12 research outputs found
How “True” is True Enough?
As a culture, Americans are obsessed with “truth,” or with the idea of truth. We are also prone to demanding tidy resolutions of complex matters. We vilify public figures that get caught lying while minimizing our own dishonesty. Our attachment to the notion of cultural binaries reveals our discomfort with continuums. This project is a collection of five essays which explore this contradiction: one critical essay and four creative works. The critical essay in the collection considers the subject of “truth” in memoir: how published memoirists have approached and resolved the matter of truth telling in their work; how they reconciled conflicts over content; how they honored the unspoken pact with the reader to deliver a true story taken from real events; how they demonstrated these responsibilities in the work they produced. Each of the four creative essays contains elements of memoir: each exposes commonly held binaries and the illusion of simple conclusions. “Caprice, in Triptych” is a lyric essay about the futility of standing in judgment of others; “On Lies, Liars and Lying” is a meditation on the nature of lying; “Pathos, Party of One?” ponders the human inclination toward self-deception; “The Race Card” considers this problematic, and increasingly ubiquitous, phrase
Supplement: "Localization and broadband follow-up of the gravitational-wave transient GW150914" (2016, ApJL, 826, L13)
This Supplement provides supporting material for Abbott et al. (2016a). We briefly summarize past electromagnetic (EM) follow-up efforts as well as the organization and policy of the current EM follow-up program. We compare the four probability sky maps produced for the gravitational-wave transient GW150914, and provide additional details of the EM follow-up observations that were performed in the different bands
Relationship of Weather Types on the Seasonal and Spatial Variability of Rainfall, Runoff, and Sediment Yield in the Western Mediterranean Basin
Rainfall is the key factor to understand soil erosion processes, mechanisms, and rates. Most research was conducted to determine rainfall characteristics and their relationship with soil erosion (erosivity) but there is little information about how atmospheric patterns control soil losses, and this is important to enable sustainable environmental planning and risk prevention. We investigated the temporal and spatial variability of the relationships of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield with atmospheric patterns (weather types, WTs) in the western Mediterranean basin. For this purpose, we analyzed a large database of rainfall events collected between 1985 and 2015 in 46 experimental plots and catchments with the aim to: (i) evaluate seasonal differences in the contribution of rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield produced by the WTs; and (ii) to analyze the seasonal efficiency of the different WTs (relation frequency and magnitude) related to rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield. The results indicate two different temporal patterns: the first weather type exhibits (during the cold period: autumn and winter) westerly flows that produce the highest rainfall, runoff, and sediment yield values throughout the territory; the second weather type exhibits easterly flows that predominate during the warm period (spring and summer) and it is located on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula. However, the cyclonic situations present high frequency throughout the whole year with a large influence extended around the western Mediterranean basin. Contrary, the anticyclonic situations, despite of its high frequency, do not contribute significantly to the total rainfall, runoff, and sediment (showing the lowest efficiency) because of atmospheric stability that currently characterize this atmospheric pattern. Our approach helps to better understand the relationship of WTs on the seasonal and spatial variability of rainfall, runoff and sediment yield with a regional scale based on the large dataset and number of soil erosion experimental stations.Spanish Government (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, MINECO) and FEDER Projects: CGL2014 52135-C3-3-R, ESP2017-89463-C3-3-R, CGL2014-59946-R, CGL2015-65569-R, CGL2015-64284-C2-2-R, CGL2015-64284-C2-1-R, CGL2016-78075-P, GL2008-02879/BTE, LEDDRA 243857, RECARE-FP7, CGL2017-83866-C3-1-R, and PCIN-2017-061/AEI. Dhais Peña-Angulo received a “Juan de la Cierva” postdoctoral contract (FJCI-2017-33652 Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, MEC). Ana Lucia acknowledge the "Brigitte-Schlieben-Lange-Programm". The “Geoenvironmental Processes and Global Change” (E02_17R) was financed by the Aragón Government and the European Social Fund. José Andrés López-Tarazón acknowledges the Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Department of the Economy and Knowledge of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia for supporting the Consolidated Research Group 2014 SGR 645 (RIUS- Fluvial Dynamics Research Group). Artemi Cerdà thank the funding of the OCDE TAD/CRP JA00088807. José Martínez-Fernandez acknowledges the project Unidad de Excelencia CLU-2018-04 co-funded by FEDER and Castilla y León Government. Ane Zabaleta is supported by the Hydro-Environmental Processes consolidated research group (IT1029-16, Basque Government). This paper has the benefit of the Lab and Field Data Pool created within the framework of the COST action CONNECTEUR (ES1306)
Relationship of Weather Types on the Seasonal and Spatial Variability of Rainfall, Runoff, and Sediment Yield in the Western Mediterranean Basin
Spatial variability of the relationships of runoff and sediment yield with weather types throughout the Mediterranean basin
Este artículo contiene 16 páginas, 6 figuras, 2 tablas.Soil degradation by water is a serious environmental problem worldwide, with specific climatic factors being the
major causes. We investigated the relationships between synoptic atmospheric patterns (i.e. weather types, WTs)
and runoff, erosion and sediment yield throughout the Mediterranean basin by analyzing a large database of
natural rainfall events at 68 research sites in 9 countries. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to
identify spatial relationships of the different WTs including three hydro-sedimentary variables: rainfall, runoff,
and sediment yield (SY, used to refer to both soil erosion measured at plot scale and sediment yield registered at
catchment scale). The results indicated 4 spatial classes of rainfall and runoff: (a) northern sites dependent on
North (N) and North West (NW) flows; (b) eastern sites dependent on E and NE flows; (c) southern sites dependent
on S and SE flows; and, finally, (d) western sites dependent on W and SW flows. Conversely, three
spatial classes are identified for SY characterized by: (a) N and NE flows in northern sites (b) E flows in eastern
sites, and (c) Wand SW flows in western sites. Most of the rainfall, runoff and SY occurred during a small number
of daily events, and just a few WTs accounted for large percentages of the total. Our results confirm that
characterization by WT improves understanding of the general conditions under which runoff and SY occur, and
provides useful information for understanding the spatial variability of runoff, and SY throughout the
Mediterranean basin. The approach used here could be useful to aid of the design of regional water management
and soil conservation measures.This research was supported by projects funded by the MINECOFEDER:
CGL2014-52135-C3-3-R, CGL2014-59946-R, CGL2015-65569-
R, CGL2015-64284-C2-2-R, and PCIN-2017-061/AEI. When this
manuscript was first submitted Estela Nadal-Romero and Damià Vericat
received a “Ramón y Cajal” postdoctoral contract (RYC-2013-14371
and RYC‐2010‐06264, Spanish Ministry of Economy and
Competitiveness, MEC). Damià Vericat is now a Serra Húnter Fellow at
the University of Lleida. María Fernández-Raga received a “José
Castillejo” postdoctoral grant (Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture
and Sports). Carla Ferreira was supported by a post-doctoral research
grant from the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (SFRH/
BPD/120093/2016). Mariano Moreno-de las Heras received a Juan de
la Cierva postdoctoral contract (IJCI-2015-26463) from the MEC. José
Andrés López-Tarazón received a Vicenç Mut postdoctoral fellowship
from the Autonomous Balearic Government (CAIB PD/038/2016). José
Andrés López-Tarazón and Ramon Batalla also acknowledge the
Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Department of the
Economy and Knowledge of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia
for supporting the Consolidated Research Group 2014 SGR 645 (RIUSFluvial
Dynamics Research Group), and the CERCA Programme. This
paper has benefited from the Lab and Field Data Pool created within the
framework of the COST action CONNECTEUR (ES1306).Peer reviewe
Analysis of the spatial variability of the relationships between rainfall, runoff, erosion and sediment yield and synoptic atmospheric patterns around the Mediterranean basin
Trabajo presentado en TERRAenVISION Environmental Issues Today: Scientific Solutions for Societal Issues, celebrado en Barcelona (España) del 27 de enero al 2 de febrero de 2018This contribution results from international collaborative efforts of different research groups
around the Mediterranean basin focusing on soil conservation and water management. We will
present the most complete database of runoff and soil erosion information and analyze the
records from 68 locations, including more than 22458 detail events between 1985-2015. Soil
conservation and water planning are two of the most challenging problems around the
Mediterranean basin due to climate conditions and human activity. We believe that future
advances on understanding soil degradation by water should be developed under global
approaches. In this contribution, we will present an analysis of atmospheric conditions, expressed
by weather types and the resulted rainfall, runoff, and erosion and sediment yield around the
Mediterranean basin. The weather types compile daily information about the different air masses
responsible for rainfall, runoff and eventually erosion and sediment yield, and their analyses let us
know the synchrony of the response at different sites around the Mediterranean basin. The
analyses of the global dataset display different spatial patterns for rainfall, runoff, and sediment
yield, related to different atmospheric patterns. This research will be a valuable tool for
understanding the evolution of these environmental variables, and therefore it will allow future
planning to design regional water management and soil conservation measuresPeer reviewe
Spatial variability of the relationships of runoff and sediment yield with weather types throughout the Mediterranean basin
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