CARIBIC aircraft measurements of Eyjafjallajökull volcanic clouds in April/May 2010

The Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the Atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container (CARIBIC) project investigates physical and chemical processes in the Earth's atmosphere using a Lufthansa Airbus long-distance passenger aircraft. After the beginning of the explosive eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano on Iceland on 14 April 2010, the first CARIBIC volcano-specific measurement flight was carried out over the Baltic Sea and Southern Sweden on 20 April. Two more flights followed: one over Ireland and the Irish Sea on 16 May and the other over the Norwegian Sea on 19 May 2010. During these three special mission flights the CARIBIC container proved its merits as a comprehensive flying laboratory. The elemental composition of particles collected over the Baltic Sea during the first flight (20 April) indicated the presence of volcanic ash. Over Northern Ireland and the Irish Sea (16 May), the DOAS system detected SO2 and BrO co-located with volcanic ash particles that increased the aerosol optical depth. Over the Norwegian Sea (19 May), the optical particle counter detected a strong increase of particles larger than 400 nm diameter in a region where ash clouds were predicted by aerosol dispersion models. Aerosol particle samples collected over the Irish Sea and the Norwegian Sea showed large relative enhancements of the elements silicon, iron, titanium and calcium. Non-methane hydrocarbon concentrations in whole air samples collected on 16 and 19 May 2010 showed a pattern of removal of several hydrocarbons that is typical for chlorine chemistry in the volcanic clouds. Comparisons of measured ash concentrations and simulations with the FLEXPART dispersion model demonstrate the difficulty of detailed volcanic ash dispersion modelling due to the large variability of the volcanic cloud sources, extent and patchiness as well as the thin ash layers formed in the volcanic clouds

Brainwaves and Sound Synchronization in a Dance Performance

In a previous work (Lucchiari and Folgieri, 2015) we considered communication among young people. New digital-natives do not communicate in a traditional way, but they choose different means and ways. It is not a surprising conclusion that a large part of digital-natives considers obsolete both Web sites\u2019 structure and Internet navigation modes, learning instruments and paradigms and communication tools, choosing, instead, fast and immediate media like mobile phone communication, social networking and so on (Croitoru et al. 2011). Notwithstanding we could think they lack of communication skills, actually, they communicate with each other much more than ever done, using not only the verbal language, but also images, videos, sounds, and especially emotions. We named this phenomenon telepatheia or, better, sympateia, meaning that they seem to keep in contact independently by the mean. Of course, on our intention, this does not mean that we are observing a new organic evolution, but surely a kind of evolution can be traced: an era in which human and machines are evolving, influencing one each other, determining a specific kind of communication strongly influenced and related to technology. In this paper, starting from our previous studies and from our concept of \u201csympateia\u201d, we performed a new experiment related to brain rhythms synchronization. Through our experiment, described in the following chapter, We want to explore the communication mechanisms of telepathy (in the ancient Greek assumption of \u201ctelepatia\u201d\uf020that is [tele]=\u201ddistance\u201d and [pateia]=\u201demotion, feeling\u201d). This does not mean that we are trying to make humans telepathic, but we aim to deeply understand communication mechanisms among humans through human-computer interaction BCI devices. This means to change the point of view of brain and Information Technology researches, stressing the point of view of self-understanding of the own brain

Linking geographic vocabularies through WordNet

The linked open data (LOD) paradigm has emerged as a promising approach to structuring and sharing geospatial information. One of the major obstacles to this vision lies in the difficulties found in the automatic integration between heterogeneous vocabularies and ontologies that provides the semantic backbone of the growing constellation of open geo-knowledge bases. In this article, we show how to utilize WordNet as a semantic hub to increase the integration of LOD. With this purpose in mind, we devise Voc2WordNet, an unsupervised mapping technique between a given vocabulary and WordNet, combining intensional and extensional aspects of the geographic terms. Voc2WordNet is evaluated against a sample of human-generated alignments with the OpenStreetMap (OSM) Semantic Network, a crowdsourced geospatial resource, and the GeoNames ontology, the vocabulary of a large digital gazetteer. These empirical results indicate that the approach can obtain high precision and recall

Civil Aircraft for the regular investigation of the atmosphere based on an instrumented container: The new CARIBIC system

An airfreight container with automated instruments for measurement of atmospheric gases and trace compounds was operated on a monthly basis onboard a Boeing 767-300 ER of LTU International Airways during long-distance flights from 1997 to 2002 (CARIBIC, Civil Aircraft for Regular Investigation of the Atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container, http://www.caribic-atmospheric.com). Subsequently a more advanced system has been developed, using a larger capacity container with additional equipment and an improved inlet system. CARIBIC phase #2 was implemented on a new long-range aircraft type Airbus A340-600 of the Lufthansa German Airlines (Star Alliance) in December 2004, creating a powerful flying observatory. The instrument package comprises detectors for the measurement of O3, total and gaseous H2O, NO and NOy, CO, CO2, O2, Hg, and number concentrations of sub-micrometer particles (>4 nm, >12 nm, and >18 nm diameter). Furthermore, an optical particle counter (OPC) and a proton transfer mass spectrometer (PTR-MS) are incorporated. Aerosol samples are collected for analysis of elemental composition and particle morphology after flight. Air samples are taken in glass containers for laboratory analyses of hydrocarbons, halocarbons and greenhouse gases (including isotopic composition of CO2) in several laboratories. Absorption tubes collect oxygenated volatile organic compounds. Three differential optical absorption spectrometers (DOAS) with their telescopes mounted in the inlet system measure atmospheric trace gases such as BrO, HONO, and NO2. A video camera mounted in the inlet provides information about clouds along the flight track. The flying observatory, its equipment and examples of measurement results are reported

Carbon monoxide measurements onboard the CARIBIC passenger aircraft using UV resonance fluorescence

This is my first issue as PNLA Quarterly Editor; please allow me to introduce myself. I am a Past Pres-ident of PNLA and frequent PNLA Conference presenter and this association is dear to me. PNLA has a ‘vibe’ unlike any other group I have belonged to, and when the call for editor applications went out shortly after I moved away from a position at the University of Montana to a new job in coastal Wash-ington State, I had some time to fill and the drive to serve the association. I have been writing and edit-ing throughout my career in librarianship and am thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to engage with authors across the region in this new role

Carbon monoxide measurements onboard the CARIBIC passenger aircraft using UV resonance fluorescence

Goal of the project CARIBIC (Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the atmosphere Based on an Instrumented Container) is to carry out regular and detailed observations of atmospheric composition (particles and gases) at cruising altitudes of passenger aircraft, i.e. at 9–12 km. Continuous, fast measurement of CO is indispensable for the chemical characterization of encountered air masses, for the detection of plumes of polluted air and for studying troposphere-stratosphere transport. CO is measured by a commercial resonance fluorescence UV instrument modified for the use onboard passenger aircraft. Modifications were necessary to optimize the instrument reliability allowing unattended operation for several days. The instrument has a precision of 1–2 ppbv at an integration time of 1 s. The response time to reach 63.2% signal strength is 2 s. We describe the modifications of the instrument, the experiences made during its operation since December 2004, the quality control of CO measurements onboard CARIBIC, and suggest a regular service routine that guarantees long-term high-quality data