Search results for "Soil Science"

Expected future changes in the African monsoon between 2030 and 2070 using some CMIP3 and CMIP5 models under a medium-low RCP scenario

2012

[1] The accuracy of African Monsoon (AM) simulations together with expected future changes are presented using eight available CMIP5/AR5 AOGCMs under the RCP4.5 emission scenario and eight CMIP3/AR4 AOGCMs under the A1b scenario, with a multimodel approach and the “one model one vote” concept. The results refer to the ‘present’ period (1960–1999) and to a ‘future horizon’ (2031–2070), and are discussed in terms of monsoon dynamics and climate change. Overall the new simulations seem more realistic. They exhibit more accurate rainfall patterns, although some biases reported in CMIP3 models remain. The future changes show an inverse tendency regarding rainfall amounts with less (more) rainfal…

Correction to “A generalized single-channel method for retrieving land surface temperature from remote sensing data” by Juan C. Jiménez-Muñoz and Jos…

2004

Spatiotemporal modeling and prediction of solar radiation

2003

[1] The radiation budget in the Earth-atmosphere system is what drives Earth's climate, and thus measurements of this balance are needed to improve our knowledge of Earth's climate and climate change. In the present paper we focus on the analysis of the surface shortwave radiation budget (SSRB), which is the amount of energy in the solar region of the electromagnetic spectrum (0.2–4.0 μm) absorbed at the surface. The SSRB has to be modeled from the surface to the top of the atmosphere, jointly with information about the state of the atmosphere and the surface. These data come from satellites orbiting the Earth and are often missing or disturbed. Its interest is not only at global scales; ra…

Land surface temperature retrieval from thermal infrared data: An assessment in the context of the Surface Processes and Ecosystem Changes Through Re…

2005

[1] SPECTRA (Surface Processes and Ecosystem Changes Through Response Analysis) is one of the core candidate missions which is being proposed for implementation in the European Space Agency (ESA) Earth Explorer program of research oriented missions. The scientific objective of the SPECTRA mission is to describe, understand, and model the role of terrestrial vegetation in the global carbon cycle and its response to climate variability under the increasing pressure of human activity. The SPECTRA satellite will embark an optical hyperspectral payload covering the solar spectral range (0.4 to 2.4 μm) and thermal infrared region (10.3 to 12.3 μm). This paper is focused on the land surface temper…

Influence of air mass history on the columnar aerosol properties at Valencia, Spain

2007

[1] The physical and radiative properties of atmospheric aerosols have been obtained in Valencia (latitude 39.508°, longitude −0.418°, 60 m a. s. l.), a city of the Spanish Mediterranean coast, by the inversion of direct solar irradiance and diffuse sky irradiance measurements made with a CIMEL CE318 system, from January 2002 to July 2005. The data acquired by the CE318 were used to determine the instantaneous values of the aerosol optical depth (AOD), the columnar water vapor content (w) and the Angstrom wavelength exponent (α). The SKYRAD code was used to obtain the size distribution, the asymmetry parameter, the complex refractive index and the single scattering albedo of the aerosols. B…

Lagrangian simulations of stable isotopes in water vapor: An evaluation of nonequilibrium fractionation in the Craig-Gordon model

2009

[1] The Craig-Gordon model is the basis for the parameterization of water isotope fractionation during evaporation from the ocean in many atmospheric isotope models. Its exact formulation (e.g., with respect to the nonequilibrium fractionation factor k) is mainly based on theoretical considerations and not very well constrained by observations. This study addresses this issue by combining a recently developed Lagrangian moisture source analysis with a Craig-Gordon fractionation parameterization for the identified evaporation events in order to model isotope ratios in water vapor. This technique is applied to 45 measurement days of isotopes in water vapor at Rehovot (Israel) during the years…

Simulation of a biomass-burning plume: Comparison of model results with observations

2002

[1] We have simulated the dynamical evolution of the plume from a prescribed biomass fire, using the active tracer high- resolution atmospheric model (ATHAM). Initialization parameters were set to reflect the conditions during the fire. The model results are compared with airborne remote-sensing and in situ measurements of the plume. ATHAM reproduces the injection height (250-600 m) and the horizontal extent of the plume (similar to4 km) with good accuracy. The aerosol mass concentrations are underestimated but still in the range of the observations. Remaining differences between the model results and the measurements are attributed to limited meteorological and fire emission information. A…

Air parcel trajectory analysis of stable isotopes in water vapor in the eastern Mediterranean

2008

[1] With the help of a Lagrangian moisture source diagnostic, linkages between stable isotope measurements in water vapor in Rehovot (Israel), with typical sampling times of 8 hours, and the meteorological conditions in the evaporation regions are established. These linkages can be formulated in quantitative terms, and are also quantitatively comparable with other data from isotope measurements over the ocean and with simple theoretical calculations. On the one hand, a strong negative correlation (r = −0.82) between relative humidity with respect to sea surface temperature in the source regions and measured deuterium excess (d) is found, corroborating results from isotope global circulation…

Climatology of convective density currents in the southern foothills of the Atlas Mountains

2010

Density currents fed by evaporationally cooled air are an important dust storm generating feature and can constitute a source of moisture in arid regions. Recently, the existence of such systems has been demonstrated for the area between the High Atlas Mountains and the Sahara desert in southern Morocco on the basis of case studies. Here, a climatological analysis is presented that uses data from the dense climate station network of the IMPETUS project (An Integrated Approach to the Efficient Management of Scarce Water Resources in West Africa) for the 5 year period 20022006. Objective criteria mainly based upon abrupt changes in wind and dew point temperature are defined to identify possib…

Meteorites on Mars observed with the Mars Exploration Rovers

2008

[1] Reduced weathering rates due to the lack of liquid water and significantly greater typical surface ages should result in a higher density of meteorites on the surface of Mars compared to Earth. Several meteorites were identified among the rocks investigated during Opportunity's traverse across the sandy Meridiani plains. Heat Shield Rock is a IAB iron meteorite and has been officially recognized as “Meridiani Planum.” Barberton is olivine-rich and contains metallic Fe in the form of kamacite, suggesting a meteoritic origin. It is chemically most consistent with a mesosiderite silicate clast. Santa Catarina is a brecciated rock with a chemical and mineralogical composition similar to Bar…