An investigation of atmospheric temperature profiles in the Australian region using collocated GPS radio occultation and radiosonde data

GPS radio occultation (RO) has been recognised as an alternative atmospheric upper air observation technique due to its distinct features and technological merits. The CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) RO satellite and FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate) RO constellation together have provided about ten years of high quality global coverage RO atmospheric profiles. This technique is best used for meteorological studies in the difficult-to-access areas such as deserts and oceans. To better understand and use RO data, effective quality assessment using independent radiosonde data and its associated collocation criteria used in tempo-spatial domain are important. This study compares GPS RO retrieved temperature profiles from both CHAMP (between May 2001 and October 2008) and FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC (between July 2006 and December 2009) with radiosonde data from 38 Australian radiosonde stations. The overall results show a good agreement between the two data sets. Different collocation criteria within 3 h and 300 km between the profile pairs have been applied and the impact of these different collocation criteria on the evaluation results is found statistically insignificantly. The CHAMP and FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC temperature profiles have been evaluated at 16 different pressure levels and the differences between GPS RO and radiosonde at different levels of the atmosphere have been studied. The result shows that the mean temperature difference between radiosonde and CHAMP is 0.39 °C (with a standard deviation of 1.20 °C) and the one between radiosonde and FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC is 0.37 °C (with a standard deviation of 1.24 °C). Different collocation criteria have been applied and insignificant differences were identified amongst the results

Using improved climate forecasting in cash crop planning

Developments in meteorology over the last couple of decades have enabled significant improvements to be made in the accuracy of seasonal forecasts. This paper focuses on developing a model for cash crop planning that utilises these forecasts. It does this by determining the rate of growth of each crop as a function of heat units accumulated. This enables time to maturity to be determined and used in planning, particularly for planting new crops, removing unprofitable immature crops, and harvesting mature crops for profits. The proposed model is solved on a rolling horizon basis. To illustrate the advantage to be gained from improved seasonal forecasts the model is first applied to a problem using long-term temperature averages (climatology). Solutions to the same problem utilising improved seasonal forecasts for temperature are then obtained. This forecast proves to be a valuable input to the model and makes the second approach outperform the first consistently in our simulations

Analysis of a Southerly Buster Event and Associated Solitary Waves

This paper is a detailed case study of the southerly buster of October 6-7, 2015, along the New South Wales coast. It takes advantage of recently available Himawari-8 high temporal- and spatial-resolution satellite data, and other observational data. The data analyses support the widespread view that the southerly buster is a density current, coastally trapped by the Great Dividing Range. In addition, it appears that solitary waves develop in this event because the prefrontal boundary layer is shallow and stable. A simplified density current model produced speeds matching well with observational southerly buster data, at both Nowra and Sydney airports. Extending the density current theory, to include inertia-gravity effects, suggests that the solitary waves travel at speeds approximately 20% faster than the density current. This speed difference is consistent with the high-resolution satellite data, which shows the solitary waves moving increasingly ahead of the leading edge of the density current

Radiation Damage Studies of Silicon Photomultipliers

We report on the measurement of the radiation hardness of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) manufactured by Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Italy (1 mm$^2$ and 6.2 mm$^2$), Center of Perspective Technology and Apparatus in Russia (1 mm$^2$ and 4.4 mm$^2$), and Hamamatsu Corporation in Japan (1 mm$^2$). The SiPMs were irradiated using a beam of 212 MeV protons at Massachusetts General Hospital, receiving fluences of up to $3 \times 10^{10}$ protons per cm$^2$ with the SiPMs at operating voltage. Leakage currents were read continuously during the irradiation. The delivery of the protons was paused periodically to record scope traces in response to calibrated light pulses to monitor the gains, photon detection efficiencies, and dark counts of the SiPMs. The leakage current and dark noise are found to increase with fluence. Te leakage current is found to be proportional to the mean square deviation of the noise distribution, indicating the dark counts are due to increased random individual pixel activation, while SiPMs remain fully functional as photon detectors. The SiPMs are found to anneal at room temperature with a reduction in the leakage current by a factor of 2 in about 100 days.Comment: 35 pages, 25 figure

Electromagnetic response of the three-layer construction on the basis of barium hexaferrite and a foam glass

This paper contains results of study of the frequency dependence of reflection coefficient of the ceramic surface coated with the construction consisting of following layers: metal, composite on the basis of ferrite with hexagonal structure, and foam glass. It is shown that foam glass layer reduces significantly the reflecting characteristics of the construction

Study of Antibiotic Resistance of the Oropharyngeal Hemolytic Microflora in Preschool Children

It is impossible to imagine modern medical practice without antibiotic therapy. However, the rapid development of the pharmaceutical industry expands free access of the population to antibacterial drugs. At the same time, the illiteracy of people with respect to the principles of rational antibiotic therapy also increases. The problem of microbial resistance to antibacterial drugs remains relevant to this day. Special attention should be paid to rational antibiotic therapy applied to children.The purpose of this work was to study the resistance of hemolytic microorganisms, which are often the cause of upper respiratory infection in preschool children, to the main antibacterial drugs used in pediatric practice. The results of this scientific research can be advisory and useful to pediatricians and other specialists whose professional activities are related to children’s health. Keywords: hemolytic active microorganisms, bacterial carriage, antibiotic resistance, children’s healt

Possible Procedure Modification and a System Likeness for Object Identifying on Remote Sensing Images

ABSTRACT Modified grey-scale image objects classification on the basis of variance analysis of their vectorial models is suggested. After calculating the generalized, the intergroup and the average of particular dispersions the variance ratio of vectorial models of analyzing objects is computed and classification on the basis of threshold values of their similarity is made. Experimental classification data are cited

Seasonal Tropical Cyclone Forecasting

This paper summarizes the forecast methods, outputs and skill offered by twelve agencies for seasonal tropical cyclone (TC) activity around the world. These agencies use a variety of techniques ranging from statistical models to dynamical models to predict basinwide activity and regional activity. In addition, several dynamical and hybrid statistical/dynamical models now predict TC track density as well as landfall likelihood. Realtime Atlantic seasonal hurricane forecasts have shown low skill in April, modest skill in June and good skill in August at predicting basinwide TC activity when evaluated over 2003-2018. Real-time western North Pacific seasonal TC forecasts have shown good skill by July for basinwide intense typhoon numbers and the ACE index when evaluated for 2003-2018. Both hindcasts and real-time forecasts have shown skill for other TC basins. A summary of recent research into forecasting TC activity beyond seasonal (e.g., multi-year) timescales is included. Recommendations for future areas of research are also discussed

The daily cloud-to-ground lightning flash density in the contiguous united states and Finland

A method is developed to quantify thunderstorm intensity according to cloud-to-ground lightning flashes (hereafter ground flashes) determined by a lightning-location sensor network. The method is based on the ground flash density ND per thunderstorm day (ground flashes per square kilometer per thunderstorm day) calculated on 20 km × 20 km fixed squares. Because the square size roughly corresponds to the area covered by a typical thunderstorm, the flash density for one square defines a unit thunderstorm for the purposes of this study. This method is tested with ground flash data obtained from two nationwide lightning-location systems: the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) in the contiguous United States and the portion of the Nordic Lightning Information System (NORDLIS) in Finland. The distribution of daily ground flash density ND is computed for all of Finland and four 800 000 km2 regions in the United States (identified as western, central, eastern, and Florida). Although Finland and all four U.S. regions have median values of ND of 0.01- 0.03 flashes per square kilometer per thunderstorm day-indicating that most thunderstorms produce relatively few ground flashes regardless of geographical region-the most intense 1% of the storms (as measured by the 99th percentiles of the ND distributions within each region) show much larger differences among regions. For example, the most intense 1% of the ND distributions is 1.3 flashes per square kilometer per thunderstorm day in the central U.S. region, but only 0.2 flashes per square kilometer per thunderstorm day in Finland. The spatial distribution of the most intense 1% of the ND distributions illustrates that the most intense thunderstorm days occur in the central United States and upper Midwest, which differs from the maximaof the average annual flash density NA and the number of thunderstorm days TD, bothof which occur in Florida and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. This method for using ND to quantify thunderstorm intensity is applicable to any region as long as the detection efficiency of the lightning-location network is high enough or known. This method can also be employed in operational forecasting to provide a quantitative measure of the lightning intensity of thunderstorms relative to climatology. © 2011 American Meteorological Society