Database of the Italian disdrometer network

In 2021, a group of seven Italian institutions decided to bring together their know-how, experience, and instruments for measuring the drop size distribution (DSD) of atmospheric precipitation, giving birth to the Italian Group of Disdrometry (in Italian named Gruppo Italiano Disdrometria, GID, https://www.gid-net.it/, last access: 16 May 2023). GID has made freely available a database of 1 min records of DSD collected by the disdrometer network along the Italian peninsula. At the time of writing, the disdrometer network was composed of eight laser disdrometers belonging to six different Italian institutions (including research centres, universities, and environmental regional agencies). This work aims to document the technical aspects of the Italian DSD database consisting of 1 min sampling data from 2012 to 2021 in a uniform standard format defined within GID. Although not all the disdrometers have the same data record length, the DSD data collection effort is the first of its kind in Italy, and from here onwards, it opens up new opportunities in the surface characterization of microphysical properties of precipitation in the perspective of climate records and beyond. The Version 01 GID database can be downloaded at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6875801 (Adirosi et al., 2022), while Version 02 can be downloaded at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7708563 (Adirosi et al., 2023). The difference among the two versions is the diameter–fall velocity relation used for the DSD computation

Assessment of nonlinear predictive control techniques for DC-DC converters

This article focuses on the application of two nonlinear predictive control strategies to fixed frequency switch-mode dc-dc converters. The first approach uses an averaged nonlinear model for predictions and provides an a priori robust stability guarantee for the resulting closed-loop system. The implementation of this scheme requires solving a single linear program on-line. The second approach employs a piecewise affine (PWA) approximation of the converter equations as prediction model and yields an explicit controller off-line, which allows for an a posteriori stability check. An assessment of the synthesis procedures and methodological characteristics is given and simulation results are shown to substantiate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches