Extreme dust storm over the eastern Mediterranean in September 2015: Satellite, lidar, and surface observations in the Cyprus region

A record-breaking dust storm originating from desert regions in northern Syria and Iraq occurred over the eastern Mediterranean in September 2015. In this contribution of a series of two articles (part 1, observations; part 2, atmospheric modeling), we provide a comprehensive overview of the aerosol conditions during this extreme dust outbreak in the Cyprus region. These observations are based on satellite observations (MODIS, moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer) of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and Ångström exponent, surface particle mass (PM10) concentrations measured at four sites in Cyprus, visibility observations at three airports in southern Cyprus and corresponding conversion products (particle extinction coefficient, dust mass concentrations), EARLINET (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network) lidar observations of dust vertical layering over Limassol, particle optical properties (backscatter, extinction, lidar ratio, linear depolarization ratio), and derived profiles of dust mass concentrations. Maximum 550 nm AOT exceeded values of 5.0, according to MODIS, and the mass loads were correspondingly >  10 g m−2 over Larnaca and Limassol during the passage of an extremely dense dust front on 8 September 2015. Hourly mean PM10 values were close to 8000 µg m−3 and the observed meteorological optical range (visibility) was reduced to 300–750 m at Larnaca and Limassol. The visibility observations suggest peak values of the near-surface total suspended particle (TSP) extinction coefficients of 6000 Mm−1 and thus TSP mass concentrations of 10 000 µg m−3. The Raman polarization lidar observations mainly indicated a double layer structure of the dust plumes (reaching to about 4 km height), pointing to at least two different dust source regions. Dust particle extinction coefficients (532 nm) already exceeded 1000 Mm−1 and the mass concentrations reached 2000 µg m−3 in the elevated dust layers on 7 September, more than 12 h before the peak dust front on 8 September reached the Limassol lidar station around local noon. Typical Middle Eastern dust lidar ratios around 40 sr were observed in the dense dust plumes. The particle depolarization ratio decreased from around 0.3 in the lofted dense dust layers to 0.2 at the end of the dust period (11 September), indicating an increasing impact of anthropogenic haze

Affect - an ethnocentric encounter?: Exploring the 'universalist' imperative of emotional/affectual geographies

No description supplie

Gender, migration and the ambiguous enterprise of professionalizing domestic service: the case of vocational training for the unemployed in France

Drawing on ethnographic data concerning migrant male domestic workers, this article examines the gendered dimensions of the process of racialization in Italy and France. First, it shows that specific racialized constructions of masculinity are mobilized by the employers as well as by training and recruitment agencies. These constructions of masculinity are related to different forms of organization of the sector in each country and to different ideologies about the integration of migrants. Second, the data presented reveal the strategies used by migrant male domestic workers to reaffirm their masculinity in a traditionally feminized sector. In doing so, this article intends to explore the connections between international migration and the gendering of occupations, with regard to the construction and management of masculinities in domestic service. Finally, by examining men’s experiences, this article aims to contribute to a more complex definition of the international division of care work

Dust impact on surface solar irradiance assessed with model simulations, satellite observations and ground-based measurements

This study assesses the impact of dust on surface solar radiation focussing on an extreme dust event. For this purpose, we exploited the synergy of AERONET measurements and passive and active satellite remote sensing (MODIS and CALIPSO) observations, in conjunction with radiative transfer model (RTM) and chemical transport model (CTM) simulations and the 1-day forecasts from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). The area of interest is the eastern Mediterranean where anomalously high aerosol loads were recorded between 30 January and 3 February 2015. The intensity of the event was extremely high, with aerosol optical depth (AOD) reaching 3.5, and optical/microphysical properties suggesting aged dust. RTM and CTM simulations were able to quantify the extent of dust impact on surface irradiances and reveal substantial reduction in solar energy exploitation capacity of PV and CSP installations under this high aerosol load. We found that such an extreme dust event can result in Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) attenuation by as much as 40–50 % and a much stronger Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) decrease (80–90 %), while spectrally this attenuation is distributed to 37 % in the UV region, 33 % in the visible and around 30 % in the infrared. CAMS forecasts provided a reliable available energy assessment (accuracy within 10 % of that obtained from MODIS). Spatially, the dust plume resulted in a zonally averaged reduction of GHI and DNI of the order of 150 W/m^2 in southern Greece, and a mean increase of 20 W/m^2 in the northern Greece as a result of lower AOD values combined with local atmospheric processes. This analysis of a real-world scenario contributes to the understanding and quantification of the impact range of high aerosol loads on solar energy and the potential for forecasting power generation failures at sunshine-privileged locations where solar power plants exist, are under construction or are being planned

Comparison and complementary use of in situ and remote sensing aerosol measurements in the Athens Metropolitan Area

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.In the summer of 2014 in situ and remote sensing instruments were deployed in Athens, in order to study the concentration, physical properties, and chemical composition of aerosols. In this manuscript we aim to combine the measurements of collocated in situ and remote sensing instruments by comparison and complementary use, in order to increase the accuracy of predictions concerning climate change and human health. We also develop a new method in order to select days when a direct comparison on in situ and remote sensing instruments is possible. On selected days that displayed significant turbulence up to approximately 1000 m above ground level (agl), we acquired the aerosol extinction or scattering coefficient by in situ instruments using three approaches. In the first approach the aerosol extinction coefficient was acquired by adding a Nephelometer scattering coefficient in ambient conditions and an Aethalometer absorption coefficient. The correlation between the in situ and remote sensing instruments was good (coefficient of determination R2 equal to 0.69). In the second approach we acquired the aerosol refractive index by fitting dry Nephelometer and Aethalometer measurements with Mie algorithm calculations of the scattering and absorption coefficients for the size distribution up to a maximum diameter of 1000 nm obtained by in situ instruments. The correlation in this case was relatively good (R2 equal to 0.56). Our next step was to compare the extinction coefficient acquired by remote sensing instruments to the scattering coefficient calculated by Mie algorithm using the size distribution up to a maximum diameter of 1000 nm and the equivalent refractive index (ERICOR), which is acquired by the comparison of the size distributions obtained by a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS) and an Optical Particle Counter (OPC). The agreement between the in situ and remote sensing instruments in this case was not satisfactory (R2 equal to 0.35). The last comparison for the selected days was between the aerosol extinction Ångström exponent acquired by in situ and remote sensing instruments. The correlation was not satisfactory (R2 equal to 0.4), probably due to differences in the number size distributions present in the air volumes measured by in situ and remote sensing instruments. We also present a day that a Saharan dust event occurred in Athens in order to demonstrate the information we obtain through the synergy of in situ and remote sensing instruments on how regional aerosol is added to local aerosol, especially during pollution events due to long range transport.Peer reviewe

Subjectivation and performative politics—Butler thinking Althusser and Foucault: intelligibility, agency and the raced-nationed-religioned subjects of education

Judith Butler is perhaps best known for her take-up of the debate between Derrida and Austin over the function of the performative and her subsequent suggestion that the subject be understood as performatively constituted. Another important but less often noted move within Butler‘s consideration of the processes through which the subject is constituted is her thinking between Althusser‘s notion of subjection and Foucault‘s notion of subjectivation. In this paper, I explore Butler‘s understanding of processes of subjectivation; examine the relationship between subjectivation and the performative suggested in and by Butler‘s work, and consider how the performative is implicated in processes of subjectivation – in =who‘ the subject is, or might be, subjectivated as. Finally, I examine the usefulness of understanding the subjectivating effects of discourse for education, in particular for educationalists concerned to make better sense of and interrupt educational inequalities. In doing this I offer a reading of an episode of ethnographic data generated in an Australian high School. I suggest that it is through subjectivating processes of the sort that Butler helps us to understand that some students are rendered subjects inside the educational endeavour, and others are rendered outside this endeavour or, indeed, outside student-hood

Managing and monitoring equality and diversity in UK sport: An evaluation of the sporting equals Racial Equality Standard and its impact on organizational change

Despite greater attention to racial equality in sport in recent years, the progress of national sports organizations toward creating equality of outcomes has been limited in the United Kingdom. The collaboration of the national sports agencies, equity organizations and national sports organizations (including national governing bodies of sport) has focused on Equality Standards. The authors revisit an earlier impact study of the Racial Equality Standard in sport and supplement it with another round of interview material to assess changing strategies to manage diversity in British sport. In particular, it tracks the impact on organizational commitment to diversity through the period of the establishment of the Racial Equality Standard and its replacement by an Equality Standard that deals with other diversity issues alongside race and ethnicity. As a result, the authors question whether the new, generic Equality Standard is capable of addressing racial diversity and promoting equality of outcomes. © 2006 Sage Publications

Profiling aerosol optical, microphysical and hygroscopic properties in ambient conditions by combining in situ and remote sensing

We present the In situ/Remote sensing aerosol Retrieval Algorithm (IRRA) that combines airborne in situ and lidar remote sensing data to retrieve vertical profiles of ambient aerosol optical, microphysical and hygroscopic properties, employing the ISORROPIA II model for acquiring the particle hygroscopic growth. Here we apply the algorithm on data collected from the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) BAe-146 research aircraft during the ACEMED campaign in the Eastern Mediterranean. Vertical profiles of aerosol microphysical properties have been derived successfully for an aged smoke plume near the city of Thessaloniki with aerosol optical depth of ∼0.4 at 532 nm, single scattering albedos of ∼0.9-0.95 at 550 nm and typical lidar ratios for smoke of ∼60-80 sr at 532 nm. IRRA retrieves highly hydrated particles above land, with 55 and 80% water volume content for ambient relative humidity of 80 and 90%, respectively. The proposed methodology is highly advantageous for aerosol characterization in humid conditions and can find valuable applications in aerosol-cloud interaction schemes. Moreover, it can be used for the validation of active space-borne sensors, as is demonstrated here for the case of CALIPSO

Sensitivity of boundary-layer variables to PBL schemes in the WRF model based on surface meteorological observations, lidar, and radiosondes during the HygrA-CD campaign

Air quality forecast systems need reliable and accurate representations of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) to perform well. An important question is how accurately numerical weather prediction models can reproduce conditions in diverse synoptic flow types. Here, observations from the summer 2014 HygrA-CD (Hygroscopic Aerosols to Cloud Droplets) experimental campaign are used to validate simulations from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model over the complex, urban terrain of the Greater Athens Area. Three typical atmospheric flow types were identified during the 39-day campaign based on 2-day backward trajectories: Continental, Etesians, and Saharan. It is shown that the numerical model simulations differ dramatically depending on the PBL scheme, atmospheric dynamics, and meteorological parameter (e.g., 2-m air temperature). Eight PBL schemes from WRF version 3.4 are tested with daily simulations on an inner domain at 1-km grid spacing. Near-surface observations of 2-m air temperature and relative humidity and 10-m wind speed are collected from multiple meteorological stations. Estimates of the PBL height come from measurements using a multiwavelength Raman lidar, with an adaptive extended Kalman filter technique. Vertical profiles of atmospheric variables are obtained from radiosonde launches, along with PBL heights calculated using bulk Richardson number. Daytime maximum PBL heights ranged from 2.57 km during Etesian flows, to as low as 0.37 km during Saharan flows. The largest differences between model and observations are found with simulated PBL height during Saharan synoptic flows. During the daytime, campaign-averaged near-surface variables show WRF tended to have a cool, moist bias with higher simulated wind speeds than the observations, especially near the coast. It is determined that non-local PBL schemes give the most agreeable solutions when compared with observations.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Racism, anti-racist practice and social work: articulating the teaching and learning experiences of Black social workers

In the mid 1990s a Black practice teacher programme was established in Manchester and Merseyside with the primary aim to increase the number of Black practice teachers in social work organisations, and in turn provide a supportive and encouraging learning environment for Black student social workers whilst on placement. In the north‐west of England research has been undertaken, to establish the quality of the practice teaching and student learning taking place with Black practice teachers and students. This paper is an exploration of the ideas generated within the placement process that particularly focused on the discourse of racism and ant‐racist practice. Black students and practice teachers explain their understanding of racism and anti‐racist practice within social work. From the research, the paper will critique some of the ideas concerning anti‐racism. In particular, it will question whether anti‐racist social work practice needs to be re‐evaluated in the light of a context with new migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. It will concluded, by arguing that whilst the terms anti‐racism, Black and Minority Ethnic have resonance as a form of political strategic essentialism, it is important to develop more positive representations in the future