In this work, the trend of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) of Rome is analyzed by both ground-based weather stations and a satellite-based infrared sensor. First, we have developed a suitable algorithm employing satellite brightness temperatures for the estimation of the air temperature belonging to the layer of air closest to the surface. UHI spatial characteristics have been assessed using air te...

In order to fully utilize remote sensing to inventory crop production, it is important to identify the factors that affect the accuracy of Landsat classifications. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of scene characteristics involving crop, soil, and weather variables on the accuracy of Landsat classifications of corn and soybeans. Segments sampling the U.S. Corn Belt were...

End-to-end qualification testing of the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) contractor signal processing system will be accomplished by a signal processing simulation test. Government furnished storm models will be used to provide inputs to the signal processor. The corresponding hazardous weather product results will be compared to the results determined by the detection algorithm developers...

To overcome blind spots of an ordinary weather radar which scans horizontally at a high altitude, a weather radar which operates vertically, so called an atmospheric profiler, is needed. In this paper, a K-band radar for observing rainfall vertically is introduced, and measurement results of rainfall are shown and discussed. For better performance of the atmospheric profiler, the radar which ha...

FARSITE is a computer based model of fire spread that utilized spatially resolved data to simulate fires occurring over areas of heterogeneous fuels, topography, and weather (Finney 1996). In as much as changes in fuel characteristics can be reflected both in nature and extent, FARSITE offers a unique opportunity to evaluate the effects of fuel management projects while leaving all other factor...

This paper presents an event-based failure model to predict the number of failures that occur in water distribution assets. Often, such models have been based on analysis of historical failure data combined with pipe characteristics and environmental conditions. In this paper weather data have been added to the model to take into account the commonly observed seasonal variation of the failure r...

The chaotic nature of the weather/climate attractor intrinsically limits the deterministic skill of weather forecasts by promoting rapid growth of errors. In this study, such error growth is simulated by artificially perturbing the atmosphere at initial time, and its sensitivity to the chosen perturbation methodology and to the flow characteristics is investigated. The different simulations are...

Ground-elutter breakthrough caused by anomalous propagation (AP}----ducting of the radar beam when passing through significant atmospheric temperature and/or moisture gradients-is a significant issue for air traffic controllers who use Airport Surveillance Radar (ASR) weather channel data to guide aircraft through the airport terminal area. At present, these data are often contaminated with AP,...

Using a climate version of a regional atmospheric model, we show that the seasonal evolution of weather is dependent on the initial soil moisture and landscape specification. Coupling this model to a land-surface model, the soil moisture distribution and landscape are shown to cause a significant nonlinear interaction between vegetation growth and precipitation. These results demonstrate that s...

This study analyzes the role of logistical variables, competition characteristics and weather conditions in a decision model for flight operations by airlines. We demonstrate that a nested logit model is appropriate on both theoretical and empirical grounds. The sample consists of all flights on Fridays in January 2003. We find that there are positive and significant correlation between daily f...