102,701 research outputs found
The implementation and validation of improved landsurface hydrology in an atmospheric general circulation model
Landsurface hydrological parameterizations are implemented in the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) General Circulation Model (GCM). These parameterizations are: (1) runoff and evapotranspiration functions that include the effects of subgrid scale spatial variability and use physically based equations of hydrologic flux at the soil surface, and (2) a realistic soil moisture diffusion scheme for the movement of water in the soil column. A one dimensional climate model with a complete hydrologic cycle is used to screen the basic sensitivities of the hydrological parameterizations before implementation into the full three dimensional GCM. Results of the final simulation with the GISS GCM and the new landsurface hydrology indicate that the runoff rate, especially in the tropics is significantly improved. As a result, the remaining components of the heat and moisture balance show comparable improvements when compared to observations. The validation of model results is carried from the large global (ocean and landsurface) scale, to the zonal, continental, and finally the finer river basin scales
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The transformation of earth-system observations into information of socio-economic value in GEOSS
The Group on Earth Observations System of Systems, GEOSS, is a co-ordinated initiative by many nations to address the needs for earth-system information expressed by the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. We discuss the role of earth-system modelling and data assimilation in transforming earth-system observations into the predictive and status-assessment products required by GEOSS, across many areas of socio-economic interest. First we review recent gains in the predictive skill of operational global earth-system models, on time-scales of days to several seasons. We then discuss recent work to develop from the global predictions a diverse set of end-user applications which can meet GEOSS requirements for information of socio-economic benefit; examples include forecasts of coastal storm surges, floods in large river basins, seasonal crop yield forecasts and seasonal lead-time alerts for malaria epidemics. We note ongoing efforts to extend operational earth-system modelling and assimilation capabilities to atmospheric composition, in support of improved services for air-quality forecasts and for treaty assessment. We next sketch likely GEOSS observational requirements in the coming decades. In concluding, we reflect on the cost of earth observations relative to the modest cost of transforming the observations into information of socio-economic value
Making space for proactive adaptation of rapidly changing coasts: a windows of opportunity approach
Coastlines are very often places where the impacts of global change are felt most keenly,
and they are also often sites of high values and intense use for industry, human habitation, nature
conservation and recreation. In many countries, coastlines are a key contested territory for planning
for climate change, and also locations where development and conservation conflicts play out. As
a “test bed” for climate change adaptation, coastal regions provide valuable, but highly diverse
experiences and lessons. This paper sets out to explore the lessons of coastal planning and
development for the implementation of proactive adaptation, and the possibility to move from
adaptation visions to actual adaptation governance and planning. Using qualitative analysis of
interviews and workshops, we first examine what the barriers are to proactive adaptation at the coast,
and how current policy and practice frames are leading to avoidable lock-ins and other maladaptive
decisions that are narrowing our adaptation options. Using examples from UK, we then identify
adaptation windows that can be opened, reframed or transformed to set the course for proactive
adaptation which links high level top-down legislative requirements with local bottom-up actions.
We explore how these windows can be harnessed so that space for proactive adaptation increases
and maladaptive decisions are reduced
Cepheid distances from the SpectroPhoto-Interferometry of Pulsating Stars (SPIPS) - Application to the prototypes delta Cep and eta Aql
The parallax of pulsation, and its implementations such as the
Baade-Wesselink method and the infrared surface bright- ness technique, is an
elegant method to determine distances of pulsating stars in a quasi-geometrical
way. However, these classical implementations in general only use a subset of
the available observational data. Freedman & Madore (2010) suggested a more
physical approach in the implementation of the parallax of pulsation in order
to treat all available data. We present a global and model-based
parallax-of-pulsation method that enables including any type of observational
data in a consistent model fit, the SpectroPhoto-Interferometric modeling of
Pulsating Stars (SPIPS). We implemented a simple model consisting of a
pulsating sphere with a varying effective temperature and a combina- tion of
atmospheric model grids to globally fit radial velocities, spectroscopic data,
and interferometric angular diameters. We also parametrized (and adjusted) the
reddening and the contribution of the circumstellar envelopes in the
near-infrared photometric and interferometric measurements. We show the
successful application of the method to two stars: delta Cep and eta Aql. The
agreement of all data fitted by a single model confirms the validity of the
method. Derived parameters are compatible with publish values, but with a
higher level of confidence. The SPIPS algorithm combines all the available
observables (radial velocimetry, interferometry, and photometry) to estimate
the physical parameters of the star (ratio distance/ p-factor, Teff, presence
of infrared excess, color excess, etc). The statistical precision is improved
(compared to other methods) thanks to the large number of data taken into
account, the accuracy is improved by using consistent physical modeling and the
reliability of the derived parameters is strengthened thanks to the redundancy
in the data.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, A&A in pres
Chemical Treatment Methods Pilot (CTMP) System for Treatment of Urban Runoff – Phase I. Feasibility and Design
(pdf contains 418 pages
DRS: Dynamic Resource Scheduling for Real-Time Analytics over Fast Streams
In a data stream management system (DSMS), users register continuous queries,
and receive result updates as data arrive and expire. We focus on applications
with real-time constraints, in which the user must receive each result update
within a given period after the update occurs. To handle fast data, the DSMS is
commonly placed on top of a cloud infrastructure. Because stream properties
such as arrival rates can fluctuate unpredictably, cloud resources must be
dynamically provisioned and scheduled accordingly to ensure real-time response.
It is quite essential, for the existing systems or future developments, to
possess the ability of scheduling resources dynamically according to the
current workload, in order to avoid wasting resources, or failing in delivering
correct results on time. Motivated by this, we propose DRS, a novel dynamic
resource scheduler for cloud-based DSMSs. DRS overcomes three fundamental
challenges: (a) how to model the relationship between the provisioned resources
and query response time (b) where to best place resources; and (c) how to
measure system load with minimal overhead. In particular, DRS includes an
accurate performance model based on the theory of \emph{Jackson open queueing
networks} and is capable of handling \emph{arbitrary} operator topologies,
possibly with loops, splits and joins. Extensive experiments with real data
confirm that DRS achieves real-time response with close to optimal resource
consumption.Comment: This is the our latest version with certain modificatio
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