Remote Sensing of Precipitation: Part II

Precipitation is a well-recognized pillar in the global water and energy balances. The accurate and timely understanding of its characteristics at the global, regional and local scales is indispensable for a clearer insight on the mechanisms underlying the Earth’s atmosphere-ocean complex system. Precipitation is one of the elements that is documented to be greatly affected by climate change. In its various forms, precipitation comprises the primary source of freshwater, which is vital for the sustainability of almost all human activities. Its socio-economic significance is fundamental in managing this natural resource effectively, in applications ranging from irrigation to industrial and household usage. Remote sensing of precipitation is pursued through a broad spectrum of continuously enriched and upgraded instrumentation, embracing sensors which can be ground-based (e.g., weather radars), satellite-borne (e.g., passive or active space-borne sensors), underwater (e.g., hydrophones), aerial, or ship-borne. This volume hosts original research contributions on several aspects of remote sensing of precipitation, including applications which embrace the use of remote sensing in tackling issues such as precipitation estimation, seasonal characteristics of precipitation and frequency analysis, assessment of satellite precipitation products, storm prediction, rain microphysics and microstructure, and the comparison of satellite and numerical weather prediction precipitation products

Limits of oxygen isotope palaeoaltimetry in Tibet

Measurements of stable water isotopes (oxygen and hydrogen) are commonly used to estimate palaeoelevation and quantify past changes in surface height across Tibet. Isotope palaeoaltimetry is often based on simple Rayleigh fractionation of a “parcel of air”, but must make a considerable number of approximations and assumptions. In this paper, we elaborate on the practicability of oxygen water isotopes in palaeoaltimetry, and evaluate a recent challenge to the palaeoaltimetry community. First, we examine the isotopic composition of oxygen (ẟ18O) versus altitude relationship in a set of five topographic realisations of Tibet using an isotope-enabled palaeoclimate model for the mid-Eocene, a period where a variety of topographic ‘uplift’ models have been proposed, and compare it to modern relationships. Second, we investigate whether isotopic composition is a good predictor of more modest changes in topography, such as the introduction of a valley system or uplift of only part of the Tibetan region. The aim of the paper is not to perform a direct comparison to data, but to use the model to further refine knowledge of the strengths and limitations of using oxygen isotopes in palaeoaltimetry. We find that oxygen isotope palaeoaltimetry works surprisingly well, with the exception that it could not identify low elevation valley systems bounded by high elevations because the isotopic composition of the water in the air becomes depleted at the first high elevation that an air parcel passes over and does not recover when it descends into the valley. Hence, isotope-based elevations are biased towards mountain range peaks. Overall, the application of oxygen isotope palaeoaltimetry does have value, but would be further strengthened when employed together with isotope-enabled models. In conjunction with other techniques such as terrestrial thermal lapse rates and energy conservation approaches, over a wide spatial region, a more accurate and fully three-dimension view of complex palaeo-topography is increasingly possible, which will in turn improve the precision of these palaeoaltimeters

Energy and Water Cycles in the Third Pole

As the most prominent and complicated terrain on the globe, the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is often called the “Roof of the World”, “Third Pole” or “Asian Water Tower”. The energy and water cycles in the Third Pole have great impacts on the atmospheric circulation, Asian monsoon system and global climate change. On the other hand, the TP and the surrounding higher elevation area are also experiencing evident and rapid environmental changes under the background of global warming. As the headwater area of major rivers in Asia, the TP’s environmental changes—such as glacial retreat, snow melting, lake expanding and permafrost degradation—pose potential long-term threats to water resources of the local and surrounding regions. To promote quantitative understanding of energy and water cycles of the TP, several field campaigns, including GAME/Tibet, CAMP/Tibet and TORP, have been carried out. A large amount of data have been collected to gain a better understanding of the atmospheric boundary layer structure, turbulent heat fluxes and their coupling with atmospheric circulation and hydrological processes. The focus of this reprint is to present recent advances in quantifying land–atmosphere interactions, the water cycle and its components, energy balance components, climate change and hydrological feedbacks by in situ measurements, remote sensing or numerical modelling approaches in the “Third Pole” region

Annual Report 2017-2018 of the Institute for Nuclear and Energy Technologies (KIT Scientific Reports ; 7756)

The annual report of the Institute for Nuclear and Energy Technologies of KIT summarizes its research activities and provides some highlights of each working group, like thermal-hydraulic analyses for nuclear fusion reactors, accident analyses for light water reactors, and research on innovative energy technologies: liquid metal technologies for energy conversion, hydrogen technologies and geothermal power plants. The institute has been engaged in education and training in energy technologies

Advances in Modelling of Rainfall Fields

Rainfall is the main input for all hydrological models, such as rainfall–runoff models and the forecasting of landslides triggered by precipitation, with its comprehension being clearly essential for effective water resource management as well. The need to improve the modeling of rainfall fields constitutes a key aspect both for efficiently realizing early warning systems and for carrying out analyses of future scenarios related to occurrences and magnitudes for all induced phenomena. The aim of this Special Issue was hence to provide a collection of innovative contributions for rainfall modeling, focusing on hydrological scales and a context of climate changes. We believe that the contribution from the latest research outcomes presented in this Special Issue can shed novel insights on the comprehension of the hydrological cycle and all the phenomena that are a direct consequence of rainfall. Moreover, all these proposed papers can clearly constitute a valid base of knowledge for improving specific key aspects of rainfall modeling, mainly concerning climate change and how it induces modifications in properties such as magnitude, frequency, duration, and the spatial extension of different types of rainfall fields. The goal should also consider providing useful tools to practitioners for quantifying important design metrics in transient hydrological contexts (quantiles of assigned frequency, hazard functions, intensity–duration–frequency curves, etc.)

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 279)

This bibliography lists 759 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in May 1992. Subject coverage includes: design, construction, and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment, and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics

中国四川省北東部における伝統的住居の外皮に対するパッシブ省エネ戦略の最適化と技術及び経済性評価

This study aims to determine some efficient and economic strategies for traditional dwellings in northeast of Sichuan hills, China to lower their energy demand. In addition, energy-saving effects and economic performance need to be simultaneously assessed, therefore we carried out the thorough works on tech-economic evaluation of each energy-saving strategy. Eventually, we obtain a set of effective and economic energy-saving strategies and the research results can provide valuable references for decision-makers to select appropriate energy-saving strategies to reduce the energy demand of traditional dwellings, lower the economic burden for renovation and save more money. The significance of this study is to determine the optimal parameters for each energy-saving strategy, and propose the most economic retrofit strategy for traditional dwellings in this region. Results can help residents and decision-makers select the relatively appropriate energy-saving strategy to retrofit traditional dwellings in this region, and thereby decrease the energy demand of the building.北九州市立大

Solar Power System Plaing & Design

Photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) systems for the conversion of solar energy into electricity are technologically robust, scalable, and geographically dispersed, and they possess enormous potential as sustainable energy sources. Systematic planning and design considering various factors and constraints are necessary for the successful deployment of PV and CSP systems. This book on solar power system planning and design includes 14 publications from esteemed research groups worldwide. The research and review papers in this Special Issue fall within the following broad categories: resource assessments, site evaluations, system design, performance assessments, and feasibility studies

Investigation of a novel solar assisted heat recovery heat pump system for building space heating and hot water supply

With the rapid increment of energy consumption worldwide, the caused environmental contamination and global warming desperately necessitate the further development of renewable energy technologies. This study aims at presenting an in-depth investigation of a novel solar-assisted heat recovery heat pump (SAHR-HP) system for heating, cooling and domestic hot water (DHW) supply to resolve some barriers of the existing solar-assisted heat pump (SAHP) technologies, which include (1) performance reduction on the rear collectors of a solar collectors array; (2) poor performance at low ambient temperature; (3) long responding time due to the huge volume of the heat storage and exchange unit (HSEU); and (4) weak of strong complementarity between solar collector and heat pump. According to the barriers, the novel SAHR-HP system incorporates (1) a new designed mini-channel solar thermal collector with three inlets and outlets that can be connected with other solar collectors flexibly; (2) a solar collectors array with a novel multiple-throughout-flow connection method that can simultaneously increase the overall solar thermal efficiency and reduce the flowing resistance; (2) a novel vapour injection heat recovery air source heat pump (VIHRASHP) that can use both the exhausted air and the ambient air, thus leading a considerable performance increase of the heat pump in cold weather; (3) a novel fastresponding double-layered HSEU that can significantly shorten the response time.The study combined theoretical analysis and experimental and simulative investigation, including the following elements; a critical literature review, optimal preliminary design, theoretical analysis, the development of simulation models, prototype construction, laboratory-controlled and field testing, validation and performance optimisation of the simulation models, energy performance, economic performance and environmental influence analysis. The proposed SAHR-HP system has a COP from 3 to 8 according to the weather conditions. The multiple-throughout-flowing connection can improve solar thermal efficiency of a solar collectors array by 10% when compared with that of the conventional one-to-one connection. The novel HSEU can decrease the responding time to 20mins compared with the 3 hours of the conventional HSEU with the same heat storage volume. Particularly, the VIHR-ASHP can save about 23% of electricity consumption as compared with a conventional ASHP at normal operation conditions of condensation temperature of 45°C and an ambient temperature of -10°C. A lower ambient temperature will increase its advantages over conventional air source heat pump and vapor injection heat pump. The integral test results indicated that the SAHRHP system can perform in perfect union with the coordinative operation between different parts of the system under any environmental conditions. The energy performance and the economic and environmental analysis illustrated that this system could efficiently provide enough energy for space heating, cooling and DHW with high energy performance in cold climatic regions, such as Chongqing, Taiyuan and Urumqi. Compared with the coal-driven system, the novel system has a cost payback period of 13.8 years, 12.37 years, and 17.85 years in Chongqing, Taiyuan, and Urumqi and a life- cycle net cost saving of nearly 16145.84RMB, 20317.82RMB, and 9002RMB. Furthermore, the system reduces the emission of many other harmful substances, i.e., dust, SO2 and NOx, and is therefore a desirable approach for environment sustainability and clean air. Besides, the results can be extended to most cold areas worldwide, i.e., The UK and the European countries.The research results are expected to configure feasible solutions for future SAHP technologies. The wide promotion of these core technologies worldwide could significantly reduce the consumption of fossil fuel and the associated carbon footprint in a built-up environment, thus providing a more ecological environment