text:
2. Data and methodology
a. Model and reanalysis data
b. Cyclone identification and feature tracking
c. Cyclone compositing
3. Evaluating the structure of extratropical cyclones
a. Surface features
b. Warm and cold conveyor belts
1) ERA-40
2) HiGEM
c. Dry intrusion
4. Discussion and conclusions
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Schematic showing WCB, CCB, and dry intrusion (adapted from Browning 1997).
Satellite image for 1200 UTC 3 Feb 2009 from Meteosat SEVIRI visible channel. Conceptual features are annotated on the image (image courtesy of NERC Satellite Receiving Station, Dundee University, Scotland; http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/).
Schematic of the three steps to the compositing. Step 1: Identify and select the tracks to be used. Here the 50 strongest storms from the Atlantic and 50 strongest from the Pacific were used. Step 2: Find the position of maximum intensity along the track and move the 20° spherical polar cap grid to be centered on this position. Step 3: Rotate preferred direction of 20° spherical cap to direction of storm propagation and extract the region for averaging.
The tracks used in the compositing from (a),(b) HiGEM and (c),(d) ERA-40 in the (a),(c) Atlantic and (b),(d) Pacific. Crosses indicate the position of the maximum 850-hPa relative vorticity along the tracks.
Composites of MSLP (hPa) for (a) ERA-40 and (b) HiGEM. Contours are at 4-hPa intervals. The distance from the center of the composite cyclone to the edge is 15°. Composites of the earth-relative 925-hPa winds with corresponding wind vectors for (c) ERA-40 and (d) HiGEM. Contours of wind speed are 4 m s−1. The large arrow indicates direction of storm propagation.
Composites of equivalent potential temperature at 850 hPa (θe; K) for (a) ERA-40 and (b) HiGEM. Contours are at 2° intervals. The large arrow indicates direction of storm propagation.
Composites of system-relative winds for (a),(c) ERA-40 and (b),(d) HiGEM at (a),(b) 925 and (c),(d) 700 hPa and their associated wind vectors. Contours are 4 m s−1. The distance from the center of the composite cyclone to the edge is 15°. (a),(b) The line from A to B indicates the vertical slice taken to produce Fig. 9. The large arrow indicates direction of storm propagation.
Composites of system-relative winds for (a) ERA-40 and (b) HiGEM at 400 hPa and their associated wind vectors. Contours are 4 m s−1. The distance from the center of the composite cyclone to the edge is 15°. The large arrow indicates direction of storm propagation.
Composite vertical slices through a line perpendicular to the direction of storm propagation 4° ahead of the composite storm center (from A to B in Figs. 7a,b) for (a),(b) ERA-40 and (c),(d) HiGEM. The total distance in the x axis is 20°. (a),(c) Contours of θe (K; thin dotted lines), the regions of maximum υ component of the wind (i.e., perpendicular to the direction of storm propagation; contour interval 4 m s−1) and the maximum u component of the wind (parallel to the direction of storm propagation but rearward relative to the storm center; contour interval 4 m s−1); (b),(d) contours of vertical velocity (contour intervals 4 hPa h−1) with positive values indicating ascent and the areas with RH above 90% (shown by hatched area).
Composites for (a),(b) ERA-40 and (c),(d) HiGEM of 500-hPa system-relative wind vectors (see reference arrow for scale) and (a),(c) 500-hPa vertical velocity and (b),(d) RH at 500 hPa. Vertical velocity contour intervals are 4 hPa h−1 with positive values indicating ascent. RH contour intervals are 5%. (a),(c) The line from A to B shows the position of the vertical section shown in Fig. 11. The large arrow indicates direction of storm propagation.
Composite vertical slices through a line perpendicular to the direction of storm propagation 7° behind the composite storm center (from A to B in Figs. 10a,c) for (a) ERA-40 and (b) HiGEM. The total distance in the x axis is 20°. Figures show contours of θe (contour interval 10 K; thin dotted contours), the regions of maximum υ component of the wind (perpendicular to the direction of storm propagation and in a cyclonic sense; contour interval 5 m s−1; thin solid contours), and the regions of the strongest descent (contour interval 4 hPa h−1; thick solid contours).
Can Climate Models Capture the Structure of Extratropical Cyclones?
Jennifer L. Catto
Jennifer L. CattoDepartment of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
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Len C. Shaffrey
Len C. ShaffreyNational Centre for Atmospheric Science, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
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Kevin I. Hodges
Kevin I. HodgesEnvironmental Systems Science Centre, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
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https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JCLI3318.1
Composites of wind speeds, equivalent potential temperature, mean sea level pressure, vertical velocity, and relative humidity have been produced for the 100 most intense extratropical cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere winter for the 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) and the high resolution global environment model (HiGEM). Features of conceptual models of cyclone structure—the warm conveyor belt, cold conveyor belt, and dry intrusion—have been identified in the composites from ERA-40 and compared to HiGEM. Such features can be identified in the composite fields despite the smoothing that occurs in the compositing process. The surface features and the three-dimensional structure of the cyclones in HiGEM compare very well with those from ERA-40. The warm conveyor belt is identified in the temperature and wind fields as a mass of warm air undergoing moist isentropic uplift and is very similar in ERA-40 and HiGEM. The rate of ascent is lower in HiGEM, associated with a shallower slope of the moist isentropes in the warm sector. There are also differences in the relative humidity fields in the warm conveyor belt. In ERA-40, the high values of relative humidity are strongly associated with the moist isentropic uplift, whereas in HiGEM these are not so strongly associated. The cold conveyor belt is identified as rearward flowing air that undercuts the warm conveyor belt and produces a low-level jet, and is very similar in HiGEM and ERA-40. The dry intrusion is identified in the 500-hPa vertical velocity and relative humidity. The structure of the dry intrusion compares well between HiGEM and ERA-40 but the descent is weaker in HiGEM because of weaker along-isentrope flow behind the composite cyclone. HiGEM's ability to represent the key features of extratropical cyclone structure can give confidence in future predictions from this model.
Corresponding author address: Jennifer Catto, Dept. of Meteorology, University of Reading, Earley Gate, P.O. Box 243, Reading RG6 6BB, United Kingdom. Email: j.l.catto@reading.ac.uk
Keywords: Extratropical cyclones; Climate models; Synoptic-scale processes; Dynamics; Isentropic analysis
To have confidence in predictions of future climate, it is necessary for current climate models to be able to adequately represent extratropical cyclones, from the spatial distribution of storm tracks down to the structure of the storms. Extratropical cyclones are important for providing the day-to-day variability of weather in the midlatitudes. The most intense of these extratropical cyclones can have huge socioeconomic impacts due to their associated strong winds and heavy rain. It is possible that with a changing climate, these impacts may be more severe or located in different regions. For example, Bengtsson et al. (2009) found that in the Max Planck Institute atmosphere model (ECHAM5; Roeckner et al. 2003), the wind speeds related to extratropical cyclones remained fairly constant in a future climate scenario but the associated rainfall increased and became more extreme. Extratropical cyclones are mainly driven by the strong temperature and moisture gradients across the polar front and often develop in the baroclinic regions over the Gulf Stream or Kuroshio Current in the Northern Hemisphere. These transient systems play an important role in the large-scale atmospheric circulation as they travel from west to east across the ocean basins, transporting heat and moisture from the equator to the poles. It is therefore very important for climate models to represent the dynamical processes and airflows of extratropical cyclones in order to be able to correctly predict the large-scale atmospheric flow.
This study aims to investigate how well the structures of the most intense extratropical cyclones are represented in the high resolution global environment model (HiGEM; Shaffrey et al. 2009), which is a coupled climate model. This will be evaluated against the 40-yr European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Re-Analysis (ERA-40). Because identical cyclones cannot be compared between models and reanalysis, a compositing methodology has been used. This allows a statistical comparison to be made between the extratropical cyclones in the model and those from the reanalysis dataset. Using this compositing it is possible to identify the key features present in the cyclones. Conceptual models of cyclone structure are then used to guide the comparison between model and reanalysis storms.
Our understanding of the structure of extratropical cyclones has developed through numerous case studies of individual cyclones. The early ideas of Bjerknes and Solberg (1922) of different air masses battling at the polar front led to more detailed analysis. Harrold (1973) first described the warm conveyor belt (WCB) flow within a cyclone. Since then there have been a number of studies that attempt to generalize the theory of extratropical cyclone structure using individual case studies (e.g., Browning and Roberts 1994; Neiman and Shapiro 1993). Others have used a number of cyclones from observational campaigns (e.g., Deveson et al. 2002). These studies have produced models that show conceptually the structure of, and the flows within, cyclonic systems including the warm and cold conveyor belts and the dry intrusion. A schematic of these can be seen in Fig. 1 (after Browning 1997). The conveyor belts are defined in a frame of reference moving with its associated low pressure system. The WCB is typically a stream of warm moist air that originates at low levels in the warm sector and travels parallel to the cold front. When it reaches the surface warm front the WCB rises rapidly along the moist isentropes. As this warm air ascends, it forms the frontal cloud and the large mass of cloud often called the cloud head, which can both be identified through satellite images such as that in Fig. 2. After the rapid ascent the WCB turns anticyclonically and can be seen moving with the upper-level jet (Carlson 1980). Eckhardt et al. (2004) produced a climatology of warm conveyor belts using trajectory analysis and found that most Northern Hemisphere winter cyclones have an associated strong WCB.
The cold conveyor belt (CCB) initially travels rearward relative to the cyclone at low levels parallel to and on the cold side of the warm front. Carlson (1980) first identified the CCB with his isentropic analysis of a single storm. This theory was taken forward by Schultz (2001) who found that the CCB mainly turns cyclonically at low levels around the low pressure producing a low-level jet. The relatively narrower and less frequently occurring anticyclonic path of the CCB spreads out in the cloud head as it ascends.
The dry intrusion consists of cold dry air that descends behind the cyclone and fans out. Some of the air turns anticyclonically to low levels, and some turns cyclonically and overruns the warm air. This cyclonic flow creates the common cloud-free region (the dry slot) that is identified as a cloud-free region in satellite images. An example of this is shown in Fig. 2. The dry intrusion air often originates near a tropopause fold (Browning 1997). As the descending dry air turns cyclonically, it sometimes overruns the warm air causing potential instability, which can result in convective clouds on the edge of the dry slot.
The key structural features described above are a good starting point to guide the evaluation of the structure of extratropical cyclones in climate model data. Using compositing methods it is possible to find the average properties of certain types of storms or storms located in particular regions. Recently there have been a number of studies using a variety of compositing techniques to investigate various questions related to extratropical cyclones. For example, Manobianco (1989) and Wang and Rogers (2001) both used ECMWF analyses to produce cyclone-centered composites of explosive cyclones from over the North Atlantic, with the aim of understanding the structure and development mechanisms of these storms. Dacre and Gray (2009) used another objectively tracked cyclone climatology produced using Met Office operational analyses to investigate development characteristics of storms in the Atlantic. Recently Field and Wood (2007) developed a compositing technique using satellite observational data and went on to evaluate the distribution of clouds and precipitation in cyclones in the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Atmosphere Model (CAM3; Field et al. 2008). Bauer and Del Genio (2006) studied the distribution of moisture in composites of extratropical cyclones in the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) GCM with comparison to reanalyses. Bengtsson et al. (2009) took composites of the 100 most intense cyclones from ERA-40 and the ECHAM5 to compare the surface winds, mean sea level pressure (MSLP), and precipitation for present-day climate and went on to investigate changes with a warming climate. In the present study the compositing method is used to look at the structure of the cyclones in ERA-40 and HiGEM in much more detail. Using both horizontal and vertical composites of many different variables, a much more detailed understanding of the structure of the cyclones in HiGEM and ERA-40 can be gained and interpreted within the framework of conceptual models.
One of the key questions is whether the horizontal resolution of climate models used in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), which is typically between 1.5° and 3.0° (Randall et al. 2007), is sufficient to adequately represent the structure of extratropical cyclones, some of the features of which may be much smaller than the grid length. HiGEM (Shaffrey and et al. 2009) is a new coupled climate model based on the Hadley Centre Global Environment Model (HadGEM1; Johns et al. 2006) with a horizontal resolution of 0.83° latitude × 1.25° longitude (N144). We might expect that at higher resolution, extratropical cyclones may be better resolved (Jung et al. 2006).
In this study, a fully automated, cyclone-centered compositing scheme is used that takes into account the different stages of the cyclone life cycle, as well as the direction in which the cyclone is traveling. The emphasis of this paper is on extreme cyclones, so composites of the 100 most intense cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere from HiGEM and ERA-40 have been produced. Using the features of the observation-based conceptual model shown schematically in Fig. 1 (e.g., Browning and Roberts 1994; Schultz 2001) to guide a comparison between the cyclones in ERA-40 and HiGEM, the following questions will be addressed.
Using the compositing methodology is it possible to identify in the reanalysis data, the key features of extratropical cyclone structure as identified in conceptual models?
How well does HiGEM compare to ERA-40 in the representation of these features?
The rest of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 details the reanalysis and the model data used along with details of the cyclone tracking and compositing methodologies. Results are given in section 3 and discussion and conclusions are in section 4.
The model used in this study is HiGEM, a new coupled climate model based on the Met Office Hadley Centre model HadGEM1 (Johns et al. 2006; Ringer et al. 2006). The resolution of the model has been increased to 0.83° latitude × 1.25° longitude (N144) in the atmosphere and ⅓° × ⅓° in the ocean. Full details of the changes made to HadGEM1 to produce HiGEM can be found in Shaffrey et al. (2009). The model used here is referred to as HiGEM1.2, and the data are taken from a control run based on present-day radiative forcings. The net top of atmosphere radiation and the upper ocean are considered to be spun up after 20 years, so for this reason the first 20 years of the integration have been rejected. The cyclones considered in this study come from 50 winters (December, January, and February) from years 21–70 of the control integration.
The data used to assess HiGEM come from ERA-40 (for more details see Uppala et al. 2005), a global, gridded dataset, which is constrained by observations. It has been used because of the length of the dataset (45 years), the spatial resolution of approximately 1.1° × 1.1° in the tropics (T159 linear), and the temporal resolution of 6 h. The long period of the data allows the statistics of many storms to be included in the analysis. There are, however, some problems with using a reanalysis product for verification of model data, as the reanalysis depends itself on a model. It is also highly dependent on the number of observations available and the data assimilation techniques used, and therefore the data from regions with sparse observations in the presatellite period (such as the Southern Ocean; Hodges et al. 2003) will be less constrained than in regions with many observations. In this study the focus is on storms in the Northern Hemisphere where there are stronger observational constraints on the reanalysis. Despite the issues, reanalysis products are the best datasets constrained by observations available for studies such as this.
Objective feature tracking is becoming a frequently used way to produce information on the spatial distribution and frequency of extratropical cyclones using both reanalysis and model data. Such tracking algorithms can identify cyclones by a pressure minimum (e.g., Jung et al. 2006; Löptien et al. 2008; Hoskins and Hodges 2002), geopotential height minima (Blender and Schubert 2000), or a maximum in vorticity (e.g., Sinclair 1994; Hoskins and Hodges 2002). The tracking algorithm used here is that of Hodges (1994, 1995, 1999) and Hoskins and Hodges (2002) using maxima of 850-hPa relative vorticity to identify features in the Northern Hemisphere. The main benefits to using relative vorticity rather than MSLP for the tracking are that it can pick up smaller-scale storms and can identify storms earlier in their life cycle before a closed pressure contour has been formed. Also, vorticity does not rely on extrapolation to the extent that pressure does as it is calculated directly from the winds at the chosen level. Vorticity, however, is a noisy field, so before the tracking is performed, the vorticity field is spectrally truncated at 42 wavenumbers (T42). This means that although the datasets are of differing resolutions, the tracking can be performed on the same resolution data, therefore identifying the same spatial scales. A background field of wavenumber n ≤ 5 is also removed, a step that is more important for tracking MSLP to remove the planetary-scale waves, but which has been performed here for consistency with previous studies (e.g., Hoskins and Hodges 2002). The feature points (i.e., vorticity maxima) are identified at 6-hourly intervals and are initialized into tracks using a nearest neighbor approach and the smoothest set of tracks are achieved by minimizing a cost function. In order not to introduce noise into the composites from very short tracks, the tracks that are kept for the compositing must have lifetimes of over 4 days.
The compositing methodology used here has previously been used in Bengtsson et al. (2007) to study tropical cyclone structure and in Bengtsson et al. (2009) to compare extratropical cyclones in ECHAM5 for present day and future climate forcings. A detailed description of the methodology can be found in the appendix of Bengtsson et al. (2007), but the process will also be outlined here. Figure 3 shows the three basic steps involved in the production of the composites. The first step is to select the tracks to be used. In the present study, the storms of interest are the 50 strongest storms (according to the T42 relative vorticity) occurring over the North Pacific (30° to 80°N and 140°E to 120°W) and the 50 strongest over the North Atlantic (30° to 80°N and 80°W to 20°E) for both datasets. Clearly the tracks from the two datasets will be different, however the positioning of the 50 Atlantic tracks in HiGEM (Fig. 4a) is reasonably similar to that in ERA-40 (Fig. 4c). In the Pacific, the chosen 50 storm tracks are orientated more zonally in HiGEM (Fig. 4b) than in ERA-40 (Fig. 4d), which may be the result of the stronger zonal jet over the western Pacific Ocean in the model (Shaffrey et al. 2009).
The second step (Fig. 3) of the compositing is to find the point along each track at which the required time in the life cycle is reached, such as the time of maximum intensity or maximum growth. In this study we will concentrate on the time of maximum intensity according to the 850-hPa vorticity. A radial coordinate system centered on the pole is created for some radius of spherical cap, for example, 20°, and this is rotated to lie over the feature point. Finally the third step (Fig. 3) is to rotate the preferred direction of this spherical cap to the direction of propagation of the storm at this point. The region is then extracted on the radial grid from the full resolution fields for averaging with the other selected storms. Using the radial coordinate system reduces the biases that can occur when using projections for the compositing, which was an issue noted in previous studies (e.g., Wang and Rogers 2001). Using the rotated composites allows a more insightful comparison between model data and reanalysis as the impact of differences in storm direction are reduced in the composite structure, and it also allows the system-relative winds to be computed more easily.
The compositing has been performed on eight pressure levels from 925 hPa up to 200 hPa for the horizontal and vertical winds. Since the 6-hourly temperature has only been archived for HiGEM on four levels, the compositing of temperature and relative humidity has been performed on these levels (850, 700, 500, 250 hPa). At each level, the 20° spherical cap is extracted using the feature point at 850 hPa as the reference. This means that the tilt of the cyclone is not taken into account. It is possible to identify the associated vorticity maxima at each level and to extract the region centered on that. The sensitivity to including this tilt was investigated but it was found that the conclusions were not altered. The tilts found were typically only a few degrees. At the mature phase at which the compositing is performed, the storms are quasi-barotropic in nature, so the tilt is less important. For these reasons this additional computational complexity was not included in this study.
The features of extratropical cyclones that have been described by conceptual models will now be used to guide the analysis of the composites of the 100 most intense cyclones from ERA-40 and HiGEM. This will allow the focus of the comparison to be on the most important features of the composite cyclones. First, the surface features of the composite storm will be described. Then the warm conveyor belt (e.g., Browning and Roberts 1994), cold conveyor belt (e.g., Schultz 2001), and dry intrusion (e.g., Browning 1997) will be identified in the fields of horizontal and vertical winds, temperature, and relative humidity. The sharp fronts that are seen in synoptic charts will be smoothed out by the compositing process. Even though the compositing methodology attempts to minimize this smoothing through the rotation, a key question is whether enough structure will remain in the composites in order to identify these features.
In this section the key surface features of the composite storms will be described and a comparison made between ERA-40 and HiGEM. Figures 5a,b show the MSLP for the composite storms from ERA-40 and HiGEM respectively. The direction of propagation is from left to right and the radius of each plot is 15°. The along-propagation direction will be referred to as the x direction with u-component winds (positive in the direction of propagation), while the cross-propagation direction will be referred to as the y direction with υ-component winds (positive from bottom to top of the plots). The minimum pressure is located approximately in the center of the composite with a value of 955.9 ± 10.8 hPa for ERA-40, and is very similar for HiGEM with a value of 954.5 ± 10.6 hPa. (The range given here is one standard deviation.) The structure of the MSLP exhibits an elongated nature in the upper right-hand quadrant in both ERA-40 and HiGEM. This structure is consistent with the results of Manobianco (1989) and Wang and Rogers (2001), the latter of whom suggested this could be due to the existence of parent cyclones ahead and poleward of the individual cyclones in the composite. The near-surface (925 hPa) earth-relative winds in Figs. 5c,d show the position of the maximum winds that would be experienced behind and to the right of the storm center. The spatial pattern of the winds are very similar between ERA-40 and HiGEM but the values in HiGEM are slightly higher, particularly in the bottom half of the plot. As can be seen in Figs. 5c,d, the distribution of winds around the cyclone is axially asymmetric. Some of the strongest winds occur in the bottom right-hand quadrant of the composite cyclone where the WCB is found. To quantify the differences in the wind speeds between HiGEM and ERA-40, the maximum speed that occurs in the bottom right-hand quadrant of each cyclone was found, as well as the radial distance from the center at which it occurs. The average maximum wind speed for ERA-40 is 39.1 ± 3.5 m s−1 at 5.1 ± 2.7° and for HiGEM is 41.5 ± 3.7 m s−1 at 4.9 ± 2.2° indicating that the strength and position of the maximum wind speeds from HiGEM compare well against ERA-40 within the spread.
To identify the approximate position of the surface fronts the equivalent potential temperature (θe; Figs. 6a,b) at 850 hPa is used. Ideally θe at a level closer to the surface would be used but 850 hPa is sufficiently close to the surface to identify the key features and is the lowest level in the archived data from HiGEM. Figure 6a shows θe at 850 hPa for ERA-40 and it can be seen that there is a strong gradient in the y direction with θe decreasing in the positive y direction. This represents the strong temperature and moisture gradients that exist between the tropics and the high latitudes. In the bottom right quadrant of the composite there is a region of warmer air. This is consistent with the warm sector, which is seen lying between the warm and cold fronts in a typical cyclone. The typical surface storm structure shown schematically in Fig. 1 can be identified in the composite storms from ERA-40 and HiGEM. The warm front lies ahead of the low pressure center along the line of strongest θe gradient and the trailing cold front can be seen in the lower section of Figs. 6a,b to the left of the warm air. These temperature structures resemble the Shapiro–Keyser frontal cyclone model (Shapiro and Keyser 1990) more closely than the traditional Norwegian model, although here there is no warm seclusion. It can be seen that HiGEM compares remarkably well with ERA-40 when identifying the surface features.
The WCB consists of warm moist air that travels poleward from the subtropics parallel to the cold front. This air rises at the warm front as it ascends along moist isentropic surfaces. Some of the WCB air then turns anticyclonically as it gets entrained in the zonal jet. Composites of horizontal and vertical winds and temperature have been used to try to identify features that may be consistent with the concept of a WCB. Figure 7 shows the system-relative wind speeds and their corresponding vectors at 925 and 700 hPa while Fig. 8 shows the system-relative winds at 400 hPa. The system-relative winds have been obtained by subtracting the system velocity (calculated from the tracks) from the earth-relative winds. These have been used here as they allow the air flows within the cyclone to be identified and, as such, most conceptual model studies have used them. The system-relative winds have a different structure to the earth-relative winds shown in Figs. 5c,d. In the lower right quadrant of Fig. 7a the low-level winds have a positive υ component consistent with the low-level warm air present in the WCB. At the upper level of 400 hPa (Fig. 8a) where the westerly upper-level jet dominates, there is an anticyclonic flow in the upper right quadrant of the composite cyclone. This is consistent with the idea that after the warm air in the WCB has ascended along the isentropes, it becomes entrained in the westerly jet and turns anticyclonically away from the cyclone center.
The CCB is a low-level flow of air on the cold side of the warm front that travels rearward relative to the direction of storm propagation, parallel to the warm front. Most of this air flows cyclonically around the cyclone center producing a low-level jet. Ahead of the storm center in the upper right-hand quadrant of Fig. 7a, at the approximate position of the warm front, the near-surface winds are flowing quite strongly rearward relative to the direction of storm propagation. The maximum wind speed at 925 hPa is seen spiraling around the low pressure center, consistent with the CCB air shown in the conceptual model (Fig. 1). At 700 hPa (Fig. 7c), the position of the maximum wind speed has shifted more toward the rear of the storm center. At this higher level, the maximum wind speed is weaker than nearer the surface.
The vertical structure of the WCB and CCB are often analyzed by taking vertical sections through the cyclones (e.g., Schultz 2001). Here a vertical section has been taken along a line perpendicular to the direction of storm propagation at 2° ahead of the storm center shown in Figs. 7a,b as a line from A to B. This is the line along which the maximum υ-component winds are seen in the warmer air. The vertical slice (Fig. 9a) shows the contours of θe for ERA-40 along with the largest wind speeds in the direction parallel to and perpendicular to the direction of storm propagation (denoted by U and V in Figs. 9a,c, respectively). The strongest υ component of the winds in the relatively warmer air is consistent with the strong WCB flow seen in the conceptual model. This region of strong winds tilts with height consistent with the conceptual model of the WCB air, which ascends along the warm isentropic surfaces. The ascent is shown in Fig. 9b, which is along the same vertical section but showing the vertical velocities and the regions of relative humidity greater than 90%. At lower levels, the maximum ascent occurs in the warm air in the region of strong υ-component winds and at the position of the steepest isentropes. The ascending air of the WCB produces the clouds of the frontal rainband as well as contributing to the cloud-head structure. These cloudy regions can be seen in Fig. 9b as the hatched area with RH above 90%. This area is strongly associated with the region of ascent, where the clouds form because of the isentropic uplift. The upper-level clouds have a smaller horizontal extent than those at the lower levels. In the relatively cooler air seen on the left of the composite in Figs. 9a,b, the strongest winds are flowing rearward relative to the direction of the storm underneath the warm rising air. This is again consistent with the CCB, which flows at low levels rearward relative to the storm producing a low-level jet that undercuts the WCB.
Certain features consistent with the conceptual model WCB and CCB have been identified in the composites from ERA-40. In this section a comparison is made between HiGEM and ERA-40. The wind vectors show that in the warm sector of the composite storm the near-surface winds are in a positive y direction as in ERA-40 indicating that HiGEM appears to capture a structure consistent with the notion of a WCB. Figure 7d shows that at 700 hPa, the maximum wind speed has shifted in the same sense as ERA-40. There are some differences at this height in the structure of the wind speed contours but the position and magnitude of the maximum compare very well. At the 400-hPa level the westerly jet in HiGEM (Fig. 8b) is also the dominant feature in the composite wind field and the structure of the winds is remarkably similar to ERA-40. The anticyclonic wind vectors in the upper right quadrant of the storm imply that the WCB air is being entrained in the jet. This structure is very similar to that seen in ERA-40 (Fig. 8a). The winds directed rearward relative to the storm, which are indicative of the CCB, are also identifiable in the HiGEM composite. The position of the 925-hPa wind speed maximum (Fig. 7b) is very close to that of ERA-40. Overall in the horizontal composites the features identified in ERA-40 and HiGEM compare very well.
Figures 9c,d show the vertical section along the same line as ERA-40 (shown in Fig. 7b by the line from A to B). The structure of the winds in the warmer air suggests that the flows of the WCB are very similar between HiGEM and ERA-40, as are the winds flowing rearward relative to the storm direction. The υ-component winds tilt with height in a similar way to ERA-40. The isentropes in HiGEM show higher stratification in the warm air, to the right of the cyclone center, with the θe contours lying closer together than in ERA-40, resulting in a shallower slope to the isentropic surfaces. This shallower slope is associated with lower values of vertical velocity in HiGEM (Fig. 9d). The maximum rate of ascent in HiGEM is 33.1 hPa h−1 whereas in ERA-40 it is 43.7 hPa h−1. The position of the maximum ascent in HiGEM does coincide with the maximum slope of the isentropes consistent with the conceptual model of the WCB. Large differences between HiGEM and ERA-40 can be seen in the extent and structure of the region of relative humidity above 90% shown by the hatched areas in Figs. 9b,d. The cloudy area has a larger horizontal extent at upper levels compared to ERA-40. There are a number of possible reasons that the vertical temperature, cloud, and humidity structures are different in the WCB of the composite cyclones from ERA-40 and HiGEM. The most likely explanation is that the diabatic processes that modify the air flowing through the WCB are represented differently in HiGEM and ERA-40. This will be examined in the concluding discussion.
The dry intrusion is a feature usually identified in satellite images (e.g., Fig. 2) as the cloud-free region just behind the cold front. Very dry air descends from upper levels and some of the air turns anticyclonically away from the cyclone, while some turns cyclonically up and over the cyclone (Browning 1997). Figure 10a shows the system-relative wind vectors and the vertical velocity at 500 hPa for ERA-40, indicating the region of descent behind the composite cyclone with a maximum rate of descent of 9.7 hPa h−1. The wind vectors show in the region of descent that the air is turning cyclonically around the composite cyclone. This region of descent coincides with an area of very low relative humidity (RH) at the same level (Fig. 10b), suggesting that the air has come from the upper troposphere where there is very little moisture. These features are consistent with the conceptual model of the dry intrusion.
Figure 11a shows a vertical section through the dry intrusion along the line shown in Fig. 10a. The region of maximum descent occurs between 700 and 500 hPa in a region of strong horizontal winds with a direction perpendicular to the direction of storm propagation (negative y direction). The air in the dry intrusion descends along isentropic surfaces, and where the along-isentrope wind speed is greatest, the descending flow will be strongest.
In the composite cyclone from HiGEM the position of the region of descent at 500 hPa (Fig. 10c) is very similar to that in ERA-40 but the rate of descent is smaller than in ERA-40, the maximum descent in HiGEM being 7.5 hPa h−1. As in ERA-40, this region of descent coincides with the very low RH (Fig. 10d), consistent with the conceptual model of the dry intrusion.
The vertical section through the dry air shown in Fig. 11b shows that there are some interesting differences in the horizontal and vertical wind fields between HiGEM and ERA-40. The υ component of the wind is weaker to the left of and near the center of the composite storm. This difference in horizontal wind is indicative of a weaker along-isentropic flow in HiGEM compared to ERA-40. Since the thermal structure shown by contours of θe in Figs. 11a,b is very similar in HiGEM and ERA-40, this suggests that the primary reason for the differences in the descent are due to the differences in the along-isentrope winds behind the storm.
There are some differences in the RH field toward the center of the composite cyclone (Fig. 10), which may have some impact on the position of the edge of the cloud head. Extremely strong near-surface winds known as sting jets, which occasionally occur in the dry slot are known to descend from within the cloud head into the dry air (Clark et al. 2005). This is an important consideration for much higher resolution models. If the positioning of this dry air is not modeled correctly this may cause difficulties in modeling the occurrence of such sting-jet events.
There is a small region ahead of the HiGEM composite cyclone center where RH is greater than 100% (Fig. 10d). This is because, in the mixed-phase cloud scheme parameterization used in HadGEM1 and HiGEM (Wilson and Ballard 1999), RH is diagnosed with respect to ice for temperatures below 0°C when there is actually a mixture of liquid and ice, resulting in supersaturation. ERA-40, however, uses a combination of RH calculated with respect to ice and liquid for temperatures between −23° and 0°C.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the representation of extratropical cyclones in a high resolution coupled climate model, HiGEM, and in the ERA-40 reanalysis. A compositing methodology that takes into account the direction of propagation of the storms was used to produce composites of the 100 most intense cyclones occurring over the North Atlantic and North Pacific Ocean basins found in HiGEM and in ERA-40. Certain features of conceptual models of extratropical cyclones have been used to aid the comparison of the composite cyclones from the two datasets. The key results of the study are as follows:
The compositing methodology is capable of producing composite cyclones from the reanalysis data, which exhibit features of extratropical cyclones consistent with those from conceptual models.
The conceptual features of the warm conveyor belt, cold conveyor belt, and dry intrusion can be identified in both the reanalysis and the model composite cyclones.
The surface features of mean sea level pressure and equivalent potential temperature have very similar structure and magnitude between HiGEM and ERA-40.
The structure of the near-surface wind speeds compares very well between HiGEM and ERA-40 especially in the WCB and CCB.
Differences in the ascent ahead of the storm can be attributed to the slope of the moist isentropes in this region with steeper moist isentropes and stronger ascent in ERA-40 compared to HiGEM.
The rate of descent behind the cyclone is lower in HiGEM compared to ERA-40, which is mainly due to the weaker winds along the isentropes in this region in the model.
The fact that the features identified in the two datasets compare so well is a good indication that HiGEM can capture the structures seen in extratropical cyclones in the ERA-40 reanalysis. This demonstrates that climate models can capture the structural features of extratropical cyclones. This gives us more confidence in future predictions of extratropical cyclones. It is unclear whether the results seen here would be robust over a range of different climate models and reanalyses. Some of the smaller-scale features, such as the narrow band of cold air traveling rearward behind the warm front are at a scale of a few grid boxes of the model grid, so it raises the question of whether a lower-resolution model could also capture the same features. It is also possible that a much higher-resolution model or reanalysis dataset could capture these features even better than seen here. These questions will be addressed through future work using different resolution models and the new reanalysis product from ECMWF (ECMWF-Interim), which, with a resolution of 80 km might be more appropriate for this type of study.
Another issue is that parameterizations of diabatic processes, which have a strong influence on the development of extratropical cyclones, differ between climate models. It was seen in section 3b that differences occurred along the WCB in the vertical profiles of temperature and relative humidity fields between ERA-40 and HiGEM (Fig. 9). A possible suggestion for this discrepancy is that in ERA-40 the cloud appears to occur because of the large-scale isentropic uplift of the air in the WCB (Fig. 9b). In HiGEM, however, the region of cloud appears less strongly related to the isentropic uplift, suggesting that there could be convection triggered in the warm air before it ascends (Fig. 9d). It is not possible to confirm this using the compositing methodology because of the lack of 6-hourly cloud or precipitation fields but if this indeed is the case it would have impacts on the positioning of the precipitation in frontal systems.
At the scale of individual cyclones, the reanalysis is relatively unconstrained in terms of clouds and humidity, so another method needs to be found to diagnose the diabatic processes seen in the extratropical cyclone composites. For example, Field et al. (2008) used satellite observations to produce composites of clouds, rain rates, and liquid water path to assess the extratropical cyclones within the NCAR Community Atmosphere Model (CAM3). To be able to more precisely define the conveyor belt flows, isentropic or trajectory analyses could be performed. Conceptual models, such as those produced by Browning and Roberts (1994), use isentropic and trajectory analysis to identify the airstreams. Such an analysis is beyond the scope of this particular study but may lead to deeper insights into the ability of climate models to capture the structure of extratropical cyclones. The present study could also be extended to investigate the structure of extratropical cyclones at different stages of their life cycles, giving additional information on the processes captured in the model.
The issues highlighted here are areas that need future research in order to gain a more complete picture of how well extratropical cyclones are represented in a range of models and reanalyses so that we can have confidence in future predictions. Even given these issues, this study has demonstrated that compositing is a powerful tool for investigating the structure of intense extratropical cyclones from reanalysis and model data.
The authors acknowledge financial support provided by NERC. The authors thank ECMWF for their provision of the ERA-40 reanalysis data and Dundee Satellite Receiving Station for use of their images. The helpful comments and suggestions of three anonymous reviewers are also gratefully acknowledged.
Citation: Journal of Climate 23, 7; 10.1175/2009JCLI3318.1
https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/clim/23/7/2009jcli3318.1.xml


text:
Thu · May 15th, 1997
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgo95kaIk3E
Michael Foale
Colin Michael Foale CBE is a British-American astrophysicist and former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of six space missions, and is the only NASA astronaut to have flown extended missions aboard both Mir and the International Space Station. He was the first Briton to perform a space walk, and until 17 April 2008, he held the record for most time spent in space by a US citizen: 374 days, 11 hours, 19 minutes. He still holds the cumulative-time-in-space record for a UK citizen.
Jean-François André Clervoy (born 19 November 1958) is a French engineer and a CNES and ESA astronaut. He is a veteran of three NASA Space Shuttle missions.
Eileen Marie Collins is a retired NASA astronaut and a retired United States Air Force colonel. A former military instructor and test pilot, Collins was the first female pilot and first female commander of a Space Shuttle. She was awarded several medals for her work. Colonel Collins has logged 38 days 8 hours and 20 minutes in outer space. Collins retired on May 1, 2006, to pursue private interests, including service as a board member of USAA.
Charles J. Precourt
Charles Joseph Precourt is a retired NASA astronaut. His career in flight began at an early age, and spans his entire lifetime. He served in the US Air Force, piloted numerous jet aircraft, and piloted and commanded the Space Shuttle. Notably, he piloted or commanded several missions which involved docking with the Russian Mir space station and was heavily involved in Russian/US Space relations as well as the International Space Station collaboration. He retired from the USAF with the rank of Colonel.
Carlos I. Noriega
Carlos Ismael Noriega is a Peruvian and U.S. citizen, NASA employee, a former NASA astronaut and a retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel.
Edward Tsang "Ed" Lu (simplified Chinese: 卢杰; traditional Chinese: 盧傑; pinyin: Lú Jié) is an American physicist and former NASA astronaut. He flew on two Space Shuttle flights, and made an extended stay aboard the International Space Station.
In 2007, Lu retired from NASA to become the program manager of Google's Advanced Projects Team. In 2002, while still at NASA, Lu co-founded the B612 Foundation, dedicated to protecting the Earth from asteroid strikes, later serving as its chairman. As of 2014, he is currently its chief executive officer (CEO).
Yelena Kondakova
Yelena Vladimirovna Kondakova (Russian: Елена Владимировна Кондакóва; born March 30, 1957) was the third Soviet/Russian female cosmonaut to travel to space and the first woman to make a long-duration spaceflight. Her first trip into space was on Soyuz TM-20 on October 4, 1994. She returned to Earth on March 22, 1995 after a five-month stay at the Mir space station. Kondakova's second flight was as a mission specialist on the United States Space Shuttle Atlantis during mission STS-84 in May 1997. She was the last Russian female in space until her successor cosmonaut Elena Serova flew to the International Space Station (ISS) on 25 September 2014.
STS-84 was a manned spaceflight mission by Space Shuttle Atlantis to the Mir space station.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


American author and illustrator of children's books Dare Wright was a photographer, actress, and model. She grew up in Ohio and she learned to sketch, paint, write and sew. She combined her writing talent with photography to become a children's book author. Her first book, The Lonely Doll, brought her recognition as an author and photographer. She photographed her childhood Lenci Doll with two teddy bears to illustrate the children's books she was writing. She eventually wrote nineteen books in all. She left two unpublished works Make Me Real and Ocracoke in the Fiftie. They were edited from manuscripts left by Dare and the last will be published in 20. This content has been provided by Curio Corner Books.


Illness and Premature Aging- a Call for Change!
Over the past decades traditional western allopathic medicine has come up with extraordinary number of pharmaceutical drugs in order to fight an extraordinary number of diseases. It seemed in the past, and it still appears that way today, that if we only could come up with the right chemical compound we could eventually conquer and eliminate any disease under the sun. This quest for the "Silver Bullet" continues.
Somehow, we seem to have missed the mark. With the amount of medication consumed in the US one would assume that we are the healthiest people on the planet. However, we have more chronic diseases than ever. Even though our life span has been increased, our quality of life has not. Healthy aging eludes many of us. Diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, cancer, autoimmune disorders, allergies, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, depression abound.
With the advent of antibiotics we were convinced that we finally had won our battle against the bacteria. Initially it seemed that way. Now we realize that by administering antibiotics freely and generously we have created "super bugs" that are antibiotic-resistant. Other unfortunate side effects of antibiotic therapy have emerged: immune system suppression and destruction of the normal, "friendly" bacterial flora in our intestines, which is essential for our well-being.
As a consequence, we attempt to create ever more powerful and toxic drugs, that are quite dangerous for human use.
Countless kids are on Ritalin and Prozac. Countless adults are on Prozac and all kinds of other anti-depressants. It is as if ADD is due to Ritalin deficiency in our diet, as if depression is due to Prozac deficiency in breakfast, lunch and dinner. If we just added some Ritalin and Prozac to our morning cereal, all our problems would eventually simply go away.
On TV, pharmaceutical companies spend megabucks to promote NEW prescription drugs to the general public. Possible dangerous side effects are mentioned briefly at the end of the commercials. They are spoken so quickly that it is nearly impossible to understand anything.
We are made to believe that giving a disease process a name explains everything. Many of these names only hide our ignorance as to the cause, and our helplessness.
The word arthritis simply means inflammation of one or several joints. It does not address the question of why you have this inflammation. Taking anti-inflammatory medications only covers up the symptoms temporarily. Often it does that only partially or not at all. Side effects are the norm with prolonged use.
High blood pressure (hypertension) is another example of this. The name only describes the fact. Why do you have high blood pressure? What malfunction of the human body might be responsible to create that condition? We should ask that question, not simply cover up the symptom of hypertension with pharmaceutical medications. Do you notice? Whenever you stop your medication your blood pressure goes up again. Medication is not a cure. Side effects are the norm with prolonged use.
What about these potential side effects? Read the PDR (Physician's Desk Reference). Some of these side effects are truly frightening.
Spend an hour in your local pharmacy or drugstore. Watch the line of human misery receive their prescription drugs. People look sick, are sick and hope that these pills will finally do the trick. Somewhere we know that they won't.
Look at the weight loss carnival. Americans are becoming more and more obese, increasingly so at a younger age. Countless drug and "health food" companies, and MLM's, want to make us believe that if we only took this pill or that dietary supplement our excess pounds would simply disappear, no life style and dietary changes required! Except it does not really ever work that way. And, if it seems to work initially we find out later that the cost to our health may be high.
All this, and more, forms this interdependent web that makes for our existence. To look at one symptom such as hypertension and pretend that it can simply be remedied by some pharmaceutical intervention does not make sense. And of course, it does not work, in the true sense of the word. Hypertension is an expression of various internal and/or external stressors that cause a malfunction of the body as a whole.
So the only relevant question to ask: What causes the symptom? What causes the body to malfunction? This is of course the most difficult question to answer.
Functional Medicine is concerned with the functioning of the entire human being in the context of his or her life. Genetics and life style are part of the equation. Illness and disease are not seen as independent realities that are explainable by being given a name and treated as such. Illness is rather viewed as an expression of some underlying imbalance and breakdown of normal function.
Illness is a call for change!


Amazing Salle De Bain Couleur Taupe #3 - Meuble De Salle De Bains Taupe 120 Cm Pamili CASTORAMA was posted in February 1, 2018 at 1:27 am. If you want to manage this photo as your laptop wallpaper, you can tap the download link beneath or you can just right click on the image at the top , then tap "Save Image As" to download the Amazing Salle De Bain Couleur Taupe #3 - Meuble De Salle De Bains Taupe 120 Cm Pamili CASTORAMA or by tap the "Set Desktop Background As" options if your browser has this option. If you were no able to find the the most wonderful image you are looking for, you shall go for "Search Column" at top right or browse more picture backgrounds that you love. This photo has the photo size is 29kB and the dimension of 640x640. Amazing Salle De Bain Couleur Taupe #3 - Meuble De Salle De Bains Taupe 120 Cm Pamili CASTORAMA has been viewed by 50 visitors and it is a picture from Salle De Bain Couleur Taupe.


Though small in number, Italians were some of the first European explorers and settlers of California. Religious duties and the search for new fishing grounds were initial reasons for Italians to explore what later became the thirty-first state, but their reasons for staying expanded after arriving. Though we often associate Italians in California with San Francisco, the initial Italian settlers established themselves in such diverse communities as Monterey, Stockton, and San Diego during the years of Spanish Rule. Later settlers came for the Gold Rush, not often as miners, but as proprietors in service industries or as artisans. Before the massive exodus from Italy in the 1880s, Italians came to California in numbers greater than New York, a trend that continued for many years. Even though their numbers were small, early Italian immigrants took steps to establish an Italian immigrant community: setting up mutual aid societies, Italian language newspapers, and supporting Italian theater.


AdviceTrade has launched a new company Website to showcase its expanding offering of technical analysis services and online communities for stock market traders.
The new AdviceTrade site highlights the company's analyst team and depth of stock market coverage, along with the proprietary technology it developed that underlyies its live, interactive Trading Rooms.
The new site also features the company's latest news and developments, along with a showcase of its vast distribution channels and partnerships.


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Posts in Northern Yosemite Region
One Day in Yosemite at Tenaya Lake
Slow down and spend the day at Tenaya Lake – a beautiful and easy-to-get-to alpine lake cupped by granite domes. There is plenty to see and do right here, from kayaking on the water to climbing the magnificent domes above.
Yosemite Mariposa County's Late Summer & Early Fall Season
Savor late summer and early fall in Yosemite Mariposa County. This stretch between Labor Day and Thanksgiving is its own luxuriant season in the Sierra. Discover all there is to see and do in Yosemite Mariposa County during this time.
Yosemite's Other Domes: More Than Half
Discover the 'other' domes in Yosemite Mariposa County. From Sentinel Dome to Lembert Dome, there is plenty to explore and love beyond the famous Half Dome.
Discover Yosemite's Surprising B-sides
Discover Yosemite's hidden gems. If you're looking for some quieter Yosemite Mariposa County destinations, we've got just what you're looking for.
Walk with Giants in Yosemite Mariposa County
No picture of the giant sequoia trees in Yosemite National Park manages to fully capture their immense size and majesty. You'll just need to see them for yourself. Let us introduce you to some of the unique giant sequoia groves in the Yosemite Mariposa County area – the Merced, Tuolumne, and Mariposa Groves are inside Yosemite National Park, and the Nelder Grove is just outside the park boundary to the south.
Recreation Renewal: Five Days of Spring Fun in Yosemite Mariposa County
Get excited about spring in Yosemite Mariposa County! With all there is to see and do, start planning your trip with these ideas for 5 days of spring fun.
Chinese History Comes To Life In Yosemite Mariposa County
From the building of essential roads through the rugged Sierra Nevada to bustling Gold Rush-era Chinatowns and a chef whose cuisine was so memorable that they named a mountain after him, their enduring yet virtually unrecognized contributions are as old as the region itself.
Rock Climbing in Yosemite Mariposa County: Wall-to-Wall Thrills
Yosemite rock climbing has captured the hearts and minds of people from all around the world. Find out more about rock climbing in Yosemite Mariposa County.
Glacier Point Road Closure 2022: Here's What Else You Can Do
Glacier Point Road may be closed in 2022, but don't worry, there are plenty of alternatives for scenic landscapes and activities in Yosemite Mariposa County.
Foresta: Decks & Domes
Get to know the community of Foresta! This small neighborhood offers a bit of history, some incredible views and it's very own waterfall in addition to a collection of conveniently located vacation rental cabins.


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Teverola é uma comuna italiana da região da Campania, província de Caserta, com cerca de 9.705 habitantes. Estende-se por uma área de 6 km², tendo uma densidade populacional de 1618 hab/km². Faz fronteira com Aversa, Carinaro, Casaluce, Santa Maria Capua Vetere.

Demografia

Comunas de Caserta (província)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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April 2, 2019 April 2, 2019 GillLeave a Comment on Further Education Funding
Further Education Funding
I am hugely concerned about this Government's cuts to vital funding for Further Education. This week there was a debate in Westminster Hall about this and I hoped to speak but was unfortunately not called as so many MPs were present. Here is what I wanted to say:
Mr Speaker, I spent a large part of my career working in further education and I know the huge impact it has on people's lives, especially those who start life in less fortunate positions.
However, since 2010 we have seen the resources for Further Education dramatically reduced and the impact is being felt for our local economies and productivity in the UK which has been dwindling.
A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (Sept 2018) shows that since 2010 funding per student aged 16-18 in further education has fallen by 8% in real terms and is now at the same level as during the late 2000's. Funding for adult education has been cut by 45%, taking away the chance for many to go back to take qualifications at GCSE level or below and this results in a huge barrier to career progression for so many who are determined and keen to get a second chance at education.
Further Education – disproportionately made up of working-class students, has, predictably and depressingly, fared worst and the outcomes are telling.
For example in my local Sheffield College, 53% of all students come from a disadvantage postcode area and of those 75% of Black and Ethnic Minority students come from disadvantaged postcode areas.
Yet In the last ten years, total enrolments for adults dropped from 5.1m to 1.9m. A drop of 62%.
We are taking away a vital support system for many in our working class communities, robbing them of vital opportunities for the future.
Cuts to the adult education budget mean that there are less people skilled in professions vital for economic success now and in the future.
Over the last ten years we've seen:
Qualifications for health and social care workers drop by 68%.
Qualifications for construction workers dropped by 37%.
Qualifications for engineers (including plumbers and electricians) drop by 68%.
These cuts also means less adults are able to learn core skills such as literacy and mathematics to be able to get on at work and in life.
In view of the crisis in our social care and ambitions to build more homes, it is surprising the Government is taking away support to train people to support those vital industries.
The funding squeeze is also certainly impacting morale for staff at colleges, too.
College lecturers are now paid on average less than 80% the rate of school staff.
Association of College's latest workforce survey suggests that average lecturer pay in colleges is £30,100 which is significantly less than average school teacher pay (£35,000) and average university academic pay (£43,000)[
The value of staff pay has fallen by over 25% since 2009.
Staff turnover rates remain high and the hard-to-fill posts are in engineering, construction and mathematics.
Teaching staff have been left behind, and excluded from the 3.5% pay rise that Government announced for teachers and the recent ring-fenced Teachers' Pay Grant for schools was not extended to further education colleges.
In conversations I've had with teaching staff at Sheffield College, it is obvious that whilst they are key to the College's success but will no longer make do with being ''second class'' as they put it, as they are paid significantly less than their counterparts in primary and secondary schools.
But of course, non-teaching and support staff are also vital to the success of our colleges, and many of them continue to be on low wages and squeezed by the increasing cost of living.
Unfortunately, the Chancellor did not use his Autumn Budget to ease these pressures for colleges, including on securing viable staffing budgets and raising the funding for 16-18 year olds but he chose not to do so.
This situation is not sustainable and ultimately impacts on college students and staff, businesses, communities and the wider economy.
Indeed, Amanda Spielman, Chief Inspector at OFSTED wrote to my Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch and Chair of the Public Accounts Committee to say:
''the real-term cuts to FES funding are affecting the sustainability and quality of FES provision'' and demanding that the Government ''increase the base rate for 16 to 18 funding.''
It is not a matter of robbing Peter to pay Paul, but about raising the standards for all our teachers across the board and educating our adults and young people to achieve their potential and enhance skills.
So far the Chancellor announced extra resources (£500m) for FE colleges to deliver additional T Level hours and he made an effort at tinkering with the Apprenticeship levy.
However the extra resources or changes won't address the crucial issues of core spending, which has been drastically cut, and as a result, won't have a huge impact on the skills and re-skilling agenda.
But, even when he did offer a meagre £400 m to schools for the ''little extras'' in the Budget as he put it, he didn't even extend this to further education budgets – I think that is indicative of how he feels about teaching staff, but particularly about the regard he holds further education staff. And clearly, it shows a lack of commitment to a skills agenda which will be vital post-Brexit.
With the spending review on the horizon, I urge the Minister to take back the points raised in this debate and the strength of feeling in which they are made back to the Chancellor to urge him properly fund our further education. In the meantime, we will continue the fight for more funding for Further Education and I will continue to proudly back the #LoveOurColleges campaign.
Categories My Week In Parliament
Previous Home Office response on Non-EEA Sponsor Visa
Next Government Response regarding Relationships and Sex Education


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Q: android toolbar for pre lollipop devices I encountered many issues when I changed from ActionBar to Toolbar. i have listed them here
1 ) I have many fragments which are added/replaced using backstack. everything was working fine when i press back button but when I changed to Toolbar, application closes when i press back button.
2 ) Background of popup menu is black.
<item name="android:popupMenuStyle">@style/PopupMenu</item>
<style name="PopupMenu" parent="@android:style/Widget.PopupMenu">
    <item name="android:popupBackground">@android:color/white</item>
</style>

even this didnt worked.
If I use AppCompat.Light theme, background color of popupmenu is white, but then NavigationIndicator icons and all that becomes black
3 ) This is my menu style. Here item with id "add" is not shown instead i have used showAsAction as always. it is there in the menu (menu that inflates when i press that 3 vertical dots button), but the icon is not visible.
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
tools:context=".com.hirak.assistere_doit.do_it_main_screen">

<item android:id="@+id/action_settings"
    android:orderInCategory="100"
    android:showAsAction="never"
    android:title="Settings" />
<item android:id="@+id/add"
    android:icon="@drawable/add"
    android:showAsAction="always"/>

</menu>

A: In order to style the popup menu, you need to apply a popup
<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
        android:id="@+id/toolbar"
        app:theme="@style/ActionBar"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        app:popupTheme="@style/ToolbarPopup" />
and then in your theme, override the values you want changed
<style name="ToolbarPopup" parent="Widget.AppCompat.Light.PopupMenu">
    <item name="android:background">@color/white</item>
    <item name="android:textSize">14sp</item>
</style>

to change the navigation indicators to white, add to your toolbar
<style name="ActionBar" parent="Widget.AppCompat.Toolbar">
    ...
    <item name="android:textColorSecondary">@color/white</item>
    <item name="actionMenuTextColor">@color/white</item>
    <item name="android:textColorPrimary">@color/white</item>
</style>

As for the back button issues, I would need more info - code etc.

A: About back button issues.
I had the same problem when i changed to Toolbar.
Problem was in using FragmentManager instead of support.v4.app.FragmentManager. Creating FragmentManager object by getSupportFragmentManager() method and changing all fragments import to android.support.v4.app.Fragment -  solved this problem for me.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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S. Korean shipyards lead in Jan. orders: data
All News 10:30 February 07, 2017
SEOUL, Feb. 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korean shipbuilders bagged more than half of new orders placed around the globe last month, relegating China to second place, industry data showed on Tuesday.
According to the data compiled by global research firm Clarkson Research Institute, Korean shipyards clinched new orders worth 300,000 compensated gross tons (CGTs) last month to build seven ships, which is 55.5 percent of total new orders placed globally.
China came in second with 110,000 CGTs, or eight ships, last month, followed by Japan with 20,000 CGTs, or one ship, the data showed.
Last month, a total of 600,000 CGTs worth of ship orders were placed, compared to 560,000 CGTs a year earlier.
The order backlog held by South Korean shipyards came in at 18.97 million CGTs last month, following China's 28.4 million CGTs and Japan's 19.26 million CGts, the data showed.
The shipbuilding industry, once regarded as the backbone of the country's economic growth and job creation, has been reeling from mounting losses caused by a fall in new orders, order cancellations and increased costs.
The country's top three shipyards suffered a combined operating loss of 8.5 trillion won (US$7.4 billion) in 2015 due largely to increased costs stemming from a delay in the construction of offshore facilities and the industry-wide slump, with Daewoo Shipbuilding alone posting a 5.5 trillion-won loss.
The shipbuilders have drawn up sweeping self-rescue programs worth some 11 trillion won in a desperate bid to overcome a protracted slump and mounting losses.
Last year, Hyundai Heavy is forecast to have swung to the black, while the two other shipyards are estimated to have continued to suffer losses, according to industry sources.
sam@yna.co.kr


text:
Q: How will neo4j jdbc (bolt) handle queries that return a list of nodes? In neo4j jdbc (bolt), Node is returned as Map , but if you make a query that returns a list of Nodes, getObject () will return a list of InternalNodes. Entities in this list can not be identified by type instanceof, so reflection will identify the node by type name and you will get the value by calling the method by reflection.You can get the value by doing the following, but is this approach correct? rs is ResultSet.entity is return value of this method.
                Object columnObject = rs.getObject(columnName);
                if (columnObject instanceof List<?>){
                    List<Map<String,Object>> objectValue = arrayList();
                    Array columnArray = rs.getArray(columnName);
                    Object[] columnArrayValues = (Object[]) columnArray.getArray();
                    for (int iTmp = 0; iTmp < columnArrayValues.length; iTmp++){
                        Map<String, Object> colArrayItemMap = new HashMap<>();
                        Object colItemObj = columnArrayValues[iTmp];
                        Class colItemClass = colItemObj.getClass();
                        if (colItemClass.getName().equals("org.neo4j.driver.internal.InternalNode")){
                            Method asMap = colItemClass.getMethod("asMap");
                            Method getId = colItemClass.getMethod("id");
                            Method getLabels = colItemClass.getMethod("labels");
                            colArrayItemMap.put("_id", getId.invoke(colItemObj));
                            colArrayItemMap.put("_labels", getLabels.invoke(colItemObj));
                            colArrayItemMap.putAll((Map<? extends String, ?>) asMap.invoke(colItemObj));
                        } else {
                            colArrayItemMap.put("_raw", columnArrayValues[iTmp]);
                        }
                        objectValue.add(colArrayItemMap);
                    }
                    ((Map) entity).put(propertyName, objectValue);
                } else {
                    ((Map) entity).put(propertyName, columnObject);
                }

Such queries are generated by such cypher statements.Such queries are generated by such cypher statements.
MATCH
  (input:Input),
  (output:Output)
WITH input, output
MATCH
  (input)-[:INPUT*1]->(in),
  (out)-[:OUTPUT*1]->(output),
  g = (in)-[connect:CONNECT*0..5]->(out)
RETURN
  input, output, extract(x IN nodes(g)|x) as nodes

A: It was for different class loaders that we can not identify with the instanceof operator.Since the jdbc driver was placed in Tomcat / lib, it was judged to be different from the class loaded by the application.
In any case, it will be provided by converting List to List or until getResults() is supported as the return value of getArray() It is thought that it is necessary to write.


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Paris-Roubaix 2019 – Preview
By Sadhbh O'Shea 11 April 2019
All roads lead to 'The Hell of the North'
Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) wins 2018 Paris-Roubaix in the Roubaix Velodrome (Image credit: Getty Images)
Filippo Pozzato chases Tom Boonen at Paris-Roubaix in 2009. (Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)
The 2019 Paris-Roubaix route map (Image credit: ASO)
When Cyclingnews visited in April, the first few cobbles were partially covered in tarmac (Image credit: Sadhbh O'Shea)
To quantify exactly what cobbles do to a bike at speed, Trek took a mold of a section of the Arenberg Forest, an iconic part of Paris-Roubaix (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
With the Tour of Flanders ticked off, all roads lead to Paris-Roubaix this weekend as the cobbled Classics reach their climax with possibly the most dramatic and unpredictable race of them all. 'The Hell of the North' is not for the timid, with the 54.5 kilometres of jutting cobblestones enough to strike fear into even the hardiest of riders.
Vila: Peter Sagan is not finding his past feelings, and we need to analyse why
Niki Terpstra: I'll be back
29 sectors and 54.5km of pave confirmed for Paris-Roubaix
Walscheid looking forward to Paris-Roubaix after Scheldeprijs podium
Boasson Hagen gives Dimension Data hope for Paris-Roubaix
Vanmarcke feeling 'no pressure' ahead of Paris-Roubaix
Peter Sagan's S-Works Roubaix for Paris-Roubaix 2019 – Gallery
A win in Roubaix secures a rider their place in cycling's rich history, and their name etched onto one of the iconic concrete showers. Just three of the riders expected to line up on Sunday have had that honour bestowed upon them. One that will not be there is the 2014 champion, Niki Terpstra (Direct Energie), who suffered concussion as a result of a heavy crash at Flanders last Sunday.
Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) will start the race with the number one dossard on his back after he took last year's race by the scruff of the neck with a long-range attack with 54 kilometres remaining. The three-time world champion arrives at Paris-Roubaix during a Classics season that has not gone quite how he would have liked. He appeared to be on the right path with fourth at Milan-San Remo last month but looked laboured as he rode to 11th at Flanders. It might be on cobbles, but Paris-Roubaix is a very different race and there is every chance that Sagan could turn things around.
Greg Van Avermaet is another former champion set to line-up in Compiègne on Sunday morning, this year riding in the colours of the CCC Team. Like Sagan, Van Avermaet's Classics campaign has been a mixed bag so far. He looked strong as he rode to second at Omloop Het Niewsblad at the start of March and backed that up with third at the E3 BinckBank Classic. However, it did not translate into an elusive victory at the Tour of Flanders.
John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) won his Paris-Roubaix title back in 2015 during a brilliant season that also saw him win Milan-San Remo. He also won the cobbled stage of last year's Tour de France, which used many of the same sectors. This season has been difficult, with the Trek-Segafredo squad failing to fire throughout much of the Classics. Degenkolb's second place at Gent-Wevelgem is a positive point in a difficult period and the team are clinging to that as they come into this weekend. Team manager Luca Guercilena believes that the team can put up more of a challenge on the flatter terrain. The team also have Jasper Stuyven and Edward Theuns.
For the first time since 2013, Deceuninck-QuickStep will go into Paris-Roubaix without a defending champion in their line-up. That will not bother them as they look to add a new name to the Roubaix shower block. QuickStep have been the dominant team throughout the Classics, but Flanders showed that they are fallible. Kasper Asgreen did well last weekend with second place, but it is likely to be his more experienced teammates that take centre stage this Sunday. Zdenek Stybar and Yves Lampaert are the most probable contenders, while Philippe Gilbert, who was hampered by illness at Flanders, is a wildcard.
Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) looks like he is built for Roubaix, but the Norwegian does not have the best record at the race. His best finish was ninth in 2013 and he managed 10th two years later. Despite that, it's hard not to see him as a contender given his recent form - with victory at Gent-Wevelgem and third at Flanders - but he will need a bit of luck. Beside him, his teammate Fernando Gaviria will be an interesting watch as he makes his debut.
Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) must also be looked upon as one of the favourites, after managing 13th in his debut last season. Van Aert has had a good second Classics campaign, though he was disappointed with his 14th place at Flanders. Meanwhile, Sep Vanmarcke and Sebastian Langeveld will be looking to pick up where their EF Education First teammate Alberto Bettiol left off with victory at the Tour of Flanders. Both are past podium finishers, though Vanmarcke is still recovering from a knee injury he picked up earlier in the Classics.
This is Paris-Roubaix, where almost anything can happen, so it is also entirely possible that not one of the riders above will finish on the podium.
Team Sky have two hopes in Gianni Moscon and Luke Rowe, while Lotto Soudal have Tiesj Benoot. Oliver Naesen will lead the AG2R La Mondiale team with last year's runner-up Silvan Dillier. Also keep an eye out for Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott), Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ), Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) Lars Boom (Roompot-Charles) and Andre Greipel (Arkea-Samsic).
As the saying goes, if it ain't broke then don't fix it. That appears to be the ethos that race organiser ASO is adhering to. When this year's route was unveiled in February, it would have been hard to detect the differences from last year's, so few and small are they.
The main changes will be the shortened cobblestone sectors at Troisvilles and the Trouee d'Arenberg, which have been shortened by 1.3km and 100 metres, respectively. In the case of the Arenberg, it is not to say that cobbles have been removed, but a more accurate measurement has been taken of it and it was found to be a tad shorter than previously believed. Mortar has also been applied to the gaps in the first 500 metres of the Arenberg cobbles to prevent grass growing, though it still maintains its maximum five-star difficulty rating.
The second sector of cobbles has also been given a new name to honour Michael Goolaerts, who died following a cardiac arrest during last year's race. Previously known as Chemin de Saint-Quentin, which runs between Briastre to Viesly, it has been renamed Secteur Michael Goolaerts. A monument to Goolaerts has also been erected along the stretch of cobbles in his memory.
On Sunday morning, huge crowds will be expected to fill the Place du General de Gaulle in Compiègne before the riders roll out at 11am. Though there have been some changes to the cobbled sectors, the race route remains a leg-sapping 257 kilometres. That has been achieved by adding in a little more at the start and the riders will have a few extra kilometres to get their eyes in before hitting the first sector of pavé at the 96.5-kilometre mark. The sectors count down, so the first sector is down as sector 28 and the final stretch of cobbles near the finish is sector 1.
First up is the reduced Troisvilles sector, now just 900 metres, which will be followed around eight kilometres later by the Secteur Michael Goolaerts. Indeed, once the pavé begins there will be little respite for the riders as they make their way towards the hallowed Roubaix velodrome. Keeping up front will be key as the peloton is taken apart bit by bit as each kilometre ticks by. Crashes and punctures will happen and sometimes it can be just a matter of luck avoiding them, though good bike handling skills are a must on these giant lumps of stone.
The route winds its way gradually north and the opening sectors range between two and four stars. The first five-star sector is the Trouee d'Arenberg, which has been partially mortared to prevent grass growing on the cobbles. While some of the danger has been removed, it is still a daunting task for any bike rider and anyone hoping to claim victory will need to get through this section in one piece.
The journey through the forest will likely end the hopes of some contenders but there will still be 92 kilometres of racing and 18 more pavé sectors to come before we will have a clearer idea of who will collect the cobblestone trophy at the end of the day. The riders won't have to wait too long before they're on the cobbles again, with the section between Wallers and Helesmes coming up four kilometres later.
As the fatigue begins to settle in, the sections are going to seem closer and closer, and sometimes they will be, with as little as one kilometre between two sectors. By this stage, attacks will be coming from all angles as the favourites try to test their rivals. Last year, Sagan launched his move shortly before sector 12 from Auchy to Bersée, with 54 kilometres remaining.
Sector 11, Mons-en-Pévèle, is the second of the five-star sections, with its particularly uneven cobbles, narrow points and twisting nature all making it a very challenging ride. There is no let-up and there is still one more maximum difficulty sector to contend with. From sector five, Camphin-En-Pévèle, the riders only have 1,000 metres of respite before they're bouncing up and down on the pavé again as they tackle Carrefour de l'Arbre.
Only 2.8 kilometres of cobbles will remain over the final 14.5km, but they will feel brutal with over 240km already in the legs. The final stretch is a short one as they ride into Roubaix and they will have just one kilometre left after they complete it. The roar of the huge crowd as they enter the Vélodrome André-Pétrieux to the west of Roubaix will help the riders make their final push to the line.


Recorded at Sachal Studios, Lahore, Pakistan - the premiere of Take Five's Official Video!
Great post! It totally took me off guard. I wasn't expecting to hear a song that I knew.I can't imagine what it takes to master the sitar.
They have loads of videos on YouTube featuring great soloists.


text:
Hymeniacidon fristedti är en svampdjursart som först beskrevs av Topsent 1913.  Hymeniacidon fristedti ingår i släktet Hymeniacidon och familjen Halichondriidae.

Artens utbredningsområde är Norge. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Horn- och kiselsvampar
fristedti


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Hans Zimmer says scoring Ben Affleck's Batman led him to quit superhero movies
"It just did my brain in to have written Christian Bale as Batman, and suddenly it's Ben Affleck"
Early last year, composer Hans Zimmer announced he was "retired from the superhero business" after scoring Amazing Spider-Man 2, Man of Steel, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. As Zimmer has now revealed, having to write music for two such vastly different Batmen is what made him realize he'd had enough of soundtracking comic book heroes.
In a new interview with Inverse, the Oscar-winning composer explained that the differences between Christian Bale's Batman in the Dark Knight films and Ben Affleck's Batman in BvS:DoJ made him feel like he'd "betrayed" the former's take on the character. "It just did my brain in to have written Christian Bale as Batman, and suddenly it's Ben Affleck," he said. "And it felt like I was betraying everything Christian had done. So there's a certain amount of loyalty attached to those movies, as well."
He went on to say that he wasn't as satisfied with Affleck's take on the character, and that led him to become disinterested in superheroes altogether:
"I spent months trying to come up with something for Ben. The Batman that I know and the one I learned is the one that Christian did, and Ben plays it differently. And I can't quite shake that off. For me, the Christian Bale character was always completely unresolved. It was always about that moment at the beginning of the first movie, where he sees his parents getting killed. It was basically arrested development. The Ben character is more middle-aged, he seems to be grumpy as hell but I didn't feel the pain that I felt in Christian's performance. And it was that pain that made [me] interested."
Of course, any character discrepancy is as much if not more a symptom of the script Affleck was working from as it was of the actor's portrayal. Zimmer is aware of that, and thanks to some advice from a directing pal, that's why he's perhaps not entirely shutting the door on comic book movies. "Ron Howard actually said something very smart to me. He said, 'Don't say you will never do a superhero movie again, wait for somebody to turn up with an amazing script for a superhero movie,'" Zimmer recalled. "And I suppose that's what I'm saying: Can I please have the amazing script?"
Below, revisit our interview with Zimmer and Junkie XL about the making of the Batman v Superman soundtrack:
Film Composer
Quoteoworthy
The Grim Origins of Beauty and the Beast and Other Favorite Fairy Tales
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Spanish Primera División for the fifth time in a row!
Italian Serie A moves English Premier League from to the second place!
The Spanish Primera División retains the first place thank to the extraordinary performance in the year, so in domestic competitions as continental cups, of their four best clubs, Real Madrid CF, Club Atlético de Madrid, FC Barcelona and Sevilla FC. It is the fifth time in a row since 2010. Previously the Spanish Primera División has been The Strongest National League of the World in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004. Primera División got a difference with more than 250 points from second place.
Italian Serie A got the second place and moved English Premier League to the third place. Both leagues were very close but the performance of Italian clubs in Europe was better than English clubs. Argentina's Primera División was the best of South America and got the fourth place. It made that German Bundesliga got down two places from 2013. German best club, FC Bayern München is second in WCR, but the second best club is BV Borussia 09 Dortmund (25th placed in WCR) with a poor performance for the last leg in 2014.
France reteined theirs 2013 position (7th place) and kept in the best level legues. Portugal was so close to moved the Ligue 1, with SL Benfica Lisboa great performance. Colombian Primera A was again thethird South American league very close from Paraguay.
For other football continents, Mexican Primera División is the best for CONCACAF area, ahead of Costa Rica and USA. In Asia, the three best leagues kept their same places than 2013: Republic of Korea league was better closely than Saudi Arabia and Japan was third. In Africa Tunisia, Egypt, South Africa, who won the third place to Algeria. Maroc got down from third to sixth place. New Zeland, since Australia was in AFC, is the winner for OFC one more time.


text:
require 'sidekiq/web'
require 'sidekiq-reset_statistics/version'
require 'sidekiq-reset_statistics/web'

Sidekiq::Web.register Sidekiq::ResetStatistics::Web
Sidekiq::Web.tabs["Reset Statistics"] = "reset-statistics"

module Sidekiq
  module ResetStatistics
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub