Impact of wind field horizontal resolution on sea waves hindcast around Calabrian coasts

We investigated the impact of wind field enhanced horizontal resolution on sea wind-wave hindcast around the Calabrian coasts, which lie at the southernmost tip of the Italian peninsula. Simulations have been performed using WAM (WAve Model), a third-generation state of the art wave-model. In order to study this topic, we shall discuss two simulations sets. The first set forces WAM by ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) surface wind field analysis, used in this paper with a resolution of 0.5◦; whilefor these cond simulation set RAMS (Regional Atmospheric Modelling System) surface wind field forcesWAM. Initial and dynamic boundary conditions for RAMS simulations, which have a 20 km horizontal resolution, are derived from ECMWF analysis. To obtain a reliable statistical data set, integrations have been performed over six months from 1 October 2003 to 31 March 2004. We have evaluated performance comparing the WAM modelled wave heights and directions against data of Wave measuring Buoys (WBs) moored off Cetraro and Crotone. Statistical tests are performed to assess differences between modelled data and measurements and between modelled data sets. Results show better performance for wave height fields when RAMS forces WAM. The best results are obtained for Crotone but differences between simulated and measured wave height distributions are significant at a 99% statistical level. Simulated wave directions are generally good for the model set-up used in this paper and the differences between modelled data sets are minor

XXXVIII Meeting of the Italian Section of the Combustion Institute Impact of agriculture biomass burning and preliminary results, on coastal site Lamezia Terme, integrating data of different instruments

Abstract In order to establish strategies for the influence of anthropic activities, continuously monitoring of particulate and greenhouse gases are required. Atmospheric aerosol particles together with greenhouse gases, according to the IPCC( 2013), are playing a major role in climate change affecting the Earth's radiative balance: directly by absorbing and scattering of solar radiation and indirectly by supporting for cloud condensation. In the GAW Regional Coastal Observatory I-AMICA in Lamezia Terme (38.88 LAT 16.24 LON, 6m agl) in Calabrian Region, greenhouse gas and particulate are daily monitored in order to collect and investigate natural and anthropic sources affecting climate. The equipment allow us to detect local events of different nature that influence short lived gases and aerosol presence in our area. In particular here we present some evidence of forest fire smoke detection due to biomass burning caused from agriculture activities. Hourly and daily variation of several parameters are showed, correlation with local circulation is analysed. A further analysis on the correlations with back-trajectories technique based on Hysplit model outputs are also showed

New frontiers of forest fire protection: A portable laser system (FfED)

Forest fires are one of the worst events that can cause environmental and economic damage. It is impossible to predict the moment in which these events can happen because they can be the consequence of particular environmental conditions or of a voluntary criminal act. As a consequence it is necessary to work on a solution that allows surveying automatically the territory. The portable LIDAR system that the Quantum Electronics and Plasma Physics group has developed in collaboration with CRATI s.c.r.l. deals with these needs. The system, called FfED (Forest fire Early Detection system,) is presented in this paper together with the numerical and experimental results (in cell and in field), a discussion about their comparison and the possible future improvements. © 2013 - All Rights Reserved

Application of a CO2 dial system for infrared detection of forest fire and reduction of false alarm

Forest fires can be the cause of serious environmental and economic damages. For this reason considerable effort has been directed toward forest protection and fire fighting. The means traditionally used for early fire detection mainly consist in human observers dispersed over forest regions. A significant improvement in early warning capabilities could be obtained by using automatic detection apparatus. In order to early detect small forest fires and minimize false alarms, the use of a lidar system and dial technique will be considered. A first evaluation of the lowest detectable concentration will be estimated by numerical simulation. The theoretical model will also be used to get the capability of the dial system to control wooded areas. Fixing the burning rate for several fuels, the maximum range of detection will be evaluated. Finally results of simulations will be reported

Raman water vapour concentration measurements for reduction of false alarms in forest fire detection

Forest fires can be the cause of environmental catastrophe, with the natural outcomes of serious ecological and economic damages, together with the possibility to endanger human safety. At the aim to reduce this catastrophe several author have been shown that the Laser light scattering can be uses to reveals the particulate emitted in the smoke. Infact experimental and theoretical investigations have shown that lidar is a powerful tool to detect the tenuous smoke plumes produced by forest fires at an early stage. In early 90's Arbolino and Andreucci have shown the theoretical possibility to detect the particulate emitted in atmosphere from smoke forest fire. Vilar at all have shown experimentally the possibility to measure the density variation in atmosphere due to plume emitted in forest fire event. Gaudio at all. have already shown that it is possible to evaluate water vapor emitted in smoke of vegetable fuel using a CO2 dial system. In this paper a theoretical model to evaluate the capabilities of a lidar system in fire surveillance of wooded areas will be presented. In particular we intend propose a technique to minimizing the false alarm in the detection of forest fire by lidar based on a measurement of second components emitted in a combustion process. Usually to detect a fire alarm a rapid increase of aerosol amount is measured. If the backscattering signal report a peak, the presences of a forest fire will be probable. Our idea to confirm this hypothesis is measure the second components emitted in a forest fire at the aim to minimize the false alarm. The simulated measurements of the humidity amount within the smoke plume will be carried out by means of Raman analysis. Fixing the burning rate of the vegetable-fuels, the maximum range of detection will be evaluated

Improvement of Solar and Wind forecasting in southern Italy through a multi-model approach: preliminary results

The improvement of the Solar and Wind short-term forecasting represents a critical goal for the weather prediction community and is of great importance for a better estimation of power production from solar and wind farms. <br><br> In this work we analyze the performance of two deterministic models operational at ISAC-CNR for the prediction of short-wave irradiance and wind speed, at two experimental sites in southern Italy. <br><br> A post-processing technique, i.e the multi-model, is adopted to improve the performance of the two mesoscale models. <br><br> The results show that the multi-model approach produces a significant error reduction with respect to the forecast of each model. The error is reduced up to 20  % of the model errors, depending on the parameter and forecasting time