Automatic reading of aeronautical meteorological messages

This paper describes the architecture developed to produce an automatic reader of aeronautical meteorological messages. An interlingua has been used and a whole process of natural language generation has been implemented. The system Festival has been used with a modified voice to read the messages generated. The presented system is able to translate the meteorological messages into a natural language text and read it

The impact of biogenic VOC emissions on photochemical ozone formation during a high ozone pollution episode in the Iberian Peninsula in the 2003 summer season

Throughout Europe the summer of 2003 was exceptionally warm, especially July and August. The European Environment Agency (EEA) reported several ozone episodes, mainly in the first half of August. These episodes were exceptionally long-lasting, spatially extensive, and associated to high temperatures. In this paper, the 10$ndash;15 August 2003 ozone pollution event has been analyzed using meteorological and regional air quality modelling. During this period the threshold values of the European Directive 2002/3/EC were exceeded in various areas of the Iberian Peninsula. <br><br> The aim of this paper is to computationally understand and quantify the influence of biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions in the formation of tropospheric ozone during this high ozone episode. Being able to differentiate how much ozone comes from biogenic emissions alone and how much comes from the interaction between anthropogenic and biogenic emissions would be helpful to develop a feasible and effective ozone control strategy. The impact on ozone formation was also studied in combination with various anthropogenic emission reduction strategies, i.e., when anthropogenic VOC emissions and/or NO<sub>x</sub> emissions are reduced. The results show a great dependency of the BVOC contribution to ozone formation on the antropoghenic reduction scenario. In rural areas, the impact due to a NO<sub>x</sub> and/or VOC reduction does not change the BVOC impact. Nevertheless, within big cities or industrial zones, a NO<sub>x</sub> reduction results in a decrease of the biogenic impact in ozone levels that can reach 85 μg/m<sup>3</sup>, whereas an Anthropogenic Volatile Organic Compound (AVOC) reduction results in a decrease of the BVOC contribution on ozone formation that varies from 0 to 30 μg/m<sup>3</sup> with respect to the contribution at the same points in the 2003 base scenario. On the other hand, downwind of the big cities, a decrease in NO<sub>x</sub> produces a minor contribution of biogenic emissions and a decrease in AVOCs results in greater contributions of BVOCs to the formation of ozone

Sensitivity analysis of surface ozone to modified initial and boundary conditions in both rural and industrial zones

International audienceA three-dimensional air quality model based on a set of chemical species mass conservation equations describes the time evolution of chemical species in the atmosphere. In order to solve this set of equations, proper choices of initial and boundary conditions are needed. Ideally, initial and boundary conditions should be determined on the basis of observations. However, since such high-resolution observations are generally not available, it becomes necessary to use other information sources to specify the initial and boundary values. The fact that both the initial and the boundary conditions are specified with some degree of presumption makes it important to evaluate their influence in the model results. In this paper we present a study of the impact of initial and boundary concentrations on the modelled surface ozone concentration over two environments: Huelva and Badajoz, an industrial and a rural zone, respectively. The impacts are analysed for the same meteorological period (10?15 August 2003)

Unveiling Neutrino Mixing and Leptonic CP Violation

We review the present understanding of neutrino masses and mixings, discussing what are the unknowns in the three family oscillation scenario. Despite the anticipated success coming from the planned long baseline neutrino experiments in unraveling the leptonic mixing sector, there are two important unknowns which may remain obscure: the mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ and the CP-phase $\delta$. The measurement of these two parameters has led us to consider the combination of superbeams and neutrino factories as the key to unveil the neutrino oscillation picture.Comment: Invited brief review, 18 pages, 6 figure

La infiltración policial en España como medio de investigación en la lucha contra la corrupción

The present paper addresses the concept of police infiltration, as well as the necessity of its use for fighting corruption and organized crime. In doing so, we analyze not only Spanish law, but also existing international legislation in the European Union, with particular emphasis on international cooperation in this field.El presente artículo aborda la figura de la infiltración policial y la necesidad de su utilización en la lucha contra la corrupción y el crimen organizado analizando no solo la normativa española sino también la contenida en los instrumentos internacionales vigentes en la Unión Europea, destacando la importancia de la cooperación internacional en este ámbito.El presente artículo aborda la figura de la infiltración policial y la necesidad de su utilización en la lucha contra la corrupción y el crimen organizado analizando no solo la normativa española sino también la contenida en los instrumentos internacionales vigentes en la Unión Europea, destacando la importancia de la cooperación internacional en este ámbito

Improving Estimates of Gross Primary Productivity by Assimilating Solar-Induced Fluorescence Satellite Retrievals in a Terrestrial Biosphere Model Using a Process-Based SIF Model

Abstract Over the last few years, solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) observations from space have emerged as a promising resource for evaluating the spatio-temporal distribution of gross primary productivity (GPP) simulated by global terrestrial biosphere models. SIF can be used to improve GPP simulations by optimizing critical model parameters through statistical Bayesian data assimilation techniques. A prerequisite is the availability of a functional link between GPP and SIF in terrestrial biosphere models. Here we present the development of a mechanistic SIF observation operator in the ORCHIDEE (Organizing Carbon and Hydrology In Dynamic Ecosystems) terrestrial biosphere model. It simulates the regulation of photosystem II fluorescence quantum yield at the leaf level thanks to a novel parameterization of non-photochemical quenching as a function of temperature, photosynthetically active radiation, and normalized quantum yield of photochemistry. It emulates the radiative transfer of chlorophyll fluorescence to the top of the canopy using a parametric simplification of the SCOPE (Soil Canopy Observation Photosynthesis Energy) model. We assimilate two years of monthly OCO-2 (Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2) SIF product at 0.5° (2015?2016) to optimize ORCHIDEE photosynthesis and phenological parameters over an ensemble of grid points for all plant functional types. The impact on the simulated GPP is considerable with a large decrease of the global scale budget by 28 GtC/year over the period 1990?2009. The optimized GPP budget (134/136 GtC/year over 1990?2009/2001?2009) remarkably agrees with independent GPP estimates, FLUXSAT (137 GtC/year over 2001?2009) in particular and FLUXCOM (121 GtC/year over 1990?2009). Our results also suggest a biome dependency of the SIF-GPP relationship that needs to be improved for some plant functional types.Peer reviewe

Neutrino physics at accelerators

Present and future neutrino experiments at accelerators are mainly concerned with understanding the neutrino oscillation phenomenon and its implications. Here a brief account of neutrino oscillations is given together with a description of the supporting data. Some current and planned accelerator neutrino experiments are also explained.Comment: 23 pages, 24 figures. Talk given at the Corfu Summer Institute on Elementary Particle Physics 200