Local control of Hamiltonian chaos

We review a method of control for Hamiltonian systems which is able to create smooth invariant tori. This method of control is based on an apt modification of the perturbation which is small and localized in phase space

Controlling chaos in area-preserving maps

We describe a method of control of chaos that occurs in area-preserving maps. This method is based on small modifications of the original map by addition of a small control term. We apply this control technique to the standard map and to the tokamap

Controlling chaotic transport in a Hamiltonian model of interest to magnetized plasmas

We present a technique to control chaos in Hamiltonian systems which are close to integrable. By adding a small and simple control term to the perturbation, the system becomes more regular than the original one. We apply this technique to a model that reproduces turbulent ExB drift and show numerically that the control is able to drastically reduce chaotic transport

Daytime sensible heat flux estimation over heterogeneous surfaces using multitemporal land‐surface temperature observations

Equations based on surface renewal (SR) analysis to estimate the sensible heat flux (H) require as input the mean ramp amplitude and period observed in the ramp‐like pattern of the air temperature measured at high frequency. A SR‐based method to estimate sensible heat flux (HSR‐LST) requiring only low‐frequency measurements of the air temperature, horizontal mean wind speed, and land‐surface temperature as input was derived and tested under unstable conditions over a heterogeneous canopy (olive grove). HSR‐LST assumes that the mean ramp amplitude can be inferred from the difference between land‐surface temperature and mean air temperature through a linear relationship and that the ramp frequency is related to a wind shear scale characteristic of the canopy flow. The land‐surface temperature was retrieved by integrating in situ sensing measures of thermal infrared energy emitted by the surface. The performance of HSR‐LST was analyzed against flux tower measurements collected at two heights (close to and well above the canopy top). Crucial parameters involved in HSR‐LST, which define the above mentioned linear relationship, were explained using the canopy height and the land surface temperature observed at sunrise and sunset. Although the olive grove can behave as either an isothermal or anisothermal surface, HSR‐LST performed close to H measured using the eddy covariance and the Bowen ratio energy balance methods. Root mean square differences between HSR‐LST and measured H were of about 55 W m−2. Thus, by using multitemporal thermal acquisitions, HSR‐LST appears to bypass inconsistency between land surface temperature and the mean aerodynamic temperature. The one‐source bulk transfer formulation for estimating H performed reliable after calibration against the eddy covariance method. After calibration, the latter performed similar to the proposed SR‐LST method.This research was funded by project CGL2012‐37416‐C04‐01 and CGL2015‐65627‐C3‐1‐R (Ministerio de Ciencia y Innovación of Spain), CEI Iberus, 2014 (Proyecto financiado por el Ministerio de Educación en el marco del Programa Campus de Excelencia Internacional of Spain), and Ayuda para estancias en centros extranjeros (Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte of Spain)

Control of test particle transport in a turbulent electrostatic model of the Scrape Off Layer

The ${\bm E}\times{\bm B}$ drift motion of charged test particle dynamics in the Scrape Off Layer (SOL)is analyzed to investigate a transport control strategy based on Hamiltonian dynamics. We model SOL turbulence using a 2D non-linear fluid code based on interchange instability which was found to exhibit intermittent dynamics of the particle flux. The effect of a small and appropriate modification of the turbulent electric potential is studied with respect to the chaotic diffusion of test particle dynamics. Over a significant range in the magnitude of the turbulent electrostatic field, a three-fold reduction of the test particle diffusion coefficient is achieved

Evapotranspiration from an Olive Orchard using Remote Sensing-Based Dual Crop Coefficient Approach

A remote sensing-based approach to estimate actual evapotranspiration (ET) was tested in an area covered by olive trees and characterized by Mediterranean climate. The methodology is a modified version of the standard FAO-56 dual crop coefficient procedure, in which the crop potential transpiration, Tp, is obtained by directly applying the Penman-Monteith (PM) equation with actual canopy characteristics (i.e., leaf area index, albedo and canopy height) derived from optical remote sensing data. Due to the minimum requirement of in-situ ancillary inputs, the methodology is suitable also for applications on large areas where the use of tabled crop coefficient values become problematic, due to the need of corrections for specific crop parameters, i.e., percentage of ground cover, crop height, phenological cycles, etc. The methodology was applied using seven airborne remote sensing images acquired during spring-autumn 2008. The estimates based on PM approach always outperforms the ones obtained using simple crop coefficient constant values. Additionally, the comparison of simulated daily evapotranspiration and transpiration with the values observed by eddy correlation and sap flow techniques, respectively, shows a substantial agreement during both dry and wet days with an accuracy in the order of 0.5 and 0.3 mm d−1, respectively. The obtained results suggest the capability of the proposed approach to correctly partition evaporation and transpiration components during both the irrigation season and rainy period also under conditions of significant reduction of actual ET from the potential one

Combined use of eddy covariance and sap flow techniques for partition of ET fluxes and water stress assessment in an irrigated olive orchard

Correct estimation of crop actual transpiration plays a key-role in precision irrigation scheduling, since crop growth and yield are associated to the water passing through the crop. Objective of the work was to assess how the combined use of micro-meteorological techniques (eddy covariance, EC) and physiological measurements (sap flow, SF) allows a better comprehension of the processes involving in the Soil-Plant-Atmosphere continuum. To this aim, an experimental dataset of actual evapotranspiration, plant transpiration, and soil water content measurements was collected in an olive orchard during the midseason phenological period of 2009 and 2010. It was demonstrated that the joint use of EC and SF techniques is effective to evaluate the components of actual evapotranspiration in an olive orchard characterized by sparse vegetation and a significant fraction of exposed bare soil. The availability of simultaneous soil water content measurements allowed to estimate the crop coefficients and to assess a simple crop water stress index, depending on actual transpiration that can be evaluated even in the absence of direct measurements of actual transpiration. The crop coefficients experimentally determined resulted very similar to those previously evaluated; in particular, in the absence of water stress, a seasonal average value of about 0.65 was obtained for the "single" crop coefficient, whereas values of a 0.34 and 0.41 were observed under limited water availability in the root zone. The comparison between the values of crop water stress index evaluated during the investigated periods evidenced systematically lower values (less crop water stress) in the first year compared to the second, according to the general trend of soil waters content in the root zone. Further researches are however necessary to extent the experimental dataset to periods characterized by values of soil evaporation higher than those observed, in order to verify the crop coefficients even under different conditions than those investigated. © 2012 Elsevier B.V

Evaluating the performance of reference evapotranspiration equations with scintillometer measurements under Mediterranean climate and effects on olive grove actual evapotranspiration estimated with FAO-56 water balance model

The concept of reference potranspiration is widely used to support water resource management in agriculture and for irrigation scheduling, especially under arid and semi-arid conditions. The Penman-Monteith standardized formulations, as suggested by ASCE and FAO-56 papers, are generally applied for accurate estimations of ETo, at hourly and daily scale. When detailed meteorological information are not available, several alternative and simplified equations, using a limited number of variables, have been proposed (Blaney-Criddle, HargreavesSamani, Turc, Makkinen and Pristley-Taylor). In this paper, scintillometer measurements collected for six month in 2005, on an experimental plot under “reference” conditions, were used to validate different ETo equations at hourly and daily scale. Experimental plot is located in a typical agricultural Mediterranean environment (Sicily, Italy), where olive groves is the dominant crop. As proved by other researches, the comparison confirmed the best agreement between estimated and measured fluxes corresponds to FAO-56 Penman-Monteith standardized equation, that was characterized by both the lowest average error and the minimum bias. However, the analysis also evidenced a quite good performance of Pristley-Taylor equation, that can be considered as a valid alternative to the more sophisticated PenmanMonteith method. The different ETo series, obtained by the considered simplified equations, were then used as input in the FAO-56 water balance model, in order to evaluate, for olive groves, the errors on estimated actual evapotranspiration ET. To this aim soil and crop model input parameters were settled by considering previous experimental researches already used to calibrate and validate the FAO-56 water balance model on olive groves, for the same study area. Also in this case, assuming as the true values of ET those obtained using the water balance coupled with Penman- Monteith ETo input values, the Priestley-Taylor equation, requiring a limited number of input meteorological data, was characterized by the best performance if compared to the other equations used to evaluate ETo. Under environments conditions similar to those considered therefore, according to the good performance associated to the Priestley-Tailor approach, FAO-56 model can allow realistic estimation of ET, even in absence of a full meteorological dataset

Particle tracking in a gap of aquatic vegetation meadow

Aquatic vegetation considerably affects the flow field in water bodies, with influence increasing as the depth decreases. As a consequence, vegetation also affects suspended particle transport. In inshore sandy beds less than 40 m deep of the Mediterranean Sea, meadows of Posidonia oceanica are widespread. This plant is constituted by a tuft of very thin and flexible ribbon-like leaves about 1 cm wide and up to 1.5 m long; the meadow areal density can reach 1000-1200 plant/m2. Frequently, such meadows are not continuous but vegetated areas alternate with sand strips (“gaps”). The presence of such discontinuities noticeably affects the flow field and gaps can actually act as particle traps. Some laboratory experiments were performed aiming at studying the flow field in a gap of artificial Posidonia oceanica canopy. In this paper, the measured flow field is used to track single particles within the gap. A simple particle tracking model which assumes no-slip condition and random velocity fluctuations is adopted. A large number of single-particle tracking were performed considering several release elevations of particles as well as several falling velocities of the latters. The examination of the whole tracks allows one to recognize the particle fate as the simulation parameters vary. In spite of the model assumptions, the study gives useful indications on the behavior of a gap towards the suspended particle transport

Tailoring Phase Space : A Way to Control Hamiltonian Transport

We present a method to control transport in Hamiltonian systems. We provide an algorithm - based on a perturbation of the original Hamiltonian localized in phase space - to design small control terms that are able to create isolated barriers of transport without modifying other parts of phase space. We apply this method of localized control to a forced pendulum model and to a system describing the motion of charged particles in a model of turbulent electric field