Estimating Regional Evapotranspiration Using a Satellite-Based Wind Speed Avoiding Priestley–Taylor Approach

Wind speed (u) is a significant constraint in the evapotranspiration modeling over the highly heterogeneous regional surface due to its high temporal-spatial variation. In this study, a satellite-based Wind Speed Avoiding Priestley–Taylor (WAPT) algorithm was proposed to estimate the regional actual evapotranspiration by employing a u-independent theoretical trapezoidal space to determine the pixel Priestley–Taylor (PT) parameter Φ. The WAPT model was comprehensively evaluated with hydro-meteorological observations in the arid Heihe River Basin in northwestern China. The results show that the WAPT model can provide reliable latent heat flux estimations with the root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 46.0 W/m2 across 2013–2018 for 5 long-term observation stations and the RMSE of 49.6 W/m2 in the growing season in 2012 for 21 stations with intensive observations. The estimation by WAPT has a higher precision in the vegetation growing season than in the non-growing season. The estimation by WAPT has a closer agreement with the ground observations for vegetation-covered surfaces (e.g., corn and wetland) than that for dry sites (e.g., Gobi, desert, and desert steppe).

Observed Near-Storm Environment Variations across the Southern Cumberland Plateau System in Northeastern Alabama

The Sand Mountain and Lookout Mountain Plateaus in northeastern Alabama have been established as a regional relative maximum in tornadogenesis reports within the southeastern United States. Investigation of long-term surface datasets has revealed (i) stronger and more backed winds atop Sand Mountain than over the Tennessee Valley, and (ii) measured cloud-base heights are lower to the surface atop Sand Mountain than over the Tennessee Valley. These observations suggest that low-level wind shear and lifting condensation level (LCL) height changes may lead to conditions more favorable for tornadogenesis atop the plateaus than over the Tennessee Valley. However, prior to fall 2016, no intensive observations had been made to further investigate low-level flow or thermodynamic changes in the topography of northeastern Alabama. This paper provides detailed analysis of observations gathered during VORTEX-SE field campaign cases from fall 2016 through spring 2019. These observations indicate that downslope winds form along the northwest edge of Sand Mountain in at least some severe storm environments in northeastern Alabama. Wind profiles gathered across northeastern Alabama indicate that low-level helicity changes can be substantial over small distances across different areas of the topographic system. LCL height changes often scale to changes in land elevation, which can be on the order of 200–300 m across northeastern Alabama.

Low-Cost, Home-Oriented Neuro-Patient Monitoring

Despite the extremely high medical cost of neuro-disorder diseases (NDDs), up to this point we still rely on labor-intensive observations to determine neuro-disorder symptoms. Therefore, it is critical to design a gait anomaly and motor disorder (GAMD) recognition system for accurate capture of NDD symptoms. Such an automatic GAMD monitoring system has to be low-cost, and uses highly motion-sensitive sensors and accurate GAMD pattern recognition algorithms. In this chapter we have introduced our low-cost, home-oriented system architecture that aims to monitor neurodisorder patients. Our system can be used for both daytime and nighttime patient motion disorder monitoring, and link those motor disorders to specific neuro diseases. The three major contributions of this research are: (1) Adaptive determination of GAMD observation window size via on-line signal segmentation; (2) Nighttime motor disorder capture through multi-manifold fusion and learning; and (3) Daytime accurate capture of abnormal gaits through delicate signal pattern analysis. We also proposed to use both in-lab and practical clinical test to study the performance of the low-cost, home-oriented neuro-disorder monitoring platform the ItMAGIC mechanisms.

Observations of Upper-Tropospheric Influence on a Monsoon Trough over the Western North Pacific

This study examined the synoptic evolution and internal structure of a monsoon trough in association with the deep equatorward intrusion of a midlatitude upper trough in the western North Pacific Ocean in June 2008. The study was based on data from routine synoptic observations and intensive observations conducted on board the research vessel Mirai at 12°N, 135°E. The monsoon trough was first observed to extend southeastward from the center of a tropical depression. It then moved northward, with its eastern edge moving faster and approaching a surface low pressure cell induced by the upper trough. The distinct northward migration caused the monsoon trough to become oriented from the southwest to the northeast. The monsoon trough merged with the surface low pressure cell and extended broadly northeastward. The passage of the monsoon trough over the Mirai was accompanied by lower pressure, higher air and sea surface temperature, and minimal rainfall. The monsoon trough extended upward to nearly 500 hPa and sloped southward with height. It was overlain by northwesterly winds, negative geopotential height and temperature anomalies, and extremely dry air in the upper troposphere. Precipitation systems were weak and scattered near the monsoon trough but were intense and extensive south of the surface monsoon trough, where intense low-level convergence and upper-level divergence caused deep and vigorous upward motion. It appears that the upper trough exerted important impacts on the development of both the monsoon trough and associated precipitation, which are discussed according to the observational results.

Large-scale and synoptic meteorology in the South-East Pacific during the observations campaign VOCALS-REx in Spring 2008

We present a descriptive overview of the meteorology in the south eastern Subtropical Pacific during the VOCALS-REx intensive observations campaign, which took place in October and November 2008. We provide a summary of the day-to-day meteorological and cloud conditions. Our main aim is to provide some broader spatial and temporal meteorological context for the measurements made during VOCALS-REx, attempting to link the large-scale conditions of the atmospheric circulation with the locally observed conditions, also with a view of estimating the representativity of the specific season that was sampled by VOCALS-REx.

Equisetum telmateia Ehrh. morphotypes related to anthropogenic habitats

<p>The Giant Horsetail (<em>Equisetum telmateia</em>) is the only representative of <em>Equisetum </em>genus included in the list of strictly protected species. In Central and Western Europe the species is found in communities belonging to alliances: <em>Alno-Padion </em>and <em>Calthion</em>. With progressing destruction of these biotopes, one can observe the phenomenon of this species moving to the habitats extremely anthropogenic in character.</p><p>Frequent and intensive observations of this phenomenon were conducted in the Jasło - Krosno Dale area in southern Poland in three anthropogenic localities. In these localities three interesting, irregular <em>Equisetum telmateia </em>morphotypes were found: fo. <em>serotinum </em>subfo. <em>proliferum</em>, fo. <em>spiralis </em>and a morphotype with branched shoot.</p><p>The phenomenon of morphological plasticity of sporophytes is thought to be connected with the action of genes, which regulate the identity of developing plant organs and their distribution. These genes perform a superior part in relation to the system of growth regulators.</p>

Mesoscale modeling of the CO₂ interactions between the surface and the atmosphere applied to the April 2007 CERES field experiment

The paper describes a numerical interpretation of the April 2007 CarboEurope Regional Experiment Strategy (CERES) campaign, devotedto the study of CO2 cycle at the regional scale. The four consecutive clear sky days with intensive observations of CO2 concentration, fluxes at the the surface and in the boundary layer have been simulated with the Meso-NH mesoscale model. Aircraft observations of CO2 have been used to identify surface modelling errors and to calibrate the CO2 components of the surface model. After this calibration, the paper describes a systematic comparison of the model outputs with all the data collected during CERES, in April 2007. As a conclusion, an example of CO2 budgeting from the mesoscale model is given.