Evapotranspiration and its components (evaporation and transpiration) as a process is one of the basic terms of Earth's water balance; its importance is accented by the fact that transpiration is the vital element of the biomass production process. The second important property of evapotranspiration is its extreme consumption of solar energy, thus controlling the temperature of the atmosphere and creating favourable conditions for life. Evapotranspiration as an energy consuming process is also the connection between the energy and mass cycles of the Earth. Evapotranspiration is a process performing in the Soil-Plant -Atmosphere System (SPAS); therefore this book is presenting and quantifying it as a catenary process, describing transport of water in the soil, including root extraction patterns and methods of its evaluation. Transport of water through the plant and from the canopy to the atmosphere is also described and quantified. A variety of evapotranspiration (and its components evaporation and transpiration) calculation methods are described, starting from empirical methods up to the most sophisticated ones based on the solution of the transport equations of water and energy in the SPAS. The most important (and widely used) calculation method - modified Penman-Monteith method is described in details, ready to be used with data in the book only. Water balance method of evapotranspiration estimation as well as sap flow method description can be found in the book as well. The book can be used by hydrologists, biologists, meteorologists and other specialists as well as byecology students.

Key themes: soil hydrology - evapotranspiration - hydropedology- plant physiology -water movement in soils -evaporation -transpiration

Dr. Viliam Novak isa water resources scientist at the Institute of Hydrology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava (Slovakia)."

This book provides concise descriptions of the various solutions of transition curves, which can be used in geometric design of roads and highways. It presents mathematical methods and curvature functions for defining transition curves.

The principal objectives of the Project were to further the establishment of national "operational" weather radar networks, harmonise operations, data handling and processing to minimise the difficulties of, and maximise the benefits of international weather radar data exchange. To transmit the data efficiently, standardised formats and protocols were essential. These were formulated by a working group whose efforts were rewarded when WMO accepted their proposal for worldwide use. A multi-national pilot project area was established and streams of data from each of the countries involved were merged and integrated with data from the satelite METEOSAT. The composite image, known as "the COST image" was regularly distributed via the global telecommunication system of WMO, the public telephone switched network and the Olympus satelite. The utility of the COST image was assessed for, inter alia, short-period forecasting, aviation flight assistance, maritime forecasting and the initialisation of numerical weather prediction models. In all cases, the COST image was found to be beneficial. A report containing proposed curricula for the training of meteorologists, hydrologists and other major users of weather radar data was sent to WMO for possible adoption as one of their standard training manuals. As a report of international scientific cooperation, this is a success story. All the principal objectives of the Memorandum of Understanding were achieved both within time and budget. It is a tale of international cooperation at its best.

This book discusses in detail the planning, design, construction and management of hydraulic structures, covering dams, spillways, tunnels, cut slopes, sluices, water intake and measuring works, ship locks and lifts, as well as fish ways. Particular attention is paid to considerations concerning the environment, hydrology, geology and materials etc. in the planning and design of hydraulic projects. It also considers the type selection, profile configuration, stress/stability calibration and engineering countermeasures, flood releasing arrangements and scouring protection, operation and maintenance etc. for a variety of specific hydraulic structures. The book is primarily intended for engineers, undergraduate and graduate students in the field of civil and hydraulic engineering who are faced with the challenges of extending our understanding of hydraulic structures ranging from traditional to groundbreaking, as well as designing, constructing and managing safe, durable hydraulic structures that are economical and environmentally friendly.

The thermodynamics of the atmosphere is the subject of severai chapters in most textbooks on dynamic meteorology, but there is no work in English to give the subject a specific and more extensive treatment. In writing the present textbook, we have tried to fiII this rather remarkable gap in the literature related to atmospheric sciences. Our aim has been to provide students of meteorology with a book that can play a role similar to the textbooks on chemical thermodynamics for the chemists. This implies a previous knowledge of general thermodynamics, such as students acquire in general physics courses; therefore, although the basic principles are reviewed (in the urst four chapters), they are only briefly discussed, and emphasis is laid on those topics that wilI be useful in later chapters, through their application to atmospheric problems. No attempt has been made to introduce the thermodynamics ofirreversible processes; on the other hand, consideration of heterogeneous and open homogeneous systems permits a rigorous formulation of the thermodynamic functions of c10uds (exclusive of any consideration of microphysical effects) and a better understanding of the approx imations usually implicit in practical applications."

The end result of policy-related experimental and theoretical scientific work on the abatement of atmospheric emissions is a hierarchy of computer models that can be used to analyse and predict the behaviour of pollutants on urban, local regional and global scales. Such models are required to simulate an extremely complex natural situation in which a non-linear chemistry must be included together with the vagaries of the meteorology and the terrain. This book describes recent advances in the development and application of models on all scales, and in the techniques for the estimation and verification of emissions. It includes reviews of recent work together with detailed results and provides a useful picture of the field in a European context.

This book presents in a concise way the Mie theory and its current applications. It begins with an overview of current theories, computational methods, experimental techniques, and applications of optics of small particles. There is also some biographic information on Gustav Mie, who published his famous paper on the colour of Gold colloids in 1908. The Mie solution for the light scattering of small spherical particles set the basis for more advanced scattering theories and today there are many methods to calculate light scattering and absorption for practically any shape and composition of particles. The optics of small particles is of interest in industrial, atmospheric, astronomic and other research. The book covers the latest developments in divers fields in scattering theory such as plasmon resonance, multiple scattering and optical force.

Offering a cross-country examination and comparison of drought awareness and experience, this book shows how scientists, water managers, and policy makers approach drought and water scarcity in arid and semi-arid regions of Spain, Mexico, Australia, South Africa and the United States.

The NATO ARW in Irkutsk was an excellent occasion for the coming together of Eastern and Western scientists who are involved in tropospheric science; the workshop has greatly contributed to the scientific and social understanding among the participants from the many different countries. Many new personal contacts were made which will help to strengthen future collaborations. In particular, the Lake Baikal area and the Limnological Institute offer splendid opportunities for environmental research which, in part, is already on going. For most participants it was the first time to see the impressive nature of the Lake Baikal region. Hopefully, there will be a chance for a follow-up event in Siberia where researchers from the East and West can again meet and engage in fruitful scientific dialogue. The book contains extended abstracts of the lectures and the poster presentations presented at the NATO ARW "Global Atmospheric Change and its Impact on Regional Air Quality" Irkutsk, Lake Baikal, Russian Federation, August 21-27, 2001. The ARW was composed of 22 oral presentations by key lecturers and 6 additional shorter oral presentations from participants. In a special poster session the 36 poster contributions were presented and discussed. Unfortunately not all contributors submitted extended abstracts, however, to compensate two contributions have been added from 2 participants who were originally invited but were unable to attend.

Visualization Techniques for Climate Change with Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence covers computer-aided artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies as related to the impacts of climate change and its potential to prevent/remediate the effects. As such, different types of algorithms, mathematical relations and software models may help us to understand our current reality, predict future weather events and create new products and services to minimize human impact, chances of improving and saving lives and creating a healthier world. This book covers different types of tools for the prediction of climate change and alternative systems which can reduce the levels of threats observed by climate change scientists. Moreover, the book will help to achieve at least one of 17 sustainable development goals i.e., climate action.

An up-to-date summary of our understanding of the dynamics and thermodynamics of moist atmospheric convection, with a strong focus on recent developments in the field. The book also reviews ways in which moist convection may be parameterised in large-scale numerical models - a field in which there is still some controversy - and discusses the implications of convection for large-scale flow. Audience: The book is aimed at the graduate level and research meteorologists as well as scientists in other disciplines who need to know more about moist convection and its representation in numerical models.

The study of the earth's climate requires reliable global data sets to validate numerical simulation models and to identify regional and global fluctuations and trends. This book presents ways to obtain such data from space-borne and ground-based measurements, both passive and active, over the entire electromagnetic spectrum. It describes the basics of such methods together with the most recent advancements and spans the field from clouds and the planetary radiation budget to surface processes and ocean properties. Each subject is backed by extensive reference lists to enable readers to probe more deeply.

This book presents the result of an innovative challenge, to create a systematic literature overview driven by machine-generated content. Questions and related keywords were prepared for the machine to query, discover, collate and structure by Artificial Intelligence (AI) clustering. The AI-based approach seemed especially suitable to provide an innovative perspective as the topics are indeed both complex, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, for example, climate, planetary and evolution sciences. Springer Nature has published much on these topics in its journals over the years, so the challenge was for the machine to identify the most relevant content and present it in a structured way that the reader would find useful. The automatically generated literature summaries in this book are intended as a springboard to further discoverability. They are particularly useful to readers with limited time, looking to learn more about the subject quickly and especially if they are new to the topics. Springer Nature seeks to support anyone who needs a fast and effective start in their content discovery journey, from the undergraduate student exploring interdisciplinary content, to Master- or PhD-thesis developing research questions, to the practitioner seeking support materials, this book can serve as an inspiration, to name a few examples. It is important to us as a publisher to make the advances in technology easily accessible to our authors and find new ways of AI-based author services that allow human-machine interaction to generate readable, usable, collated, research content.

Atmospheric Remote Sensing: Principles and Applications discusses the fundamental principles of atmospheric remote sensing and their applications in different research domains. Furthermore, the book covers the basic concepts of satellite remote sensing of the atmosphere, followed by Ionospheric remote sensing tools like Global Positioning System (GPS) and Very Low Frequency (VLF) wave. Sections emphasize the applications of atmospheric remote study in Ionospheric perturbation, fire detection, aerosol characteristics over land, ocean and Himalayan regions. In addition, the application of atmospheric remote sensing in disaster management like dust storms, cyclones, smoke plume, aerosol-cloud interaction, and their impact on climate change are discussed. This book is a valuable reference for students, researchers and professionals working in atmospheric science, remote sensing, and related disciplines.

The book is a thorough presentation of theoretical and applied aspects of the evaporation and evapotranspiration process supported by data from experimental studies. It is written in a way that the theoretical background of evaporation and evapotranspiration estimation is presented in a simplified manner, comprehensive to most technical readers. The book deals with details of meteorological parameters and monitoring sensors which are needed for estimating evaporation and evapotranspiration. Errors in meteorological parameter measurements are also presented. Estimation errors, strengths, weaknesses and applicability of a wide range of evaporation and evapotranspiration estimation methods are presented along with samples of application to a certain region. Application of newer simpler methods is presented. A new technology, remote sensing application to evaporation and evapotranspiration estimation, is presented. The latest interest in the subject, climate change and evapotranspiration is presented in the last chapter. This book will be beneficial to students, hydrologists, engineers, meteorologists, water managers and others.

This book surveys recent developments in numerical techniques for global atmospheric models. It is based upon a collection of lectures prepared by leading experts in the field. The chapters reveal the multitude of steps that determine the global atmospheric model design. They encompass the choice of the equation set, computational grids on the sphere, horizontal and vertical discretizations, time integration methods, filtering and diffusion mechanisms, conservation properties, tracer transport, and considerations for designing models for massively parallel computers. A reader interested in applied numerical methods but also the many facets of atmospheric modeling should find this book of particular relevance.

The book reviews and reports the recent progress and knowledge on the specific impact of current and projected urban overheating as well as of the urban mitigation technologies on mortality and morbidity and urban vulnerability. It presents recent data and developments on the topic reported by some of the more distinguished researchers in this area. In parallel, it discusses new findings related to the characteristics and the magnitude of urban overheating and reports and analyzes the recent knowledge on the synergies between urban heat island and heatwaves. This book helps to advance our understanding on the interaction between Urban Heat Island (UHI) and overheating as well as their impact on energy demand and public health globally. Exploring the interaction between UHI and energy consumption requires the understanding on the dynamics of UHI intensity and air pollution index in different land use and how such interactions may vary in different cities in the world. Moreover, this book focuses on different cities in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Asia, Spain, UK, and USA.

Epoch-making progress in meteorology and atmospheric science has always been hastened by the development of advanced observational technologies, in particular, radar technology. This technology depends on a wide range of sciences involving diverse disciplines, from electrical engineering and electronics to computer sciences and atmospheric physics. Meteorological radar and atmospheric radar each has a different history and has been developed independently. Particular radar activities have been conducted within their own communities. Although the technology of these radars draws upon many common fields, until now the interrelatedness and interdisciplinary nature of the research fields have not been consistently discussed in one volume containing fundamental theories, observational methods, and results. This book is by two authors who, with long careers in the two fields, one in academia and the other in industry, are ideal partners for writing on the comprehensive science and technology of radars for meteorological and atmospheric observations.

Water is vital for life. Since the dawn of civilization, much effort has been made to harness sources of fresh water. Recent years have raised global awareness of the need for increasing demand of water worldwide, largely because of growing population, rising standard of living, higher demand for energy, and greater appreciation for environmental quality. As an example, the world population has increased threefold in the past five decades. In order to meet the rising water demand, water resources are being developed by building large dams, reservoirs, barrages and weirs across rivers worldwide. The guiding principle for water resources development has been to ensure adequate supply of water for agriculture, domestic use (including fine drinking water), waste disposal, industries, and energy production, with due attention to maintain the ecosystem functions. This development, however, depends on a holistic, cooperative and scientific approach. The basic inputs in the assessment of water resources for a given region are from hydrological data and the subject of hydrology forms the core in achieving sustainable development of water resources. Barring a few exceptions, hydrological data for most river basins are sparse and therefore it is difficult to comprehensively assess their water resources. The major source of water is rainfall which occurs as a result of condensation of atmospheric moisture governed by the science of meteorology.

Based on data from an experiment which ran for ten years, this book summarizes the results of the Atmospheric Physics Department of the St. Petersburg University and the Main Geophysical Observatory. The processed data now forms a rich dataset of spectral values of radiative characteristics under different atmospheric conditions. The analysis of this database clearly shows that the solar radiative absorption in a dusty and cloudy atmosphere is significantly higher than assumed to date. Both graduate students of atmospheric sciences as well as scientists and researchers in the field of meteorology and climatology will find a wealth of new data and information in this monograph.

Both fire and climatic variability have monumental impacts on the dynamics of temperate ecosystems. These impacts can sometimes be extreme or devastating as seen in recent El Nino/La Nina cycles and in uncontrolled fire occurrences. This volume brings together research conducted in western North and South America, areas of a great deal of collaborative work on the influence of people and climate change on fire regimes. In order to give perspective to patterns of change over time, it emphasizes the integration of paleoecological studies with studies of modern ecosystems. Data from a range of spatial scales, from individual plants to communities and ecosystems to landscape and regional levels, are included. Contributions come from fire ecology, paleoecology, biogeography, paleoclimatology, landscape and ecosystem ecology, ecological modeling, forest management, plant community ecology and plant morphology. The book gives a synthetic overview of methods, data and simulation models for evaluating fire regime processes in forests, shrublands and woodlands and assembles case studies of fire, climate and land use histories. The unique approach of this book gives researchers the benefits of a north-south comparison as well as the integration of paleoecological histories, current ecosystem dynamics and modeling of future changes.

Field Measurements for Environmental Remote Sensing: Instrumentation, Intensive Campaigns, and Satellite Applications is an academic synthesis of invaluable in situ measurements and techniques leveraged by the science of environmental remote sensing. Sections cover in situ datasets and observing methods used for satellite remote sending applications and validation, synthesizing the various techniques utilized by well-established application areas under a common paradigm. The book serves as both a textbook for students (upper-level undergraduate to graduate level) and a reference book for practitioners and researchers in the atmospheric, oceanic and remote sensing fields.

Climate can be defined as an ensemble of many weather phenomena. Clima tologists often use the mean (conventionally the monthly and annual mean) of weather-related parameters to describe climate. The mean value, however, is not all the climate. Climatic changes might occur if certain aspects of the distribution of extreme values change, while the mean does not. Katz and Brown (1992), for example, show from a theoretical viewpoint that in a changing climate, extreme values are determined more by changes in variability than changes in the mean. Possible changes in extreme event frequency receive considerable attention along with the global warming, because extremes directly impact human society and the economy. For most societally sensitive extremes and related changes in their vari ability, an analysis based on daily data becomes necessary. This paper considers two aspects (relative and absolute values) of extreme temperatures on a daily basis. We do not consider spells of extreme days, periods which will likely have greater socio-economic and health impacts (Kalkstein et al., 1996; Wagner, 1999), than individual extreme days.