Thermal detection of plumes produced by industrial accidents in urban areas based on the presence of the heat

Abstract. Detection of plumes produced by industrial accidents using NOAA/AVHRR thermal imagery may be substantially supported in urban areas by the presence of the heat island phenomenon. In this study, an attempt is made to classify the urban web on the basis of the heat island and its impact on the brightness temperatures. Application of the classi cation scheme on a night-time thermal infrared NOAA-14 image depicting the urban web of Athens demonstrates the potential of this classi cation for the detection of a plume caused by a re in a warehouse. Detection of the plume in this case is favoured by the urban heat island phenomenon due to which the urban surface has higher temperature compared to the adjacent environment and the plume above. As a result, distinction of the pixels corresponding to the plume is more eVective

Thermal detection of plumes produced by industrial accidents in urban areas based on the presence of the heat

Abstract. The detection of plumes produced by industrial accidents with the use of NOAA/AVHRR thermal imagery, may be substantially supported in urban areas due to the presence of the heat island phenomenon. In this study, an attempt is made to classify the urban web on the basis of the heat island and its impact on the brightness temperatures. The application of the classification scheme on a night-time thermal infrared NOAA-14 image depicting the urban web of Athens, demonstrates the potential of this classification for the detection of a plume caused by a fire in a warehouse. Detecting the plume in this specific case, is favoured by the urban heat island phenomenon due to which the urban surface has higher temperature compared to the adjacent environment and the above plume. As a result, the distinction of the pixels corresponding to the plume is more effective

An Operational System For Monitoring Oil Spills In The Mediterranean Sea: The PROMED System

The primary objective of this work was the development of an operational system for early detection of oil-spills, monitoring of their evolution, and provision of support to responsible Public Authorities during cleanup operations, based on Remote Sensing and GIS technologies. In case of emergency, the principal characteristics of the oil spill are defined with the aid of a space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The transport, spreading and dispersion of the oil spill is subsequently simulated on the basis of wind forecasts of the area. The use of thematic maps of protected, fishing and urban areas, and regions of high tourism allows the better assessment of the impact of an oil spill on the areas to be affected in terms of environmental sensitivity. Finally, reports are generated notifying port authorities, the media, and local organizations to be potentially affected by the presence of the oil spill. The pilot site for testing the PROMED System in Greece is the island of Crete

Multilayered feed forward Artificial Neural Network model to predict the average summer-monsoon rainfall in India

In the present research, possibility of predicting average summer-monsoon rainfall over India has been analyzed through Artificial Neural Network models. In formulating the Artificial Neural Network based predictive model, three layered networks have been constructed with sigmoid non-linearity. The models under study are different in the number of hidden neurons. After a thorough training and test procedure, neural net with three nodes in the hidden layer is found to be the best predictive model.Comment: 19 pages, 1 table, 3 figure

Recovery of Meteorological Data for the Observatory of A Guarda, Spain

We herein describe the recovery of a series of data on temperature, humidity, precipitation, evaporation, wind, and local weather conditions from documentary sources obtained from the Jesuit observatory of A Guarda (Galicia, Spain) for the period 1881–1896. The data were digitized and made available in accessible electronic formats. Comparisons were made with present-day meteorological data obtained from two nearby stations. We further believe that the discovery of some new complementary documentary sources made during the present research could be a basis for future data recovery efforts. Among these new results, early ozone data from the period are of outstanding importance to meteorologists

The Impact Of A Forest Fire On The Air Pollution Of An Urban Area: A Case-Study For Athens, Greece

In recent years Athens experienced severe air quality problems which are mostly attributed to motor vehicles and central heating. In addition to these pollution sources, forest fires taking place near urban areas may have a significant impact on the air quality of the city. We investigated this perspective by examining measurements of smoke and ozone taken in several sites within the Athens area for a time period during which a forest fire took place relatively close to Athens. The prevailing meteorological conditions supported the transfer of air masses from the burning forest area to the city. We find strong indications that the products of the forest fire influence significantly the levels of air pollution of the urban area, at least in terms of ozone and smoke. © 1992, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved

A new method to improve the radiometric monitoring of atmospheric composition for photochemical active species: An application for nitric oxide

Studies that use satellite sensor measurements to determine the atmospheric composition require the conversion of measured radiances to concentration profiles. An important step in this process, is the correct treatment of radiative transfer. In several cases however, atmospheric species experience large and/or rapid changes in their distribution-at the time of measurements-which if neglected result in the inadequate treatment of radiative transfer and the subsequent inaccuracy of inversion algorithms. Parameterizing these changes is a way to treat the problem efficiently and a parameterization scheme for the temporal and spatial variability of nitric oxide is proposed in this Letter. The scheme is integrated in the inversion algorithm for the retrieval of the concentration of nitric oxide from satellite sensor occultation measurements and the performance of the algorithm is found to yield satisfactory results. © 1992 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Toward resilient cities - a review of definitions, challenges and prospects

This paper provides a review of the definitions, challenges and prospects toward resilient cities. It refers to the definitions provided by several researchers for resilience, links resilience to sustainability, discusses the role of spatial planning in strengthening urban resilience, identifies barriers to resilience, summarizes the requirements for creating resilient cities and exemplifies on cities, climate change and resilience. The paper concludes that the concept of resilience adds a new perspective to the issue of sustainability in the sense that resilience is needed for a sustainable environment. Finally, it refers to the link between climate change adaptation and mitigation plans for cities on the one hand and plans for resilient cities on the other. © 2014 Taylor & Francis