Experimental Radial Profiles of Early Time (\u3c4 μs) Neutral and Ion Spectroscopic Signatures in Lightning-Like Discharges

This study presents experimental results for the radial and temporal variation of neutral and ion spectroscopic signatures emerging from the heated channel of lightning-like discharges diagnosed with a high speed (900,000 fps) imaging spectrograph. Light emissions emanate from three regions: an inner core (up to ∼2 mm), an external sheath (up to ∼4 mm) featuring a sudden temperature increase, and further optical emissions forming a dim glow from 4 mm up to 16 mm. The optical emissions are initially

GRASSP: a spectrograph for the study of transient luminous events

We present the main parameters, design features, and optical characterization of the Granada Sprite Spectrograph and Polarimeter (GRASSP), a ground- based spectrographic system intended for the analysis of the spectroscopic signature of transient luminous events (TLEs) occurring in the mesosphere of the Earth. It has been designed to measure the spectra of the light emitted from TLEs with a mean spectral resolution of 0.235 nm and 0.07 nm/px dispersion in the wavelength range between 700 and 800 nm. (C) 2016 Optical Society of AmericaSpanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) (ESP2013-48032-C5-5-R, ESP2015-69909-C5-2-R, FIS2014-61774-EXP); European Union FEDER Program; Ramon y Cajal Contract (RYC-2011-07801).Peer reviewe

Submicrosecond Spectroscopy of Lightning-Like Discharges: Exploring New Time Regimes

Abstract Submicrosecond (0.476 μs per frame with an exposure time of 160 ns) high-resolution (0.38 nm) time-resolved spectra of laboratory-produced lightning-like electrical discharges have been recorded for the first time within the visible spectral range (645–665 nm). The spectra were recorded with the GrAnada LIghtning Ultrafast Spectrograph (GALIUS), a high-speed imaging spectrograph recently developed for lightning research in the IAA-CSIC. Unprecedented spectral time dynamics are explored for meter long laboratory electrical discharges produced with a 2.0 MV Marx generator. The maximum electron density and gas temperature measured in a timescale of ≤0.50 μs (160 ns) were, respectively, ≃1018 cm−3 and ≃32,000 K. Overpressure in the lightning-like plasma channel, black-body dynamics, and self-absorption in spectral lines were investigated

High-resolution spectra of sprites and halos with GRASSP

The first and simultaneous spectroscopic campaigns of TLEs were carried out in the mid 1990s [1, 2], soon after the discovery of TLEs in 1989 [3]. These initial campaigns provided preliminary results on the optical emissions of TLEs corresponding to the first positive system (FPS) of N2(B3¿g) ¿ N2(A3S+u ) in the visible and near infrared (NIR) spectral range (540–840 nm) recorded at standard video rate (30 fps) and at low (between 9 and 6 nm) spectral resolution. More recently, in 2007, spectroscopic observations of sprite optical emissions between 640 nm and 820 nm pro- vided information on the relative vibrational concentrations of the emitting electronic state N2(B3¿g, v’) at differ- ent altitudes using higher video rate (300 fps) and higher spectral resolution (3 nm) spectrographs [4] originally designed for aurora spectroscopy [5]. The above mentioned sporadic TLE spectroscopic campaigns identified some of the key optical emissions from sprites (a type of TLE) and were even able to quantify some of the vibrational concentrations of the emitting levels in reasonable agreement with model predictions [6–8]. However, the best spectral resolution achieved to date is 3 nm and it is not enough to spectrally resolve the different low-lying vibro-rotational transitions of the FPS of N2. This contribution focuses on (1) the latest upgrades of the GRanada Sprite Spectrograph and Polarimeter (GRASSP), a ground-based medium-high spectral resolution spectrograph aimed at characterizing from ground the spectroscopic fingerprints of all sort of TLEs occurring in the mesosphere of the Earth and (2) the GRASSP 2015, 2016 summer-autumn TLE spectroscopic campaign in Europe when we recorded high-resolution spectra of sprite halos and columniform and carrot-like sprites. GRASSP works at 0.235 nm spectral resolution covering the spectral range between 700 nm and 800 nm. The last version of GRASSP is currently installed in Castellgalí, Barcelona (Spain), it is aimed and operated manually by the operator from the UPC group on-site or operated remotely from IAA-CSIC in Granada.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Cyber Insurance: recent advances, good practices & challenges

The aim of this ENISA report is to raise awareness for the most impact to market advances, by shortly identifying the most significant cyber insurance developments for the past four years – during 2012 to 2016 – and to capture the good practices and challenges during the early stages of the cyber insurance lifecycle, i.e. before an actual policy is signed, laying the ground for future work in the area

PROTOCOL: Organised crime groups: A systematic review of individual\u2010level risk factors related to recruitment

This article presents the protocol for a systematic review of individual\u2010level risk factors related to recruitment into organised crime group

Exploring the cultural dimensions of environmental victimization

It has become increasingly clear in recent years that our understanding of ‘victimisation’ is informed by a whole range of societal and political factors which extend well beyond whatever particular form of words appears in any given directive, code or legislative instrument concerning crime, crime victims or criminal justice systems. In this paper, I will seek for the first time to apply recent developments in our understanding of so-called 'cultural victimology' to the issue of environmental harm and its impact on human and non-human animals. McCGarry and Waklate (2015) characterise cultural victimology as broadly comprising of two key aspects. These are the wider sharing and reflection of individual and collective victimisation experiences on the one hand and, on the other, the mapping of those experiences through the criminal justice process. In this discussion I will examine how environmental victimisation is viewed by and presented to society at large and will argue that such representations often fail, as a form of testimony, to adequately convey the traumas involved. Nor is this achieved through the application of present models of criminal, civil or administrative justice regimes in many jurisdictions. This lack of cultural acknowledgement of the harms vested on environmental victims, it is argued, afford us a clearer understand of the continued reticence amongst lawmakers, politicians and legal practitioners to adequately address the impacts of such victimisation through effective justice or regulatory mechanisms. This is unfortunate given that the often collective nature of environmental victimisation makes this particularly suited to a more cultural analysis and understanding. It is argued that various forms of environmental mediation processes might hold the key to this cultural reticence to accept environmental harm as a 'real' and pressing problem as compared to other criminal and civil justice concerns

Remittance micro-worlds and migrant infrastructure: circulations, disruptions, and the movement of money

Remittances are increasingly central to development discourses in Africa. The development sector seeks to leverage transnational migration and rapid innovations in financial technologies (fintech), to make remittance systems cheaper for end-users and less risky for states and companies. Critical scholarship, however, questions the techno-fix tendency, calling for grounded research on the intersections between remittances, technologies, and everyday life in African cities and beyond. Building on this work, we deploy the concepts of “micro-worlds” and “migrant infrastructure” to make sense of the complex networks of actors, practices, regulations, and materialities that shape remittance worlds. To ground the work, we narrate two vignettes of remittance service providers who operate in Cape Town, South Africa, serving the Congolese diaspora community. We showcase the important role of logistics companies in the “informal” provision of remittance services and the rise of fintech companies operating in the remittance space. These vignettes give substance to the messy and relational dynamics of remittance micro-worlds. This relationality allows us to see how remittances are circulations, not unidirectional flows; how they are not split between formal and informal, but in fact intersect in blurry ways; how digital technologies are central to the story of migrant infrastructures; and how migrants themselves are compositional of these networks. In doing so, we tell a more relational story about how remittance systems are constituted and configured