19 research outputs found

    Global maps of soil temperature.

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    Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km <sup>2</sup> resolution for 0-5 and 5-15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km <sup>2</sup> pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all the world's major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications

    Observation of a sudden cessation of a very-high-energy gamma-ray flare in PKS 1510-089 with H.E.S.S. and MAGIC in May 2016

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    The flat spectrum radio quasar (FSRQ) PKS 1510-089 is known for its complex multiwavelength behavior, and is one of only a few FSRQs detected at very high energy (VHE, E >100 GeV) -rays. VHE -ray observations with H.E.S.S. and MAGIC during late May and early June 2016 resulted in the detection of an unprecedented flare, which reveals for the first time VHE -ray intranight variability in this source. While a common variability timescale of 1.5 hr is found, there is a significant deviation near the end of the flare with a timescale of ∼ 20 min marking the cessation of the event. The peak flux is nearly two orders of magnitude above the low-level emission. For the first time, curvature is detected in the VHE -ray spectrum of PKS 1510-089, which is fully explained through absorption by the extragalactic background light. Optical R-band observations with ATOM reveal a counterpart of the -ray flare, even though the detailed flux evolution differs from the VHE lightcurve. Interestingly, a steep flux decrease is observed at the same time as the cessation of the VHE flare. In the high energy (HE, E >100 MeV) -ray band only a moderate flux increase is observed with Fermi-LAT, while the HE -ray spectrum significantly hardens up to a photon index of 1.6. A search for broad-line region (BLR) absorption features in the -ray spectrum indicates that the emission region is located outside of the BLR. Radio VLBI observations reveal a fast moving knot interacting with a standing jet feature around the time of the flare. As the standing feature is located ∼ 50 pc from the black hole, the emission region of the flare may have been located at a significant distance from the black hole. If this correlation is indeed true, VHE rays have been produced far down the jet where turbulent plasma crosses a standing shock.Accepted manuscrip

    Giant reversible inverse magnetocaloric effects in Ni50Mn35In15 Heusler alloys

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    "The magnetic properties and reversibility of the magnetocaloric effect of Ni50Mn35In15 have been studied in the vicinity of the phase transition using magnetization and direct adiabatic temperature change (?Tad) measurements in magnetic fields up to 14 T. The magnetostructural phase transitions (MSTs) between a martensitic phase (MP) with low magnetization (paramagnetic or antiferromagnetic) and a nearly ferromagnetic austenitic phase were detected from thermomagnetic curves, M(T,H), at the applied magnetic fields up to 5 T. The MST temperature was found to be nearly independent of magnetic field for H < 5 T, and shifted to lower temperature with the further increase of magnetic field to 14 T. A large and nearly reversible inverse magnetocaloric effect (MCE) with ?Tad ? ?11 ? for a magnetic field change of ?H = 14 T was observed in the vicinity of the MST. The irreversibility of ?Tad was found to be 1 K. A direct ?Tad of +7 K for ?H = 14 T was detected at the second order ferromagnetic-paramagnetic phase transition. The obtained results have been discussed in terms of the suppression of antiferromagnetic correlations with the application of a strong magnetic field, and a reversibility of the initial magnetic state of the MP with applied magnetic field when the MST coincides with TC.
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