Impact of improved representation of horizontal and vertical cloud structure in a climate model

Abstract Many studies have investigated the effects that misrepresentation of sub-grid cloud structure can have on the radiation budget. In this study, we perform 20-year simulations of the current climate using an atmosphere-only version of the Met Office Unified Model to investigate the effects of cloud approximation on model climate. We apply the ''Tripleclouds'' scheme for representing horizontal cloud inhomogeneity and ''exponential-random'' overlap, both separately and in combination, in place of a traditional plane-parallel representation with maximum-random overlap, to the clouds within the radiation scheme. The resulting changes to both the radiation budget and other meteorological variables, averaged over the 20 years, are compared. The combined global effect of the parameterizations on topof-atmosphere short-wave and long-wave radiation budget is less than 1 W m -2 , but changes of up to 10 W m -2 are identified in marine stratocumulus regions. A cooling near the surface over the winter polar regions of up to 3°C is also identified when horizontal cloud inhomogeneity is represented, and a warming of similar magnitude is found when exponential-random overlap is implemented. Corresponding changes of the same sign are also found in zonally averaged temperature, with maximum changes in the upper tropical troposphere of up to 0.5°C. Changes in zonally averaged cloud fraction in this location were of opposite sign and up to 0.02. The individual effects on tropospheric temperature of improving the two components of cloud structure are of similar magnitudes to about 2% of the warming created by a quadrupling of carbon dioxide

Identifying service product features associated with visitor satisfaction and revisit intention: A focus on sports events

To date, it remains very challenging for managers to combine different features of sports events into compelling product/service offerings that meet visitors\u27 expectations. Yet, there is a scarcity of research that demonstrates how sport event managers can overcome this challenge, thereby leaving a gap in the sporting event literature. To fill part of this gap, this study used an in-depth bibliographic review to identify features commonly associated with product/service offerings at sports events and then used those features to create a new measuring instrument to examine different service offering scenarios. In this respect, seven key features were combined into 19 service offering scenarios. A total of 2229 responses were collected through structured questionnaires at six sports events in Taiwan. Then, this study used the collected responses to explore the associations amongst the 19 service offering scenarios, visitor satisfaction, and revisit intention using multiple regression equations. After examining the suitability of the models, the best fit models were then depicted with path analysis graphs for comparisons and contrasts. The findings of this study provide important insights on how sporting event marketers or destination managers can combine different product/service characteristics to build a set of product/service offering scenarios and then test the product/service offering scenarios that best meet visitors\u27 expectations and also increase visitors’ satisfaction level and their intention to come back

Site-specific seeding using multi-sensor and data fusion techniques : a review

Site-specific seeding (SSS) is a precision agricultural (PA) practice aiming at optimizing seeding rate and depth, depending on the within field variability in soil fertility and yield potential. Unlike other site-specific applications, SSS was not adopted sufficiently by farmers due to some technological and practical challenges that need to be overcome. Success of site-specific application strongly depends on the accuracy of measurement of key parameters in the system, modeling and delineation of management zone maps, accurate recommendations and finally the right choice of variable rate (VR) technologies and their integrations. The current study reviews available principles and technologies for both map-based and senor-based SSS. It covers the background of crop and soil quality indicators (SQI), various soil and crop sensor technologies and recommendation approaches of map-based and sensor-based SSS applications. It also discusses the potential of socio-economic benefits of SSS against uniform seeding. The current review proposes prospective future technology synthesis for implementation of SSS in practice. A multi-sensor data fusion system, integrating proper sensor combinations, is suggested as an essential approach for putting SSS into practice