1.
Dutch language
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It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after English and German. Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English and is said to be roughly in between them, Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic and incorporates more Romance loans than German but far fewer than English. In both Belgium and the Netherlands, the official name for Dutch is Nederlands, and its dialects have their own names, e. g. Hollands, West-Vlaams. The use of the word Vlaams to describe Standard Dutch for the variations prevalent in Flanders and used there, however, is common in the Netherlands, the Dutch language has been known under a variety of names. It derived from the Old Germanic word theudisk, one of the first names used for the non-Romance languages of Western Europe. It literarily means the language of the people, that is. The term was used as opposed to Latin, the language of writing. In the first text in which it is found, dating from 784, later, theudisca appeared also in the Oaths of Strasbourg to refer to the Germanic portion of the oath. This led inevitably to confusion since similar terms referred to different languages, owing to Dutch commercial and colonial rivalry in the 16th and 17th centuries, the English term came to refer exclusively to the Dutch. A notable exception is Pennsylvania Dutch, which is a West Central German variety called Deitsch by its speakers, Jersey Dutch, on the other hand, as spoken until the 1950s in New Jersey, is a Dutch-based creole. In Dutch itself, Diets went out of common use - although Platdiets is still used for the transitional Limburgish-Ripuarian Low Dietsch dialects in northeast Belgium, Nederlands, the official Dutch word for Dutch, did not become firmly established until the 19th century. This designation had been in use as far back as the end of the 15th century, one of them was it reflected a distinction with Hoogduits, High Dutch, meaning the language spoken in Germany. The Hoog was later dropped, and thus, Duits narrowed down in meaning to refer to the German language. g, in English, too, Netherlandic is regarded as a more accurate term for the Dutch language, but is hardly ever used. Old Dutch branched off more or less around the same time Old English, Old High German, Old Frisian and Old Saxon did. During that period, it forced Old Frisian back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, on the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in nowadays France and Germany. The division in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, one of the few moments linguists can detect somewhat of a revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in the pre-Roman Northern European Iron Age, the Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups, East, West, and North Germanic. They remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration Period, Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English, Scots, Frisian, Low German and High German
2.
De Bilt
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De Bilt is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. De Bilt had a population of 42,097 in 2014 and is the seat of the headquarters of the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute and it is the ancestral home and namesake for the prominent Vanderbilt family of the United States. The municipality of De Bilt consists of the cities, towns, villages and/or districts, Bilthoven, De Bilt, Groenekan, Hollandsche Rading, Maartensdijk. Dutch Topographic map of the municipality of De Bilt, June 2015 Media related to De Bilt at Wikimedia Commons Official Website
3.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also 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, Rotterdam 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 also 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 also 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, Nether 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, Boven, 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, however, changed over time tremendously
4.
Stientje van Veldhoven
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Stientje van Veldhoven-van der Meer is a Dutch politician and former diplomat and civil servant. As a member of Democrats 66 she has been an MP since June 17,2010 and she focuses on matters of climate, energy, natural environment, agriculture, fishery, animal rights and development aid. Van Veldhoven studied policy and management in international organisations at the University of Groningen, parlement. com biography House of Representatives biography
5.
Weather forecasting
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Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, hence, forecasts become less accurate as the difference between current time and the time for which the forecast is being made increases. The use of ensembles and model consensus help narrow the error, there are a variety of end uses to weather forecasts. Weather warnings are important forecasts because they are used to protect life, forecasts based on temperature and precipitation are important to agriculture, and therefore to traders within commodity markets. Temperature forecasts are used by utility companies to estimate demand over coming days, on an everyday basis, people use weather forecasts to determine what to wear on a given day. Since outdoor activities are severely curtailed by rain, snow and wind chill, forecasts can be used to plan activities around these events. In 2014, the US spent $5.1 billion on weather forecasting, for millennia people have tried to forecast the weather. In 650 BC, the Babylonians predicted the weather from cloud patterns as well as astrology, in about 340 BC, Aristotle described weather patterns in Meteorologica. Later, Theophrastus compiled a book on weather forecasting, called the Book of Signs, chinese weather prediction lore extends at least as far back as 300 BC, which was also around the same time ancient Indian astronomers developed weather-prediction methods. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, ancient weather forecasting methods usually relied on observed patterns of events, also termed pattern recognition. For example, it might be observed if the sunset was particularly red. This experience accumulated over the generations to produce weather lore, however, not all of these predictions prove reliable, and many of them have since been found not to stand up to rigorous statistical testing. It was not until the invention of the telegraph in 1835 that the modern age of weather forecasting began. Before that, the fastest that distant weather reports could travel was around 100 miles per day, the two men credited with the birth of forecasting as a science were officer of the Royal Navy Francis Beaufort and his protégé Robert FitzRoy. Beaufort developed the Wind Force Scale and Weather Notation coding, which he was to use in his journals for the remainder of his life. He also promoted the development of reliable tide tables around British shores, Robert FitzRoy was appointed in 1854 as chief of a new department within the Board of Trade to deal with the collection of weather data at sea as a service to mariners. This was the forerunner of the modern Meteorological Office, all ship captains were tasked with collating data on the weather and computing it, with the use of tested instruments that were loaned for this purpose. Fifteen land stations were established to use the new telegraph to transmit to him daily reports of weather at set times leading to the first gale warning service and his warning service for shipping was initiated in February 1861, with the use of telegraph communications
6.
Utrecht (province)
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Utrecht is a province of the Netherlands. With an area of approximately 1,400 square kilometres, it is the smallest of the twelve provinces, apart from its eponymous capital, major cities in the province are Amersfoort, Houten, Nieuwegein, Veenendaal, IJsselstein and Zeist. In the International Organization for Standardization world region code system Utrecht makes up one region with code ISO 3166-2, the Bishopric of Utrecht was established in 695 when Saint Willibrord was consecrated bishop of the Frisians at Rome by Pope Sergius I. With the consent of the Frankish ruler, Pippin of Herstal, after Willibrords death the diocese suffered greatly from the incursions of the Vikings. Better times appeared during the reign of the Saxon emperors, who summoned the Bishops of Utrecht to attend the imperial councils. In 1024 the bishops were made Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1122, with the Concordat of Worms, the Emperors right of investiture was annulled, and the cathedral chapter received the right to elect the bishop. It was, however, soon obligated to share this right with the four other chapters in the city. The Counts of Holland and Guelders, between whose territories the lands of the Bishops of Utrecht lay, also sought to acquire influence over the filling of the episcopal see and this often led to disputes and consequently the Holy See frequently interfered in the election. After the middle of the 14th century the popes repeatedly appointed the bishop directly without regard to the five chapters, during the Hook and Cod Wars, Utrecht was fought over by forces of the Duke of Burgundy leading to the First Utrecht Civil War and Second Utrecht Civil War. The chapters transferred their right of electing the bishop to Charles V and his government, however, the Habsburg rule did not last long, as Utrecht joined in the Dutch Revolt against Charles successor Philip II in 1579, becoming a part of the Dutch Republic. In World War II, Utrecht was held by German forces until the capitulation of the Germans in the Netherlands on May 5,1945. It was occupied by Canadian Allied forces on May 7,1945, the towns of Oudewater, Woerden and Vianen were transferred from the province of South Holland to Utrecht in 1970,1989 and 2002 respectively. In February 2011, Utrecht, together with the provinces of North Holland and Flevoland and this has been positively received by the Dutch cabinet, for the desire to create one Randstad province has already been mentioned in the coalition agreement. The province of South Holland, part of the Randstad urban area, visioned to be part of the Randstad province, with or without South Holland, if created, the new province would be the largest in the Netherlands in both area and population. In the east of Utrecht lies the Utrecht Hill Ridge, a chain of left as lateral moraine by tongues of glacial ice after the Saline glaciation that preceded the last ice age. Because of the scarcity of nutrients in the sandy soil. The south of the province is a river landscape, the west consists mostly of meadows. In the north are big lakes formed by the digging of peat bogs formed after the last ice age
7.
Climate
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Climate is the statistics of weather, usually over a 30-year interval. Climate differs from weather, in that weather only describes the conditions of these variables in a given region. A regions climate is generated by the system, which has five components, atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere. The climate of a location is affected by its latitude, terrain, climates can be classified according to the average and the typical ranges of different variables, most commonly temperature and precipitation. The most commonly used classification scheme was the Köppen climate classification, the Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus on the origin of air masses that define the climate of a region. Paleoclimatology is the study of ancient climates, Climate models are mathematical models of past, present and future climates. Climate change may occur long and short timescales from a variety of factors. For example, a 3°C change in mean annual temperature corresponds to a shift in isotherms of approximately 300–400 km in latitude or 500 m in elevation, therefore, species are expected to move upwards in elevation or towards the poles in latitude in response to shifting climate zones. Climate is commonly defined as the weather averaged over a long period, the standard averaging period is 30 years, but other periods may be used depending on the purpose. Climate also includes statistics other than the average, such as the magnitudes of day-to-day or year-to-year variations, the classical period is 30 years, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization. These quantities are most often surface variables such as temperature, precipitation, Climate in a wider sense is the state, including a statistical description, of the climate system. The World Meteorological Organization describes climate normals as reference points used by climatologists to compare current climatological trends to that of the past or what is considered normal, a Normal is defined as the arithmetic average of a climate element over a 30-year period. A30 year period is used, as it is enough to filter out any interannual variation or anomalies. The WMO originated from the International Meteorological Organization which set up a commission for climatology in 1929. At its 1934 Wiesbaden meeting the commission designated the thirty-year period from 1901 to 1930 as the reference time frame for climatological standard normals. In 1982 the WMO agreed to update climate normals, and in these were completed on the basis of climate data from 1 January 1961 to 31 December 1990. The difference between climate and weather is usefully summarized by the popular phrase Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get. Over historical time spans there are a number of nearly constant variables that determine climate, including latitude, altitude, proportion of land to water and these change only over periods of millions of years due to processes such as plate tectonics
8.
Climate change
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Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time. Climate change may refer to a change in weather conditions. Climate change is caused by such as biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics. Certain human activities have also identified as significant causes of recent climate change. Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations, more recent data are provided by the instrumental record. The most general definition of change is a change in the statistical properties of the climate system when considered over long periods of time. Accordingly, fluctuations over periods shorter than a few decades, such as El Niño, the term climate change is often used to refer specifically to anthropogenic climate change. Anthropogenic climate change is caused by activity, as opposed to changes in climate that may have resulted as part of Earths natural processes. In this sense, especially in the context of environmental policy, within scientific journals, global warming refers to surface temperature increases while climate change includes global warming and everything else that increasing greenhouse gas levels affect. A related term is climatic change, in 1966, the World Meteorological Organization proposed the term climatic change to encompass all forms of climatic variability on time-scales longer than 10 years, regardless of cause. Change was a given and climatic was used as an adjective to describe this kind of change, when it was realized that human activities had a potential to drastically alter the climate, the term climate change replaced climatic change as the dominant term to reflect an anthropogenic cause. Climate change was incorporated in the title of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate change, used as a noun, became an issue rather than the technical description of changing weather. On the broadest scale, the rate at which energy is received from the Sun and this energy is distributed around the globe by winds, ocean currents, and other mechanisms to affect the climates of different regions. Factors that can shape climate are called climate forcings or forcing mechanisms, there are a variety of climate change feedbacks that can either amplify or diminish the initial forcing. Some parts of the system, such as the oceans and ice caps, respond more slowly in reaction to climate forcings. There are also key factors which when exceeded can produce rapid change. Forcing mechanisms can be internal or external. Internal forcing mechanisms are natural processes within the system itself
9.
Seismology
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Seismology is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other planet-like bodies. A related field that uses geology to infer information regarding past earthquakes is paleoseismology, a recording of earth motion as a function of time is called a seismogram. A seismologist is a scientist who does research in seismology, scholarly interest in earthquakes can be traced back to antiquity. Early speculations on the causes of earthquakes were included in the writings of Thales of Miletus, Anaximenes of Miletus, Aristotle. In 132 CE, Zhang Heng of Chinas Han dynasty designed the first known seismoscope, in 1664, Athanasius Kircher argued that earthquakes were caused by the movement of fire within a system of channels inside the Earth. In 1703, Martin Lister and Nicolas Lemery proposed that earthquakes were caused by chemical explosions within the earth, the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, coinciding with the general flowering of science in Europe, set in motion intensified scientific attempts to understand the behaviour and causation of earthquakes. The earliest responses include work by John Bevis and John Michell, Michell determined that earthquakes originate within the Earth and were waves of movement caused by shifting masses of rock miles below the surface. From 1857, Robert Mallet laid the foundation of instrumental seismology and he is also responsible for coining the word seismology. In 1897, Emil Wiecherts theoretical calculations led him to conclude that the Earths interior consists of a mantle of silicates, surrounding a core of iron. In 1906 Richard Dixon Oldham identified the separate arrival of P-waves, S-waves and surface waves on seismograms, in 1910, after studying the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Harry Fielding Reid put forward the elastic rebound theory which remains the foundation for modern tectonic studies. The development of this depended on the considerable progress of earlier independent streams of work on the behaviour of elastic materials. In 1926, Harold Jeffreys was the first to claim, based on his study of waves, that below the mantle. In 1937, Inge Lehmann determined that within the liquid outer core there is a solid inner core. By the 1960s, earth science had developed to the point where a comprehensive theory of the causation of seismic events had come together in the now well-established theory of plate tectonics, seismic waves are elastic waves that propagate in solid or fluid materials. There are two types of waves, Pressure waves or Primary waves and Shear or Secondary waves. S-waves are transverse waves that move perpendicular to the direction of propagation, therefore, they appear later than P-waves on a seismogram. Fluids cannot support perpendicular motion, so S-waves only travel in solids, the two main surface wave types are Rayleigh waves, which have some compressional motion, and Love waves, which do not. Rayleigh waves result from the interaction of vertically polarized P- and S-waves that satisfy the conditions on the surface
10.
Meteorology
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Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences which includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics, with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century, the 19th century saw modest progress in the field after weather observation networks were formed across broad regions. Prior attempts at prediction of weather depended on historical data, Meteorological phenomena are observable weather events that are explained by the science of meteorology. Different spatial scales are used to describe and predict weather on local, regional, Meteorology, climatology, atmospheric physics, and atmospheric chemistry are sub-disciplines of the atmospheric sciences. Meteorology and hydrology compose the interdisciplinary field of hydrometeorology, the interactions between Earths atmosphere and its oceans are part of a coupled ocean-atmosphere system. Meteorology has application in diverse fields such as the military, energy production, transport, agriculture. The word meteorology is from Greek μετέωρος metéōros lofty, high and -λογία -logia -logy, varāhamihiras classical work Brihatsamhita, written about 500 AD, provides clear evidence that a deep knowledge of atmospheric processes existed even in those times. In 350 BC, Aristotle wrote Meteorology, Aristotle is considered the founder of meteorology. One of the most impressive achievements described in the Meteorology is the description of what is now known as the hydrologic cycle and they are all called swooping bolts because they swoop down upon the Earth. Lightning is sometimes smoky, and is then called smoldering lightning, sometimes it darts quickly along, at other times, it travels in crooked lines, and is called forked lightning. When it swoops down upon some object it is called swooping lightning, the Greek scientist Theophrastus compiled a book on weather forecasting, called the Book of Signs. The work of Theophrastus remained a dominant influence in the study of weather, in 25 AD, Pomponius Mela, a geographer for the Roman Empire, formalized the climatic zone system. According to Toufic Fahd, around the 9th century, Al-Dinawari wrote the Kitab al-Nabat, ptolemy wrote on the atmospheric refraction of light in the context of astronomical observations. St. Roger Bacon was the first to calculate the size of the rainbow. He stated that a rainbow summit can not appear higher than 42 degrees above the horizon, in the late 13th century and early 14th century, Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī and Theodoric of Freiberg were the first to give the correct explanations for the primary rainbow phenomenon. Theoderic went further and also explained the secondary rainbow, in 1716, Edmund Halley suggested that aurorae are caused by magnetic effluvia moving along the Earths magnetic field lines. In 1441, King Sejongs son, Prince Munjong, invented the first standardized rain gauge and these were sent throughout the Joseon Dynasty of Korea as an official tool to assess land taxes based upon a farmers potential harvest. In 1450, Leone Battista Alberti developed a swinging-plate anemometer, and was known as the first anemometer, in 1607, Galileo Galilei constructed a thermoscope
11.
Oceanography
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Oceanography, also known as oceanology, is the study of the physical and the biological aspects of the ocean. Paleoceanography studies the history of the oceans in the geologic past, humans first acquired knowledge of the waves and currents of the seas and oceans in pre-historic times. Observations on tides were recorded by Aristotle and Strabo, early exploration of the oceans was primarily for cartography and mainly limited to its surfaces and of the animals that fishermen brought up in nets, though depth soundings by lead line were taken. Although Juan Ponce de León in 1513 first identified the Gulf Stream, Franklin measured water temperatures during several Atlantic crossings and correctly explained the Gulf Streams cause. Franklin and Timothy Folger printed the first map of the Gulf Stream in 1769-1770, information on the currents of the Pacific Ocean was gathered by explorers of the late 18th century, including James Cook and Louis Antoine de Bougainville. James Rennell wrote the first scientific textbooks on oceanography, detailing the current flows of the Atlantic, during a voyage around the Cape of Good Hope in 1777, he mapped the banks and currents at the Lagullas. He was also the first to understand the nature of the intermittent current near the Isles of Scilly, Robert FitzRoy published a four-volume report of the Beagles three voyages. In 1841–1842 Edward Forbes undertook dredging in the Aegean Sea that founded marine ecology, the first superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory, Matthew Fontaine Maury devoted his time to the study of marine meteorology, navigation, and charting prevailing winds and currents. His 1855 textbook Physical Geography of the Sea was one of the first comprehensive oceanography studies, many nations sent oceanographic observations to Maury at the Naval Observatory, where he and his colleagues evaluated the information and distributed the results worldwide. Despite all this, human knowledge of the oceans remained confined to the topmost few fathoms of the water, almost nothing was known of the ocean depths. The Royal Navys efforts to all of the worlds coastlines in the mid-19th century reinforced the vague idea that most of the ocean was very deep. As exploration ignited both popular and scientific interest in the regions and Africa, so too did the mysteries of the unexplored oceans. The seminal event in the founding of the science of oceanography was the 1872-76 Challenger expedition. As the first true oceanographic cruise, this laid the groundwork for an entire academic. In response to a recommendation from the Royal Society, The British Government announced in 1871 an expedition to explore worlds oceans, charles Wyville Thompson and Sir John Murray launched the Challenger expedition. The Challenger, leased from the Royal Navy, was modified for scientific work, under the scientific supervision of Thomson, Challenger travelled nearly 70,000 nautical miles surveying and exploring. On her journey circumnavigating the globe,492 deep sea soundings,133 bottom dredges,151 open water trawls and 263 serial water temperature observations were taken, around 4,700 new species of marine life were discovered. The result was the Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H. M. S, Murray, who supervised the publication, described the report as the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
12.
Planetary boundary layer
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In meteorology the planetary boundary layer, also 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, temperature, 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, typically, 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, rough, 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 also 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
13.
Earthquake
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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, type, 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 also 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 also by other events such as volcanic activity, landslides, 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
14.
Atmospheric dispersion modeling
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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 also be used to predict future concentrations under specific scenarios, therefore, 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 also used. Dispersion models are important to governmental agencies tasked with protecting and managing the ambient air quality, the models also 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, schools, businesses. The location, height and width of any obstructions in the path of the emitted gaseous plume, the plots of areas impacted may also 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 also 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
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Europe
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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, politically, 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, art, 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, cultural, 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, Kazakhstan 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, wide, 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 also 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 also 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
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Toxic
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Toxicity is the degree to which a substance can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on an organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a substructure of the organism. By extension, the word may be used to describe toxic effects on larger and more complex groups. Sometimes the word is more or less synonymous with poisoning in everyday usage, toxicity is species-specific, making cross-species analysis problematic. Newer paradigms and metrics are evolving to bypass animal testing, while maintaining the concept of toxicity endpoints, disease-causing microorganisms and parasites are toxic in a broad sense, but are generally called pathogens rather than toxicants. The biological toxicity of pathogens can be difficult to measure because the dose may be a single organism. Theoretically one virus, bacterium or worm can reproduce to cause a serious infection, in some cases, e. g. cholera, the disease is chiefly caused by a nonliving substance secreted by the organism, rather than the organism itself. Such nonliving biological toxicants are generally called toxins if produced by a microorganism, plant, or fungus, Physical toxicants are substances that, due to their physical nature, interfere with biological processes. Examples include coal dust, asbestos fibers or finely divided silicon dioxide, corrosive chemicals possess physical toxicity because they destroy tissues, but theyre not directly poisonous unless they interfere directly with biological activity. Water can act as a physical toxicant if taken in high doses because the concentration of vital ions decreases dramatically if theres too much water in the body. Asphyxiant gases can be considered physical toxicants because they act by displacing oxygen in the environment but they are inert, as already mentioned, radiation can have a toxic effect on organisms. Toxicity can be measured by its effects on the target, one such measure is the LD50. When such data does not exist, estimates are made by comparison to known similar toxic things, then, safety factors are added to account for uncertainties in data and evaluation processes. Similarly, an extra protection factor may be used for individuals believed to be susceptible to toxic effects such as in pregnancy or with certain diseases. Obviously, this approach is approximate, but such protection factors are deliberately very conservative. In addition, it is possible that a single cell transformed into a cell is all it takes to develop the full effect. Common mixtures include gasoline, cigarette smoke, and industrial waste, even more complex are situations with more than one type of toxic entity, such as the discharge from a malfunctioning sewage treatment plant, with both chemical and biological agents. The preclinical toxicity testing on various biological systems reveals the species-, organ-, the toxicity of substances can be observed by studying the accidental exposures to a substance in vitro studies using cells/ cell lines in vivo exposure on experimental animals
17.
Radioactive contamination
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Such contamination presents a hazard because of the radioactive decay of the contaminants, which emit harmful ionising radiation such as alpha particles or beta particles, gamma rays or neutrons. It is important to be clear that the contamination gives rise to the hazard. Contamination may affect a person, a place, an animal, a spilled vial of radioactive material like uranyl nitrate may contaminate the floor and any rags used to wipe up the spill. Radioactive contamination is typically the result of a spill or accident during the production, or use of, radionuclides, less typically, nuclear fallout is the distribution of radioactive contamination by a nuclear explosion. The amount of material released in an accident is called the source term. Contamination may occur from radioactive gases, liquids or particles, for example, if a radionuclide used in nuclear medicine is spilled, the material could be spread by people as they walk around. Radioactive contamination may also be a result of certain processes. In cases that radioactive material cannot be contained, it may be diluted to safe concentrations, for a discussion of environmental contamination by alpha emitters please see actinides in the environment. Contamination does not include residual radioactive material remaining at a site after the completion of decommissioning, therefore, radioactive material in sealed and designated containers is not properly referred to as contamination, although the units of measurement might be the same. Containment is the way of preventing contamination being released into the environment or coming into contact or being ingested by humans. Being within the intended Containment differentiates radioactive material from radioactive contamination, when radioactive materials are concentrated to a detectable level outside a containment, the area affected is generally referred to as contaminated. There are a number of techniques for containing radioactive material so that it does not spread beyond the containment. In the case of liquids this is by the use of high integrity tanks or containers, where material is likely to become airborne, then extensive use is made of the glovebox, which is a common technique in hazardous laboratory and process operations in many industries. A variety of radionuclides occur naturally in the environment, elements like uranium and thorium, and their decay products, are present in rock and soil. Potassium-40, a nuclide, makes up a small percentage of all potassium and is present in the human body. Other nuclides, like carbon-14, which is present in all living organisms, are created by cosmic rays. These levels of radioactivity pose little danger but can confuse measurement, a particular problem is encountered with naturally generated radon gas which can affect instruments which are set to detect contamination close to normal background levels and can cause false alarms. Because of this skill is required by the operator of radiological survey equipment to differentiate between background radiation and the radiation emanates from contamination
18.
Outline of air pollution dispersion
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The following outline is presented as an overview and topical guide to air pollution dispersion, Air pollution dispersion – distribution of air pollution into the atmosphere. Air pollution may come from anthropogenic or natural sources, Dispersion refers to what happens to the pollution during and after its introduction, understanding this may help in identifying and controlling it. Air pollution dispersion has become the focus of environmental conservationists and governmental environmental protection agencies of many countries regarding air pollution control, Air pollution emission plume – flow of pollutant in the form of vapor or smoke released into the air. Plumes are of importance in the atmospheric dispersion modelling of air pollution. For example, the emissions from the flue gas stacks of industrial furnaces are buoyant because they are considerably warmer, as another example, an emission plume of methane gas at ambient air temperatures is buoyant because methane has a lower molecular weight than the ambient air. Dense gas plumes — Plumes which are heavier than air because they have a higher density than the ambient air. A plume may have a higher density than air because it has a molecular weight than air. A plume may also have a higher density than air if the plume is at a lower temperature than the air. For example, a plume of evaporated gaseous methane from a release of liquefied natural gas may be as cold as -161 °C. Passive or neutral plumes — Plumes which are lighter or heavier than air. There are five types of air pollution dispersion models, as well as hybrids of the five types. It assumes the airshed is in the shape of a box and it also assumes that the air pollutants inside the box are homogeneously distributed and uses that assumption to estimate the average pollutant concentrations anywhere within the airshed. Gaussian model — The Gaussian model is perhaps the oldest and perhaps the most commonly used model type and it assumes that the air pollutant dispersion has a Gaussian distribution, meaning that the pollutant distribution has a normal probability distribution. Gaussian models are most often used for predicting the dispersion of continuous, Gaussian models may also be used for predicting the dispersion of non-continuous air pollution plumes. The primary algorithm used in Gaussian modeling is the Generalized Dispersion Equation For A Continuous Point-Source Plume, the Lagrangian model then calculates the air pollution dispersion by computing the statistics of the trajectories of a large number of the pollution plume parcels. A Lagrangian model uses a frame of reference as the parcels move from their initial location. It is said that an observer of a Lagrangian model follows along with the plume, the most important difference between the two models is that the Eulerian model uses a fixed three-dimensional Cartesian grid as a frame of reference rather than a moving frame of reference. It is said that an observer of an Eulerian model watches the plume go by, Dense gas model — Dense gas models are models that simulate the dispersion of dense gas pollution plumes
19.
Air pollution
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Air pollution occurs when harmful substances including particulates and biological molecules are introduced into Earths atmosphere. It may cause diseases, allergies or death in humans, it may cause harm to other living organisms such as animals and food crops. Human activity and natural processes can both generate air pollution, indoor air pollution and poor urban air quality are listed as two of the worlds worst toxic pollution problems in the 2008 Blacksmith Institute Worlds Worst Polluted Places report. According to the 2014 WHO report, air pollution in 2012 caused the deaths of around 7 million people worldwide, an air pollutant is a substance in the air that can have adverse effects on humans and the ecosystem. The substance can be particles, liquid droplets, or gases. A pollutant can be of natural origin or man-made, pollutants are classified as primary or secondary. Primary pollutants are usually produced from a process, such as ash from a volcanic eruption, other examples include carbon monoxide gas from motor vehicle exhaust, or the sulfur dioxide released from factories. Secondary pollutants are not emitted directly, rather, they form in the air when primary pollutants react or interact. Ground level ozone is a prominent example of a secondary pollutant, some pollutants may be both primary and secondary, they are both emitted directly and formed from other primary pollutants. Substances emitted into the atmosphere by human activity include, Carbon dioxide - Debate continues over whether carbon dioxide should be classified as an atmospheric pollutant, because of its role as a greenhouse gas it has been described as the leading pollutant and the worst climate pollution. Against this it is argued that carbon dioxide is a component of the atmosphere, essential for plant life. This question of terminology has practical effects, for example as determining whether the U. S. Clean Air Act is deemed to regulate CO2 emissions, CO2 increase in earths atmosphere has been accelerating. Sulfur oxides - particularly sulfur dioxide, a compound with the formula SO2. SO2 is produced by volcanoes and in industrial processes. Coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, and their combustion generates sulfur dioxide, further oxidation of SO2, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as NO2, forms H2SO4, and thus acid rain. This is one of the causes for concern over the impact of the use of these fuels as power sources. Nitrogen oxides - Nitrogen oxides, particularly nitrogen dioxide, are expelled from high temperature combustion and they can be seen as a brown haze dome above or a plume downwind of cities. Nitrogen dioxide is a compound with the formula NO2
20.
Chernobyl disaster
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The Chernobyl disaster, also referred to as the Chernobyl accident, was a catastrophic nuclear accident. Practically all of this material would then go on to fall-out/precipitate onto much of the surface of the western USSR. The Chernobyl accident dominates the Energy accidents sub-category, of most disastrous nuclear power plant accident in history, both in terms of cost and casualties. It is one of two nuclear energy accidents classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The remains of the No.3 continuing to produce electricity into 2000, the accident motivated safety upgrades on all remaining Soviet-designed reactors in the RBMK family, of which eleven continued to power electric grids as of 2013. These events exposed the graphite moderator of the reactor to air, the resulting fire sent week long plumes of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere over an extensive geographical area, including Pripyat. The plumes drifted over parts of the western Soviet Union. According to official data, about 60% of the fallout landed in Belarus. The surveying and detection of isolated fallout hotspots outside this zone over the year eventually resulted in 135,000 long-term evacuees in total. Many thousands of these evacuees would have been better off staying home, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and monthly compensation costs, of the Chernobyl accident.5 and 6, were eventually cancelled. There was a drop in the prior rate of new startups. The government coverup of the Chernobyl disaster was a catalyst for glasnost, a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency examines the environmental consequences of the accident. Thirty-one deaths are attributed to the accident, all among the reactor staff. An UNSCEAR report places the total confirmed deaths from radiation at 64 as of 2008. 01% of all incident cancers since the accident. Along similar lines, the 2006 TORCH report, commissioned by the European Greens political party, predicts an eventual 30,000 to 60,000 excess cancer deaths in total, greenpeace itself advocates a figure of at least 200,000 or more. Balonov published by the New York Academy of Sciences concludes that the report is of value because it has very little scientific merit while being highly misleading to the lay reader. It characterized the estimate of nearly a million deaths as more in the realm of fiction than science. On 26 April 1986, at 01,23, reactor four suffered a power increase
21.
Algorithm
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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 then 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 also 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
22.
Parameter
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A parameter, generally, is any characteristic that can help in defining or classifying a particular system. That is, a parameter is an element of a system that is useful, or critical, parameter has more specific meanings within various disciplines, including mathematics, computing and computer programming, engineering, statistics, logic and linguistics. Mathematical functions have one or more arguments that are designated in the definition by variables, a function definition can also contain parameters, but unlike variables, parameters are not listed among the arguments that the function takes. When parameters are present, the definition actually defines a family of functions. A parameter could be incorporated into the name to indicate its dependence on the parameter. For instance, one may define the base b of a logarithm by log b = log log where b is a parameter that indicates which logarithmic function is being used. It is not an argument of the function, and will, for instance, in some informal situations it is a matter of convention whether some or all of the symbols in a function definition are called parameters. However, changing the status of symbols between parameter and variable changes the function as a mathematical object, for instance, the notation for the falling factorial power n k _ = n ⋯, defines a polynomial function of n, but is not a polynomial function of k. Indeed, in the case, it is only defined for non-negative integer arguments. Sometimes it is useful to all functions with certain parameters as parametric family. Examples from probability theory are given further below, a variable is one of the many things a parameter is not. The dependent variable, the speed of the car, depends on the independent variable, change the lever arms of the linkage. Will still depend on the pedal position and you have changed a parameter A parametric equaliser is an audio filter that allows the frequency of maximum cut or boost to be set by one control, and the size of the cut or boost by another. These settings, the level of the peak or trough, are two of the parameters of a frequency response curve, and in a two-control equaliser they completely describe the curve. More elaborate parametric equalisers may allow other parameters to be varied and these parameters each describe some aspect of the response curve seen as a whole, over all frequencies. A graphic equaliser provides individual level controls for various frequency bands, if asked to imagine the graph of the relationship y = ax2, one typically visualizes a range of values of x, but only one value of a. Of course a different value of a can be used, generating a different relation between x and y, thus a is a parameter, it is less variable than the variable x or y, but it is not an explicit constant like the exponent 2. More precisely, changing the parameter a gives a different problem, in calculating income based on wage and hours worked, it is typically assumed that the number of hours worked is easily changed, but the wage is more static
23.
National Center for Atmospheric Research
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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, networking, 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, colloquia, and collaboration by colleagues in academia, government labs, and the private sector. Many NCAR staff also 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
24.
Norwegian Institute for Air Research
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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, engineers and technicians with specialized expertise for working on air pollution problems, the staff do more than two hundred projects annually for research councils, industries, international banks and local, national 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, transformation and deposition. It is also 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, planning 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
25.
Roadway air dispersion modeling
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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, then 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 also 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, schools 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
26.
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute
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The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute is a Government agency in Sweden and operates under the Ministry of the Environment. SMHI has expertise within the areas of meteorology, hydrology and oceanography, established in 1945, SMHIs head office is located in Norrköping. Prior to 1975 it was located in Stockholm but after a decision taken in the Riksdag in 1971 it was relocated to Norrköping in 1975, SMHI also has offices in Gothenburg, Malmö, Sundsvall and Upplands Väsby. To the Swedish public SMHI is mostly known for the forecasts in the public-service radio provided by Sveriges Radio. Many of the major media companies in Sweden also buy weather forecasts from SMHI. The research staff includes some 100 scientists at the Research Unit, environmental research spans all six research units. There is also a project for providing contributions to the HIRLAM project, the main goal of the research division is to support the Institute and the society with research and development. The scientists participate in national and international research projects. The air quality research unit of SMHI has 10 scientists, all of whom have expertise in air quality, atmospheric pollution transport and this an integrated, web-based system for collection of meteorological and environmental data, handling of emission databases, dispersion models, etc. Typical users are national environmental institutes, large to small city authorities, industries, environmental organizations, consultancy firms, the most important modules of Airviro are EDB, emission databases, including dynamic emissions from shipping obtained from AIS data
27.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
28.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
29.
Fundamentals of Stack Gas Dispersion
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Fundamentals of Stack Gas Dispersion is a book devoted to the fundamentals of air pollution dispersion modeling of continuous, buoyant pollution plumes from stationary point sources. The first edition was published in 1979, the current fourth edition was published in 2005. The constraints and assumptions involved in the equations are fully explained. The book has received favorable reviews, including a description of its simple straightforward explanations for a course in single-source dispersive modeling. The book has been purchased in 84 countries and as of 2015 is available in 233 libraries worldwide and it has also been used as recommended reading or a textbook in 61 university courses. The book is now only as a downloadable version in PDF format. James P. Lodge, Book review, Atmospheric Environment, Vol.29,22, p.3397, ISSN 1352-2310, A good number of years ago, I reviewed an earlier edition of this work quite favorably. Now, the author has produced a more comprehensive volume that takes you from raw data to final concentrations. In a word then, this is a full course in point-source dispersion modeling. The work is overall as unique as it claims to be, in presenting this subject in a straightforward, I plan to put my copy on the shelf next to my desk where I can reach it. Karen Kowalewsky, Book reviews, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol.78, No. 1, pp. 90–94, ISSN 0003-0007, The goal of this text is to provide the reader with the fundamentals of dispersion models, deriving them stepwise with examples, overall, the book meets the goal of explaining the basic theory. All of the material given was technically sound and complete, the table of contents, the lists of tables and figures, and the references were complete. The examples were quite detailed and assisted in explaining the main subjects, the historical and engineering aspects of this book will be useful to any meteorologists or engineers working in the field of air pollution meteorology. I believe this book is a reference and plan to have it at work in the frequently consulted dispersion modeling section of my bookshelf. Stanley S. Grossel, Book review, Chemical Engineering Progress, Vol.91, the book starts from scratch in deriving the fundamental theory step-by-step, and it also provides many sample calculations serving to elucidate the theory and procedures. All major aspects of gas dispersion are covered here in an easily followed by the non-specialist engineer. The calculation samples appreciably help in illustrating the theory and design procedures and this book will be a useful addition to the bookshelf of all engineers faced with estimating the effects of stack gas dispersion
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Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
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National Weather Service
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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, regularity, 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 later 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, although, throughout history, text forecasts have been the means of product dissemination, the NWS has been using more forecast products of a digital, gridded, 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
