Analysis of Operation TEAPOT nuclear test BEE radiological and meteorological data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Quinn, V.E.

This report describes the Weather Service Nuclear Support Office (WSNSO) analyses of the radiological and meteorological data collected for the BEE nuclear test of Operation TEAPOT. Inconsistencies in the radiological data and their resolution are discussed. The methods of normalizing the radiological data to a standard time and estimating fallout-arrival times are presented. The meteorological situations on event day and the following day are described. A comparison of the WSNSO fallout analysis with an analysis performed in the 1950's is presented. The radiological data used to derive the WSNSO fallout pattern are tabulated in an appendix.

Analysis of operation UPSHOT-KNOTHOLE nuclear test BADGER radiological and meteorological data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Quinn, V.E.

1986-04-01

This report describes the Weather Service Nuclear Support Office (WSNSO) analyses of the radiological and meteorological data collected for the BADGER nuclear test of Operation UPSHOT-KNOTHOLE. Inconsistencies in the radiological data and their resolution are discussed. The methods of normalizing the radiological data to a standard time, of converting the aerial data to equivalent ground-level values, and of estimating fallout-arrival times are presented. The meteorological situations on event day and the following day are described. A comparison of the WSNSO fallout analysis with an analysis performed during the 1950's is presented. The radiological data used to derive the WSNSO falloutmore » pattern are tabulated in an appendix.« less

Does it matter what we call it?

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Agronomy, soil science, plant science, crop science, agricultural science, computer science, environmental science, environmental engineering, agricultural and irrigation engineering, hydrology, meteorology – all are names that describe fields of study relevant to agriculture and the environment in ...

Spatiotemporal variability and assessment of drought in the Wei River basin of China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cai, Siyang; Zuo, Depeng; Xu, Zongxue; Han, Xianming; Gao, Xiaoxi

2018-06-01

The temporal and spatial variations of drought in the Wei River basin (WRB) were investigated by calculating the meteorological drought Index (Standardized Precipitation Index, SPI) and the agricultural drought index (Vegetation Health Index, VHI). Monthly precipitation and air temperature were from 22 meteorological stations over the region from 1960 to 2015. Monthly Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and 8-days Land Surface Temperature (LST) were provided from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the period 2000-2015 were also adopted. The results showed that the drought initially increased and then decreased, reaching at the maximum value in 1990s. The spatial pattern of meteorological drought showed that the drought in northern WRB was heavier than that in southern WRB before 1990s, after that, the situation had the opposite. By comparing the agricultural drought index (VHI) with crop yield, it was proved that VHI was applicable in the WRB and could well reflect the fluctuation of agricultural drought. The WRB suffered from serious agricultural drought in 2000, 2001, 2007 and 2008. Through analysis of the historical precipitation and temperature data, it was found that precipitation had a greater contribution to creating agricultural drought conditions than temperature in the Wei River basin.

PREDICTIONS OF DISPERSION AND DEPOSITION OF FALLOUT FROM NUCLEAR TESTING USING THE NOAA-HYSPLIT METEOROLOGICAL MODEL

PubMed Central

Moroz, Brian E.; Beck, Harold L.; Bouville, André; Simon, Steven L.

2013-01-01

The NOAA Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model (HYSPLIT) was evaluated as a research tool to simulate the dispersion and deposition of radioactive fallout from nuclear tests. Model-based estimates of fallout can be valuable for use in the reconstruction of past exposures from nuclear testing, particularly, where little historical fallout monitoring data is available. The ability to make reliable predictions about fallout deposition could also have significant importance for nuclear events in the future. We evaluated the accuracy of the HYSPLIT-predicted geographic patterns of deposition by comparing those predictions against known deposition patterns following specific nuclear tests with an emphasis on nuclear weapons tests conducted in the Marshall Islands. We evaluated the ability of the computer code to quantitatively predict the proportion of fallout particles of specific sizes deposited at specific locations as well as their time of transport. In our simulations of fallout from past nuclear tests, historical meteorological data were used from a reanalysis conducted jointly by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). We used a systematic approach in testing the HYSPLIT model by simulating the release of a range of particles sizes from a range of altitudes and evaluating the number and location of particles deposited. Our findings suggest that the quantity and quality of meteorological data are the most important factors for accurate fallout predictions and that when satisfactory meteorological input data are used, HYSPLIT can produce relatively accurate deposition patterns and fallout arrival times. Furthermore, when no other measurement data are available, HYSPLIT can be used to indicate whether or not fallout might have occurred at a given location and provide, at minimum, crude quantitative estimates of the magnitude of the deposited activity. A variety of simulations of the deposition of fallout from atmospheric nuclear tests conducted in the Marshall Islands, at the Nevada Test Site (USA), and at the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site (Kazakhstan) were performed using reanalysis data composed of historic meteorological observations. The results of the Marshall Islands simulations were used in a limited fashion to support the dose reconstruction described in companion papers within this volume. PMID:20622555

Quality assurance of weather data for agricultural system model input

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

It is well known that crop production and hydrologic variation on watersheds is weather related. Rarely, however, is meteorological data quality checks reported for agricultural systems model research. We present quality assurance procedures for agricultural system model weather data input. Problems...

Analysis of Operation Dominic II SMALL BOY radiological and meteorological data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Quinn, V.E., Kennedy, N.C.; Steadman, C.R.

1984-08-01

This report describes the Weather Service Nuclear Support Office (WSNSO) analyses of the radiological and meteorological data collected for the Operation Dominic II nuclear test SMALL BOY. Inconsistencies in the radiological data and their resolution are discussed. The methods of estimating fallout-arrival times are discussed. The meteorological situation on D-day and a few days following are described. A comparison of the fallout patterns resulting from these analyses and earlier (1966) analyses is presented. The radiological data used to derive the fallout pattern in this report are tabulated in an appendix. 11 references, 20 figures.

Economic project perspectives: An overview of the impact resulting from recent advances in satellite meteorology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, K. R.; Boness, F. H.

1972-01-01

The impact of advanced satellite meteorology on long range weather forecasts, agriculture, commerce, and resource utilization are examined. All data are geared to obtaining a picture of various user needs and possible benefits.

Linking meteorological drivers of spring-summer drought regimes to agricultural drought risk in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dai, L.; Wright, J. S.; Yu, C.; Huang, W. Y.

2017-12-01

As a drought prone country, China has experienced frequent severe droughts in recent decades. Drought frequency and severity are projected to increase in China under climate change. An understanding of the physical processes that contribute to extreme droughts is essential for seasonal forecasting, but the dominant physical mechanisms responsible for droughts in most parts of China are still unclear. Moreover, despite numerous studies on droughts in China, there are few clear connections between the meteorological and climatological drivers of extreme droughts and the associated agricultural consequences. This knowledge gap limits the capacity for decision-making support in drought management. The objectives of this study are (1) to identify robust spring-summer drought regimes over China, (2) to investigate the physical mechanisms associated with each regime, and (3) to better clarify connections between meteorological drought regimes and agricultural drought risk. First, we identify six drought regimes over China by applying an area-weighted k-means clustering technique to spatial patterns of spring-summer Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) obtained from the ten-member ERA-20CM ensemble for 1900-2010. Second, we project these drought regimes onto agricultural drought risk maps for the three major cereal crops (rice, maize, and wheat) in China. Taking into account historical harvest areas for these crops, we then evaluate the potential impact of each drought regime on agricultural production. Third, the physical mechanisms and meteorological context behind each drought regimes are investigated based on monthly outputs from ERA20CM. We analyze the preceding and concurrent atmospheric circulation anomalies associated with each regime, and propose mechanistic explanations for drought development. This work provides a new perspective on diagnosing the physical mechanisms behind seasonal droughts, and lays a foundation for improving seasonal drought prediction and water management practices in China.

Nuclear War and Science Teaching.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hobson, Art

1983-01-01

Suggests that science-related material on nuclear war be included in introductory courses. Lists nuclear war topics for physics, psychology, sociology, biology/ecology, chemistry, geography, geology/meteorology, mathematics, and medical science. Also lists 11 lectures on nuclear physics which include nuclear war topics. (JN)

Meteorological and associated data collected over agricultural fields in Pinal County, Arizona, 1989 and 1990

USGS Publications Warehouse

Owen-Joyce, Sandra J.; Brown, Paul W.

1995-01-01

Data were collected at temporary meteorological stations installed in agricultural fields in Pinal County, Arizona, to evaluate the spatial and temporal variability of point data and to examine how station location affects ground-based meteorological data and the resulting values of evapotranspiration calculated using remotely sensed multispectral data from satellites. Time-specific data were collected to correspond with satellite overpasses from April to October 1989, and June 27-28, 1990. Meteorological data consisting of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, solar radiation, and net radiation were collected at each station during all periods of the project. Supplementary measurements of soil temperature, soil heat flux density, and surface or canopy temperature were obtained at some locations during certain periods of the project. Additional data include information on data-collection periods, station positions, instrumentation, sensor heights, and field dimensions. Other data, which correspond to the extensive field measurements made in con- junction with satellite overpasses in 1989 and 1990, include crop type, canopy cover, canopy height, irrigation, cultivation, and orientation of rows. Field boundaries and crop types were mapped in a 2- to 3-square-kilometer area surrounding each meteorological station. Field data are presented in tabular and graphic form. Meteorological and supplementary data are available, upon request, in digital form.

A glossary of selected meteorology terms. Final report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1982-09-01

The atmospheric, oceanographic, nuclear, and electro-optical terminology contained in this publication was compiled by the Ad Hoc Glossary Committee of the Meteorology Group (MG) of the Range Commanders Council. Much of the material appearing in this glossary was developed using information from several U.S. Government publications and the Glossary of Meteorology.

NASA Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resource High Resolution Meteorology Data For Sustainable Building Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chandler, William S.; Hoell, James M.; Westberg, David; Zhang, Taiping; Stackhouse, Paul W., Jr.

2013-01-01

A primary objective of NASA's Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resource (POWER) project is to adapt and infuse NASA's solar and meteorological data into the energy, agricultural, and architectural industries. Improvements are continuously incorporated when higher resolution and longer-term data inputs become available. Climatological data previously provided via POWER web applications were three-hourly and 1x1 degree latitude/longitude. The NASA Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) data set provides higher resolution data products (hourly and 1/2x1/2 degree) covering the entire globe. Currently POWER solar and meteorological data are available for more than 30 years on hourly (meteorological only), daily, monthly and annual time scales. These data may be useful to several renewable energy sectors: solar and wind power generation, agricultural crop modeling, and sustainable buildings. A recent focus has been working with ASHRAE to assess complementing weather station data with MERRA data. ASHRAE building design parameters being investigated include heating/cooling degree days and climate zones.

AmeriFlux US-Me5 Metolius-first young aged pine

DOE Data Explorer

Law, Bev [Oregon State University

2016-01-01

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Me5 Metolius-first young aged pine. Site Description - Previously old-growth ponderosa pine, clearcut in 1978 and allowed to regenerate naturally. Law et al (2001) Global Change Biology 7, 755-777; Law et al (2001) Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 110, 27-43; Anthoni et al (2002) Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 111, 203-222; Irvine & Law (2002) Global Change biology 8,1183-1194, Irivne et al (2004) Tree Physiology 24,753-763.

Actual vs. Perceived Climate Variability among Smallholding Rice Farmers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carrico, A.; Gilligan, J. M.; Truelove, H. B.

2016-12-01

It is recognized that those engaged in resource-dependent livelihoods often hold extensive knowledge of their surrounding environment that, in some cases, facilitates sustainable practices and adaptation to environmental shocks. However, there remain significant gaps in our understanding of how actors at this scale perceive, understand, and respond to climate variability, particularly in the absence of good information. There are further unanswered questions about how these perceptions translate into livelihood decisions. In this paper, we use data collected in 2015 from 607 paddy farmers living in 12 villages throughout the heavily agricultural dry zone of Sri Lanka. Farmers were asked to report their perceptions of decadal scale changes in temperature and rainfall along a number of dimensions (e.g., annual rainfall, onset of monsoon rains, frequency of droughts, temperature). These data are compared to local meteorological data collected over the same time period to examine the perceptions of meteorological trends. Furthermore, we examine heterogeneity in perceptions as a function of demographic factors, reliance on irrigation, use of agricultural technology, and other socioeconomic characteristics of the farmer. The impact of perceptions on agricultural practices such as crop selection and water management, and resultant yields, will also be examined. Preliminary results based on five communities suggest a strong negativity bias in perceptions, with widespread agreement that meteorological conditions have become less hospitable for farming. Perceptions of temperature changes largely corresponded to meteorological records; however, perceptions of rainfall changes did not. There was some evidence that length of time spent in a village and the presence of elders in the household was associated with perceptions that more closely corresponded to the observed meteorological data. Updated analyses based on the complete data set will be presented. We will discuss the implications of these findings on the projected agricultural impacts of climate change, as well as for policies and programs designed to support adaptation among smallholding farmers.

Meteorological risks are drivers of environmental innovation in agro-ecosystem management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gobin, Anne; Van de Vijver, Hans; Vanwindekens, Frédéric; de Frutos Cachorro, Julia; Verspecht, Ann; Planchon, Viviane; Buyse, Jeroen

2017-04-01

Agricultural crop production is to a great extent determined by weather conditions. The research hypothesis is that meteorological risks act as drivers of environmental innovation in agro-ecosystem management. The methodology comprised five major parts: the hazard, its impact on different agro-ecosystems, vulnerability, risk management and risk communication. Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) theory was used to model annual maxima of meteorological variables based on a location-, scale- and shape-parameter that determine the center of the distribution, the deviation of the location-parameter and the upper tail decay, respectively. Spatial interpolation of GEV-derived return levels resulted in spatial temperature extremes, precipitation deficits and wet periods. The temporal overlap between extreme weather conditions and sensitive periods in the agro-ecosystem was realised using a bio-physically based modelling framework that couples phenology, a soil water balance and crop growth. 20-year return values for drought and waterlogging during different crop stages were related to arable yields. The method helped quantify agricultural production risks and rate both weather and crop-based agricultural insurance. The spatial extent of vulnerability is developed on different layers of geo-information to include meteorology, soil-landscapes, crop cover and management. Vulnerability of agroecosystems was mapped based on rules set by experts' knowledge and implemented by Fuzzy Inference System modelling and Geographical Information System tools. The approach was applied for cropland vulnerability to heavy rain and grassland vulnerability to drought. The level of vulnerability and resilience of an agro-ecosystem was also determined by risk management which differed across sectors and farm types. A calibrated agro-economic model demonstrated a marked influence of climate adapted land allocation and crop management on individual utility. The "chain of risk" approach allowed for investigating the hypothesis that meteorological risks act as drivers for agricultural innovation. Risk types were quantified in terms of probability and distribution, and further distinguished according to production type. Examples of strategies and options were provided at field, farm and policy level using different modelling methods.

Applied Climate Education and Training for Agricultural and Natural Resource Management in India, Indonesia, Zimbabwe and Australia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

George, D. A.; Clewett, J. F.; Selvaraju, R.; Birch, C.

2006-01-01

In parts of the world, including many developing countries, climate variability impacts negatively on agricultural production and natural resource management. Workshops in applied climatology were held in Australia, India, Indonesia and Zimbabwe between 1999 and 2002 to provide farmers and agricultural and meteorological staff a better…

Effects of meteorological droughts on agricultural water resources in southern China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Houquan; Wu, Yihua; Li, Yijun; Liu, Yongqiang

2017-05-01

With the global warming, frequencies of drought are rising in the humid area of southern China. In this study, the effects of meteorological drought on the agricultural water resource based on the agricultural water resource carrying capacity (AWRCC) in southern China were investigated. The entire study area was divided into three regions based on the distributions of climate and agriculture. The concept of the maximum available water resources for crops was used to calculate AWRCC. Meanwhile, an agricultural drought intensity index (ADI), which was suitable for rice planting areas, was proposed based on the difference between crop water requirements and precipitation. The actual drought area and crop yield in drought years from 1961 to 2010 were analyzed. The results showed that ADI and AWRCC were significantly correlated with the actual drought occurrence area and food yield in the study area, which indicated ADI and AWRCC could be used in drought-related studies. The effects of seasonal droughts on AWRCC strongly depended on both the crop growth season and planting structure. The influence of meteorological drought on agricultural water resources was pronounced in regions with abundant water resources, especially in Southwest China, which was the most vulnerable to droughts. In Southwest China, which has dry and wet seasons, reducing the planting area of dry season crops and rice could improve AWRCC during drought years. Likewise, reducing the planting area of double-season rice could improve AWRCC during drought years in regions with a double-season rice cropping system. Our findings highlight the importance of adjusting the proportions of crop planting to improve the utilization efficiency of agricultural water resources and alleviate drought hazards in some humid areas.

Categorisation of Drought Indices Used in Agricultural Meteorology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dunkel, Z.

2009-09-01

The research and the operative work use many type of indices in everyday meteorological practice. The goal of present summary is to group the indices used for identification of drought phenomenon in the agricultural meteorology practice. Besides summarising the indices the different drought definitions are evaluated. Drought indices seem to be the simplest tools in drought analysis. The more or less well known and popular indices have been collected and compared not only with the well known simple but more complicated water balance and so called ‘recursive' indices beside few ones use remotely sensed data, mainly satellite born information. The indices are classified into five groups, namely ‘precipitation', ‘water balance', ‘soil moisture', ‘recursive' and ‘remote sensing' indices. For every group typical expressions are given and analysed for their performance and comparability. Taking into consideration that the drought is a compound concept few drought definitions are examined together with the drought indices. As any classification the presented categories have got their limitation but the hope is that as wide review is given as it is possible using mainly meteorological data and information.

The CAMI Project - Weather and Climate Services for Caribbean Food Security

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trotman, Adrian; Van Meerbeeck, Cedric

2013-04-01

Food security is major focus of Caribbean governments, with production being of particular concern. For the past three decades, Caribbean agriculture has been declining in relative importance, both in terms of its contribution to GDP and its share of the labour force. One of the problems Caribbean agriculture faces is the destructive impacts from weather and climate extremes. These include flood, drought, extreme temperatures, and strong winds from tropical cyclones. Other potential disasters, such as from pests and diseases attacks, are also weather and climate driven. These make weather and climate information critically important to decision-making in agriculture in the Caribbean region. In an effort to help reduce weather and climate related risks to the food security sector, The Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology, along with its partners the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and ten National Meteorological Services from within the Caribbean Community launched and implemented the Caribbean Agrometeorological Initiative (CAMI). From 2010 to 2013, CAMI set out to provide relevant information to farmers, and the industry in general, for decision and policy making. The project is funded by the European Union through the Science and Technology Programme of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of Countries' (ACP). The overarching objective of CAMI was to increase and sustain agricultural productivity at the farm level in the Caribbean region through improved applications of weather and climate information, using an integrated and coordinated approach. Currently, this is done through (i) provision of relevant climate information appropriately disseminated, (ii) predictions on seasonal rainfall and temperature, (iii) support for improved irrigation management, (iv) the development of strategically selected weather-driven pest and disease models, (v) use of crop simulation models, (vi) training of staff of National Meteorological Services (NMS) and two relevant regional research institutions (vi) and the staging of forums for farmers and Agriculture Extension officers. With its innovative actions and generated products, the thrusts of CAMI link well to the components of the WMO's Global Framework for Climate Services.

Predictions of dispersion and deposition of fallout from nuclear testing using the NOAA-HYSPLIT meteorological model.

PubMed

Moroz, Brian E; Beck, Harold L; Bouville, André; Simon, Steven L

2010-08-01

The NOAA Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model (HYSPLIT) was evaluated as a research tool to simulate the dispersion and deposition of radioactive fallout from nuclear tests. Model-based estimates of fallout can be valuable for use in the reconstruction of past exposures from nuclear testing, particularly where little historical fallout monitoring data are available. The ability to make reliable predictions about fallout deposition could also have significant importance for nuclear events in the future. We evaluated the accuracy of the HYSPLIT-predicted geographic patterns of deposition by comparing those predictions against known deposition patterns following specific nuclear tests with an emphasis on nuclear weapons tests conducted in the Marshall Islands. We evaluated the ability of the computer code to quantitatively predict the proportion of fallout particles of specific sizes deposited at specific locations as well as their time of transport. In our simulations of fallout from past nuclear tests, historical meteorological data were used from a reanalysis conducted jointly by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). We used a systematic approach in testing the HYSPLIT model by simulating the release of a range of particle sizes from a range of altitudes and evaluating the number and location of particles deposited. Our findings suggest that the quantity and quality of meteorological data are the most important factors for accurate fallout predictions and that, when satisfactory meteorological input data are used, HYSPLIT can produce relatively accurate deposition patterns and fallout arrival times. Furthermore, when no other measurement data are available, HYSPLIT can be used to indicate whether or not fallout might have occurred at a given location and provide, at minimum, crude quantitative estimates of the magnitude of the deposited activity. A variety of simulations of the deposition of fallout from atmospheric nuclear tests conducted in the Marshall Islands (mid-Pacific), at the Nevada Test Site (U.S.), and at the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site (Kazakhstan) were performed. The results of the Marshall Islands simulations were used in a limited fashion to support the dose reconstruction described in companion papers within this volume.

Sensitivity and uncertainty of input sensor accuracy for grass-based reference evapotranspiration

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Quantification of evapotranspiration (ET) in agricultural environments is becoming of increasing importance throughout the world, thus understanding input variability of relevant sensors is of paramount importance as well. The Colorado Agricultural and Meteorological Network (CoAgMet) and the Florid...

Meteorology Assessment of Historic Rainfall for Los Alamos During September 2013

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bruggeman, David Alan; Dewart, Jean Marie

2016-02-12

DOE Order 420.1, Facility Safety, requires that site natural phenomena hazards be evaluated every 10 years to support the design of nuclear facilities. The evaluation requires calculating return period rainfall to determine roof loading requirements and flooding potential based on our on-site rainfall measurements. The return period rainfall calculations are done based on statistical techniques and not site-specific meteorology. This and future studies analyze the meteorological factors that produce the significant rainfall events. These studies provide the meteorology context of the return period rainfall events.

Development and assessment of Transpirative Deficit Index (D-TDI) for agricultural drought monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borghi, Anna; Rienzner, Michele; Gandolfi, Claudio; Facchi, Arianna

2017-04-01

Drought is a major cause of crop yield loss, both in rainfed and irrigated agroecosystems. In past decades, many approaches have been developed to assess agricultural drought, usually based on the monitoring or modelling of the soil water content condition. All these indices show weaknesses when applied for a real time drought monitoring and management at the local scale, since they do not consider explicitly crops and soil properties at an adequate spatial resolution. This work describes a newly developed agricultural drought index, called Transpirative Deficit Index (D-TDI), and assesses the results of its application over a study area of about 210 km2 within the Po River Plain (northern Italy). The index is based on transforming the interannual distribution of the transpirative deficit (potential crop transpiration minus actual transpiration), calculated daily by means of a spatially distributed conceptual hydrological model and cumulated over user-selected time-steps, to a standard normal distribution (following the approach proposed by the meteorological index SPI - Standard Precipitation Index). For the application to the study area a uniform maize crop cover (maize is the most widespread crop in the area) and 22-year (1993-2014) meteorological data series were considered. Simulation results consist in maps of the index cumulated over 10-day time steps over a mesh with cells of 250 m. A correlation analysis was carried out (1) to study the characteristics and the memory of D-TDI and to assess its intra- and inter-annual variability, (2) to assess the response of the agricultural drought (i.e., the information provided by D-TDI) to the meteorological drought computed through the SPI over different temporal steps. The D-TDI is positively auto-correlated with a persistence of 30 days, and positively cross-correlated to the SPI with a persistence of 40 days, demonstrating that D-TDI responds to meteorological forcing. Correlation analyses demonstrate that soils characterized by high available water content (AWC) can more easily compensate for a short-term variability in the precipitation pattern, while soils with low AWC are more strictly linked to the SPI variability. Since D-TDI relies both on climate and fine-resolution soil and land cover data, it provides a reliable measure of the evolution of agricultural drought over the territory with respect to that achieved through meteorological drought indices. The accumulation of the index over a 10-day period considering a mesh with cells of 250 m allows to capture the response of the territory to drought at time and spatial scales of interest for stakeholders. Modelling efforts utilizing the D-TDI have potential to shed light on the vulnerability of agricultural areas to drought; future work using the D-TDI as a tool to map drought prone areas could therefore improve the ability of farmers and irrigation district managers to cope with agricultural droughts and set up adaptation actions. Despite D-TDI was used in this study on historical data series, the index has the potential to be applied for real-time or provisional monitoring by incorporating real time or provisional meteorological data, giving the opportunity to stakeholders to promptly cope with droughts.

Climate Risk Management and Decision Support Tools for the Agriculture Sector in Lao PDR, Bangladesh, and Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allis, E. C.; Greene, A. M.; Cousin, R.

2014-12-01

We describe a comprehensive project for developing climate information and decision support / climate risk management tools in Lao PDR, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Mechanisms are developed for bringing the benefits of these tools to both policy makers and poor rural farmers, with the goal of enabling better management, at the farm level, of the risks associated with climate variability and change. The project comprises several interwoven threads, differentially applied in the different study regions. These include data management and quality control, development of seasonal forecast capabilities, use of dynamic cropping calendars and climate advisories, the development of longer-term climate information for both past and future and a weather index insurance component. Stakeholder engagement and capacity building served as reinforcing and complementary elements to all components. In this talk we will provide a project overview, show how the various components fit together and describe some lessons learned in this attempt to promote the uptake of actionable climate information from farmer to policy level. The applied research project was led by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at Columbia University with funding from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and in close collaboration with our regional partners at the Centre for Climate Risk and Opportunity Management in Southeast Asia Pacific (at Bogor Agricultural University in Indonesia), Indonesia's National Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG), Lao PDR's National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI), Laotian Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH), WorldFish Center, Bangladesh Meteorology Department (BMD), and CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

Water Quality Response to Changes in Agricultural Land Use Practices at Headwater Streams in Georgia

EPA Science Inventory

Poorly managed agricultural watersheds may be one of the most important contributors to high levels of bacterial and sediment loadings in surface waters. We investigated two cattle farms with differing management schemes to compare how physicochemical and meteorological parameter...

Uncertainty Evaluations of the CRCS In-orbit Field Radiometric Calibration Methods for Thermal Infrared Channels of FENGYUN Meteorological Satellites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Y.; Rong, Z.; Min, M.; Hao, X.; Yang, H.

2017-12-01

Meteorological satellites have become an irreplaceable weather and ocean-observing tool in China. These satellites are used to monitor natural disasters and improve the efficiency of many sectors of Chinese national economy. It is impossible to ignore the space-derived data in the fields of meteorology, hydrology, and agriculture, as well as disaster monitoring in China, a large agricultural country. For this reason, China is making a sustained effort to build and enhance its meteorological observing system and application system. The first Chinese polar-orbiting weather satellite was launched in 1988. Since then China has launched 14 meteorological satellites, 7 of which are sun synchronous and 7 of which are geostationary satellites; China will continue its two types of meteorological satellite programs. In order to achieve the in-orbit absolute radiometric calibration of the operational meteorological satellites' thermal infrared channels, China radiometric calibration sites (CRCS) established a set of in-orbit field absolute radiometric calibration methods (FCM) for thermal infrared channels (TIR) and the uncertainty of this method was evaluated and analyzed based on TERRA/AQUA MODIS observations. Comparisons between the MODIS at pupil brightness temperatures (BTs) and the simulated BTs at the top of atmosphere using radiative transfer model (RTM) based on field measurements showed that the accuracy of the current in-orbit field absolute radiometric calibration methods was better than 1.00K (@300K, K=1) in thermal infrared channels. Therefore, the current CRCS field calibration method for TIR channels applied to Chinese metrological satellites was with favorable calibration accuracy: for 10.5-11.5µm channel was better than 0.75K (@300K, K=1) and for 11.5-12.5µm channel was better than 0.85K (@300K, K=1).

Improving Agricultural Productivity in Tonga through Ensuring Data Availability and Enhancing Agro-meteorological Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, K. H.

2015-12-01

The project was first conceived in the Global Framework for Climate Services Regional Consultation in the Cook Islands in March 2014. In this meeting, key officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Forests, and Fisheries and the Tonga Meteorological Services had a meeting with the APEC Climate Center scientists with the idea to collaborate on a joint project. The project evolved to include the following components: assessment of users' needs and capacities, development of an agricultural database, research on the core relationships between agriculture and climate through modeling and field trials, and the development and delivery of agro-meteorological services. Envisioned outputs include a 2-7 day warning for pests and diseases, a suite of tools supporting decisions on planting dates and crop varieties, and other advisory services derived from seasonal climate forecasts. As one of the climate adaptation projects under its Pacific Island portfolio, the project will deliver urgent information services for Tongan agricultural growers and exporters. The project comes into greater importance and urgency, as the 2014 drought event resulted in the destruction of 80% of squash in Tonga, a main export crop from which the country derives foreign exchange earnings. Since 2014, some of the project achievements include the first agro-met data collection in Tonga, the development of an agricultural DB management system that houses archived agriculture data, and key meetings with stakeholders to ensure alignment of the project objectives and design with the interests of the Tongan government and other stakeholders. In addition, rigorous scientific research through modeling and field trials has been conducted to address the twin goals of supporting Tonga's economy as well as food security. Based on the findings from the research, tools will be developed to translate the science into knowledge that supports decisions on the farm scale.

Using Terrain Analysis and Remote Sensing to Improve Snow Mass Balance and Runoff Prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Venteris, E. R.; Coleman, A. M.; Wigmosta, M. S.

2010-12-01

Approximately 70-80% of the water in the international Columbia River basin is sourced from snowmelt. The demand for this water has competing needs, as it is used for agricultural irrigation, municipal, hydro and nuclear power generation, and environmental in-stream flow requirements. Accurate forecasting of water supply is essential for planning current needs and prediction of future demands due to growth and climate change. A significant limitation on current forecasting is spatial and temporal uncertainty in snowpack characteristics, particularly snow water equivalent. Currently, point measurements of snow mass balance are provided by the NRCS SNOTEL network. Each site consists of a snow mass sensor and meteorology station that monitors snow water equivalent, snow depth, precipitation, and temperature. There are currently 152 sites in the mountains of Oregon and Washington. An important step in improving forecasts is determining how representative each SNOTEL site is of the total mass balance of the watershed through a full accounting of the spatiotemporal variability in snowpack processes. This variation is driven by the interaction between meteorological processes, land cover, and landform. Statistical and geostatistical spatial models relate the state of the snowpack (characterized through SNOTEL, snow course measurements, and multispectral remote sensing) to terrain attributes derived from digital elevation models (elevation, aspect, slope, compound topographic index, topographic shading, etc.) and land cover. Time steps representing the progression of the snow season for several meteorologically distinct water years are investigated to identify and quantify dominant physical processes. The spatially distributed snow balance data can be used directly as model inputs to improve short- and long-range hydrologic forecasts.

Biometeorology in austria: past, present and future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dirmhirn, Inge

1991-09-01

Biometeorology in Austria has been shaped by concepts, personalities, and technology. In early times, the branches of biometeorology that are usual today were already evident: agricultural and forest meteorology, phenology, medical biometeorology and balneology, aerial biometeorology, urban housing and stabling meteorology all started to emerge several centuries ago. From the 1920 up to 1936, Wilhelm Schmidt at the Agricultural University of Austria laid the foundations of modern biometeorology. He was followed by Franz Sauberer, who headed a Department of Biometeorology at the National Weather Service and devoted his active life totally to biometeorology. Several years after his untimely death, the Department was dissolved. Not until 1981 was biometeorology taken up again at the Agricultural University, where the tradition of Schmidt and Sauberer now lives on in several courses within the area of applied biometeorology: Micro-and Topoclimatology, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology and Atmospheric Radiation. Biometeorology, being an experimental science, has also been influenced by new technological developments. The early period was exclusively observational. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries mechanical and simple electric instruments were used with strip-chart recorders. These time consuming methods have now been replaced by electronic devices, including data loggers and portable computers along with many new electronic sensors, which provide additional insight into biometeorological problems. Since computers also make it possible to solve some of the complicated equations of biometeorology, the future of this science seems to be bright, not only in Austria but throughout the world.

Simulating and Predicting Cereal Crop Yields in Ethiopia: Model Calibration and Verification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, M.; Wang, G.; Ahmed, K. F.; Eggen, M.; Adugna, B.; Anagnostou, E. N.

2017-12-01

Agriculture in developing countries are extremely vulnerable to climate variability and changes. In East Africa, most people live in the rural areas with outdated agriculture techniques and infrastructure. Smallholder agriculture continues to play a key role in this area, and the rate of irrigation is among the lowest of the world. As a result, seasonal and inter-annual weather patterns play an important role in the spatiotemporal variability of crop yields. This study investigates how various climate variables (e.g., temperature, precipitation, sunshine) and agricultural practice (e.g., fertilization, irrigation, planting date) influence cereal crop yields using a process-based model (DSSAT) and statistical analysis, and focuses on the Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia. The DSSAT model is driven with meteorological forcing from the ECMWF's latest reanalysis product that cover the past 35 years; the statistical model will be developed by linking the same meteorological reanalysis data with harvest data at the woreda level from the Ethiopian national dataset. Results from this study will set the stage for the development of a seasonal prediction system for weather and crop yields in Ethiopia, which will serve multiple sectors in coping with the agricultural impact of climate variability.

Calibration of the Root Zone Water Quality Model and Application of Data Assimilation Techniques to Estimate Profile Soil Moisture

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Estimation of soil moisture has received considerable attention in the areas of hydrology, agriculture, meteorology and environmental studies because of its role in the partitioning water and energy at the land surface. In this study, the USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Root Zone Water Quality ...

Learning Fire Weather--A Self-Study Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Bernadine A.

This self-study course was prepared specifically to be used with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agriculture Handbook 360, FIRE WEATHER...A GUIDE FOR APPLICATION OF METEOROLOGICAL INFORMATION TO FOREST FIRE CONTROL OPERATIONS. It is designed not only to let the reader determine his comprehension of the text but also to develop…

A Comprehensive Estimation of the Economic Effects of Meteorological Services Based on the Input-Output Method

PubMed Central

Wu, Xianhua; Yang, Lingjuan; Guo, Ji; Lu, Huaguo; Chen, Yunfeng; Sun, Jian

2014-01-01

Concentrating on consuming coefficient, partition coefficient, and Leontief inverse matrix, relevant concepts and algorithms are developed for estimating the impact of meteorological services including the associated (indirect, complete) economic effect. Subsequently, quantitative estimations are particularly obtained for the meteorological services in Jiangxi province by utilizing the input-output method. It is found that the economic effects are noticeably rescued by the preventive strategies developed from both the meteorological information and internal relevance (interdependency) in the industrial economic system. Another finding is that the ratio range of input in the complete economic effect on meteorological services is about 1 : 108.27–1 : 183.06, remarkably different from a previous estimation based on the Delphi method (1 : 30–1 : 51). Particularly, economic effects of meteorological services are higher for nontraditional users of manufacturing, wholesale and retail trades, services sector, tourism and culture, and art and lower for traditional users of agriculture, forestry, livestock, fishery, and construction industries. PMID:24578666

A comprehensive estimation of the economic effects of meteorological services based on the input-output method.

PubMed

Wu, Xianhua; Wei, Guo; Yang, Lingjuan; Guo, Ji; Lu, Huaguo; Chen, Yunfeng; Sun, Jian

2014-01-01

Concentrating on consuming coefficient, partition coefficient, and Leontief inverse matrix, relevant concepts and algorithms are developed for estimating the impact of meteorological services including the associated (indirect, complete) economic effect. Subsequently, quantitative estimations are particularly obtained for the meteorological services in Jiangxi province by utilizing the input-output method. It is found that the economic effects are noticeably rescued by the preventive strategies developed from both the meteorological information and internal relevance (interdependency) in the industrial economic system. Another finding is that the ratio range of input in the complete economic effect on meteorological services is about 1 : 108.27-1 : 183.06, remarkably different from a previous estimation based on the Delphi method (1 : 30-1 : 51). Particularly, economic effects of meteorological services are higher for nontraditional users of manufacturing, wholesale and retail trades, services sector, tourism and culture, and art and lower for traditional users of agriculture, forestry, livestock, fishery, and construction industries.

Agricultural biomass monitoring on watersheds based on remotely sensed data.

PubMed

Tamás, János; Nagy, Attila; Fehér, János

2015-01-01

There is a close quality relationship between the harmful levels of all three drought indicator groups (meteorological, hydrological and agricultural). However, the numerical scale of the relationships between them is unclear and the conversion of indicators is unsolved. Different areas or an area with different forms of drought cannot be compared. For example, from the evaluation of meteorological drought using the standardized precipitation index (SPI) values of a river basin, it cannot be stated how many tonnes of maize will be lost during a given drought period. A reliable estimated rate of yield loss would be very important information for the planned interventions (i.e. by farmers or river basin management organisations) in terms of time and cost. The aim of our research project was to develop a process which could provide information for estimating relevant drought indexes and drought related yield losses more effectively from remotely sensed spectral data and to determine the congruency of data derived from spectral data and from field measurements. The paper discusses a new calculation method, which provides early information on physical implementation of drought risk levels. The elaborated method provides improvement in setting up a complex drought monitoring system, which could assist hydrologists, meteorologists and farmers to predict and more precisely quantify the yield loss and the role of vegetation in the hydrological cycle. The results also allow the conversion of different-purpose drought indices, such as meteorological, agricultural and hydrological ones, as well as allow more water-saving agricultural land use alternatives to be planned in the river basins.

Impacts of urbanization and agricultural development on observed changes in surface air temperature over mainland China from 1961 to 2006

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Songjun; Tang, Qiuhong; Xu, Di; Yang, Zhiyong

2018-03-01

A large proportion of meteorological stations in mainland China are located in or near either urban or agricultural lands that were established throughout the period of rapid urbanization and agricultural development (1961-2006). The extent of the impacts of urbanization and agricultural development on observed air temperature changes across different climate regions remains elusive. This study evaluates the surface air temperature trends observed by 598 meteorological stations in relation to the urbanization and agricultural development over the arid northwest, semi-arid intermediate, and humid southeast regions of mainland China based on linear regressions of temperature trends on the fractions of urban and cultivated land within a 3-km radius of the stations. In all three regions, the stations surrounded by large urban land tend to experience rapid warming, especially at minimum temperature. This dependence is particularly significant in the southeast region, which experiences the most intense urbanization. In the northwest and intermediate regions, stations surrounded by large cultivated land encounter less warming during the main growing season, especially at the maximum temperature changes. These findings suggest that the observed surface warming has been affected by urbanization and agricultural development represented by urban and cultivated land fractions around stations in with land cover changes in their proximity and should thus be considered when analyzing regional temperature changes in mainland China.

User-tailored seasonal forecasts for agriculture - creating socio-economic benefit through climate services in the Andes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Ventura, Sara; Avalos, Grinia; Rossa, Andrea; Flubacher, Moritz; Gubler, Stefanie; Sedlmeier, Katrin; Dapozzo, Marlene; Garcia, Teresa; Quevedo, Karim; Liniger, Mark; Spirig, Christoph; Rosas, Gabriela; Schwierz, Cornelia

2017-04-01

The project Climandes is a twinning project between the Peruvian National Meteorological and Hydrological Service (SENAMHI) and the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology of Switzerland (MeteoSwiss) aiming at improving climate services for the Andean Region. It was launched in 2012 as a pilot project of the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) of WMO. In 2016 a second phase of the project has started. Until now, Peru as all the Andean countries has had only a limited access to climate services, and the few instruments already in place have mostly not been developed in concordance with the user needs. Due to this mismatch, the opportunity to achieve veritable socio-economic benefits (SEB) has been overlooked so far. An additional difficulty is the lack of trained and experienced climatology and meteorology professionals able to develop and provide high quality climate services. Furthermore, the importance of climate information and its far-reaching benefits has not yet been fully acknowledged and embraced by the political decision-makers. The overall goals of the Climandes project are the following:. • Provision of user-tailored climate services for the Andean Region to improve socio- economic benefits for the agricultural sector and for society at large. • Improvement of the capacities of the meteorological service of Peru to generate user-tailored climate services in the agricultural sector. These goals are elaborated within three mutually dependent modules: The first one comprises user-tailored climate products for the agricultural sector in the Peruvian Andes. This includes drought and precipitation monitoring as well as the development of a prototype seasonal prediction system for the region including indices tailored to the agricultural sector. The second module focuses on capacity building, enabling climatology-related professionals and students to develop high-quality climate services for Peru and the Andean Region. Training courses as well as E-learning tools covering the knowledge needed for the elaboration and use of climate services (e.g. monitoring, seasonal prediction of precipitation) are developed and implemented. The third module aims at raising the awareness of political stakeholders of the SEB of SENAMHI's sector-specific climate services underpinned by a case study to quantify the SEB of drought and precipitation information platform for selected crops. This contribution will give an overview of the project and highlights some of the results of the first year of Climandes 2.

Linking Hydro-Meteorological Hazards, Climate and Food Security: an Initiative of International Scientific Community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ismail-Zadeh, A.; Beer, T.

2013-05-01

Humans face climatic and hydro-meteorological hazards on different scales in time and space. In particular natural hazards can have disastrous impact in the short term (flood) and in the long term (drought) as they affect human life and health as well as impacting dramatically on the sustainable development of society. They represent a pending danger for vulnerable lifelines, infrastructure and the agricultural systems that depend on the water supply, reservoirs, pipelines, and power plants. Developed countries are affected, but the impact is disproportionate within the developing world. Extreme natural events such as extreme floods or prolonged drought can change the life and economic development of developing nations and stifle their development for decades. The beginning of the XX1st century has been marked by a significant number of natural disasters, such as floods, severe storms, wildfires, hurricanes, and tsunamis. Extreme natural events cause devastation resulting in loss of human life, large environmental damage, and partial or total loss of infrastructure that, in the longer time, will affect the potential for agricultural recovery. Recent catastrophic events of the early 21st century (e.g. floods in Pakistan and Thailand, the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami) remind us once again that there is a strong coupling between complex solid Earth, oceanic, and atmospheric processes and that even developed countries such as Japan are subject to agricultural declines as a result of disastrous hydro-meteorological events. Scientific community recognizes that communication between the groups of experts of various international organizations dealing with natural hazards and their activity in disaster risk reduction and food security needs to be strengthened. Several international scientific unions and intergovernmental institutions set up a consortium of experts to promote studies of weather, climate and their interaction with agriculture, food and their socio-economic consequence.

AVIRIS Spectrometer Maps Total Water Vapor Column

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Conel, James E.; Green, Robert O.; Carrere, Veronique; Margolis, Jack S.; Alley, Ronald E.; Vane, Gregg A.; Bruegge, Carol J.; Gary, Bruce L.

1992-01-01

Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) processes maps of vertical-column abundances of water vapor in atmosphere with good precision and spatial resolution. Maps provide information for meteorology, climatology, and agriculture.

Improvised Nuclear Device Case Study

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Buddemeier, Brooke; Suski, Nancy

2011-07-12

Reducing the casualties of catastrophic terrorist attacks requires an understanding of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) effects, infrastructure damage, atmospheric dispersion, and health effects. The Federal Planning Guidance for Response to a Nuclear Detonation provides the strategy for response to an improvised nuclear device (IND) detonation. The supporting science developed by national laboratories and other technical organizations for this document significantly improves our understanding of the hazards posed by such an event. Detailed fallout predictions from the advanced suite of three-dimensional meteorology and plume/fallout models developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, including extensive global geographical and real-time meteorological databases tomore » support model calculations, are a key part of response planning. This presentation describes the methodology and results to date, including visualization aids developed for response organizations. These products have greatly enhanced the community planning process through first-person points of view and description of the dynamic nature of the event.« less

Study on the optimum tilted angle of solar panels in Hainan tropical photovoltaic facility agricultural system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Jingxuan; Ge, Zhiwu; Yang, Xiaoyan; Ye, Chunhua; Lin, Yanxia

2017-04-01

Photovoltaic facility agriculture system can effectively alleviate the contradiction between limited land and Photovoltaic power generation. It’s flexible to create suitable environment for crop growth, and generate electricity over the same land at the same time. It’s necessary to set appropriate solar panel angle to get more solar energy. Through detailed analysis and comparison, we chose the Hay’s model as solar radiation model. Based on the official meteorological data got from Haikou Meteorological Bureau, and by comparing the amount of radiation obtained at different tilted angles per month, the optimal placement angle of PV panels at different seasons in Haikou was obtained through calculation, and the optimal placement angle from April to October was also obtained. Through optimized angle and arrangement of solar photovoltaic panels, we can get greater power efficiency.

Socio-demographic Characteristics and Leading Causes of Death Among the Casualties of Meteorological Events Compared With All-cause Deaths in Korea, 2000-2011

PubMed Central

Lee, Kyung Eun; Myung, Hyung-Nam; Na, Wonwoong

2013-01-01

Objectives This study investigated the socio-demographic characteristics and medical causes of death among meteorological disaster casualties and compared them with deaths from all causes. Methods Based on the death data provided by the National Statistical Office from 2000 to 2011, the authors analyzed the gender, age, and region of 709 casualties whose external causes were recorded as natural events (X330-X389). Exact matching was applied to compare between deaths from meteorological disasters and all deaths. Results The total number of deaths for last 12 years was 2 728 505. After exact matching, 642 casualties of meteorological disasters were matched to 6815 all-cause deaths, which were defined as general deaths. The mean age of the meteorological disaster casualties was 51.56, which was lower than that of the general deaths by 17.02 (p<0.001). As for the gender ratio, 62.34% of the meteorological event casualties were male. While 54.09% of the matched all-cause deaths occurred at a medical institution, only 7.6% of casualties from meteorological events did. As for occupation, the rate of those working in agriculture, forestry, and fishery jobs was twice as high in the casualties from meteorological disasters as that in the general deaths (p<0.001). Meteorological disaster-related injuries like drowning were more prevalent in the casualties of meteorological events (57.48%). The rate of amputation and crushing injury in deaths from meteorological disasters was three times as high as in the general deaths. Conclusions The new information gained on the particular characteristics contributing to casualties from meteorological events will be useful for developing prevention policies. PMID:24137528

Assessment of Meteorological and Agriculture Drought Severity in Barani Areas of Pakistan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haque, Saad Ul

2016-07-01

Drought is a natural hazard and part of climatic condition for all regions of the world. It is the condition of moisture deficit caused by a certain climatic conditions occurring at a specific location for a specific duration. Stems from the lack of precipitation, precipitation deficiency for a season, a year or longer and is triggered, when water supplies become insufficient to meet the requirements. Pakistan predominantly consists of arid and semiarid regions with a diversified climate where Agriculture sector plays a vital role in countries economy, as it is the largest sector of Pakistan, accounting for over 20.9 percent of GDP. Nearly 62 percent of the country's rural population and is directly or indirectly linked with agriculture for their livelihood. (Pakistan Economic Survey, 2011). Thus, for such type of landscapes where agriculture mainly depends on the amount of precipitation and there is no use of canal irrigation system, so there is a need to make some immediate interventions in the area of drought hazard management & a proactive planning to mitigate its adverse impacts. In this study drought is assessed on its sequential stages, first of all meteorological conditions that include rainfall data and MODIS Satellite NDVI product, having good temporal resolution for drought assessment in order to identify dry spell period. This whole waterless season leads to agricultural drought as crops and vegetation begin to degrade with low production rate. Some more parameters such as Max. Temperature, Humidity, Solar Radiation, Evapotranspiration were incorporated by assigning suitable weights according to their sensitivity for drought. Severity of Agricultural drought was determine by using NDVI anomaly and crop anomaly pattern. Finally, the correlation regression analysis was performed to identify the effect of different dependent variables on their supporting parameters. The combined drought severity map was generated by overlying the agricultural and meteorological drought severity maps. Thee results shows that some areas are free from drought while other study area is under different type of drought. The area under severe to very severe drought conditions is 49.6% and 19.92% respectively of the total study area which indicate that almost 80% area is prone to drought. Although the drought frequency is very low in this area but its intensity effects major productive crops and therefore livelihood of local settlements.

World Meteorological Organization's model simulations of the radionuclide dispersion and deposition from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident.

PubMed

Draxler, Roland; Arnold, Dèlia; Chino, Masamichi; Galmarini, Stefano; Hort, Matthew; Jones, Andrew; Leadbetter, Susan; Malo, Alain; Maurer, Christian; Rolph, Glenn; Saito, Kazuo; Servranckx, René; Shimbori, Toshiki; Solazzo, Efisio; Wotawa, Gerhard

2015-01-01

Five different atmospheric transport and dispersion model's (ATDM) deposition and air concentration results for atmospheric releases from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident were evaluated over Japan using regional (137)Cs deposition measurements and (137)Cs and (131)I air concentration time series at one location about 110 km from the plant. Some of the ATDMs used the same and others different meteorological data consistent with their normal operating practices. There were four global meteorological analyses data sets available and two regional high-resolution analyses. Not all of the ATDMs were able to use all of the meteorological data combinations. The ATDMs were configured identically as much as possible with respect to the release duration, release height, concentration grid size, and averaging time. However, each ATDM retained its unique treatment of the vertical velocity field and the wet and dry deposition, one of the largest uncertainties in these calculations. There were 18 ATDM-meteorology combinations available for evaluation. The deposition results showed that even when using the same meteorological analysis, each ATDM can produce quite different deposition patterns. The better calculations in terms of both deposition and air concentration were associated with the smoother ATDM deposition patterns. The best model with respect to the deposition was not always the best model with respect to air concentrations. The use of high-resolution mesoscale analyses improved ATDM performance; however, high-resolution precipitation analyses did not improve ATDM predictions. Although some ATDMs could be identified as better performers for either deposition or air concentration calculations, overall, the ensemble mean of a subset of better performing members provided more consistent results for both types of calculations. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Application of Terrestrial Microwave Remote Sensing to Agricultural Drought Monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crow, W. T.; Bolten, J. D.

2014-12-01

Root-zone soil moisture information is a valuable diagnostic for detecting the onset and severity of agricultural drought. Current attempts to globally monitor root-zone soil moisture are generally based on the application of soil water balance models driven by observed meteorological variables. Such systems, however, are prone to random error associated with: incorrect process model physics, poor parameter choices and noisy meteorological inputs. The presentation will describe attempts to remediate these sources of error via the assimilation of remotely-sensed surface soil moisture retrievals from satellite-based passive microwave sensors into a global soil water balance model. Results demonstrate the ability of satellite-based soil moisture retrieval products to significantly improve the global characterization of root-zone soil moisture - particularly in data-poor regions lacking adequate ground-based rain gage instrumentation. This success has lead to an on-going effort to implement an operational land data assimilation system at the United States Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA FAS) to globally monitor variations in root-zone soil moisture availability via the integration of satellite-based precipitation and soil moisture information. Prospects for improving the performance of the USDA FAS system via the simultaneous assimilation of both passive and active-based soil moisture retrievals derived from the upcoming NASA Soil Moisture Active/Passive mission will also be discussed.

Meteorological contribution to the mitigation and adaptation of the 'extreme water events' of Hungarian Great Plain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dunkel, Z.; Vincze, E.; Moring, A.

2012-04-01

The lack of water is a traditional problem of Hungarian agriculture. Two big rivers cross the territory of Hungary and times to times they produce huge floods. In the Carpathian basin a flood and a drought can occur in the same year. The general problem of Hungarian agriculture is the 'water' in two contexts, in lack of water and in surplus. Not only of the next year but of the next decades the basic question of the Hungarian planning is how the national economy can handle the increasing numbers of unexpected negative events of climate change because the growing numbers of sometimes catastrophic floods and droughts seems to be connected with global warming. Beside the 'normal floods' in the last few years the numbers of so called flash floods show increasing tendency too. The presentation summarises the 'extreme water events' of Hungarian Great Plain, and the forecast problems of Hungarian meteorology together with the National strategy in mitigation and adaptation in connection with climate change. From meteorological point of view the handling of flood and drought problem is totally different. In case of flood the stress is on the forecast, in case of drought mainly of the evaluation of the historical data mainly the short and long term evaluation of drought indices. Drought indices seem to be the simplest tools in drought analysis. The more or less well known and popular indices have been collected and compared not only with the well known simple but more complicated water balance and so called 'recursive' indices beside few ones use remotely sensed data, mainly satellite born information. The indices are classified into five groups, namely 'precipitation', 'water balance', 'soil moisture', 'recursive' and 'remote sensing' indices. For every group typical expressions are given and the possible use in the decision making and hazard risk evaluation and compensation of the farmers after the events. The meteorological elements of new Hungarian agricultural risk strategy will be shown.

Dune mobility in the St. Anthony Dune Field, Idaho, USA: Effects of meteorological variables and lag time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoover, R. H.; Gaylord, D. R.; Cooper, C. M.

2018-05-01

The St. Anthony Dune Field (SADF) is a 300 km2 expanse of active to stabilized transverse, barchan, barchanoid, and parabolic sand dunes located in a semi-arid climate in southeastern Idaho. The northeastern portion of the SADF, 16 km2, was investigated to examine meteorological influences on dune mobility. Understanding meteorological predictors of sand-dune migration for the SADF informs landscape evolution and impacts assessment of eolian activity on sensitive agricultural lands in the western United States, with implications for semi-arid environments globally. Archival aerial photos from 1954 to 2011 were used to calculate dune migration rates which were subsequently compared to regional meteorological data, including temperature, precipitation and wind speed. Observational analyses based on aerial photo imagery and meteorological data indicate that dune migration is influenced by weather for up to 5-10 years and therefore decadal weather patterns should be taken into account when using dune migration rates as proxies from climate fluctuation. Statistical examination of meteorological variables in this study indicates that 24% of the variation of sand dune migration rates is attributed to temperature, precipitation and wind speed, which is increased to 45% when incorporating lag time.

Development of the ClearSky smoke dispersion forecast system for agricultural field burning in the Pacific Northwest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jain, Rahul; Vaughan, Joseph; Heitkamp, Kyle; Ramos, Charleston; Claiborn, Candis; Schreuder, Maarten; Schaaf, Mark; Lamb, Brian

The post-harvest burning of agricultural fields is commonly used to dispose of crop residue and provide other desired services such as pest control. Despite careful regulation of burning, smoke plumes from field burning in the Pacific Northwest commonly degrade air quality, particularly for rural populations. In this paper, ClearSky, a numerical smoke dispersion forecast system for agricultural field burning that was developed to support smoke management in the Inland Pacific Northwest, is described. ClearSky began operation during the summer through fall burn season of 2002 and continues to the present. ClearSky utilizes Mesoscale Meteorological Model version 5 (MM5v3) forecasts from the University of Washington, data on agricultural fields, a web-based user interface for defining burn scenarios, the Lagrangian CALPUFF dispersion model and web-served animations of plume forecasts. The ClearSky system employs a unique hybrid source configuration, which treats the flaming portion of a field as a buoyant line source and the smoldering portion of the field as a buoyant area source. Limited field observations show that this hybrid approach yields reasonable plume rise estimates using source parameters derived from recent field burning emission field studies. The performance of this modeling system was evaluated for 2003 by comparing forecast meteorology against meteorological observations, and comparing model-predicted hourly averaged PM 2.5 concentrations against observations. Examples from this evaluation illustrate that while the ClearSky system can accurately predict PM 2.5 surface concentrations due to field burning, the overall model performance depends strongly on meteorological forecast error. Statistical evaluation of the meteorological forecast at seven surface stations indicates a strong relationship between topographical complexity near the station and absolute wind direction error with wind direction errors increasing from approximately 20° for sites in open areas to 70° or more for sites in very complex terrain. The analysis also showed some days with good forecast meteorology with absolute mean error in wind direction less than 30° when ClearSky correctly predicted PM 2.5 surface concentrations at receptors affected by field burns. On several other days with similar levels of wind direction error the model did not predict apparent plume impacts. In most of these cases, there were no reported burns in the vicinity of the monitor and, thus, it appeared that other, non-reported burns were responsible for the apparent plume impact at the monitoring site. These cases do not provide information on the performance of the model, but rather indicate that further work is needed to identify all burns and to improve burn reports in an accurate and timely manner. There were also a number of days with wind direction errors exceeding 70° when the forecast system did not correctly predict plume behavior.

Crop evapotranspiration estimation using remote sensing and the existing network of meteorological stations in Cyprus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papadavid, G.; Hadjimitsis, D.; Michaelides, S.; Nisantzi, A.

2011-05-01

Cyprus is frequently confronted with severe droughts and the need for accurate and systematic data on crop evapotranspiration (ETc) is essential for decision making, regarding water irrigation management and scheduling. The aim of this paper is to highlight how data from meteorological stations in Cyprus can be used for monitoring and determining the country's irrigation demands. This paper shows how daily ETc can be estimated using FAO Penman-Monteith method adapted to satellite data and auxiliary meteorological parameters. This method is widely used in many countries for estimating crop evapotranspiration using auxiliary meteorological data (maximum and minimum temperatures, relative humidity, wind speed) as inputs. Two case studies were selected in order to determine evapotranspiration using meteorological and low resolution satellite data (MODIS - TERRA) and to compare it with the results of the reference method (FAO-56) which estimates the reference evapotranspiration (ETo) by using only meteorological data. The first approach corresponds to the FAO Penman-Monteith method adapted for using both meteorological and remotely sensed data. Furthermore, main automatic meteorological stations in Cyprus were mapped using Geographical Information System (GIS). All the agricultural areas of the island were categorized according to the nearest meteorological station which is considered as "representative" of the area. Thiessen polygons methodology was used for this purpose. The intended goal was to illustrate what can happen to a crop, in terms of water requirements, if meteorological data are retrieved from other than the representative stations. The use of inaccurate data can result in low yields or excessive irrigation which both lead to profit reduction. The results have shown that if inappropriate meteorological data are utilized, then deviations from correct ETc might be obtained, leading to water losses or crop water stress.

AmeriFlux US-Me4 Metolius-old aged ponderosa pine

DOE Data Explorer

Law, Bev [Oregon State University

2016-01-01

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Me4 Metolius-old aged ponderosa pine. Site Description - The site is located on land designated as a Research Natural Area (RNA). The site is very open, with even-aged stands of old-growth trees, young trees and mixed aged stands. The eddy-flux tower footprint was classified as ~ 48% mixed aged, ~27% pure old growth and ~25% young aged stands. The data in this workbook describes the mixed aged component. A separate workbook describes the pure old growth component. Law et al (2001) Global Change Biology 7, 755-777; Law et al (2001) Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 110, 27-43; Anthoni et al (2002) Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 111, 203-222; Irvine & Law (2002) Global Change biology 8,1183-1194, Irivne et al (2004) Tree Physiology 24,753-763.

Meteorological Support at the Savanna River Site

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Addis, Robert P.

2005-10-14

The Department of Energy (DOE) operates many nuclear facilities on large complexes across the United States in support of national defense. The operation of these many and varied facilities and processes require meteorological support for many purposes, including: for routine operations, to respond to severe weather events, such as lightning, tornadoes and hurricanes, to support the emergency response functions in the event of a release of materials to the environment, for engineering baseline and safety documentation, as well as hazards assessments etc. This paper describes a program of meteorological support to the Savannah River Site, a DOE complex located inmore » South Carolina.« less

Application of meteorological data to agroclimatological mapping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skaar, E.

1980-03-01

During the years 1969 72 a comprehensive agroclimatic survery was carried out in Aust-Agder, a county of approximately 9000 km2 in the southernmost part of Norway. Meteorological data were collected from some 70 stations grouped in 11 model locations. In the analysis the agricultural purposes behind the survey are born in mind and importance is attached to simple and direct methods that will allow extrapolations within the region with sufficient confidence. The geographical variations in growth climate is expressed by average radiation and temperature conditions, and by estimates of plant-available soil moisture.

Preliminary results of consequence assessment of a hypothetical severe accident using Thai meteorological data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silva, K.; Lawawirojwong, S.; Promping, J.

2017-06-01

Consequence assessment of a hypothetical severe accident is one of the important elements of the risk assessment of a nuclear power plant. It is widely known that the meteorological conditions can significantly influence the outcomes of such assessment, since it determines the results of the calculation of the radionuclide environmental transport. This study aims to assess the impacts of the meteorological conditions to the results of the consequence assessment. The consequence assessment code, OSCAAR, of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) is used for the assessment. The results of the consequence assessment using Thai meteorological data are compared with those using Japanese meteorological data. The Thai case has following characteristics. Low wind speed made the radionuclides concentrate at the center comparing to the Japanese case. The squalls induced the peaks in the ground concentration distribution. The evacuated land is larger than the Japanese case though the relocated land is smaller, which is attributed to the concentration of the radionuclides near the release point.

The MERINOVA project: MEteorological RIsks as drivers of environmental inNOvation in Agro-ecosystem management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gobin, Anne; Van de vijver, Hans; Zamani, Sepideh; Curnel, Yannick; Planchon, Viviane; Verspecht, Ann; Van Huylenbroeck, Guido

2014-05-01

Devastating weather-related events have captured the interest of the general public in Belgium. Extreme weather events such as droughts, heat waves and rain storms are projected to increase both in frequency and magnitude with climate change. Since more than half of the Belgian territory is managed by the agricultural sector, extreme events may have significant impacts on agro-ecosystem services and pose severe limitations to sustainable agricultural land management. The research hypothesis of the MERINOVA project is that meteorological risks act as drivers of environmental innovation in agro-ecosystem management. The major objectives are to characterise extreme meteorological events, assess the impact on Belgian agro-ecosystems, characterise their vulnerability and resilience to these events, and explore innovative adaptation options to agricultural risk management. The project comprises of five major parts that reflect the chain of risks: the hazard, its impact on different agro-ecosystems, vulnerability, risk management and risk communication. Impacts developed from physically based models not only provide information on the state of the damage at any given time, but also assist in understanding the links between different factors causing damage and determining bio-physical vulnerability. Socio-economic impacts enlarge the basis for vulnerability mapping, risk management and adaptation options. The perspective of rising risk-exposure is exacerbated further by more limits to aid received for agricultural damage and an overall reduction of direct income support to farmers. The main findings of each of these project building blocks will be communicated. MERINOVA provides for a robust and flexible framework by demonstrating its performance across Belgian agro-ecosystems, and by ensuring its relevance to policy makers and practitioners. A strong expert and end-user network is established to help disseminating and exploiting project results to meet user needs. The research is funded by the Belgian Science Policy Organisation (Belspo) under contract nr SD/RI/03A. https://merinova.vito.be

Agricultural Productivity Forecasts for Improved Drought Monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Limaye, Ashutosh; McNider, Richard; Moss, Donald; Alhamdan, Mohammad

2010-01-01

Water stresses on agricultural crops during critical phases of crop phenology (such as grain filling) has higher impact on the eventual yield than at other times of crop growth. Therefore farmers are more concerned about water stresses in the context of crop phenology than the meteorological droughts. However the drought estimates currently produced do not account for the crop phenology. US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have developed a drought monitoring decision support tool: The U.S. Drought Monitor, which currently uses meteorological droughts to delineate and categorize drought severity. Output from the Drought Monitor is used by the States to make disaster declarations. More importantly, USDA uses the Drought Monitor to make estimates of crop yield to help the commodities market. Accurate estimation of corn yield is especially critical given the recent trend towards diversion of corn to produce ethanol. Ethanol is fast becoming a standard 10% ethanol additive to petroleum products, the largest traded commodity. Thus the impact of large-scale drought will have dramatic impact on the petroleum prices as well as on food prices. USDA's World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) serves as a focal point for economic intelligence and the commodity outlook for U.S. WAOB depends on Drought Monitor and has emphatically stated that accurate and timely data are needed in operational agrometeorological services to generate reliable projections for agricultural decision makers. Thus, improvements in the prediction of drought will reflect in early and accurate assessment of crop yields, which in turn will improve commodity projections. We have developed a drought assessment tool, which accounts for the water stress in the context of crop phenology. The crop modeling component is done using various crop modules within Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT). DSSAT is an agricultural crop simulation system, which integrates the effects of soil, crop phenotype, weather, and management options. It has been in use for more than 15 years by researchers, growers and has become a de-facto standard in crop modeling communities spanning over 100 countries. The meteorological forcings to DSSAT are provided by NASA s National Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) datasets. NLDAS is a framework that incorporates atmospheric forcing and land parameter values along with land surface models to diagnose and predict the state of the land surface.

Key Response Planning Factors for the Aftermath of Nuclear Terrorism

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Buddemeier, B R; Dillon, M B

Despite hundreds of above-ground nuclear tests and data gathered from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the effects of a ground-level, low-yield nuclear detonation in a modern urban environment are still the subject of considerable scientific debate. Extensive review of nuclear weapon effects studies and discussions with nuclear weapon effects experts from various federal agencies, national laboratories, and technical organizations have identified key issues and bounded some of the unknowns required to support response planning for a low-yield, ground-level nuclear detonation in a modern U.S. city. This study, which is focused primarily upon the hazards posed by radioactive fallout, used detailed fallout predictionsmore » from the advanced suite of three-dimensional (3-D) meteorology and plume/fallout models developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), including extensive global Key Response Planning Factors for the Aftermath of Nuclear Terrorism geographical and real-time meteorological databases to support model calculations. This 3-D modeling system provides detailed simulations that account for complex meteorology and terrain effects. The results of initial modeling and analysis were presented to federal, state, and local working groups to obtain critical, broad-based review and feedback on strategy and messaging. This effort involved a diverse set of communities, including New York City, National Capitol Regions, Charlotte, Houston, Portland, and Los Angeles. The largest potential for reducing casualties during the post-detonation response phase comes from reducing exposure to fallout radiation. This can be accomplished through early, adequate sheltering followed by informed, delayed evacuation.B The response challenges to a nuclear detonation must be solved through multiple approaches of public education, planning, and rapid response actions. Because the successful response will require extensive coordination of a large number of organizations, supplemented by appropriate responses by local responders and the general population within the hazard zones, regional planning is essential to success. The remainder of this Executive Summary provides summary guidance for response planning in three areas: (1) Public Protection Strategy details the importance of early, adequate shelter followed by informed evacuation. (2) Responder Priorities identify how to protect response personnel, perform regional situational assessment, and support public safety. (3) Key Planning Considerations refute common myths and provide important information on planning how to respond in the aftermath of nuclear terrorism.« less

A Meteorological (humidity, temperature, aerosols)) mobile dial system: Concepts and design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cahen, C.; Lesne, J. L.; Benard, J.; Ponsardin, P.

1986-01-01

Since 1982 a program was conducted to develop a mobile meteorological (humidity, temperature, aerosols) Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) devoted to the studies of the nuclear power plant atmospheric surroundings. The measurement objectives are defined according to the user needs and the lidar feasibility. The concepts and design adopted to meet both the requirement and the measurement objectives are described. Each sub-system is addressed sequentially: transmitting system, receiving system, detection system, and post detection.

Agrometeorological services for smallholder farmers in West Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarchiani, Vieri; Camacho, José; Coulibaly, Hamidou; Rossi, Federica; Stefanski, Robert

2018-04-01

Climate variability and change are recognised as a major threat for West African agriculture, particularly for smallholder farmers. Moreover, population pressure, poverty, and food insecurity, are worsening the vulnerability of production systems to climate risks. Application of Climate Services in agriculture, specifically Agrometeorological Services, is acknowledged as a valuable innovation to assist decision-making and develop farmers' specific adaptive capacities. In West Africa, the World Meteorological Organisation and National Meteorological Services deployed considerable efforts in the development of Agrometeorological Services. Nevertheless, the impacts of such services on West African farming communities are still largely unknown. This paper aims to delineate the added value of agrometeorological services for farmers within the Agriculture Innovation System of Mauritania. The results of this quali-quantitative assessment demonstrate that farmers use agrometeorological information for a variety of choices: making strategic choice on the seed variety and on the geographical distribution of plots, choosing the most appropriate planting date, better tuning crop development cycle with the rhythm of the rains and choosing favourable periods for different cultural operations. Globally, the effects of all these good practices can be summarized by an increase of crops productivity and a decrease of cropping costs (including opportunity cost) in terms of inputs and working time.

Drought effects on US maize and soybean production: spatiotemporal patterns and historical changes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zipper, Samuel C.; Qiu, Jiangxiao; Kucharik, Christopher J.

2016-09-01

Maximizing agricultural production on existing cropland is one pillar of meeting future global food security needs. To close crop yield gaps, it is critical to understand how climate extremes such as drought impact yield. Here, we use gridded, daily meteorological data and county-level annual yield data to quantify meteorological drought sensitivity of US maize and soybean production from 1958 to 2007. Meteorological drought negatively affects crop yield over most US crop-producing areas, and yield is most sensitive to short-term (1-3 month) droughts during critical development periods from July to August. While meteorological drought is associated with 13% of overall yield variability, substantial spatial variability in drought effects and sensitivity exists, with central and southeastern US becoming increasingly sensitive to drought over time. Our study illustrates fine-scale spatiotemporal patterns of drought effects, highlighting where variability in crop production is most strongly associated with drought, and suggests that management strategies that buffer against short-term water stress may be most effective at sustaining long-term crop productivity.

Global climate shocks to agriculture from 1950 - 2015

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jackson, N. D.; Konar, M.; Debaere, P.; Sheffield, J.

2016-12-01

Climate shocks represent a major disruption to crop yields and agricultural production, yet a consistent and comprehensive database of agriculturally relevant climate shocks does not exist. To this end, we conduct a spatially and temporally disaggregated analysis of climate shocks to agriculture from 1950-2015 using a new gridded dataset. We quantify the occurrence and magnitude of climate shocks for all global agricultural areas during the growing season using a 0.25-degree spatial grid and daily time scale. We include all major crops and both temperature and precipitation extremes in our analysis. Critically, we evaluate climate shocks to all potential agricultural areas to improve projections within our time series. To do this, we use Global Agro-Ecological Zones maps from the Food and Agricultural Organization, the Princeton Global Meteorological Forcing dataset, and crop calendars from Sacks et al. (2010). We trace the dynamic evolution of climate shocks to agriculture, evaluate the spatial heterogeneity in agriculturally relevant climate shocks, and identify the crops and regions that are most prone to climate shocks.

Soil- and crop-dependent variation in correlation lag between precipitation and agricultural drought indices as predicted by the SWAP model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wright, Azin; Cloke, Hannah; Verhoef, Anne

2017-04-01

Droughts have a devastating impact on agriculture and economy. The risk of more frequent and more severe droughts is increasing due to global warming and certain anthropogenic activities. At the same time, the global population continues to rise and the need for sustainable food production is becoming more and more pressing. In light of this, drought prediction can be of great value; in the context of early warning, preparedness and mitigation of drought impacts. Prediction of meteorological drought is associated with uncertainties around precipitation variability. As meteorological drought propagates, it can transform into agricultural drought. Determination of the maximum correlation lag between precipitation and agricultural drought indices can be useful for prediction of agricultural drought. However, the influence of soil and crop type on the lag needs to be considered, which we explored using a 1-D Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere-Transfer model (SWAP (http://www.swap.alterra.nl/), with the following configurations, all forced with ERA-Interim weather data (1979 to 2014): i) different crop types in the UK; ii) three generic soil types (clay, loam and sand) were considered. A Sobol sensitivity analysis was carried out (perturbing the SWAP model van Genuchten soil hydraulic parameters) to study the effect of soil type uncertainty on the water balance variables. Based on the sensitivity analysis results, a few variations of each soil type were selected. Agricultural drought indices including Soil Moisture Deficit Index (SMDI) and Evapotranspiration Deficit Index (ETDI) were calculated. The maximum correlation lag between precipitation and these drought indices was calculated, and analysed in the context of crop and soil model parameters. The findings of this research can be useful to UK farming, by guiding government bodies such as the Environment Agency when issuing drought warnings and implementing drought measures.

The restart of meteorological observations in the 19th century in Lisbon: the contribution of Marino Miguel FRANZINI (1779-1861)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alcoforado, Maria-Joao; Nunes, Fatima

2013-04-01

After the early meteorological observations of the 1770s to the 1790s in continental Portugal (including a 5 year daily series by J. Velho), there were hardly any until 1815. In December 1815, a meteorological station was set up in Lisbon by Marino Miguel Franzini (1779-1861), an engineer who was also actively involved in Politics (liberal party). Following the tradition of the 18th century enlightenment movement, he took a keen interest in Nature and Sciences, particularly in the "influence" of weather and climate on health and agriculture. Franzini started his observations by request of a physician who sought to understand the reasons why the maximum mortality occurred on the summer months, unlike in northern countries of Europe where maximum mortality occurred in winter (as it happens nowadays in Portugal). The deterministic background of the two scientists is clear. Franzini was a member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences (founded in 1799) and had contact with foreign Academies and foreign scientists. His instruments were carefully constructed and described, including graduation scales, and stations' location was indicated. Data from two years observations (several meteorological variables) was published in the Academy of Sciences Memoirs. From 1818 until 1826 and from 1835 until 1856 data was divulged in journals and newspapers, such as the "Journal of Medical Sciences", together with data on necrology in some of Lisbon parishes (illustrating the interest of physicians on weather); meteorological data and information about agriculture was also published in the "Lisbon Gazette". Unfortunately, there are hardly any daily data, as Franzini grouped his records according to weather types, as will be explained. Franzini's series will be presented in our talk. The gap between 1826 and 1835 was due to the political activities in which Franzini was involved: the civil war (liberals against absolutist) disruptedscientific research in Portugal. Official meteorological observations began in Lisbon,in December 1854, in a site not far away from Franzini's station. The long series of Lisbon includes the 1835-54 Franzini's series.

Spatial and temporal trends of reference crop evapotranspiration and its influential variables in Yangtze River Delta, eastern China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Yu; Xu, Youpeng; Wang, Yuefeng; Wu, Lei; Li, Guang; Song, Song

2017-11-01

Reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo) is one of the most important links in hydrologic circulation and greatly affects regional agricultural production and water resource management. Its variation has drawn more and more attention in the context of global warming. We used the Penman-Monteith method of the Food and Agriculture Organization, based on meteorological factors such as air temperature, sunshine duration, wind speed, and relative humidity to calculate the ETo over 46 meteorological stations located in the Yangtze River Delta, eastern China, from 1957 to 2014. The spatial distributions and temporal trends in ETo were analyzed based on the modified Mann-Kendall trend test and linear regression method, while ArcGIS software was employed to produce the distribution maps. The multiple stepwise regression method was applied in the analysis of the meteorological variable time series to identify the causes of any observed trends in ETo. The results indicated that annual ETo showed an obvious spatial pattern of higher values in the north than in the south. Annual increasing trends were found at 34 meteorological stations (73.91 % of the total), which were mainly located in the southeast. Among them, 12 (26.09 % of the total) stations showed significant trends. We saw a dominance of increasing trends in the monthly ETo except for January, February, and August. The high value zone of monthly ETo appeared in the northwest from February to June, mid-south area from July to August, and southeast coastal area from September to January. The research period was divided into two stages—stage I (1957-1989) and stage II (1990-2014)—to investigate the long-term temporal ETo variation. In stage I, almost 85 % of the total stations experienced decreasing trends, while more than half of the meteorological stations showed significant increasing trends in annual ETo during stage II except in February and September. Relative humidity, wind speed, and sunshine duration were identified as the most dominant meteorological variables influencing annual ETo changes. The results are expected to assist water resource managers and policy makers in making better planning decisions in the research region.

Ensemble Simulation of the Atmospheric Radionuclides Discharged by the Fukushima Nuclear Accident

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sekiyama, Thomas; Kajino, Mizuo; Kunii, Masaru

2013-04-01

Enormous amounts of radionuclides were discharged into the atmosphere by a nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (FDNPP) after the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. The radionuclides were dispersed from the power plant and deposited mainly over eastern Japan and the North Pacific Ocean. A lot of numerical simulations of the radionuclide dispersion and deposition had been attempted repeatedly since the nuclear accident. However, none of them were able to perfectly simulate the distribution of dose rates observed after the accident over eastern Japan. This was partly due to the error of the wind vectors and precipitations used in the numerical simulations; unfortunately, their deterministic simulations could not deal with the probability distribution of the simulation results and errors. Therefore, an ensemble simulation of the atmospheric radionuclides was performed using the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) data assimilation system coupled with the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) non-hydrostatic mesoscale model (NHM); this mesoscale model has been used operationally for daily weather forecasts by JMA. Meteorological observations were provided to the EnKF data assimilation system from the JMA operational-weather-forecast dataset. Through this ensemble data assimilation, twenty members of the meteorological analysis over eastern Japan from 11 to 31 March 2011 were successfully obtained. Using these meteorological ensemble analysis members, the radionuclide behavior in the atmosphere such as advection, convection, diffusion, dry deposition, and wet deposition was simulated. This ensemble simulation provided the multiple results of the radionuclide dispersion and distribution. Because a large ensemble deviation indicates the low accuracy of the numerical simulation, the probabilistic information is obtainable from the ensemble simulation results. For example, the uncertainty of precipitation triggered the uncertainty of wet deposition; the uncertainty of wet deposition triggered the uncertainty of atmospheric radionuclide amounts. Then the remained radionuclides were transported downwind; consequently the uncertainty signal of the radionuclide amounts was propagated downwind. The signal propagation was seen in the ensemble simulation by the tracking of the large deviation areas of radionuclide concentration and deposition. These statistics are able to provide information useful for the probabilistic prediction of radionuclides.

Estimating Crop Growth Stage by Combining Meteorological and Remote Sensing Based Techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Champagne, C.; Alavi-Shoushtari, N.; Davidson, A. M.; Chipanshi, A.; Zhang, Y.; Shang, J.

2016-12-01

Estimations of seeding, harvest and phenological growth stage of crops are important sources of information for monitoring crop progress and crop yield forecasting. Growth stage has been traditionally estimated at the regional level through surveys, which rely on field staff to collect the information. Automated techniques to estimate growth stage have included agrometeorological approaches that use temperature and day length information to estimate accumulated heat and photoperiod, with thresholds used to determine when these stages are most likely. These approaches however, are crop and hybrid dependent, and can give widely varying results depending on the method used, particularly if the seeding date is unknown. Methods to estimate growth stage from remote sensing have progressed greatly in the past decade, with time series information from the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) the most common approach. Time series NDVI provide information on growth stage through a variety of techniques, including fitting functions to a series of measured NDVI values or smoothing these values and using thresholds to detect changes in slope that are indicative of rapidly increasing or decreasing `greeness' in the vegetation cover. The key limitations of these techniques for agriculture are frequent cloud cover in optical data that lead to errors in estimating local features in the time series function, and the incongruity between changes in greenness and traditional agricultural growth stages. There is great potential to combine both meteorological approaches and remote sensing to overcome the limitations of each technique. This research will examine the accuracy of both meteorological and remote sensing approaches over several agricultural sites in Canada, and look at the potential to integrate these techniques to provide improved estimates of crop growth stage for common field crops.

Experimenting with sodar in support of emergency preparedness at Three Mile Island-1

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Heck, W.J.

1989-01-01

In November 1988 at Three Mile Island Unit 1 (TMI-1), GPU Nuclear successfully completed the annual drill-for-grade that, from a modeling point of view, broke new ground for this plant. The meteorological and modeling aspects of the drill scenario were unprecedented for two reasons. First, the plume was buoyant and rose far above the height of the meteorological tower located at TMI. Second, the wind direction data from the meteorological tower were not representative of the wind direction at plume height. In the drill scenario, the buoyant plume resulted from a steam generator tube rupture where the steam ejects directlymore » into the atmosphere via safety relief valves. Plume modeling indicated that the plume would rise to 400 ft, given the scenario meteorology. Wind data from the on-site meteorological tower, however, was only available up to 150 ft. Comparisons of sodar and tower winds were made for various weather conditions. Sodar results were studied in detail during light, moderate, and high winds; various wind directions; occurrences of rain and snow; and by time of day to determine effects of diurnal meteorological conditions on sodar performance.« less

Dose estimation for nuclear power plant 4 accident in Taiwan at Fukushima nuclear meltdown emission level.

PubMed

Tang, Mei-Ling; Tsuang, Ben-Jei; Kuo, Pei-Hsuan

2016-05-01

An advanced Gaussian trajectory dispersion model is used to evaluate the evacuation zone due to a nuclear meltdown at the Nuclear Power Plant 4 (NPP4) in Taiwan, with the same emission level as that occurred at Fukushima nuclear meltdown (FNM) in 2011. Our study demonstrates that a FNM emission level would pollute 9% of the island's land area with annual effective dose ≥50 mSv using the meteorological data on 11 March 2011 in Taiwan. This high dose area is also called permanent evacuation zone (denoted as PEZ). The PEZ as well as the emergency-planning zone (EPZ) are found to be sensitive to meteorological conditions on the event. In a sunny day under the dominated NE wind conditions, the EPZ can be as far as 100 km with the first 7-day dose ≥20 mSv. Three hundred sixty-five daily events using the meteorological data from 11 March 2011 to 9 March 2012 are evaluated. It is found that the mean land area of Taiwan in becoming the PEZ is 11%. Especially, the probabilities of the northern counties/cities (Keelung, New Taipei, Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County and Ilan County) to be PEZs are high, ranging from 15% in Ilan County to 51% in Keelung City. Note that the total population of the above cities/counties is as high as 10 million people. Moreover, the western valleys of the Central Mountain Range are also found to be probable being PEZs, where all of the reservoirs in western Taiwan are located. For example, the probability can be as high as 3% in the far southern-most tip of Taiwan Island in Pingtung County. This shows that the entire populations in western Taiwan can be at risk due to the shortage of clean water sources under an event at FNM emission level, especially during the NE monsoon period. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Measurement of Ambient Ammonia and Surface-level Meteorological Forcing Variables near an Agricultural Emission Source

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Myles, L.; Heuer, M. W.

2012-12-01

Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) is a reduced form of reactive nitrogen that is primarily emitted from agricultural activities. NH3 volatilizes from animal waste and fertilized land directly into the atmosphere where it can either react with other gases to form fine particulate matter or deposit on surfaces through air-surface exchange processes. Field measurements in different ecosystems and under various conditions are necessary to improve the understanding of the complex relationships between ambient NH3 and meteorological parameters, such as temperature and relative humidity, which influence volatilization rates and ultimately, ambient concentrations near emission sources. However, the measurement of ambient NH3 is challenging. NH3 is hydroscopic and reactive, and measurement techniques are subject to errors caused by sampling artifacts and other interferences. Recent advancements have led to improved techniques that allow real-time measurement of ambient NH3. A cavity ring-down spectrometer was deployed at a cattle research facility in Knoxville, TN during spring 2012 to measure ambient NH3, and meteorological instrumentation was collocated to measure 3-D winds, temperature, relative humidity, precipitation and other parameters (z = 2 m). The study site was rolling pasture typical of the eastern Tennessee Valley and included two large barns and approximately 30-40 cattle. Daytime ambient NH3 averaged 15-20 ppb most days with lows of approximately 7 ppb at night. Higher concentrations (greater than 50 ppb) seemed to correlate with higher temperatures (greater than 27 C), although the data are not consistent. Several instances of 100 ppb concentrations were measured when temperatures were high and winds were from the direction of the barns. Overall, the study shows that ambient NH3 levels near agricultural emission sources may vary greatly with time and a variety of factors, including meteorological conditions. The data support the need for real-time measurements of NH3 to determine how environmental conditions can affect ambient concentrations and therefore, the amount of NH3 available in the atmosphere to form particulate matter or participate in deposition processes.

Modeling Raindrop Size

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Roger W.; Kliche, Donna V.; Smith, Paul L.

2015-01-01

Being able to characterize the size of raindrops is useful in a number of fields including meteorology, hydrology, agriculture and telecommunications. Associated with this article are data sets containing surface (i.e. ground-level) measurements of raindrop size from two different instruments and two different geographical locations. Students may…

Evaluation of NASA satellite- and assimilation model-derived long-term daily temperature date over the continental US

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Agricultural research increasingly is expected to provide precise, quantitative information with an explicit geographic coverage. Limited availability of continuous daily meteorological records often constrains efforts to provide such information through integrated use of simulation models, spatial ...

Cosmic Rays in the Earth's Atmosphere and Underground

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dorman, Lev I.

2004-08-01

This book consists of four parts. In the first part (Chapters 1-4) a full overview is given of the theoretical and experimental basis of Cosmic Ray (CR) research in the atmosphere and underground for Geophysics and Space Physics; the development of CR research and a short history of many fundamental discoveries, main properties of primary and secondary CR, methods of transformation of CR observation data in the atmosphere and underground to space, and the experimental basis of CR research underground and on the ground, on balloons and on satellites and space probes. The second part (Chapters 5-9) is devoted to the influence of atmospheric properties on CR, so called CR meteorological effects; pressure, temperature, humidity, snow, wind, gravitation, and atmospheric electric field effects. The inverse problem - the influence of CR properties on the atmosphere and atmospheric processes is considered in the third part (Chapters 10-14); influence on atmospheric, nuclear and chemical compositions, ionization and radio-wave propagation, formation of thunderstorms and lightning, clouds and climate change. The fourth part (Chapters 15-18) describes many realized and potential applications of CR research in different branches of Science and Technology; Meteorology and Aerodrome Service, Geology and Geophysical Prospecting, Hydrology and Agricultural Applications, Archaeology and Medicine, Seismology and Big Earthquakes Forecasting, Space Weather and Environment Monitoring/Forecasting. The book ends with a list providing more than 1,500 full references, a discussion on future developments and unsolved problems, as well as object and author indices. This book will be useful for experts in different branches of Science and Technology, and for students to be used as additional literature to text-books.

Physical and Life Scientists. Bulletin 2205-5.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bureau of Labor Statistics (DOL), Washington, DC.

This document provides information about careers in the agricultural sciences, the biological sciences, chemistry, forestry and conservation, geology and geophysics, meteorology, and physics. The information, presented in separate sections for each of these disciplines, includes: (1) nature of the work performed by scientists in the discipline(s);…

COSmic-ray soil moisture observing system (COSMOS) in grazing-cap fields at El Reno, Oklahoma

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Soil water content (SWC), especially over large areas, is an important variable needed by hydrological, meteorological, climatological, agricultural, and environmental scientists. Point measurements of SWC are impractical to obtain over extensive areas; thus, methods that provide real-time, hectare...

An inverse method to estimate emission rates based on nonlinear least-squares-based ensemble four-dimensional variational data assimilation with local air concentration measurements.

PubMed

Geng, Xiaobing; Xie, Zhenghui; Zhang, Lijun; Xu, Mei; Jia, Binghao

2018-03-01

An inverse source estimation method is proposed to reconstruct emission rates using local air concentration sampling data. It involves the nonlinear least squares-based ensemble four-dimensional variational data assimilation (NLS-4DVar) algorithm and a transfer coefficient matrix (TCM) created using FLEXPART, a Lagrangian atmospheric dispersion model. The method was tested by twin experiments and experiments with actual Cs-137 concentrations measured around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP). Emission rates can be reconstructed sequentially with the progression of a nuclear accident, which is important in the response to a nuclear emergency. With pseudo observations generated continuously, most of the emission rates were estimated accurately, except under conditions when the wind blew off land toward the sea and at extremely slow wind speeds near the FDNPP. Because of the long duration of accidents and variability in meteorological fields, monitoring networks composed of land stations only in a local area are unable to provide enough information to support an emergency response. The errors in the estimation compared to the real observations from the FDNPP nuclear accident stemmed from a shortage of observations, lack of data control, and an inadequate atmospheric dispersion model without improvement and appropriate meteorological data. The proposed method should be developed further to meet the requirements of a nuclear emergency response. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Migration Related to Climate Change: Impact, Challenges and Proposed Policy Initiatives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarkar, A.

2015-12-01

Migration of human population possesses a great threat to human development and nation building. A significant cause for migration is due to change in climatic conditions and vulnerabilities associated with it. Our case study focuses on the consequent reason and impact of such migration in the coastal areas of West Bengal, India. The changes in rainfall pattern and the variation of temperature have been considered as parameters which have resulted in migration. It is worthy to note that the agricultural pattern has subsequently changed over the last two decades due to change in rainfall and temperature. India being an agriculture oriented economy, the changes in the meteorological variables have not only altered the rate of agricultural pattern but also the rate of migration. A proposed framework depicting relationship between changes in meteorological variables and the migration pattern, and an estimate of how the migration pattern is expected to change over the next century by utilizing the downscaled values of future rainfall and temperature has been analyzed. Moreover, various public policy frameworks has also been proposed through the study for addressing the challenges of migration related to climate change. The proposed public policy framework has been streamlined along the lines of various international treaties and conventions in order to integrate the policy initiatives through universalization of law and policy research.

The asymmetric impact of global warming on US drought types and distributions in a large ensemble of 97 hydro-climatic simulations.

PubMed

Huang, Shengzhi; Leng, Guoyong; Huang, Qiang; Xie, Yangyang; Liu, Saiyan; Meng, Erhao; Li, Pei

2017-07-19

Projection of future drought is often involved large uncertainties from climate models, emission scenarios as well as drought definitions. In this study, we investigate changes in future droughts in the conterminous United States based on 97 1/8 degree hydro-climate model projections. Instead of focusing on a specific drought type, we investigate changes in meteorological, agricultural, and hydrological drought as well as the concurrences. Agricultural and hydrological droughts are projected to become more frequent with increase in global mean temperature, while less meteorological drought is expected. Changes in drought intensity scale linearly with global temperature rises under RCP8.5 scenario, indicating the potential feasibility to derive future drought severity given certain global warming amount under this scenario. Changing pattern of concurrent droughts generally follows that of agricultural and hydrological droughts. Under the 1.5 °C warming target as advocated in recent Paris agreement, several hot spot regions experiencing highest droughts are identified. Extreme droughts show similar patterns but with much larger magnitude than the climatology. This study highlights the distinct response of droughts of various types to global warming and the asymmetric impact of global warming on drought distribution resulting in a much stronger influence on extreme drought than on mean drought.

Disaster policy and nuclear liability: Insights from post-Chernobyl agriculture in the United Kingdom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kerr, William A.; Kwaczek, Adrienne S.; Mooney, Sian

1989-09-01

The recent events at Chernobyl have again brought the issues of nuclear safety to the forefront of the nuclear power debate. Fortunately, our experience with such incidents has been very limited, but it is important to learn as much as possible from such events so as to minimize the cost and effect of any other nuclear incidents, be they small or large. Much of the discussion about the possible effects of nuclear incidents has centered around the human cost in terms of health. While this is undoubtedly of paramount concern, the effect of the release of radiation from Chernobyl on the agricultural resource base in Europe can provide valuable insights on how to reduce the costs associated with the contamination of agricultural areas. This article outlines some of the lessons that can be learned using the livestock-raising industry in northern Wales as an example.

Drought Dynamics and Food Security in Ukraine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kussul, N. M.; Kogan, F.; Adamenko, T. I.; Skakun, S. V.; Kravchenko, O. M.; Kryvobok, O. A.; Shelestov, A. Y.; Kolotii, A. V.; Kussul, O. M.; Lavrenyuk, A. M.

2012-12-01

In recent years food security became a problem of great importance at global, national and regional scale. Ukraine is one of the most developed agriculture countries and one of the biggest crop producers in the world. According to the 2011 statistics provided by the USDA FAS, Ukraine was the 8th largest exporter and 10th largest producer of wheat in the world. Therefore, identifying current and projecting future trends in climate and agriculture parameters is a key element in providing support to policy makers in food security. This paper combines remote sensing, meteorological, and modeling data to investigate dynamics of extreme events, such as droughts, and its impact on agriculture production in Ukraine. Two main problems have been considered in the study: investigation of drought dynamics in Ukraine and its impact on crop production; and investigation of crop growth models for yield and production forecasting and its comparison with empirical models that use as a predictor satellite-derived parameters and meteorological observations. Large-scale weather disasters in Ukraine such as drought were assessed using vegetation health index (VHI) derived from satellite data. The method is based on estimation of green canopy stress/no stress from indices, characterizing moisture and thermal conditions of vegetation canopy. These conditions are derived from the reflectance/emission in the red, near infrared and infrared parts of solar spectrum measured by the AVHRR flown on the NOAA afternoon polar-orbiting satellites since 1981. Droughts were categorized into exceptional, extreme, severe and moderate. Drought area (DA, in % from total Ukrainian area) was calculated for each category. It was found that maximum DA over past 20 years was 10% for exceptional droughts, 20% for extreme droughts, 50% for severe droughts, and 80% for moderate droughts. Also, it was shown that in general the drought intensity and area did not increase considerably over past 10 years. Analysis of interrelation between DA of different categories at oblast level with agriculture production will be discussed as well. A comparative study was carried out to assess three approaches to forecast winter wheat yield in Ukraine at oblast level: (i) empirical regression-based model that uses as a predictor 16-day NDVI composites derived from MODIS at the 250 m resolution, (ii) empirical regression-based model that uses as predictors meteorological parameters, and (iii) adapted for Ukraine Crop Growth Monitoring System (CGMS) that is based on WOFOST crop growth simulation model and meteorological parameters. These three approaches were calibrated for 2000-2009 and 2000-2010 data, and compared while performing forecasts on independent data for 2010 and 2011. For 2010, the best results in terms of root mean square error (RMSE, by oblast, deviation of predicted values from official statistics) were achieved using CGMS models: 0.3 t/ha. For NDVI and meteorological models RMSE values were 0.79 and 0.77 t/ha, respectively. When forecasting winter wheat yield for 2011, the following RMSE values were obtained: 0.58 t/ha for CGMS, 0.56 t/ha for meteorological model, and 0.62 t/ha for NDVI. In this case performance of all three approaches was relatively the same. Acknowledgements. This work was supported by the U.S. CRDF Grant "Analysis of climate change & food security based on remote sensing & in situ data sets" (UKB2-2972-KV-09).

Evaluating the accuracy of VEMAP daily weather data for application in crop simulations on a regional scale

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Weather plays a critical role in eco-environmental and agricultural systems. Limited availability of meteorological records often constrains the applications of simulation models and related decision support tools. The Vegetation/Ecosystem Modeling and Analysis Project (VEMAP) provides daily weather...

Evaluation of satellite-based, modeled-derived daily solar radiation data for the continental U.S.

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Many applications of simulation models and related decision support tools for agriculture and natural resource management require daily meteorological data as inputs. Availability and quality of such data, however, often constrain research and decision support activities that require use of these to...

Reconstructing missing daily precipitation data using regression trees and artificial neural networks

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Missing meteorological data have to be estimated for agricultural and environmental modeling. The objective of this work was to develop a technique to reconstruct the missing daily precipitation data in the central part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed using regression trees (RT) and artificial neura...

Multi-index evaluation of future drought and climate extreme occurrence in Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Understanding the frequency and occurrence of drought events in historic and projected future climate is essential for managing natural resources and setting policy. This study aims to identify future patterns of meteorological, hydrological and agricultural droughts based on projection from 12 GCM ...

Estimating inter-annual diversity of seasonal agricultural area using multi-temporal resourcesat data.

PubMed

Sreenivas, K; Sekhar, N Seshadri; Saxena, Manoj; Paliwal, R; Pathak, S; Porwal, M C; Fyzee, M A; Rao, S V C Kameswara; Wadodkar, M; Anasuya, T; Murthy, M S R; Ravisankar, T; Dadhwal, V K

2015-09-15

The present study aims at analysis of spatial and temporal variability in agricultural land cover during 2005-6 and 2011-12 from an ongoing program of annual land use mapping using multidate Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) data aboard Resourcesat-1 and 2. About 640-690 multi-temporal AWiFS quadrant data products per year (depending on cloud cover) were co-registered and radiometrically normalized to prepare state (administrative unit) mosaics. An 18-fold classification was adopted in this project. Rule-based techniques along with maximum-likelihood algorithm were employed to deriving land cover information as well as changes within agricultural land cover classes. The agricultural land cover classes include - kharif (June-October), rabi (November-April), zaid (April-June), area sown more than once, fallow lands and plantation crops. Mean kappa accuracy of these estimates varied from 0.87 to 0.96 for various classes. Standard error of estimate has been computed for each class annually and the area estimates were corrected using standard error of estimate. The corrected estimates range between 99 and 116 Mha for kharif and 77-91 Mha for rabi. The kharif, rabi and net sown area were aggregated at 10 km × 10 km grid on annual basis for entire India and CV was computed at each grid cell using temporal spatially-aggregated area as input. This spatial variability of agricultural land cover classes was analyzed across meteorological zones, irrigated command areas and administrative boundaries. The results indicate that out of various states/meteorological zones, Punjab was consistently cropped during kharif as well as rabi seasons. Out of all irrigated commands, Tawa irrigated command was consistently cropped during rabi season. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modeling Drought Impact Occurrence Based on Climatological Drought Indices for Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stagge, J. H.; Kohn, I.; Tallaksen, L. M.; Stahl, K.

2014-12-01

Meteorological drought indices are often assumed to accurately characterize the severity of a drought event; however, these indices do not necessarily reflect the likelihood or severity of a particular type of drought impact experienced on the ground. In previous research, this link between index and impact was often estimated based on thresholds found by experience, measured using composite indices with assumed weighting schemes, or defined based on very narrow impact measures, using either a narrow spatial extent or very specific impacts. This study expands on earlier work by demonstrating the feasibility of relating user-provided impact reports to the climatological drought indices SPI and SPEI by logistic regression. The user-provided drought impact reports are based on the European Drought Impact Inventory (EDII, www.geo.uio.no/edc/droughtdb/), a newly developed online database that allows both public report submission and querying the more than 4,000 reported impacts spanning 33 European countries. This new tool is used to quantify the link between meteorological drought indices and impacts focusing on four primary impact types, spanning agriculture, energy and industry, public water supply, and freshwater ecosystem across five European countries. Statistically significant climate indices are retained as predictors using step-wise regression and used to compare the most relevant drought indices and accumulation periods for different impact types and regions. Agricultural impacts are explained best by 2-12 month anomalies, with 2-3 month anomalies found in predominantly rain-fed agricultural regions, and anomalies greater than 3 months related to agricultural management practices. Energy and industry impacts, related to hydropower and energy cooling water in these countries, respond to longer accumulated precipitation anomalies (6-12 months). Public water supply and freshwater ecosystem impacts are explained by a more complex combination of short (1-3 month) and seasonal (6-12 month) anomalies. A mean of 47.0% (22.4-71.6%) impact deviance is explained by the resulting models, highlighting the feasibility of using such statistical techniques and drought impact databases to model drought impact likelihood based on relatively easily calculated meteorological drought indices.

Sensitivity of an Integrated Mesoscale Atmosphere and Agriculture Land Modeling System (WRF/CMAQ-EPIC) to MODIS Vegetation and Lightning Assimilation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ran, L.; Cooter, E. J.; Gilliam, R. C.; Foroutan, H.; Kang, D.; Appel, W.; Wong, D. C.; Pleim, J. E.; Benson, V.; Pouliot, G.

2017-12-01

The combined meteorology and air quality modeling system composed of the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is an important decision support tool that is used in research and regulatory decisions related to emissions, meteorology, climate, and chemical transport. The Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) is a cropping model which has long been used in a range of applications related to soil erosion, crop productivity, climate change, and water quality around the world. We have integrated WRF/CMAQ with EPIC using the Fertilizer Emission Scenario Tool for CMAQ (FEST-C) to estimate daily soil N information with fertilization for CMAQ bi-directional ammonia flux modeling. Driven by the weather and N deposition from WRF/CMAQ, FEST-C EPIC simulations are conducted on 22 different agricultural production systems ranging from managed grass lands (e.g. hay and alfalfa) to crop lands (e.g. corn grain and soybean) with rainfed and irrigated information across any defined conterminous United States (U.S.) CMAQ domain and grid resolution. In recent years, this integrated system has been enhanced and applied in many different air quality and ecosystem assessment projects related to land-water-atmosphere interactions. These enhancements have advanced this system to become a valuable tool for integrated assessments of air, land and water quality in light of social drivers and human and ecological outcomes. This presentation will focus on evaluating the sensitivity of precipitation and N deposition in the integrated system to MODIS vegetation input and lightning assimilation and their impacts on agricultural production and fertilization. We will describe the integrated modeling system and evaluate simulated precipitation and N deposition along with other weather information (e.g. temperature, humidity) for 2011 over the conterminous U.S. at 12 km grids from a coupled WRF/CMAQ with MODIS and lightning assimilation. Simulated agricultural production and fertilization from FEST-C EPIC driven by the changed meteorology and N deposition from MODIS and lightning assimilations will be evaluated and analyzed.

Meteorological data for four sites at surface-disruption features in Yucca Flat, Nevada Test Site, Nye County, Nevada, 1985-86

USGS Publications Warehouse

Carman, Rita L.

1994-01-01

Surface-disruption features, or craters, resulting from underground nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site may increase the potential for ground-water recharge in an area that would normally produce little, if any, recharge. This report presents selected meteorological data resulting from a study of two surface-disruption features during May 1985 through June 1986. The data were collected at four adjacent sites in Yucca Flat, about 56 kilometers north of Mercury, Nevada. Three sites (one in each of two craters and one at an undisturbed site at the original land surface) were instrumented to collect meteorological data for calculating bare-soil evaporation. These data include (1) long-wave radiation, (2) short-wave radiation, (3) net radiation, (4) air temperae, and (5) soil surface temperature. Meteorological data also were collected at a weather station at an undisturbed site near the study craters. Data collected at this site include (1) air temperature, (2) relative humidity, (3) wind velocity, and (4) wind direction.

Remote sensing for oceanography, hydrology and agriculture; Proceedings of Symposia A5, A3 and A9 of the COSPAR 29th Plenary Meeting, Washington, Aug. 28-Sept. 5, 1992

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gower, J. F. R. (Editor); Salomonson, V. V. (Editor); Engman, E. T. (Editor); Ormsby, J. P. (Editor); Gupta, R. K. (Editor)

1993-01-01

New results from satellite studies of the ocean and radar mapping of the earth are presented. Atttention is given to data from the ERS-1 satellite. Synthetic aperture radar mapping of land surface features and sea ice, radar backscatter measurements, and orbit altitude measurements are discussed. The use of remote sensing in hydrology, soil moisture determination, precipitation measurement, agricultural meteorology, and crop growth estimation is reviewed.

Peaceful atoms in agriculture and food: how the politics of the Cold War shaped agricultural research using isotopes and radiation in post war divided Germany.

PubMed

Zachmann, Karin

2015-01-01

During the Cold War, the super powers advanced nuclear literacy and access to nuclear resources and technology to a first-class power factor. Both national governments and international organizations developed nuclear programs in a variety of areas and promoted the development of nuclear applications in new environments. Research into the use of isotopes and radiation in agriculture, food production, and storage gained major importance as governments tried to promote the possibility of a peaceful use of atomic energy. This study is situated in divided Germany as the intersection of the competing socio-political systems and focuses on the period of the late 1940s and 1950s. It is argued that political interests and international power relations decisively shaped the development of "nuclear agriculture". The aim is to explore whether and how politicians in both parts of the divided country fostered the new field and exerted authority over the scientists. Finally, it examines the ways in which researchers adapted to the altered political conditions and expectations within the two political structures, by now fundamentally different.

Nuclear event zero-time calculation and uncertainty evaluation.

PubMed

Pan, Pujing; Ungar, R Kurt

2012-04-01

It is important to know the initial time, or zero-time, of a nuclear event such as a nuclear weapon's test, a nuclear power plant accident or a nuclear terrorist attack (e.g. with an improvised nuclear device, IND). Together with relevant meteorological information, the calculated zero-time is used to help locate the origin of a nuclear event. The zero-time of a nuclear event can be derived from measured activity ratios of two nuclides. The calculated zero-time of a nuclear event would not be complete without an appropriately evaluated uncertainty term. In this paper, analytical equations for zero-time and the associated uncertainty calculations are derived using a measured activity ratio of two nuclides. Application of the derived equations is illustrated in a realistic example using data from the last Chinese thermonuclear test in 1980. Crown Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Meteorological Drivers of Extreme Air Pollution Events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Horton, D. E.; Schnell, J.; Callahan, C. W.; Suo, Y.

2017-12-01

The accumulation of pollutants in the near-surface atmosphere has been shown to have deleterious consequences for public health, agricultural productivity, and economic vitality. Natural and anthropogenic emissions of ozone and particulate matter can accumulate to hazardous concentrations when atmospheric conditions are favorable, and can reach extreme levels when such conditions persist. Favorable atmospheric conditions for pollutant accumulation include optimal temperatures for photochemical reaction rates, circulation patterns conducive to pollutant advection, and a lack of ventilation, dispersion, and scavenging in the local environment. Given our changing climate system and the dual ingredients of poor air quality - pollutants and the atmospheric conditions favorable to their accumulation - it is important to characterize recent changes in favorable meteorological conditions, and quantify their potential contribution to recent extreme air pollution events. To facilitate our characterization, this study employs the recently updated Schnell et al (2015) 1°×1° gridded observed surface ozone and particulate matter datasets for the period of 1998 to 2015, in conjunction with reanalysis and climate model simulation data. We identify extreme air pollution episodes in the observational record and assess the meteorological factors of primary support at local and synoptic scales. We then assess (i) the contribution of observed meteorological trends (if extant) to the magnitude of the event, (ii) the return interval of the meteorological event in the observational record, simulated historical climate, and simulated pre-industrial climate, as well as (iii) the probability of the observed meteorological trend in historical and pre-industrial climates.

Verifying the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty by Radioxenon Monitoring

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ringbom, Anders

2005-05-24

The current status of the ongoing establishment of a verification system for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty using radioxenon detection is discussed. As an example of equipment used in this application the newly developed fully automatic noble gas sampling and detection system SAUNA is described, and data collected with this system are discussed. It is concluded that the most important remaining scientific challenges in the field concern event categorization and meteorological backtracking.

Application of Data Assimilation with the Root Zone Water Quality Model for Soil Moisture Profile Estimation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Estimation of soil moisture has received considerable attention in the areas of hydrology, agriculture, meteorology and environmental studies because of its role in the partitioning water and energy at the land surface. In this study, the Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF), a popular data assimilation te...

Effect of meteorology and soil condition on metolachlor and atrazine volatilization over a 10 year period

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Volatilization of pesticides can detrimentally affect the environment by contaminating soil and surface waters far away from where the pesticides were applied. A 10-year study was conducted to focus on the impact of soil and climatic factors governing herbicide volatilization from an agricultural f...

Sensitivity of an Integrated Mesoscale Atmosphere and Agriculture Land Modeling System (WRF/CMAQ-EPIC) to MODIS Vegetation and Lightning Assimilation

EPA Science Inventory

The combined meteorology and air quality modeling system composed of the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is an important decision support tool that is used in research and regulatory decisions related to emissions, meteo...

Global Climate Change Pathfinder: A Guide to Information Resources. Second Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pintozzi, Chestalene; Jones, Douglas E.

This pathfinder is a guide to scientific and technical aspects of global climate change including meteorological and climatological aspects; biological, agricultural, and public policy implications; and the chemical processes involved. Sources are arranged by type of publication and include: (1) 10 reference sources; (2) 12 bibliographies; (3) 44…

Multiscale object-based drought monitoring and comparison in rainfed and irrigated agriculture from Landsat 8 OLI imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ozelkan, Emre; Chen, Gang; Ustundag, Burak Berk

2016-02-01

Drought is a rapidly rising environmental issue that can cause hardly repaired or unrepaired damages to the nature and socio-economy. This is especially true for a region that features arid/semi-arid climate, including the Turkey's most important agricultural district - Southeast Anatolia. In this area, we examined the uncertainties of applying Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) NDVI data to estimate meteorological drought - Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) - measured from 31 in-situ agro-meteorological monitoring stations during spring and summer of 2013 and 2014. Our analysis was designed to address two important, yet under-examined questions: (i) how does the co-existence of rainfed and irrigated agriculture affect remote sensing drought monitoring in an arid/semi-arid region? (ii) What is the role of spatial scale in drought monitoring using a GEOBIA (geographic object-based image analysis) framework? Results show that spatial scale exerted a higher impact on drought monitoring especially in the drier year 2013, during which small scales were found to outperform large scales in general. In addition, consideration of irrigated and rainfed areas separately ensured a better performance in drought analysis. Compared to the positive correlations between SPI and NDVI over the rainfed areas, negative correlations were determined over the irrigated agricultural areas. Finally, the time lag effect was evident in the study, i.e., strong correlations between spring SPI and summer NDVI in both 2013 and 2014. This reflects the fact that spring watering is crucial for the growth and yield of the major crops (i.e., winter wheat, barley and lentil) cultivated in the region.

Estimation of Agricultural Water Consumption from Meteorological and Yield Data: A Case Study of Hebei, North China

PubMed Central

Yuan, Zaijian; Shen, Yanjun

2013-01-01

Over-exploitation of groundwater resources for irrigated grain production in Hebei province threatens national grain food security. The objective of this study was to quantify agricultural water consumption (AWC) and irrigation water consumption in this region. A methodology to estimate AWC was developed based on Penman-Monteith method using meteorological station data (1984–2008) and existing actual ET (2002–2008) data which estimated from MODIS satellite data through a remote sensing ET model. The validation of the model using the experimental plots (50 m2) data observed from the Luancheng Agro-ecosystem Experimental Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences, showed the average deviation of the model was −3.7% for non-rainfed plots. The total AWC and irrigation water (mainly groundwater) consumption for Hebei province from 1984–2008 were then estimated as 864 km3 and 139 km3, respectively. In addition, we found the AWC has significantly increased during the past 25 years except for a few counties located in mountainous regions. Estimations of net groundwater consumption for grain food production within the plain area of Hebei province in the past 25 years accounted for 113 km3 which could cause average groundwater decrease of 7.4 m over the plain. The integration of meteorological and satellite data allows us to extend estimation of actual ET beyond the record available from satellite data, and the approach could be applicable in other regions globally where similar data are available. PMID:23516537

JMA's regional atmospheric transport model calculations for the WMO technical task team on meteorological analyses for Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident.

PubMed

Saito, Kazuo; Shimbori, Toshiki; Draxler, Roland

2015-01-01

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) convened a small technical task team of experts to produce a set of meteorological analyses to drive atmospheric transport, dispersion and deposition models (ATDMs) for the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation's assessment of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (DNPP) accident. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) collaborated with the WMO task team as the regional specialized meteorological center of the country where the accident occurred, and provided its operational 5-km resolution mesoscale (MESO) analysis and its 1-km resolution radar/rain gauge-analyzed precipitation (RAP) data. The JMA's mesoscale tracer transport model was modified to a regional ATDM for radionuclides (RATM), which included newly implemented algorithms for dry deposition, wet scavenging, and gravitational settling of radionuclide aerosol particles. Preliminary and revised calculations of the JMA-RATM were conducted according to the task team's protocol. Verification against Cesium 137 ((137)Cs) deposition measurements and observed air concentration time series showed that the performance of RATM with MESO data was significantly improved by the revisions to the model. The use of RAP data improved the (137)Cs deposition pattern but not the time series of air concentrations at Tokai-mura compared with calculations just using the MESO data. Sensitivity tests of some of the more uncertain parameters were conducted to determine their impacts on ATDM calculations, and the dispersion and deposition of radionuclides on 15 March 2011, the period of some of the largest emissions and deposition to the land areas of Japan. The area with high deposition in the northwest of Fukushima DNPP and the hotspot in the central part of Fukushima prefecture were primarily formed by wet scavenging influenced by the orographic effect of the mountainous area in the west of the Fukushima prefecture. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Agricultural implications of the Fukushima nuclear accident

PubMed Central

Nakanishi, Tomoko M.

2016-01-01

More than 4 years has passed since the accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. Immediately after the accident, 40 to 50 academic staff of the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Tokyo created an independent team to monitor the behavior of the radioactive materials in the field and their effects on agricultural farm lands, forests, rivers, animals, etc. When the radioactive nuclides from the nuclear power plant fell, they were instantly adsorbed at the site where they first touched; consequently, the fallout was found as scattered spots on the surface of anything that was exposed to the air at the time of the accident. The adsorption has become stronger over time, so the radioactive nuclides are now difficult to remove. The findings of our study regarding the wide range of effects on agricultural fields are summarized in this report. PMID:27538845

DOC/WSNSO (Department of Commerce/Weather Service Nuclear Support Office) operational support to Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mueller, P.

1989-01-01

The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the Department of Commerce. The NWS has hundreds of weather offices throughout the United States. The Weather Service Nuclear Support Office (WSNSO) is a highly specialized unit of NWS that provides direct support to the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) underground nuclear testing program. The WSNSO has been associated with the DOE for >33 yr. As a result of the unique relationship with the DOE, all WSNSO emergency response meteorologists and meteorological technicians are allowed access to classified material. Meteorological phenomena play a significant role during a Federal Radiological Monitoring andmore » Assessment Center (FRMAC) event, and WSNSO meteorologists provide direct support to ARAC. The marriage of state-of-the-art computer systems together with proven technology provides the on-scene WSNSO meteorologist with essentially a portable fully equipped, fully functional, advanced NWS weather station. The WSNSO's emergency response personnel and hardware are at the ready and can be mobilized within 2 h. WSNSO can provide on-scene weather forecasts and critical weather data collection whenever and wherever necessary.« less

The asymmetric impact of global warming on US drought types and distributions in a large ensemble of 97 hydro-climatic simulations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Huang, Shengzhi; Leng, Guoyong; Huang, Qiang

Projection of future drought is often involved large uncertainties from climate models, emission scenarios as well as drought definitions. In this study, we investigate changes in future droughts in the conterminous United States based on 97 1/8 degree hydro-climate model projections. Instead of focusing on a specific drought type, we investigate changes in meteorological, agricultural, and hydrological drought as well as the concurrences. Agricultural and hydrological droughts are projected to become more frequent with increase in global mean temperature, while less meteorological drought is expected. Changes in drought intensity scale linearly with global temperature rises under RCP8.5 scenario, indicating themore » potential feasibility to derive future drought severity given certain global warming amount under this scenario. Changing pattern of concurrent droughts generally follows that of agricultural and hydrological droughts. Under the 1.5 °C warming target as advocated in recent Paris agreement, several hot spot regions experiencing highest droughts are identified. Extreme droughts show similar patterns but with much larger magnitude than the climatology. In conclusion, this study highlights the distinct response of droughts of various types to global warming and the asymmetric impact of global warming on drought distribution resulting in a much stronger influence on extreme drought than on mean drought.« less

The asymmetric impact of global warming on US drought types and distributions in a large ensemble of 97 hydro-climatic simulations

DOE PAGES

Huang, Shengzhi; Leng, Guoyong; Huang, Qiang; ...

2017-07-19

Projection of future drought is often involved large uncertainties from climate models, emission scenarios as well as drought definitions. In this study, we investigate changes in future droughts in the conterminous United States based on 97 1/8 degree hydro-climate model projections. Instead of focusing on a specific drought type, we investigate changes in meteorological, agricultural, and hydrological drought as well as the concurrences. Agricultural and hydrological droughts are projected to become more frequent with increase in global mean temperature, while less meteorological drought is expected. Changes in drought intensity scale linearly with global temperature rises under RCP8.5 scenario, indicating themore » potential feasibility to derive future drought severity given certain global warming amount under this scenario. Changing pattern of concurrent droughts generally follows that of agricultural and hydrological droughts. Under the 1.5 °C warming target as advocated in recent Paris agreement, several hot spot regions experiencing highest droughts are identified. Extreme droughts show similar patterns but with much larger magnitude than the climatology. In conclusion, this study highlights the distinct response of droughts of various types to global warming and the asymmetric impact of global warming on drought distribution resulting in a much stronger influence on extreme drought than on mean drought.« less

A new comprehensive index for drought monitoring with TM data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yuanyuan

2017-10-01

Drought is one of the most important and frequent natural hazards to agriculture production in North China Plain. To improve agriculture water management, accurate drought monitoring information is needed. This study proposed a method for comprehensive drought monitoring by combining a meteorological index and three satellite drought indices of TM data together. SPI (Standard Precipitation Index), the meteorological drought index, is used to measure precipitation deficiency. Three satellite drought indices (Temperature Vegetation Drought Index, Land Surface Water Index, Modified Perpendicular Drought Index) are used to evaluate agricultural drought risk by exploring data from various channels (VIS, NIR, SWIR, TIR). Considering disparities in data ranges of different drought indices, normalization is implemented before combination. First, SPI is normalized to 0 — 100 given that its normal range is -4 - +4. Then, the three satellite drought indices are normalized to 0 - 100 according to the maximum and minimum values in the image, and aggregated using weighted average method (the result is denoted as ADI, Aggregated drought index). Finally, weighed geometric mean of SPI and ADI are calculated (the result is denoted as DIcombined). A case study in North China plain using three TM images acquired during April-May 2007 show that the method proposed in this study is effective. In spatial domain, DIcombined demonstrates dramatically more details than SPI; in temporal domain, DIcombined shows more reasonable drought development trajectory than satellite indices that are derived from independent TM images.

Crop Yield Simulations Using Multiple Regional Climate Models in the Southwestern United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stack, D.; Kafatos, M.; Kim, S.; Kim, J.; Walko, R. L.

2013-12-01

Agricultural productivity (described by crop yield) is strongly dependent on climate conditions determined by meteorological parameters (e.g., temperature, rainfall, and solar radiation). California is the largest producer of agricultural products in the United States, but crops in associated arid and semi-arid regions live near their physiological limits (e.g., in hot summer conditions with little precipitation). Thus, accurate climate data are essential in assessing the impact of climate variability on agricultural productivity in the Southwestern United States and other arid regions. To address this issue, we produced simulated climate datasets and used them as input for the crop production model. For climate data, we employed two different regional climate models (WRF and OLAM) using a fine-resolution (8km) grid. Performances of the two different models are evaluated in a fine-resolution regional climate hindcast experiment for 10 years from 2001 to 2010 by comparing them to the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) dataset. Based on this comparison, multi-model ensembles with variable weighting are used to alleviate model bias and improve the accuracy of crop model productivity over large geographic regions (county and state). Finally, by using a specific crop-yield simulation model (APSIM) in conjunction with meteorological forcings from the multi-regional climate model ensemble, we demonstrate the degree to which maize yields are sensitive to the regional climate in the Southwestern United States.

Impact of socioeconomic and meteorological factors on reservoirs' air quality: a case in the Three Gorges Reservoir of Chongqing (TGRC), China over a 10-year period.

PubMed

Peng, Ying; Zhou, Fengwu; Cui, Jian; Du, Ke; Leng, Qiangmei; Yang, Fumo; Chan, Andy; Zhao, Hongting

2017-07-01

The Three Gorges Dam's construction and industrial transfer have resulted in a new air pollution pattern with the potential to threaten the reservoir eco-environment. To assess the impact of socioeconomic factors on the pattern of air quality vairation and economical risks, concentrations of SO 2 , NO 2 , and PM 10 , industry genres, and meteorological conditions were selected in the Three Gorges Reservoir of Chongqing (TGRC) during 2006-2015. Results showed that air quality had improved to some extent, but atmospheric NO 2 showed an increased trend during 2011-2015. Spatially, higher atmospheric NO 2 extended to the surrounding area. The primary industry, especially for agriculture, had shown to be responsible for the remarkable increase of atmospheric NO 2 (p < 0.01) due to the direct burning of agricultural straws and the emission of livestock breeding. The improvement of regional industrial structure and industrialization benefited air pollutant reductions, but construction industries had inhibited the improvement of regional air quality. In the tertiary industry, the cargo industry at ports had significantly decreased atmospheric NO 2 as a result of eliminating the obsoleted small ships. Contrarily, the highway transportation had brought more air pollutants. The relative humidity was shown to be the main meteorological factor, which had an extremely remarkable relation with atmospheric SO 2 (p < 0.01) and a significant correlation with atmospheric NO 2 (p < 0.05), respectively. In the future, the development of agriculture and livestock breeding would make regional air quality improvement difficult, and atmospheric SO 2 , NO 2 , and PM 10 deposition would aggravate regional soil and water acidification and reactivate heavy metal in soil and sediment, further to pose a high level of ecological risk in the TGRC and other countries with reservoirs in the world.

OMI NO2 in the Central US Great Plains: How Well Do We Interpret NO2 Trends?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kollonige, D. E.; Duncan, B. N.; Thompson, A. M.; Lamsal, L. N.

2017-12-01

Several areas over the Central US show statistically significant increases in OMI NO2 levels of 10-30% in the last 10 years versus the generally decreasing trends over most of CONUS. Are these changes in OMI NO2 a result of human activity, meteorology, or a combination of both? To answer this, we examine regions in the Central US Great Plains that have multiple plausible sources for the observed trends, considering impacts of land surface changes, agriculture growth, oil and gas operations, and drought conditions. We find that changes to the land surface appear to contribute to some of the observed anomalies due to tree removal in the Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota, and additional livestock farming in the Sandhills of Nebraska. However, increasing OMI NO2 also corresponds to several areas with growing agriculture business (ex. South Dakota and Nebraska) and oil and gas activity (ex. Williston Basin in North Dakota and Permian Basin in TX). To understand the relationship between the observed NO2 variability and the regional meteorological conditions over the last decade, we analyze the time series and correlations between OMI NO2, NH3 (an agriculture tracer), surface temperature, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from Landsat, and the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). In 2012, drought conditions affect NO2, NH3 and NDVI observations across the Central US. Areas where dryland farming and livestock grazing are predominant (Central SD, ND, KS, and NE) are less sensitive to drought and changes in temperature. This suggests positive OMI NO2 trends are caused by increased production in wheats and livestock in the Northern Great Plains. These study regions in the Central US, impacted by local emissions and meteorology, are valuable for evaluating future trend analyses including the continuation of OMI-type NO2 retrievals from the TROPOMI and TEMPO satellite instruments.

Assessment of the Casualty Risk of Multiple Meteorological Hazards in China

PubMed Central

Xu, Wei; Zhuo, Li; Zheng, Jing; Ge, Yi; Gu, Zhihui; Tian, Yugang

2016-01-01

A study of the frequency, intensity, and risk of extreme climatic events or natural hazards is important for assessing the impacts of climate change. Many models have been developed to assess the risk of multiple hazards, however, most of the existing approaches can only model the relative levels of risk. This paper reports the development of a method for the quantitative assessment of the risk of multiple hazards based on information diffusion. This method was used to assess the risks of loss of human lives from 11 types of meteorological hazards in China at the prefectural and provincial levels. Risk curves of multiple hazards were obtained for each province and the risks of 10-year, 20-year, 50-year, and 100-year return periods were mapped. The results show that the provinces (municipalities, autonomous regions) in southeastern China are at higher risk of multiple meteorological hazards as a result of their geographical location and topography. The results of this study can be used as references for the management of meteorological disasters in China. The model can be used to quantitatively calculate the risks of casualty, direct economic losses, building collapse, and agricultural losses for any hazards at different spatial scales. PMID:26901210

Assessment of the Casualty Risk of Multiple Meteorological Hazards in China.

PubMed

Xu, Wei; Zhuo, Li; Zheng, Jing; Ge, Yi; Gu, Zhihui; Tian, Yugang

2016-02-17

A study of the frequency, intensity, and risk of extreme climatic events or natural hazards is important for assessing the impacts of climate change. Many models have been developed to assess the risk of multiple hazards, however, most of the existing approaches can only model the relative levels of risk. This paper reports the development of a method for the quantitative assessment of the risk of multiple hazards based on information diffusion. This method was used to assess the risks of loss of human lives from 11 types of meteorological hazards in China at the prefectural and provincial levels. Risk curves of multiple hazards were obtained for each province and the risks of 10-year, 20-year, 50-year, and 100-year return periods were mapped. The results show that the provinces (municipalities, autonomous regions) in southeastern China are at higher risk of multiple meteorological hazards as a result of their geographical location and topography. The results of this study can be used as references for the management of meteorological disasters in China. The model can be used to quantitatively calculate the risks of casualty, direct economic losses, building collapse, and agricultural losses for any hazards at different spatial scales.

Climate change adaptation options for sustainable management of agriculture in the Eastern Lower Danube Plain, Romania

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Popovici, Elena-Ana; Sima, Mihaela; Balteanu, Dan; Dragota, Carmen-Sofia; Grigorescu, Ines; Kucsicsa, Gheorghe

2013-04-01

The current study was carried out within the FP7 ECLISE project in the Eastern Lower Danube Plain (Bărăgan Plain), one of the major agricultural areas in Romania. In this region, climate change signals are becoming more evident being predominantly characterized by increasing temperatures, decreasing of precipitations and intensification of extreme events in terms of frequency, intensity and duration. Over the past decades, the effects of extreme climatic phenomena on crop production have been ever more severe (very low outputs in the droughty years, significant crop losses during flooding periods, hailstorms, etc.). Concurrently, these effects have been the result of a whole range of complex interactions with other environmental, social, economic and political factors over the post-communist period. Using questionnaires survey for small individual households and large agricultural farms, focus group interviews and direct field observation, this study analyses the farmers' perception in terms of climate change, the impact of climate change on agriculture and how the farmers react and adapt to these changes. The current study have revealed that all farmers believe drought as being by far the most important climatic factor with major impact on agricultural production, followed by acid rains, hail storms and ground frost, facts evidenced also by the climatic diagnosis of the region. The majority of respondents have taken adaptation agricultural measures in response to changes in climate conditions (drought resistant seeds, modern technology to keep the moisture in the soil, etc.), but they consider that a national strategy for mitigating the effects of climate change would be more effective in this respect. Also, in order to correlate the farmers' perception of climate change and climatic factors, the authors used and processed a wide range of meteorological data (daily, monthly and annual from the most representative meteorological stations in the study-area), as well as calculated some of relevant climatic indicators (Standardized Precipitation Index, Climatic Water Deficit and Thornthwaite Aridity Index for the main crops). These indicators frame the region in a temperate-continental climate with excessive influences, imposing specific management practices in agriculture: rehabilitation of irrigation systems, drought resistant seeds, planting forest belts, etc.).

Meteorological satellite data: A tool to describe the health of the world's agriculture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gray, T. I., Jr.; Mccrary, D. G. (Principal Investigator); Scott, L.

1981-01-01

Local area coverage data acquired aboard the TIROS-N satellite family by the advanced very high resolution radiometer systems was examined to determine the agricultural information current. Albedo differences between channel 2 and channel 1 of the advanced very high resolution radiometer LAC (called EVI) are shown to be closely correlated to the Ashburn vegetative index produced from LANDSAT multispectral scanner data which have been shown to vary in response to "greenness", soil moisture, and crop production. The statistical correlation between the EVI and the Ashburn Vegetative Index (+ or - 1 deg) is 0.86.

Impacts of Geoengineering and Nuclear War on Chinese Agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xia, L.; Robock, A.

2011-12-01

Climate is one of the most important factors determining crop yields and world food supplies. To be well prepared for possible futures, it is necessary to study yield changes of major crops under different climate scenarios. Here we consider two situations: stratospheric sulfate geoengineering and nuclear war. Although we certainly do not advocate either scenario, we cannot exclude the possibilities: if global warming is getting worse, we might have to deliberately manipulate global temperature; if nuclear weapons still exist, we might face a nuclear war catastrophe. Since in both scenarios there would be reductions of temperature, precipitation, and insolation, which are three controlling factors on crop growth, it is important to study food supply changes under the two cases. We conducted our simulations for China, because it has the highest population and crop production in the world and it is under the strong influence of the summer monsoon, which would be altered in geoengineering and nuclear war scenarios. To examine the effects of climate changes induced by geoengineering and nuclear war on Chinese agriculture, we use the DSSAT crop model. We first evaluate the model by forcing it with daily weather data and management practices for the period 1978-2008 for all the provinces in China, and compare the results to observations of the yields of major crops in China (middle season rice, winter wheat, and maize). Then we perturbed observed weather data using climate anomalies for geoengineering and nuclear war simulations using NASA GISS ModelE. For stratospheric geoengineering, we consider the injection of 5 Tg SO2 per year into the tropical lower stratosphere. For the nuclear war scenario, we consider the effects of 5 Tg of soot that could be injected into the upper troposphere by a war between India and Pakistan using only 100 Hiroshima-size atomic bombs dropped on cities. We perturbed each year of the 31-year climate record with anomalies from each year of geoengineering and nuclear war simulations for different regions in China. Without changes of agricultural technology, we found that in both climate scenarios, the national crop production decreases, but different regions responded differently, indicating that the climate under which agriculture is conducted is a key factor to determine the impacts of geoengineering and nuclear war on agriculture. In southern China, the cooling helps the rice and maize grow. In northern China, the cooling makes the temperatures so cold that it hurts crop productivity, and in western China, the reduction of precipitation causes failed crop growth. To adapt to geoengineering and nuclear war scenarios, we could substitute crops that would grow better in the perturbed climate, increase fertilizer usage, irrigate agricultural land, change planting date, or change to seeds which are tolerant of cooler and drier climates.

Agricultural drought risk monitoring and yield loss forecast with remote sensing data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagy, Attila; Tamás, János; Fehér, János

2015-04-01

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and Global Water Partnership (GWP) have launched a joint Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP) to improve monitoring and prevention of droughts. In the frame of this project this study focuses on identification of agricultural drought characteristics and elaborates a monitoring method (with application of remote sensing data), which could result in appropriate early warning of droughts before irreversible yield loss and/or quality degradation occur. The spatial decision supporting system to be developed will help the farmers in reducing drought risk of the different regions by plant specific calibrated drought indexes. The study area was the Tisza River Basin, which is located in Central Europe within the Carpathian Basin. For the investigations normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was used calculated from 16 day moving average chlorophyll intensity and biomass quantity data. The results offer concrete identification of remote sensing and GIS data tools for agricultural drought monitoring and forecast, which eventually provides information on physical implementation of drought risk levels. In the first step, we statistically normalized the crop yield maps and the MODIS satellite data. Then the drought-induced crop yield loss values were classified. The crop yield loss data were validated against the regional meteorological drought index values (SPI), the water management and soil physical data. The objective of this method was to determine the congruency of data derived from spectral data and from field measurements. As a result, five drought risk levels were developed to identify the effect of drought on yields: Watch, Early Warning, Warning, Alert and Catastrophe. In the frame of this innovation such a data link and integration, missing from decision process of IDMP, are established, which can facilitate the rapid spatial and temporal monitoring of meteorological, agricultural drought phenomena and its economic relations, increasing the time factors effectiveness of decision support system. This methodology will be extendable for other Central European countries when country specific data are available and entered into the system. This new drought risk monitoring and forecasting method is an improvement for hydrologists, meteorologists and farmers, allowing to set up a complex drought monitoring system, where for a given period and respective catchment area the expected yield loss can be predicted, and the role of vegetation in the hydrological cycle could be more precisely quantified. Based on the results more water-saving agricultural land use alternatives could be planned on drought areas.

Effect of meteorology and soil condition on metolachlor and atrazine volatilization over a 10 year period

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

A 10-year study was conducted to focus on the impact of soil and climatic factors governing herbicide volatilization from an agricultural field. For the first 5 years, metolachlor [2-chloro-N-(2-ethyl-6-methylphenyl)-N-(2-methoxy-1-methylethyl) acetamide] and atrazine [6-chloro-N-ethyl-N’-(1-methyl...

Miniature personal UV solar dosimeter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adams, R. R.; Macconochie, I. O.; Poole, B. D., Jr.

1981-01-01

Small light-powered meter measures accumulated radiation in ultraviolet or other selected regions. Practical advantages are device's low cost, small size, accuracy, and adaptability to specific wave-band measurements. Medical applications include detection of skin cancer, vitamin D production, and jaundice. Dosimeter also measures sunlight for solar energy designs, agriculture and meteorology, and monitors stability of materials and environmental and occupational lighting.

An initial assessment of SMAP soil moisture disaggregation scheme using TIR surface evaporation data over the continental United States

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission is dedicated toward global soil moisture mapping. Typically, an L-band microwave radiometer has a spatial resolution on the order of 36-40 km, which is too coarse for many specific hydro-meteorological and agricultural applications. With the failure of...

Description of historical crop calendar data bases developed to support foreign commodity production forecasting project experiments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

West, W. L., III (Principal Investigator)

1981-01-01

The content, format, and storage of data bases developed for the Foreign Commodity Production Forecasting project and used to produce normal crop calendars are described. In addition, the data bases may be used for agricultural meteorology, modeling of stage sequences and planting dates, and as indicators of possible drought and famine.

Meteorology and energy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1979-07-01

In the consideration of the meteorological aspects of energy problems, the latter is divided into three main groups: energy production, energy transport and exploration, and new energy resources. Increased energy production will have an impact on the environment. Although at present there is insufficient information for precise forecasts, meteorologists and hydrologists will be able to make reasonable assumptions for the future. Human use of energy is strongly influenced by variations of weather. Such systems as electric power transmission networks, shipping of hydrocarbons by sea, and pipelines for the transportation of large quantities of oil and gas, are all particularly sensitivemore » to weather and climate. The meteorologist provides basic data on weather and climate to facilitate energy exploration. The new energy resources addressed in this article are solar, wind, geothermal, and nuclear. The World Meteorological Organization's Executive Committee established a set of priorities in dealing with energy problems. This paper also briefly examines the burden imposed on global energy resources.« less

Climate Change Impact Assessment for Wheat and Rice Productivity, Haryana, India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rana, M.; Singh, K. K.; Kumari, N.

2017-12-01

Agriculture presents a core of the India Economy and provides food and livelihood activities to much of the Indian population. However, the changing climate is putting challenges to agriculture. The mean temperature in India is increased by 0.1-0.3 degC in Kharif and 0.3-0.7 degC during rabi by 2010, and projected to further increase by 0.4-0.2 degC during Kharif and to 1.1-4.5degC in rabi by 2070. Similarly mean rainfall is projected to increase up to 10% during kharif and rabi by 2070.At same time, there is an increased possibility of climate extremes, such as the timing of onset of monsoon, intensities and frequency of floods and droughts (S.A. Khan et al.,2009).In addition, the rapid population growth at a rate of 1.2% per annum, expected to reach 1.53 billion by the end of 2030; is also a critical issue of this century. Keeping in mind the above facts, this study is carried out in one of major agriculture state in India. The related field data collected from the ongoing experiments in agriculture universities/institutes in the respective state and observed weather data from India Meteorological Dept.(IMD), New Delhi and future climate scenarios data from India Institute of Tropical Meteorology(IITM). Validated CERES Wheat and Rice model embedded in DSSATv4.6 used for simulating the climate change impacts. The yield simulations of crop models were obtained separately for baseline and future data The simulation result indicates significant impact of climate change on both wheat and rice yield. The reason for same attributed to increase in temperature that majorly impact rabi wheat and extreme weather events for Kharif rice. Keywords: Climate Change, CERES Rice-Wheat, Yield, Validation

Drought Characterisation Using Ground and Remote Sensing Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hore, Sudipta Kumar; Werner, Micha; Maskey, Shreedhar

2016-04-01

The North-West of Bangladesh is frequently affected by drought, which may have profound impacts to different water related sectors. The characterisation and identification of drought is, however, challenging. Despite several standard drought indices being available it is important that indicators proposed in support of an effective drought management are related to the impacts drought may have. In this study we present the characterisation of drought in the districts of Rajshahi and Rangpur in North-Western Bangladesh. Drought indicators were developed using available temperature, precipitation, river discharge and groundwater level data, as well as from remotely sensed NDVI data. We compare these indicators to records of drought impacts to agriculture, fisheries and migration collected from relevant organisations, as well as through interviews with key stakeholders, key informants, and community leaders. The analysis shows that droughts occur frequently, with nine occurrences in the last 42 years, as found using common meteorological drought indicators. NDVI data corroborated these events, despite being only available from 2001. The agricultural sector was adversely impacted in all events, with impacts correlated to drought severity. Impacts to the fisheries sector were, however, reported only three times, though impacts to fisheries are less well recorded. Interestingly, the good relationship between meteorological drought indicators and agricultural impacts weakens in the last decade. This appears to be due to the intensification of irrigation using groundwater, with the declining groundwater levels found in Rajshahi district suggesting overexploitation of the resource, and the increasing importance of groundwater drought indicators. The study reveals the drought indicators that are important to the agriculture and fisheries sectors, and also tentative threshold values at which drought start to impact these sectors. Such sector relevant drought indicators, as well as appropriate thresholds, can be useful in drought identification and management.

Modeling of pesticide emissions from agricultural ecosystems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Rong

2012-04-01

Pesticides are applied to crops and soils to improve agricultural yields, but the use of pesticides has become highly regulated because of concerns about their adverse effects on human health and environment. Estimating pesticide emission rates from soils and crops is a key component for risk assessment for pesticide registration, identification of pesticide sources to the contamination of sensitive ecosystems, and appreciation of transport and fate of pesticides in the environment. Pesticide emission rates involve processes occurring in the soil, in the atmosphere, and on vegetation surfaces and are highly dependent on soil texture, agricultural practices, and meteorology, which vary significantly with location and/or time. To take all these factors into account for simulating pesticide emissions from large agricultural ecosystems, this study coupled a comprehensive meteorological model with a dynamic pesticide emission model. The combined model calculates hourly emission rates from both emission sources: current applications and soil residues resulting from historical use. The coupled modeling system is used to compute a gridded (36 × 36 km) hourly toxaphene emission inventory for North America for the year 2000 using a published U.S. toxaphene residue inventory and a Mexican toxaphene residue inventory developed using its historical application rates and a cropland inventory. To my knowledge, this is the first such hourly toxaphene emission inventory for North America. Results show that modeled emission rates have strong diurnal and seasonal variations at a given location and over the entire domain. The simulated total toxaphene emission from contaminated agricultural soils in North America in 2000 was about 255 t, which compares reasonably well to a published annual estimate. Most emissions occur in spring and summer, with domain-wide emission rates in April, May and, June of 36, 51, and 35 t/month, respectively. The spatial distribution of emissions depends on the distribution of toxaphene soil residues, and high emission rates coincide with heavily contaminated areas.

Mining Environmental Data from a Coupled Modelling System to Examine the Impact of Agricultural Management Practices on Groundwater and Air Quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garcia, V.; Cooter, E. J.; Hayes, B.; Murphy, M. S.; Bash, J. O.

2014-12-01

Excess nitrogen (N) resulting from current agricultural management practices can leach into sources of drinking water as nitrate, increasing human health risks of 'blue baby syndrome', hypertension, and some cancers and birth defects. Nitrogen also enters the atmosphere from land surfaces forming air pollution increasing human health risks of pulmonary and cardio-vascular disease. Characterizing and attributing nitrogen from agricultural management practices is difficult due to the complex and inter-related chemical and biological reactions associated with the nitrogen cascade. Coupled physical process-based models, however, present new opportunities to investigate relationships among environmental variables on new scales; particularly because they link emission sources with meteorology and the pollutant concentration ultimately found in the environment. In this study, we applied a coupled meteorology (NOAA-WRF), agricultural (USDA-EPIC) and air quality modelling system (EPA-CMAQ) to examine the impact of nitrogen inputs from corn production on ecosystem and human health and wellbeing. The coupled system accounts for the nitrogen flux between the land surface and air, and the soil surface and groundwater, providing a unique opportunity to examine the effect of management practices such as type and timing of fertilization, tilling and irrigation on both groundwater and air quality across the conterminous US. In conducting the study, we first determined expected relationships based on literature searches and then identified model variables as direct or surrogate variables. We performed extensive and methodical multi-variate regression modelling and variable selection to examine associations between agricultural management practices and environmental condition. We then applied the regression model to predict and contrast pollution levels between two corn production scenarios (Figure 1). Finally, we applied published health functions (e.g., spina bifida and cardio-vascular mortality rates) and economic impact functions (e.g., loss of work/school days, decontamination of drinking water wells). The results of this analysis will be presented at the conference.

North-south differences in Chinese agricultural losses due to climate-change-influenced droughts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qiang, Zhang; Lanying, Han; Jingjing, Lin; Qingyan, Cheng

2018-01-01

One of the effects of global climate change is increase in the frequency and severity of drought, which strongly affects the Chinese agricultural production. In order to cope these changes more effectively, it is important to document and analyze the agricultural losses caused by drought. We collected and analyzed conventional meteorological data and agricultural statistics data, in order to outline trends in drought occurrence and decline in agricultural yield. Data were assembled for the period 1960-2010. The study pays particular attention to regional differences between northern and southern China. Our results show the drought-caused agricultural loss rates (DCALR) in China have increased by approximately 0.5% per decade in the past 50 years. The study area in this paper is for the whole of the People's Republic of China, minus the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau; when we analyzed regional differences, we found that losses increased by approximately 0.6% per decade in northern China, close to twice the increase in southern China. Moreover, drought risks and agricultural losses are rising faster in northern China. Our results also indicate that the agriculture in northern China is more sensitive to changes in precipitation, whereas the agriculture in southern China is more sensitive to temperature changes.

[Changes of China agricultural climate resources under the background of climate change. II. Spatiotemporal change characteristics of agricultural climate resources in Southwest China].

PubMed

Dai, Shu-Wei; Yang, Xiao-Guang; Zhao, Meng; Li, Yong; Wang, Wen-Feng; Liu, Zhi-Juan

2011-02-01

Based on the 1961-2007 ground observation data from 88 meteorological stations in Southwest China, and by using statistical methods and GIS software, this paper analyzed the spatiotemporal change characteristics of agricultural climate resources in this region in the whole year and during temperature-defined growth period. In 1961-2007, the annual mean temperature in the region showed an increasing trend, with the increment averaged 0.18 degrees C x (10 a)(-1). The > or = 10 degrees C and > or = 15 degrees C accumulated temperature during temperature-defined growth period also showed an increasing trend, with the increment averaged 55.3 degrees C x d x (10 a)(-1) and 37 degrees C x d x (10 a)(-1), respectively. The annual sunshine hours decreased gradually from west to east, and the decreasing trend was more significant in eastern than in western region. The sunshine hours during temperature-defined growth period showed an overall increasing trend, and the spatial difference was great. The precipitation resource had an overall decrease, with the decrement in whole year and during temperature-defined growth period averaged 10 mm x (10 a)(-1) and 8 mm x (10 a)(-1), respectively. The annual reference crop evapotranspiration generally decreased, but the decrement was less than that of annual precipitation. The reference crop evapotranspiration during temperature-defined growth period within about 53% meteorological stations decreased.

Interannual Variability of Ammonia Concentrations over the United States: Sources and Implications for Inorganic Particulate Matter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schiferl, L. D.; Heald, C. L.; Van Damme, M.; Pierre-Francois, C.; Clerbaux, C.

2015-12-01

Modern agricultural practices have greatly increased the emission of ammonia (NH3) to the atmosphere. Recent controls to reduce the emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides (SOX and NOX) have increased the importance of understanding the role ammonia plays in the formation of surface fine inorganic particulate matter (PM2.5) in the United States. In this study, we identify the interannual variability in ammonia concentration, explore the sources of this variability and determine their contribution to the variability in surface PM2.5 concentration. Over the summers of 2008-2012, measurements from the Ammonia Monitoring Network (AMoN) and the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) satellite instrument show considerable variability in both surface and column ammonia concentrations (+/- 29% and 28% of the mean), respectively. This observed variability is larger than that simulated by the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model, where meteorology dominates the variability in ammonia and PM2.5 concentrations compared to the changes caused by SOX and NOX reductions. Our initial simulation does not include year-to-year changes in ammonia agricultural emissions. We use county-wide information on fertilizer sales and livestock populations, as well as meteorological variations to account for the interannual variability in agricultural activity and ammonia volatilization. These sources of ammonia emission variability are important for replicating observed variations in ammonia and PM2.5, highlighting how accurate ammonia emissions characterization is central to PM air quality prediction.

Temporal downscaling of crop coefficients for winter wheat in the North China Plain: A case study at the Gucheng ecological-meteorological experimental station

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The crop coefficient (Kc) method is widely used for operational estimation of actual evapotranspiration (ETa) and crop water requirements. The standard method for obtaining Kc is via a lookup table from FAO-56 (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Irrigation and Drainage Paper No....

ERTS-B (Earth Resources Technology Satellite). [spacecraft design remote sensor description, and technology utilization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1975-01-01

Mission plans and objectives of the ERTS 2 Satellite are presented. ERTS 2 follow-on investigations in various scientific disciplines including agriculture, meteorology, land-use, geology, water resources, oceanography, and environment are discussed. Spacecraft design and its sensors are described along with the Delta launch vehicle and launch operations. Applications identified from ERTS 1 investigations are summarized.

Multidisciplinary studies of the social, economic and political impact resulting from recent advances in satellite meteorology. Volume 6: Executive summary. [technological forecasting spacecraft control/attitude (inclination) -classical mechanics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1975-01-01

An assessment of the technological impact of modern satellite weather forecasting for the United States is presented. Topics discussed are: (1) television broadcasting of weather; (2) agriculture (crop production); (3) water resources; (4) urban development; (5) recreation; and (6) transportation.

Indonesian drought monitoring from space. A report of SAFE activity: Assessment of drought impact on rice production in Indonesia by satellite remote sensing and dissemination with web-GIS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shofiyati, Rizatus; Takeuchi, Wataru; Sofan, Parwati; Darmawan, Soni; Awaluddin; Supriatna, Wahyu

2014-06-01

Long droughts experienced in Indonesia in the past are identified as one of the main factors in the failure of rice production. In this regard, special attention to monitor the condition is encouraged to reduce the damage. Currently, various satellite data and approaches can withdraw valuable information for monitoring and anticipating drought hazards. Two types of drought, Meteorology and Agriculture, have been assessed. During the last 10 years, daily and monthly rainfall data derived from TRMM and GSMaP. MTSAT and AMSR-E data have been analyzed to identify meteorological drought. Agricultural drought has been studied by observing the character of some indices (EVI, VCI, VHI, LST, and NDVI) of sixteen-day and monthly MODIS data at a period of 5 years (2009 - 2013). Network for data transfer has been built between LAPAN (data provider), ICALRD (implementer), IAARD Cloud Computing, and University of Tokyo (technical supporter). A Web-GIS based Drought Monitoring Information System has been developed to disseminate the information to end users. This paper describes the implementation of remote sensing drought monitoring model and development of Web-GIS and satellite based information system.

Spatiotemporal analysis of hydro-meteorological drought in the Johor River Basin, Malaysia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tan, Mou Leong; Chua, Vivien P.; Li, Cheng; Brindha, K.

2018-02-01

Assessment of historical hydro-meteorological drought is important to develop a robust drought monitoring and prediction system. This study aims to assess the historical hydro-meteorological drought of the Johor River Basin (JRB) from 1975 to 2010, an important basin for the population of southern Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standardized Streamflow Index (SSI) were selected to represent the meteorological and hydrological droughts, respectively. Four absolute homogeneity tests were used to assess the rainfall data from 20 stations, and two stations were flagged by these tests. Results indicate the SPI duration to be comparatively low (3 months), and drier conditions occur over the upper JRB. The annual SSI had a strong decreasing trend at 95% significance level, showing that human activities such as reservoir construction and agriculture (oil palm) have a major influence on streamflow in the middle and lower basin. In addition, moderate response rate of SSI to SPI was found, indicating that hydrological drought could also have occurred in normal climate condition. Generally, the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Madden Julian Oscillation have greater impacts on drought events in the basin. Findings of this study could be beneficial for future drought projection and water resources management.

Introduction: Historical perspective on the HCMM program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1982-01-01

When some thermal radiation sensitive devices on U.S. meteorological satellites generated low resolution images showing temperature variations on Earth's land and sea surfaces during the middle 1960's, interest was aroused in the potential of thermal sensing in geology, agriculture, soil moisture, ground water, water temperature, and vegetation applications. The concept of using the property of thermal inertia to identify materials, particularly those of a geologic nature can be traced to the same time period that marks the flight of the first LANDSAT - Spacecraft systems and their performance, and capabilities are reviewed as well as achievements in hydrology, geology, agriculture, pedology, and urban climate effects applications.

[Nuclear transfer and therapeutic cloning].

PubMed

Xu, Xiao-Ming; Lei, An-Min; Hua, Jin-Lian; Dou, Zhong-Ying

2005-03-01

Nuclear transfer and therapeutic cloning have widespread and attractive prospects in animal agriculture and biomedical applications. We reviewed that the quality of oocytes and nuclear reprogramming of somatic donor cells were the main reasons of the common abnormalities in cloned animals and the low efficiency of cloning and showed the problems and outlets in therapeutic cloning, such as some basic problems in nuclear transfer affected clinical applications of therapeutic cloning. Study on isolation and culture of nuclear transfer embryonic stem (ntES) cells and specific differentiation of ntES cells into important functional cells should be emphasized and could enhance the efficiency. Adult stem cells could help to cure some great diseases, but could not replace therapeutic cloning. Ethics also impeded the development of therapeutic cloning. It is necessary to improve many techniques and reinforce the research of some basic theories, then somatic nuclear transfer and therapeutic cloning may apply to agriculture reproduction and benefit to human life better.

Comparative analysis of meteorological and hydrological drought in the Pearl River basin during the period 1960-2012

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, K.; Wu, C.; Hu, B.; Niu, J.

2017-12-01

Drought is one of the major natural hazards that can have devastating impacts on the regional environment, agriculture, and water resources. Previous studies have conducted the assessment of historic changes in meteorological drought over various regional scales but rarely considered hydrological drought due to limited hydrological observations. Here, we use a long-term (1960-2012) gridded hydro-meteorological data to present a comparative analysis of meteorological and hydrological drought in the Pearl River basin in southern China using the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and the standardized runoff index (SRI). The variation in SPI and SRI at four different timescales (1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month) is investigated using the Mann-Kendall (M-K) method and continuous wavelet transform (CWT). The results indicate that the correlation between SPI and SRI is strong over the Pearl River basin and tends to be stronger at the longer timescale. Meanwhile, the periodic oscillation pattern of SPI becomes more consistent with that of SRI with the increased timescale. The SPI can be used as a substitute for SRI to represent the hydrological drought at the long-term scale. Overall there is a noticeably wetting trend mainly in the eastern parts and a significant drying trend mainly in the western regions and the downstream area of the Pearl River basin. The variability of meteorological drought is significant mainly in the eastern and western regions, while the variability of hydrological drought tends to be larger mainly in the western region. CWT analysis indicates a period of 0.75-7 years in both meteorological and hydrological droughts during the period 1960-2012 in the study region.

COST 734-CLIVAGRI: Impacts of Climate change and Variability on European Agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orlandini, S.; Nejedlik, P.; Eitzinger, J.; Alexandrov, V.; Toulios, L.; Kajfez Bogataj, L.; Calanca, P.; Trnka, M.; Olesen, J. E.

2009-09-01

COST is an intergovernmental framework for European Cooperation in Science and Technology, funded by its member countries through the EU Framework Programme. The objective of COST is to coordinate, integrate and synthesise results from ongoing national research within and between COST member countries to add value to research investment. COST Actions aim to deliver scientific syntheses and analyses of best available practice to aid problem identification, risk assessment, public utilities and policy development. During 2006, COST Action 734 (CLIVAGRI-Impacts of Climate Change and Variability on European Agriculture) was launched thanks to the coordinated activity of 15 EU countries. The main objective of the Action is the evaluation of possible impacts from climate change and variability on agriculture and the assessment of critical thresholds for various European areas (COST 734 MoU. www.cost.esf.org). Secondary objectives are: the collection and review of existing agroclimatic indices and simulation models, to assess hazard impacts on various European agricultural areas relating hazards to climatic conditions; building climate scenarios for the next few decades; the definition of harmonised criteria to evaluate the impacts of climate change and variability on agriculture; the definition of warning systems guidelines. Four working groups, with the integration of remote sensing sub working group 2.1 were created to address these aims: WG1 - Agroclimatic indices and simulation models WG2 - Evaluation of the current trends of agroclimatic indices and simulation model outputs describing agricultural impacts and hazard levels WG3 - Development and assessment of future regional and local scenarios of agroclimatic conditions WG4 - Risk assessment and foreseen impacts on agriculture The activity of WGs has been structured like a matrix, presenting on the rows the methods of analysis and on the columns the phenomena and the hazards. Each intersection point describes the evaluation of past, present and future trends of climate and thus the impacts on agriculture. Based on these results, possible actions (specific recommendations, suggestions, warning systems) will be elaborated and proposed to the end-users, depending on their needs. At present 28 countries join the Action with the collaboration of Agricultural Meteorology Division - Word Meteorology Organization and Ispra- IPSC- AGRIFISH UNIT - Joint Research Centre. Time schedule of activity includes three main phases: • Planning, operational arrangements, establishment of WGs and inventory. • Main scientific work to be conducted by each WG. • WGs activities to be concluded with emphasis on disseminations, reports and final publications.

Stakeholder involvement facilitates decision making for UK nuclear accident recovery.

PubMed

Alexander, C; Burt, R; Nisbet, A F

2005-01-01

The importance of major stakeholders participating in the formulation of strategies for maintaining food safety and agricultural production following a nuclear accident has been successfully demonstrated by the UK 'Agriculture and Food Countermeasures Working Group' (AFCWG). The organisation, membership and terms of reference of the group are described. Details are given of the achievements of the AFCWG and its sub-groups, which include agreeing management options that would be included in a recovery handbook for decision-makers in the UK and tackling the disposal of large volumes of contaminated milk, potentially resulting from a nuclear accident.

Decadal reduction of Chinese agriculture after a regional nuclear war

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xia, Lili; Robock, Alan; Mills, Michael; Stenke, Andrea; Helfand, Ira

2015-02-01

A regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan could decrease global surface temperature by 1°C-2°C for 5-10 years and have major impacts on precipitation and solar radiation reaching Earth's surface. Using a crop simulation model forced by three global climate model simulations, we investigate the impacts on agricultural production in China, the largest grain producer in the world. In the first year after the regional nuclear war, a cooler, drier, and darker environment would reduce annual rice production by 30 megaton (Mt) (29%), maize production by 36 Mt (20%), and wheat production by 23 Mt (53%). With different agriculture management—no irrigation, auto irrigation, 200 kg/ha nitrogen fertilizer, and 10 days delayed planting date—simulated national crop production reduces 16%-26% for rice, 9%-20% for maize, and 32%-43% for wheat during 5 years after the nuclear war event. This reduction of food availability would continue, with gradually decreasing amplitude, for more than a decade. Assuming these impacts are indicative of those in other major grain producers, a nuclear war using much less than 1% of the current global arsenal could produce a global food crisis and put a billion people at risk of famine.

Future state of the climate change, mitigation and development of sustainable agriculture in Bulgaria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kazandjiev, V.; Georgieva, V.; Moteva, M.; Marinova, T.; Dimitrov, P.

2010-09-01

The farming is one of the most important branches that bring the increase to the gross internal production in Bulgaria. At the same time, the agriculture is the only branch, as in home, so in world scale in which the made as well direct production spending and investing regenerating (or not) only in the frameworks to one vegetative season. In addition on this, development of the intensive farming without using the most advanced technologies such as irrigation, automation, selection - for obtaining stable cultivars and hybrids, permanent weather monitoring and agroclimatic zoning and integrated and biochemical protection to the cultures and plantations had not possible. Analysis of long-term meteorological data from different regions shows clear tendencies to warming and drying for the period of contemporary climate (1971-2000) as well in Bulgaria. Hydro-meteorological conditions in the country are worsened. The most entire estimate is made from the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) 2007. Most of authors proven that the last decades are really warmest for last century, even for the entire period of the most instrumental observations. The causes for global warming was long time debatable, but the last investigations prove it anthropogenetic derive. The main goal of the paper is framing in conditions of the expected climate changes in our country for period 2020-2050-2070 and the most likely impacts on the agriculture with inspection padding to the consequences in them and making physical conditions for development of proof farming in production regions of the country. By the means of the systematized database of meteorological and agrometeorological data which we have at disposition for the period of this survey (1971-2000); Provide assignment of the expected climatic changes according to the scenarios in the centers for observing and investigations of climatic changes in Europe, US., Canada and Australia (ECHAM 4, HadCM 2, CGCM 1, CSIRO-MK2 Bs and GFDL-Rs15) for the periods until 2020-2050-2070. Recover the growth, development and the productivity of the agricultural crops by means of the simulation models as WOFOST, DSSAT and calculation the reference evapotranspiration by CROPWAT model for the production conditions of the country and in correspondence with expected climatic changes; Actualization of existing agroclimatic zoning in Bulgaria for growing main for agriculture field crops, fruits, vegetables, vineyards and forage herbs. Was determinate regions for irrigation and appropriate crops and low-favored for agriculture regions with connection of expected changes 2020-2050-2070. It was investigated relations between the biological (stages of phenological development and yields) and agroclimatic (temperatures, precipitations, soil moisture content, balance of NPK in soils etc.); Find of resources indices and hydrothermal indices for agroclimatic conditions and their applicability. Start process of structuring of agricultural production in dependence from the real and potential resources of the six regions of the country further to the expected climatic changes in 2020-2050-2070. Finally was prepared recommendations for agroclimatic zoning in the practices on the state administration and MAF, investing policy for concentration of National and European funds for farming and insurance companies at determining the their insurance policy.

Safety on Earth From MARSS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

ENSCO, Inc., developed the Meteorological and Atmospheric Real-time Safety Support (MARSS) system for real-time assessment of meteorological data displays and toxic material spills. MARSS also provides mock scenarios to guide preparations for emergencies involving meteorological hazards and toxic substances. Developed under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with Kennedy Space Center, MARSS was designed to measure how safe NASA and Air Force range safety personnel are while performing weather sensitive operations around launch pads. The system augments a ground operations safety plan that limits certain work operations to very specific weather conditions. It also provides toxic hazard prediction models to assist safety managers in planning for and reacting to releases of hazardous materials. MARSS can be used in agricultural, industrial, and scientific applications that require weather forecasts and predictions of toxic smoke movement. MARSS is also designed to protect urban areas, seaports, rail facilities, and airports from airborne releases of hazardous chemical substances. The system can integrate with local facility protection units and provide instant threat detection and assessment data that is reportable for local and national distribution.

Climate Trends and Farmers' Perceptions of Climate Change in Zambia.

PubMed

Mulenga, Brian P; Wineman, Ayala; Sitko, Nicholas J

2017-02-01

A number of studies use meteorological records to analyze climate trends and assess the impact of climate change on agricultural yields. While these provide quantitative evidence on climate trends and the likely effects thereof, they incorporate limited qualitative analysis of farmers' perceptions of climate change and/or variability. The present study builds on the quantitative methods used elsewhere to analyze climate trends, and in addition compares local narratives of climate change with evidence found in meteorological records in Zambia. Farmers offer remarkably consistent reports of a rainy season that is growing shorter and less predictable. For some climate parameters-notably, rising average temperature-there is a clear overlap between farmers' observations and patterns found in the meteorological records. However, the data do not support the perception that the rainy season used to begin earlier, and we generally do not detect a reported increase in the frequency of dry spells. Several explanations for these discrepancies are offered. Further, we provide policy recommendations to help farmers adapt to climate change/variability, as well as suggestions to shape future climate change policies, programs, and research in developing countries.

A Downturn of the Strong Winter-Warming Trend In Europe

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Otterman, Joseph; Atlas, Robert; Bungato, Dennis; Koslowsky, Dirk; Wos, Alojzy; Atlas, Robert (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Surface-air temperatures measured in winter at 3 meteorological stations in central Europe rise substantially for most of the second-half of the 20th century. This means shorter winter, and longer growing season, which has positive implications for regional agriculture. However, these positive trends stopped in winter of 1996, and for the recent 7 years no further climatic amelioration is reported.

Support of imaging radar for the shuttle system and subsystem definition study, phase 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1974-01-01

An orbital microwave imaging radar system suggested for use in conjunction with the space shuttle is presented. Several applications of the system are described, including agriculture, meteorology, terrain analysis, various types of mapping, petroleum and mineral exploration, oil spill detection and sea and lake ice monitoring. The design criteria, which are based on the requirements of the above applications, are discussed.

On the origins of "superfog" -a combination of smoke and water vapor that produces zero visibility over roadways

Treesearch

Gary L. Achtemeier

2003-01-01

Southern land managers use prescribed fire to treat 6 to 8 million acres (2-3 ha) of forest and agricultural lands in the Southern states each year. Although the vast majority of prescribed burns are carried out without incident, there are occasions when meteorological conditions combine with residual smoke to compromise visibility. Multiple-vehicle pileups, numerous...

Instantaneous and daily values of the surface energy balance over agricultural fields using remote sensing and a reference field in an arid environment

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kustas, William P.; Moran, M.S.; Jackson, R. D.; Gay, L.W.; Duell, L.F.W.; Kunkel, K.E.; Matthias, A.D.

1990-01-01

Remotely sensed surface temperature and reflectance in the visible and near infrared wavebands along with ancilliary meteorological data provide the capability of computing three of the four surface energy balance components (i.e., net radiation, soil heat flux, and sensible heat flux) at different spatial and temporal scales. As a result, under nonadvective conditions, this enables the estimation of the remaining term (i.e., the latent heat flux). One of the practical applications with this approach is to produce evapotranspiration (ET) maps for agricultural regions which consist of an array of fields containing different crops at varying stages of growth and soil moisture conditions. Such a situation exists in the semiarid southwest at the University of Arizona Maricopa Agricultural Center, south of Phoenix. For one day (14 June 1987), surface temperature and reflectance measurements from an aircraft 150 m above ground level (agl) were acquired over fields from zero to nearly full cover at four times between 1000 MST and 1130 MST. The diurnal pattern of the surface energy balance was measured over four fields, which included alfalfa at 60% cover, furrowed cotton at 20% and 30% cover, and partially plowed what stubble. Instantaneous and daily values of ET were estimated for a representative area around each flux site with an energy balance model that relies on a reference ET. This reference value was determined with remotely sensed data and several meteorological inputs. The reference ET was adjusted to account for the different surface conditions in the other fields using only remotely sensed variables. A comparison with the flux measurements suggests the model has difficulties with partial canopy conditions, especially related to the estimation of the sensible heat flux. The resulting errors for instantaneous ET were on the order of 100 W m-2 and for daily values of order 2 mm day-1. These findings suggest future research should involve development of methods to account for the variability of meteorological parameters brought about by changes in surface conditions and improvements in the modeling of sensible heat transfer across the surface-atmosphere interface for partial canopy conditions using remote sensing information. ?? 1990.

The NSET Subcommittee | Nano

Science.gov Websites

Charles Ying Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Brian Thomas* U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA ) Agriculture Research Service (ARS) James Lindsay Forest Service (FS) World L.S. Nieh National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Hongda Chen U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) Elizabeth R

Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Consequence Management

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear CMAD provides scientific support and technical expertise for decontamination of buildings, building contents, public infrastructure, agriculture, and associated environmental media.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vandenhove, Hildegarde

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has raised questions about the accumulation of radionuclides in soils, the transfer in the food chain and the possibility of continued restricted future land use. This paper summarizes what is generally understood about the application of agricultural countermeasures as a land management option to reduce the radionuclides transfer in the food chain and to facilitate the return of potentially affected soils to agricultural practices in areas impacted by a nuclear accident. (authors)

Terral De Vicuna, a Foehnlike Wind in Semiarid Northern Chile: Meteorological Aspects and Implications for the Fulfillment of Chill Requirements in Deciduous Fruit Trees

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Montes, Carlo; Rutllant, Jose A.; Aguirre, Anita; Bascunan-Godoy, Luisa; Julia, Cristobal

2016-01-01

The terral de Vicuña is a warm and dry wind that flows down the Elqui Valley in north-central Chile typically at dawn and early morning. Given that most terral episodes occur in austral winter when chill accumulation by deciduous fruit trees proceeds, negative effects on agriculture may be expected. During 11 (2004-14) winters a meteorological characterization of terral winds and the assessment of their impact on chill accumulation, by the modified Utah Model and the Dynamic Model, were performed. Within this period, 67 terral days (TD) were identified as those in which nighttime to early morning wind direction and speed, air temperature, and relative humidity reached defined thresholds on an hourly basis (terral hours). Most frequent TD featured 6-9 consecutive terral hours; duration is considered here as a proxy for their intensity. Synoptic-scale meteorological analysis shows that 65% of moderate and strong terral events develop as a cold, migratory anticyclone drifts poleward of the study area, coinciding with the onset of a midtropospheric ridge over central Chile, bringing southwest winds on top of the Andes (approximately 500-hPa level). The remaining 35% are either associated with 500-hPa easterlies (foehn like), with prefrontal conditions ahead of a trough driving northwest 500-hPa winds, or with transitional 500-hPa westerlies.Assessments of chill accumulation during TD show that, although present average and cold winter conditions do not represent a major TD hazard to local agriculture, lower chill accumulation associated with anomalously high nocturnal temperatures could be significantly more important during present and future warmer winters.

Implementing Climate Services in Peru: CLIMANDES Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lavado-Casimiro, Waldo; Mauchle, Fabian; Diaz, Amelia; Seiz, Gabriela; Rubli, Alex; Rossa, Andrea; Rosas, Gabriela; Ita, Niceforo; Calle, Victoria; Villegas, Esequiel; Ambrosetti, Paolo; Brönnimann, Stefan; Hunziker, Stefan; Jacques, Martin; Croci-Maspoli, Mischa; Konzelmann, Thomas; Gubler, Stefanie; Rohrer, Mario

2014-05-01

The climate variability and change will have increasing influence on the economic and social development of all countries and regions, such as the Andes in Latin America. The CLIMANDES project (Climate services to support decision-making in the Andean Region) will address these issues in Peru. CLIMANDES supports the WMO Regional Training Centre (RTC) in Lima, which is responsible for the training of specialized human resources in meteorology and climatology in the South American Andes (Module 1). Furthermore, CLIMANDES will provide high-quality climate services to inform policy makers in the Andean region (Module 2). It is coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and constitutes a pilot project under the umbrella of the WMO-led Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS). The project is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and runs from August 2012 - July 2015. Module 1 focuses on restructuring the curricula of Meteorology at the La Molina Agraria University (UNALM) and applied training of meteorologists of the Peruvian National Service of Meteorology and Hydrology (SENAMHI). In Module 2, the skills will be shared and developed in the production and delivery of high-quality climate products and services tailored to the needs of the decision makers in the pilot regions Cusco and Junín. Such services will benefit numerous sectors including agriculture, education, health, tourism, energy, transport and others. The goals of the modules 1 and 2 will be achieved through the collaboration of the UNALM, SENAMHI and the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, with the support of the University of Bern (UNIBE), Meteodat and WMO.

Atmospheric transport of radioactive debris to Norway in case of a hypothetical accident related to the recovery of the Russian submarine K-27.

PubMed

Bartnicki, Jerzy; Amundsen, Ingar; Brown, Justin; Hosseini, Ali; Hov, Øystein; Haakenstad, Hilde; Klein, Heiko; Lind, Ole Christian; Salbu, Brit; Szacinski Wendel, Cato C; Ytre-Eide, Martin Album

2016-01-01

The Russian nuclear submarine K-27 suffered a loss of coolant accident in 1968 and with nuclear fuel in both reactors it was scuttled in 1981 in the outer part of Stepovogo Bay located on the eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya. The inventory of spent nuclear fuel on board the submarine is of concern because it represents a potential source of radioactive contamination of the Kara Sea and a criticality accident with potential for long-range atmospheric transport of radioactive particles cannot be ruled out. To address these concerns and to provide a better basis for evaluating possible radiological impacts of potential releases in case a salvage operation is initiated, we assessed the atmospheric transport of radionuclides and deposition in Norway from a hypothetical criticality accident on board the K-27. To achieve this, a long term (33 years) meteorological database has been prepared and used for selection of the worst case meteorological scenarios for each of three selected locations of the potential accident. Next, the dispersion model SNAP was run with the source term for the worst-case accident scenario and selected meteorological scenarios. The results showed predictions to be very sensitive to the estimation of the source term for the worst-case accident and especially to the sizes and densities of released radioactive particles. The results indicated that a large area of Norway could be affected, but that the deposition in Northern Norway would be considerably higher than in other areas of the country. The simulations showed that deposition from the worst-case scenario of a hypothetical K-27 accident would be at least two orders of magnitude lower than the deposition observed in Norway following the Chernobyl accident. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Cyber Mutual Assistance Workshop Report

DTIC Science & Technology

2018-02-01

Information Technology, Nuclear Reactors, Materials/Waste, Defense Industrial Base, Critical Manufacturing, Food/ Agriculture Government Facilities and...Manufacturing, Food/ Agriculture Government Facilities and Chemical, Commercial Facilities [DHS 2017c]. Distributed Energy Resources (DER) are

'RCHX-1-STORM' first Slovenian meteorological rocket program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kerstein, Aleksander; Matko, Drago; Trauner, Amalija; Britovšek, Zvone

2004-08-01

Astronautic and Rocket Society Celje (ARSC) formed a special working team for research and development of a small meteorological hail suppression rocket in the 70th. The hail suppression system was established in former Yugoslavia in the late 60th as an attempt to protect important agricultural regions from one of the summer's most vicious storm. In this time Slovenia was a part of Yugoslavia as one of the federal republic with relative high developed agricultural region production. The Rocket program 'RCHX-STORM' was a second attempt, for Slovenia indigenously developed in the production of meteorological hail suppression rocket. ARSC has designed a family of small sounding rocket that were based on highly promising hybrid propellant propulsion. Hybrid propulsion was selected for this family because it was offering low cost, save production and operation and simple logistics. Conventional sounding rockets use solid propellant motor for their propulsion. The introduction of hybrid motors has enabled a considerable decrease in overall cost. The transportation handling and storage procedures were greatly simplified due to the fact that a hybrid motor was not considered as explosive matter. A hybrid motor may also be designed to stand a severe environment without resorting to conditioning arrangements. The program started in the late 70th when the team ARSC was integrated in the Research and Development Institute in Celje (RDIC). The development program aimed to produce three types of meteorological rockets with diameters 76, 120 and 160 mm. Development of the RCHX-76 engine and rocket vehicle including flight certification has been undertaken by a joint team comprising of the ARCS, RDIC and the company Cestno podjetje Celje (CPC), Road building company Celje. Many new techniques and methods were used in this program such as computer simulation of external and internal ballistics, composite materials for rocket construction, intensive static testing of models and flight configuration with long flight-testing program. The main features of this project were discussed in this paper, summarizing the history of the development of the RCHX-STORM rockets family.

Fallout Deposition in the Marshall Islands from Bikini and Enewetak Nuclear Weapons Tests

PubMed Central

Beck, Harold L.; Bouville, André; Moroz, Brian E.; Simon, Steven L.

2009-01-01

Deposition densities (Bq m-2) of all important dose-contributing radionuclides occurring in nuclear weapons testing fallout from tests conducted at Bikini and Enewetak Atolls (1946-1958) have been estimated on a test-specific basis for all the 31 atolls and separate reef islands of the Marshall Islands. A complete review of various historical and contemporary data, as well as meteorological analysis, was used to make judgments regarding which tests deposited fallout in the Marshall Islands and to estimate fallout deposition density. Our analysis suggested that only 20 of the 66 nuclear tests conducted in or near the Marshall Islands resulted in substantial fallout deposition on any of the 25 inhabited atolls. This analysis was confirmed by the fact that the sum of our estimates of 137Cs deposition from these 20 tests at each atoll is in good agreement with the total 137Cs deposited as estimated from contemporary soil sample analyses. The monitoring data and meteorological analyses were used to quantitatively estimate the deposition density of 63 activation and fission products for each nuclear test, plus the cumulative deposition of 239+240Pu at each atoll. Estimates of the degree of fractionation of fallout from each test at each atoll, as well as of the fallout transit times from the test sites to the atolls were used in this analysis. The estimates of radionuclide deposition density, fractionation, and transit times reported here are the most complete available anywhere and are suitable for estimations of both external and internal dose to representative persons as described in companion papers. PMID:20622548

Fallout deposition in the Marshall Islands from Bikini and Enewetak nuclear weapons tests.

PubMed

Beck, Harold L; Bouville, André; Moroz, Brian E; Simon, Steven L

2010-08-01

Deposition densities (Bq m(-2)) of all important dose-contributing radionuclides occurring in nuclear weapons testing fallout from tests conducted at Bikini and Enewetak Atolls (1946-1958) have been estimated on a test-specific basis for 32 atolls and separate reef islands of the Marshall Islands. A complete review of various historical and contemporary data, as well as meteorological analysis, was used to make judgments regarding which tests deposited fallout in the Marshall Islands and to estimate fallout deposition density. Our analysis suggested that only 20 of the 66 nuclear tests conducted in or near the Marshall Islands resulted in substantial fallout deposition on any of the 23 inhabited atolls. This analysis was confirmed by the fact that the sum of our estimates of 137Cs deposition from these 20 tests at each atoll is in good agreement with the total 137Cs deposited as estimated from contemporary soil sample analyses. The monitoring data and meteorological analyses were used to quantitatively estimate the deposition density of 63 activation and fission products for each nuclear test, plus the cumulative deposition of 239+240Pu at each atoll. Estimates of the degree of fractionation of fallout from each test at each atoll, as well as of the fallout transit times from the test sites to the atolls were used in this analysis. The estimates of radionuclide deposition density, fractionation, and transit times reported here are the most complete available anywhere and are suitable for estimations of both external and internal dose to representative persons as described in companion papers.

1st International Nuclear Science and Technology Conference 2014 (INST2014)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2015-04-01

Nuclear technology has played an important role in many aspects of our lives, including agriculture, energy, materials, medicine, environment, forensics, healthcare, and frontier research. The International Nuclear Science and Technology Conference (INST) aims to bring together scientists, engineers, academics, and students to share knowledge and experiences about all aspects of nuclear sciences. INST has evolved from a series of national conferences in Thailand called Nuclear Science and Technology (NST) Conference, which has been held for 11 times, the first being in 1986. INST2014 was held in August 2014 and hosted by Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology (TINT). The theme was "Driving the future with nuclear technology". The conference working language was English. The proceedings were peer reviewed and considered for publication. The topics covered in the conference were: • Agricultural and food applications [AGR] • Environmental applications [ENV] • Radiation processing and industrial applications [IND] • Medical and nutritional applications [MED] • Nuclear physics and engineering [PHY] • Nuclear and radiation safety [SAF] • Other related topics [OTH] • Device and instrument presentation [DEV] Awards for outstanding oral and poster presentations will be given to qualified students who present their work during the conference.

Improved meteorology from an updated WRF/CMAQ modeling ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Realistic vegetation characteristics and phenology from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products improve the simulation for the meteorology and air quality modeling system WRF/CMAQ (Weather Research and Forecasting model and Community Multiscale Air Quality model) that employs the Pleim-Xiu land surface model (PX LSM). Recently, PX LSM WRF/CMAQ has been updated in vegetation, soil, and boundary layer processes resulting in improved 2 m temperature (T) and mixing ratio (Q), 10 m wind speed, and surface ozone simulations across the domain compared to the previous version for a period around August 2006. Yearlong meteorology simulations with the updated system demonstrate that MODIS input helps reduce bias of the 2 m Q estimation during the growing season from April to September. Improvements follow the green-up in the southeast from April and move toward the west and north through August. From October to March, MODIS input does not have much influence on the system because vegetation is not as active. The greatest effects of MODIS input include more accurate phenology, better representation of leaf area index (LAI) for various forest ecosystems and agricultural areas, and realistically sparse vegetation coverage in the western drylands. Despite the improved meteorology, MODIS input causes higher bias for the surface O3 simulation in April, August, and October in areas where MODIS LAI is much less than the base LAI. Thus, improvement

A view of annual water quality cycle and inter-annual variations in agricultural headwater catchment (Kervidy-Naizin, France)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aubert, A.; Gascuel-odoux, C.; Merot, P.; Grimaldi, C.; Gruau, G.; Ruiz, L.

2011-12-01

Climatic conditions impact biotransformation and transfer of solutes. Therefore, they modify solute emissions in streams. Studying these modifications requires long term and detailed monitoring of both internal processes and river loads, which are rarely combined. The Kervidy-Naizin catchment, implemented in 1993, is part of the French network of catchment for environmental research (SOERE RBV, focused on the Critical Zone). It is an intensive agricultural catchment located in a temperate climate in Western France (Brittany) (Molenat et al., 2008; Morel et al., 2009). It presents shallow aquifers due to impervious bedrock. Both hydrology and water chemistry are monitored with a daily time step since 2000-01, as well as possible explanatory data (land use, meteorology, etc.). Concentrations in major anions in this catchment are extremely high, which make people call it a "saturated" catchment. We identified annual patterns for chloride, sulphate, dissolved organic and inorganic carbon and nitrate concentration variations. First, we considered the complete set of concentration data as function of the time. From that, we foresaw 3 cyclic temporal patterns. Then, from representing the concentrations as function of meteorological parameters, intra-annual hysteretic variations and their inter-annual variations were clearly identified. Our driving question is to know if and how climatic conditions are responsible for variations of the patterns in and between years. In winter, i.e. rainy and cold period, rainfall is closely linked to discharge because of a direct recharge to the shallow groundwater. Reversely, in transition periods (spring and fall) and hot periods, both rainfall and temperature influences discharge in relation to their range of variations. Moreover, biological processes, driven by temperature and wetness, also act during these periods. On the whole, we can emphasize the specificity of water chemistry patterns for each element. Noticeable differences between hot and cold years and between wet and dry years can mainly be observed during spring and autumn period, i.e. when combining variations of rainfall and temperature. Further jointed statistical analyses between water chemistry and meteorology have to be carried on. References Molenat, J., Gascuel-Odoux, C., Ruiz, L., and Gruau, G. (2008). Role of water table dynamics on stream nitrate export and concentration. in agricultural headwater catchment (France). Journal of Hydrology 348, 363-378. Morel, B., Durand, P., Jaffrezic, A., Gruau, G., and Molenat, J. (2009). Sources of dissolved organic carbon during stormflow in a headwater agricultural catchment. Hydrological Processes 23, 2888-2901.

Intercomparison of a 'Bottom-up' and 'Top-down' Modeling Paradigm for estimating carbon and latent heat fluxes over a variety of vegetative regimes across the U.S., Agricultural and Forest Meteorology

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Biophysical models intended for routine applications at a range of scales should attempt to balance the competing demands of generality and simplicity and be capable of realistically simulating the response of CO2 and energy fluxes to environmental and physiological forcings. At the same time they m...

Linking Local Scale Ecosystem Science to Regional Scale Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shope, C. L.; Tenhunen, J.; Peiffer, S.

2012-04-01

Ecosystem management with respect to sufficient water yield, a quality water supply, habitat and biodiversity conservation, and climate change effects requires substantial observational data at a range of scales. Complex interactions of local physical processes oftentimes vary over space and time, particularly in locations with extreme meteorological conditions. Modifications to local conditions (ie: agricultural land use changes, nutrient additions, landscape management, water usage) can further affect regional ecosystem services. The international, inter-disciplinary TERRECO research group is intensively investigating a variety of local processes, parameters, and conditions to link complex physical, economic, and social interactions at the regional scale. Field-based meteorology, hydrology, soil physics, plant production, solute and sediment transport, economic, and social behavior data were measured in a South Korean catchment. The data are used to parameterize suite of models describing local to landscape level water, sediment, nutrient, and monetary relationships. We focus on using the agricultural and hydrological SWAT model to synthesize the experimental field data and local-scale models throughout the catchment. The approach of our study was to describe local scientific processes, link potential interrelationships between different processes, and predict environmentally efficient management efforts. The Haean catchment case study shows how research can be structured to provide cross-disciplinary scientific linkages describing complex ecosystems and landscapes that can be used for regional management evaluations and predictions.

Multisource Data-Based Integrated Agricultural Drought Monitoring in the Huai River Basin, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Peng; Zhang, Qiang; Wen, Qingzhi; Singh, Vijay P.; Shi, Peijun

2017-10-01

Drought monitoring is critical for early warning of drought hazard. This study attempted to develop an integrated remote sensing drought monitoring index (IRSDI), based on meteorological data for 2003-2013 from 40 meteorological stations and soil moisture data from 16 observatory stations, as well as Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data using a linear trend detection method, and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index. The objective was to investigate drought conditions across the Huai River basin in both space and time. Results indicate that (1) the proposed IRSDI monitors and describes drought conditions across the Huai River basin reasonably well in both space and time; (2) frequency of drought and severe drought are observed during April-May and July-September. The northeastern and eastern parts of Huai River basin are dominated by frequent droughts and intensified drought events. These regions are dominated by dry croplands, grasslands, and highly dense population and are hence more sensitive to drought hazards; (3) intensified droughts are detected during almost all months except January, August, October, and December. Besides, significant intensification of droughts is discerned mainly in eastern and western Huai River basin. The duration and regions dominated by intensified drought events would be a challenge for water resources management in view of agricultural and other activities in these regions in a changing climate.

The Effect of Subsurface Parameterizations on Modeled Flows in the Catchment Land Surface Model, Fortuna 2.5

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roningen, J. M.; Eylander, J. B.

2014-12-01

Groundwater use and management is subject to economic, legal, technical, and informational constraints and incentives at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Planned and de facto management practices influenced by tax structures, legal frameworks, and agricultural and trade policies that vary at the country scale may have medium- and long-term effects on the ability of a region to support current and projected agricultural and industrial development. USACE is working to explore and develop global-scale, physically-based frameworks to serve as a baseline for hydrologic policy comparisons and consequence assessment, and such frameworks must include a reasonable representation of groundwater systems. To this end, we demonstrate the effects of different subsurface parameterizations, scaling, and meteorological forcings on surface and subsurface components of the Catchment Land Surface Model Fortuna v2.5 (Koster et al. 2000). We use the Land Information System 7 (Kumar et al. 2006) to process model runs using meteorological components of the Air Force Weather Agency's AGRMET forcing data from 2006 through 2011. Seasonal patterns and trends are examined in areas of the Upper Nile basin, northern China, and the Mississippi Valley. We also discuss the relevance of the model's representation of the catchment deficit with respect to local hydrogeologic structures.

Integrated analysis of the effects of agricultural management on nitrogen fluxes at landscape scale.

PubMed

Kros, J; Frumau, K F A; Hensen, A; de Vries, W

2011-11-01

The integrated modelling system INITIATOR was applied to a landscape in the northern part of the Netherlands to assess current nitrogen fluxes to air and water and the impact of various agricultural measures on these fluxes, using spatially explicit input data on animal numbers, land use, agricultural management, meteorology and soil. Average model results on NH(3) deposition and N concentrations in surface water appear to be comparable to observations, but the deviation can be large at local scale, despite the use of high resolution data. Evaluated measures include: air scrubbers reducing NH(3) emissions from poultry and pig housing systems, low protein feeding, reduced fertilizer amounts and low-emission stables for cattle. Low protein feeding and restrictive fertilizer application had the largest effect on both N inputs and N losses, resulting in N deposition reductions on Natura 2000 sites of 10% and 12%, respectively. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tohono O'odham Monsoon Climatology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ackerman, G.

2006-12-01

The North American monsoon is a summertime weather phenomenon that develops over the southwestern North America. For thousands of years the Tohono O'odham people of this area have depended on the associated rainy season (Jukiabig Masad) to grow traditional crops using runoff agriculture. Today, the high incidence of Type II diabetes among native people has prompted many to return to their traditional agricultural diets. Local monsoon onset dates and the North American Regional Reanalysis dataset were used to develop a 24-year Tohono O'odham Nation (TON) monsoon and pre-monsoon climatology that can be used as a tool for planning runoff agriculture. Using monsoon composite datasets, temporal and spatial correlations between antecedent period meteorological variables, monsoon onset dates and total monsoon precipitation were examined to identify variables that could be useful in predicting the onset and intensity of the monsoon. The results suggest additional research is needed to identify variables related to monsoon onset and intensity.

76 FR 34273 - Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for Special Nuclear Material...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-13

..., including site geography, demographics, meteorology, hydrology, and geology. The proposed activity is... Elimination System permit are needed. No effects on the aquatic or terrestrial habitat in the vicinity of the..., enriched to 5% in the U-235 isotope. Transport of the 193 fresh fuel assemblies from a fuel fabrication...

A new improved database to support spanish phenological observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romero-Fresneda, Ramiro; Martínez-Núñez, Lourdes; Botey-Fullat, Roser; Gallego-Abaroa, Teresa; De Cara-García, Juan Antonio; Rodríguez-Ballesteros, César

2017-04-01

Since the last 30 years, phenology has regained scientific interest as the most reported biological indicator of anthropogenic climate change. AEMET (Spanish National Meteorological Agency) has long records in the field of phenological observations, since the 1940s. However, there is a large variety of paper records which are necessary to digitalize. On the other hand, it had been necessary to adapt our methods to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) guidelines (BBCH code, data documentation- metadata…) and to standardize phenological stages and species in order to provide information to PEP725 (Pan European Phenology Database). Consequently, AEMET is developing a long-term, multi-taxa phenological database to support research and scientific studies about climate, their variability and influence on natural ecosystems, agriculture, etc. This paper presents the steps that are being carried out in order to achieve this goal.

Quantification of the impact of hydrology on agricultural production as a result of too dry, too wet or too saline conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hack-ten Broeke, Mirjam J. D.; Kroes, Joop G.; Bartholomeus, Ruud P.; van Dam, Jos C.; de Wit, Allard J. W.; Supit, Iwan; Walvoort, Dennis J. J.; van Bakel, P. Jan T.; Ruijtenberg, Rob

2016-08-01

For calculating the effects of hydrological measures on agricultural production in the Netherlands a new comprehensive and climate proof method is being developed: WaterVision Agriculture (in Dutch: Waterwijzer Landbouw). End users have asked for a method that considers current and future climate, that can quantify the differences between years and also the effects of extreme weather events. Furthermore they would like a method that considers current farm management and that can distinguish three different causes of crop yield reduction: drought, saline conditions or too wet conditions causing oxygen shortage in the root zone. WaterVision Agriculture is based on the hydrological simulation model SWAP and the crop growth model WOFOST. SWAP simulates water transport in the unsaturated zone using meteorological data, boundary conditions (like groundwater level or drainage) and soil parameters. WOFOST simulates crop growth as a function of meteorological conditions and crop parameters. Using the combination of these process-based models we have derived a meta-model, i.e. a set of easily applicable simplified relations for assessing crop growth as a function of soil type and groundwater level. These relations are based on multiple model runs for at least 72 soil units and the possible groundwater regimes in the Netherlands. So far, we parameterized the model for the crops silage maize and grassland. For the assessment, the soil characteristics (soil water retention and hydraulic conductivity) are very important input parameters for all soil layers of these 72 soil units. These 72 soil units cover all soils in the Netherlands. This paper describes (i) the setup and examples of application of the process-based model SWAP-WOFOST, (ii) the development of the simplified relations based on this model and (iii) how WaterVision Agriculture can be used by farmers, regional government, water boards and others to assess crop yield reduction as a function of groundwater characteristics or as a function of the salt concentration in the root zone for the various soil types.

15 years in promoting the use of isotopic and nuclear technique for combating land degradation and soil erosion: the contribution of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mabit, Lionel; Toloza, Arsenio; Heng, Lee

2017-04-01

The world population will exceed 9 billion by the year 2050 and food production will need to be approximately doubled to meet this crucial demand. Most of this increase will occur in developing countries, where the majority of the population depends on agriculture and their land for their livelihoods. Reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted negative impact of climate change, threatening global food security. In addition, the intensification of agricultural activities has increased pressure on land and water resources, resulting in different forms of soil degradation, of which soil erosion and associated sedimentation are worsening. Worldwide economic costs of agricultural soil loss and associated sedimentation downstream have been estimated at US 400 billion per year. As a result of climate change, world average soil erosion is expected to further increase significantly. Adapting to climate change requires agricultural soil and water management practices that make agricultural production systems resilient to drought, floods and land degradation, to enhance the conservation of the natural resource base for sustainable upland farming. These current concerns with ensuring sustainable use and management of agroecosystems create an urgent need for reliable quantitative data on the extent and magnitude of soil resource degradation over several spatial and time scales to formulate sound policies and management measures. Integrated isotopic approaches can help in targeting adapted and effective soil-water conservation measures to control soil degradation and therefore contribute to positive feedback mechanisms to mitigate climate change impact on soil and water resources. Set up 60 years ago as the world's centre for cooperation in the nuclear field, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) promotes the safe, secure and peaceful use of nuclear technologies. Since the end of the 1990s, the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture has developed research and development activities and capacity building to combat soil degradation (especially soil erosion) and to foster climate smart agriculture. More than 70 FAO/IAEA Member States have benefitted from the technical support and guidance in using fallout radionuclides (FRNs) and Compound-Specific Stable Isotope (CSSI) techniques to trace soil movement and assess soil erosion at different spatial and temporal scales, and to evaluate the effectiveness of soil conservation strategies to ensure sustainable land management. This contribution summarizes the historical background and the latest innovative activities conducted by the Joint FAO/IAEA Division, as well as the main advantages and complementarity of stable and radioisotopic tracers to conventional techniques when investigating land degradation. As examples of the significant role played by the Joint FAO/IAEA Division, two major outcomes achieved in Africa (i.e. Madagascar and Morocco) through the use of isotopic and nuclear techniques will be elaborated. The authors will also report on a new 5-year Co-ordinated Research Project (CRP) funded by the IAEA on "Nuclear Techniques for a Better Understanding of the Impact of Climate Change on Soil Erosion in Upland Agro-ecosystems" which involves key research institutions from 12 participating countries.

Hybrid modeling approach for the northern Adriatic watershed management.

PubMed

Volf, Goran; Atanasova, Nataša; Škerjanec, Mateja; Ožanić, Nevenka

2018-04-23

Northern Adriatic (NA) is one of the most productive parts of the Mediterranean Sea due to vast nutrient discharges from the contributing watershed. To understand better the excess of nutrients as stressors to the state of the marine ecosystem, a hybrid modeling approach following the DPSIR framework and terminology was developed, linking: 1) the AVGWLF model for modeling the pressures, i.e. nutrients originating from the watershed caused by two major drivers (urbanization and agriculture), 2) the ML tool MTSMOTI for inducing a model tree connecting the pressures with the marine ecosystem state, and 3) the water quality index, TRIX, equation to evaluate the trophic state of the marine ecosystem. Data used for the modeling purpose comprised GIS layers (i.e., digital terrain model, land use/cover data, soil map, locations of hydro-meteorological stations and WWTPs), time series data (i.e., hydro-meteorological data and nutrient concentrations), and statistical data (i.e., number of inhabitants, connections to wastewater treatment, livestock statistics, etc.) as well as physical, chemical and biological parameters, measured at six marine water monitoring stations, located between the Po River delta (Italy) and the city of Rovinj (west Istrian coast, Croatia). Using the model, seven watershed management scenarios related to wastewater treatment and agricultural activities were evaluated for their influence on the state of the NA marine ecosystem. According to the results, the gradual implementation of the UWWTD in the last 10years contributed significantly to the preservation and improvement of the NA marine ecosystem state. However, despite the full implementation of the UWWTD, the state of the NA marine ecosystem could deteriorate in case of increased nutrient loads from agriculture. Since the UWWTD is already close to its full implementation, NA watershed management should focus on controlling agricultural activities in order to maintain 'high' state of the NA marine ecosystem. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impact of the Gulf of California SST on simulating precipitation and crop productivity in the Southwestern United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, S.; Kim, J.; Prasad, A. K.; Stack, D. H.; El-Askary, H. M.; Kafatos, M.

2012-12-01

Like other ecosystems, agricultural productivity is substantially affected by climate factors. Therefore, accurate climatic data (i.e. precipitation, temperature, and radiation) is crucial to simulating crop yields. In order to understand and anticipate climate change and its impacts on agricultural productivity in the Southwestern United States, the WRF regional climate model (RCM) and the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) were employed for simulating crop production. 19 years of WRF RCM output show that there is a strong dry bias during the warm season, especially in Arizona. Consequently, the APSIM crop model indicates very low crop yields in this region. We suspect that the coarse resolution of reanalysis data could not resolve the relatively warm Sea Surface Temperature (SST) in the Gulf of California (GC), causing the SST to be up to 10 degrees lower than the climatology. In the Southwestern United States, a significant amount of precipitation is associated with North American Monsoon (NAM). During the monsoon season, the low-level moisture is advected to the Southwestern United States via the GC, which is known to be the dominant moisture source. Thus, high-resolution SST data in the GC is required for RCM simulations to accurately represent a reasonable amount of precipitation in the region, allowing reliable evaluation of the impacts on regional ecosystems.and evaluate impacts on regional ecosystems. To evaluate the influence of SST on agriculture in the Southwestern U.S., two sets of numerical simulations were constructed: a control, using unresolved SST of GC, and daily updated SST data from the MODIS satellite sensor. The meteorological drivers from each of the 6 year RCM runs were provided as input to the APSIM model to determine the crop yield. Analyses of the simulated crop production, and the interannual variation of the meteorological drivers, demonstrate the influence of SST on crop yields in the Southwestern United States.

Short-term emergency response planning and risk assessment via an integrated modeling system for nuclear power plants in complex terrain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Ni-Bin; Weng, Yu-Chi

2013-03-01

Short-term predictions of potential impacts from accidental release of various radionuclides at nuclear power plants are acutely needed, especially after the Fukushima accident in Japan. An integrated modeling system that provides expert services to assess the consequences of accidental or intentional releases of radioactive materials to the atmosphere has received wide attention. These scenarios can be initiated either by accident due to human, software, or mechanical failures, or from intentional acts such as sabotage and radiological dispersal devices. Stringent action might be required just minutes after the occurrence of accidental or intentional release. To fulfill the basic functions of emergency preparedness and response systems, previous studies seldom consider the suitability of air pollutant dispersion models or the connectivity between source term, dispersion, and exposure assessment models in a holistic context for decision support. Therefore, the Gaussian plume and puff models, which are only suitable for illustrating neutral air pollutants in flat terrain conditional to limited meteorological situations, are frequently used to predict the impact from accidental release of industrial sources. In situations with complex terrain or special meteorological conditions, the proposing emergency response actions might be questionable and even intractable to decisionmakers responsible for maintaining public health and environmental quality. This study is a preliminary effort to integrate the source term, dispersion, and exposure assessment models into a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) to tackle the complex issues for short-term emergency response planning and risk assessment at nuclear power plants. Through a series model screening procedures, we found that the diagnostic (objective) wind field model with the aid of sufficient on-site meteorological monitoring data was the most applicable model to promptly address the trend of local wind field patterns. However, most of the hazardous materials being released into the environment from nuclear power plants are not neutral pollutants, so the particle and multi-segment puff models can be regarded as the most suitable models to incorporate into the output of the diagnostic wind field model in a modern emergency preparedness and response system. The proposed SDSS illustrates the state-of-the-art system design based on the situation of complex terrain in South Taiwan. This system design of SDSS with 3-dimensional animation capability using a tailored source term model in connection with ArcView® Geographical Information System map layers and remote sensing images is useful for meeting the design goal of nuclear power plants located in complex terrain.

77 FR 77118 - Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-31

... Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of... license amendment to NRC License No. 19-00915-03, issued to the United States Department of Agriculture...

Weathering Heights: The Emergence of Aeronautical Meteorology as an Infrastructural Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turner, Roger

The first half of the 20th century was an era of weathering heights. As the development of powered flight made the free atmosphere militarily and economically relevant, meteorologists encountered new kinds of weather conditions at altitude. Pilots also learned to weather heights, as they struggled to survive in an atmosphere that revealed surprising dangers like squall lines, fog, icing, and turbulence. Aeronautical meteorology evolved out of these encounters, a heterogeneous body of knowledge that included guidelines for routing aircraft, networks for observing the upper air using scientific instruments, and procedures for synthesizing those observations into weather forecasts designed for pilots. As meteorologists worked to make the skies safe for aircraft, they remade their science around the physics of the free atmosphere. The dissertation tracks a small group of Scandinavian meteorologists, the "Bergen School," who came to be the dominant force in world meteorology by forecasting for Arctic exploration flights, designing airline weather services, and training thousands of military weather officers during World War II. After the war, some of these military meteorologists invented the TV weather report (now the most widely consumed genre of popular science) by combining the narrative of the pre-fight weather briefing with the visual style of comic-illustrated training manuals. The dissertation argues that aeronautical meteorology is representative of what I call the "infrastructural sciences," a set of organizationally intensive, purposefully invisible, applied sciences. These sciences enable the reliable operation of large technological systems by integrating theory-derived knowledge with routine environmental observation. The dissertation articulates a set of characteristics for identifying and understanding infrastructural science, and then argues that these culturally modest technical practices play a pervasive role in maintaining industrial lifeways. It concludes by noting that while meteorology successfully helped aviation become a reliable, taken-for-granted part of the transportation system, the interests of aviation created a meteorology that centered on the needs of pilots, to the detriment of fields like agricultural climatology.

Implications of climate change for agricultural productivity in the early twenty-first century.

PubMed

Gornall, Jemma; Betts, Richard; Burke, Eleanor; Clark, Robin; Camp, Joanne; Willett, Kate; Wiltshire, Andrew

2010-09-27

This paper reviews recent literature concerning a wide range of processes through which climate change could potentially impact global-scale agricultural productivity, and presents projections of changes in relevant meteorological, hydrological and plant physiological quantities from a climate model ensemble to illustrate key areas of uncertainty. Few global-scale assessments have been carried out, and these are limited in their ability to capture the uncertainty in climate projections, and omit potentially important aspects such as extreme events and changes in pests and diseases. There is a lack of clarity on how climate change impacts on drought are best quantified from an agricultural perspective, with different metrics giving very different impressions of future risk. The dependence of some regional agriculture on remote rainfall, snowmelt and glaciers adds to the complexity. Indirect impacts via sea-level rise, storms and diseases have not been quantified. Perhaps most seriously, there is high uncertainty in the extent to which the direct effects of CO(2) rise on plant physiology will interact with climate change in affecting productivity. At present, the aggregate impacts of climate change on global-scale agricultural productivity cannot be reliably quantified.

Implications of climate change for agricultural productivity in the early twenty-first century

PubMed Central

Gornall, Jemma; Betts, Richard; Burke, Eleanor; Clark, Robin; Camp, Joanne; Willett, Kate; Wiltshire, Andrew

2010-01-01

This paper reviews recent literature concerning a wide range of processes through which climate change could potentially impact global-scale agricultural productivity, and presents projections of changes in relevant meteorological, hydrological and plant physiological quantities from a climate model ensemble to illustrate key areas of uncertainty. Few global-scale assessments have been carried out, and these are limited in their ability to capture the uncertainty in climate projections, and omit potentially important aspects such as extreme events and changes in pests and diseases. There is a lack of clarity on how climate change impacts on drought are best quantified from an agricultural perspective, with different metrics giving very different impressions of future risk. The dependence of some regional agriculture on remote rainfall, snowmelt and glaciers adds to the complexity. Indirect impacts via sea-level rise, storms and diseases have not been quantified. Perhaps most seriously, there is high uncertainty in the extent to which the direct effects of CO2 rise on plant physiology will interact with climate change in affecting productivity. At present, the aggregate impacts of climate change on global-scale agricultural productivity cannot be reliably quantified. PMID:20713397

Analysis of the spatial-temporal variation characteristics of vegetative drought and its relationship with meteorological factors in China from 1982 to 2010.

PubMed

Shen, Qiu; Liang, Liang; Luo, Xiang; Li, Yanjun; Zhang, Lianpeng

2017-08-25

Drought is a complex natural phenomenon that can cause reduced water supplies and can consequently have substantial effects on agriculture and socioeconomic activities. The objective of this study was to gain a better understanding of the spatial-temporal variation characteristics of vegetative drought and its relationship with meteorological factors in China. The Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) dataset calculated from NOAA/AVHRR images from 1982 to 2010 was used to analyse the spatial-temporal variation characteristics of vegetative drought in China. This study also examined the trends in meteorological factors and their influences on drought using monitoring data collected from 686 national ground meteorological stations. The results showed that the VCI appeared to slowly rise in China from 1982 to 2010. From 1982 to 1999, the VCI rose slowly. Then, around 2000, the VCI exhibited a severe fluctuation before it entered into a relatively stable stage. Drought frequencies in China were higher, showing a spatial distribution feature of "higher in the north and lower in the south". Based on the different levels of drought, the frequencies of mild and moderate drought in four geographical areas were higher, and the frequency of severe drought was higher only in ecologically vulnerable areas, such as the Tarim Basin and the Qaidam Basin. Drought was mainly influenced by meteorological factors, which differed regionally. In the northern region, the main influential factor was sunshine duration, while the other factors showed minimal effects. In the southern region and Tibetan Plateau, the main influential factors were sunshine duration and temperature. In the northwestern region, the main influential factors were wind velocity and station atmospheric pressure.

A practical approach for deriving all-weather soil moisture content using combined satellite and meteorological data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leng, Pei; Li, Zhao-Liang; Duan, Si-Bo; Gao, Mao-Fang; Huo, Hong-Yuan

2017-09-01

Soil moisture has long been recognized as one of the essential variables in the water cycle and energy budget between Earth's surface and atmosphere. The present study develops a practical approach for deriving all-weather soil moisture using combined satellite images and gridded meteorological products. In this approach, soil moisture over the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) clear-sky pixels are estimated from the Vegetation Index/Temperature (VIT) trapezoid scheme in which theoretical dry and wet edges were determined pixel to pixel by China Meteorological Administration Land Data Assimilation System (CLDAS) meteorological products, including air temperature, solar radiation, wind speed and specific humidity. For cloudy pixels, soil moisture values are derived by the calculation of surface and aerodynamic resistances from wind speed. The approach is capable of filling the soil moisture gaps over remaining cloudy pixels by traditional optical/thermal infrared methods, allowing for a spatially complete soil moisture map over large areas. Evaluation over agricultural fields indicates that the proposed approach can produce an overall generally reasonable distribution of all-weather soil moisture. An acceptable accuracy between the estimated all-weather soil moisture and in-situ measurements at different depths could be found with an Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) varying from 0.067 m3/m3 to 0.079 m3/m3 and a slight bias ranging from 0.004 m3/m3 to -0.011 m3/m3. The proposed approach reveals significant potential to derive all-weather soil moisture using currently available satellite images and meteorological products at a regional or global scale in future developments.

Air Temperature Error Correction Based on Solar Radiation in an Economical Meteorological Wireless Sensor Network

PubMed Central

Sun, Xingming; Yan, Shuangshuang; Wang, Baowei; Xia, Li; Liu, Qi; Zhang, Hui

2015-01-01

Air temperature (AT) is an extremely vital factor in meteorology, agriculture, military, etc., being used for the prediction of weather disasters, such as drought, flood, frost, etc. Many efforts have been made to monitor the temperature of the atmosphere, like automatic weather stations (AWS). Nevertheless, due to the high cost of specialized AT sensors, they cannot be deployed within a large spatial density. A novel method named the meteorology wireless sensor network relying on a sensing node has been proposed for the purpose of reducing the cost of AT monitoring. However, the temperature sensor on the sensing node can be easily influenced by environmental factors. Previous research has confirmed that there is a close relation between AT and solar radiation (SR). Therefore, this paper presents a method to decrease the error of sensed AT, taking SR into consideration. In this work, we analyzed all of the collected data of AT and SR in May 2014 and found the numerical correspondence between AT error (ATE) and SR. This corresponding relation was used to calculate real-time ATE according to real-time SR and to correct the error of AT in other months. PMID:26213941

Air Temperature Error Correction Based on Solar Radiation in an Economical Meteorological Wireless Sensor Network.

PubMed

Sun, Xingming; Yan, Shuangshuang; Wang, Baowei; Xia, Li; Liu, Qi; Zhang, Hui

2015-07-24

Air temperature (AT) is an extremely vital factor in meteorology, agriculture, military, etc., being used for the prediction of weather disasters, such as drought, flood, frost, etc. Many efforts have been made to monitor the temperature of the atmosphere, like automatic weather stations (AWS). Nevertheless, due to the high cost of specialized AT sensors, they cannot be deployed within a large spatial density. A novel method named the meteorology wireless sensor network relying on a sensing node has been proposed for the purpose of reducing the cost of AT monitoring. However, the temperature sensor on the sensing node can be easily influenced by environmental factors. Previous research has confirmed that there is a close relation between AT and solar radiation (SR). Therefore, this paper presents a method to decrease the error of sensed AT, taking SR into consideration. In this work, we analyzed all of the collected data of AT and SR in May 2014 and found the numerical correspondence between AT error (ATE) and SR. This corresponding relation was used to calculate real-time ATE according to real-time SR and to correct the error of AT in other months.

Monitoring drought occurrences using MODIS evapotranspiration data: Direct impacts on agricultural productivity in Southern Brazil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruhoff, Anderson

2014-05-01

Evapotranspiration (ET), including water loss from plant transpiration and land evaporation, is of vital importance for understanding hydrological processes and climate dynamics and remote sensing is considered as the most important tool for estimate ET over large areas. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) offers an interesting opportunity to evaluate ET with spatial resolution of 1 km. The MODIS global evapotranspiration algorithm (MOD16) considers both surface energy fluxes and climatic constraints on ET (water or temperature stress) to predict plant transpiration and soil evaporation based on Penman-Monteith equation. The algorithm is driven by remotely sensed and reanalysis meteorological data. In this study, MOD16 algorithm was applied to Southern Brazil to evaluate drought occurrences and its impacts over the agricultural production. Drought is a chronic potential natural disaster characterized by an extended period of time in which less water is available than expected, typically classified as meteorological, agricultural, hydrological and socioeconomic. With human-induced climate change, increases in the frequency, duration and severity of droughts are expected, leading to negative impacts in several sectors, such as agriculture, energy, transportation, urban water supply, among others. The current drought indicators are primarily based on precipitation, however only a few indicators incorporate ET and soil moisture components. ET and soil moisture play an important role in the assessment of drought severity as sensitive indicators of land drought status. To evaluate the drought occurrences in Southern Brazil from 2000 to 2012, we used the Evaporative Stress Index (ESI). The ESI, defined as 1 (one) minus the ratio of actual ET to potential ET, is one of the most important indices denoting ET and soil moisture responses to surface dryness with effects over natural ecosystems and agricultural areas. Results showed that ESI captured major regional droughts (2005, 2010 and 2012) occurred in Southern Brazil, with similar wetting and drying patterns based on the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and strong correlation with agricultural productivity. Overall, the MODIS remotely sensed drought indices reveal the efficacy and effectiveness for near-real time monitor land surface drought events. Furthermore, understanding and predicting the consequences of drought events on agricultural productivity is emerging as one of the greatest challenges currently due to the increasing global demand for food. Acknowledgements: This work was made possible through the support of the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS).

Overview and highlights of Early Warning and Crop Condition Assessment project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boatwright, G. O.; Whitehead, V. S.

1985-01-01

Work of the Early Warning and Crop Condition Assessment (EW/CCA) project, one of eight projects in the Agriculture and Resources Inventory Surveys Through Aerospace Remote Sensing (AgRISTARS), is reviewed. Its mission, to develop and test remote sensing techniques that enhance operational methodologies for crop condition assessment, was in response to initiatives issued by the Secretary of Agriculture. Meteorologically driven crop stress indicator models have been developed or modified for wheat, maize, grain sorghum, and soybeans. These models provide early warning alerts of potential or actual crop stresses due to water deficits, adverse temperatures, and water excess that could delay planting or harvesting operations. Recommendations are given for future research involving vegetative index numbers and the NOAA and Landsat satellites.

Sensitivity of MODIS evapotranspiration algorithm (MOD16) to the acuracy of meteorological data and land use and land cover parameterization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruhoff, Anderson; Santini Adamatti, Daniela

2017-04-01

MODIS evapotranspiration (MOD16) is currently available with 1 km of spatial resolution over 109.03 Million km2 of vegetated land surface areas and this information is widely used to evaluate the linkages between hydrological, energy and carbon cycles. The algorithm is driven by meteorological reanalysis data and MODIS remotely-sensed data, which include land use and land cover classification (MCD12Q1), leaf area index (LAI) and fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FPAR) (MOD15A2) and albedo (MOD43b3). For calibration and parameterization, the algorithm uses a Biome Property Look-up Table (BPLUT) based on MCD12Q1 land cover classification. Several studies evaluated MOD16 accuracy using evapotranspiration measurements and water balance analysis, showing that this product can reproduce global evapotranspiration effectively under a variety climate condition, from local to wide-basin scale, with uncertainties up to 25%. In this study, we evaluated the sensitivity of MOD16 algorithm to land use and land cover parameterization and to meteorological data. Considering that MCD12Q1 has an accuracy between 70 and 85% at continental scale, we changed land cover parametererization to understand the influence of land use and land cover classification on MOD16 evapotranspiration estimations. Knowing that meteorological reanalysis data also have uncertainties (mostly related to the coarse spatial resolution), we compared MOD16 evapotranspiration driven by observed meteorological data to those driven by the reanalysis data. Our analysis were carried in South America, with evapotranspiration and meteorological measurements from the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA) at 8 different sites, including tropical rainforest, tropical dry forest, selective logged forest, seasonal flooded forest and pasture/agriculture. Our results indicate that land use and land cover classification has a strong influence on MOD16 algorithm. The use of incorrect parametererization due to land use and land cover misclassification can introduce large erros in estimates of evapotranspiration. We also found that the biases in meteorological reanalysis data can introduce considerable errors into the estimations. Overall, there is a significant potential for mapping and monitoring global evapotranspiration using MODIS remotely-sensed images combined to meteorological reanalysis data.

DIFFUSION IN THE VICINITY OF STANDARD-DESIGN NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS-I. WIND-TUNNEL EVALUATION OF DIFFUSIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF A SIMULATED SUBURBAN NEUTRAL ATMOSPHERIC BOUNDARY LAYER

EPA Science Inventory

A large meteorological wind tunnel was used to simulate a suburban atmospheric boundary layer. The model-prototype scale was 1:300 and the roughness length was approximately 1.0 m full scale. The model boundary layer simulated full scale dispersion from ground-level and elevated ...

Satellite-based monitoring of cotton evapotranspiration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalezios, Nicolas; Dercas, Nicholas; Tarquis, Ana Maria

2016-04-01

Water for agricultural use represents the largest share among all water uses. Vulnerability in agriculture is influenced, among others, by extended periods of water shortage in regions exposed to droughts. Advanced technological approaches and methodologies, including remote sensing, are increasingly incorporated for the assessment of irrigation water requirements. In this paper, remote sensing techniques are integrated for the estimation and monitoring of crop evapotranspiration ETc. The study area is Thessaly central Greece, which is a drought-prone agricultural region. Cotton fields in a small agricultural sub-catchment in Thessaly are used as an experimental site. Daily meteorological data and weekly field data are recorded throughout seven (2004-2010) growing seasons for the computation of reference evapotranspiration ETo, crop coefficient Kc and cotton crop ETc based on conventional data. Satellite data (Landsat TM) for the corresponding period are processed to estimate cotton crop coefficient Kc and cotton crop ETc and delineate its spatiotemporal variability. The methodology is applied for monitoring Kc and ETc during the growing season in the selected sub-catchment. Several error statistics are used showing very good agreement with ground-truth observations.

Evaporation from cultivated and semi-wild Sudanian Savanna in west Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ceperley, Natalie C.; Mande, Theophile; van de Giesen, Nick; Tyler, Scott; Yacouba, Hamma; Parlange, Marc B.

2017-08-01

Rain-fed farming is the primary livelihood of semi-arid west Africa. Changes in land cover have the potential to affect precipitation, the critical resource for production. Turbulent flux measurements from two eddy-covariance towers and additional observations from a dense network of small, wireless meteorological stations combine to relate land cover (savanna forest and agriculture) to evaporation in a small (3.5 km2) catchment in Burkina Faso, west Africa. We observe larger sensible and latent heat fluxes over the savanna forest in the headwater area relative to the agricultural section of the watershed all year. Higher fluxes above the savanna forest are attributed to the greater number of exposed rocks and trees and the higher productivity of the forest compared to rain-fed, hand-farmed agricultural fields. Vegetation cover and soil moisture are found to be primary controls of the evaporative fraction. Satellite-derived vegetation index (NDVI) and soil moisture are determined to be good predictors of evaporative fraction, as indicators of the physical basis of evaporation. Our measurements provide an estimator that can be used to derive evaporative fraction when only NDVI is available. Such large-scale estimates of evaporative fraction from remotely sensed data are valuable where ground-based measurements are lacking, which is the case across the African continent and many other semi-arid areas. Evaporative fraction estimates can be combined, for example, with sensible heat from measurements of temperature variance, to provide an estimate of evaporation when only minimal meteorological measurements are available in remote regions of the world. These findings reinforce local cultural beliefs of the importance of forest fragments for climate regulation and may provide support to local decision makers and rural farmers in the maintenance of the forest areas.

Coupled carbon-nitrogen land surface modelling for UK agricultural landscapes using JULES and JULES-ECOSSE-FUN (JEF)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Comyn-Platt, Edward; Clark, Douglas; Blyth, Eleanor

2016-04-01

The UK is required to provide accurate estimates of the UK greenhouse gas (GHG; CO2, CH4 and N2O) emissions for the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). Process based land surface models (LSMs), such as the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES), attempt to provide such estimates based on environmental (e.g. land use and soil type) and meteorological conditions. The standard release of JULES focusses on the water and carbon cycles, however, it has long been suggested that a coupled carbon-nitrogen scheme could enhance simulations. This is of particular importance when estimating agricultural emission inventories where the carbon cycle is effectively managed via the human application of nitrogen based fertilizers. JULES-ECOSSE-FUN (JEF) links JULES with the Estimation of Carbon in Organic Soils - Sequestration and Emission (ECOSSE) model and the Fixation and Uptake of Nitrogen (FUN) model as a means of simulating C:N coupling. This work presents simulations from the standard release of JULES and the most recent incarnation of the JEF coupled system at the point and field scale. Various configurations of JULES and JEF were calibrated and fine-tuned based on comparisons with observations from three UK field campaigns (Crichton, Harwood Forest and Brattleby) specifically chosen to represent the managed vegetation types that cover the UK. The campaigns included flux tower and chamber measurements of CO2, CH4 and N2O amongst other meteorological parameters and records of land management such as application of fertilizer and harvest date at the agricultural sites. Based on the results of these comparisons, JULES and/or JEF will be used to provide simulations on the regional and national scales in order to provide improved estimates of the total UK emission inventory.

Using Multi-media Modeling to Investigate Conditions Leading to Harmful Algal Blooms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garcia, V.; Nowakowski, C.; Astitha, M.; Vlahos, P.; Cooter, E. J.; Tang, C.

2017-12-01

Lake Erie is the twelfth largest lake in the world and provides drinking water to over 11 million people in the United States. 22,720 square miles of varying landcover (e.g., urban, agriculture) drain directly into Lake Erie. Harmful algal blooms (HABs) have historically been an issue in Lake Erie, with events peaking in the late 1960's to early 1970's. Several studies have shown that these events were the result of excess phosphorus draining predominantly into the western portion of the lake from agricultural practices occurring in the surrounding watersheds. Phosphorus controls led to recovery of the lake by 1990, but since the mid-1990's, there has been a resurgence of HAB events, with the largest event on record occurring in 2015. We used linked and coupled physical models to examine relationships among environmental variables across multiple sources and pathways. Because these models link emission sources with meteorology and the pollutant concentrations found in the environment, they shed new light on the complex interactions of these chemicals and chemical mixtures. We used the broad range of variables available from these models, representing meteorology, hydrology, atmospheric processes, landscape characteristics, and agriculture management practices, to examine relationships with available dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll α concentrations measured in Lake Erie. We found that inorganic nitrogen (N) fertilizer applied to crops and atmospheric N deposition were the strongest nutrient loading predictors of dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll α concentrations measured in Lake Erie. Further, we were able to examine the relationships of oxidized and reduced forms of N deposition, and dry and wet N deposition. The results of this analysis will be presented at the conference.

Assessment of Variable Planting Date as an Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Variability in Sri Lanka

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rivera, A.; Gunda, T.; Hornberger, G. M.

2016-12-01

Agriculture accounts for approximately 70% of global freshwater withdrawals. Changes in precipitation patterns due to climate change as well as increasing demands for water necessitate an increased understanding of the water-­food intersection, notably at a local scale to inform farmer adaptations to improve water productivity, i.e., to get more food with less water. Local assessments of water-food security are particularly important for nations with self-sufficiency policies, which prioritize in-country production of certain resources. An ideal case study is the small island nation of Sri Lanka, which has a self-sufficiency policy for its staple food of rice. Because rice is a water-intensive crop, assessment of irrigation water requirements (IWRs) and the associated changes over time is especially important. Previous studies on IWRs of rice in Sri Lanka have failed to consider the Yala (dry) season, when water is scarcest.The goal of this study is to characterize the role that a human decision, setting the planting date, can play in buffering declines in rice yield against changes in precipitation patterns. Using four meteorological stations in the main rice-growing zones in Sri Lanka, we explore (1) general changes in IWRs over time during the Yala season and (2) the impact of the rice planting date. We use both historical data from meteorological stations as well as future projections from regional climate models. Our results indicate that gains can be achieved using a variable planting date relative to a fixed date, in accordance with a similar conclusion for the Maha (wet) season. This local scale assessment of Sri Lanka IWRs will contribute to the growing global literature on the impacts of water scarcity on agriculture and the role that one adaptation measure can play in mitigating deleterious impacts.

Spatial and temporal patterns of Amazon rainfall. Consequences for the planning of agricultural occupation and the protection of primary forests.

PubMed

Sombroek, W

2001-11-01

The spatial and temporal pattern of annual rainfall and the strength of the dry season within the Amazon region are poorly known. Existing rainfall maps are based on the data from full-scale, long-term meteorological stations, operated by national organizations linked to the World Meteorological Organisation, such as INMET in Brazil. Stations with 30 or more years of uninterrupted and reliable recordings are very few, considering the size of the region, and most of them are located along the major rivers. It has been suggested that rainfall conditions away from these rivers are substantially different. An analysis has been made of the records of a network of simple pluviometric sites in the Brazilian part of the region as maintained by the National Agency for Electric Energy (ANEEL) since 1970. The latter data sets were used to draw more detailed maps on annual rainfall, and on the strength of the dry season in particular; average number of consecutive months with less than 100 mm, 50 mm, and 10 mm, respectively. Also, some data were obtained on the spatial expression of El Niño events within the region. Subregional differences are large, and it is argued that they are important for the success or failure of agricultural settlements; for the hazard of large-scale fire damage of the still existing primary forest vegetation; for the functioning of this land cover as stock and sink of CO2, and for the likelihood that secondary forests on abandoned agricultural lands will have less biomass. The effects of past El Niño rainfall anomalies on the biodiversity of the natural savannahs within the forest region are discussed.

Utility of a Two-source Energy Balance Approach for Daily Mapping of Landsat-scale Fluxes Over Irrigated Agriculture in a Desert Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Houborg, R.; McCabe, M. F.; Rosas Aguilar, J.; Anderson, M. C.; Hain, C.

2014-12-01

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is an area characterized by limited fresh water resources, an often inefficient use of these, and relatively poor in-situ monitoring as a result of sparse meteorological observations. Enhanced satellite-based monitoring systems are needed for aiding local water resource and agricultural management activities in these data poor arid environments. A multi-sensor and multi-scale land-surface flux monitoring capacity is being implemented over parts of MENA in order to provide meaningful decision support at relevant spatiotemporal scales. The integrated modeling system uses the Atmosphere-Land Exchange Inverse (ALEXI) model and associated flux disaggregation scheme (DisALEXI), and the Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Fusion Model (STARFM) in conjunction with model reanalysis data and remotely sensed data from polar orbiting (Landsat and MODIS; MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and geostationary (MSG; Meteosat Second Generation) satellite platforms to facilitate daily estimates of land surface fluxes down to sub-field scale (i.e. 30 m). Within this modeling system, thermal infrared satellite data provide information about the sub-surface moisture status and plant stress, obviating the need for precipitation input and error-prone soil surface characterizations. In this study, the integrated ALEXI-DisALEXI-STARFM framework is applied over an irrigated agricultural region in Saudi Arabia, and the daily estimates of Landsat scale water, energy and carbon fluxes are evaluated against available flux tower observations and other independent in-situ and satellite-based records. The study addresses the challenges associated with time-continuous sub-field scale mapping of land-surface fluxes in a harsh desert environment, and looks into the optimization of model descriptions and parameterizations and meteorological forcing and vegetation inputs for application over these regions.

Assessing the skill of seasonal meteorological forecast products for predicting droughts and water scarcity in highly regulated basins

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Squeri, Marika; Giuliani, Matteo; Castelletti, Andrea; Pulido-Velazquez, Manuel; Marcos-Garcia, Patricia; Macian-Sorribes, Hector

2017-04-01

Drought and water scarcity are important issues in Southern Europe and many predictions suggest that their frequency and severity will increase over the next years, potentially leading to negative environmental and socio-economic impacts. This work focuses on the Jucar river basin, located in the hinterland of Valencia (Eastern Spain), which is historically affected by long and severe dry periods that negatively impact several economic sectors, with irrigated agriculture representing the main consumptive demand in the basin (79%). Monitoring drought and water scarcity is crucial to activate timely drought management strategies in the basin. However, most traditional drought indexes fail in detecting critical events due to the large presence of human regulation supporting the irrigated agriculture. Over the last 20 years, a sophisticated drought monitoring system has been set up to properly capture the status of the catchment by means of the state index, a weighted linear combination of twelve indicators that depends on observations of precipitation, streamflow, reservoirs' storages and groundwater levels in representative locations at the basin. In this work, we explore the possibility of predicting the state index, which is currently used only as a monitoring tool, in order to prompt anticipatory actions before the drought/water scarcity event starts. In particular, we test the forecasting skill of retrospective seasonal meteorological predictions from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) System 4. The 7-months lead time of these products allows predicting in February the values of the state index until September, thus covering the entire agricultural season. Preliminary results suggest that the Sys4-ECMWF products are skillful in predicting the state index, potentially supporting the design of anticipatory drought management actions.

Climate, not conflict, explains extreme Middle East dust storm

DOE PAGES

Parolari, Anthony J.; Li, Dan; Bou-Zeid, Elie; ...

2016-11-08

The recent dust storm in the Middle East (Sepember 2015) was publicized in the media as a sign of an impending 'Dust Bowl.' Its severity, demonstrated by extreme aerosol optical depth in the atmosphere in the 99th percentile compared to historical data, was attributed to the ongoing regional conflict. However, surface meteorological and remote sensing data, as well as regional climate model simulations, support an alternative hypothesis: the historically unprecedented aridity played a more prominent role, as evidenced by unusual climatic and meteorological conditions prior to and during the storm. Remotely sensed normalized difference vegetation index demonstrates that vegetation covermore » was high in 2015 relative to the prior drought and conflict periods, suggesting that agricultural activity was not diminished during that year, thus negating the media narrative. Instead, meteorological simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model show that the storm was associated with a cyclone and 'Shamal' winds, typical for dust storm generation in this region, that were immediately followed by an unusual wind reversal at low levels that spread dust west to the Mediterranean Coast. These unusual meteorological conditions were aided by a significant reduction in the critical shear stress due to extreme dry and hot conditions, thereby enhancing dust availability for erosion during this storm. Concluding, unusual aridity, combined with unique synoptic weather patterns, enhanced dust emission and westward long-range transport across the region, thus generating the extreme storm.« less

The effects of meteorological factors on airborne fungal spore concentration in two areas differing in urbanisation level

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oliveira, M.; Ribeiro, H.; Delgado, J. L.; Abreu, I.

2009-01-01

Although fungal spores are an ever-present component of the atmosphere throughout the year, their concentration oscillates widely. This work aims to establish correlations between fungal spore concentrations in Porto and Amares and meteorological data. The seasonal distribution of fungal spores was studied continuously (2005-2007) using volumetric spore traps. To determine the effect of meteorological factors (temperature, relative humidity and rainfall) on spore concentration, the Spearman rank correlation test was used. In both locations, the most abundant fungal spores were Cladosporium, Agaricus, Agrocybe, Alternaria and Aspergillus/Penicillium, the highest concentrations being found during summer and autumn. In the present study, with the exception of Coprinus and Pleospora, spore concentrations were higher in the rural area than in the urban location. Among the selected spore types, spring-autumn spores ( Coprinus, Didymella, Leptosphaeria and Pleospora) exhibited negative correlations with temperature and positive correlations both with relative humidity and rainfall level. On the contrary, late spring-early summer (Smuts) and summer spores ( Alternaria, Cladosporium, Epicoccum, Ganoderma, Stemphylium and Ustilago) exhibited positive correlations with temperature and negative correlations both with relative humidity and rainfall level. Rust, a frequent spore type during summer, had a positive correlation with temperature. Aspergillus/Penicillium, showed no correlation with the meteorological factors analysed. This knowledge can be useful for agriculture, allowing more efficient and reliable application of pesticides, and for human health, by improving the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory allergic disease.

Climate, not conflict, explains extreme Middle East dust storm

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Parolari, Anthony J.; Li, Dan; Bou-Zeid, Elie

The recent dust storm in the Middle East (Sepember 2015) was publicized in the media as a sign of an impending 'Dust Bowl.' Its severity, demonstrated by extreme aerosol optical depth in the atmosphere in the 99th percentile compared to historical data, was attributed to the ongoing regional conflict. However, surface meteorological and remote sensing data, as well as regional climate model simulations, support an alternative hypothesis: the historically unprecedented aridity played a more prominent role, as evidenced by unusual climatic and meteorological conditions prior to and during the storm. Remotely sensed normalized difference vegetation index demonstrates that vegetation covermore » was high in 2015 relative to the prior drought and conflict periods, suggesting that agricultural activity was not diminished during that year, thus negating the media narrative. Instead, meteorological simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model show that the storm was associated with a cyclone and 'Shamal' winds, typical for dust storm generation in this region, that were immediately followed by an unusual wind reversal at low levels that spread dust west to the Mediterranean Coast. These unusual meteorological conditions were aided by a significant reduction in the critical shear stress due to extreme dry and hot conditions, thereby enhancing dust availability for erosion during this storm. Concluding, unusual aridity, combined with unique synoptic weather patterns, enhanced dust emission and westward long-range transport across the region, thus generating the extreme storm.« less

Spatio-temporal reconstruction of air temperature maps and their application to estimate rice growing season heat accumulation using multi-temporal MODIS data*

PubMed Central

Zhang, Li-wen; Huang, Jing-feng; Guo, Rui-fang; Li, Xin-xing; Sun, Wen-bo; Wang, Xiu-zhen

2013-01-01

The accumulation of thermal time usually represents the local heat resources to drive crop growth. Maps of temperature-based agro-meteorological indices are commonly generated by the spatial interpolation of data collected from meteorological stations with coarse geographic continuity. To solve the critical problems of estimating air temperature (T a) and filling in missing pixels due to cloudy and low-quality images in growing degree days (GDDs) calculation from remotely sensed data, a novel spatio-temporal algorithm for T a estimation from Terra and Aqua moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data was proposed. This is a preliminary study to calculate heat accumulation, expressed in accumulative growing degree days (AGDDs) above 10 °C, from reconstructed T a based on MODIS land surface temperature (LST) data. The verification results of maximum T a, minimum T a, GDD, and AGDD from MODIS-derived data to meteorological calculation were all satisfied with high correlations over 0.01 significant levels. Overall, MODIS-derived AGDD was slightly underestimated with almost 10% relative error. However, the feasibility of employing AGDD anomaly maps to characterize the 2001–2010 spatio-temporal variability of heat accumulation and estimating the 2011 heat accumulation distribution using only MODIS data was finally demonstrated in the current paper. Our study may supply a novel way to calculate AGDD in heat-related study concerning crop growth monitoring, agricultural climatic regionalization, and agro-meteorological disaster detection at the regional scale. PMID:23365013

Spatio-temporal reconstruction of air temperature maps and their application to estimate rice growing season heat accumulation using multi-temporal MODIS data.

PubMed

Zhang, Li-wen; Huang, Jing-feng; Guo, Rui-fang; Li, Xin-xing; Sun, Wen-bo; Wang, Xiu-zhen

2013-02-01

The accumulation of thermal time usually represents the local heat resources to drive crop growth. Maps of temperature-based agro-meteorological indices are commonly generated by the spatial interpolation of data collected from meteorological stations with coarse geographic continuity. To solve the critical problems of estimating air temperature (T(a)) and filling in missing pixels due to cloudy and low-quality images in growing degree days (GDDs) calculation from remotely sensed data, a novel spatio-temporal algorithm for T(a) estimation from Terra and Aqua moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data was proposed. This is a preliminary study to calculate heat accumulation, expressed in accumulative growing degree days (AGDDs) above 10 °C, from reconstructed T(a) based on MODIS land surface temperature (LST) data. The verification results of maximum T(a), minimum T(a), GDD, and AGDD from MODIS-derived data to meteorological calculation were all satisfied with high correlations over 0.01 significant levels. Overall, MODIS-derived AGDD was slightly underestimated with almost 10% relative error. However, the feasibility of employing AGDD anomaly maps to characterize the 2001-2010 spatio-temporal variability of heat accumulation and estimating the 2011 heat accumulation distribution using only MODIS data was finally demonstrated in the current paper. Our study may supply a novel way to calculate AGDD in heat-related study concerning crop growth monitoring, agricultural climatic regionalization, and agro-meteorological disaster detection at the regional scale.

The new portfolio of global precipitation data products of the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre suitable to assess and quantify the global water cycle and resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schneider, Udo; Ziese, Markus; Meyer-Christoffer, Anja; Finger, Peter; Rustemeier, Elke; Becker, Andreas

2016-10-01

Precipitation plays an important role in the global energy and water cycle. Accurate knowledge of precipitation amounts reaching the land surface is of special importance for fresh water assessment and management related to land use, agriculture and hydrology, incl. risk reduction of flood and drought. High interest in long-term precipitation analyses arises from the needs to assess climate change and its impacts on all spatial scales. In this framework, the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) has been established in 1989 on request of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It is operated by Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD, National Meteorological Service of Germany) as a German contribution to the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). This paper provides information on the most recent update of GPCC's gridded data product portfolio including example use cases.

Improvement in the accuracy of back trajectories using WRF to identify pollen sources in southern Iberian Peninsula.

PubMed

Hernández-Ceballos, M A; Skjøth, C A; García-Mozo, H; Bolívar, J P; Galán, C

2014-12-01

Airborne pollen transport at micro-, meso-gamma and meso-beta scales must be studied by atmospheric models, having special relevance in complex terrain. In these cases, the accuracy of these models is mainly determined by the spatial resolution of the underlying meteorological dataset. This work examines how meteorological datasets determine the results obtained from atmospheric transport models used to describe pollen transport in the atmosphere. We investigate the effect of the spatial resolution when computing backward trajectories with the HYSPLIT model. We have used meteorological datasets from the WRF model with 27, 9 and 3 km resolutions and from the GDAS files with 1° resolution. This work allows characterizing atmospheric transport of Olea pollen in a region with complex flows. The results show that the complex terrain affects the trajectories and this effect varies with the different meteorological datasets. Overall, the change from GDAS to WRF-ARW inputs improves the analyses with the HYSPLIT model, thereby increasing the understanding the pollen episode. The results indicate that a spatial resolution of at least 9 km is needed to simulate atmospheric flows that are considerable affected by the relief of the landscape. The results suggest that the appropriate meteorological files should be considered when atmospheric models are used to characterize the atmospheric transport of pollen on micro-, meso-gamma and meso-beta scales. Furthermore, at these scales, the results are believed to be generally applicable for related areas such as the description of atmospheric transport of radionuclides or in the definition of nuclear-radioactivity emergency preparedness.

Improvement in the accuracy of back trajectories using WRF to identify pollen sources in southern Iberian Peninsula

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hernández-Ceballos, M. A.; Skjøth, C. A.; García-Mozo, H.; Bolívar, J. P.; Galán, C.

2014-12-01

Airborne pollen transport at micro-, meso-gamma and meso-beta scales must be studied by atmospheric models, having special relevance in complex terrain. In these cases, the accuracy of these models is mainly determined by the spatial resolution of the underlying meteorological dataset. This work examines how meteorological datasets determine the results obtained from atmospheric transport models used to describe pollen transport in the atmosphere. We investigate the effect of the spatial resolution when computing backward trajectories with the HYSPLIT model. We have used meteorological datasets from the WRF model with 27, 9 and 3 km resolutions and from the GDAS files with 1 ° resolution. This work allows characterizing atmospheric transport of Olea pollen in a region with complex flows. The results show that the complex terrain affects the trajectories and this effect varies with the different meteorological datasets. Overall, the change from GDAS to WRF-ARW inputs improves the analyses with the HYSPLIT model, thereby increasing the understanding the pollen episode. The results indicate that a spatial resolution of at least 9 km is needed to simulate atmospheric flows that are considerable affected by the relief of the landscape. The results suggest that the appropriate meteorological files should be considered when atmospheric models are used to characterize the atmospheric transport of pollen on micro-, meso-gamma and meso-beta scales. Furthermore, at these scales, the results are believed to be generally applicable for related areas such as the description of atmospheric transport of radionuclides or in the definition of nuclear-radioactivity emergency preparedness.

Development of a Strategic Framework for Drought Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Jaewon; Kim, Sooyoung; Suh, Aesook; Cho, Younghyun

2017-04-01

A drought starts with lack of precipitation; as the deficit of precipitation is prolonged, the loss of water influences on the amount of soil water because of evapotranspiration. In addition, the decreased runoff of surface and underground water also reduces discharge in rivers and storage in reservoirs; these reductions then lead to the decline in the supply capability of water resources supply facilities. Therefore, individuals may experience a given drought differently depending on their circumstances. In an area with a metropolitan water supply network that draws water from a multipurpose dam, residents might not realize that a meteorological drought is present since they are provided with sufficient water. Similar situation might occur in farmlands for which an irrigation system supplies water from an agricultural reservoir. In Korea, several institutions adopt each drought indices in their roles. Since March 2016, the Ministry of Public Safety and Security, via inter-ministerial cooperation, has been classifying and announcing drought situations in each administrative district of Korea into three types, meteorological, agricultural, or hydrological droughts, with three levels such as 'caution,' 'serious,' or 'very serious.' Deriving the drought index considering storage facilities and other factors and expressing them in three categories are valid as methods. However, the current method that represent the drought situation in an administrative district as a whole should be improved to recognize the drought situation more realistically and to make appropriate strategic responses. This study designs and implements a pilot model of a framework that re-establishes zones for drought situation representation, taking water usage and water supply infrastructure into account based on land use maps. In addition, each resulting district is provided with statistical indices that can assist in the application of appropriate drought indices and the understanding of situations. In the framework, different areas classified as forest/grassland, paddy fields with an irrigation system, paddy/dry fields relying on rainwater, areas with a metropolitan or provincial water supply, or areas with other residential/industrial water supply, in a single administrative district have different values for meteorological, agricultural, or hydrological droughts. And the situation can be analyzed on a daily basis to take into account areas with a possibility that the drought may be relieved by a short-term downpour or similar event. Keywords: drought management, strategic framework, drought indices

A new methodological approach for worldwide beryllium-7 time series analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bianchi, Stefano; Longo, Alessandro; Plastino, Wolfango

2018-07-01

Time series analyses of cosmogenic radionuclide 7Be and 22Na atmospheric activity concentrations and meteorological data observed at twenty-five International Monitoring System (IMS) stations of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) have shown great variability in terms of noise structures, harmonic content, cross-correlation patterns and local Hurst exponent behaviour. Noise content and its structure has been extracted and characterised for the two radionuclides time series. It has been found that the yearly component, which is present in most of the time series, is not stationary, but has a percentage weight that varies with time. Analysis of atmospheric activity concentrations of 7Be, measured at IMS stations, has shown them to be influenced by distinct meteorological patterns, mainly by atmospheric pressure and temperature.

Characterizing the anthropogenic signature in the LCLU dynamics in the Central Asia region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tatarskii, V.; Sokolik, I. N.; de Beurs, K.; Shiklomanov, A. I.

2017-12-01

Humans have been changing the LCLU dynamics over time through the world. In the Central Asia region, these changes have been especially pronounced due to the political and economic transformation. We present a detailed analysis, focusing on identifying and quantifying the anthropogenic signature in the water and land use across the region. We have characterized the anthropogenic dust emission by combining the modeling and observations. The model is a fully coupled model called WRF-Chem-DuMo that takes explicitly into account the vegetation treatment in modeling the dust emission. We have reconstructed the anthropogenic dust sources in the region, such as the retreat of the Aral Sea, changes in agricultural fields, etc. In addition, we characterize the anthropogenic water use dynamics, including the changes in the water use for the agricultural production. Furthermore, we perform an analysis to identify the anthropogenic signature in the NDVI pattern. The NDVI were analyzed in conjunction with the meteorological fields that were simulated at the high special resolution using the WRF model. Meteorological fields of precipitation and temperature were used for the correlation analysis to separate the natural vs. anthropogenic changes. In this manner, we were able to identify the regions that have been affected by human activities. We will present the quantitative assessment of the anthropogenic changes. The diverse consequences for the economy of the region, as well as, the environment will be addressed.

Hydrometeorological extremes at the Veselí nad Moravou estate (Czech Republic) in the period 1794-1850 derived from documentary evidence of the economic character

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chromá, Kateřina

2010-05-01

Hydrometeorological extremes influenced always human activities (agriculture, forestry, water management) and caused losses of human lives and great material damage. Systematic meteorological and hydrological observations in the Czech Lands (recent Czech Republic) started generally in the latter half of the 19th century. In order to create long-term series of hydrometeorological extremes, it is necessary to search for other sources of information for their study before 1850. Such direct and indirect information about hydrometeorological extremes is included in documentary evidence (e.g. chronicles, memoirs, diaries, early visual weather observations, newspapers, economic sources etc.). Documentary evidence of economic character belongs to the most important sources, especially documents related to taxation records. Damage to agricultural crops on the fields or damage to hay on meadows due to the hydrological and meteorological phenomena has been a good reason for the abatement of tax duty. Based on the official correspondence of the estate of Veselí nad Moravou (southern Moravia), archival information about taxation from the Moravian Land Archives in Brno was excerpted. Based on it, 46 hydrometeorological extremes which occurred between the years 1794 and 1850 were selected and further analysed. Because of fields and meadows of the above estate were located along the Morava River, reports of damage due to floods were the most frequent, followed by damage due to torrential rains and hailstorms.

Dispersion Modeling Using Ensemble Forecasts Compared to ETEX Measurements.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Straume, Anne Grete; N'dri Koffi, Ernest; Nodop, Katrin

1998-11-01

Numerous numerical models are developed to predict long-range transport of hazardous air pollution in connection with accidental releases. When evaluating and improving such a model, it is important to detect uncertainties connected to the meteorological input data. A Lagrangian dispersion model, the Severe Nuclear Accident Program, is used here to investigate the effect of errors in the meteorological input data due to analysis error. An ensemble forecast, produced at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, is then used as model input. The ensemble forecast members are generated by perturbing the initial meteorological fields of the weather forecast. The perturbations are calculated from singular vectors meant to represent possible forecast developments generated by instabilities in the atmospheric flow during the early part of the forecast. The instabilities are generated by errors in the analyzed fields. Puff predictions from the dispersion model, using ensemble forecast input, are compared, and a large spread in the predicted puff evolutions is found. This shows that the quality of the meteorological input data is important for the success of the dispersion model. In order to evaluate the dispersion model, the calculations are compared with measurements from the European Tracer Experiment. The model manages to predict the measured puff evolution concerning shape and time of arrival to a fairly high extent, up to 60 h after the start of the release. The modeled puff is still too narrow in the advection direction.

International challenge to model the long-range transport of radioxenon released from medical isotope production to six Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty monitoring stations

DOE PAGES

Maurer, Christian; Baré, Jonathan; Kusmierczyk-Michulec, Jolanta; ...

2018-03-08

After performing a first multi-model exercise in 2015 a comprehensive and technically more demanding atmospheric transport modelling challenge was organized in 2016. Release data were provided by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization radiopharmaceutical facility in Sydney (Australia) for a one month period. Measured samples for the same time frame were gathered from six International Monitoring System stations in the Southern Hemisphere with distances to the source ranging between 680 (Melbourne) and about 17,000 km (Tristan da Cunha). Participants were prompted to work with unit emissions in pre-defined emission intervals (daily, half-daily, 3-hourly and hourly emission segment lengths) andmore » in order to perform a blind test actual emission values were not provided to them. Despite the quite different settings of the two atmospheric transport modelling challenges there is common evidence that for long-range atmospheric transport using temporally highly resolved emissions and highly space-resolved meteorological input fields has no significant advantage compared to using lower resolved ones. As well an uncertainty of up to 20% in the daily stack emission data turns out to be acceptable for the purpose of a study like this. Model performance at individual stations is quite diverse depending largely on successfully capturing boundary layer processes. No single model-meteorology combination performs best for all stations. Moreover, the stations statistics do not depend on the distance between the source and the individual stations. Finally, it became more evident how future exercises need to be designed. Set-up parameters like the meteorological driver or the output grid resolution should be pre-scribed in order to enhance diversity as well as comparability among model runs.« less

Atmospheric stability effects on potential radiological releases at a nuclear research facility in Romania: Characterising the atmospheric mixing state.

PubMed

Chambers, Scott D; Galeriu, Dan; Williams, Alastair G; Melintescu, Anca; Griffiths, Alan D; Crawford, Jagoda; Dyer, Leisa; Duma, Marin; Zorila, Bogdan

2016-04-01

A radon-based nocturnal stability classification scheme is developed for a flat inland site near Bucharest, Romania, characterised by significant local surface roughness heterogeneity, and compared with traditional meteorologically-based techniques. Eight months of hourly meteorological and atmospheric radon observations from a 60 m tower at the IFIN-HH nuclear research facility are analysed. Heterogeneous surface roughness conditions in the 1 km radius exclusion zone around the site hinder accurate characterisation of nocturnal atmospheric mixing conditions using conventional meteorological techniques, so a radon-based scheme is trialled. When the nocturnal boundary layer is very stable, the Pasquill-Gifford "radiation" scheme overestimates the atmosphere's capacity to dilute pollutants with near-surface sources (such as tritiated water vapour) by 20% compared to the radon-based scheme. Under these conditions, near-surface wind speeds drop well below 1 m s(-1) and nocturnal mixing depths vary from ∼ 25 m to less than 10 m above ground level (a.g.l.). Combining nocturnal radon with daytime ceilometer data, we were able to reconstruct the full diurnal cycle of mixing depths. Average daytime mixing depths at this flat inland site range from 1200 to 1800 m a.g.l. in summer, and 500-900 m a.g.l. in winter. Using tower observations to constrain the nocturnal radon-derived effective mixing depth, we were able to estimate the seasonal range in the Bucharest regional radon flux as: 12 mBq m(-2) s(-1) in winter to 14 mBq m(-2) s(-1) in summer. Crown Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

International challenge to model the long-range transport of radioxenon released from medical isotope production to six Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty monitoring stations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Maurer, Christian; Baré, Jonathan; Kusmierczyk-Michulec, Jolanta

After performing a first multi-model exercise in 2015 a comprehensive and technically more demanding atmospheric transport modelling challenge was organized in 2016. Release data were provided by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization radiopharmaceutical facility in Sydney (Australia) for a one month period. Measured samples for the same time frame were gathered from six International Monitoring System stations in the Southern Hemisphere with distances to the source ranging between 680 (Melbourne) and about 17,000 km (Tristan da Cunha). Participants were prompted to work with unit emissions in pre-defined emission intervals (daily, half-daily, 3-hourly and hourly emission segment lengths) andmore » in order to perform a blind test actual emission values were not provided to them. Despite the quite different settings of the two atmospheric transport modelling challenges there is common evidence that for long-range atmospheric transport using temporally highly resolved emissions and highly space-resolved meteorological input fields has no significant advantage compared to using lower resolved ones. As well an uncertainty of up to 20% in the daily stack emission data turns out to be acceptable for the purpose of a study like this. Model performance at individual stations is quite diverse depending largely on successfully capturing boundary layer processes. No single model-meteorology combination performs best for all stations. Moreover, the stations statistics do not depend on the distance between the source and the individual stations. Finally, it became more evident how future exercises need to be designed. Set-up parameters like the meteorological driver or the output grid resolution should be pre-scribed in order to enhance diversity as well as comparability among model runs.« less

Assessment of Drought Severity Techniques - A Historical Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Panu, U. S.; Crinklaw, T.

2011-12-01

Droughts are natural phenomenon experienced by all nations across the globe. Drought inherently means a scarcity of water, which adversely affects various sectors of human socio-economic spectrum, e.g. agriculture, hydropower generation, water supply, industry, recreation, navigation, fish production etc. The prime cause of droughts is the occurrence of less than optimal (below normal) precipitation, which has its origin to various natural reasons, the most important being the global climatic forcing. Droughts are also referred to as sustained and regionally extensive occurrences of below average water availability which invariably cultivate into environmental disasters. The evolution of a drought event is defined into four types; meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, and socio-economic. Drought affects all aspects of societal systems irrespective of how it is defined. This has led to a wide range of studies conducted by meteorologists, ecologists, environmentalists, hydrologists, geologists and agricultural scientists in attempts to understand drought processes as required to analyze and predict the impacts of droughts. A conceptual definition, such as a shortage of water relied on by human activity, avoids quantification of a drought event. On the other hand, the purpose of an operational definition is to determine the beginning, termination, and severity of a drought event. The severity assessment of droughts is of primary importance for allocation and management of available water resources. The progression and impact of historical droughts in a region is helpful for developing relationships and techniques to investigate relevant characteristics of droughts. For optimum drought preparedness and mitigative responses, professional bodies need to provide information to private and government agencies in a manner that may also be understood by their employers, stakeholders and the general public. Drought indicators bridge this communication gap between all parties by the quantification of an extensive amount of meteorological and/or hydrological information in a simple and understandable manner. Each type of drought; meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, and socio-economic has developed numerous drought indicators to deal with a variety of situations pertaining to the degree of drought severity. There exist over 80 drought indictors to effectively signify the degree of severity of a particular type of drought. The focus of this paper is to reassess the effectiveness of these drought indicators and to identify the most effective indicators in each type of drought. First, the paper discusses the key features of the drought indictors with a deconstruction of their vital components to enhance their understanding and applicability. Second, the paper identifies the caveats and limitations of each indicator in an effort for an effective analysis of droughts. This paper allows for enhanced certainty in the use of existing drought indictors and thus leads to optimized drought analysis, drought characterization and drought prediction. The paper also highlights potential opportunities for improvement within selected drought indicators.

Influences of North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) on warm season temperature and crop yields in the southwestern US

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Myoung, B.; Kim, S.; Kim, J.; Kafatos, M.

2013-12-01

Despite advancements in agricultural technology, agricultural productivity remains vulnerable to extreme meteorological conditions. This study has found significant impacts of North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) on extreme temperatures and in turn on crop yields in the Southwestern United States (SW US) region. Analyses of multi-year data of observed temperatures and simulated maize yields reveal that NAO affects positively the daily temperature maxima and minima in the green-up periods (March-June) and that the response of maize yields to NAO varies according to the climatological mean temperatures. In warmer regions, a combination of above-normal NAO in the planting periods and below-normal NAO in the growing periods is favorable for high maize yields by reducing extremely cold days during the planting periods and extremely hot days in the later periods, respectively. In colder regions, continuously above-normal NAO conditions favor higher yields via above normal thermal conditions. Results in this study suggest that NAO predictions can benefit agricultural planning in SW US.

Agriculture Impacts of Regional Nuclear Conflict

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xia, Lili; Robock, Alan; Mills, Michael; Toon, Owen Brian

2013-04-01

One of the major consequences of nuclear war would be climate change due to massive smoke injection into the atmosphere. Smoke from burning cities can be lofted into the stratosphere where it will have an e-folding lifetime more than 5 years. The climate changes include significant cooling, reduction of solar radiation, and reduction of precipitation. Each of these changes can affect agricultural productivity. To investigate the response from a regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan, we used the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer agricultural simulation model. We first evaluated the model by forcing it with daily weather data and management practices in China and the USA for rice, maize, wheat, and soybeans. Then we perturbed observed weather data using monthly climate anomalies for a 10-year period due to a simulated 5 Tg soot injection that could result from a regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan, using a total of 100 15 kt atomic bombs, much less than 1% of the current global nuclear arsenal. We computed anomalies using the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies ModelE and NCAR's Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM). We perturbed each year of the observations with anomalies from each year of the 10-year nuclear war simulations. We found that different regions respond differently to a regional nuclear war; southern regions show slight increases of crop yields while in northern regions crop yields drop significantly. Sensitivity tests show that temperature changes due to nuclear war are more important than precipitation and solar radiation changes in affecting crop yields in the regions we studied. In total, crop production in China and the USA would decrease 15-50% averaged over the 10 years using both models' output. Simulations forced by ModelE output show smaller impacts than simulations forced by WACCM output at the end of the 10 year period because of the different temperature responses in the two models.

Meteorological risks as drivers of innovation for agroecosystem management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gobin, Anne; Van de Vyver, Hans; Zamani, Sepideh; Curnel, Yannick; Planchon, Viviane; Verspecht, Ann; Van Huylenbroeck, Guido

2015-04-01

Devastating weather-related events recorded in recent years have captured the interest of the general public in Belgium. The MERINOVA project research hypothesis is that meteorological risks act as drivers of environmental innovation in agro-ecosystem management which is being tested using a "chain of risk" approach. The major objectives are to (1) assess the probability of extreme meteorological events by means of probability density functions; (2) analyse the extreme events impact of on agro-ecosystems using process-based bio-physical modelling methods; (3) identify the most vulnerable agro-ecosystems using fuzzy multi-criteria and spatial analysis; (4) uncover innovative risk management and adaptation options using actor-network theory and economic modelling; and, (5) communicate to research, policy and practitioner communities using web-based techniques. Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) theory was used to model annual rainfall maxima based on location-, scale- and shape-parameters that determine the centre of the distribution, the deviation of the location-parameter and the upper tail decay, respectively. Likewise the distributions of consecutive rainy days, rainfall deficits and extreme 24-hour rainfall were modelled. Spatial interpolation of GEV-derived return levels resulted in maps of extreme precipitation, precipitation deficits and wet periods. The degree of temporal overlap between extreme weather conditions and sensitive periods in the agro-ecosystem was determined using a bio-physically based modelling framework that couples phenological models, a soil water balance, crop growth and environmental models. 20-year return values were derived for frost, heat stress, drought, waterlogging and field access during different sensitive stages for different arable crops. Extreme yield values were detected from detrended long term arable yields and relationships were found with soil moisture conditions, heat stress or other meteorological variables during the season. A methodology for identifying agro-ecosystem vulnerability was developed using spatially explicit information and was tested for arable crop production in Belgium. The different components of vulnerability for a region include spatial information on meteorology, soil available water content, soil erosion, the degree of waterlogging, crop share and the diversity of potato varieties. The level of vulnerability and resilience of an agro-ecosystem is also determined by risk management. The types of agricultural risk and their relative importance differ across sectors and farm types. Risk types are further distinguished according to production, market, institutional, financial and liability risks. Strategies are often combined in the risk management strategy of a farmer and include reduction and prevention, mitigation, coping and impact reduction. Based on an extensive literature review, a portfolio of potential strategies was identified at farm, market and policy level. Research hypotheses were tested using an on-line questionnaire on knowledge of agricultural risk, measuring the general risk aversion of the farmer and risk management strategies. The "chain of risk" approach adopted as a research methodology allows for investigating the hypothesis that meteorological risks act as drivers for agricultural innovation. Risks related to extreme weather events in Belgium are mainly caused by heat, frost, excess rainfall, drought and storms, and their impact is predominantly felt by arable, horticultural and extensive dairy farmers. Quantification of the risk is evaluated in terms of probability of occurrence, magnitude, frequency and extent of impact on several agro-ecosystems services. The spatial extent of vulnerability is developed by integrating different layers of geo-information, while risk management is analysed using questionnaires and economic modelling methods. Future work will concentrate on the further development and testing of the currently developed modelling methodologies. https://merinova.vito.be The research is funded by the Belgian Science Policy Organisation (Belspo) under contract nr SD/RI/03A.

Agricultural aspects of radiocontamination induced by the Fukushima nuclear accident — A survey of studies by the Univ. of Tokyo Agricultural Dept. (2011–2016)

PubMed Central

NAKANISHI, Tomoko M.

2018-01-01

Immediately after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, a team of 40–50 researchers at the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Tokyo began to analyze the behavior of radioactive materials in the fallout regions. The fallout has remained in situ and become strongly adsorbed within the soil over time. 137Cs was found to bind strongly to the fine clay, weathered biotite, and organic matter in the soil; therefore, it has not mobilized from mountainous regions, even after heavy rainfall. In farmland, the quantity of 137Cs in the soil absorbed by crop plants was small. The downward migration of 137Cs in soil is now estimated at 1–2 mm/year. The intake of 137Cs by trees occurred through the bark and not from the roots. This report summarizes the findings of research across a wide variety of agricultural specialties. PMID:29321444

Agricultural aspects of radiocontamination induced by the Fukushima nuclear accident - A survey of studies by the Univ. of Tokyo Agricultural Dept. (2011-2016).

PubMed

Nakanishi, Tomoko M

2018-01-01

Immediately after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, a team of 40-50 researchers at the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Tokyo began to analyze the behavior of radioactive materials in the fallout regions. The fallout has remained in situ and become strongly adsorbed within the soil over time. 137 Cs was found to bind strongly to the fine clay, weathered biotite, and organic matter in the soil; therefore, it has not mobilized from mountainous regions, even after heavy rainfall. In farmland, the quantity of 137 Cs in the soil absorbed by crop plants was small. The downward migration of 137 Cs in soil is now estimated at 1-2 mm/year. The intake of 137 Cs by trees occurred through the bark and not from the roots. This report summarizes the findings of research across a wide variety of agricultural specialties.

The development of nuclear energy in the Philippines

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aleta, C.

1992-01-01

The paper traces the development of nuclear energy in the Philippines and outlines the program on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy in the country as well as the problems and prospects of nuclear energy development. Nuclear power is at a standstill but the other areas of nuclear energy development are underway. The projects on the application of nuclear energy in agriculture, industry, public health and safety, are being pursued. Technology transfer to end users is sometimes hampered by public acceptance issues, such as irradiated food being believed to become radioactive, dislike with anything associated with radiation, and plain inherentmore » fear of nuclear energy.« less

Application of the Bulgarian emergency response system in case of nuclear accident in environmental assessment study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Syrakov, Dimiter; Veleva, Blagorodka; Georgievs, Emilia; Prodanova, Maria; Slavov, Kiril; Kolarova, Maria

2014-05-01

The development of the Bulgarian Emergency Response System (BERS) for short term forecast in case of accidental radioactive releases to the atmosphere has been started in the mid 1990's [1]. BERS comprises of two main parts - operational and accidental, for two regions 'Europe' and 'Northern Hemisphere'. The operational part runs automatically since 2001 using the 72 hours meteorological forecast from DWD Global model, resolution in space of 1.5o and in time - 12 hours. For specified Nuclear power plants (NPPs), 3 days trajectories are calculated and presented on NIMH's specialized Web-site (http://info.meteo.bg/ews/). The accidental part is applied when radioactive releases are reported or in case of emergency exercises. BERS is based on numerical weather forecast information and long-range dispersion model accounting for the transport, dispersion, and radioactive transformations of pollutants. The core of the accidental part of the system is the Eulerian 3D dispersion model EMAP calculating concentration and deposition fields [2]. The system is upgraded with a 'dose calculation module' for estimation of the prognostic dose fields of 31 important radioactive gaseous and aerosol pollutants. The prognostic doses significant for the early stage of a nuclear accident are calculated as follows: the effective doses from external irradiation (air submersion + ground shinning); effective dose from inhalation; summarized effective dose and absorbed thyroid dose [3]. The output is given as 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 and 72 hours prognostic dose fields according the updated meteorology. The BERS was upgraded to simulate the dispersion of nuclear materials from Fukushima NPP [4], and results were presented in NIMH web-site. In addition BERS took part in the respective ENSEMBLE exercises to model 131I and 137Cs in Fukushima source term. In case of governmental request for expertise BERS was applied for environmental impact assessment of hypothetical accidental transboundary radioactive pollution. The consequences were estimated based on the worst emission scenario for the existing basic reactor type, selection of real meteorological forecast conditions, favoring the direct transport of the contaminated air masses to the territory of the country in consideration. In the present work BERS is used to estimate the worst case accidental scenario impact from a possible new unit of Paks Nuclear Power Plant, Hungary over the territory of Bulgaria. 1. D.Syrakov, M.Prodanova, 1998, Atmospheric Environment, 32 (24), 4367-4375. 2. D. Syrakov, M. Prodanova, K. Slavov, Inernationsal J. Environment and Pollution, 20, 1-6 (2003) 286-296. 3. D. Syrakov, B. Veleva, M. Prodanova, T. Popova, M. Kolarova, Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 100 (2009) 151-156. 4. D.Syrakov, M Prodanova, J. Intern. Sci. Publ.: Ecology & Safety Vol. 6 Part 1 (2011) 94-102. www.scientific-publications.net.

Predicting the Impacts of Climate Change on Central American Agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Winter, J. M.; Ruane, A. C.; Rosenzweig, C.

2011-12-01

Agriculture is a vital component of Central America's economy. Poor crop yields and harvest reliability can produce food insecurity, malnutrition, and conflict. Regional climate models (RCMs) and agricultural models have the potential to greatly enhance the efficiency of Central American agriculture and water resources management under both current and future climates. A series of numerical experiments was conducted using Regional Climate Model Version 3 (RegCM3) and the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) to evaluate the ability of RCMs to reproduce the current climate of Central America and assess changes in temperature and precipitation under multiple future climate scenarios. Control simulations were thoroughly compared to a variety of observational datasets, including local weather station data, gridded meteorological data, and high-resolution satellite-based precipitation products. Future climate simulations were analyzed for both mean shifts in climate and changes in climate variability, including extreme events (droughts, heat waves, floods). To explore the impacts of changing climate on maize, bean, and rice yields in Central America, RCM output was used to force the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer Model (DSSAT). These results were synthesized to create climate change impacts predictions for Central American agriculture that explicitly account for evolving distributions of precipitation and temperature extremes.

Analysis of Critical Earth Observation Priorities for Societal Benefit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zell, E. R.; Huff, A. K.; Carpenter, A. T.; Friedl, L.

2011-12-01

To ensure that appropriate near real-time (NRT) and historical Earth observation data are available to benefit society and meet end-user needs, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) sponsored a multi-disciplinary study to identify a set of critical and common Earth observations associated with 9 Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs): Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate, Disasters, Ecosystems, Energy, Health, Water, and Weather. GEO is an intergovernmental organization working to improve the availability, access, and use of Earth observations to benefit society through a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). The study, overseen by the GEO User Interface Committee, focused on the "demand" side of Earth observation needs: which users need what types of data, and when? The methodology for the study was a meta-analysis of over 1,700 publicly available documents addressing Earth observation user priorities, under the guidance of expert advisors from around the world. The result was a ranking of 146 Earth observation parameters that are critical and common to multiple SBAs, based on an ensemble of 4 statistically robust methods. Within the results, key details emerged on NRT observations needed to serve a broad community of users. The NRT observation priorities include meteorological parameters, vegetation indices, land cover and soil property observations, water body and snow cover properties, and atmospheric composition. The results of the study and examples of NRT applications will be presented. The applications are as diverse as the list of priority parameters. For example, NRT meteorological and soil moisture information can support monitoring and forecasting for more than 25 infectious diseases, including epidemic diseases, such as malaria, and diseases of major concern in the U.S., such as Lyme disease. Quickly evolving events that impact forests, such as fires and insect outbreaks, can be monitored and forecasted with a combination of vegetation indices, fuel moisture content, burn scars, and meteorological parameters. Impacts to public health and livelihoods due to food insecurity, algal blooms, and air pollution can be addressed through NRT monitoring of specific events utilizing land cover, atmospheric composition, water quality, and meteorological observations. More broadly, the assessment of water availability for drinking and agriculture and the development of floods and storms rely on continuous feeds of NRT meteorological and atmospheric composition observations. Overall, this multi-disciplinary study of user needs for NRT data and products can inform the design and operation of NRT data systems. Follow-on work for this study will also be presented, focusing on the availability of current and future satellite measurements (including NRT) of the 30 most critical Earth observation priorities, as well as a detailed analysis of users' needs for precipitation data. The results of this study summarize the priorities for critical Earth observations utilized globally for societal benefit.

Evaporation over a Heterogeneous Mixed Savanna-Agricultural Catchment using a Distributed Wireless Sensor Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ceperley, N. C.; Mande, T.; Barrenetxea, G.; Vetterli, M.; Yacouba, H.; Repetti, A.; Parlange, M. B.

2010-12-01

Small scale rain fed agriculture is the primary livelihood for a large part of the population of Burkina Faso. Regional climate change means that this population is becoming increasingly vulnerable. Additionally, as natural savanna is converted for agriculture, hydrological systems are observed to become less stable as infiltration is decreased and rapid runoff is increased to the detriment of crop productivity, downstream populations and local water sources. The majority of the Singou River Basin, located in South East Burkina Faso is managed by hunting reserves, geared to maintaining high populations of wild game; however, residents surrounding the protected areas have been forced to intensify agriculture that has resulted in soil degradation as well as increases in the frequency and severity of flooding and droughts. Agroforestry, or planting trees in cultivated fields, has been proposed as a solution to help buffer these negative consequences, however the specific hydrologic behavior of the watershed land cover is unknown. We have installed a distributed sensor network of 17 Sensorscope wireless meteorological stations. These stations are dispersed across cultivated rice and millet fields, natural savanna, fallow fields, and around agroforestry fields. Sensorscope routes data through the network of stations to be delivered by a GPRS connection to a main server. This multi hop network allows data to be gathered over a large area and quickly adapts to changes in station performance. Data are available in real time via a website that can be accessed by a mobile phone. The stations are powered autonomously by small photovoltaic panels. This deployment is the first time that these meteorological stations have been used on the African continent. Initial calibration with measures from 2 eddy covariance stations allows us to calculate the energy balance at each of the Sensorscope stations. Thus, we can observe variation in evaporation over the various land cover in the watershed. This research will both contribute to scientific understanding of West African vegetation and inform local reforestation and agricultural management. Concurrent to this scientific research, the community is improving natural resource management efforts including reforestation, a botanical garden and environmental education. Our hope is that the results of our evaporation modeling will inform local farmers and thus help improve their adaption to changing weather patterns and land cover.

Measurements of micrometeorological parameters for testing large scale models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kanemasu, E. T.; Demetriades-Shah, Tanvir; Watts, David; Nie, Dalin; Ballou, Larry; Harbers, Galen

1989-01-01

This annual report discusses work accomplished on the FIFE (First International Satellite Land-Surface Climatology) Project. It contains manuscripts and reports during the past year of Grant NAG 5-389. Of its six chapters, three treat soil heat flux, and two deal with information about the FIFE sites. The first chapter on net radiation and the fourth chapter are to be presented at the Agricultural and Forest Meteorology Conference to be held in March 1989 in Charleston, South Carolina.

Mission requirements for a manned earth observatory. Volume 1, task 1: Experiment selection, definition, and documentation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1973-01-01

Information related to proposed earth observation experiments for shuttle sortie missions (SSM) in the 1980's is presented. The step-wise progression of study activities and the development of the rationale that led to the identification, selection, and description of earth observation experiments for SSM are listed. The selected experiments are described, defined, and documented by individual disciplines. These disciplines include: oceanography; meteorology; agriculture, forestry, and rangeland; geology; hydrology; and environmental impact.

Social perceptions versus meteorological observations of snow and winter along the Front Range

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Milligan, William James, IV

This research aims to increase understanding of Front Range residents' perceptions of snow, winter and hydrologic events. This study also investigates how an individual's characteristics may shape perceptions of winter weather and climate. A survey was administered to determine if perceptions of previous winters align with observed meteorological data. The survey also investigated how individual characteristics influence perceptions of snow and winter weather. The survey was conducted primarily along the Front Range area of the state of Colorado in the United States of America. This is a highly populated semi-arid region that acts as an interface between the agricultural plains to the east that extend to the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains to the west. The climate is continental, and while many people recreate in the snowy areas of the mountains, most live where annual snowfall amounts are low. Precipitation, temperature, and wind speed datasets from selected weather stations were analyzed to determine correct survey responses. Survey analysis revealed that perceptions of previous winters do not necessarily align with observed meteorological data. The mean percentage of correct responses to all survey questions was 36.8%. Further analysis revealed that some individual characteristics (e.g. winter recreation, source of winter weather information) did influence correct responses to survey questions.

Informing Drought Preparedness and Response with the South Asia Land Data Assimilation System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaitchik, B. F.; Ghatak, D.; Matin, M. A.; Qamer, F. M.; Adhikary, B.; Bajracharya, B.; Nelson, J.; Pulla, S. T.; Ellenburg, W. L.

2017-12-01

Decision-relevant drought monitoring in South Asia is a challenge from both a scientific and an institutional perspective. Scientifically, climatic diversity, inconsistent in situ monitoring, complex hydrology, and incomplete knowledge of atmospheric processes mean that monitoring and prediction are fraught with uncertainty. Institutionally, drought monitoring efforts need to align with the information needs and decision-making processes of relevant agencies at national and subnational levels. Here we present first results from an emerging operational drought monitoring and forecast system developed and supported by the NASA SERVIR Hindu-Kush Himalaya hub. The system has been designed in consultation with end users from multiple sectors in South Asian countries to maximize decision-relevant information content in the monitoring and forecast products. Monitoring of meteorological, agricultural, and hydrological drought is accomplished using the South Asia Land Data Assimilation System, a platform that supports multiple land surface models and meteorological forcing datasets to characterize uncertainty, and subseasonal to seasonal hydrological forecasts are produced by driving South Asia LDAS with downscaled meteorological fields drawn from an ensemble of global dynamically-based forecast systems. Results are disseminated to end users through a Tethys online visualization platform and custom communications that provide user oriented, easily accessible, timely, and decision-relevant scientific information.

Sustainable management of agriculture activity on areas with soil vulnerability to compaction trough a developed decision support system (DSS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moretto, Johnny; Fantinato, Luciano; Rasera, Roberto

2017-04-01

One of the main environmental effects of agriculture is the negative impacts on areas with soil vulnerability to compaction and undersurface water derived from inputs and treatment distributions. A solution may represented from the "Precision Farming". Precision Farming refers to a management concept focusing on (near-real time) observation, measurement and responses to inter- and intra-variability in crops, fields and animals. Potential benefits may include increasing crop yields and animal performance, cost and labour reduction and optimisation of process inputs, all of which would increase profitability. At the same time, Precision Farming should increase work safety and reduce the environmental impacts of agriculture and farming practices, thus contributing to the sustainability of agricultural production. The concept has been made possible by the rapid development of ICT-based sensor technologies and procedures along with dedicated software that, in the case of arable farming, provides the link between spatially-distributed variables and appropriate farming practices such as tillage, seeding, fertilisation, herbicide and pesticide application, and harvesting. Much progress has been made in terms of technical solutions, but major steps are still required for the introduction of this approach over the common agricultural practices. There are currently a large number of sensors capable of collecting data for various applications (e.g. Index of vegetation vigor, soil moisture, Digital Elevation Models, meteorology, etc.). The resulting large volumes of data need to be standardised, processed and integrated using metadata analysis of spatial information, to generate useful input for decision-support systems. In this context, a user-friendly IT applications has been developed, for organizing and processing large volumes of data from different types of remote sensing and meteorological sensors, and for integrating these data into user-friendly farm management support systems able to support the farm manager. In this applications will be possible to implement numerical models to support the farm manager on the best time to work in field and/or the best trajectory to follow with a GPS navigation system on soil vulnerability to compaction. In addition to provide "as applied map" to indicate in each part of the field the exact needed quantity of inputs and treatments. This new working models for data management will allow to a most efficient resource usage contributing in a more sustainable agriculture both for a more economic benefits for the farmers and for reduction of environmental soil and undersurface water impacts.

Atmospheric Transport Modelling assessing radionuclide detection chances after the nuclear test announced by the DPRK in January 2016

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ross, J. Ole; Ceranna, Lars

2016-04-01

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) prohibits all kinds of nuclear explosions. The International Monitoring System (IMS) is in place and at about 90% complete to verify compliance with the CTBT. The stations of the waveform technologies are capable to detect seismic, hydro-acoustic and infrasonic signals for detection, localization, and characterization of explosions. The seismic signals of the DPRK event on 6 January 2016 were detected by many seismic stations around the globe and allow for localization of the event and identification as explosion (see poster by G. Hartmann et al.). However, the direct evidence for a nuclear explosion is only possible through the detection of nuclear fission products which may be released. For that 80 Radionuclide (RN) Stations are part of the designed IMS, about 60 are already operational. All RN stations are highly sensitive for tiny traces of particulate radionuclides in large volume air samplers. There are 40 of the RN stations designated to be equipped with noble gas systems detecting traces of radioactive xenon isotopes which are more likely to escape from an underground test cavity than particulates. Already 30 of the noble gas systems are operational. Atmospheric Transport Modelling supports the interpretation of radionuclide detections (and as appropriate non-detections) by connecting the activity concentration measurements with potential source locations and release times. In our study forecasts with the Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Model HYSPLIT (NOAA) and GFS (NCEP) meteorological data are considered to assess the plume propagation patterns for hypothetical releases at the known DPRK nuclear test site. The results show a considerable sensitivity of the IMS station RN 38 Takasaki (Japan) to a potential radionuclide release at the test site in the days and weeks following the explosion in January 2016. In addition, backtracking simulations with ECMWF analysis data in 0.2° horizontal resolution are performed for selected samples to get a complementary estimation of the sensitivities and the connected thresholds for detectable releases.The meteorological situation is compared to the aftermath of the nuclear explosion on 12 February 2013 after which a specific occurrence of an unusual 131mXe signature at RN 38 eight weeks after the test could be very likely attributed to a late release from the DPRK event.

Methods of Data Collection, Sample Processing, and Data Analysis for Edge-of-Field, Streamgaging, Subsurface-Tile, and Meteorological Stations at Discovery Farms and Pioneer Farm in Wisconsin, 2001-7

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stuntebeck, Todd D.; Komiskey, Matthew J.; Owens, David W.; Hall, David W.

2008-01-01

The University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison Discovery Farms (Discovery Farms) and UW-Platteville Pioneer Farm (Pioneer Farm) programs were created in 2000 to help Wisconsin farmers meet environmental and economic challenges. As a partner with each program, and in cooperation with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Sand County Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Wisconsin Water Science Center (WWSC) installed, maintained, and operated equipment to collect water-quantity and water-quality data from 25 edge-offield, 6 streamgaging, and 5 subsurface-tile stations at 7 Discovery Farms and Pioneer Farm. The farms are located in the southern half of Wisconsin and represent a variety of landscape settings and crop- and animal-production enterprises common to Wisconsin agriculture. Meteorological stations were established at most farms to measure precipitation, wind speed and direction, air and soil temperature (in profile), relative humidity, solar radiation, and soil moisture (in profile). Data collection began in September 2001 and is continuing through the present (2008). This report describes methods used by USGS WWSC personnel to collect, process, and analyze water-quantity, water-quality, and meteorological data for edge-of-field, streamgaging, subsurface-tile, and meteorological stations at Discovery Farms and Pioneer Farm from September 2001 through October 2007. Information presented includes equipment used; event-monitoring and samplecollection procedures; station maintenance; sample handling and processing procedures; water-quantity, waterquality, and precipitation data analyses; and procedures for determining estimated constituent concentrations for unsampled runoff events.

Predicted Thermal Responses of Military Working Dog (MWD) to Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) Protective Kennel Enclosure

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-08-01

meteorological conditions. More specifically, climate chamber studies of the chemical protective kennel cover were conducted over a range of...responses to predict how long the dog could safely remain in the enclosure for various ambient environmental conditions. Climate chamber studies of...Engineering Center (NSRDEC) was tested in a climate - controlled chamber to quantify its insulation and vapor permeability properties. A schematic of

IRRIMET: a web 2.0 advisory service for irrigation water management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Michele, Carlo; Anzano, Enrico; Colandrea, Marco; Marotta, Luigi; Mula, Ileana; Pelosi, Anna; D'Urso, Guido; Battista Chirico, Giovanni

2016-04-01

Irrigation agriculture is one the biggest consumer of water in Europe, especially in southern regions, where it accounts for up to 70% of the total water consumption. The EU Common Agricultural Policy, combined with the Water Framework Directive, imposes to farmers and irrigation managers a substantial increase of the efficiency in the use of water in agriculture for the next decade. Irrigating according to reliable crop water requirement estimates is one of the most convincing solution to decrease agricultural water use. Here we present an innovative irrigation advisory service, applied in Campania region (Southern Italy), where a satellite assisted irrigation advisory service has been operating since 2006. The advisory service is based on the optimal combination of VIS-NIR high resolution satellite images (Landsat, Deimos, Rapideye) to map crop vigour, and high resolution numerical weather prediction for assessing the meteorological variables driving the crop water needs in the short-medium range. The advisory service is broadcasted with a simple and intuitive web app interface which makes daily real time irrigation and evapotranspiration maps and customized weather forecasts (based on Cosmo Leps model) accessible from desktop computers, tablets and smartphones.

Evaluation of AIS Data for Agronomic and Rangeland Vegetation: Preliminary Results for August 1984 Flight over Nebraska Sandhills Agricultural Laboratory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blad, B. L.; Starks, P. J.; Hays, C.; Gardner, B. R.

1985-01-01

Since 1978 scientists from the Center for Agricultural Meteorology and Climatology at the University of Nebraska have been conducting research at the Sandhills Agricultural Laboratory on the effects of water stress on crop growth, development and yield using remote sensing techniques. We have been working to develop techniques, both remote and ground-based, to monitor water stress, phenological development, leaf area, phytomass production and grain yields of corn, soybeans and sorghum. Because of the sandy soils and relatively low rainfall at the site it is an excellent location to study water stress without the necessity of installing expensive rainout shelters. The primary objectives of research with the airborne imaging spectrometer (AIS) data collected during an August 1984 flight over the Sandhills Agricultural Laboratory are to evaluate the potential of using AIS to: (1) discriminate crop type; (2) to detect subtle architectural differences that exist among different cultivars or hybrids of agronomic crops; (3) to detect and quantify, if possible, the level of water stress imposed on the crops; and (4) to evaluate leaf area and biomass differences for different crops.

Impact of LUCC on streamflow based on the SWAT model over the Wei River basin on the Loess Plateau in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Hong; Sun, Fubao; Xia, Jun; Liu, Wenbin

2017-04-01

Under the Grain for Green Project in China, vegetation recovery construction has been widely implemented on the Loess Plateau for the purpose of soil and water conservation. Now it is becoming controversial whether the recovery construction involving vegetation, particularly forest, is reducing the streamflow in the rivers of the Yellow River basin. In this study, we chose the Wei River, the largest branch of the Yellow River, with revegetated construction area as the study area. To do that, we apply the widely used Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model for the upper and middle reaches of the Wei River basin. The SWAT model was forced with daily observed meteorological forcings (1960-2009) calibrated against daily streamflow for 1960-1969, validated for the period of 1970-1979, and used for analysis for 1980-2009. To investigate the impact of LUCC (land use and land cover change) on the streamflow, we firstly use two observed land use maps from 1980 and 2005 that are based on national land survey statistics merged with satellite observations. We found that the mean streamflow generated by using the 2005 land use map decreased in comparison with that using the 1980 one, with the same meteorological forcings. Of particular interest here is that the streamflow decreased on agricultural land but increased in forest areas. More specifically, the surface runoff, soil flow, and baseflow all decreased on agricultural land, while the soil flow and baseflow of forest areas increased. To investigate that, we then designed five scenarios: (S1) the present land use (1980) and (S2) 10 %, (S3) 20 %, (S4) 40 %, and (S5) 100 % of agricultural land that was converted into mixed forest. We found that the streamflow consistently increased with agricultural land converted into forest by about 7.4 mm per 10 %. Our modeling results suggest that forest recovery construction has a positive impact on both soil flow and baseflow by compensating for reduced surface runoff, which leads to a slight increase in the streamflow in the Wei River with the mixed landscapes on the Loess Plateau that include earth-rock mountain area.

Validation of Soil Water Content Estimation Method on Agricultural Regions in South Korea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shin, Y.; Kim, M.

2016-12-01

The continuous water stress caused by decrease of soil water has a direct influence to the crop growth in a upland crop area. The agricultural drought is occured if water requirement is not supplied timely in crop growh process. It is more important to understand the soil characteristics for high accuracy soil moisture estimation because of the soil water contents largely depends on soil properties. The RDA(Rural Development Administration) has provided real-time soil moisture observations corrected for 71 points in the South Korea. In this study, we developed a soil water content estimation method that considered soil hydraulic parameters for the observation points of soil water content in agricultural regions operated by the RDA. SWAP(Soil-Water-Atmosphere-Plant) model was used in the estimation of soil water contents. The soil hydraulic parameters that is the input data of the SWAP model were estimated using the ROSETTA model developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture(USDA). Meteorological data observed from AWS(Automatic Weather Station) were used including daily maximum temperature(°), daily minimum temperature(°), relative humidity(%), solar radiation, wind speed and precipitation data. We choosed 56 stations there are no missing of meteorological data and have soil physical properties. For the verification of soil water content estimation method, we used Haenam KoFlux observation data that are observed long-term soil water contents over 2009-2015(2014 missing) years. In the case of 2015, there are good reproducibility between observation of soil water contents and results of SWAP model simulation with R2=0.72, RMSE=0.026 and TCC=0.849. In the case of precipitation event, the simulation results were slightly overestimated more than observation. However there are good reproducibility in the case of soil water reduction due to continuous non-precipitation periods. We have simulated the soil water contents of the 56 stations that being operated in the RDA from 4 January 2015 to 31 October 2015 using the SWAP model. The environmental setting of SWAP modle according to the station applied it equally. The results showed a significant difference to the reproducibility according to the observation station.

Mapping of Temporal Surface-water Resources Availability and Agricultural Adaptability due to Climate Change and Anthropogenic Activity in a Hot Semi-arid Region of Maharashtra State, India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roy, A.; Inamdar, A. B.

2016-12-01

Major part of Godavari River Basin is intensely drought prone and climate vulnerable in the Western Maharashtra State, India. The economy of the state depends on the agronomic productivity of this region. So, it is necessary to regulate the effects of existing and upcoming hydro-meteorological advances in various strata. This study investigates and maps the surface water resources availability and vegetation, their decadal deviations with multi-temporal LANDSAT images; and finally quantifies the agricultural adaptations. This work involves the utilization of Remote Sensing and GIS with Hydrological modeling. First, climatic trend analysis is carried out with NCEP dataset. Then, multi-temporal LANDSAT images are classified to determine the decadal LULC changes and correlated to the community level hydrological demand. Finally, NDVI, NDWI and SWAT model analysis are accomplished to determine irrigated and non-irrigated cropping area for identifying the agricultural adaptations. The analysis shows that the mean value of annual and monsoon rainfall is significantly decreasing, whereas the mean value of annual and summer temperature is increasing significantly and the winter temperature is decreasing. The analysis of LANDSAT images shows that the surface water availability is highly dependent on climatic conditions. Barren-lands are most dynamic during the study period followed by, vegetation, and water bodies. The spatial extent of barren-lands is increased drastically during the climate vulnerable years replacing the vegetation and surface water bodies. Hence, the barren lands are constantly increasing and the vegetation cover is linearly decreasing, whereas the water extent is changing either way in a random fashion. There appears a positive correlation between surface water and vegetation occurrence; as they are fluctuating in a similar fashion in all the years. The vegetation cover is densely replenished around the dams and natural water bodies which serve as the water supply stations for the irrigation purposes. Moreover, there is a shift to non-irrigated and less water demanding crops, from more water demanding crops, which is a conspicuous adaptation. Hence, the study shows there are alteration in meteorological predictors, land cover, agricultural practices and surface water availability.

Design of early warning system for nuclear preparedness case study at Serpong

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Farid, M. M.; Prawito, Susila, I. P.; Yuniarto, A.

2017-07-01

One effort to protect the environment from the increasing of potentially environmental radiation hazards as an impact of radiation discharge around nuclear facilities is by a continuous monitoring of the environmental radiation in real time It is important to disclose the dose rate information to public or authorities for radiological protection. In this research, we have designed a nuclear preparedness early warning system around the Serpong nuclear facility. The design is based on Arduino program, general packet radio service (GPRS) shield, and radio frequencies technology to transmit environmental radiation result of the measurement and meteorological data. Data was collected at a certain location at The Center for Informatics and Nuclear Strategic Zone Utilization BATAN Serpong. The system consistency models are defined by the quality of data and the level of radiation exposure in the deployed environment. Online users can access the website which displays the radiation dose on the environment marked on Google Map. This system is capable to issue an early warning emergency when the dose reaches three times of the background radiation exposure value, 250 nSv/hour.

Nuclear and chloroplast microsatellite markers to assess genetic diversity and evolution in hazelnut species, hybrids and cultivars

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), National Clonal Germplasm Repository (NCGR) in Corvallis, Oregon, preserves more than 800 accessions of hazelnut (Corylus) including C. avellana cultivars and representatives of 10 other recognized shrub and tree species...

"Development of an interactive crop growth web service architecture to review and forecast agricultural sustainability"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seamon, E.; Gessler, P. E.; Flathers, E.; Walden, V. P.

2014-12-01

As climate change and weather variability raise issues regarding agricultural production, agricultural sustainability has become an increasingly important component for farmland management (Fisher, 2005, Akinci, 2013). Yet with changes in soil quality, agricultural practices, weather, topography, land use, and hydrology - accurately modeling such agricultural outcomes has proven difficult (Gassman et al, 2007, Williams et al, 1995). This study examined agricultural sustainability and soil health over a heterogeneous multi-watershed area within the Inland Pacific Northwest of the United States (IPNW) - as part of a five year, USDA funded effort to explore the sustainability of cereal production systems (Regional Approaches to Climate Change for Pacific Northwest Agriculture - award #2011-68002-30191). In particular, crop growth and soil erosion were simulated across a spectrum of variables and time periods - using the CropSyst crop growth model (Stockle et al, 2002) and the Water Erosion Protection Project Model (WEPP - Flanagan and Livingston, 1995), respectively. A preliminary range of historical scenarios were run, using a high-resolution, 4km gridded dataset of surface meteorological variables from 1979-2010 (Abatzoglou, 2012). In addition, Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project (CMIP5) global climate model (GCM) outputs were used as input to run crop growth model and erosion future scenarios (Abatzoglou and Brown, 2011). To facilitate our integrated data analysis efforts, an agricultural sustainability web service architecture (THREDDS/Java/Python based) is under development, to allow for the programmatic uploading, sharing and processing of variable input data, running model simulations, as well as downloading and visualizing output results. The results of this study will assist in better understanding agricultural sustainability and erosion relationships in the IPNW, as well as provide a tangible server-based tool for use by researchers and farmers - for both small scale field examination, or more regionalized scenarios.

Grid-based Meteorological and Crisis Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hluchy, Ladislav; Bartok, Juraj; Tran, Viet; Lucny, Andrej; Gazak, Martin

2010-05-01

We present several applications from domain of meteorology and crisis management we developed and/or plan to develop. Particularly, we present IMS Model Suite - a complex software system designed to address the needs of accurate forecast of weather and hazardous weather phenomena, environmental pollution assessment, prediction of consequences of nuclear accident and radiological emergency. We discuss requirements on computational means and our experiences how to meet them by grid computing. The process of a pollution assessment and prediction of the consequences in case of radiological emergence results in complex data-flows and work-flows among databases, models and simulation tools (geographical databases, meteorological and dispersion models, etc.). A pollution assessment and prediction requires running of 3D meteorological model (4 nests with resolution from 50 km to 1.8 km centered on nuclear power plant site, 38 vertical levels) as well as running of the dispersion model performing the simulation of the release transport and deposition of the pollutant with respect to the numeric weather prediction data, released material description, topography, land use description and user defined simulation scenario. Several post-processing options can be selected according to particular situation (e.g. doses calculation). Another example is a forecasting of fog as one of the meteorological phenomena hazardous to the aviation as well as road traffic. It requires complicated physical model and high resolution meteorological modeling due to its dependence on local conditions (precise topography, shorelines and land use classes). An installed fog modeling system requires a 4 time nested parallelized 3D meteorological model with 1.8 km horizontal resolution and 42 levels vertically (approx. 1 million points in 3D space) to be run four times daily. The 3D model outputs and multitude of local measurements are utilized by SPMD-parallelized 1D fog model run every hour. The fog forecast model is a subject of the parameterization and parameter optimization before its real deployment. The parameter optimization requires tens of evaluations of the parameterized model accuracy and each evaluation of the model parameters requires re-running of the hundreds of meteorological situations collected over the years and comparison of the model output with the observed data. The architecture and inherent heterogeneity of both examples and their computational complexity and their interfaces to other systems and services make them well suited for decomposition into a set of web and grid services. Such decomposition has been performed within several projects we participated or participate in cooperation with academic sphere, namely int.eu.grid (dispersion model deployed as a pilot application to an interactive grid), SEMCO-WS (semantic composition of the web and grid services), DMM (development of a significant meteorological phenomena prediction system based on the data mining), VEGA 2009-2011 and EGEE III. We present useful and practical applications of technologies of high performance computing. The use of grid technology provides access to much higher computation power not only for modeling and simulation, but also for the model parameterization and validation. This results in the model parameters optimization and more accurate simulation outputs. Having taken into account that the simulations are used for the aviation, road traffic and crisis management, even small improvement in accuracy of predictions may result in significant improvement of safety as well as cost reduction. We found grid computing useful for our applications. We are satisfied with this technology and our experience encourages us to extend its use. Within an ongoing project (DMM) we plan to include processing of satellite images which extends our requirement on computation very rapidly. We believe that thanks to grid computing we are able to handle the job almost in real time.

NASA Earth Science Research Results for Improved Regional Crop Yield Prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mali, P.; O'Hara, C. G.; Shrestha, B.; Sinclair, T. R.; G de Goncalves, L. G.; Salado Navarro, L. R.

2007-12-01

National agencies such as USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), Production Estimation and Crop Assessment Division (PECAD) work specifically to analyze and generate timely crop yield estimates that help define national as well as global food policies. The USDA/FAS/PECAD utilizes a Decision Support System (DSS) called CADRE (Crop Condition and Data Retrieval Evaluation) mainly through an automated database management system that integrates various meteorological datasets, crop and soil models, and remote sensing data; providing significant contribution to the national and international crop production estimates. The "Sinclair" soybean growth model has been used inside CADRE DSS as one of the crop models. This project uses Sinclair model (a semi-mechanistic crop growth model) for its potential to be effectively used in a geo-processing environment with remote-sensing-based inputs. The main objective of this proposed work is to verify, validate and benchmark current and future NASA earth science research results for the benefit in the operational decision making process of the PECAD/CADRE DSS. For this purpose, the NASA South American Land Data Assimilation System (SALDAS) meteorological dataset is tested for its applicability as a surrogate meteorological input in the Sinclair model meteorological input requirements. Similarly, NASA sensor MODIS products is tested for its applicability in the improvement of the crop yield prediction through improving precision of planting date estimation, plant vigor and growth monitoring. The project also analyzes simulated Visible/Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite (VIIRS, a future NASA sensor) vegetation product for its applicability in crop growth prediction to accelerate the process of transition of VIIRS research results for the operational use of USDA/FAS/PECAD DSS. The research results will help in providing improved decision making capacity to the USDA/FAS/PECAD DSS through improved vegetation growth monitoring from high spatial and temporal resolution remote sensing datasets; improved time-series meteorological inputs required for crop growth models; and regional prediction capability through geo-processing-based yield modeling.

GUMNET - A new long-term monitoring initiative in the Guadarrama Mountains, Madrid, Spain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rath, Volker; Fidel González Rouco, J.; Yagüe Anguis, Carlos

2014-05-01

We are announcing a new monitoring network in the Guadarrama Mountains north of Madrid, which is planned to be operational in early 2015. This network integrates atmospheric measurements as well as subsurface observations. It aims at improving the characterization of atmosphere-ground interactions in mountainous terrain, the hydrometeorology of the region, climatic change, and related research lines. It will also provide the meteorological and climate data which form the necessary background information for biological, agricultural and hydrological investigations in this area. Currently, the initiative is supported by research groups from the Complutense and Polytechnical Universities of Madrid (UCM and UPM), the Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), the Spanish National Meteorological Agency (AEMET), and finally the Parque Nacional de la Sierra de Guadarrama (PNSG). This infrastructure forms part of the Campus of Excellence Moncloa, and is supposed to become a focus of local as well as of international research. However, it is not associated with a particular project: data will in principle be available to the scientific and public communities. Also, the integration of new instruments (long or short term) will be welcome. The starting setup is as following: A group of WMO-compatible meteorological station in the central area of the massif will be installed, which include also a subsurface component of boreholes (≡20 m depth), where temperature and moisture will be measured. This core group is complemented by a reference site near El Escorial (including a fixed and a mobile tower for micrometeorological investigations). This setup is embedded in a network of meteorological stations run partly by AEMET and partly by the PNSG, which will provide the information necessary for the characterization of regional meteorology and climate. Finally, part of the data will be made available quasi-online on a central web server in Madrid. (temporary web page: http://tifon.fis.ucm.es/~gumnet/)

A framework for improving a seasonal hydrological forecasting system using sensitivity analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arnal, Louise; Pappenberger, Florian; Smith, Paul; Cloke, Hannah

2017-04-01

Seasonal streamflow forecasts are of great value for the socio-economic sector, for applications such as navigation, flood and drought mitigation and reservoir management for hydropower generation and water allocation to agriculture and drinking water. However, as we speak, the performance of dynamical seasonal hydrological forecasting systems (systems based on running seasonal meteorological forecasts through a hydrological model to produce seasonal hydrological forecasts) is still limited in space and time. In this context, the ESP (Ensemble Streamflow Prediction) remains an attractive forecasting method for seasonal streamflow forecasting as it relies on forcing a hydrological model (starting from the latest observed or simulated initial hydrological conditions) with historical meteorological observations. This makes it cheaper to run than a standard dynamical seasonal hydrological forecasting system, for which the seasonal meteorological forecasts will first have to be produced, while still producing skilful forecasts. There is thus the need to focus resources and time towards improvements in dynamical seasonal hydrological forecasting systems which will eventually lead to significant improvements in the skill of the streamflow forecasts generated. Sensitivity analyses are a powerful tool that can be used to disentangle the relative contributions of the two main sources of errors in seasonal streamflow forecasts, namely the initial hydrological conditions (IHC; e.g., soil moisture, snow cover, initial streamflow, among others) and the meteorological forcing (MF; i.e., seasonal meteorological forecasts of precipitation and temperature, input to the hydrological model). Sensitivity analyses are however most useful if they inform and change current operational practices. To this end, we propose a method to improve the design of a seasonal hydrological forecasting system. This method is based on sensitivity analyses, informing the forecasters as to which element of the forecasting chain (i.e., IHC or MF) could potentially lead to the highest increase in seasonal hydrological forecasting performance, after each forecast update.

Relations between groundwater levels and anthropogenic and meteorological stressors at selected sites in east-central Florida, 1995-2007

USGS Publications Warehouse

Murray, Louis C.

2010-01-01

Multivariate linear regression analyses were used to define the relations of water levels in the Upper Floridan aquifer (UFA) and surficial aquifer system (SAS) to anthropogenic and meteorological stressors between 1995 and 2007 at two monitoring well sites (Charlotte Street and Lake Oliver) in east-central Florida. Anthropogenic stressors of interest included municipal and agricultural groundwater withdrawals, and application of reclaimed-water to rapid-infiltration basins (source of aquifer recharge). Meteorological stressors included precipitation and potential evapotranspiration. Overall, anthropogenic and meteorological stressors accounted for about 40 to 89 percent of the variance in UFA and SAS groundwater levels and water-level changes. While mean monthly water levels were better correlated with monthly stressor values, changes in UFA and SAS water levels were better correlated with changes in stressor values. Water levels and water-level changes were influenced by system persistence as the moving-averaged values of both stressor types, which accounted for the influence of the previous month(s) conditions, consistently yielded higher adjusted coefficients of determination (R2 adj) values than did single monthly values. While monthly water-level changes tend to be influenced equally with both stressors across the hydrologically averaged 13-year period, changes were more influenced by one stressor or the other seasonally and during extended wet and dry periods. Seasonally, UFA water-level changes tended to be more influenced by anthropogenic stressors than by meteorological stressors, while changes in SAS water levels tended to be more influenced by meteorological stressors. During extended dry periods (12 months or greater), changes in UFA water levels at Charlotte Street were more affected by anthropogenic stressors than by meteorological stressors, while changes in SAS levels were more affected by meteorological stressors. At Lake Oliver, changes in both UFA and SAS water levels were better correlated with meteorological stressors for all but the wet period between April 1995 and April 1996. Interestingly, changes in both UFA and SAS water levels at Charlotte Street were also better correlated with anthropogenic stressors during a similar wet period between April 1995 and June 1996 when substantive reductions in groundwater withdrawals resulted in appreciable recovery of both UFA and SAS water levels. The regional effects of anthropogenic stressors had limited influence on water-level changes at Charlotte Street and virtually no influence on changes at Lake Oliver. When regressed against the 2.2 Mgal/d (million gallons per day) of municipal withdrawals located within 2 miles of the Charlotte Street site, water-level changes were influenced solely by precipitation and potential evapotranspiration. At a radius of 2.5 miles, however, where cumulative withdrawals totaled about 9.5 Mgal/d, water-level changes were equally influenced by both anthropogenic and meteorological stressors. Withdrawals located at distances of greater than 3 miles from this site had no appreciable effect on relations between water-level changes and these stressors. At Lake Oliver, changes in UFA water levels were equally influenced by both stressors regardless of distance, while changes in SAS levels were more influenced by meteorological stressors at all distances.

[Spatial-temporal variations of spring maize potential yields in a changing climate in Northeast China.

PubMed

Liu, Zhi Juan; Yang, Xiao Guang; Lyu, Shuo; Wang, Jing; Lin, Xiao Mao

2018-01-01

Based on meteorological data, agro-meteorological observations, and agricultural statistical data in Northeast China (NEC), by using the validated Agricultural Production System sIMulator (APSIM-maize), the potential, attainable, potential farmers' and actual farmers' yields of spring maize during the period 1961 to 2015 were analyzed, and the effects of climate variation on maize potential yield in NEC were quantified. Results indicated that the potential yield of spring maize was 12.2 t·hm -2 during the period 1961 to 2015, with those in northeast being lower than southwest within the study region. The attainable yield of spring maize was 11.3 t·hm -2 , and showed a similar spatial distribution with potential yield. Under the current farmers' management practices, mean simulated potential and actual farmers' yields were 6.5 and 4.5 t·hm -2 , respectively. Assuming there were no changes in cultivars and management practices in NEC, the mean potential, attainable, and potential farmers' yields of spring maize would decrease by 0.34, 0.25 and 0.10 t·hm -2 per decade in NEC. However, the actual farmers' yields increased with the value of 1.27 t·hm -2 per decade averaged over NEC. Due to climate variation, year-to-year variations of spring maize potential, attainable, and potential farmers' yields were significant, ranging from 10.0 to 14.4, 9.8 to 13.3, 4.4 to 8.5 t·hm -2 , respectively.

Impacts of Stratospheric Black Carbon on Agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xia, L.; Robock, A.; Elliott, J. W.

2017-12-01

A regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan could inject 5 Tg of soot into the stratosphere, which would absorb sunlight, decrease global surface temperature by about 1°C for 5-10 years and have major impacts on precipitation and the amount of solar radiation reaching Earth's surface. Using two global gridded crop models forced by one global climate model simulation, we investigate the impacts on agricultural productivity in various nations. The crop model in the Community Land Model 4.5 (CLM-crop4.5) and the parallel Decision Support System for Agricultural Technology (pDSSAT) in the parallel System for Integrating Impact Models and Sectors are participating in the Global Gridded Crop Model Intercomparison. We force these two crop models with output from the Whole Atmospheric Community Climate Model to characterize the global agricultural impact from climate changes due to a regional nuclear war. Crops in CLM-crop4.5 include maize, rice, soybean, cotton and sugarcane, and crops in pDSSAT include maize, rice, soybean and wheat. Although the two crop models require a different time frequency of weather input, we downscale the climate model output to provide consistent temperature, precipitation and solar radiation inputs. In general, CLM-crop4.5 simulates a larger global average reduction of maize and soybean production relative to pDSSAT. Global rice production shows negligible change with climate anomalies from a regional nuclear war. Cotton and sugarcane benefit from a regional nuclear war from CLM-crop4.5 simulation, and global wheat production would decrease significantly in the pDSSAT simulation. The regional crop yield responses to a regional nuclear conflict are different for each crop, and we present the changes in production on a national basis. These models do not include the crop responses to changes in ozone, ultraviolet radiation, or diffuse radiation, and we would like to encourage more modelers to improve crop models to account for those impacts. We present these results as a demonstration of using different crop models to study this problem, and we invite more global crop modeling groups to use the same climate forcing, which we would be happy to provide, to gain a better understanding of global agricultural responses under different future climate scenarios with stratospheric aerosols.

Experience gained in France on heat recovery from nuclear plants for agriculture and pisciculture

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Balligand, P.; Le Gouellec, P.; Dumont, M.

1978-04-01

Since 1972, the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, Electricite de France, and the French Ministry of Agriculture have jointly examined the possibility of using thermal wastes from nuclear power plants for the benefit of agricultural production. A new process to heat greenhouses with water at 303 K using a double-wall plastic mulching laid directly on the soil has been successfully used for a few years on several hectares. When necessary, heat pumps are utilized. Very good results have been obtained for tomatoes, cucumbers, flowers, and strawberries, etc. Outdoor soil heating with buried pipes has been tested in Cadarache near an experimentalmore » pressurized water reactor for market garden crops and forestry. Gains in precocity and yield have been excellent, especially for asparagus, strawberries, and potatoes. Growing of eels has been four times faster in warm water over one year.« less

Modeling the potential radionuclide transport by the Ob and Yenisey Rivers to the Kara Sea.

PubMed

Paluszkiewicz, T; Hibler, L F; Richmond, M C; Bradley, D J; Thomas, S A

2001-01-01

A major portion of the former Soviet Union (FSU) nuclear program is located in the West Siberian Basin. Among the many nuclear facilities are three production reactors and the spent nuclear fuel reprocessing sites, Mayak, Tomsk-7, and Krasnoyarsk-26, which together are probably responsible for the majority of the radioactive contamination found in the Ob and Yenisey River systems that feed into the Arctic Ocean through the Kara Sea. This manuscript describes ongoing research to estimate radionuclide fluxes to the Kara Sea from these river systems. Our approach is to apply a hierarchy of simple models that use existing and forthcoming data to quantify the transport and fate of radionuclide contaminants via various environmental pathways. We present an initial quantification of the contaminant inventory, hydrology, meteorology, and sedimentology of the Ob River system and preliminary conclusions from portions of the Ob River model.

Listening to sounds from an exploding meteor and oceanic waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Evers, L. G.; Haak, H. W.

Low frequency sound (infrasound) measurements have been selected within the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) as a technique to detect and identify possible nuclear explosions. The Seismology Division of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) operates since 1999 an experimental infrasound array of 16 micro-barometers. Here we show the rare detection and identification of an exploding meteor above Northern Germany on November 8th, 1999 with data from the Deelen Infrasound Array (DIA). At the same time, sound was radiated from the Atlantic Ocean, South of Iceland, due to the atmospheric coupling of standing ocean waves, called microbaroms. Occurring with only 0.04 Hz difference in dominant frequency, DIA proved to be able to discriminate between the physically different sources of infrasound through its unique lay-out and instruments. The explosive power of the meteor being 1.5 kT TNT is in the range of nuclear explosions and therefore relevant to the CTBT.

IAHS Third Scientific Assembly

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

The International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) convened its Third Scientific Assembly in Baltimore, Md., May 10-19, 1989. The Assembly was attended by about 450 scientists and engineers. The attendance was highest from the U.S., as could be expected; 37 were from Canada; 22 each, Netherlands and United Kingdom; 14, Italy; 12, China; 10, Federal Republic of Germany; 8 each from France, the Republic of South Africa, and Switzerland; 7, Austria; 6 each, Finland and Japan; others were scattered among the remainder of 48 countries total.one of the cosponsors and also handled business matters for the Assembly. Other cosponsors included the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics (IAMAP), United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and U.K. Overseas Development Authority (ODA). U.S. federal agencies serving as cosponsors included the Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, National Weather Service, Department of Agriculture, Department of State, and U.S. Geological Survey.

Frost Monitoring and Forecasting Using MODIS Land Surface Temperature Data and a Numerical Weather Prediction Model Forecasts for Eastern Africa

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kabuchanga, Eric; Flores, Africa; Malaso, Susan; Mungai, John; Sakwa, Vincent; Shaka, Ayub; Limaye, Ashutosh

2014-01-01

Frost is a major challenge across Eastern Africa, severely impacting agricultural farms. Frost damages have wide ranging economic implications on tea and coffee farms, which represent a major economic sector. Early monitoring and forecasting will enable farmers to take preventive actions to minimize the losses. Although clearly important, timely information on when to protect crops from freezing is relatively limited. MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) data, derived from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites, and 72-hr weather forecasts from the Kenya Meteorological Service's operational Weather Research Forecast model are enabling the Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD) and the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya to provide timely information to farmers in the region. This presentation will highlight an ongoing collaboration among the Kenya Meteorological Service, RCMRD, and the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya to identify frost events and provide farmers with potential frost forecasts in Eastern Africa.

Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Agricultural Water Demands and Crop Yields in California's Central Valley

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tansey, M. K.; Flores-Lopez, F.; Young, C. A.; Huntington, J. L.

2012-12-01

Long term planning for the management of California's water resources requires assessment of the effects of future climate changes on both water supply and demand. Considerable progress has been made on the evaluation of the effects of future climate changes on water supplies but less information is available with regard to water demands. Uncertainty in future climate projections increases the difficulty of assessing climate impacts and evaluating long range adaptation strategies. Compounding the uncertainty in the future climate projections is the fact that most readily available downscaled climate projections lack sufficient meteorological information to compute evapotranspiration (ET) by the widely accepted ASCE Penman-Monteith (PM) method. This study addresses potential changes in future Central Valley water demands and crop yields by examining the effects of climate change on soil evaporation, plant transpiration, growth and yield for major types of crops grown in the Central Valley of California. Five representative climate scenarios based on 112 bias corrected spatially downscaled CMIP 3 GCM climate simulations were developed using the hybrid delta ensemble method to span a wide range future climate uncertainty. Analysis of historical California Irrigation Management Information System meteorological data was combined with several meteorological estimation methods to compute future solar radiation, wind speed and dew point temperatures corresponding to the GCM projected temperatures and precipitation. Future atmospheric CO2 concentrations corresponding to the 5 representative climate projections were developed based on weighting IPCC SRES emissions scenarios. The Land, Atmosphere, and Water Simulator (LAWS) model was used to compute ET and yield changes in the early, middle and late 21st century for 24 representative agricultural crops grown in the Sacramento, San Joaquin and Tulare Lake basins. Study results indicate that changes in ET and yield vary between crops due to plant specific sensitivities to temperature, solar radiation and the vapor pressure deficits. Shifts in the growth period to earlier in the year, shortened growth period for annual crops as well as extended fall growth can also exert important influences. Projected increases in CO2 concentrations in the late 21st century exert very significant influences on ET and yield for many crops. To characterize potential impacts and the range of uncertainty, changes in total agricultural water demands and yields were computed assuming that current crop types and acreages in 21 Central Valley regional planning areas remained constant throughout the 21st century for each of the 5 representative future climate scenarios.

Analysis of the Development of Available Soil Water Storage in the Nitra River Catchment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tárník, Andrej; Leitmanová, Mária

2017-10-01

World is changing dramatically. Every sphere of our life is influenced by global climate changes, including agriculture sector. Rising air temperature and temporal variability of rainfall are crucial outcomes of climate changes for agricultural activities. Main impact of these outcomes on agriculture is the change of soil water amount. Soil water is an exclusive resource of water for plants. Changes of soil water storage are sensed very sensitively by farmers. Development of soil water storage was analysed in this paper. The Nitra River catchment is covered by nets of hydrological and meteorological stations of Department of Biometeorology and Hydrology, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra. Quantity of available soil water storage for plants was calculated every month in the years from 2013 to 2016. Calculations were done based on real measurements for soil horizon 0-30 cm. Ratio between a real available soil water storage and a potential available soil water storage was specified. Amount of potential available soil water storage was derived by retention curves of soil samples. Map of risk areas was created in GIS in pursuance of these calculations. We can see the negative trends of available soil water storage in years 2015 and 2016. Main addition of this paper is a selection of areas where soil moisture is a limiting factor of agriculture. In these areas, it is necessary to do the mitigation measures for sustainable development of agricultural activities.

Impacts of climate change and variability on European agriculture: results of inventory analysis in COST 734 countries.

PubMed

Orlandini, Simone; Nejedlik, Pavol; Eitzinger, Josef; Alexandrov, Vesselin; Toulios, Leonidas; Calanca, Pierluigi; Trnka, Miroslav; Olesen, Jørgen E

2008-12-01

Climate plays a fundamental role in agriculture because of to its influence on production. All processes are regulated by specific climatic requirements. Furthermore, European agriculture, based on highly developed farming techniques, is mainly oriented to high quality food production that is more susceptible to meteorological hazards. These hazards can modify environment-genotype interactions, which can affect the quality of production. The COST 734 Action (Impacts of Climate Change and Variability on European Agriculture), launched in 2006, is composed of 28 signature countries and is funded by the European Commission. The main objective of the Action is the evaluation of possible impacts arising from climate change and variability on agriculture and the assessment of critical thresholds for various European areas. The Action will concentrate on four different tasks: agroclimatic indices and simulation models, including review and assessment of tools used to relate climate and agricultural processes; evaluation of the current trends of agroclimatic indices and model outputs, including remote sensing; developing and assessing future regional and local scenarios of agroclimatic conditions; and risk assessment and foreseen impacts on agriculture. The work will be carried out by respective Working Groups. This paper presents the results of the analysis of the first phase of inventory activity. Specific questionnaires were disseminated among COST 734 countries to collect information on climate change analysis, studies, and impact at the European level. The results were discussed with respect to their spatial distribution in Europe and to identify possible common long- and short-term strategies for adaptation.

New AgMIP Scenarios: Impacts of Volcanic Eruptions, Geoengineering, or Nuclear War on Agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robock, A.; Xia, L.

2016-12-01

Climate is one of the most important factors determining crop yields and world food supplies. To be well prepared for possible futures, it is necessary to study yield changes of major crops in response to different climate forcings. Previous studies mainly focus on the impact from global warming. Here we propose that the AgMIP community also study the impacts of stratospheric aerosols on agriculture. While nature can load the stratosphere with sulfate aerosols for several years from large volcanic eruptions, humans could also put sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere on purpose through geoengineering or soot as a result of the fires from a nuclear war. Stratospheric aerosols would change the temperature, precipitation, total insolation, and fraction of diffuse radiation due to their radiative impacts, and could produce more ultraviolet radiation by ozone destruction. Surface ozone concentration could also change by changed transport from the stratosphere as well as changed tropospheric chemistry. As a demonstration of these effects, using the crop model in the NCAR Community Land Model (CLM-crop), we have studied sulfate injection geoengineering and nuclear war impacts on global agriculture in response to temperature, precipitation and radiation changes, and found significant changes in patterns of global food production. With the new ozone module in CLM-crop, we simulated how surface ozone concentration change under sulfate injection geoengineering would change the agriculture response. Agriculture would benefit from less surface ozone concentration associated with the specific geoengineering scenario comparing with the global warming scenario. Here, we would like to encourage more crop modelers to improve crop models in terms of crop responses to ozone, ultraviolet radiation, and diffuse radiation. We also invite more global crop modeling groups to use the climate forcing we would be happy to provide to gain a better understanding of global agriculture responses under different future climate scenarios with stratospheric aerosols.

Land-atmosphere interaction and disaster-causing process of drought in northern China: observation and experiment (DroughtPEX_China)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yaohui

2017-04-01

Drought is one of the most common and frequent nature disasters in the world, particularly in China under the continental monsoonal climate with great variation. About thirty percent of economic loss caused by natural disasters is contributed by droughts in China, which is by far the most damaging weather disasters because of its long duration and extensive hazard areas. Droughts not only have a serious impact on the agriculture, water resources, ecology, natural environment, but also seriously affect the socio-economic such as human health, energy and transportation. Worsely, under the background of climate change, droughts in show increases in frequency, duration and scope in many places around the world, particularly northern China. Nowadays, droughts have aroused extensive concern of the scientists, governments and international community, and became one of the important scientific issues in geoscience research. However, most of researches on droughts in China so far were focused on the causes or regulars of one type of droughts (the atmosphere, agriculture or hydrological) from the perspective of the atmospheric circulation anomalies. Few of them considered a whole cycle of the drought-forming process from atmosphere-land interaction to agricultural/ecological one in terms of the land-atmosphere interaction; meanwhile, the feedback mechanism with the drought and land-atmosphere interaction is still unclear as well. All of them is because of lack of the relevant comprehensive observation experiment. "Land-atmosphere interaction and disaster-causing process of drought in northern China: observation and experiment" (DroughtPEX_China)is just launched in this requirement and background. DroughtPEX_China is supported by Special Scientific Research Fund of Public Welfare Industry (Meteorological) of China (Grant No.GYHY201506001)—"Drought Meteorology Scientific Research Project—the disaster-causing process and mechanism of drought in northern China". This project aims to establish a complete observation &experiment system for droughts particularly over the arid and semi-arid regions in northern China. Relying on the existing meteorological observation network and experimental bases, the DroughtPEX_China implemented interdisciplinary, comprehensive and systemic drought-scientific experiment including the routine observation, intensive and special observation, and the artificially field control test for the drought forming and reducing. Such large observation &experiment will promote a large step or theoretical breakthrough on the knowledge of the complex dynamic process for the formation and development of drought disasters, the mechanism of the water-energy cycle in the atmosphere-soil-vegetation on multi-scales, and the interrelationship in the atmosphere, agriculture and hydrological droughts. The ultimate purpose of DroughtPEX_China is to make great progress on the technology of accurate drought monitoring, risk assessment and early warning. This paper will introduce the Drought PEX_China with the scientific goal, experiment design and layout, preliminary results, information sharing, and its promoting role on international cooperation of drought scientific research. Key words: Disaster-causing process of drought; Observation & experiment; Northern China

Climate Forcing Datasets for Agricultural Modeling: Merged Products for Gap-Filling and Historical Climate Series Estimation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ruane, Alex C.; Goldberg, Richard; Chryssanthacopoulos, James

2014-01-01

The AgMERRA and AgCFSR climate forcing datasets provide daily, high-resolution, continuous, meteorological series over the 1980-2010 period designed for applications examining the agricultural impacts of climate variability and climate change. These datasets combine daily resolution data from retrospective analyses (the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, MERRA, and the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis, CFSR) with in situ and remotely-sensed observational datasets for temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation, leading to substantial reductions in bias in comparison to a network of 2324 agricultural-region stations from the Hadley Integrated Surface Dataset (HadISD). Results compare favorably against the original reanalyses as well as the leading climate forcing datasets (Princeton, WFD, WFD-EI, and GRASP), and AgMERRA distinguishes itself with substantially improved representation of daily precipitation distributions and extreme events owing to its use of the MERRA-Land dataset. These datasets also peg relative humidity to the maximum temperature time of day, allowing for more accurate representation of the diurnal cycle of near-surface moisture in agricultural models. AgMERRA and AgCFSR enable a number of ongoing investigations in the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) and related research networks, and may be used to fill gaps in historical observations as well as a basis for the generation of future climate scenarios.

Evaluation of a Soil Moisture Data Assimilation System Over the Conterminous United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolten, J. D.; Crow, W. T.; Zhan, X.; Reynolds, C. A.; Jackson, T. J.

2008-12-01

A data assimilation system has been designed to integrate surface soil moisture estimates from the EOS Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) with an online soil moisture model used by the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service for global crop estimation. USDA's International Production Assessment Division (IPAD) of the Office of Global Analysis (OGA) ingests global soil moisture within a Crop Assessment Data Retrieval and Evaluation (CADRE) Decision Support System (DSS) to provide nowcasts of crop conditions and agricultural-drought. This information is primarily used to derive mid-season crop yield estimates for the improvement of foreign market access for U.S. agricultural products. The CADRE is forced by daily meteorological observations (precipitation and temperature) provided by the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The integration of AMSR-E observations into the two-layer soil moisture model employed by IPAD can potentially enhance the reliability of the CADRE soil moisture estimates due to AMSR-E's improved repeat time and greater spatial coverage. Assimilation of the AMSR-E soil moisture estimates is accomplished using a 1-D Ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) at daily time steps. A diagnostic calibration of the filter is performed using innovation statistics by accurately weighting the filter observation and modeling errors for three ranges of vegetation biomass density estimated using historical data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). Assessment of the AMSR-E assimilation has been completed for a five year duration over the conterminous United States. To evaluate the ability of the filter to compensate for incorrect precipitation forcing into the model, a data denial approach is employed by comparing soil moisture results obtained from separate model simulations forced with precipitation products of varying uncertainty. An analysis of surface and root-zone anomalies is presented for each model simulation over the conterminous United States, as well as statistical assessments for each simulation over various land cover types.

Evaluation of the Performance of Multiple Drought Indices for Tunisia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geli, H. M. E.; Jedd, T.; Svoboda, M.; Wardlow, B.; Hayes, M. J.; Neale, C. M. U.; Hain, C.; Anderson, M. C.

2016-12-01

The recent and frequent drought events in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) create an urgent need for scientists, stakeholders, and decision makers to improve the understanding of drought in order to mitigate its effects. It is well documented that drought is not caused by meteorological or hydrological conditions alone; social, economic, and political governance factors play a large part in whether the components in a water supply system are balanced. In the MENA region, for example, agricultural production can place a significant burden on water supply systems. Understanding the connection between drought and agricultural production is an important first step in developing a sound drought monitoring and mitigation system that links physical indicators with on-the-ground impacts. Drought affect crop yield, livestock health, and water resources availability, among others. A clear depiction of drought onset, duration and severity is essential to provide valuable information to adapt and mitigate drought impact. Therefore, it is important that to be able to connect and evaluate scientific drought data and informational products with societal impact data to more effectively initiate mitigation actions. This approach will further the development of drought maps that are tailored and responsive to immediate and specific societal needs for a region or country. Within the context of developing and evaluating drought impacts maps for the MENA region, this analysis investigates the use of different drought indices and indicators including the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) anomaly, land surface temperature (LST), and Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) for their ability to characterize historic drought events in Tunisia. Evaluation of a "drought map" product is conducted using data at the county level including crop yield, precipitation, in-country interviews with drought monitoring experts and agricultural producers, and a questionnaire follow-up written survey to evaluate stakeholder perceptions of its effectiveness. This case study results indicate an urgent need to contextualize the meteorological, hydrological, and phenological indicators of drought within the larger socio-political context of the MENA region.

Convective and nonconvective rainfall partitioning over a mixed Sudanian Savanna Agriculture Catchment: Use of a distributed sensor network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ceperley, N. C.; Mande, T.; Barrenetxea, G.; Repetti, A.; Yacouba, H.; Tyler, S. W.; Parlange, M. B.

2011-12-01

A hydro-meteorological field campaign (joint EPFL-2iE) in a mixed agricultural and forest region in the southern Burkina Faso Savanna aims to identify and understand convective rainfall processes and the link to soil moisture. A simple slab Mixed Layer and Lifting Condensation Level model is implemented to separate convective and nonconvective rainfall. Data for this research were acquired during the 2010 rainy season using an array of wireless weather stations (SensorScope) as well as surface energy balance stations that based upon eddy correlation heat flux measurements. The precipitation was found to be variable over the basin with some 200 mm of difference in total seasonal rainfall between agricultural fields and savanna forest. Convective rainfall represents more than 30% of the total rainfall. The convective rainfall events are short (less than hour), intense (greater than 3 mm/minute) and occur both in the early morning and in the afternoons. These events can have an important impact on soil erosion, which we discuss in more detail along with seasonal stream-aquifer interactions.

The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations in soils in the Region of Valasske Mezirici, the Czech Republic

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination of urban, agricultural and forest soil samples was investigated from samples obtained in the surroundings of Valasske Mezirici. Valasske Mezirici is a town located in the north-east mountainous part of the Czech Republic, where a coal tar refinery is situated. 16 PAHs listed in the US EPA were investigated. Organic oxidizable carbon was also observed in the forest soils. The PAH concentrations ranged from 0.86-10.84 (with one anomalous value of 35.14) and 7.66-79.39 mg/kg dm in the urban/agricultural and forest soils, respectively. While the PAH levels in the urban/agricultural soils are within the range typically found in industrialized areas, the forest soils showed elevated PAH concentrations compared to other forest soils in Western and Northern Europe. The PAH concentrations and their molecular distribution ratios were studied as functions of the sample location and the meteorological history. The soils from localities at higher altitudes above sea level have the highest PAH concentrations, and the PAH concentrations decrease with increasing distance from the town. PMID:20003407

Assessing the utility of meteorological drought indices in monitoring summer drought based on soil moisture in Chongqing, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Hui; Wu, Wei; Liu, Hong-Bin

2018-04-01

Numerous drought indices have been developed to analyze and monitor drought condition, but they are region specific and limited by various climatic conditions. In southwest China, summer drought mainly occurs from June to September, causing destructive and profound impact on agriculture, society, and ecosystems. The current study assesses the availability of meteorological drought indices in monitoring summer drought in this area at 5-day scale. The drought indices include the relative moisture index ( M), the standardized precipitation index (SPI), the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI), the composite index of meteorological drought (CIspi), and the improved composite index of meteorological drought (CIwap). Long-term daily precipitation and temperature from 1970 to 2014 are used to calculate 30-day M ( M 30), SPI (SPI30), SPEI (SPEI30), 90-day SPEI (SPEI90), CIspi, and CIwap. The 5-day soil moisture observations from 2010 to 2013 are applied to assess the performance of these drought indices. Correlation analysis, overall accuracy, and kappa coefficient are utilized to investigate the relationships between soil moisture and drought indices. Correlation analysis indicates that soil moisture is well correlated with CIwap, SPEI30, M 30, SPI30, and CIspi except SPEI90. Moreover, drought classifications identified by M 30 are in agreement with that of the observed soil moisture. The results show that M 30 based on precipitation and potential evapotranspiration is an appropriate indicator for monitoring drought condition at a finer scale in the study area. According to M 30, summer drought during 1970-2014 happened in each year and showed a slightly upward tendency in recent years.

Seasonal climate variability in historical and prehistorical times deduced from varved lake sediments: Calibration of records from Lakes Woseriner See and Tiefer See

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Czymzik, Markus; Kienel, Ulrike; Dreibrodt, Stefan; Brauer, Achim

2013-04-01

Societies are susceptible to the effects of even short-term climate variations on water supply, health, and agricultural productivity. However, understanding of human-climate interactions is limited due to the lack of high-resolution climate records in space and time. Varved lake sediments provide long time-series of seasonal climate variability directly from populated areas that can be compared to historical and archeological records. Calibration against meteorological data enables process-based insights into sediment deposition within the lake that can be extrapolated into the past using transfer functions. Lakes Woseriner See (53°40'N/12°2'E; 37 m asl.) and Tiefer See (53°23'N/13°97'E, 65 m asl.) in northeastern Germany are located only 35 km apart. Situated within the former settlement areas, the lakes are well suited for studying climate influences on society related to the Neolithic Funnelbeaker culture or the Slavic colonization. Sub-recent annual laminations allow to establish climate proxy data-series at seasonal resolution that can be calibrated against the long meteorological record from the nearby City of Schwerin. Seasonal climate proxy data-series covering the last 90 years have been obtained from short sediment cores applying a combination of microfacies analyses, X-ray fluorescence scanning (µ-XRF), and varve counting. Main sediment microfacies in both lakes are endogenic calcite varves comprising calcite and organic layer couplets of varying thickness, diatom layers, and dispersed detrital grains. Calibration against meteorological data indicates that variations in sediment layer thickness and composition are not stationary through time but influenced by inter-annual variations in meteorological conditions.

Cytogenetic damage in peripheral blood lymphocytes of children exposed to pesticides in agricultural areas of the department of Cordoba, Colombia.

PubMed

Ruiz-Guzmán, Javier Alonso; Gómez-Corrales, Pamela; Cruz-Esquivel, Ángel; Marrugo-Negrete, José Luis

2017-12-01

Pesticides offer benefits, like optimization of agricultural production and disease control; however, these toxic substances can contaminate the environment and pose risks to human health. The aim of this study was to assess pesticide exposure and frequency of cytogenetic damage in infant populations in agricultural areas of the department of Córdoba, Colombia. Urine and peripheral blood samples were taken from children living in the villages of La Ceibita (municipality of Cereté), Cabuya (municipality of San Carlos), Aguas Negras (municipality of Montería), Pelayito (municipality of San Pelayo), and the city of Monteria (control group). The work evaluated biomarkers of exposure to pesticides (atrazine urinary concentrations (ATZ) and its metabolites) and biomarkers of cytogenetic damage (micronucleus frequency (MN), nuclear buds, and apoptotic cells in peripheral blood lymphocytes). Measurable ATZ concentrations and/or its metabolites were recorded in the Pelayito, Aguas Negras, and Cabuya zones, which had higher MN frequencies, nuclear buds, and apoptotic cells than the control. Infant exposure to one of the more-often used pesticides in the agricultural areas evaluated and an increasing trend in the frequency of markers of cytogenetic damage in the groups of the agricultural areas, as compared to the control group, were evident. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

AgRISTARS: Foreign commodity production forecasting. Country summary report, Australia

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Henninger, D. L.; Reed, C. R. (Principal Investigator)

1981-01-01

Australia is one of the world's major growers and exporters of wheat and as such is one of the countries of interest in the AgRISTARS program which endeavors to develop technology to estimate crop production using aerospace remote sensing. A compilation of geographic, political, and agricultural information on Australia is presented. Also included is a summary of the aerospace remote sensing, meteorological, and ground-observed data which were collected with respect to Australia, as well as a summary of contacts between AgRISTARS and Australia personnel.

The large area crop inventory experiment: A major demonstration of space remote sensing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Macdonald, R. B.; Hall, F. G.

1977-01-01

Strategies are presented in agricultural technology to increase the resistance of crops to a wider range of meteorological conditions in order to reduce year-to-year variations in crop production. Uncertainties in agricultral production, together with the consumer demands of an increasing world population, have greatly intensified the need for early and accurate annual global crop production forecasts. These forecasts must predict fluctuation with an accuracy, timeliness and known reliability sufficient to permit necessary social and economic adjustments, with as much advance warning as possible.

The long-term problems of contaminated land: Sources, impacts and countermeasures

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Baes, C.F. III

1986-11-01

This report examines the various sources of radiological land contamination; its extent; its impacts on man, agriculture, and the environment; countermeasures for mitigating exposures; radiological standards; alternatives for achieving land decontamination and cleanup; and possible alternatives for utilizing the land. The major potential sources of extensive long-term land contamination with radionuclides, in order of decreasing extent, are nuclear war, detonation of a single nuclear weapon (e.g., a terrorist act), serious reactor accidents, and nonfission nuclear weapons accidents that disperse the nuclear fuels (termed ''broken arrows'').

Hazards and hazard combinations relevant for the safety of nuclear power plants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Decker, Kurt; Brinkman, Hans; Raimond, Emmanuel

2017-04-01

The potential of the contemporaneous impact of different, yet causally related, hazardous events and event cascades on nuclear power plants is a major contributor to the overall risk of nuclear installations. In the aftermath of the Fukushima accident, which was caused by a combination of severe ground shaking by an earthquake, an earthquake-triggered tsunami and the disruption of the plants from the electrical grid by a seismically induced landslide, hazard combinations and hazard cascades moved into the focus of nuclear safety research. We therefore developed an exhaustive list of external hazards and hazard combinations which pose potential threats to nuclear installations in the framework of the European project ASAMPSAE (Advanced Safety Assessment: Extended PSA). The project gathers 31 partners from Europe, North Amerika and Japan. The list comprises of exhaustive lists of natural hazards, external man-made hazards, and a cross-correlation matrix of these hazards. The hazard list is regarded comprehensive by including all types of hazards that were previously cited in documents by IAEA, the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA), and others. 73 natural hazards and 24 man-made external hazards are included. Natural hazards are grouped into seismotectonic hazards, flooding and hydrological hazards, extreme values of meteorological phenomena, rare meteorological phenomena, biological hazards / infestation, geological hazards, and forest fire / wild fire. The list of external man-made hazards includes industry accidents, military accidents, transportation accidents, pipeline accidents and other man-made external events. The large number of different hazards results in the extremely large number of 5.151 theoretically possible hazard combinations (not considering hazard cascades). In principle all of these combinations are possible to occur by random coincidence except for 82 hazard combinations that - depending on the time scale - are mutually exclusive (e.g., extremely high air temperature and surface ice). Our dataset further provides information on hazard combinations which are more likely to occur than just by random coincidence. 577 correlations between individual hazards are identified by expert opinion and shown in a cross-correlation chart. Combinations discriminate between: (1) causally connected hazards (cause-effect relation) where one hazard (e.g., costal erosion) may be caused by another hazard (e.g., storm surge); or where one hazard (e.g., high wind) is a prerequisite for a correlated hazard (e.g., storm surge). The identified causal links are not commutative. (2) Associated hazards ("contemporary" events) which are probable to occur at the same time due to a common root cause (e.g., a cold front of a meteorological low pressure area which leads to a drop of air pressure, high wind, thunderstorm, lightning, heavy rain and hail). The root cause may not necessarily be regarded as a hazard by itself. The hazard list and the hazard correlation chart may serve as a starting point for the hazard analysis process for nuclear installations in Level 1 PSA as outlined by IAEA (2010), the definition of design basis for nuclear reactors, and the assessment of design extension conditions as required by WENRA-RHWG (2014). It may further be helpful for the identification of hazard combinations and hazard cascades which threaten other critical infrastructure. References: Decker, K. & Brinkman, H., 2017. List of external hazards to be considered in extended PSA. Report No. ASAMPSA_E/WP21/D21.2/2017-41 - IRSN/ PSN-RES/SAG/2017-00011 IAEA, 2010. Development and Application of Level 1 Probabilistic Safety Assessment for Nuclear Power Plants. Safety Guide No. SSG-3, Vienna. http://www-pub.iaea.org/books/ WENRA-RHWG, 2014. WENRA Safety Reference Levels for Existing Reactors. Update in Relation to Lessons Learned from TEPCO Fukushima Dai-Ichi Accident. http://www.wenra.org/publications/

A Method to Estimate Sunshine Duration Using Cloud Classification Data from a Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (FY-2D) over the Heihe River Basin.

PubMed

Wu, Bingfang; Liu, Shufu; Zhu, Weiwei; Yu, Mingzhao; Yan, Nana; Xing, Qiang

2016-11-04

Sunshine duration is an important variable that is widely used in atmospheric energy balance studies, analysis of the thermal loadings on buildings, climate research, and the evaluation of agricultural resources. In most cases, it is calculated using an interpolation method based on regional-scale meteorological data from field stations. Accurate values in the field are difficult to obtain without ground measurements. In this paper, a satellite-based method to estimate sunshine duration is introduced and applied over the Heihe River Basin. This method is based on hourly cloud classification product data from the FY-2D geostationary meteorological satellite (FY-2D). A new index-FY-2D cloud type sunshine factor-is proposed, and the Shuffled Complex Evolution Algorithm (SCE-UA) was used to calibrate sunshine factors from different coverage types based on ground measurement data from the Heihe River Basin in 2007. The estimated sunshine duration from the proposed new algorithm was validated with ground observation data for 12 months in 2008, and the spatial distribution was compared with the results of an interpolation method over the Heihe River Basin. The study demonstrates that geostationary satellite data can be used to successfully estimate sunshine duration. Potential applications include climate research, energy balance studies, and global estimations of evapotranspiration.

A Method to Estimate Sunshine Duration Using Cloud Classification Data from a Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (FY-2D) over the Heihe River Basin

PubMed Central

Wu, Bingfang; Liu, Shufu; Zhu, Weiwei; Yu, Mingzhao; Yan, Nana; Xing, Qiang

2016-01-01

Sunshine duration is an important variable that is widely used in atmospheric energy balance studies, analysis of the thermal loadings on buildings, climate research, and the evaluation of agricultural resources. In most cases, it is calculated using an interpolation method based on regional-scale meteorological data from field stations. Accurate values in the field are difficult to obtain without ground measurements. In this paper, a satellite-based method to estimate sunshine duration is introduced and applied over the Heihe River Basin. This method is based on hourly cloud classification product data from the FY-2D geostationary meteorological satellite (FY-2D). A new index—FY-2D cloud type sunshine factor—is proposed, and the Shuffled Complex Evolution Algorithm (SCE-UA) was used to calibrate sunshine factors from different coverage types based on ground measurement data from the Heihe River Basin in 2007. The estimated sunshine duration from the proposed new algorithm was validated with ground observation data for 12 months in 2008, and the spatial distribution was compared with the results of an interpolation method over the Heihe River Basin. The study demonstrates that geostationary satellite data can be used to successfully estimate sunshine duration. Potential applications include climate research, energy balance studies, and global estimations of evapotranspiration. PMID:27827935

Active learning innovative for the study of climatic variations in Sicily (Italy) and micro-climates in confined environments. Digitized construction of agro-meteorological laboratory and entrepreneurial development of methodical home automation systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crimi, Pietro

2017-04-01

In education to issues of environmental sustainability and the use of renewable energy resources, there are the existing laboratory teaching methodologies in Superior School "A. Volta" in Palermo (Italy) for acquisition, processing and control network of agro-meteorological data on the local area. This station was planned to allow students practical multidisciplinary learning experiences in the field of agro-meteorological applications. The School started a few months ago a project of MIUR (Italian Ministry of Education) that updates the lab through the most innovative digital technologies in the field of mechatronics, domotic and sustainable energy, that are supported by the latest needs of scientific-educational multimedia. It is an educational training that intends to implement a data collection center agro-meteorological on "digital platforms," informational purposes and applications, on current issues of climate changes and their consequences in Sicily (Italy). This active learning will interconnect the data collected from the station weather and climate of the school with those locally and regionally, with "weather-climatic patterns" correlations that are implemented in the Mediterranean area (International Program "GAW-Global Atmosphere Watch"). For this reason were enabled synergies with two major public scientific research and acquisition services-data disclosure (ENEA and SIAS-Agrometeorological Information Service, Sicily Region), both to energy efficiency of the School Station, both to support data and digital applications in GIS, with agro-meteorological services to companies operating in the agricultural and environmental sustainability, high consideration themes in European Programming. A branch of this training course is the entrepreneurship education, carried out by a few years in School with the development of "experimental models" for the creation of "innovation clusters" to make entrepreneurial experience since school, creating/managing mini-companies. In the European educational program (Erasmus + KA3) called "Innovation Cluster for Entrepreneurship Education (ICEE)", aimed at enhancing the students' creativity and entrepreneurship, one of the mini-companies, created by students at the Institute, has developed and produced with innovative software a prototype automated system, a mini-greenhouse powered by solar energy, capable of recreating the habitat suitable for house plants, through the automated control of numerous agricultural micro-climatic parameters. Creating multimedia systems such as web platforms, advanced software and app/QR-code for mobile devices, defines the most innovative tools in computer science outreach phases. This experimental approach incorporates the teaching methods that are defined by the curriculum of the "Liceo delle Scienze Applicate" that exists in the School, with the proposition of experimental models that besides being "learning models" can switch into "knowledge models" correlated with scientific and technical-scientific models that exist in the world of research. La Natura non distrugge, che per creare, e non crea, che per distruggere (Storia dell'Astronomia, 1813 - Giacomo Leopardi)

WRF-based fire risk modelling and evaluation for years 2010 and 2012 in Poland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stec, Magdalena; Szymanowski, Mariusz; Kryza, Maciej

2016-04-01

Wildfires are one of the main ecosystems' disturbances for forested, seminatural and agricultural areas. They generate significant economic loss, especially in forest management and agriculture. Forest fire risk modeling is therefore essential e.g. for forestry administration. In August 2015 a new method of forest fire risk forecasting entered into force in Poland. The method allows to predict a fire risk level in a 4-degree scale (0 - no risk, 3 - highest risk) and consists of a set of linearized regression equations. Meteorological information is used as predictors in regression equations, with air temperature, relative humidity, average wind speed, cloudiness and rainfall. The equations include also pine litter humidity as a measure of potential fuel characteristics. All these parameters are measured routinely in Poland at 42 basic and 94 auxiliary sites. The fire risk level is estimated for a current (basing on morning measurements) or next day (basing on midday measurements). Entire country is divided into 42 prognostic zones, and fire risk level for each zone is taken from the closest measuring site. The first goal of this work is to assess if the measurements needed for fire risk forecasting may be replaced by the data from mesoscale meteorological model. Additionally, the use of a meteorological model would allow to take into account much more realistic spatial differentiation of weather elements determining the fire risk level instead of discrete point-made measurements. Meteorological data have been calculated using the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF). For the purpose of this study the WRF model is run in the reanalysis mode allowing to estimate all required meteorological data in a 5-kilometers grid. The only parameter that cannot be directly calculated using WRF is the litter humidity, which has been estimated using empirical formula developed by Sakowska (2007). The experiments are carried out for two selected years: 2010 and 2012. The year 2010 was characterized by the smallest number of wildfires and burnt area whereas 2012 - by the biggest number of fires and the largest area of conflagration. The data about time, localization, scale and causes of individual wildfire occurrence in given years are taken from the National Forest Fire Information System (KSIPL), administered by Forest Fire Protection Department of Polish Forest Research Institute. The database is a part of European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). Basing on this data and on the WRF-based fire risk modelling we intend to achieve the second goal of the study, which is the evaluation of the forecasted fire risk with an occurrence of wildfires. Special attention is paid here to the number, time and the spatial distribution of wildfires occurred in cases of low-level predicted fire risk. Results obtained reveals the effectiveness of the new forecasting method. The outcome of our investigation allows to draw a conclusion that some adjustments are possible to improve the efficiency on the fire-risk estimation method.

Predator Force Structure Changes at Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field, Nevada Environmental Assessment

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-07-01

Office Agency for Nuclear Projects Energy Agriculture Business & Industry Minerals Economic Development Tourism Fire Marshal Human Resources...Agriculture Business & Industry Minerals Economic Development Tourism Fire Marshal Human Resources A in Services Indian Commission Colorado...Data EIAP Environmental Impact Analysis Process EMCS Central Energy Management System ERP Environmental Restoration Program ESA Endangered

Comparison of meteorological forcing (WFDEI, AGRI4CAST) to in-situ observations in a semi arid catchment. The case of Merguellil in Tunisia.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le Page, Michel; Gosset, Cindy; Oueslati, Ines; Calvez, Roger; Zribi, Mehrez; Lilli Chabaane, Zohra

2015-04-01

Meteorological forcing is essential to hydrological and hydro-geological modeling. In the case of the semi-arid catchment of Merguellil in Tunisia, long term time series are only available in the plain for a SYNOP station. Other meteorological stations have been installed since 2010. Therefore, this study aims at qualifying the reliability of the meteorological forcing necessary for an integrated model conception. We compare the meteorological data from 7 stations (sources: WMO and our own station), inside and around the Merguellil catchment, with daily gridded data at 25*25 km from AGRI4CAST and 50*50km from WFDEI. AGRI4CAST (Biaveti et al, 2008) is an interpolated dataset based on actual weather stations produced by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) for the Monitoring Agricultural Resources Unit (MARS). The WFDEI second version dataset (Weedon et al, 2014) has been generated using the same methodology as the widely used WATCH Forcing Data (WFD) by making use of the ERA-Interim reanalysis data. The studied meteorological variables are Rs, Tmoy, U2, P, RH and ET0, with the scores RMSE, bias and R pearson. Regarding the AGRI4CAST dataset, the scores are established over different periods according to variables based on stepping between the observed and interpolated data. The scores show good correlations between the observed temperatures, but with a spatial variability bound to the stations elevations. The moderate and interpolated radiations also show a good concordance indicating a good reliability. The R pearson score obtained for the values of relative humidity show a good correlation between the observations and the interpolations, however, the short periods of comparisons do not allow obtaining significant information and the RMSE and bias are important. Wind speed has an important negative bias for a majority of stations (positively for only one). Only one station shows concordances between the data. The study of the data indicates that we shall have to adjust the wind speeds and the relative humidity of the air for the implementation of a model. Finally the reference evapotranspiration seems relatively coherent, in spite of the dispersal observed during the meteorological measures, but with biases rather high and RMSE also rather high (> 1.3 mm). After revised the parameter U2 and RH, AGRI4CAST can possibly be corrected by ancillary ground stations. The analysis of the WFDEI dataset is currently under evaluation. (1) Biavetti, I., Karetsos, S., Ceglar, A., Toreti, A., Panagos P. (2014), European meteorological data: contribution to research, development and policy support, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 9229 922907-1 (2) Weedon, G. P., G. Balsamo, N. Bellouin, S. Gomes, M. J. Best, and P. Viterbo (2014), The WFDEI meteorological forcing data set: WATCH Forcing Data methodology applied to ERA-Interim reanalysis data, Water Resour. Res., 50, 7505-7514, doi:10.1002/ 2014WR015638.

Introducing seasonal hydro-meteorological forecasts in local water management. First reflections from the Messara site, Crete, Greece.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koutroulis, Aristeidis; Grillakis, Manolis; Tsanis, Ioannis

2017-04-01

Seasonal prediction is recently at the center of the forecasting research efforts, especially for regions that are projected to be severely affected by global warming. The value of skillful seasonal forecasts can be considerable for many sectors and especially for the agricultural in which water users and managers can benefit to better anticipate against drought conditions. Here we present the first reflections from the user/stakeholder interactions and the design of a tailored drought decision support system in an attempt to bring seasonal predictions into local practice for the Messara valley located in the central-south area of Crete, Greece. Findings from interactions with the users and stakeholders reveal that although long range and seasonal predictions are not used, there is a strong interest for this type of information. The increase in the skill of short range weather predictions is also of great interest. The drought monitoring and prediction tool under development that support local water and agricultural management will include (a) sources of skillful short to medium term forecast information, (b) tailored drought monitoring and forecasting indices for the local groundwater aquifer and rain-fed agriculture, and (c) seasonal inflow forecasts for the local dam through hydrologic simulation to support management of freshwater resources and drought impacts on irrigated agriculture.

Climate change impact assessment on food security in Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ettema, Janneke; Aldrian, Edvin; de Bie, Kees; Jetten, Victor; Mannaerts, Chris

2013-04-01

As Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country, food security is a persistent challenge. The potential impact of future climate change on the agricultural sector needs to be addressed in order to allow early implementation of mitigation strategies. The complex island topography and local sea-land-air interactions cannot adequately be represented in large scale General Climate Models (GCMs) nor visualized by TRMM. Downscaling is needed. Using meteorological observations and a simple statistical downscaling tool, local future projections are derived from state-of-the-art, large-scale GCM scenarios, provided by the CMIP5 project. To support the agriculture sector, providing information on especially rainfall and temperature variability is essential. Agricultural production forecast is influenced by several rain and temperature factors, such as rainy and dry season onset, offset and length, but also by daily and monthly minimum and maximum temperatures and its rainfall amount. A simple and advanced crop model will be used to address the sensitivity of different crops to temperature and rainfall variability, present-day and future. As case study area, Java Island is chosen as it is fourth largest island in Indonesia but contains more than half of the nation's population and dominates it politically and economically. The objective is to identify regions at agricultural risk due to changing patterns in precipitation and temperature.

[Water-soluble anions of atmosphere on Tianwan nuclear power station].

PubMed

Zhao, Heng-Qiang; He, Ying; Zheng, Xiao-Ling; Chen, Fa-Rong; Pang, Shi-Ping; Wang, Cai-Xia; Wang, Xiao-Ru

2010-11-01

Three major water-soluble anions (Cl-, SO4(2-) and NO3-) in the atmosphere of the Tianwan nuclear power station in Lianyungang were determined by ion chromatography from June 2005 to May 2006. The results showed that the annual average concentration of Cl-, SO4(2-) and NO3- in the atmosphere of Tianwan nuclear power station was (33.12 +/- 53.63) microg x m(-3), (53.34 +/- 30.34) microg x m(-3) and (8.34 +/- 4.47) microg x m(-3), respectively. The concentrations of the three water-soluble anions showed evident trend of seasonal variation. The concentrations of Cl-, SO4(2-) reached the highest level in summer and the lowest level in winter, while the concentration of NO3- in autumn and winter was higher than those in summer and spring. Meteorological parameters such as wind direction, wind speed, temperature and relative humidity were studied and showed definite influence to the anions concentration of the atmosphere. This is the first simultaneous monitoring of corrosive anions in the atmosphere of Chinese coastal nuclear power plant, and it will provide basis for the prevention of marine atmospheric corrosion, which will ensure the safely operating of our nuclear power industry.

Understanding and Seasonal Forecasting of multiscale droughts in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuan, X.; Wang, L.; Wang, S.; Zhang, M.

2016-12-01

Droughts were climate anomalies that occurred naturally. But they have been altered by climate change and human interventions, and have covered a variety of spatiotemporal scales from seasonal/decadal droughts at regional to continental scales that are associated with large-scale climate anomalies and certain atmospheric circulation patterns, to flash droughts at local scales that are usually concurrent with heat extremes. Droughts have quite different implications across a number of sectors, with the considerations augmented from meteorological droughts to agricultural and hydrological droughts, where the latter could be affected by human activities directly. This raises a grand challenge to understand and predict droughts across scales in a changing environment. This presentation will be started by diagnosing an El Niño-induced meteorological drought that occurred over northern China (NC) last year, where the oceanic and atmospheric background are investigated, and the real-time prediction from Climate Forecast System version 2 (CFSv2) are diagnosed. The comparison between 2015 NC drought and other historical droughts are discussed, and a dynamical-statistical forecasting approach is being developed. Secondly, a rapidly developing agricultural drought event that termed as "flash droughts" accompanied by extreme heat, low soil moisture and high evapotranspiration (ET), occurred frequently around the world, and caused devastating impacts on crop yields and water supply. The increasing trend of flash droughts over China was tripled after the big El Niño event in 1997/98, but the warming hiatus does exist over many regions of China. The changes in flash droughts over China are being attributed by using multiple reanalysis data and the CMIP5 simulations. Lastly, the effects of human interventions on the drought propagation will be investigated over Yellow River basin in northern China. A comparison between SPI and standardized streamflow index indicates that the response of hydrological droughts to meteorological droughts becomes longer, and the duration and severity of hydrological droughts could be doubled or tripled with human interventions. The impact of human intervention on the hydrological drought predictability is being explored within the NMME/VIC forecasting framework.

Spatial and temporal variability of Aridity Index in Greece

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nastos, Panagiotis; Politi, Nadia; Douvis, Kostas

2010-05-01

Drought events have deteriorated in most European regions during the last decades in frequency, duration, or intensity. Besides, increased drying associated with higher temperatures and decreased precipitation have contributed to changes in drought. Drought-affected areas are projected to increase in extent, with the potential for adverse impacts on multiple sectors, e.g. agriculture, water supply, energy production and health, according to IPCC. The objective of this study is the spatial and temporal variability of the Aridity Index (AI) per decade, in Greece during the period 1951-2000, as far as the projections of AI for the period 2051-2100, based on simulations of ensemble regional climate models (RCMs), for A1B SRES scenario. The climatic data used for the analysis concern monthly values of precipitation and air temperature from 28 meteorological stations; 22 stations from the National Hellenic Meteorological Service and 6 stations from neighboring countries. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), AI is defined as P/PET, where P is the average annual precipitation and PET is the potential evapotranspiration, estimated by the Thornthwaite method; PET and P must be expressed in same units, e.g., in milimetres. All the meteorological data processing was carried out by the application of Geographical Information System (GIS). The results of the analysis showed that within the examined period a clear shift from "humid" class that characterized the greater area of Greece in 1950's to "sub-humid" and "semi-dry" classes appeared in mainly the eastern regions of Greece, such as eastern Crete Island, Cyclades Islands, Evia and Attica in 1990's. The future projections derived by the simulations of ensemble RCMs indicated that drier conditions are very likely to appear in Greece associated with significant socio-economic consequences. The decreasing precipitation along with the high rates of evapotranspiration, because of increase in the air temperature, will cause an effective decrease in ground humidity, a condition that can severely affect the effective use of the land for such activities as agriculture or stock-farming.

[Characteristics and adaptation of seasonal drought in southern China under the background of climate change. V. Seasonal drought characteristics division and assessment in southern China].

PubMed

Huang, Wan-Hua; Sui, Yue; Yang, Xiao-Guang; Dai, Shu-Wei; Li, Mao-Song

2013-10-01

Zoning seasonal drought based on the study of drought characteristics can provide theoretical basis for formulating drought mitigation plans and improving disaster reduction technologies in different arid zones under global climate change. Based on the National standard of meteorological drought indices and agricultural drought indices and the 1959-2008 meteorological data from 268 meteorological stations in southern China, this paper analyzed the climatic background and distribution characteristics of seasonal drought in southern China, and made a three-level division of seasonal drought in this region by the methods of combining comprehensive factors and main factors, stepwise screening indices, comprehensive disaster analysis, and clustering analysis. The first-level division was with the annual aridity index and seasonal aridity index as the main indices and with the precipitation during entire year and main crop growing season as the auxiliary indices, dividing the southern China into four primary zones, including semi-arid zone, sub-humid zone, humid zone, and super-humid zone. On this basis, the four primary zones were subdivided into nine second-level zones, including one semi-arid area-temperate-cold semi-arid hilly area in Sichuan-Yunnan Plateau, three sub-humid areas of warm sub-humid area in the north of the Yangtze River, warm-tropical sub-humid area in South China, and temperate-cold sub-humid plateau area in Southwest China, three humid areas of temperate-tropical humid area in the Yangtze River Basin, warm-tropical humid area in South China, and warm humid hilly area in Southwest China, and two super-humid areas of warm-tropical super-humid area in South China and temperate-cold super-humid hilly area in the south of the Yangtze River and Southwest China. According to the frequency and intensity of multiple drought indices, the second-level zones were further divided into 29 third-level zones. The distribution of each seasonal drought zone was illustrated, and the zonal drought characteristics and their impacts on the agricultural production were assessed. Accordingly, the drought prevention measures were proposed.

Harvest season, high polluted season in East China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Xin; Song, Yu; Li, Mengmeng; Li, Jianfeng; Zhu, Tong

2012-12-01

East China, a major agricultural zone with a dense population, suffers from severe air pollution during June, the agricultural harvest season, every year. Crop burning emits tremendous amounts of combustion products into the atmosphere, not only rapidly degrading the local air quality but also affecting the tropospheric chemistry, threatening public health and affecting climate change. Recently, in mid-June 2012, crop fires left a thick pall of haze over East China. We evaluated the PM10, PM2.5 (particulates less than 10 and 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter) and BC (black carbon) emissions by analyzing detailed census data and moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) remote sensing images and then simulated the consequent pollution using meteorological and dispersion models. The results show that the crop fires sweeping from the south to the north are responsible for the intensive air pollution during harvest season. It is necessary for scientists and governments to pay more attention to this issue.

Agrometeorological drought in the Romanian plain within the sector delimited by the valleys of the Olt and Buzău Rivers.

PubMed

Murărescu, Ovidiu; Murătoreanu, George; Frînculeasa, Mădălina

2014-01-01

The last few decades have recorded a high frequency of the meteorological drought phenomenon. Southern and south-eastern Romania make no exception, with such phenomena often occurring from July to November 2011, which brought about an agrometerological drought that lasted from the third decade of July to early December, with a slight improvement in October. This situation led to a decrease in soil water reserves, mainly in the first 20 cm, with a negative impact on agricultural crops and the following agricultural year as well. The methodology was based on a correlative analysis between the decadal rainfall quantities and the existing soil water reserve, during the interval between June and November 2011, for eight weather stations. The statistico-mathematical data analysis showed an intensification of the pedological drought phenomenon in September, with a slight improvement in October and an increase in November.

Correlation between isotopic and meteorological parameters in Italian wines: a local-scale approach.

PubMed

Aghemo, Costanza; Albertino, Andrea; Gobetto, Roberto; Spanna, Federico

2011-08-30

Since the beginning of the 1980s deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance and carbon-13 mass spectrometry have proved to be reliable techniques for detecting adulteration and for classifying natural products by their geographic origin. Scientific literature has so far mainly focused on data acquired at regional level where isotopic parameters are correlated to climatic mean data relative to large territories. Nebbiolo and Barbera wine samples of various vintages and from different areas within the Piedmont region (northern Italy) were analysed using SNIF-NMR and GC-C-IRMS and a large set of meteorological parameters were recorded by means of weather stations placed in fields where the grapes were grown. Correlations between isotopic ((2)H and (13)C) data and several climatic parameters at a local level (mean temperature, total rainfall, mean humidity and thermal sums) were attempted and some linear correlations were found. Mean temperature and total rainfall were found to be correlated to isotopic ((2)H and (13)C) abundance in linear direct and inverse proportions respectively. Lower or no correlations between deuterium and carbon-13 abundances and other meteorological parameters such as mean humidity and thermal sums were found. Moreover, wines produced from different grape varieties in the same grape field showed significantly different isotopic values. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry.

The Credibility of America’s Extended Nuclear Deterrent: The Case of the Republic of Turkey

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-09-01

National Security Policy, 4, 20–22. To ad- dress shortfalls in strategic vision, the US Congress commissioned a study PURPOSE OF AMERICAN NUCLEAR...Turkey’s eventual decision regarding nuclear weapons.”11 The United States should find another way to ad- dress the Armenian claims or let Turkey and...spirits, and agricultural goods (such as meat and poultry ), essentially banning these products from Turkish markets. Additionally, the USTR report

Soil vulnerability for cesium transfer.

PubMed

Vandenhove, Hildegarde; Sweeck, Lieve

2011-07-01

The recent events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan have raised questions about the accumulation of radionuclides in soils and the possible impacts on agriculture surrounding nuclear power plants. This article summarizes the knowledge gained after the nuclear power plant accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine, on how soil parameters influence soil vulnerability for radiocesium bioavailability, discusses some potential agrochemical countermeasures, and presents some predictions of radiocesium crop concentrations for areas affected by the Fukushima accident. Copyright © 2011 SETAC.

Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Space Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (SNTP) program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1991-09-01

A program has been proposed to develop the technology and demonstrate the feasibility of a high-temperature particle bed reactor (PBR) propulsion system to be used to power an advanced second stage nuclear rocket engine. The purpose of this Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) is to assess the potential environmental impacts of component development and testing, construction of ground test facilities, and ground testing. Major issues and goals of the program include the achievement and control of predicted nuclear power levels; the development of materials that can withstand the extremely high operating temperatures and hydrogen flow environments; and the reliable control of cryogenic hydrogen and hot gaseous hydrogen propellant. The testing process is designed to minimize radiation exposure to the environment. Environmental impact and mitigation planning are included for the following areas of concern: (1) Population and economy; (2) Land use and infrastructure; (3) Noise; (4) Cultural resources; (5) Safety (non-nuclear); (6) Waste; (7) Topography; (8) Geology; (9) Seismic activity; (10) Water resources; (11) Meteorology/Air quality; (12) Biological resources; (13) Radiological normal operations; (14) Radiological accidents; (15) Soils; and (16) Wildlife habitats.

Demonstration of FOODIE spcification on Czech pilot implementation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Charvat, Karel; Reznik, Tomas; Lukas, Vojtěch; Charvat, Karel, Jr.; Horakova, Sarka; Mekotova, Jarmila

2016-04-01

The agriculture sector is a unique sector due to its strategic importance around the world. It is crucial for both citizens (consumers) and economy (regional and global) which, ideally, should make the whole sector a network of interacting organizations. Rural areas are of particular importance with respect to the agri-food and environmental sectors and should be specifically addressed within this scope. The different groups of stakeholders involved in the agricultural and environmental activities have to manage many different and heterogeneous sources of information that need to be combined in order to make economically and environmentally sound decisions, which include (among others) the definition of policies (subsidies, standardization and regulation, national strategies for rural development, climate change), development of sustainable agriculture, ensure crop and animal food production, , pests and diseases detection, etc. In this context, future agriculture knowledge management systems have to support not only direct profitability of agriculture or environment protection, but also activities of individuals and groups allowing efficient collaboration among groups in agri-food industry, consumers, public administrations and wider stakeholders communities, especially in rural domain. Nowadays a various data could be obtained by common farm management. Traditionally, in a plant production this such data brings comprises information about fields, soil conditions and crop treatments. Moreover, data for a plant production also includes, but also sensor data are recorded from a variety of stationary and mobile devices such as farm machines, crop sensors, weather stations, etc. A cloud platform for collection, storage, sharing and analysis of large quantities of spatially and non-spatially referenced data is being developed In the European project "Farm-Oriented Open Data in Europe" (FOODIE) is developed a cloud platform for collection, storage, sharing and analysis of large quantities of spatially and non-spatially referenced data. For data integration of agriculture data FOODIE introduced the open data model. The open data model supported the evidence of all treatments that were used in a certain place as well as (where appropriate) to store relevant information on the application of those treatments. The stored data should together answer the questions like "What amount of which treatment was used in a certain place?", "When it will be safe to apply another treatment?" or "Is the treatment registered and allowed in the European Union/Member State?" The FOODIE data model is based on INSPIRE specification for Agricultural and Aquaculture Facilities., The FOODIE data model is based on the Activity Complex model.. Within INSPIRE, "Activity Complex" denotes a generic name agreed across thematic domains trying to avoid specific thematic connotations such as "Plant", "Installation", "Facility", "Establishment" or "Holding". Such scope may be identified for this paper as the Nitrate Directive or Water Framework Directive A Collection of data was verified on within the FOODIE Czech pilot farm with 1'214 ha of arable land to obtain information about farm machinery management and agro-meteorological observation. Selected tractors and implements were equipped by telemetry units to record vehicle trajectory in the fields and a wireless sensor network was established to observe meteorological conditions within a two fields with cereals. For these such purposes, a novel data model was developed to manage both sensor data and farm records within one platform simultaneously with the client application, which allows end-users to make visualization and analysis of farm data. The Czech Pilot is addressed to improve management and logistic of farms and agriculture service companies, introducing new tools and crop management methods for reduction of environmental burden while maintaining production level. In The Czech pilot machinery and meteorological data has been collected almost 7 months and the data collection process continues. As the first part of project is called proof-of concept stage, we have been experimenting with various settings of monitoring units to find the most suitable values of parameters affecting data collecting frequency. At this moment the volume of collected data is sufficient for purposes of testing FOODIE data model, tools and services. We are now starting to use FOODIE data model to connect the collected data with other farm related information and to define analysis focused on evaluation of economic efficiency of crop production on different fields. Results are now available on http://foodie-data.wirelessinfo.cz/

Aerial pesticide application causes DNA damage in pilots from Sinaloa, Mexico.

PubMed

Martínez-Valenzuela, C; Waliszewski, S M; Amador-Muñoz, O; Meza, E; Calderón-Segura, M E; Zenteno, E; Huichapan-Martínez, J; Caba, M; Félix-Gastélum, R; Longoria-Espinoza, R

2017-01-01

The use of pesticides in agricultural production originates residues in the environment where they are applied. Pesticide aerial application is a frequent source of exposure to pesticides by persons dedicated to agricultural practices and those living in neighboring communities of sprayed fields. The aim of the study was to assess the genotoxic effects of pesticides in workers occupationally exposed to these chemicals during their aerial application to agricultural fields of Sinaloa, Mexico. The study involved 30 pilots of airplanes used to apply pesticides via aerial application and 30 unexposed controls. Damage was evaluated through the micronucleus assay and by other nuclear abnormalities in epithelial cells of oral mucosa. The highest frequency ratios (FR) equal to 269.5 corresponded to binucleated cells followed by 54.2, corresponding to cells with pyknotic nuclei, 45.2 of cells with chromatin condensation, 3.7 of cells with broken-egg, 3.6 of cells with micronucleus, and 2.0 of karyolytic cells. Age, worked time, smoking, and alcohol consumption did not have significant influence on nuclear abnormalities in the pilots studied. Pesticide exposure was the main factor for nuclear abnormality results and DNA damage. Marked genotoxic damage was developed even in younger pilots with 2 years of short working period, caused by their daily occupational exposure to pesticides.

Comparison of regional and seasonal changes and trends in daily surface temperature extremes over India and its subregions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dimri, A. P.

2018-04-01

Regional changes in surface meteorological variables are one of the key issues affecting the Indian subcontinent especially in recent decades. These changes impact agriculture, health, water, etc., hence important to assess and investigate these changes. The Indian subcontinent is characterized by heterogeneous temperature regimes at regional and seasonal scales. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) observations are limited to recent decades as far as its spatial distribution is concerned. In particular, over Hilly region, these observations are sporadic. Due to variable topography and heterogeneous land use/land cover, it is complex to substantiate impacts. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA-Interim (ERA-I) reanalysis not only covers a larger spatial domain but also provides a greater number of inputs than IMD. This study used ERA-I in conjunction with IMD gridded data to provide a comparative assessment of changing temperature patterns over India and its subregions at both regional and seasonal scales. Warming patterns are observed in both ERA-I and IMD data sets. Cold nights decrease during winter; warm days increase and warm spell duration increased during winter could become a cause of concern for society, agriculture, socio-economic reasons, and health. Increasing warm days over the hilly regions may affect the corresponding snow cover and thus river hydrology and glaciological dynamics. Such changes during monsoon are slower, which could be attributed to moisture availability to dampen the temperature changes. On investigation and comparison thereon, the present study provisions usages of ERA-I-based indices for various impact and adaptation studies.

Enhancing the USDA Global Crop Assessment Decision Support System Using SMAP Soil Moisture Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolten, J. D.; Mladenova, I. E.; Crow, W. T.; Reynolds, C. A.

2016-12-01

The Foreign Agricultural Services (FAS) is a subdivision of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that is in charge with providing information on current and expected crop supply and demand estimates. Knowledge of the amount of water in the root zone is an essential source of information for the crop analysts as it governs the crop development and crop growth, which in turn determine the end-of-season yields. USDA FAS currently relies on root zone soil moisture (RZSM) estimates generated using the modified two-layer Palmer Model (PM). PM is a simple water-balance hydrologic model that is driven by daily precipitation observations and minimum and maximum temperature data. These forcing data are based on ground meteorological station measurements from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and gridded weather data from the former U.S. Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA), currently called U.S. Air Force 557th Weather Wing. The PM was extended by adding a data assimilation (DA) unit that provides the opportunity to routinely ingest satellite-based soil moisture observations. This allows us to adjust for precipitation-related inaccuracies and enhance the quality of the PM soil moisture estimates. The current operational DA system is based on a 1-D Ensample Kalman Filter approach and relies on observations obtained from the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity Mission (SMOS). Our talk will demonstrate the value of assimilating two satellite products (i.e. a passive and active) and discuss work that is done in preparation for ingesting soil moisture observations from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission.

How to achieve benefit from mission-oriented research: lessons from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Naval Research Laboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Logar, N. J.

2006-12-01

Does the research performed by government mission agencies contribute to improved decision-making? Climate research within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has the stated goal of providing "optimal benefit" to decision makers on all levels, and the meteorology division of Department of Defense's Naval Research Laboratory promises research directed towards application. Assuming that research can lead to benefit for decision makers with minimal guidance can lead to irrelevance, wasted effort, and missed opportunities. Moving beyond the assumption leads to critical consideration of processes creating climate and meteorological science. I report the results of contextual mapping, of research on decision processes, and of interviews with agency scientists and users of science to evaluate their science regimes. In the case of the USDA scientists do target stakeholders through formal and informal mechanisms, but much of the science does not find use due to institutional constraints, political considerations, and disciplinary inertia. The research results will provide options for closing these policy gaps, such as higher-level stakeholder interaction and better representation of diverse interests. I apply the economic concept of supply and demand to describe where supply of science provides decision support that matches user demand, and where science policies might miss opportunities or mischaracterize research as useful to a specific user. This analysis leads to increased understanding of how factors such as the definition of scientific problems, hierarchies in science decision-making structures, quality control mechanisms beyond peer review, distribution of participants in the knowledge production enterprise, and social accountability guide the process of producing useful information.

An overview of crop growing condition monitoring in China agriculture remote sensing monitoring system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Qing; Zhou, Qing-bo; Zhang, Li

2009-07-01

China is a large agricultural country. To understand the agricultural production condition timely and accurately is related to government decision-making, agricultural production management and the general public concern. China Agriculture Remote Sensing Monitoring System (CHARMS) can monitor crop acreage changes, crop growing condition, agriculture disaster (drought, floods, frost damage, pest etc.) and predict crop yield etc. quickly and timely. The basic principles, methods and regular operation of crop growing condition monitoring in CHARMS are introduced in detail in the paper. CHARMS can monitor crop growing condition of wheat, corn, cotton, soybean and paddy rice with MODIS data. An improved NDVI difference model was used in crop growing condition monitoring in CHARMS. Firstly, MODIS data of every day were received and processed, and the max NDVI values of every fifteen days of main crop were generated, then, in order to assessment a certain crop growing condition in certain period (every fifteen days, mostly), the system compare the remote sensing index data (NDVI) of a certain period with the data of the period in the history (last five year, mostly), the difference between NDVI can indicate the spatial difference of crop growing condition at a certain period. Moreover, Meteorological data of temperature, precipitation and sunshine etc. as well as the field investigation data of 200 network counties were used to modify the models parameters. Last, crop growing condition was assessment at four different scales of counties, provinces, main producing areas and nation and spatial distribution maps of crop growing condition were also created.

Orbital Debris Quarterly News. Volume 13; No. 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liou, J.-C. (Editor); Shoots, Debi (Editor)

2009-01-01

Topics discussed include: new debris from a decommissioned satellite with a nuclear power source; debris from the destruction of the Fengyun-1C meteorological satellite; quantitative analysis of the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle 'Jules Verne' reentry event; microsatellite impact tests; solar cycle 24 predictions and other long-term projections and geosynchronus (GEO) environment for the Orbital Debris Engineering Model (ORDEM2008). Abstracts from the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office, examining satellite reentry risk assessments and statistical issues for uncontrolled reentry hazards, are also included.

Spatial and temporal stability of temperature in the first-level basins of China during 1951-2013

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Yuting; Li, Peng; Xu, Guoce; Li, Zhanbin; Cheng, Shengdong; Wang, Bin; Zhao, Binhua

2018-05-01

In recent years, global warming has attracted great attention around the world. Temperature change is not only involved in global climate change but also closely linked to economic development, the ecological environment, and agricultural production. In this study, based on temperature data recorded by 756 meteorological stations in China during 1951-2013, the spatial and temporal stability characteristics of annual temperature in China and its first-level basins were investigated using the rank correlation coefficient method, the relative difference method, rescaled range (R/S) analysis, and wavelet transforms. The results showed that during 1951-2013, the spatial variation of annual temperature belonged to moderate variability in the national level. Among the first-level basins, the largest variation coefficient was 114% in the Songhuajiang basin and the smallest variation coefficient was 10% in the Huaihe basin. During 1951-2013, the spatial distribution pattern of annual temperature presented extremely strong spatial and temporal stability characteristics in the national level. The variation range of Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was 0.97-0.99, and the spatial distribution pattern of annual temperature showed an increasing trend. In the national level, the Liaohe basin, the rivers in the southwestern region, the Haihe basin, the Yellow River basin, the Yangtze River basin, the Huaihe basin, the rivers in the southeastern region, and the Pearl River basin all had representative meteorological stations for annual temperature. In the Songhuajiang basin and the rivers in the northwestern region, there was no representative meteorological station. R/S analysis, the Mann-Kendall test, and the Morlet wavelet analysis of annual temperature showed that the best representative meteorological station could reflect the variation trend and the main periodic changes of annual temperature in the region. Therefore, strong temporal stability characteristics exist for annual temperature in China and its first-level basins. It was therefore feasible to estimate the annual average temperature by the annual temperature recorded by the representative meteorological station in the region. Moreover, it was of great significance to assess average temperature changes quickly and forecast future change tendencies in the region.

Nuclear winter from gulf war discounted

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Marshall, E.

Would a major conflagration in Kuwait's oil fields trigger a climate catastrophe akin to the 'nuclear winter' that got so much attention in the 1980s This question prompted a variety of opinions. The British Meteorological Office and researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory concluded that the effect of smoke from major oil fires in Kuwait on global temperatures is likely to be small; however, the obscuration of sunlight might significantly reduce surface temperatures locally. Michael MacCracken, leader of the researchers at Livermore, predicts that the worst plausible oil fires in the Gulf would produce a cloud of pollution about asmore » severe as that found on a bad day at the Los Angeles airport. The results of some mathematical modeling by the Livermore research group are reported.« less

Space Agriculture for Recovery of Fukushima from the Nuclear Disaster

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamashita, Masamichi; Tomita-Yokotani, Kaori; Hasegawa, Katsuya; Kanazawa, Shinjiro; Oshima, Tairo

2012-07-01

Space agriculture is an engineering challenge to realize life support functions on distant planetary bodies under their harsh environment. After the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, its land was heavily contaminated by radioactive cesium and other nuclei. We proposed the use of space agriculture to remediate the contaminated land. Since materials circulation in the human dominant system should remove sodium from metabolic waste at processing fertilizer for crop plants, handling of sodium and potassium ions in agro-ecosystem has been one of major research targets of space agriculture. Cesium resembles to potassium as alkaline metal. Knowledge on behavior of sodium/potassium in agro-ecosystem might contribute to Fukushima. Reduction of volume of contaminated biomass made by hyperthermophilic aerobic composting bacterial system is another proposal from space agriculture. Volume and mass of plant bodies should be reduced for safe storage of nuclear wastes. Capacity of the storage facility will be definitely limited against huge amount of contaminated soil, plants and others. For this purpose, incineration of biomass first choice. The process should be under the lowered combustion temperature and with filters to confine radioactive ash to prevent dispersion of radioactive cesium. Biological combustion made by hyperthermophilic aerobic composting bacterial system might offer safe alternative for the volume reduction of plant biomass. Scientific evidence are demanded for Fukushima in order to to judge health risks of the low dose rate exposure and their biological mechanism. Biology and medicine for low dose rate exposure have been intensively studied for space exploration. The criteria of radiation exposure for general public should be remained as 1 mSv/year, because people has no merit at being exposed. However, the criteria of 1,200 mSv for life long, which is set to male astronaut, age of his first flight after age 40, might be informative to people for understanding the less risk of low dose rate against the acute exposure of same total dose. Scientific achievements of space radiobiology and medicine help people to assess their risk of exposure to radiation and to find effective measures against it. Knowledge for quantitative comparison of risks need to be provided. Space agriculture is a promising testbed to solve the Fukushima problems.

Assessment of Spatio-temporal Barren-lands Expansion and Agricultural Adaptation due to Climate Change and Anthropogenic Activity: A Geospatial Approach in Hot Semi-arid Region of Maharashtra State, India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roy, A.; Inamdar, A. B.

2017-12-01

Major parts of Upper Godavari River Basin are intensely drought prone and climate vulnerable in Maharashtra State, India. The economy of the state depends on the agronomic productivity of this region. So, it is necessary to monitor and regulate the effects of climate change and anthropogenic activity on agricultural land in that region. This study investigates and maps the barren-lands and alteration of agricultural lands, their decadal deviations with the multi-temporal LANDSAT satellite images; and finally quantifies the agricultural adaptations. This work involves the utilization of remote sensing and GIS tools and modeling. First, climatic trend analysis is carried out with dataset obtained from India Meteorological Department. Then, multi-temporal LANDSAT images are classified (Level I, hybrid classification technique are followed) to determine the decadal Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes and correlated with the agricultural water demand. Finally, various LANDSAT band analysis is conducted to determine irrigated and non-irrigated cropping area estimation and identifying the agricultural adaptations. The analysis of LANDSAT images shows that barren-lands are most increased class during the study period. The overall spatial extent of barren-lands are increased drastically during the study period. The geospatial study (class-to-class conversion study) shows that, most of the conversion of the barren-lands are from the agricultural land and reserve or open forests. The barren-lands are constantly increasing and the agricultural land is linearly decreasing. Hence, there is an inverse correlation between barren-lands and agricultural land. Moreover, there is a shift to non-irrigated and less water demanding crops, from more water demanding crops, which is a noticeable adaptation. The surface-water availability is highly dependent on rainfall and/or climatic conditions. It is changing either way in a random fashion based upon the quantity of rainfall occurred in near preceding years. The agricultural lands are densely replenished around the dams and natural water bodies which serve as the water supply stations for the irrigation purposes. Hence, the study shows there are alteration in LULC, agricultural practices and surface-water availability and expansion of barren-lands.

United States data collection activities and requirements, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hrin, S.; Mcgregor, D.

1977-01-01

The potential market for a data collection system was investigated to determine whether the user needs would be sufficient to support a satellite relay data collection system design. The activities of 107,407 data collections stations were studied to determine user needs in agriculture, climatology, environmental monitoring, forestry, geology, hydrology, meteorology, and oceanography. Descriptions of 50 distinct data collections networks are described and used to form the user data base. The computer program used to analyze the station data base is discussed, and results of the analysis are presented in maps and graphs. Information format and coding is described in the appendix.

Heat Capacity Mapping Mission investigation no. 25 (Tellus project)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Deparatesi, S. G. (Principal Investigator); Reiniger, P. (Editor)

1982-01-01

The TELLUS pilot project, utilizing 0.5 to 1.1 micron and 10.5 to 12.5 micron day and/or night imagery from the Heat Capacity Mapping Mission, is described. The application of remotely sensed data to synoptic evaluation of evapotranspiration and moisture in agricultural soils was considered. The influence of topography, soils, land use, and meteorology on surface temperature distribution was evaluated. Anthropogenic heat release was investigated. Test areas extended from semi-arid land in southern Italy to polders in the Netherlands, and from vine-growing hills in the Rhineland to grasslands in Buckinghamshire.

Application of IEM model on soil moisture and surface roughness estimation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shi, Jiancheng; Wang, J. R.; Oneill, P. E.; Hsu, A. Y.; Engman, E. T.

1995-01-01

Monitoring spatial and temporal changes of soil moisture are of importance to hydrology, meteorology, and agriculture. This paper reports a result on study of using L-band SAR imagery to estimate soil moisture and surface roughness for bare fields. Due to limitations of the Small Perturbation Model, it is difficult to apply this model on estimation of soil moisture and surface roughness directly. In this study, we show a simplified model derived from the Integral Equation Model for estimation of soil moisture and surface roughness. We show a test of this model using JPL L-band AIRSAR data.

Plants remember past weather: a study for atmospheric pollen concentrations of Ambrosia, Poaceae and Populus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matyasovszky, István; Makra, László; Csépe, Zoltán; Sümeghy, Zoltán; Deák, Áron József; Pál-Molnár, Elemér; Tusnády, Gábor

2015-10-01

After extreme dry (wet) summers or years, pollen production of different taxa may decrease (increase) substantially. Accordingly, studying effects of current and past meteorological conditions on current pollen concentrations for different taxa have of major importance. The purpose of this study is separating the weight of current and past weather conditions influencing current pollen productions of three taxa. Two procedures, namely multiple correlations and factor analysis with special transformation are used. The 11-year (1997-2007) data sets include daily pollen counts of Ambrosia (ragweed), Poaceae (grasses) and Populus (poplar), as well as daily values of four climate variables (temperature, relative humidity, global solar flux and precipitation). Multiple correlations of daily pollen counts with simultaneous values of daily meteorological variables do not show annual course for Ambrosia, but do show definite trends for Populus and Poaceae. Results received using the two methods revealed characteristic similarities. For all the three taxa, the continental rainfall peak and additional local showers in the growing season can strengthen the weight of the current meteorological elements. However, due to the precipitation, big amount of water can be stored in the soil contributing to the effect of the past climate elements during dry periods. Higher climate sensitivity (especially water sensitivity) of the herbaceous taxa ( Ambrosia and Poaceae) can be definitely established compared to the arboreal Populus. Separation of the weight of the current and past weather conditions for different taxa involves practical importance both for health care and agricultural production.

Complementary system for long term measurements of radon exhalation rate from soil

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mazur, J.; Kozak, K., E-mail: Krzysztof.Kozak@ifj.edu.pl

A special set-up for continuous measurements of radon exhalation rate from soil is presented. It was constructed at Laboratory of Radiometric Expertise, Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN), Krakow, Poland. Radon exhalation rate was determined using the AlphaGUARD PQ2000 PRO (Genitron) radon monitor together with a special accumulation container which was put on the soil surface during the measurement. A special automatic device was built and used to raise and lower back onto the ground the accumulation container. The time of raising and putting down the container was controlled by an electronic timer. This set-up mademore » it possible to perform 4–6 automatic measurements a day. Besides, some additional soil and meteorological parameters were continuously monitored. In this way, the diurnal and seasonal variability of radon exhalation rate from soil can be studied as well as its dependence on soil properties and meteorological conditions.« less

Long-range tropospheric transport of uranium and plutonium weapons fallout from Semipalatinsk nuclear test site to Norway.

PubMed

Wendel, Cato Christian; Fifield, L Keith; Oughton, Deborah H; Lind, Ole Christian; Skipperud, Lindis; Bartnicki, Jerzy; Tims, Stephen G; Høibråten, Steinar; Salbu, Brit

2013-09-01

A combination of state-of-the-art isotopic fingerprinting techniques and atmospheric transport modelling using real-time historical meteorological data has been used to demonstrate direct tropospheric transport of radioactive debris from specific nuclear detonations at the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan to Norway via large areas of Europe. A selection of archived air filters collected at ground level at 9 stations in Norway during the most intensive atmospheric nuclear weapon testing periods (1957-1958 and 1961-1962) has been screened for radioactive particles and analysed with respect to the concentrations and atom ratios of plutonium (Pu) and uranium (U) using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Digital autoradiography screening demonstrated the presence of radioactive particles in the filters. Concentrations of (236)U (0.17-23nBqm(-3)) and (239+240)Pu (1.3-782μBqm(-3)) as well as the atom ratios (240)Pu/(239)Pu (0.0517-0.237) and (236)U/(239)Pu (0.0188-0.7) varied widely indicating several different sources. Filter samples from autumn and winter tended to have lower atom ratios than those sampled in spring and summer, and this likely reflects a tropospheric influence in months with little stratospheric fallout. Very high (236)U, (239+240)Pu and gross beta activity concentrations as well as low (240)Pu/(239)Pu (0.0517-0.077), (241)Pu/(239)Pu (0.00025-0.00062) and (236)U/(239)Pu (0.0188-0.046) atom ratios, characteristic of close-in and tropospheric fallout, were observed in filters collected at all stations in Nov 1962, 7-12days after three low-yield detonations at Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan). Atmospheric transport modelling (NOAA HYSPLIT_4) using real-time meteorological data confirmed that long range transport of radionuclides, and possibly radioactive particles, from Semipalatinsk to Norway during this period was plausible. The present work shows that direct tropospheric transport of fallout from atmospheric nuclear detonations periodically may have had much larger influence on radionuclide air concentrations and deposition than previously anticipated. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhanced agricultural drought monitoring using a soil water anomaly-based drought index in south-west India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hochstöger, Simon; Pfeil, Isabella; Amarnath, Giriraj; Pani, Peejush; Enenkel, Markus; Wagner, Wolfgang

2017-04-01

In India, agriculture accounts for roughly 17% of the GDP and employs around 50% of the total workforce. Especially in the western part of India, most of the agricultural fields are non-irrigated. Hence, agriculture is highly dependent on the monsoon in these areas. However, the absence of rainfall during the monsoon season increases the occurrence of drought periods, which is the main environmental factor affecting agricultural productivity. Rainfall is often not accessible to plants due to runoff or increased rates of evapotranspiration. Therefore, knowledge of the soil moisture state in the root zone of the soil is of great interest in the field of agricultural drought monitoring and operational decision-support. By introducing soil moisture, retrieved via active or passive microwave remote sensors, the gap between rainfall and the subsequent response of vegetation can be closed. Agricultural droughts are strongly influenced by a lack of water availability in the root zone of the soil, making anomalies of the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) soil water index (SWI), representing the water content in lower soil layers, a suitable measure to estimate the water deficit in the soil. These anomalies describe the difference of the actual soil moisture value to the long-term average calculated for the same period. The objective of the study is to investigate the usability of soil moisture anomalies for developing an indicator that is based on critical thresholds, which finally results in a classification with different drought severity levels. In order to evaluate the performance of the drought index, it is compared to the Integrated Drought Severity Index (IDSI), which is developed at the International Water Management Institute in Colombo, Sri Lanka and to rainfall data from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). Overall, first analyses show a high potential of using SWI anomalies for agricultural drought monitoring. Most of the drought events detected by negative SWI anomalies correspond to IDSI drought events and also to reduced precipitation during that time.

Meteorological annual report for 1995 at the Savannah River Site

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hunter, C.H.; Tatum, C.P.

1996-12-01

The Environmental Technology Section (ETS) of the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) collects, archives, and analyzes basic meteorological data supporting a variety of activities at SRS. These activities include the design, construction, and operation of nuclear and non-nuclear facilities, emergency response, environmental compliance, resource management, and environmental research. This report contains tabular and graphical summaries of data collected during 1995 for temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, wind, barometric pressure, and solar radiation. Most of these data were collected at the central Climatology Facility. Summaries of temperature and relative humidity were generated with data from the lowest level of measurement at themore » Central Climatology Site tower (13 feet above ground). (Relative humidity is calculated from measurements of dew-point temperature.) Wind speed summaries were generated with data from the second measurement level (58 feet above ground). Wind speed measurements from this level are believed to best represent open, well-exposed areas of the Site. Precipitation summaries were based on data from the Building 773-A site since quality control algorithms for the central Climatology Facility rain gauge data were not finalized at the time this report was prepared. This report also contains seasonal and annual summaries of joint occurrence frequencies for selected wind speed categories by 22.5 degree wind direction sector (i.e., wind roses). Wind rose summaries are provided for the 200-foot level of the Central Climatology tower and for each of the eight 200-foot area towers.« less

East Asia Korea: KULLOJA No 6, June 1987

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-12-21

converting the Korean Peninsula to a nuclear- free peace zone. All these measures designed to achieve peace on the Korean Peninula and the peaceful...our nation was in imminent danger and when the cries of rancor and groan- ing of our people suffering from cruelty and hunger were mounting...increase agricultural production, eliminate differences between industrial and agricultural labor, and free the farmers from arduous toil by developing

The Crop Risk Zones Monitoring System for resilience to drought in the Sahel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vignaroli, Patrizio; Rocchi, Leandro; De Filippis, Tiziana; Tarchiani, Vieri; Bacci, Maurizio; Toscano, Piero; Pasqui, Massimiliano; Rapisardi, Elena

2016-04-01

Food security is still one of the major concerns that Sahelian populations have to face. In the Sahel, agriculture is primarily based on rainfed crops and it is often structurally inadequate to manage the climatic variability. The predominantly rainfed cropping system of Sahel region is dependent on season quality on a year-to-year basis, and susceptible to weather extremes of droughts and extreme temperatures. Low water-storage capacity and high dependence on rainfed agriculture leave the agriculture sector even more vulnerable to climate risks. Crop yields may suffer significantly with either a late onset or early cessation of the rainy season, as well as with a high frequency of damaging dry spells. Early rains at the beginning of the season are frequently followed by dry spells which may last a week or longer. As the amount of water stored in the soil at this time of the year is negligible, early planted crops can suffer water shortage stresses during a prolonged dry spell. Therefore, the choice of the sowing date is of fundamental importance for farmers. The ability to estimate effectively the onset of the season and potentially dangerous dry spells becomes therefore vital for planning rainfed agriculture practices aiming to minimize risks and maximize yields. In this context, advices to farmers are key drivers for prevention allowing a better adaptation of traditional crop calendar to climatic variability. In the Sahel, particularly in CILSS (Permanent Interstates Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel) countries, national Early Warning System (EWS) for food security are underpinned by Multidisciplinary Working Groups (MWGs) lead by National Meteorological Services (NMS). The EWSs are mainly based on tools and models utilizing numeric forecasts and satellite data to outlook and monitor the growing season. This approach is focused on the early identification of risks and on the production of information within the prescribed time period for decision-making. Since the '90s, analysis tools and models based on meteorological satellites data have been developed within different regional and national initiatives to allow near-real-time monitoring of the cropping season. The software was in general stand-alone applications, transferred to MWGs without continuous user support and updates. Currently MWGs in the Sahel do not have any working operational tool for drought risk identification and forecast, because such tools are by now obsolete from the IT perspective. The challenge and the objective of this work is to provide to MWGs and local end-users an open access/source Crop Risk Zones Monitoring System (CRZ-MS) supporting decision making for drought risk reduction and resilience improvement. A first prototype has been developed for Niger and Mali NMSs, based on a coherent Open Source web-based infrastructure to treat all input and output data in a interoperable, platform-independent and uniform way. The System architecture and functions are based on a agro-meteorological model, running in two different modes: 1) diagnostic mode for the drought monitoring during the agro-pastoral campaign allowing MWGs to identify agricultural drought risk areas in order to support decision making at local and national level in agricultural drought management. This early warning information also represents an input for estimating the nutritional food insecurity, for the identification of potentially vulnerable populations and assessing food crises risks by National EWSs put in place by CILSS with EU, FAO and WFP. 2) predictive mode for "advisory-support" activities to the farmers by the Agricultural Extension Services, in order to implement the most appropriate strategies for minimizing drought risk on crops (i.e. identification of the optimal period of sowing, choice of varieties based on the expected length of the growing season, adoption of suitable cultural practices for soil water management) and to build farmers resilience. To increase the accessibility of appropriate and targeted drought risk information, it is essential to move from generic information to specific advises for end-users at different decision-making levels, bridging the gap between available technology and local users' needs. Thus, advices to farmers are a fundamental component of prevention allowing a better country's preparedness to cope with weather variability.

Assessment of extreme hydrological conditions in the Bothnian Bay, Baltic Sea, and the impact of the nuclear power plant "Hanhikivi-1" on the local thermal regime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dvornikov, Anton Y.; Martyanov, Stanislav D.; Ryabchenko, Vladimir A.; Eremina, Tatjana R.; Isaev, Alexey V.; Sein, Dmitry V.

2017-04-01

The results of the study aimed to assess the influence of future nuclear power plant Hanhikivi-1 upon the local thermal conditions in the Bothnian Bay in the Baltic Sea are presented. A number of experiments with different numerical models were also carried out in order to estimate the extreme hydro-meteorological conditions in the area of the construction. The numerical experiments were fulfilled both with analytically specified external forcing and with real external forcing for 2 years: a cold year (2010) and a warm year (2014). The study has shown that the extreme values of sea level and water temperature and the characteristics of wind waves and sea ice in the vicinity of the future nuclear power plant can be significant and sometimes catastrophic. Permanent release of heat into the marine environment from an operating nuclear power plant will lead to a strong increase in temperature and the disappearance of ice cover within a 2 km vicinity of the station. These effects should be taken into account when assessing local climate changes in the future.

Spatial variability in airborne bacterial communities across land-use types and their relationship to the bacterial communities of potential source environments

PubMed Central

Bowers, Robert M; McLetchie, Shawna; Knight, Rob; Fierer, Noah

2011-01-01

Although bacteria are ubiquitous in the near-surface atmosphere and they can have important effects on human health, airborne bacteria have received relatively little attention and their spatial dynamics remain poorly understood. Owing to differences in meteorological conditions and the potential sources of airborne bacteria, we would expect the atmosphere over different land-use types to harbor distinct bacterial communities. To test this hypothesis, we sampled the near-surface atmosphere above three distinct land-use types (agricultural fields, suburban areas and forests) across northern Colorado, USA, sampling five sites per land-use type. Microbial abundances were stable across land-use types, with ∼105–106 bacterial cells per m3 of air, but the concentrations of biological ice nuclei, determined using a droplet freezing assay, were on average two and eight times higher in samples from agricultural areas than in the other two land-use types. Likewise, the composition of the airborne bacterial communities, assessed via bar-coded pyrosequencing, was significantly related to land-use type and these differences were likely driven by shifts in the sources of bacteria to the atmosphere across the land-uses, not local meteorological conditions. A meta-analysis of previously published data shows that atmospheric bacterial communities differ from those in potential source environments (leaf surfaces and soils), and we demonstrate that we may be able to use this information to determine the relative inputs of bacteria from these source environments to the atmosphere. This work furthers our understanding of bacterial diversity in the atmosphere, the terrestrial controls on this diversity and potential approaches for source tracking of airborne bacteria. PMID:21048802

Monitoring Effects of Climatic stresses on a Papyrus Wetland System in Eastern Uganda Using Times Series of Remotely Sensed Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kayendeke, Ellen; French, Helen K.; Kansiime, Frank; Bamutaze, Yazidhi

2017-04-01

Papyrus wetlands predominant in southern, central and eastern Africa; are important in supporting community livelihoods since they provide land for agriculture, materials for building and craft making, as well as services of water purification and water storage. Papyrus wetlands are dominated by a sedge Cyperus papyrus, which is rooted at wetland edges but floats in open water with the help of a root mat composed of intermingled roots and rhizomes. The hypothesis is that the papyrus mat structure reduces flow velocity and increases storage volume during storm events, which not only helps to mitigate flood events but aids in storage of excess water that can be utilised during the dry seasons. However, due to sparse gauging there is inadequate meteorological and hydrological data for continuous monitoring of the hydrological functioning of papyrus systems. The objective of this study was to assess the potential of utilising freely available remote sensing data (MODIS, Landsat, and Sentinel-1) for cost effective monitoring of papyrus wetland systems, and their response to climatic stresses. This was done through segmentation of MODIS NDVI and Landsat derived NDWI datasets; as well as classification of Sentinel-1 images taken in wet and dry seasons of 2015 and 2016. The classified maps were used as proxies for changes in hydrological conditions with time. The preliminary results show that it is possible to monitor changes in biomass, wetland inundation extent, flooded areas, as well as changes in moisture content in surrounding agricultural areas in the different seasons. Therefore, we propose that remote sensing data, when complemented with available meteorological data, is a useful resource for monitoring changes in the papyrus wetland systems as a result of climatic and human induced stresses.

Evaluating Modeled Impact Metrics for Human Health, Agriculture Growth, and Near-Term Climate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seltzer, K. M.; Shindell, D. T.; Faluvegi, G.; Murray, L. T.

2017-12-01

Simulated metrics that assess impacts on human health, agriculture growth, and near-term climate were evaluated using ground-based and satellite observations. The NASA GISS ModelE2 and GEOS-Chem models were used to simulate the near-present chemistry of the atmosphere. A suite of simulations that varied by model, meteorology, horizontal resolution, emissions inventory, and emissions year were performed, enabling an analysis of metric sensitivities to various model components. All simulations utilized consistent anthropogenic global emissions inventories (ECLIPSE V5a or CEDS), and an evaluation of simulated results were carried out for 2004-2006 and 2009-2011 over the United States and 2014-2015 over China. Results for O3- and PM2.5-based metrics featured minor differences due to the model resolutions considered here (2.0° × 2.5° and 0.5° × 0.666°) and model, meteorology, and emissions inventory each played larger roles in variances. Surface metrics related to O3 were consistently high biased, though to varying degrees, demonstrating the need to evaluate particular modeling frameworks before O3 impacts are quantified. Surface metrics related to PM2.5 were diverse, indicating that a multimodel mean with robust results are valuable tools in predicting PM2.5-related impacts. Oftentimes, the configuration that captured the change of a metric best over time differed from the configuration that captured the magnitude of the same metric best, demonstrating the challenge in skillfully simulating impacts. These results highlight the strengths and weaknesses of these models in simulating impact metrics related to air quality and near-term climate. With such information, the reliability of historical and future simulations can be better understood.

Global drought outlook by means of seasonal forecasts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ziese, Markus; Fröhlich, Kristina; Rustemeier, Elke; Becker, Andreas

2017-04-01

Droughts are naturally occurring phenomena which are caused by a shortage of available water due to lower than normal precipitation and/or above normal evaporation. Depending on the length of the droughts, several sectors are affected starting with agriculture, then river and ground water levels and finally socio-economic losses at the long end of the spectrum of drought persistence. Droughts are extreme events that affect much larger areas and last much longer than floods, but are less geared towards media than floods being more short-scale in persistence and impacts. Finally the slow onset of droughts make the detection and early warning of their beginning difficult and time is lost for preparatory measures. Drought indices are developed to detect and classify droughts based on (meteorological) observations and possible additional information tailored to specific user needs, e.g. in agriculture, hydrology and other sectors. Not all drought indices can be utilized for global applications as not all input parameters are available at this scale. Therefore the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) developed a drought index as combination of the Standardized Drought Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), the GPCC-DI. The GPCC-DI is applied to drought monitoring and retrospective analyses on a global scale. As the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) operates a seasonal forecast system in cooperation with Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology Hamburg and University of Hamburg, these data are also used for an outlook of drought conditions by means of the GPCC-DI. The reliability of seasonal precipitation forecasts is limited, so the drought outlook is available only for forecast months two to four. Based on the GPCC-DI, DWD provides a retrospective analysis, near-real-time monitoring and outlook of drought conditions on a global scale and regular basis.

Applying Earth Observation Data to agriculture risk management: a public-private collaboration to develop drought maps in North-East China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Surminski, S.; Holt Andersen, B.; Hohl, R.; Andersen, S.

2012-04-01

Earth Observation Data (EO) can improve climate risk assessment particularly in developing countries where densities of weather stations are low. Access to data that reflects exposure to weather and climate risks is a key condition for any successful risk management approach. This is of particular importance in the context of agriculture and drought risk, where historical data sets, accurate current data about crop growth and weather conditions, as well as information about potential future changes based on climate projections and socio-economic factors are all relevant, but often not available to stakeholders. Efforts to overcome these challenges in using EO data have so far been predominantly focused on developed countries, where satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Indexes (NDVI) and the MERIS Global Vegetation Indexes (MGVI), are already used within the agricultural sector for assessing and managing crop risks and to parameterize crop yields. This paper assesses how public-private collaboration can foster the application of these data techniques. The findings are based on a pilot project in North-East China where severe droughts frequently impact the country's largest corn and soybeans areas. With support from the European Space Agency (ESA), a consortium of meteorological experts, mapping firms and (re)insurance experts has worked to explore the potential use and value of EO data for managing crop risk and assessing exposure to drought for four provinces in North-East China (Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia and Liaoning). Combining NDVI and MGVI data with meteorological observations to help alleviate shortcomings of NDVI specific to crop types and region has resulted in the development of new drought maps for the time 2000-2011 in digital format at a high resolution (1x1 km). The observed benefits of this data application range from improved risk management to cost effective drought monitoring and claims verification for insurance purposes. This paper concludes by exploring the potential of replicating such a partnership approach to climate risk assessment in other regions. Authors of the paper: Surminski, Swenja (London School of Economics); Holt Andersen, Birgitte (CWare); Hohl, Roman (Swiss Re); Andersen, Søren (COWI)

High-resolution, regional-scale crop yield simulations for the Southwestern United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stack, D. H.; Kafatos, M.; Medvigy, D.; El-Askary, H. M.; Hatzopoulos, N.; Kim, J.; Kim, S.; Prasad, A. K.; Tremback, C.; Walko, R. L.; Asrar, G. R.

2012-12-01

Over the past few decades, there have been many process-based crop models developed with the goal of better understanding the impacts of climate, soils, and management decisions on crop yields. These models simulate the growth and development of crops in response to environmental drivers. Traditionally, process-based crop models have been run at the individual farm level for yield optimization and management scenario testing. Few previous studies have used these models over broader geographic regions, largely due to the lack of gridded high-resolution meteorological and soil datasets required as inputs for these data intensive process-based models. In particular, assessment of regional-scale yield variability due to climate change requires high-resolution, regional-scale, climate projections, and such projections have been unavailable until recently. The goal of this study was to create a framework for extending the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) crop model for use at regional scales and analyze spatial and temporal yield changes in the Southwestern United States (CA, AZ, and NV). Using the scripting language Python, an automated pipeline was developed to link Regional Climate Model (RCM) output with the APSIM crop model, thus creating a one-way nested modeling framework. This framework was used to combine climate, soil, land use, and agricultural management datasets in order to better understand the relationship between climate variability and crop yield at the regional-scale. Three different RCMs were used to drive APSIM: OLAM, RAMS, and WRF. Preliminary results suggest that, depending on the model inputs, there is some variability between simulated RCM driven maize yields and historical yields obtained from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Furthermore, these simulations showed strong non-linear correlations between yield and meteorological drivers, with critical threshold values for some of the inputs (e.g. minimum and maximum temperature), beyond which the yields were negatively affected. These results are now being used for further regional-scale yield analysis as the aforementioned framework is adaptable to multiple geographic regions and crop types.

Assesment of pesticide fluxes to surface water using Uranine in Colombia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garcia-Santos, G.; Scheiben, D.; Diaz, J.; Leuenberger, F.; Binder, C. R.

2009-04-01

In the highlands of Colombia, potato farmers maximize their yields by the application of pesticides. Properly applied pesticides can significantly reduce yield loss and improve product quality; however their misuse leads to human health and environmental problems, i.e. water bodies contaminated with pesticides. Due to the lack of control regarding local pesticide use, unmeasured hydrological parameters and use of local water runoff as a drinking water supply, an assessment of the impact of agricultural practice on water quality is mandatory as first stage. In order to accomplish this, our study assesses pesticide fluxes to surface water using the tracer Uranine. The experimental area La Hoya main basin (3 km2) contains the Pantano Verde river which flows into the Teatinos river in the Boyaca region (Colombia). Some facts such as the deep soils in the area and the importance of the unsaturated zone for the sorption and degradation of pesticides suggest a lack of contaminants in groundwater. However, due to the humid conditions, steep slopes and an intensive agricultural with high pesticide use, we expect surface water to be highly contaminated. In order to assess pesticide pathways, a tracer (Uranine), detectable at very low amount was used. Four local farmers applied the tracer instead of the pesticide mixture covering a total surface of 1.2 10-2 km2. Meteorological data were measured every 15 min with one compact meteorological station installed within the basin and water flow and water sampling were obtained using an ISCO-6700 water sampler, during one week every 10 min in the outlet of Pantano Verde River. In addition, three pairs of membranes were installed down the river and collected 1 week, one month and 4 months after the experiment to measure tracer accumulation. The tracer in water was analysed using a fluorescent spectrometer. Results of this study show first variations of tracer concentration in water in La Hoya basin and constitute an initial steep in assessing the impact of agricultural practices in the local water quality under the influence of pesticides.

THE APPLICATION OF NUCLEAR ENERGY TO AGRICULTURE. Annual Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moh, C.C.

1963-07-01

Progress is reported in basic and applied agricultural research using nuclear energy as a tool. Emphasis was placed on tropical agriculture and student training. Results are reported on studies of mutations induced by irradiation of seeds or plant parts of plant species for food crops or local industrial uses. Seeds of 7 pine species that grow at altitudes of 1600 to over 3000 meters, papaya, beans, cassava branches with nodes, and young mahogany plants were irradiated and progenies were examined for mutation frequency and morphology, disease resistance, sensitivity to low temperatures, and other characteristics. Tracer studies of plant physiology includedmore » sulfur metabolism in photosynthetic bacteria and plants, iron metabolism in plants, and the effects of iron on growth of coffee and cacao seediings. Results are included from tracer studies on dispersion and longevity of the Mediterranean fruit fly under natural conditions and the effects of radiosterilization at various developmental stages on eradication of these flies. A list of publications during the period covered by this report is included. (C.H.)« less

Evaluating the two-source energy balance model using local thermal and surface flux observations in a strongly advective irrigated agricultural area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kustas, William P.; Alfieri, Joseph G.; Anderson, Martha C.; Colaizzi, Paul D.; Prueger, John H.; Evett, Steven R.; Neale, Christopher M. U.; French, Andrew N.; Hipps, Lawrence E.; Chávez, José L.; Copeland, Karen S.; Howell, Terry A.

2012-12-01

Application and validation of many thermal remote sensing-based energy balance models involve the use of local meteorological inputs of incoming solar radiation, wind speed and air temperature as well as accurate land surface temperature (LST), vegetation cover and surface flux measurements. For operational applications at large scales, such local information is not routinely available. In addition, the uncertainty in LST estimates can be several degrees due to sensor calibration issues, atmospheric effects and spatial variations in surface emissivity. Time differencing techniques using multi-temporal thermal remote sensing observations have been developed to reduce errors associated with deriving the surface-air temperature gradient, particularly in complex landscapes. The Dual-Temperature-Difference (DTD) method addresses these issues by utilizing the Two-Source Energy Balance (TSEB) model of Norman et al. (1995) [1], and is a relatively simple scheme requiring meteorological input from standard synoptic weather station networks or mesoscale modeling. A comparison of the TSEB and DTD schemes is performed using LST and flux observations from eddy covariance (EC) flux towers and large weighing lysimeters (LYs) in irrigated cotton fields collected during BEAREX08, a large-scale field experiment conducted in the semi-arid climate of the Texas High Plains as described by Evett et al. (2012) [2]. Model output of the energy fluxes (i.e., net radiation, soil heat flux, sensible and latent heat flux) generated with DTD and TSEB using local and remote meteorological observations are compared with EC and LY observations. The DTD method is found to be significantly more robust in flux estimation compared to the TSEB using the remote meteorological observations. However, discrepancies between model and measured fluxes are also found to be significantly affected by the local inputs of LST and vegetation cover and the representativeness of the remote sensing observations with the local flux measurement footprint.

Meteorological factors associated with abundance of airborne fungal spores over natural vegetation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crandall, Sharifa G.; Gilbert, Gregory S.

2017-08-01

The abundance of airborne fungal spores in agricultural and urban settings increases with greater air temperature, relative humidity, or precipitation. The same meteorological factors that affect temporal patterns in spore abundance in managed environments also vary spatially across natural habitats in association with differences in vegetation structure. Here we investigated how temporal and spatial variation in aerial spore abundance is affected by abiotic (weather) and biotic (vegetation) factors as a foundation for predicting how fungi may respond to changes in weather and land-use patterns. We measured the phenology of airborne fungal spores across a mosaic of naturally occurring vegetation types at different time scales to describe (1) how spore abundance changes over time, (2) which local meteorological variables are good predictors for airborne spore density, and (3) whether spore abundance differs across vegetation types. Using an air volumetric vacuum sampler, we collected spore samples at 3-h intervals over a 120-h period in a mixed-evergreen forest and coastal prairie to measure diurnal, nocturnal, and total airborne spore abundance across vegetation types. Spore samples were also collected at weekly and monthly intervals in mixed-evergreen forest, redwood forest, and maritime chaparral vegetation types from 12 field sites across two years. We found greater airborne spore densities during the wetter winter months compared to the drier summer months. Mean total spore abundance in the mixed-evergreen forest was twice than in the coastal prairie, but there were no significant differences in total airborne spore abundance among mixed-evergreen forest, redwood forest, and maritime chaparral vegetation types. Weekly and monthly peaks in airborne spore abundance corresponded with rain events and peaks in soil moisture. Overall, temporal patterns in meteorological factors were much more important in determining airborne fungal spore abundance than the vegetation type. This suggests that overall patterns of fungal spore dynamics may be predictable across heterogeneous landscapes based on local weather patterns.

MERINOVA: Meteorological risks as drivers of environmental innovation in agro-ecosystem management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gobin, Anne; Oger, Robert; Marlier, Catherine; Van De Vijver, Hans; Vandermeulen, Valerie; Van Huylenbroeck, Guido; Zamani, Sepideh; Curnel, Yannick; Mettepenningen, Evi

2013-04-01

The BELSPO funded project 'MERINOVA' deals with risks associated with extreme weather phenomena and with risks of biological origin such as pests and diseases. The major objectives of the proposed project are to characterise extreme meteorological events, assess the impact on Belgian agro-ecosystems, characterise their vulnerability and resilience to these events, and explore innovative adaptation options to agricultural risk management. The project comprises of five major parts that reflect the chain of risks: (i) Hazard: Assessing the likely frequency and magnitude of extreme meteorological events by means of probability density functions; (ii) Impact: Analysing the potential bio-physical and socio-economic impact of extreme weather events on agro-ecosystems in Belgium using process-based modelling techniques commensurate with the regional scale; (iii) Vulnerability: Identifying the most vulnerable agro-ecosystems using fuzzy multi-criteria and spatial analysis; (iv) Risk Management: Uncovering innovative risk management and adaptation options using actor-network theory and fuzzy cognitive mapping techniques; and, (v) Communication: Communicating to research, policy and practitioner communities using web-based techniques. The different tasks of the MERINOVA project require expertise in several scientific disciplines: meteorology, statistics, spatial database management, agronomy, bio-physical impact modelling, socio-economic modelling, actor-network theory, fuzzy cognitive mapping techniques. These expertises are shared by the four scientific partners who each lead one work package. The MERINOVA project will concentrate on promoting a robust and flexible framework by demonstrating its performance across Belgian agro-ecosystems, and by ensuring its relevance to policy makers and practitioners. Impacts developed from physically based models will not only provide information on the state of the damage at any given time, but also assist in understanding the links between different factors causing damage and determining bio-physical vulnerability. Socio-economic impacts will enlarge the basis for vulnerability mapping, risk management and adaptation options. A strong expert and end-user network will be established to help disseminating and exploiting project results to meet user needs.

Activity of invasive slug Limax maximus in relation to climate conditions based on citizen's observations and novel regularization based statistical approaches.

PubMed

Morii, Yuta; Ohkubo, Yusaku; Watanabe, Sanae

2018-05-13

Citizen science is a powerful tool that can be used to resolve the problems of introduced species. An amateur naturalist and author of this paper, S. Watanabe, recorded the total number of Limax maximus (Limacidae, Pulmonata) individuals along a fixed census route almost every day for two years on Hokkaido Island, Japan. L. maximus is an invasive slug considered a pest species of horticultural and agricultural crops. We investigated how weather conditions were correlated to the intensity of slug activity using for the first time in ecology the recently developed statistical analyses, Bayesian regularization regression with comparisons among Laplace, Horseshoe and Horseshoe+ priors for the first time in ecology. The slug counts were compared with meteorological data from 5:00 in the morning on the day of observation (OT- and OD-models) and the day before observation (DBOD-models). The OT- and OD-models were more supported than the DBOD-models based on the WAIC scores, and the meteorological predictors selected in the OT-, OD- and DBOD-models were different. The probability of slug appearance was increased on mornings with higher than 20-year-average humidity (%) and lower than average wind velocity (m/s) and precipitation (mm) values in the OT-models. OD-models showed a pattern similar to OT-models in the probability of slug appearance, but also suggested other meteorological predictors for slug activities; positive effect of solar radiation (MJ) for example. Five meteorological predictors, mean and highest temperature (°C), wind velocity (m/s), precipitation amount (mm) and atmospheric pressure (hPa), were selected as the effective factors for the counts in the DBOD-models. Therefore, the DBOD-models will be valuable for the prediction of slug activity in the future, much like a weather forecast. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Latent/sensible heat and water stress retrieval performances of the SPARSE dual-source energy balance model over irrigated and rainfed agricultural crops using eddy covariance, sap flow and extra-large aperture scintillometer data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boulet, G.; Bahir, M.; Delogu, E.; Mougenot, B.; Bousbih, S.; Raimbault, B.; Fanise, P.; Saadi, S.; Chebbi, W.; Lili-Chabaane, Z.; Rivalland, V.; Lagouarde, J. P.; Olioso, A.

2016-12-01

The ability to monitor latent heat flux (LE) is relevant for applications requiring spatially-resolved estimates of moisture availability over large areas. Recently, a number of studies have focused on estimating surface energy fluxes via assimilation of land surface temperature (LST) observations into variational data assimilation (VDA) schemes. In this study, the performance of the combined-source variational data assimilation (CS-VDA) framework is assessed in detail using surface multitemporal heat fluxes collected at a Eucalypt forest savanna of Northern Australia. The CS VDA model treats the soil and vegetation as one medium. We extended previous studies, to a semi-arid ecosystem and included 1 and 3 hour global meteorological forcing data (GMD) rather than site-specific observations to drive CS VDA model. To implement the VDA model we relied on hourly water fluxes and meteorological measurements from an eddy covariance (EC) site located at our Australian study site. Using 1 and 3-hour average in-situ measurements, the mean difference between estimated and observed LE was ˜30%, which agreed with errors reported in the literature. We found that at least an 3 hour average meteorological data was required as input to the CS-VDA model, so 1-3-hourly temporal resolution MERRA-GMA and GLDAS, respectively, were used. We found that replacing local meteorological data with GMD reduced the performance of the LE estimation in comparison to in-situ measurements (GLDAS: RMSEdaily=98.52 W/m2, GMA: RMSEdaily=82.02 W/m2). Despite this, the model LE RMSE values at 8-day temporal scale (GMA: RMSE8-days=32.20 W/m2) was similar of those reported at this area by others models. This study provides the basis to produce an operational daily LE product using GMD dataset and LST remote sensing data within the CS-VDA algorithm.

Effect of spatial averaging on multifractal properties of meteorological time series

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoffmann, Holger; Baranowski, Piotr; Krzyszczak, Jaromir; Zubik, Monika

2016-04-01

Introduction The process-based models for large-scale simulations require input of agro-meteorological quantities that are often in the form of time series of coarse spatial resolution. Therefore, the knowledge about their scaling properties is fundamental for transferring locally measured fluctuations to larger scales and vice-versa. However, the scaling analysis of these quantities is complicated due to the presence of localized trends and non-stationarities. Here we assess how spatially aggregating meteorological data to coarser resolutions affects the data's temporal scaling properties. While it is known that spatial aggregation may affect spatial data properties (Hoffmann et al., 2015), it is unknown how it affects temporal data properties. Therefore, the objective of this study was to characterize the aggregation effect (AE) with regard to both temporal and spatial input data properties considering scaling properties (i.e. statistical self-similarity) of the chosen agro-meteorological time series through multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MFDFA). Materials and Methods Time series coming from years 1982-2011 were spatially averaged from 1 to 10, 25, 50 and 100 km resolution to assess the impact of spatial aggregation. Daily minimum, mean and maximum air temperature (2 m), precipitation, global radiation, wind speed and relative humidity (Zhao et al., 2015) were used. To reveal the multifractal structure of the time series, we used the procedure described in Baranowski et al. (2015). The diversity of the studied multifractals was evaluated by the parameters of time series spectra. In order to analyse differences in multifractal properties to 1 km resolution grids, data of coarser resolutions was disaggregated to 1 km. Results and Conclusions Analysing the spatial averaging on multifractal properties we observed that spatial patterns of the multifractal spectrum (MS) of all meteorological variables differed from 1 km grids and MS-parameters were biased by -29.1 % (precipitation; width of MS) up to >4 % (min. Temperature, Radiation; asymmetry of MS). Also, the spatial variability of MS parameters was strongly affected at the highest aggregation (100 km). Obtained results confirm that spatial data aggregation may strongly affect temporal scaling properties. This should be taken into account when upscaling for large-scale studies. Acknowledgements The study was conducted within FACCE MACSUR. Please see Baranowski et al. (2015) for details on funding. References Baranowski, P., Krzyszczak, J., Sławiński, C. et al. (2015). Climate Research 65, 39-52. Hoffman, H., G. Zhao, L.G.J. Van Bussel et al. (2015). Climate Research 65, 53-69. Zhao, G., Siebert, S., Rezaei E. et al. (2015). Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 200, 156-171.

Three Dimensional Modeling of Agricultural Contamination of Groundwater: a Case Study in the Nebraska Management Systems Evaluation Area (MSEA) Site

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akbariyeh, S.; Snow, D. D.; Bartelt-Hunt, S.; Li, X.; Li, Y.

2015-12-01

Contamination of groundwater from nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides in agricultural lands is an important environmental and water quality management issue. It is well recognized that in agriculturally intensive areas, fertilizers and pesticides may leach through the vadose zone and eventually reach groundwater, impacting future uses of this limited resource. While numerical models are commonly used to simulate fate and transport of agricultural contaminants, few models have been validated based on realistic three dimensional soil lithology, hydrological conditions, and historical changes in groundwater quality. In this work, contamination of groundwater in the Nebraska Management Systems Evaluation Area (MSEA) site was simulated based on extensive field data including (1) lithology from 69 wells and 11 test holes; (2) surface soil type, land use, and surface elevations; (3) 5-year groundwater level and flow velocity; (4) daily meteorological monitoring; (5) 5-year seasonal irrigation records; (6) 5-years of spatially intensive contaminant concentration in 40 multilevel monitoring wells; and (7) detailed cultivation records. Using this data, a three-dimensional vadose zone lithological framework was developed using a commercial software tool (RockworksTM). Based on the interpolated lithology, a hydrological model was developed using HYDRUS-3D to simulate water flow and contaminant transport. The model was validated through comparison of simulated atrazine and nitrate concentration with historical data from 40 wells and multilevel samplers. The validated model will be used to predict potential changes in ground water quality due to agricultural contamination under future climate scenarios in the High Plain Aquifer system.

Sustainability of Italian Agriculture: A Methodological Approach for Assessing Crop Water Footprint at Local Scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Altobelli, F.; Dalla Marta, A.; Cimino, O.; Orlandini, S.; Natali, F.

2014-12-01

In a world where population is rapidly growing and where several planetary boundaries (i.e. climate change, biodiversity loss and nitrogen cycle) have already been crossed, agriculture is called to respond to the needs of food security through a sustainable use of natural resources. In particular, water is one of the main elements of fertility so the agricultural activity, and the whole agro-food chain, is one of the productive sectors more dependent on water resource and it is able to affect, at regional level, its availability for all the other sectors. In this study, we proposed a methodology for assessing the green and blue water footprint of the main Italian crops typical of the different geographical areas (northwest, northeast, center, and south) based on data extracted from Italian Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). FADN is an instrument for evaluating the income of agricultural holdings and the impacts of the Common Agricultural Policy. Crops were selected based on incidence of cultivated area on the total arable land of FADN farms net. Among others, the database contains data on irrigation management (irrigated surface, length of irrigation season, volumes of water, etc.), and crop production. Meteorological data series were obtained by a combination of local weather stations and ECAD E-obs spatialized database. Crop water footprints were evaluated against water availability and risk of desertification maps of Italy. Further, we compared the crop water footprints obtained with our methodology with already existing data from similar studies in order to highlight the effects of spatial scale and level of detail of available data.

Progress and challenges of nuclear science development in Vietnam - an outlook on the occassion of the 10-th anniversary of the Dalat Nuclear Research Reactor

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hien, P.D.

1994-12-31

Over ten years since the commissioning of the Dalat nuclear research reactor a number of nuclear techniques have been developed and applied in Vietnam Manufacturing of radioisotopes and nuclear instruments, development of isotope tracer and nuclear analytical techniques for environmental studies, exploitation of filtered neutron beams, ... have been major activities of reactor utilizations. Efforts made during ten years of reactor operation have resulted also in establishing and sustaining the applications of nuclear techniques in medicine, industry, agriculture, etc. The successes achieved and lessons teamed over the past ten years are discussed illustrating the approaches taken for developing the nuclearmore » science in the conditions of a country having a very low national income and experiencing a transition from a centrally planned to a market-oriented economic system.« less

Simulation of radioactive tracer transport using IsoRSM and uncertainty analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

SAYA, A.; Chang, E.; Yoshimura, K.; Oki, T.

2013-12-01

Due to the massive earthquakes and tsunami on March 11 2011 in Eastern Japan, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was severely damaged and some reactors were exploded. To know how the radioactive materials were spread and how much they were deposited into the land, it is important to enhance the accuracy of radioactive transport simulation model. However, there are uncertainties in the models including dry and wet deposition process in the models, meteorological field and release amount of radioactive materials. In this study we analyzed these uncertainties aiming for higher accuracy in the simulation. We modified the stable isotope mode of Regional Spectral Model (IsoRSM, Yoshimura et al., 2009) to enable to simulate the transport of the radioactive tracers, namely iodine 131 and cesium 137, by including the dry and wet deposition processes. With this model, we conducted a set of sensitivity experiments using different parameters in the deposition processes, different diffusivity in advection processes, and different domain sizes. The control experiment with 10km resolution covering most of Japan and surrounding oceans (132.7oE-151.5oE &28.3oN-46.7oN) and the emission estimated by Chino et al. (2011) showed reasonable temporal results for Toukatsu area (eastern part of Tokyo metropolis and western part of Chiba prefecture where low-level contamination was occurred), i.e., on 22 March, the tracers from Fukushima were reached and precipitated in a significant amount as wet deposition. Thus we conducted 4 experimental simulations to analyze the simulation uncertainty due to 1) different meteorological pattern, different parameters for 2) wet and 3) dry deposition and 4) diffusion. Though the temporal patterns of deposition of radioactive particles were somewhat similar each other in all experiments, we revealed that the impacts to the area mean deposition were large. Results of the simulations with different diffusivity and different domain size showed that the patterns of precipitation amount and distribution, and deposition amount were affected. The new transport scheme, semi-lagrangian scheme could show some improvement in the simulated meteorological field. Furthermore, we have begun the inversion estimation combined with IsoRSM and the monitoring data from the Nuclear regulation Agency. Preliminary results with consecutive two week simulations starting every day with daily unit release will be shown at the conference. References 1. Yoshimura, K., Kanamitsu. M. and Dettinger. M.: Regional downscaling for stable water isotopes: A case study of an atmospheric river event, Journal of geophysical research, Vol.15, D18114, doi:10.1029/2010JD014032, 2010 2. Chino, M., Nakayama. H., Nagai. H., Terada. H., Katata. G. and Yamazawa. H.: Preliminary estimation of release amounts of 131I and 137Cs accidentally discharged from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the atmosphere, Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, Vol.48, No.7, p.1129-1134, 2011

Seawater/Saline Agriculture for Energy, Warming, Water, Rainfall, Land, Food and Minerals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bushnell, Dennis

2006-01-01

The combination of the incipient demise of cheap oil and increasing evidence of Global Warming due to anthropogenic fossil carbon release has reinvigorated the need for and efforts on Renewable energy sources, especially for transportation applications. Biomass/Bio-diesel appears to have many benefits compared to Hydrogen, the only other major renewable transportation fuel candidate. Biomass Production is currently limited by available arable land and fresh water. Halophyte Plants and seawater irrigation proffer a wholly new biomass production mantra using wastelands and very plentiful seawater. Such an approach addresses many-to-most of the major emerging Societal Problems including Land, Water, Food, Warming and Energy. For many reasons, including seawater agriculture, portions of the Sahara appear to be viable candidates for future Biomass Production. The apparent nonlinearity between vegetation cover and atmospheric conditions over North Africa necessitates serious coupled boundary layer Meteorology and Global Circulation Modeling to ensure that this form of Terra Forming is Favorable and to avoid adverse Unintended Consequences.

An Effect Analysis of Comprehensive Treatment of Groundwater Over-Exploitation in Cheng’an County, Hebei Province, China

PubMed Central

Shao, Weiwei; Zhou, Jinjun; Liu, Jiahong; Zhang, Haixing; Wang, Jianhua; Xiang, Chenyao; Yang, Guiyu; Tang, Yun

2017-01-01

The comprehensive treatment project of groundwater over-exploitation in Hebei Province has been implemented for more than a year, and the effect of exploitation restriction is in urgent need of evaluation. This paper deals with Cheng’an County of Hebei Province as the research subject. Based on collected hydro-meteorological, socioeconomic, groundwater, and other related data, together with typical regional experimental research, this study generates the effective precipitation–groundwater exploitation (P-W) curve and accompanying research methods, and calculates the quantity of groundwater exploitation restriction. It analyzes the target completion status of groundwater exploitation restriction through water conservancy measures and agricultural practices of the groundwater over-exploitation comprehensive treatment project that was implemented in Cheng’an County in 2014. The paper evaluates the treatment effect of groundwater over-exploitation, as well as provides technical support for the effect evaluation of groundwater exploitation restriction of agricultural irrigation in Cheng’an County and relevant areas. PMID:28054979

An Effect Analysis of Comprehensive Treatment of Groundwater Over-Exploitation in Cheng'an County, Hebei Province, China.

PubMed

Shao, Weiwei; Zhou, Jinjun; Liu, Jiahong; Zhang, Haixing; Wang, Jianhua; Xiang, Chenyao; Yang, Guiyu; Tang, Yun

2017-01-04

The comprehensive treatment project of groundwater over-exploitation in Hebei Province has been implemented for more than a year, and the effect of exploitation restriction is in urgent need of evaluation. This paper deals with Cheng'an County of Hebei Province as the research subject. Based on collected hydro-meteorological, socioeconomic, groundwater, and other related data, together with typical regional experimental research, this study generates the effective precipitation-groundwater exploitation (P-W) curve and accompanying research methods, and calculates the quantity of groundwater exploitation restriction. It analyzes the target completion status of groundwater exploitation restriction through water conservancy measures and agricultural practices of the groundwater over-exploitation comprehensive treatment project that was implemented in Cheng'an County in 2014. The paper evaluates the treatment effect of groundwater over-exploitation, as well as provides technical support for the effect evaluation of groundwater exploitation restriction of agricultural irrigation in Cheng'an County and relevant areas.

Multi Seasonal and Diurnal Characterization of Sensible Heat Flux in an Arid Land Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Al-Mashharawi, S.; Aragon, B.; McCabe, M.

2017-12-01

In sparsely vegetated arid and semi-arid regions, the available energy is transformed primarily into sensible heat, with little to no energy partitioned into latent heat. The characterization of bare soil arid environments are rather poorly understood in the context of both local, regional and global energy budgets. Using data from a long-term surface layer scintillometer and co-located meteorological installation, we examine the diurnal and seasonal patterns of sensible heat flux and the net radiation to soil heat flux ratio. We do this over a bare desert soil located adjacent to an irrigated agricultural field in the central region of Saudi Arabia. The results of this exploratory analysis can be used to inform upon remote sensing techniques for surface flux estimation, to derive and monitor soil heat flux dynamics, estimate the heat transfer resistance and the thermal roughness length over bare soils, and to better inform efforts that model the advective effects that complicate the accurate representation of agricultural energy budgets in the arid zone.

Intercomparison and Uncertainty Assessment of Nine Evapotranspiration Estimates Over South America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sörensson, Anna A.; Ruscica, Romina C.

2018-04-01

This study examines the uncertainties and the representations of anomalies of a set of evapotranspiration products over climatologically distinct regions of South America. The products, coming from land surface models, reanalysis, and remote sensing, are chosen from sources that are readily available to the community of users. The results show that the spatial patterns of maximum uncertainty differ among metrics, with dry regions showing maximum relative uncertainties of annual mean evapotranspiration, while energy-limited regions present maximum uncertainties in the representation of the annual cycle and monsoon regions in the representation of anomalous conditions. Furthermore, it is found that land surface models driven by observed atmospheric fields detect meteorological and agricultural droughts in dry regions unequivocally. The remote sensing products employed do not distinguish all agricultural droughts and this could be attributed to the forcing net radiation. The study also highlights important characteristics of individual data sets and recommends users to include assessments of sensitivity to evapotranspiration data sets in their studies, depending on region and nature of study to be conducted.

Early warning and crop condition assessment research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boatwright, G. O.; Whitehead, V. S.

1986-01-01

The Early Warning Crop Condition Assessment Project of AgRISTARS was a multiagency and multidisciplinary effort. Its mission and objectives were centered around development and testing of remote-sensing techniques that enhance operational methodologies for global crop-condition assessments. The project developed crop stress indicators models that provide data filter and alert capabilities for monitoring global agricultural conditions. The project developed a technique for using NOAA-n satellite advanced very-high-resolution radiometer (AVHRR) data for operational crop-condition assessments. This technology was transferred to the Foreign Agricultural Service of the USDA. The project developed a U.S. Great Plains data base that contains various meteorological parameters and vegetative index numbers (VIN) derived from AVHRR satellite data. It developed cloud screening techniques and scan angle correction models for AVHRR data. It also developed technology for using remotely acquired thermal data for crop water stress indicator modeling. The project provided basic technology including spectral characteristics of soils, water, stressed and nonstressed crop and range vegetation, solar zenith angle, and atmospheric and canopy structure effects.

Rapid Debris Analysis Project Task 3 Final Report - Sensitivity of Fallout to Source Parameters, Near-Detonation Environment Material Properties, Topography, and Meteorology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Goldstein, Peter

2014-01-24

This report describes the sensitivity of predicted nuclear fallout to a variety of model input parameters, including yield, height of burst, particle and activity size distribution parameters, wind speed, wind direction, topography, and precipitation. We investigate sensitivity over a wide but plausible range of model input parameters. In addition, we investigate a specific example with a relatively narrow range to illustrate the potential for evaluating uncertainties in predictions when there are more precise constraints on model parameters.

Severe Nuclear Accident Program (SNAP) - a real time model for accidental releases

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Saltbones, J.; Foss, A.; Bartnicki, J.

1996-12-31

The model: Several Nuclear Accident Program (SNAP) has been developed at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (DNMI) in Oslo to provide decision makers and Government officials with real-time tool for simulating large accidental releases of radioactivity from nuclear power plants or other sources. SNAP is developed in the Lagrangian framework in which atmospheric transport of radioactive pollutants is simulated by emitting a large number of particles from the source. The main advantage of the Lagrangian approach is a possibility of precise parameterization of advection processes, especially close to the source. SNAP can be used to predict the transport and deposition ofmore » a radioactive cloud in e future (up to 48 hours, in the present version) or to analyze the behavior of the cloud in the past. It is also possible to run the model in the mixed mode (partly analysis and partly forecast). In the routine run we assume unit (1 g s{sup -1}) emission in each of three classes. This assumption is very convenient for the main user of the model output in case of emergency: Norwegian Radiation Protection Agency. Due to linearity of the model equations, user can test different emission scenarios as a post processing task by assigning different weights to concentration and deposition fields corresponding to each of three emission classes. SNAP is fully operational and can be run by the meteorologist on duty at any time. The output from SNAP has two forms: First on the maps of Europe, or selected parts of Europe, individual particles are shown during the simulation period. Second, immediately after the simulation, concentration/deposition fields can be shown every three hours of the simulation period as isoline maps for each emission class. In addition, concentration and deposition maps, as well as some meteorological data, are stored on a public accessible disk for further processing by the model users.« less

Adding the human dimension to drought: an example from Chile

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rangecroft, Sally; Van Loon, Anne; Maureira, Héctor; Rojas, Pablo; Alejandro Gutiérrez Valdés, Sergio; Verbist, Koen

2016-04-01

Drought and water scarcity are important hazards and can lead to severe socio-economic impacts in many regions of the world. Given the interlinked interactions and feedbacks of hydrological droughts and their impacts and management, we need tools to evaluate these complexities and effects on the availability of water resources. Here we use a real-world case study of the Huasco basin (Northern Chile) in which we quantify the influence of human activities on hydrological drought signals. In this arid region, Andean snowmelt provides water essential for users, with agriculture acting as the main water consumer (85% of total). An increasing water demand from different water sectors (agriculture, mining, and domestic water usage) has increased pressure on available water and its management. Consequently, the Santa Juana dam was built by 1995 to increase irrigation security for downstream users, and recent management and restrictions have been established with the objective to limit impacts of hydrological droughts across the basin. The feedbacks between water availability and water management are explored for this water stressed region in Chile. Hydro-meteorological (e.g. precipitation, temperature, streamflow, reservoir levels) variables have been analysed to assess trends and drought patterns. Data over the past three decades has indicated a decrease in surface water supply, with the basin entering a situation of water scarcity during the recent multiyear drought (2007 - to-date), partly caused by meteorological drought and partly by abstraction. During this period, water supply failed to meet the demands of water users, resulting in the implementation of water restrictions. As well as the necessary continuous hydro-meteorological data, here we used information on human water users and scenario modeling, allowing for the analysis and quantification of feedbacks. This work highlights the importance of local knowledge, especially in understanding water laws, rights, regulations and therefore interpretation of the data and results. We will repeat the analysis done in Chile in a diverse series of case studies across the world to reflect different natural and human influences on the water cycle. This will enable an increased understanding of our influence on water resources and the feedbacks involved, which may be both positive and negative. Ultimately, this research will develop a methodology for identifying and quantifying human activities and use this information in combination with water management modeling and forecasting for effective drought early warning and risk management.

Sensitivity study of the wet deposition schemes in the modelling of the Fukushima accident.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quérel, Arnaud; Quélo, Denis; Roustan, Yelva; Mathieu, Anne; Kajino, Mizuo; Sekiyama, Thomas; Adachi, Kouji; Didier, Damien; Igarashi, Yasuhito

2016-04-01

The Fukushima-Daiichi release of radioactivity is a relevant event to study the atmospheric dispersion modelling of radionuclides. Actually, the atmospheric deposition onto the ground may be studied through the map of measured Cs-137 established consecutively to the accident. The limits of detection were low enough to make the measurements possible as far as 250km from the nuclear power plant. This large scale deposition has been modelled with the Eulerian model ldX. However, several weeks of emissions in multiple weather conditions make it a real challenge. Besides, these measurements are accumulated deposition of Cs-137 over the whole period and do not inform of deposition mechanisms involved: in-cloud, below-cloud, dry deposition. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis is performed in order to understand wet deposition mechanisms. It has been shown in a previous study (Quérel et al, 2016) that the choice of the wet deposition scheme has a strong impact on the assessment of the deposition patterns. Nevertheless, a "best" scheme could not be highlighted as it depends on the selected criteria: the ranking differs according to the statistical indicators considered (correlation, figure of merit in space and factor 2). A possibility to explain the difficulty to discriminate between several schemes was the uncertainties in the modelling, resulting from the meteorological data for instance. Since the move of the plume is not properly modelled, the deposition processes are applied with an inaccurate activity in the air. In the framework of the SAKURA project, an MRI-IRSN collaboration, new meteorological fields at higher resolution (Sekiyama et al., 2013) were provided and allows to reconsider the previous study. An updated study including these new meteorology data is presented. In addition, a focus on several releases causing deposition in located areas during known period was done. This helps to better understand the mechanisms of deposition involved following the Fukushima release. Quérel et al, 2016, accepted for publication in IJEP Sekiyama et al., 2013, Ensemble simulation of the atmospheric radionuclides discharged by the Fukushima nuclear accident. Presented at the EGU General Assembly, Vienne, pp. EGU2013-1695.

International Global Crop Condition Assessments in the framework of GEOGLAM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becker-Reshef, I.; Justice, C. O.; Vermote, E.; Whitcraft, A. K.; Claverie, M.

2013-12-01

The Group on Earth Observations (partnership of governments and international organizations) developed the Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) initiative in response to the growing calls for improved agricultural information. The goal of GEOGLAM is to strengthen the international community's capacity to produce and disseminate relevant, timely and accurate forecasts of agricultural production at national, regional and global scales through the use of Earth observations. This initiative is designed to build on existing agricultural monitoring initiatives at national, regional and global levels and to enhance and strengthen them through international networking, operationally focused research, and data/method sharing. GEOGLAM was adopted by the G20 as part of the action plan on food price volatility and agriculture and is being implemented through building on the extensive GEO Agricultural Community of Practice (CoP) that was initiated in 2007 and includes key national and international agencies, organizations, and universities involved in agricultural monitoring. One of the early GEOGLAM activities is to provide harmonized global crop outlooks that offer timely qualitative consensus information on crop status and prospects. This activity is being developed in response to a request from the G-20 Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) and is implemented within the global monitoring systems component of GEOGLAM. The goal is to develop a transparent, international, multi-source, consensus assessment of crop growing conditions, status, and agro-climatic conditions, likely to impact global production. These assessments are focused on the four primary crop types (corn, wheat, soy and rice) within the main agricultural producing regions of the world. The GEOGLAM approach is to bring together international experts from global, regional and national monitoring systems that can share and discuss information from a variety of independent complementary sources in order to reach a convergence of evidence based assessment. Information types include earth observations (EO) data and products, agro-meteorological data, crop models and field reports. To date, representatives from close to 20 different agencies have participated in these outlook assessments, which are submitted to AMIS on a monthly basis as well as shared with the international community. This talk will discuss the process, operational R&D, and progress towards developing these harmonized global crop assessments.

Ames Research Center C-130

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Koozer, Mark A.

1991-01-01

The C130 Earth Resources Aircraft provides a platform for a variety of sensors that collect data in support of terrestrial and atmospheric projects sponsored by NASA in coordination with Federal, state, university, and industry investigators. This data is applied to research in the areas of forestry, agriculture, land use and land cover analysis, hydrology, geology, photogrammetry, oceanography, meteorology, and other earth science disciplines. The C130 is a platform aircraft flying up to 25,000 feet above sea level at speeds between 150 and 330 knots True Air Speed. The aircraft is capable of precise flight line navigation by means of an optical borescope from which line guidance is provided to the pilots.

Aspects of seasonality.

PubMed

Battey, N H

2000-11-01

The seasons are astronomical, astrological, meteorological, biological, and agricultural. From a perspective outside the biological sciences, the questions of interest about plant seasonality are linked to this wider context. In this review I try to see flowering time, as one important aspect of seasonality, from an outsider's point of view, and describe what is known about it in different types of plants. What is known about it is conditioned by what particular scientists have asked about it, so the variety of approaches to seasonality is another point of emphasis. Detailed consideration is given to flowering seasonality in perennials compared with annuals, and both molecular and whole plant perspectives are presented.

Enhancing the NASA Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resource Web Data Delivery System with Geographic Information System (GIS) Capabilities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chandler, William S.; Stackhouse, Paul W., Jr.; Barnett, Audy J.; Hoell, James M.; Westberg, David J.; Ross, Amanda I.

2015-01-01

Renewable energy technologies are changing the face of the world's energy market. Currently, these technologies are being incorporated within existing structures to increase energy efficiency. Crucial to the success of the emerging renewable market is the availability of accurate, global solar radiation, and meteorology data. This poster traces the history of the development of an effort to distribute data parameters from NASA's research for use in the energy sector applications spanning from renewable energy to energy efficiency. These data may be useful to several renewable energy sectors: solar and wind power generation, agricultural crop modeling, and sustainable buildings.

Synergistic use of active and passive microwave in soil moisture estimation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

O'Neill, P.; Chauhan, N.; Jackson, T.; Saatchi, S.

1992-01-01

Data gathered during the MACHYDRO experiment in central Pennsylvania in July 1990 have been utilized to study the synergistic use of active and passive microwave systems for estimating soil moisture. These data sets were obtained during an eleven-day period with NASA's Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) and Push-Broom Microwave Radiometer (PBMR) over an instrumented watershed which included agricultural fields with a number of different crop covers. Simultaneous ground truth measurements were also made in order to characterize the state of vegetation and soil moisture under a variety of meteorological conditions. A combination algorithm is presented as applied to a representative corn field in the MACHYDRO watershed.

Development of a Global Agricultural Hotspot Detection and Early Warning System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lemoine, G.; Rembold, F.; Urbano, F.; Csak, G.

2015-12-01

The number of web based platforms for crop monitoring has grown rapidly over the last years and anomaly maps and time profiles of remote sensing derived indicators can be accessed online thanks to a number of web based portals. However, while these systems make available a large amount of crop monitoring data to the agriculture and food security analysts, there is no global platform which provides agricultural production hotspot warning in a highly automatic and timely manner. Therefore a web based system providing timely warning evidence as maps and short narratives is currently under development by the Joint Research Centre. The system (called "HotSpot Detection System of Agriculture Production Anomalies", HSDS) will focus on water limited agricultural systems worldwide. The automatic analysis of relevant meteorological and vegetation indicators at selected administrative units (Gaul 1 level) will trigger warning messages for the areas where anomalous conditions are observed. The level of warning (ranging from "watch" to "alert") will depend on the nature and number of indicators for which an anomaly is detected. Information regarding the extent of the agricultural areas concerned by the anomaly and the progress of the agricultural season will complement the warning label. In addition, we are testing supplementary detailed information from other sources for the areas triggering a warning. These regard the automatic web-based and food security-tailored analysis of media (using the JRC Media Monitor semantic search engine) and the automatic detection of active crop area using Sentinel 1, upcoming Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 imagery processed in Google Earth Engine. The basic processing will be fully automated and updated every 10 days exploiting low resolution rainfall estimates and satellite vegetation indices. Maps, trend graphs and statistics accompanied by short narratives edited by a team of crop monitoring experts, will be made available on the website on a monthly basis.

[Veterinary issues in the proceedings of the Amsterdam Agricultural Society, 1776-1832].

PubMed

Mathijsen, A H H M

2006-01-01

The Amsterdam Agricultural Society, founded in 1776, was created by six wealthy gentlemen, well known for the important positions in society held by them. They invested the money earned through trade among others in the acquisition of land, partially newly reclaimed in the surroundings of Amsterdam. As a consequence of the expansion of the population the profitability of agriculture had increased. The merchants and regents knew how to combine business with pleasure. In the second half of the 17th and the first half of the 18th century, they have built about 500 country estates in the surroundings of Amsterdam. Besides the pleasures of country-life, the owners gained a practical interest in agriculture and animal husbandry. Missing practical knowledge in these fields themselves, they felt the moral obligation to contribute to the general welfare of the society by the promotion of new ideas or experiences gained by others. In the first volume of the Proceedings is stated: 'It is beyond question that chemistry, botany, meteorology and the Ars veterinaria are to be considered as the true fundaments of agricultural knowledge'. Inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment and, quite in conformity with the spirit of the time, the establishment of a society was thought to be the answer in order to bring agricultural and thus economical reform. The method used was copied from the learned societies. The members proposed subjects for prize competitions and judged the answers sent in. The crowned answers were the main, but not the only, contents of the Society's Proceedings. The paper analyses the membership (the number of ordinary members decreased from 70 at the start to 56; that of honorary members was stable at about 20; further there were a few orrespondents), and quantifies the distribution of articles in the Proceedings, devoted respectively to agricultural, veterinary and zootechnical subjects. In addition, a detailed list with commentary, of the veterinary and zootechnical subjects published between 1778 and 1825 is presented.

Phenological cues intrinsic in indigenous knowledge systems for forecasting seasonal climate in the Delta State of Nigeria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fitchett, Jennifer M.; Ebhuoma, Eromose

2018-06-01

Shifts in the timing of phenological events in plants and animals are cited as one of the most robust bioindicators of climate change. Much effort has thus been placed on the collection of phenological datasets, the quantification of the rates of phenological shifts and the association of these shifts with recorded meteorological data. These outputs are of value both in tracking the severity of climate change and in facilitating more robust management approaches in forestry and agriculture to changing climatic conditions. However, such an approach requires meteorological and phenological records spanning multiple decades. For communities in the Delta State of Nigeria, small-scale farming communities do not have access to meteorological records, and the dissemination of government issued daily to seasonal forecasts has only taken place in recent years. Their ability to survive inter-annual to inter-decadal climatic variability and longer-term climatic change has thus relied on well-entrenched indigenous knowledge systems (IKS). An analysis of the environmental cues that are used to infer the timing and amount of rainfall by farmers from three communities in the Delta State reveals a reliance on phenological events, including the croaking of frogs, the appearance of red millipedes and the emergence of fresh rubber tree and cassava leaves. These represent the first recorded awareness of phenology within the Delta State of Nigeria, and a potentially valuable source of phenological data. However, the reliance of these indicators is of concern given the rapid phenological shifts occurring in response to climate change.

Phenological cues intrinsic in indigenous knowledge systems for forecasting seasonal climate in the Delta State of Nigeria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fitchett, Jennifer M.; Ebhuoma, Eromose

2017-12-01

Shifts in the timing of phenological events in plants and animals are cited as one of the most robust bioindicators of climate change. Much effort has thus been placed on the collection of phenological datasets, the quantification of the rates of phenological shifts and the association of these shifts with recorded meteorological data. These outputs are of value both in tracking the severity of climate change and in facilitating more robust management approaches in forestry and agriculture to changing climatic conditions. However, such an approach requires meteorological and phenological records spanning multiple decades. For communities in the Delta State of Nigeria, small-scale farming communities do not have access to meteorological records, and the dissemination of government issued daily to seasonal forecasts has only taken place in recent years. Their ability to survive inter-annual to inter-decadal climatic variability and longer-term climatic change has thus relied on well-entrenched indigenous knowledge systems (IKS). An analysis of the environmental cues that are used to infer the timing and amount of rainfall by farmers from three communities in the Delta State reveals a reliance on phenological events, including the croaking of frogs, the appearance of red millipedes and the emergence of fresh rubber tree and cassava leaves. These represent the first recorded awareness of phenology within the Delta State of Nigeria, and a potentially valuable source of phenological data. However, the reliance of these indicators is of concern given the rapid phenological shifts occurring in response to climate change.

Geographical and meteorological factors associated with isolation of Listeria species in New York State produce production and natural environments.

PubMed

Chapin, Travis K; Nightingale, Kendra K; Worobo, Randy W; Wiedmann, Martin; Strawn, Laura K

2014-11-01

Listeria species have been isolated from diverse environments, often at considerable prevalence, and are known to persist in food processing facilities. The presence of Listeria spp. has been suggested to be a marker for Listeria monocytogenes contamination. Therefore, a study was conducted to (i) determine the prevalence and diversity of Listeria spp. in produce production and natural environments and (ii) identify geographical and/or meteorological factors that affect the isolation of Listeria spp. in these environments. These data were also used to evaluate Listeria spp. as index organisms for L. monocytogenes in produce production environments. Environmental samples collected from produce production (n = 588) and natural (n = 734) environments in New York State were microbiologically analyzed to detect and isolate Listeria spp. The prevalence of Listeria spp. was approximately 33 and 34% for samples obtained from natural environments and produce production, respectively. Co-isolation of L. monocytogenes and at least one other species of Listeria in a given sample was recorded for 3 and 9% of samples from natural environments and produce production, respectively. Soil moisture and proximity to water and pastures were highly associated with isolation of Listeria spp. in produce production environments, while elevation, study site, and proximity to pastures were highly associated with isolation of Listeria spp. in natural environments, as determined by randomForest models. These data show that Listeria spp. were prevalent in both agricultural and nonagricultural environments and that geographical and meteorological factors associated with isolation of Listeria spp. were considerably different between the two environments.

Temporal variations in reference evapotranspiration in Hubei Province, China, from 1960 to 2014

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Hao; Wang, Xiugui; Wang, Yan; Xu, Yaxin; Han, Xudong

2018-01-01

Reference evapotranspiration (ET0) plays a critical role in irrigation planning and is also important for hydrological cycle, environmental, and other studies. Thus, this research examined the trends in ET0 on seasonal and annual timescales in Hubei Province, China. ET0 was estimated using the Penman Monteith method (P-M) at 16 meteorological stations located in different areas of Hubei Province during the period 1960-2014. The trends in seasonal and annual ET0 were investigated using the Mann-Kendall test and Sen's slope estimator. The periodicities of ET0 in different regions were investigated using wavelet analysis. The major meteorological factors affecting ET0 were investigated using partial correlation analysis and the contribution rate method. The results showed, on a seasonal timescale, that in spring, ET0 increased in all geographic zones. In summer, ET0 decreased in all geographic zones. In autumn and winter, ET0 displayed no significant changes in any of the geographic zones. On an annual timescale, ET0 decreased in all geographic zones, and the magnitudes of the negative trend in annual ET0 were 2.58-10.04 mm 10a-1. In the five geographic zones, the periodic characteristics of ET0 were identical; the significant wavelet power spectra of ET0 had 3-7, 13-17, and 24-32-year modulations in variation. Among the meteorological factors, sunshine hours were the major climate element that influenced the variability in ET0. The results will provide important references for scientific planning for agriculture, water resource allocation, and water-saving irrigation.

Phenological cues intrinsic in indigenous knowledge systems for forecasting seasonal climate in the Delta State of Nigeria.

PubMed

Fitchett, Jennifer M; Ebhuoma, Eromose

2018-06-01

Shifts in the timing of phenological events in plants and animals are cited as one of the most robust bioindicators of climate change. Much effort has thus been placed on the collection of phenological datasets, the quantification of the rates of phenological shifts and the association of these shifts with recorded meteorological data. These outputs are of value both in tracking the severity of climate change and in facilitating more robust management approaches in forestry and agriculture to changing climatic conditions. However, such an approach requires meteorological and phenological records spanning multiple decades. For communities in the Delta State of Nigeria, small-scale farming communities do not have access to meteorological records, and the dissemination of government issued daily to seasonal forecasts has only taken place in recent years. Their ability to survive inter-annual to inter-decadal climatic variability and longer-term climatic change has thus relied on well-entrenched indigenous knowledge systems (IKS). An analysis of the environmental cues that are used to infer the timing and amount of rainfall by farmers from three communities in the Delta State reveals a reliance on phenological events, including the croaking of frogs, the appearance of red millipedes and the emergence of fresh rubber tree and cassava leaves. These represent the first recorded awareness of phenology within the Delta State of Nigeria, and a potentially valuable source of phenological data. However, the reliance of these indicators is of concern given the rapid phenological shifts occurring in response to climate change.

Identification of the influencing factors on groundwater drought and depletion in north-western Bangladesh

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mustafa, Syed Md. Touhidul; Abdollahi, Khodayar; Verbeiren, Boud; Huysmans, Marijke

2017-08-01

Groundwater drought is a specific type of hydrological drought that concerns groundwater bodies. It may have a significant adverse effect on the socio-economic, agricultural, and environmental conditions. Investigating the effect of different climatic and anthropogenic factors on groundwater drought provides essential information for sustainable planning and management of (ground) water resources. The aim of this study is to identify the influencing factors on groundwater drought in north-western Bangladesh, to understand the forcing mechanisms. A multi-step methodology is proposed to achieve this objective. The standardised precipitation index (SPI) and reconnaissance drought index (RDI) have been used to quantify the aggregated deficit between precipitation and the evaporative demand of the atmosphere, i.e. meteorological drought. The influence of land-cover patterns on the groundwater drought has been identified by calculating spatially distributed groundwater recharge as a function of land cover. Groundwater drought is defined by a threshold method. The results show that the evapotranspiration and rainfall deficits are determining meteorological drought, which shows a direct relation with groundwater recharge deficits. Land-cover change has a small effect on groundwater recharge but does not seem to be the main cause of groundwater-level decline (depletion) in the study area. The groundwater depth and groundwater-level deficit (drought) is continuously increasing with little correlation to meteorological drought or recharge anomalies. Overexploitation of groundwater for irrigation seems to be the main cause of groundwater-level decline in the study area. Efficient irrigation management is essential to reduce the growing pressure on groundwater resources and ensure sustainable water management.

ALL-UNION CONFERENCE ON APPLICATIONS OF RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES AND NUCLEAR EMISSIONS IN THE NATIONAL INDUSTRY OF USSR (in Russian)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

1960-09-01

Papers presented at the All-Union Conference on Industrial Applications of Radioactive Isotopes and Nuclear Emissions in the National Economy of USSR, April 12 to 16, 1960, in Riga are surveyed. Short summaries are given on applications of radioactive isotopes and nuclear emissions in prospecting, developing mineral resources, metallurgy, ore enrichment processes, machine construction technology, agriculture, food processing, and medicine. Sources of alpha , beta , and gamma radiation for control and automation of processes are also discussed. The full reports from the conference will be published in 1960. (R.V.J.)

Impacts on Chinese Agriculture of Geoengineering and Smoke from Fires Ignited by Nuclear War

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xia, L.; Robock, A.

2013-12-01

Climate is one of the most important factors determining crop yields and world food supplies. To be well prepared for possible futures, it is necessary to study yield changes of major crops under different climate scenarios. Here we consider two situations: stratospheric sulfate geoengineering and nuclear war. Although we certainly do not advocate either scenario, we cannot exclude the possibilities: if global warming is getting worse, society might consider deliberately manipulating global temperature; if nuclear weapons still exist, we might face a nuclear war catastrophe. Since in both scenarios there would be reductions of temperature, precipitation, and insolation, which are three controlling factors on crop growth, it is important to study food supply changes under the two cases. We conducted our simulations for China, because it has the highest population and crop production in the world and it is under the strong influence of the summer monsoon, which would be altered in geoengineering and nuclear war scenarios. To examine the effects of climate changes induced by geoengineering and nuclear war on Chinese agriculture, we use the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) crop model. We first evaluated the model by forcing it with daily weather data and management practices for the period 1978-2008 for 24 provinces in China, and compared the results to observations of the yields of major crops in China (middle season rice, winter wheat, and maize). Then we perturbed observed weather data using climate anomalies for geoengineering and nuclear war simulations. For geoengineering, we consider the G2 scenario of the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP), which prescribes an insolation reduction to balance a 1% per year increase in CO2 concentration (1pctCO2). We used results from ten climate models participating in G2. For the nuclear war scenario, we consider the effects of 5 Tg of soot that could be injected into the upper troposphere by a war between India and Pakistan using only 100 Hiroshima-size atomic bombs dropped on cities. We used results from three climate models that did the same simulation. For the geoengineering scenario, without changes of agricultural technology, the combined effect of climate changes due to geoengineering and CO2 fertilization would change rice production in China by -4.6×6.0 Mt (4.5×5.9%) as compared with 1pctCO2 and would increase Chinese maize production by 20.9×6.9 Mt (14.8×4.9%) the period 46-50 years after the CO2 increase and compensating insolation reduction began. The CO2 fertilization effect compensates for the deleterious impacts of climate changes due to geoengineering on rice production, increasing rice production by 8.2 Mt and the elevated CO2 concentration enhances maize production in G2, contributing 35.5% to the total increase. While agricultural impacts may not be a serious problem for geoengineering, there are many other potential risks that need to be evaluated before geoengineering should be considered. Climate changes due to nuclear war would decrease Chinese rice production by 20×4.7%, maize production by 15×6.2% and winter wheat production by 35×19.3% for a five-year period after the soot injection, producing a major world food security crisis.

An investigation on nuclear energy policy in Turkey and public perception

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coskun, Mehmet Burhanettin; Tanriover, Banu

2016-11-01

Turkey, which meets nearly 70 per cent of its energy demands with import, is facing the problems of energy security and current account deficit as a result of its dependence on foreign sources in terms of energy input. It is also known that Turkey is having environmental problems due to the increases in CO2 emission. Considering these problems in Turkish economy, where energy input is commonly used, it is necessary to use energy sources efficiently and provide alternative energy sources. Due to the dependency of renewable sources on meteorological conditions (the absence of enough sun, wind, and water sources), the energy generation could not be provided efficiently and permanently from these sources. At this point, nuclear energy as analternative energy source maintains its importance as a sustainable energy source that providing energy in 7 days and 24 hours. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the nuclear energy subject within the context of negative public perceptions emerged after Chernobyl (1986) and Fukushima (2011) disasters and to investigate in the economic framework.

A radiation briefer's guide to the PIKE Model

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Steadman, Jr, C R

1990-03-01

Gamma-radiation-exposure estimates to populations living immediately downwind from the Nevada Test Site have been required for many years by the US Department of Energy (DOE) before each containment-designed nuclear detonation. A highly unlikely worst-case'' scenario is utilized which assumes that there will be an accidental massive venting of radioactive debris into the atmosphere shortly after detonation. The Weather Service Nuclear Support Office (WSNSO) has supplied DOE with such estimates for the last 25 years using the WSNSO Fallout Scaling Technique (FOST), which employs a worst-case analog event that actually occurred in the past. The PIKE Model'' is the application ofmore » the FOST using the PIKE nuclear event as the analog. This report, which is primarily intended for WSNSO meteorologists who derive radiation estimates, gives a brief history of the model,'' presents the mathematical, radiological, and meteorological concepts upon which it is based, states its limitations, explains it apparent advantages over more sophisticated models, and details how it is used operationally. 10 refs., 31 figs., 7 tabs.« less

Strategies for lidar characterization of particulates from point and area sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wojcik, Michael D.; Moore, Kori D.; Martin, Randal S.; Hatfield, Jerry

2010-10-01

Use of ground based remote sensing technologies such as scanning lidar systems (light detection and ranging) has gained traction in characterizing ambient aerosols due to some key advantages such as wide area of regard (10 km2), fast response time, high spatial resolution (<10 m) and high sensitivity. Energy Dynamics Laboratory and Utah State University, in conjunction with the USDA-ARS, has developed a three-wavelength scanning lidar system called Aglite that has been successfully deployed to characterize particle motion, concentration, and size distribution at both point and diffuse area sources in agricultural and industrial settings. A suite of massbased and size distribution point sensors are used to locally calibrate the lidar. Generating meaningful particle size distribution, mass concentration, and emission rate results based on lidar data is dependent on strategic onsite deployment of these point sensors with successful local meteorological measurements. Deployment strategies learned from field use of this entire measurement system over five years include the characterization of local meteorology and its predictability prior to deployment, the placement of point sensors to prevent contamination and overloading, the positioning of the lidar and beam plane to avoid hard target interferences, and the usefulness of photographic and written observational data.

Soil occupation and atmospheric variations over Sobradinho Lake area. Part one: an observational analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Correia, M. F.; da Silva Dias, M. A. F.; da Silva Aragão, M. R.

2006-11-01

Sobradinho Lake lies in the São Francisco River Basin, in one of the most arid regions in Northeastern Brazil, within a land stretch categorized as the Lower-middle São Francisco, situated at about 40 km away from the municipality of Petrolina (09°23'S 40°30'W) in the state of Pernambuco. The dam, in its full capacity, consists of a lake of approximately 4,214 km2; 280 km in length, the width of which varies from 5 to 50 km. The dam storage capacity is that of 34.1 billion m3 of water. Being situated in a semi-arid region, the dam brought about significant development to local irrigated agriculture. The caatinga ecosystem has, for that matter, undergone considerable changes. Statistical analysis techniques applied to data collected before and after the filling of the lake, made it possible both to make an assessment of the impact of the dam construction on the region meteorology and to diagnose the variability of such an impact on environmental conditions. Results showed that the dam has brought about considerable changes to regional meteorology. The alterations were observed to be more significant as regards atmospheric humidity and wind speed.

Spatial Interpolation of Reference Evapotranspiration in India: Comparison of IDW and Kriging Methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hodam, Sanayanbi; Sarkar, Sajal; Marak, Areor G. R.; Bandyopadhyay, A.; Bhadra, A.

2017-12-01

In the present study, to understand the spatial distribution characteristics of the ETo over India, spatial interpolation was performed on the means of 32 years (1971-2002) monthly data of 131 India Meteorological Department stations uniformly distributed over the country by two methods, namely, inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation and kriging. Kriging was found to be better while developing the monthly surfaces during cross-validation. However, in station-wise validation, IDW performed better than kriging in almost all the cases, hence is recommended for spatial interpolation of ETo and its governing meteorological parameters. This study also checked if direct kriging of FAO-56 Penman-Monteith (PM) (Allen et al. in Crop evapotranspiration—guidelines for computing crop water requirements, Irrigation and drainage paper 56, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, 1998) point ETo produced comparable results against ETo estimated with individually kriged weather parameters (indirect kriging). Indirect kriging performed marginally well compared to direct kriging. Point ETo values were extended to areal ETo values by IDW and FAO-56 PM mean ETo maps for India were developed to obtain sufficiently accurate ETo estimates at unknown locations.

The response of drought in Beiluo River Basin of China based on the comprehensive method of Pa, SPI and fuzzy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, L. P.; Liu, D. F.; Zhang, H. X.; Huang, Q.; Chang, J. X.

2017-08-01

The meteorological drought is threatening the agricultural economic development with the change of the climate. In order to analyze the characteristics of drought spatiotemporal change, the precipitation data of eight meteorological stations in the Beiluo River Basin of Shaanxi Province of China have been collected, and the drought index of Pa, SPI and FSE have been selected to analyze the drought in Shaanxi Province for the last 55 years. The results of Pa, SPI and FSE test show that the droughts happened in the Beiluo River Basin are 149, 215 and 203 times in the past 55 years, respectively. Overall, the Beiluo River has a tendency to dry out. The main type of drought is low-grade drought, followed by the mediumgrade drought, and the specially-grade drought happened least. The average rainfall decreases in the Beiluo River Basin from the southeast to the northwest, and the change of the number of drought is just opposite to that of precipitation trend, which increases from southeast to northwest. The results will provide the scientific basis for the monitoring, evaluation, early warning and drought relief.

An ecological assessment of pasturelands in the Balkhash area of Kazakhstan with remote sensing and models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lebed, L.; Qi, J.; Heilman, P.

2012-06-01

The 187 million hectares of pasturelands in Kazakhstan play a key role in the nation’s economy, as livestock production accounted for 54% of total agricultural production in 2010. However, more than half of these lands have been degraded as a result of unregulated grazing practices. Therefore, effective long term ecological monitoring of pasturelands in Kazakhstan is imperative to ensure sustainable pastureland management. As a case study in this research, we demonstrated how the ecological conditions could be assessed with remote sensing technologies and pastureland models. The example focuses on the southern Balkhash area with study sites on a foothill plain with Artemisia-ephemeral plants and a sandy plain with psammophilic vegetation in the Turan Desert. The assessment was based on remotely sensed imagery and meteorological data, a geobotanical archive and periodic ground sampling. The Pasture agrometeorological model was used to calculate biological, ecological and economic indicators to assess pastureland condition. The results showed that field surveys, meteorological observations, remote sensing and ecological models, such as Pasture, could be combined to effectively assess the ecological conditions of pasturelands and provide information about forage production that is critically important for balancing grazing and ecological conservation.

Investigating flood susceptible areas in inaccessible regions using remote sensing and geographic information systems.

PubMed

Lim, Joongbin; Lee, Kyoo-Seock

2017-03-01

Every summer, North Korea (NK) suffers from floods, resulting in decreased agricultural production and huge economic loss. Besides meteorological reasons, several factors can accelerate flood damage. Environmental studies about NK are difficult because NK is inaccessible due to the division of Korea. Remote sensing (RS) can be used to delineate flood inundated areas in inaccessible regions such as NK. The objective of this study was to investigate the spatial characteristics of flood susceptible areas (FSAs) using multi-temporal RS data and digital elevation model data. Such study will provide basic information to restore FSAs after reunification. Defining FSAs at the study site revealed that rice paddies with low elevation and low slope were the most susceptible areas to flood in NK. Numerous sediments from upper streams, especially streams through crop field areas on steeply sloped hills, might have been transported and deposited into stream channels, thus disturbing water flow. In conclusion, NK floods may have occurred not only due to meteorological factors but also due to inappropriate land use for flood management. In order to mitigate NK flood damage, reforestation is needed for terraced crop fields. In addition, drainage capacity for middle stream channel near rice paddies should be improved.

Studies on water resources carrying capacity in Tuhai river basin based on ecological footprint

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Chengshuai; Xu, Lirong; Fu, Xin

2017-05-01

In this paper, the method of the water ecological footprint (WEF) was used to evaluate water resources carrying capacity and water resources sustainability of Tuhai River Basin in Shandong Province. The results show that: (1) The WEF had a downward trend in overall volatility in Tuhai River Basin from 2003 to 2011. Agricultural water occupies high proportion, which was a major contributor to the WEF, and about 86.9% of agricultural WEF was used for farmland irrigation; (2) The water resources carrying capacity had a downward trend in general, which was mostly affected by some natural factors in this basin such as hydrology and meteorology in Tuhai River Basin; (3) Based on analysis of water resources ecological deficit, it can be concluded that the water resources utilization mode was in an unhealthy pattern and it was necessary to improve the utilization efficiency of water resources in Tuhai River Basin; (4) In view of water resources utilization problems in the studied area, well irrigation should be greatly developed at the head of Yellow River Irrigation Area(YRIA), however, water from Yellow River should be utilized for irrigation as much as possible, combined with agricultural water-saving measures and controlled exploiting groundwater at the tail of YRIA. Therefore, the combined usage of surface water and ground water of YRIA is an important way to realize agricultural water saving and sustainable utilization of water resources in Tuhai River Basin.

Forecasts of Agricultural Drought in Sri Lanka

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gilligan, J. M.; Gunda, T.; Hornberger, G. M.

2015-12-01

As the most frequent natural disaster in Sri Lanka, drought greatly affects crop production and livelihoods. Over half of all agricultural crop damage in Sri Lanka is currently due to drought; the frequency and severity of drought in the country is only expected to increase with the changing climate. Previous work indicates that the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) are capable of capturing agricultural drought patterns (between 1881-2010) in the island nation. In this work, PDSI and SPI from 13 long-term meteorological stations will be projected into the future using a combination of artificial neural network and autoregressive integrated moving average models. The impacts of large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns (such as the Niño 3.4 index, a measure of sea surface temperature) and lead times on projection accuracy will also be explored. Model projections will be compared to weather data since 2010 to determine if the 2014 drought could have been forecasted using these methods. Since agricultural systems are strongly influenced by both natural and human systems, it is important to frame these physical findings within a social context. This work is part of an interdisciplinary project that assesses the perceptions of and adaptations to drought by rice farmers in Sri Lanka; disciplines represented in the group include hydrology, social psychology, ethnography, policy, and behavioral economics. Insights from the diverse research perspectives within the group will be drawn upon to highlight the social implications of the physical results.

Influence of natural vs. anthropogenic stresses on water resource sustainability: a case study.

PubMed

Fennell, J; Zawadzki, A; Cadman, C

2006-01-01

Climate change has been identified as a major influence on basin water balances. However, land use and water use practices have also been identified as players. This case study was completed to better understand a changing water balance affecting a major basin in Alberta. The Beaver River basin is located in east central Alberta. Much of the basin has been developed for agricultural use; however, a number of heavy oil operations also exist. Both sectors use surface and groundwater. Evidence exists that the basin hydrology has changed since the mid-1970s. Coincidently, it was at this time that much of the land was cleared for agricultural development and commercial-scale oil development began. Oil industry use of water was suspected as the main cause for the changes observed. To investigate this further, data from regional hydrometric and meteorological stations were assessed along with water well hydrographs and historical satellite images. A significant correlation was found between basin responses and a climate phenomenon known as the Pacific decadal oscillation. Although the correlation between the Pacific decadal oscillation and basin hydrology appeared strong, deforestation for agricultural development also seemed to have an effect. Use of the local water resources was found to be of minor significance.

Safeguarding production agriculture and natural ecosystems against biological terrorism. A U.S. Department of Agriculture emergency response framework.

PubMed

Sequeira, R

1999-01-01

Foreign pest introductions and outbreaks represent threats to agricultural productivity and ecosystems, and, thus, to the health and national security of the United States. It is advisable to identify relevant techniques and bring all appropriate strategies to bear on the problem of controlling accidentally and intentionally introduced pest outbreaks. Recent political shifts indicate that the U.S. may be at increased risk for biological terrorism. The existing emergency-response strategies of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) will evolve to expand activities in coordination with other emergency management agencies. APHIS will evolve its information superstructure to include extensive application of simulation models for forecasting, meteorological databases and analysis, systems analysis, geographic information systems, satellite image analysis, remote sensing, and the training of specialized cadres within the emergency-response framework capable of managing the necessary information processing and analysis. Finally, the threat of key pests ranked according to perceived risk will be assessed with mathematical models and "what-if" scenarios analyzed to determine impact and mitigation practices. An infrastructure will be maintained that periodically surveys ports and inland regions for the presence of exotic pest threats and will identify trend abnormalities. This survey and monitoring effort will include cooperation from industry groups, federal and state organizations, and academic institutions.

Coupled urbanization and agricultural ecosystem services in Guanzhong-Tianshui Economic Zone.

PubMed

Zhou, Z X; Li, J; Zhang, W

2016-08-01

Ecosystems offer material and environmental support for human habitation and development in those areas of the earth where people choose to live. However, urbanization is an inexorable trend of human social development and threatens the health of those ecosystems inhabited by humans. This study calculates the values of NPP (net primary productivity), carbon sequestration, water interception, soil conservation, and agricultural production in the Guanzhong-Tianshui Economic Zone. At the same time, we combined DMSP/OLS (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Line Scanner) night lights remote sensing data and statistical data to analyze the level of urbanization. Quantitative analysis was performed on the interactions between the ecosystem service functions and urbanization based on the calculations of their coupled coordination degrees. The results were the following: (1) The values of NPP, carbon sequestration, and agricultural production showed a trend of increase. However, water interception decreased before increasing, while soil conservation showed the reverse trend; (2) Urbanization levels in the Guanzhong-Tianshui Economic Zone for the last 10 years have proceeded at a fast pace with comprehensive promotion; and (3) Coupled and coupled coordination degrees between urbanization and ecosystem services show increasing trends. This research can provide a theoretical basis for the region's rapid economic development in the balance.

Observing Carbon Dioxide Fluxes on a Corn Field and a Native Savanna in the Colombian Orinoco River Region Using Eddy Covariance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morales-Rincon, L. A.; Jimenez-Pizarro, R.; Rodríguez, N.

2016-12-01

The Orinoco River basin is expected to become Colombia's largest farming belt in the near future. Agriculture and land use change are the most important greenhouse gas (GHG) source in Colombia and one of the most important globally. At the same time, agriculture is one of the few economic sectors that is also able to act as a sink, e.g. through soil carbon storage. Emissions are largely determined by agricultural practices, thus practice identification and C flux monitoring are of paramount importance for mitigation alternative identification. During second semester of 2015, we measured CO2 fluxes over a commercial corn filed the Colombian Orinoco River Region using enclosed-path eddy covariance. The plot behaved as a CO2 sink during crop development. We found that inter-crop activities played a key role in defining whether the area acted as a net source or sink. Quantifying C fluxes at under local soil and meteorological conditions provides new high quality scientific information, which could be incorporated into a wider evaluation of agroindustry process, e.g. through the C footprint. We will also present ongoing carbon flux measurements in a native savanna and will discuss on the possibility of extrapolating our result to wider areas using process based models.

NNSS Soils Monitoring: Plutonium Valley (CAU 366) FY2013 and FY2014

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Miller, Julianne J.; Nikolich, George; Mizell, Steve

The Desert Research Institute (DRI) is conducting a field assessment of the potential for contaminated soil transport from the Plutonium Valley Contamination Area (CA) as a result of wind transport and storm runoff in support of Nevada Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) efforts to complete regulatory closure of the contamination areas. The DRI work is intended to confirm the likely mechanism(s) of transport and determine the meteorological conditions that might cause movement of contaminated soils. Emphasis is given to collecting sediment transported by channelized storm runoff at the Plutonium Valley investigation sites. These data will inform closure plans that are beingmore » developed, which will facilitate appropriate closure design and postclosure monitoring. Desert Research Institute installed two meteorological monitoring stations south (station number 1) and north (station number 2) of the Plutonium Valley CA and a runoff sediment sampling station within the CA in 2011. Temperature, wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, precipitation, solar radiation, barometric pressure, soil temperature, and airborne particulate concentration are collected at both meteorological stations. The maximum, minimum, and average or total (as appropriate) for each of these parameters is recorded for each 10-minute interval. The sediment sampling station includes an automatically activated ISCO sampling pump with collection bottles for suspended sediment, which is activated when sufficient flow is present in the channel, and passive traps for bedload material that is transported down the channel during runoff events. This report presents data collected from these stations during FY2013 and FY2014.« less

NNSS Soils Monitoring: Plutonium Valley (CAU 366) FY2015

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nikolich, George; Mizell, Steve; McCurdy, Greg

Desert Research Institute (DRI) is conducting a field assessment of the potential for contaminated soil transport from the Plutonium Valley Contamination Area (CA) as a result of wind transport and storm runoff in support of National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) efforts to complete regulatory closure of the contamination areas. The DRI work is intended to confirm the likely mechanism(s) of transport and determine the meteorological conditions that might cause movement of contaminated soils. The emphasis of the work is on collecting sediment transported by channelized storm runoff at the Plutonium Valley investigation sites. These data will inform closure plans thatmore » are being developed, which will facilitate the appropriate closure design and post-closure monitoring. In 2011, DRI installed two meteorological monitoring stations south (station #1) and north (station #2) of the Plutonium Valley CA and a runoff sediment sampling station within the CA. Temperature, wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, precipitation, solar radiation, barometric pressure, soil temperature, and airborne particulate concentration are collected at both meteorological stations. The maximum, minimum, and average or total (as appropriate) for each of these parameters are recorded for each 10-minute interval. The sediment sampling station includes an automatically activated ISCO sampling pump with collection bottles for suspended sediment, which is activated when sufficient flow is present in the channel, and passive traps for bedload material that is transported down the channel during runoff events. This report presents data collected from these stations during fiscal year (FY) 2015.« less

Structure of the disturbed region of the atmosphere after the nuclear explosion in Hiroshima

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shcherbin, M. D.; Pavlyukov, K. V.; Salo, A. A.; Pertsev, S. F.; Rikunov, A. V.

2013-09-01

An attempt is undertaken to describe the development of the disturbed region of the atmosphere caused by the nuclear explosion over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Numerical simulation of the phenomenon is performed using the dynamic equations for a nonconducting inviscid gas taking into account the combustion of urban buildings, phase changes of water, electrification of ice particles, and removal of soot particles. The results of the numerical calculation of the development of the disturbed region indicate heavy rainfall, the formation of a storm cloud with lightning discharges, removal of soot particles, and the formation of vertical vortices. The temporal sequence of these meteorological phenomena is consistent with the data of observations. Because of the assumptions and approximations used in solving the problem, the results are of qualitative nature. Refinement of the results can be obtained by a more detailed study of the approximate initial and boundary conditions of the problem.

Delimitation of areas under the real pressure from agricultural activities due to nitrate water pollution in Poland

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wozniak, E.; Nasilowska, S.; Jarocinska, A.; Igras, J.; Stolarska, M.; Bernoussi, A. S.; Karaczun, Z.

2012-04-01

The aim of the performed research was to determine catchments under the nitrogen pressure in Poland in period of 2007-2010. National Water Management Authority in Poland uses the elaborated methodology to fulfil requirements of Nitrate Directive and Water Framework Directive. Multicriteria GIS analysis was conducted on the base on various types of environmental data, maps and remote sensing products. Final model of real agricultural pressure was made using two components: (i) potential pressure connected with agriculture (ii) the vulnerability of the area. The agricultural pressure was calculated using the amount of nitrogen in fertilizers and the amount of nitrogen produced by animal breeding. The animal pressure was based on the information about the number of bred animals of each species for communes in Poland. The spatial distribution of vegetation pressure was calculated using kriging for the whole country base on the information about 5000 points with the amount of nitrogen dose in fertilizers. The vulnerability model was elaborated only for arable lands. It was based on the probability of the precipitation penetration to the ground water and runoff to surface waters. Catchment, Hydrogeological, Soil, Relief or Land Cover maps allowed taking into account constant environmental conditions. Additionally information about precipitation for each day of analysis and evapotranspiration for every 16-day period (calculated from satellite images) were used to present influence of meteorological condition on vulnerability of the terrain. The risk model is the sum of the vulnerability model and the agricultural pressure model. In order to check the accuracy of the elaborated model, the authors compared the results with the eutrophication measurements. The model accuracy is from 85,3% to 91,3%.

Effects of lakes and reservoirs on annual river nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment export in agricultural and forested landscapes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Powers, Stephen M.; Robertson, Dale M.; Stanley, Emily H.

2014-01-01

Recently, effects of lakes and reservoirs on river nutrient export have been incorporated into landscape biogeochemical models. Because annual export varies with precipitation, there is a need to examine the biogeochemical role of lakes and reservoirs over time frames that incorporate interannual variability in precipitation. We examined long-term (~20 years) time series of river export (annual mass yield, Y, and flow-weighted mean annual concentration, C) for total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and total suspended sediment (TSS) from 54 catchments in Wisconsin, USA. Catchments were classified as small agricultural, large agricultural, and forested by use of a cluster analysis, and these varied in lentic coverage (percentage of catchment lake or reservoir water that was connected to river network). Mean annual export and interannual variability (CV) of export (for both Y and C) were higher in agricultural catchments relative to forested catchments for TP, TN, and TSS. In both agricultural and forested settings, mean and maximum annual TN yields were lower in the presence of lakes and reservoirs, suggesting lentic denitrification or N burial. There was also evidence of long-term lentic TP and TSS retention, especially when viewed in terms of maximum annual yield, suggesting sedimentation during high loading years. Lentic catchments had lower interannual variability in export. For TP and TSS, interannual variability in mass yield was often >50% higher than interannual variability in water yield, whereas TN variability more closely followed water (discharge) variability. Our results indicate that long-term mass export through rivers depends on interacting terrestrial, aquatic, and meteorological factors in which the presence of lakes and reservoirs can reduce the magnitude of export, stabilize interannual variability in export, as well as introduce export time lags.

An Integrated Hydro-Economic Model for Economy-Wide Climate Change Impact Assessment for Zambia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, T.; Thurlow, J.; Diao, X.

2008-12-01

Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, with a total population of about 11 million and a total area of about 752 thousand square kilometers. Agriculture in the country depends heavily on rainfall as the majority of cultivated land is rain-fed. Significant rainfall variability has been a huge challenge for the country to keep a sustainable agricultural growth, which is an important condition for the country to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The situation is expected to become even more complex as climate change would impose additional impacts on rainwater availability and crop water requirements, among other changes. To understand the impacts of climate variability and change on agricultural production and national economy, a soil hydrology model and a crop water production model are developed to simulate actual crop water uses and yield losses under water stress which provide annual shocks for a recursive dynamic computational general equilibrium (CGE) model developed for Zambia. Observed meteorological data of the past three decades are used in the integrated hydro-economic model for climate variability impact analysis, and as baseline climatology for climate change impact assessment together with several GCM-based climate change scenarios that cover a broad range of climate projections. We found that climate variability can explain a significant portion of the annual variations of agricultural production and GDP of Zambia in the past. Hidden beneath climate variability, climate change is found to have modest impacts on agriculture and national economy of Zambia around 2025 but the impacts would be pronounced in the far future if appropriate adaptations are not implemented. Policy recommendations are provided based on scenario analysis.

Utilization of the terrestrial cyanobacteria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Katoh, Hiroshi; Tomita-Yokotani, Kaori; Furukawa, Jun; Kimura, Shunta; Yokoshima, Mika; Yamaguchi, Yuji; Takenaka, Hiroyuki

The terrestrial, N _{2}-fixing cyanobacterium, Nostoc commune has expected to utilize for agriculture, food and terraforming cause of its extracellular polysaccharide, desiccation tolerance and nitrogen fixation. Previously, the first author indicated that desiccation related genes were analyzed and the suggested that the genes were related to nitrogen fixation and metabolisms. In this report, we suggest possibility of agriculture, using the cyanobacterium. Further, we also found radioactive compounds accumulated N. commune (cyanobacterium) in Fukushima, Japan after nuclear accident. Thus, it is investigated to decontaminate radioactive compounds from the surface soil by the cyanobacterium and showed to accumulate radioactive compounds using the cyanobacterium. We will discuss utilization of terrestrial cyanobacteria under closed environment. Keyword: Desiccation, terrestrial cyanobacteria, bioremediation, agriculture

Enhanced global Radionuclide Source Attribution for the Nuclear-Test-Ban Verification by means of the Adjoint Ensemble Dispersion Modeling Technique applied at the IDC/CTBTO.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becker, A.; Wotawa, G.; de Geer, L.

2006-05-01

The Provisional Technical Secretariat (PTS) of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission maintains and permanently updates a source-receptor matrix (SRM) describing the global monitoring capability of a highly sensitive 80 stations radionuclide (RN) network in order to verify states signatories' compliance of the comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty (CTBT). This is done by means of receptor-oriented Lagrangian particle dispersion modeling (LPDM) to help determine the region from which suspicious radionuclides may originate. In doing so the LPDM FLEXPART5.1 is integrated backward in time based on global analysis wind fields yielding global source-receptor sensitivity (SRS) fields stored in three-hour frequency and at 1º horizontal resolution. A database of these SRS fields substantially helps in improving the interpretation of the RN samples measurements and categorizations because it enables the testing of source-hypothesis's later on in a pure post-processing (SRM inversion) step being feasible on hardware with specifications comparable to currently sold PC's or Notebooks and at any place (decentralized), provided access to the SRS fields is warranted. Within the CTBT environment it is important to quickly achieve decision-makers confidence in the SRM based backtracking products issued by the PTS in the case of the occurrence of treaty relevant radionuclides. Therefore the PTS has set up a highly automated response system together with the Regional Specialized Meteorological Centers of the World Meteorological Organization in the field of dispersion modeling who committed themselves to provide the PTS with the same standard SRS fields as calculated by their systems for CTBT relevant cases. This system was twice utilized in 2005 in order to perform adjoint ensemble dispersion modeling (EDM) and demonstrated the potential of EDM based backtracking to improve the accuracy of the source location related to singular nuclear events thus serving the backward analogue to the findings of the ensemble dispersion modeling (EDM) technique No. 5 efforts performed by Galmarini et al, 2004 (Atmos. Env. 38, 4607-4617). As the scope of the adjoint EDM methodology is not limited to CTBT verification but can be applied to any kind of nuclear event monitoring and location it bears the potential to improve the design of manifold emergency response systems towards preparedness concepts as needed for mitigation of disasters (like Chernobyl) and pre-emptive estimation of pollution hazards.

The development of Operational Intervention Levels (OILs) for Soils - A decision support tool in nuclear and radiological emergency response

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee Zhi Yi, Amelia; Dercon, Gerd; Blackburn, Carl; Kheng, Heng Lee

2017-04-01

In the event of a large-scale nuclear accident, the swift implementation of response actions is imperative. For food and agriculture, it is important to restrict contaminated food from being produced or gathered, and to put in place systems to prevent contaminated produce from entering the food chain. Emergency tools and response protocols exist to assist food control and health authorities but they tend to focus on radioactivity concentrations in food products as a means of restricting the distribution and sale of contaminated produce. Few, if any, emergency tools or protocols focus on the food production environment, for example radioactivity concentrations in soils. Here we present the Operational Intervention Levels for Soils (OIL for Soils) concept, an optimization tool developed at the IAEA to facilitate agricultural decision making and to improve nuclear emergency preparedness and response capabilities. Effective intervention relies on the prompt availability of radioactivity concentration data and the ability to implement countermeasures. Sampling in food and agriculture can be demanding because it may involve large areas and many sample types. In addition, there are finite resources available in terms of manpower and laboratory support. Consequently, there is a risk that timely decision making will be hindered and food safety compromised due to time taken to sample and analyse produce. However, the OILs for Soils concept developed based on experience in Japan can help in this situation and greatly assist authorities responsible for agricultural production. OILs for Soils - pre-determined reference levels of air dose rates linked to radionuclide concentrations in soils - can be used to trigger response actions particularly important for agricultural and food protection. Key considerations in the development of the OILs for Soils are: (1) establishing a pragmatic sampling approach to prioritize and optimize available resources and data requirements for decision making in agricultural sites: (2) creating a system that is adaptable to different countries, and; (3) developing a framework to calculate default values of OILs for Soils for application during an emergency. The OILs for Soils reference levels are calculated using a mathematical model. Empirical equations, paired with radionuclide data (e.g. Cs-134, Cs-137 and I-131) from the ICRU 53 report, are utilized to determine soil contamination from aerial monitoring air dose rate data. Modelling allows soil contamination values to be readily approximated and this is used to prioritize soil and food sampling sites. Reference levels are based on a model that considers radionuclide transfer factors for up-take into plants, soil density, and soil sampling depth. Decision actions for determined reference levels are suggested for processed foods, animal products, animal feed and crop products (including plants at the growing stage, mature stage, fallow farmland, and forestry products). With these steps, OILs for Soils provide practical guidance that will equip authorities to respond efficiently and help maintain the safety of the food supply during large-scale nuclear or radiological emergency situations.

Near East/South Asia Report.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-01-30

nuclear institute of agriculture and Biology , Faisalabad,’ Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resource, "Islamabad. The former organisation...Irrigation, Drainage and Flood Con- trol Research Council, to provide support on researh side to WAPDA and other Federal and provincial

Climatic Consequences and Agricultural Impact of Regional Nuclear Conflict

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Toon, O. B.; Robock, A.; Mills, M. J.; Xia, L.

2013-05-01

A nuclear war between India and Pakistan, with each country using 50 Hiroshima-sized atom bombs as airbursts on urban areas, would inject smoke from the resulting fires into the stratosphere.This could produce climate change unprecedented in recorded human history and global-scale ozone depletion, with enhanced ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaching the surface.Simulations with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), run at higher vertical and horizontal resolution than a previous simulation with the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies ModelE, and incorporating ozone chemistry for the first time, show a longer stratospheric residence time for smoke and hence a longer-lasting climate response, with global average surface air temperatures still 1.1 K below normal and global average precipitation 4% below normal after a decade.The erythemal dose from the enhanced UV radiation would greatly increase, in spite of enhanced absorption by the remaining smoke, with the UV index more than 3 units higher in the summer midlatitudes, even after a decade. Scenarios of changes in temperature, precipitation, and downward shortwave radiation from the ModelE and WACCM simulations, applied to the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer crop model for winter wheat, rice, soybeans, and maize by perturbing observed time series with anomalies from the regional nuclear war simulations, produce decreases of 10-50% in yield averaged over a decade, with larger decreases in the first several years, over the midlatitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The impact of the nuclear war simulated here, using much less than 1% of the global nuclear arsenal, would be devastating to world agricultural production and trade, possibly sentencing a billion people now living marginal existences to starvation.The continued environmental threat of the use of even a small number of nuclear weapons must be considered in nuclear policy deliberations in Russia, the U.S., and the rest of the world.

Climatic Consequences and Agricultural Impact of Regional Nuclear Conflict

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robock, Alan; Mills, Michael; Toon, Owen Brian; Xia, Lili

2013-04-01

A nuclear war between India and Pakistan, with each country using 50 Hiroshima-sized atom bombs as airbursts on urban areas, would inject smoke from the resulting fires into the stratosphere. This could produce climate change unprecedented in recorded human history and global-scale ozone depletion, with enhanced ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaching the surface. Simulations with the NCAR Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), run at higher vertical and horizontal resolution than a previous simulation with the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies ModelE, and incorporating ozone chemistry for the first time, show a longer stratospheric residence time for smoke and hence a longer-lasting climate response, with global average surface air temperatures still 1.1 K below normal and global average precipitation 4% below normal after a decade. The erythemal dose from the enhanced UV radiation would greatly increase, in spite of enhanced absorption by the remaining smoke, with the UV index more than 3 units higher in the summer midlatitudes, even after a decade. Scenarios of changes in temperature, precipitation, and downward shortwave radiation from the ModelE and WACCM simulations, applied to the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer crop model for winter wheat, rice, soybeans, and maize by perturbing observed time series with anomalies from the regional nuclear war simulations, produce decreases of 10-50% in yield averaged over a decade, with larger decreases in the first several years, over several regions in the midlatitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The impact of the nuclear war simulated here, using much less than 1% of the global nuclear arsenal, would be devastating to world agricultural production and trade, possibly sentencing a billion people now living marginal existences to starvation. The continued environmental threat of the use of even a small number of nuclear weapons must be considered in nuclear policy deliberations in Russia, the U.S., and the rest of the world

Root System Water Consumption Pattern Identification on Time Series Data

PubMed Central

Figueroa, Manuel; Pope, Christopher

2017-01-01

In agriculture, soil and meteorological sensors are used along low power networks to capture data, which allows for optimal resource usage and minimizing environmental impact. This study uses time series analysis methods for outliers’ detection and pattern recognition on soil moisture sensor data to identify irrigation and consumption patterns and to improve a soil moisture prediction and irrigation system. This study compares three new algorithms with the current detection technique in the project; the results greatly decrease the number of false positives detected. The best result is obtained by the Series Strings Comparison (SSC) algorithm averaging a precision of 0.872 on the testing sets, vastly improving the current system’s 0.348 precision. PMID:28621739

Root System Water Consumption Pattern Identification on Time Series Data.

PubMed

Figueroa, Manuel; Pope, Christopher

2017-06-16

In agriculture, soil and meteorological sensors are used along low power networks to capture data, which allows for optimal resource usage and minimizing environmental impact. This study uses time series analysis methods for outliers' detection and pattern recognition on soil moisture sensor data to identify irrigation and consumption patterns and to improve a soil moisture prediction and irrigation system. This study compares three new algorithms with the current detection technique in the project; the results greatly decrease the number of false positives detected. The best result is obtained by the Series Strings Comparison (SSC) algorithm averaging a precision of 0.872 on the testing sets, vastly improving the current system's 0.348 precision.

Application of solar energy; Proceedings of the Third Southeastern Conference, Huntsville, Ala., April 17-19, 1978

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wu, S. T. (Editor); Christensen, D. L.; Head, R. R.

1978-01-01

Demonstration projects, systems-subsystems simulation programs, applications (heating, cooling, agricultural, industrial), and climatic data testing (standards, economics, institutional) are the topics of the book. Economics of preheating water for commercial use and collecting, processing, and dissemination of data for the national demonstration program are discussed. Computer simulation of a solar energy system and graphical representation of solar collector performance are considered. Attention is given to solar driven heat pumps, solar cooling equipment, hybrid passive/active solar systems, and solar farm buildings. Evaluation of a thermographic scanning device for solar energy and conservation applications, use of meteorological data in system evaluation, and biomass conversion potential are presented.

AgRISTARS: Foreign commodity production forecasting. Minutes of the annual formal project manager's review, including preliminary technical review reports of FY80 experiments. [wheat/barley and corn/soybean experiments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1980-01-01

The U.S./Canada wheat/barley exploratory experiment is discussed with emphasis on labeling, machine processing using P1A, and the crop calendar. Classification and the simulated aggregation test used in the U.S. corn/soybean exploratory experiment are also considered. Topics covered regarding the foreign commodity production forecasting project include: (1) the acquisition, handling, and processing of both U.S. and foreign agricultural data, as well as meteorological data. The accuracy assessment methodology, multicrop sampling and aggregation technology development, frame development, the yield project interface, and classification for area estimation are also examined.

Probabilistic discrimination between liquid rainfall events, hailstorms, biomass burning and industrial fires from C-Band Radar Polarimetric Variables

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valencia, J. M.; Sepúlveda, J.; Hoyos, C.; Herrera, L.

2017-12-01

Characterization and identification of fire and hailstorm events using weather radar data in a tropical complex topography region is an important task in risk management and agriculture. Polarimetric variables from a C-Band Dual polarization weather radar have potential uses in particle classification, due to the relationship their sensitivity to shape, spatial orientation, size and fall behavior of particles. In this sense, three forest fires and two chemical fires were identified for the Áburra Valley regions. Measurements were compared between each fire event type and with typical data radar retrievals for liquid precipitation events. Results of this analysis show different probability density functions for each type of event according to the particles present in them. This is very important and useful result for early warning systems to avoid precipitation false alarms during fire events within the study region, as well as for the early detection of fires using radar retrievals in remote cases. The comparative methodology is extended to hailstorm cases. Complementary sensors like laser precipitation sensors (LPM) disdrometers and meteorological stations were used to select dates of solid precipitation occurrence. Then, in this dates weather radar data variables were taken in pixels surrounding the stations and solid precipitation polar values were statistically compared with liquid precipitation values. Spectrum precipitation measured by LPM disdrometer helps to define typical features like particles number, fall velocities and diameters for both precipitation types. In addition, to achieve a complete hailstorm characterization, other meteorological variables were analyzed: wind field from meteorological stations and radar wind profiler, profiling data from Micro Rain Radar (MRR), and thermodynamic data from a microwave radiometer.

Transport in a Trellised Agricultural Canopy: Turbulence and Particle Dispersion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, Nathan E.

Turbulent transport of momentum, scalars, and heavy particles within plant canopies is strongly impacted by the canopy's effect on the flow field in the canopy sub-layer (CSL). Although considerable research has been conducted on momentum and particle transport in and above dense homogeneous plant canopies, relatively little has been performed in perennial trellised canopies which have repetitive inhomogeneities at the scale of the canopy height. Particle transport in such canopies is of great interest due to the increasing use of training systems of this type by growers and due to the multitude of particle types regularly dispersed in these canopies, e.g., fungal spores and droplets sprayed by growers. The focus of this work is on the transport of momentum and fungal-spore-sized particles in a trellised vineyard canopy. Due to the discrete two-dimensional nature of the vineyard canopy, CSL flow characteristics differ from those seen in homogeneous canopies and change as a function of the above-canopy wind direction. To determine the specifics of how the trellised canopy geometry and local meteorological conditions combine to determine the characteristics of momentum and particle transport under all possible wind directions, multiple field campaigns were conducted in a vineyard in Oregon. During each of these campaigns, extensive meteorological data were collected while particles were released into the canopy and particle concentrations were sampled at downwind locations. The meteorological and plume data showed that the canopy exerted inhomogeneous nonisotropic drag, caused channeling of the flow along the aisles, and led to persistent coherent flow effects. The combination of these effects led to momentum statistics varying with wind direction, particle transport being biased to along the rows, and plume shapes being more complicated than those seen in homogeneous canopies or freestream flows.

Daily river flow prediction based on Two-Phase Constructive Fuzzy Systems Modeling: A case of hydrological - meteorological measurements asymmetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bou-Fakhreddine, Bassam; Mougharbel, Imad; Faye, Alain; Abou Chakra, Sara; Pollet, Yann

2018-03-01

Accurate daily river flow forecast is essential in many applications of water resources such as hydropower operation, agricultural planning and flood control. This paper presents a forecasting approach to deal with a newly addressed situation where hydrological data exist for a period longer than that of meteorological data (measurements asymmetry). In fact, one of the potential solutions to resolve measurements asymmetry issue is data re-sampling. It is a matter of either considering only the hydrological data or the balanced part of the hydro-meteorological data set during the forecasting process. However, the main disadvantage is that we may lose potentially relevant information from the left-out data. In this research, the key output is a Two-Phase Constructive Fuzzy inference hybrid model that is implemented over the non re-sampled data. The introduced modeling approach must be capable of exploiting the available data efficiently with higher prediction efficiency relative to Constructive Fuzzy model trained over re-sampled data set. The study was applied to Litani River in the Bekaa Valley - Lebanon by using 4 years of rainfall and 24 years of river flow daily measurements. A Constructive Fuzzy System Model (C-FSM) and a Two-Phase Constructive Fuzzy System Model (TPC-FSM) are trained. Upon validating, the second model has shown a primarily competitive performance and accuracy with the ability to preserve a higher day-to-day variability for 1, 3 and 6 days ahead. In fact, for the longest lead period, the C-FSM and TPC-FSM were able of explaining respectively 84.6% and 86.5% of the actual river flow variation. Overall, the results indicate that TPC-FSM model has provided a better tool to capture extreme flows in the process of streamflow prediction.

Ozone pollution in China: A review of concentrations, meteorological influences, chemical precursors, and effects.

PubMed

Wang, Tao; Xue, Likun; Brimblecombe, Peter; Lam, Yun Fat; Li, Li; Zhang, Li

2017-01-01

High concentrations of ozone in urban and industrial regions worldwide have long been a major air quality issue. With the rapid increase in fossil fuel consumption in China over the past three decades, the emission of chemical precursors to ozone-nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds-has increased sharply, surpassing that of North America and Europe and raising concerns about worsening ozone pollution in China. Historically, research and control have prioritized acid rain, particulate matter, and more recently fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ). In contrast, less is known about ozone pollution, partly due to a lack of monitoring of atmospheric ozone and its precursors until recently. This review summarizes the main findings from published papers on the characteristics and sources and processes of ozone and ozone precursors in the boundary layer of urban and rural areas of China, including concentration levels, seasonal variation, meteorology conducive to photochemistry and pollution transport, key production and loss processes, ozone dependence on nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, and the effects of ozone on crops and human health. Ozone concentrations exceeding the ambient air quality standard by 100-200% have been observed in China's major urban centers such as Jing-Jin-Ji, the Yangtze River delta, and the Pearl River delta, and limited studies suggest harmful effect of ozone on human health and agricultural corps; key chemical precursors and meteorological conditions conductive to ozone pollution have been investigated, and inter-city/region transport of ozone is significant. Several recommendations are given for future research and policy development on ground-level ozone. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Interannual variability of ammonia concentrations over the United States: sources and implications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schiferl, Luke D.; Heald, Colette L.; Van Damme, Martin; Clarisse, Lieven; Clerbaux, Cathy; Coheur, Pierre-François; Nowak, John B.; Neuman, J. Andrew; Herndon, Scott C.; Roscioli, Joseph R.; Eilerman, Scott J.

2016-09-01

The variability of atmospheric ammonia (NH3), emitted largely from agricultural sources, is an important factor when considering how inorganic fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations and nitrogen cycling are changing over the United States. This study combines new observations of ammonia concentration from the surface, aboard aircraft, and retrieved by satellite to both evaluate the simulation of ammonia in a chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) and identify which processes control the variability of these concentrations over a 5-year period (2008-2012). We find that the model generally underrepresents the ammonia concentration near large source regions (by 26 % at surface sites) and fails to reproduce the extent of interannual variability observed at the surface during the summer (JJA). Variability in the base simulation surface ammonia concentration is dominated by meteorology (64 %) as compared to reductions in SO2 and NOx emissions imposed by regulation (32 %) over this period. Introduction of year-to-year varying ammonia emissions based on animal population, fertilizer application, and meteorologically driven volatilization does not substantially improve the model comparison with observed ammonia concentrations, and these ammonia emissions changes have little effect on the simulated ammonia concentration variability compared to those caused by the variability of meteorology and acid-precursor emissions. There is also little effect on the PM2.5 concentration due to ammonia emissions variability in the summer when gas-phase changes are favored, but variability in wintertime emissions, as well as in early spring and late fall, will have a larger impact on PM2.5 formation. This work highlights the need for continued improvement in both satellite-based and in situ ammonia measurements to better constrain the magnitude and impacts of spatial and temporal variability in ammonia concentrations.

Using Wavelets and Information Theory to Characterize the Direction, Strength, and Time Scale of Interaction between Environmental Drivers and Greenhouse Gas Exchange in Managed Wetlands of Northern California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sturtevant, C. S.; Ruddell, B. L.; Knox, S. H.; Verfaillie, J. G.; Matthes, J. H.; Oikawa, P. Y.; Baldocchi, D. D.

2014-12-01

Restoring agricultural areas to wetlands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta of California can help reverse subsidence and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Predicting outcomes and developing best practices of wetland management therefore requires a robust understanding of the sensitivity of GHG exchange in these ecosystems to factors such as management and meteorology. However, wetlands can exhibit complex, overlapping, and asynchronous couplings between site characteristics, environmental drivers and GHG exchange. In this research we demonstrate the use of wavelets and information theory (process networks) as sophisticated tools to disentangle and characterize ecosystem couplings to CO2 and CH4 exchange (measured by eddy covariance) in two restored Delta wetlands. Using wavelets we isolated processes acting at different time scales, then used process networks to determine the direction, strength, and lag properties of ecosystem couplings. We found that despite differences in age, architecture and management, CO2 exchange at both wetlands was most sensitive to similar meteorological factors such as radiation and temperature up to a time scale of several days. At the monthly timescale, however, the effect of a more variable water table management in one wetland became dominant, revealing a reduction in net CO2 uptake during long term water table drawdowns. The analysis of CH4 exchange in this wetland revealed a more sensitive and complex coupling with water table. CH4 exchange was sensitive to relatively small, multi-day shifts in water table and displayed a lagged response to larger, longer shifts. With these methods we were able to disentangle the effects of management from meteorology and better understand the sensitivities of GHG exchange. Our results provide important insights for modeling efforts and management practices.

Effects of dynamic agricultural decision making in an ecohydrological model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reichenau, T. G.; Krimly, T.; Schneider, K.

2012-04-01

Due to various interdependencies between the cycles of water, carbon, nitrogen, and energy the impacts of climate change on ecohydrological systems can only be investigated in an integrative way. Furthermore, the human intervention in the environmental processes makes the system even more complex. On the one hand human impact affects natural systems. On the other hand the changing natural systems have a feedback on human decision making. One of the most important examples for this kind of interaction can be found in the agricultural sector. Management dates (planting, fertilization, harvesting) are chosen based on meteorological conditions and yield expectations. A faster development of crops under a warmer climate causes shorter cropping seasons. The choice of crops depends on their profitability, which is mainly determined by market prizes, the agro-political framework, and the (climate dependent) crop yield. This study investigates these relations for the district Günzburg located in the Upper Danube catchment in southern Germany. The modeling system DANUBIA was used to perform dynamically coupled simulations of plant growth, surface and soil hydrological processes, soil nitrogen transformations, and agricultural decision making. The agro-economic model simulates decisions on management dates (based on meteorological conditions and the crops' development state), on fertilization intensities (based on yield expectations), and on choice of crops (based on profitability). The environmental models included in DANUBIA are to a great extent process based to enable its use in a climate change scenario context. Scenario model runs until 2058 were performed using an IPCC A1B forcing. In consecutive runs, dynamic crop management, dynamic crop selection, and a changing agro-political framework were activated. Effects of these model features on hydrological and ecological variables were analyzed separately by comparing the results to a model run with constant crop distribution and constant management. Results show that the influence of the modeled dynamic management adaptation on variables like transpiration, carbon uptake, or nitrate leaching from the vadose zone is stronger than the influence of a dynamic choice of crops. Climate change was found to have a stronger impact on this modeled choice of crops than the agro-political framework. These results suggest that scenario studies in areas with a large share of arable land should take into account management adaptations to changing climate.

Building a statistical emulator for prediction of crop yield response to climate change: a global gridded panel data set approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mistry, Malcolm; De Cian, Enrica; Wing, Ian Sue

2015-04-01

There is widespread concern that trends and variability in weather induced by climate change will detrimentally affect global agricultural productivity and food supplies. Reliable quantification of the risks of negative impacts at regional and global scales is a critical research need, which has so far been met by forcing state-of-the-art global gridded crop models with outputs of global climate model (GCM) simulations in exercises such as the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP)-Fastrack. Notwithstanding such progress, it remains challenging to use these simulation-based projections to assess agricultural risk because their gridded fields of crop yields are fundamentally denominated as discrete combinations of warming scenarios, GCMs and crop models, and not as model-specific or model-averaged yield response functions of meteorological shifts, which may have their own independent probability of occurrence. By contrast, the empirical climate economics literature has adeptly represented agricultural responses to meteorological variables as reduced-form statistical response surfaces which identify the crop productivity impacts of additional exposure to different intervals of temperature and precipitation [cf Schlenker and Roberts, 2009]. This raises several important questions: (1) what do the equivalent reduced-form statistical response surfaces look like for crop model outputs, (2) do they exhibit systematic variation over space (e.g., crop suitability zones) or across crop models with different characteristics, (3) how do they compare to estimates based on historical observations, and (4) what are the implications for the characterization of climate risks? We address these questions by estimating statistical yield response functions for four major crops (maize, rice, wheat and soybeans) over the historical period (1971-2004) as well as future climate change scenarios (2005-2099) using ISIMIP-Fastrack data for five GCMs and seven crop models under rain-fed and irrigated management regimes. Our approach, which is patterned after Lobell and Burke [2010], is a novel application of cross-section/time-series statistical techniques from the climate economics literature to large, high-dimension, multi-model datasets, and holds considerable promise as a diagnostic methodology to elucidate uncertainties in the processes simulated by crop models, and to support the development of climate impact intercomparison exercises.

[Climatic suitability of spring maize planted in the "sickle bend" area of China and regulation suggestion].

PubMed

Mao, Liu Xi; Zhao, Jun Fang; Xu, Ling Ling; Yan, Hao; Li, Sen; Li, Ya Fei

2016-12-01

The "sickle bend" area is a typical dry farming and excellent livestock development area, with fragile ecological environment. It includes 13 provinces (autonomous regions) in the north and the southwest of China. The climate suitability and the climatic potential productivity of spring maize from 1981 to 2010 in this area were quantitatively assessed. The daily data from 650 meteorological stations and grid data (1 km×1 km) in the "sickle bend" area from 1981 to 2010, and recognized indicators of agricultural meteorology were used in this study. The agro-ecological zoning mo-del (AEZ) which was currently very popular in estimating crop climatic potential productivity internationally was also applied, as well as land use classification information monitoring from satellite remote sensing. Then, based on biological characteristics of spring maize and agricultural climate resources, scientific countermeasures on reasonably adjusting agricultural production structure in subsuitable and unsuitable areas were proposed. The results showed that: 1) the climatic potential productivity of spring maize in the northern growing areas showed the "big-medium-smaller-small" distribution pattern from the east to the west from 1981 to 2010. However, the climatic potential productivity of spring maize in the southern growing areas had no significant distribution law, fluctuating between "smaller" and " medium " in general. 2) It presented the "most suitable-suitable-subsuitable-unsuitable" distribution pattern from the southeast to the northwest in the northern maize growing region of the "sickle bend" area on the whole from 1981 to 2010. In contrast, the southern planting area showed the "unsuitable-subsuitable-suitable-most suitable" distribution pattern from the southeast to the northwest. The most suitable and suitable planting areas of spring maize were mainly located in the most areas of Northeast China and North China, and the southeastern areas of Northwest China. The subsuitable or unsuitable regions mainly included Inner Mongolia, northern Xinjiang, western Gansu and Guangxi. 3) The most suitable planting area of spring maize was the largest (47%), followed by subsuitable area (23%), unsuitable area (17%) and suitable area (13%). 4) According to the analysis of climatic conditions, we proposed to mainly decrease the spring maize planting in the subsuitable and unsuitable areas. These subsuitable and unsuitable regions were low climatic potential productivity areas, including the arid windstorm region of Northwest, the cold area of Northeast, agro-pastoral area and the rocky desertification region of Southwest.

The electronic Rothamsted Archive (e-RA), an online resource for data from the Rothamsted long-term experiments.

PubMed

Perryman, Sarah A M; Castells-Brooke, Nathalie I D; Glendining, Margaret J; Goulding, Keith W T; Hawkesford, Malcolm J; Macdonald, Andy J; Ostler, Richard J; Poulton, Paul R; Rawlings, Christopher J; Scott, Tony; Verrier, Paul J

2018-05-15

The electronic Rothamsted Archive, e-RA (www.era.rothamsted.ac.uk) provides a permanent managed database to both securely store and disseminate data from Rothamsted Research's long-term field experiments (since 1843) and meteorological stations (since 1853). Both historical and contemporary data are made available via this online database which provides the scientific community with access to a unique continuous record of agricultural experiments and weather measured since the mid-19 th century. Qualitative information, such as treatment and management practices, plans and soil information, accompanies the data and are made available on the e-RA website. e-RA was released externally to the wider scientific community in 2013 and this paper describes its development, content, curation and the access process for data users. Case studies illustrate the diverse applications of the data, including its original intended purposes and recent unforeseen applications. Usage monitoring demonstrates the data are of increasing interest. Future developments, including adopting FAIR data principles, are proposed as the resource is increasingly recognised as a unique archive of data relevant to sustainable agriculture, agroecology and the environment.

Meteorological risks are drivers of environmental innovation in agro-ecosystem management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gobin, Anne; Van de Vyver, Hans; Vanwindekens, Frédéric; Planchon, Viviane; Verspecht, Ann; Frutos de Cachorro, Julia; Buysse, Jeroen

2016-04-01

Extreme weather events such as droughts, heat waves and rain storms are projected to increase both in frequency and magnitude with climate change. The research hypothesis of the MERINOVA project is that meteorological risks act as drivers of environmental innovation in agro-ecosystem management which is being tested using a chain of risk approach. The project comprises of five major parts that reflect the chain of risks: the hazard, its impact on different agro-ecosystems, vulnerability, risk management and risk communication. Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) theory was used to model annual maxima of meteorological variables based on a location-, scale- and shape-parameter that determine the center of the distribution, the deviation of the location-parameter and the upper tail decay, respectively. Spatial interpolation of GEV-derived return levels has yielded maps of temperature extremes, precipitation deficits and wet periods. The degree of temporal overlap between extreme weather conditions and sensitive periods in the agro-ecosystem was determined using a bio-physically based modelling framework that couples phenological models, a soil water balance, crop growth and environmental models. 20-year return values for frost, heat stress, drought, waterlogging and field access during different crop stages were related to arable yields. The spatial extent of vulnerability is developed on different layers of spatial information that include inter alia meteorology, soil-landscapes, crop cover and management. The level of vulnerability and resilience of an agro-ecosystem is also determined by risk management. The types of agricultural risk and their relative importance differ across sectors and farm types as elucidated by questionnaires and focus groups. Risk types are distinguished according to production, market, institutional, financial and liability risks. A portfolio of potential strategies was identified at farm, market and policy level. In conclusion, MERINOVA provides for a robust and flexible framework by demonstrating its performance across Belgian agro-ecosystems, and by ensuring its relevance to policy makers and practitioners. A strong expert and end-user network is established to help disseminate and exploit project results to meet user needs.

The impact of climate change on the drought variability over Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kirono, D. G. C.; Hennessy, K.; Mpelasoka, F.; Bathols, J.; Kent, D.

2009-04-01

Drought has significant environmental and socio-economic impacts in Australia. Government assistance for drought events is guided by the current National Drought Policy (NDP). The Commonwealth Government provides support to farmers and rural communities under the Exceptional Circumstances (EC) arrangements and other drought programs, while state and territory governments also participate in the NDP and provide support measures of their own. To be classified as an EC event, the event must be rare, that is must not have occurred more than once on average in every 20-25 years. Given the likely increase in the area of the world affected by droughts in future due to climate change (IPCC, 2007), this paper presents assessments on how climate change may affect the concept of a one in 20-25 year event into the future for Australia. As droughts can be experienced and defined in different ways, many drought indices are available to monitor and to assess drought conditions. Commonly, these indices are categorised into four types: meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, and socio-economic. The meteorological drought indices are more widely used because they require data that are readily available and that they are relatively easy to calculate. However, meteorological drought indices based on rainfall alone fail to include the important contribution of evaporation. Here, the assessment is made using outputs of 13 global climate models (GCMs) and a meteorological drought index called the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI). It incorporates the aggregated deficits between the rainfall and the evaporative demand of the atmosphere. If the RDI were the sole trigger for EC declarations, then the mean projections indicate that more declarations would be likely in the future. As a comparison, results from an assessment based on other measures (temperature, rainfall, and soil wetness) will also be presented. IPCC, 2007: Climate Change 2007 - The physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds. Solomon, S. et al.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, www.ipcc.ch

Implications of the 2015 European drought on groundwater storage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rangecroft, S.; Van Loon, A.; Kumar, R.; Mishra, V.

2016-12-01

In 2015 central and eastern Europe were affected by severe drought. Impacts of the drought were felt across many sectors, incl. agriculture, drinking water supply, electricity production, navigation, fisheries, and recreation. This drought event has recently been studied from meteorological and streamflow perspective, but no analysis of the groundwater (GW) drought has been performed. This is not surprising because real-time GW level observations often are not available. In this study we use previously established spatially-explicit relationships between meteorological drought and GW drought to quantify the 2015 GW drought over two regions in southern Germany and eastern Netherlands. We use the monthly GW observations from 2040 wells to establish the spatially varying optimal accumulation period between the Standardized Groundwater Index (SGI) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) at a 0.250 gridded scale. The resulting optimal accumulation periods range between 1 and more than 24 months, indicating strong spatial differences in GW response time to meteorological input over the region. Based on these optimal accumulation periods, we found that in Germany a uniform severe GW drought persisted for several months (i.e. SGI below the drought threshold of 20th percentile for almost all grid cells in August, September and October 2015), whereas the Netherlands appeared to had relatively high GW levels (never below the drought threshold of 20th percentile). The differences between this event and the European 2003 benchmark drought are striking. The 2003 GW drought was less uniformly pronounced, both in the Netherlands and Germany, with the regional averaged SGI above the 50th percentile. This is because slowly responding wells still were above average from the wet year of 2002-2003, which experienced severe flooding in central Europe. Our study shows that the relationship between meteorological drought and GW drought can be used to quantify GW drought and that the 2015 GW drought in southern Germany was more severe than the 2003 drought, because of preconditions in slowly responding GW wells. For sustainable GW drought management strategies the use of GW level monitoring is needed to study the spatial variability of local GW drought, which mostly coincides with drought impacts.

DRIHM: Distributed Research Infrastructure for Hydro-Meteorology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parodi, A.; Rebora, N.; Kranzlmueller, D.; Schiffers, M.; Clematis, A.; Tafferner, A.; Garrote, L. M.; Llasat Botija, M.; Caumont, O.; Richard, E.; Cros, P.; Dimitrijevic, V.; Jagers, B.; Harpham, Q.; Hooper, R. P.

2012-12-01

Hydro-Meteorology Research (HMR) is an area of critical scientific importance and of high societal relevance. It plays a key role in guiding predictions relevant to the safety and prosperity of humans and ecosystems from highly urbanized areas, to coastal zones, and to agricultural landscapes. Of special interest and urgency within HMR is the problem of understanding and predicting the impacts of severe hydro-meteorological events, such as flash-floods and landslides in complex orography areas, on humans and the environment, under the incoming climate change effects. At the heart of this challenge lies the ability to have easy access to hydrometeorological data and models, and facilitate the collaboration between meteorologists, hydrologists, and Earth science experts for accelerated scientific advances in this field. To face these problems the DRIHM (Distributed Research Infrastructure for Hydro-Meteorology) project is developing a prototype e-Science environment to facilitate this collaboration and provide end-to-end HMR services (models, datasets and post-processing tools) at the European level, with the ability to expand to global scale (e.g. cooperation with Earth Cube related initiatives). The objectives of DRIHM are to lead the definition of a common long-term strategy, to foster the development of new HMR models and observational archives for the study of severe hydrometeorological events, to promote the execution and analysis of high-end simulations, and to support the dissemination of predictive models as decision analysis tools. DRIHM combines the European expertise in HMR, in Grid and High Performance Computing (HPC). Joint research activities will improve the efficient use of the European e-Infrastructures, notably Grid and HPC, for HMR modelling and observational databases, model evaluation tool sets and access to HMR model results. Networking activities will disseminate DRIHM results at the European and global levels in order to increase the cohesion of European and possibly worldwide HMR communities and increase the awareness of ICT potential for HMR. Service activities will deploy the end-to-end DRIHM services and tools in support of HMR networks and virtual organizations on top of the existing European e-Infrastructures.

Synthetic drought event sets: thousands of meteorological drought events for risk-based management under present and future conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guillod, Benoit P.; Massey, Neil; Otto, Friederike E. L.; Allen, Myles R.; Jones, Richard; Hall, Jim W.

2016-04-01

Droughts and related water scarcity can have large impacts on societies and consist of interactions between a number of natural and human factors. Meteorological conditions are usually the first natural trigger of droughts, and climate change is expected to impact these and thereby the frequency and intensity of the events. However, extreme events such as droughts are, by definition, rare, and accurately quantifying the risk related to such events is therefore difficult. The MaRIUS project (Managing the Risks, Impacts and Uncertainties of drought and water Scarcity) aims at quantifying the risks associated with droughts in the UK under present and future conditions. To do so, a large number of drought events, from climate model simulations downscaled at 25km over Europe, are being fed into hydrological models of various complexity and used for the estimation of drought risk associated with human and natural systems, including impacts on the economy, industry, agriculture, terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and socio-cultural aspects. Here, we present the hydro-meteorological drought event set that has been produced by weather@home [1] for MaRIUS. Using idle processor time on volunteers' computers around the world, we have run a very large number (10'000s) of Global Climate Model (GCM) simulations, downscaled at 25km over Europe by a nested Regional Climate Model (RCM). Simulations include the past 100 years as well as two future horizons (2030s and 2080s), and provide a large number of sequences of spatio-temporally consistent weather, which are consistent with the boundary forcing such as the ocean, greenhouse gases and solar forcing. The drought event set for use in impact studies is constructed by extracting sequences of dry conditions from these model runs, leading to several thousand drought events. In addition to describing methodological and validation aspects of the synthetic drought event sets, we provide insights into drought risk in the UK, its meteorological drivers, and how it can be expected to change in the future. Finally, we assess the applicability of this methodology to other regions. [1] Massey, N. et al., 2014, Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc.

Assessment of climate change impacts on meteorological and hydrological droughts in the Jucar River Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marcos-Garcia, Patricia; Pulido-Velazquez, Manuel; Lopez-Nicolas, Antonio

2016-04-01

Extreme natural phenomena, and more specifically droughts, constitute a serious environmental, economic and social issue in Southern Mediterranean countries, common in the Mediterranean Spanish basins due to the high temporal and spatial rainfall variability. Drought events are characterized by their complexity, being often difficult to identify and quantify both in time and space, and an universally accepted definition does not even exist. This fact, along with future uncertainty about the duration and intensity of the phenomena on account of climate change, makes necessary increasing the knowledge about the impacts of climate change on droughts in order to design management plans and mitigation strategies. The present abstract aims to evaluate the impact of climate change on both meteorological and hydrological droughts, through the use of a generalization of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). We use the Standardized Flow Index (SFI) to assess the hydrological drought, using flow time series instead of rainfall time series. In the case of the meteorological droughts, the Standardized Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) has been applied to assess the variability of temperature impacts. In order to characterize climate change impacts on droughts, we have used projections from the CORDEX project (Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment). Future rainfall and temperature time series for short (2011-2040) and medium terms (2041-2070) were obtained, applying a quantile mapping method to correct the bias of these time series. Regarding the hydrological drought, the Témez hydrological model has been applied to simulate the impacts of future temperature and rainfall time series on runoff and river discharges. It is a conceptual, lumped and a few parameters hydrological model. Nevertheless, it is necessary to point out the time difference between the meteorological and the hydrological droughts. The case study is the Jucar river basin (Spain), a highly regulated system with a share of 80% of water use for irrigated agriculture. The results show that the climate change would increase the historical drought impacts in the river basin. Acknowledgments The study has been supported by the IMPADAPT project (CGL2013-48424-C2-1-R) with Spanish MINECO (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad) and European FEDER funds.

A 60-year reconstructed high-resolution local meteorological data set in Central Sahel (1950-2009): evaluation, analysis and application to land surface modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leauthaud, Crystele; Cappelaere, Bernard; Demarty, Jérôme; Guichard, Françoise; Velluet, Cécile; Kergoat, Laurent; Vischel, Théo; Grippa, Manuela; Mouhaimouni, Mohammed; Bouzou Moussa, Ibrahim; Mainassara, Ibrahim; Sultan, Benjamin

2017-04-01

The Sahel has experienced strong climate variability in the past decades. Understanding its implications for natural and cultivated ecosystems is pivotal in a context of high population growth and mainly agriculture-based livelihoods. However, efforts to model processes at the land-atmosphere interface are hindered, particularly when the multi-decadal timescale is targeted, as climatic data are scarce, largely incomplete and often unreliable. This study presents the generation of a long-term, high-temporal resolution, multivariate local climatic data set for Niamey, Central Sahel. The continuous series spans the period 1950-2009 at a 30-min timescale and includes ground station-based meteorological variables (precipitation, air temperature, relative and specific humidity, air pressure, wind speed, downwelling long- and short-wave radiation) as well as process-modelled surface fluxes (upwelling long- and short-wave radiation,latent, sensible and soil heat fluxes and surface temperature). A combination of complementary techniques (linear/spline regressions, a multivariate analogue method, artificial neural networks and recursive gap filling) was used to reconstruct missing meteorological data. The complete surface energy budget was then obtained for two dominant land cover types, fallow bush and millet, by applying the meteorological forcing data set to a finely field-calibrated land surface model. Uncertainty in reconstructed data was expressed by means of a stochastic ensemble of plausible historical time series. Climatological statistics were computed at sub-daily to decadal timescales and compared with local, regional and global data sets such as CRU and ERA-Interim. The reconstructed precipitation statistics, ˜1°C increase in mean annual temperature from 1950 to 2009, and mean diurnal and annual cycles for all variables were in good agreement with previous studies. The new data set, denoted NAD (Niamey Airport-derived set) and publicly available, can be used to investigate the water and energy cycles in Central Sahel, while the methodology can be applied to reconstruct series at other stations. The study has been published in Int. J. Climatol. (2016), DOI: 10.1002/joc.4874

Security culture for nuclear facilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gupta, Deeksha; Bajramovic, Edita

2017-01-01

Natural radioactive elements are part of our environment and radioactivity is a natural phenomenon. There are numerous beneficial applications of radioactive elements (radioisotopes) and radiation, starting from power generation to usages in medical, industrial and agriculture applications. But the risk of radiation exposure is always attached to operational workers, the public and the environment. Hence, this risk has to be assessed and controlled. The main goal of safety and security measures is to protect human life, health, and the environment. Currently, nuclear security considerations became essential along with nuclear safety as nuclear facilities are facing rapidly increase in cybersecurity risks. Therefore, prevention and adequate protection of nuclear facilities from cyberattacks is the major task. Historically, nuclear safety is well defined by IAEA guidelines while nuclear security is just gradually being addressed by some new guidance, especially the IAEA Nuclear Security Series (NSS), IEC 62645 and some national regulations. At the overall level, IAEA NSS 7 describes nuclear security as deterrence and detection of, and response to, theft, sabotage, unauthorized access, illegal transfer or other malicious acts involving nuclear, other radioactive substances and their associated facilities. Nuclear security should be included throughout nuclear facilities. Proper implementation of a nuclear security culture leads to staff vigilance and a high level of security posture. Nuclear security also depends on policy makers, regulators, managers, individual employees and members of public. Therefore, proper education and security awareness are essential in keeping nuclear facilities safe and secure.

44 CFR 353.3 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... has applied for or has received a license from the NRC to operate a commercial nuclear power plant. (f... Agency, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture... Human Services, Department of Interior, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, United...

Science Serves Society.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sneed, G. C.

This book discusses how some of the topics taught in a conventional physics course have been used to solve interesting technical problems in industry, medicine, agriculture, transportation, and other areas of society. The topics include heat, optics, magnetism and electricity, nuclear physics, and sound. (MLH)

North Korea nuclear test analysis results using KMA seismic and infrasound networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeon, Y. S.; Park, E.; Lee, D.; Min, K.; CHO, S.

2017-12-01

Democratic People's Republic of Korea(DPRK) carried out 6th nuclear test on 3 Sep. 2017 at 03:30 UTC. Seismic and infrasound network operated by Korea Meteorological Administration(KMA) successfully detected signals took place in the DPRK's test site, Punggye-ri. First, we checked that Pg/Lg spectral amplitude ratio greater than 1 in the frequency range from 1.0 to 10.0 Hz is useful to discriminate between DPRK test signals and natural earthquakes. KMA's infrasound stations of Cheorwon(CW) and Yanggu(YG) successfully monitored the azimuth direction of the arrival of the infrasound signals generated from DPRK underground nuclear explosions, including the recent test on September 03, 2017. The azimuthal direction of 210(CW) and 130 (YG) point out Punggye-ri test site. Complete waveforms at stations MDJ, CHC2, YNCB in long period(0.05 to 0.1 HZ) are jointly inverted with local P-wave polarities to generate moment tensor inversion result of the explosive moment 1.20e+24 dyne cm(Mw 5.31) and 65% of ISO. The moment magnitude of 5th, 4th and 3rd are 4.61, 4.69 and 4.46 respectively. Source type moment tensor inversion result of DPRK nuclear tests show that the event is significantly away from the deviatoric line of the Hudson et at. (1989) source-type diagram and identifies as having a significant explosive component. Analysis results using seismic and infrasound network verify that the DPRK's explosion tests classified as nuclear test.

Design of a monitoring network over France in case of a radiological accidental release

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abida, Rachid; Bocquet, Marc; Vercauteren, Nikki; Isnard, Olivier

The Institute of Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (France) is planning the set-up of an automatic nuclear aerosol monitoring network over the French territory. Each of the stations will be able to automatically sample the air aerosol content and provide activity concentration measurements on several radionuclides. This should help monitor the French and neighbouring countries nuclear power plants set. It would help evaluate the impact of a radiological incident occurring at one of these nuclear facilities. This paper is devoted to the spatial design of such a network. Here, any potential network is judged on its ability to extrapolate activity concentrations measured on the network stations over the whole domain. The performance of a network is quantitatively assessed through a cost function that measures the discrepancy between the extrapolation and the true concentration fields. These true fields are obtained through the computation of a database of dispersion accidents over one year of meteorology and originating from 20 French nuclear sites. A close to optimal network is then looked for using a simulated annealing optimisation. The results emphasise the importance of the cost function in the design of a network aimed at monitoring an accidental dispersion. Several choices of norm used in the cost function are studied and give way to different designs. The influence of the number of stations is discussed. A comparison with a purely geometric approach which does not involve simulations with a chemistry-transport model is performed.

Improved agriculture and forest management in Africa through the AGRICAB project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bydekerke, L.; Tote, C.; Jacobs, T.; Gilliams, S.

2012-04-01

Agriculture and forestry are key economic sectors in many African countries. A sound management of these resources, in order to ensure stable food supply, is key for development. In many countries in Africa both forest and agricultural resources are under stress due to, among others, a growing population, land reforms, climate variability and change. Sound information is required to efficiently manage these resources. Remote sensing contributes significantly to these information needs and for this reason more and more institutes and agencies integrate this technology into their daily work. In this context, there is a growing need for enhancing remote sensing capacity in Africa and for this reason the European Commission launched the AGRICAB Project, funded by the FP7 Programme. The main focus of AGRICAB 'A Framework for enhancing earth observation capacity for agriculture and forest management in Africa as a contribution to GEOSS', is to link European and African research capacity in the use of earth observation technology for agriculture and forestry. The project consortium consists of 17 partners located in 12 different countries (5 in Europe, 10 in Africa and 1 in South America) and has three main components. Firstly, AGRICAB aims to ensure satellite data access, partly through GEONETCast. Secondly, AGRICAB will enhance research capacity through partnerships between African and European institutes in the following thematic areas (a) yield forecasting, (b) early warning and agricultural mapping of food crops, (c) agricultural statistics, (d) livestock and rangeland monitoring, and (e) forest and forest fire monitoring. Thirdly, a significant part is dedicated to training and building awareness concerning the advantage and benefits of the use of remote sensing in forest and agricultural management. AGRICAB intends to allow African partners: (i) to get exposed to state-of-the art techniques and models for agricultural and forest monitoring, (ii) to discover these techniques and models through workshops and dedicated training, (iii) to gain experience in the application of these techniques and models on the local conditions in various use cases, and finally, (iv) to adapt appropriate models for integration in the local operational workflows. Through use cases, located in Northern Africa, Senegal, Kenya, Mozambique and South-Africa, methodologies will be adapted to local conditions and demonstrated in different agro-meteorological conditions.

Study on the impact of air quality in agricultural and health sectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chairani, S.

2018-03-01

This study focused on the impact of air quality in agricultural and health sectors. The impact of CO2 on the agricultural crops was conducted by using literature review and the impact of air quality was conducted using secondary data to calculate the Air Quality Index (AQI), derived from some monitoring stations available in Indonesia. Numerous studies showed that the elevated CO2 decreased the agricultural productivity. Maize yields decreased by 15 % in areas which used irrigation system and 8 % in areas which used rainfed. Maize yields had already experienced severe losses without increasing CO2 concentrations. It decreased by 21 % for irrigated maize and 26 % by rainfed maize. In addition, it turned out that other elevated pollutants, such as SO2, NO2, SPM, O3, CH4, PM2.5, PM10 and TSP also occurred in the atmosphere. These pollutants’ effects might harm human being in term of health concern. The USEPA had developed a tool, called the Air Quality Index (AQI) calculator to calculate the pollutants’ concentrations in a daily basis. This tool’s function to inform how clean or polluted the air that we breathed was with the health effects based on the concentrations of each pollutant. The AQI also provided the information on sensitive groups, health effects and cautionary statements. Based on the air daily data which derived from Board of Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) of Indonesia, the AQI in Indonesia varied from good, moderate to unhealthy categories; with level of health concern was respiratory diseases, such as asthma.

Effects of surface coal mining and reclamation on the geohydrology of six small watersheds in west-central Indiana

USGS Publications Warehouse

Martin, Jeffrey D.; Duwelius, Richard F.; Crawford, Charles G.

1987-01-01

The watersheds studied include mined and reclaimed; mined and unreclaimed; and unmined, agricultural land uses, and are each < 3 sq mi in area. Surface water, groundwater, and meteorologic data for the 1981 and 1982 water years were used to describe and compare hydrologic systems of the six watersheds and to identify hydrologic effects of mining and reclamation. Peak discharges were greater at the agricultural watersheds than at the unreclaimed watersheds, primarily because of large final-cut lakes in the unreclaimed watersheds. Annual runoff was greatest at the unreclaimed watersheds, intermediate at the agricultural watersheds, and least at the reclaimed watersheds. Hydrologic effects of mining were identified by comparing the hydrologic systems at mined and unreclaimed watersheds with those at unmined, agricultural watersheds. Comparisons of the hydrologic systems of these watersheds indicate that surface coal mining without reclamation has the potential to increase annual runoff, base flow, and groundwater recharge to the bedrock; reduce peak flow rates and variation in flow; lower the water table in upland areas; change the relation between surface water and groundwater divides; and create numerous, local flow systems in the shallow groundwater. Hydrologic effects of reclamation were identified by comparing the hydrologic systems at mined and reclaimed watersheds with those at mined and unreclaimed watersheds. Reclamation has the potential to decrease annual runoff, base flow, and recharge to the bedrock; increase peak flow rates, variation in flow, and response to thunderstorms; reestablish the premining relation between surface and groundwater divides; and create fewer local flow systems in the shallow groundwater. (Lantz-PTT)

Cytokinesis-block micronucleus cytome assay parameters in peripheral blood lymphocytes of the general population: Contribution of age, sex, seasonal variations and lifestyle factors.

PubMed

Gajski, Goran; Gerić, Marko; Oreščanin, Višnja; Garaj-Vrhovac, Vera

2018-02-01

The cytokinesis-block micronucleus cytome (CBMN Cyt) assay was used to evaluate the baseline frequency of cytogenetic damage in peripheral blood lymphocytes of the general population (average age, 38.28 ± 12.83 years) in relation to age, sex, body mass index, seasonal variations (season of sampling, period of sampling and different meteorological parameters) and lifestyle factors (smoking habit, alcohol consumption, exposure to medications and diagnostic radiation, physical activity, and family history of cancer). The background frequency of micronuclei (MNi) for the 200 subjects assayed was 5.06 ± 3.11 per 1000 binucleated cells, while the mean frequency of nucleoplasmic bridges (NPBs) was 1.21 ± 1.46 and of nuclear buds (NBUDs) 3.48 ± 2.14. The background frequency of apoptosis and necrosis was 1.58 ± 1.50 and 1.39 ± 1.56, respectively, while the mean nuclear division index (NDI) was 1.99 ± 0.14. The cut-off value, which corresponds to the 95th percentile of the distribution of 200 individual values, was 11 MNi, 4 NPBs and 7 NBUDs. The study also confirmed an association of the above mentioned parameters with age, sex and several lifestyle factors. Moreover, significant confounders based on our results are also sampling season, sampling period and different meteorological parameters that were dependent on the CBMN Cyt assay parameters. In line with the above mentioned, several factors should be taken into account when it comes to the monitoring of exposed populations using cytogenetic biomarkers. Moreover, the normal and cut-off values obtained in this study present background data for the general population, and can later serve as baseline values for further biomonitoring studies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Atmospheric emissions from the Windscale accident of October 1957

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garland, J. A.; Wakeford, R.

Although it occurred nearly 50 years ago, the nuclear reactor fire of October 1957 at Windscale Works, Sellafield, England, continues to attract interest. Several attempts have been made to quantify the releases of radionuclides and their radiological consequences, but additional information and a re-analysis of meteorological data encourage a further examination of emissions. The limited instrumentation of the reactor provided little relevant information and, as in previous estimates, the discharges are deduced from environmental evidence, but here the recent meteorological analysis is used. The interpretation of the meteorological and environmental evidence requires both timing and quantity of the emitted radionuclides to be considered together. Significant fission product emission continued from about 15:00 or 16:00 on 10 October 1957 until noon the following day. There were two main peaks in discharge rate, during the evening and early hours and from roughly 06:00 until 10:30, and the amounts emitted during each of these periods were probably comparable. Iodine-131 ( 131I), caesium-137 ( 137Cs) and polonium-210 ( 210Po) activities dominated the radioactive emissions and there is sufficient environmental evidence for releases of these radionuclides to be estimated within a factor of about two. (Some additional 131I may have escaped in a chemical form that was not included in the estimate, but it appears likely that the fraction was small.) There is evidence that the plume extended further east than accepted in previous assessments and the estimates of quantities emitted have been increased to allow for this. For other radionuclides the environmental measurements were fewer and the uncertainties are greater.

The Fourier analysis applied to the relationship between (7)Be activity in the Serbian atmosphere and meteorological parameters.

PubMed

Rajačić, M M; Todorović, D J; Krneta Nikolić, J D; Janković, M M; Djurdjević, V S

2016-09-01

Air sample monitoring in Serbia, Belgrade started in the 1960s, while (7)Be activity in air and total (dry and wet) deposition has been monitored for the last 22 years by the Environment and Radiation Protection Department of the Institute for Nuclear Sciences, Vinca. Using this data collection, the changes of the (7)Be activity in the air and the total (wet and dry) deposition samples, as well as their correlation with meteorological parameters (temperature, pressure, cloudiness, sunshine duration, precipitation and humidity) that affect (7)Be concentration in the atmosphere, were mathematically described using the Fourier analysis. Fourier analysis confirmed the expected; the frequency with the largest intensity in the harmonic spectra of the (7)Be activity corresponds to a period of 1 year, the same as the largest intensity frequency in Fourier series of meteorological parameters. To analyze the quality of the results produced by the Fourier analysis, we compared the measured values of the parameters with the values calculated according to the Fourier series. Absolute deviations between measured and predicted mean monthly values are in range from 0.02 mBq/m(3) to 0.7 mBq/m(3) for (7)Be activity in air, and 0.01 Bq/m(2) and 0.6 Bq/m(2) for (7)Be activity in deposition samples. Relatively good agreement of measured and predicted results offers the possibility of prediction of the (7)Be activity. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An assessment of a North American Multi-Model Ensemble (NMME) based global drought early warning forecast system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wood, E. F.; Yuan, X.; Sheffield, J.; Pan, M.; Roundy, J.

2013-12-01

One of the key recommendations of the WCRP Global Drought Information System (GDIS) workshop is to develop an experimental real-time global monitoring and prediction system. While great advances has been made in global drought monitoring based on satellite observations and model reanalysis data, global drought forecasting has been stranded in part due to the limited skill both in climate forecast models and global hydrologic predictions. Having been working on drought monitoring and forecasting over USA for more than a decade, the Princeton land surface hydrology group is now developing an experimental global drought early warning system that is based on multiple climate forecast models and a calibrated global hydrologic model. In this presentation, we will test its capability in seasonal forecasting of meteorological, agricultural and hydrologic droughts over global major river basins, using precipitation, soil moisture and streamflow forecasts respectively. Based on the joint probability distribution between observations using Princeton's global drought monitoring system and model hindcasts and real-time forecasts from North American Multi-Model Ensemble (NMME) project, we (i) bias correct the monthly precipitation and temperature forecasts from multiple climate forecast models, (ii) downscale them to a daily time scale, and (iii) use them to drive the calibrated VIC model to produce global drought forecasts at a 1-degree resolution. A parallel run using the ESP forecast method, which is based on resampling historical forcings, is also carried out for comparison. Analysis is being conducted over global major river basins, with multiple drought indices that have different time scales and characteristics. The meteorological drought forecast does not have uncertainty from hydrologic models and can be validated directly against observations - making the validation an 'apples-to-apples' comparison. Preliminary results for the evaluation of meteorological drought onset hindcasts indicate that climate models increase drought detectability over ESP by 31%-81%. However, less than 30% of the global drought onsets can be detected by climate models. The missed drought events are associated with weak ENSO signals and lower potential predictability. Due to the high false alarms from climate models, the reliability is more important than sharpness for a skillful probabilistic drought onset forecast. Validations and skill assessments for agricultural and hydrologic drought forecasts are carried out using soil moisture and streamflow output from the VIC land surface model (LSM) forced by a global forcing data set. Given our previous drought forecasting experiences over USA and Africa, validating the hydrologic drought forecasting is a significant challenge for a global drought early warning system.

Identification and simulation of space-time variability of past hydrological drought events in the Limpopo River basin, southern Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trambauer, P.; Maskey, S.; Werner, M.; Pappenberger, F.; van Beek, L. P. H.; Uhlenbrook, S.

2014-08-01

Droughts are widespread natural hazards and in many regions their frequency seems to be increasing. A finer-resolution version (0.05° × 0.05°) of the continental-scale hydrological model PCRaster Global Water Balance (PCR-GLOBWB) was set up for the Limpopo River basin, one of the most water-stressed basins on the African continent. An irrigation module was included to account for large irrigated areas of the basin. The finer resolution model was used to analyse hydrological droughts in the Limpopo River basin in the period 1979-2010 with a view to identifying severe droughts that have occurred in the basin. Evaporation, soil moisture, groundwater storage and runoff estimates from the model were derived at a spatial resolution of 0.05° (approximately 5 km) on a daily timescale for the entire basin. PCR-GLOBWB was forced with daily precipitation and temperature obtained from the ERA-Interim global atmospheric reanalysis product from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Two agricultural drought indicators were computed: the Evapotranspiration Deficit Index (ETDI) and the Root Stress Anomaly Index (RSAI). Hydrological drought was characterised using the Standardized Runoff Index (SRI) and the Groundwater Resource Index (GRI), which make use of the streamflow and groundwater storage resulting from the model. Other more widely used meteorological drought indicators, such as the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation Evaporation Index (SPEI), were also computed for different aggregation periods. Results show that a carefully set-up, process-based model that makes use of the best available input data can identify hydrological droughts even if the model is largely uncalibrated. The indicators considered are able to represent the most severe droughts in the basin and to some extent identify the spatial variability of droughts. Moreover, results show the importance of computing indicators that can be related to hydrological droughts, and how these add value to the identification of hydrological droughts and floods and the temporal evolution of events that would otherwise not have been apparent when considering only meteorological indicators. In some cases, meteorological indicators alone fail to capture the severity of the hydrological drought. Therefore, a combination of some of these indicators (e.g. SPEI-3, SRI-6 and SPI-12 computed together) is found to be a useful measure for identifying agricultural to long-term hydrological droughts in the Limpopo River basin. Additionally, it was possible to undertake a characterisation of the drought severity in the basin, indicated by its time of occurrence, duration and intensity.

Effectiveness of submerged drains in reducing subsidence of peat soils in agricultural use, and their effects on water management and nutrient loading of surface water: modelling of a case study in the western peat soil area of The Netherlands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hendriks, Rob F. A.; van den Akker, Jan J. A.

2017-04-01

Effectiveness of submerged drains in reducing subsidence of peat soils in agricultural use, and their effects on water management and nutrient loading of surface water: modelling of a case study in the western peat soil area of The Netherlands In the Netherlands, about 8% of the area is covered by peat soils. Most of these soils are in use for dairy farming and, consequently, are drained. Drainage causes decomposition of peat by oxidation and accordingly leads to surface subsidence and greenhouse gas emission. Submerged drains that enhance submerged infiltration of water from ditches during the dry and warm summer half year were, and are still, studied in The Netherlands as a promising tool for reducing peat decomposition by raising groundwater levels. For this purpose, several pilot field studies in the Western part of the Dutch peat area were conducted. Besides the effectiveness of submerged drains in reducing peat decomposition and subsidence by raising groundwater tables, some other relevant or expected effects of these drains were studied. Most important of these are water management and loading of surface water with nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphate. Because most of these parameters are not easy to assess and all of them are strongly depending on the meteorological conditions during the field studies some of these studies were modelled. The SWAP model was used for evaluating the hydrological results on groundwater table and water discharge and recharge. Effects of submerged drains were assessed by comparing the results of fields with and without drains. An empirical relation between deepest groundwater table and subsidence was used to convert effects on groundwater table to effects on subsidence. With the SWAP-ANIMO model nutrient loading of surface water was modelled on the basis of field results on nutrient concentrations . Calibrated models were used to assess effects in the present situation, as thirty-year averages, under extreme weather conditions and for two extreme climate scenarios of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. In this study the model results of one of the pilot studies are presented. The case study 'de Krimpenerwaard' is situated in the peat area in the "Green Heart" between the major cities of Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht. Model results show a halving of soil subsidence, a strong increase of water recharge but a lower increase of water discharge, and generally small to moderate effects on nutrient loading , all depending (strongly) on meteorological conditions.

Regional Drought Monitoring Based on Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rhee, Jinyoung; Im, Jungho; Park, Seonyoung

2014-05-01

Drought originates from the deficit of precipitation and impacts environment including agriculture and hydrological resources as it persists. The assessment and monitoring of drought has traditionally been performed using a variety of drought indices based on meteorological data, and recently the use of remote sensing data is gaining much attention due to its vast spatial coverage and cost-effectiveness. Drought information has been successfully derived from remotely sensed data related to some biophysical and meteorological variables and drought monitoring is advancing with the development of remote sensing-based indices such as the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), Vegetation Health Index (VHI), and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) to name a few. The Scaled Drought Condition Index (SDCI) has also been proposed to be used for humid regions proving the performance of multi-sensor data for agricultural drought monitoring. In this study, remote sensing-based hydro-meteorological variables related to drought including precipitation, temperature, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture were examined and the SDCI was improved by providing multiple blends of the multi-sensor indices for different types of drought. Multiple indices were examined together since the coupling and feedback between variables are intertwined and it is not appropriate to investigate only limited variables to monitor each type of drought. The purpose of this study is to verify the significance of each variable to monitor each type of drought and to examine the combination of multi-sensor indices for more accurate and timely drought monitoring. The weights for the blends of multiple indicators were obtained from the importance of variables calculated by non-linear optimization using a Machine Learning technique called Random Forest. The case study was performed in the Republic of Korea, which has four distinct seasons over the course of the year and contains complex topography with a variety of land cover types. Remote sensing data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite (TRMM) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E) sensors were obtained for the period from 2000 to 2012, and observation data from 99 weather stations, 441 streamflow gauges, as well as the gridded observation data from Asian Precipitation Highly-Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation of the Water Resources (APHRODITE) were obtained for validation. The objective blends of multiple indicators helped better assessment of various types of drought, and can be useful for drought early warning system. Since the improved SDCI is based on remotely sensed data, it can be easily applied to regions with limited or no observation data for drought assessment and monitoring.

Persistent Drought Social-Ecological Regime Shift and Migration among Agricultural Communities in Bundelkhand Region India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alam, Parvej

2017-04-01

Drought is a hydro-meteorological syndrome of 'prolonged period of water scarcity affecting natural resources, environment and, thereby, the people'. Different parts of India suffer from drought incidences of varying periodicity, with all 13 districts of Bundelkhand region repeatedly declared as drought-prone. Spread over the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, Bundelkhand falls in the rain shadow, semi-arid zone of the northern extreme of Peninsular India. In recent years, because of changing pattern of monsoons across India, rainfall in Bundelkhand in addition to being deficient has also become unpredictable. Such unpredictability has made agriculture in Bundelkhand region a risky and less attractive proposition and farmers are increasingly forgoing agriculture in villages in favour of livelihood opportunities in urban areas. Thus, there has been a constant flow of rural to urban migration in towns and cities in Bundelkhand. The present study analyses the changing land use pattern of Bundelkhand with the help of land use classification and explores the trend of rural-urban migration in Bundelkhand in the light of Galor's Model of Migration. In the current work, Climate Change is taken as a major driver behind migration decision and with the help of primary survey, a two-generational, inter regional model based on Galor's model has been developed. Keywords: Bundelkhand, Drought, Migration, Galor's Model

Cost assessment and ecological effectiveness of nutrient reduction options for mitigating Phaeocystis colony blooms in the Southern North Sea: an integrated modeling approach.

PubMed

Lancelot, Christiane; Thieu, Vincent; Polard, Audrey; Garnier, Josette; Billen, Gilles; Hecq, Walter; Gypens, Nathalie

2011-05-01

Nutrient reduction measures have been already taken by wealthier countries to decrease nutrient loads to coastal waters, in most cases however, prior to having properly assessed their ecological effectiveness and their economic costs. In this paper we describe an original integrated impact assessment methodology to estimate the direct cost and the ecological performance of realistic nutrient reduction options to be applied in the Southern North Sea watershed to decrease eutrophication, visible as Phaeocystis blooms and foam deposits on the beaches. The mathematical tool couples the idealized biogeochemical GIS-based model of the river system (SENEQUE-RIVERSTRAHLER) implemented in the Eastern Channel/Southern North Sea watershed to the biogeochemical MIRO model describing Phaeocystis blooms in the marine domain. Model simulations explore how nutrient reduction options regarding diffuse and/or point sources in the watershed would affect the Phaeocystis colony spreading in the coastal area. The reference and prospective simulations are performed for the year 2000 characterized by mean meteorological conditions, and nutrient reduction scenarios include and compare upgrading of wastewater treatment plants and changes in agricultural practices including an idealized shift towards organic farming. A direct cost assessment is performed for each realistic nutrient reduction scenario. Further the reduction obtained for Phaeocystis blooms is assessed by comparison with ecological indicators (bloom magnitude and duration) and the cost for reducing foam events on the beaches is estimated. Uncertainty brought by the added effect of meteorological conditions (rainfall) on coastal eutrophication is discussed. It is concluded that the reduction obtained by implementing realistic environmental measures on the short-term is costly and insufficient to restore well-balanced nutrient conditions in the coastal area while the replacement of conventional agriculture by organic farming might be an option to consider in the nearby future. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Setting up a new CZO in the Ganga basin: instrumentation, stakeholder engagement and preliminary observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gupta, S.; Tripathi, S.; Sinha, R.; Karumanchi, S. H.; Paul, D.; Tripathi, S. N.; Sen, I. S.; Dash, S. K.

2017-12-01

The Ganga plains represent the abode of more than 400 million people and a region of severe anthropogenic disturbance to natural processes. Changing agricultural practices, inefficient use of water, contamination of groundwater systems, and decrease in soil fertility are some of the issues that have affected the long-term resilience of hydrological processes. The quantification of these processes demands a network of hydro-meteorological instrumentation, low-cost sensors, continuous engagement of stakeholders and real time data transmission at a fine interval. We have therefore set up a Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) in a small watershed (35km2) that forms an intensively managed rural landscape consisting of 92% of agricultural land in the Pandu River Basin (a small tributary of the Ganga River). Apart from setting up a hydro-meteorological observatory, the major science questions we want to address relate to development of water balance model, understanding the soil-water interaction and estimation of nutrient fluxes in the watershed. This observatory currently has various types of sensors that are divided into three categories: (a) spatially not dense but temporally fine data, (b) spatially dense but temporally not fine data and(c) spatially dense and temporally fine data. The first category represent high-cost sensors namely automatic weather stations that are deployed at two locations and provide data at 15-minute interval. The second category includes portable soil moisture, discharge and groundwater level at weekly/ biweekly interval. The third category comprises low-cost sensors including automatic surface and groundwater level sensors installed on open wells to monitor the continuous fluctuation of water level at every 15 minutes. In addition to involving the local communities in data collection (e.g. manual rainfall measurement, water and soil sampling), this CZO also aims to provide relevant information to them for improving their sustainability. The preliminary results show significant heterogeneity in soil type, cropping system, fertilizer application, water quality, irrigation source etc. within a small catchment.

Measuring atmospheric aerosols of organic origin on multirotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crazzolara, Claudio; Platis, Andreas; Bange, Jens

2017-04-01

In-situ measurements of the spatial distribution and transportation of atmospheric organic particles such as pollen and spores are of great interdisciplinary interest such as: - In agriculture to investigate the spread of transgenetic material, - In paleoclimatology to improve the accuracy of paleoclimate models derived from pollen grains retrieved from sediments, and - In meteorology/climate research to determine the role of spores and pollen acting as nuclei in cloud formation processes. The few known state of the art in-situ measurement systems are using passive sampling units carried by fixed wing UAVs, thus providing only limited spatial resolution of aerosol concentration. Also the passively sampled air volume is determined with low accuracy as it is only calculated by the length of the flight path. We will present a new approach, which is based on the use of a multirotor UAV providing a versatile platform. On this UAV an optical particle counter in addition to a particle collecting unit, e.g. a conventional filter element and/or a inertial mass separator were installed. Both sampling units were driven by a mass flow controlled blower. This allows not only an accurate determination of the number and size concentration, but also an exact classification of the type of collected aerosol particles as well as an accurate determination of the sampled air volume. In addition, due to the application of a multirotor UAV with its automated position stabilisation system, the aerosol concentration can be measured with a very high spatial resolution of less than 1 m in all three dimensions. The combination of comprehensive determination of number, type and classification of aerosol particles in combination with the very high spatial resolution provides not only valuable progress in agriculture, paleoclimatology and meteorology, but also opens up the application of multirotor UAVs in new fields, for example for precise determination of the mechanisms of generation and distribution of fine particulate matter as the result of road traffic.

Vegetation index-based crop coefficients to estimate evapotranspiration by remote sensing in agricultural and natural ecosystems

USGS Publications Warehouse

Glenn, E.P.; Neale, C. M. U.; Hunsaker, D.J.; Nagler, P.L.

2011-01-01

Crop coefficients were developed to determine crop water needs based on the evapotranspiration (ET) of a reference crop under a given set of meteorological conditions. Starting in the 1980s, crop coefficients developed through lysimeter studies or set by expert opinion began to be supplemented by remotely sensed vegetation indices (VI) that measured the actual status of the crop on a field-by-field basis. VIs measure the density of green foliage based on the reflectance of visible and near infrared (NIR) light from the canopy, and are highly correlated with plant physiological processes that depend on light absorption by a canopy such as ET and photosynthesis. Reflectance-based crop coefficients have now been developed for numerous individual crops, including corn, wheat, alfalfa, cotton, potato, sugar beet, vegetables, grapes and orchard crops. Other research has shown that VIs can be used to predict ET over fields of mixed crops, allowing them to be used to monitor ET over entire irrigation districts. VI-based crop coefficients can help reduce agricultural water use by matching irrigation rates to the actual water needs of a crop as it grows instead of to a modeled crop growing under optimal conditions. Recently, the concept has been applied to natural ecosystems at the local, regional and continental scales of measurement, using time-series satellite data from the MODIS sensors on the Terra satellite. VIs or other visible-NIR band algorithms are combined with meteorological data to predict ET in numerous biome types, from deserts, to arctic tundra, to tropical rainforests. These methods often closely match ET measured on the ground at the global FluxNet array of eddy covariance moisture and carbon flux towers. The primary advantage of VI methods for estimating ET is that transpiration is closely related to radiation absorbed by the plant canopy, which is closely related to VIs. The primary disadvantage is that they cannot capture stress effects or soil evaporation. Copyright ?? 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Estimation of daily minimum land surface air temperature using MODIS data in southern Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Didari, Shohreh; Norouzi, Hamidreza; Zand-Parsa, Shahrokh; Khanbilvardi, Reza

2017-11-01

Land surface air temperature (LSAT) is a key variable in agricultural, climatological, hydrological, and environmental studies. Many of their processes are affected by LSAT at about 5 cm from the ground surface (LSAT5cm). Most of the previous studies tried to find statistical models to estimate LSAT at 2 m height (LSAT2m) which is considered as a standardized height, and there is not enough study for LSAT5cm estimation models. Accurate measurements of LSAT5cm are generally acquired from meteorological stations, which are sparse in remote areas. Nonetheless, remote sensing data by providing rather extensive spatial coverage can complement the spatiotemporal shortcomings of meteorological stations. The main objective of this study was to find a statistical model from the previous day to accurately estimate spatial daily minimum LSAT5cm, which is very important in agricultural frost, in Fars province in southern Iran. Land surface temperature (LST) data were obtained using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard Aqua and Terra satellites at daytime and nighttime periods with normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data. These data along with geometric temperature and elevation information were used in a stepwise linear model to estimate minimum LSAT5cm during 2003-2011. The results revealed that utilization of MODIS Aqua nighttime data of previous day provides the most applicable and accurate model. According to the validation results, the accuracy of the proposed model was suitable during 2012 (root mean square difference ( RMSD) = 3.07 °C, {R}_{adj}^2 = 87 %). The model underestimated (overestimated) high (low) minimum LSAT5cm. The accuracy of estimation in the winter time was found to be lower than the other seasons ( RMSD = 3.55 °C), and in summer and winter, the errors were larger than in the remaining seasons.

Effects of Land-use/Land-cover and Climate Changes on Water Quantity and Quality in Sub-basins near Major US Cities in the Great Lakes Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murphy, L.; Al-Hamdan, M. Z.; Crosson, W. L.; Barik, M.

2017-12-01

Land-cover change over time to urbanized, less permeable surfaces, leads to reduced water infiltration at the location of water input while simultaneously transporting sediments, nutrients and contaminants farther downstream. With an abundance of agricultural fields bordering the greater urban areas of Milwaukee, Detroit, and Chicago, water and nutrient transport is vital to the farming industry, wetlands, and communities that rely on water availability. Two USGS stream gages each located within a sub-basin near each of these Great Lakes Region cities were examined, one with primarily urban land-cover between 1992 and 2011, and one with primarily agriculture land-cover. ArcSWAT, a watershed model and soil and water assessment tool used in extension with ArcGIS, was used to develop hydrologic models that vary the land-covers to simulate surface runoff during a model run period from 2004 to 2008. Model inputs that include a digital elevation model (DEM), Landsat-derived land-use/land-cover (LULC) satellite images from 1992, 2001, and 2011, soil classification, and meteorological data were used to determine the effect of different land-covers on the water runoff, nutrients and sediments. The models were then calibrated and validated to USGS stream gage data measurements over time. Additionally, the watershed model was run based on meteorological data from an IPCC CMIP5 high emissions climate change scenario for 2050. Model outputs from the different LCLU scenarios were statistically evaluated and results showed that water runoff, nutrients and sediments were impacted by LULC change in four out of the six sub-basins. In the 2050 climate scenario, only one out of the six sub-basin's water quantity and quality was affected. These results contribute to the importance of developing hydrologic models as the dependence on the Great Lakes as a freshwater resource competes with the expansion of urbanization leading to the movement of runoff, nutrients, and sediments off the land.

An integrated model for the assessment of global water resources Part 2: Applications and assessments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanasaki, N.; Kanae, S.; Oki, T.; Masuda, K.; Motoya, K.; Shirakawa, N.; Shen, Y.; Tanaka, K.

2008-07-01

To assess global water resources from the perspective of subannual variation in water availability and water use, an integrated water resources model was developed. In a companion report, we presented the global meteorological forcing input used to drive the model and six modules, namely, the land surface hydrology module, the river routing module, the crop growth module, the reservoir operation module, the environmental flow requirement module, and the anthropogenic withdrawal module. Here, we present the results of the model application and global water resources assessments. First, the timing and volume of simulated agriculture water use were examined because agricultural use composes approximately 85% of total consumptive water withdrawal in the world. The estimated crop calendar showed good agreement with earlier reports for wheat, maize, and rice in major countries of production. In major countries, the error in the planting date was ±1 mo, but there were some exceptional cases. The estimated irrigation water withdrawal also showed fair agreement with country statistics, but tended to be underestimated in countries in the Asian monsoon region. The results indicate the validity of the model and the input meteorological forcing because site-specific parameter tuning was not used in the series of simulations. Finally, global water resources were assessed on a subannual basis using a newly devised index. This index located water-stressed regions that were undetected in earlier studies. These regions, which are indicated by a gap in the subannual distribution of water availability and water use, include the Sahel, the Asian monsoon region, and southern Africa. The simulation results show that the reservoir operations of major reservoirs (>1 km3) and the allocation of environmental flow requirements can alter the population under high water stress by approximately -11% to +5% globally. The integrated model is applicable to assessments of various global environmental projections such as climate change.

Optimizing Placement of Weather Stations: Exploring Objective Functions of Meaningful Combinations of Multiple Weather Variables

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Snyder, A.; Dietterich, T.; Selker, J. S.

2017-12-01

Many regions of the world lack ground-based weather data due to inadequate or unreliable weather station networks. For example, most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have unreliable, sparse networks of weather stations. The absence of these data can have consequences on weather forecasting, prediction of severe weather events, agricultural planning, and climate change monitoring. The Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO.org) project seeks to address these problems by deploying and operating a large network of weather stations throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. To design the TAHMO network, we must determine where to place weather stations within each country. We should consider how we can create accurate spatio-temporal maps of weather data and how to balance the desired accuracy of each weather variable of interest (precipitation, temperature, relative humidity, etc.). We can express this problem as a joint optimization of multiple weather variables, given a fixed number of weather stations. We use reanalysis data as the best representation of the "true" weather patterns that occur in the region of interest. For each possible combination of sites, we interpolate the reanalysis data between selected locations and calculate the mean average error between the reanalysis ("true") data and the interpolated data. In order to formulate our multi-variate optimization problem, we explore different methods of weighting each weather variable in our objective function. These methods include systematic variation of weights to determine which weather variables have the strongest influence on the network design, as well as combinations targeted for specific purposes. For example, we can use computed evapotranspiration as a metric that combines many weather variables in a way that is meaningful for agricultural and hydrological applications. We compare the errors of the weather station networks produced by each optimization problem formulation. We also compare these errors to those of manually designed weather station networks in West Africa, planned by the respective host-country's meteorological agency.

Quantitative Research on the Relationship between Yield of Winter Wheat and Agroclimatological Resources—the Case Study from Yanzhou District, Shandong Province, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, Maoling; Liu, Pingzeng; Zhang, Chao; Zheng, Yong; Wang, Xizhi; Zhang, Yan; Chen, Weijie; Zhao, Rui

2018-01-01

Agroclimatological resources provide material and energy for agricultural production. This study is aimed to analyze the impact of selected climate factors change on wheat yield over the different growth period applied quantitatively method, by comparing two different time division modules of wheat growth cycle- monthly empirical-statistical multiple regression models ( From October to June of next year ) and growth stage empirical-statistical multiple regression models (Including sowing stage, seedling stage, tillering stage, overwintering period, regreening period, jointing stage, heading stage, maturity stage) analysis of relationship between agrometeorological data and growth stage records and winter wheat production in Yanzhou, Shandong Province of China. Correlation analysis(CA)was done for 35 years (from 1981 to 2015) between crop yield and corresponding weather parameters including daily mean temperature, sunshine duration, and average daily precipitation selected from 18 different meteorological factors. The results shows that the greatest impact on the winter wheat yield is the precipitation overwintering period in this area, each 1mm increase in daily mean rainfall was associated with 201.64 kg/hm2 lowered output. Moreover, the temperature and sunshine duration in heading period and maturity stage also exert significant influence on the output, every 1°C increase in daily mean temperature was associated with 199.85kg/hm2 adding output, every 1h increase in mean sunshine duration was associated with 130.68kg/hm2 reduced output. Comparing with the results of experiment which using months as step sizes and using farming as step sizes was in better agreement with the fluctuation in meteorological yield, offered a better explanation on the growth mechanism of wheat. Eventually the results indicated that 3 factors affects the yield during different growing periods of wheat in different extent and provided more specific reference to guide the agricultural production management in this area.

Radioactive Pollution Estimate for Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant by a Particle Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saito, Keisuke; Ogawa, Susumu

2016-06-01

On Mar 12, 2011, very wide radioactive pollution occurred by a hydrogen explosion in Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. A large amount of radioisotopes started with four times of explosions. With traditional atmospheric diffusion models could not reconstruct radioactive pollution in Fukushima. Then, with a particle model, this accident was reconstructed from meteorological archive and Radar- AMeDAS. Calculations with the particle model were carried out for Mar 12, 15, 18 and 20 when east southeast winds blew for five hours continuously. Meteorological archive is expressed by wind speeds and directions in five-km grid every hour with eight classes of height till 3000 m. Radar- AMeDAS is precipitation data in one-km grid every thirty minutes. Particles are ten scales of 0.01 to 0.1 mm in diameter with specific weight of 2.65 and vertical speeds given by Stokes equation. But, on Mar 15, it rained from 16:30 and then the particles fell down at a moment as wet deposit in calculation. On the other hand, the altitudes on the ground were given by DEM with 1 km-grid. The spatial dose by emitted radioisotopes was referred to the observation data at monitoring posts of Tokyo Electric Power Company. The falling points of radioisotopes were expressed on the map using the particle model. As a result, the same distributions were obtained as the surface spatial dose of radioisotopes in aero-monitoring by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Especially, on Mar 15, the simulated pollution fitted to the observation, which extended to the northwest of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and caused mainly sever pollution. By the particle model, the falling positions on the ground were estimated each particle size. Particles with more than 0.05 mm of size were affected by the topography and blocked by the mountains with the altitudes of more than 700 m. The particle model does not include the atmospheric stability, the source height, and deposit speeds. The present assignment is how to express the difference of deposition each nucleus.

Documentary evidence for the study of droughts in the Czech Lands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Řezníčková, Ladislava; Brázdil, Rudolf; Kotyza, Oldřich; Valášek, Hubert

2015-04-01

The study of droughts in the instrumental period can be based on various drought indices calculated usually from precipitation and temperature series. Documentary evidence, overlapping partly also with meteorological measurements, represents another important source utilisable particularly for the pre-instrumental period. Direct reports of drought or indirect indications of its impacts may be found in various individual or institutional sources: narrative written sources (annals, chronicles, commemorative records), weather diaries, personal and official correspondence, stall-keepers' and market songs, journalism, financial-economic records, religious sources (rogations, sermons, praying), special printed sources, chronograms, epigraphic sources ("hunger" stones). Corresponding data indicate directly meteorological drought and with describing of drought impacts also agricultural and hydrological droughts. The first credible direct drought information from the Czech Lands reports not any rain or snowfall during the 1090/1091 winter (Monk of Sázava). But data before AD 1500 are relatively scarce and they are related prevailingly to Bohemia. Density of precipitation/drought documentary records in the Czech Lands increases significantly after 1500. This allows create series of precipitation indices with classification of dry months in the scale -1 as dry, -2 as very dry and -3 as extremely dry month. Such dataset is important for the creation of 500-year Czech drought chronology.

New alternatives for reference evapotranspiration estimation in West Africa using limited weather data and ancillary data supply strategies.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Landeras, Gorka; Bekoe, Emmanuel; Ampofo, Joseph; Logah, Frederick; Diop, Mbaye; Cisse, Madiama; Shiri, Jalal

2018-05-01

Accurate estimation of reference evapotranspiration ( ET 0 ) is essential for the computation of crop water requirements, irrigation scheduling, and water resources management. In this context, having a battery of alternative local calibrated ET 0 estimation methods is of great interest for any irrigation advisory service. The development of irrigation advisory services will be a major breakthrough for West African agriculture. In the case of many West African countries, the high number of meteorological inputs required by the Penman-Monteith equation has been indicated as constraining. The present paper investigates for the first time in Ghana, the estimation ability of artificial intelligence-based models (Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Gene Expression Programing (GEPs)), and ancillary/external approaches for modeling reference evapotranspiration ( ET 0 ) using limited weather data. According to the results of this study, GEPs have emerged as a very interesting alternative for ET 0 estimation at all the locations of Ghana which have been evaluated in this study under different scenarios of meteorological data availability. The adoption of ancillary/external approaches has been also successful, moreover in the southern locations. The interesting results obtained in this study using GEPs and some ancillary approaches could be a reference for future studies about ET 0 estimation in West Africa.

The use of RPAS in monitoring volume changes, subsidence and gas emissions from a landfill in Veneto Region, North east of Italy.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Busnardo, Enrico; Ravagnan, Riccardo; Castellarin, Nicola; Canella, Claudio; Gandolfo, Luca; Petrillo, Giovanni

2017-04-01

Public opinion consider landfills as a problematic waste disposal system. They are perceived as groundwater and air source of pollution, and unfortunately it is true. For this reason, Regional Environmental Agencies (ARPA) need data in order to figure out the potential pollution near landfills. Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) with specific sensors, could be a better solution than traditional terrestrial sensors. They provide a better sampling at different altitudes. Therefore, a 3D diffusion gas model could be improved. This study case is about a solid urban waste landfill, located on the Venetian Po Plain in the south of the Veneto Region. The "electronic nose" on the RPAS, needs to be stand still at least 15 seconds while sampling. For this reason, in this study case a multicopter RPAS was used. The result was a 3D concentration map of pollutant gases. The map was related with meteorological data from a Regional meteorological station located near the landfill to identify the gas source. In the end, the study about the olfactory impact was made using the OdiGauss model, developed by the Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Department of Udine University. It was also compared with a simulation carried out with CALWin software.

The impact of in-canopy wind profile formulations on heat flux estimation in an open orchard using the remote sensing-based two-source model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cammalleri, C.; Anderson, M. C.; Ciraolo, G.; Durso, G.; Kustas, W. P.; La Loggia, G.; Minacapilli, M.

2010-12-01

For open orchard and vineyard canopies containing significant fractions of exposed soil (>50%), typical of Mediterranean agricultural regions, the energy balance of the vegetation elements is strongly influenced by heat exchange with the bare soil/substrate. For these agricultural systems a "two-source" approach, where radiation and turbulent exchange between the soil and canopy elements are explicitly modelled, appears to be the only suitable methodology for reliably assessing energy fluxes. In strongly clumped canopies, the effective wind speed profile inside and below the canopy layer can strongly influence the partitioning of energy fluxes between the soil and vegetation components. To assess the impact of in-canopy wind profile on model flux estimates, an analysis of three different formulations is presented, including algorithms from Goudriaan (1977), Massman (1987) and Lalic et al. (2003). The in-canopy wind profile formulations are applied to the thermal-based two-source energy balance (TSEB) model developed by Norman et al. (1995) and modified by Kustas and Norman (1999). High resolution airborne remote sensing images, collected over an agricultural area located in the western part of Sicily (Italy) comprised primarily of vineyards, olive and citrus orchards, are used to derive all the input parameters needed to apply the TSEB. The images were acquired from June to October 2008 and include a relatively wide range of meteorological and soil moisture conditions. A preliminary sensitivity analysis of the three wind profile algorithms highlights the dependence of wind speed just above the soil/substrate to leaf area index and canopy height over the typical range of canopy properties encountered in these agricultural areas. It is found that differences among the models in wind just above the soil surface are most significant under sparse and medium fractional cover conditions (15-50%). The TSEB model heat flux estimates are compared with micro-meteorological measurements from a small aperture scintillometer and an eddy covariance tower collected over an olive orchard characterized by moderate fractional vegetation cover (≍35%) and relatively tall crop (≍3.5 m). TSEB fluxes for the 7 image acquisition dates generated using both the Massman and Goudriaan in-canopy wind profile formulations give close agreement with measured fluxes, while the Lalic et al. equations yield poor results. The Massman wind profile scheme slightly outperforms that of Goudriaan, but it requires an additional parameter accounting for the roughness sub-layer of the underlying vegetative surface. The analysis also suggests that within-canopy wind profile model discrepancies become important, in terms of impact on modelled sensible heat flux, only for sparse canopies with moderate vegetation coverage.

Assessing the combined effects of climatic factors on spring wheat phenophase and grain yield in Inner Mongolia, China

PubMed Central

Pu, Feiyu; Li, Yunpeng; Xu, Jingwen; Li, Ning; Zhang, Yi; Guo, Jianping; Pan, Zhihua

2017-01-01

Understanding the regional relationships between climate change and crop production will benefit strategic decisions for future agricultural adaptation in China. In this study, the combined effects of climatic factors on spring wheat phenophase and grain yield over the past three decades in Inner Mongolia, China, were explored based on the daily climate variables from 1981–2014 and detailed observed data of spring wheat from 1981–2014. Inner Mongolia was divided into three different climate type regions, the eastern, central and western regions. The data were gathered from 10 representative agricultural meteorological experimental stations in Inner Mongolia and analysed with the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) model. First, the performance of the APSIM model in the spring wheat planting areas of Inner Mongolia was tested. Then, the key climatic factors limiting the phenophases and yield of spring wheat were identified. Finally, the responses of spring wheat phenophases and yield to climate change were further explored regionally. Our results revealed a general yield reduction of spring wheat in response to the pronounced climate warming from 1981 to 2014, with an average of 3564 kg·ha-1. The regional differences in yields were significant. The maximum potential yield of spring wheat was found in the western region. However, the minimum potential yield was found in the middle region. The air temperature and soil surface temperature were the optimum climatic factors that affected the key phenophases of spring wheat in Inner Mongolia. The influence of the average maximum temperature on the key phenophases of spring wheat was greater than the average minimum temperature, followed by the relative humidity and solar radiation. The most insensitive climatic factors were precipitation, wind speed and reference crop evapotranspiration. As for the yield of spring wheat, temperature, solar radiation and air relative humidity were major meteorological factors that affected in the eastern and western Inner Mongolia. Furthermore, the effect of the average minimum temperature on yield was greater than that of the average maximum temperature. The increase of temperature in the western and middle regions would reduce the spring wheat yield, while in the eastern region due to the rising temperature, the spring wheat yield increased. The increase of solar radiation in the eastern and central regions would increase the yield of spring wheat. The increased air relative humidity would make the western spring wheat yield increased and the eastern spring wheat yield decreased. Finally, the models describing combined effects of these dominant climatic factors on the maturity and yield in different regions of Inner Mongolia were used to establish geographical differences. Our findings have important implications for improving climate change impact studies and for local agricultural production to cope with ongoing climate change. PMID:29099842

Assessing the combined effects of climatic factors on spring wheat phenophase and grain yield in Inner Mongolia, China.

PubMed

Zhao, Junfang; Pu, Feiyu; Li, Yunpeng; Xu, Jingwen; Li, Ning; Zhang, Yi; Guo, Jianping; Pan, Zhihua

2017-01-01

Understanding the regional relationships between climate change and crop production will benefit strategic decisions for future agricultural adaptation in China. In this study, the combined effects of climatic factors on spring wheat phenophase and grain yield over the past three decades in Inner Mongolia, China, were explored based on the daily climate variables from 1981-2014 and detailed observed data of spring wheat from 1981-2014. Inner Mongolia was divided into three different climate type regions, the eastern, central and western regions. The data were gathered from 10 representative agricultural meteorological experimental stations in Inner Mongolia and analysed with the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) model. First, the performance of the APSIM model in the spring wheat planting areas of Inner Mongolia was tested. Then, the key climatic factors limiting the phenophases and yield of spring wheat were identified. Finally, the responses of spring wheat phenophases and yield to climate change were further explored regionally. Our results revealed a general yield reduction of spring wheat in response to the pronounced climate warming from 1981 to 2014, with an average of 3564 kg·ha-1. The regional differences in yields were significant. The maximum potential yield of spring wheat was found in the western region. However, the minimum potential yield was found in the middle region. The air temperature and soil surface temperature were the optimum climatic factors that affected the key phenophases of spring wheat in Inner Mongolia. The influence of the average maximum temperature on the key phenophases of spring wheat was greater than the average minimum temperature, followed by the relative humidity and solar radiation. The most insensitive climatic factors were precipitation, wind speed and reference crop evapotranspiration. As for the yield of spring wheat, temperature, solar radiation and air relative humidity were major meteorological factors that affected in the eastern and western Inner Mongolia. Furthermore, the effect of the average minimum temperature on yield was greater than that of the average maximum temperature. The increase of temperature in the western and middle regions would reduce the spring wheat yield, while in the eastern region due to the rising temperature, the spring wheat yield increased. The increase of solar radiation in the eastern and central regions would increase the yield of spring wheat. The increased air relative humidity would make the western spring wheat yield increased and the eastern spring wheat yield decreased. Finally, the models describing combined effects of these dominant climatic factors on the maturity and yield in different regions of Inner Mongolia were used to establish geographical differences. Our findings have important implications for improving climate change impact studies and for local agricultural production to cope with ongoing climate change.

Consequences and countermeasures in a nuclear power accident: Chernobyl experience.

PubMed

Kirichenko, Vladimir A; Kirichenko, Alexander V; Werts, Day E

2012-09-01

Despite the tragic accidents in Fukushima and Chernobyl, the nuclear power industry will continue to contribute to the production of electric energy worldwide until there are efficient and sustainable alternative sources of energy. The Chernobyl nuclear accident, which occurred 26 years ago in the former Soviet Union, released an immense amount of radioactivity over vast territories of Belarus, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation, extending into northern Europe, and became the most severe accident in the history of the nuclear industry. This disaster was a result of numerous factors including inadequate nuclear power plant design, human errors, and violation of safety measures. The lessons learned from nuclear accidents will continue to strengthen the safety design of new reactor installations, but with more than 400 active nuclear power stations worldwide and 104 reactors in the Unites States, it is essential to reassess fundamental issues related to the Chernobyl experience as it continues to evolve. This article summarizes early and late events of the incident, the impact on thyroid health, and attempts to reduce agricultural radioactive contamination.

Embryonic and somatic cell cloning.

PubMed

Wilmut, I; Young, L; Campbell, K H

1998-01-01

Revolutionary opportunities in biology, medicine and agriculture arise from the observation that offspring are obtained after nuclear transfer if somatic donor cells are induced to become quiescent. Exploitation of many of these opportunities will depend upon optimizing procedures for nuclear transfer. This may come about through an understanding of the means by which factors in the oocyte cytoplasm act upon the DNA of the transferred nucleus to regulate gene expression. Similarly, research will extend the procedure to other species. This technology may be used for embryo production, the introduction of genetic change and the derivation of cells needed to treat human diseases. Groups of genetically identical animals will be used in research to control genetic variation and to allow transfer of cells between individuals. In agriculture, production of a small number of clones will separate genetic and environmental effects, whereas production of larger numbers of offspring will disseminate genetic improvement from nucleus herds. Precise genetic modification will be achieved by site specific recombination in the donor cells before nuclear transfer. In all mammals it will become possible to define the role of any gene product and to analyse the mechanisms that regulate gene expression. Medical uses of these techniques will include the production of proteins needed to treat disease and the supply of organs such as hearts, livers and kidneys from pigs. As genome mapping projects identify loci associated with traits of commercial importance in agriculture then gene targeting will be used to study this effect. Finally, cells capable of differentiation into any of the tissues of a patient will provide treatment for diseases reflecting damage to a specific cell population that neither repairs nor replaces itself.

Digital mapping of soil properties in Zala County, Hungary for the support of county-level spatial planning and land management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pásztor, László; Laborczi, Annamária; Szatmári, Gábor; Fodor, Nándor; Bakacsi, Zsófia; Szabó, József; Illés, Gábor

2014-05-01

The main objective of the DOSoReMI.hu (Digital, Optimized, Soil Related Maps and Information in Hungary) project is to significantly extend the potential, how demands on spatial soil related information could be satisfied in Hungary. Although a great amount of soil information is available due to former mappings and surveys, there are more and more frequently emerging discrepancies between the available and the expected data. The gaps are planned to be filled with optimized DSM products heavily based on legacy soil data, which still represent a valuable treasure of soil information at the present time. Impact assessment of the forecasted climate change and the analysis of the possibilities of the adaptation in the agriculture and forestry can be supported by scenario based land management modelling, whose results can be incorporated in spatial planning. This framework requires adequate, preferably timely and spatially detailed knowledge of the soil cover. For the satisfaction of these demands in Zala County (one of the nineteen counties of Hungary), the soil conditions of the agricultural areas were digitally mapped based on the most detailed, available recent and legacy soil data. The agri-environmental conditions were characterized according to the 1:10,000 scale genetic soil mapping methodology and the category system applied in the Hungarian soil-agricultural chemistry practice. The factors constraining the fertility of soils were featured according to the biophysical criteria system elaborated for the delimitation of naturally handicapped areas in the EU. Production related soil functions were regionalized incorporating agro-meteorological modelling. The appropriate derivatives of a 20m digital elevation model were used in the analysis. Multitemporal MODIS products were selected from the period of 2009-2011 representing different parts of the growing season and years with various climatic conditions. Additionally two climatic data layers, the 1:100.000 Geological Map of Hungary and the map of groundwater depth were used as auxiliary environmental covariables. Various soil related information were mapped in three distinct sets: (i) basic soil properties determining agri-environmental conditions (soil type according to the Hungarian genetic classification, rootable depth, sand and clay content for the 1st and 2nd soil layers, pH, OM and carbonate content for the plough layer); (ii) biophysical criteria of natural handicaps defined by common European system and (iii) agro-meteorologically modelled yield values for different crops, meteorological and management scenarios. The applied method(s) for the spatial inference of specific themes was/were suitably selected: regression and classification trees for categorical data, indicator kriging for probabilistic management of criterion information; and typically regression kriging for quantitative data. Our paper will present the mapping processes themselves, the resulted maps and some conclusions drawn from the experiences. Acknowledgement: Our work was supported by the Hungarian National Scientific Research Foundation (OTKA, Grant No. K105167) and by the European Union with the co-financing of the European Social Fund (TÁMOP-4.2.2.A-11/1/KONV-2012-0013.).

Collapse and Earthquake Swarm after North Korea's 3 September 2017 Nuclear Test

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tian, D.; Yao, J.; Wen, L.

2017-12-01

North Korea's 3 September 2017 nuclear test was followed by a series of small seismic events, with the first one occurring about eight-and-a-half minutes after the nuclear test, two on 23 September 2017, and one on 12 October 2017. While the characteristics of these seismic events would carry crucial information about current geological state and environmental condition of the nuclear test site and help evaluate the geological and environmental safety of the test site should any future tests be performed there, the precise locations and nature of these seismic events are unknown. In this study, we collect all available seismic waveforms of these five seismic events from China Earthquake Networks Center, F-net, Hi-net, Global Seismographic Network, Japan Meteorological Agency Seismic Network, and Korea National Seismograph Network. We are able to find high-quality seismic data that constitute good azimuth coverage for high-precision determination of their relative locations and detailed analysis of their source characteristics. Our study reveals that the seismic event eight-and-a-half minutes after the nuclear test is an onsite collapse toward the nuclear test center, while the later events are an earthquake swarm occurring in similar locations. The onsite collapse calls for continued close monitoring of any leaks of radioactive materials from the nuclear test site. The occurrence of the collapse should deem the underground infrastructure beneath mountain Mantap not be used for any future nuclear tests. Given the history of the nuclear tests North Korea performed beneath this mountain, a nuclear test of a similar yield would produce collapses in an even larger scale creating an environmental catastrophe. The triggered earthquake swarm indicates that North Korea's past tests have altered the tectonic stress in the region to the extent that previously inactive tectonic faults in the region have reached their state of critical failure. Any further disturbance from a future test could generate earthquakes that may be damaging by their own force or crack the nuclear test sites of the past or the present.

Preliminary Evaluation of the DUSTRAN Modeling Suite for Modeling Atmospheric Chloride Transport

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jensen, Philip; Tran, Tracy; Fritz, Bradley

2016-05-03

This study investigates the potential of DUSTRAN, a dust dispersion modeling system developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, to model the transport of sea salt aerosols (SSA). Results from DUSTRAN simulations run with historical meteorological data were compared against privately-measured chloride data at the near coastal Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and the Environmental Protection Agency-measured CASTNET data from Acadia National Park (NP). The comparisons have provided both encouragement as to the practical value of DUSTRAN’s CALPUFF model and suggestions for further software development opportunities. All modeled concentrations were within one order of magnitude of those measured and amore » few test cases showed excellent agreement between modeled and measured concentrations. However, there is a lack of consistency in discrepancy which may be due to inaccurate extrapolation of meteorological data, underlying model physics, and the source term. Future research will refine the software to better capture physical phenomena. Overall, results indicate that with parameter refinement, DUSTRAN has the potential to simulate atmospheric chloride transport from known sources to inland sites for the purpose of determining the corrosion susceptibility of various structures, systems, and components at the site.« less

Characterizing the detectability of emission signals from a North Korean nuclear detonation

DOE PAGES

Werth, David; Buckley, Robert

2017-02-01

Here, the detectability of emission sources, defined by a low-level of mixing with other sources, was estimated for various locations surrounding the Sea of Japan, including a site within North Korea. A high-resolution meteorological model coupled to a dispersion model was used to simulate plume dynamics for four periods, and two metrics of airborne plume mixing were calculated for each source. While emissions from several known sources in this area tended to blend with others while dispersing downwind, the North Korean plume often remained relatively distinct, thereby making it potentially easier to unambiguously ‘backtrack’ it to its source.

Survey of methods for soil moisture determination

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmugge, T. J.; Jackson, T. J.; Mckim, H. L.

1979-01-01

Existing and proposed methods for soil moisture determination are discussed. These include: (1) in situ investigations including gravimetric, nuclear, and electromagnetic techniques; (2) remote sensing approaches that use the reflected solar, thermal infrared, and microwave portions of the electromagnetic spectrum; and (3) soil physics models that track the behavior of water in the soil in response to meteorological inputs (precipitation) and demands (evapotranspiration). The capacities of these approaches to satisfy various user needs for soil moisture information vary from application to application, but a conceptual scheme for merging these approaches into integrated systems to provide soil moisture information is proposed that has the potential for meeting various application requirements.

India and the Green Revolution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarabhai, Vikram

1972-01-01

The introduction of new grain varieties has had profound social effects in addition to increasing food supply. If political power is sensitive to the needs of the underprivileged...advanced technology in agriculture, as in (nuclear) power generation, is indeed going to create a social revolution.'' (Author/AL)

Using Climate Information for Disaster Risk Identification in Sri Lanka

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zubair, L.

2004-12-01

We have engaged in a concerted attempt to undertake research and apply earth science information for development in Sri Lanka, with a focus on climate sciences. Here, we provide details of an ongoing attempt to harness science for disaster identification as a prelude to informed disaster management. Natural disasters not only result in death and destruction but also undermine decades of development gains as highlighted by recent examples from Sri Lanka. First, in May 2003, flooding and landslides in the South-West led to 260 deaths, damage to 120,000 homes and destruction of schools, infrastructure and agricultural land. Second, on December 26, 2000, a cyclone in the North-Central region left 8 dead, 55,000 displaced, with severe damage to fishing, agriculture, infrastructure and cultural sites. Third, an extended island-wide drought in 2001 and 2002 resulted in a 2% drop in GDP. In the aftermath of these disasters, improved disaster management has been deemed to be urgent by the Government of Sri Lanka. In the past the primary policy response to disasters was to provide emergency relief. It is increasingly recognized that appropriate disaster risk management, including risk assessment, preventive measures to reduce losses and improved preparedness, can help reduce death, destruction and socio-economic disruption. The overwhelming majority of hazards in Sri Lanka - droughts, floods, cyclones and landslides -have hydro-meteorological antecedents. Little systematic advantage has, however, been taken of hydro-meteorological information and advances in climate prediction for disaster management. Disaster risks are created by the interaction between hazard events and vulnerabilities of communities, infrastructure and economically important activities. A comprehensive disaster risk management system encompasses risk identification, risk reduction and risk transfer. We undertook an identification of risks for Sri Lanka at fine scale with the support of the Global Disaster Hotspots project of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. We developed tools that translate meteorological, environmental and socio-economic exposure and vulnerability information into assessments of relevant hazard related disaster risk at appropriate spatial and temporal scales. We also developed high-resolution predictive capabilities for assessing seasonal hazard event. We found that useful hazard risk and vulnerability analysis can be carried out with the type of data that is available in Sri Lanka with sufficiently fine scale as to be useful for national level planning and action. Also, hydro-meteorological information was essential to estimate hazard risks. This analysis brought out a distinct seasonality to drought, floods, landslides and cyclone hazards in Sri Lanka. This work provides a foundation for systematic disaster management that shall manage risks through measures such as hazard warnings, scenario-based relief identification and planning, strategic river basin management, risk mapping and land use zoning, standards for construction and infrastructure. The fostering of research and application capacity in the vulnerable community leads to the appropriate and sustainable use of earth science information. This work contributes to the mitigation of risk of vulnerable communities and provides an example of the harnessing of geosciences for poverty alleviation and improvement of human well-being. Note: The contributions of Vidhura Ralapanawe, Upamala Tennakoon, Ruvini Perera, Maxx Dilley, Bob Chen and the Hotspots team are gratefully acknowledged.

Model depiction of the atmospheric flows of radioactive cesium emitted from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nakajima, Teruyuki; Misawa, Shota; Morino, Yu; Tsuruta, Haruo; Goto, Daisuke; Uchida, Junya; Takemura, Toshihiko; Ohara, Toshimasa; Oura, Yasuji; Ebihara, Mitsuru; Satoh, Masaki

2017-12-01

In this study, a new method is proposed for the depiction of the atmospheric transportation of the 137Cs emitted from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident. This method employs a combination of the results of two aerosol model ensembles and the hourly observed atmospheric 137Cs concentration at surface level during 14-23 March 2011 at 90 sites in the suspended particulate matter monitoring network. The new method elucidates accurate transport routes and the distribution of the surface-level atmospheric 137Cs relevant to eight plume events that were previously identified. The model ensemble simulates the main features of the observed distribution of surface-level atmospheric 137Cs. However, significant differences were found in some cases, and this suggests the need to improve the modeling of the emission scenario, plume height, wet deposition process, and plume propagation in the Abukuma Mountain region. The contributions of these error sources differ in the early and dissipating phases of each event, depending on the meteorological conditions.

Nuclear Power Plant environment`s surveillance by satellite remote sensing and in-situ monitoring data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zoran, Maria

The main environmental issues affecting the broad acceptability of nuclear power plant are the emission of radioactive materials, the generation of radioactive waste, and the potential for nuclear accidents. All nuclear fission reactors, regardless of design, location, operator or regulator, have the potential to undergo catastrophic accidents involving loss of control of the reactor core, failure of safety systems and subsequent widespread fallout of hazardous fission products. Risk is the mathematical product of probability and consequences, so lowprobability and high-consequence accidents, by definition, have a high risk. NPP environment surveillance is a very important task in frame of risk assessment. Satellite remote sensing data had been applied for dosimeter levels first time for Chernobyl NPP accident in 1986. Just for a normal functioning of a nuclear power plant, multitemporal and multispectral satellite data in complementarily with field data are very useful tools for NPP environment surveillance and risk assessment. Satellite remote sensing is used as an important technology to help environmental research to support research analysis of spatio-temporal dynamics of environmental features nearby nuclear facilities. Digital processing techniques applied to several LANDSAT, MODIS and QuickBird data in synergy with in-situ data are used to assess the extent and magnitude of radiation and non-radiation effects on the water, near field soil, vegetation and air. As a test case the methodology was applied for for Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) Cernavoda, Romania. Thermal discharge from nuclear reactors cooling is dissipated as waste heat in Danube-Black -Sea Canal and Danube River. Water temperatures captured in thermal IR imagery are correlated with meteorological parameters. If during the winter thermal plume is localized to an area of a few km of NPP, the temperature difference between the plume and non-plume areas being about 1.5 oC, during summer and fall , is a larger thermal plume up to 5-6 km far along Danube Black Sea Canal ,the temperature change is about 1.0 oC.

The investigation of using 5G millimeter-wave communications links for environmental monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Congzheng

2017-04-01

There has been significantly increasing recognition that millimeter waves from 30 GHz to 300 GHz as carriers for future 5G cellular networks. This is good for high speed, line-of-sight communication, potentially using very densely deployed infrastructure involving many small cells. High resolution, continuous and accurate monitoring of environmental conditions, such as rainfall and water vapor are of great important to meteorology, hydrology (e.g. flood warning), agriculture, environmental policy (e.g. pollution regulation) and weather forecasting. We have built a 28GHz measurement link at our research institute in central Beijing, China. This work will study the potential of using millimeter wave based wireless links to monitor environmental conditions including rainfall and water vapor.

The Nimbus satellites - Pioneering earth observers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

White, Carolynne

1990-01-01

The many scientific achievements of the Nimbus series of seven satellites for low-altitude atmospheric research and global weather surveillance are reviewed. The series provides information on fishery resources, weather modeling, atmospheric pollution monitoring, earth's radiation budget, ozone monitoring, ocean dynamics, and the effects of cloudiness. Data produced by the forty-eight instruments and sensors flown on the satellites are applied in the fields of oceanography, hydrology, geology, geomorphology, geography, cartography, agriculture and meteorology. The instruments include the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (which depicts phytoplankton concentrations in coastal areas), the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (which measures sea-surface temperatures and sea-surface wind-speed), and the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (which provides information on total amounts of ozone in the earth's atmosphere).

Urban aerosols harbor diverse and dynamic bacterial populations

PubMed Central

Brodie, Eoin L.; DeSantis, Todd Z.; Parker, Jordan P. Moberg; Zubietta, Ingrid X.; Piceno, Yvette M.; Andersen, Gary L.

2007-01-01

Considering the importance of its potential implications for human health, agricultural productivity, and ecosystem stability, surprisingly little is known regarding the composition or dynamics of the atmosphere's microbial inhabitants. Using a custom high-density DNA microarray, we detected and monitored bacterial populations in two U.S. cities over 17 weeks. These urban aerosols contained at least 1,800 diverse bacterial types, a richness approaching that of some soil bacterial communities. We also reveal the consistent presence of bacterial families with pathogenic members including environmental relatives of select agents of bioterrorism significance. Finally, using multivariate regression techniques, we demonstrate that temporal and meteorological influences can be stronger factors than location in shaping the biological composition of the air we breathe. PMID:17182744

AGU climate scientists visit Capitol Hill

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hankin, Erik

2012-02-01

On 1 February 2012, AGU teamed with 11 other scientific societies to bring 29 scientists researching various aspects of climate change to Washington, D. C., for the second annual Climate Science Day on Capitol Hill. The participants represented a wide range of expertise, from meteorology to agriculture, paleoclimatology to statistics, but all spoke to the reality of climate change as demonstrated in their scientific research. With Congress debating environmental regulations and energy policy amid tight fiscal pressures, it is critical that lawmakers have access to the best climate science to help guide policy decisions. The scientists met with legislators and their staff to discuss the importance of climate science for their districts and the nation and offered their expertise as an ongoing resource to the legislators.

Retrospection of Chernobyl nuclear accident for decision analysis concerning remedial actions in Ukraine

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Georgievskiy, Vladimir

2007-07-01

It is considered the efficacy of decisions concerning remedial actions when of-site radiological monitoring in the early and (or) in the intermediate phases was absent or was not informative. There are examples of such situations in the former Soviet Union where many people have been exposed: releases of radioactive materials from 'Krasnoyarsk-26' into Enisey River, releases of radioactive materials from 'Chelabinsk-65' (the Kishtim accident), nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk Test Site, the Chernobyl nuclear accident etc. If monitoring in the early and (or) in the intermediate phases is absent the decisions concerning remedial actions are usually developed on the basemore » of permanent monitoring. However decisions of this kind may be essentially erroneous. For these cases it is proposed to make retrospection of radiological data of the early and intermediate phases of nuclear accident and to project decisions concerning remedial actions on the base of both retrospective data and permanent monitoring data. In this Report the indicated problem is considered by the example of the Chernobyl accident for Ukraine. Their of-site radiological monitoring in the early and intermediate phases was unsatisfactory. In particular, the pasture-cow-milk monitoring had not been made. All official decisions concerning dose estimations had been made on the base of measurements of {sup 137}Cs in body (40 measurements in 135 days and 55 measurements in 229 days after the Chernobyl accident). For the retrospection of radiological data of the Chernobyl accident dynamic model has been developed. This model has structure similar to the structure of Pathway model and Farmland model. Parameters of the developed model have been identified for agricultural conditions of Russia and Ukraine. By means of this model dynamics of 20 radionuclides in pathways and dynamics of doses have been estimated for the early, intermediate and late phases of the Chernobyl accident. The main results are following: - During the first year after the Chernobyl accident 75-93% of Commitment Effective Dose had been formed; - During the first year after the Chernobyl accident 85-90% of damage from radiation exposure had been formed. During the next 50 years (the late phase of accident) only 10-15% of damage from radiation exposure will have been formed; - Remedial actions (agricultural remedial actions as most effective) in Ukraine are intended for reduction of the damage from consumption of production which is contaminated in the late phase of accident. I.e. agricultural remedial actions have been intended for minimization only 10 % of the total damage from radiation exposure; - Medical countermeasures can minimize radiation exposure damage by an order of magnitude greater than agricultural countermeasures. - Thus, retrospection of nuclear accident has essentially changed type of remedial actions and has given a chance to increase effectiveness of spending by an order of magnitude. This example illustrates that in order to optimize remedial actions it is required to use data of retrospection of nuclear accidents in all cases when monitoring in the early and (or) intermediate phases is unsatisfactory. (author)« less

Nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics of iron deficiency in soybean leaves

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Iron (Fe) deficiency is an important agricultural concern leading to lower yields and crop quality. A better understanding of the condition, at the metabolome level, could contribute to the design of strategies to ameliorate Fe deficiency problems. Fe-sufficient and Fe-deficient soybean leaf extract...

Restructuring Graduate Engineering Education: The M.Eng. Program at Cornell.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cady, K. Bingham; And Others

1988-01-01

Discusses the restructuring of the graduate program to accommodate emerging fields in engineering. Notes half of the graduate degrees Cornell grants each year are M.Eng. degrees. Offers 12 specialties: aerospace, agriculture, chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical and nuclear engineering; computer science, engineering physics; geological…

Stimulating innovation for global monitoring of agriculture and its impact on the environment in support of GEOGLAM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bydekerke, Lieven; Gilliams, Sven; Gobin, Anne

2015-04-01

There is an urgent need to ensure food supply for a growing global population. To enable a sustainable growth of agricultural production, effective and timely information is required to support decision making and to improve management of agricultural resources. This requires innovative ways and monitoring methods that will not only improve short-term crop production forecasts, but also allow to assess changes in cultivation practices, agricultural areas, agriculture in general and, its impact on the environment. The G20 launched in June 2011 the "GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring initiative (GEOGLAM), requesting the GEO (Group on Earth Observations) Agricultural Community of Practice to implement GEOGLAM with the main objective to improve crop yield forecasts as an input to the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), in order to foster stabilisation of markets and increase transparency on agricultural production. In response to this need, the European Commission decided in 2013 to fund an international partnership to contribute to GEOGLAM and its research agenda. The resulting SIGMA project (Stimulating Innovation for Global Monitoring of Agriculture), a partnership of 23 globally distributed expert organisations, focusses on developing datasets and innovative techniques in support of agricultural monitoring and its impact on the environment in support of GEOGLAM. SIGMA has 3 generic objectives which are: (i) develop and test methods to characterise cropland and assess its changes at various scales; (ii) develop and test methods to assess changes in agricultural production levels; and; (iii) study environmental impacts of agriculture. Firstly, multi-scale remote sensing data sets, in combination with field and other ancillary data, will be used to generate an improved (global) agro-ecological zoning map and crop mask. Secondly, a combination of agro-meteorological models, satellite-based information and long-term time series will be explored to assess crop yield gaps and shifts in cultivation. The third research topic entails the development of best practices for assessing the impact of crop land and cropping system change on the environment. In support of the GEO JECAM (Joint Experiment for Crop Assessment and Monitoring) initiative, SIGMA has selected case studies in Ukraine, Russia, Europe, Africa, Latin America and China, coinciding with the JECAM sites in these area, to explore possible methodological synergies and particularities according to different cropping systems. In combination with research conducted at regional and global scale, it is one of the goals to improve the understanding of dynamics, interactions and validity of the developed methods at the various scales. In addition, specific activities will be dedicated to raising awareness and strengthening capacity for what concerns agro-environmental monitoring, data accessibility and interoperability in line with the GEOSS Data-core principles. The SIGMA project will also anticipate on the availability of the SENTINEL satellites for agricultural applications as open-data in the near future. References http://proba-v.vgt.vito.be/ http://www.geoglam-sigma.info/

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Osmanlioglu, Ahmet Erdal

Pre-treatment of radioactive waste is the first step in waste management program that occurs after waste generation from various applications in Turkey. Pre-treatment and characterization practices are carried out in Radioactive Waste Management Unit (RWMU) at Cekmece Nuclear Research and Training Center (CNRTC) in Istanbul. This facility has been assigned to take all low-level radioactive wastes generated by nuclear applications in Turkey. The wastes are generated from research and nuclear applications mainly in medicine, biology, agriculture, quality control in metal processing and construction industries. These wastes are classified as low- level radioactive wastes. Pre-treatment practices cover several steps. In thismore » paper, main steps of pre-treatment and characterization are presented. Basically these are; collection, segregation, chemical adjustment, size reduction and decontamination operations. (author)« less

Monitoring the effects of climate and agriculture intensity on nutrient fluxes in lowland streams: a comparison between temperate Denmark and subtropical Uruguay

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goyenola, Guillermo; Meerhof, Mariane; Teixeira de Mello, Franco; González-Bergonzoni, Ivan; Graeber, Daniel; Vidal, Nicolas; Mazzeo, Nestor; Ovesen, Niels; Jeppesen, Erik; Thodsen, Hans; Kronvang, Brian

2014-05-01

Climate is changing towards more extreme conditions all over the world. At the same time, land use is becoming more intensive worldwide and particularly in many developing countries, whereas several developed countries are trying to reduce the impacts of intensive agricultural production and lower the excessive nutrient loading and eutrophication symptoms in water bodies. In 2009, we initiated a comparative research project between the subtropical region (Uruguay) and the temperate region (Denmark) to compare the hydrology and nutrient fluxes in paired micro-catchments with extensive production or intensive agriculture. The four selected streams drained catchments of similar size (7 to 19 km2). We have established similarly equipped monitoring stations in the four micro-catchments in spring (November 2009, Uruguay; March 2010, Denmark) to monitor the effects of land use and agriculture intensity on stream hydrology and nutrient concentrations and fluxes under different climate conditions. We have conducted high frequency measurements in the four lowland streams with underwater probes (turbidity, pH, conductivity and oxygen measured every 15 minutes), fortnight grab sampling of water and automatic sampling of composite water samples for nutrient analysis (total and dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus; sampled every four hours and accumulated fortnightly). Moreover, water level and meteorological information (precipitation, air temperature, global radiation, humidity) has been recorded every 10 minutes and instantaneous flow measurements have been conducted at regular intervals, to facilitate the calculation of instantaneous discharge from continuous records of water level (stage-discharge relationships). We will show results of ca. 2 years from this comparative study between Uruguay and Denmark, and the importance of differences in climate and land use will be discussed.

Water-Related Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture and Subsequently on Public Health: A Review for Generalists with Particular Reference to Pakistan.

PubMed

Ahmed, Toqeer; Scholz, Miklas; Al-Faraj, Furat; Niaz, Wajeeha

2016-10-27

Water-related impacts due to change in climatic conditions ranging from water scarcity to intense floods and storms are increasing in developing countries like Pakistan. Water quality and waterborne diseases like hepatitis, cholera, typhoid, malaria and dengue fever are increasing due to chaotic urbanization, industrialization, poor hygienic conditions, and inappropriate water management. The morbidity rate is high due to lack of health care facilities, especially in developing countries. Organizations linked to the Government of Pakistan (e.g., Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Climate Change, Planning and Development, Ministry of Forest, Irrigation and Public Health, Pakistan Meteorological Department, National Disaster Management, Pakistan Agricultural Research Centre, Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources, and Global Change Impact Study Centre), United Nation organizations, provincial government departments, non-governmental organizations (e.g., Global Facility and Disaster Reduction), research centers linked to universities, and international organizations (International Institute for Sustainable Development, Food and Agriculture, Global Climate Fund and World Bank) are trying to reduce the water-related impacts of climate change, but due to lack of public awareness and health care infrastructure, the death rate is steadily increasing. This paper critically reviews the scientific studies and reports both at national and at international level benefiting generalists concerned with environmental and public health challenges. The article underlines the urgent need for water conservation, risk management, and the development of mitigation measures to cope with the water-related impacts of climate change on agriculture and subsequently on public health. Novel solutions and bioremediation methods have been presented to control environmental pollution and to promote awareness among the scientific community. The focus is on diverse strategies to handle the forthcoming challenges associated with water resources management.

Water-Related Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture and Subsequently on Public Health: A Review for Generalists with Particular Reference to Pakistan

PubMed Central

Ahmed, Toqeer; Scholz, Miklas; Al-Faraj, Furat; Niaz, Wajeeha

2016-01-01

Water-related impacts due to change in climatic conditions ranging from water scarcity to intense floods and storms are increasing in developing countries like Pakistan. Water quality and waterborne diseases like hepatitis, cholera, typhoid, malaria and dengue fever are increasing due to chaotic urbanization, industrialization, poor hygienic conditions, and inappropriate water management. The morbidity rate is high due to lack of health care facilities, especially in developing countries. Organizations linked to the Government of Pakistan (e.g., Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Climate Change, Planning and Development, Ministry of Forest, Irrigation and Public Health, Pakistan Meteorological Department, National Disaster Management, Pakistan Agricultural Research Centre, Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources, and Global Change Impact Study Centre), United Nation organizations, provincial government departments, non-governmental organizations (e.g., Global Facility and Disaster Reduction), research centers linked to universities, and international organizations (International Institute for Sustainable Development, Food and Agriculture, Global Climate Fund and World Bank) are trying to reduce the water-related impacts of climate change, but due to lack of public awareness and health care infrastructure, the death rate is steadily increasing. This paper critically reviews the scientific studies and reports both at national and at international level benefiting generalists concerned with environmental and public health challenges. The article underlines the urgent need for water conservation, risk management, and the development of mitigation measures to cope with the water-related impacts of climate change on agriculture and subsequently on public health. Novel solutions and bioremediation methods have been presented to control environmental pollution and to promote awareness among the scientific community. The focus is on diverse strategies to handle the forthcoming challenges associated with water resources management. PMID:27801802

A Case-Crossover Study of Heat Exposure and Injury Risk in Outdoor Agricultural Workers.

PubMed

Spector, June T; Bonauto, David K; Sheppard, Lianne; Busch-Isaksen, Tania; Calkins, Miriam; Adams, Darrin; Lieblich, Max; Fenske, Richard A

2016-01-01

Recent research suggests that heat exposure may increase the risk of traumatic injuries. Published heat-related epidemiological studies have relied upon exposure data from individual weather stations. To evaluate the association between heat exposure and traumatic injuries in outdoor agricultural workers exposed to ambient heat and internal heat generated by physical activity using modeled ambient exposure data. A case-crossover study using time-stratified referent selection among 12,213 outdoor agricultural workers with new Washington State Fund workers' compensation traumatic injury claims between 2000 and 2012 was conducted. Maximum daily Humidex exposures, derived from modeled meteorological data, were assigned to latitudes and longitudes of injury locations on injury and referent dates. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios of injury for a priori daily maximum Humidex categories. The mean of within-stratum (injury day and corresponding referent days) standard deviations of daily maximum Humidex was 4.8. The traumatic injury odds ratio was 1.14 (95% confidence interval 1.06, 1.22), 1.15 (95% confidence interval 1.06, 1.25), and 1.10 (95% confidence interval 1.01, 1.20) for daily maximum Humidex of 25-29, 30-33, and ≥34, respectively, compared to < 25, adjusted for self-reported duration of employment. Stronger associations were observed during cherry harvest duties in the June and July time period, compared to all duties over the entire study period. Agricultural workers laboring in warm conditions are at risk for heat-related traumatic injuries. Combined heat-related illness and injury prevention efforts should be considered in high-risk populations exposed to warm ambient conditions in the setting of physical exertion.

Impact of Drought on Groundwater and Soil Moisture - A Geospatial Tool for Water Resource Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ziolkowska, J. R.; Reyes, R.

2016-12-01

For many decades, recurring droughts in different regions in the US have been negatively impacting ecosystems and economic sectors. Oklahoma and Texas have been suffering from exceptional and extreme droughts in 2011-2014, with almost 95% of the state areas being affected (Drought Monitor, 2015). Accordingly, in 2011 alone, around 1.6 billion were lost in the agricultural sector alone as a result of drought in Oklahoma (Stotts 2011), and 7.6 billion in Texas agriculture (Fannin 2012). While surface water is among the instant indicators of drought conditions, it does not translate directly to groundwater resources that are the main source of irrigation water. Both surface water and groundwater are susceptible to drought, while groundwater depletion is a long-term process and might not show immediately. However, understanding groundwater availability is crucial for designing water management strategies and sustainable water use in the agricultural sector and other economic sectors. This paper presents an interactive geospatially weighted evaluation model and a tool at the same time to analyze groundwater resources that can be used for decision support in water management. The tool combines both groundwater and soil moisture changes in Oklahoma and Texas in 2003-2014, thus representing the most important indicators of agricultural and hydrological drought. The model allows for analyzing temporal and geospatial long-term drought at the county level. It can be expanded to other regions in the US and the world. The model has been validated with the Palmer Drought Index Severity Index to account for other indicators of meteorological drought. It can serve as a basis for an upcoming socio-economic and environmental analysis of drought events in the short and long-term in different geographic regions.

Monitoring and Modeling Water and Energy Fluxes in North China Plain: From Field to Regional Scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, Y.

2012-12-01

North China Plain is one of the mostly water deficit region in the world. Even though the total water withdrawal from surface and groundwater exceeded its renewable ability for long years, due to its importance to balance the food budget in China, large amount of groundwater is still extracted every year for intensive irrigation. With winter wheat and summer maize double-cropping system, the grain yield of NCP can reach a very high level of around 15 t/ha annually, which is largely depended on timely irrigation. As a result, the ceaseless over exploitation of groundwater caused serious environmental and ecological problems, e.g. nearly all the rivers run drying-up at plain areas, groundwater declined, land subsidence, and wetland shrank. The decrease in precipitation over past half century reinforced the water shortage in NCP. The sustainability of both the water resources and agriculture became the most important issue in this region. A key issue to the sustainable use of water resources is to improve the water use efficiency and reduce agricultural water consumptions. This study will introduce the efforts we put to clarify the water and heat balances in irrigated agricultural lands and its implications to crop yield, hydrology, and water resources evolution in NCP. We established a multi-scale observation system in NCP to study the surface water and heat processes and agricultural aspect of hydrological cycle in past years. Multi-disciplinary methods are adopted into this research such as micro-meteorologic, isotopic, soil hydrologic methods at the field scale, and remote sensing and modeling for study the water fluxes over regional scale. Detailed research activities and interesting as well as some initial results will be introduced at the workshop.

Impacts of irrigation on groundwater depletion in the North China Plain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ge, Yuqi; Lei, Huimin

2017-04-01

Groundwater resources is an essential water supply for agriculture in the North China Plain (NCP) which is one of the most important food production areas in China. In the past decades, excessive groundwater-fed irrigation in this area has caused sharp decline in groundwater table. However, accurate monitoring on the net groundwater exploitation is still difficult, mainly due to a lack of complete groundwater exploitation monitoring network. This hinders an accurate evaluation of the effects of agricultural managements on shallow groundwater table. In this study, we use an existing method to estimate the net irrigation amount at the county level, and evaluate the effects of current agricultural management on groundwater depletion. We apply this method in five typical counties in the NCP to estimate annual net irrigation amount from 2002 to 2015, based on meteorological data (2002-2015) and remote sensing ET data (2002-2015) . First, an agro-hydrological model (Soil-Water-Atmosphere-Plant, SWAP) is calibrated and validated at field scale based on the measured data from flux towers. Second, the model is established at reginal scale by spatial discretization. Third, we use an optimization tool (Parameter ESTimation, PEST) to optimize the irrigation parameter in SWAP so as the simulated evapotranspiration (ET) by SWAP is closest to the remote sensing ET. We expect that the simulated irrigation amount from the optimized parameter is the estimated net irrigation amount. Finally, the contribution of agricultural management to the observed groundwater depletion is assessed by calculating the groundwater balance which considers the estimated net irrigation amount, observed lateral groundwater, rainfall recharge, deep seepage, evaporation from phreatic water and domestic water use. The study is expected to give a scientific basis for alleviating the over-exploitation of groundwater resources in the area.

Impacts of Land Cover and Land Use Change on the Hydrology of the US-Mexico Border Region, 1992-2011

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bohn, T. J.; Vivoni, E. R.; Mascaro, G.; White, D. D.

2016-12-01

The semi-arid US-Mexico border region has been experiencing rapid urbanization and agricultural expansion over the last several decades, due in part to the lifting of trade barriers of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), placing additional pressures on the region's already strained water resources. Here we examine the effects of changes in land cover/use over the period 1992-2011 on the region's hydrology and water resources, using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model with an irrigation module to estimate both natural and anthropogenic water fluxes. Land cover has been taken from the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) over the US, and from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) database over Mexico, for three snapshots: 1992/3, 2001/2, and 2011. We have performed 3 simulations, one per land cover snapshot, at 6 km resolution, driven by a gridded observed meteorology dataset and a climatology of land surface characteristics derived from remote sensing products. Urban water withdrawal rates were estimated from literature. The primary changes in the region's water budget over the period 1992-2011 consisted of: (1) a shift in agricultural irrigation water withdrawals from the US to Mexico, accompanied by similar shifts in runoff (via agricultural return flow) and evapotranspiration; and (2) a 50% increase in urban water withdrawals, concentrated in the US. Because groundwater supplied most of the additional agricultural withdrawals, and occurred over already over-exploited aquifers, these changes call into question the sustainability of the region's land and water management. By synthesizing the implications of these hydrologic changes, we present a novel view of how NAFTA has altered the US-Mexico border region, possibly in unintended ways.

Strengthening Agricultural Decisions in Countries at Risk of Food Insecurity: The GEOGLAM Crop Monitor for Early Warning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becker-Reshef, I.; Barker, B.; McGaughey, K.; Humber, M. L.; Sanchez, A.; Justice, C. O.; Rembold, F.; Verdin, J. P.

2016-12-01

Timely, reliable information on crop conditions, and prospects at the subnational scale, is critical for making informed policy and agricultural decisions for ensuring food security, particularly for the most vulnerable countries. However, such information is often incomplete or lacking. As such, the Crop Monitor for Early Warning (CM for EW) was developed with the goal to reduce uncertainty and strengthen decision support by providing actionable information on a monthly basis to national, regional and global food security agencies through timely consensus assessments of crop conditions. This information is especially critical in recent years, given the extreme weather conditions impacting food supplies including the most recent El Nino event. This initiative brings together the main international food security monitoring agencies and organizations to develop monthly crop assessments based on satellite observations, meteorological information, field observations and ground reports, which reflect an international consensus. This activity grew out of the successful Crop Monitor for the G20 Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), which provides operational monthly crop assessments of the main producing countries of the world. The CM for EW was launched in February 2016 and has already become a trusted source of information internationally and regionally. Its assessments have been featured in a large number of news articles, reports, and press releases, including a joint statement by the USAID's FEWS NET, UN World Food Program, European Commission Joint Research Center, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organziation, on the devastating impacts of the southern African drought due to El Nino. One of the main priorities for this activity going forward is to expand its partnership with regional and national monitoring agencies, and strengthen capacity for national crop condition assessments.

Ambient endotoxin in PM10 and association with inflammatory activity, air pollutants, and meteorology, in Chitwan, Nepal.

PubMed

Mahapatra, Parth Sarathi; Jain, Sumeet; Shrestha, Sujan; Senapati, Shantibhusan; Puppala, Siva Praveen

2018-03-15

Endotoxin associated with ambient PM (particulate matter) has been linked to adverse respiratory symptoms, but there have been few studies of ambient endotoxin and its association with co-pollutants and inflammation. Our aim was to measure endotoxin associated with ambient PM 10 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter<10μm) in summer 2016 at four locations in Chitwan, Nepal, and investigate its association with meteorology, co-pollutants, and inflammatory activity. PM 10 concentrations were recorded and filter paper samples were collected using E-samplers; PM 1, PM 2.5 , black carbon (BC), methane (CH 4 ), and carbon monoxide (CO) were also measured. The Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay was used for endotoxin quantification and the nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB) activation assay to assess inflammatory activity. The mean concentration of PM 10 at the different locations ranged from 136 to 189μg/m 3 , and of endotoxin from 0.29 to 0.53EU/m 3 . Pollutant presence was positively correlated with endotoxin. Apart from relative humidity, meteorological variations had no significant impact on endotoxin concentration. NF-κB activity was negatively correlated with endotoxin concentration. To the best of our knowledge, this study provides the first measurements of ambient endotoxin associated with PM 10 in Nepal. Endotoxin and co-pollutants were positively associated indicating a similar source. Endotoxin was negatively correlated with inflammatory activity as a result of a time-limited forest fire event during the sampling period. Studies of co-pollutants suggested that the higher levels of endotoxin related to biomass burning were accompanied by increased levels of anti-inflammatory agents, which suppressed the endotoxin inflammatory effect. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Agricultural ammonia emissions in China: reconciling bottom-up and top-down estimates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Lin; Chen, Youfan; Zhao, Yuanhong; Henze, Daven K.; Zhu, Liye; Song, Yu; Paulot, Fabien; Liu, Xuejun; Pan, Yuepeng; Lin, Yi; Huang, Binxiang

2018-01-01

Current estimates of agricultural ammonia (NH3) emissions in China differ by more than a factor of 2, hindering our understanding of their environmental consequences. Here we apply both bottom-up statistical and top-down inversion methods to quantify NH3 emissions from agriculture in China for the year 2008. We first assimilate satellite observations of NH3 column concentration from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) using the GEOS-Chem adjoint model to optimize Chinese anthropogenic NH3 emissions at the 1/2° × 2/3° horizontal resolution for March-October 2008. Optimized emissions show a strong summer peak, with emissions about 50 % higher in summer than spring and fall, which is underestimated in current bottom-up NH3 emission estimates. To reconcile the latter with the top-down results, we revisit the processes of agricultural NH3 emissions and develop an improved bottom-up inventory of Chinese NH3 emissions from fertilizer application and livestock waste at the 1/2° × 2/3° resolution. Our bottom-up emission inventory includes more detailed information on crop-specific fertilizer application practices and better accounts for meteorological modulation of NH3 emission factors in China. We find that annual anthropogenic NH3 emissions are 11.7 Tg for 2008, with 5.05 Tg from fertilizer application and 5.31 Tg from livestock waste. The two sources together account for 88 % of total anthropogenic NH3 emissions in China. Our bottom-up emission estimates also show a distinct seasonality peaking in summer, consistent with top-down results from the satellite-based inversion. Further evaluations using surface network measurements show that the model driven by our bottom-up emissions reproduces the observed spatial and seasonal variations of NH3 gas concentrations and ammonium (NH4+) wet deposition fluxes over China well, providing additional credibility to the improvements we have made to our agricultural NH3 emission inventory.

Localizing drought monitoring products to support agricultural climate service advisories in South Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qamer, F. M.; Matin, M. A.; Yadav, N. K.; Bajracharya, B.; Zaitchik, B. F.; Ellenburg, W. L.; Krupnik, T. J.; Hussain, G.

2017-12-01

The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change identifies drought as one of the major climate risks in South Asia. During past two decades, a large amount of climate data have been made available by the scientific community, but the deployment of climate information for local level and agricultural decision making remains less than optimal. The provisioning of locally calibrated, easily accessible, decision-relevant and user-oriented information, in the form of drought advisory service could help to prepare communities to reduce climate vulnerability and increase resilience. A collaborative effort is now underway to strengthen existing and/or establish new drought monitoring and early warning systems in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan by incorporating standard ground-based observations, earth observation datasets, and numerical forecast models. ICT-based agriculture drought monitoring platforms, hosted at national agricultural and meteorological institutions, are being developed and coupled with communications and information deployment strategies to enable the rapid and efficient deployment of information that farmers can understand, interpret, and act on to adapt to anticipated droughts. Particular emphasis is being placed on the calibration and validation of data products through retrospective analysis of time series data, in addition to the installation of automatic weather station networks. In order to contextualize monitoring products to that they may be relevant for farmers' primary cropping systems, district level farming practices calendars are being compiled and validated through focus groups and surveys to identify the most important times and situations during which farmers can adapt to drought. High-resolution satellite crop distribution maps are under development and validation to add value to these efforts. This programme also aims to enhance capacity of agricultural extension staff to better understand climate information, probabilistic forecasts, related technologies, and adaptation strategies, in addition to equipping them with increased capacity to convey drought risks to farmers and improve climate related decision making.

Drought Risk Identification: Early Warning System of Seasonal Agrometeorological Drought

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalecios, Nicolas; Spyropoulos, Nicos V.; Tarquis, Ana M.

2014-05-01

By considering drought as a hazard, drought types are classified into three categories, namely meteorological or climatological, agrometeorological or agricultural and hydrological drought and as a fourth class the socioeconomic impacts can be considered. This paper addresses agrometeorological drought affecting agriculture within the risk management framework. Risk management consists of risk assessment, as well as a feedback on the adopted risk reduction measures. And risk assessment comprises three distinct steps, namely risk identification, risk estimation and risk evaluation. This paper deals with the quantification and monitoring of agrometeorological drought, which constitute part of risk identification. For the quantitative assessment of agrometeorological or agricultural drought, as well as the computation of spatiotemporal features, one of the most reliable and widely used indices is applied, namely the Vegetation Health Index (VHI). The computation of VHI is based on satellite data of temperature and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The spatiotemporal features of drought, which are extracted from VHI are: areal extent, onset and end time, duration and severity. In this paper, a 20-year (1981-2001) time series of NOAA/AVHRR satellite data is used, where monthly images of VHI are extracted. Application is implemented in Thessaly, which is the major agricultural region of Greece characterized by vulnerable and drought-prone agriculture. The results show that every year there is a seasonal agrometeorological drought with a gradual increase in the areal extent and severity with peaks appearing usually during the summer. Drought monitoring is conducted by monthly remotely sensed VHI images. Drought early warning is developed using empirical relationships of severity and areal extent. In particular, two second-order polynomials are fitted, one for low and the other for high severity drought, respectively. The two fitted curves offer a seasonal forecasting tool on a monthly basis from April till October each year. The results of this drought risk identification effort are considered quite satisfactory offering a prognostic potential for seasonal agrometeorological drought. Key words: agrometeorological drought, risk identification, remote sensing.

2. SOUTH FACE OF METEOROLOGICAL SHED (BLDG. 756) WITH METEOROLOGICAL ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

2. SOUTH FACE OF METEOROLOGICAL SHED (BLDG. 756) WITH METEOROLOGICAL DATA ACQUISITION TERMINAL (MDAT) INSIDE BUILDING - Vandenberg Air Force Base, Space Launch Complex 3, Meteorological Shed & Tower, Napa & Alden Roads, Lompoc, Santa Barbara County, CA

Phosphorus solubility of agricultural soils: a surface charge and phosphorus-31 NMR speciation study

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

We investigated ten soils from six states in United States to determine the relationship between potentiometric titration derived soil surface charge and Phosphorus-31 (P) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) speciation with the concentration of water-extractable P (WEP). The surface charge value at the...

Economic Bases for Lessening U.S.-Soviet Tensions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Lester R.

1982-01-01

Discusses how the increasing Soviet dependence on American grain can be used to reduce international tensions. Soviet agricultural policies could affect worker morale and the entire Soviet political system. President Reagan is well-positioned to engage the Soviets in serious discussions of reductions in both nuclear and conventional weapons. (AM)

Agricultural ecosystems - The world is watching

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Madison, M.F.; Licht, L.A.

1990-02-01

Environmental degradation is displacing nuclear war as the overriding concern of the world's people. An accusing finger is rightfully pointed at agricultural practices - for degrading water, air, food, and societal quality. As reported in the popular and technical press, there is a clamor for farming technology that is both productive and ecological. We cannot survive without a productive agriculture. Yet, the eroding soil, the degrading water quality, the decrease in farm profitability, the reductions in wildlife populations, and the closing store fronts in rural America point to a need for new management approaches. The word sustainable continues to bemore » mentioned as an underlying theme for future management techniques. Soil, air, and water form a seamless whole - the thin envelope we call the biosphere. The term sustainable agriculture implies a nourishing stewardship of the biosphere when used by farmers in pursuit of their livelihood. This biosphere simultaneously produces and sustains a multitude of products, including ourselves. It is all we have to create both our present and our future.« less

The roles and functions of a lunar base Nuclear Technology Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buden, D.; Angelo, J. A., Jr.

This paper describes the roles and functions of a special Nuclear Technology Center which is developed as an integral part of a permanent lunar base. Numerous contemporary studies clearly point out that nuclear energy technology will play a major role in any successful lunar/Mars initiative program and in the overall establishment of humanity's solar system civilization. The key role of nuclear energy in the providing power has been recognized. A Nuclear Technology Center developed as part of a permanent lunar base can also help bring about many other nuclear technology applications, such as producing radioisotopes for self-illumination, food preservation, waste sterilization, and medical treatment; providing thermal energy for mining, materials processing and agricultural; and as a source of emergency habitat power. Designing such a center will involve the deployment, operation, servicing and waste product management and disposal of megawatt class reactor power plants. This challenge must be met with a minimum of direct human support at the facility. Furthermore, to support the timely, efficient integration of this Nuclear Technology Center in the evolving lunar base infrastructure, an analog of such a facility will be needed here on Earth.

Estimating the agricultural fertilizer NH3 emission in China based on the bi-directional CMAQ model and an agro-ecosystem model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, S.

2014-12-01

Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) plays an important role in fine particle formation. Accurate estimates of ammonia can reduce uncertainties in air quality modeling. China is one of the largest countries emitting ammonia with the majority of NH3 emissions coming from the agricultural practices, such as fertilizer applications and animal operations. The current ammonia emission estimates in China are mainly based on pre-defined emission factors. Thus, there are considerable uncertainties in estimating NH3 emissions, especially in time and space distribution. For example, fertilizer applications vary in the date of application and amount by geographical regions and crop types. In this study, the NH3 emission from the agricultural fertilizer use in China of 2011 was estimated online by an agricultural fertilizer modeling system coupling a regional air-quality model and an agro-ecosystem model, which contains three main components 1) the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model, 2) the meso-scale meteorology Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and 3) the CMAQ air quality model with bi-directional ammonia fluxes. The EPIC output information about daily fertilizer application and soil characteristics would be the input of the CMAQ model. In order to run EPIC model, much Chinese local information is collected and processed. For example, Crop land data are computed from the MODIS land use data at 500-m resolution and crop categories at Chinese county level; the fertilizer use rate for different fertilizer types, crops and provinces are obtained from Chinese statistic materials. The system takes into consideration many influencing factors on agriculture ammonia emission, including weather, the fertilizer application method, timing, amount, and rate for specific pastures and crops. The simulated fertilizer data is compared with the NH3 emissions and fertilizer application data from other sources. The results of CMAQ modeling are also discussed and analyzed with field measurements. The estimated agricultural fertilizer NH3 emission in this study is about 3Tg in 2011. The regions with the highest emission rates are located in the North China Plain. Monthly, the peak ammonia emissions occur in April to July.

Climatic Changes and Evaluation of Their Effects on Agriculture in Asian Monsoon Region- A project of GRENE-ei programs in Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mizoguchi, M.; Matsumoto, J.; Takahashi, H. G.; Tanaka, K.; Kuwagata, T.

2015-12-01

It is important to predict climate change correctly in regional scale and to build adaptation measures and mitigation measures in the Asian monsoon region where more than 60 % of the world's population are living. The reliability of climate change prediction model is evaluated by the reproducibility of past climate in general. However, because there are many developing countries in the Asian monsoon region, adequate documentations of past climate which are needed to evaluate the climate reproducibility have not been prepared. In addition, at present it is difficult to get information on wide-area agricultural meteorological data which affect the growth of agricultural crops when considering the impact on agriculture of climate. Therefore, we have started a research project entitled "Climatic changes and evaluation of their effects on agriculture in Asian monsoon region (CAAM)" under the research framework of the Green Network of Excellence (GRENE) for the Japanese fiscal years from 2011 to 2015 supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). This project aims to improve the reliability of future climate prediction and to develop the information platform which will be useful to design adaptation and mitigation strategies in agriculture against the predicted climatic changes in Asian monsoon regions. What is GRENE?Based on the new growth strategy which was approved by the Cabinet of Japan in June 2010, Green Network of Excellence program (GRENE) has started under MEXT from FY 2011. The objectives of this program are that the domestic leading universities work together strategically and promote a comprehensive human resource development and research of the highest level in the world while sharing research resources and research goals. In the field of environmental information, it is required that universities and research institutions, which are working on issues such as adaptation to climate change, cooperate to promote the utilization of environmental information and to develop human resources while using DIAS (Data Integration and Analysis System) which has been built by MEXT.

Absolute Radiometric Calibration of the GÖKTÜRK-2 Satellite Sensor Using Tuz GÖLÜ (landnet Site) from Ndvi Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakarya, Ufuk; Hakkı Demirhan, İsmail; Seda Deveci, Hüsne; Teke, Mustafa; Demirkesen, Can; Küpçü, Ramazan; Feray Öztoprak, A.; Efendioğlu, Mehmet; Fehmi Şimşek, F.; Berke, Erdinç; Zübeyde Gürbüz, Sevgi

2016-06-01

TÜBİTAK UZAY has conducted a research study on the use of space-based satellite resources for several aspects of agriculture. Especially, there are two precision agriculture related projects: HASSAS (Widespread application of sustainable precision agriculture practices in Southeastern Anatolia Project Region (GAP) Project) and AKTAR (Smart Agriculture Feasibility Project). The HASSAS project aims to study development of precision agriculture practice in GAP region. Multi-spectral satellite imagery and aerial hyperspectral data along with ground measurements was collected to analyze data in an information system. AKTAR aims to develop models for irrigation, fertilization and spectral signatures of crops in Inner Anatolia. By the end of the project precision agriculture practices to control irrigation, fertilization, pesticide and estimation of crop yield will be developed. Analyzing the phenology of crops using NDVI is critical for the projects. For this reason, absolute radiometric calibration of the Red and NIR bands in space-based satellite sensors is an important issue. The Göktürk-2 satellite is an earth observation satellite which was designed and built in Turkey and was launched in 2012. The Göktürk-2 satellite sensor has a resolution 2.5 meters in panchromatic and 5 meters in R/G/B/NIR bands. The absolute radiometric calibration of the Göktürk-2 satellite sensor was performed via the ground-based measurements - spectra-radiometer, sun photometer, and meteorological station- in Tuz Gölü cal/val site in 2015. In this paper, the first ground-based absolute radiometric calibration results of the Göktürk-2 satellite sensor using Tuz Gölü is demonstrated. The absolute radiometric calibration results of this paper are compared with the published cross-calibration results of the Göktürk-2 satellite sensor utilizing Landsat 8 imagery. According to the experimental comparison results, the Göktürk-2 satellite sensor coefficients for red and NIR bands estimated in this work sustained to agree within 2% of calibration coefficients estimated in the cross-calibration results.

Modeling Spatial and Temporal Variability in Ammonia Emissions from Agricultural Fertilization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Balasubramanian, S.; Koloutsou-Vakakis, S.; Rood, M. J.

2013-12-01

Ammonia (NH3), is an important component of the reactive nitrogen cycle and a precursor to formation of atmospheric particulate matter (PM). Predicting regional PM concentrations and deposition of nitrogen species to ecosystems requires representative emission inventories. Emission inventories have traditionally been developed using top down approaches and more recently from data assimilation based on satellite and ground based ambient concentrations and wet deposition data. The National Emission Inventory (NEI) indicates agricultural fertilization as the predominant contributor (56%) to NH3 emissions in Midwest USA, in 2002. However, due to limited understanding of the complex interactions between fertilizer usage, farm practices, soil and meteorological conditions and absence of detailed statistical data, such emission estimates are currently based on generic emission factors, time-averaged temporal factors and coarse spatial resolution. Given the significance of this source, our study focuses on developing an improved NH3 emission inventory for agricultural fertilization at finer spatial and temporal scales for air quality modeling studies. Firstly, a high-spatial resolution 4 km x 4 km NH3 emission inventory for agricultural fertilization has been developed for Illinois by modifying spatial allocation of emissions based on combining crop-specific fertilization rates with cropland distribution in the Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions model. Net emission estimates of our method are within 2% of NEI, since both methods are constrained by fertilizer sales data. However, we identified localized crop-specific NH3 emission hotspots at sub-county resolutions absent in NEI. Secondly, we have adopted the use of the DeNitrification-DeComposition (DNDC) Biogeochemistry model to simulate the physical and chemical processes that control volatilization of nitrogen as NH3 to the atmosphere after fertilizer application and resolve the variability at the hourly scale. Representative temporal factors are being developed to capture crop-specific NH3 emission variability by combining knowledge of local crop management practices with high resolution cropland and soil maps. This improved spatially and temporally dependent NH3 emission inventory for agricultural fertilization is being prepared as a direct input to a state of the art air quality model to evaluate the effects of agricultural fertilization on regional air quality and atmospheric deposition of reactive nitrogen species.

Transport of pollutants from cow feedlots in eastern Colorado into Rocky Mountain alpine lakes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pina, A.; Denning, S.; Schumacher, R. S.

2012-12-01

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), also called factory farms, are known for raising tens of millions head of livestock including cows (beef and dairy), swine, and poultry. With as many as 250 head of cattle per acre, a United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) report showed beef cattle from CAFOs in the United States produce as much as 24.1 million tons of manure annually. Gases released from cow manure include methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and ammonia (NH3). During boreal summers Colorado experiences fewer synoptic weather systems, allowing the diurnal cycle to exert greater control of meteorological events along the mountain-plains interface. Anabatic, or upslope winds induced by the diurnal cycle, contribute largely to the transport of gases and particulates from feedlots in eastern Colorado into the Rocky Mountains, presenting a potential harm to natural alpine ecosystems. This study focuses on locating the source of transport of gases from feedlots along the eastern Front Range of Colorado into alpine lakes of the Rocky Mountains. Source regions are approximated using backward time simulation of a Lagrangian Transport model.

The electronic Rothamsted Archive (e-RA), an online resource for data from the Rothamsted long-term experiments

PubMed Central

Perryman, Sarah A. M.; Castells-Brooke, Nathalie I. D.; Glendining, Margaret J.; Goulding, Keith W. T.; Hawkesford, Malcolm J.; Macdonald, Andy J.; Ostler, Richard J.; Poulton, Paul R.; Rawlings, Christopher J.; Scott, Tony; Verrier, Paul J.

2018-01-01

The electronic Rothamsted Archive, e-RA (www.era.rothamsted.ac.uk) provides a permanent managed database to both securely store and disseminate data from Rothamsted Research’s long-term field experiments (since 1843) and meteorological stations (since 1853). Both historical and contemporary data are made available via this online database which provides the scientific community with access to a unique continuous record of agricultural experiments and weather measured since the mid-19th century. Qualitative information, such as treatment and management practices, plans and soil information, accompanies the data and are made available on the e-RA website. e-RA was released externally to the wider scientific community in 2013 and this paper describes its development, content, curation and the access process for data users. Case studies illustrate the diverse applications of the data, including its original intended purposes and recent unforeseen applications. Usage monitoring demonstrates the data are of increasing interest. Future developments, including adopting FAIR data principles, are proposed as the resource is increasingly recognised as a unique archive of data relevant to sustainable agriculture, agroecology and the environment. PMID:29762552

Tools based on multivariate statistical analysis for classification of soil and groundwater in Apulian agricultural sites.

PubMed

Ielpo, Pierina; Leardi, Riccardo; Pappagallo, Giuseppe; Uricchio, Vito Felice

2017-06-01

In this paper, the results obtained from multivariate statistical techniques such as PCA (Principal component analysis) and LDA (Linear discriminant analysis) applied to a wide soil data set are presented. The results have been compared with those obtained on a groundwater data set, whose samples were collected together with soil ones, within the project "Improvement of the Regional Agro-meteorological Monitoring Network (2004-2007)". LDA, applied to soil data, has allowed to distinguish the geographical origin of the sample from either one of the two macroaeras: Bari and Foggia provinces vs Brindisi, Lecce e Taranto provinces, with a percentage of correct prediction in cross validation of 87%. In the case of the groundwater data set, the best classification was obtained when the samples were grouped into three macroareas: Foggia province, Bari province and Brindisi, Lecce and Taranto provinces, by reaching a percentage of correct predictions in cross validation of 84%. The obtained information can be very useful in supporting soil and water resource management, such as the reduction of water consumption and the reduction of energy and chemical (nutrients and pesticides) inputs in agriculture.

A Field-Scale Sensor Network Data Set for Monitoring and Modeling the Spatial and Temporal Variation of Soil Water Content in a Dryland Agricultural Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gasch, C. K.; Brown, D. J.; Campbell, C. S.; Cobos, D. R.; Brooks, E. S.; Chahal, M.; Poggio, M.

2017-12-01

We describe a soil water content monitoring data set and auxiliary data collected at a 37 ha experimental no-till farm in the Northwestern United States. Water content measurements have been compiled hourly since 2007 by ECH2O-TE and 5TE sensors installed at 42 locations and five depths (0.3, 0.6, 0.9, 1.2, and 1.5 m, 210 sensors total) across the R.J. Cook Agronomy Farm, a Long-Term Agro-Ecosystem Research Site stationed on complex terrain in a Mediterranean climate. In addition to soil water content readings, the data set includes hourly and daily soil temperature readings, annual crop histories, a digital elevation model, Bt horizon maps, seasonal apparent electrical conductivity, soil texture, and soil bulk density. Meteorological records are also available for this location. We discuss the unique challenges of maintaining the network on an operating farm and demonstrate the nature and complexity of the soil water content data. This data set is accessible online through the National Agriculture Library, has been assigned a DOI, and will be maintained for the long term.

Agricultural losses related to frost events: use of the 850 hPa level temperature as an explanatory variable of the damage cost

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papagiannaki, K.; Lagouvardos, K.; Kotroni, V.; Papagiannakis, G.

2014-01-01

The objective of this study is to analyze frost damaging events in agriculture, by examining the relationship between the daily minimum temperature at the lower atmosphere (at the pressure level of 850 hPa) and crop production losses. Furthermore, the study suggests a methodological approach for estimating agriculture risk due to frost events, with the aim to estimate the short-term probability and magnitude of frost-related financial losses for different levels of 850 hPa temperature. Compared with near surface temperature forecasts, temperature forecast at the level of 850 hPa is less influenced by varying weather conditions, as well as by local topographical features, thus it constitutes a more consistent indicator of the forthcoming weather conditions. The analysis of the daily monetary compensations for insured crop losses caused by weather events in Greece, during the period 1999-2011, shows that frost is the major meteorological phenomenon with adverse effects on crop productivity in the largest part of the country. Two regions of different geographical latitude are further examined, to account for the differences in the temperature ranges developed within their ecological environment. Using a series of linear and logistic regressions, we found that minimum temperature (at 850 hPa level), grouped in three categories according to its magnitude, and seasonality are significant variables when trying to explain crop damage costs, as well as to predict and quantify the likelihood and magnitude of frost damaging events.

Simulated vs. empirical weather responsiveness of crop yields: US evidence and implications for the agricultural impacts of climate change

DOE PAGES

Mistry, Malcolm N.; Wing, Ian Sue; De Cian, Enrica

2017-07-10

Global gridded crop models (GGCMs) are the workhorse of assessments of the agricultural impacts of climate change. Yet the changes in crop yields projected by different models in response to the same meteorological forcing can differ substantially. Through an inter-method comparison, we provide a first glimpse into the origins and implications of this divergence—both among GGCMs and between GGCMs and historical observations. We examine yields of rainfed maize, wheat, and soybeans simulated by six GGCMs as part of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project-Fast Track (ISIMIP-FT) exercise, comparing 1981–2004 hindcast yields over the coterminous United States (US) against US Departmentmore » of Agriculture (USDA) time series for about 1000 counties. Leveraging the empirical climate change impacts literature, we estimate reduced-form econometric models of crop yield responses to temperature and precipitation exposures for both GGCMs and observations. We find that up to 60% of the variance in both simulated and observed yields is attributable to weather variation. A majority of the GGCMs have difficulty reproducing the observed distribution of percentage yield anomalies, and exhibit aggregate responses that show yields to be more weather-sensitive than in the observational record over the predominant range of temperature and precipitation conditions. In conclusion, this disparity is largely attributable to heterogeneity in GGCMs' responses, as opposed to uncertainty in historical weather forcings, and is responsible for widely divergent impacts of climate on future crop yields.« less

Simulated vs. empirical weather responsiveness of crop yields: US evidence and implications for the agricultural impacts of climate change

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mistry, Malcolm N.; Wing, Ian Sue; De Cian, Enrica

Global gridded crop models (GGCMs) are the workhorse of assessments of the agricultural impacts of climate change. Yet the changes in crop yields projected by different models in response to the same meteorological forcing can differ substantially. Through an inter-method comparison, we provide a first glimpse into the origins and implications of this divergence—both among GGCMs and between GGCMs and historical observations. We examine yields of rainfed maize, wheat, and soybeans simulated by six GGCMs as part of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project-Fast Track (ISIMIP-FT) exercise, comparing 1981–2004 hindcast yields over the coterminous United States (US) against US Departmentmore » of Agriculture (USDA) time series for about 1000 counties. Leveraging the empirical climate change impacts literature, we estimate reduced-form econometric models of crop yield responses to temperature and precipitation exposures for both GGCMs and observations. We find that up to 60% of the variance in both simulated and observed yields is attributable to weather variation. A majority of the GGCMs have difficulty reproducing the observed distribution of percentage yield anomalies, and exhibit aggregate responses that show yields to be more weather-sensitive than in the observational record over the predominant range of temperature and precipitation conditions. In conclusion, this disparity is largely attributable to heterogeneity in GGCMs' responses, as opposed to uncertainty in historical weather forcings, and is responsible for widely divergent impacts of climate on future crop yields.« less

Agricultural losses related to frost events: use of the 850 hPa level temperature as an explanatory variable of the damage cost

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papagiannaki, K.; Lagouvardos, K.; Kotroni, V.; Papagiannakis, G.

2014-09-01

The objective of this study is the analysis of damaging frost events in agriculture, by examining the relationship between the daily minimum temperature in the lower atmosphere (at an isobaric level of 850 hPa) and crop production losses. Furthermore, the study suggests a methodological approach for estimating agriculture risk due to frost events, with the aim of estimating the short-term probability and magnitude of frost-related financial losses for different levels of 850 hPa temperature. Compared with near-surface temperature forecasts, temperature forecasts at the level of 850 hPa are less influenced by varying weather conditions or by local topographical features; thus, they constitute a more consistent indicator of the forthcoming weather conditions. The analysis of the daily monetary compensations for insured crop losses caused by weather events in Greece shows that, during the period 1999-2011, frost caused more damage to crop production than any other meteorological phenomenon. Two regions of different geographical latitudes are examined further, to account for the differences in the temperature ranges developed within their ecological environment. Using a series of linear and logistic regressions, we found that minimum temperature (at an 850 hPa level), grouped into three categories according to its magnitude, and seasonality, are significant variables when trying to explain crop damage costs, as well as to predict and quantify the likelihood and magnitude of damaging frost events.

Fog in a marginal agricultural area surrounded by montane Andean cloud forest during El Niño climate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

García-Santos, G.

2010-07-01

The aim of the present study was to evaluate temporal variations of water inputs, rainfall and fog (cloud water), and its contribution to the water balance in a marginal agricultural area of potato surrounded by tropical montane cloud forest in Colombia. Fog in the air boundary layer was estimated using a cylindrical fog collector. Liquid water content of fog events were evaluated before and during natural climate event of El Niño. Our study shows the temporal variation of these two water inputs in both daily and monthly cycles on Boyacá at 2900 m a.s.l. Rainfall was the most frequently observed atmospheric phenomenon, being present on average 62% of the days per year, whereas fog was 45% of the time. Reflected on the lower frequency, annual amount of fog was 11% of precipitation. However during the anomalous dry climate of El Niño, total amount of rainfall was negligible and the few fog events were the only water source for plant growth. Estimated water crop requirements were higher than the water inputs. The survival of the crops was explained by meteorological conditions during dew and fog events. High relative humidity might have eased the plant’s water stress by decreasing transpiration and temperature in leaves and soil, affecting the water balance and the heat exchange between the atmosphere-land interfaces in the marginal agricultural areas during exceptional dry climate.

Assessment of seasonal soil moisture forecasts over Southern South America with emphasis on dry and wet events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spennemann, Pablo; Rivera, Juan Antonio; Osman, Marisol; Saulo, Celeste; Penalba, Olga

2017-04-01

The importance of forecasting extreme wet and dry conditions from weeks to months in advance relies on the need to prevent considerable socio-economic losses, mainly in regions of large populations and where agriculture is a key value for the economies, like Southern South America (SSA). Therefore, to improve the understanding of the performance and uncertainties of seasonal soil moisture and precipitation forecasts over SSA, this study aims to: 1) perform a general assessment of the Climate Forecast System version-2 (CFSv2) soil moisture and precipitation forecasts; and 2) evaluate the CFSv2 ability to represent an extreme drought event merging observations with forecasted Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Soil Moisture Anomalies (SSMA) based on GLDAS-2.0 simulations. Results show that both SPI and SSMA forecast skill are regionally and seasonally dependent. In general a fast degradation of the forecasts skill is observed as the lead time increases with no significant metrics for forecast lead times longer than 2 months. Based on the assessment of the 2008-2009 extreme drought event it is evident that the CFSv2 forecasts have limitations regarding the identification of drought onset, duration, severity and demise, considering both meteorological (SPI) and agricultural (SSMA) drought conditions. These results have some implications upon the use of seasonal forecasts to assist agricultural practices in SSA, given that forecast skill is still too low to be useful for lead times longer than 2 months.

Integration of Satellite, Global Reanalysis Data and Macroscale Hydrological Model for Drought Assessment in Sub-Tropical Region of India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pandey, V.; Srivastava, P. K.

2018-04-01

Change in soil moisture regime is highly relevant for agricultural drought, which can be best analyzed in terms of Soil Moisture Deficit Index (SMDI). A macroscale hydrological model Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) was used to simulate the hydro-climatological fluxes including evapotranspiration, runoff, and soil moisture storage to reconstruct the severity and duration of agricultural drought over semi-arid region of India. The simulations in VIC were performed at 0.25° spatial resolution by using a set of meteorological forcing data, soil parameters and Land Use Land Cover (LULC) and vegetation parameters. For calibration and validation, soil parameters obtained from National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (NBSSLUP) and ESA's Climate Change Initiative soil moisture (CCI-SM) data respectively. The analysis of results demonstrates that most of the study regions (> 80 %) especially for central northern part are affected by drought condition. The year 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 and 2009 was highly affected by agricultural drought. Due to high average and maximum temperature, we observed higher soil evaporation that reduces the surface soil moisture significantly as well as the high topographic variations; coarse soil texture and moderate to high wind speed enhanced the drying upper soil moisture layer that incorporate higher negative SMDI over the study area. These findings can also facilitate the archetype in terms of daily time step data, lengths of the simulation period, various hydro-climatological outputs and use of reasonable hydrological model.

Simulated vs. empirical weather responsiveness of crop yields: US evidence and implications for the agricultural impacts of climate change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mistry, Malcolm N.; Wing, Ian Sue; De Cian, Enrica

2017-07-01

Global gridded crop models (GGCMs) are the workhorse of assessments of the agricultural impacts of climate change. Yet the changes in crop yields projected by different models in response to the same meteorological forcing can differ substantially. Through an inter-method comparison, we provide a first glimpse into the origins and implications of this divergence—both among GGCMs and between GGCMs and historical observations. We examine yields of rainfed maize, wheat, and soybeans simulated by six GGCMs as part of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project-Fast Track (ISIMIP-FT) exercise, comparing 1981-2004 hindcast yields over the coterminous United States (US) against US Department of Agriculture (USDA) time series for about 1000 counties. Leveraging the empirical climate change impacts literature, we estimate reduced-form econometric models of crop yield responses to temperature and precipitation exposures for both GGCMs and observations. We find that up to 60% of the variance in both simulated and observed yields is attributable to weather variation. A majority of the GGCMs have difficulty reproducing the observed distribution of percentage yield anomalies, and exhibit aggregate responses that show yields to be more weather-sensitive than in the observational record over the predominant range of temperature and precipitation conditions. This disparity is largely attributable to heterogeneity in GGCMs’ responses, as opposed to uncertainty in historical weather forcings, and is responsible for widely divergent impacts of climate on future crop yields.

Modified ensemble Kalman filter for nuclear accident atmospheric dispersion: prediction improved and source estimated.

PubMed

Zhang, X L; Su, G F; Yuan, H Y; Chen, J G; Huang, Q Y

2014-09-15

Atmospheric dispersion models play an important role in nuclear power plant accident management. A reliable estimation of radioactive material distribution in short range (about 50 km) is in urgent need for population sheltering and evacuation planning. However, the meteorological data and the source term which greatly influence the accuracy of the atmospheric dispersion models are usually poorly known at the early phase of the emergency. In this study, a modified ensemble Kalman filter data assimilation method in conjunction with a Lagrangian puff-model is proposed to simultaneously improve the model prediction and reconstruct the source terms for short range atmospheric dispersion using the off-site environmental monitoring data. Four main uncertainty parameters are considered: source release rate, plume rise height, wind speed and wind direction. Twin experiments show that the method effectively improves the predicted concentration distribution, and the temporal profiles of source release rate and plume rise height are also successfully reconstructed. Moreover, the time lag in the response of ensemble Kalman filter is shortened. The method proposed here can be a useful tool not only in the nuclear power plant accident emergency management but also in other similar situation where hazardous material is released into the atmosphere. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of atmospheric transport patterns on xenon detections at the CTBTO radionuclide network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krysta, Monika; Kusmierczyk-Michulec, Jolanta

2016-04-01

In order to fulfil its task of monitoring for signals emanating from nuclear explosions, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) operates global International Monitoring System (IMS) comprising seismic, infrasound, hydroacoustic and radionuclide measurement networks. At present, 24 among 80 radionuclide stations foreseen by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) are equipped with certified noble gas measurement systems. Over a past couple of years these systems collected a rich set of measurements of radioactive isotopes of xenon. Atmospheric transport modelling simulations are crucial to an assessment of the origin of xenon detected at the IMS stations. Numerous studies undertaken in the past enabled linking these detections to non Treaty-relevant activities and identifying main contributors. Presence and quantity of xenon isotopes at the stations is hence a result of an interplay of emission patterns and atmospheric circulation. In this presentation we analyse the presence or absence of radioactive xenon at selected stations from an angle of such an interplay. We attempt to classify the stations according to similarity of detection patterns, examine seasonality in those patterns and link them to large scale or local meteorological phenomena. The studies are undertaken using crude hypotheses on emission patterns from known sources and atmospheric transport modelling simulations prepared with the FLEXPART model.

Atmospheric Radioxenon Measurements in North Las Vegas, NV

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Milbrath, Brian D.; Cooper, Matthew W.; Lidey, Lance S.

2006-07-31

PNNL deployed the ARSA radioxenon measurement system in North Las Vegas for two weeks in February and March 2006 for the purpose of measuring the radioxenon background at a level of sensitivity much higher than previously done in the vicinity of the NTS. The measurements establish what might be expected if future measurements are taken at NTS itself. The measurements are also relevant to test site readiness. A second detector, the PEMS, built and operated by DRI, was deployed in conjunction with the ARSA and contained a PIC, aerosol collection filters, and meteorological sensors. Originally, measurements were also to bemore » performed at Mercury, NV on the NTS, but these were canceled due to initial equipment problems with the ARSA detector. Some of the radioxenon measurements detected 133Xe at levels up to 3 mBq/m3. This concentration of radioxenon is consistent with the observation of low levels of radioxenon emanating from distance nuclear reactors. Previous measurements in areas of high nuclear reactor concentration have shown similar results, but the western US, in general, does not have many nuclear reactors. Measurements of the wind direction indicate that the air carrying the radioxenon came from south of the detector and not from the NTS.« less