State of the climate in 2018

In 2018, the dominant greenhouse gases released into Earth’s atmosphere—carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—continued their increase. The annual global average carbon dioxide concentration at Earth’s surface was 407.4 ± 0.1 ppm, the highest in the modern instrumental record and in ice core records dating back 800 000 years. Combined, greenhouse gases and several halogenated gases contribute just over 3 W m−2 to radiative forcing and represent a nearly 43% increase since 1990. Carbon dioxide is responsible for about 65% of this radiative forcing. With a weak La Niña in early 2018 transitioning to a weak El Niño by the year’s end, the global surface (land and ocean) temperature was the fourth highest on record, with only 2015 through 2017 being warmer. Several European countries reported record high annual temperatures. There were also more high, and fewer low, temperature extremes than in nearly all of the 68-year extremes record. Madagascar recorded a record daily temperature of 40.5°C in Morondava in March, while South Korea set its record high of 41.0°C in August in Hongcheon. Nawabshah, Pakistan, recorded its highest temperature of 50.2°C, which may be a new daily world record for April. Globally, the annual lower troposphere temperature was third to seventh highest, depending on the dataset analyzed. The lower stratospheric temperature was approximately fifth lowest. The 2018 Arctic land surface temperature was 1.2°C above the 1981–2010 average, tying for third highest in the 118-year record, following 2016 and 2017. June’s Arctic snow cover extent was almost half of what it was 35 years ago. Across Greenland, however, regional summer temperatures were generally below or near average. Additionally, a satellite survey of 47 glaciers in Greenland indicated a net increase in area for the first time since records began in 1999. Increasing permafrost temperatures were reported at most observation sites in the Arctic, with the overall increase of 0.1°–0.2°C between 2017 and 2018 being comparable to the highest rate of warming ever observed in the region. On 17 March, Arctic sea ice extent marked the second smallest annual maximum in the 38-year record, larger than only 2017. The minimum extent in 2018 was reached on 19 September and again on 23 September, tying 2008 and 2010 for the sixth lowest extent on record. The 23 September date tied 1997 as the latest sea ice minimum date on record. First-year ice now dominates the ice cover, comprising 77% of the March 2018 ice pack compared to 55% during the 1980s. Because thinner, younger ice is more vulnerable to melting out in summer, this shift in sea ice age has contributed to the decreasing trend in minimum ice extent. Regionally, Bering Sea ice extent was at record lows for almost the entire 2017/18 ice season. For the Antarctic continent as a whole, 2018 was warmer than average. On the highest points of the Antarctic Plateau, the automatic weather station Relay (74°S) broke or tied six monthly temperature records throughout the year, with August breaking its record by nearly 8°C. However, cool conditions in the western Bellingshausen Sea and Amundsen Sea sector contributed to a low melt season overall for 2017/18. High SSTs contributed to low summer sea ice extent in the Ross and Weddell Seas in 2018, underpinning the second lowest Antarctic summer minimum sea ice extent on record. Despite conducive conditions for its formation, the ozone hole at its maximum extent in September was near the 2000–18 mean, likely due to an ongoing slow decline in stratospheric chlorine monoxide concentration. Across the oceans, globally averaged SST decreased slightly since the record El Niño year of 2016 but was still far above the climatological mean. On average, SST is increasing at a rate of 0.10° ± 0.01°C decade−1 since 1950. The warming appeared largest in the tropical Indian Ocean and smallest in the North Pacific. The deeper ocean continues to warm year after year. For the seventh consecutive year, global annual mean sea level became the highest in the 26-year record, rising to 81 mm above the 1993 average. As anticipated in a warming climate, the hydrological cycle over the ocean is accelerating: dry regions are becoming drier and wet regions rainier. Closer to the equator, 95 named tropical storms were observed during 2018, well above the 1981–2010 average of 82. Eleven tropical cyclones reached Saffir–Simpson scale Category 5 intensity. North Atlantic Major Hurricane Michael’s landfall intensity of 140 kt was the fourth strongest for any continental U.S. hurricane landfall in the 168-year record. Michael caused more than 30 fatalities and $25 billion (U.S. dollars) in damages. In the western North Pacific, Super Typhoon Mangkhut led to 160 fatalities and$6 billion (U.S. dollars) in damages across the Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Tropical Storm Son-Tinh was responsible for 170 fatalities in Vietnam and Laos. Nearly all the islands of Micronesia experienced at least moderate impacts from various tropical cyclones. Across land, many areas around the globe received copious precipitation, notable at different time scales. Rodrigues and Réunion Island near southern Africa each reported their third wettest year on record. In Hawaii, 1262 mm precipitation at Waipā Gardens (Kauai) on 14–15 April set a new U.S. record for 24-h precipitation. In Brazil, the city of Belo Horizonte received nearly 75 mm of rain in just 20 minutes, nearly half its monthly average. Globally, fire activity during 2018 was the lowest since the start of the record in 1997, with a combined burned area of about 500 million hectares. This reinforced the long-term downward trend in fire emissions driven by changes in land use in frequently burning savannas. However, wildfires burned 3.5 million hectares across the United States, well above the 2000–10 average of 2.7 million hectares. Combined, U.S. wildfire damages for the 2017 and 2018 wildfire seasons exceeded $40 billion (U.S. dollars)

Investigating human-computer interaction issues in information-fusion-based decision support

Information fusion is a research area which focuses on how to combine information from many different sources to support decision making. Commonly used information fusion systems are often complex and used in military and crises management domains. The focus of information fusion research so far has been mainly on the technological aspects. There is still a lack of understanding relevant user aspects that affect the information fusion systems as a whole. This paper presents a framework of HCI issues which considers users as embedded in the context of information fusion systems. The framework aims at providing insights regarding factors that affect user interaction to inform the development of future information fusion systems. Design considerations are presented together with a heuristic evaluation of an information fusion prototype

Adherence with immunosuppression in heart transplant recipients

Purpose of review Nonadherence is a major problem in heart transplantation (htx) and a challenge for clinical practice and research. In heart transplant recipients, nonadherence could cause chronic rejection of the transplanted heart followed by difficult clinical course and/or death of the patient. Recent findings Main topics are the relationship between psychological aspects and adherence, risk factors and prediction of nonadherence, strategies for improving adherence like single-dose immunosuppressant therapy and follow-up studies. Summary There is a lack of behavioral intervention studies. So-called targeted interventions should be defined for clinical practice and research with randomized controlled studies

Comparison of Microtops II ozonemeter and OMI satellite total ozone column measurements in Manila, Philippines from Feb-Oct 2011

Total ozone column (TOC) measurements were performed in De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines (14.71° N, 121.58° E) last February - October 2011 using a hand-held Microtops II Ozonemeter (MII). These are the first local measurements of total ozone column in the Philippines. The Microtops II instrument measures ozone at wavelengths 305.5, 312.5, and 320 nm. Measurements using the device were taken during midday (local noontime) and when the sun is clearly seen. Monthly averages were taken from February to October of 2011 in Manila, which is currently considered to be one of the most polluted cities in Asia. When compared to the total ozone column readings from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) satellite, the Microtops II yielded a difference of ∼3-15%. The MII Ozone Spectrophotometer provided data of the TOC averaging 280.36 ± 15.13 Dobson units (DU) while OMI TOC data averaged at 262.23 ± 19.26 DU. Analyses have shown the importance of proper user training in the use of the MII instrument especially during the rainy season

On the definition of information fusion as a field of research

Abstract – A more precise definition of the field of information fusion can be of benefit to researchers within the field, who may use such a definition when motivating their own work and evaluating the contribution of others. Moreover, it can enable researchers and practitioners outside the field to more easily relate their own work to the field and more easily understand the scope of the techniques and methods developed in the field. Previous definitions of information fusion are reviewed from that perspective, including definitions of data and sensor fusion, and their appropriateness as definitions for the entire research field are discussed. Based on strengths and weaknesses of existing definitions, a novel definition is proposed, which is argued to effectively fulfill the requirements that can be put on a definition of information fusion as a field of research