Global simulations of Cn2 using the weather research and forecast model WRF and comparison to experimental results

Electro-optical and laser systems are operated world-wide. Their performance in the outside atmosphere is mainly governed by the strength of optical turbulence Cn2. The predictability of Cn2 using weather-forecast models is investigated by performing simulations with the Weather Research and Forecast Model (WRF). The WRF output data were...

An Occupational Heat–Health Warning System for Europe: The HEAT-SHIELD Platform

Existing heat–health warning systems focus on warning vulnerable groups in order to reduce mortality. However, human health and performance are affected at much lower environmental heat strain levels than those directly associated with higher mortality. Moreover, workers are at elevated health risks when exposed to prolonged heat. This study...

Inhomogeneity of optical turbulence over False Bay (South Africa)

Atmospheric turbulence impacts on the propagation of electro-optical radiation. Typical manifestations of optical turbulence are scintillation (intensity fluctuations), beam wander and (for laser systems) reduction of beam quality. For longer propagation channels, it is important to characterize the vertical and horizontal distribution ...

Optical turbulence in the coastal area over False Bay /South Africa: Comparison of measurements and modeling results

The atmospheric influence on wave propagation was investigated during the First European South African Transmission ExpeRiment from June 2015 to February 2016. The focus in this article was set on optical turbulence, the main atmospheric factor affecting the position and strength of Laser beams, the performance of electro-optical systems and...

FESTER: A propagation experiment, overview and first results

A long term field trial called FESTER (First European South African Transmission Experiment) has been conducted by an international collaboration of research organizations during the course of almost one year at False Bay, South Africa. Main objectives of the experiment are a better insight into atmospherical effects on propagation of optical...

Public understanding of visual representations of uncertainty in temperature forecasts

Multiday weather forecasts often include graphical representations of uncertainty. However, visual representations of probabilistic events are often misinterpreted by the general public. Although various uncertainty visualizations are now in use, the parameters that determine their successful deployment are still unknown. At the same time, a...

Estimation and correction of surface wind-stress bias in the Tropical Pacific with the Ensemble Kalman Filter

The assimilation of high-quality in situ data into ocean models is known to lead to imbalanced analyses and spurious circulations when the model dynamics or the forcing contain systematic errors. Use of a bias estimation and correction scheme has been shown to significantly improve the balance of the analysed states in such cases. Given the...

Validation of Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment zone profiles and evaluation of stratospheric transport in a global chemistry transport model

This paper presents a validation of Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) ozone (O3) profiles which are used to evaluate stratospheric transport in the chemistry transport model (CTM) Tracer Model version 5 (TM5) using a linearized stratospheric O3 chemistry scheme. A comparison of GOME O3 profile measurements with independent O3 sonde...

MIBS past present and future

The microbolometer spectrometer breadboard MIBS is a prism spectrometer that uses an uncooled microbolometer detector array and has been designed for the ESA EarthCARE mission. In order to demonstrate its feasibility a breadboard has been build, and tests have been performed that show good correlation between predicted and achieved results....

Is regional air quality model diversity representative of uncertainty for ozone simulation?

We examine whether seven state-of-the-art European regional air quality models provide daily ensembles of predicted ozone maxima that encompass observations. Using tools borrowed from the evaluation of ensemble weather forecasting, we analyze statistics of simulated ensembles of ozone daily maxima over an entire summer season. Although the model...