I'm so excited about today's post. When I thought of who I wanted to write with me about Joy Thieves, I immediately thought of Tiffany. I admire her tenacity, strength, and grace both now and in the midst of what she is sharing with you today. Tiffany has kindly opened up about a hurtful experience in her life that was on display for all to see. I heard of Tiffany before I ever actually met her, and everything I heard was absolutely false. I was amazed at her kindness, generosity, and wit; Even to some no name hometown pageant winner like me. While she and I have never grabbed a coffee or gabbed over cheesecake, I consider Tiffany a friend. I enjoy her style, honesty, sarcasm, and love of sweet treats. A coffee addict, history buff and wannabe jet setter, Tiffany is a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. You can follow her on Instagram @ttolbert and on her blog www.brkfastattiffanys.wordpress.com.
Please welcome her to Kindness and Chaos!
My story as a beauty queen isn't all rhinestones and smiles. My crowning moments were often overshadowed by drama and controversy. My dream of becoming Miss America didn't come true and it was often bitterness and hurt that seeped through the cracks of my perfectly painted on exterior.
I started competing when I was 15 years old in the teen system in Oklahoma. I was 1st Runner Up in my first pageant, Miss Teen Oklahoma, what is now Miss Oklahoma's Outstanding Teen. The next year I was 2nd Runner Up. I was disappointed in the outcome but ready to move on to the big leagues.
And just for the record, pageants are no joke. I credit much of my stamina as a Nurse Practitioner, working 24 hour shifts in the NICU, to pageant prep. It was hard work and often required 18 hour days driving into to the city for appointments, scheduling, paperwork, doing school assemblies, voice lessons, two-a-day workouts and keeping up with current events all while in nursing school full time. If pageant girls are known for one thing it's hard work. We get stuff done and we do it right.
I competed in Miss Oklahoma for the first time at age 17 and made the top 10. At that time it was unheard of for rookies to break the 10 and that year a rookie went on to sweep the pageant becoming Miss Oklahoma and then Miss America 7 months later.
Long story short, I would go on to compete three more times being 1st Runner Up two years in a row and then finally 3rd Runner Up at the end of my career in pageants. I never wore the crown, but that wasn't my ultimate disappointment. Sure, I was hurt, rejection is hard on any level, but I had a shadow following me for the last 4 years I was involved in the system (I sat out for a year after I was 1st Runner Up twice).
I was bullied incessantly on an online voy forum by an anonymous poster. They called me ugly, said I had no talent, followed me around town and took pictures of me to provoke conversations about me so they could spew their venom. They called me a liar. Said I didn't go to school where I said I was going to. Said I would never be Miss Oklahoma because I went to a less than prestigious Community College (I just graduated last August from Vanderbilt University with my Masters in Nursing. #boom) and I couldn't be a role model because I was rude and condescending. I had gone on this forum multiple times pleading with them to reveal their identity to me in private so I could apologize for what I had done to them and right the wrong only for them to twist my words even more and use them against me in future posts. It went on for four years. I had a 3 inch 3 ring binder full of pages of their posts. I even got a lawyer involved to sue for slander to no avail. There weren't any laws regulating online bullying at the time. The judge who saw my case said I was a public figure and being subjected to judgements and criticism were apart of the job description. But these weren't judgements. They were false accusations. Saying I threw fits backstage when I didn't get my way and posts telling people I had multiple plastic surgeries to win a pageant isn't criticism. It's lies. It was an attempt to destroy my character and my reputation.
It was a nightmare and now that I am out from underneath it all I have realized becoming Miss Oklahoma for me had become a lot about proving them wrong and not a lot about being a better me. They had stolen my voice, my esteem and my joy. Every move I made had to be so calculated as to avoid them attacking me and I often questioned if competing was worth it. I was obsessed with checking the site everyday to see what they said about me. I would tell myself those comments didn't hurt, they only made me stronger but at the end of the day there were two liars involved, them lying about me and me lying to myself.
I pressed on and surrounded myself with those who would lift me up and make me a better person. My family, friends and directors made all the difference. They spoke peace and encouragement and ultimately grace into my life.
I finally trashed that 3 ring binder. I realized letting anyone be in charge of my emotions and attitudes for the day wasn't what God wanted for me. I wasn't Miss Oklahoma for a reason. I know that reason now and I'm okay with it. What I'm not okay with is letting someone make me feel like I am less than who God says I am ever again. My joy comes from an endless well of unconditional love that only He can provide. I can be comfortable in who I am even in the darkest of times because I know he carries me. He bears my burdens and celebrates my victories. He is my first and His word is always last. And that, I find joy in.
Thank you for sharing Tiffany. You are beautiful inside and out.
People stoop pretty low at times, but Praise God He is always there .
Thank you for sharing your story Tiffany. While maybe not as extreme, I too had very harsh, hate-filled lies written about me on the very forum you speak of. Most of the people in the system are there to build-up and empower young women to become their best selves and change their surroundings for the better. In the contrary, unfortunately, there are those who have lost sight of that fact and speak words that leave lasting wounds in young impressionable women. I love that you know where your worth comes from and Who has the power to tell you who you are. You are serving as a role model now sweet girl!
Have known this young lady for a number of years… beautiful inside and out!!!
Beautiful words Tiffany! You have a heart of gold and have blessed so many lives, including mine! Pageants don't define a girl, but they sure help you get ready for the future. You have taken your skills to the moon and back! I'm so proud of you and love you lots!
As a local director in this system for over ten years I have watched so many amazing women compete. I was a judge the year you won Miss Claremore and was so impressed with you, and was a fan for life. As much good as this system does for empowering young women, I have also witnessed the hurt and negativity that, at times, has made me question my involvement in a volunteer activity filled with such drama. But then I remember the Tiffanys, the Jennifer's, the Lauren's, the Kelsey's, the endless list of amazing, talented, spunky and selfless women that this amazing organization has produced, and I am reminded of why I do what I do as a director. I am reminded that I will not allow the negative haters to rob me of the joy that a I get from my part in all of this as a local director. I always say that I get back way more from the contestants than I give. thank you for sharing your story and for being a positive role model and shining example of what this system does to empower and promote education and community service!
Tiffany you are an absolute gift from God and He has blessed you with so much and I am so proud to call you my niece. Love your talents and your spirit and you make all of us who are family so happy that you belong to us.
My heart hurts with you. In all my years as traveling companion for Miss Oklahoma's and Miss America, I have heard this over and over. I have never visited the site you are referring to, but at some point most of my girls have been hurt by this. I've laid in bed and listened to these stories come through tears. I am so sorry it happened to you. I believe we are put in different situations so we will know how to help others. When I became a counselor, I started asking myself three questions: "Is this for me? Is this for them? Or am I doing it for God? The answer had to always be all three.
I am so proud of you and would have loved to be with you.
Your gift was in becoming the person you are.
You have helped yourself, others, and given the glory to God.
You will always be a blessing to us.


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You are here Research > Research Groups > Nanothermal Research Group > Group Members
Principle Investigator
Dr. David Mc Closkey
School of Physics & CRANN
E-mail: dmcclosk@tcd.ie
View Full TCD Profile
Prof David McCloskey is an Ussher Assistant Professor for the Science of Energy and Energy Systems in The School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin.
David McCloskey graduated with a BA.Mod in Theoretical Physics from Trinity College Dublin. He obtained a PhD in integrated optics and plasmonics with the Semiconductor Photonics Group. Since then he has spent time working in Institute de Sciences Photonique (ICFO) Barcelona, Institute Fresnel, Marseille and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in US. He leads the NanoThermal research Group (NRG) in the new Energy Theme in the School of Physics. His current research interests are in thermal conduction, convection and radiation in micro and nanoscale systems. His goal is to utilise nanotechnology to structure materials on the length scales of the heat carriers in these processes (electrons, phonons and photons and liquid molecules etc). This provides unprecedented control, allowing engineering the thermal properties of materials from the ground up. He is also interested in developing novel optical and electronic techniques for the challenging task of measuring thermal properties in nanomaterials and devices. These techniques include femtosecond time and frequency domain thermoreflectance (TDTR, FDTR), CCD based thermal imaging (CCD-TR) and 3ω / resistance thermometry. He is interested in application areas include thermal barrier coatings, thermoelectric materials and devices, high power high frequency electronics, and thermal control of microphotonics.
School of Physics > Research > Research Groups > Nanothermal Research Group > Group Members

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Cara Cara Oranges. So Lovely.
Saturdays are when I usually light up my kitchen with the preparation of weekly meals. Today I made some medium-boiled eggs, Rosemary and Apple Salmon Salad (recipe will be posted soon!), Coconut Green Curry Soup, grilled sausages, romesco sauce, steamed butternut squash, and salsa beef.
I also (finally) made a Facebook page for my blog. Yippee!
Considering Day 4's exceptional amount of training, I took Day 5 as an active recovery day. I find that moving my sore muscles around feels better, and helps more, than not doing anything. Some light walking and kettlebell work helped perk me up after a morning of sitting on my bum at the computer. Finally, I rounded out the evening by watching a little Modern Family on the giant beanbag with my man.
(v) To use systems thinking, science, biology, and self-experimentation to take control of and upgrade your body, your mind, and your life.
Unfortunately, I've been experiencing some bloating in the afternoon/evening pretty regularly. If any of you readers are familiar with the perils of gluten reactivity, you will know what this means. I wake up with a flat tummy and by the end of the day…. I'm 4 months pregnant (so to speak).
After the holidays, it is possible that increased dairy, sugar, and alcohol consumption may have compromised gut integrity OR thrown my gut biome outta whack. Too many bad guys (candida overgrowth) or too many good guys in the wrong place (SIBO).
There are multiple ways to tackle a gut problem. Sometimes the answer is obvious. For example, "I eat cheese, I get gassy". I've found that it's typically a bit more complicated, especially if you are introducing or removing a lot of things at the same time. This is why I like to start simple when approaching a solution.
Before attempting to treat a gut problem like SIBO or Candida, I will first see if the removal of gut irritating foods will solve the problem. If it doesn't then I know that the solution lies elsewhere.
Where to go from here? Well, I will remove fruit (excluding limes and lemons) and nuts/seeds for the day and see if I bloat. If I bloat, I will exclude them for 3 more days and see if there is an improvement.
All this to say, get to know your body. Pay attention to how it reacts to foods, smells, beverages, dehydration, activity, stress, etc. When you learn about your own individual biology, you are much better equipped to help solve the little issues before they become larger ones.


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Genre-blending Zombie Title, DEADCRAFT, Breaks Loose on PC and Console Today
Play as Zombie-Human Hybrid Reid as He Farms, Crafts, and Fights His Way to Wasteland Justice
London, UK – 19th May 2022 – Marvelous Europe is excited to announce that DEADCRAFT, a new simulation/action game developed by Marvelous' First Studio, is now available on Windows PC via Steam, PlayStation®4, PlayStation®5, the Nintendo Switch™ system, and is supported through Smart Delivery on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
The standard edition of DEADCRAFT is available now for £19.99/€24.99 and the Deluxe Edition for £29.99/€39.99. Also there is currently a 10% discount running for the standard edition and 15% discount for the Deluxe Edition on all digital storefronts until 29th May 2022.
The DEADCRAFT Deluxe Edition includes two DLC packs, "It Came from the Junkyard" and "Jessie's Wasteland Wares," both of which will arrive in the coming month. "It Came from the Junkyard" pits Reid against a monstrous new threat named Revenant. In "Jessie's Wasteland Wares," players will step into the shoes of eccentric nurse Jessie as she sets up shop to raise funds for her beloved lady Duna. Both DLC packs will be available individually for £6.49/€7.99 each.
Additionally, the Deluxe Edition includes a "Shinobi Outfit" costume exclusive to this version of the game and a Resource Pack featuring a handful of in-game resources to help players survive their early escapades in the treacherous wasteland.
DEADCRAFT is the newest deadly and daring game from Marvelous' First Studio, creators of DAEMON X MACHINA. As if a hail of meteors reducing earth to a barren wasteland wasn't bad enough, the devastation released a mysterious virus that resurrected the dead. Ravaged by fire from the sky and the dead below, only a fraction of the human population remains, largely clustered into small outposts where power-hungry opportunists capitalize on the chaos. A rare survivor of exposure to the virus, part-zombie Reid is captured by the twisted Nebron, leader of the Ark. After escaping from the torture table into the surrounding wasteland, Reid is determined to return to the city and exact some apocalyptic justice.
Wield Reid's inhuman zombie powers to fend off enemies while searching the wasteland for answers to what happened to the only man he could trust. Build fantastical new armaments, conjure curious concoctions, or even grow and harvest zombie soldiers to stand by Reid's side against whatever the apocalypse throws at him. Throughout his adventures Reid will need to take advantage of the strength his zombie side can provide in combat while taking care to maintain what little humanity he has left to stay in the good graces of the locals...or not, and fully embrace his inner-zombie to shake down the inhabitants. It's a dangerous world, and in order to stay alive Reid must take full advantage of the dead!
Developed by Marvelous' First Studio and published in Europe and Australia by Marvelous Europe, DEADCRAFT launches worldwide on Windows PC via Steam, PlayStation®4, PlayStation®5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and the Nintendo Switch™ on May 19. The game has been rated PEGI 18.
For more information about DEADCRAFT, head over to Marvelous Europe's Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Sam Brace
Decibel-PR
marvelous@decibel-pr.com
About Marvelous Europe
Founded in April 2012, Marvelous Europe Limited is the European arm of Marvelous Inc. a publicly listed entertainment company based in Tokyo. Marvelous is both a game developer and publisher having released popular PC and console titles including Story of Seasons and Rune Factory, in addition to third-party acquisitions such as Granblue Fantasy Versus and Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin.
For more information about Marvelous Europe products, please visit www.marvelousgames.com.
Nintendo Switch™ is a trademark of Nintendo.
Deadcraft


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Sectors & Case Studies
Crane TV interviews curator Dr. Jerzy Kierkuć-Bieliński about Sir John Soane Museum's new Face to Face exhibition
To coincide with the opening of Face to Face: British Portrait Prints from the Clifford Chance art collection at Sir John Soane's Museum, leading arts and culture channel Crane TV recently interviewed the exhibition curator Dr. Jerzy Kierkuć-Bieliński.
Discussing everything from the variety of artists and the works on show, to how portraiture has developed throughout the 20th and 21st centuries – the video gives a unique insight into the Museum, this fascinating exhibition and the broader genre of portraiture and printmaking.
Alongside the exhibition, Sir John Soane's Museum is also hosting a public talk – Portrait in Printmaking: Why contemporary artists make portraits in print – on Monday 3 November.
For full details and to book tickets visit the Soane Museum website: soane.org/education/adults/face-to-face-events/
Video: Courtesy of Crane TV
Journalist: Jolyon Webber
Camera: Sabrina Elkin, Precious Mahaga
Video Editor: Jennifer Lianos
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08.01.2015 Building a Dialogue: the Architect and the Client
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Advances in Meteorology
Advances in Meteorology / 2010 / Article
AbstractIntroductionData CollectionResults and DiscussionConclusionsAcknowledgmentsReferencesCopyright
Atmospheric Aerosols and Climate
D. G. Kaskaoutis, P. G. Kosmopoulos, H. D. Kambezidis, P. T. Nastos, "Identification of the Aerosol Types over Athens, Greece: The Influence of Air-Mass Transport", Advances in Meteorology, vol. 2010, Article ID 168346, 15 pages, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1155/2010/168346
Identification of the Aerosol Types over Athens, Greece: The Influence of Air-Mass Transport
D. G. Kaskaoutis,1 P. G. Kosmopoulos,2 H. D. Kambezidis ,1 and P. T. Nastos 2
1Atmospheric Research Team, Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens, Lofos Nymphon, P.O. Box 20048, 11810 Athens, Greece
2Department of Geology and Geo-Environment, University of Athens, University Campus, 15784 Zografou, Greece
Academic Editor: Krishnaswamy Krishnamoorthy
Received27 Jun 2009
Revised04 Sep 2009
Published13 Jan 2010
Aerosol optical depth at 550 nm ( ) and fine-mode (FM) fraction data from Terra-MODIS were obtained over the Greater Athens Area covering the period February 2000–December 2005. Based on both and FM values three main aerosol types have been discriminated corresponding to urban/industrial aerosols, clean maritime conditions, and coarse-mode, probably desert dust, particles. Five main sectors were identified for the classification of the air-mass trajectories, which were further used in the analysis of the ( and FM data for the three aerosol types). The HYSPLIT model was used to compute back trajectories at three altitudes to investigate the relation between -FM and wind sector depending on the altitude. The accumulation of local pollution is favored in spring and corresponds to air masses at lower altitudes originating from Eastern Europe and the Balkan. Clean maritime conditions are rare over Athens, limited in the winter season and associated with air masses from the Western or Northwestern sector. The coarse-mode particles origin seems to be more complicated proportionally to the season. Thus, in summer the Northern sector dominates, while in the other seasons, and especially in spring, the air masses belong to the Southern sector enriched with Saharan dust aerosols.
Atmospheric aerosols play a crucial role in the Earth's climate through scattering and absorption both solar and thermal radiation (direct effect), thus influencing the radiative and energy balance and/or acting as cloud condensation nuclei (indirect effect), affecting cloud albedo and lifetime, precipitation rate, and hydrology cycle [1]. The great effort spent over the last decades by the scientific community focusing on aerosol climatology and optical properties reflects the importance attributed to aerosols in controlling the Earth's climate [2]. Major advancements in this field have been achieved by the new generation of space borne instruments (e.g., Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR-2) on board the European Space Agency (ESA-ERS2), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) on board the NASA Terra, POLarization and Directionality of the Earth's Reflectances (POLDER) on board the ADEOS), specifically designed to provide detection and characterization of atmospheric aerosols [3].
The Mediterranean Sea is one of the most affected areas regarding aerosol load in the world [4]. Due to the variety of the regions surrounding the Mediterranean basin, different aerosol types can be found within the basin, having both strong temporal and spatial distribution [4, 5]; desert dust, originated from the Sahara desert, polluted aerosols produced mainly in urban and industrial centers of Continental and Eastern Europe, marine aerosols, formed over Mediterranean itself or transported from the North Atlantic, and biomass smoke often produced by seasonal forest fires.
Transport of Saharan dust from the North African arid regions towards Mediterranean and coastal Europe has been widely investigated, either in the form of statistical analyses or as "case studies" using ground-based instrumentation, sun photometers, lidar and satellite observations [6–10]. In contrast, studies for the particle transport from the European continent to the Mediterranean Sea are still limited. However, a growing scientific interest in this topic is now developed, and in this way an international effort to quantify the impact of anthropogenic emissions on the Eastern Mediterranean is represented by the Mediterranean Intensive Oxidant Study (MINOS) campaign. That campaign highlighted the important role of pollutants in the Mediterranean atmosphere during summer [11]. Pollution transfer models have also been successfully utilized to investigate the export pathways of air pollution from Europe [12, 13]. Nevertheless, the investigation of the export of pollutants from the industrialized areas surrounding the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean Sea is not an easy task due to the fact that a large number of aerosols and gas precursors (including organic and inorganic compounds) contribute to it. Model calculations also indicate that pollutants emitted from Central and Eastern Europe are transported towards the Eastern Mediterranean [14], and hence, anthropogenic aerosols and their direct radiative effects are considered to be significant. In addition to long-range transport, this region is affected from pollution caused by local metropolitan areas, such as Athens. The identification of clean marine conditions over Eastern Mediterranean is particularly rare, due to the influence of continental aerosols (natural and anthropogenic). Prospero et al. [15] investigated aerosols over different oceanic areas and reported that the Mediterranean ones were heavily contaminated by dust and anthropogenic pollutants. Moreover, Heintzenberg et al. [16] excluded Mediterranean and other closed seas (Baltic, Yellow Sea) as not representative for the investigation of chemical composition of marine aerosols.
The MODIS products of aerosol optical depth at (550 nm) (AO ) and fine-mode (FM) fraction were obtained over Athens covering the period February 2000–December 2005. These observations, in combination with the air-mass trajectories, aim to identify the aerosol types originating from different sectors and determine their seasonal optical properties. A recent work by Kaskaoutis et al. [17] investigated the optical properties of specific aerosol types over Athens, while Kosmopoulos et al. [18] analyzed the seasonal variation of three different aerosol types; both studies used the same data set. The main contribution of the present study, though, is the investigation of the prime pathways favoring the presence of specific aerosol types over Athens. Such a long-term ( 6 years) analysis associating the aerosol types and properties with air-mass trajectories constitutes the first study conducted over Athens. It is also highlighted that different aerosol types can occur simultaneously in the atmosphere transported by air masses of different origins. In addition, the major role of the vertical transport is underlined favoring the domination of different aerosol types in relation to the season and the synoptic meteorological patterns.
2. Data Collection
2.1. MODIS Retrievals
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) was launched in December 1999 on the polar orbiting NASA-EOS Terra spacecraft with a dayside equatorial 10:30 AM local crossing time. Aerosol retrievals from MODIS data are performed over land and ocean surfaces by means of two separate algorithms thoroughly described in Kaufman and Tanré [19]. The two aerosol products employed in this study are (1) the optical thickness at 550 nm (AO ) and (2) the fine-mode fraction (FM). The latter is derived as the ratio of optical depth of small mode versus effective optical depth at 550 nm. The MODIS aerosol products are only created for cloud-free regions, although Levy et al. [20] showed that MODIS can retrieve optical properties even in case that a 10 × 10 km pixel (Level 2) is about 90% cloudy. Both AO and FM data used in the present study were retrieved by MODIS and correspond to Collection 5 (C005) data. The FM fraction was initially given over ocean. Nevertheless, Chu et al. [21] showed that the separation of fine- and coarse-mode particles is also possible over land by comparing the path radiances at 660 and 470 nm. Therefore, FM can also be obtained over land and coastal areas.
The validation of MODIS aerosol products is usually achieved by comparing them with the AERONET AOD data [22]. The retrieval accuracy is ( AOD) over land [23] and ( AOD) over ocean [24]. Over land, even larger errors can be found in coastal zones due to subpixel water contamination. This effect tends to produce AOD overestimation [21]. Similarly, a significant water-color contribution can reduce the ocean AOD retrieval quality in coastal areas. At higher AOD values accompanied with desert aerosols larger uncertainty is caused in their retrieval due to the complexity of the dust nonsphericity problem [24, 25]. Analyzing numerous Mediterranean sites, Remer et al. [24] indicated that the particle size-dependent parameters (such as FM) are retrieved with an accuracy of 25%. Even though both AO and FM values corresponding to new Collection 5 datasets [20, 26] are more accurate than the previous version, Collection 4 [27], shows an overestimation for low AO values and underestimation for high AO values compared to AERONET retrievals. Unfortunately, such an intercomparison cannot be performed over Athens during the study period because of lack of ground-based data.
The MODIS aerosol products (AO and FM) provided over Athens in a spatial resolution of (Level 3). A total of 1804 daily data were collected from 26 February 2000 to 31 December 2005 [17, 18]. The winter, spring, summer, and autumn days represent the 20.8%, 25.7%, 28.4%, and 25.1% of the whole dataset, respectively. Thanks to the long-term period (2000–2005) the MODIS data are employed to evaluate the seasonal variability of the aerosol types over the region.
2.2. HYSLPIT Retrievals
The HYSPLIT model [28] is used for the identification of the main sectors, which favors the presence of specific aerosol types over Athens. Three different altitudes are used for the sector discrimination since the various aerosol types over Mediterranean coming from different directions are mainly transported in different altitudes. Air mass back-trajectories ending at Athens at three altitudes, 500, 1000, and 4000 m a.s.l., are calculated by the HYSPLIT model including model vertical wind. The National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis is used as model input. The HYSPLIT back trajectories refer to 11:00 UTC close to the Terra-MODIS overpass, on a daily basis. Previous investigations on Saharan dust outbreaks in Athens [29] and Northern Greece [30] showed that the dust outflow from the Sahara to the Eastern Mediterranean occurs mainly in the first 4-5 km. Therefore, the selection of the 4000 m altitude for the identification of the Saharan dust particles is appropriate. The trajectory ending at 1000 m is associated with cases of dust transported in the lower atmospheric layers, or when the mixed layer is low as in winter [31], conversely, when air masses originate from other regions (e.g., continental Europe) are generally observed within the lowest 2-3 km [11].
3.1. Identification of the Aerosol Types
In order to reduce the complexity of the aerosol field, some general types can be determined depending on the aerosol origin and optical properties. Over Athens, three main aerosol types are expected to be dominant in the atmospheric load: (1) continental aerosols produced by local industries, anthropogenic activities, or seasonal forest fires, (2) maritime aerosols produced at the sea surface by the winds, and (3) desert dust originating from the North African arid regions. Due to their different origins, these aerosol types generally show remarkably different optical and physicochemical characteristics [32]. More specifically, in urban environments aerosol optical properties are dominated by fine-mode particles [33], while desert dust is strongly contaminated by coarse particles [34]. In marine environments, the relative contribution of coarse particles, although variable [35], is general higher than in urban atmospheres and lower than for desert dust. A method originally proposed by Barnaba and Gobbi [4] was implemented to distinguish three main aerosol types over Athens, urban/industrial (UI), clean maritime (CM), and desert dust (DD). Based on the combination of AO and FM values, the presence of the three aerosol types was separated over Athens on seasonal basis [17]. The method was based on the sensitivity of the two parameters to different, somewhat independent, microphysical aerosol properties: the fine-mode fraction depends on the size of the particles, while AO depends both on the aerosol column density and, secondarily, on size. For the identification of UI aerosols the AO values above 0.2 associated with significant FM contribution to the total AOD (above 80%) were obtained, while the threshold values for the DD aerosols were AO and . The CM conditions occurred for AO and . The cases not belonging in any of these groups are characterized as "undetermined" (mixed) aerosols and have been excluded from the present analysis. It was found [17] that these cases constitute the 46.6% of the whole dataset (842 out of 1804). The remaining 442 cases (24.5%) belong to the UI type, 183 (10.2%) correspond to CM conditions, while 337 (18.7%) to DD. Because of its simplicity, the discrimination method used is associated with some arbitrariness (e.g., incorrect aerosol-type interpretation), particularly at the threshold values between the aerosol types. However, the inclusion of the "undetermined" aerosol type takes provision for overestimating the presence of UI, CM, or DD aerosols. Despite its simplicity, this scheme seems to be appropriate for the aerosol discrimination over Athens as previous studies proved [17, 18]. Moreover, it was found that the UI aerosols are associated with air masses from the European sector, the CM conditions with fast moving Atlantic air masses, while the coarse-mode aerosols, probably DD, were related with air masses from the African continent. All the above give credit to the validity of the discrimination scheme and the relationship between the different aerosol types with air masses from their favorable sector. All these are quite important especially in the absence of ground-based measurements for justification of the satellite retrievals. However, the present results are in close agreement with previous studies over Eastern Mediterranean and Greece, which used ground-based measurements.
3.2. Identification of the Aerosol Origin
Four-day back trajectories ending at Athens were calculated by means of the HYSPLIT dispersion model to identify the origin of the air masses. The 4-day analysis seems to be appropriate for the scope of the study, since the air masses can be transported over long distances, such as North Atlantic and Europe before reaching over Athens. Furthermore, it was found that the use of 4 or 6 days does not significantly deviate the results. Each computed trajectory is associated with the corresponding aerosol optical characteristics. However, relating column-integrated quantities to trajectories at specific altitudes maybe problematic and does not give a clear view of the dominant aerosol type. It was found that the definition of the sector might be different proportionally to the air mass altitude used. Therefore, great differences in the aerosol origin may be revealed if the analysis is based on back trajectories in the free troposphere (4000 m) or in the boundary layer (1000 and 500 m). This investigation constitutes the main goal of the present study. Nevertheless, back trajectories have been widely used in connection with aerosol optical depth and Ångström exponent [36–38] in order to identify various aerosol types. For the investigation of the main pathways favoring the presence of each aerosol type over Athens, five geographical sectors are defined (Figure 1) in relation to different aerosol sources. The selected sectors are the following:
Separation of the regions acting as origins for the air masses ending at GAA. The location of GAA is indicated by an asterisk.
(a)a Southern sector, associated with the African region; the main source is the Sahara desert;(b)a Western sector, which includes the Western Mediterranean basin, the Atlantic Ocean, the Iberian Peninsula, and Western France; the main aerosol type is of marine origin;(c)a North, Northwestern sector, including Central-Western Europe; the dominant aerosols are of anthropogenic origin;(d)a North, Northeastern sector, including Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union counties; the aerosols are expected to be of anthropogenic origin or seasonal forest fires;(e)a local sector including continental Greece and neighboring Balkan countries, Aegean Sea, and the Libyan Sea; the dominant aerosol type is of local emissions (mainly anthropogenic) and in some cases dust transported from Libya.
However, a degree of arbitrariness in the definition of the sectors exists, due to the effective distribution of the sources. Nevertheless, Pace et al. [36] showed that a little change in the borders of the sectors does not significantly affect the results on climatological basis. Also, they found that the use of different back-trajectories with varying duration (3 or 7 days) does not significantly modify the average optical properties in each sector. Therefore, the simple trajectory classification scheme (Figure 1) appears sufficiently robust to allow the identification of the main aerosol types. Previous studies (e.g., [39]) identified the air-mass origin sector by considering the time spent along the trajectory or using more sophisticated correlation methodologies [39] or cluster analysis [30]. Furthermore, previous results showed that dust could be detected even after a quick passage over the African continent [40]. Therefore, the time spent in each sector or the start of the air mass 4 days before reaching over Athens does not always provide reliable information about the aerosol origin. For this reason a different method was used to identify the air mass sector, taking into account the altitude of the air trajectories and possible interactions with the boundary layer. The same method has been developed and used by Pace et al. [36] and Meloni et al. [31], while an extensive description is given there. Nevertheless, a briefly overview is provided here.
It is assumed that the aerosol origin is confined to the mixed layer at the source location, when the air mass is inside the mixed layer at the source location. When this is not the case, the source of the trajectory is defined in the sector where the air mass interacts with the mixed layer. This criterion is satisfied when the air mass altitude is lower or close to the altitude of the mixed layer. The mixed layer is defined by the HYSPLIT model as the height where the potential temperature first exceeds the surface value by 2 K, while a minimum value of 250 m is assumed [36]. If this condition is met more than once and at different sectors along the trajectory path, the sector is defined as the one where the air mass spends most of the time inside the boundary layer. In almost all the cases (95%) this criterion was satisfied for the air masses ending at 1000 m, while for 70% of the air masses ending at 4000 m this criterion was not met. Nevertheless, the majority of the air masses at 4000 m coming from North Africa satisfy this criterion, since the mixed-layer altitude is much larger over the African continent [31]. In the cases where the above criterion is not satisfied, the sector is defined as the one where the air mass spends more time. In order to include an air mass to B sector, it must spend more than 75% of the 4 days above sea surface (Atlantic Ocean and/or Mediterranean Sea).
In the present study the aerosol properties (AO and FM) are computed over Athens for each sector and trajectory altitude, separately. It is obvious (see Tables 1, 2, 3, and 4) that the number of occurrences in each sector and the mean AO and FM values differentiate proportionally to the air-mass altitude used for the sector definition. Therefore, the choice of the air-mass altitude constitutes the most complicated parameter for the sector identification and, as a consequence, the investigation on the computed differences constitutes a real challenge.
Trajectory altitude FM Year Winter Spring Summer Autumn
500 m A 155 (16%) 16% 25% 25% 34%
B 87 (9%) 33% 18% 20% 29%
C 317 (33%) 16% 21% 39% 24%
D 285 (30%) 8% 33% 35% 24%
E 118 (12%) 8% 34% 26% 31%
1000 m A 196 (20%) 15% 26% 24% 36%
B 108 (11%) 28% 15% 25% 32%
E 97 (10%) 10% 32% 26% 32%
D 51 (5%) 8% 41% 31% 20%
E 35 (4%) 0% 23% 49% 29%
Mean values of AOD550 and FM fraction for all aerosol types over GAA. These values correspond to the whole dataset. The number and the relative frequency of the trajectories from each sector are also given for the three altitude levels: 500 m, 1000 m, and 4000 m.
500 m A 40 (9%) 5% 48% 23% 25%
B 14 (3%) 14% 64% 14% 7%
C 120 (27%) 8% 42% 34% 17%
E 70 (16%) 7% 37% 21% 34%
1000 m A 65 (14%) 6% 45% 14% 35%
4000 m A 93 (21%) 16% 45% 15% 24%
B 209 (47%) 4% 43% 33% 20%
C 86 (19%) 8% 41% 26% 26%
As in Table 1, but for the UI aerosols.
500 m A 27 (15%) 48% 4% 0% 48%
B 47 (26%) 55% 11% 0% 34%
C 77 (43%) 52% 10% 13% 25%
D 17 (9%) 35% 12% 18% 35%
E 14 (7%) 29% 64% 7% 0%
1000 m A 30 (17%) 53% 7% 0% 40%
B 50 (27%) 54% 6% 2% 38%
D 13 (7%) 46% 0% 8% 46%
E 8 (4%) 25% 0% 13% 63%
B 127 (70%) 50% 8% 5% 37%
D 5 (3%) 40% 0% 40% 20%
E 2 (1%) 0% 0% 0% 100%
As in Table 1, but for the CM aerosols.
500 m A 88 (26%) 11% 22% 33% 34%
B 26 (8%) 4% 8% 58% 31%
C 120 (36%) 1% 8% 61% 30%
D 69 (20%) 1% 7% 70% 22%
1000 m A 101 (30%) 9% 19% 38% 35%
B 46 (14%) 2% 11% 52% 35%
B 141 (42%) 3% 6% 56% 35%
C 54 (17%) 0% 4% 70% 26%
D 12 (3%) 0% 8% 58% 33%
E 12 (3%) 0% 8% 92% 0%
As in Table 1, but for the DD aerosols.
4.1. Seasonal Distribution of the Back Trajectories
Table 1 summarizes the number of occurrences in each sector based on the three altitudes selected. Regarding the whole dataset (Table 1) it is concluded that the choice of the air-trajectory altitude for the sector identification plays a very crucial role, since large variations can emerge for the air masses traveling within the boundary layer and in the free troposphere. Regarding the lower altitude (500 m) it is seen that the majority of the air masses correspond to Northwestern (33%) and Northern (30%) directions, while these originating from the Atlantic Ocean are very few (only 9%). A rather significant fraction (16%) corresponds to air masses of Saharan origin, thus leading to vertical dust transport [41]. It is also worth noticing that the majority of the cases belonging to local emissions (sector E) correspond to air masses in the lower atmospheric layers. As the altitude increases, the air mass changes sector with preference to western directions due to the dominant western flow in the free troposphere occurring in the temperate zone. Thus, the Atlantic air masses (sector B) represent 50% of the air masses over Athens in the free troposphere (4000 m). Furthermore, a large fraction (24%) corresponds to African air masses, suggesting that the Saharan outflow over Eastern Mediterranean occurs mainly in the free troposphere. On the other hand, only few cases correspond to air masses from Northeast or local origin at 4000 m.
Very interesting findings can be revealed when the above analysis is performed for each season. In Figure 2 the seasonal frequency distribution (%) of the air masses is given for any altitude and sector together with the number of available cases, N. In winter, the majority of the air masses, specifically at 4000 m, belong to Sector B, further verifying the clean atmospheric conditions occurred in this season [18]. This distribution is essentially produced by the annual evolution of the meteorological synoptic patterns over the Eastern Mediterranean, with strong Northwestern and Western winds in winter as a consequence of the cyclonic circulation patterns. The Saharan air masses exhibit almost the same frequency with the C sector while that of the other two directions is very low. In spring and summer the above situation is clearly reversed since the majority of the air masses influencing Athens belong to the Northwestern and Northeastern directions, especially for air masses within the boundary layer. In summer, a strong North pressure gradient is developed over the Aegean Sea as a consequence of the combined effects of the North Balkan high-pressure system with the low-pressure one developed in Eastern Levantine Basin. This pressure pattern is associated with air masses from the Northern Balkan countries, whilst the Etesians are quite strong in many cases. These winds carry either pollution and biomass-burning aerosols, affecting mainly Northern Greece [42, 43], or sea-spray particles from the Aegean Sea before reaching Athens. This is the reason for the dominance of the D sector in late spring and summer. Our results are in agreement with those of Stohl et al. [12] and Duncan and Bey [13], who show that the main continental outflow at the lower atmospheric levels towards the Eastern Mediterranean occurs during summer; this flow is greatly reduced during the other seasons. Also, a significant fraction (18%–28%) corresponds to air masses from Saharan desert especially at the 4000-m altitude. A recent work by Sciare et al. [44] investigated the contribution of different aerosol sources in the Eastern Mediterranean basin, showing that this region is influenced by a wide range of air masses originating mainly from Europe and Africa during summertime. In autumn all the sectors contribute almost in the same way to the air masses reaching Athens, with a shift towards West as the altitude increases. For a more detailed analysis in the followings, the air-mass classification is given for each aerosol type separately aiming at investigating about the main pathways favoring the presence of specific aerosol types over Athens.
Seasonal frequency (%) distribution of the air-mass trajectories at three atmospheric levels over GAA for the whole dataset. The number of data, N, in each season is also given.
4.2. Main Sectors for the Occurrence of Each Aerosol Type
In this Section the above analysis is divided into three classes according to the dominant aerosol type over Athens and the criteria described in Section 3. For cases corresponding to the UI type, the majority of the trajectories belong to the Northeastern Sector (see Figure 3 and Table 2). The main finding regarding the favorable direction for UI type over Athens leads to a Northern flow, mainly from Eastern Europe, within the boundary layer (500 and 1000 m). In contrast, the use of the air masses at 4000 m shows a preferable western and south direction in agreement with the western circulation patterns occurring in the free atmosphere at Northern mid latitudes. Note that a significant number of African air masses (9%–21%) can be characterized as UI aerosols in the Athens urban environment. In these cases the Saharan outflow is weak and the boundary layer anthropogenic aerosols dominate. Therefore, the necessity of using vertical aerosol profiles in order to distinguish different aerosol types in an urban environment is obvious [29]. Air masses belonging to Sector A can have high FM values (such as 0.93) indicative of anthropogenic rather than Saharan dust aerosols. This fact was also obvious in Lampedusa [36] where in some cases dust-loading air masses were mixed with smoke aerosols from forest fires in the coastal areas of Algeria. Moreover, the occurrence of UI conditions is not favored by Atlantic air masses at the lower altitudes, since they strongly interact with the marine boundary layer. Inversely, a significant contribution to these conditions (13%–16%) is provided by the local air masses within the boundary layer favored under stagnant atmospheric conditions. The air-trajectory pattern suggests a prevalent northerly flow at the lower altitudes, where transport of pollutants mainly occurs [42]. In addition, Lelieveld et al. [11] revealed a dominant northerly flow below 4 km in Crete, further confirming our results and those of Stohl et al. [12] and Duncan and Bey [13]. Conversely, in the middle and upper troposphere, Lelieveld et al. [11] found westerly/southerly winds to prevail over Crete. Similarly to the latter, the present analysis for the UI aerosol type over Athens reveals considerable influence from westerly air masses (47%) at 4000 m compared to only 3% in the boundary layer (Table 2). The close agreement of the present results with those of previous studies supports the validity of the identification scheme for the aerosol type discrimination [17] and, in general, the satellite retrievals and the methodology used despite the lack of intercomparison with ground-based measurements.
Frequency (%) distribution of the air-mass trajectories at three atmospheric levels over GAA for the UI aerosol type. The number of data, N, is also given.
Regarding the air masses favoring the presence of CM conditions over Athens (Figure 4, Table 3) it is obvious that the B and C Sectors dominate. The majority of the air masses from Sector B belong to the free troposphere (4000 m) for the reasons mentioned above. These results are in agreement with relevant studies in Northern Greece [30] who found more transparent atmospheric conditions associated with air masses from the Atlantic Ocean and Western Europe. Pay attention also to the very low frequencies related to the D and E Sectors, both favoring the trans-boundary pollution transport or the accumulation of aerosols. It is also worth mentioning the significant fraction of air masses from the African continent (12%–17%) that, in general, do not favor the presence of clean atmospheres over Mediterranean. It was found that in these cases either is the dust outflow very weak or wet scavenging via precipitation occurs during its transport over Mediterranean before reaching Athens. It was also found that 70% of these cases include precipitation over Athens, while the majority of the air masses belonging to Sector C have initial Atlantic origin.
Same as in Figure 3, but for the CM aerosol type.
As expected, the DD aerosol type occurs mainly from air masses originating from the Sahara desert, especially for air trajectories at 4000 m (35%, see Table 4). Thus, it is concluded that the 4000 m level for the identification of Saharan outflows is reliable as has also been suggested from a variety of studies [40, 45]. The most unexpected feature is the high occurrence of air masses from C (32%–36%) and D (16%–20%) Sectors within the boundary layer (1000 m and 500 m), which favor the presence of DD type over Athens. As clearly mentioned above, only a fraction of the DD type corresponds to dust particles and the occurrence of such aerosols associated with a northern flow maybe related to sea-spray or soil coarse-mode particles lifted from the Aegean Sea and transported above Athens. There should be noticed the great differences in the occurrence of DD type revealed from the trajectory analysis (Figure 5). Thus, the Saharan dust aerosols originating from the Sector A are mainly identified by the trajectories at 4000 m, while the coarse-mode particles from northern directions (mainly soil materials and sea spray) seem to travel within the boundary layer. As also expected, the presence of DD type associated with Atlantic air masses is low, mainly occurring in cases that these air masses (specifically at 4000 m) pass near the African continent. It was also found (not presented) that nearly the whole of the air masses originating from Sector E, and associated with DD aerosols over Athens, come from the south direction (North Libyan Sea) enriched with desert particles.
Same as in Figure 3, but for the DD aerosol type.
The above fractions are strongly modified proportionally to the season, and this will be further analyzed. This seasonal variation is mainly driven by the meteorological and synoptic circulation patterns over Eastern Mediterranean, the local emissions, the meteorological fields favoring the dust outbreaks, the wind speed and direction, and the removal processes. The above analysis is repeated for each individual season in order to establish the differences in the frequency of occurrence for each Sector.
The dominance of UI type in spring is apparent in Figure 6 (N = 195). The back trajectory distribution of UI type in spring is closely related to the whole dataset (Figure 2). In winter, despite the low occurrence of the UI type (N = 34), its presence is favored by air masses from the D Sector for air masses within the boundary layer. The large occurrence of air masses from the B Sector at 4000 m is not associated with local pollution, which is mainly attributed to air masses in the boundary layer. Furthermore, significant contribution to the UI type is provided by the local stagnant air masses (Sector E) mainly in the warm period of the year.
Seasonal frequency (%) distribution of the air-mass trajectories at three atmospheric levels over GAA for the UI aerosol type. The number of data, N, in each season is also given.
Clean maritime conditions are rare over Athens, occurring mainly in winter, and are generally associated with air masses originating from North Atlantic and to a lesser extent from Western and Central Europe (Figure 7, Table 3). The CM cases belonging to Sector C are associated with fast-moving air masses exhibiting a descent trajectory when reaching Athens, thus not carrying air pollutants from Continental Europe. Note also that these air masses are very few in spring and summer, when they contribute to the trans-boundary air pollution (Figure 6). It is also worth noticing that in all seasons the CM conditions over Athens associated with Sectors D and E are nearly absent at any level. CM conditions can also be found from air masses originating from the African region. Note that nearly all of them occur in winter and autumn and none in summer. The majority of them are associated with wet removal processes before reaching Athens.
The most interesting features regarding the seasonal distribution of the trajectories are depicted for the DD type (Figure 8, Table 4). Figure 8 gives support to our previous statements regarding different origins of the coarse-mode particles (referred to as DD) proportionally to the season. Thus, in winter nearly the whole of the DD cases are associated with air masses from Saharan origin (sector A). It is also worth noticing that the African air masses carry desert-dust aerosols at all altitudes favoring the vertical dust transport this season, a feature which is in close agreement with Kalivitis et al. [41] results. In spring, the Saharan contribution to the coarse particles remains the dominant process, with the only difference being the higher number of air masses at 4000 m (70%) enhancing the dust transport in the free troposphere. In further contrast, in summer the above situation is reversed and the coarse-mode particles are most associated with air masses from northern directions, Sectors C and D. The lower AO values of the DD type in summer compared to the spring ones also verify our assumptions, as only part of these DD cases is associated with Saharan desert-dust particles. In early autumn, a similar situation seems to exist, while in late autumn the conditions approach those of winter. Therefore, in autumn similar percentages of the C and A Sectors take place. Regarding the Saharan outflow, the upper troposphere transport dominates in summer and the vertical in autumn, in agreement with the transport observed over Crete [41]. All the above findings are presented in Figure 9, where the differences in the occurrences of each aerosol type proportionally to the transport altitude are clearly depicted.
Contour plot of the seasonal frequency distribution of the air-mass trajectories at three atmospheric levels over GAA for all aerosol types. The white gaps correspond to lack of data.
4.3. Back Trajectories and Aerosol Properties
In this section the AO and FM values for each aerosol type are studied with respect to the back trajectories at the three altitudes selected. The mean and the standard deviations of the AO and FM values are given in Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4 for the whole dataset, UI, CM, and DD aerosol types, respectively. The number of the available data is also given for each sector and air-mass altitude.
Values of AO and FM averaged over the whole experimental period are about 0.38 and 0.61 for Sector A, while the lowest values ( 0.34 and 0.58) are associated with air masses from Sector B. The lowest AO and FM from this sector are expected because of the dominance of marine aerosols. On the other hand, the highest AO ( 0.37–0.40) in conjunction with the highest FM values (0.63–0.65) are associated with pollution air masses from Eastern Europe and local emissions (Sectors D and E, resp.). Zerefos et al. [43] showed enhanced columnar S values over northern Greece that correspond to northeastern directions mainly during summertime, providing further evidence for the pollution transport. In addition, this sector has been also affected by severe biomass burning episodes [46]. Sector E is representative mostly for local circulation patterns, and therefore, the enhanced AO and FM values should be attributed to local pollution with some enhancement at the higher altitudes by Saharan dust from Libya (see the higher AO values at 4000 m). Finally, a great part of the measurements at all altitudes (17%–35%) corresponds to Sector C, which is representative at northwestern flow from Central Europe. The lower AO compared to Sector D could be a consequence of the control in emissions and air pollution in the countries of Western and Central Europe.
It is obvious that for the whole dataset the differences in the air-mass altitudes and in the number of trajectory occurrences do not affect the aerosol properties in the vertical. Nevertheless, larger differences are computed for the FM values rather than AO . These results are in agreement with those presented by Pace et al. [36] who prepared a similar sensitivity study changing the border of the sectors and the duration of the back-trajectories. They also found higher differences in -Ångström rather than AOD. The mean AO and FM values computed in our analysis are in close agreement with the results obtained for Northern Greece by Amiridis et al. [30], who found higher AODs to correspond to eastern, local, and southern sectors and lower for the western. These also agree with the results conducted by Formenti et al. [39] at Mount Athos (North Greece) in June–September 1998. They found that the largest values of α correspond to air masses coming from Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union. Furthermore, Pace et al. [36] found that low values of -Ångström at Lampedusa were measured for air masses coming from North Africa, while air masses originating from Europe showed progressively increasing values.
Table 2 summarizes the mean and standard deviations of AO and FM values proportionally to the Sector and air-mass altitude for the UI type. Due to the limited range of FM values corresponding to the UI type (0.8–1.0) the differences in this parameter are negligible. Also, very high AO values, varying from 0.42 to 0.48, are computed almost independently from the sector and the air-mass altitude. As previously mentioned, the UI type is favored by air masses within the boundary layer and the aerosol properties can more safely be studied for trajectories at 500 and 1000 m. Therefore, the higher AO is associated with air masses from the Sectors D and E, further confirming the transport or the accumulation of pollutants. The high mean AO values corresponding to the Sector B (0.45) are referred to a limited number of data (3%) and are attributed to three days when the Athens environment can be characterized as "pollution smog." The large standard deviations also confirm that these values are not representative for the whole dataset. An additional interesting finding is the highest mean AO values (0.47 and 0.48) corresponding to air masses at 4000 m from Sectors A and E. It was found that 18 out of 21 cases from the Sector E correspond to air masses from south directions (Libyan Sea) enriched with dust aerosols at the upper levels. Therefore, under such conditions, that is, heavy anthropogenic aerosols in the boundary layer associated with uplifted layer of Saharan dust enhance the aerosol load over Athens.
As regards the CM aerosol type, the lowest AO ( 0.13) corresponds to Sector B (Table 3). Since the AO range is limited (0–0.2) for this type, no large variations between the sectors and air-mass altitudes in the AO values are observed. Nevertheless, air masses probably carrying desert particles from Sector A or pollution from Sector D exhibit little higher AO values (0.15-0.16). On the other hand, higher variations are observed regarding the FM values. Therefore, the higher contribution of the coarse-mode particles (desert dust or sea spray) as well as the contribution of the fine-mode aerosols (local or transported pollution) to the total AO is more intense for the Sectors A, B (0.46–0.51) and D, E (0.55–0.62), respectively.
As regards the DD type, it was established that this type can be divided into two groups: (a) desert-dust aerosols of Saharan origin and (b) coarse-mode particles (sea-spray or soil dust) from northern directions. The AO and FM values at the three altitudes presented in Table 4 further confirm the previous assumptions. An increase in AO values (from 0.53 to 0.57) from Sector A is observed as the air-mass altitude increases; this suggests that the dust transport over GAA occurs mainly in the free troposphere. Inversely, lower AO values (0.49 to 0.54) correspond to Sector D, exhibiting a decreasing trend with the air-mass altitude. As expected, the lowest AO values (0.44) are associated with air masses from the Atlantic Ocean. Another interesting feature is the very high AO value (0.59 0.24), despite the limited number of cases (12), corresponding to air masses at 4000 m from Sector E. Additionally, even in cases when DD is the dominant aerosol type in the vertical, the local emissions and the anthropogenic aerosols associated with Sectors D and E increase the FM values, which are the lowest for air masses originating in Sector B.
Terra-MODIS aerosol products (AO and FM) obtained over Athens, Greece, have been analyzed in order to provide information about the climatological characteristics of the aerosol optical properties. The data cover the period February 2000–December 2005. Based on AO and FM values three main aerosol types corresponding to urban/industrial (UI) aerosols, clean maritime (CM) conditions, and coarse-mode desert dust (DD) particles were discriminated. The investigation of the source regions, via 4-day air-mass back-trajectory analysis at three altitudes, showed that the UI type is favored by air masses within the boundary layer originating from Eastern Europe or due to local emissions. In contrast, the desert-dust conditions are associated with African air masses mainly at the upper atmospheric levels, while clean maritime conditions, although rare, are associated with fast-moving air masses from the Atlantic Ocean. In almost all cases, African aerosols display high values of AO and low values of FM, typical of Saharan dust (mean values of AO and FM are 0.39 and 0.60, resp.). Particles originating from Eastern Europe show relatively large average values of AO and FM (0.38 and 0.65) respectively, while particles from North Atlantic show the lowest AO values (0.34) and relatively small values of FM (0.60), which are consistent with those of maritime aerosols. However, the identification of the aerosol type and properties based on air-mass trajectories is a rather difficult thing due to fast changes in the aerosol vertical distribution, which is caused by air masses of different origins in the vertical column. Many variations in the observed patterns of the aerosol types were attributed to the transport origins and meteorological conditions. Overall, this may overemphasize the importance of the processes relative to chemistry, emissions source strengths, and local influences on the observed variability of the aerosol type and properties. The close agreement of our results with other studies and chemical transport models gives credit to the analysis used in order to identify the transport mechanisms of different aerosol types over Athens. Therefore, the present methodology seems to be sufficient in monitoring the long-range transport of aerosols and pollutants at different atmospheric levels and can also be applicable for air-quality studies. However, despite the consistency of the present results with those of chemical transport models, the long-range transport may not always be the most importance factor in determining the observed aerosol properties over Athens. Therefore, some open issues still exist. How does the strong seasonal variability in the aerosol sources, such as secondary organic aerosols or photochemical pollution, affect the variability in the observed aerosol types? How does the effectiveness of sulfate aerosol formation in cloud processing impact the results? How does the mass of aerosols transported along any given trajectory vary or weigh the importance of that trajectory in the overall analysis? The approach taken in this manuscript cannot really address such issues, which would require chemical transport modeling to understand.
The authors would like to thank the MODIS science data support team (past and present) for processing data via Giovanni website. The HYSPLIT scientific team for providing the back-trajectory plots is also gratefully acknowledged.
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Byzantium, in all its forms, was an influential society, drawing many different peoples into its sphere. This influence, however, was neither one-way nor top-down. Cultures from beyond the borders of the Empire also impacted on life within it. Interaction and exchange between cultures was both direct and indirect, spanning from Scandinavia, Latin Europe, Africa and into the Islamic world and the Eurasian steppe. Learning, not exclusively classical knowledge, passed not only from culture to culture but from generation to generation; migration and settlement as well as trade and direct conflict all brought different communities into contact throughout the Mediterranean and beyond. What followed could include the translation of literature, the mimesis of art and architecture and religious conversions, as well as the practical adoption of customs, clothing and foods. The Roman Empire, its continuator in the Eastern Mediterranean and all the successor states were deeply involved in all manner of cross-cultural exchanges throughout their existences.
Please send an abstract of no more than 250 words, along with a short academic biography in the third person, to the Oxford University Byzantine Society at byzantine.society@gmail.com by Friday, 28th November 2014. Papers should be 20 minutes in length, and may be delivered in English or French.
As with our previous two conferences, there will be a publication of selected on-theme and inter-related papers, chosen and reviewed by specialist readers from the University of Oxford's Late Antique and Byzantine Studies department. Any speakers wishing to have their papers considered for publication should try to be as on-theme as possible in their abstract and paper. Nevertheless, all submissions are warmly invited.
More details will be sent to successful submissions soon after the deadline. Subject to funding, the OUBS hopes to offer subsidised accommodation for visiting speakers.
Please find a pdf of the call for papers here.
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Not Just a Knitting Shop, It's a knitter's dream world.
Country Yarns, located in Wallingford, Connecticut, has been in business for over 21 years and no where on earth can you find the quality, colors and textures of the yarns you are looking for, (and those you did not know existed).. all in one place.
You will find custom patterns & finishing, gifts & jewelry, buttons, sale items, beaded trim & handles, plus a huge supply of basic and unusual yarns.
We also feature knitting & spinning lessons and supplies.
The greatest gift the store offers it's customers is the display of unique, one of a kind garments, (ponchos, hats, handbags, sweaters, scarves, etc.) that can be found in every corner of the store. They reflect the enormous talent and creativity of its owner, Lauren, shared by the loyal followers who support the shop, an inspiration to all.
Treat yourself and make it a point to pay us a visit.


Thank you for being a Festival volunteer!
Festival costuming needs to be completed by July 16th as the apprentice costuming will follow and the costuming selection will be depleted. If you are an adult volunteer attending costuming, you may still fulfill the costuming needs of your children in the apprentice program. Festival participants who are not properly costumed will not be able to participate in Festival demonstrations.
If you are interested in making your own costume or want a costume made for you, refer to the Costuming section of the first mailing letter on page 2 for more details.
Want to volunteer but don't want to dress up? Help is needed in the kitchen, peeling peaches, and at the main gate. Email redmens_hall@goschenhoppen.org for more info or to sign up!
All demonstration leaders needing to order food supplies and paper goods need to work with Folk Festival Purchasing Agent as soon as possible. They will work with you to get both the quality and quantity of supplies you need. All orders must be placed by June 14th. Refer to the Ordering section of the first mailing letter on page 3 for more details.
If you wish to bring and donate your own supplies, kindly make sure they are not also ordered. For all other supply needs, contact your Festival Committee Chairperson (see listing enclosed in 1st mailing letter). Remember that the primary purpose of these supplies is to support the demonstration and provide samples, not servings. Supplies ordered are to be allocated for the duration of the festival. We do not restock demonstration supplies on Friday to support Saturday's festival.
Information will be available in July.
Sale items must be relevant to your craft and time-period as well as something you could produce at the Festival if requested to do so. All for sale items must be pre-approved by your Committee Chairperson prior to the Festival and be listed on your green reply card. We ask for a 10% commission on gross sales, and our treasurer needs this information in advance. Please pay this commission before leaving the grounds Saturday after 6pm at the Festival Finance Office at the rear of the kitchen building.
In this age of digital and social media, there are many people taking photographs and videos at the Goschenhoppen Folk Festival. We have no control over these photographers and videographers. As such, your participation in the Goschenhoppen Folk Festival constitutes your agreement to hold harmless and release and forever discharge Goschenhoppen Historians of responsibility and accountability related to photographs and videos taken at the Goschenhoppen Folk Festival.
A granting of permission for the Goschenhoppen Historians Inc. to use your likeness in a photograph or video taken at the Goschenhoppen Folk Festival in any and all of its publications, including but not limited to all Goschenhoppen Historians' printed and digital publications, for publicity, promotional, documentary, and educational purposes.
Acknowledgement that you will receive no financial compensation for the use of a photograph or video with your likeness.
Irrevocable authorization for the Goschenhoppen Historians to edit, alter, copy, exhibit, publish, or distribute a photograph or video with your likeness for purposes of publicizing Goschenhoppen Historians' programs or for any other lawful purpose.
A waiving of any right to inspect or approve the finished product, including written or electronic copy, wherein your likeness appears.
A waiving of any right to royalties or other compensation arising or related to the use of the photograph or video.
Acknowledgement that you hold harmless and release and forever discharge Goschenhoppen Historians from all claims, demands, and causes of action which you or any other persons acting on your behalf have or may have by reason of this authorization.


It's 2019 and companies are moving toward their third year of gender pay gap reporting and whilst reporting the pay gap has not been without its problems, the world has already changed a great deal since the UK regulations commenced. There have been great changes in how we understand, talk about and engage with gender equality. The pay gap is increasingly talked about in the boardroom and bringing up the gap is not met with confusion these days as often as it is with a determination to do much more. Recently the UK gov released its actions to close the gender pay gap, and Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor shared an action plan around the gender pay gap but something else came with these changes - the conversation began to turn to ethnicity pay.
It's often said that change for one social group can lead to breaking down barriers for another, a campaign on an issue can fail to look outside itself, but it inherently opens doors and possibilities beyond its immediate realm - and this seems to be the case with looking at ethnicity pay reporting. Sadiq Khan recently stated "The colour of your skin should have no bearing on what you can achieve... this data clearly shows there is more work to be done... understanding the scale of this inequality is the first step in tackling it. At Gapsquare, we've consistently worked to be at the forefront of this conversation, most recently through the webinar 'Planning for the Future' which covered ethnicity pay reporting techniques extensively.
We've now gone way beyond this and, through the incredible experience of Patrick Alleyne, who led on ethnicity pay reporting for the Greater London Authority under Sadiq Khan, we have explored some of the key issues facing the ethnicity pay reporting regime. If you represent a company that is driven to open up the ethnicity pay reporting conversation - please do download the report below or take a look at our brief summary of the report before and get in touch if you'd like to talk about how we can help with developing and processing your data around this.
The great thing about gender pay gap reporting was that it required A) data most companies have about their employees and B) a single comparison between binary factors (Male, Female) but things aren't so simple with ethnicity pay reporting: 'many organisations either have not collected or have low levels of data on the ethnicity of employees' argues the report, so now is the time to start recording this data, and the report suggests some useful ways to get started. The report also argues that 'it would be highly inadequate to limit ethnicity pay gap reporting to a binary option, i.e. BAME earnings as a percentage of White earnings'. Read more to find out why.
At Gapsquare we are strong advocates of communicating well when it comes to publishing equalities data and ethnicity pay reporting will be no different. In fact, it might be the case that the need is even greater with reporting the ethnicity pay gap. There are a number of subtleties, outlined in Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting: Are You Prepared?, that could cause a lot of harm in terms of public and internal relations which can be mitigated with an excellent understanding of the data (which is Gapsquare's area of expertise, should you need any support with this, talk to the team ) and a communications and reporting approach that is communicative and clear. Ethnicity Pay Reporting argues that action plans and great communication is essential: "This paper firmly believes there should be a requirement for an action plan. This would give employers an opportunity to confirm their commitment to addressing the causes of pay disparity, establish measurements for year on year monitoring and to demonstrate to their employees and customers alike, that equality, diversity and inclusion are important."
So, now that we've started to really talk about the ethnicity pay gap, we can sideline the issue of gender, right? Wrong. For those of you who have experience deep-diving into pay data, you will know that there are a range of influences and cross-overs in experiences of disadvantage and that we can't look at ethnicity without breaking it down by other factors. This report covers the need to look at ethnicity pay broken down by gender: "It would not be unusual to find that the pay gap of women from a particular ethnic group is lower than that of males in the same ethnic group when compared to the white comparators." Not only could this reveal a great deal about the experiences of BME men and women in your workplaces, it could make you look differently at your ethnicity pay gap - the more you know about your data, the more intelligently you can tackle workplace inequality.
"Under the gender pay gap reporting regime many organisations compared their gender pay gap to the national and regional picture using the data derived from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). Again, this helped employers to provide context and meaning to their own results."
Patrick Alleyne, Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting: Are you Prepared?
Through the incredible range of data that Gapsquare has gathered and investigated over the years, we have been able to deduce that a lot can be learned by breaking down data by a variety of factors - including location. Your gender and ethnicity pay gap picture might be really different in your London office when compared to, say, your office in the midlands. There is so, so much to be learned, especially with ethnicity pay reporting, by looking at where your people are. Now, this is not the easiest thing to publish, as mentioned in the report, you have to be really conscious of not identifying an individual or small group of individuals in your workplace and outlining or sharing their specific experience, whilst still allowing exploration of location based data to be useful, but it could redefine how you approach making a change.
At Gapsquare we are 100% behind the development of ethnicity pay gap reporting regulations and are excited to see what comes of the recent consultation. We have seen how lively, engaging and progressive the gender pay gap reporting regulations have made the debate about fairer workplaces, we've seen eyes open and companies do incredible things to make a difference within their workplace.
However, as we await details of ethnicity pay reporting regulations, we know that there is nothing more important than that employers take ownership of their data today. Getting ahead of the game will give you time to develop your strategy, hone your work to improve matters and build a reputation as a truly progressive and inclusive employer.
If you're looking to get started and not sure how to approach data collection, please do get in touch with the Gapsquare team, we've got a vast range of experience with ethnicity pay reporting and can get you on the right track in a first, initial consultation. It's free, there's no obligation to use our analytical software and it might just redefine your policy and approach.
At Gapsquare, we have developed easy to use software which allows businesses and organisations to build equality and diversity into everything they do. The Gapsquare tool, Gapsquare FairPay, analyses and tracks pay disparity statistics and produces instant reports on HR & Payroll data, ready to be presented to teams for policy design and the creation of actions going forward. The Gapsquare team is made up of data, tech and AI experts and experienced equality and diversity practitioners who have built FairPay to automate pay gap & pay transparency reporting, allowing us to move forward on closing the gaps and build the fairer workplaces of the future.


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Tuesday Roundup: Pipeline Deal
By dyadmin On Nov 15, 2011 Last updated Nov 15, 2011
Pipeline developer TransCanada agreed Monday afternoon to alter the route of its proposed Keystone XL pipeline through Nebraska.
For months TransCanada said it was impossible to alter the route of the pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast. The route would take the line through the ecologically sensitive Sand Hills region of Nebraska and over the recharge zone of the Ogallala Aquifer.
Ranchers and then legislators objected to the route and asked TransCanada to move the pipeline east, where it wouldn't cross either the Sand Hills or the Ogallala. When the company refused, Gov. Dave Heineman called the legislature into a special session to consider laws that would give the state the power to order a new route. There appeared to be enough votes in the legislature to pass such a bill.
Monday, TransCanada made a deal with top Nebraska legislators. The company would move the route.
But that doesn't settle the issue. The U.S. State Department still must grant a permit for the entire pipeline project since it crosses an international border. Last week, the State Department announced that it would conduct a new review of the project and that the project must find a way around the Sand Hills and the Ogallala. The review is expected to take more than a year.
TransCanada believes that the agreement in Nebraska ended the conflict. "I believe we will put the routing issue completely behind us," said Alex Pourbaix, TransCanada's president of Energy and Oil Pipelines. "We have heard and we have listened to the people of the Sandhills."
A spokesman for the State Department said the agreement doesn't end its review. "Nothing has changed in the process since last Thursday's announcement as any new proposed routes will be subject to the thorough, rigorous and transparent review process we have undertaken throughout," said Mark Toner, deputy spokesman for the department.
"Given the process, we cannot provide a specific end-date, other than to say that based on the total mileage of potential alternative routes that would need to be reviewed, we anticipate the evaluation could conclude as early as first quarter of 2013," Toner said.
The actions last week and Friday thrilled the Nebraska ranchers and environmentalists who had opposed the Keystone project. "It's not often that citizens win against big oil, but they did today," Jane Kleeb, an anti-pipeline activist told the Omaha World-Herald. "But we do not trust TransCanada. They have bullied and misled landowners and citizens."
"This is a win-win for everybody," said Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood of Norfolk, who negotiated the deal.
Update: More details coming out about the deal in Nebraska. There is some objection to the state paying for an environmental review of the new route. "I'm not happy that Nebraska taxpayers will have to pay for TransCanada's mistake," Jane Kleeb of BOLD Nebraska told the Omaha World-Herald. Legislators say it will be worth it to the state to have a new route and an independent review.
• Local food sales amounted to $4.8 billion in 2008, according to the USDA. The agency expects sales of "local foods" through farmers markets or to grocers and restaurants will top $7 billion this year.
• The drought continues in the Southwest and so does the probability of wildfires.
• News of a semi-compromise on the budget between House and Senate negotiators appeared this morning. The rundown is here.
The spending bill would keep the rural airport subsidy in its place.
• Oklahomans are trying to figure out why they are having so many earthquakes.
The state had the strongest quake in its history on November 5 and many others of smaller magnitude. Some blame oil and gas drilling — there are 185,000 wells in Oklahoma — but there is no firm evidence that this is the cause.
• Family Dollar stores are opening outlets in California for the first time.
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