Setup of tools and dataset selection for MBL investigation over a coastal Mediterranean site – preliminary results

Abstract. We propose the height zi of the inversion in the vertical profile of potential temperature, on the top of a mixed layer or of a residual layer as a relevant parameter for retrieving information related to water vapour in the lower layers of the atmosphere, from currently available operational satellites information. We estimated zi using an algorithm where a set of threshold values in the vertical gradients of potential temperature are used to analyse the available profiles in order to find relevant inversions. Thresholds are derived from the subjective analysis of a set of high vertical resolution soundings from the coastal site of the Italian Meteorological Service of Pratica di Mare (WMO #16245, lat. 41.66° N, lon. 12.45° E). The sensitivity of the method to vertical sampling is tested comparing results obtained by applying the method to two sets of about 6500 raw and sampled radiosoundings during the period 2002–2008. Differences in average seasonal and six-hourly values of zi from the two datasets are found within the range 5–10%. The method was then applied to a larger set of soundings from coastal and continental Mediterranean sites collected in a standard archive. It was found that mean summer values of zi at coastal sites are lower than in winter, conversely to continental sites. Furthermore, values of zi found using the proposed algorithm show a systematically higher inversion if compared to height found using the Richardson Number method, although there are cases when both identify the inversion at the same height

Calibration of a Multichannel Water Vapor Raman Lidar through Noncollocated Operational Soundings: Optimization and Characterization of Accuracy and Variability

Abstract This paper presents a parametric automatic procedure to calibrate the multichannel Rayleigh–Mie–Raman lidar at the Institute for Atmospheric Science and Climate of the Italian National Research Council (ISAC-CNR) in Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy, using as a reference the operational 0000 UTC soundings at the WMO station 16245 (Pratica di Mare) located about 25 km southwest of the lidar site. The procedure, which is applied to both channels of the system, first identifies portions of the lidar and radiosonde profiles that are assumed to sample the same features of the water vapor profile, taking into account the different time and space sampling. Then, it computes the calibration coefficient with a best-fit procedure, weighted by the instrumental errors of both radiosounding and lidar. The parameters to be set in the procedure are described, and values adopted are discussed. The procedure was applied to a set of 57 sessions of nighttime 1-min-sampling lidar profiles (roughly about 300 h of measurements) covering the whole annual cycle (February 2007–September 2008). A calibration coefficient is computed for each measurement session. The variability of the calibration coefficients (∼10%) over periods with the same instrumental setting is reduced compared to the values obtained with the previously adopted, operator-assisted, and time-consuming calibration procedure. Reduction of variability, as well as the absence of evident trends, gives confidence both on system stability as well as on the developed procedure. Because of the definition of the calibration coefficient and of the different sampling between lidar and radiosonde, a contribution to the variability resulting from aerosol extinction and to the spatial and temporal variability of the water vapor mixing ratio is expected. A preliminary analysis aimed at identifying the contribution to the variability from these factors is presented. The parametric nature of the procedure makes it suitable for application to similar Raman lidar systems

Compact relaxations for polynomial programming problems

Reduced RLT constraints are a special class of Reformulation- Linearization Technique (RLT) constraints. They apply to nonconvex (both continuous and mixed-integer) quadratic programming problems subject to systems of linear equality constraints. We present an extension to the general case of polynomial programming problems and discuss the derived convex relaxation. We then show how to perform rRLT constraint generation so as to reduce the number of inequality constraints in the relaxation, thereby making it more compact and faster to solve. We present some computational results validating our approach

In-water lidar simulations: the ALADIN ADM-Aeolus backscattered signal at 355 nm

The Lidar Ocean Color (LiOC) Monte Carlo code has been developed to simulate the in-water propagation of the lidar beam emitted by the ALADIN ADM-Aeolus instrument in the ultraviolet (UV) spectral region (∼ 355 nm). To this end, LiOC accounts for reflection/transmission processes at the sea surface, absorption and multiple scattering in the water volume, and reflection from the sea bottom. The water volume components included in the model are pure seawater, Chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-a), Colored Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM), and/or a generic absorbing species. By considering the transmission/reception measurement geometry of ALADIN ADM-Aeolus, the study documents the variability of the normalized backscattered signal in different bio-optical conditions. The potential for data product retrieval based on information at 355 nm is considered by developing a demonstrative lookup table to estimate the absorption budget exceeding that explained by Chl-a. Results acknowledge the interest of space programs in exploiting UV bands for ocean color remote sensing, as, for instance, addressed by the PACE mission of NASA

Switchable Solvent Selective Extraction of Hydrophobic Antioxidants from Synechococcus bigranulatus

Hydrophobic molecules, in particular, carotenoids, have been directly extracted from Synechococcus bigranulatus ACUF680 by means of secondary amine switchable solvent N-ethylbutylamine (EBA) without any other pretreatment. EBA was able to extract hydrophobic molecules from both fresh and frozen biomass at the same extent of the conventional procedure (about 20% of dry biomass). In particular, selective extraction of a zeaxanthin-enriched fraction (green fraction, GF) and a β-carotene-enriched fraction (orange fraction, OF) was obtained. The ratio between zeaxanthin and β-carotene was 4.4 ± 1.5 for GF, 0.07 ± 0.06 for OF, and about 1 for conventional extraction. These fractions showed in vitro antioxidant activity (IC50 values of 0.056 ± 0.013 and 0.024 ± 0.008 mg mL-1 for GF and OF, respectively) and biocompatibility on immortalized cells. Moreover, OF and GF were able to protect cells from oxidative stress, both before and after thermal treatment. Results clearly indicate that EBA is a good candidate to specifically extract β-carotene and zeaxanthin from the wet biomass of S. bigranulatus without affecting their biological activity. Skipping energy-intensive operations to break the cells and using either fresh or frozen biomass may be the driving factors to use EBA switchable solvent on an industrial scale

Clouds and hazes vertical structure mapping of Saturn 2011 - 2012 giant vortex by means of Cassini VIMS data analysis

On December 2010 a giant storm erupted in Saturn's North hemisphere. A giant vortex formed in the storm wake and persisted after the principal outburst exhausted on July 2011. The vortex had been imaged several times by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on board the Cassini probe starting from May 2011 and it was still present in observations recorded on June 2013. In this work we have analyzed the vortex data recorded by the visual channel of the spectrometer (VIMS-V) in August 2011 and January 2012. An inverse model, based on the Bayesian approach and using the Gauss-Newton iterative method to minimize the cost function, has been developed to analyze those data. The model takes advantage of the results of a supporting forward radiative transfer model which relies on the assumptions of plane parallel atmosphere, multiple scattering, Mie theory to compute particles single scattering properties, and molecular scattering adapted to Saturn's atmosphere. Applying the inverse model we could retrieve the microphysical and geometrical properties of the clouds and hazes overlying the vortex and produce spatial maps for each retrieved parameter. Thanks to this study, the vertical structure of the hazes in this region has been quantitatively addressed for the first time. The comparative analysis of the results from the two observations seems to suggest that in 6 months the atmospheric dynamics, responsible for the formation and subsistence of the vortex, is weakening and the atmosphere is returning to a more stationary state. In addition, we suggest a correction for the imaginary part of the refractive index of the tropopause haze. This new value, that allows a better convergence between observed and simulated spectra, does not yet identify a composition of the haze and further investigation is needed to understand the real nature of the need for such a modification

Modelling of tribo-electrostatic separation for industrial by-products recycling

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A database of aerosols and gases coefficients for VIS-NIR radiative transfer in the Solar System planetary atmospheres

Radiative transfer (RT) modelling of planetary atmospheres allows to obtain extremely valuable information about these environments. The computation of optical properties of the aerosols and gases, that is heavily time consuming, is always required as input for both forward models and inversion algorithms. We provide look up tables for these coefficients, ready to be ingested in RT solvers, in the visible and near infrared spectral ranges and covering the main species of the Solar System planets' atmospheres. Gases absorption coefficients have been computed with the line-by-line approach from the HITRAN 2012 spectral database and an improved method to interpolate them is suggested. Aerosols single scattering properties have been computed using the Mie and Rayleigh models for a set of selected species relevant for planetary atmospheres. Optimization in terms of tabulated wavelengths and maximum number of Legendre polynomial expansion terms has been performed for each species