The Role of Clouds in Global Radiation Changes Measured in Israel during the Last Sixty Years

An analysis of global radiation measurements and fractional cloud cover observations made in the Israel Meteorological Service’s network of climate stations demonstrated a significant decrease in the transmittance of solar radiation through the atmosphere during the last 60 years. The major cause was the reduced transparency of clouds. Under completely overcast skies with complete cloud cover transmission in the industrialized central coastal region decreased from 0.41 in the mid-20th century to 0.21 in the first decade of the 21st century. Under cloudless skies the reduction in the transmission of global radiation was less, from 0.79 to 0.71, and not statistically significant. Similar but somewhat smaller changes were observed in the less industrialized central hill region. Multi-linear analysis showed that since 1970, 61% of the measured decline in global radiation was attributable to changes in fractional cloud cover but only 2% to the marked increase in local fuel combustion;there was no statistically significant interaction between the two parameters.

The Potential of Earth Observation Based Indicators to Assess the State of Urban Environment: An Application for the Urban Agglomeration of Athens

Earth observation (EO) provides the opportunity for periodic and spatially detailed assessment of the state of the environment in urban areas. In this study, the potential of EO based indicators (EI) to assess the state of environment in the urban agglomeration of Athens (UAA) is examined. EO based indicators as used in the study, include land surface temperature, land use, land cover and aerosols distribution. The indicators are also related to the household density and population density, as extracted from census data, for the same area. Indicators are applied at the municipal scale and are also used to estimate an aggregate environmental indicator (AEI), at municipal scale, by integrating all indicators mentioned above in a GIS environment. It is found that the urban agglomeration of Athens is practically “dichotomized”, by being divided in a western and eastern area, with considerably different environmental conditions. Results are considered important for focused interventions supporting environmental urban planning, whereas they represent the high potential of EO based indicators to monitor and assess the state of the urban environment.

A new big data approach based on geoecological information-modeling system

In this paper,the geoecological information-modeling system(GIMS)is described as possible improvement of the Big Data approach.The main GIMS function is the use of algorithms and models that capture the fundamental processes controlling the evolution of the climate-nature-society(CNSS)system.The GIMS structure includes 24 blocks that realize a series of models and algorithms for global big data processing and analysis.The CNSS global model is the basic block of the GIMS.The operational tools of GIMS are demonstrated by examining several scenarios associated with the reconstruction of forest areas.It is shown that significant impacts on forests can lead to global climate variations on a large scale.