Search results for " Humidity"

Effects of temperature and desiccation on ex situ conservation of nongreen fern spores

2012

Premise of the study Fern spores are unicellular and haploid, making them a potential model system to study factors that regulate lifespan and mechanisms of aging. Aging rates of nongreen spores were measured to compare longevity characteristics among diverse fern species and test for orthodox response to storage temperature and moisture. Methods Aging of spores from 10 fern species was quantified by changes in germination and growth parameters. Storage temperature ranged from ambient room to -196°C (liquid nitrogen); spores were dried to ambient relative humidity (RH) or using silica gel. Key results Survival of spores varied under ambient storage conditions, with one species dying within …

Water properties in fern spores: sorption characteristics relating to water affinity, glassy states, and storage stability.

2007

Ex situ conservation of ferns may be accomplished by maintaining the viability of stored spores for many years. Storage conditions that maximize spore longevity can be inferred from an understanding of the behaviour of water within fern spores. Water sorption properties were measured in spores of five homosporeous species of ferns and compared with properties of pollen, seeds, and fern leaf tissue. Isotherms were constructed at 5, 25, and 45 degrees C and analysed using different physicochemical models in order to quantify chemical affinity and heat (enthalpy) of sorption of water in fern spores. Fern spores hydrate slowly but dry rapidly at ambient relative humidity. Low Brunauer-Emmet-Tel…

A Comparative Study of Soil Suction Measurement Using Two Different High-Range Psychrometers

2007

An extensive experimental study was performed to compare the measurement capabilities within different ranges of two total suction measurement equipment: SMI transistor psychrometers and a chilled-mirror dew-point psychrometer (WP4 Dewpoint PotentiaMeter). The equipment were used in a systematic way to determine the relative humidity of the environment surrounding different compacted clayey soils along drying paths and covering a wide total suction range (0.1 to 70 MPa). The equipment description and the calibration protocols followed are presented, as well as suggestions regarding the improvement of their performance. The water retention curves of two different compacted clayey soils are p…

Comparing different profiles to characterize the atmosphere for three MODIS TIR bands

2015

Abstract Accurate land surface temperature (LST) retrievals from sensors aboard orbiting satellites are dependent on the corresponding atmospheric correction, especially in the thermal infrared (TIR) spectral domain (8–14 μm). To remove the atmospheric effects from at-sensor measured radiance in the TIR range it is needed to characterize the atmosphere by means of three specific variables: the upwelling path and the hemispherical downwelling radiances plus the atmospheric transmissivity. Those variables can be derived from the previous knowledge of vertical atmospheric profiles of air temperature and relative humidity at different geo-potential heights and pressures. In this work, the above…

Retrieval of characteristic parameters for water vapour transmittance in the development of ground based Sun-Sky radiometric measurements of columnar…

2014

Abstract. Sun–sky radiometers are instruments created for aerosol study, but they can measure in the water vapour absorption band allowing the estimation of columnar water vapour in clear sky simultaneously with aerosol characteristics, with high temporal resolution. A new methodology is presented for estimating calibration parameters (i.e. characteristic parameters of the atmospheric transmittance and solar calibration constant) directly from the sun–sky radiometer measurements. The methodology is based on the hypothesis that characteristic parameters of the atmospheric transmittance are dependent on vertical profiles of pressure, temperature and moisture occurring at each site of measurem…

The Properties of Atmospheric Aerosol Particles as Functions of the Relative Humidity at Thermodynamic Equilibrium with the Surrounding Moist Air

1976

Publisher Summary The chapter addresses the problems in aerosol measuring techniques and selection of sampling and measuring methods. Theoretic evaluation of mass, size, mean density, and mean refractive index as functions of the relative humidity is discussed. The chapter also discusses techniques for measuring the mass as a function of the relative humidity; determination of the mean density; and measuring the mean complex index of refraction. Results of the measurements, discussion of the results, coefficients of mass increase, mean densities and real parts of the mean complex index of refractions, and applicability of the results are also described. Finally, the chapter then reviews the…

Effect of environmental conditions on the durability of polycarbonate for the protection of cultural heritage sites.

2019

Polycarbonate is a good material for covering and protecting cultural heritage sites because of its durability, mechanical properties, and transparency. However, polycarbonate degrades under environmental weathering with a significant decrease of physical and mechanical properties and loss of transparency. In this work, the contemporary presence of ultraviolet irradiation and different temperature and moisture conditions have been taken into account to study the environmental degradation of this polymer with regard to its mechanical and optical properties. The photo-oxidation reactions cause a decrease in the molecular weight and the formation of many oxygenated species. The hydrolytic sci…

2015

In 2011, the MOZAIC (Measurement of Ozone by AIRBUS In-Service Aircraft) successor programme IAGOS (In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System) started to equip their long-haul passenger aircraft with the modified capacitive hygrometer Vaisala HUMICAP ® of type H. The assurance of the data quality and the consistency of the data set during the transition from MOZAIC Capacitive Hygrometers to IAGOS Capacitive Hygrometers were evaluated within the CIRRUS-III and AIRTOSS-ICE field studies. During these performance tests, the capacitive hygrometers were operated aboard a Learjet 35A aircraft together with a closed-cell Lyman-α fluorescence hygrometer, an open-path tunable diode laser (TD…

2021

Abstract. Homogeneous freezing of aqueous solution aerosol particles is an important process for cloud ice formation in the upper troposphere. There the air temperature is low, the ice supersaturation can be high and the concentration of ice-nucleating particles is too low to initiate and dominate cirrus cloud formation by heterogeneous ice nucleation processes. The most common description to quantify homogeneous freezing processes is based on the water activity criterion (WAC) as proposed by Koop et al. (2000). The WAC describes the homogeneous nucleation rate coefficients only as a function of the water activity, which makes this approach well applicable in numerical models. In this study…

UHF RFID humidity sensor tag based on hygroscopic polymeric load

2012

Passive UHF RFID tags, beside item labelling, are also able to exploit capability of sensing the physical state of the tagged object as well as of the surrounding environment. Here a family of polymer-doped tags are proposed and fully characterized for the detection of ambient humidity. A sensitive chemical species based on PEDOT: PSS is used to dope a properly shaped slot carved into a folded-like patch tag. The sensing capabilities of the radio-sensor are investigated by means of measurements for different quantities of sensitive material and in cyclic exposures. The device could have interesting application in the assessment of the air quality in living and controlled rooms, in the monit…