Profiles of raindrop size distributions as retrieved by microrain radars

Data of vertically pointing microrain radars (MRRs), located at various sites around the Baltic Sea, were analyzed for a period of several years. From the Doppler spectra profiles of drop size distributions (DSDs) are obtained. A significant height dependence of the shape of the DSDs—and thus of the Z–R relations—is observed at high rain rates. This implies, for the considered sites, that ground-based Z–R relations lead to underestimation of high rain rates by weather radars

A Digital 4D Information System on the World Scale: Research Challenges, Approaches, and Preliminary Results

Numerous digital media repositories have been set up during recent decades, each containing plenty of data about historic cityscapes. In contrast, digital 3D reconstructions of no longer extant cityscapes have so far almost solely been performed for specific cases and via manual modelling techniques. Within the Jena4D research group, we are investigating and developing methods and technologies for transferring historical media and their contextual information into 4D models. The next step will be to automate this process and extend it to the world scale. Our team are working on different facets of that endeavor: retrieving images, text, and object data from public sources; crowdsourcing and collecting qualitative data from contests and pupil labs; processing historical plans and photographs to extract spatial data; location-based mobile visualization; and collection-browsing interfaces. This article is intended to highlight (1) current challenges, (2) the state of the art, (3) our approach to 4D modelling and visualization on the world scale, and (4) results from testing demo cases in Dresden, Jena, and Amsterdam

Artificial Intelligence for Digital Heritage Innovation: Setting up a R&D Agenda for Europe

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a game changer in many fields, including cultural heritage. It supports the planning and preservation of heritage sites and cities, enables the creation of virtual experiences to enrich cultural tourism and engagement, supports research, and increases access and understanding of heritage objects. Despite some impressive examples, the full potential of AI for economic, social, and cultural change is not yet fully visible. Against this background, this article aims to (a) highlight the scope of AI in the field of cultural heritage and innovation, (b) highlight the state of the art of AI technologies for cultural heritage, (c) highlight challenges and opportunities, and (d) outline an agenda for AI, cultural heritage, and innovation

Paving the way to modernity:Prussian roads and grain market integration in Westphalia, 1821-1855

This study investigates the relation of pre-railroad transport infrastructure on Westphalian grain market integration in the early nineteenth century. It is motivated by recently found indications of macroeconomic change in Prussia such as increased demand for labour, disappearance of positive Malthusian shocks and grain market integration. These coincide and correspond well with a number of institutional breaks such as border changes and state creation after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, liberal political reforms such as the abandoning of corporatist regulations in Prussia and substantial public investment in paved roads in a number of Prussian provinces. In this study, we show that (1) paved road connections mattered economically and statistically for bilateral rye and wheat price differences, (2) the usual dummy-variable approach to measure the effect of transport infrastructures proves to be unreliable and we propose a new indicator that takes into account the effects of the transport network, (3) the role of the early railroad connections is not robust. In this pilot study, we for the first time establish the correlation between economic development and pre-railroad transport infrastructure for a Prussian province, and thus call for more research on the causes of macroeconomic change in early nineteenth century Prussia