scholarly journals Time Evolution of TGF-Producing Storms Using ERA5, GPS and Geostationary Satellites Observations

Author(s):  
Alessandra Tiberia ◽  
A. Mascitelli ◽  
Leo Pio D’Adderio ◽  
Stefano Federico ◽  
Martino Marisaldi ◽  
...  

In this article we report the first investigation over time of the atmospheric conditions around TGFs occurrence, using GPS sensors in combination with geostationary satellite observations and ERA5 reanalyses data. The goal is to understand which characteristics are favourable to the development of these events and to investigate if any precursor signals can be expected. A total of 9 TGFs, occurred at a distance lower than 45 km from a GPS sensor, were analysed and two of them are shown here as an example analysis. Moreover, the lightning activity, collected by the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) was used in order to identify any links and correlations with TGF occurrence and PWV trends. The combined use of GPS and the stroke rate trends identified, for all cases, a recurred pattern in which an increase of PWV is observed on a timescale of about two hours before the TGF occurrence that can be placed within the lightning peak. The temporal relation between the PWV trend and TGF occurrence is strictly related to the position of GPS sensors in relation to TGF coordinates. The life cycle of these storms observed by geostationary sensors, described TGFs producing clouds as intense with a wide range of extensions and, in all cases, the TGF is located at the edge of the convective cell. Furthermore, the satellite data give an added value in associating the GPS water vapor trend to the convective cell generating the TGF. The investigation with ERA5 reanalyses data showed that TGFs mainly occur in convective environment with not exceptional values with respect to the monthly average value of parameters measured in the same location. Moreover the analysis showed the strong potential of the use of GPS data for the troposphere characterization in areas with complex territorial morphology. This study provided indications on the dynamics of convective systems linked to TGFs and will certainly help refine our understanding on their production highlights a potential approach through the use of GPS data to explore the lightning activity trend and the TGFs occurrence.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 784
Author(s):  
Alessandra Tiberia ◽  
Alessandra Mascitelli ◽  
Leo Pio D’Adderio ◽  
Stefano Federico ◽  
Martino Marisaldi ◽  
...  

In this article, we report the first investigation over time of the atmospheric conditions around terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF) occurrences, using GPS sensors in combination with geostationary satellite observations and ERA5 reanalysis data. The goal is to understand which characteristics are favorable to the development of these events and to investigate if any precursor signals can be expected. A total of 9 TGFs, occurring at a distance lower than 45 km from a GPS sensor, were analyzed and two of them are shown here as an example analysis. Moreover, the lightning activity, collected by the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN), was used in order to identify any links and correlations with TGF occurrence and precipitable water vapor (PWV) trends. The combined use of GPS and the stroke rate trends identified, for all cases, a recurring pattern in which an increase in PWV is observed on a timescale of about two hours before the TGF occurrence that can be placed within the lightning peak. The temporal relation between the PWV trend and TGF occurrence is strictly related to the position of GPS sensors in relation to TGF coordinates. The life cycle of these storms observed by geostationary sensors described TGF-producing clouds as intense with a wide range of extensions and, in all cases, the TGF is located at the edge of the convective cell. Furthermore, the satellite data provide an added value in associating the GPS water vapor trend to the convective cell generating the TGF. The investigation with ERA5 reanalysis data showed that TGFs mainly occur in convective environments with unexceptional values with respect to the monthly average value of parameters measured at the same location. Moreover, the analysis showed the strong potential of the use of GPS data for the troposphere characterization in areas with complex territorial morphologies. This study provides indications on the dynamics of con-vective systems linked to TGFs and will certainly help refine our understanding of their production, as well as highlighting a potential approach through the use of GPS data to explore the lightning activity trend and TGF occurrences.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. El-Nouby Adam

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the suspended particulates (PM10) in the atmosphere under unstable atmospheric conditions. The variation of PM10was investigated and primary statistics were employed. The results show that, the PM10concentrations values ranged from 6.00 to 646.74 μg m−3. The average value of PM10is equal to 114.32 μg m−3. The high values were recorded in April and May (155.17 μg m−3and 171.82 μg m−3, respectively) and the low values were noted in February and December (73.86 μg m−3and 74.05 μg m−3, respectively). The average value of PM10of the hot season (125.35 × 10−6 g m−3) was higher than its value for the cold season (89.27 μg m−3). In addition, the effect of weather elements (air temperature, humidity and wind) on the concentration of PM10was determined. The multiple R between PM10and these elements ranged from 0.05 to 0.47 and its value increased to reach 0.73 for the monthly average of the database used. Finally, the PM10concentrations were grouped depending on their associated atmospheric stability class. These average values were equal to 122.80 ± 9 μg m−3(highly unstable or convective), 109.37 ± 12 μg m−3(moderately unstable) and 104.42 ± 15 μg m−3(slightly unstable).


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1891
Author(s):  
Antonio Reina ◽  
Trung Dang-Bao ◽  
Itzel Guerrero-Ríos ◽  
Montserrat Gómez

Metal nanoparticles have been deeply studied in the last few decades due to their attractive physical and chemical properties, finding a wide range of applications in several fields. Among them, well-defined nano-structures can combine the main advantages of heterogeneous and homogenous catalysts. Especially, catalyzed multi-step processes for the production of added-value chemicals represent straightforward synthetic methodologies, including tandem and sequential reactions that avoid the purification of intermediate compounds. In particular, palladium- and copper-based nanocatalysts are often applied, becoming a current strategy in the sustainable synthesis of fine chemicals. The rational tailoring of nanosized materials involving both those immobilized on solid supports and liquid phases and their applications in organic synthesis are herein reviewed.


Author(s):  
Shingo Kihira ◽  
Nadejda Tsankova ◽  
Adam Bauer ◽  
Yu Sakai ◽  
Keon Mahmoudi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Early identification of glioma molecular phenotypes can lead to understanding of patient prognosis and treatment guidance. We aimed to develop a multiparametric MRI texture analysis model using a combination of conventional and diffusion MRI to predict a wide range of biomarkers in patients with glioma. Methods In this retrospective study, patients were included if they 1) had diagnosis of gliomas with known IDH1, EGFR, MGMT, ATRX, TP53 and PTEN status from surgical pathology and 2) had preoperative MRI including FLAIR, T1c+ and diffusion for radiomic texture analysis. Statistical analysis included logistic regression and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to determine the optimal model for predicting glioma biomarkers. A comparative analysis between ROCs (conventional only vs. conventional + diffusion) was performed. Results From a total of 111 patients included, 91 (82%) were categorized to training and 20 (18%) to test datasets. Constructed cross-validated model using a combination of texture features from conventional and diffusion MRI resulted in overall AUC/accuracy of 1/79% for IDH1, 0.99/80% for ATRX, 0.79/67% for MGMT, and 0.77/66% for EGFR. The addition of diffusion data to conventional MRI features significantly (p<0.05) increased predictive performance for IDH1, MGMT and ATRX. The overall accuracy of the final model in predicting biomarkers in the test group was 80% (IDH1), 70% (ATRX), 70% (MGMT) and 75% (EGFR). Conclusion Addition of MR diffusion to conventional MRI features provides added diagnostic value in preoperative determination of IDH1, MGMT, and ATRX in patients with glioma.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1498 ◽  
pp. 73-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Gozde Durmus ◽  
Erik N. Taylor ◽  
Kim M. Kummer ◽  
Thomas J. Webster

ABSTRACTBiofilms are a major source of medical device-associated infections, due to their persistent growth and antibiotic resistance. Recent studies have shown that engineering surface nanoroughness has great potential to create antibacterial surfaces. In addition, stimulation of bacterial metabolism increases the efficacy of antibacterial agents to eradicate biofilms. In this study, we combined the antibacterial effects of nanorough topographies with metabolic stimulation (i.e., fructose metabolites) to further decrease bacterial growth on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) surfaces, without using antibiotics. We showed for the first time that the presence of fructose on nanorough PVC surfaces decreased planktonic bacteria growth and biofilm formation after 24 hours. Most importantly, a 60% decrease was observed on nanorough PVC surfaces soaked in a 10 mM fructose solution compared to conventional PVC surfaces. In this manner, this study demonstrated that bacteria growth can be significantly decreased through the combined use of fructose and nanorough surfaces and thus should be further studied for a wide range of antibacterial applications.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 449-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sturt W Manning ◽  
Bernd Kromer

The debate over the dating of the Santorini (Thera) volcanic eruption has seen sustained efforts to criticize or challenge the radiocarbon dating of this time horizon. We consider some of the relevant areas of possible movement in the14C dating—and, in particular, any plausible mechanisms to support as late (most recent) a date as possible. First, we report and analyze data investigating the scale of apparent possible14C offsets (growing season related) in the Aegean-Anatolia-east Mediterranean region (excluding the southern Levant and especially pre-modern, pre-dam Egypt, which is a distinct case), and find no evidence for more than very small possible offsets from several cases. This topic is thus not an explanation for current differences in dating in the Aegean and at best provides only a few years of latitude. Second, we consider some aspects of the accuracy and precision of14C dating with respect to the Santorini case. While the existing data appear robust, we nonetheless speculate that examination of the frequency distribution of the14C data on short-lived samples from the volcanic destruction level at Akrotiri on Santorini (Thera) may indicate that the average value of the overall data sets is not necessarily the most appropriate14C age to use for dating this time horizon. We note the recent paper of Soter (2011), which suggests that in such a volcanic context some (small) age increment may be possible from diffuse CO2emissions (the effect is hypothetical at this stage and hasnotbeen observed in the field), and that "if short-lived samples from the same stratigraphic horizon yield a wide range of14C ages, the lower values may be the least altered by old CO2." In this context, it might be argued that a substantive “low” grouping of14C ages observable within the overall14C data sets on short-lived samples from the Thera volcanic destruction level centered about 3326–3328 BP is perhaps more representative of the contemporary atmospheric14C age (without any volcanic CO2contamination). This is a subjective argument (since, in statistical terms, the existing studies using the weighted average remain valid) that looks to support as late a date as reasonable from the14C data. The impact of employing this revised14C age is discussed. In general, a late 17th century BC date range is found (to remain) to be most likelyeven ifsuch a late-dating strategy is followed—a late 17th century BC date range is thus a robust finding from the14C evidence even allowing for various possible variation factors. However, the possibility of a mid-16th century BC date (within ∼1593–1530 cal BC) is increased when compared against previous analyses if the Santorini data are considered in isolation.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1492
Author(s):  
Francisco G. Blanco ◽  
Natalia Hernández ◽  
Virginia Rivero-Buceta ◽  
Beatriz Maestro ◽  
Jesús M. Sanz ◽  
...  

Bacterial biopolymers are naturally occurring materials comprising a wide range of molecules with diverse chemical structures that can be produced from renewable sources following the principles of the circular economy. Over the last decades, they have gained substantial interest in the biomedical field as drug nanocarriers, implantable material coatings, and tissue-regeneration scaffolds or membranes due to their inherent biocompatibility, biodegradability into nonhazardous disintegration products, and their mechanical properties, which are similar to those of human tissues. The present review focuses upon three technologically advanced bacterial biopolymers, namely, bacterial cellulose (BC), polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), and γ-polyglutamic acid (PGA), as models of different carbon-backbone structures (polysaccharides, polyesters, and polyamides) produced by bacteria that are suitable for biomedical applications in nanoscale systems. This selection models evidence of the wide versatility of microorganisms to generate biopolymers by diverse metabolic strategies. We highlight the suitability for applied sustainable bioprocesses for the production of BC, PHA, and PGA based on renewable carbon sources and the singularity of each process driven by bacterial machinery. The inherent properties of each polymer can be fine-tuned by means of chemical and biotechnological approaches, such as metabolic engineering and peptide functionalization, to further expand their structural diversity and their applicability as nanomaterials in biomedicine.


Author(s):  
Dominik Ebi ◽  
Peter Jansohn

Abstract Operating stationary gas turbines on hydrogen-rich fuels offers a pathway to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the power generation sector. A key challenge in the design of lean-premixed burners, which are flexible in terms of the amount of hydrogen in the fuel across a wide range and still adhere to the required emissions levels, is to prevent flame flashback. However, systematic investigations on flashback at gas turbine relevant conditions to support combustor development are sparse. The current work addresses the need for an improved understanding with an experimental study on boundary layer flashback in a generic swirl burner up to 7.5 bar and 300° C preheat temperature. Methane-hydrogen-air flames with 50 to 85% hydrogen by volume were investigated. High-speed imaging was applied to reveal the flame propagation pathway during flashback events. Flashback limits are reported in terms of the equivalence ratio for a given pressure, preheat temperature, bulk flow velocity and hydrogen content. The wall temperature of the center body along which the flame propagated during flashback events has been controlled by an oil heating/cooling system. This way, the effect any of the control parameters, e.g. pressure, had on the flashback limit was de-coupled from the otherwise inherently associated change in heat load on the wall and thus change in wall temperature. The results show that the preheat temperature has a weaker effect on the flashback propensity than expected. Increasing the pressure from atmospheric conditions to 2.5 bar strongly increases the flashback risk, but hardly affects the flashback limit beyond 2.5 bar.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Harding

<p>Earth Observation (EO) satellites are drawing considerable attention in areas of water resource management, given their potential to provide unprecedented information on the condition of aquatic ecosystems. Despite ocean colours long history; water quality parameter retrievals from shallow and inland waters remains a complex undertaking. Consistent, cross-mission retrievals of the primary optical parameters using state-of-the-art algorithms are limited by the added optical complexity of these waters. Less work has acknowledged their non- or weakly optical parameter counterparts. These can be more informative than their vivid counterparts, their potential covariance would be regionally specific. Here, we introduce a multi-input, multi-output Mixture Density Network (MDN), that largely outperforms existing algorithms when applied across different bio-optical regimes in shallow and inland water bodies. The model is trained and validated using a sizeable historical database in excess of 1,000,000 samples across 38 optical and non-optical parameters, spanning 20 years across 500 surface waters in Scotland. The single network learns to predict concurrently Chlorophyll-a, Colour, Turbidity, pH, Calcium, Total Phosphorous, Total Organic Carbon, Temperature, Dissolved Oxygen and Suspended Solids from real Landsat 7, Landsat 8, and Sentinel 2 spectra. The MDN is found to fully preserve the covariances of the optical and non-optical parameters, while known one-to-many mappings within the non-optical parameters are retained. Initial performance evaluations suggest significant improvements in Chl-a retrievals from existing state-of-the-art algorithms. MDNs characteristically provide a means of quantifying the noise variance around a prediction for a given input, now pertaining to real data under a wide range of atmospheric conditions. We find this to be informative for example in detecting outlier pixels such as clouds, and may similarly be used to guide or inform future work in academic or industrial contexts. </p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-35
Author(s):  
Budi Hasanah ◽  
Fuqoha Fuqoha ◽  
Rahmi Mulyasih ◽  
Ahmad Sururi

The potential of abundant natural resources in Gunungsari Village, Serang Regency, is still unable to improve the economic standard of life of the community, this is due to the lack of community skills and the lack of public knowledge in optimizing the potential of these natural resources into economic added value. This method of community economic empowerment through optimization of natural resource potential in Gunungsari Village, Serang Regency uses an environmental communication strategy which includes 1) Material Stage; 2) Energy Phase; 3) Information Stage, and 4) Evaluation Stage. The results of community service concluded that community economic empowerment through optimizing the potential of natural resources received a positive response and enthusiasm from the community, with the success rate of training program indicators being on an interval scale with an average value of 70% or a fairly good category. Thus it can be concluded that encouraging the skills training of the Gunungsari Village community in utilizing the natural resource potential of the papaya fruit is very important to improve the welfare of rural communities.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document