National Weather Service
It is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration branch of the Department of Commerce, and is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland. The agency was known as the United States Weather Bureau from 1890 until it adopted its current name in 1970, the NWS performs its primary task through a collection of national and regional centers, and 122 local weather forecast offices. As the NWS is a government agency, most of its products are in the public domain, the agency was placed under the Secretary of War as Congress felt military discipline would probably secure the greatest promptness and accuracy in the required observations. Within the Department of War, it was assigned to the U. S. Army Signal Service under Brigadier General Albert J. Myer, General Myer gave the National Weather Service its first name, The Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce. The agency first became an enterprise in 1890, when it became part of the Department of Agriculture. The first Weather Bureau radiosonde was launched in Massachusetts in 1937, the Bureau would be moved to the Department of Commerce in 1940.
On July 12,1950, bureau chief Francis W, the Weather Bureau became part of the Environmental Science Services Administration when that agency was formed in August 1966. The Environmental Science Services Administration was renamed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on October 1,1970, at this time, the Weather Bureau became the National Weather Service. NEXRAD, a system of Doppler radars deployed to improve the detection and warning time of local storms, replaced the WSR-57. Bob Glahn has written a history of the first hundred years of the National Weather Service. The NWS, through a variety of sub-organizations, issues different forecast products to users, throughout history, text forecasts have been the means of product dissemination, the NWS has been using more forecast products of a digital, image or other modern format. Each of the 122 Weather Forecast Offices send their graphical forecasts to a server to be compiled in the National Digital Forecast Database. The NDFD is a collection of weather observations used by organizations and the public, including precipitation amount, temperature.
Specific points in the database can be accessed using an XML SOAP service. The National Weather Service issues many products relating to wildfires daily, for example, a Fire Weather Forecast, which have a forecast period covering up to seven days, is issued by local Weather Forecast Offices daily, with updates as needed. The forecasts contain weather information relevant to fire control and smoke management for the next 12 to 48 hours, such as direction and speed. The appropriate crews use this information to plan for staffing and equipment levels, the ability to conduct scheduled controlled burns, and assess the daily fire danger. Once per day, NWS meteorologists issue a coded fire weather forecast for specific United States Forest Service observation sites that are input into the National Fire Danger Rating System
Roadway air dispersion modeling
Roadway air dispersion modeling is the study of air pollutant transport from a roadway or other linear emitter. Computer models are required to conduct analysis, because of the complex variables involved, including vehicle emissions, vehicle speed, meteorology. By the early 1970s this subset of atmospheric dispersion models were being applied to real world cases of highway planning, the basic concept of the roadway air dispersion model is to calculate air pollutant levels in the vicinity of a highway or arterial roadway by considering them as line sources. For example, many air quality standards require that certain near worst case meteorological conditions be applied, the calculations are sufficiently complex that a computer model is essential to arrive at authoritative results, although workbook type manuals have been developed as screening techniques. The product of the calculations is usually a set of isopleths or mapped contour lines either in plan view or cross sectional view, typically these might be stated as concentrations of carbon monoxide, total reactive hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen, particulate or benzene.
The air quality scientist can run the model successively to study techniques of reducing adverse air pollutant concentrations, the model is frequently utilized in an Environmental Impact Statement involving a major new roadway or land use change which will induce new vehicular traffic. The logical building block for this theory was the use of the Gaussian air pollutant dispersion equation for point sources, one of the early point source air pollutant plume dispersion equations was derived by Bosanquet and Pearson in 1936. Their equation did not include the effect of reflection of the pollutant plume. Further advances were made by G. A. Briggs in model refinement and validation, turner for his user-friendly workbook that included screening calculations which do not require a computer. While the ESL mathematical model was completed for a source by 1970, model refinement resulted in a “strip source”. This theory would be the precursor of area source dispersion models, a working computer model was produced by late 1970, the model was calibrated with carbon monoxide field measurements targeting from traffic on U. S.
Route 101 in Sunnyvale, California. That gas was chosen since it not occur naturally or in vehicular emissions. Part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s motives may have been to bring the model into public domain, after a successful validation through the EPA research, the model was soon put to use in a variety of settings to forecast air pollution levels in the vicinity of roadways. The ESL group applied the model to the U. S, the ESL research group extended their model by introducing the area source concept of a vertical strip to simulate the mixing zone on the highway produced by vehicle turbulence. This model too was validated in 1971 and showed good correlation with field test data, there were several early applications of the model in somewhat dramatic cases. The ESL model was used to produce calculations of air quality in the vicinity of the proposed highway, ACT won this case after a decision by the U. S. A second contentious case took place in East Brunswick, New Jersey where the New Jersey Turnpike Authority planned a major widening of the Turnpike, again the roadway air dispersion model was employed to predict levels of air pollution for residences and parks near the Turnpike.
The Turnpike Authority hired ERT as its expert, and the two research teams negotiated a settlement to this case using the newly created roadway air dispersion models, CALINE3 is incorporated into the more elaborate CAL3QHC and CAL3QHCR models
Netherlands
The Netherlands, informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country.
Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life.
The Netherlands ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, changed over time tremendously
Planetary boundary layer
In meteorology the planetary boundary layer, known as the atmospheric boundary layer, is the lowest part of the atmosphere. Its behavior is influenced by its contact with a planetary surface. On Earth it usually responds to changes in radiative forcing in an hour or less. In this layer physical quantities such as velocity, moisture, etc. display rapid fluctuations. Above the PBL is the atmosphere where the wind is approximately geostrophic while within the PBL the wind is affected by surface drag. The free atmosphere is usually nonturbulent, or only intermittently turbulent, due to aerodynamic drag, there is a wind gradient in the wind flow just a few hundred meters above the Earths surface—the surface layer of the planetary boundary layer. Wind speed increases with increasing height above the ground, starting from zero due to the no-slip condition, flow near the surface encounters obstacles that reduce the wind speed, and introduce random vertical and horizontal velocity components at right angles to the main direction of flow.
The reduction in velocity near the surface is a function of surface roughness, irregular ground, and man-made obstructions on the ground can reduce the geostrophic wind speed by 40% to 50%. Over open water or ice, the reduction may be only 20% to 30% and these effects are taken into account when siting wind turbines. For example, typical values for the predicted gradient height are 457 m for large cities,366 m for suburbs,274 m for open terrain, although the power law exponent approximation is convenient, it has no theoretical basis. The shearing of the wind is usually three-dimensional, that is and this is related to the Ekman spiral effect. After sundown the wind gradient near the surface increases, with the increasing stability, atmospheric stability occurring at night with radiative cooling tends to contain turbulent eddies vertically, increasing the wind gradient. In the convective layer, strong mixing diminishes vertical wind gradient. As Navier–Stokes equations suggest, the boundary layer turbulence is produced in the layer with the largest velocity gradients that is at the very surface proximity.
This layer – conventionally called a surface layer – constitutes about 10% of the total PBL depth, above the surface layer the PBL turbulence gradually dissipates, losing its kinetic energy to friction as well as converting the kinetic to potential energy in a density stratified flow. The balance between the rate of the turbulent kinetic energy production and its dissipation determines the planetary boundary layer depth, at a given wind speed, e. g. In addition to the layer, the planetary boundary layer comprises the PBL core. Convective planetary boundary layer is the PBL where positive buoyancy flux at the surface creates a thermal instability, the CBL is typical in tropical and mid-latitudes during daytime
Algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is a self-contained sequence of actions to be performed. Algorithms can perform calculation, data processing and automated reasoning tasks, an algorithm is an effective method that can be expressed within a finite amount of space and time and in a well-defined formal language for calculating a function. The transition from one state to the next is not necessarily deterministic, some algorithms, known as randomized algorithms, giving a formal definition of algorithms, corresponding to the intuitive notion, remains a challenging problem. In English, it was first used in about 1230 and by Chaucer in 1391, English adopted the French term, but it wasnt until the late 19th century that algorithm took on the meaning that it has in modern English. Another early use of the word is from 1240, in a manual titled Carmen de Algorismo composed by Alexandre de Villedieu and it begins thus, Haec algorismus ars praesens dicitur, in qua / Talibus Indorum fruimur bis quinque figuris.
Which translates as, Algorism is the art by which at present we use those Indian figures, the poem is a few hundred lines long and summarizes the art of calculating with the new style of Indian dice, or Talibus Indorum, or Hindu numerals. An informal definition could be a set of rules that precisely defines a sequence of operations, which would include all computer programs, including programs that do not perform numeric calculations. Generally, a program is only an algorithm if it stops eventually, but humans can do something equally useful, in the case of certain enumerably infinite sets, They can give explicit instructions for determining the nth member of the set, for arbitrary finite n. An enumerably infinite set is one whose elements can be put into one-to-one correspondence with the integers, the concept of algorithm is used to define the notion of decidability. That notion is central for explaining how formal systems come into being starting from a set of axioms. In logic, the time that an algorithm requires to complete cannot be measured, from such uncertainties, that characterize ongoing work, stems the unavailability of a definition of algorithm that suits both concrete and abstract usage of the term.
Algorithms are essential to the way computers process data, thus, an algorithm can be considered to be any sequence of operations that can be simulated by a Turing-complete system. Although this may seem extreme, the arguments, in its favor are hard to refute. Gurevich. Turings informal argument in favor of his thesis justifies a stronger thesis, according to Savage, an algorithm is a computational process defined by a Turing machine. Typically, when an algorithm is associated with processing information, data can be read from a source, written to an output device. Stored data are regarded as part of the state of the entity performing the algorithm. In practice, the state is stored in one or more data structures, for some such computational process, the algorithm must be rigorously defined, specified in the way it applies in all possible circumstances that could arise. That is, any conditional steps must be dealt with, case-by-case
Hong Kong Observatory
The Hong Kong Observatory is a weather forecast agency of the government of Hong Kong. The Observatory forecasts the weather and issues warnings on weather-related hazards, the Observatory was established in 1883 as the Hong Kong Observatory by Sir George Bowen, the 9th Governor of Hong Kong, with Dr William Doberck as its first director. Early operations included meteorological and magnetic observations, a service based on astronomical observations. The Observatory was renamed the Royal Observatory, Hong Kong after obtaining a Royal Charter in 1912, the Observatory reverted to its original name in 1997 after the transfer of Hong Kongs sovereignty from the UK to China. The Hong Kong Observatory was built in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon in 1883, Observatory Road in Tsim Sha Tsui is so named based on this landmark. However, due to urbanisation, it is now surrounded by skyscrapers. As a result of greenhouse gas emissions, the reflection of sunlight from buildings. This was demonstrated by the increase in average temperatures recorded by the Observatory between 1980 and 2005.
This building, built in 1883, is a rectangular two-storey plastered brick structure, it is characterised by arched windows and it now houses the office of the directorate and to serve as a centre of administration of the Observatory. The building is a monument of Hong Kong since 1984. It is next to the 1883 Building, the Centenary Building, in 1981 the logo was changed to the old coat of arms, and in 1997, with the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, the current logo was introduced to replace the colonial symbols. Activities organised for the Friends of the Observatory include regular science lectures, newsletters were published for members once every four months. The Observatory regularly organises visits for the school students. This outreach programme was extended to school students, the elderly. Talks are organised in school during the winter time. A roving exhibition for the public was mounted in shopping malls in 2003, to promote understanding of the services provided by the Observatory and their benefits to the community, over 50 press releases were issued and 7 media briefings were held in 2003.
From time to time, the Observatory works closely with schools for a series of events, including with the Geography Society of PLK Vicwood KT Chong Sixth Form College between 2008 and 2009
Norwegian Institute for Air Research
The Norwegian Institute for Air Research or NILU is one of the leading specialized scientific laboratories in Europe researching issues related to air pollution, climate change and health. NILU has a staff of scientists and technicians with specialized expertise for working on air pollution problems, the staff do more than two hundred projects annually for research councils, international banks and local and international authorities and organizations. Its director since 2009 is Kari Nygaard, NILU was founded in 1969 and the institute conducts environmental research with emphasis on the sources of air pollution and on air pollution dispersion, transport and deposition. It is involved in the assessment of the effects of pollution on ecosystems, human health, integrated environmental assessments and optimal abatement strategy planning has been a field of priority during the last few years. Assessment of transboundary transport of air pollutants, acid rain and global air quality are important tasks, NILU has developed an automatic surveillance program for air quality in cities and background areas.
NILU have specialized in computerized automatic air pollution surveillance and this AirQUIS system is an air pollution management and planning system designed for managers and decision-makers. NILUs head office is at Kjeller on the outskirt of Oslo in Norway, a specialised office for Arctic related matters is an integrated part of The Fram Centre in Tromsø. Innovation nilu is a company for NILUs various commercial interests and subsidiaries
Earthquake
An earthquake is the shaking of the surface of the Earth, resulting from the sudden release of energy in the Earths lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in size from those that are so weak that they cannot be felt to those violent enough to people around. The seismicity or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, Earthquakes are measured using measurements from seismometers. The moment magnitude is the most common scale on which earthquakes larger than approximately 5 are reported for the entire globe and these two scales are numerically similar over their range of validity. Magnitude 3 or lower earthquakes are mostly imperceptible or weak and magnitude 7 and over potentially cause damage over larger areas. The largest earthquakes in historic times have been of magnitude slightly over 9, intensity of shaking is measured on the modified Mercalli scale. The shallower an earthquake, the damage to structures it causes. At the Earths surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by shaking and sometimes displacement of the ground, when the epicenter of a large earthquake is located offshore, the seabed may be displaced sufficiently to cause a tsunami.
Earthquakes can trigger landslides, and occasionally volcanic activity, in its most general sense, the word earthquake is used to describe any seismic event — whether natural or caused by humans — that generates seismic waves. Earthquakes are caused mostly by rupture of faults, but by other events such as volcanic activity, mine blasts. An earthquakes point of rupture is called its focus or hypocenter. The epicenter is the point at ground level directly above the hypocenter, tectonic earthquakes occur anywhere in the earth where there is sufficient stored elastic strain energy to drive fracture propagation along a fault plane. The sides of a fault move past each other smoothly and aseismically only if there are no irregularities or asperities along the surface that increase the frictional resistance. Most fault surfaces do have such asperities and this leads to a form of stick-slip behavior, once the fault has locked, continued relative motion between the plates leads to increasing stress and therefore, stored strain energy in the volume around the fault surface.
This continues until the stress has risen sufficiently to break through the asperity, suddenly allowing sliding over the portion of the fault. This energy is released as a combination of radiated elastic strain seismic waves, frictional heating of the fault surface and this process of gradual build-up of strain and stress punctuated by occasional sudden earthquake failure is referred to as the elastic-rebound theory. It is estimated that only 10 percent or less of a total energy is radiated as seismic energy. Most of the energy is used to power the earthquake fracture growth or is converted into heat generated by friction
Europe
Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania.
The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it.
For the second part the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
National Center for Atmospheric Research
NCAR has multiple facilities, including the I. M. Pei-designed Mesa Laboratory headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. Studies include meteorology, climate science, atmospheric chemistry, solar-terrestrial interactions, greg Holland initiated the multiscale modeling project Predicting the Earth System Across Scales. CISL manages and operates NCARs supercomputers, mass storage system, the Institute for Mathematics Applied to Geosciences is a research division within CISL. Earth Observing Laboratory —EOL was formerly known as the Atmospheric Technology Division, EOL manages and operates NCARs lower atmosphere observing systems, including ground-based instrumentation and two research aircraft, on behalf of the NSF. High Altitude Observatory —The oldest part of NCAR, HAO is NCARs solar-terrestrial physics laboratory, Research foci are the Sun and the Earths upper atmosphere. HAO operates the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory, NCAR is managed by the nonprofit UCAR and is one of the NSFs Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, with approximately 95% of its funding coming from the federal government.
However, it is not an agency and its employees are not part of the federal personnel system. Its annual expenditures in fiscal year 2015 were $167.8 million, the founding director of NCAR was Walter Orr Roberts. The current director is James Hurrell, NCAR has many opportunities for scientific visits to the facilities for workshops and collaboration by colleagues in academia, government labs, and the private sector. Many NCAR staff visit colleagues at universities and labs and serve as adjunct or visiting faculty, the Visitor Center at the Mesa Laboratory is open to the public daily at no charge
Atmospheric dispersion modeling
Atmospheric dispersion modeling is the mathematical simulation of how air pollutants disperse in the ambient atmosphere. It is performed with programs that solve the mathematical equations. They can be used to predict future concentrations under specific scenarios, they are the dominant type of model used in air quality policy making. They are most useful for pollutants that are dispersed over large distances, for pollutants that have a very high spatio-temporal variability and for epidemiological studies statistical land-use regression models are used. Dispersion models are important to governmental agencies tasked with protecting and managing the ambient air quality, the models serve to assist in the design of effective control strategies to reduce emissions of harmful air pollutants. During the late 1960s, the Air Pollution Control Office of the U. S. EPA initiated research projects that would lead to the development of models for the use by urban and transportation planners. A major and significant application of a dispersion model that resulted from such research was applied to the Spadina Expressway of Canada in 1971.
Air dispersion models are used by public safety responders and emergency management personnel for emergency planning of accidental chemical releases. Appropriate protective actions may include evacuation or shelter in place for persons in the downwind direction, at industrial facilities, this type of consequence assessment or emergency planning is required under the Clean Air Act codified in Part 68 of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Source term and temperature of the material Emissions or release parameters such as location and height, type of source and exit velocity, exit temperature. Terrain elevations at the location and at the receptor location, such as nearby homes, businesses. The location and width of any obstructions in the path of the emitted gaseous plume, the plots of areas impacted may include isopleths showing areas of minimal to high concentrations that define areas of the highest health risk. The isopleths plots are useful in determining protective actions for the public, the atmospheric dispersion models are known as atmospheric diffusion models, air dispersion models, air quality models, and air pollution dispersion models.
Discussion of the layers in the Earths atmosphere is needed to understand where airborne pollutants disperse in the atmosphere, the layer closest to the Earths surface is known as the troposphere. It extends from sea-level to a height of about 18 km, the stratosphere is the next layer and extends from 18 km to about 50 km. The third layer is the mesosphere which extends from 50 km to about 80 km, there are other layers above 80 km, but they are insignificant with respect to atmospheric dispersion modeling. The lowest part of the troposphere is called the boundary layer or the planetary boundary layer. The air temperature of the boundary layer decreases with increasing altitude until it reaches what is called the inversion layer that caps the atmospheric boundary layer
