Populism, anti-populism and crisis

This article focuses on two issues involved in the formation and political trajectory of populist representations within political antagonism. First, it explores the role of crisis in the articulation of populist discourse. This problematic is far from new within theories of populism but has recently taken a new turn. We thus purport to reconsider the way populism and crisis are related, mapping the different modalities this relation can take and advancing further their theorization from the point of view of a discursive theory of the political, drawing primarily on the Essex School perspective initially developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Second, this will involve focusing on the antagonistic language games developed around populist representations, something that has not attracted equal attention. Highlighting the need to study anti-populism together with populism, focusing on their mutual constitution, we will test the ensuing theoretical framework in an analysis of SYRIZA, a recent and, as a result, under-researched example of egalitarian, inclusionary populism emerging within the European crisis landscape

Advancing the remote sensing of desert dust

The irregular shape of mineral dust provides a strong signature on active and passive polarimetric remote sensing observations. Nowadays, advanced lidar systems operating in the framework of ACTRIS are capable of providing quality assured, calibrated multi-wavelength linear particle depolarization ratio measurements, while new developments will provide us more polarimetric measurements in the near future. Passive polarimeters are already part of ACTRIS and their integration in operational algorithms is expected in the near future. This wealth of new information combined with updated scattering databases and sophisticated inversion schemes provide the means towards an improved characterization of desert dust in the future. We present here some examples from the ACTRIS journey on dust research during the last decade, aiming to demonstrate the progress on issues such as: (a) the discrimination of desert dust in external mixtures, (b) the separation and estimation of the fine and coarse particle modes, (c) the synergy of passive and active remote sensing for the derivation of dust concentration profiles, (d) the provision of dust-related CCN and IN particle concentrations for aerosol-cloud interaction studies, (e) the development of new scattering databases based on realistic particle shapes, (e) the application of these techniques on spaceborne lidar retrievals for the provision of global and regional climatological datasets. Future plans within ACTRIS for the evaluation and advancement of the methodologies and retrievals are also discussed, combined with new developments within the framework of the D-TECT ERC Grant

Λαϊκίστικος λόγος και δημοκρατία

Ο λαϊκισμός αποτελεί ένα από τα πλέον επίκαιρα αντικείμενα στη σύγχρονη πολιτική έρευνα. Ωστόσο, η ετερογένεια των σύγχρονων εκφάνσεών του σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο – και εμφατικά πλέον στο ευρωπαϊκό πλαίσιο – καθιστούν αναγκαία την ανανέωση της επιστημονικής διερεύνησής του. Στο πλαίσιο της έρευνάς μας επιχειρήσαμε την ανάπτυξη ενός ευέλικτου αλλά συνεκτικού θεωρητικού πλαισίου για τη δοκιμότερη ταυτοποίηση και συγκριτική ανάλυση των λαϊκιστικών φαινομένων. Μεθοδολογική βάση αποτέλεσε η ανάλυση λόγου και ειδικότερα η «Σχολή του Essex», η οποία κατόπιν συσχετίσθηκε με άλλες ποιοτικές, ποσοτικές και λεξικομετρικές μεθόδους. Στο επίκεντρο της εμπειρικής διερεύνησης τέθηκαν: (1) ο σύγχρονος αριστερός λαϊκισμός στη Λατινική Αμερική, (2) ο ακροδεξιός λαϊκισμός στην Ευρώπη, (3) η αντίθεση λαϊκισμού/αντιλαϊκισμού σε συνθήκες κρίσης. Το ανά χείρας κείμενο παρακολουθεί συνοπτικά το σύνολο της έρευνας που πραγματοποιήθηκε, δίνοντας έμφαση στα τελικά της πορίσματα

Extreme right-wing populism in Europe: revisiting a reified association

Revisiting the trend of identifying populism with extreme right parties, in this paper we aim to problematize such associations within the context of today’s Europe. Drawing on examples from relevant parties in France and the Netherlands, and applying a discourse-theoretical methodology, we test the hypothesis that such parties are better categorized primarily as nationalist and only secondarily–and reluctantly–as ‘populist’. Our hypothesis follows the remarks of scholars who have stressed that the central theme in the discourse of such parties is not the staging of an antagonism between a ‘people’ and an ‘elite’, but rather the opposition of an ethnic community with its alleged dangerous ‘others’. In this context, we propose a discursive methodology able to differentiate between ‘populist’ and ‘nationalist’ (xenophobic, racist, etc.) discourses by locating the core signifiers in each discourse in relation to peripheral ones, as well as by clarifying the nature of the axial antagonisms put forth

Satellite Monitoring of Ash and Sulphur Dioxide for the mitigation of Aviation Hazards: Part I. Validation of satellite-derived Volcanic Ash Levels.

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe

The ESA-EVE Polarization Lidar for Assessing the Aeolus Aerosol Product Perfomance

We present the EVE lidar concept, a combined linear/circular polarization system, tailored to evaluate the spaceborne ALADIN Doppler lidar system aerosol retrievals. EVE, currently under development, aims to provide the ESA-Aeolus mission with a flexible, mobile reference ground-based lidar system capable of providing well-characterized fiducial reference measurements of aerosol optical properties. Since ALADIN detects only the co-polar component of the backscattered circularly polarized radiation, a portion of the received radiation gets lost, leading to an un-derestimation of the backscatter coefficient and the circular depolarization ratio in strongly depolarizing scenes with non-spherical particles. The main focus of the new EVE lidar is to quantify these uncertainties and to evaluate aerosol backscatter/extinction retrievals for Aeolus, and later also for EarthCARE product validation, quality assessment and improvement

Extreme right-wing populism in Europe: revisiting a reified association

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Critical Discourse Studies on 10 Apr 2017, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2017.1309325.Revisiting the trend of identifying populism with extreme right parties, in this paper we aim to problematize such associations within the context of today’s Europe. Drawing on examples from relevant parties in France and the Netherlands, and applying a discourse-theoretical methodology, we test the hypothesis that such parties are better categorized primarily as nationalist and only secondarily–and reluctantly–as ‘populist’. Our hypothesis follows the remarks of scholars who have stressed that the central theme in the discourse of such parties is not the staging of an antagonism between a ‘people’ and an ‘elite’, but rather the opposition of an ethnic community with its alleged dangerous ‘others’. In this context, we propose a discursive methodology able to differentiate between ‘populist’ and ‘nationalist’ (xenophobic, racist, etc.) discourses by locating the core signifiers in each discourse in relation to peripheral ones, as well as by clarifying the nature of the axial antagonisms put forth

An overview of the ASKOS campaign in Cabo Verde

In the framework of the ESA-NASA Joint Aeolus Tropical Atlantic Campaign (JATAC), the ASKOS experiment was implemented during the summer and autumn of 2021 and 2022. ASKOS comprised roughly 9 weeks of measurements in the Saharan dust outflow towards the North Atlantic, with operations conducted from the Cabo Verde Islands. Through its unprecedented dataset of synergistic measurements in the region, ASKOS will allow for the calibration and validation of the aerosol/cloud product from Aeolus and the preparation of the terrain for EarthCARE cal/val activities. Moreover, ASKOS marks a turning point in our ability to study Saharan dust properties and the processes affecting its atmospheric transport, as well as the link to other components of the Earth’s system, such as the effect of dust particles on cloud formation over the Eastern Atlantic and the effect of large and giant particles on radiation. This is possible through the synergy of diverse observations acquired during the experiment, which include intense 24/7 ground-based aerosol, cloud, wind, and radiation remote sensing measurements, and UAV-based aerosol in situ measurements within the Saharan air layer, up to 5.3 km altitude, offering particle size-distributions up to 40 μm as well as sample collection for mineralogical analysis. We provide an outline of the novel measurements along with the main scientific objectives of ASKOS. The campaign data will be publicly available by September of 2023 through the EVDC portal (ESA Validation Data Center)

The Joint Aeolus Tropical Atlantic Campaign - First Results for Aeolus Calibration/Validation and Science in the Tropics

International audienceESA’s Aeolus satellite observations are expected to have the biggest impact for the improvement of numerical weather prediction in the Tropics. An especially important case relating to the evolution, dynamics, and predictability of tropical weather systems is the outflow of Saharan dust, its interaction with cloud microphysics and impact on the development of tropical storms over the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean off the coast of West Africa and the eastern Caribbean uniquely allows the study of the Saharan Aerosol layer, African Easterly Waves and Jet, Tropical Easterly Jet, as well as the deep convection in the Intertropical Convergence Zone and their relation to the formation of convective systems, and the long-range transport of dust and its impact on air quality. The Joint Aeolus Tropical Atlantic Campaign (JATAC) deployed on Cabo Verde and the US Virgin Islands is addressing the validation and preparation of the ESA missions Aeolus, EarthCARE and WIVERN, as well as supporting the related science objectives raised above. The JATAC campaign started in July 2021 with the deployment of ground-based instruments at the Ocean Science Center Mindelo (OSCM, Cabo Verde), including the EVE lidar, the PollyXT lidar, a W-band Doppler cloud radar and a sunphotometer. By mid-August, the CPEX-AW campaign started their operations from the US Virgin Islands with NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory in the Western Tropical Atlantic and Caribbean with the Doppler Aerosol Wind Lidar (DAWN), Airborne Precipitation and Cloud Radar (APR-3), the Water Vapor DIAL and HSRL (HALO), a microwave sounder (HAMSR) and dropsondes. In September, a European aircraft fleet was deployed to Sal (Cabo Verde) with the DLR Falcon-20 carrying the Aeolus Airborne Demonstrator (A2D) and the 2-µm Doppler wind lidar, and the Safire Falcon-20 carrying the high-spectral-resolution Doppler lidar (LNG), the RASTA Doppler cloud radar, in-situ cloud and aerosol instruments among others. The Aerovizija Advantic WT-10 light aircraft with filter-photometers and nephelometers for in-situ aerosol characterisation was operating in close coordination with the ground-based observations from Mindelo. More than 35 flights of the four aircraft were performed. 17 Aeolus orbits were underflown, four of which completed by simultaneous observations of three aircraft, with a perfect collocation of Aeolus and the ground-based observation for two cases. Several flights by the NASA DC-8 and the Safire Falcon-20 have been dedicated to cloud microphysics and dust events. The EVE lidar has been operating on a regular basis, while the PollyXT and several other ground-based instruments were continuously operating during the campaign period. For further characterisation of the atmosphere, radiosondes were launched up to twice daily from Sal airport. Additionally, there were radiosonde launches from western Puerto Rico and northern St Croix, US Virgin Islands. The JATAC was supported by dedicated numerical weather and dust simulations supporting the forecasting efforts needed for successful planning of the flights and addressing open science questions. While the airborne activities were completed end September, the ground-based observations are continuing into 2022. The paper will present an overview and initial results of JATAC. In memory of our colleague and friend Gail