Validation of Sentinel-5P TROPOMI tropospheric NO2 products by comparison with NO2 measurements from airborne imaging, ground-based stationary, and mobile car DOAS measurements during the S5P-VAL-DE-Ruhr campaign

Airborne imaging differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS), ground-based stationary and car DOAS measurements were conducted during the S5P-VAL-DE-Ruhr campaign in September 2020. The campaign area is located in the Rhine-Ruhr region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Western Germany, which is a pollution hotspot in Europe comprising urban and large industrial emitters. The measurements are used to validate space-borne NO2 tropospheric vertical column density data products from the Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). Seven flights were performed with the airborne imaging DOAS instrument for measurements of atmospheric pollution (AirMAP), providing measurements which were used to create continuous maps of NO2 in the layer below the aircraft. These flights cover many S5P ground pixels within an area of 30 km x 35 km and were accompanied by ground-based stationary measurements and three mobile car DOAS instruments. Stationary measurements were conducted by two Pandora, two zenith-sky and two MAX-DOAS instruments distributed over three target areas. Ground-based stationary and car DOAS measurements are used to evaluate the AirMAP tropospheric NO2 vertical column densities and show high Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.87 and 0.89 and slopes of 0.93 &plusmn; 0.09 and 0.98 &plusmn; 0.02 for the stationary and car DOAS, respectively. Having a spatial resolution of about 100 m x 30 m, the AirMAP tropospheric NO2 vertical column density (VCD) data creates a link between the ground-based and the TROPOMI measurements with a resolution of 3.5 km x 5.5 km and is therefore well suited to validate the TROPOMI tropospheric NO2 VCD. The measurements on the seven flight days show strong NO2 variability, which is dependent on the different target areas, the weekday, and the meteorological conditions. The AirMAP campaign dataset is compared to the TROPOMI NO2 operational off-line (OFFL) V01.03.02 data product, the reprocessed NO2 data, using the V02.03.01 of the official L2 processor, provided by the Product Algorithm Laboratory (PAL), and several scientific TROPOMI NO2 data products. The TROPOMI data products and the AirMAP data are highly correlated with correlation coefficients between 0.72 and 0.87, and slopes of 0.38 &plusmn; 0.02 to 1.02 &plusmn; 0.07. On average, TROPOMI tropospheric NO2 VCDs are lower than the AirMAP NO2 results. The slope increased from 0.38 &plusmn; 0.02 for the operational OFFL V01.03.02 product to 0.83 &plusmn; 0.06 after the improvements in the retrieval of the PAL V02.03.01 product were implemented. Different auxiliary data, such as spatially higher resolved a priori NO2 vertical profiles, surface reflectivity and the cloud treatment, are investigated using scientific TROPOMI tropospheric NO2 VCD data products to evaluate their impact on the operational TROPOMI NO2 VCD data product. The comparison of the AirMAP campaign dataset to the scientific data products shows that the choice of surface reflectivity data base has a minor impact on the tropospheric NO2 VCD retrieval in the campaign region and season. In comparison, the replacement of the a priori NO2 profile in combination with the improvements in the retrieval of the PAL V02.03.01 product regarding cloud heights has a major impact on the tropospheric NO2 VCD retrieval and increases the slope from 0.88 &plusmn; 0.06 to 1.00 &plusmn; 0.07. This study demonstrates that the underestimation of the TROPOMI tropospheric NO2 VCD product with respect to the validation dataset has been and can be further significantly improved.</p

Effective biodiversity monitoring needs a culture of integration

Despite conservation commitments, most countries still lack large-scale biodiversity monitoring programs to track progress toward agreed targets. Monitoring program design is frequently approached from a top-down, data-centric perspective that ignores the socio-cultural context of data collection. A rich landscape of people and organizations, with a diversity of motivations and expertise, independently engages in biodiversity monitoring. This diversity often leads to complementarity in activities across places, time periods, and taxa. In this Perspective, we propose a framework for aligning different efforts to realize large-scale biodiversity monitoring through a networked design of stakeholders, data, and biodiversity schemes. We emphasize the value of integrating independent biodiversity observations in conjunction with a backbone of structured core monitoring, thereby fostering broad ownership and resilience due to a strong partnership of science, society, policy, and individuals. Furthermore, we identify stakeholder-specific barriers and incentives to foster joint collaboration toward effective large-scale biodiversity monitoring

PESFOR-W: Improving the design and environmental effectiveness of woodlands for water Payments for Ecosystem Services

ABSTRACT: The EU Water Framework Directive aims to ensure restoration of Europe?s water bodies to ?good ecological status? by 2027. Many Member States will struggle to meet this target, with around half of EU river catchments currently reporting below standard water quality. Diffuse pollution from agriculture represents a major pressure, affecting over 90% of river basins. Accumulating evidence shows that recent improvements to agricultural practices are benefiting water quality but in many cases will be insufficient to achieve WFD objectives. There is growing support for land use change to help bridge the gap, with a particular focus on targeted tree planting to intercept and reduce the delivery of diffuse pollutants to water. This form of integrated catchment management offers multiple benefits to society but a significant cost to landowners and managers. New economic instruments, in combination with spatial targeting, need to be developed to ensure cost effective solutions - including tree planting for water benefits - are realised. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are flexible, incentive-based mechanisms that could play an important role in promoting land use change to deliver water quality targets. The PESFOR-W COST Action will consolidate learning from existing woodlands for water PES schemes in Europe and help standardize approaches to evaluating the environmental effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of woodland measures. It will also create a European network through which PES schemes can be facilitated, extended and improved, for example by incorporating other ecosystem services linking with aims of the wider forestscarbon policy nexus

Physiological responses to acute and chronic stress in young healthy men

The purpose of the present thesis was two studies. The goal of the first study was to evaluate the efficiency of the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G) and its ability to repeatedly evoke an affective and autonomic stress response by means of two different protocols in a second measurement. The aim of the second study was to investigate the effect of prolonged mental and physical stress induced by basic military training (BMT) on hair cortisol concentration (HCC), while further exploring the role of covariates. Healthy young recruits participated twice, 10 weeks apart. In the first examination, the TSST-G consisted of a combination of mental arithmetic and a fake job interview (n = 294). Additionally, participants had to give a 2-cm hair sample and had to complete the Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ; n = 177). In the second examination, mental arithmetic was combined with either (a) a defence speech against a false accusation of shoplifting (n = 105), or (b) a presentation on a given topic (n = 100). Participants had to give a hair sample again and fill out the PSQ (n = 105). Affect ratings and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) were assessed immediately before and after the TSST-G, while heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) were measured continuously. The findings of the first study revealed that the TSST-G is a useful protocol to repeatedly evoke an affective and autonomic stress response, even though repetition leads to habituation, mainly in affective variables. When interested in efficacy to induce a stress response, a task containing a defence speech seems to be superior to a task containing a presentation on an impersonal topic, which is probably due a higher ego-involvement in the defence speech. The results of the second study revealed a significant influence of air temperature, humidity, and educational level on HCC. Military stress and perceived stress ratings did not influence HCC. This study is the first to examine the relationship between HCC and meteorological variables, as well as the first research evaluating the effect of military training as a real-life stressor on the HCC of the recruits. The two studies contribute to stress research by evaluating an instrument for inducing stress in a military setting and by using an innovative method of measurement

Are you willing to self-disclose for science? Effects of privacy awareness and trust in privacy on self-disclosure of personal and health data in online scientific studies - an experimental study

Digital interactions via the internet have become the norm rather than the exception in our global society. Concerns have been raised about human-centered privacy and the often unreflected self-disclosure behavior of internet users. This study on human-centered privacy follows two major aims: first, investigate the willingness of university students (as digital natives) to disclose private data and information about their person, social and academic life, their mental health as well as their health behavior habits, when taking part as a volunteer in a scientific online survey. Second, examine to what extent the participants’ self-disclosure behavior can be modulated by experimental induction of privacy awareness (PA) or trust in privacy (TIP) or a combination of both (PA and TIP). In addition, the role of human factors such as personality traits, gender or mental health (e.g., self-reported depressive symptoms) on self-disclosure behavior was explored. Participants were randomly assigned to four experimental groups. In group A (n = 50, 7 males), privacy awareness (PA) was induced implicitly by the inclusion of privacy concern items. In group B (n = 43, 6 males), trust in privacy (TIP) was experimentally induced by buzzwords and by visual TIP primes promising safe data storage. Group C (n = 79, 12 males) received both, PA and TIP induction, while group D (n = 55, 9 males) served as control group. Participants had the choice to answer the survey items by agreeing to one of a number of possible answers including the options to refrain from self-disclosure by choosing the response options “don’t know” or “no answer.” Self-disclosure among participants was high irrespective of experimental group and irrespective of psychological domains of the information provided. The results of this study suggest that willingness of volunteers to self-disclose private data in a scientific online study cannot simply be overruled or changed by any of the chosen experimental privacy manipulations. The present results extend the previous literature on human-centered privacy and despite limitations can give important insights into self-disclosure behavior of young people and the privacy paradox

Digital surface modelling by airborne laser scanning and digital photogrammetry for glacier monitoring

ISSN:1477-9730ISSN:0031-868

Mood and autonomic responses to repeated exposure to the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G)

Introduction A group version of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST-G) was introduced as a standardized, economic and efficient tool to induce a psychobiological stress response simultaneously in a group of subjects. The aim of the present study was to examine the efficacy of the TSST-G to repeatedly induce an affective and autonomic stress response while comparing two alternative protocols for the second examination. Methods and material Healthy young male recruits participated twice in the TSST-G 10 weeks apart. In the first examination, the TSST-G consisted of a combination of mental arithmetic and a fake job interview (TSST-G-1st; n = 294). For the second examination, mental arithmetic was combined with either (a) a defensive speech in response to a false shoplifting accusation (TSST-G-2nd-defence; n = 105), or (b) a speech on a more neutral topic selected by the investigators (TSST-G-2nd-presentation; n = 100). Affect ratings and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) were determined immediately before and after the stress test, while heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) were measured continuously. Results TSST-G-1st resulted in a significant increase of negative affect, HR, and sAA, and a significant decrease in positive affect and HRV. TSST-G-2nd, overall, resulted in a significant increase of HR and sAA (the latter only in response to TSST-G-2nd-defence) and a decrease in HRV, while no significant affect alterations were found. When comparing both, TSST-G-2nd-defence and -2nd-presentation, the former resulted in a stronger stress response with regard to HR and HRV. Discussion The findings reveal that the TSST-G is a useful protocol to repeatedly evoke an affective and autonomic stress response, while repetition leads to affective but not necessarily autonomic habituation. When interested in examining repeated psychosocial stress reactivity, a task that requires an ego-involving effort, such as a defensive speech, seems to be significantly superior to a task using an impersonal speech

Photogrammetric Record, 17(98): 243-273 (October 2001)

This research is part of a Swiss National Science Foundation project on &quot;Mass Balance Determination of Glaciers with the Use of State-of-the-art Remote Sensing Methods and a Numerical Flow Model&quot;. Remote sensing involves automated processing of aerial images and laser scanning and aims at producing glacier surface models with an accuracy of about 05-1 m in time periods of 1-5 years. The Unteraar glacier, Switzerland, has been chosen to test both methods, as it has been extensively studied by glaciologists. The results of laser and digital photogrammetry were evaluated using accurate manual measurements at an analytical plotter. Regarding laser data processing, different aspects like system description, position and attitude determination, transformation to the Swiss map co-ordinate system, fit of overlapping laser strips and problems encountered are presented. Three digital photogrammetric systems (Match-T, LHS DPW770 and VirtuoZo) were used for surface model generation using image matching. The different matching algorithms and strategies, occurred matching problems due to low texture, shadows, steep slopes etc. and a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the results are presented. Finally, a comparison between photogrammetry and laser scanning regarding accuracy and point density is presented