bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The role of values in climate science
Authors: Undorf Sabine , Pulkkinen Karoliina , Wikman Svahn Per , Bender Frida
Published: March 2022

Science provides society with information that helps solve the ethical, societal and social implications of climate change, the most urgent and far-reaching global problem of our time. Owing to the complexity of the problems that arise, they are not solved with knowledge or one responsible goodwill alone, but often require value judgements, for example, decisions on the relative importance of different stakeholders. Interdisciplinary scholarship, first of all, philosophy of science, argues that some of these and other value judgements can already play a role in the scientific process that both produces such information and that develops more foundational scientific tools, methods, and results underlying it.

Here, it is argued that it is time for the scientific community itself to become more aware of, acknowledge, and discuss the role of values, to enable their effective management and thus make science observe its responsibility to society even better.The state of the debate in climate science as represented by the latest assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is summarised. Examples from the recent philosophical literature are given that illustrate value influence beyond that acknowledged in the report. Key messages are suggestedto the scientific community as to how the topic of values could be progressed, including strategies such as transparency and diversity, cross-disciplinary cooperation and education besides, and aiding, the fostering of awareness by individual scientists in their research.

As an attempt to advance and illustrate this awareness and acknowledgement of values from a scientist perspective, a case study is further presented. There, value judgements are identified that are relevant to multi-model based assessments such as those performed until recently for climate sensitivity and still in use for various other climate metrics. The whole series of assessment steps is considered, from choosing the research question over model building, deriving the metric of interest, and combining model results to publishing and communicating the findings. It is discussed that neither sensitivity studies nor the use of multiple, other lines of evidence instead of model estimates provide a way to avoid value judgements, hence not diminishing the need for reflection on values. While especially timely now in climate science, the question of value acknowledgement and management more generally applies to any science, including other areas of geosciences that are similarly addressing questions of high societal relevance.
Long-term geomagnetic activity: Comparison and analysis of geomagnetic activity indices during the last 90 years
Authors: Mursula Kalevi
Published: March 2022

Geomagnetic activity is a measure aimed to quantify the effect of solar wind upon the Earth's magnetic environment. The main structures in solar wind driving geomagnetic activity are the coronal mass ejections (CME) and the high-speed solar wind streams together with related co-rotating interaction regions (HSS/CIR). While CMEs are closely related to sunspots and other active regions on solar surface, the HSSs are related to solar coronal holes, forming a proxy of solar polar magnetic fields. This gives an interesting possibility to obtain versatile information on solar activity and solar magnetic fields from geomagnetic activity.

Various indices have been developed to quantify and monitor global geomagnetic activity. The most often used indices of overall geomagnetic activity are the aa index, developed by P. Mayaud and running already since 1868, and the Kp/Ap index, developed by J. Bartels and running since 1932. Both aa and Kp/Ap depict the increase of geomagnetic activity during the first half of the 20th century, and a steep decline in the 2000s. However, although the two indices are constructed from midlatitude observations using roughly the same recipe, they depict notable differences during the 90-year overlapping interval. While the Kp/Ap index reaches a centennial maximum in the late 1950s, at the same time as sunspots, the aa index has its maximum only in 2003. Also, the Kp/Ap is systematically relatively more active in the first decades until 1960s, while aa is more active thereafter. The Dst index was developed to monitor geomagnetic storms and the ring current since 1957. We have corrected some early errors in the Dst index and extended its time interval to 1932. This extended storm index is called the Dxt index. Here we study these long-term geomagnetic indices and their differences. We also use their different dependences on the main solar wind drivers in order to obtain new information on the centennial evolution of solar activity and solar magnetic fields.
Lessons learned from developing a multi-model hydrometeorological forecasting system
Authors: Wetterhall Fredrik , Modigliani Umberto , Dacic Milan , Lappi Sari
Published: March 2022

The project “South-East European Multi-Hazard Early Warning Advisory System” (SEE-MHEWS-A) is a collaborative effort to strengthen the existing early warning capacity in south-eastern Europe. The project was initiated in 2016 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and has been supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), World Bank and the European Commission and has now developed from a concept into implementation of a pilot for a multi-hazard forecasting system. The pilot consists of four limited area numerical weather prediction models which are used as forcing to three hydrological models. In the implementation phase the hydrological models are setup over small catchments, but the plan is to increase the coverage when the project moves to the operationalization phase. The pilot also consists of a nowcasting system and the output are visualized on a web-based common information platform. The project has led the countries in the region to increase sharing of observational data, knowledge and resources to create a common information platform that can potentially deliver a tailored decision support system for hydrometeorological hazards to agencies and authorities.
Origin and magnitude of interannual variabilities in Southern Ocean air-sea O2 and CO2 fluxes
Authors: Mayot Nicolas , Le Quéré Corinne , Manning Andrew , Willis David , Gruber Nicolas , Schwinger Jörg , Séférian Roland , Ilyina Tatiana , Hauck Judith , Resplandy Laure , Bopp Laurent , Keeling Ralph , Rödenbeck Christian
Published: March 2022

The Southern Ocean plays a major role in both the global oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO2 and its interannual variations. The size and origin of the interannual variability in the Southern Ocean CO2 fluxes is debated. Observation-based estimates suggest a large variability (+/- 0.11 PgC/yr) while Global Ocean Biogeochemistry Models (GOBMs) simulate almost no variability. Studying the air-sea fluxes of O2 can provide independent information that help resolve this data-model inconsistency. Oceanic O2 is influenced by the same physical and biogeochemical processes as CO2, but unlike CO2, its variability is not masked by a large anthropogenic flux. Here, we used 26 years (1994-2019) of monthly O2 fluxes from 9 GOBMs. These model outputs were compared to air-sea O2 fluxes inferred from an atmospheric inversion of precisely quantified changes in atmospheric O2 and CO2 levels. The 26-year time series of air-sea O2 fluxes from all GOBMs and the atmospheric inversion exhibited similar temporal variations. This could be linked to the Southern Annular Mode and its influence on air-sea heat flux forcing that induced large-scale changes in observed wintertime Mixed Layer Depth (MLD). However, the amplitude of the interannual variability in air-sea O2 fluxes was two times higher in the atmospheric inversion than in GOBMs. It possible that this was induced by the general overestimation of the mean wintertime MLD by the GOBM and subsurface vertical gradients in oxygen saturation lower than observed. Implications of these results for the variability in air-sea fluxes of CO2 will be discussed.
The compressive strength of earth-hemp blocks tested with different densities, earth types, and cementitious binders
Authors: Douillet Guilhem Amin , Toropovs Nicolajs , Zucha Wolfgang Jan , Bernard Ellina , Kühnis Anja , Schlunegger Fritz
Published: March 2022

The building sector needs to shift toward the use of materials that have low-embodied energy, minimize operational-energy, and minimize the amount of waste upon disposal. Here, we report on a series of experiments on low-density earth-hemp blocks, which can be implemented as an insulation for buildings. Earth-hemp finds a similar usage to hempcrete/hemp-lime, yet the use of raw earth as a binder allows to dramatically decrease the embodied energy. The set presented here evidences that pure earth-hemp with high content in clay minerals reaches higher compressive strength (0,33 MPa) than equivalents with hydraulic binder, for similar thermal conductivity (0,07 W/m.K).

Earth-hemp samples were characterized in terms of compressive strength in order to test the influence of density, earth type, incorporation of mineral additives, and amount of water used for creating the blocks. Two types of natural earths were investigated, which differ in their clay content: a surficial loess with 25 wt.% clay minerals and a quarried paleosoil with high clay content (65 wt.%). For each earth type, 4 types of mineral additives were investigated in order to test whether they can have a stabilizing effect: Portland cement, aerial-lime, gypsum-plaster and a MgO-based cement. The binders (i.e. earth + additive) were created with replacement of earth by mineral additives at 0, 4, 8, and 20 wt. %. For each type of binder, 3 densities of the resulting earth-hemp samples were produced (250, 280, 340 kg/m3). Additionally, two series of this set of samples were produced using a low amount of added water (150 wt.% water/hemp) and high amount of added water (370 wt.% water/hemp).

Samples using the earth with high clay content have compressive strengths up to twice as high as those with low clay content. This result is expected since clay minerals are the main agent of binding in earth materials. Also expected was the increase in compressive strength with sample density, which is directly correlated to the amount of binder. More interestingly, the dataset also exhibits the negative effect of mineral additives: a trend of decreasing compressive strength with amount of incorporated mineral additive is visible, independently of the type of additive and earth type. In between additive types, the compressive strengths of samples mixed with MgO-based cement and gypsum-plaster are better than those mixed with Portland cement and aerial lime. Additionally, samples produced using a low amount of added water are much less resistant than those with a high amount of added water for every sample tested. Finally, samples using pure earth with high clay content and high amount of incorporated water are the most resistant, and reach compressive strengths of 0.33 MPa for a density of 340 kg/m3, which is slightly stronger than existing commercial lime-hemp blocks. 
Mapping community exposure to extreme heat and flood hazards in the Carolinas
Authors: Sebastian Antonia , Dello Kathie
Published: March 2022

Recent extreme weather events have drawn attention to how multiple climate disasters can combine to create negative social and economic consequences across sectors. Perhaps the most concerning of these multi-hazard scenarios, is the combination of heat stress, characterized as high temperature and humidity, and severe flooding, which can result in devastating socioeconomic and health consequences for communities. For example, heat stress may precede a flood event, amplifying its impact (e.g., British Columbia (2021)) and leading to increased fatalities and injuries from the event; on the other hand, infrastructure outages caused by severe flooding may increase the vulnerability of individuals to heat stress following the event, as is often the case after tropical cyclones (e.g., Hurricanes Ike (2008) and Maria (2017)). Managing future climate risks will require a better understanding of the frequency of occurrence of compound heat and flood stress and the space and time scales over which they interact. As a case study, this research develops a framework for measuring community exposure to flood and heat extremes applied to North Carolina, USA. Leveraging parcel-scale records of insured flood damage, we generate a spatially- and temporally-explicit database of historical flood extents since 1970, and couple it to a reanalysis of extreme heat events measured in terms of Wetbulb index. We then identify spatial and temporal clusters of extreme heat and flood events in North Carolina. This work will enable improved vulnerability and climate risk assessment and enable community to identify more resilient pathways to climate adaptation. The work is part of a larger Carolinas Collaborative on Climate, Health and Equity (C3HE) project which focuses on the cooccurrence of extremes and aims to measure the socioeconomic and health outcomes in partnership with Carolina communities.
Ice-Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions in the Arctic: Svalbard Case Study
Authors: Fotheringham Morag
Published: March 2022

Supervisors: Noel Gourmelen (University of Edinburgh), Eleanor Frajke-Williams (NOC), Michel Tsamados (UCL)

Arctic glaciers and ice caps are currently major contributors to global sea level rise. The monitoring of smaller land-ice masses is challenging due to the high temporal and spatial resolution required to constrain their response to climate forcing. This dynamic response of land-ice to climate forcing constitutes the main uncertainty in global sea level projections for the next century. The relative significance of these forcings is currently unknown with most recent categorisations focusing on separating loss caused by internal dynamics versus surface mass balance changes, with only initial investigations into processes instigating these changes.

This leaves the specific roles of processes in the atmosphere, ocean and sea ice unconstrained. This knowledge is key to improving our projections of how these smaller land-ice masses will respond to future climate forcing and by extension their contribution to future sea level rise.

This study uses CryoSAT-2 swath interferometric radar altimetry to provide high spatial and temporal observations to produce elevation timeseries for the land-ice masses in Svalbard Archipelago. It also utilises the regional atmospheric model (MAR) to gain timeseries of surface mass balance. These are combined with climate datasets, and by separating land-ice mass into land versus marine terminating, are used to quantify the effects of different processes. Additionally, in order to observe the relative impact of atmospheric versus oceanic forcing, an ocean thermal forcing model, previously used to study Greenland’s outlet glaciers, has been initialised.

The aim of this case study is to develop a framework that will quantify the connections and processes linking loss of land-ice to processes in the ice and, atmosphere and sea ice across the Arctic region.
FORESHELL Project: development of sanitary/weather-environmental predictive technological tools to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of shellfish farming.
Authors: Tomassetti Barbara , Lombardi Annalina , Colaiuda Valentina , Conti Federica , Mascilongo Giuseppina , Capoccioni Fabrizio , Pulcini Domitilla , Di Francesco Gabriella , Di Renzo Ludovica , Profico Chiara , Ippoliti Carla , Giansante Carla , Ferri Nicola , Di Giacinto Federica
Published: March 2022

Many of the estuaries and coastal areas in Europe are used for the cultivation and harvesting of bivalve mollusks. Mussel farming is strongly influenced by weather and environmental conditions. Several studies have shown that the sanitary conditions of shellfish are related to hydrological factors of rivers adjacent to the farming area, as rivers are the main routes of bacteriological contamination from the surface or sub-surface.

The "FORESHELL" project, funded by Costa Blu FLAG as part of the EMFF 2014-20 program of the Abruzzo Region, is carrying out a pilot initiative for the development of sanitary/weather-environmental predictive technological tools in order to improve efficiency and sustainability of the mussel farm located at the Giuliano Maritime District.

A specific sampling schedule is established before and after severe weather events to determine the E. coli
concentration in freshwater at the river mouths and in mussels/seawater in the farming site. At the same time, the hydrographic basins of the rivers close to the farm, Vibrata and Salinello, are constantly monitored trough the hydrological model (CHyM), to predict the occurrence of flow discharge peaks at mouth of the river. In addition, the satellites and the in-situ probe acquire environmental parameters such as sea water temperature, salinity, chlorophyll-a, sea currents and wave motion.

The web application for data visualization is under construction, as well as the early warning reports to the farmer. Furthermore, the growth of mussels is constantly monitored with biometric controls. The implementation of all phases of the FORESHELL project are proceeding according to the timeline in order to develop innovative tools useful for the management of mussel farming area.
Impact at the astronomical Observatory of Roque de los Muchachos from the Cumbre Vieja 2021 volcanic eruption at La Palma.
Authors: Pérez-Arencibia Juan Carlos , Castro-Almazán Julio A. , Eff-Darwich Antonio , García-Álvarez David , Vilches-Sarasate Jon , Gallo-Acosta Víctor , García-Lorenzo Begoña , Muñoz-Tuñón Casiana
Published: March 2022

Between September 19 and December 13, 2021 a strombolian volcanic eruption took place on the island of La Palma. The main edifice was appeared at an altitude of around 900 masl, reaching 1122 masl at the end of the process. The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) is an outstanding international astronomical site, hosting some of the most important astrophysical facilities of the world. The Observatory is located 16 km away from the eruptive cone, in the summit of the island, at an altitude ranging between 2200 and 2400 masl. The atmospheric conditions at the Canary Islands conform an almost permanent thermal inversion layer below the level of the observatory that modulated the arrival of the volcanic plume. In this work we are going to briefly review the influence of different parameters associated to the eruption in the ORM routine operation. We will evaluate the impact of the seismic activity, volcanic ash falling, presence of SO2 and airborne particulate matter. The number of days with high remarkable values recorded of these parameters were few. Nevertheless, the actual impact on the different telescopes was heterogeneous, depending on the different risk evaluations, and recovery/response times. An impact report with a compilation of measurements and forecasts was released twice a day during the whole process to help facilities in the daily operational decision making. As a final conclusion, no damages were suffered in any of the installations. Although an important downtime was reported, astronomical observations continued in different degree during the whole episode.

 
PHUSICOS-VR: Using virtual reality to explore mitigation measures for geohazards
Authors: Strout James M. , Kutsen Turid Wulff , Solberg Anne Stine , Verhoog Jelmer
Published: March 2022

PHUSICOS-VR is a virtual reality experience to learn how nature-based solutions (NBS) can be used to mitigate natural hazards, including rock falls, floods, avalanches and agricultural run-off.  The game is set in real locations in Norway, Italy, France and Spain, and is a digital representation of actual demonstration sites in the EU project PHUSICOS (EU contract nr).  The underlying development strategy for PHUSICOS-VR was to create an interesting and fun pedagogical tool to learn about natural hazards, and the effect that NBS can have on both mitigating the hazard but also providing co-benefits such as improving biodiversity and creating public use spaces.  The primary audiences for the VR experience are the general public, politicians, planning authorities and other decision-makers.

Game development is more than programming, and during the fast-track production of PHUSICOS-VR the development team followed a SCRUM project philosophy and transitioned through creative phases and processes including audience/personas definitions, scientific content, pedagogical considerations, visual/audio expression, and of course the technical implementation in the UNITY engine to realize the game for the Oculus VR platform.  Covid19 has been an added complication, resulting in the entire development process running virtually – the core team never met as a complete group, and all development works were coordinated through collaborative platforms such as TEAMS and Miro Board.

This article will present the development phases in detail, describing the challenges encountered and solutions implemented to realize the PHUSICOS-VR game.  PHUSICOS-VR is currently under review for public release and will soon be available on the Oculus app store.  A browser version is also available.
Machine Learning Techniques for Spatiotemporal drought patterns forecasting
Authors: Garzon Useche Laura Viviana , Sánchez Hernández Karel Aldrin , Corzo Perez Gerald Augusto , Santos Granados German Ricardo
Published: March 2022

The erratic drought nature and its great spatiotemporal variability make conventional forecasting systems or stochastic forecasting systems very limited in terms of the monitoring of its dynamic characteristics. Therefore, this study proposes a dynamic forecasting methodology based on machine learning models by tracking the spatial and temporal characteristics of drought events.

This methodology consists of four main phases. 1) the drought spatiotemporal characteristics calculation and extraction such as spatial aggregations or extensions, geospatial properties (area, perimeter), centroid location and trajectory from their connectivity, which are generated following the contiguous drought area analysis (CDA) proposed by Corzo--- 2) feature engineering and dataset preparation, which is consolidated according to the hierarchy and relative importance of the associated predictor and predictor variables 3) implementation of an intelligent analysis method based on deep neural network architecture (CNN, LSTM) techniques, which combines spatial observation mediated by convolution integrated with temporal analysis for prediction. Thus generating primary results against the future propagation pattern or trajectory of a spatial unit. 4) Analyzing the various model performances based on statistical metrics, validation of the generated trajectories using the area under the curve (AUC) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and error approach as Root Mean Square Error (RMSE).

This methodology is presented using indexes derived from the ERA 5 reanalysis dataset as SPEI and SPI on the Central America dry corridor (1979-2020), where the performance of the intelligent system will be evaluated not only taking into account the statistical performance, but also in the identification and forecasting of those regions with major drought generation tendencies.
Carbon removal in transformation pathways
Authors: Strefler Jessica
Published: March 2022

With global CO2 emissions still on the rise, technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere become ever more important to achieve the ambitious climate target laid out in the Paris Agreement. The permissible carbon budget compatible with 1.5°C temperature increase above pre-industrial levels could be exhausted already in the next few years, making carbon dioxide removal (CDR) a necessary requirement to achieve this target by reversing global warming. For global mean temperatures to remain well below 2°C, the absence of CDR would require unprecedented emission reduction rates associated with very high economic costs, making this target very likely unachievable without CDR as well. Various options for CDR are being discussed, which all have different costs, potentials, and side-effects. In addition, they also have very different regional profiles and institutional requirements. We will discuss carbon removal requirements and the associated costs, impacts, risks, and trade-offs, as well as regional profiles of different CDR options, which need to be taken into account for a fair distribution of climate change mitigation.
FRA.SI.project - AN INTEGRATED MULTI-SCALE METHODOLOGIES FOR THE ZONATION OF LANDSLIDE-INDUCED HAZARD IN ITALY
Authors: Tizzani Pietro , Reichenbach Paola , Fiorucci Federica , Alvioli Massimiliano , Moscatelli Massimiliano , Bonfante Antonello ,   Fra.Si. Team
Published: March 2022

Fra. Si. a national research project supported by the Ministry of the Environment and Land and Sea Protection, develops a coherent set of multiscale methodologies for the assessment and zoning of earthquake-induced landslide hazards. To achieve the goal, the project operates at different geographical, temporal, and organizational scales, and in different geological, geomorphological, and seismic-tectonic contexts. Given the complexity, variability, and extent of earthquake-induced landslides in Italy, operating at multiple scales allows you to (a) maximize the use of available data and information; (b) propose methodologies and experiment with models that operate at different scales and in different contexts, exploiting their peculiarities at the most congenial scales and coherently exporting the results at different scales; and (c) obtain results at scales of interest for different users.

The project defines a univocal and coherent methodological framework for the assessment and zoning of earthquake-induced landslide hazard, integrating existing information and data on earthquake-induced landslide in Italy, available to proponents, available in technical literature and from "open" sources - in favor of the cost-effectiveness of the proposal. The integration exploits a coherent set of modeling tools, expert (heuristic) and numerical (statistical and probabilistic, physically-based, FEM, optimization models). The methodology considers the problem at multiple scales, including: (a) three geographic scales - the national synoptic scale, the regional mesoscale and the local scale; (b) two time scales - the pre-event scale typical of territorial planning and the deferred time of civil protection, and the post-event scale, characteristic of real civil protection time; and (c) different organizational and management scales - from spatial planning and soil defense, including post-seismic reconstruction, to civil protection rapid response. Furthermore, the methodology considers the characteristics of the seismic-induced landslide and the associated hazard in the main geological, geomorphological and seismic-tectonic contexts in Italy.

The project develops methodologies and products for different users and/or users. The former concern methodologies for (i) the synoptic zoning of the hazard caused by earthquake-induced landslides in Italy; (ii) the zoning and quantification of the danger from earthquake-induced landslides on a regional scale; (iii) the quantification of the danger of single deep landslides in the seismic phase; and for (iv) the identification and geological-technical modeling of deep co-seismic landslides starting from advanced DInSAR analyzes from post-seismic satellites.
Controlling Effect of the Cold Plasma Density on Acceleration and Loss of Electrons at Ultra-Relativistic Energies
Authors: Shprits Yuri Y. , Allison Hayley , Drozdov Alexander , Wang Dedong , Aseev Nikita , Zhelavskaya Irina , Usanova Maria
Published: March 2022

Measurements from the Van Allen Probes mission clearly demonstrated that the radiation belts cannot be considered as a bulk population above approximately electron rest mass. Ultra-relativistic electrons (~>4Mev) form a new population that shows a very different morphology (e.g. very narrow remnant belts) and slow but sporadic acceleration.

We show that acceleration to multi-MeV energies can not only result of two-step processes consisting of local heating and radial diffusion but occurs locally due to energy diffusion by whistler-mode waves. Local heating appears to be able to transport electrons in energy space from 100s of keV all the way to ultra-relativistic energies (>7MeV) and is a dominant process for acceleration to ultra-relativistic energies. Acceleration to such high energies occurs only for the conditions when cold plasma in the trough region is extremely depleted down to the values typical for the plasma sheet.

There is also a clear difference between the loss mechanisms at MeV and multi MeV energies. The difference between the loss mechanisms at MeV and multi-MeV energies is due to EMIC waves, that can very efficiently scatter ultra-relativistic electrons, but leave MeV electrons unaffected.

These observations and modelling clearly show that cold plasma at eV energies has a controlling effect on the trapped electrons at energies seven orders of magnitude more energetic. Depletion in cold plasma is a requirement for acceleration while fast loss occurs only in the regions of high plasma density.

We also present how the new understanding gained from the Van Allen Probes mission can be used to produce the most accurate data assimilative forecast. Under the recently funded EU Horizon 2020 Project Prediction of Adverse effects of Geomagnetic storms and Energetic Radiation (PAGER) we will study how ensemble forecasting from the Sun can produce long-term probabilistic forecasts of the radiation environment in the inner magnetosphere.
The role of open exposure data and reproducible research for large-area multi-hazard risk applications in economically developing countries. The case study of Burundi
Authors: Campalani Piero , Pittore Massimiliano , Renner Kathrin
Published: March 2022

A consistent and comprehensive understanding of risk related to multiple natural hazards threatening population, property and infrastructure is a pillar of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and lays at the base of most risk mitigation initiatives. This is particularly challenging since the relevant hazards (e.g., earthquakes, floods or landslides) are often different in terms of recurrence periods, spatial footprint and intensity. Also, the analysis and assessment of risk is based in turn on the knowledge of factors other from hazard, namely exposure and vulnerability. Exposure refers to the communities, assets and systems that are exposed to the hazards and susceptible to damage. This information should be available at the spatial scale and resolution that is most suitable to the considered hazards, and be up-to-date (or reasonably recent to ensure representativeness). Exposure is also tightly connected to the chosen vulnerability modelling approach, hence proving a critical component in the risk assessment pipeline to grant reliable estimates. While gathering a satisfactory exposure dataset from authoritative sources is usually difficult, the task might prove unfeasible in many economically developing countries, where the sheer amount of technical and economical resources needed to collect and maintain such information (e.g., population and housing census, transportation infrastructure, etc.) might exceed the capacity of the local institutions, especially in countries undergoing rapid changes due to urbanization processes. In the last decade, fortunately, several international and global projects made available a significant wealth of data, free of cost and often at regional and global scale. This has proven invaluable to carry out small- and large-scale risk assessment with unprecedented resolution and geographical coverage. However, often the specific characteristics of these datasets and their inherent limitations are not easy to be taken into consideration, therefore paving the way to unwanted biases in the resulting estimates.  

In our contribution we will report on the activities carried out to develop exposure information for multi-hazard risk assessment in Burundi, focusing on the integration of multiple information sources for population distribution and road infrastructure, and on their use in probabilistic landslides risk assessment. The limitations and perspectives of the use of open data and tools will be presented and discussed, along with the role of transparent and reproducible research in using, updating and sharing such data.  

The described research activities have been carried out within the framework of an international project funded by the International Organization of Migration (IOM) and coordinated by IDOM (Spain).
Crustal stress across spatial scales
Authors: Rajabi Mojtaba , Heidbach Oliver
Published: March 2022

The study of crustal stress examines the causes and consequences of in-situ stress in the Earth’s crust. Stress at any given point has several geological sources, including ‘short-term and local-scale’ and ‘long-term, ongoing and wide-scale’ source. In order to better characterise the crustal stress state, the analyses of both local- and wide-scale sources, and the consequences of their superposition are required. The global compilation of stress data in the World Stress Map database has increased significantly since its first release in 1992 and its analysis revealed large rotations of the stress tensor in several intraplate settings.

Large-scale stress analysis, so called first-order, (> 500 km) provides information on the key drivers of the stress state that result from large density contrasts and plate boundary forces. The analyses of stress at smaller-scales (< 500 km) have numerous applications in reservoir geomechanics, geo-storage sites, civil engineering and mining industry. To date, numerous studies have investigated the stress analysis from different perspectives. However, the stress, in geosciences, is still enigmatic because it is a scale-dependant parameter. It means, stress variations can be studied at both the ‘spatial-scale’ and ‘temporal-scale’. This paper aims to investigate the crustal stress pattern with a particular emphasis on the orientation of maximum horizontal stresses at various spatial-scales, ranging from continental scales down to basin, field and wellbore scales, to better evaluate the role of various stress sources and their applications in the Earth’s crust. The stress analyses conducted in this work shows that stress pattern at large-scales do not necessarily represent the in-situ stress pattern at smaller-scales. Similarly, analysis of just a couple of borehole measurements in one area might not yield a good representation of the regional stress pattern.
Monitoring Van Allen Radiation Belts using EU Galileo satellites: Observations and Data Products of energetic particle fluxes
Authors: Sandberg Ingmar , Provatas Georgios , Papadimitriou Constantinos , Aminalragia-Giamini Sigiava , Ryden Keith , Evans Hugh
Published: March 2022

The Environmental Monitoring Units (EMU), on-board two satellites of the EU Galileo constellation, monitor the radiation environment along the GNSS orbit providing measurements of the energetic electron fluxes in the outer Van Allen Belt. With new calibration studies that take into account more realistic shielding provided by the spacecraft and the characteristics of the encountered environment along the satellite orbit, we have derived a new version of the GSAT/EMU Level 1 dataset that provides high quality validated fluxes of trapped energetic electrons within the 0.2-4.5 MeV energy range.  

In this work, we present an overview of the EMU measured electron fluxes over the last five years including recently completed validation studies with Arase [ERG] and RBSP energetic electron measurements. The new dataset, available to users from European member states registered at https://gssc.esa.int, will be used in the assimilation processes and/or the validation of the ONERA Salammbô electron radiation belt models - under the EU Safespace activity and ESA S2P RBFAN activity - leading to improved forecasts of the state of the outer belt. In addition, the quality of the time-coverage of the dataset permits their use in the development and/or evaluation of quantitative radiation environment specification models.

 

This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme "SafeSpace" under grant agreement No 870437, from the European Space Agency activity "Cross Calibration EMU Dataset with RBSP" under ESA Contract 4000135823/21/NL/GLC/mkn and the “SSA P3-SWE-X Space Environment Nowcast and Forecast Development” activity under ESA Contract 4000131381/20/D/CT.
Paleomagnetism of Portuguese stalagmites: advances and perspectives
Authors: Font Eric , Sanchez-Moreno Elisa , Pavón-Carrasco Javier , Dimuccio Luca , Hilaire-Marcel Claude , Ghaleb Bassam , Ribeiro Joana , Veiga-Pires Cristina , Trindade Ricardo , Feinberg Joshua , Lima Eduardo , Fu Roger , Edwards Larry , Ponte Jorge , Pais Alexandra , Cunha Lucio , Weiss Benjamin
Published: March 2022

Speleothems are secondary mineral deposits formed in caves and may represent excellent recorders of variations of the Earth’s magnetic field. Magnetic studies of speleothems provide two important forms of data: i) continuous and high-resolution records of short-term variations of the geomagnetic field (GMF), and conversely the use of paleomagnetism as a dating tool of speleothems; and ii) high-resolution records of climate variability by linking rock magnetic properties to climate and environmental forcing parameters acting on soils. However, the use of speleothem magnetism as a dating tool and paleo-climate archive still requires a great deal of maturation before being comparable to traditional techniques. Here we present a review of the paleomagnetic records of speleothems from Portugal obtained during the last five years and propose a new approach to date speleothem based on paleomagnetic data. We also present preliminary results and future investigations in the framework of an ongoing research project (Speleothems as magnetic, environmental and paleo-fire archives; ref. PTDC/CTA-GEO/0125/2021) and a bilateral exploratory MIT-FCT project (Analyzing environmental and climate records in Portuguese speleothems using ultra-high sensitivity magnetic microscopy; ref. MIT-EXPL/ACC/0023/2021) both funded by the Foundation of Sciences and Technology (FCT) of Portugal.
Application of the split range-spectrum method and GACOS model to correct the ionospheric and tropospheric delay of the InSAR time series
Authors: Tymplaski Michał , Sompolski Marek , Kopeć Anna , Milczarek Wojciech
Published: March 2022

Synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) is an effective tool for large area measurements and analysis, including topography measurements or ground surface subsidence caused by mining operations, earthquakes, or volcanic activity. However, the accuracy of these measurements is often limited by the disturbances that arise during the microwave propagation process in the ionosphere and troposphere. The atmospheric delay in the interferometric phase may cause the detection of terrain surface changes to be impossible or significantly distorted.  In our proposed approach, we propose a complete workflow to computing a time series from raw data obtained with the Sentinel-1 mission. The solution consists of a Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) algorithm with an implementation of the split range-spectrum method and the Generic Atmospheric Correction Online Service (GACOS) model. The proposed solution was used in time series calculations of SAR data in two areas: northern Chile and Taiwan. It is demonstrated that simultaneous allowance for both the tropospheric and ionospheric corrections significantly improves final results.
The European Settlement Map. A fine scale European wide building map suited to quantify human presence in mountain areas of Europe
Authors: Ehrlich Daniele , Kemper Thomas , Sabo Filip
Published: March 2022

 

 

Mountains socio-ecological system are both complex and vulnerable. Europe’s mountain socio-ecological system have evolved over millennia and continue to adapt to the pressure of a changing climate and to changing societal demands. Scientist and practitioners have now at disposal a number of datasets to better understand socio-ecological dynamics on Europe’s mountain, including the European Settlement Map (ESM), a 2x2  m resolution building map generated for 39 European countries including Turkey (Sabo et al 2021). The map is produced based on very high spatial resolution satellite imagery form a mix of sensors acquired through the European Coperncius program and a combination of ancillary datasets including land use. The 2 x 2 m2 spatial resolution map is well suited to study and quantify the presence of buildings in small settlements typical of mountain areas. The settlement map distinguishes between residential and nonresidential buildings. It covers the epoch 2013 and 2018 and thus allows quantifying the change in the building stock between the two epochs. The datasets is particularly suited to assess exposure- and change in exposure - to natural hazards, to assess accessibility and cost of transport. It can be used as a spatial infrastructure to model societal impact on protected areas and on ecosystem services. The map will be combined with population data from censuses to provide insights on depopulation in the more marginal mountain areas of Europe as well as to assess the growth of buildings and infrastructure in the municipality with higher rate of development.  The datasets will be available as open source, and feedback from the mountain community of researcher and practitioners will be welcome to understand the interest for this information and the need for future map updates.
In Situ Exploration of the atmospheres of the Ice Giants
Authors: Mousis Olivier , Atkinson David H. ,   Ice Giants team
Published: March 2022

The ice giants Uranus and Neptune are the least understood class of planets in our solar system, while planets of their size, the most frequent among exoplanets, represent a common outcome of planet formation.  Presumed to have a small rocky core, a deep interior comprising ∼70% heavy elements surrounded by a more dilute outer envelope of H2 and He, Uranus and Neptune are fundamentally different from the better-explored gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. Because of the dearth of missions dedicated to their exploration, our knowledge of their composition and atmospheric processes is primarily derived from a single Voyager 2 flyby of each, complemented by subsequent remote sensing from Earth-based observatories, including space telescopes. As a result, Uranus's and Neptune's physical and atmospheric properties remain poorly constrained and their roles in the evolution of the Solar System are not well understood. Exploration of ice giant systems is therefore a high-priority science objective as these systems (which link together the magnetospheres, satellites, rings, atmosphere, and interior of these planets) challenge our understanding of planetary formation and evolution. Here we describe the main scientific goals to be addressed by future in situ exploration of an ice giant's atmosphere. An atmospheric entry probe targeting the 10-bar level, approximately 5 scale heights beneath the tropopause, would yield insight into two broad themes: i) the formation history of the ice giants and, in a broader extent, that of the Solar System, and ii) the processes governing the structure and composition of planetary atmospheres. The battery-powered probe would descend under parachute to measure composition, structure, and dynamics. In our favorite scenario, an Ice Giants orbiter performing a comprehensive exploration of the system would be used to deliver the probe to the atmosphere and to relay its data back to Earth. Following the successful architecture of the Cassini-Huygens mission, we envision that the probe would be delivered by ESA and the orbiter by NASA, with possible technical contributions of one Agency to the other's platform, on the basis of technical and programmatic considerations. The science payloads of the two platforms would be shared between NASA and ESA members states on the basis of scientific merit and technical/funding resources.
Coexistence of two dune growth mechanisms in a landscape-scale experiment
Authors: Narteau Clement , Lü Ping , Claudin Philippe , Dong Zhibao , Rodriguez Sébastien , An Zhishan , Gadal Cyril , Courrech du Pont Sylvain
Published: March 2022

Dune fields are recognized both by the occurrence of periodic bedforms and isolated dunes of different shapes and orientations. Nevertheless, there are still no field examples of whether this apparent duality results from synchronous dune growth, and on what timescales. Here, by leveling neighboring parcels of a dune field, we develop landscape-scale experiments with controlled initial and boundary conditions to test the influence of sand availability on dune formation. Starting from a flat sand bed, we observe the emergence of periodic dunes and measure for more than 3 years how they grow as they interact with each other. Over the same time period, by regularly feeding sand heaps deposited nearby on a non-erodible bed. we observe how dune shape changes, eventually leading to the elongation of isolated dunes with a different orientation. These experiments are unique by their size and duration. Under natural conditions, they show that the same wind regime can be associated with two dune growth mechanisms according to sand availability. The coexistence of these two dune growth mechanisms provides a basis for examining the diversity of dune shapes on Earth or other planetary bodies depending on local climatic conditions.