Search results for "Weather"

Predicting the spatial abundance of Ixodes ricinus ticks in southern Scandinavia using environmental and climatic data

2019

AbstractRecently, focus on tick-borne diseases has increased as ticks and their pathogens have become widespread and represent a health problem in Europe. Understanding the epidemiology of tick-borne infections requires the ability to predict and map tick abundance. We measured Ixodes ricinus abundance at 159 sites in southern Scandinavia from August-September, 2016. We used field data and environmental variables to develop predictive abundance models using machine learning algorithms, and also tested these models on 2017 data. Larva and nymph abundance models had relatively high predictive power (normalized RMSE from 0.65–0.69, R2 from 0.52–0.58) whereas adult tick models performed poorly …

Early warning climate indices for malaria and meningitis in tropical ecological zones

2020

AbstractThis study aims at assessing the impacts of climate indices on the spatiotemporal distribution of malaria and meningitis in Nigeria. The primary focus of the research is to develop an Early Warning System (EWS) for assessing climate variability implications on malaria and meningitis spread in the study area. Both climate and health data were used in the study to determine the relationship between climate variability and the occurrence of malaria and meningitis. The assessment was based on variations in different ecological zones in Nigeria. Two specific sample locations were randomly selected in each ecological zone for the analysis. The climatic data used in this study are dekadal …

Errors and uncertainties introduced by a regional climate model in climate impact assessments: example of crop yield simulations in West Africa

2015

16 pages; International audience; The challenge of estimating the potential impacts of climate change has led to an increasing use of dynamical downscaling to produce fine spatial-scale climate projections for impact assessments. In this work, we analyze if and to what extent the bias in the simulated crop yield can be reduced by using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model to downscale ERA-Interim (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Re-Analysis) rainfall and radiation data. Then, we evaluate the uncertainties resulting from both the choice of the physical parameterizations of the WRF model and its internal variability. Impact assessments w…

The impact of weather on COVID-19 pandemic.

2021

AbstractRising temperature levels during spring and summer are often argued to enable lifting of strict containment measures even in the absence of herd immunity. Despite broad scholarly interest in the relationship between weather and coronavirus spread, previous studies come to very mixed results. To contribute to this puzzle, the paper examines the impact of weather on the COVID-19 pandemic using a unique granular dataset of over 1.2 million daily observations covering over 3700 counties in nine countries for all seasons of 2020. Our results show that temperature and wind speed have a robust negative effect on virus spread after controlling for a range of potential confounding factors. T…

COVID ‐19: A relationship to climate and environmental conditions?

2020

Modelling the non-linear multiple-lag effects of ambient temperature on mortality in Santiago and Palermo: a constrained segmented distributed lag ap…

2008

Objectives: Exposure to ambient temperature can affect mortality levels for days or weeks following exposure, making modelling such effects in regression analysis of daily time-series data complex. Methods: We propose a new approach involving a multi-lag segmented approximation to account for the non-linear effect of temperature and the use of two different penalised spline bases to model the distributed lag of both heat and cold exposure. Compared with standard splines, the novel penalised framework is more flexible at short lags where change in coefficients is greatest, and selection of the maximum lag appears substantially less important in determining the overall pattern of the effect. …

Effects of Heat Waves on Mortality

2013

Heat waves and air pollution are both associated with increased mortality. Their joint effects are less well understood.We explored the role of air pollution in modifying the effects of heat waves on mortality, within the EuroHEAT project. Daily mortality, meteorologic, and air pollution data from nine European cities for the years 1990-2004 were assembled. We defined heat waves by taking both intensity and duration into account. The city-specific effects of heat wave episodes were estimated using generalized estimating equation models, adjusting for potential confounders with and without inclusion of air pollutants (particles, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide). To …

Light scattering in artificial fog and simulated with light scattering filter.

2009

Disability glare, affecting e.g. road safety at night, may result either from intraocular light scattering or from external conditions such as fog. Measurements were made of light scattering in fog and compared with intraocular straylight data for normal eyes and eyes with simulated cataract. All measurements were made with a direct compensation flicker method. To estimate light scattering levels in fog, straylight measurements were carried in a fog chamber for different densities of fog. Density was characterized by the meteorological term visibility V and ranged from 7 to 25. Test distance for measurements in the fog was constant at 5 m. Cataract eye conditions were simulated by placing a…

Deteriorating Weather Conditions Predict the use of Suboptimal Stopover Sites by Aquatic WarblersAcrocephalus paludicola

2011

Abstract. The Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola is a globally threatened songbird and its decline is related to habitat loss. Accordingly, most studies dealing with the stopover ecology of this species have been chiefly focused on the habitat use and the availability of suitable habitats along its route of migration. In contrast, much less attention has been paid to other environmental causes potentially explaining the use of stopover sites. Our aim here was to investigate whether the Aquatic Warbler at an apparently suboptimal stopover site with small area of suitable habitats stops over only during adverse weather conditions. We used data obtained at a suboptimal (Jaizubia marshland…

The PolarLITIS Dataset: Road Scenes Under Fog

2022

Road scene analysis is a fundamental task for both autonomous vehicles and ADAS systems. Nowadays, one can find autonomous vehicles that are able to properly detect objects in the scene in good weather conditions; however, some improvements still need to be done when the visibility is altered. People claim that using some non-conventional sensors such as, infra-red or Lidar, combined with classical vision, enhances road scene analysis in optimal weather conditions. In this work, we present the improvements achieved using polarimetric imaging in the complex situation of some adverse weather conditions. This rich modality is known for its ability to describe an object not only by its intensit…