Soil moisture balance and its application to yield monitoring of rainfed paddy at Raipur

The study presents a technique for computing soil moisture balance of paddy crop based on 10 years data from 1977-1988 except 1984 and 1987, from agro-meteorological observatory, Raipur Values of different components of the moisture balance have been determined and discussed. The stress values have been used to estimate possible yield reduction by devising an yield index. The study revealed that water demand of the plant is largest between tillering and reproductive stages. Dry matter production appears directly related to the consumptive water use. A significant association is observed between the yield index and the actual rice yield.

HOUSE WITH METEOROLOGICAL MESONIN, OR SOME INFORMATION FROM RELIABLE SOURCES THAT CONTRIBUTES TO COMPLETING THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY

The article deals with the history of the institutions where meteorological and geomagnetic research originated and developed in the south of Ukraine in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries as well as their close ties with the history of the Department of Physical Geography, Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Novorossiysky University. Professors of Novorossiysky University V. I. Lapshin and F. N. Shvedov were those to whom the Department of Physical Geography owed its appearance. Teaching meteorological disciplines and scientific observations were initially conducted by the staff of the Department at the meteorological station of the University. In 1894, thanks to the efforts of prof. A. V. Klosovsky a special Meteorological observatory was constructed in the area of the Small Fountain of Odessa. In 1905, geomagnetic measurements were launched. Research works at the Magnetic Meteorological Observatory were carried out under the guidance of a number of scientists-geophysicists, M. A. Aganin, S. G. Popruzhenko, I. Ya. Tochidlovsky and P. T. Pasalsky being the most famous. In 1920, the University was closed and Observatory was transformed into an independent Odessa Geophysical Observatory. As soon as the Odessa State University was restored in 1933, the Observatory was given back to its Alma mater. However, since the postwar years it has been a part of the Odessa Hydrometeorological Center of the Black and Azov Seas.

Standardized Doppler lidar processing for operational use in a future network

<p>Fibre-optic based Doppler wind lidars (DL) are widely used for both meteorological research and in the wind energy sector. These compact systems are able to retrieve vertical profiles of kinematic quantities, such as mean wind, from the atmospheric boundary layer as well as from optically thin cloud layers in the free troposphere with high spatio-temporal resolution. It is therefore likely that especially short-term forecasting would benefit from assimilating these data. However, their potential is currently not yet employed operationally.</p> <p>As part of DWD's effort to evaluate ground-based remote sensing systems for their operational readiness, called "Pilotstation", we developed a software client (DL-client) that standardizes the processing of mean wind based on the Velocity Azimuth Display method. Results of a long-term assessment of DLs at the Meteorological Observatory Lindenberg, starting in 2012, show that the DL-client assures a high quality Level-2 product, which is compatible with the EUMETNET's E-PROFILE observation program. We verified the retrieved mean wind speed and direction with the help of independent reference data from a 482 MHz radar wind profiler and 6-hourly radiosonde ascents. Hence, the DL-client not only facilitates processing and archiving of the DL data, but also forms a basis for operational network deployment and data assimilation. Furthermore, through speeding up and standardizing the data processing, the individual users can concentrate on more advanced scientific data analyses.</p> <p>Finally, the software is freely accessible and will be continuously improved to account for different scanning strategies. Its modular build-up of processing steps offers the possibility to extend the list of products with additional retrievals, e.g. for turbulent kinetic energy and wind gusts, which are currently under development at Lindenberg.</p>

Characteristics of rainfall pattern for crop planning at Jabalpur region (Madhya Pradesh) of India

The daily rainfall data of past 31 years (1978-2008) of Agro meteorological Observatory, Department of Physics & Agriculture Engineering, Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) has been analyzed for establishing the long term average of weekly, monthly, seasonal and annual rainfall and its variability. The weekly probability of rainfall was estimated using Markov Chain probability model for receiving >= 10 and 30 mm rainfall per week. The mean annual rainfall observed as 1309 mm and its variability was 27.1 per cent. The highest annual and kharif season rainfall 2083 and 2052 mm respectively were recorded in 1994. On the other hand the lowest annual and kharif rainfall were 620 mm and 471 mm respectively in 1979. The study revealed that the recent decade rainfall has increased during last 31 years. The seasonal average kharif, post monsoon, winter and summer seasons recorded 1197.3 mm, 32.1 mm, 49.8 mm and 29.8 mm of rainfall. About 91.5 per cent of total annual rainfall was received in kharif, 2.5 per cent in post monsoon, 3.8 per cent in winter monsoon and 2.3 per cent in summer. During the period under study 16 per cent of the years recorded excess, 23 per cent deficit and 61 per cent normal rainfall. The July month is regarded as suitable for transplanting of rice crop in Jabalpur region. The highest contribution has been observed in August (33 per cent). Standard week from 25 to 37 received rainfall more than 30 mm indicating the crop growing period from June 2nd week to September last week.

Prediction of solar radiation with air temperature data in a coastal location in Tamilnadu

The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of the Hargreaves’ Radiation formula in estimating daily solar radiation for an Indian coastal location namely Annamalainagar in Tamilnadu State. Daily solar radiation by Hargreaves’ Radiation formula was computed using the observed data of maximum temperature, Tmax and minimum temperature, Tmin, sourced from the India Meteorological Observatory located at Annamalainagar and employing the adjustment coefficient KRS of 0.19. Daily solar radiation was also computed using Angstrom-Prescott formula with the measured daily sunshine hour data. The differences between the daily solar radiation values computed using the formulae were more pronounced in year around. Hence, the adjustment coefficient KRS is calibrated for the study location under consideration so that the calibrated KRS could be used to better predict daily solar radiation and hence better estimation of reference evapotranspiration.

Role of Hamiltonian energy in thunderstorms

In the present study, we propose a hypothesis that “Hamiltonian energy of thunder storm is contributing towards the energy that overcomes convective inhibition energy to lift the parcel to the level of free convection and releases convective available potential energy in the environment”. We attempt to substantiate the hypothesis. We have applied Hamiltonian structure to a thundercloud which has occurred vertically above the meteorological observatory station. Further, a total of 62 cases of thunderstorms are selected for both stations Palam and Dumdum. Hamiltonian energy is computed and investigated the cases having significant large convective inhibition energy as compared to that of convective available potential energy. We attempt to show that Hamiltonian is the energy that overcomes convective inhibition energy to lift the parcel to the level of free convection and plays a major role in thunderstorms for giving rain. Results reveal that Hamiltonian energy is seen to be maximum at the surface and contributes to both convective inhibition energy and convective available potential energy. At the lower troposphere, it overcomes the convective inhibition energy and provides necessary trigger for air mass to move from surface to the level of free convection. While in the upper troposphere, it is contributing to the convective available potential energy such that the part of potential energy converted into kinetic energy & warm and moist air mass (unstable) acceleration is enhanced by pressure energy. Further, in all the six special cases stability indices had indicated possibility of thunderstorm. In addition, synoptic conditions were also favorable for the same.

Exploring the Potential of the Cost-Efficient TAHMO Observation Data for Hydro-Meteorological Applications in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO) is a promising initiative aiming to install 20,000 stations in sub-Saharan Africa counteracting the decreasing trend of available measuring stations. To achieve this goal, it is particularly important that the installed weather stations are cost-efficient, appropriate for African conditions, and reliably measure the most important variables for hydro-meteorological applications. Since there exist no performance studies of TAHMO stations while operating in Africa, it is necessary to investigate their performance under different climate conditions. This study provides a first analysis of the performance of 10 selected TAHMO stations across Burkina Faso (BF). More specifically, the analysis consists of missing value statistics, plausibility tests of temperature (minimum, maximum) and precipitation, spatial dependencies (correlograms) by comparison with daily observations from synoptical stations of the BF meteorological service as well as cross-comparison between the TAHMO stations. Based on the results of this study for BF for the period from May 2017 to December 2020, it is concluded that TAHMO potentially offers a reliable and cost-efficient solution for applications in hydro-meteorology. The usage of wind speed measurements cannot be recommended without reservation, at least not without bias correcting of the data. The limited measurement period of TAHMO still prevents its usability in climate (impact) research. It is also stressed that TAHMO cannot replace existing observation networks operated by the local meteorological services, but it can be a complement and has great potential for detailed spatial analyses. Since restricted to BF in this analysis, more evaluation studies of TAHMO are needed considering different environmental and climate conditions across SSA.

LONG-TERM CHANGES IN SOLAR RADIATION IN NORTHERN EURASIA DURING THE WARM SEASON ACCORDING TO MEASUREMENTS AND RECONSTRUCTION MODEL

A reconstruction model of surface solar radiation (SR) is developed. The results of reconstructing the interannual SR variability for the period of 1968-2016 are tested against the observations at MSU (Lomonosov Moscow State University) Meteorological Observatory for the warm season (May-September), the comparison showed a good agreement (the coefficient of determination R2 = 0.8). The analysis of temporal variations in SR over Northern Eurasia (40-80 N; 10 W-180 E) due to various factors revealed that in most cases there has been a trend toward an SR increase since 1979. In addition, it is demonstrated that the long-term SR variability over Northern Eurasia was effectively explained by variations in the cloud transmission of Sr, except for the polluted regions of Siberia and China and several stations in Northern Europe, where the aerosol factor dominates in some cases.

Influence of abiotic factors on incidence of thrips, Scirtothrips dorsalis Hood of cashew in Gujarat

A study was carried out on cashew variety Vengurla-4 at farmer’s field in hilly area of the Dangs district, Gujarat, India during 2017-18 and 2018-19 to examine the association of pest occurrence with abiotic factors like temperature, humidity, sunshine, wind speed and evaporation. Consistent weekly observations were recorded on the per cent incidence of thrips on three arbitrarily selected trees. The weather-related data was collected for the study from meteorological observatory located at Hill Millet Research Station, Waghai, the Dangs, Gujarat for the retro of two years. The damage by thrips on apple and nut was initiated in the month of January. After ward, damage found rising and it was maximum in the month of February. After the month of February, the damage went on lessening leisurely and almost absent by the end of April. Per cent incidence of thrips exposed non-significant correlation with temperature, relative humidity, sunshine, wind speed and evaporation.

Characteristics of Energy Dissipation Rate Observed from the High-Frequency Sonic Anemometer at Boseong, South Korea

The characteristics of low-level turbulence at Boseong, located on the southern coast of South Korea, were investigated in terms of eddy dissipation rate (EDR) using 1-year (2018) of wind data obtained from the Boseong Meteorological Observatory (BMO), a World Meteorological Organization testbed. At BMO, a 307 m tall tower is installed on which four high-frequency (20 Hz) sonic anemometers are mounted at 60, 140, and 300 m above ground level (AGL). In addition, a sonic anemometer at 2.5 m AGL is located to the south of the tower. EDRs are estimated from the wind measurements based on three different EDR estimation methods. The first two methods use the inertial dissipation method derived from Kolmogorov turbulence theory, and the third uses a maximum likelihood estimation assuming a von Kármán spectral model. Reasonable agreement was obtained between the three methods with various fluctuations, including diurnal variations for all seasons, while the EDR calculated from the third method displayed slightly higher EDR values than the other two methods. The result of the analysis showed that the mean (standard deviations) of logarithms of EDR had larger values as height decreased (increased), and the means were higher in the unstable planetary boundary layer (PBL) than in the stable PBL for this heterogeneous location adjacent to the coastlines. The probability density functions (PDFs) of the EDRs showed that the distribution was well-represented by a lognormal distribution in both the stable and unstable PBL, although the PDFs at the lowest level (2.5 m) deviated from those at other levels due to surface effects. Seasonal variations in the PDFs showed that there was less difference in the shape of the PDFs depending on atmospheric stability in the wintertime. Finally, we calculate the 1-yr statistics of the observed EDR, which will be used for future LLT forecast systems in Korea.