In the near future, the SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) mission will provide global maps of surface soil moisture (SM). The SMOS baseline payload is an L-band (1.4 GHz) two dimensional ...interferometric microwave radiometer which will provide multi-angular and dual-polarization observations. In the framework of the ground segment activities for the SMOS mission an operational SMOS Level 2 Soil Moisture algorithm was developed. The principle of the algorithm is to exploit multi-angular data in order to retrieve simultaneously several surface parameters including soil moisture and vegetation characteristics. The algorithm uses an iterative approach, minimizing a cost function computed from the differences between measured and modelled brightness temperature (
T
B) data, for all available incidence angles.
In the algorithm, the selected forward model is the so-called L-MEB (L-band Microwave Emission of the Biosphere) model which was the result of an extensive review of the current knowledge of the microwave emission of various land covers. This model is a key element in the SMOS L2 algorithm and could be used in future assimilation studies. There is thus a strong need for a reference study, describing the model and its implementation. In order to address these needs a detailed description of soil and vegetation modelling in L-MEB is given in this study. In a second step, the use of L-MEB in soil moisture retrievals is evaluated for several experimental data sets over agricultural crops. Calibrations of the soil and vegetation L-MEB parameters are investigated for corn, soybean and wheat. Over the different experiments, very consistent results are obtained for each vegetation type in terms of calibration and soil moisture retrievals.
Two passive microwave missions are currently operating at L-band to monitor surface soil moisture (SM) over continental surfaces. The SMOS sensor, based on an innovative interferometric technology ...enabling multi-angular signatures of surfaces to be measured, was launched in November 2009. The SMAP sensor, based on a large mesh reflector 6m in diameter providing a conically scanning antenna beam with a surface incidence angle of 40°, was launched in January of 2015. Over the last decade, an intense scientific activity has focused on the development of the SM retrieval algorithms for the two missions. This activity has relied on many field (mainly tower-based) and airborne experimental campaigns, and since 2010–2011, on the SMOS and Aquarius space-borne L-band observations. It has relied too on the use of numerical, physical and semi-empirical models to simulate the microwave brightness temperature of natural scenes for a variety of scenarios in terms of system configurations (polarization, incidence angle) and soil, vegetation and climate conditions. Key components of the inversion models have been evaluated and new parameterizations of the effects of the surface temperature, soil roughness, soil permittivity, and vegetation extinction and scattering have been developed. Among others, global maps of select radiative transfer parameters have been estimated very recently. Based on this intense activity, improvements of the SMOS and SMAP SM inversion algorithms have been proposed. Some of them have already been implemented, whereas others are currently being investigated. In this paper, we present a review of the significant progress which has been made over the last decade in this field of research with a focus on L-band, and a discussion on possible applications to the SMOS and SMAP soil moisture retrieval approaches.
•Key components of the SMOS and SMAP forward models are analyzed.•Main results and significant progress over the last decade are reviewed.•Possible future improvements of the SMOS and SMAP retrieval algorithms are discussed.
Dam removal: Listening in Foley, M. M.; Bellmore, J. R.; O'Connor, J. E. ...
Water resources research,
July 2017, 2017-07-00, 20170701, Letnik:
53, Številka:
7
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Dam removal is widely used as an approach for river restoration in the United States. The increase in dam removals—particularly large dams—and associated dam‐removal studies over the last few decades ...motivated a working group at the USGS John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis to review and synthesize available studies of dam removals and their findings. Based on dam removals thus far, some general conclusions have emerged: (1) physical responses are typically fast, with the rate of sediment erosion largely dependent on sediment characteristics and dam‐removal strategy; (2) ecological responses to dam removal differ among the affected upstream, downstream, and reservoir reaches; (3) dam removal tends to quickly reestablish connectivity, restoring the movement of material and organisms between upstream and downstream river reaches; (4) geographic context, river history, and land use significantly influence river restoration trajectories and recovery potential because they control broader physical and ecological processes and conditions; and (5) quantitative modeling capability is improving, particularly for physical and broad‐scale ecological effects, and gives managers information needed to understand and predict long‐term effects of dam removal on riverine ecosystems. Although these studies collectively enhance our understanding of how riverine ecosystems respond to dam removal, knowledge gaps remain because most studies have been short (< 5 years) and do not adequately represent the diversity of dam types, watershed conditions, and dam‐removal methods in the U.S.
Key Points
Dam removal is an increasingly common approach to river restoration in the United States
Dam‐removal studies provide insights on key controls influencing the physical and ecological responses to dam removal
Although many aspects of physical and ecological systems react quickly to dam removal, overall response trajectories depend on how and where dams are removed and overall watershed conditions
Photopolymerization under near-infrared (NIR) light is challenging due to the low energy of the absorbed photon but, if successful, presents significant advantages. For example, this lower energy ...wavelength is safer than UV light that is currently the standard photocuring light source. Also, NIR allows for a deeper light penetration within the material and therefore resulting in a more complete curing of thicker materials containing fillers for access to composites. In this study, we report the use of three-component systems for the NIR photopolymerization of methacrylates: (1) a dye used as a photosensitizer in the NIR range, (2) an iodonium salt as a photoinitiator for the free radical polymerization of the (meth)acrylates, and (3) a phosphine to prevent polymerization inhibition due to the oxygen and to regenerate the dye upon irradiation. Several NIR-absorbing dyes such as a cyanine borate and a silicon–phthalocyanine are presented and studied. Systems using borate dyes resulted in methacrylate monomer conversion over 80% in air. We report three types of irradiation system: low-power LED at 660 and 780 nm as well as a higher power laser diode at 785 nm. The excellent performance reported in this work is due to the crucial role of the added phosphine.
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Diabetes mellitus (DM) is characterized by fasting hyperglycaemia and a high risk of atherothrombotic disorders affecting the coronary, cerebral and peripheral arterial trees. The risk of ...myocardial infarction (MI) is 3‐5 fold higher in Type 2 DM and a DM subject with no history of MI has the same risk as a non‐DM subject with a past history of MI. In total around 70% of deaths are vascular with poorer outcomes to both acute events and cardiological interventions. It was proposed that clustering of vascular risk factors (hyperinsulinaemia, dysglycaemia, dyslipidaemia and hypertension) around insulin resistance (IR) accounted for the increase in risk with Type 2 DM. The importance of this became apparent with the recognition that risk clustering occurs in normoglycaemic and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) subjects with IR, in total around 25% of the population in addition to long‐standing Type 1 subjects with renal disease. Evidence indicates that thrombotic risk clustering also occurs in association with IR, suppression of fibrinolysis due to elevated concentrations of the fibrinolytic inhibitor, plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1 (PAI‐1) is invariable with IR and there is evidence that this is regulated by the effects of triglyceride on the PAI‐1 gene promoter. Other studies indicated that prothrombotic risk (coagulation factors VII, XII and fibrinogen) also associates with the IR syndrome. The development of endothelial cell dysfunction with suppression of nitric oxide and prostacyclin synthesis, combined with platelet resistance to the anti‐aggregatory effects of these hormones leads to loss of control over platelet activation. In addition, hyperglycaemia and glycation have marked effects on fibrin structure function, generating a clot which has a denser structure, resistant to fibrinolysis. The combination of increased circulating coagulation zymogens, inhibition of fibrinolysis, changes in fibrin structure/function and alterations in platelet reactivity creates a thrombotic risk clustering which underpins the development of cardiovascular disease.
From toddler to late teenager, the macroscopic pattern of axonal projections in the human brain remains largely unchanged while undergoing dramatic functional modifications that lead to network ...refinement. These functional modifications are mediated by increasing myelination and changes in axonal diameter and synaptic density, as well as changes in neurochemical mediators. Here we explore the contribution of white matter maturation to the development of connectivity between ages 2 and 18 y using high b-value diffusion MRI tractography and connectivity analysis. We measured changes in connection efficacy as the inverse of the average diffusivity along a fiber tract. We observed significant refinement in specific metrics of network topology, including a significant increase in node strength and efficiency along with a decrease in clustering. Major structural modules and hubs were in place by 2 y of age, and they continued to strengthen their profile during subsequent development. Recording resting-state functional MRI from a subset of subjects, we confirmed a positive correlation between structural and functional connectivity, and in addition observed that this relationship strengthened with age. Continuously increasing integration and decreasing segregation of structural connectivity with age suggests that network refinement mediated by white matter maturation promotes increased global efficiency. In addition, the strengthening of the correlation between structural and functional connectivity with age suggests that white matter connectivity in combination with other factors, such as differential modulation of axonal diameter and myelin thickness, that are partially captured by inverse average diffusivity, play an increasingly important role in creating brain-wide coherence and synchrony.
Earth is heading towards a climate that last existed more than three million years ago (Ma) during the 'mid-Pliocene warm period'
, when atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were about 400 parts ...per million, global sea level oscillated in response to orbital forcing
and peak global-mean sea level (GMSL) may have reached about 20 metres above the present-day value
. For sea-level rise of this magnitude, extensive retreat or collapse of the Greenland, West Antarctic and marine-based sectors of the East Antarctic ice sheets is required. Yet the relative amplitude of sea-level variations within glacial-interglacial cycles remains poorly constrained. To address this, we calibrate a theoretical relationship between modern sediment transport by waves and water depth, and then apply the technique to grain size in a continuous 800-metre-thick Pliocene sequence of shallow-marine sediments from Whanganui Basin, New Zealand. Water-depth variations obtained in this way, after corrections for tectonic subsidence, yield cyclic relative sea-level (RSL) variations. Here we show that sea level varied on average by 13 ± 5 metres over glacial-interglacial cycles during the middle-to-late Pliocene (about 3.3-2.5 Ma). The resulting record is independent of the global ice volume proxy
(as derived from the deep-ocean oxygen isotope record) and sea-level cycles are in phase with 20-thousand-year (kyr) periodic changes in insolation over Antarctica, paced by eccentricity-modulated orbital precession
between 3.3 and 2.7 Ma. Thereafter, sea-level fluctuations are paced by the 41-kyr period of cycles in Earth's axial tilt as ice sheets stabilize on Antarctica and intensify in the Northern Hemisphere
. Strictly, we provide the amplitude of RSL change, rather than absolute GMSL change. However, simulations of RSL change based on glacio-isostatic adjustment show that our record approximates eustatic sea level, defined here as GMSL unregistered to the centre of the Earth. Nonetheless, under conservative assumptions, our estimates limit maximum Pliocene sea-level rise to less than 25 metres and provide new constraints on polar ice-volume variability under the climate conditions predicted for this century.
The combination of thermally induced and photoinduced free radical polymerization of (meth)acrylic monomers has only been scarcely presented in the literature. In this study, a two-component system ...with a near-infrared (NIR) dye combined with a thermal initiator is presented. The dye acts as a very efficient heat generator (heater) upon irradiation with NIR light. Several thermal initiators are presented such as an alkoxyamine (e.g., BlocBuilder-MA), azo derivatives, and (hydro)peroxides. The heat delivered by the dye dissociates the thermal initiator, which initiates the free radical polymerization of (meth)acrylates. Several types of heat generators are presented such as borate-based dyes and a silicon phthalocyanine derivative. For the first time, the effects of the NIR heater concentration, light intensity, and monomer structure on the heat released are studied using thermal imaging studies. NIR light curing is challenging but offers significant advantages: it is safer than shorter wavelength, and it allows a deeper penetration of the light and therefore a better curing of filled samples for a unique access to composites. Systems using a cyanine borate as a dye give high conversion rate of CC for methacrylate monomer under air. Two wavelengths of irradiation are studied: 785 and 850 nm. The presence of additives (phosphines or iodonium salts) can also improve the polymerization profiles.
Projections of climate change impacts on crop yields are inherently uncertain1. Uncertainty is often quantified when projecting future greenhouse gas emissions and their influence on climate2. ...However, multi-model uncertainty analysis of crop responses to climate change is rare because systematic and objective comparisons among process-based crop simulation models1, 3 are difficult4. Here we present the largest standardized model intercomparison for climate change impacts so far. We found that individual crop models are able to simulate measured wheat grain yields accurately under a range of environments, particularly if the input information is sufficient. However, simulated climate change impacts vary across models owing to differences in model structures and parameter values. A greater proportion of the uncertainty in climate change impact projections was due to variations among crop models than to variations among downscaled general circulation models. Uncertainties in simulated impacts increased with CO2 concentrations and associated warming. These impact uncertainties can be reduced by improving temperature and CO2 relationships in models and better quantified through use of multi-model ensembles. Less uncertainty in describing how climate change may affect agricultural productivity will aid adaptation strategy development and policymaking.
In 2012, NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars to assess its potential as a habitat for past life and investigate the paleoclimate record preserved by sedimentary rocks inside the ...~150-kilometer-diameter Gale impact crater. Geological reconstructions from Curiosity rover data have revealed an ancient, habitable lake environment fed by rivers draining into the crater. We synthesize geochemical and mineralogical data from lake-bed mudstones collected during the first 1300 martian solar days of rover operations in Gale. We present evidence for lake redox stratification, established by depth-dependent variations in atmospheric oxidant and dissolved-solute concentrations. Paleoclimate proxy data indicate that a transition from colder to warmer climate conditions is preserved in the stratigraphy. Finally, a late phase of geochemical modification by saline fluids is recognized.
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