubles when using CMIP6 forcing compared to the
previous CMIP5 model ensemble, despite an equal global radiative forcing of +8.5 W/m2
in 2100 in both RCP8.5 and SSP58.5 scenarios. The total GrIS sea level rise contribution
from surface melt in our high-resolution (15 km) projections is 17.8 cm in SSP58.5, 7.9 cm
more than in our RCP8.5 simulations, despite the same radiative forcing. We identify a
+1.7°C greater Arctic amplification in the CMIP6 ensemble as the main driver behind the
presented doubling of future GrIS sea level rise contribution
Small-scale clustering of the Russian part of Arctic by periodicity type of the topographic patterns
Authors: Kharchenko Sergey
Published: March 2020

Homogeneous topography pattern - can be an indicator of similar Earth's surfaces genesis and age. It is difficult to automatically formally describe these features and map the terrain. To describe the Earth's surface periodicity, we developing spectral terrain characteristics (STC). Their calculation consists of the following: a sliding window of different sizes decomposes the DEM into a Fourier row from which it is extracted:  1) amplitude of the main harmonic wave; 2) its length; 3) dispersion of heights given by 5% of the most important waves in relation to the general dispersion of heights; 4) general direction of oscillations of the height field; 5) unidirectionality / expression of this direction, etc. Areas with similar values of these parameters have visually homogeneous topographic pattern. We have calculated the above mentioned and some more complicated parameters for the whole territory of the Russian Arctic on a shallow scale: according to GMTED 2010 30" (1000 m per cell) on moving windows with sizes from 40 to 100 km and with the step of 10 km. Fifty-six raster models of SRC were obtained - 8 parameters at 7 scales each. Using them, a map of topographic dissection types in the Russian part of the Arctic was created with the help of self-organizing Kohonen neural networks and subsequent hierarchical clustering of individual neurons. 10 clusters have been identified related to geostructural, geological and geomorphological differences. 

This study was funded by the Russian Science Foundation, project no. 19-77-10036.
Dynamics of the middle atmosphere as observed by the ARISE project: scientific highlights and perspectives
Authors: Blanc Elisabeth
Published: March 2020

The dynamics of the middle atmosphere, between near ground lower troposphere and near Earth space thermosphere is submitted to strong disturbances which impact global circulation and are at the origin of uncertainties in climate and weather models. The lack of observations limits the ability to accurately reproduce these disturbances, while the considered altitude range increases for improving model predictions. Perturbations also affect climate change and environment hazards. ARISE (Atmospheric dynamics Research InfraStructure in Europe) objective is to develop a high resolution platform integrating the infrasound International Monitoring System for the verification of the Comprehensive nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty , the lidar Network for Detection of Atmospheric Composition Changes, associated with multi-instrument reference stations and satellite observations. The research is highly multidisciplinary to cover the full altitude range from polar to equatorial regions submitted to different processes. The main project results and perspectives will be presented. This concern the development of a pilot station for developing synergies, prototypes for improving instrument performances, new tools for applications related to weather and climate using both archived data for applications and near real time data, remote monitoring of extreme events such as volcanoes for civil aviation, stratospheric warming events, severe weather, meteo-tsunamis and meteorites for risk management.