Dynamically downscaling predictions for deciduous tree leaf emergence in California under current and future climate.

Models that predict the timing of deciduous tree leaf emergence are typically very sensitive to temperature. However, many temperature data products, including those from climate models, have been developed at a very coarse spatial resolution. Such coarse-resolution temperature products can lead to highly biased predictions of leaf emergence. This study investigates how dynamical downscaling of climate models impacts simulations of deciduous tree leaf emergence in California. Models for leaf emergence are forced with temperatures simulated by a general circulation model (GCM) at ~200-km resolution for 1981-2000 and 2031-2050 conditions. GCM simulations are then dynamically downscaled to 32- and 8-km resolution, and leaf emergence is again simulated. For 1981-2000, the regional average leaf emergence date is 30.8 days earlier in 32-km simulations than in ~200-km simulations. Differences between the 32 and 8 km simulations are small and mostly local. The impact of downscaling from 200 to 8 km is ~15 % smaller in 2031-2050 than in 1981-2000, indicating that the impacts of downscaling are unlikely to be stationary.

Influence of coal-based thermal power plants on the spatial-temporal variability of tropospheric NO2 column over India.

The oxides of nitrogen--NO(x) (NO and NO(2))--are an important constituent of the troposphere. The availability of relatively higher spatial (0.25° grid) and temporal (daily) resolution data from ozone monitoring instrument (OMI) onboard Aura helps us to better differentiate between the point sources such as thermal power plants from large cities and rural areas compared to previous sensors. The annual and seasonal (summer and winter) distributions shows very high mean tropospheric NO(2) in specific pockets over India especially over the Indo-Gangetic plains (up to 14.2 × 10(15) molecules/cm(2)). These pockets correspond with the known locations of major thermal power plants. The tropospheric NO(2) over India show a large seasonal variability that is also observed in the ground NO(2) data. The multiple regression analysis show that the influence of a unit of power plant (in gigawatts) over tropospheric NO(2) (×10(15) molecules/cm(2)) is around ten times compared to a unit of population (in millions) over India. The OMI data show that the NO(2) increases by 0.794 ± 0.12 (×10(15) molecules/cm(2); annual) per GW compared to a previous estimate of 0.014 (×10(15) molecules/cm(2)) over India. The increase of tropospheric NO(2) per gigawatt is found to be 1.088 ± 0.18, 0.898 ± 0.14, and 0.395 ± 0.13 (×10(15) molecules/cm(2)) during winter, summer, and monsoon seasons, respectively. The strong seasonal variation is attributed to the enhancement or suppression of NO(2) due to various controlling factors which is discussed here. The recent increasing trend (2005-2007) over rural thermal power plants pockets like Agori and Korba is due to recent large capacity additions in these regions.

Observations on the stress related variations of soil radon concentration in the Gulf of Corinth, Greece.

Our observations indicate a characteristic pattern in the long-term variation of soil radon concentrations, which seems to be consistent with the expected variation of regional stress in relation to seismicity. However, it seems that the major changes in radon level begin before the rock rapture, i.e. before the earthquake occurs. These conclusions have emerged after long-term observations with continuous and thorough real-time gamma-radiation monitoring in the seismically active area of the Gulf of Corinth, Greece. The recordings acquired close to a hot spring were of very high quality, implying that the deep hydraulic flow can possibly play a key role in the pre-earthquake variation of radon level. We were able to observe outstanding examples of radon level variations before significant seismic events in the Gulf of Corinth that cannot be attributed to other external factors such as atmospheric phenomena.

Estimating stem volume and biomass of Pinus koraiensis using LiDAR data.

The objective of this study was to estimate the stem volume and biomass of individual trees using the crown geometric volume (CGV), which was extracted from small-footprint light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data. Attempts were made to analyze the stem volume and biomass of Korean Pine stands (Pinus koraiensis Sieb. et Zucc.) for three classes of tree density: low (240 N/ha), medium (370 N/ha), and high (1,340 N/ha). To delineate individual trees, extended maxima transformation and watershed segmentation of image processing methods were applied, as in one of our previous studies. As the next step, the crown base height (CBH) of individual trees has to be determined; information for this was found in the LiDAR point cloud data using k-means clustering. The LiDAR-derived CGV and stem volume can be estimated on the basis of the proportional relationship between the CGV and stem volume. As a result, low tree-density plots had the best performance for LiDAR-derived CBH, CGV, and stem volume (R (2) = 0.67, 0.57, and 0.68, respectively) and accuracy was lowest for high tree-density plots (R (2) = 0.48, 0.36, and 0.44, respectively). In the case of medium tree-density plots accuracy was R (2) = 0.51, 0.52, and 0.62, respectively. The LiDAR-derived stem biomass can be predicted from the stem volume using the wood basic density of coniferous trees (0.48 g/cm(3)), and the LiDAR-derived above-ground biomass can then be estimated from the stem volume using the biomass conversion and expansion factors (BCEF, 1.29) proposed by the Korea Forest Research Institute (KFRI).

Sheaf theoretic formulation for consciousness and qualia and relationship to the idealism of non-dual philosophies.

Questions about the nature of reality, whether Consciousness is the fundamental reality in the universe, and what is Consciousness itself, have no answer in systems that assume an external reality independent of Consciousness. Ultimately, the ontological foundation of such systems is the absolute division of subject and object. We advocate instead what we consider to be an approach that is in agreement with the foundation of quantum reality, which is based on Ramanuja's version of Vedanta philosophy and non-dual Kashmir Saivism. Quantum mechanics opened the door to consciousness, but it cannot account for consciousness. However, the quantum measurement problem implies that we cannot remove subjective experience from the practice of science. It is then appropriate to seek mathematical formalisms for the workings of consciousness that don't rely on specific interpretations of quantum mechanics. Temporal topos provides such a framework. In the theory of temporal topos, which we outline here, the difference between a subject and an object involves the direction of a morphism in a category. We also note that in the dual category, the direction of the morphism is in the opposite direction compared with the original direction of the original category. The resulting formalism provides powerful ways to address consciousness and qualia, beyond attempts to account for consciousness through physical theories. We also discuss the implications of the mathematics presented here for the convergence of science and non-dualist philosophies, as an emerging science of Consciousness, that may bring out the underlying unity of physics, life and mind.

Fundamental awareness: A framework for integrating science, philosophy and metaphysics.

The ontologic framework of Fundamental Awareness proposed here assumes that non-dual Awareness is foundational to the universe, not arising from the interactions or structures of higher level phenomena. The framework allows comparison and integration of views from the three investigative domains concerned with understanding the nature of consciousness: science, philosophy, and metaphysics. In this framework, Awareness is the underlying reality, not reducible to anything else. Awareness and existence are the same. As such, the universe is non-material, self-organizing throughout, a holarchy of complementary, process driven, recursive interactions. The universe is both its own first observer and subject. Considering the world to be non-material and comprised, a priori, of Awareness is to privilege information over materiality, action over agency and to understand that qualia are not a "hard problem," but the foundational elements of all existence. These views fully reflect main stream Western philosophical traditions, insights from culturally diverse contemplative and mystical traditions, and are in keeping with current scientific thinking, expressible mathematically.

The quantum universe: philosophical foundations and oriental medicine.

The existence of universal principles in both science and medicine implies that one can explore their common applicability. Here we explore what we have learned from quantum mechanics, phenomena such as entanglement and nonlocality, the role of participation of the observer, and how these may apply to oriental medicine. The universal principles of integrated polarity, recursion, and creative interactivity apply to all levels of existence and all human activities, including healing and medicine. This review examines the possibility that what we have learned from quantum mechanics may provide clues to better understand the operational principles of oriental medicine in an integrated way. Common to both is the assertion that Consciousness is at the foundation of the universe and the inner core of all human beings. This view goes beyond both science and medicine and has strong philosophical foundations in Western philosophy as well as monistic systems of the East.

Biofield Science: Current Physics Perspectives.

This article briefly reviews the biofield hypothesis and its scientific literature. Evidence for the existence of the biofield now exists, and current theoretical foundations are now being developed. A review of the biofield and related topics from the perspective of physical science is needed to identify a common body of knowledge and evaluate possible underlying principles of origin of the biofield. The properties of such a field could be based on electromagnetic fields, coherent states, biophotons, quantum and quantum-like processes, and ultimately the quantum vacuum. Given this evidence, we intend to inquire and discuss how the existence of the biofield challenges reductionist approaches and presents its own challenges regarding the origin and source of the biofield, the specific evidence for its existence, its relation to biology, and last but not least, how it may inform an integrated understanding of consciousness and the living universe.

Implications of high altitude desert dust transport from Western Sahara to Nile Delta during biomass burning season.

The air over major cities and rural regions of the Nile Delta is highly polluted during autumn which is the biomass burning season, locally known as black cloud. Previous studies have attributed the increased pollution levels during the black cloud season to the biomass or open burning of agricultural waste, vehicular, industrial emissions, and secondary aerosols. However, new multi-sensor observations (column and vertical profiles) from satellites, dust transport models and associated meteorology present a different picture of the autumn pollution. Here we show, for the first time, the evidence of long range transport of dust at high altitude (2.5-6 km) from Western Sahara and its deposition over the Nile Delta region unlike current Models. The desert dust is found to be a major contributor to the local air quality which was previously considered to be due to pollution from biomass burning enhanced by the dominant northerly winds coming from Europe.

Estimation of effective plant area index for South Korean forests using LiDAR system.

Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems can be used to estimate both vertical and horizontal forest structure. Woody components, the leaves of trees and the understory can be described with high precision, using geo-registered 3D-points. Based on this concept, the Effective Plant Area Indices (PAI(e)) for areas of Korean Pine (Pinus koraiensis), Japanese Larch (Larix leptolepis) and Oak (Quercus spp.) were estimated by calculating the ratio of intercepted and incident LIDAR laser rays for the canopies of the three forest types. Initially, the canopy gap fraction (G ( LiDAR )) was generated by extracting the LiDAR data reflected from the canopy surface, or inner canopy area, using k-means statistics. The LiDAR-derived PAI(e) was then estimated by using G ( LIDAR ) with the Beer-Lambert law. A comparison of the LiDAR-derived and field-derived PAI(e) revealed the coefficients of determination for Korean Pine, Japanese Larch and Oak to be 0.82, 0.64 and 0.59, respectively. These differences between field-based and LIDAR-based PAI(e) for the different forest types were attributed to the amount of leaves and branches in the forest stands. The absence of leaves, in the case of both Larch and Oak, meant that the LiDAR pulses were only reflected from branches. The probability that the LiDAR pulses are reflected from bare branches is low as compared to the reflection from branches with a high leaf density. This is because the size of the branch is smaller than the resolution across and along the 1 meter LIDAR laser track. Therefore, a better predictive accuracy would be expected for the model if the study would be repeated in late spring when the shoots and leaves of the deciduous trees begin to appear.