533 research outputs found
Surface water floods in Switzerland: what insurance claim records tell us about the damage in space and time
Surface water floods (SWFs) have received increasing attention in the recent
years. Nevertheless, we still know relatively little about where, when and
why such floods occur and cause damage, largely due to a lack of data but
to some degree also because of terminological ambiguities. Therefore, in a
preparatory step, we summarize related terms and identify the need for
unequivocal terminology across disciplines and international boundaries in
order to bring the science together. Thereafter, we introduce a large
(n = 63 117), long (10–33 years) and representative
(48 % of all Swiss buildings covered) data set of spatially explicit
Swiss insurance flood claims. Based on registered flood damage to buildings,
the main aims of this study are twofold: First, we introduce a method to
differentiate damage caused by SWFs and fluvial floods based on the
geographical location of each damaged object in relation to flood hazard maps
and the hydrological network. Second, we analyze the data with respect to
their spatial and temporal distributions aimed at quantitatively answering
the fundamental questions of how relevant SWF damage really is, as well as
where and when it occurs in space and time.
This study reveals that SWFs are responsible for at least 45 % of the
flood damage to buildings and 23 % of the associated direct tangible
losses, whereas lower losses per claim are responsible for the lower loss
share. The Swiss lowlands are affected more heavily by SWFs than the alpine
regions. At the same time, the results show that the damage claims and
associated losses are not evenly distributed within each region either.
Damage caused by SWFs occurs by far most frequently in summer in almost all
regions. The normalized SWF damage of all regions shows no significant upward
trend between 1993 and 2013. We conclude that SWFs are in fact a highly
relevant process in Switzerland that should receive similar attention like
fluvial flood hazards. Moreover, as SWF damage almost always coincides with
fluvial flood damage, we suggest considering SWFs, like fluvial floods, as integrated processes of
our catchments
Beam Performance and Luminosity Limitations in the High-Energy Storage Ring (HESR)
The High-Energy Storage Ring (HESR) of the future International Facility for
Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at GSI in Darmstadt is planned as an
antiproton synchrotron and storage ring in the momentum range from 1.5 to 15
GeV/c. An important feature of this new facility is the combination of phase
space cooled beams with dense internal targets (e.g. pellet targets), resulting
in demanding beam parameter of two operation modes: high luminosity mode with
peak luminosities up to 2*10^32 cm-2 s-1, and high resolution mode with a
momentum spread down to 10^-5, respectively. To reach these beam parameters
very powerful phase space cooling is needed, utilizing high-energy electron
cooling and high-bandwidth stochastic cooling. The effect of beam-target
scattering and intra-beam interaction is investigated in order to study beam
equilibria and beam losses for the two different operation modes.Comment: 8 pages, based on a talk presented at COULOMB'05, Accepted for
publication by Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:
Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipmen
Experimental Test of Momentum Cooling Model Predictions at COSY and Conclusions for WASA and HESR
The High-Energy Storage Ring (HESR) of the future International Facility for
Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at GSI in Darmstadt is planned as an
anti-proton cooler ring in the momentum range from 1.5 to 15 GeV/c. An
important and challenging feature of the new facility is the combination of
highly dense phase space cooled beams with internal targets. A detailed
numerical and analytical approach to the Fokker-Planck equation for
longitudinal filter cooling including the beam - target interaction has been
carried out to demonstrate the stochastic cooling capability. To gain
confidence in the model predictions a series of experimental stochastic cooling
studies with the internal target ANKE at COSY have been carried out. A
remarkable agreement between model and experiment was achieved. On this basis
longitudinal stochastic cooling simulations were performed to predict the
possibilities and limits of cooling when the newly installed WASA Pellet-target
is operated.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, Talk given at Symposium on Meson Physics at
COSY-11 and WASA-at-COSY, Cracow, Poland, 17-22 Jun 200
A recoil detector for the measurement of antiproton-proton elastic scattering at angles close to 90
The design and construction of a recoil detector for the measurement of
recoil protons of antiproton-proton elastic scattering at scattering angles
close to 90 are described. The performance of the recoil detector has
been tested in the laboratory with radioactive sources and at COSY with proton
beams by measuring proton-proton elastic scattering. The results of laboratory
tests and commissioning with beam are presented. Excellent energy resolution
and proper working performance of the recoil detector validate the conceptual
design of the KOALA experiment at HESR to provide the cross section data needed
to achieve a precise luminosity determination at the PANDA experiment.Comment: 10 pages, 15 figure
Near threshold eta meson production in the d+d->alpha+eta reaction
The d+d->alpha+eta reaction has been investigated near threshold using the
ANKE facility at COSY-Juelich. Both total and differential cross sections have
been measured at two excess energies, Q=2.6 MeV and 7.7 MeV, with a
subthreshold measurement being undertaken at Q=-2.6 MeV to study the physical
background. While consistent with isotropy at the lower energy, the angular
distribution reveals a pronounced anisotropy at the higher one, indicating the
presence of higher partial waves. Options for the decomposition into partial
amplitudes and their consequences for determination of the s-wave eta-alpha
scattering length are discussed.Comment: 8pp, fig.3 added, normalisation in eq.4.1 correcte
Dual-Element Isotope Analysis of Desphenylchloridazon to Investigate its Environmental Fate in a Systematic Field Study-A Long-Term Lysimeter Experiment
Desphenylchloridazon (DPC), the main metabolite of the herbicide chloridazon (CLZ), is more water soluble and persistent than CLZ and frequently detected in water bodies. When assessing DPC transformation in the environment, results can be nonconclusive if based on concentration analysis alone because estimates may be confounded by simultaneous DPC formation from CLZ. This study investigated the fate of DPC by combining concentration-based methods with compound-specific C and N stable isotope analysis (CSIA). Additionally, DPC formation and transformation processes were experimentally deconvolved in a dedicated lysimeter study considering three scenarios. First, surface application of DPC enabled studying its degradation in the absence of CLZ. Here, CSIA provided evidence of two distinct DPC transformation processes: one shows significant changes only in 13C/12C, whereas the other involves changes in both 13C/12C and 15N/14N isotope ratios. Second, surface application of CLZ mimicked a realistic field scenario, showing that during DPC formation, 13C/12C ratios of DPC were depleted in 13C relative to CLZ, while 15N/14N ratios remained constant. Finally, CLZ depth injection simulated preferential flow and demonstrated the importance of the topsoil for retaining DPC. The combination of the lysimeter study with CSIA enabled insights into DPC transformation in the field that are superior to those of studies of concentration trends
A Method to Polarize Stored Antiprotons to a High Degree
Polarized antiprotons can be produced in a storage ring by spin--dependent
interaction in a purely electron--polarized hydrogen gas target. The polarizing
process is based on spin transfer from the polarized electrons of the target
atoms to the orbiting antiprotons. After spin filtering for about two beam
lifetimes at energies MeV using a dedicated large acceptance
ring, the antiproton beam polarization would reach . Polarized
antiprotons would open new and unique research opportunities for spin--physics
experiments in interactions
High precision beam momentum determination in a synchrotron using a spin resonance method
In order to measure the mass of the eta meson with high accuracy using the
d+p -> 3He+eta reaction, the momentum of the circulating deuteron beam in the
Cooler Synchrotron COSY of the Forschungszentrum Juelich has to be determined
with unprecedented precision. This has been achieved by studying the spin
dynamics of the polarized deuteron beam. By depolarizing the beam through the
use of an artificially induced spin resonance, it was possible to evaluate its
momentum p with a precision of dp/p < 10-4 for a momentum of roughly 3 GeV/c.
Different possible sources of error in the application of the spin resonance
method are discussed in detail and its possible use during a standard
experiment is considered.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, published versio
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