82 research outputs found
Description and validation of an AOT product over land at the 0.6 ÎŒm channel of the SEVIRI sensor onboard MSG
The Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) aboard Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) launched in 2003 by EUMETSAT is dedicated to the Nowcasting applications and Numerical Weather Prediction and to the provision of observations for climate monitoring and research. We use the data in visible and near infrared (NIR) channels to derive the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) over land. The algorithm is based on the assumption that the top of the atmosphere (TOA) reflectance increases with the aerosol load. This is a reasonable assumption except in case of absorbing aerosols above bright surfaces. We assume that the minimum in a 14-days time series of the TOA reflectance is, once corrected from gaseous scattering and absorption, representative of the surface reflectance. The AOT and the aerosol model (a set of 5 models is used), are retrieved by matching the simulated TOA reflectance with the TOA reflectances measured by SEVIRI in its visible and NIR spectral bands. <br><br> The high temporal resolution of the data acquisition by SEVIRI allows to retrieve the AOT every 15 min with a spatial resolution of 3 km at sub-satellite point, over the entire SEVIRI disk covering Europe, Africa and part of South America. The resulting AOT, a level 2 product at the native temporal and spatial SEVIRI resolutions, is presented and evaluated in this paper. <br><br> The AOT has been validated using ground based measurements from AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET), a sun-photometer network, focusing over Europe for 3 months in 2006. The SEVIRI estimates correlate well with the AERONET measurements, <i>r</i> = 0.64, with a slight overestimate, bias = &minus;0.017. The sources of errors are mainly the cloud contamination and the bad estimation of the surface reflectance. The temporal evolutions exhibited by both datasets show very good agreement which allows to conclude that the AOT Level 2 product from SEVIRI can be used to quantify the aerosol content and to monitor its daily evolution with a high temporal frequency. The comparison with daily maps of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) AOT level 3 product shows qualitative good agreement in the retrieved geographic patterns of AOT. <br><br> Given the high spatial and temporal resolutions obtained with this approach, our results have clear potential for applications ranging from air quality monitoring to climate studies. This paper presents a first evaluation and validation of the derived AOT over Europe in order to document the overall quality of a product that will be made publicly available to the users of the aforementioned research communities
'Dressage Is Full of Queens!' Masculinity, Sexuality and Equestrian Sport
Attitudes towards sexuality are changing and levels of cultural homophobia decreasing, yet there remain very few openly gay men within sport. As a proving ground for heteromasculinity, sport has traditionally been a hostile environment for gay men. This article is based on an ethnographic study within a sporting subworld in which gay men do appear to be accepted: equestrian sport. Drawing on inclusive masculinity theory, equestrian sport is shown to offer an unusually tolerant environment for gay men in which heterosexual men of all ages demonstrate low levels of homophobia. Inclusive masculinity theory is a useful framework for exploring the changing nature of masculinities and this study demonstrates that gay men are becoming increasingly visible and accepted within once unreceptive locales, such as sport and rural communities. However, this more tolerant attitude is purchased at the expense of a subordinated feminine Other, perpetuating the dominance of men within competitive sport. © The Author(s) 2012
A Markov Chain based method for generating long-range dependence
This paper describes a model for generating time series which exhibit the
statistical phenomenon known as long-range dependence (LRD). A Markov Modulated
Process based upon an infinite Markov chain is described. The work described is
motivated by applications in telecommunications where LRD is a known property
of time-series measured on the internet. The process can generate a time series
exhibiting LRD with known parameters and is particularly suitable for modelling
internet traffic since the time series is in terms of ones and zeros which can
be interpreted as data packets and inter-packet gaps. The method is extremely
simple computationally and analytically and could prove more tractable than
other methods described in the literatureComment: 8 pages, 2 figure
Global Analysis of Aerosol Properties Above Clouds
The seasonal and spatial varability of Aerosol Above Cloud (AAC) properties are derived from passive satellite data for the year 2008. A significant amount of aerosols are transported above liquid water clouds on the global scale. For particles in the fine mode (i.e., radius smaller than 0.3 m), including both clear sky and AAC retrievals increases the global mean aerosol optical thickness by 25(+/- 6%). The two main regions with man-made AAC are the tropical Southeast Atlantic, for biomass burning aerosols, and the North Pacific, mainly for pollutants. Man-made AAC are also detected over the Arctic during the spring. Mineral dust particles are detected above clouds within the so-called dust belt region (5-40 N). AAC may cause a warming effect and bias the retrieval of the cloud properties. This study will then help to better quantify the impacts of aerosols on clouds and climate
'Bring on the dancing horses!': Ambivalence and class obsession within British media reports of the dressage at London 2012
Quasiparticle dynamics in ferromagnetic compounds of the Co-Fe and Ni-Fe systems
We report a theoretical study of the quasiparticle lifetime and the
quasiparticle mean free path caused by inelastic electron-electron scattering
in ferromagnetic compounds of the Co-Fe and Ni-Fe systems. The study is based
on spin-polarized calculations, which are performed within the
approximation for equiatomic and Co- and Ni-rich compounds, as well as for
their constituents. We mainly focus on the spin asymmetry of the quasiparticle
properties, which leads to the spin-filtering effect experimentally observed in
spin-dependent transport of hot electrons and holes in the systems under study.
By comparing with available experimental data on the attenuation length, we
estimate the contribution of the inelastic mean free path to the latter.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure
Multifractal properties of power-law time sequences; application to ricepiles
We study the properties of time sequences extracted from a self-organized
critical system, within the framework of the mathematical multifractal
analysis. To this end, we propose a fixed-mass algorithm, well suited to deal
with highly inhomogeneous one dimensional multifractal measures. We find that
the fixed mass (dual) spectrum of generalized dimensions depends on both the
system size L and the length N of the sequence considered, being however stable
when these two parameters are kept fixed. A finite-size scaling relation is
proposed, allowing us to define a renormalized spectrum, independent of size
effects.We interpret our results as an evidence of extremely long-range
correlations induced in the sequence by the criticality of the systemComment: 12 pages, RevTex, includes 9 PS figures, Phys. Rev. E (in press
Observation of band structure and density of states effects in Co-based magnetic tunnel junctions
Utilizing Co/AlO/Co magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with Co
electrodes of different crystalline phases, a clear relationship between
electrode structure and junction transport properties is presented. For
junctions with one fcc(111) textured and one polycrystalline (poly-phase and
poly-directional) Co electrode, a strong asymmetry is observed in the
magnetotransport properties, while when both electrodes are polycrystalline the
magnetotransport is essentially symmetric. These observations are successfully
explained within a model based on ballistic tunneling between the calculated
band structures (DOS) of fcc-Co and hcp-Co.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Multifractality of Drop Breakup in Air-blast Nozzle Atomization Process
The multifractal nature of drop breakup in air-blast nozzle atomization
process has been studied. We apply the multiplier method to extract the
negative and the positive parts of the f(alpha) curve with the data of drop
size distribution measured using Dual PDA. A random multifractal model with the
multiplier triangularly distributed is proposed to characterize the breakup of
drops. The agreement of the left part of the multifractal spectra between the
experimental result and the model is remarkable. The cause of the distinction
of the right part of the f(alpha) curve is argued. The fact that negative
dimensions arise in the current system means that the spatial distribution of
the drops yielded by the high-speed jet fluctuates from sample to sample. On
other words, the spatial concentration distribution of the disperse phase in
the spray zone fluctuates momentarily showing intrinsic randomness
Holder exponents of irregular signals and local fractional derivatives
It has been recognized recently that fractional calculus is useful for
handling scaling structures and processes. We begin this survey by pointing out
the relevance of the subject to physical situations. Then the essential
definitions and formulae from fractional calculus are summarized and their
immediate use in the study of scaling in physical systems is given. This is
followed by a brief summary of classical results. The main theme of the review
rests on the notion of local fractional derivatives. There is a direct
connection between local fractional differentiability properties and the
dimensions/ local Holder exponents of nowhere differentiable functions. It is
argued that local fractional derivatives provide a powerful tool to analyse the
pointwise behaviour of irregular signals and functions.Comment: 20 pages, Late
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