scholarly journals The FARM (Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets)

Author(s):  
Joshua Wurman ◽  
Karen Kosiba ◽  
Brian Pereira ◽  
Paul Robinson ◽  
Andrew Frambach ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets (FARM) Facility is an extensive mobile/quickly-deployable (MQD) multiple-Doppler radar and in-situ instrumentation network.The FARM includes four radars: two 3-cm dual-polarization, dual-frequency (DPDF), Doppler On Wheels DOW6/DOW7, the Rapid-Scan DOW (RSDOW), and a quickly-deployable (QD) DPDF 5-cm COW C-band On Wheels (COW).The FARM includes 3 mobile mesonet (MM) vehicles with 3.5-m masts, an array of rugged QD weather stations (PODNET), QD weather stations deployed on infrastructure such as light/power poles (POLENET), four disdrometers, six MQD upper air sounding systems and a Mobile Operations and Repair Center (MORC).The FARM serves a wide variety of research/educational uses. Components have deployed to >30 projects during 1995-2020 in the USA, Europe, and South America, obtaining pioneering observations of a myriad of small spatial and temporal scale phenomena including tornadoes, hurricanes, lake-effect snow storms, aircraft-affecting turbulence, convection initiation, microbursts, intense precipitation, boundary-layer structures and evolution, airborne hazardous substances, coastal storms, wildfires and wildfire suppression efforts, weather modification effects, and mountain/alpine winds and precipitation. The radars and other FARM systems support innovative educational efforts, deploying >40 times to universities/colleges, providing hands-on access to cutting-edge instrumentation for their students.The FARM provides integrated multiple radar, mesonet, sounding, and related capabilities enabling diverse and robust coordinated sampling of three-dimensional vector winds, precipitation, and thermodynamics increasingly central to a wide range of mesoscale research.Planned innovations include S-band On Wheels NETwork (SOWNET) and Bistatic Adaptable Radar Network (BARN), offering more qualitative improvements to the field project observational paradigm, providing broad, flexible, and inexpensive 10-cm radar coverage and vector windfield measurements.

2008 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 183-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudolf Sailer ◽  
Wolfgang Fellin ◽  
Reinhard Fromm ◽  
Philipp Jörg ◽  
Lambert Rammer ◽  
...  

AbstractTwo-or three-dimensional avalanche-simulation models offer a wide range of applications; however, a challenging model-verification process is demanded, accompanied by a reliable determination of model-input parameters. We show that a verification process can be arranged with remote-monitoring data from an artificially triggered avalanche, leading to the calculation of avalanche mass balance. Two numerical methods are applied to increase the quality of the parameter fit and to reduce the number of simulations. The quality of the parameter fit is verified by comparing measured and simulated run-out lengths. In addition, a cross-check is performed using velocities derived from Doppler radar measurements.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Yonghong Zhang ◽  
Shiwei Chen ◽  
Wei Tian ◽  
Guangyi Ma ◽  
Shuai Chen

Quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) based on Doppler radar plays an important role in severe weather monitoring, industrial and agricultural production, and natural disaster prediction and prevention. However, the temporal and spatial variability of precipitation leads to large errors in radar estimates of mixed precipitation. To improve the accuracy of radar QPE, we propose an offline spatiotemporal deep fusion model that uses the reflectivity data of the Shijiazhuang Doppler radar Z9311 and the precipitation data from 17 national weather stations (NWSs) and 260 automatic weather stations (AWSs). Considering the abrupt spatial changes in precipitation, a three-dimensional radar data structure is proposed, and the spatial features of multielevation and multiscale radar data are extracted and merged using the feature fusion network (FFNet). Finally, the time dependence of the precipitation is captured using the long short-term memory (LSTM) network, and the precipitation estimation is obtained. Based on a comparison of the results of the proposed model (FFNet-LSTM) with those of the ordinary kriging (OK) interpolation, two Z-R relationship, the multilayer perceptron (MLP), the LSTM, and the FFNet, the proposed method is superior to these models, has a promising performance, and is a general-purpose rainfall algorithm.


Author(s):  
David Vogel

This book examines the politics of consumer and environmental risk regulation in the United States and Europe over the last five decades, explaining why America and Europe have often regulated a wide range of similar risks differently. It finds that between 1960 and 1990, American health, safety, and environmental regulations were more stringent, risk averse, comprehensive, and innovative than those adopted in Europe. But since around 1990 global regulatory leadership has shifted to Europe. What explains this striking reversal? This book takes an in-depth, comparative look at European and American policies toward a range of consumer and environmental risks, including vehicle air pollution, ozone depletion, climate change, beef and milk hormones, genetically modified agriculture, antibiotics in animal feed, pesticides, cosmetic safety, and hazardous substances in electronic products. The book traces how concerns over such risks—and pressure on political leaders to do something about them—have risen among the European public but declined among Americans. The book explores how policymakers in Europe have grown supportive of more stringent regulations while those in the United States have become sharply polarized along partisan lines. And as European policymakers have grown more willing to regulate risks on precautionary grounds, increasingly skeptical American policymakers have called for higher levels of scientific certainty before imposing additional regulatory controls on business.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junxia Ren ◽  
Yaozu Liu ◽  
Xin Zhu ◽  
Yangyang Pan ◽  
Yujie Wang ◽  
...  

<p><a></a><a></a><a></a><a></a><a></a><a></a><a></a><a>The development of highly-sensitive recognition of </a><a></a><a></a><a></a><a></a><a>hazardous </a>chemicals, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), is of significant importance because of their widespread social concerns related to environment and human health. Here, we report a three-dimensional (3D) covalent organic framework (COF, termed JUC-555) bearing tetraphenylethylene (TPE) side chains as an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) fluorescence probe for sensitive molecular recognition.<a></a><a> </a>Due to the rotational restriction of TPE rotors in highly interpenetrated framework after inclusion of dimethylformamide (DMF), JUC-555 shows impressive AIE-based strong fluorescence. Meanwhile, owing to the large pore size (11.4 Å) and suitable intermolecular distance of aligned TPE (7.2 Å) in JUC-555, the obtained material demonstrates an excellent performance in the molecular recognition of hazardous chemicals, e.g., nitroaromatic explosives, PAHs, and even thiophene compounds, via a fluorescent quenching mechanism. The quenching constant (<i>K</i><sub>SV</sub>) is two orders of magnitude better than those of other fluorescence-based porous materials reported to date. This research thus opens 3D functionalized COFs as a promising identification tool for environmentally hazardous substances.</p>


Author(s):  
Munazza Fatima ◽  
Kara J. O’Keefe ◽  
Wenjia Wei ◽  
Sana Arshad ◽  
Oliver Gruebner

The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China in late December 2019 became the harbinger of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, geospatial techniques, such as modeling and mapping, have helped in disease pattern detection. Here we provide a synthesis of the techniques and associated findings in relation to COVID-19 and its geographic, environmental, and socio-demographic characteristics, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) methodology for scoping reviews. We searched PubMed for relevant articles and discussed the results separately for three categories: disease mapping, exposure mapping, and spatial epidemiological modeling. The majority of studies were ecological in nature and primarily carried out in China, Brazil, and the USA. The most common spatial methods used were clustering, hotspot analysis, space-time scan statistic, and regression modeling. Researchers used a wide range of spatial and statistical software to apply spatial analysis for the purpose of disease mapping, exposure mapping, and epidemiological modeling. Factors limiting the use of these spatial techniques were the unavailability and bias of COVID-19 data—along with scarcity of fine-scaled demographic, environmental, and socio-economic data—which restrained most of the researchers from exploring causal relationships of potential influencing factors of COVID-19. Our review identified geospatial analysis in COVID-19 research and highlighted current trends and research gaps. Since most of the studies found centered on Asia and the Americas, there is a need for more comparable spatial studies using geographically fine-scaled data in other areas of the world.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aranza Denisse Vital-Grappin ◽  
Maria Camila Ariza-Tarazona ◽  
Valeria Montserrat Luna-Hernández ◽  
Juan Francisco Villarreal-Chiu ◽  
Juan Manuel Hernández-López ◽  
...  

Microplastics (MPs) are distributed in a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems throughout the planet. They are known to adsorb hazardous substances and can transfer them across the trophic web. To eliminate MPs pollution in an environmentally friendly process, we propose using a photocatalytic process that can easily be implemented in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). As photocatalysis involves the formation of reactive species such as holes (h+), electrons (e−), hydroxyl (OH●), and superoxide ion (O2●−) radicals, it is imperative to determine the role of those species in the degradation process to design an effective photocatalytic system. However, for MPs, this information is limited in the literature. Therefore, we present such reactive species’ role in the degradation of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) MPs using C,N-TiO2. Tert-butanol, isopropyl alcohol (IPA), Tiron, and Cu(NO3)2 were confirmed as adequate OH●, h+, O2●− and e− scavengers. These results revealed for the first time that the formation of free OH● through the pathways involving the photogenerated e− plays an essential role in the MPs’ degradation. Furthermore, the degradation behaviors observed when h+ and O2●− were removed from the reaction system suggest that these species can also perform the initiating step of degradation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 696 ◽  
pp. 228-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Kourmatzis ◽  
J. S. Shrimpton

AbstractThe fundamental mechanisms responsible for the creation of electrohydrodynamically driven roll structures in free electroconvection between two plates are analysed with reference to traditional Rayleigh–Bénard convection (RBC). Previously available knowledge limited to two dimensions is extended to three-dimensions, and a wide range of electric Reynolds numbers is analysed, extending into a fully inherently three-dimensional turbulent regime. Results reveal that structures appearing in three-dimensional electrohydrodynamics (EHD) are similar to those observed for RBC, and while two-dimensional EHD results bear some similarities with the three-dimensional results there are distinct differences. Analysis of two-point correlations and integral length scales show that full three-dimensional electroconvection is more chaotic than in two dimensions and this is also noted by qualitatively observing the roll structures that arise for both low (${\mathit{Re}}_{E} = 1$) and high electric Reynolds numbers (up to ${\mathit{Re}}_{E} = 120$). Furthermore, calculations of mean profiles and second-order moments along with energy budgets and spectra have examined the validity of neglecting the fluctuating electric field ${ E}_{i}^{\ensuremath{\prime} } $ in the Reynolds-averaged EHD equations and provide insight into the generation and transport mechanisms of turbulent EHD. Spectral and spatial data clearly indicate how fluctuating energy is transferred from electrical to hydrodynamic forms, on moving through the domain away from the charging electrode. It is shown that ${ E}_{i}^{\ensuremath{\prime} } $ is not negligible close to the walls and terms acting as sources and sinks in the turbulent kinetic energy, turbulent scalar flux and turbulent scalar variance equations are examined. Profiles of hydrodynamic terms in the budgets resemble those in the literature for RBC; however there are terms specific to EHD that are significant, indicating that the transfer of energy in EHD is also attributed to further electrodynamic terms and a strong coupling exists between the charge flux and variance, due to the ionic drift term.


Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 343
Author(s):  
Veronica Folliero ◽  
Carla Zannella ◽  
Annalisa Chianese ◽  
Debora Stelitano ◽  
Annalisa Ambrosino ◽  
...  

Despite advances in medical knowledge, parasitic diseases remain a significant global health burden and their pharmacological treatment is often hampered by drug toxicity. Therefore, drug delivery systems may provide useful advantages when used in combination with conventional therapeutic compounds. Dendrimers are three-dimensional polymeric structures, characterized by a central core, branches and terminal functional groups. These nanostructures are known for their defined structure, great water solubility, biocompatibility and high encapsulation ability against a wide range of molecules. Furthermore, the high ratio between terminal groups and molecular volume render them a hopeful vector for drug delivery. These nanostructures offer several advantages compared to conventional drugs for the treatment of parasitic infection. Dendrimers deliver drugs to target sites with reduced dosage, solving side effects that occur with accepted marketed drugs. In recent years, extensive progress has been made towards the use of dendrimers for therapeutic, prophylactic and diagnostic purposes for the management of parasitic infections. The present review highlights the potential of several dendrimers in the management of parasitic diseases.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 2950
Author(s):  
Hongwei Song ◽  
Xinle Li

The most active research area is nanotechnology in cementitious composites, which has a wide range of applications and has achieved popularity over the last three decades. Nanoparticles (NPs) have emerged as possible materials to be used in the field of civil engineering. Previous research has concentrated on evaluating the effect of different NPs in cementitious materials to alter material characteristics. In order to provide a broad understanding of how nanomaterials (NMs) can be used, this paper critically evaluates previous research on the influence of rheology, mechanical properties, durability, 3D printing, and microstructural performance on cementitious materials. The flow properties of fresh cementitious composites can be measured using rheology and slump. Mechanical properties such as compressive, flexural, and split tensile strength reveal hardened properties. The necessary tests for determining a NM’s durability in concrete are shrinkage, pore structure and porosity, and permeability. The advent of modern 3D printing technologies is suitable for structural printing, such as contour crafting and binder jetting. Three-dimensional (3D) printing has opened up new avenues for the building and construction industry to become more digital. Regardless of the material science, a range of problems must be tackled, including developing smart cementitious composites suitable for 3D structural printing. According to the scanning electron microscopy results, the addition of NMs to cementitious materials results in a denser and improved microstructure with more hydration products. This paper provides valuable information and details about the rheology, mechanical properties, durability, 3D printing, and microstructural performance of cementitious materials with NMs and encourages further research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaojian Chen ◽  
Manjesh Kumar Singh ◽  
Katrin Wunderlich ◽  
Sean Harvey ◽  
Colette J. Whitfield ◽  
...  

AbstractThe creation of synthetic polymer nanoobjects with well-defined hierarchical structures is important for a wide range of applications such as nanomaterial synthesis, catalysis, and therapeutics. Inspired by the programmability and precise three-dimensional architectures of biomolecules, here we demonstrate the strategy of fabricating controlled hierarchical structures through self-assembly of folded synthetic polymers. Linear poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) of different lengths are folded into cyclic polymers and their self-assembly into hierarchical structures is elucidated by various experimental techniques and molecular dynamics simulations. Based on their structural similarity, macrocyclic brush polymers with amphiphilic block side chains are synthesized, which can self-assemble into wormlike and higher-ordered structures. Our work points out the vital role of polymer folding in macromolecular self-assembly and establishes a versatile approach for constructing biomimetic hierarchical assemblies.


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