We used sensitivity-analysis techniques to investigate the behaviour of the land-surface model UTOPIA while simulating the micrometeorology of a typical northern Italy vineyard (
Vitis vinifera
L.) ...under average climatic conditions. Sensitivity-analysis experiments were performed by sampling the vegetation parameter hyperspace using the Morris method and quantifying the parameter relevance across a wide range of soil conditions. This method was used since it proved its suitability for models with high computational time or with a large number of parameters, in a variety of studies performed on different types of biophysical models. The impact of input variability was estimated on reference model variables selected among energy (e.g. net radiation, sensible and latent heat fluxes) and hydrological (e.g. soil moisture, surface runoff, drainage) budget components. Maximum vegetation cover and maximum leaf area index were ranked as the most relevant parameters, with sensitivity indices exceeding the remaining parameters by about one order of magnitude. Soil variability had a high impact on the relevance of most of the vegetation parameters: coefficients of variation calculated on the sensitivity indices estimated for the different soils often exceeded 100 %. The only exceptions were represented by maximum vegetation cover and maximum leaf area index, which showed a low variability in sensitivity indices while changing soil type, and confirmed their key role in affecting model results.
This work analyses the maximum and minimum temperatures and the precipitation series of four localities in Piedmont. Measurements regarding the stations of Torino, Asti, Vercelli and Oropa have been ...extracted from the meteorological database of the ex-SIMN (Hydrographic and Mareographic National Service). The values in the period 1990-2003 have been compared with the measurements carried out at the ARPA (Regional Agency for Environmental Protection)-Piedmont stations located about in the same place, in order to assess they similarity and possibly join the series. For each series, an historical investigation has been performed, and the homogeneity has been evaluated using the Standard Normal Homogeneity Test (SNHT). The results evidence some discontinuities among the data recorded by each couple of stations located in the same place, for both temperatures and precipitation. These discrepancies between the measurements underline the importance of using the homogeneity tests. The homogeneized meteorological series have been converted by the SNHT in a good instrument for estimating the trends and the real climatic changes.
Background
Italy was the first western country severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic attesting more than 16 million cases since the outbreak began. Po Valley regions have been most afflicted, ...with Piedmont ranking sixth at 25,899 cases/100,000 inhabitants. Within this area, air dispersion is hampered making Po Valley a recognised air pollution hotspot. We aimed to explore the potential association between the environment and Covid-19 incidence.
Methods
Daily key air pollutants (NO2, NO, CO, O3, PM10, and PM2.5), meteorological parameters (temperature, %humidity, wind speed and solar radiation), pollens and Covid-19 cases were collected from 01/01 to 31/12/2021 in Turin, Italy. This ecological study preliminarily tested correlations (Spearman) between air pollutants and Covid-19 cases.
Results
The Covid-19 pandemic followed a seasonal trend with the highest number of cases (/100,000 inhabitants) in winter and spring (3.1) followed by autumn (1.3) and summer (0.5) (KW test p < 0.0001). Likewise, all air pollutants showed peaks in winter and autumn and sensibly decreased during spring and summer apart from pollens and O3. O3 follows the photochemical processes reaching its peak in the sunniest periods, while pollens undergo their natural vegetative process. Daily Covid-19 cases were positively correlated with daily-averaged NO2 (0.50, p < 0.0001), NO (0.48, p < 0.0001), CO (0.81, p < 0.0001), PM10 (0.36, p < 0.0001), PM2.5 (0.39, p < 0.0001), pollens (0.15, p = 0.073) and inversely with O3 (-0.44, p < 0.0001). We plan future analyses to test the hypothesized association by enhanced models with lagged air pollution variables, with demographic characteristics and meteorological data as potential confounders.
Conclusions
Results from ecological studies may support researchers' preliminary understanding of the interplay between environment and Public Health issues, including pandemics. A multidisciplinary approach is mandatory to deepen the complexity of this topic across European regions
Key messages
* The Covid-19 pandemic may be associated with environmental conditions and air pollution but further research is needed.
* Atmospheric particulate matter, including aeroallergens, can favour many airborne-related diseases by acting as immune suppressor and/or carrier, but these hypotheses deserve future research.
The ARCADE (Atmospheric Research for Climate and Astroparticle DEtection) project is a 3 years project funded by MIUR, that aims to study the aerosol attenuation of UV light in atmosphere using ...multiple instruments and techniques, as those commonly used in the cosmic rays community: elastic Lidar, Raman Lidar, side-scattering measurements using a distant laser source. All measurements will be acquired on the same air mass at the same time, in a semi-desertic site near Lamar, Colorado (U.S.). For each instrument, multiple analysis techniques will be tested: the target is a better comprehension of the systematics and limits of applicability of each method. The system is composed by a Lidar (elastic+Raman), fully designed and built within this project, and by the Atmospheric Monitoring Telescope (AMT), a telescope for the detection of UV light owned by the Colorado School of Mines. The setup of the two instruments is described in detail here. The project is presently in its third year: the Lidar system has been tested at the University of L'Aquila in February 2014 before shipment to the U.S., and the AMT has been recently reinstalled and tested in Lamar (May 2014). In June/July 2014 the ARCADE group will work out the final setup of the Lidar+AMT system in Lamar and will begin data acquisition.
This study presents the results of an application to a Bora severe weather episode (January 1995) in the northern Adriatic Sea of the regional two‐way atmosphere‐ocean coupled model (RAMS‐DieCAST), ...developed jointly by the Università di Torino and the Istituto Sperimentale Talassografico del CNR, Trieste. RAMS‐DieCAST showed significantly better ability to predict the sea surface temperature (SST) and its time evolution during the above mentioned episode using a full two‐way coupling as opposed to simpler one‐way forcing of the ocean. In this context, we found out that even in the high‐frequency variability conditions that are typical of Bora events, heat fluxes from the sea must be taken into account for a better description of air‐sea interaction processes in a dynamical framework. The SST evolution has been chosen as a validation parameter, owing to its availability and relevance for the characterization of the marine environment and local weather and climate studies. The simulations carried out with RAMS‐DieCAST present a small systematic error in calculating the SST evolution; however, a sensitivity analysis of the model to the preparation of initial conditions of the simulation suggested that climatological initialization could be partly responsible for this error, which might be reduced by assimilating satellite‐derived SSTs into the preparation of the initial conditions of the model.
A fully coupled atmosphere–ocean model, endowed with a feedback of the ocean model on the atmospheric one, was applied in order to simulate the variations of temperature and sea currents induced by ...the occurrence of a late-fall episode of intense Sirocco wind over the Adriatic Sea.
The coupled model was made up of the RAMS atmospheric model coupled with the DieCAST ocean model with the purpose to obtain more realistic forcing conditions of the lower winds on the underlying sea surface.
The two main phenomena highlighted by the simulation are: the genesis of a 10 cm s
−
1
north-
westward current along the Italian coastline and a general cooling of the entire basin of approximately 1 °C limited to the upper 40 m. The same current shows an offshore anti-cyclonic pattern at different latitude in the whole basin.
The results generally agree with experimental data collected by surface drifters released in different regions of the Adriatic Sea as a part of the international DOLCEVITA project, which also includes the same Sirocco episode considered here. The simulated currents represent the drifter trajectories quite accurately, with only few exceptions in the northernmost region of the basin, characterized by shallow water conditions. The simulated SST fields fully agree with the temperature values observed by the same drifters.
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