Search results for "Environmental Engineering"
showing 10 items of 2674 documents
Spatio-temporal patterns of thermal anomalies and drought over tropical forests driven by recent extreme climatic anomalies
2018
The recent 2015–2016 El Niño (EN) event was considered as strong as the EN in 1997–1998. Given such magnitude, it was expected to result in extreme warming and moisture anomalies in tropical areas. Here we characterize the spatial patterns of temperature anomalies and drought over tropical forests, including tropical South America (Amazonia), Africa and Asia/Indonesia during the 2015–2016 EN event. These spatial patterns of warming and drought are compared with those observed in previous strong EN events (1982–1983 and 1997–1998) and other moderate to strong EN events (e.g. 2004–2005 and 2009–2010). The link between the spatial patterns of drought and sea surface temperature anomalies in th…
Turbulent jet through porous obstructions under Coriolis effect: an experimental investigation
2021
AbstractThe present study has the main purpose to experimentally investigate a turbulent momentum jet issued in a basin affected by rotation and in presence of porous obstructions. The experiments were carried out at the Coriolis Platform at LEGI Grenoble (FR). A large and unique set of velocity data was obtained by means of a Particle Image Velocimetry measurement technique while varying the rotation rate of the tank and the density of the canopy. The main differences in jet behavior in various flow configurations were assessed in terms of mean flow, turbulent kinetic energy and jet spreading. The jet trajectory was also detected. The results prove that obstructions with increasing density…
Multispectral high resolution sensor fusion for smoothing and gap-filling in the cloud
2020
Remote sensing optical sensors onboard operational satellites cannot have high spectral, spatial and temporal resolutions simultaneously. In addition, clouds and aerosols can adversely affect the signal contaminating the land surface observations. We present a HIghly Scalable Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Fusion Model (HISTARFM) algorithm to combine multispectral images of different sensors to reduce noise and produce monthly gap free high resolution (30 m) observations over land. Our approach uses images from the Landsat (30 m spatial resolution and 16 day revisit cycle) and the MODIS missions, both from Terra and Aqua platforms (500 m spatial resolution and daily revisit cycle). We implem…
Climate indices for the Baltic states from principal component analysis
2017
Abstract. We used principal component analysis (PCA) to derive climate indices that describe the main spatial features of the climate in the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). Monthly mean temperature and total precipitation values derived from the ensemble of bias-corrected regional climate models (RCMs) were used. Principal components were derived for the years 1961–1990. The first three components describe 92 % of the variance in the initial data and were chosen as climate indices in further analysis. Spatial patterns of these indices and their correlation with the initial variables were analyzed, and it was detected (based on correlation coefficient between principal compon…
Comparison of gap-filling techniques applied to the CCI soil moisture database in Southern Europe
2021
Abstract Soil moisture (SM) is a key variable that plays an important role in land-atmosphere interactions. Monitoring SM is crucial for many applications and can help to determine the impact of climate change. Therefore, it is essential to have continuous and long-term databases for this variable. Satellite missions have contributed to this; however, the continuity of the series is compromised due to the data gaps derived by different factors, including revisit time, presence of seasonal ice or Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) contamination. In this work, the applicability of different gap-filling techniques is evaluated on the ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) SM combined product, whi…
Modelling the Effects of Climate Change on the Supply of Inorganic Nitrogen
2009
Human-induced changes in the nitrogen cycle due to the increased use of artificial fertilisers, the cultivation of nitrogen-fixing crops and atmospheric deposition have made nitrogen pollution to surface waters a long-standing cause for concern. In Europe, legislation has been introduced to minimise the risk of water quality degradation from excessive nitrogen inputs e.g., the European Union Nitrates Directive (EU, 1991), Drinking Water Directive (EU, 1998) and Water Framework Directive (EU, 2000). Coastal regions in particular have been an important focus, since coastal eutrophication has been attributed to increased fluxes of nitrogen from the landscape (Howarth et al., 1996; Boesch et al…
Contribution of environmental factors to temperature distribution at different resolution levels on the forefield of the Loven Glaciers (Svalbard)
2007
ABSTRACTThe climate and its components (temperature and precipitation) are organised according to different spatial scales that are structured hierarchically. The aim of this paper is to explore the dependence between temperature and deterministic factors at different scales on a 10 km2 study area on the northwestern coast of Svalbard. A GIS was developed which contained three sources of information: temperature, remotely sensed imagery and digital elevation models (DEM), and derived raster data layers. The first layer, temperatures, was acquired at regularly observed temporal intervals from 53 stations. The second layer comprised remotely sensed images (aerial photography and SPOT imagery)…
Preliminary results on the influence of car characteristics on their gases emissions using gas sensors
2018
Abstract A method, based on the use of monitoring portable sensors, has been successfully employed for the determination of the composition of car exhausts from 11 diesel and 5 gasoline cars. These emissions include nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The measures were taken in different places where each car was parked. In this study it has been tried to correlate the emitted gases with some of the car characteristics, such as the power (varied from 68 to 143 HP), the number of kilometers traveled and the age of the car (between 2 and 19 years). Results found show a significant variation of the emission values, which rang…
Remote sensing of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) in vegetation: 50 years of progress
2019
Remote sensing of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is a rapidly advancing front in terrestrial vegetation science, with emerging capability in space-based methodologies and diverse application prospects. Although remote sensing of SIF – especially from space – is seen as a contemporary new specialty for terrestrial plants, it is founded upon a multi-decadal history of research, applications, and sensor developments in active and passive sensing of chlorophyll fluorescence. Current technical capabilities allow SIF to be measured across a range of biological, spatial, and temporal scales. As an optical signal, SIF may be assessed remotely using high-resolution spectral sensors in …
Using Optical and Thermal Data for Tracking Snowmelt Processes in Alpine Area
2019
Alpine catchments represent a fundamental reservoir of fresh water at midlatitude. Remote sensing offers the opportunity to estimate snow properties in the optical, thermal and microwave domains. In particular, the possibility to estimate snow density from remote sensing is relevant and still represents a great challenge for the remote sensing scientific community. Since changes of snow density and liquid water content occur continuously in the snowpack, spatial and temporal patterns of optical and thermal data can give information about snowmelt processes. The main goal of this study is to evaluate if snow thermal inertia can be an indicator of snowmelt processes and to evaluate its relati…