Search results for "URC"
showing 10 items of 7748 documents
The making of the New European Wind Atlas - Part 1: Model sensitivity
2020
This is the first of two papers that document the creation of the New European Wind Atlas (NEWA). It describes the sensitivity analysis and evaluation procedures that formed the basis for choosing the final setup of the mesoscale model simulations of the wind atlas. The suitable combination of model setup and parameterizations, bound by practical constraints, was found for simulating the climatology of the wind field at turbine-relevant heights with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Initial WRF model sensitivity experiments compared the wind climate generated by using two commonly used planetary boundary layer schemes and were carried out over several regions in Europe. They…
The Synergistic Impacts of Anthropogenic Stressors and COVID-19 on Aquaculture: A Current Global Perspective
2021
13 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables.-- This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License
Approach to a water safety plan for recreational waters: disinfection of a drainage pumping station as an unconventional point source of fecal contam…
2020
Abstract In the context of the management of bathing water quality, the intermittent contamination of rainwater drainage pumps (unconventional point sources) could be controlled by peracetic acid disinfection. Thus, a field experimental study was carried out to set up a water safety plan, determining the monitoring parameters and the critical limit for corrective actions. With a 0.5 mg/l dosage, the average logarithmic microbial reduction was 0.50 ± 0.48 for Escherichia coli (EC) and 0.43 ± 0.54 for intestinal enterococci. Among the chemical and physical parameters that could be monitored in real time, the oxidation–reduction potential was the only one able to predict the microbial concentr…
A Search for IceCube Events in the Direction of ANITA Neutrino Candidates
2020
During the first three flights of the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment, the collaboration detected several neutrino candidates. Two of these candidate events were consistent with an ultra-high-energy up-going air shower and compatible with a tau neutrino interpretation. A third neutrino candidate event was detected in a search for Askaryan radiation in the Antarctic ice, although it is also consistent with the background expectation. The inferred emergence angle of the first two events is in tension with IceCube and ANITA limits on isotropic cosmogenic neutrino fluxes. Here, we test the hypothesis that these events are astrophysical in origin, possibly caused by a po…
Climate change policies and agendas: facing implementation challenges and guiding responses
2020
Climate policies are essential to mitigate climate change and to develop successful adaptation processes. However, there is a paucity of international studies that analyse the status of climate change policies. This paper reports on research undertaken in a sample of 13 highly diverse countries, in regards to their geography, socioeconomic development, vulnerability elements, adaptation, and climate-risks. The results draw attention to the global spread and standardisation of climate change policies, namely through the adoption of comprehensive National Adaptation Plans/Strategies (NAPs/NASs) that include mitigation measures and evaluation mechanisms. Although NAPs tend to take into account…
A Participatory Agrobiodiversity Conservation Approach in the Oases: Community Actions for the Promotion of Sustainable Development in Fragile Areas
2021
Rural development policies today include significant directions towards ecological transition and sustainability. Biodiversity plays a fundamental role, especially in fragile environments. The North African oases, for example, are socio-ecological structures with delicate balances in terms of natural resources, where the activation of participatory conservation approaches appears today to be very useful, aiming at long-lasting results. This type of approach was applied in the oasis of El Hamma, in Tunisia. The socio-ecological analysis was carried out through semi-structured interviews with different stakeholders of the oasis. The results were used to activate focus groups and to identify, …
Transboundary Basins Need More Attention: Anthropogenic Impacts on Land Cover Changes in Aras River Basin, Monitoring and Prediction.
2020
Changes in land cover (LC) can alter the basin hydrology by affecting the evaporation, infiltration, and surface and subsurface flow processes, and ultimately affect river water quantity and quality. This study aimed to monitor and predict the LC composition of a major, transboundary basin contributing to the Caspian Sea, the Aras River Basin (ARB). To this end, four LC maps of ARB corresponding to the years 1984, 2000, 2010, and 2017 were generated using Landsat satellite imagery from Armenia and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. The LC gains and losses, net changes, exchanges, and the spatial trend of changes over 33 years (1984–2017) were investigated. The most important drivers of the…
Disambiguating the soils of Mars
2020
Abstract Anticipated human missions to Mars require a methodical understanding of the unconsolidated bulk sediment that mantles its surface, given its role as an accessible resource for water and as a probable substrate for food production. However, classifying martian sediment as soil has been pursued in an ad hoc fashion, despite emerging evidence from in situ missions for current and paleo-pedological processes. Here we find that in situ sediment at Gusev, Meridiani and Gale are consistent with pedogenesis related to comminuted basalts mixing with older phyllosilicates – perhaps of pluvial origin – and sulfates. Furthermore, a notable presence of hydrated amorphous phases indicates signi…
Indication of a Pulsar Wind Nebula in the Hard X-Ray Emission from SN 1987A
2021
Since the day of its explosion, SN 1987A (SN87A) was closely monitored with the aim to study its evolution and to detect its central compact relic. The detection of neutrinos from the supernova strongly supports the formation of a neutron star (NS). However, the constant and fruitless search for this object has led to different hypotheses on its nature. Up to date, the detection in the ALMA data of a feature somehow compatible with the emission arising from a proto Pulsar Wind Nebula (PWN) is the only hint of the existence of such elusive compact object. Here we tackle this 33-years old issue by analyzing archived observations of SN87A performed Chandra and NuSTAR in different years. We fir…
Analysis of drought and vulnerability in the North Darfur region of Sudan
2018
North Darfur of Sudan is located on the edge of the Sahara Desert and endures frequent droughts due to water shortages and high summer temperatures. Monitoring and understanding drought characteristics are essential for integrated drought risk mitigation and prevetion of land degradation. This study evaluates drought conditions in North Darfur by analyzing the spatiotemporal distribution of drought using three drought indices (Standardized Precipitation Index, Vegetation Condition Index, and Soil Moisture Content Index) and their combined drought index (CDI) from 2004 to 2013. Biophysical and socioeconomic indicators are further used to measure vulnerability to drought risk and its three co…